 Hey, what's up everybody? So some very interesting things have been happening over the past week. First off, Google Lunar XPrize has extended the deadline again to reach the moon, this time by 2017. SpaceX's Dragon capsule has returned to Earth with valuable experiments from the International Space Station and Dubai has announced their plan forward with their newly created space agency. This is all the stuff we're going to be talking about today for this year's pod from May 26, 2015. Six months ago, the Google Lunar XPrize extended the deadline from the end of 2015 to the end of 2016, but yesterday they extended that deadline again to December 31st of 2017. However, it has new terms and conditions. This new condition is that at least one of the teams has to announce a firm launch contract by the end of this year or the competition will end. If one of the teams can purchase and solidify a launch contract, then the other teams competing have to announce their own firm launch contract by the end of next year, 2016, otherwise they'll be disqualified. When the Google Lunar XPrize started in 2007, the original deadline to reach the moon was the end of 2012. That date came and went and China landed their Chinese lander first before any of the teams competing in the Google Lunar XPrize. The purpose of this competition is to have one of the teams competing land a private lander on the moon and then travel at least 500 meters, can be with that lander or with a robotic rover. They have to also send back imagery and live data as well. If one of the teams can accomplish this goal, then they would win the 30 million dollars that Google has put up as prize money. Although it's nice to have a little bit more time for the teams that are still in this race to get the launch contracts they need and complete their landers or rovers or whatever technology they're working on, now there's a whole lot more pressure. And if one of the bigger teams just off the top of my head say Astrobotic or Moon Express don't secure a launch contract by the end of this year, the entire competition is over. And that makes me very concerned about the entire program. I'm going to try to watch very closely as to the developments that happen between now and the end of this year because we will know by the end of this year whether or not this competition will continue or not. Now on to some good news. Last Thursday on May 21st 2015, SpaceX's Dragon capsule for the commercial resupply service's number six mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, safely of course, and it carried with it some very important experiments that were at the International Space Station and they're being processed as we speak. One of those experiments was returning samples for the space aging study, which grew millimeter long roundworms at the space station to observe any physiological changes that may affect their aging in microgravity. Hopefully this data will be able to improve our knowledge of how astronauts age and how it affects their bodies in microgravity. Another experiment was looking at samples for the osteo4 investigation, which is studying osteocytes, the most common cells and bone, and seeing what the effects of microgravity are on osteocytes will hopefully help give data for some of the longer duration missions that NASA is planning in the future, like going to Mars. But for me, probably the most exciting experiment that they returned was the Spinsat. Spinsat is a 22 inch diameter spherical satellite that was developed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory. The purpose of this satellite is so cool. It's to test electronically controlled solid propellant thrusters and to see if they can maneuver small satellites in a decent and effective way. These electronically controlled thrusters were developed in partnership with digital solid state propulsion and they have a new class of solid propellants that is only ignited by the application of an electric current. Unlike conventional rocket motor propellants that are difficult to control and extinguish, these new materials can be ignited reliably at precise intervals and durations. This is really exciting to me, to be able to have a solid propellant that you can start, stop, and restart and do this as many times as you want. You could be able to have some really efficient propellant for a CubeSat to be able to send to really cool places and do really interesting things with. No longer would CubeSats get stuck in whatever orbit they get put into as a secondary payload. Something else about this that is amazing is that with these thrusters there's no moving parts and the propellant is non pyrotechnic, which means that it cannot be ignited by flames or sparks. The SpinSat was originally launched by the fourth commercial resupply mission and brought back home by the sixth mission and they tested this thing at the International Space Station. It's actually a really cool way of doing it. They have this unique launcher that they put on the end of the Canada arm called Cyclops and they pull it out from the Kibo laboratory and then let it go. I'm assuming that the test was at least partially successful because they let it go, it performed its test, and they were either able to bring it back or it was still within reach of the Canada arm to be able to load it onto the SpaceX Dragon capsule and bring it back to Earth. But I haven't found any data yet as to how well it did perform and whether or not all of its objectives were accomplished or not. So I'm going to be very excited to find out how well this performed. I mean this is just so cool to have these electronically controlled solid rocket thrusters that seem super safe. I mean there's so much stuff that we could do with this. Okay so before I geek out too much on this, one final thing that I did want to talk about today is that the United Arab Emirates yesterday announced their plans forward for utilizing space. They do have a space agency. It was created just last year, although they do have a couple of private companies that have been operating in the communication satellite world since as early as 1998. So there actually is some history there and I do want to talk about that in another space pod. But the main thing that I wanted to take away from their announcement yesterday is they're planning on sending an orbiter to Mars by 2020. They're calling this orbiter Hope and it's unclear right now what their path forward technologically would be, but that is at least their stated goal. And looking at the funding and the money that they have behind them, they just might be able to accomplish that goal, especially if they work in partnership with some of the more experienced space agencies. It doesn't have to be NASA, but I would like to see them working with JAXA or Iran. I know that's probably not ever going to happen, but maybe that's in my perfect world. We're going to talk more about the United Arab Emirates in a future space pod, because honestly, I didn't even know that their space program existed until yesterday and it's only existed for not even quite a year yet. So they do have some experience though, like I mentioned. So we're going to get into all of that, but not today. I'm going to leave you with these updates for now. In the meantime, please leave a comment and let me know what you think about the new Google Lunar X-Prize deadline and what it could mean if no one's able to get a firm launch contract and the competition ends. That would be horrible. Also let me know what you think about these experiments that SpaceX's Dragon capsule brought back to Earth and whether or not you think that this potentially awesome thrusters could change things as much as I think they could. Thank you very much for watching this video. My name is Michael Clark and if you'd like to help us to bring you space news like this, then please visit patreon.com slash space pod to find out more information about how you can contribute to the show. Every penny helps and thank you so much to everyone who's contributed already. It really does mean a lot. So thank you again and until the next time I see you guys, keep moving onwards and upwards. Bye bye.