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6:06
Transcript
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Let's explore some of the scenarios that
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are going to be potentially the reality
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of us as a human race.
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>> Let's go right on down the list. Go
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>> the laundry list. Um, okay. Well, let's
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look at Mars in 2050.
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>> Oh, yeah.
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>> How how are we saying maybe, maybe not?
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You're kidding me. Oh, that's definitely
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going to happen.
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>> Yeah. Elon Musk, he has said he wants to
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put a million people on Mars by 2050 to
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have a self- sustaining civilization
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that will survive there even if you know
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the rockets from Earth stop coming
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because there's been an asteroid strike
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or nuclear war or something here.
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>> That's definitely not happening. There
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are a lot of reasons why that's not
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happening. Getting anyone to Mars by
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2050 and bringing them back alive or
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just having them live there for a while,
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that would be incredibly difficult. The
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challenges just to put boots on Mars the
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way that we did on the moon are
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enormous, right? Just learning how to
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keep someone alive in deep space that
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far away from Earth for as long as it
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takes to get to Mars, stay on Mars, come
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back. We do not know how to do that yet.
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>> Chuck, that's the problem. They want to
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put boots on Mars instead of sneakers on
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Mars. [laughter] Sneaker contract,
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you'll pay the whole way.
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>> Nike would have put Nike would have been
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there by now. [laughter]
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>> They just do it. Yeah. Exactly.
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>> Excellent.
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>> Just do it.
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>> It ain't about boots. [laughter] It is
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about sneakers.
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>> I mean, so
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>> what are the biggest challenges of going
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that far into space? Is it radiation or
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>> Yeah, there's radiation. And that's not
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just when you're in space, it's also
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when you're on Mars, right? You know,
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the two things that primarily protect us
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from radiation here on Earth are our,
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you know, the Earth's magnetic field and
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the thick atmosphere that Earth has.
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Mars doesn't have either of those
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things. So when you're on the surface of
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Mars, you're getting pretty much the
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same radiation dose that you do like out
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in space. And that's not good, right?
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You know, like the thing that I tell
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people is the movie The Martian is
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science fiction. One of the things
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that's science fiction about it is if
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Mark Wattney really, you know, had to do
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all the stuff that he did in that movie,
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he'd come home and he'd be dead of
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cancer in a couple of years because he
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had too much radiation exposure hanging
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out on Mars.
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>> What about the ISS? If Scott Kelly could
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stay up there for a year,
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>> one of the twins, one stayed on Earth
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and one, right? Why couldn't you just
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extend that for whatever time necessary
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to go to Mars? Even if it's not to live
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there, if it's just to go there and dig
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a hole and come back,
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>> right? So, there's a couple of things.
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First of all, on the ISS, they're still
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in the Earth's magnetic field. They
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still have a bunch of the shielding.
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>> Oh, wait. And what's that called, Neil?
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Wait, the field that goes all the way
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out like that.
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>> Oh, yeah.
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>> Oh, it's called the Oh, magnetic field.
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>> No, it's not the magnetic. It's the
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magnetosphere.
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>> Yeah. Yeah. Think of X-Men. Yes, the
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magnetosphere. Go ahead.
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>> Yeah, exactly. It is like the X-Men.
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Yeah, they've still got that protection.
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Also, if something goes wrong on the
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ISS, they'll be back on the surface of
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the Earth in a matter of hours. Like,
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they can just abort and come back home,
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right?
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>> Yeah. At most, I mean, you can you come
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out, you you're down within a half hour.
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>> Exactly. Yeah. The hours is you want to
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line up so you don't land in the middle
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of sharks,
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>> right? [laughter] Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. So like you can get out easy
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and you can also have a real time
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conversation with people on the ground
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because they're you know they're not
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that high up and so the speed of light
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delay with the conversation doesn't
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matter
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>> on Mars you know it's a minimum of
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something like I think 8 minutes each
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way and a maximum of something like 15
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or 20 one way and so if you send out a
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message you are waiting at least 15 20
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minutes to get a message back maybe more
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like
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Yeah.
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>> You better not be like, "So, how's it
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going?" Over.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Yeah. Put some content in there.
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[laughter]
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>> Or or watch out for the cliff.
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>> Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And the other thing
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is like if you have a problem on the
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surface of Mars and you want to come
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back, that's going to take you uh at
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least 9 months, maybe more if you happen
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to be near a launch window where you
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know the Earth and the and Mars are like
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in the right
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>> positions. If you're not near launch
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window, it could be well over a year
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before you can come home. And
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>> yeah, a full up roundtrip mission to
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Mars with ideal launch and return
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parameters is multiple years.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Right.
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>> But you can get to the moon and back in
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a week. Yep. In like a in a news cycle.
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Yep.
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>> Right.
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>> So if we overcome the logistics of
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getting from Earth to Mars Yeah. If big
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big if, where are they going to live?
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Cuz they're not going to go out there
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and start building.
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>> Yeah. And then
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>> why don't you just uh build a little
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sort of half underground thing that
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shields you from Sure.
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>> Yeah. Well, so then you have other
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problems, right? You know, there's no
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air. You got to bring in oxygen or, you
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know, do some sort of reaction to make
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oxygen on the surface, which yeah, you
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can do that, but it's not the easiest
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thing. Uh you got to bring in all your
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food. Can't grow it there. The Martian
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surface, the dirt on Mars is filled with
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toxic chemicals. You're going to have a
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hard time getting it out of stuff cuz
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it's very fine. It's not It's going to
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be that's going to be here on Earth
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soon, too. So, [laughter] chemical I
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mean I mean let's be for real.
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>> Yeah,
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>> but we know you can grow poop potatoes
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on.
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>> Yes,
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>> we know that.
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>> Yes, exactly. Yeah, there was a proof of
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concept in the movie The Martian.
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[laughter]
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>> Duh.
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>> No, but but actually it's it's funny
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though. The guy who wrote the book uh
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what's his name? Andy.
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>> Andy Weir. Yeah.
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>> In fact, we had him on the show. Yeah.
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He's in our archives. He has said that
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you know the discovery of these
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particular poisonous compounds in the
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Martian surface uh called perchlorates
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he didn't know about that when he wrote
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the book because it wasn't widely known
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and so now we know if you tried to you
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know farm poop potatoes on Mars they'd
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be poisonous.
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>> Yeah.
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>> So that's the unknown unknown.
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>> Yeah. Exactly. Right. [music]
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>> [music]
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[music]
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[music]
— end of transcript —
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