Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 559 & 560: Farming Mars & Wet Nights
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- One of the major challenges facing humans as they contemplate colonizing Mars is how to supply the air, food, and water necessary to survive and flourish.
- One of the most frustrating situations for an asteroid hunter is a night when the stars are shining bright above the mountain but the humidity is so high that it is impossible to open the telescope’s dome without damaging sensitive optics and electronics.
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.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: David Bowes, Dustin A Ruoff, Brett Duane, Kim Hay, Nik Whitehead, Timo Sievänen, Michael Freedman, Paul Fischer, Rani Bush, Karl Bewley, Joko Danar, Steven Emert, Frank Tippin, Steven Jansen, Barbara Geier, Don Swartwout, James K. Wood, Katrina Ince, Michael Lewinger, Phyllis Simon Foster, Nicolo DePierro, Tim Smith.
Please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Or please visit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy
Transcript:
559: Farming Mars & Wet Nights
On Earth plants provide us with medicines, food to eat, and oxygen to breathe. They also remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. One of the major challenges facing humans as they contemplate colonizing Mars is how to supply the air, food, and water necessary to survive and flourish. Bringing everything from home takes too much energy and is too expensive. There is also the problem of dealing with human waste products such as carbon dioxide and urine.
Plants can help with these situations, however, the challenges are many. Space gardeners need to provide water and nutrients as well as to help their plants cope with reduced light and gravity. In the past, astronauts on the International Space Station have used plastic bags and were able to grow and harvest red lettuce. In new current experiments NASA is using hardware called PONDS designed to increase oxygen exchange and to provide sufficient room for plant root growth without requiring external power.
In these new micro-farms astronauts are able to cultivate three types of leafy green vegetables. Moving on, in 2021 astronauts will use a centrifuge to provide artificial gravity to facilitate bean plant sprouting and growing in a microgravity environment. In the future, in addition to providing treats like strawberries it turns out that tending to the needs vegetables and watching them grow can help space travelers cope with the psychological stresses produced by the confinement experienced on long space missions.
560: Wet Nights
Our mountain top has weather which includes crystal clear skies as well as periods of rain, snow, hail, and fog. One of the most frustrating situations for an asteroid hunter is a night when the stars are shining bright above the mountain but the humidity is so high that it is impossible to open the telescope’s dome without damaging sensitive optics and electronics. Recently on such a night my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls was able to discover three new Earth approaching asteroids during the brief period when the humidity was low enough to open.
After Carson posted these space rocks on the Minor Planet Center’s Near Earth Object Confirmation Page telescopes around the world began to track them. This critical process allows scientists at the Minor Planet Center to estimate an object’s mass, path about the Sun, and how close it can come to Planet Earth. Two of Carson’s discoveries never get very close our home planet. The other, a 125 foot diameter space rock now named 2019 QZ3, has a 482 day orbit about the Sun which brings it from near Earth out to between the paths of Mars and Jupiter and back again. One its size enters the Earth’s atmosphere once every 200 years, explodes at an altitude of 215,000 feet and produces an air burst equivalent to a half a million tons of TNT.
Fortunately 2019 QZ3 will not strike Earth any time soon since if it exploded over a city it could produce human injuries and significant damage to buildings.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Planetary Science Institute. Audio post-production by Richard Drumm. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes.
This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people like you! Please consider supporting to our show on Patreon.com/365DaysofAstronomy and get access to bonus content.
After 10 years, the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is entering its second decade of sharing important milestone in space exploration and astronomy discoveries. Join us and share your story. Until tomorrow! Goodbye!