AI Transcript
[0:00] 00:00:00.117" data-end="00:00:07.129">This is Space Time, Series 25, Episode 142, 0:04">for broadcast on the 30th of December 2022.
00:00:18.454">0:08">Coming up on our final Space Time for the year, 0:11">NASA's Perseverance rover to start setting up a Martian sample depot, 0:15">a new satellite launch to monitor all the world's water,
00:00:23.675">0:19">and China sets a new record for the number of orbital launches conducted in a year.
00:00:24.198" data-end="00:00:31.759">All that and more coming up on Space Time. 0:28">Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
[0:32] 0:46" data-start="00:00:31.760" data-end="00:00:46.480">Music.
[0:48] 00:00:48.457" data-end="00:00:57.457">NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has started work setting up a Mars sample return depot on the Red Planet, 0:55">the first to be established on another world.
00:00:58.118" data-end="00:01:08.498">The project marks an important milestone in the joint NASA-European Space Agency Mars 1:03">Sample Return Campaign, which aims to bring Mars samples to Earth for closer study.
00:01:09.077" data-end="00:01:21.092">The depot building process starts when the rover drops one of its titanium sample tubes, 1:14">carrying a chalk-sized core of rock from its cache at a location within Jezero Crater which 1:19">has been nicknamed Three Forks.
[1:22] 00:01:31.877">Over the course of 30 days or so, Perseverance will deposit a total of 10 tubes carrying 1:27">samples representing the diversity of the rock record in Jezero Crater.
00:01:37.755">1:32">Since its arrival on the Red Planet, the rover has been taking a pair of samples from each 1:36">of its rock targets.
00:01:38.557" data-end="00:01:50.457">1:39">Half of every pair will be deposited at Three Forks as a backup set, and the other half 1:43">will remain inside Perseverance's cache, where it will be the primary means of conveying 1:48">collected samples to a Mars Ascent Vehicle.
00:01:57.677">1:51">A small rocket, which in coming years will be sent to the Red Planet to retrieve the 1:55">samples for transport back to Earth.
00:02:08.517">1:58">Mars Sample Return Program Principal Scientist Menashe Wodwa from Arizona State University 2:03">says the samples for this depot and the duplicates held aboard Perseverance will provide a valuable
00:02:17.877">2:09">igneous and sedimentary rock record of at least two and possibly more than four distinct 2:13">styles of aqueous alteration, as well as regolith and atmospheric samples.
00:02:18.517" data-end="00:02:28.237">2:19">One of the first requirements for the sample depot on Mars is to find a level rock-free 2:23">stretch of terrain in Jezero crater with his room for each tube to be deposited.
00:02:36.810">2:29">Up until now Mars missions have required just one good landing zone. 2:33">But with the sample return mission there will be a need for 11 such zones.
[2:38] 00:02:37.593" data-end="00:02:51.530">The first for the sample retrieval lander and the remaining 10 for sample recovery 2:42">helicopters to perform takeoffs and landings. And of course each site will also need to be 2:47">accessible by land for the rover. After settling on a suitable site,
00:03:05.350">2:52">the campaign's next task will be to figure out exactly where and how to deploy the tubes in that 2:57">location. See, you can't simply just drop them in a big pile because the recovery 3:02">helicopters are being designed to interact only with one tube at a time.
00:03:14.610">Of course the helicopters are only intended to serve as a backup just like 3:10">the depot itself. To ensure a helicopter can retrieve a sample without disturbing
00:03:23.190">3:15">the rest of the depot or encounter any other obstructions from the occasional 3:18">rock or ripple, each tube drop location will have an area of operation of at
00:03:34.614">least 5.5 meters in diameter. To that end, the tubes will be deposited on the surface 3:29">in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample 5 to 15 meters away from the next.
[3:35] 00:03:35.190" data-end="00:03:44.930">The depot's success will depend on the accurate placement of the tubes, a process which will 3:40">take over a month. Before and after Perseverance drops each tube, mission controllers will
00:03:54.890">3:45">review a multitude of images from the rover. This assessment will also give the Mars sample 3:50">return seemed the precise data necessary to locate the tubes in the event that the samples
00:04:08.330">3:55">become covered by dust or sand before they're collected. Meanwhile, Perseverance's primary 4:00">mission concludes on January 6, one Martian year, or 687 Earth days, after its February 18, 2021
00:04:17.230">landing. The car-sized six-wheel rover will still be working at sample depot deployment when its 4:14">This extended mission begins the next day on January 7.
00:04:23.334">4:18">However, once the table is set at Three Forks, mission managers will send the rover to the 4:22">top of the delta.
[4:24] 00:04:24.010" data-end="00:04:27.210">When they get there, the science team want to take a good hard look around.
00:04:40.960">4:28">Called the Delta Top Campaign, this new science phase begins when Perseverance finishes its 4:33">ascent of the delta's steep embankment and arrives at the expanse that forms the upper 4:37">surface of the Jezero Delta probably sometime in February.
00:04:41.509" data-end="00:04:52.573">4:42">During the campaign, which will last about eight months, the science team will be on 4:45">the lookout for boulders and other material that have been carried from further upstream 4:50">and deposited by the ancient river that formed the delta.
00:04:53.113" data-end="00:05:01.053">The Delta Top Campaign is an opportunity to get a glimpse of the geological processes 4:58">that took place well beyond the walls of Jezero Crater.
00:05:14.592">5:02">You see, billions of years ago a raging river torrent carried sediments, debris and boulders 5:07">from kilometers away down into the crater lake where Perseverance will now be able to 5:11">explore these ancient river deposits and collect samples.
[5:15] 00:05:15.367" data-end="00:05:25.008">The key objective of Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including obtaining samples 5:21">that may contain signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.
00:05:43.796">5:26">Had it ever existed there, the sediments are likely to have been one of its homes. 5:31">But the rover is also characterising the planet's geology and past climate, testing new materials 5:37">for future manned missions to Mars and determining how easy it is to make oxygen out of the carbon 5:42">dioxide Martian air.
00:05:44.452" data-end="00:05:54.788">This report from ESA TV. 5:47">Hi, I'm Kelsey Brennan-Wessels for ESA Web TV and I'm joined by David Parker who is the 5:52">Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA.
00:06:00.090">5:55">Now David, I understand that you have been attending the Mars Return Sample Conference 5:59">here in Berlin.
00:06:07.952">You took a break to join us here at EELIT to talk about the prospects of a mission that 6:05">could go to Mars, collect samples and then bring them back to Earth.
00:06:08.516" data-end="00:06:11.595">6:09">First, I just want to ask you, why are we interested in studying Mars?
00:06:12.360" data-end="00:06:23.226">Well, Mars is fascinating because it's the planet that's nearest to us. 6:17">It started off with all the same raw materials as our planet, but somehow it's gone in a 6:22">different direction.
00:06:25.116">6:24">We know the Earth is great for life.
00:06:27.592">6:26">Everywhere we look on the planet Earth there's life.
00:06:28.152" data-end="00:06:35.316">The question is, why did Mars turn out completely different? 6:32">Go wrong, get cold, lose its water.
[6:36] 00:06:36.216" data-end="00:06:39.646">What was different about that planet and what does it tell us about our own planet?
[6:41] 00:06:40.726" data-end="00:06:50.536">What are ESA's current activities with Mars? 6:43">Well, we're very busy with Mars exploration. 6:45">Our Mars Express spacecraft has been there since Christmas Day 2003 doing great science,
00:06:56.931">6:51">looking at the subsurface with a radar, thinking amazing images, stereo images of the surface,
00:06:57.316" data-end="00:06:59.136">and also looking at the atmosphere.
00:07:07.283">One of the instruments there, looking at the atmosphere, seemed to detect a mysterious 7:04">gas, methane, in very, very small quantities.
00:07:13.576">7:08">So we wanted to go back with a custom-built spacecraft to look into what we call the trace gases.
00:07:14.176" data-end="00:07:22.425">So we have our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. 7:17">In orbit it's done 900 aerobraking maneuvers to get itself down to the scientific orbit.
00:07:23.055" data-end="00:07:31.850">This spacecraft also will allow us to talk to our Mars Rover, our Mars Rover project 7:29">which is under development and is being built right now.
00:07:32.236" data-end="00:07:42.005">So the ExoMars Rover, what is special about it is it's the first spacecraft designed 7:37">actually to look for the evidence of past or present life to be able to rove over the,
00:07:51.136">surface but also to get below the surface and its key feature is this drill so that 7:48">we'll be able to go two metres down below the surface.
00:07:52.285">Why do we want to do that?
[7:53] 00:07:53.136" data-end="00:08:01.225">Because we think that any evidence of past or present life will have been eliminated 7:58">by the terrible radiation environment we have on Mars today.
00:08:09.561">8:02">So we're looking for material that may have been buried there for millions or even 8:07">billions of years. So it's all very exciting at the moment.
00:08:12.342">8:10">Looking beyond this rover, what does the future hold?
00:08:27.349">8:13">Well, the scientists have many, many challenges and each time we go to Mars, 8:17">whether it's with orbiters, whether it's with landers or rovers, 8:20">it just leads to more questions, more unraveling the mystery of, for example, 8:25">what happened to the water that we think Mars had? Probably.
[8:28] 00:08:28.277" data-end="00:08:31.643">Billions of tons of water still frozen maybe below the surface.
00:08:33.192">8:32">What happened to the atmosphere.
00:08:51.953">8:34">What's the geological history of the planet. We have a plate tectonics which 8:39">changed the shape of planet Earth. We think Mars froze quite early on. So for 8:45">all of these reasons to really get to the answers to some of these key 8:48">questions, we want to bring Mars back to planet Earth for the first time with a,
00:08:52.413" data-end="00:08:56.253">spaceship. What are the challenges in a mission like that? This is enormous.
00:09:12.694">This kind of Mars sample return project, it's not one spacecraft, it's almost an 9:01">armada or a fleet of missions to go there, take the samples, put them safely in special 9:08">tubes to protect them, launch them off the surface of the planet, we've never done that,
00:09:18.689">9:13">before, rendezvous in orbit around the planet, transfer from one spacecraft to another, kind,
00:09:24.973">9:19">of a relay race, bring it back to Earth, come back through our atmosphere and take it to 9:23">our laboratories back here on Earth.
00:09:25.675" data-end="00:09:29.546">9:26">That sounds like quite an endeavor. 9:27">It's going to be a kind of a 10-year long challenge.
[9:30] 00:09:30.353" data-end="00:09:42.393">The first part of that NASA is already going to take, getting those precious samples and 9:35">putting them safely onto the surface of Mars for the next step to come and collect them 9:40">some years in the future.
00:09:47.217">So if the whole thing goes to plan, we might have those samples back on planet Earth by 9:46">the end of this decade.
00:09:55.033">9:48">Well, we'll look forward to that, won't we? 9:50">It's a big challenge. 9:51">All of these science projects go on for years and the scientists benefit for a long time.
00:10:04.799">We're still using material we brought back from the Moon and learning new things from 9:59">and I'm sure with Mars we'll learn new answers to questions for the rest of this century.
00:10:05.312" data-end="00:10:11.313">Well I hope it does in fact provide some answers to our questions. 10:08">David, thank you so much for joining us today. 10:10">This is Space Time.
00:10:12.091" data-end="00:10:25.793">Still to come, a new satellite launched to monitor all the world's water. 10:17">And China sets a new record for the number of orbital rocket launches it carries out in a year. 10:22">All that and more still to come on Space Time.
[10:26] 10:40" data-start="00:10:26.160" data-end="00:10:40.240">Music.
[10:40] 00:10:49.495">A joint Franco-American scientific satellite has been successfully launched into orbit 10:47">on a mission to study all the world's water.
00:10:50.122" data-end="00:11:00.397">The Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWAT spacecraft, thundered into orbit aboard 10:54">a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
00:11:01.002" data-end="00:11:09.219">SWAT will spend the next three years providing high-definition data measuring the height 11:06">of water in the planet's lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans.
00:11:22.562">11:10">This information will provide insights into how the oceans influence climate change, how 11:14">a warming world affects lakes, rivers and reservoirs, and how communities can better 11:19">prepare for disasters such as floods.
00:11:36.037">11:23">After MECA or Main Engine Cutoff, the Falcon 9's first stage booster returned to Vandenberg, 11:28">successfully landing at the facility's landing zone 4, less than half a kilometre downrange 11:33">from the launch pad, seven and a half minutes after liftoff.
[11:37] 00:11:42.068">After SWAT separated from its upper stage, ground control has successfully acquired the 11:41">satellite signal.
00:11:53.690">11:43">Initial telemetry reports the spacecraft is in good health. 11:47">SWAT will now undergo a series of checks and calibrations before it starts collecting science 11:51">data in about six months' time.
00:11:54.242" data-end="00:12:05.510">NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says the warming seas, extreme weather, severe wildfires and 12:00">extreme floods are only some of the consequences humanity is facing due to climate change.
00:12:06.082" data-end="00:12:17.537">He says the climate crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and SWAT is the realization of a 12:12">long-standing international partnership that will ultimately better equip communities to 12:16">face these challenges.
00:12:18.185" data-end="00:12:27.530">SWAT will cover the entire Earth's surface between 78 degrees south and north latitude 12:23">every 21 days, sending back a terabyte of data daily.
00:12:28.155" data-end="00:12:35.155">The scientific heart of the spacecraft is an innovative instrument called CARON, the 12:33">Ka-band radar interferometer.
00:12:44.544">CARON bounces radar pulses off the water's surface and receives the return signal using 12:40">two antennae on booms extended out on either side of the spacecraft.
[12:45] 00:12:45.195" data-end="00:12:55.320">This arrangement of one signal two antennas will enable engineers to precisely determine 12:50">the height of the water's surface across two swathes at a time, each of them 50 km wide.
00:12:55.955" data-end="00:13:08.382">12:56">That data is essential to better understanding how Earth's air, water and ecosystems interact. 13:02">Among the many benefits the SWAT mission will provide is a significantly clearer picture 13:07">of the Earth's freshwater bodies.
[13:09] 00:13:09.035" data-end="00:13:13.594">In fact it will provide data on more than 95% of the world's lakes and rivers.
00:13:14.275" data-end="00:13:23.995">At the moment, freshwater researchers only have reliable measurements for just a few 13:18">thousand lakes around the world, but SWAT will push that number into the millions.
00:13:33.291">13:24">Along the coast, SWAT will provide information on sea level, filling in observational gaps 13:29">in areas that don't have tide gauges or other instruments that measure sea surface height.
00:13:33.795" data-end="00:13:41.078">13:34">Over time, this data will help researchers better track sea level rise, which will directly 13:38">impact communities and coastal ecosystems.
00:13:52.700">13:42">The mission marks 30 years of collaboration between NASA and the French space agency CNES 13:47">in altimetry, which was pioneered by the launch of Topex Poseidon back in 1992.
00:13:53.375" data-end="00:14:04.875">This report from NASA TV. 13:56">Right now I'm thrilled to be joined by Li Luangfu, the SWAT project scientist who's 14:01">been working on water monitoring missions for over two decades.
00:14:08.742">14:05">Welcome Li. 14:06">Can you tell me what are the main science goals of SWAT?
[14:10] 00:14:09.795" data-end="00:14:22.228">The main science goals are to better understand the ocean's role in climate change and how 14:16">warming climate is affecting the earth's rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
00:14:33.555">14:23">So more than 90% of the heat since the industrial revolution, the global warming has been absorbed 14:31">and stored in the deep sea.
00:14:49.595">14:34">Will provide a high definition view of ocean topography for calculating ocean 14:40">currents that transport the heat from the atmosphere to the deep sea. So the data 14:45">will help improve ocean models to assess.
00:14:57.295">Ocean's capacity in the future to keep absorbing heat, 14:54">protect humanity from global warming. And also in the warming climate.
[14:58] 00:14:58.372" data-end="00:15:17.682">The water cycle of earth is accelerating, making it very difficult to track and manage water 15:05">resources and also difficult to predict flood and droughts. So most of the lakes, rivers are not 15:12">well sampled, but the swath for the first time will provide a global survey of the elevation,
00:15:18.096" data-end="00:15:25.163">of the lake storage of water and the flow rates of river allow us to better model and,
00:15:28.421">15:26">to manage the water resources and predict floods and droughts.
[15:30] 00:15:30.078" data-end="00:15:36.172">This is in a nutshell. 15:31">Right, right. 15:32">Very good in a nutshell. 15:33">And I like that you said that this is the first time we're seeing something like this.
[15:39] 00:15:38.558" data-end="00:15:50.955">So what sets SWAT apart from previous satellites? 15:40">Yeah, it's all about the spatial resolution and the coverage. 15:45">For instance, the footprint of the radar on SWAT is a thousand times smaller than conventional.
[15:52] 00:15:52.061" data-end="00:15:56.688">Altimeter, making this spatial resolution of SWAT much, much higher.
00:15:57.475" data-end="00:16:07.842">And also, it will cover all the ocean and the surface water without any gaps between 16:06">78 degrees north and south.
00:16:08.562" data-end="00:16:15.494">16:09">Wow. Wow. 16:10">So we're getting something we've never seen before. 16:11">and Li, you've been working on SWAT since the beginning for 20 years. What does it feel like.
[16:17] 00:16:16.800" data-end="00:16:32.391">To be here for launch? Yeah, this mission is 20 years in the making and this is the fourth satellite 16:24">mission I serve as a project scientist. But this mission is the most complex and challenging.
00:16:45.707">16:33">Representing the culmination of my 40 plus years career at JPL working on oceanography from space. 16:40">The SWAT satellite is truly a remarkable spacecraft. Earlier I got a chance to look at.
[16:47] 00:16:47.245" data-end="00:17:04.007">It up close with SWAT project manager Parag Vaze. Our brand new instrument called the Karen K band 16:52">radar interferometer. What makes it an interferometer is really having a radar with signals that are 16:59">transmitted and received from two separate antennas that are separated by a large distance.
00:17:19.599">We also need other instruments to make SWOT work. We have a radar altimeter, which is 17:10">a more traditional kind of altimeter, gives us precise but very small strip maps. We have 17:15">a microwave radiometer that's used to correct the altimeter measurement in terms of the,
00:17:29.907">17:20">water vapor as the signal is going through the Earth's atmosphere. And we also need a 17:24">a set of instrumentation that tells us a very accurate position of the spacecraft in space itself.
00:17:30.123" data-end="00:17:39.900">We have a GPS receiver, we have a DORIS system, and we have the laser retroreflector array. 17:36">And can you let us know how SWAT will communicate?
00:17:54.547">17:40">The key to being able to do that, of course, is we have a very large recorder, 17:45">memory recorder inside the module here, but then getting it out is the job of the X-band antenna system 17:52">that's downlinking at 600 megabit per second.
00:18:00.875">17:55">And we also have an S-band system 17:58">that's more for command and control 17:59">and basic mission operations.
[18:02] 00:18:01.595" data-end="00:18:07.896">We obviously can't take a SWAT like this in space. 18:05">How will it fold and unfold after launch?
00:18:08.122" data-end="00:18:20.467">So the whole system is, of course, needs to be compact. 18:11">It's folded off to the side of the payload module 18:14">and it basically deploys in three phases, 18:17">one that's first coming up and then moving out,
00:18:26.342">18:21">and then the antennas finally deploying on the side themselves, 18:24">and then the whole system is locked in place.
00:18:27.827">This is space time.
[18:29] 00:18:28.656" data-end="00:18:35.425">Still to come. 18:30">China sets a new record for the number of orbit launches in a year. 18:34">And later in the science report,
00:18:43.978">18:36">the United Nations announces plans to launch a new satellite 18:39">specifically designed to monitor methane emissions and pinpoint their sources.
00:18:44.176" data-end="00:18:47.912">All that and more still to come on Space Time.
[18:48] 19:03" data-start="00:18:47.920" data-end="00:19:02.800">Music.
[19:03] 00:19:15.642">China appears to have finally wrapped up a busy orbital launch year, conducting a record 62 missions in 2022. 19:11">And its final flight of the year was also Beijing's seventh in just over a week.
00:19:16.188" data-end="00:19:26.642">The flight aboard a Long March 11 rocket from the Zhaicheng Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province 19:23">carried the highly classified Xi'an 21 spacecraft into orbit.
00:19:27.171" data-end="00:19:35.597">China claims the new satellite will undertake in-orbit verification of new science technologies. 19:33">The term Xi'an means experiment in Chinese.
00:19:36.092" data-end="00:19:47.642">The new satellite joins another two Xi'an experimental spacecraft which were launched just a few days earlier. 19:42">This time aboard a Long March 4C rocket from the Zhukuan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.
00:19:48.254" data-end="00:19:59.579">And like the Xian-21, Beijing described the classified Xian-20A and-B spacecraft as being 19:55">used for orbital verification of new technologies such as space environment monitoring.
00:20:00.047" data-end="00:20:03.315">However, that's not the view taken by military analysts.
00:20:18.186">20:04">They suggest these spacecraft are actually designed for RPO or rendezvous proximity operations. 20:10">In other words, they're spy satellites, specifically designed to test new ways to monitor or eavesdrop 20:16">on the operations of other nations spacecraft.
00:20:31.231">20:19">And they'll join the already in orbit 1,200 kilogram Cheyenne 20C spacecraft, 20:24">which was launched into a 700 kilometre high orbit aboard a Long March 2D rocket 20:29">also from Zhaiquan back in October.
[20:32] 00:20:32.122" data-end="00:20:42.808">The Cheyenne 21 launch took place just 36 hours after the last launch from Zhaiquan, 20:37">which saw a Long March 2D rocket carry another three Yo Gang 36 spy satellites into orbit.
00:20:43.312" data-end="00:20:49.802">The Ogang 36 mission patches display ocean waves with shapes resembling islands in the 20:48">South China Sea.
00:20:50.062" data-end="00:21:02.742">And that suggests the possible focus for this mission is on the highly disputed region which 20:55">Beijing has stolen from the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
00:21:09.688">21:03">Just a day earlier, China launched the world's first methane-fuelled rocket the Xukyu 2 on 21:08">its maiden flight from Xiquan.
00:21:10.192" data-end="00:21:14.343">However, that mission failed to reach orbit, losing 14 satellites.
00:21:19.879">21:15">Early indications suggest an issue with the launch vehicle's second stage may have been the problem.
[21:21] 00:21:20.896" data-end="00:21:29.664">The failure happened on the same day that another experimental rocket was launched into space by China 21:26">on its maiden voyage, this time from a ship in the Yellow Sea.
00:21:30.250" data-end="00:21:39.315">The Smart Dragon 3 is a 31-meter-tall solid-fueled rocket 21:34">capable of carrying a 1.5-ton payload into a 500-kilometer-high sun-synchronous orbit.
00:21:46.607">21:40">And unlike the ZUQ-2, it successfully placed its payload of 14 satellites into their intended orbits.
[21:48] 00:21:47.615" data-end="00:22:03.305">Three days earlier, a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center 21:53">in northern China's Jiangxi province, placing the Gofeng-5 hyperspectral 21:57">multifunctional observational satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit 705 kilometers above the Earth.
00:22:04.125" data-end="00:22:13.465">Beijing claims the satellites equipped with scientific equipment that will be used to 22:08">monitor ecology, the environment, survey natural resources, farming output, forestry,
00:22:19.145">and atmospheric conditions. However, once again military experts have a totally different picture.
00:22:29.065">22:20">They say it's another military spy satellite equipped with high resolution optical and 22:24">multispectral synthetic aperture radar imagery systems and electronic signals intelligence
00:22:43.807">gathering surveillance technology. Put simply the GoFeng are designed to provide continuous 22:34">reconnaissance monitoring areas of interest to Beijing as part of what Chinese President Xi 22:40">Xi Jinping and his communist government describe as preparations for war.
[22:45] 00:22:44.845" data-end="00:22:55.591">This intense period of launch activity kicked off a day earlier when Beijing launched a 22:49">QuaZhu-11 rocket into space from Xi Kuan carrying the Jingfeng Transport VDS experimental satellite.
00:22:56.265" data-end="00:23:08.104">It's tasked with demonstrating very high-frequency data exchange technologies. 23:01">The 25-meter-tall QuaZhu-11 is designed to carry a one ton payload into a 700-kilometer-high 23:07">sun-synchronous orbit.
00:23:13.821">23:09">China now has an estimated 583 satellites orbiting the Earth.
00:23:14.465" data-end="00:23:24.470">That includes over 242 Earth observation, surveillance or reconnaissance satellites, 23:20">including at least 46 GoFeng and 111 Yougang spy satellites.
00:23:38.245">23:25">The 62 orbital launchers carried out by China this year sets a new orbital launch record 23:30">for Beijing, easily surpassing the old record of 55 orbital launchers set in 2021. 23:37">Space Time.
[23:38] 23:53" data-start="00:23:38.480" data-end="00:23:53.200">Music.
[23:54] 00:23:54.151" data-end="00:24:09.094">And time to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week 23:58">with the Science Report. As part of global efforts to slow climate change by tackling methane 24:04">emissions, the United Nations has announced a new satellite-based orbital detection system,
00:24:13.841">designed to police emissions of the climate warming gas and alert governments and industry.
00:24:14.568" data-end="00:24:22.418">24:15">The Methane Alert and Response System, or MARS, was approved at the 27th United Nations Climate 24:20">Change Conference at Channelshek.
00:24:32.374">24:23">Mars will use state-of-the-art satellite data to identify major methane emission events, 24:28">notify relevant stakeholders and support and track mitigation progress.
[24:34] 00:24:33.881" data-end="00:24:42.673">A new study has found that replacing a diet full of red meat with chickpeas and lentils 24:39">is good not just for your health but also for your wallet and the climate.
00:24:43.195" data-end="00:25:00.930">A report in the General E-Clinical Medicine investigated five diets replacing some or 24:48">all of red meat, finding they could all provide the recommended amount of nutrition, save 24:53">the health system thousands of dollars per person, and cut diet-related greenhouse gas 24:58">emissions by as much as 35%.
00:25:01.601" data-end="00:25:13.299">25:02">The greatest benefits for all the above were seen in a diet which replaces all red meat 25:07">with minimally produced plant-based alternatives such as legumes, which also had a 70% lower 25:12">average grocery cost.
[25:15] 00:25:14.801" data-end="00:25:26.730">And while we're on the subject of food, scientists at Macquarie University and the ARC Centre 25:19">of Excellence in Synthetic Biology have created a versatile and nutritious new space food specifically 25:25">designed for astronauts.
00:25:27.243" data-end="00:25:34.931">A report in the Journal of Nature Communications claims the meal uses a common form of yeast, 25:32">a 3D printer and some clever science.
00:25:35.453" data-end="00:25:47.521">The study's authors, or should that be chefs, say the bioengineered yeast-based meal would 25:40">provide a customizable food supply that provides dishes with the taste, texture and nutrients 25:46">of their earthbound counterparts.
[25:49] 00:25:49.128" data-end="00:26:00.578">A new study claims people who meditate are more likely to have strong religious beliefs 25:54">compared to those that don't. Researchers asked some 3,684 people about their beliefs in the
00:26:13.371">26:01">supernatural, a higher being, life after death and even in the existence of angels. They found that 26:07">81% of meditators did believe in a divine being, compared to 57% of non-meditators.
[26:14] 00:26:25.658">But Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says rather than people who meditate having strong 26:19">religious beliefs, it's far more likely that those with strong religious convictions also 26:24">just happen to practice meditation.
00:26:39.180">26:26">There's a survey done by a company called PsychTest, and they do surveys regularly, 26:30">and they look at about three and a half thousand people and people who are what they described 26:33">as avid meditators and non-meditators, and they looked at their beliefs in the paranormal.
00:26:53.926">And so they found things like 81% of meditators believe in God or some divine sort of being, 26:46">Whereas only 57% of non-meditators believed in a divine being, 67% of meditators believed.
[26:54] 00:26:54.218" data-end="00:26:58.178">In angels while 50% only 54% did, non-meditators.
00:27:12.098">71% of meditators believed in life after death whereas only 58% of non-meditators believed 27:05">in life after death. 27:06">These are very high figures for non-meditators by the way in their belief in religion and 27:09">supernatural. 27:10">So you wonder where this survey was done.
00:27:29.378">Would assume it was done in the US which has a general high belief in gods and 27:16">things like that. Certainly not done in a lot of other countries where the belief 27:19">in gods is a lot lower than 57%. So the question then came up that what they 27:24">assumed is that people who do meditation open themselves up to other beliefs and,
00:27:37.538">27:30">this is like result A leads to assessment B. The trouble is like a lot of 27:35">surveys.
00:27:36.318" data-end="00:27:46.589">And this one seems to me be a problem here is that they're going about it the wrong way. 27:41">It might be that people who are open to paranormal or religious or spiritual beliefs turn to.
[27:47] 00:27:58.328">Meditation because that's the sort of thing they do. When you say 81% of meditators believe in 27:54">God or a divine being, that's a very high number and you might think that therefore people who
00:28:15.608">are suggestible and who might believe in the paranormal might take up meditation. So rather 28:03">than meditation opening them up to the paranormal, it's their beliefs in the paranormal that 28:06">open them up to meditation. In the same way as people who are inclined to believe in the 28:10">paranormal might go on ghost hunts, real ghost hunts, who might tune into ghost movies and,
00:28:33.168">28:16">that sort of stuff. So the question is you can't say people who watch paranormal movies 28:20">may become believers in the paranormal, no, it's the other way. And this survey is saying 28:24">meditators are open to the paranormal, whereas it might be paranormal believers are open to 28:28">of meditation. So there's a very sort of dangerous thing here which happens with a lot of surveys,
00:28:49.677">a lot of assessments that you get the wrong impression. I remember a survey done many 28:38">years ago, sociology area, where it said 90% of kids who smoke muck up in school. Suggestion 28:44">was stop smoking. No, the thing is kids who muck up in school tend to smoke. They're the,
00:28:54.061">28:50">rebellious or the naughty sort of people and they tend to do rebellious or naughty things.
00:28:59.808">So therefore, some of these people get around the wrong way and I think this is the particular case.
00:28:59.808" data-end="00:29:08.928">29:00">A lot of people do believe in the paranormal. 29:01">A lot of people who believe in the paranormal might be inclined to go to meditation. 29:05">Don't forget that all of these people, they surveyed, some of them are meditators.
00:29:15.739">29:09">So therefore, of the meditators, 81% believe in God. 29:13">So you think a lot of people who believe in God might go to the meditation.
[29:16] 00:29:16.189" data-end="00:29:22.310">Of course, yoga and things like that do have a religious element. 29:18">Be careful of surveys and other things. 29:20">Tim Mendam from Australian Skeptics.
[29:23] 29:38" data-start="00:29:23.280" data-end="00:29:37.680">Music.
[29:38] 00:29:45.320">And that's the show for now. 29:41">Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts iTunes,
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[31:02] 00:31:02.182" data-end="00:31:12.007">And space time is brought to you in collaboration with Australian Sky and Telescope magazine, 31:10">window on the universe.
00:31:19.007">You've been listening to Space Time with Stuart Gary. 31:15">This has been another quality podcast production from Bitesz.com.