Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest: 331 & 332:Space Salsa & Greg’s Destination
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- DLR’s EU:CROPIS is a mission to test growing tomatoes in orbit in both lunar and Martian gravities. http://www.dlr.de/rb/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-6815/11182_read-40094/
- Greg Leonard discovered asteroid 120 foot diameter 2017 BV93. It is a possible destination for astronauts to visit.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
331 – Space Salsa
If Lunar and Martian colonists are to have chips and salsa they will need grow their own tomatoes. To test methods to do this German Aerospace Center or DLR has developed the EU:CROPIS satellite which will be launched by a Space-X Falcon 9 rocket into low Earth orbit sometime in 2017. Once in orbit the satellite will be programmed to rotate at two different speeds on its own axis to produce Lunar gravity for 6 months and then Martian gravity for the next 6 months. Inside the satellite tomato seeds will germinate and grow under the watchful eyes of 16 onboard cameras. A trickle filter containing the Euglena [U gleen a] microbes will use synthetic urine to produce fertilizer for the tomato plants. The half plant half animal Euglena microorganisms will produce oxygen on the satellite and protect the plants against excessive ammonia build up. LED lights will provide the day night cycle required by both the plants and the Euglena microbes. The separate Lunar and Martian space green houses will operate in a pressure tank to simulate Earth’s atmosphere. These experiments will be carefully controlled and monitored by humans on the ground.
The satellite’s trickle filter uses lava stones and dried soil to produce a home for the microorganisms which process the simulated urine. The same design could be employed in Earth’s cities to recycle urine for use in green houses which are built into high rise buildings.
332 – Greg’s Destination
A winter storm hit Mt. Lemmon, Arizona closing access to the observatory by blowing over trees and producing large snow drifts. After the Mountain Operations Crew cleared the road, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was able to make his way to the top and discover an asteroid which could be visited by human astronauts. Greg’s new 120 foot diameter space rock , named 2017 BV93, spends most of its time between Earth and Venus as it orbits the Sun once every 346 days.
JPL and NASA have created the Near-Earth Object Human Space Accessible Targets or NHATS webpage which contains tools for evaluating newly discovered asteroids.
If a rocket speed of less than 7Km/s or 4.4 miles per second is chosen, Greg’s new space rock 2017 BV93 pops up on the NHATS table. On this possible mission, the astronauts would spend 89 days getting to 2017 BV93, 88 days at the asteroid, and 137 days in return to Earth. A mission like this will develop techniques for obtaining water and metals from asteroids for space colonists.
Before such a trip could be seriously planned astronomers will need to measure the pattern of colors 2017 BV93 reflects to determine its chemical composition and be able to specify its path around the Sun with great precision.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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