From Elon’s big rocket explosions to asteroid pattern returns, we spherical up the information from a giant yr off-world.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
2023 has been a bumpy yr for people on Earth. However off the planet, we have been doing a bit higher as a species. NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel has been monitoring humanity’s progress into the ultimate frontier, and he joins me now to speak about all of it. Hello there.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Hello.
SUMMERS: So Geoff, it has been a yr right here on our residence planet. So I wish to begin this dialog about as distant as we will go. I perceive that there was some thrilling asteroid information this yr.
BRUMFIEL: Yeah, that is proper. It has been a bumper yr for asteroid analysis. Japanese researchers discovered a constructing block of life known as uracil on an asteroid. One other group discovered mud from distant stars sprinkled throughout it. Asteroids are considered these frozen chunks from the earliest days of our photo voltaic system, so every discovery tells us a bit bit extra about how we obtained right here. All of this was made potential by samples that had been returned three years in the past by a Japanese mission, which is why it is so thrilling much more samples got here again to Earth this fall. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission landed within the desert in Utah. It is carrying a piece of an asteroid known as Bennu. The mission scooped up a few cupful again in 2020.
SUMMERS: I’ve by no means heard anybody say something a few cupful of asteroid earlier than, to be clear. What did we be taught from it?
BRUMFIEL: Nicely, thus far not a lot as a result of researchers are nonetheless very rigorously unpacking all of the grit and rocks from the pattern container. However finally, Bennu is believed to be an historic asteroid, so it could have extra clues concerning the formation of the photo voltaic system, the Earth and even us.
SUMMERS: OK, so let’s go now from distant asteroids to our closest neighbor – the moon. Complete lot of stuff happening up there – Geoff, what are you able to inform us about it?
BRUMFIEL: Yeah, the moon’s been ignored for a very long time, however there’s a little bit of a lunar renaissance underway. This yr, Russia, India and a personal firm based mostly out of Japan all launched robotic missions to the moon. Now, the dangerous information is that 2 out of three crashed. Each the Russian and Japanese non-public missions ended up slamming into the lunar floor at excessive velocity, however India – India nailed it, and this was big for India’s house company. They function on a really tight price range, however they’re mighty. With this mission, they turned the fourth nation after the U.S., the Soviet Union and China to land on the moon. Furthermore, India landed farther south than any nation ever has, and that issues as a result of the moon’s south pole is believed to carry water ice. That ice goes to be crucial for a future lunar colony, assuming people can ever get there.
SUMMERS: Geoff, let’s go to our closing house story of the yr. I feel it’s a few very large rocket – in truth, the launch of the largest rocket ever constructed, proper?
BRUMFIEL: Yep. That is Elon Musk’s large rocket, which he confirmed off earlier this yr. It is constructed by his firm, SpaceX, and it is known as Starship. It is this big, stainless-steel beast of a machine. It is the tallest rocket ever constructed, with probably the most engines ever – 33 within the first stage alone. This factor is meant to in the future carry people to the moon and Mars, however first it has to get off the planet. And on that entrance, I’ve to say it did so-so. Its first flight ended with an explosion. Its second flight additionally ended with an explosion however went higher. The Starship separated from that first stage, and it flew off by itself for a bit earlier than blowing up. However that is progress on this planet of rockets.
SUMMERS: Geoff, what can we sit up for in 2024?
BRUMFIEL: Nicely, it will be an thrilling yr, each for giant rockets and for going to the moon. NASA has a number of robotic lunar missions scheduled to fly, after which the house company’s Artemis II mission is meant to go in direction of the top of the yr. If that is not delayed, it will carry three astronauts on a visit across the moon. That is the primary time that is occurred because the Apollo missions of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s. And we must always see much more of Starship. That rocket is crucial not solely to NASA’s additional plans for lunar exploration, but additionally for SpaceX. It wants it to launch its Starlink web satellite tv for pc system. And if they can not get it working, that would spell hassle for each the house company and the corporate. So keep tuned.
SUMMERS: I’ll. NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel, thanks.
BRUMFIEL: Thanks.
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