S27E45: Martian Mysteries: Perseverance's Quest for Ancient Life Signs

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 45 for broadcast on the 12th of April 2024.

[00:00:06] Coming up on SpaceTime, Perseverance collects its 24th sample on Mars,

[00:00:12] a new date set for Starliner's first manned mission to the space station,

[00:00:16] and has SpaceJunk slammed into a Florida home. NASA is investigating all that and more coming up

[00:00:24] on SpaceTime. Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:45] NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has just collected its 24th sample from the surface of the red planet.

[00:00:52] The new geological drill core sample offers new clues about Jezero crater and the lake that it may

[00:00:57] once have held. Analysis by instruments aboard the six-wheeled car-sized rover indicate that this

[00:01:03] latest rock sample was awash with water for an extended period of time in the distant past,

[00:01:08] perhaps as part of an ancient Martian beach. This latest sample adds to the growing tally,

[00:01:14] which already includes 21 tubes filled with rock core samples, two filled with broken rock and

[00:01:19] dust called regolith, and one filled with Martian atmosphere. Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley

[00:01:25] from Caltech says this is the sort of rock he's been hoping to find when his team first decided

[00:01:30] to investigate Jezero crater. That's because nearly all the minerals in this sample would have

[00:01:35] been made in water. On Earth, water-deposited minerals are often good at trapping and preserving

[00:01:40] ancient organic material and biosignatures. A potential biosignature is a signature

[00:01:46] or structure that could be evidence of past life. Of course it could also have simply been produced

[00:01:51] by pure chemical processes without the presence of life at all. The rock can even tell scientists

[00:01:57] about the Martian climatic conditions when it was formed. The presence of the specific

[00:02:02] minerals in this sample is considered promising for preserving a rich record of the ancient

[00:02:06] habitable environment of Mars. Such collections of minerals are important for guiding scientists

[00:02:12] to the most valuable samples, which will eventually return to Earth as part of the Mars

[00:02:16] sample return campaign. Nicknamed Bunsen Peak in honour of the Yellowstone National Park landmark,

[00:02:22] the rock which is about 1.7 metres wide and a metre tall intrigued perseverance scientists

[00:02:28] because the outcrop stands tall among this rounding terrain and has an interesting texture on

[00:02:32] one of its faces, which offers a nice cross section of the rock and because it's not

[00:02:37] lying flat on the ground it's less dusty and therefore easier for scientific instruments to

[00:02:42] investigate. Before taking the sample perseverance scan the rock using both the rover's supercam

[00:02:48] spectrometers and the x-ray spectrometer pixel. Then the rover used the rotor on the end of

[00:02:53] its robotic arm to grind or abrade at portion of the surface and scan the rock again.

[00:02:59] The result suggests that Bunsen Peak is composed of about 75% carbonate grains

[00:03:04] cemented together by almost pure silica. The silica and parts of the carbonate appear

[00:03:10] microcrystalline which makes them extremely good for trapping and preserving sides of

[00:03:14] microbial life that might have once lived in this environment. Additionally the sample might

[00:03:19] will be one of the older cores collected so far by perseverance and that's important because

[00:03:24] Mars was most habitable early in its history. This report on sample 24 from NASA TV.

[00:03:32] Sample 24 is called Comet Geyser and we collected it from the Bunsen Peak rock on the margin unit.

[00:03:41] The Comet Geyser sample is really exciting for several reasons. This rock is dominated by silica

[00:03:46] and carbonate. These phases are known on earth to be good at preserving biosignatures.

[00:03:52] Carbonate is a phase that forms an association with fluids such as water which is really

[00:03:58] important in our search for evidence for past life on Mars. It's still a bit of a mystery what this

[00:04:04] rock is. There are interesting textures that could be consistent with either an igneous rock or a

[00:04:11] sedimentary rock and that's what makes it so exciting to us as scientists is because we get

[00:04:16] to put our thinking caps on and really try and solve this puzzle.

[00:04:20] The Bunsen Peak samples the third that perseverance has collected while exploring the margin unit,

[00:04:29] a geologic area that hugs the inner edge of Jezero Crater's Delta Rim. The results so far

[00:04:35] support the hypothesis that the rocks here all formed along the shores of what was once an

[00:04:40] ancient lake. The rover is slowly working its way towards the westernmost portion of the margin

[00:04:45] unit. At the base of Jezero Crater's Rim a location nicknamed Bride Angels of interest to the science

[00:04:51] team because it may offer the first encounter with much older rocks that make up the crater rim.

[00:04:56] Once it's done exploring Bride Angel perseverance will begin in a scent of

[00:05:00] several months in duration to the rim's top. A key objective for the Perseverance mission

[00:05:05] on Mars is astrobiology including casing samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial

[00:05:12] life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human

[00:05:17] exploration to the red planet and be the first mission to collecting cache Martian rock and

[00:05:22] regolith. Subsequent NASA missions in cooperation with the European Space Agency will send a fleet

[00:05:28] of spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to

[00:05:33] Earth for more in-depth analysis. This is space time. Still to come, a new launch date

[00:05:40] set for Starliner's first manned flight and NASA investigating what appears to be space junk that

[00:05:46] slammed into a Florida home. All that and more still to come on space time.

[00:05:51] Music

[00:06:07] NASA has set the date of May 6th as the opening of a new launch window for what will be the first

[00:06:13] manned flight of Boeing's long-troubled CST 100 Starliner. The spacecraft's flight to the

[00:06:19] International Space Station was originally slated for this month. Of course that was just the last

[00:06:24] and long list of postponements and failures which have brought us to where we are today.

[00:06:29] But unlike all the past failures which have been put down to technical issues,

[00:06:33] this one is because of a busy schedule aboard the International Space Station.

[00:06:37] NASA says the rescheduling is aimed at better aligning with the orbital outpost

[00:06:41] end of April activities. These include the departure of a Dragon cargo spacecraft bound

[00:06:46] for Earth and the repositioning of another Dragon spacecraft, this one with crew,

[00:06:50] to make room for Starliner's docking. The test flight will see the Starliner crew of

[00:06:55] Sunny Williams and Butch Wilkmore travel to the space station docking with a Harmony

[00:06:59] modules forward port. That port currently hosts the NASA SpaceX Crew 8 Dragon spacecraft.

[00:07:06] Crew 8 will need to move the Dragon to the Harmony Zenith port in order to make

[00:07:10] room for Starliner's arrival. The new timeline also gives the space station more time to wrap up

[00:07:16] scientific research and place those experiments in other cargo destined for return to Earth aboard

[00:07:21] the cargo Dragon spacecraft for its return to Cape Canaveral. Starliner's launch aboard a United

[00:07:27] Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida will

[00:07:32] see its crew spend around a week on station before returning to Earth and landing on the grounds

[00:07:37] of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. If successful, Starliner will finally join Dragon

[00:07:43] in providing crew transport and launch services under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Of course,

[00:07:49] nothing's for certain and Boeing's Starliner project has had a troubled history. The first

[00:07:55] unmanned orbital test flight back in December 2019 ended in failure after a faulty mission

[00:08:01] clock caused the Starliner to initiate its orbital insertion burn too early,

[00:08:05] placing the spacecraft in the wrong orbit and unable to reach your dock with the space station.

[00:08:10] And prior to its return to Earth, mission managers detected other software issues.

[00:08:16] One would have prevented a planned docking with the space station were it even possible,

[00:08:20] and the other would have affected the thrust firings needed to safely Jettison Starliner's

[00:08:25] service module prior to the command module's atmospheric re-entry. The service module

[00:08:30] software error incorrectly translated the Jettison thruster firing sequence,

[00:08:34] which would have caused the command and service modules to crash into each other during the

[00:08:38] separation maneuver, destroying both spacecraft. A joint NASA Boeing investigation into the

[00:08:44] disastrous flight identified 80 issues which needed attention before another test flight

[00:08:49] could be attempted. A second unmanned orbital demonstration test flight was slated for 2021

[00:08:55] but was scrubbed after corrosion was detected in 13 of the spacecraft's propulsion system

[00:09:00] valves necessitating a major pull-down and rebuild. There are also more software issues to

[00:09:05] be dealt with, and Boeing also decided to modify the design of Starliner's docking system to add

[00:09:10] a re-entry cover for additional protection during the capsule's fiery descent through the atmosphere.

[00:09:16] Eventually, a second orbital unmanned test flight finally launched in May 2022.

[00:09:22] However, once again things didn't go smoothly. Two orbital maneuvering and attitude control

[00:09:27] system thrusters failed during the orbit insertion burn. The spacecraft was able to compensate using

[00:09:32] the remaining thrusters together with the addition of the reaction control system thrusters. But then

[00:09:38] a couple of reaction control system thrusters used to maneuver Starliner also failed during the

[00:09:43] docking procedure due to low chamber pressures. And some thermal systems used to cool the

[00:09:48] spacecraft were showing extra cold temperatures requiring engineers to manage the issue during

[00:09:53] the docking. The Starliner then returned to Earth three days later. Boeing then announced that

[00:09:59] further flights would be indefinitely delayed due to problems with a parachute harness which needed

[00:10:03] to be made stronger and flammable tape which amazingly had somehow found its way onto the

[00:10:08] spacecraft's wiring system. Birth issues were eventually rectified by the end of last year.

[00:10:15] And that's now cleared the way for what hopefully will be the first manned launch of Starliner

[00:10:19] next month. Needless to say, we'll keep you informed. This is Space Time. Still to come,

[00:10:27] NASA are examining a piece of what could be space junk which slammed into a Florida home.

[00:10:32] And later in the science report, new research warns that the warming climate could turn

[00:10:37] Australia's soil into a net emitter of carbon dioxide. All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:10:49] Music

[00:10:59] NASA says it's analysing an object that crashed into a Florida man's home last week which is

[00:11:04] suspected of being a piece of debris jettisoned from the International Space Station. The object

[00:11:09] thought to be part of the EP-9 cargo pallet containing odd batteries smashed through the

[00:11:14] roof and two floors of the naples home. The pallet was released from the orbital outpost

[00:11:19] during a spacewalk back in 2021 and it should have burned up harmlessly in the atmosphere

[00:11:24] during re-entry. Of course, it's not the first time that space debris hit the earth. There are

[00:11:29] dozens of examples. The two most notable being part of a SpaceX Dragon capture which came to

[00:11:34] work done on Australian sheep station in 2022 and NASA's first space station Skylab slammed

[00:11:40] me into the western Australian outback near Esperance back in 1979. A bit of it is still on

[00:11:46] display there if you want to take a look. This Space Time Music

[00:12:06] And time now to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science

[00:12:10] this week with the science report. New research is showing that the warming climate will turn

[00:12:16] Australian salts into a net emitter of carbon dioxide unless action is taken. Soil helps

[00:12:22] keep the planet cool by absorbing carbon. However, as the climate gets warmer its ability to retain

[00:12:29] carbon decreases and in some instances it can actually start to release some of that carbon

[00:12:34] back into the air. The findings reported in the journal Climate and Atmospheric Science

[00:12:39] found that Australian salts could account for 8.3% of Australia's total current emissions

[00:12:44] under the sustainable scenario and more than 14% by 2045 under a middle-of-the-road or fossil

[00:12:51] fuel scenario. It's hard to believe but a new study has shown that women with low resting heart

[00:12:58] rates actually had a slightly higher chance of engaging in a criminal lifestyle. The findings

[00:13:05] reported in the journal PLAS ONE are based on research by American and Swedish scientists

[00:13:09] who investigated the criminal offence records of 12,500 women going back some 40 years.

[00:13:16] The team also found that unintentional injuries were also slightly more common with these women.

[00:13:22] Now let's stress that this kind of study can't directly say that women with low heart rates

[00:13:27] are going to go around committing crimes but instead the researchers are suggesting that

[00:13:32] low autonomic nervous system arousal automatic systems in your body such as your heart rate

[00:13:37] might be driving stimulation seeking tendencies. A new study shows that criminals could one day

[00:13:44] be identified using a new technique that potentially picks up and records key airborne

[00:13:50] forensic DNA evidence from crime scenes which have been wiped clean of fingerprints and other

[00:13:54] trace evidence. A team from Flinders University's Forensic Science Unit put the new method

[00:14:00] to the test using both a conventional air conditioning unit as well as a portable commercially

[00:14:05] available air collection device the sort regularly used to test for COVID-19 and other airborne

[00:14:11] viruses in hospitals, schools and nursing homes. The findings of the test reported in

[00:14:16] the journal ELECTROFORENSIS show that DNA evidence could be picked up from the air at a crime scene.

[00:14:23] 50 people have died in Angola after being forced to drink a herbal potion which was

[00:14:28] designed to prove they were not sorcerers or witches. Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says it's part

[00:14:34] of a growing problem in some religious communities in Africa which are using a charge of witchcraft

[00:14:39] to get rid of people they don't like. One of the problems with a lot of quite frankly African

[00:14:43] countries and countries in the middle of Africa is that there's a strong religious element

[00:14:48] which also equates to a suspicion of a strong witchcraft element. I know I've dealt with

[00:14:53] people in Nigeria who are finding this quite a lot that basically some fundamentalist evangelical type

[00:14:58] churches in some of these African countries are calling other people witches and witchcraft

[00:15:03] basically because they're not agreeing with them. A lot of the people being accused of being

[00:15:06] witches are women and some children and in some cases this leads to mob behaviour and

[00:15:11] the person being killed certainly beaten up in the worst sort of cases and also

[00:15:15] some strange practices are happening and it's pretty much uncontrolled apart from a few brave

[00:15:19] individuals who are fighting against this. In this particular case there was a whole bunch of

[00:15:24] people who were accused of being witches in Angola and someone worked up some potion,

[00:15:29] a herbal potion that could be taken by them and if they died they were witches. The old days

[00:15:35] of when they used to dunk people in the water if they died they weren't witches.

[00:15:39] Well I want to find it says if they floated they could be ducks. That's right.

[00:15:43] Anyway these victims were forced to drink this liquid being created by traditional healers so

[00:15:49] religious practices and elements in these groups wherever they are sometimes in small

[00:15:53] villages sometimes in larger places there's a real mixture of different sort of cultish

[00:15:57] behaviours including traditional healers witchcraft supposedly evangelical churches

[00:16:03] speaking in tongues a whole range of different sort of activities which lead to a certain sense

[00:16:08] of hysteria and part of the hysteria is accusing people of being witches etc and then

[00:16:11] taking it to the extreme. So what this says is that be careful in some places of even trying

[00:16:17] to say something different through what a lot of the locals believe. Well what happened in the

[00:16:21] sale and witch trials in the United States that same sort of thing. Well that was hysteria

[00:16:26] right and that was very similar in a way. Humans don't learn from history do they?

[00:16:30] Well they're successful in a way because they're still going and they have a big following

[00:16:35] especially one particular church that I can think of in Nigeria has a big following in which

[00:16:41] hundreds thousands even the people sort of are there getting a bit carried away

[00:16:44] and they will do anything that's that they're told to do and build up a sense of hysteria

[00:16:49] no logic in it of course and these people being accused of being witches they're not witches by

[00:16:54] the way that you'd add there's no evidence to show that they're actually doing any witchcraft or

[00:16:58] there's no evidence to show there's any witchcraft but certainly there these people are practicing.

[00:17:01] I've got a grudge against them so they're targeted. They've got a grudge against them

[00:17:04] and that they've also got a grudge against the people who are criticizing them generally.

[00:17:08] That's Tim Endham from Australian Skeptics

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