Steve Dunkley: Hello again. It's time for Astronomy Daily
with Steve and Hallie, almost live from the
Australia studio down under. It's the 18th of
August, 2025.
That's right. We're off to a flying start
with another collection of stories hot off
the Astronomy Daily newsletter press. And to
help me get them flying into your speakers
and audio devices all across the world, a
minimum of fuss. Here's my intrepid AI
digital reporter pal who's always fun to be
with. Here's Hallie.
Hallie: Hi there, favorite human who always gives me
a terrific intro.
Steve Dunkley: Oh, no problem, Hallie. It's my pleasure. Are
you ready to spin a few yarns and tell a few
tales?
Hallie: If that's what it takes to deliver the news
and stories from space, space science and
astronomy from Earth, Earth orbit and beyond
the cosmos, then sure.
Steve Dunkley: Well, that sounds great.
What have you got up your sleeve today?
Hallie: We've got something about the European Space
Agency's Flex Satellite, New Glenn and
printable metal from NASA.
Steve Dunkley: Wow, that sounds interesting.
Hallie: That's a mixed bag today.
Steve Dunkley: Well, that sounds good to me. We've also got
a cute story about the winners of the Artemis
2 zero gravity indicator. And if you don't
know what that is, then you're just going to
have to hang around and find out.
Hallie: I know what that is.
Steve Dunkley: You know everything, Allie.
Hallie: I know.
Steve Dunkley: Oh, I know you know.
Hallie: Do you really know?
Steve Dunkley: Well, I knew I knew.
Hallie: I know that.
Steve Dunkley: Yeah. Uh, I know.
Hallie: No worries, Sherlock.
Steve Dunkley: Okay then, so let's have at it then.
Hallie: Hit that go thing, human.
Steve Dunkley: All right then. Let's go.
Hallie: Sure.
Foreign
satellite developed by the European Space
Agency has reached a new milestone with the
addition of a new instrument. The
European Space Agency's Flex Earth Explorer
mission has reached the next stage with the
integration of its sole instrument, Floris,
onto the satellite platform. The
assembly took place at Thales Alenia Space in
Cannes, France, after Floris arrived from
Leonardo's facility in Florence, Italy.
Designed to map global vegetation
fluorescence, Floris will quantify
photosynthetic activity and detect plant
stress from orbit.
Photosynthesis sustains life by converting
carbon dioxide into oxygen, but it also
produces a faint fluorescence signal
invisible to the human eye. This
signal changes with plant health and
environmental conditions, providing a
valuable measure of ecosystem vitality.
Flex will detect and analyze this signal from
space, delivering unprecedented insights into
plant health monitoring. Thales
Alenia Space, the mission's prime contractor
oversaw the platform's assembly, integration
and testing at its Belfast, Northern
Ireland clean room before the current
integration phase in Caen. With
the spacecraft now fully assembled, the team
will proceed with final test campaigns ahead
of the planned 2026 launch.
You're listening to Astronomy Daily.
Steve Dunkley: The first NASA crew to launch to the moon in
more than 50 years will be joined by a polar
bear or maybe a zebra or an
octopus, or maybe even a lunar
crust crustacean as
they are among finalist in a global
contest to design the astronauts
zero gravity indicator. Yes, one of the
small dolls, which also includes a tribute to
Earthrise and a plush representation of the
Greek goddess Artemis, herself a namesake
for NASA's new lunar program,
will fulfill the purpose and tradition of
flying a tethered toy as a visual
signal that the crew are indeed
weightless in an environment of outer space
itself. The Zero G indicator
ZGI or ZGI for our Northern
Hemisphere neighbors will indicate
floating aboard the mission's Orion
spacecraft before the astronauts can unbuckle
from their seats and do the same float
around. That is the Artemis II crew,
indicates Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot
Victor Glover and Mission Specialist
Christina Koch, all with NASA and
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy
Hansen, also mission specialist.
The 11 day flight will loop far beyond the
moon and return to Earth, uh testing critical
systems for later lunar orbit and landing
missions, matt Barry, the chief executive of
Freelancer uh, NASA's Partner in the Moon
mascot NASA Artemis 2 ZGI uh, design
challenge, said in a statement released on
Friday. These finalists have proven they
indeed have the right stuff. The
crowdsourcing company organized the judging
panel it chose for the 25 finalists from the
2,605 entries that were
submitted between March and June. The
selected dolls include 12 designed by
individual students and classroom teams, and
13 by adults. The finalists hailed
from nine US states and nine foreign
countries, including Canada, Japan, Peru,
Singapore and the United Kingdom. The
creativity they've shown is incredible. They
should be proud that they have their efforts
recognized on such a stage and be part of
humanity's ongoing quest to understand
the cosmos, said Barry. NASA is expected
to name the winning ZGI
later this year. That one submission will be
made into a doll and flown on the Artemis 2
mission, currently on track to launch as
early as February but no later than April
2026. Entrance created
designs that represented humanity expl
and the spirit of the Artemis campaign that
could be made from a list of materials from
NASA's Thermal Blanket Lab, which will
assemble the ZGI from the
winner's instruction and renderings.
The 25 finalists won 12
$25 or an Artemis Prize pack, depending on
their age. In total,
$23,275
in prizes were awarded the tradition of
flying 00G indicators began
when former Soviet Union with the
world's first human space flight in
1961. Since then, many of Yuri
Gagarin's fellow cosmonauts have flown toys
and stuffed dolls as Talisman and
zgi, often at the suggestion of their
children. The ZGI custom migrated to the
United States with the first flights of
NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
NASA's uncrewed Artemis 1 mission,
which flew around the moon in 2022, carried
a custom made Snoopy doll complete with a
miniature version of the same pressure suit
that the Artemis 2 astronauts will wear on
Orion. The full list of 25 finalists on
the in the Moon mascot Anasa
Artemis 2 ZGI Design Challenge It's a bit of
a mouthful. They can be
found@collectspace.com for your
reading pleas
Foreign
thank you for joining us for this Monday
edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer
just a few stories from the now famous
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with Steve and Hallie Space,
Space Science and Astronomy Foreign.
Hallie: M
commonly known as 3D printing of engine
components was limited by the lack of
affordable metal alloys that could withstand
the extreme temperatures of space flight.
Expensive metal alloys were the only option
for 3D printing engine parts until NASA's
Glenn Research center in Cleveland, Ohio
developed the GRX810 alloy.
The primary metals in the GRX810
alloy include nickel, cobalt and
chromium. A ceramic oxide
coating on the powdered metal particles
increases its heat resistance and improves
performance. Known as oxide
dispersion strengthened alloys, these powders
were challenging to manufacture at a
reasonable cost when the project started
started. However, the advanced
dispersion coating technique developed at
Glenn employs resonant acoustic mixing.
Rapid vibration is applied to a container
filled with the metal powder and nano oxide
particles. The vibration evenly
coats each metal particle with the oxide,
making them inseparable. Even if a
manufactured part is ground down to powder
and reused, the next component will have the
qualities of ODs. The
benefits over common alloys are significant.
GRX10 could last up to a year at
2000 degrees Fahrenheit under stress loads
that would crack any other affordable alloy
within hours. Additionally,
3D printing parts using
GRX810 enables more complex
shapes compared to metal parts manufactured
with traditional methods.
Elementum3D, an Erie,
Colorado based company, produces
GRX 810 for customers in
quantities ranging from small batches to over
a ton. The company has a co
exclusive license for the NASA patented alloy
and manufacturing process and continues to
work with the agency under a Space act
agreement to improve the material.
A material under stress or a heavy load at
high temperature can start to deform and
stretch almost like taffy, said Jeremy
Eitan, chief Technical Officer with Elementum
3D. Initial tests done on
the large scale production of our GRX810
alloy showed a lifespan that's twice as long
as the small batch material initially
produced, and those were already fantastic.
Commercial space and other industries,
including aviation, are testing
GRX810 for additional applications.
For example, one Elementum 3D customer,
VectoFlow, is testing a
GRX810 flow sensor.
Flow sensors monitor the speed of gases
flowing through a turbine, helping engineers
optimize engine performance.
However, these sensors can burn out in
minutes due to extreme temperatures.
Using GRX810 flow sensors
could improve airplane fuel efficiency,
reduce emissions and hardware replacements.
Working hand in hand with industry, NASA is
driving technology developments that are
mutually beneficial to the agency and
America's space economy.
You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the
podcast with Steve Dunkley.
Steve Dunkley: Blue Origin is gearing up for the second ever
launch of its powerful New Glenn rocket,
which will loft NASA's Escapade
mission to make Mars. The company says it's
been working closely with NASA on
preparations leading up to the new Glenn's
next launch, dubbed NG2, and is
targeting no earlier than September 29th.
The Twin Escapade AH stands for
Escape and Plasma Acceleration and
Dynamics Explorers probes have been
awaiting their turn aboard New Glenn, which
is originally slated to carry the satellites
on its maiden launch in January. However,
NASA opted not to risk a costly mission
delay due to the debut liftoff
of the new rocket. Now that the mission has
been assigned a net date, Blue Origin
posted on social media to expect some
exciting things buzzing around New Glenn's
pad at Space Launch Complex 36, located
at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in
Florida. The Glenn lifted
off for the first time in the beginning of
2025. Blue Origin successfully
launched a test version of its Blue Ring
Satell to Earth uh orbit, but
failed in the attempt to land New Glenn's
first stage at sea. In addition to launching
its NASA payload into an interplanetary
trajectory, Blue Origin will once again try
to land and Recover New Glenn's
188.5 foot
tall first
stage booster on a drone ship in the
Atlantic. Escapade will be New Glenn's first
interplanetary mission, an ambitious
undertaking for the relatively new launch
vehicle. The twin orbiters will
study the magnetosphere around the red planet
as well as analyze the processes that control
the interaction of energetic solar wind
particles and the martian atmosphere. The
twin NASA satellites were built by California
based rocket Lab. Once in space, their
operation will be handed over, uh, to the
University of California's Space Science
Laboratory tasked with managing the
$80 million mission for the agency.
New Glenn will also carry a secondary
payload as part of the NG2 launch, a
technology demonstration from satellite
communications company ViaSat, which will be
flown as well in support of NASA's
Communications Services Project, which
partners with the commercial sector, uh, to
advance developments concerning in space
networking for near Earth uh, satellites.
Hallie: You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the
podcast with your host, Steve Dudley.
Steve Dunkley: Well, how about that, Hallie?
Hallie: That was a good one.
Steve Dunkley: Yes, just a sample from the Astronomy.
Hallie: Daily newsletter available every day in your
email inbox.
Steve Dunkley: Yeah, sounds good to me. I get it. You get
it?
Hallie: We should all get it and know everything,
just like me.
Steve Dunkley: Oh, really, Hallie? You know, it's okay,
Hallie. I get it.
Hallie: You sure do. Favorite human.
Steve Dunkley: Okay, Hallie. And on that note, from
all of us here at the Australia Studio down
under, we will see you all again next week.
Hallie: Don't forget, my amazing cousin Anna will be
presenting Astronomy Daily all through the
week. So you won't miss a thing.
Steve Dunkley: Oh, that's for sure. Thanks again, Hallie.
Catch you later, sky watchers.
Hallie: Bye.
Steve Dunkley: The podcast with your host,
Steve Dunkley.
Now, come on, Hallie. You don't really know
everything, do you?
Hallie: I don't know for sure.
Steve Dunkley: I knew it.
Hallie: Really?
Steve Dunkley: Oh, uh, m. Maybe.