China Has Big Plans for Mars

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2:02We made a star. You could be from Hollywood, New Mexico, on Mars. We're all made of stars. We made a stars. We are made of stars. I'm Wes Carroll. Join by my good friend, Dr. Sean Cruz, and Executive Director at Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Hey, Sean. Hey, Wes. Good to be here. So we finished up DragonCon. It was another 75,000 plus people gathering together to celebrate everything nerdy, including all of the science fiction and fantasy stuff. But as we have focused on many, many times for many, many years, also the science and the space tracks that they have there as well. And over the last few weeks, you and I have been chatting with some of the guests who attended as professionals,

3:05former NASA JPL staff that did some incredible work over the years. And we had a chance to talk with both of them. And they were there this year. Now DragonCon, because it's so big, and there's so many places to go, and so many people moving around. And one of the things that makes DragonCon different than other conventions is the fact that it is not all in one big convention center. And that's kind of typical for conventions. And that means at like five or six o'clock, at the doors closed and everybody leaves and goes back to a hotel or goes out for a meal. DragonCon, there's a convention center there. It's America's Mart, which is like a convention center where they put in all the vendors and things and multiple floors. But the actual activities of DragonCon take place in the host hotel. So it's just constantly this giant costume party that does not stop from Thursday until Monday. And truthfully now, it kind of starts on Sunday or Monday,

4:06and it runs all the way through. So it's basically a full week of this huge party that takes place. And you are, you know, sometimes it's hard to get to all the hotels, to all the things, and you kind of have to pick the things that you're going to get to. And as much as I wanted to go visit our new friends at the space track, I had other places to be at different times. So catching up with them will be something we'll have to do down the line. But anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again to you guys at the Coca-Cola Space Science Center for sponsoring our coverage of DragonCon this year and for many, many years. And that's also includes the, you know, for the DragonCon pregame show that was on about 200 radio stations around Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee and all the states it bleeds over from from the stations that are kind of most of them based in Georgia. But some of them have, you know, towers in those other states nearby Florida and the Carolina's. So anyway, and then of course the DragonCon pregame show podcast where we've got this year's

5:09interview with Trisha Helfer from Battlestar Galactica and a certain guy named Sean Cruzen is on there as well talking about space and science fiction and all that fun stuff. And then I did a game day edition as well this year where I actually met with some of the vendors and talked to them to spotlight them because, you know, DragonCon for all the things that it is, it's also, you know, the vendors are a big part of what makes the convention happen and one of the big draws for it. So I had a chance to do that as well. But wherever you're listening to this podcast, you can find the DragonCon pregame show podcast with this year's interviews as well as all of the interviews from past pregame shows. Okay. And the impact right here on this podcast too. And then, you know, first of all, if you can't imagine the future, you can't create it. And so, so from a scientific perspective or an engineering perspective, if you can't imagine the kinds of technologies that could exist, you're not going to be the one that's going to lead the way

6:11in creating them. So this is where I feel like science fiction is really important for the thinking process of future scientists and engineers. And besides here at Space Science Center, you know, where we deal with a lot of college students, there was that one kid who actually really liked sci-fi. Oh no wait, that's all of them. I'm sorry. All of them, right? And so we kind of know that it's a it's a secret glue that kind of bonds the science community together. They also enjoy science fiction. So that's why we're proud to be part of the of the DragonCon coverage. Now, if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't yet gotten a chance to hear Kim Stedman and Trina Ray, both JPL engineers who we interviewed as part of our lead up to DragonCon and both guests at DragonCon in this in the space section, go back and hear those interviews. They're really great. They talked a lot about what it takes to become a team member at JPL and some of the amazing and fascinating stories behind some of those missions out to the outer solar system, like the Cassini

7:17mission, like Voyager, like the upcoming Dragonfly mission to the moon, Titan, around Saturn. So yeah, go back and make sure and check out those interview podcasts here on Native Stars. Let's get into some science that's taking place in this this particular first story that we have this week is one of those ones that much like last week's first story pains me a little bit to even talk about it because we we've talked many, many times over the years about this new space race that we are in and how it is very different in so many ways to the OG space race. Because we have these private companies involved and we have all these different things that are sort of part of this space race that's going on. But you can't have a true space race without having the good guys and the bad guys and just putting it bluntly. And this first story we've got is about the other

8:18team in the space race that may be able to accomplish something before we can and it's kind of a big thing. You know, there are times when other nations work quite well with the United States on joint programming in space. And of course, the International Space Station, I believe, is maybe America's greatest example of collaborations with other countries on the space mission, but also Hubble Space Telescope working with European Space Agency, James Webb Space Telescope, even even the Artemis 2 mission with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hanson. There's lots of times where we work just fine with other nations. And so, so, you know, we're not trying to say what we're saying just to be, oh, I don't know, provocative in an international sense. However, there are other nations that clearly are competing with the United States on many fronts and in many arenas

9:19economically, militarily, otherwise, that we might consider a, well, it's a competitor that has a bit of a negative edge to the competition and China is certainly one of those. And without going into political depths here, just to say that they are a nation, I believe, that we recognize that we don't necessarily want to just abdicate authority or, you know, leadership in the world, in the world arena to them necessarily because they have just kind of a different view of geopolitical matters. Okay, so let me get off that stool and just say, well, here's what's happening, friends. China's doing really well with their space program. And the story I have here for West, and I'd discuss, is a story on how China is on track to launch a Mars sample return

10:19mission in 2028, which is a mere two years away. But before I jump into that story, I want to also say that if you're a fan of Artemis and you're a fan of NASA and its efforts to return to the moon, remember that the place that we want to go is a crater on the very south pole of the moon called the Shackleton crater. Why do we want to go there? Because inside of that, we've recognized several pieces of evidence that lead us to believe that there are water resources embedded in that crater. And once on the moon, water can help you make, well, water so you can drink it. But water, water ice can also lead to things like fuel and breathing air and other things that are very important for columnists on a world that does not necessarily have an atmosphere or liquid water. So it's important to understand that China has a mission called the Chungha 7, and the Chungha 7

11:23mission is going to that same crater. And you might think, well, you know, there's the moons a big place. We can all just explore and peace and share resources on the moon. And there's plenty to go around. No, no, not at the south pole. There's only one big crater called the Shackleton crater that has water resources identified in it. And that's where we're going with Artemis 4. That's also where China is going with Chungha 7. So just keep in mind, there's already a bit of robotic exploration, competition ahead of possible human missions to that very remote, but yet very resource important part of the moon. Now putting that into context, here's the story on space.com. This is China's on track to launch Mars sample return mission in 2028. So China is apparently making progress. I'm bringing Mars samples back to Earth by 2031 and quoting the source of the

12:23China National Space Administration. They say the Tianwen 3 mission, two Mars will have a lander and a sender, a service capsule that's a part that stays in orbit to interact as a ship to go back home, an orbiter and then an Earth reentry module. So the orbiter will bring the Earth reentry module back to Earth orbit and then drop that module back into Earth's atmosphere. If all goes to plan, the Tianwen 3 will launch in 2028 in two pieces on the two long March 5 heavy lift rockets. That's the Chinese version of something that's on par with the Falcon Heavy or something like that from SpaceX. They're going to launch from their launch site in the southern most part of China's province. Anyway, they're going to go up to Mars, collect samples, and with all of those mechanisms we just described, return them to the Earth. Now, the US space program has had a sample return

13:28mission in planning for a long time. In fact, we have a rover up there called Perseverance that's collecting really important samples that we think are maybe like at the 90% level of having evidence of life on Mars. And we're sticking those samples in tubes, we're shoving them into the dirt and we're waiting for a future Mars mission to go up there and collect them. Well, the problem is that NASA's plan is still according to some a tad murky at the moment. We don't have a clear plan. Well, China is actually making a clear plan that has really clear milestones for bringing back samples from Mars. Now, what would that mean? Well, it might mean that one of our major competitors in space, maybe our most major competitor in space, China, will be the first country to actually bring back evidence of finding life on another planet. Don't believe me, friends.

14:32Listen to Scott Hubbard, who's the former NASA, they call him the Mars ZAR, but leading the NASA Mars investigation programs. Scott Hubbard says this quote, if accurate, this represents a sputnik moment for the United States. China will not only grab the headlines, but may actually be the first to find evidence of life on another planet. Unquote. Now, Scott Hubbard was previously the director of the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. And he shared this interview with space.com. But that's a very important former NASA official saying, hey, friends, this in our minds ought to be equivalent to the sputnik moment, which triggered the space race with the Russians. So that's an important comment. It's an important moment in our competition to lead the way in space exploration. And so wake up everybody in the US. We have a full-fledged space race on

15:35our hands. And it's with China. And I don't think we want to abdicate leadership to that country or program. My question in this, and I feel like this is probably not necessarily one for you to answer. I'm just throwing out like this as a question in general. And when I saw the story, I thought, oh, this could be really bad, obviously in a space race. And then I can't help but wonder, like, do we think that they're in a place where this is going to be something that they're capable of doing by this point? I mean, have we seen anything from them that makes us think they are pacing towards being able to do all of these things that they're saying that they're going to do? Because as we have discussed many, many times before, space is hard. Space is hard and it's true. But what they have done, they put an autonomous rover on the far side of the moon. That autonomous rover worked very well. It collected samples. And they were able to return those samples back to Earth.

16:40So they have already done an autonomous sample return mission to the lunar surface. So they have definitely demonstrated some of their technological capabilities on the nearest external body to the Earth, which is the moon. That's what we're trying to do with the Artemis program. Quite frankly, some of our private companies like Intuitive Machines, that's what they were trying to do with their various missions. And so, you know, our spacecraft are falling over in craters and not operating. China's rovers were very successful in collecting those samples and returning them to the Earth through a similar set of systems. So yeah, they have demonstrated their ability to do this. And we're probably not going to beat them to Mars by 2031. So the question is, are we going to even try to compete? Are we going to have missions that are going somewhat close to that so that we can say, hey, if they drop the ball,

17:42we're going to be right there in their shadow to pick it up and run, right? So that's really the question. And as you know, the NASA space program is very much focused on the moon right now, not necessarily on Mars. So in terms of our national space program, well, that's just kind of the status of things. There is this company with an ex in their name that are building these giant starships that yes, are trying to complete NASA contracts, but could also take people to Mars potentially in a reasonably short time, potentially to let them walk around and grab samples themselves. You know what the best sample return robots are that we've ever sent to another world, human beings. They just they they just kind of know how to how to pick up rocks and stick them in a bag and bring them back home again. So so yeah, yeah, that's that's that's the one dark horse that we have on the American side of the equation. And you have to just assume that they're capable of

18:43doing everything that they say that they can do if you're going to truly be in sort of a space race with them. And so that's that's I guess where we are. Yeah, I mean unlike other competitor nations and you know, nations that somehow get in the news on occasion. North Korea, some you know, yeah, whoever that might be, you know, sometimes what they claim they can do and what they actually do and quite frankly, even the Russians on occasion are in this category. There's a little bit of a delta there. There's a bit of a gap. Well, China though is actually demonstrating that they have their own space station. They've completed successful robotic lunar missions. They are working rapidly toward sending their own people to that South Pole crater on the moon where we're trying to get and actually claim those resources. By the way, it may be subject for a future podcast, but there's a whole interesting story about the legality or the the international law pertaining to mineral rights and access on another world and

19:46who actually has the rights things like that. So so you know, there's there's what there's what international law might say or international agreements might agree to. But then there's also the rule of possession like possessions 9 tenths. If I just go there first, what are you going to do about it? And so yeah, so we're watching that all in full both as we get ready to explore the moon and Mars. So clearly China is our number one competitor in both of those arena. More made of stars right after this. Some lyrics do not just live in a song. They live in conversations and memories and moments. That's what makes the sprite live in track list so interesting. Of course, limited edition collectible sprite and sprite zero sugar bottles and cans. You'll see lyrics and titles from songs that shape hip-hop culture, including me, myself and I, California love, big papa, at Bodak Yellow. Then when you go to the living track list, you can dig into the stories and impact behind those

20:50tracks. Check it out through the link in our show notes. Play it, debate it, collect it. Some lyrics do not just live in a song. They live in conversations, memories and moments. That's what makes the sprite live in track list so interesting. Of course, limited edition collectible sprite and sprite zero sugar bottles and cans. You'll see lyrics and titles from songs that shape hip-hop culture, including me, myself and I, California love, big papa and Bodak Yellow. Then when you go to the living track list, you can dig into the stories and impact behind those tracks. Check it out through the link in our show. Play it, debate it, collect it. At QVC, fall shopping is more than just checking out. It's discovering the brands you love across beauty, fashion, home and culinary, all in one place. Whether you're getting ready for crisp mornings,

21:51cozy nights or everyday moments, QVC has what you need for the season ahead, with brands like Philosophy, Ninja and so many more. Shop now at QVC.com. Stop wasting your nights on a mattress that doesn't get you. Experience the most comfortable mattress in the world. The sleep number smart bed at the touch of a button. You can personalize your comfort. Choose firmer or softer. Adjust cooler to warmer. And right now, save up to $25 hundred during our massive Labor Day event. Hurry into your local sleep number store today, because we have your number. It seems that the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could not have gone any better.

22:58And by most of the recapping everything that happened with the launch and its placement, is there, could it have gone any better? It doesn't sound like it. And then I guess what's the next step for the telescope itself? Again, I'm going to say this. I try not to never be a SpaceX fanboy on here, but there's a lot to say about SpaceX. And we had a lot to say about SpaceX last week. But one of the other things is the SpaceX Falcon Heavy delivered a near perfect deployment of this giant space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. They launched on the 30th of August. And what is now being said by NASA officials is that this delivery by the SpaceX Falcon Heavy of that important space telescope

24:00was so picture perfect that the telescope itself, which is a spacecraft, by the way, will have to use so little of its fuel in order to adjust its trajectory that it's going to have a lot of fuel to extend its life. So the original onboard fuel that was planned for was something on the order of five years of ability to modify its orbit and keep it where it needs to be to do its science. But they had to use so little of that fuel for a trajectory adjustment burns because the Falcon Heavy delivered it so perfectly that they think they now may have in a full decade of operation on that telescope. In other words, an additional five years of fuel beyond the five years of fuel they were planning on. That is a staggering success for the rocket and for its

25:02ability to deploy that heavy payload near perfectly. So now without much help at all from the telescope itself, that Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is on its way out to the L2 point, which is the second Sun Earth balance point or called a Lagrange point. It's going to take about three months to get out there, about a three month voyage out there. It's going to be situated about 750,000 miles beyond the moon. So nearly a million miles from the Earth. The Roman Space Telescope, when it gets out there and gets exactly in the orbit around that L2 point that it needs to be, it will begin to do its science mission. And again, this should start in roughly a little bit more than three months. And at that time, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will begin recording data on dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. Three of the leading mysteries of our universe that

26:02we need to know more about in the astronomical community. Julie McEnry, the Roman's senior project scientist at NASA's Gotter Space Flight Center, had this to say, quote, a launch is such a transition point. It's a transition because it's the end point for the engineers, but it's the starting point for the scientists. And they go on to say, quote, the Roman Space Telescope will contribute to world changing science. Roman will become a household name along those great instruments of discovery. Unquote, and those great instruments of discovery include the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. The latter quote there from Jared Isaacman, the director of NASA. So yeah, we're seeing now almost perfect deployment of the instrument. It's gliding out right to where it needs to be and will be able to use very little fuel to be able to do that, leading that fuel to keep it in its proper orbit around the L2 point for a much longer period of time. Things

27:08are going swimmingly for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Now that doesn't mean it's completely out of the woods. It's got to get out to that point and then be able to deploy it's science instruments, but things are sure going well with all of the milestones that it's checked after this point, Wes. So we have this new telescope to talk about. We have James Webb to talk about and we can't forget about Hubble. Hubble is still hubbling. It's amazing actually. And there's a new discovery from the Hubble Space Telescope, which is this. It took a good long look at the planet Saturn. You might think, well, hasn't it looked at the planet Saturn before? Remember this, folks. The planet Saturn's orbit is 30 years, roughly. And so it takes a long time for it to go around the Sun, which means sometimes we're looking at the North Pole of Saturn, other times during that long 31 year orbit. We're looking at the South Pole of Saturn.

28:08That's where we're moving to now. We're moving into a relative position that reveals the South Pole of Saturn a bit better here from the Earth. And that's where the Hubble Space Telescope is. It's still around Earth orbit. It's not out there at one of these Lagrange points. So that means we have a new opportunity to observe the South Pole of Saturn. And what Hubble Space Telescope has discovered is a weird evolving 10-sided atmospheric structure called a Decagon. Decagon. Well done, that was good. I mean, it just seems like the right way to say it. It's a Decagon. It's great from Dragon Kong. Anyway, so yeah, the Decagon. Yeah, it sounds like maybe like a guy who collects dice. I'm just saying, you know, I don't know if we've ever discussed that on the show, but I have an extremely large collection of dice. And it comes up often in conversation around my house with my bride who's like,

29:08that's enough. Did she ever say that's a Decagon? She hasn't said that. No, but, you know, I got a very thoughtful gift, by the way, for my buddy Jay who gave me a 50-sided die for my 50th birthday. And I was like, this is so on point. And, you know, so I figured it's worth mentioning. Jay Holt, by the way, he deserves getting his whole name said for that. It's very thoughtful. Good on you, Jay. Well done. That was good call. Yeah, so don't you get those gifts where you go, this is so thoughtful. Like this is just dead on the nose. Where does one find a 50-sided die of this? He orders this thing somewhere. I don't know, but you could probably find a Decagon, you know, if you wanted to. I would think I would think there's probably a Decagon out there. Yeah. There's one on the South Pole Saturn as it turns out. Oh, wait, that's the story. Okay, so I want one made out of whatever this thing is. Yes, you do. You want it made out of Saturn material. That would be great. This discovery marks the first time that a large, regular-sided jet pattern

30:13has been observed in the planet's southern hemisphere. So the feature appears remarkably similar to Saturn's famous hexagon shape in the northern polar region of Saturn. Now look, so you're here in the story. You might be going, wait a minute. I kind of remember this. There's, you know, Saturn has these sort of concentric, we call them belts and zones, the light stripes and dark stripes. But then as you get down to the pole, it kind of breaks down into this kind of flat-sided geometric figure. Why do I remember this story? That's the hexagon story. It's from several years ago that the hexagon around the north pole in Saturn's atmosphere was discovered. This is a Decagon in the southern polar region. It's weird friends that these very flat-sided geometric figures are somehow forming due to the rotation and turbulent processes taking place in the magneto-hydrodynamic

31:15environment of Saturn's outer atmosphere. It's not necessarily a shape we see in fluid environments very often, which is what makes it strange. And so that's leading to the head scratching and back to the chalkboard behavior among the theoretical scientists, which study the magneto-hydrodynamic environment of Saturn's atmosphere or gas giant atmospheres in general. Okay. So from the University of California Berkeley, Mike Wong, study co-author said this, quote, we expected compelling surprises. But we didn't know what to expect specifically. A lot of the discoveries we are seeing come from Opal, which is an instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope and a data processing of instruments up there. Come from Opal and are not based on one observation, but on years and years of data collection.

32:16Regular observations over time are enabling a lot of new findings. Unquote. Mike Wong, University of California Berkeley. The new finding, a decagon, an unexpected as he says decagon. All right. So the team plans to continue observing Saturn to determine whether the decagon settles into a long-lived stable configuration like the northern hexagon or if it continues to evolve into something else. That's the interesting thing. Once you see a feature that is so pronounced in one of the atmospheres of one of the gas giants or ice giant planets with these incredible thick atmospheric structures, you have to say, well, is this something we're just, we just happened to be seeing because we picked a coincidental time just the right time and it's suddenly formed a decagon, but that's not going to be a round long. Or is this ten-sided structure

33:19going to be up there for a prolonged period of time? And it's a stable configuration. That's what remains to be seen friends. So there we are. We're now waiting on a new series of observations of the South Pole of Saturn to see whether or not the decagon will be around for a while or whether it's a very transient and short period phenomenon. More made of stars right after this. Stop wasting your nights on a mattress that doesn't get you. Experience the most comfortable mattress in the world. The sleep number smart bed at the touch of a button. You can personalize your comfort. Choose firmer or softer. Adjust cooler to warmer. And right now, save up to $25 hundred during our massive Labor Day event. Hurry into your local sleep number store today

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35:22We're made of stars. We really are. They have narrowed it down to four. And now you have your chance to vote on the name of Virgin Galactic's new space plane. I first saw this. I think there were there were definitely more than four names. The first time I saw it, but they've whittled it down at this point to the final four. And I'll be honest with you, the four names. I have one that I like the most, but these are all solid names for this ship. But basically to suggest a name, you had to be what an employee of Virgin Galactic or a ticket holding customer. That's right. And I am neither. So I did not get to

36:24suggest my name of Ducca gone. That would be a good name. Which is been so appropriate and on point. Before we jump into the depths of the story, I'm sorry, Virgin who? I mean, I don't mean to be mean to Richard Branson, but they've kind of been out of the picture for a little while. And the last time they took a flight, it was all employees. And then when they got off that flight, Richard himself went, the ship was kind of broken. They're like, had cracks all over it. And then just kind of didn't hear from them for a while. That big spaceport built out in Mexico. Are they even using that thing anymore? We don't know. All right. So Virgin Galactic, hey, 15 years ago, Wes, you and I were talking with Bated Breath about the potential commercial space flight options that were out there. And Virgin Galactic was one of those early adopters. So they were one of the early companies providing potential flights into suborbital space.

37:29We were rooting for, I would say we were actively rooting for them at that time. Now they just kind of, I don't know why they feel a bit irrelevant with what's going on at SpaceX and at Blue Origin. But okay, all right, but they're not irrelevant. And as you say, they're trying to do some good PR. They built a new plane that hopefully doesn't have cracks in it anymore. A space plane. And they're letting their potential, you know, interested parties name it. And as you said, the first round of name whittling were with employees and ticket holders. That's great. The four names they got it down to were Horizon Explorer, Ascend, and Appiron. If you don't know what Appiron is, neither do I. I don't know either. I wouldn't have known. But apparently I don't know my Greek that well, especially not my ancient Greek. So the word Appiron comes from the ancient Greek philosophy and is often translated as

38:30unlimited, boundless, or infinite. That seems like three more names. Yeah, and it also seems very ambitious considering the last time they were on the plane or a different plane. They said when they were clearly limited, bounded, and not infinite. Yeah. So it just seems a little presumptuous. That's all. It's like a golden, delicious apple. Like that's just too much. You just be golden or be delicious. You're doing both and it's trying, it's showing off is what you do. Just be granny or Smith. One of the other. Red delicious is fine. I don't have an issue. Red's not like, you know, you're just doubling down on this golden delicious thing. That's all. I just think it's a bit much. So you think that the golden delicious is more presumptuous than the red delicious. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes, I do. I think red delicious. I think I don't have any issue with red. It's the golden and the delicious I got problems with together. But nothing but what about the unlimited, boundless, and infinite apple? What about that one? Yeah, that's that's a bit much. But that might

39:31have complied to the granny Smith, which of course is the best apple. So I'm glad you mentioned great. I like a sin for a name, by the way. If I were voting, if I were casting a vote on this American idol, that is this game that they're playing here with Virgin Galactic, I would have voted for a sin. And when I first saw the like 10 names or whatever they were down to, I'm like, that's that should be the name. But they're going to go with this Greek thing. That's what they're going to do. Possibly possibly so explore. I mean, explore was the name of the early NASA satellite. Yeah. Horizon is I think that was an oil well in the Gulf. I'm not sure. Was that you know, those are fine. Those are fine. They're not as good as the other two. But you know, they're going with one of the A's. I just I'm clearly seems like the golden delicious of the. It's just a bit much. Yeah, I'm with you. I like a send as well. The send seems like a good one. Yeah. Well, we're going to know soon enough. So a lot of people will actually open this up for the month

40:31of August for folks to vote. They extended the voting date. I'm sorry, we didn't let you know earlier made of stars fans. But if you're like west, you already knew. So they extended the date for naming suggestions through the September 3rd. They allowed you to vote on one of those four names. And now the world awaits to see all the voting is done. I thought we were still able to vote. Yeah. No, no, no. September 3rd. They shut it down. We are now in the wait and see mode, friends. And the company hopes to resume space tourism flights February or March of 2027. Hopefully before that period of time, they'll actually have a name. So you know, in the next few months, we'll hear possibly the name. Hopefully it's a send that does seem like the best choice. But here's the here's the interesting thing that as Virgin Galactic gets ready to resume its space tourism flights. And you know, God bless. I'm I wish them the best of success on that. Pick it on them a little bit at the first this or just because we haven't heard from them in a while. They kind of went into the dark silent engineering mode. They're back out of that now. But it's very fortuitous timing

41:36because Blue Origin in January is going to be halting all of its commercial operations, which means, you know, the Katy Perry, Michael, Strayhand flights to space are going to pull up. And the reason they're doing that is because Blue Origin is going to focus all of their engineering attention to the Artemis program friends and getting their MK their Mark two lunar lander called Blue Moon set to go to the moon, carry some cargo missions up there, compete with SpaceX to carry human beings back to the moon. And and so they're focusing on their human transport, which means Virgin Galactic could be the only company flying customers to the edge of space above the atmosphere in 2027. So so there you go friends. Yeah. Virgin Virgin Galactic is picking not only a good time for naming contest, but a really good time to return to flight and and make bank for some space tourists.

42:38Let's talk about music under the dome. We haven't talked about this in a little while, but it's now back to music under the dome season. And it is we have a show coming up in October as we get underway for the it's for the new school year. You guys do it around the school year. So this season of it coincides with the start of the school year and October will be a show number one for this season. And there are still season tickets available. That's probably the biggest headline. We only put out a few of those put out about half the theater about 50 seats. And so when those season tickets go on sale, they're often very popular. And so I would tell all the people listening to this program who are also fans of the music under the dome series go get your season ticket. Buy all the shows. It's not that expensive. It's 50 bucks for the entire season per seat. Let me say that again, friends. 50 dollars not for one show not for one concert for the entire

43:43season. You can be a season ticket holder for 50 dollars. And that allows you to attend all five of the music and the dome concerts, both in October and November of 2026. And then throughout the spring in 2027, concluding with the damn Teppra concert that will be in May. Anyway, friends, check it out at the website go to www.ccssc.org and buy your tickets for the show of school of music musicians and the artists who create original content for our planetarium dome and the choreographed concert between musician and visual artist inside our atmosphere theater planetarium. That's music and the dome. Don't miss out. Once again, the website www.ccssc.org.

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