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