This Week in Astronomy: HERA Mission, Planetary Overheating and Lunar Landscape in Cologne

<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, hair omission,
<v Speaker 1>planetary overheating and Lunar landscape, and Cologne hairmission to die MorphOS,
<v Speaker 1>but giant leap for planetary defense. Europe's highly anticipated hair
<v Speaker 1>omission to catalog the wreckage of the asteroid di MorphOS
<v Speaker 1>has arrived at its Florida launch site for final checks
<v Speaker 1>ahead of its planned liftoff early next month. The main
<v Speaker 1>HERA spacecraft and its two partner cube zots, named Milani
<v Speaker 1>and Juventus, are set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon
<v Speaker 1>nine rocket on October seventh from Cape Canaveral Space Force
<v Speaker 1>Station in Florida. Bill arrive at Dimorphos in late twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty six on a mission to study the aftermath of
<v Speaker 1>NASA's planetary defense test, which intentionally smashed a spacecraft into
<v Speaker 1>the asteroid in September twenty twenty two, shortening its orbit
<v Speaker 1>by thirty three minutes and permanently altering its shape. We're
<v Speaker 1>very excited to go back and see what it looks like.
<v Speaker 1>Patrick Michel Harras, Principal Investigator. Set at the Europlanet's Science
<v Speaker 1>Congress on Friday, September thirteen in Berlin, Haraw will assess
<v Speaker 1>the size and depth of the crater on dimorphos created
<v Speaker 1>by NASA's DART Double Asteroid Reader test spacecraft, and determine
<v Speaker 1>whether the impact did indeed reshape the rubble pile asteroid
<v Speaker 1>as early simulations indicate. Once deployed, the two cubeesots will
<v Speaker 1>for the first time assess dimorphos, internal structure, surface minerals,
<v Speaker 1>as well as gravity data that will help scientists correctly
<v Speaker 1>reproduce the asteroid's final structure in their computer models BISHELL
<v Speaker 1>set at the conference. Such models will then inform future
<v Speaker 1>planetary defense missions that similarly aim to deflect asteroids headed
<v Speaker 1>toward Earth. Hera and its two cubeesots arrived at their
<v Speaker 1>launch site in Florida in early September, following a transatlantic
<v Speaker 1>flight from Germany with a stop in Ireland. The mission's
<v Speaker 1>launch window opens on October and closes on October twenty seven.
<v Speaker 1>According to the European Space Agency ESA, HERA has a
<v Speaker 1>date with Mars in March next year. It will receive
<v Speaker 1>a gravity boost from the red planet to put it
<v Speaker 1>on course toward Dimorphos. During the maneuver, HERA will swing
<v Speaker 1>past the Mars moon daimas and test on board science
<v Speaker 1>instruments in its main camera. A new perspective on advanced
<v Speaker 1>civilizations and planetary overheating. A recent study suggests that advanced
<v Speaker 1>civilizations may inevitably overheat their planets within one thousand years.
<v Speaker 1>The researchers Amadeo Balbi and MNAs Vi Lingam argue that
<v Speaker 1>this is a result of the exponential growth of energy consumption,
<v Speaker 1>which is a necessary byproduct of technological advancement. But study
<v Speaker 1>challenges the conventional wisdom that planetary overheating is solely a
<v Speaker 1>result of fossil fuel consumption. Instead, it proposes that the
<v Speaker 1>waste heat generated by any advanced civilization, regardless of its
<v Speaker 1>energy source, can eventually lead to a complete loss of habitability.
<v Speaker 1>The researcher's findings have significant implications for astrobiology in the
<v Speaker 1>search for extradrestrial intelligence SETI. They suggest that the absence
<v Speaker 1>of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations may be partially explained by the
<v Speaker 1>fact that many have already succumbed to planetary overheating. The
<v Speaker 1>study builds upon the work of Soviet scientist MIKHAILI. Budako,
<v Speaker 1>who in nineteen sixty one predicted that the heat produced
<v Speaker 1>by human energy consumption would eventually become comparable to the
<v Speaker 1>energy coming from the sun. This is a simple consequence
<v Speaker 1>of the loss of thermodynamics, which state that all energy
<v Speaker 1>production and consumption inevitably produces waste heat. While the current
<v Speaker 1>contribution of waste heat to global warming is minimal, the
<v Speaker 1>researcher's models suggest that it could become significant within a
<v Speaker 1>few centuries. This could lead to a complete loss of
<v Speaker 1>habitability for the planet, even if carbon emissions were significantly reduced.
<v Speaker 1>The Dyson sphere, a hypothetical megastructure proposed by Freeman Dyson,
<v Speaker 1>serves as an example of how waste heat can be
<v Speaker 1>a byproduct of advanced civilizations. These structures would be detectable
<v Speaker 1>to infrared instruments due to the large scale conversion of
<v Speaker 1>starlight into foreig infrared radiation, which is essentially waste heat.
<v Speaker 1>To determine how long it would take for advanced civilizations
<v Speaker 1>to reach the point of uninhabitability, Balbi and Lingam crafted
<v Speaker 1>theoretical models based on the second law of thermodynamics. They
<v Speaker 1>then applied these models to planetary habitability by considering the
<v Speaker 1>circumsolar habitable zone CHC, the orbits where a planet would
<v Speaker 1>receive sufficient solar radiation to maintain liquid water on its surface.
<v Speaker 1>The researchers also considered the exponential growth rates of civilizations
<v Speaker 1>and their energy consumption as predicted by the Kardashef scale.
<v Speaker 1>By extrapolating humanity's current trend of exponential energy consumption, they
<v Speaker 1>concluded that the maximum lifetime of technospheres is about one
<v Speaker 1>D one thousand years. The studies findings have implications for
<v Speaker 1>humanity in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence SETI. They suggest
<v Speaker 1>that the effect of waste heat could be a significant
<v Speaker 1>constraint for any advanced civilization, and that considering this constraint
<v Speaker 1>could influence how we approach the search for extraterrestrial life.
<v Speaker 1>The researchers also proposed possible solutions to mitigate the constraints
<v Speaker 1>of waste heating. These include using technology to counteract heating,
<v Speaker 1>relocating technological infrastructure off world, or reducing energy consumption. However,
<v Speaker 1>they acknowledge that these solutions may be difficult or even
<v Speaker 1>impossible to implement for some civilizations. A lunar landscape and Cologne,
<v Speaker 1>Europe's moonwalking simulator. Nestled within an ordinary looking German warehouse
<v Speaker 1>in Cologne lies a remarkable facility Luna. This state of
<v Speaker 1>the art simulator, officially inaugurated on Wednesday, offers the most
<v Speaker 1>realistic experience of walking on the Moon outside of the
<v Speaker 1>actual lunar surface. Developed by the European Space Agency e SA,
<v Speaker 1>Luna is designed to prepare European astronauts for future lunar missions,
<v Speaker 1>including potential involvement in NASA's Artemis program. The facility's interior
<v Speaker 1>is a meticulously crafted replica of the Moon's terrain. A
<v Speaker 1>vast seven hundred scare meter space, illuminated by a single lamp,
<v Speaker 1>is covered in a pale gray dust that minnics the
<v Speaker 1>Moon's surface. Craters, rocks, and uneven terrain create a challenging
<v Speaker 1>environment for astronauts to navigate. ESA astronaut mathiased Maur, a
<v Speaker 1>material scientist an advisor to the Lunar Project described the
<v Speaker 1>experience of walking in the simulator. Entering the black area
<v Speaker 1>with sunlight in front of you can be disorienting. Is
<v Speaker 1>that a shallow pit or an abyss? Mauer explained The
<v Speaker 1>simulated moon dust, known as the ac one a, is
<v Speaker 1>both rough and fine, making it dangerous to breathe and
<v Speaker 1>potentially causing equipment problems. It also rises and floats when disturbed,
<v Speaker 1>unlike the more statically charged dust found on the actual Moon.
<v Speaker 1>To create Luna's lunar regolith, the EESA developed and produced
<v Speaker 1>over nine hundred tons of basaltic volcanic material that was
<v Speaker 1>ground and sieve to match the Moon's surface. The facility
<v Speaker 1>is also awaiting a delivery of twenty tons of regolith
<v Speaker 1>from Greenland for further testing. In addition to the terrain,
<v Speaker 1>Luna features a simulated sun, a harness system for replicating
<v Speaker 1>the Moon's gravity in a frozen floor for practicing drilling.
<v Speaker 1>The facility will also be connected to the future Lunar
<v Speaker 1>Exploration Habitat FLX hab in a closed loop greenhouse, creating
<v Speaker 1>a self sustaining ecosystem for astronauts. Luna's goal is to
<v Speaker 1>provide a comprehensive training environment for future lunar missions. By
<v Speaker 1>understanding how to live and work on the Moon, European
<v Speaker 1>astronauts hope to secure a place on NASA's Artemis program
<v Speaker 1>and contribute to the explorationtion of our celestial neighbors, name
<v Speaker 1>a