Short Wave - 2020: At Least It Was Good For Space Exploration?

Episode Date: December 28, 2020

Between the pandemic, protests, the recession — the list goes on — there was big space news in 2020. And there was a lot of it! To round it up, Maddie chats with NPR science correspondents Nell Greenfieldboyce and Geoff Brumfiel.Check out our list of Nell and Geoff's reporting on all of the events they talk about.For even more space and other science content, follow Nell and Geoff on Twitter at @nell_sci_npr and @gbrumfiel. Send terrestrial and extraterrestrial inquiries to the show at [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Maddie Safaya here with NPR Science Correspondence, Nell Greenfield-Boyce and Jeff Brumfield. Hello, esteemed colleagues. Hey, Maddie. Hello, esteemed host. I think we can all agree Nell and Jeff that this has been a rough year, to put it delicately. That's a word for it, yes. And I am delighted to be wrapping it up and putting it all far, far behind us.

Today, we are going to talk about all kinds of things that happened in space in 2020. Absolutely. Let's go to space. Let's do it. Let's go to space. All right. So it is hard to look back on this year and think about anything but the coronavirus. But in fact, a lot happened off the planet.

Yeah. I mean, it was a really big year for human spaceflight in America. We had the first launch of astronauts from American soil in almost a decade. It was also a big year for bringing stuff home from space. I mean, missions brought samples back from asteroids as well as the moon. So today on the show, we take a break from this crappy year on Earth to talk about what was happening everywhere else. It's the year in space. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Okay, let's start with astronauts and human spaceflight. This year, we saw the commercial spaceflight company, SpaceX, carry up astronauts for the very first time. Lift-off of the Falcon Line and Crew Dragon. Go NASA. Go SpaceX. So how big of an accomplishment is this? Jeff, let's start with you. I mean, it was huge.

And it was actually kind of deceptive because when I watched the launch with my kids in our basement instead of Cape Canaveral this year because it sucked here on Earth, you know, the astronauts, Bob Benkin and Doug Hurdle, they just climbed aboard the rocket and took off and everything was smooth. docking sequence is complete. But getting this thing flying was this huge step for NASA, because they've been trying for years to get astronauts flying on a commercial vehicle. That's a vehicle that's run mainly by a commercial company. It's been a real honor to be just a small part of this. And for SpaceX, that company, it was also a big deal

because they've been flying rockets and capsules, but never with people on board. So, you know, it was a really big milestone. Bob and Doug, we hear at SpaceX, are honored to have been part of the state. I will say, I knew this was a big deal, but I'll be honest, they kind of felt like every other launch to me. I think the reason it felt routine is because SpaceX is using some really tried and true technology. These capsules are similar to what was used on the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s. They're very simple, but effective.

Yeah, you say it's simple, but it's still rocket science. You know, I mean, it's a big deal. We had been relying on Russia for getting our astronauts to the space station for like a decade. And it's not like every day there's a brand new spaceship for people. I mean, in the United States, the last time that happened was the first space shuttle flight in 1981. So it was a milestone. And the reason this is so cool for NASA is not just that it can get its astronauts flying from U.S. soil again. But now, you know, it has this reliable service it can use to go back and forth the space station. And that frees it up to focus on bigger things, like going back to the moon.

And, you know, the Trump administration had been saying NASA should attempt a moon landing with people by 2024. Yeah, I wanted to ask you both about that because I don't know, I got to ask like, how's that timeline looking right now? My impression is it's not going so well. I mean, you know, I mean, I walked around trying to talk to people outside of NASA to find anyone who thought this was a realistic timeline. It's not. It was going to be the Trump administration's second term if he won. I mean, everybody understood. That's why that date was picked.

But, you know, it remains to be seen what the Biden administration does with space and with NASA's moon goal. But, like, I feel pretty safe in predicting that 2024 target is not going to last. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. I put some money on that. Okay. And speaking of the moon, I mean, let's talk about our closest friend in the night sky for a minute. This was a big year for the moon, right?

Yeah, yeah. It was a big year for the moon for sure because there was actually this Chinese mission called Chongga, And earlier this month, it brought back the first lunar samples, the first moon rocks that have returned from the moon in over 40 years. It was basically like a little robotic version of the Apollo mission, so it flew up. It went into orbit around the moon, sent down a little lander. Just had a very soft landing in a very good position. Scooped up some rocks, also boing, put up a little... Chinese flag on the surface of the moon. And then the rock samples got rocketed back to Earth and

landed in Mongolia. And the fact that this went so smoothly is just a huge win for China geopolitically. Only two other countries, the U.S. and Russia, have really been able to do this kind of lunar sample return. Right. But I mean, other countries were getting samples from other places in the solar system as well, right? Yeah. I mean, Japan had a mission that launched six years ago and it went to an asteroid and got like a little bit of pebbles. And it finally came home just this month with this, you know, five gram sample is just like a little tiny pinch of black pebbles and dust. That's the biggest sample of an asteroid ever returned. Now, NASA did its own asteroid sample collection this year. And it caught so many rocks that they overstuffed their collection device. Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah. I mean, stuff was leaking out into space and they had to scramble because it was overflowing. but that's probably going to bring back hundreds of grams, and it won't return until 2023. So, okay, both of you, lay some science on me. I mean, what did we learn from these samples? Jeff, you go first. All right. So, I mean, from the lunar samples, there's actually this really interesting, kind of a slightly complicated way that lunar samples gets used, which is basically you can date different

parts of the moon's surface from these samples. And then you can also look at the craters on the surface. And, of course, younger parts of the surface have fewer craters because they haven't been around to be whacked by meteorites and asteroids and other things as long. And so then you can use that sort of crater speckling, you know, to actually go out and date other parts of the solar system, like Mercury, Mars, you know, asteroids. So the moon is the key to how we date the inner solar system. And, you know, I heard these Chinese samples, Jeff, in particular, are really valuable.

Right, because they come from a younger part of the moon where we didn't have samples. And so when the Chinese finish their analysis, this is really going to help us understand not just the age of different parts of the moon, but the age of all sorts of different parts of the solar system. So that's pretty cool. And the asteroid samples also are about learning about the history of the solar system because asteroids are like these leftover bits, you know, these sort of pristine leftovers that haven't been perturts. for billions of years since the solar system formed. And the idea is that if you get samples, you can study them in the lab and see, you know, what they're made of, what, you know, made up the planets originally, including, like, Earth. Yeah.

And, I mean, I guess also, right, like an asteroid could whack us someday. Hopefully not this year in the week we have left, but it's possible, right? Okay, Jeff. All right. Absolutely. That's a real danger. I mean, asteroid Benu, which NASA visited, is considered to be a potentially dangerous asteroid. It's got a one in 2,700 chance of hitting the Earth in like a century and a half from now.

So, you know, understanding rocks like that could help us protect the planet. I'm not worrying about a century and a half from now. I've had enough. You wouldn't, Jeff. You wouldn't. We got to get through this year. And then we can worry about a century and a half from now. Right.

That's a good point. That's fair. That's fair. Okay. Now, so finally, there was a discovery way out at the edge of the solar system that was very cool, I think, objectively very cool. Talk to me about what scientists saw out there. Yeah, I thought this was a fun little bit of science.

So basically, researchers took advantage of the New Horizons probe to try to measure how dark the universe is. And remember, New Horizons is that probe that flew past Pluto five years ago. It's just like way out there, really far from the sun. And it's away from dust that's in the inner part of the solar system that can scatter light around. And so because they're so far out there, they realize that. they could take images of like boring parts of the sky, just like empty patches of sky, and analyze the light.

And so what they did was they subtracted out all the light that they could account for from like nearby stars and stuff like that. So I mean, in the end now, like what did they find? They were left with a lot of light they could not explain. In fact, the amount of light coming from mysterious sources was about equal to all the light coming in from the known galaxies. Wild. And Jeff, I remember you edited this one. Yeah. And I thought that kind of blew me away.

I don't know what you thought. I mean, assuming it's right, it's just a reminder that there's a lot we don't know going on out there in the universe that we think we got all figured out. But maybe we don't. Yeah, like there's got to be more galaxies than we're aware of or maybe there's something totally crazy going on that involves dark matter. You know, but whatever it is, if you believe these guys, the universe is brighter than we thought. I mean, that's kind of really lovely. Jeff, you got anything that can top that? No? Yes? Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, there was this comet Neo-Wise, which came by in July. And it was about five kilometers across. And just to put that into context, there was an asteroid that hit the Earth about 65 million years ago and caused the dinosaurs to die out. That object was sought to be about five to 10 kilometers across. And guess what? Neowise missed, loser. How close did it get?

It doesn't really matter, does it? It missed. Jeff, your high note for this is that we didn't get hit by a comet, just for clarity here. What else do you want, man? At least it missed. It's 2020. So when you see something like that coming your way, you're not happy about that. 2020 so far, I haven't given you good ideas about the kind of stuff that can happen.

You don't take it for granted. Yeah, for 2020, we'll take not getting hit by a comet. Okay, okay. Now, Jeff, thank you for this heartening tour of how 2020 went down in space. I'm so glad that you are both here on Earth with me to celebrate the end of this misbegotten year. Ad Astor, my friends, onward, onward. Happy New Year, Maddie. Yeah, take it easy. Be safe.

This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez, edited by Giselle Grayson, and fact-checked by Arielizabidi. Thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR.