WEBVTT - The Dawn Mission 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.960 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.200 podcast that looks at the future and says Dawn go away, 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.400 No good for you. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Laren Bulk, 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.840 and I'm Joe McCormick. So today we're going to talk 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:30.480 about space, the final frontier, well one of them, one 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.240 of the final frontiers. I mean there could be a superspace, right, yeah, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.200 what the space behind space? Uh yeah, we're talking about 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:43.280 space today because we wanted to talk about NASA's Dawn mission. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.080 If you've been following the space news, as I know 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.520 a lot of our listeners, do you are aware that 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:54.200 this spacecraft has gone in orbit around a dwarf planet, 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.280 series in our Solar system and serie that's C E 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.960 R E S No, like the Syria on your phone. Right, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.280 So if you say Siri, where is Dawn, it says 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:07.360 it will be in eight hours, and you're thinking, no, 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.959 you're just giving more questions. Uh no, that's not the case. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.880 We're talking series the planet and that or dwarf planet, 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.640 I should say, And that was after it already visited 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.600 another astronomical body vesta, And so we're gonna talk all 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:26.039 about what it did, why it's important, and what these 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:30.360 these actual astronomical bodies are because it's a really cool story. 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.840 Yeah yeah, So I want to start this story off 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.520 pre launch. Okay, all right, so like like you know, 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.679 two thousand like way, pre launch, like circle the formation 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.520 of the Solar System. Okay, that goes back before my calendar. Yes, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.120 yes it does. None of us like four and a 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.000 half billion years ago or four and a half five 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.320 billion years ago, Yeah, sure, sure, so none of us 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:01.040 were there. No, I mean I know that away. I 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.600 thought I was going to get away. So it only 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.640 occurred to me to say, because you because you made 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.639 a point of I don't know. Okay, So at any rate, 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.960 the leading theory among astronomers and physicists is that everything 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.000 in our Solar System was once just one big, nebulous 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.520 cloud of of gas and dust and ice um, and 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.200 something would have had to have happened to kickstart the 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.760 formation of all the bodies in the Solar System are 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.000 Sun and planets and moons and asteroids and etcetera. But 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.079 we're not entirely sure what that is, but we think 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.600 it might have been a nearby star going supernova. It's 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:37.800 really cool, and it's one of those things I didn't 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.440 really think about the idea of, uh, what sort of 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.239 of circumstances would have led to all of these coalescing 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.000 into what we know today, And the idea that it 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.280 had to be or potentially had to be an external 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.680 source of energy is really fascinating. Yeah. I'd often heard 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.680 about the formation of the planets, but but I'd always 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.720 thought about it in terms of how the planets and 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.680 other rocky bodies and and gas giants and things formed 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:07.480 around the Sun. And so you have the idea of 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.960 the protoplanetary disks. Yeah, yeah, the Sun already being there, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.280 but of course the Sun has not always been there. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.400 It had to happen at some points. Yeah. So, so 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.200 the radiation from this explosion could have like squished and 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:24.119 pushed all the matter in this in this cloud nebula um. 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.600 You know, each bit formally would have been an equilibrium, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.320 but but suddenly they would be exerting their gravitational force 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.760 on all the other bits in really new exciting ways. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.000 And so as they started colliding and forming bigger, denser bits, 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.160 they would have started orbiting around each other. And more 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.200 bits would collide until the Sun would form in the center, 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:49.720 and gradually all the other stuff formed around the Sun's orbit. Yeah, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:54.200 rocky bodies, some of them containing liquid water, like okay, 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:59.120 so not Rocky Balboa. No, not Rocky Horror. Neither of 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:06.440 those things. Both have exquisite bodies, they do well, and 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.280 they do contain liquid water. That's uh so, that's cool. No, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.640 rocky planets as we know formed closer to the Sun 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.480 and gash bodies like Jupiter and all of that. Um 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.560 some of them having sort of rocky really icy moons 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:28.359 formed further out and between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.760 belt formed instead of an actual planet, which is pretty interesting. Yeah. Yeah. 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.960 The leading theory right now is that not that there 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.920 was a planet therapy and it was destroyed by aliens 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:43.800 or something like that. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Um No, 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.680 we think that Jupiter's immense gravity mucked about with the 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:54.760 planetation formation process and prevented I am inventing new words, Joe. Yes. So, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.120 in other words, Jupiter, being such an enormous body with 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.960 its own gravitational pull ends up interfering with the process 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:06.320 that would allow these bits to otherwise glom on together. 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.599 And eventually coalesced to another planet. Yeah. Yeah, it just 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:14.160 just got right up in its grill, and gravitationally speaking, 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:18.120 Jupiter is all like that. It does get all up 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:22.240 in the grill. So um. So. The asteroid belt contains 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.560 lots of bodies of different shapes and sizes and compositions, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:31.760 and the two biggest are Vesta and Series. Alright, so 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.320 let's start with Vesta. What do we know about that? Well, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.000 it is a rocky asteroid. I have heard Vesta has 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.640 more in common with the inner planets of the Solar System. Yes, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.160 it was formed some like four point five billion years ago. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.839 It's uh. The apparent surface is of basaltic rock, which 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.920 is what happens when lava cools down really fast. So 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.640 what they think happened is that UM lava would have 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.040 oozed up from the asteroids like hot Chewy set shortly 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.320 after its formation and then cooled down pretty quick after that. Um. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.080 It was the fourth asteroid ever discovered by human people. 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:13.800 That happened on March seven, thanks to Henrich William Ober's 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.800 I don't I don't think I said that, right, Heinrich 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:22.040 Wilhelm Olbers. Okay, thank you, UM of Germany if you 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:28.120 couldn't figure that out, y'all, Uh, don't feel bad. Jonathan 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:33.400 served in Kaiser Wilhelm's government shortly after the dinosaurs died out, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:40.080 and honestly, my my concept of time is somewhat elastic. Alright, So, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.240 how how big is this thing? It's pretty big. It 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.520 is not small. It's about about and I'm about to 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.680 read some very very precise numbers here, five hundred and 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:57.520 seventy eight kilometers by five sixty by four eight in miles. 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:03.640 That translates to mine by three eight by two eight five. 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:08.680 So sizeable, very sizeable body. They're not really like planet 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.080 or moon size, but like but you know, bigger than 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:19.520 a car. Yes, four hundred three miles is significantly larger 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:25.600 than most vehicles. It's almost a sphere, but does have 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.120 this giant chunk that's four hundred and sixty kilometers or 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:34.400 two eight five miles across and thirteen kilometers or eight 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.320 miles deep that's missing from the south pole. That now, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.720 that is one of the things that is particularly interesting 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.560 about this this asteroid body. It was one of the 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.640 reasons why it was a great candidate to send a 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:52.280 spacecraft to get a closer look because there appears to 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.840 be you know, this is a chunk missing. It's not 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.080 like it formed and it just has this interesting shape. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.960 It looks like this. This is an area where uh, 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.880 something has forcibly impacted uh Vesta, and we we ended 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:09.840 up having the entire body reshaped from that impact. I mean, 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.600 that's how massive it was. And also this could end 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.400 up teaching us more about some of the stuff we 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.440 found here on our planet. Right. Uh. Yeah, we think 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.240 that as much as five percent of the meteorites that 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.760 fall to Earth are come from that missing chunk. Fine, 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:33.559 what's crazy? All meteorites come from this from Vesta, from Vesta. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.560 whatever happened that knocked that bit out? Uh do you 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.880 know how they determine that? Actually, I do know, and 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:41.520 I can tell you when we get to the part 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.640 about the Vesta mission. So yeah, So it's one of 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:49.040 only three non earth bodies that we have a sample 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.520 of here on the planet, that the other two being 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.199 Mars in the moon. Right. So we you know, it's 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.800 so neat that we ended up having this stuff like 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.720 it ended up landing on our planet. We know where 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.480 it from, or at least we we have very strong 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.600 belief that it came from that place. Like there's not 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.200 like a receipt, Like we can't say, like we could 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.160 go back to Vest and return it for credit. But 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.480 we do. But we do know, and I'll talk more 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.160 about how we know when we get to that part 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.800 of the episode. So now we move on also to 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:24.319 talk about series. The dwarf planet. Yes, uh, like Earth, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.439 it has a dense core and a lighter crust, and 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.840 we think it might have a lot of ice beneath 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.480 the crust and in the mantle because the crust is 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.480 less dense than Earth's and um also appears to contain 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.080 all of these like water bearing minerals and stuff. Um, 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.839 it might maybe even have just a wee bit of atmosphere, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:48.040 but we're not sure. Sort of like a whiff of atmosphere. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.080 just an idea of acting. You know. It's kind of 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.319 like a restaurant that's just getting started. It's got a 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.439 little bit of an atmosphere, but we haven't really developed 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.040 it yet. This series was the first dwarf planet we 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:03.360 ever discovered, though. Yes, that happened on January one, eighteen 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:08.760 o one, thanks to Giuseppe Piazzi of Italy. Excellent pronunciation 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.640 hold on now, would that that would be including Pluto, now, 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:17.200 wouldn't it that series was actually discovered before Pluto? Yeah, yeah, 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.680 Pluto also being a dwarf planet, pluto status changes on 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.959 a day to day basis. Yeah, it's it's real independable. 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.280 Like we never we never know exactly what we're doing 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.199 dealing with when we talk about Pluto, because by the 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.520 time we record and by the time something publishes, things 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.600 have changed occasionally. So, like we've said, series is about 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.319 nine seventy five kilometers by nine O nine a k 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:46.199 A six or six by five five sixty five miles. 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.800 It's hard to picture exactly how big that is. Yeah, 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:54.640 it's bigger than a car, significantly larger than any vehicle. Yes, yeah, 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.360 no it is. It is difficult, right, I have those 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.080 problems too, because that you sit there and you think, like, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.720 how long would it take me to drive? Ye, this distance? 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.160 That that tends to be the way we tend to 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.800 think about it. Uh yeah, And there's before we send 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.400 a spacecraft there. We had, of course observed these I 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.840 mean obviously that they were discovered in the nineteenth century, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:19.080 but we've since made other observations using other equipment. Right, Well, 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.280 we've used telescopes like the Hubble and ground based telescopes 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.679 that are on Earth or close to Earth, and the 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.720 problem with that is when you're looking at very small 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.679 objects that far away, it's hard to resolve them even 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.600 with a very powerful telescope. Right, and there are lots 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.920 of things we could potentially learn from a closer examination, 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.040 which is precisely why these this mission exists, right the 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.440 Dawn mission, the Dawn Mission, the NASA's Dawn mission. So first, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.920 these are protoplanets, and we know very little about protoplanets 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.680 in general, apart from some hypotheses we have come up with. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.160 But you know, without going in and taking a closer look, 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.160 you can't really put those hypotheses to the test us 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.320 to see if you're on the right track or if 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.400 you need to adjust the way you were thinking. And 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.640 perhaps there is a different explanation for some of the 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.320 observations you've made. This is the way science works, in 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.439 other words, So that's really exciting. Will literally be learning 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.839 stuff we have not and perhaps could not have anticipated 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:19.880 as we go into this. We also learn more about 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.000 the formation of our solar system by studying these planets, 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:24.600 which will give us a few more pieces to that 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.920 puzzle of how we got here, and by we, I 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.320 mean the entire Solar system, not just the people in 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:35.280 this podcasting studio. UM. So that's really cool, always getting 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.640 more of a complete picture. I doubt we'll ever have 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.800 a complete picture, but we have that desire to continuously 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.320 add to our body of knowledge as far as this goes, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.160 and I think this will help us add to that. Also, 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.360 the presence of water always leads us to the possibility 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.040 that the planet may have at one time supported life, 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.920 or perhaps there might even be a habitable ocean on Series. 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:00.600 We'll talk about that a little bit later too, and 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.719 we may discover there. There's one hypothesis that suggests that 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:09.000 a body like Series and a body like Vesta may 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.800 have been responsible for the way the Earth is right now. Uh, 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.200 and the idea being that something like Series might have 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.960 been the source of the water on Earth, and a 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.559 body like Vesta might have been the source of the 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:26.720 Earth's iron core. So there's some theories exactly they formed Vultron, 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.360 but Vultron in this case was Earth. So it's again 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.119 it's one of those things where the hypotheses have been proposed, 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.120 but now we get a chance to explore this more 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.760 directly and see if those still hold any you know, value, 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.840 or if in fact we have to re reconsider a thinking. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.839 So if we're just now reaching series and Series is 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.640 very far away, we must have launched quite a while ago. 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.000 I don't remember this launch. Uh yeah, well, let me 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.319 tell you the story about how this launch came about, 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.000 because it is its own really drum addict tail like 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.680 one that could have easily like there needs to be 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.439 a documentary to explain what happened, because it was one 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.800 of those things where for a while, I'm sure the 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.120 leaders on this project were convinced that it was never 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:19.960 gonna happen, because they were thinking about launching a mission 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.520 to look at Vesta and Series as early as nineteen two. 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:26.360 So that's when you said pre launch. That's why my 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.080 go to who first was two thousand and then. Now 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:35.520 NASA has these pitch periods where different potential missions can 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:40.320 come and present to various heads at NASA and say 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.440 this is where I think we need to dedicate some 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:44.880 of our resources. This is the sort of mission I 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.000 think we need to do, and here's why. And they 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.280 the project leaders of what would become the Dawn Mission 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:58.240 went before NASA three separate times in n but didn't 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.480 receive any interest in their posed mission. It wasn't until 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:07.680 two thousand, when they were selected as a finalist for 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.320 NASA Discovery Mission that they finally had a chance to 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.880 really uh to to to get like established as a mission. 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:18.760 So that meant there have been eight years that had 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.080 gone by since they first came up with the idea 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.680 till when NASA was saying, all right, let's really look 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.080 at this as a potential mission, which also meant that 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.320 the idea itself had evolved over those eight years. They 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.720 began to tweak it, perfected, that kind of thing. So 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.640 two thousand crazy. I mean, in that span of time, 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.400 you'd have to imagine even the science that informs the 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.800 mission is probably changing. Yeah, technology of the things that 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.640 we're learning just through other missions, I mean, all of 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.280 that is making an impact. But it gets even crazier. 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.040 So in two thousand they're selected as one of these 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.280 three finalists and there to go to NASA in September 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:58.400 of two thousand and one. Yeah, two thousand one September, 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.320 so they're going to go and talk to NASA when 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.840 the terrorist attack happens and it cancels their meeting obviously, 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.520 I mean everything, everything, everything was canceled because of that. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.680 So everyone goes home and the mission and it's it's 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.160 future is put on hold. But after a while things 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.120 got back on track. The mission was picked up to 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.520 be a Discovery mission, so it went from finalists who 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:25.240 picked for a Discovery mission. So now it's ready to go. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.920 On Christmas Eve two thousand three, the project has canceled 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.880 due to budget cuts on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:36.800 but Mr screws Right apparently whoever was in charge of 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.480 the budget was visited by three Spirits and reconsidered. And 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.280 also another big thing that happened was the project partner, 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:49.280 Orbital Sciences Corporation, offered to continue working on the mission 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.760 at cost, so not not charging anything that would result 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.880 in a profit, but providing their their part at cost 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.080 if it would mean the mission could continue. And things 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.440 kept moving. Two thousand five, so we're still not into 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.679 the point where anything is launched yet. Two five it 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.240 gets in trouble again. The projects in trouble again because 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.640 NASA administration changed. Now I don't know if you guys 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.160 have ever you know, we we've experienced this a little 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.040 bit in our company. Just one of those moments where 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.200 you don't really know what's going to happen because there's 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.159 a big change of leadership way above your pay grade, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:26.280 and you just don't know how that's going to trickle 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:28.920 down and affect you. We've been very fortunate here and 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.800 how stuff works. Um, but I have also been at 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.600 other jobs where a big boss has changed and suddenly 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.119 everyone feels like they're defending their job, like they have to, 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.680 they have to justify why their job exists. The same 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.080 thing is true at NASA with projects where there's a 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.840 big administrative change in NASA, often you have people who 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.960 have to defend their missions, their projects to the new 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.200 administration to convince them that this is in fact worthy 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:01.120 of funding. And that started up again. So the project 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.440 got shut down two thousand six, but the Jet Propulsion 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:09.600 Laboratory protested the shutdown. There was a review, and as 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:13.880 a result of the review, the project was reinstated. So 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:15.760 this this is just like I mean, this is in 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.720 a way, this part is more crazy than any of 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.640 the science and technology behind it. It's just the fact 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:24.480 that all these hoops had to be jumped through in 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.120 order for this to even happen. So at two thousand seven, 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.480 the project finally got full approval, full backing from Nasson. 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.000 It was officially official and stuff. So the team had 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.600 hoped to launch the spacecraft between June and July two 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.640 thousand seven, but bad weather scrapped those plans. I know, right, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:43.840 It's like there was a black cat that crossed the road. 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:45.600 They had to go. They had to They had the 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:51.399 wheel the Dawn spacecraft under a couple of mirrors broke 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.600 on the way there. It was just crazy. But they 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.840 were able to push the launch back to September two 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.600 thousand seven, and and it did go up. It did, 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.919 It did go up. Everything was fine. And here's the 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.080 cool thing. So you know, we talk about things like 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.480 like missions to Mars and how you have a limited 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.800 window when you can launch right because of the way 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:12.720 that Mars and Earth line up in there, and you 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.120 want to get them when the right so that way 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.120 you are expending the least amount of fuel and thus 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.160 you have you don't have to have too, you don't 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.359 have to add more weight to your launch vehicle. There 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:23.680 are a lot of reasons, right, I mean, it's a 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.359 very big picture kind of thing. The Dawn spacecraft had 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:29.920 a little bit more flexibility because it doesn't depend upon 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:36.120 chemical rockets for its propulsion in space. Ion propulsion drive 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.239 ion thrusters. What. So we've talked like crazy science. I know, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.520 I know, we've talked about ion thrusters a couple of 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.159 times in the podcast, and there's only been a few, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:50.440 relatively few examples of ion thrusters used uh in space missions. 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.760 So here's what an ion thruster is. You use a gas. 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.480 You are energizing a gas. You're essentially bombarding it with 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.480 electrons so that those electrons can freely roam in at gas. 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.680 That's that's where it becomes ionized. I can actually conduct 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:08.680 electricity that way. The Dawn spacecraft uses xenon gas and 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:14.680 it emits this charged ion gas as exhaust, So that 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.120 is what actually creates the propulsion, which is really neat. 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:23.119 It means also that it has a very gentle but 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:29.040 steady acceleration, so it doesn't chemical rockets can accelerate very rapidly, right, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:34.840 and you can make these incredibly uh powerful motions, whereas 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:39.960 ion thrusters, they are much more gradual in their acceleration. 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.080 The flip side of that is that the top speed 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.920 for a chemical rocket is much lower than the top 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.000 speed for an ion thruster, because even though an ion 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.480 thruster is going to take longer to accelerate to a 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.800 really fast speed, it can continue to do so much 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.560 longer than a chemical rocket, like like a factor of 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:02.000 ten more because it like uses its fuel more slowly. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:06.160 And also it just it has a continuous acceleration acceleration 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.520 thrust as opposed to chemical rockets where you get that 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.920 that amazing amount thrust at the beginning, but it's not 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.679 something that can continue perpetually because then you use up 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:19.360 all your fuel. So yeah, very much, it's very much 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.719 like it's because it's it's making very very good use 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:24.120 of the fuel. But this is the sort of thing 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:28.879 that is not necessarily going to work well for every mission. 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.080 It's good for particular ones, like like the Dawn mission. 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.840 It's a it's a perfect implementation for the Dawn mission, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:36.800 and it has turned out to be that way. So 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:41.200 the ion thrusters came online on October sixth, two thousand seven, 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.360 and from the Dawn Mission Journal entry for October seven, 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.280 two thousand seven. By the way, the I don't know 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:48.520 if you guys had a chance to look at the 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.760 mission journal at all. But the the project leader from 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:56.199 Jet Provulsion Laboratories who wrote the mission journal, he is 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.200 a poet as well as an engineer, like he uses 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.480 such poetic language to explain what is happening and the 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.000 you know, like the the that there are now two 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.919 uh to two bodies in the asteroid belt, one brand 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.800 new and one ancient. Beyond words that are rendezvousing. I mean, 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.000 it's like you're reading and like, holy cow, this guy 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.560 must love science fiction because he's got a he's got 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.280 a really eloquent way of putting it. Everyone that I 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.120 that I read, um either interviews or papers from connected 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:30.440 with this mission, was just delightful to read. It was altering. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.640 It's not dry engineering text in other words, So if 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.879 you are interested in this, I highly recommend going to 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.560 the NASA website and looking at the mission Journal. But 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:41.359 this is an excerpt. This one is more of a 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:45.480 technical explanation of the ion thrusters. While the three ion 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:48.080 thrusters are the most familiar part of the i p 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:52.320 S the ion propulsion system, they are not it's only elements. 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:55.520 The system includes two computer controllers, only one is used 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.440 at a time. When mission control selects one of the 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:03.560 one hundred twelve throttle levels, each corresponding to a certain 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.760 power consumption and thrust. The operating controller translates the command 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.399 into currents and voltages that must be applied to parts 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:14.800 of the thruster and the flow rate of xenon propellant 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.680 to the thruster. The controller also provides the principal communications 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.320 between the main spacecraft computer and the rest of the IPS, 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:26.320 accepting commands and reporting on the IPS performance. While the 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:29.600 controller is the brain of the system, the two power units, 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:31.680 again only one is used at the time, are the 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:35.600 braun Following instructions from the controller. A power unit receives 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:37.920 power from the solar rays at about one hundred volts 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:40.639 and converts it to more than one thousand volts for 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:45.359 use by the thruster. One hundred and twelve throttle levels. Yeah, 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:49.440 that a hundred and twelve speed bikes. What we're talking about? 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:53.920