Brad Tucker; Astrophysicist and Cosmologist at Mt. Stromlo Observatory, Canberra.
Brad began by telling us of “Wurdi Youang”, an aboriginal site near Little River. This site is thought to be a 10,000-year-old arrangement of large and small boulders depicting the accurate positions of the setting sun at the winter and summer solstices, thus highlighting the fascination with, and the need to explore and explain the sun’s movement. It is also thought to be the first known example of an observatory, pre-dating Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
There are now over 11,000 satellites orbiting Earth, with 200 being launched every week. From postage stamp and loaf of bread sized through to more conventional sized, they are now smaller, cheaper, and able to be built more quickly. The vast majority are communication satellites such as “Ausfuel” which collects data on fuel loads in the Australian landscape and relays this to bushfire authorities so that they can not only detect fires within hours rather than days, but can also predict danger spots because of fuel loading.
Within a few years, there will be 200 satellites tracking every aircraft and ship on Earth to know exactly where they are always.
One of the problems of the thousands of satellites in orbit is satellite collision and the resulting space junk. Brad related the story of a fragment of paint from a destroyed satellite creating a 5cm deep pit in bulletproof glass as it hit a neighbour at 25,000 kmh. We are now using lasers to clean up space junk as they are more precise and have a concentrated beam for less collateral damage.
A few of the quite astonishing things Brad spoke of:
Moon excursions. The Artemis mission: go to the Moon, stay there longer, build a space station there (CAPSTONE), use the water to create fuel to get to Mars (the next on the wish-list), Nokia to build a moon based 4G system, develop laser-based communications.
The Aus/Japan venture HAYABUSA-2 satellite brought back samples from asteroid Ryugu, parachuted them to Earth, then orbited on to next asteroid to study.
China plans a Moon mission every year for the next 6 years. Australia leads the world in Radio Telescope technology, currently building a radio telescope over 1 kilometer wide in Western Australia.
The incredible advances in technology resulting from the “Space Race” can be illustrated by the following observation. The U.S. Apollo mission cost 9% of their GDP, approximately $180 billion dollars. Recently, India landed a space craft on the moon for $60 million dollars.
We thank Brad sincerely for his most interesting and enthralling address.
Chris Purton
