This Week in Astronomy: Athena Spacecraft, Liquid Water Beneath Mars and GPS Signals on the Moon

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos
<v Speaker 1>with our soothing Bedtime Astronomy podcast. Each episode offers a
<v Speaker 1>gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond, perfect for
<v Speaker 1>unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries
<v Speaker 1>of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful
<v Speaker 1>slumber under the night sky. This week in Astronomy, Athena spacecraft,
<v Speaker 1>liquid water beneath Mars and GPS signals on the Moon.
<v Speaker 1>Athena's failed lunar landing. The Intuitive Machine second Moon mission
<v Speaker 1>ended in disappointment last Friday after the US company confirmed
<v Speaker 1>that its spacecraft had tipped over and was unable to
<v Speaker 1>recharge its solar powered batteries, similar to its first attempt
<v Speaker 1>last year. This marked a premature conclusion to a mission
<v Speaker 1>that had generated excitement in the space community due to
<v Speaker 1>its advanced payloads, which included a futuristic hopping drone, multiple rovers,
<v Speaker 1>an ice drill, and a four G network test. Guston
<v Speaker 1>based Intuitive Machines had aimed to make history with Athena,
<v Speaker 1>a hexagonal lander approximately the height of a giraffe, designed
<v Speaker 1>to land on the Mons mutan Plateau, a location closer
<v Speaker 1>to the lunar South Pole than any previous mission. After
<v Speaker 1>launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket and traveling over
<v Speaker 1>a million kilometers through space, the spacecraft encountered difficulties at
<v Speaker 1>the final stage of its journey and landed at an
<v Speaker 1>awkward angle. The company confirmed that Athena had fallen face
<v Speaker 1>first into a crater at least two hundred and fifty
<v Speaker 1>meters from its intended landing site. A photo release showed
<v Speaker 1>the lander resting on an incline with Earth visible between
<v Speaker 1>two of its displayed landing lisle, reminiscent of the previous
<v Speaker 1>Odysseus mission, which also ended in a toppled over position.
<v Speaker 1>In February twenty twenty four, the company explained that, due
<v Speaker 1>to the direction of the sun the orientation of the
<v Speaker 1>solar panels in the extreme cold temperatures within the crater,
<v Speaker 1>Athena is unlikely to recharge effectively, bringing the mission to
<v Speaker 1>an end. Despite the setback, NASA viewed the experience as
<v Speaker 1>a learning opportunity, emphasizing that both successes and failures provide
<v Speaker 1>valuable lessons for advancing scientific exploration and preparing for future
<v Speaker 1>human missions to Mars. Some science instruments were briefly powered
<v Speaker 1>on and the ice drill was moved around, but it
<v Speaker 1>could not be used for its primary purpose. The mission
<v Speaker 1>was originally expected to last ten days, with hopes of
<v Speaker 1>capturing a lunar eclipse from the Moon's surface on March fourteen.
<v Speaker 1>Initial assessments from im executives suggested that problems with Athenas
<v Speaker 1>laser altimeters contributed to the poor landing, a situation similar
<v Speaker 1>to what occurred with Odysseus. The terrain relative navigation laser,
<v Speaker 1>designed to provide altitude and velocity readings, returned unreliable data,
<v Speaker 1>while the hazard relative navigation sensors only sent intermittent signals.
<v Speaker 1>These failures made it difficult to execute a smooth landing.
<v Speaker 1>Athenas tall and slender build standing at four point eight
<v Speaker 1>meters in height, naturally raised concerns about stability, but the
<v Speaker 1>company defended its design, stating that the weight distribution kept
<v Speaker 1>the center of gravity low. The disappointment of the failed
<v Speaker 1>landing was compounded by the recent success of Texas based
<v Speaker 1>Firefly Aerospace, which had just landed its Blue Ghost lander
<v Speaker 1>on its first attempt. Both missions were part of NASA's
<v Speaker 1>two point six billion dollar Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program,
<v Speaker 1>an initiative designed to leverage private industry to reduce costs
<v Speaker 1>and support the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts
<v Speaker 1>to the Moon and eventually send humans to Mars. Adding
<v Speaker 1>to the string of losses, two probes that had launched
<v Speaker 1>on the same SpaceX rocket as Athena were also lost.
<v Speaker 1>NASA's lunar Trailblazer, which was intended to map the Moon's
<v Speaker 1>water distribution, and the private Probodon, which aimed to capture
<v Speaker 1>close up photos of an asteroid, both failed to achieve
<v Speaker 1>their objectives. IM has been awarded two additional lunar missions,
<v Speaker 1>but will carefully analyze data from IM two to determine
<v Speaker 1>necessary improvements before proceeding with IM three. Of the four
<v Speaker 1>lunar missions attempted under the CLPS program, only one lander
<v Speaker 1>has achieved an upright touch, while two have landed sideways
<v Speaker 1>and one failed to reach the Moon at all. Liquid
<v Speaker 1>water beneath Mars the possibility of subterranean life on Mars
<v Speaker 1>gain's new support with a fresh interpretation of marsh and
<v Speaker 1>seismic data by scientists Ikuo Kadiama and Yuya Akamatsu. Their
<v Speaker 1>research suggests the presence of liquid water beneath the planet's surface,
<v Speaker 1>which raises the potential for microbial activity. This conclusion is
<v Speaker 1>drawn from data gathered by SEAS, the Seismic Experiment for
<v Speaker 1>the Interior Structure, deployed by NASA's Insight Lander after it
<v Speaker 1>arrived on Mars in twenty eighteen. This robotic lander was
<v Speaker 1>equipped with a seismometer that detected seismic waves naturally generated
<v Speaker 1>by Mars quakes and meteorite impacts, allowing scientists to analyze
<v Speaker 1>the planets intent structure. When seismic activity occurs on Mars,
<v Speaker 1>the SEAS instrument detects energy in the form of PEA waves,
<v Speaker 1>S waves, and surface waves, each of which behaves differently
<v Speaker 1>depending on the material they travel through. PA waves move
<v Speaker 1>faster through denser materials, while S waves cannot travel through liquids.
<v Speaker 1>By studying their behavior, scientists can infer the composition and
<v Speaker 1>structure of the Martian crust. Data collected by CEASE revealed
<v Speaker 1>anomalies at depths of ten kilometers and twenty kilometers, previously
<v Speaker 1>interpreted as transitions in porosity or changes in the chemical
<v Speaker 1>composition of the subsurface. However, Kadiama and Akamatsu propose a
<v Speaker 1>new explanation. These boundaries may indicate the presence of water
<v Speaker 1>filled cracks in the Martian crust. To test this hypothesis,
<v Speaker 1>the researchers conduct experiments using diabase rock samples similar in
<v Speaker 1>composition to typical Martian crust. By analyzing how seismic waves
<v Speaker 1>traveled through dry, wet, and frozen rock samples, they found
<v Speaker 1>significant differences in wave velocity. Their results strongly support the
<v Speaker 1>idea that the anomalies detected in Martian seismic data are
<v Speaker 1>not just variations in porosity or chemical makeup, but rather
<v Speaker 1>transitions between dry rock and water bearing rock layers. This
<v Speaker 1>conclusion challenges previous assumptions about marsh subsurface and suggests that
<v Speaker 1>liquid water could still exist on the planet today. The
<v Speaker 1>presence of liquid water beneath the Martian surface has long
<v Speaker 1>been debated, with many studies suggesting that ancient Mars had
<v Speaker 1>abundant water billions of years ago. However, this new model
<v Speaker 1>indicates that water may still be present beneath the surface
<v Speaker 1>in modern time. If confirmed, this discovery would significantly impact
<v Speaker 1>the search for extraterrestrial life, as microbial organisms could potentially
<v Speaker 1>survive in these underground reservoirs. Understanding the extent and nature
<v Speaker 1>of subsurface water on Mars also as implications for future
<v Speaker 1>exploration missions and the possibility of human colonization. LUGRE tracks
<v Speaker 1>GPS signals on the Moon. NASA and the Italian Space
<v Speaker 1>Agency achieved a historic milestone on March third, when the
<v Speaker 1>Lunar GNSS receiver experiment, known as LUGRE, successfully acquired and
<v Speaker 1>tracked Earth based navigation signals from the surface of the Moon.
<v Speaker 1>This marks the first time that signals from the Global
<v Speaker 1>Navigation Satellite System GNSS have been received and tracked on
<v Speaker 1>the lunar surface, demonstrating a breakthrough that could benefit future
<v Speaker 1>exploration missions, including NASA's Artemis program. The ability to receive
<v Speaker 1>these signals opens the door for more precise and autonomous
<v Speaker 1>navigation on the Moon and beyond, laying the foundation for
<v Speaker 1>advanced navigation systems for future lunar and Martian exploration. The
<v Speaker 1>process leading up to this achievement began when Firefly Aerospace's
<v Speaker 1>Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down on the Moon on
<v Speaker 1>March second, carrying LUGRE as one of ten NASA payloads
<v Speaker 1>aimed at advancing lunar science. Following the landing, operators at
<v Speaker 1>NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland initiated the first
<v Speaker 1>scientific operation of LUGRE on the lunar surface. As data
<v Speaker 1>from the receiver started flowing in, scientists and engineers eagerly
<v Speaker 1>awaited confirmation of whether a mission on the Moon could
<v Speaker 1>acquire and track signals from both GPS and GALILEO, the
<v Speaker 1>American and European GNSS constellations. At two a m est
<v Speaker 1>on March third, it was officially confirmed that LUGRE had
<v Speaker 1>successfully acquired and tracked GNSS signals from the lunar surface,
<v Speaker 1>achieving a navigation fix at an astonishing distance of approximately
<v Speaker 1>two hundred and twenty five thousand miles from Earth. Now
<v Speaker 1>that Blue Ghost has completed its landing, the mission will
<v Speaker 1>continue for fourteen days, allowing NASA and the Italian Space
<v Speaker 1>Agency to gather data almost continuously, leading to further advancements
<v Speaker 1>in GNSS based navigation on the Moon. In addition to
<v Speaker 1>its scientific significance, this milestone also marks the first time
<v Speaker 1>that hardware developed by the Italian Space Agency has been
<v Speaker 1>successfully deployed on the lunar surface. LUGII also set record
<v Speaker 1>before reaching the Moon on January twenty first. During its journey,
<v Speaker 1>it surpassed the highest altitude at which GNSS signals had
<v Speaker 1>ever been acquired, reaching two hundred and nine thousand, nine
<v Speaker 1>hundred miles from Earth, breaking a record previously held by
<v Speaker 1>NASA's Magnetospheric Multi Scale mission. The record was extended further
<v Speaker 1>when LUGI reached lunar orbit on February twentieth, at a
<v Speaker 1>distance of two hundred and forty three thousand miles from Earth.
<v Speaker 1>Be's achievements indicate that missions operating in cislunar space, the
<v Speaker 1>vast region between Earth and the Moon, could also benefit
<v Speaker 1>from GNSS based navigation. NASA traditionally tracks spacecraft using a
<v Speaker 1>combination of on board sensors and signals from Earth based
<v Speaker 1>tracking stations. The success of Lugre demonstrates that using GNSS
<v Speaker 1>signals for navigation could significantly reduce reliance on human operated
<v Speaker 1>tracking systems, as spacecraft could autonomously acquire and utilize these
<v Speaker 1>signals even at great distances. This development represents a major
<v Speaker 1>step forward in making deep space navigation more efficient and
<v Speaker 1>independent of constant ground based monitoring. The lu Gire payload
<v Speaker 1>is the result of a collaborative effort between NASA's Goddard
<v Speaker 1>Space Flight Center, the Italian Space Agency, the industry partner CASCOM,
<v Speaker 1>and Polytechnico di Torino. Its success paves the way for
<v Speaker 1>future missions to leverage GNSS technology for navigation in deep space,
<v Speaker 1>furthering humanity's ability to explore and operate beyond Earth's immediate surroundings.
<v Speaker 1>Of the name M