WEBVTT - Why Are We Going Back to the Moon? 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.040 Hey, welcome to sign stuff the production of our heart 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.360 Radio I'm more a champ and today we're talking about 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:11.840 the Artemis Moon Missions. That's the NASA program that's aiming 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.239 to send humans back to the Moon. I'm going to 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.080 talk to three scientists work on the program, and I'm 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.080 going to ask them three questions. Why are we going 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.040 back to the Moon, What kind of science are we 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.120 hoping to get out of it, and what's the future 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.840 of moon exploration. Are we gonna set up camp there 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.400 or build an observatory for looking at the stars or 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.560 is it going to be a jumping off point for 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.800 going to Mars. We're going to cover a lot about 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.800 going to the Moon, So strap in and get ready 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.920 to launch as we take another giant leap for humankind 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:58.240 the new Artemis Moon Missions. Enjoy. Hey everyone, you might 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.800 have seen in the news that we're going back to 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:09.959 the Moon. Just this week, NASA is scheduled to launch 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.319 the Artemis two mission, which, for the first time in 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.720 over fifty years, will send humans to go take a 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.240 closer look at the Moon. Now, this one is not 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.880 going to land on the Moon, as we'll explain later, 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.440 there's a whole series of missions under the Artemis program, 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.759 and this one is only scheduled to loop around the Moon. 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.040 It's like the Apollo missions back in the late nineteen sixties, 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.840 you know, Apollo one, a Polo two, Apollo three, all 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.440 the way up to Apollo eleven, which was the one 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.240 that first landed on the Moon. And I say only 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.480 going to loop around the Moon like it's easy. But 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.880 clearly it's a huge deal that we're sending people back there. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.360 I mean, it's literally rocket science. So the big question 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:59.080 for me was why are we doing this? It's super cool, 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.120 but why now? And what are we hoping to get 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.800 out of it? To answer these questions, I was lucky 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.000 enough to talk to three NASA scientists who all work 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:14.639 on the Artemis program. The first one is doctor Jose Udalo. Well, 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.240 thank you doctor Rudala for joining us. 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.760 Thank you Hodi here for having me. So my name 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.920 is Hose Dalo and I serve in various capacities on 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:23.160 the Artemis science team. 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:24.880 Can you tell us about what do you do for 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:25.720 the Artemist mission. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.639 So right now I'm on both the Artemis two operations 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.320 team and the first Artemist Geology team. I'm helping with 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.440 defining science objectives and also for executing those objectives during 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:36.880 the mission. 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:40.760 So we went to the Moon in the late sixties seventies, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:42.799 and then there was a long period where we didn't 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.200 seem to want to go to the Moon. What do 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.320 you think has reawakened this interest in the Moon? 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.160 Oh, that's a great question. I think a couple things. 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.840 So One, we've reevaluated our knowledge of the Moon in 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.720 ways that have been enabled by use science technologies since 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.320 the sixties. You know, we have new insights into things 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.119 like water that we weren't able to make those insights 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.320 back in the sixties. I think that's driven a lot 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.560 of the renewed interest, especially in the polar areas of 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.440 the Moon. We've got great new data sets from orbiters 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:14.959 that have flown around the Moon. Not just the US, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:19.160 but other nations have contributed to the wealth of remotely 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.080 set data, and so now we have new eyes on 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.679 the lunar surface. And I think that sort of generated 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.079 lots of new questions and excitement. Oh and I think 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.240 another part of it is sort of the pool of 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.200 space explorers now is a little bit different than it 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:33.040 was in the sixties. It is no longer just nation 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.880 states and it's not the same nation states, you know. 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.920 So we have companies now that are able to launch 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.960 and develop their own spacecraft for their own purposes, you know, 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.520 some commercial, some scientific, and you know, we've got new 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.200 competitors on the global scene. You know, China is the 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.400 one everybody talks about. India is another big player in 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.640 space that's talking about sending crew to the Moon and 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.080 eventually to Mars. So I think the field is much 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.520 wider open now than it was in the sixties, huh. 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:03.320 And I see that as a good thing. I think 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.960 the more people go to the Moon, the better. I'll 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.160 be cheering them all on, no matter which flag they 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:09.080 were on their spacesuit. 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.400 Interesting part of it is looking back at the Moon 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.880 and learning new things and going like, oh hey, I 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.320 didn't know about this, Let's take another look at the moon. Absolutely, 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.480 And the other part of it is sort of like 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.640 other people are interested in now going to the Moon, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:24.720 so we should stay ahead a little bit. 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.240 Yeah, there's always a little bit of competitiveness in human nature, right, 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.040 but I think if we can harness that to further 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.880 the scientific and really deeply human ambitions that can be 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.680 sort of brought out in a positive way. I think 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:39.839 that'll be really fabulous. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.680 That's great. More science is always good, Yeah, it's a unifier. 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.240 More a space exploration is always exciting. 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:47.919 Absolutely. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.400 What are some of the things we've learned about the 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:51.680 Moon that we didn't know before. 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:52.120 Yeah. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:53.760 Well, one of the big things has to do with 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:55.039 the water on the moon. 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.400 Yes, there is water on the Moon. And if you 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.800 remember from our last episode about asteroids, you'll know that 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:08.120 water is hugely important or space travel. You can drink it, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.920 you can turn it into oxygen to breathe, you can 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.400 make rocket fuel out of it, and you can even 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.359 use it as radiation shielding when you're in space. But 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.479 for a long time, according to or Udaldo, we didn't 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.480 think the Moon had any water on it. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.839 You know, we go back to the sixties, you know, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.000 the few of the Moon coming out of the Apollo 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.480 samples was the Moon was very dry, which in some 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.320 ways was surprising given our models for how the Moon formed. 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.080 Why was this surprising, Well, you might imagine, you know, 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.599 if you subscribe to the idea that the Moon and 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.640 the Earth sort of formed close together. 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:43.080 Right. 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.400 The current hypothesis is that the early Earth was hit 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.080 by a large object something the size of Mars, and 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.440 the results of that collision, that leftover material formed the Moon. 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:54.240 And so you might. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.160 Imagine that the Moon and the Earth should have some similarities, 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.200 perhaps in the abundance of water, but if you look 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.400 at the details of the geochemistry, that doesn't really fit, 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.680 or at least not as neatly as you might expect. But 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.360 now we've got sort of new ways of analyzing these 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.760 samples from Apollo that give us better insights, and so 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.600 now we have this view that there's probably lots of 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.160 water on the Moon, some of which was brought to 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.000 the Moon by asteroids comets impacting, some of which might 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.480 have been brought out from the interior of the Moon 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.960 early on in the Moon's history by volcanoes, and some 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.160 of that water might be delivered to the Moon today, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.760 some in the form of little, tiny impacts, but a 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:34.719 lot in the form of the solar wind. 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.479 What okay, when I rewind a little bit, you said 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.000 that there's water coming to the Moon from the Sun. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.960 Yeah, the solar wind. So the Sun's constantly sort of 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.560 bombarding the lunar surface with particles protons, which, if you 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.120 remember your chemistry, is basically a hydrogen nucleus and hydrogen 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.799 plus oxygen, and there's plenty of it in the lunar surface, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.200 makes water least the building blocks for water. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.359 Fascinating. I hadn't thought about it. It's like it's raining 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.520 water almost from the Sun. Yeah, it's a interesting way 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.280 to think about it. Yeah, or's training I guess hydrogen 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.760 braining hydrogen that then gets converted to water on the Moon. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.560 Yep. And our understanding of that story, which is so 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.000 important for understanding the early history there at the Moon. 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.360 That's really changed a lot since the sixties, and that's 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:24.760 driving a lot of what we're doing at the Moon now. 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.240 That's right. Water is a big motivation for this new 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.880 push to go back to the Moon. Basically, the scientists 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.559 have figured out that the Moon is wetter than we thought. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.280 They reanalyzed the moon rock samples that Apollo brought back. 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:43.480 They found water molecules they hadn't seen before. Also, the 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.559 satellites we've put around the Moon since then have also 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.160 seen hints of water and the moondust that's on the surface. 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.560 But the most tantalizing idea is that there could be 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.080 huge amounts of water in the north and south poles 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:02.160 of the Moon, and there's the possibility that there's water 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.920 deposits on the poles, right, that's right. 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.240 What's really interesting about the poles of the Moon is 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.000 that there are craters that are deep enough at the 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.680 poles that have never seen sunlight in their interiors. If 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.440 you are standing at the south pole of the Moon, 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.760 the sun would be continuously low on the horizon, and 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.240 that's because the Moon is essentially not tilted in the 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.800 same way the Earth is relative to the Sun. Right, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:26.920 so the Earth is tilted at twenty three and a 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.360 half degrees, that's why we have seasons. The Moon's not 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.280 like that. The Moon is essentially not tilted with respect 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.400 to the Sun, and so the poles have this strange 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.439 illumination condition where the sun is barely grazing the horizon. 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.760 So you can imagine deep enough craters their interiors will 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.640 never be illuminated, and that makes them very cold. Some 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.880 of the coldest places that we know of and the 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.840 whole Solar system, in fact, the known universe, are on 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:57.079 the Moon. These shadowed areas, and these permanently shadowed craters 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.959 have temperatures that are close to absolute zero. It's kind 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.200 of like in your freezer, right, you have like ice 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:05.040 that builds up on the walls of your freezer. That's 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:06.800 why you get to frost your refrigerator right now. 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.559 And then uh huh. Any water that is floating around 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.920 and eventually gets the poles will suddenly freeze into. 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.280 Spots exactly exactly. So these are cold traps. And so 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.679 the idea is that some of these craters might have 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.760 ancient ice, you know that maybe it was delivered early 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.880 on in the Moon's history by impacts or by volcanoes. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.320 So there's a whole history there to understand as well. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.400 Wow, there could be a whole ice skating rinks in 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:32.320 the poles of the Moon. 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.280 Potentially that would be a great thing, wouldn't it. Right, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.200 you have like the Winter Olympics on the Moon. 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.200 Someday they could do not a triple LUTs, but like 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.560 a quint triple lutz exactly. 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.120 I'm sure curling on the Moon would be really popular too. 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:54.000 Oh even slower, yeah, exactly, even less exciting perhaps. Yeah. 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.320 The thing with the ice though, we're not sure what 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.840 form it has, so it could be you know, sheets 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:03.720 of that are interlayered with the lunar soil. It could 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.160 be just ice disseminated throughout the soil, kind of like 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.480 it is in perma frost here on Earth. It could 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.679 be veins. We're not sure what format has. That's one 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:14.719 of the things we'll find out, hopefully when we have 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.760 astronauts and robots on the Moon in the South Pole 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:18.679 in the coming years. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.800 Yes, you heard that right. There aren't going to be 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:27.120 people and robots and maybe also cars and a moon 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.640 base on the Moon in the coming years. There's even 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.360 plans for a moon delivery service. We'll get to that 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.040 later in the program. But when we come back, we're 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.320 going to talk to one of the chief scientists of 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.080 the Artemist mission who's going to step us through the 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.120 big picture here. Why exactly are we setting up camp 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.640 on the Moon and what do we hope to gain 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.280 by actually being there, I mean, besides potentially curling and 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.480 ice skating in the South Pole. So chill out and 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:11.960 stay with us. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back. 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.680 We're talking about NASA's Artemis program and why we're going 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:21.440 back to the Moon. We just talked about why there's 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.520 a renewed interest in going back there, and now we're 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.360 going to talk about what science we're hoping to get 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.840 out of revisiting our closest neighbor to give us an overview. 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.040 I talked to doctor Renee Weber, one of the chief 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.960 scientists who works on the mission. So here's my conversation 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:43.120 with doctor Weber. Well, thank you, doctor Weber for joining us. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:44.320 Yeah, I'm glad to be here. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.280 Can you please tell us what you do? Yeah. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.200 I work for NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center, where 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:50.479 I am the chief scientist. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.480 It's like you have a tribe of scientist there and 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:53.120 you're the chief. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.880 Yeah. And I'm also a member of the Artemis Internal 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.840 Science Team, and we're a team of lunar scientists who 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.040 are helping the agency to define the science objectives and 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.840 activities that astronauts will do when we return to the Moon. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.960 Amazing. Well, today we're trying to learn what the Artemist 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.840 missions are all about. How would you describe the overall 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.200 objective of the Artemist missions? What's the big picture? Plant? 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.320 Yeah, So you know, NASA's mission as an agency is 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.840 to explore the unknown, to go places that we haven't 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.600 gone before, to make new discoveries, to share those discoveries 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.520 with the world, to inspire people and you know, the 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:37.880 Moon is sort of a distant frontier and it really 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.959 touches on that exploration craving that I guess all humans have, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.440 and specifically to go to the Moon. You can sort 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.360 of think about three big camps of science. The first 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.360 is actually studying the Moon itself, and the second is 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.400 using the Moon as a platform to explore other areas. 0:12:58.640 --> 0:12:59.040 Wow. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.320 And the third is doing science that helps us understand 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.040 how to live and work in that environment, so like 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.680 a Moon base, and even going farther forward than that, 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.960 thinking about sending humans to Mars. So understanding how to 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.000 live and work in space is really really important when 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.560 you think about expanding that human frontier. 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.920 Wow. Oh that's amazing. I had I heard it broken 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.720 down like that. Can we go through them one by one? Yeah? Okay, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:29.840 So the first one you said was to understand the 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:30.439 Moon better. 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.760 Yeah, just to learn about the Moon, how it formed 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.000 and evolved over time, and in that sense, we can 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.599 sort of use the Moon as a laboratory for understanding 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.559 how all planets form and evolve over time. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.400 Okay, So the first overall size goal of the Artemis 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.719 program is to understand more about the Moon, not just 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.000 about the water on it, like we talked about in 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.200 the last segment, but also it's geology. This is important because, 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.520 as it turns out, the Moon has older rocks than 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.280 the Earth. Even though the Moon and the Earth formed 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.560 at the same time, the Earth is still hot and 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.360 so the rocks keep melting and churning and recycling between 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.400 the crust and the inside of the Earth. But the 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.800 Moon cooled off faster because it's smaller, and so it's 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:23.160 rocks frose in place a long time ago, which lets 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.120 us look further back in time. 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.400 Understanding the composition of the materials on the Moon is 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.840 another way that we can understand planetary processes and how 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.800 planetary surfaces form and evolve. And that's a big thing 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:39.800 that we want astronauts to do when they go to 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:41.400 the Moon. We want them to pick up rocks and 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.880 bring them back so that we can analyze the men 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:45.160 laboratories on Earth. 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.760 And here's another cool thing about understanding the geology of 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:53.040 moon rocks. We want to know if we can build 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:54.600 things with them. 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.000 And it's also important for a field of science called 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:02.360 in schi resource utilization, which is basically figuring out how 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.840 to live using the materials that you have where you are, 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.240 And so can we use the soil on the Moon 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:13.240 to create concrete? Can we build structures with it? Can 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.640 we build roads? Can we build landing pads? Can we 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.320 you know, use it to shield us against radiation? So 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:21.600 those are all things that we would want to go 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.600 and do geology to understand those. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.320 Oh that's fascinating. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah. Can 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.800 you make roads and houses from moon rocks? Yeah? 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.360 Yeah, there are actually some programs here at Marshall looking 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.000 at a process which is essentially three D printing using 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:40.239 lunar materials. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.440 Wow, that would be the ultimate flex. It's like, not 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.200 only might living in a three D printed house, it's 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:51.120 on the Moon. Okay. So that's signs goal number one, 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.880 which is doing signs about the Moon. It's water, it's rocks, 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.520 it's history signs. Goals number two and number three are 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.880 even cooler. Number two is to use the Moon as 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.160 a testing ground for learning how to live in another planet. 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.440 The science of using the Moon as a platform is 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.240 particularly interesting because the Moon's environment is so unique compared 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.680 to Earth, and it's also what makes it a challenge 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.200 to be there. Yeah, so there's no atmosphere on the Moon, 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.840 So figuring out how to build a suit that will 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.440 sustain you for short visits, all the way up to 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.920 how do you build a habitat that will sustain you 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.840 for long visits, and then how do we grow plants? 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.360 And sort of like the practical things having to do 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.280 with just being there. It's just trying to understand the 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:45.480 lunar environment basically what hazards are there. There are moonquakes 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.160 really yeah, they're not the same as earthquakes. They don't 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.280 occur for the same reasons, but they do occur, and 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.560 so understanding how, why, when, how often, how big you know, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.760 could a moonquake knock a building down for example? Those 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.240 are questions that we need to answer. The radiation environment 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.399 is another big one. The surface of the Moon is 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:07.960 just getting blasted with that all the time, and so 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.040 it is a kind of more dangerous environment if you're 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.080 going there to spend a long time, and so if 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.119 you want to build a habitat, it needs to be 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.160 able to protect you from that radiation. 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:22.240 So I think you're saying that this is sort of 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.840 like a practice run to going to Mars or to 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.399 going to other planets. Just like how do we study 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:29.440 an environment and learn to live there. 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:32.800 Right. Yeah, Like I said, it's more about testing the 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.000 systems and the technologies than it is for being a 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.399 physical waypoint. So I don't think, at least in the 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.359 near term, we're not going to be launching off from 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.560 the Moon to go to Mars. We're going to launch 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.879 from Earth to go to Mars. But understanding the space 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.600 environment and building systems that are robust to the space 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.840 environment is something that we can apply to other planets. 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.640 Okay, And the last scientific goal of the Artemis missions 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:03.520 is so basically turned the Moon into a really cool 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:04.879 science lab. 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.080 So the science objectives, the last one was about taking 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.720 advantage of the unique lunar environment to do science that 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.280 we can't do on Earth. And so we can do 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.000 a lot of really cool material science research, So things 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:27.159 like growing crystals or creating microfilament, those types of materials 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.040 behave much differently in microgravity than they do in Earth gravity. 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.480 The other ones are growing plants or any kind of 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:38.600 biological experiment, which could include looking at human cells and 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.679 how they react to the lunar environment, doing things that 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:43.160 are beneficial for human health. 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:44.040 I see. 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:48.160 And then also okay, if you're in an exploration atmosphere, right, 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.880 it's likely going to be different than just the ambient 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.560 Earth atmosphere, and materials can behave differently in those environments. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:01.200 So understanding the flammability of materials or how how plastics 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.600 can degrade over time, those are going to be different 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.520 on the Moon than they're going to be on Earth. 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.399 REALI, is there any special consideration that you have to 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.600 take into account for when doing experiments on the Moon? 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.560 Yeah, so the experiments themselves, you know, the hardware or 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.000 whatever the instrument is needs to be designed with dust 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.120 in mind. So you're walking around on the Moon, You're 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.720 going to get some dust on you. It's inevitable. And 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.840 so you know, they're looking at different ways of how 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.800 can we get the dust off of us before we 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.560 go back inside our fancy spaceship that we want to 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:34.159 keep clean. 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.359 A simple floor MAT's not going to cut it. Nope, 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.440 it's like particle number one, wipe your feet before you 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.520 enter the lunar capsule. Yes, So those are the main 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.240 scientific goals of going back to the Moon, and they 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.479 are pretty ambitious, which brings us to the next big question, 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.719 what is all of this going to look like in 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.960 the future? Are we really going to set up moon 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.200 bases and live there. How do you bring stuff there 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.080 and back? And more importantly, can you still get Amazon 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:11.080 delivery on the Moon? Well, believe it or not, NASA 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.400 actually has a plan for that. When we come back, 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.680 we'll talk about all of these things. So stay with us. 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:33.080 We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back. We're talking to 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.320 scientists who work on the new Artemis program to take 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:39.359 astronauts back to the Moon. The last time you sent 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:41.960 people there was in the Apollo missions in the late 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:48.159 nineteen sixties and early seventies. Now you might be wondering 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.520 what are we doing differently this time, and what's the 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.320 long term plan for this? Are we actually going to 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.240 set up camp at the Moon? To step us through 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.600 these questions, I talked to doctor Marie Henderson, one of 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:06.600 the deputy lunar science leads for Artemis too. Thank you, 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.000 doctor Henderson for joining us. 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:10.920 Thank you so much for having me. I'm doctor Marie Henderson. 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.679 I am a planetary scientist who specializes in lunar science 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.000 and lunar volcanology, and I work at NASA Goddard Sweet 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.919 Flight Center and also the University of Maryland, Baltimore County amazing. 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.000 So there's no word for someone who just studies the moon. 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.720 So there's so many different ways to say the moon. 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:31.040 So you could be a lunar geologist, there could be 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.680 someone who's a lunar spectroscopist. We sort of keep it 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:35.399 sort of broad. 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.119 I see, So there's many flavors of lunatics. 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:43.440