Sanctuary on the Moon


Celebrating 55 years since humans first set foot on the Moon with Project Apollo, in this podcast extra, Dr Jen meets with Benoit Faiveley and Mario Freese, founder and chief engineer of Sanctuary on the Moon, a daring project to leave a legacy of humanity on our nearest celestial neighbour. In the late 2020s, 24 coaster-sized sapphire disks will sail to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis CLPS program. Engraved upon them will be the essence of humanity. One hundred billion pixels depicting the human genome, the work of masters, and the every day – one pixel for every human that ever lived. It is an exploration of ourselves, our world, and our epoch.

 

Produced by Ralph, Paul, Jen, John, Damien & Dustin

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Starliner Marooned and Playing Gyros!


This month the team discuss keeping the elderly Hubble alive with a single gyro, how Starliner is currently marooned in orbit and are usually round up of other news from the cosmos, a skyguide for what to look out for and a this month in astronomy history that explores the life of Henrietta Swan-Leavitt. 

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Aurora at Home


This month is indulgent and ranty! Well it is summer…Jen waxes lyrical about a night out, Paul has written a book and in amongst it is some astronomy!

There is a big dive into the huge aurora display in May, talk of new exoplanets and old ones vanishing. The usual skyguide and this months history moment is all about X rays.

Produced by Paul, Jen, John, Damien & Dustin

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Nova predictions and China to the Moon


This month excitement builds for the predicted Nova outburst in Corona Borealis as well as looking forward to China launching a sample return mission to the far side of the Moon.

We have our usual skyguide and chat about upcoming missions and some fun insights into the methane on Mars.

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Episode 142 Awesome Astronomy April 2024


This month Dr Jen is off to the US for the Solar Eclipse while Paul is just back from Goonhilly Earth Station. We chat about the imminent demise of the Chandra Space Telescope, more news on the Hubble tension, and of course the Great North American Eclipse. 

Chinese Lunar ambitions, Starship making it to space and the first Boeing Starliner crew make the news while in this months history moment we talk about the brightest Stellar event witnessed by humans.

 

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Wet Moons and Tippy landers


This month our intrepid crew of the good ship Awesome investigate sub surface oceans on the moons of the solar system, smoking stars, distant blackholes, oversized structures and of course tippy over lunar landers. There is also the monthly skyguide and a look at the astro history of March!

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Awesome Astronomy Episode #140


This month we explore the exciting announcements from the European Space Agency as they outline their new missions for the 2030s. LISA, a space based gravitational wave detector and EnVision, a Venus mission that will map the surface and under-surface of that planet in unprecedented detail. 

We have the usual skyguide, chat about recent lunar missions and emails from the listeners.

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