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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]