Normally, Pamela refuses to think about the future. But today, on our final episode before hiatus, she’s throwing out those rules. Here’s what we’re excited about for the future, especially in the next couple of months until we return in September

Recorded: 10 June 2024, Episode 723 (Season 17) Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay

Show Notes

We are listing out all the things we think are going to happen… and in a few months we’ll know how right or wrong we’ve been.

Chang’e 6 lands June 26 – It did!
Ariane 6 is predicted for 1st week of July?
Starliner returning 2nd week of July? We think? (We will be proven wrong)
Polaris Dawn 2nd week of July? With civilian space walk that scares Pamela
Chandrayaan-3 2nd week of July?
StarShip 5
Starship HLS needed for Artemis and again Pamela has concerns
IAU Meeting in August
New Glenn (and Blue Moon) coming in the Fall

Transcript

Fraser Cain [00:00:49] Join Patreon for an ad -free experience at patreon .com slash AstronomyCast. AstronomyCast, episode 725, looking ahead this summer. Welcome to AstronomyCast, our weekly facts -based journey through the cosmos, where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know. I’m Fraser Cain. I’m the publisher of Universe Today. With me as always is Dr. Pamela Gay, a senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute and the director of CosmoQuest. Hey Pamela, how are you doing?

Pamela Gay [00:01:19] I am doing well and I am gearing up to spend my summer working on research, both science and social science. And I actually have a request for everyone out there listening to this podcast. If you could go to bit .ly slash capital A -S -T, capital E -C -O. So basically, bit .ly asked eco for astronomy economics. I’m trying to understand what factors are preventing people from getting more engaged in astronomy than they already are. Whether it be they’re too busy, they have jobs, they have other hobbies. Whatever it is that might be preventing you from fully engaging the way you’d like, I want to know. And I have a survey, so please go fill it out so that I can find out more about all of you. Those links will be in our show notes, in the podcast summary, in the YouTube thing. Go click it, go fill out my survey. Thank you. Science.

Unidentified [00:02:24] Science.

Speaker 3 [00:02:25] Yeah.

Fraser Cain [00:02:26] So this is of course our last episode of this season. And I should really remember what season we’re in. 16, 17?

Pamela Gay [00:02:34] 17.

Fraser Cain [00:02:36] Alright, 17. This is the last episode of season 17. We are about to begin our two -month hiatus, where we replenish our energy, work on a bunch of projects that require focused long -term attention, ability to travel, things like that. Now, normally, Pamela refuses to think about the future. But today, on our final episode before hiatus, she’s throwing out those rules.

Speaker 3 [00:03:02] It’s like the purge.

Fraser Cain [00:03:04] Here’s what we’re excited about for the future, especially in the next couple of months until we return in September. And we will talk about it in a second, but it’s time for a break.

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Fraser Cain [00:03:45] And we’re back. All right, Pamela, first, thank you so much for allowing me to think about the future. Finally, I have so much that I think about, and you won’t let me talk about it. Missions that are coming up. But you’ve set some very firm constraints, which is really what we’re looking at in the next couple of months. And so that’s brutal.

Pamela Gay [00:04:09] Sorry.

Fraser Cain [00:04:10] But I, you know, I’ll see what I can do to get through this. But I’m always thinking about the future. Well, why don’t you go first? Tell me what you’re thinking about as we move into our summer hiatus.

Pamela Gay [00:04:25] Right now, I’m thinking that the second week of July, we die as science communicators. We are potentially looking at Starliner hopefully maybe returning back to the planet Earth. They’re doing lots and lots of testing of its fully discardable storage area, the trunk, that they can only do well on orbit. So they’re staying up. They don’t have a definitive time to return. But it’s going to be in July because the spacecraft is going to expire.

Fraser Cain [00:04:59] Well, so that’s probably. Yeah. So NASA published a status update on Friday afternoon where they sort of talked about the situation and they said, OK, we said June 12th. Then we said June 19th. Then we said June 26th. Then we said July 2nd. And now, you know what? Who knows? Who knows when this thing will come home? But they said they reassured everybody that the astronauts have enough supplies to be on the station for months. It’s no big deal. And there was some just just before we were recording this, there was some tentative improvements in the thruster situation on Starliner. So it might be that, in fact, they’re going to get this resolved sooner than later. But and the end of schedule for the summer is wide open. They don’t have a lot of missions coming to and from the International Space Station. So so there’s no gigantic drumbeat. You’re right. The spacecraft will expire. But but only that it’s like it’ll be out of warranty, only that it’ll be beyond the expiry date. And come on, we’ve all eaten stuff out of the fridge after the expiry date on the regular.

Pamela Gay [00:06:17] This is how I lived my life dangerously. Yeah, exactly. And and the problems that they’re working on are related to the trunk, not the capsule. So there’s concerns and they’re getting data. But NASA is assuring everyone Boeing is assuring everyone they can get back through the atmosphere. There are no concerns. It’s the trunk that they’re worried about, which gets discarded and burned up in the atmosphere.

Fraser Cain [00:06:45] Yeah. Yeah. The service module.

Pamela Gay [00:06:47] So do you know what else is going on the second week of July, which is my personal bet for when Starliner is coming back?

Fraser Cain [00:06:54] The launch of Ariane 6.

Pamela Gay [00:06:59] So what is flying on Ariane 6? Oh, no, this is their new rocket. I don’t know what’s flying on their new rocket. Is that also the second week of July?

Fraser Cain [00:07:08] First week, first week of July.

Pamela Gay [00:07:09] OK, first week of July. All right. So tell us about Ariane 6. This is I know very little about this.

Fraser Cain [00:07:15] Well, so, I mean, we all watched excitedly as James Webb launched on an Ariane 5 rocket back last Christmas. Two year and a half ago, two years ago, two years ago, more than two years ago. And this was, I think, the last Ariane 5 that Ariane’s base had around. And they’ve been sort of kicking this around because this was the plan. And James Webb got delayed. But Ariane has been working on their next generation launcher. This is the Ariane 6. And all of the bits and pieces have all been coming together at the spaceport in French Guiana, the Kura spaceport. And they have been assembling it and putting everything together and doing tests. And the plan is to launch this on July 9th, 2024. And so, you know, will it they’ve completed a wet dress rehearsal. So, you know, will it actually launch exactly on time on July 9th? Almost certainly not that there is, you know, they will l...