Lost Wanderer Podcast: 3/9/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yeah, I'm talking of my best leaping up behind into.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
The stocks who at the centuries of the century.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
On the spaceship ride to Man.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
With the stars and the school.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
But I'm standsome family on discous answer three road.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Time for this nation to take a clearly leading role
in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the
key to our future on Earth.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
M H.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
M All firm.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
On bio.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Today is a day from morning and remember Nancy and
I are gained the core, but the tragedy of the
Shuttle challenge.

Speaker 6 (02:35):
The following program may contain clause language, adult teens, and
bad attempts as human listener discretion.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Is it vie?

Speaker 7 (02:57):
What is President Trump's? What is his vision? He wants
to put an American flag on Mars.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
Within anguality day here, you ain't gonna have landed.

Speaker 6 (03:24):
I am your host jeble F, also known as a
cosmic bard over on Twitter slash x. And this is
the Los Wander podcast for March ninth, twenty twenty five.
Holy cow, we're in March, So happy Sunday evening and
welcome aboard the ACS serenade. We're gonna take you first

(03:50):
to a little little place called the International Space station.
March fourth, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams took questions
from reporters beaming in from two hundred and fifty miles
up and left everyone puzzled about why they're still there

(04:13):
nine months after launching on a Boeing's star Liner. They've
set to come home this month on SpaceX Dragon, but
when asked if politics happened to, you know, stretch their stay,
their answers sort of kind of didn't line up. Quote.
This kicked off June fifth, last year, when Wilmore and

(04:34):
Williams blested off from Florida first star Liner's first crew test,
an alleged eight day hop to the ISS Thruster. Glitches
and helium weeks detailed and derailed that plan, and by
August NASA said no way. Star Liner came back empty
on September seventh. The pair then just continue to stay,

(04:57):
with Crew nine launching late September with Nick Haig Russia's
Alexander Gorbanov expecting hopefully a February return. Then a snag
with a new SpaceX Dragon pushed Crew ten's relief mission
in their ride home to mid March, probably roughly two
hundred and eighty plus days in space if all goes
according to plan. But fast forward to the press call

(05:23):
made on the fourth. Elon Musk been has been loud lately,
very very loud, claiming he offered to fetch them in
twenty twenty four, but that the Biden White House blocked
it for political points. Trumps has echoed that pushing SpaceX
to go get them since January. Willmore didn't dodge it,

(05:48):
saying quote, what mister Musk said is absolutely factual unquote,
he said, backing musk offer claim, but added quote, we
have no info on that what was offered or not unquote.
Then seconds later, quote from my standpoint, politics isn't playing

(06:10):
into this at all. We were ready for a long
stay unquote. They don't kind of line up here. Sunny
Williams didn't bite on musk issd Orbit jab saying quote,
there's valuable work here unquote, but stayed mom on the
political angle. So what's the deal? Well, NASA is stuck

(06:33):
to a tech driven story. Star Liner's woes and a
crew dragon battery issue is the reason for the delays.
They swapped in the used endurance capsule for Crew ten
set for March twelfth, to dodge supply red lines up there.
The agency's been planning this since last summer, technically before
Trump was elected, and before any of musk Rants. Wilmore

(06:57):
and Williams rolled with it, voting into the Crew nine.
Like the pros that they are now post on X
are split. Some do smell a White House conspiracy and
others see test pilot shrugging at contingencies. So are they
stuck by politics or just some space snafboos?

Speaker 8 (07:15):
Why?

Speaker 6 (07:15):
I say, let's borrow Already's phrase here and embrace the
power of and especially with Butcher saying yes and no
basically within the same breath, and soon he's not saying
so who knows, But they'll be back soon if all
does go smooth, and maybe then we'll be able to
hear more of what really happened. And that said, the

(07:39):
lineup for them to finally get their ticket home is
rapidly approaching. It's kind of weird to think that depending
on the day they reland, you could be looking at
two hundred and eighty six days on what was supposed
to be an eight day trip. Something I think only
Gilligan can imagine what that's like. I said the ride's

(08:03):
been a moving target once again set for February, and
NASA bumped it too late March, and then last month
they swapped it out, you know, instead of a new Dragon,
they did a new used one. So things are picking
back up towards the sooner rather than later as of plans.
As of right now, Crew ten lifts off off March
eleventh from Kennedy'space Center on a Falcon nine and that

(08:26):
will be carrying Ann McLain, Nicole Airs, Takoya Onishi and
Corilla Peskov and they'll hopefully doc on March thirteenth, and
after a bit of a three day handover, way shorter
than your typical week, Crew nine's Freedom capsule on dark
on docs on March sixteenth, with Wilmore and Williams as

(08:47):
long as well as Haig and Gribonov. It's a spirit
finish for what has turned into a very long haul.
Those three days mean McLain's team, the first two timers
included get a crash course on micro gravity and station
ops from Crew nine before the swap. Now, of course,
as always, whether off Florida's coast, will nail down these
zac splashdown spot, but NASA's betting on a smooth wrap

(09:10):
to two hundred and eighty six days Aloft or Wilmore
and Williams, which means I'm going to have to update
my center console boom. Now, as far as the political
bickering that has gone on about exactly could they have

(09:31):
come home earlier any of that, Well, in a semi
unrelated related issue, there was a recent State of the Union,
and during that we do have a little bit of
moments from President Trump talking about space in general. And

(09:51):
he closed out his nearly two hour speech to Congress
on March fourth with a pledge to quote, plant the
American flag on Mars and then some I'm standing before
a joint session of lawmakers. He laid out a sweeping
vision for space, promising to conquer the vast frontiers of
science and lead humanity to the Red planet and beyond,

(10:13):
all wrapped in a call to reignite the American spirit.
It happened late Tuesday in the House Chamber. We are
going to lead humanity in the space and plant that
American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond,
he would declare. He tied it to a broader pitch
rekindling the unlimited promise of the American dream through her

(10:35):
bold moves like this up in the galley, SpaceX CEO
Elon Musk waved as Trump gave him a nod for
his work with DOGE, a cost cutting squad must currently
is co running with a handful of young kids. Don't
have a camera on, so I'm using air quotes here. Now,

(10:58):
this isn't Trump's first Mars drum. He's been at it
since his January twentieth inauguration and technically his first term too,
calling Space America's manifest destiny into the stars, and he
has doubled down during his November victory speech spotting space
Axis feats. Musk has been pushing his massive starship rocket

(11:19):
for Mars missions, and you know January sixth test he
had landed the booster but lost the upper stage. And
we'll have more on the latest attempt here in a
little bit. Now, Trump didn't say we needed to have
it done by the end of this decade or the next,
but he did hint at hopefully twenty twenty nine in

(11:42):
past talks his term's end. NASA's Artemis program, meanwhile, is
moon bound for twenty twenty seven, with Mars being a
far longer shot. That said the room, well, let's split quickly. Republicans,
of course, roared their approval. Democrats well, you know, walked

(12:03):
out or wave signs like that's a lie. We had
a Texas representative get escorted out by the Sergeant of
arms after shouting you have no mandate, which was just
a flash of the Knight's tension. And Musk himself his
presence didn't go unnoticed either. He's a Trump ally, and
with SpaceX already deep in NASA's artemis, plans like landing

(12:26):
starship on the Moon didn't sit well with many. No
timeline or funding details came with any of the pledge
or Congress still hasn't even set NASA's twenty twenty five budgets.
But for now it is a big promise with some
big questions. Trump pitching mars As America's next frontier flag

(12:46):
in hand, Musk grinning, But the how and when that's
still up in the air, and right now the lawmakers
are holding the keys. And sadly, shortly after that, space
Ax attempted to once again launch its massive starship rocket

(13:10):
on what would be its eighth test flight. That said,
it pulled off another absolutely stunning catch of a super
heavy booster with its giant mechanical arms, but the upper
stage it didn't make it, once more, breaking apart over
the Atlantic just minutes into the ride, and it's well,

(13:31):
let's face it, a split verdict for a rocket aiming
to rewrite space travel. The action kicked off at six
thirty pm Eastern from Starbase near Bocachica, with the four
hundred foot tall Starship, the biggest rocket ever built, roaring
up with thirty three raptor engines blazing on its super
heavy booster. Seven minutes later, that booster peeled off and
dropped back to the launch tower. Right on cue. The

(13:53):
tower's chopstick arms snagged it out of mid air, a
jawl dropping third catch for SpaceX, nailing a reusability trick.
They first landed in October, with flames flickered as it
hung there, nearly picture perfect, proving the tower can grab
a two hundred and thirty foot giant like it's no

(14:14):
big deal.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
But up top.

Speaker 6 (14:20):
That's where things went south fast. The upper stage, called Ship,
which is one hundred and seventy one feet tall with
six raptors, kept climbing, aiming to drop some about roughly
four dummy starlink satellites on a suborbital hop to the
Indian Ocean. About nine minutes in, those engines started failing

(14:40):
one by one. Telemetry showed them wink out. The ship
spun out. They went to break apart and rain debris
over the Bahamas. Spectators caught the fiery show on camera,
and if you haven't seen it, go to x you
can type it in. You will see many, many glorious
rapid explosion debris. Now. SpaceX actually traced Flight seven's flop

(15:07):
to a harmonic glitch stressing the propulsion guts. Tweaks that
were made for Flight eight, like ditching some heat shielding tiles,
attest new metal ones and more that didn't help the
upper stage tumble. Dashed hopes of deploying those mock satellites
another milestone now being delayed. That's said, the booster catch
keeps the dream alive. Rapid reuse is the game, and SpaceX,

(15:30):
even with number eight blowing up, is inching closer, even
when it seems like the ship keeps slipping away. Now,
of course, with any explosion like this, guess who gets
to get involved. That's right, our friends over at the
FAA with the upper stage exploding nine minutes in the flight.

(16:01):
It hit what the SpaceX called an energetic event code
for a big bang, losing engines and breaking up over
the Caribbean, with debris streaking past the Bahamas and Turks
in Kyukis that mess hit the ground running? Well, running
maybe is not? The flying airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale,

(16:22):
Palm Beach in Orlando slammed the brakes on all flights,
with the FAA activating a debris response area to keep
planes clear of any falling bits. With departure stalled, some
jets diverted chaos for about an hour until the threat passed. Now,
SpaceX stayed in its planned corridor and any debris that

(16:43):
hit was non toxic, safe for water and wildlife. That said,
the FAA's not taking any chances, and once again they're
demanding a full MISHAF investigation led by SpaceX, but under
their careful watch. Now it's kinda I do think it's

(17:04):
kind of funny that Starship seven is in eight have
kind of blown up kind of in the same path,
in the same corridor with basically the same ending, and
yet they still somehow what we didn't think they'd be
able to do is catch them with the chopsticks. I
don't think I'm alone where I thought launching Starship would

(17:26):
be the easier of the feats that they were attempting.
The fact that they've now caught the booster three times
kinda kind of amazing. Now, with all of this, we

(17:49):
do have some I don't want to say bad news,
but we have issues that are now cropping up. With
Trump's speech at the podium in the House Chamber saying
and conquer the vast frontiers of science and space, we
have others that are starting to maybe wanting to slow
that down a little bit, and ironically it might be

(18:14):
Elon Musk who might have some say in slowing it
down unintentionally because of DOGE and the lack of a
NASA budget. Will things proceed in any kind of smooth
and quick fashion? Now Trump is you know, the team

(18:39):
is trying to shake things up in NASA with Jared
Isaacman tapped to lead the agency, but he's still awaiting
Senate approval. So you have the acting chief, Janet Petro,
holding steady, but DOZE is near miss layoffs of a
thousand roughly NASA staff last month show that the pressure

(19:00):
is on now. I know some of the audience will
go well, most of those layoffs had nothing to do
with this, and that's that's true, but it does create
a little bit of chaos in a situation that probably
doesn't need it. Not saying it's the wrong thing to do,
so just have to remember right now Congress is holding
the purse strings with a careful eye over everything, and

(19:25):
NASA's budget is still up in the air. But with
Trump and Musk firmly pitching space as America's next big win,
we will eventually get things right. And that kind of
goes back to Wednesday, February twenty six, when a House
committee grilled experts about the Artemis program itself. The message

(19:50):
was kind of loud. NASA needs to look at other
ways to get it done. With China racing to beat
us up there, the turmoil swirling at the agency, the
clock is ticking now. This all unfolded at the hearing
called step by Step the Artemis Program in NASA's Path
to Human Exploration, The Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee wanted answers

(20:14):
how's NASA keeping up in this lunar showdown? There were
two heavy hitters that testified. Dwayne Dunbacher, a former NASA
engineer turned professor in scott Pace. He ran the National
Space Council under Trump's first term. Now NASA was invited
but didn't show no witness, no statement. That left the

(20:35):
room a little bit buzzing with comments. But Dumbbacker didn't
mince words. Artemis is a mess right now. He pointed
to the chaos since Trump's January twenty return, with a
thousand jobs being axed and the staff at NASA being
spooked by efficiency cuts from the Douge crew and in

(20:56):
some areas, morale is not as well as it should. Quote.
I talked to ex students at NASA over the weekend.
Thumb Bracker said they're scared, smart folks, wondering if they've
got a future there. He argued, the Space Launch System
SLS can't carry the load alone in SpaceX's Starship, pegged
for the twenty twenty seven lunar landing, won't be ready

(21:19):
by twenty thirty without a miracle run of launches. Now
Pace took it further, just saying, scrap the whole damn playbook.
It's time to consider alternatives. He told the panel he's
pushing NASA to buy heavy lift services like off the
shelf rockets rather than betting everything on sls and starship.

(21:41):
Quote get ahead of China by twenty three, he urged,
then figure out how to stay. They're cheap and smartly.
Eventually both agreed the US can't lose this race. China's
eyeing the Moon's southern pole too, and possibly a lunar
base by twenty thirty five. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgring chimed in

(22:03):
the whiplash and bullying at NASA, it's government wide, we
need Artemis strong. That said, there's no fixes yet, just
more of a plea to pivot with NASA sticking so
far to Artemis three from mid twenty twenty seven. But
with budgetary fights and those shows like this, experts are
saying it may be time to rethink the road to

(22:24):
the Moon or risk watching China plant their flag first.
And speaking of.

Speaker 9 (22:33):
And now assholes in space.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
That's.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
China as China as.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
China is as.

Speaker 6 (22:58):
Heavy bit of China slash. Red Planet Mars news for
China's Xorong Mars rover has uncovered evidence of an ancient
beach very deep under the Dusty Service, A discovery that's
firing up talks about Mars's watery past. The rover, parked

(23:23):
in the vast Utopia basin, used its radar to spot
sandy slopes that looked like they were shaped by ocean waves,
hitting at the possibility of a time when Mars might
have been a lot more welcoming to life now. This
came to light on February twenty fifth, when researchers announced

(23:44):
they'd sifted through zoring's data collected during its year long
trek from May twenty twenty one to May twenty twenty two.
The rover world one point two miles along the edge
of the steep outcrop in Utopia Plantea and a two
thousand and fifty mild whitish crater longs us back that
of Cradley and Oceans billions of years ago. With its
ground penetrating radar, it peered down thirty three feet, revealing

(24:06):
layers of sand sloping gently upward, textbook signs of a shoreline,
not of dunes or lava flows. Quote. This doesn't look
like anything else, said Michael Manga, a UC Berkeley scientist
on the team. He would continue it's parallel to where
the old coast would have been now, picture if you will,

(24:32):
Mars four billion years back. Not the Chili desert we know,
but a world with rivers, lakes, and oceans lapping at
sandy shores. That beach that Zorrong found it was locked
in time, buried under debris from asteroids, volcanoes, and dust storms,
preserved like a fossil. Hilo from the Gangshau University, a

(24:55):
key player in China's taw Win one mission, put it
this way. This strengthens the case for past habitability in
this region. Shorelines, after all, are prime spots to hunt
for signs of ancient life. Think microbes thriving where water
meets lands. Now the data's a gold mine, thick sand

(25:18):
deposits angled just perfectly matching Earth's coastal beds. Scientists have
peg Utopia as an ocean site from orbit. The Zian's
the first one to confirm it up close. It rolled
along the encampment beating radio waves two hundred and sixty
feet into the ground, mapping what waves left behind. I said.

(25:39):
The team is still digging into the hall and there
could be yet more clues to see how long that
ocean stuck around before Mars dried up, So it's not
it's not proof of life just yet, just a stronger
hint that Mars had all the right stuff at one point.
That said, what is the next step? While sample returns,

(26:00):
China is eyeing twenty thirty one to grab some Martian dirt.
For now, Zorong's beach is a time capsule whispering about
a wetter, wilder Mars one we're itching to know more about.
That said, we do have a neighboring asshole in space.
Story for we have a delivery and bound to the ISS.

(26:27):
As of March first, a Russian cargo ship sidled up
to the ISS, hauling nearly three tons of goods, food, fuel,
and even a new spacesuit and a pile of science gear.
The Progress MS thirty or Progress ninety one, as NASA
tags it, docked without a hitch after a two day jaunt,
dropping off essentials for the crew orbiting over the South

(26:51):
Atlantic at the time. It all started Thursday night, when
the uncrewed Progress blested off from the bakanor cosmodrom and
causes dan when I Soy used rock at at ten
twenty four pm Eastern. By six oh two pm Saturday,
at latched on into the shibads of Model aft Port,
two hundred and sixty miles above earth, cosmonauts Alexe of

(27:11):
Vechkin and Ivan Wagner and Alexander Grufkin. We're waiting, ready
to unload five thousand, seven hundred and thirty pounds of cargo.
That's food to keep them fed, clothes to wear, medical
kits for emergencies, and a sleek ore Land MKS spacesuit,
Russia's latest for future spacewalks with better joints and heat shields.

(27:36):
Now that said, the breakdown is hefty. You have two
thousan ninety four pounds of fuel to juice up the station,
nine hundred and twenty six pounds of drinking water, one
hundred and ten pounds of nitrogen for breathable air, and
a stash of science tools. And these will include gadgets
to tract blood flow and immunity and zero G plus

(27:56):
rod Cross Cosmos experiments to keep the crew busy. And
of course the food. We don't have specific lists because
they don't like giving me these things, but we can
assume there's enough fee freeze, dried meals, canned goods and
maybe some Russian treats the fuel Expedition seventy through two

(28:17):
through their shifts. It's all part of nearly three tons
of the supplies, marking the ninety first time Progress has
run since ninety eight. Now for six months it'll hang
out on the iss that is the pot itself, soaking
up trash from the crew. Then around September they'll stuff

(28:38):
it with junkin send it plunging back to Earth, burning
up over the Pacific. For it is a one and
done deal. Progress crafts deliver then flame out. Right now,
it's parked alongside Space Ex's crew Dragon and soy U's
cruise ship, one of the five visitors at the station
for Expedition seventy two. It's a routine boost dig into
the food suit up for science and keeping the lights

(29:01):
on for them. And Saturday's docking was nearly a perfect
spot on as a steady resupply for the station that's
been spinning strong now for over a quarter century. And
with that we will be right back.

Speaker 9 (29:24):
Bone and the stars, silver cloth out castle, planets, cast
Gravity's whole shoe and the slight thue silence, and I
live bend the world on your stream that only few pursuing.

Speaker 8 (29:41):
Now A drifts in the black tree on all time
through galaxies, strange on a journey sublime starts of flight
free through policies, just stace and me, a solitary and
a ship so small, flying away where the galaxy is.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Call Hemulo's bloom like flowers and flame. Each one whispers
a different name. I'm a cross like hears and an
age is gone, racing the light. My journey on.

Speaker 8 (30:15):
Every plants the story of voicing the dark, a memory
and instead a blowing spark.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
No notional self, just distant suns.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
I'm forever dress, my voice begune class the stars.

Speaker 8 (30:28):
I'm flying free through slit sees, just stacing me, a
solitary soul and a ship.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
So small lying aways. What the galaxies called.

Speaker 9 (30:50):
Across the stars?

Speaker 4 (30:51):
I'm flying free through cosmic seas, just facing me, a
solitary soul in a shift so small right, what the
galaxies call?

Speaker 1 (31:14):
What sun of things?

Speaker 9 (31:15):
Starts toms in every soil be drunk.

Speaker 7 (31:19):
I'm tied the cosmos down in.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
The stream sail stars chasing the tree.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever return.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
I burn like a comic.

Speaker 6 (31:35):
Turn by turn. But the thrill of the journey the
great unknown.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Just be one when I feel alone.

Speaker 8 (31:42):
I'm a wonderful free the fastest dance, dancing to your
darkness of cosmic chance with nothing.

Speaker 6 (31:48):
With stars lighting my way, I'll keep you over the forward.

Speaker 9 (31:52):
Chum let me.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
But the stars I was lying free through cosmic ses
just facing.

Speaker 9 (31:59):
Me is just so small.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
The galaxy tall, the galaxy tall.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
As a drift.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Further from all I've known.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
The universal whispers are never alone.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
A voyage is hard, a soul unbound, lost in the
stars where my home is found.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
And welcome back if you're able to get a nice
cold or warm drink, depending on how the weather is
in your area, and maybe something to eat. Now. One
of the things we love around here is the new
Space Force, and there's some debate on what is the

(32:50):
real purpose of the Space Force. I might leave that
to Juck's position. With Rick and already to deep dive
one day, what could maybe the Space Force really be
thinking about doing? But we do have news coming out
from them. On March seventh, the US Base Operations Command

(33:12):
SPOCK rolled out a new motto, always the Hunter.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Now.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
It's a bold tagline for the Space Force's biggest outfit
dropped in it, and there was a slick video that
got the military space crowd buzzing about its mission to
track and tackle threats from orbit.

Speaker 8 (33:37):
Now.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
This all went down at Peterson's Space Force base in Colorado,
where SPOS Brass unveiled the phrase simper ventataur and Latin
during a ceremony. Lieutenant General Thomas James, the command's top dog,
narrated a two minute clip that hit Space Force's YouTube
channel the same day, with things such as we are hunters,

(34:00):
he says over footage of satellites, control rooms and stories,
guys war fighters who detect, track and engage threats, always
ready to protect and defend. And this is a shift
from their old vibe always above to something leaner and
a little meaner. Now it is the heavy lifter in

(34:22):
Space Force, with ten thousand strong across bases like Vandenberg
and Buckley, running everything from missile warning to GPS satellites.
Formed in twenty twenty under Trump's push, it's grown into
the backbone of the US space defense, juggling seventy percent
of the service's budget roughly eighteen billion this year alone. Now,

(34:43):
the motto's timing isn't random. China and Russia are flexing
with anti satellite tests and James though he makes a
nod to that quote, our adversaries are moving fast. We've
got to stay ahead well, I said. The videos all grits,
dark tones, pulsing music, shots of radar dishes and launch pads.

(35:06):
It's less about textbecs and more about well attitude with
Spach as the predator, not the prey in a contested orbit.
Now no word on what charge sparked this change, but
it's clear after five years they're doubling down on the
Hunter mindset, proactive, relentless eyes on the sky. Now we

(35:35):
go from Space Force to one of our favorite companies
in the entire world, and that is Morgan Aerospace. I
mean a Firefly Aerospace for early Sunday morning, March second,
Fireflace Firefly Aerospace Blue ghost Lander touchdown on the Moon

(36:00):
lawlessly and made history as only the second private spacecraft
to pull off a soft landing. It was packed with
NASA experiments, It hit the ground running and mere christium
and the cheers are still ringing out from mission control.
That said, it all went down at about three thirty

(36:20):
four am Eastern after a nail biting descent that started
an hour earlier. For Bluegoes fired its engines at two
thirty am for the descent orbit burn, dropping from a
sixty two mile high lunar orbit. Nine minutes later, it
shut off the main thruster, letting smaller jets guide it
to a boulder free patch near mons La Tree, a

(36:42):
volcanic peak in the Sea of Crisis basin. Now, the
car sized lander picked its spot on the fly, nailing
it within three hundred and twenty eight feet of the
bull's eye. Quote, every single thing was clockwork, said Morgan.
Aerospong Firefly CEO Jason Kim said via a webcast. And

(37:02):
this isn't just a wind for Firefly, let's face it,
it's a big deal for NASA as well. Blue Ghost
hauled ten science payloads under the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload
Service Program or CLIPS for short, gearing up for potential
Artemis astronauts down the line. It was launched January fifteenth
on a space X Falcon nine from Florida, so it's
been a forty sixth day haul to get there. Now

(37:28):
it's digging into the lunar dirt literally, which drills to
measure heat flow, cameras snapping X rays back to Earth,
and tools testing dust defenses. Nicky Fox, NASA's science chief,
couldn't hold back on the live feed quote, we're on
the Moon. I'm just so excited. Unquote. My first shots

(37:50):
from the surface are already in. And if you haven't
seen him, oh my god. They're glorious Earth glowing above
the horizon, the landers, sharp shadow, sharp against the It's
only the second private craft that, like I said, to
stick this lunar landing with intuitive machines, Odysseus beating it
by a year back in February twenty twenty four, though
that actually did kind of tip over. But sh we

(38:13):
don't have to talk about that now. Blue Ghost stands tall.
It's got two weeks of daylight to run those payloads
before the lunar night shuts it down. Fireflies calling it
Ghost Riders in the Sky, a nod to their ninety
three million dollar nights to contract from twenty twenty one.
And like I said, for a private space flask fight,

(38:34):
this is a flex fireflies first lunar try, and they
acet it and NASA will be banking on more like this. Cheap,
fast and robotic my Future Girlfriends to pave the way
for boots on Mon on the Moon, and with Sunday's landing,
it is now a step closer and the views already

(38:55):
are out of this world. Now if you want to
recreate this yourself, not my Future Girlfriends, the actual robotic
landing thing, well, I have a little bit of good
news for we have a little bit of a fun
twist from the Lunar Frontier. As Blue ghosts Lander made

(39:15):
history on the Moon, the company is now giving you
a chance to land your own with building blocks straight
out of mission control. It is a one hundred and
ninety six piece kit launched just as the real deal touchdown,
and it lets you snap together a mini version of
the spacecraft that's got NASA buzzing. And if you're watching

(39:36):
this live, I'm actually gonna show you the picture of
what this little toy looks like. It has one hundred
and ninety six blocks, forty two steps, and you've got
a pint sized Blue Ghost complete with solar panels, landing legs,
and four of those NASA payloads like the Luger, GPS

(39:56):
tracker and the regular stickiness tester. It's not just a
toy stickers add some real de tooys details from Firefly's
logo to the ex band antenna. Though you know you'll
miss Duckner, the mascot ducks stuck under the rear Landing's arm.
It is priced at fifty four ninety nine at Fireflys
online shop. It's also a prize in their Moonwalk contest

(40:20):
on their player epic app. Part of the outreach for
this one hundred and one million dollar NASA gig. Not
gonna lie kind of like it and this kid it's
it is, well, let's face it, a lot simpler than
the you know, actual Blue Ghost, but it is spot
on tmission one and they're already planning more sets for

(40:43):
future landers, keeping the vibe alive at Blue Ghost as
it wraps its two weekloner stint. So for fans, it's
kind of a cold keepsake, build it, display it, relieve
the landing fireflies now, just not on the moon. They're
bringing it to your home, one block at a time.
And I am here for this now, as we're already

(41:05):
on this fun territory, let's stick here for a little bit.
We have a story. How do I start this? Well,
I know we have a cosmic scoop that hits close
to home, maybe too close, since you know I'm from

(41:26):
Alpha Centauri myself. New research says our solar systems has
a million alien invaders space rocks from my old stomping
ground four point three light years away. Now these asteroids,
some bigger than a football field, are crashing the ort
cloud party out there, and I promise, I promise I

(41:49):
didn't send them to dodge a family reunion. Now it
landed March fifth from a study headed to the Planetary
Science Journal, Paul Weigert and Cole greg two earthlings from
the University of Western Ontario, ran a one hundred million
year simulation, and I guess they had some time on

(42:11):
their hands and found that Alpha Centauri's been slinging rocks
your way. And we're talking about a million chunks over
three hundred and twenty eight feet wide, loitering in What
is you know that icy oort cloud at the edge
of our solar system that, said Weygert said, they could
be anywhere. Lucky for you, I left my asteroid throwing

(42:34):
arm back on rigel Kinaris. So how's it work? Not simple?
Alpha Centauri's a triple star circus two sun like dazzlers
in a red dwarf named Proxima, you know, which happens
to be my least favorite one. But Proximate gets Finiky said,
don't tell her. They spin around kicking out asteroids like

(42:57):
kind of a cosmic bar fight, and your old cloud
just happens to be the net that has called a
million big ones or so, it's kind of interesting to
think about where all these asteroids come from, like say
Umamau or twenty one boris off. So the guess is

(43:19):
that Alpha Centauri is going to be that nosy neighbor
now who just likes to share what they have. And
that's kind of weird to think about, because one hundred
million years, you know of Alpha Centauri tossing, you know,
a million hefty rocks, just lobbing them at us like
we're some kind of enemy. And no, I don't know

(43:43):
if any bugs were involved. But as part of that
last few episodes, we have been talking greatly about an
asteroid twenty twenty four yr four and seen the headlines
as well, labeled city killers with you know, a slim

(44:05):
chance of smashing earth. Oh no, And at one point
in February it'specked about three percent odds of hitting us
in twenty thirty two. Thankfully you can hold off on
your bunker plans for now. Astronomers are now saying it's
now down to zero, and they actually have got a
system kind of prove it's no big deal, for they

(44:26):
have the Torino scale, the tool that keeps these cosmic
threats in check.

Speaker 8 (44:33):
Now.

Speaker 6 (44:33):
Of course, this all started when twenty twenty four y
or four popped up on Christmas Day like that unwanted
uncle spotted by a telescope in Chile, and not one
hundred and eighty feet wide. It's big enough to wreck
a city. I think eight mega tons, five hundred times
Hiroshima's punch, but it wasn't really a planet killer. Early
odds pegged it at one in eighty three for twenty

(44:54):
thirty two strike, and climbing to one in thirty two
in mid February. That's when it hit level three on
the Tonos scale, a yellow zone alert, meaning you might
wanna guys, guys, you may want to, I don't know,
pay attention to this, but you don't necessarily have to
freak out, but you know, with media, it's a freak
out time. I said it was the riskiest rock ever tracked,

(45:18):
topping even two thousand and fours of poffice scare. Then
last week the February twenty On February twenty third, more
data rolled in and puff the odds are now one
and two hundred thousand, which is basically a level zero,
meaning no hazard. So what is the Torino scale? Picture?

(45:38):
A zero to ten gays zero is no worries in
ten is Then I'll get your SoundBite. You're ready doom,
Green's clear, yellows the head up, Orange is trouble, and
red red we're getting hit. It weighs an asteroid size, speed,
and chance of impact. Most near Earth objects, like the
thousand NASA tracts dands zero level ones are common, but

(46:02):
shrugs off fast with more sightings. Twenty twenty four, wire
Force level three was exceedingly rare one percent or more
chance of local damage, says mit Richard Benzo, who cooked
up the scale in nineteen ninety nine, but he's pretty
chill about it. New data almost always dials it back
to zero, and in this case, that's exactly what he did.

(46:24):
So why the flip flop during all this? Well, fresh asteroids,
they start out a little fuzzy. Short observation arcs mean
a lot bigger guesswork and probabilities. More telescope time sharpens
the path and twenty twenty four wirefors went from maybe
to miss in weeks and NASA it has eyes when

(46:45):
over two hundred and fifty dangerous ones, but none above
zero as of right now. And of course we had
people reacting differently. Some cheeringsay and Earth safe, and others
were like damn it, smad win Win. I said, it's
still going to be a close flyby. We got five

(47:06):
million miles in twenty twenty eight, and then in twenty
thirty two it is going to only be one hundred
and sixty seven thousand meters away or miles miles. My apologies,
no flag waving doom here, just proof that the system well,
actually it's kind of working. So asteroid headlines, like I've

(47:29):
always said, take them with the heavy dose of salt.
So we now have my planet attacking Earth, and it
seems that once again the bug planet isn't sending asteroids
this way anytime soon to doom us. So how about

(47:51):
we reverse the trend here? How How are earthlings? How
are we impacting life on another planet. Well, here's a
tale from Mars that's been stumping scientists for nearly fifty years.
Back in nineteen seventy six, NASA's Viking Landers touched down

(48:12):
on the red planet hunting for science of life, and
what they found kicked off a puzzle that's still echoing today.
The twin probes ran groundbreaking tests, some god wild results,
and left us with more questions and answers. And it
all started July twentieth, when Viking one landed in a flat,

(48:37):
dusty stretch of Mars and Viking two followed up on
September third and Utopia Planeta, four thousand miles away. Each
carried four experiments to sniff out life, but one stole
the show. The labeled Release test, dreamed up by Gilbert
leant Levin. It scooped Martian soil, feted nutrients, spiked with
radioactive carbon, and watched for gas proof microbes might be munching.

(49:01):
The result a burst of carbon dioxide, fast and strong,
like life was there. We've done it, they thought, and
both Landers agreed. Then came the buzz kill. Another test,
the gas chromatoph chrematograf mass spectrometer, cooked the soil and

(49:25):
found no organic molecules, none whatsoever. Result, the building blocks
of life were not there. In a third, the pyrolytic
release hinted at something faint, but that was iffy, so scientists,
of course became split. Levin called it biology. NASA leaned

(49:46):
toward chemistry, blaming perkolites and other Martian harsh Martian compounds
Mien macking life signal. By the end of seventy six,
the consensus landed on no life, for it now has
been deemed sterile, case closed. Levin never bought it, insisting

(50:07):
it was a living whiff. Fast forward. Those results still nag.
Perkoli's found by Phoenix in two thousand and eight can
explain the CO two verse whendn't heed it, but Vikings
data keeps whispering doubts. Newer rovers like curiosity and perseverance
have dug up organic sense, methane and carbon chains, reviving

(50:30):
the maybe camp. Chris McKay from NASA Ames Colt Space
dot com the Viking gear was too crude to settle it.
We saw something, but what Levin, who passed away in
twenty twenty one, went to his grave believing he found Martian.
Today it's a nineteen seventy six Cliffhanger vikings, Yes, no

(50:51):
dance happened and deepened the Mars life, mystery, biology, or
just some weird dirt. Nearly five decades on, we're still
chasing the answer. One scoop at a time that said,
we do have another launch almost fifty years that we're

(51:12):
going to talk about happened fifty years ago, and it's
kind of a bittersweet update from the edge of the Cosmos.
NASA's twin Voyder spacecraft, forty seven year old explorers now
drifting through interstellar space are getting like the most of Earthlings,
they're getting a little dimmer. And last week engineers flipped

(51:34):
the off switch on two more instruments, one on each
probe to stretch their fading power and keep these pioneers
whispering data back to Earth just a bit longer. It
started February twenty fifth, when Voyder one's cosmic race subsystem,
a trio of telescopes tracking high energy particles, went dark.

(51:55):
Then on March twenty fourth, and I'm sorry, March second.
I don't know why there's a second. Voyagers two's low
energy charged particle detector built two measure ions and electrons.
That's doomed too, But both were launched in seventy seven
with ten instruments apiece, and these shutdowns leave each with

(52:15):
just three still humming. The question is why now, Well,
the plutoni empowering their nuclear batters batteries is decaying, kicking
out four watts less every year, and NASA scrambling to
keep them alive into the thirties. And these aren't random cuts.
Voyger's one cosmic gray gear helped prove it cross the

(52:35):
heliosphere the Sun's bubble in the interstellar space in twenty twelve,
and Voyger two's particle tools tracked similar clues when it
broke through in twenty eighteen. Butlert powered Dwining. The team
at NASA's JEF propaution LAMB had to choose, so they
made those tough, tough decisions. That said, these two Voyagers
have divided the odds before, built for a four year

(52:59):
jaunt four past Jupiter and Saturn. They've clocked decades beyond
the planets. The eighty saw instruments flicked off post flybys,
stretching out their lives. Now it's just simply a race
against the battery. They're deep space rock stars. But if
we didn't act, we'd lose them in months. For NASA,

(53:21):
it really is a marvel grid Voyder one and two
out there charting the unknown, still talking forty seven years later,
and with that thought in our head, it's time to
grab a drink, find a seat by the campfire, and
lose yourself in the stars. On what is now new

(53:43):
my EP's new favorite segment, because apparently I've learned how
to say habitability, we come to the full moon section
of the show. For Friday, March fourteenth, we have the
full Crow moon in totally eclipse. The moon will reach
its full phase on Friday March fourteenth at two fifty

(54:05):
five AM Eastern daylight time, which converts to eleven fifty
five for those in America on the opposite coast. To
a casual glance, the moon will appear full on both
Thursday and Friday night. The March full moon, known as
the worm moon, the Crow Moon, the saff Moon, or
the Linton Moon, always shines in or near the stars

(54:25):
of Leo or Virgo. The indigenous o Jawa people of
the Great Lakes region calls the full moon Zisbactoki gives
us or sugar moon or on Abanaii, the hard crust
of the snow moon. For them, it signifies a time
to balance their lives and to celebrate the new year. Now.
The Cree of North America call it michis Whipsism. The

(54:49):
Eagle Moon, the month when the Eagle returns. The Cherokee
God I Love. The Cherokee call it Envy, the windy
moon when the plan cycle begins anew Now, this full
moon will pass directly through the Earth's umbral shadow, producing
a total lunar eclipse visible cross the America's We had
a partial eclipse in the Pacific. In Western Europe and Africa.

(55:12):
The lower left rim of the full moon will start
his trip through the weaker p NUMBERL shadow at eleven
fifty seven pm Eastern daylight time on Thursday and very
slightly darkening. The first bite out of the moon will
appear when it contracts to the central umber at one
nine am, and the moon will finally move clear of
the Earth shadow at four forty eight am. With the

(55:34):
blue Blood Moon being from two twenty six to three
point thirty two, we have a few launches coming up.
I don't know if it's still going on tonight, but
we have a possible Falcon nine going off tonight. We
have a Crew ten coming the eleventh. We have a
couple of Starling missions on the fourteenth and the twenty,

(55:56):
so that should always be fun. So that's it for
tonight show. I want to thank you for tuning in
when and however you do special thanks to NASA, Spacexpace,
dot Commerce Technica and that's a space like Popular Mechanics
and more for some of the great information on the
stories tonight. Stay tuned for Sunday Night with Alan Ray

(56:16):
right here on Klarendradio dot com. Thanks to my executive
producer as always for your help and inspiration. I do
hope you enjoyed the show, learned a little bit, and
maybe even had a laugh or two as well. The
universe is a pretty big place.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
It's bigger than anything anyone.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
Has ever dreamed, No more.

Speaker 6 (56:44):
So if it's just us. It seems like an awful
waste of space.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Right well, as you it seemed a love was soon wonderful,
a miracle, Oh it was beautiful, magical At the Burt
in the trees wild, they'd be singing so happily, oh joyfully,

(57:13):
oh playfully watching me.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
But then missabil way to tea tree, how to peace? Sensible? Logical, oh, responsible, practical,
And then they show me word where RECOGNI so deep
and able or clinical, intellectual cynical. There are times fellow

(57:43):
world see

Speaker 3 (57:46):
The questions, want to dig