Is this correct? Well, more to

the point, they're saying it's easier to detect signs of alien life, we should say.

So here's the trick.

So Enceladus, this is one of the weird moons of Saturn.

It's been noticed that it has these kind of geysers that shoot off into space.

And so previous spacecraft have flown through it finding interesting organic molecules.

They haven't necessarily been direct, we'll say, biosignatures of molecules.

We do know there is

What do you think?

Yeah, look, I think it was success and progress.

One of the main goals was just to reach orbit, so a certain height and speed above the Earth so they can deploy satellites.

Starship has not been able to do this on all their previous launches, so that is a success.

Obviously, it would have been better if they could have done all of those orbits that initially planned, but that's probably not as consequential.

In fact, there's somewhat of a bonus success here that, as you said, they had that engine flame out, but they were able, actually, still to get enough power to get into orbit that was actually an important demonstration that if on a real mission something would go wrong they still could achieve orbit despite that all which actually shows the power of starships so mostly success still some work

to go so the mission was cut short is that a common thing with these types of experiments missions

Yeah.

Why couldn't it be a nice museum feature in Western Australia?

Look, you know, that is a great idea.

And I think part of it is they were not expecting this thing to survive.

The past starships have actually blown up when they've come in contact with water, when they've done their belly flop.

So it was all a little bit of surprise.

And this is essentially just giving them the opportunity to study critically the data from the design.

Starships all have been about redesigning the hull as well as the heat shields.

Are we getting better at space travel?

So how do we find out what this looked like and what damage has been done?

Yeah, look, there's no dash cam footage, you know, from, uh, the, the collision or anything like that.

So you're reliant on two things, some really big telescopes monitoring it, and even those on Earth would only see a very subtle effect, and at least we do know one has caught it.

What we're really waiting for is data from, um, the r- or the orbiters around the Moon.

Now, they're not gonna catch it, the event, so to speak, live, but what they will see is the aftermath.

They'll kinda see the impact from the collision, um, based on where we think, uh, the rocket booster collided.

So we're kind of waiting for those.

But given the amount of space junk in space, and we've discussed this before on previous interviews, um, this could happen again.

She's died at the age of 87, and I know that you would know a lot more about her than we do, but she was an icon in the space and aviation space, wasn't she?

She was.

She set records and accuracy of military training and aviation.

This is at the time in the 50s and 40s and then in the 60s where women were not able to do a lot of these things.

And so she really pushed the limits and proved in a time that women not only were as physically something called Mercury 13.

This is actually the first program of female astronauts.

And it was kind of done to test the physical limits and abilities of women in space.

Why do you think, Brad, that young people are not getting involved in these STEM subjects maybe as much as they used to? And how do we convince more of them to get involved?

So how did that journey impact your mental, emotional and physical health and your relationship as a couple?

I think it was different for both of us how we went through it.

Alyssa was the one not getting pregnant.

I think that weighs a lot more on women than it does men.

There's a lot more pressure and feeling guilty and a lot of different emotions that come with how the women go through it than the men.

That's true in our instance, and I'm sure that's true for most couples.

There was a lot of points that were very disappointing and very hard.

Was that important to you? How important to you was a track record of successful surrogacy versus something that someone knew? Or did that matter to you?

What exactly is it and what would it look like?

Yeah, look, [laughs] it's trying to create, you know, uh, replicate the human process experience but, yes, on a different object.

You know, we talk about, uh, building new suburbs, new cities, growth and housing crisis here on, in Australia and on Earth.

What you're trying to do is e- e- essentially create that.

And part of this larger goal, and this is not just Elon Musk and SpaceX but just space in general, is trying to actually create a space economy.

So if you think about it right now, everything that goes into space is actually from the Earth, made on the Earth, and then launched up.

You want to get to the point where you're actually building and creating in space from stuff in space.

No one technically owns the Moon, so who's approving all of this and who oversees it?

No?

Yeah, so...

Yeah.

And so look, there's...

A lot of people saw this bright flash, and a lot of the, the photos and images capture that as well, and that's when the thing is traveling so fast, it is fairly dense, a lot of pressure breaks up, and that does appear to be when it fractures and breaks apart.

So we...

It is likely that this thing did that.

When was the last time a meteor like this actually scored a bullseye onto Earth?

What can you tell us about our role?

So firstly, we have the, the NASA Deep Space Network.

So this is the, the Tidbinbilla complex just outside Canberra.

Uh, and this is one of three NASA networks that does all the tracking and, and data for deep space missions, a- and the moon includes deep space.

There's only three of them, and NASA heavily always relies on the Australian Station.

We also then, for the first time, and this is based at where I work, so this is led by Francis Bennett here at, at ANU, are, are testing something called laser optical communications.

I- imagine a wireless very long fiber optic cable, and the idea is if we want to start transmitting lots of data faster, and that's the new world we're in.

Why are we going to space? Why are we going and sending people up to the Moon again?"

What exactly is it, and what would it look like?

Yeah, look, [laughs] it's trying to create, you know, uh, replicate the human process, experience, but yes, on a different object.

You know, we talk about, uh, building new suburbs, new cities, growth, and housing crisis here on, in Australia and on Earth.

What you're trying to do is e- e- essentially create that.

And part of this larger goal, and this is not just Elon Musk and SpaceX, but just space in general, is trying to actually create a space economy.

So, like, if you think about it right now, everything that goes into space is actually from the Earth, made on the Earth, and then launched up.

You want to get to the point where you're actually building and creating in space from stuff in space.

So who's approving all of this and who oversees it?

When we're talking about space junk or debris more broadly, how do we know what's out there? How are we able to track and monitor these things that are just orbiting above us at all times?

Things that have their own control have power and then usually report where they are kind of, uh, through ground stations and those sorts of things.

Uncontrolled debris, which kind of has lost its own power, if it's big enough, you can track it by radar.

So the US Space Force does a lot of tracking of large objects, and so this object was- Tracked by the US Space Force.

So anything about 15 centimeters or larger, you can bounce radar signals off of, and then, and come back down to Earth and track it.

So w- in this case, you can track it via the radar.

Y- you need multiple stations around the world to constantly track things, so this is part of the problem.

In the instance that someone, let's just say, does get injured or something happens to someone else's property while in space or while on Earth, who's liable?