Three Missions To Mars, COVID Fact Check, Solar Probes. July 24, 2020, Part 1

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🗓️ 24 July 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, your news feed is likely still overflowing with both breaking research and rumors. Virologist Angela Rasmussen of Columbia University joins Ira once again to Fact Check Your Feed, discussing everything from two vaccine trials’ hopeful early results to what antibody production might mean for long-term protection against the COVID-19 virus. They also discuss kids’ response to SARS-CoV-2—a topic of great interest to parents and educators trying to make plans for the coming school year—as well as the confusing terminology around ‘aerosol’ and ‘airborne,’ and research into mutations of the spike protein in one coronavirus variant. Recently, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter satellite sent photos of surprising events on the sun’s surface. Scientists are calling these swirling areas “campfires,” though no one is quite sure what causes them. Joining Ira to talk about these new images is Anik de Groof, instrument operations scientist for the Solar Orbiter, based in Madrid, Spain. They talk about what kind of data the satellite is collecting, how COVID-19 impacted the mission, and what solar mysteries Anik is most excited to learn more about. This month, three different countries are launching missions to Mars—the first for The United Arab Emirates, China is sending an orbiter and a rover, and NASA’s Perseverance will join the Curiosity rover already on the ground. Amy Nordrum from MIT Technology Review talks about the science that each of these missions will be conducting.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. Later in the hour, we'll explore campfires on the sun
0:05.9	and help fact-check your COVID news feed. But first, this week, the Chinese entered what's
0:11.8	turning out to be a Mars marathon, launching their rover and orbiter to the red planet. It's set to
0:18.0	arrive next February. But wait, there's more, as Amy Nordrum, editor at
0:22.4	MIT Technology Review, is here to tell us about it. Welcome back, Amy. Thanks, Ira.
0:27.8	This Chinese launch is just one of three, right? That's right. We're in the middle of three
0:33.7	launches this month to Mars. United Arab Emirates launched their mission on Sunday.
0:39.7	China followed with its mission yesterday, and NASA is set to launch its mission on July 30th.
0:46.0	And all these missions are distinct. The UAE sent an orbiter that will move around Mars called
0:52.9	Hope. It has a special camera and two spectrometers,
0:55.6	and it will focus on studying the composition of the atmosphere and the famous dust storms that
1:00.3	Mars is known for. And China sent an orbiter, a lander, and a rover to Mars. It could be the second
1:06.0	nation ever to land on the surface of Mars. And those missions are expected to arrive there sometime around the start of next year.
1:14.1	You know, the Chinese, I maybe could have predicted they'd be sending an orbiter or lander to
1:19.0	Mars, but the United Arab Emirates, what are they in this for?
1:24.0	Yeah, they are a newcomer and really pulled this together quite quickly. It's just a few
1:29.2	years ago. They started their space program. And I think they approached it in a smart way. They
1:33.8	relied on a lot of international collaboration to put this mission together. They launched
1:38.1	atop a Japanese rocket from a Japanese space center. And they worked with a number of collaborators
1:43.7	at universities
1:44.5	here in the United States to design their spacecraft. So they were able, almost like a startup,
1:50.1	to really reach out and find the resources available to them and put together a pretty
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