why are we so fascinated with Mars
there’s this visceral connection that we
have it’s been a constant steady light
in the night sky for us you and I can go
outside tonight on a clear night look
towards the south western sky and see a
bright orange star the Red Planet
looking at Mars it’s also of interest
because it is within what we call the
habitable zone around the Sun and so
we’re going to be exploring tonight a
little bit more I’d like to ask our
guest here our experts on a little bit
about that and let’s get into the
challenges and what it really takes to
get to Mars Mars is incredibly difficult
to get on to because you have to go
through the atmosphere and the
atmosphere is not your friend
because it swells up because of dust
when there’s a lot of dust in the
atmosphere it shrinks there are lateral
winds although the atmosphere is thin
but it is a scientific bonanza once
you’re on the surface it has ancient
rivers at ancient Lakes hydrothermal
systems all the evidence is there the
geologic evidence it’s from the first
half of geologic time so early in
geologic time Mars was warm and wet and
the international exploration of Mars
robotically is all focused on if it was
habitable and whether or not life got
started and evolved and is still there
it’s amazing so let’s look at some of
the technology let’s talk about this
character here I have you means making a
lot of buzz in the media right Elon Musk
he’s the head of SpaceX and his true
love and passion is space exploration
and his vision is to send humans to Mars
so NASA isn’t really alone they have
partnerships is that right yeah integral
well yes so you know NASA historically
has partnered with people has consulted
and contracted with organizations all
over the country right and so as we’re
looking at to this next phase is going
to Mars where they’re still going to
have to be these partnerships as you say
Elon Musk is one but there are others
that are going to help us do the
important work of figuring out what
exactly the best technology is but it is
definitely something that we’re going to
have to do together it’s not an easy
thing no right so take a look at this
t-minus four minutes we reached a
tipping point
thousands of years from now whatever we
become whoever we are will look back at
these next few decades is the moment in
time that we are moving off this planet
as a multiplanetary species b c and d c
verify f 9 at Dragonheart startup f 9
isn’t start-up and SpaceX stands as
nothing less than a massive game-changer
stage 1 stage 2 pressing for flight
Elon Musk says the only reason that I
founded this company is to get human
beings to Mars lc/ld go for lunch the
key to making Mars economical is the
reusability
of rockets t-minus one minute I just
don’t think there’s any way to have a
self-sustaining Mars space without
reusability getting the cost down is
really fundamental
if wooden sailing ships in the old days
we’re not reusable I don’t think the
United States would exist t-minus 30
seconds and if they nail this ability to
land a rocket any way they want on earth
then they can nail doing it on Mars 2015
this was a huge deal we haven’t yet
landed the rocket so this is gonna be
hopefully after a successful landing –
10 9 8 7 6 5
three two one
vehicles reach maximum aerodynamic
pressure stable propulsion is still not
altitude 32 kilometers speed one
kilometer per second average distance 30
kilometers
space is defined by the strange
relationship between failure risk and
innovation which is you can take risks
you can try something very innovative
but you are more likely to fail so what
was it supposed to look like well you’d
have the booster going up what I’m
showing you here is going to be a
composite a long exposure photograph
what it’s supposed to have looked like
and then the booster coming back down
and what you see on your right-hand side
of the screen is the booster that came
down back onto the launch pad and what I
want to know to diet is why is it so
important to have reusability when when
we’re talking I’m talking about Mars
going to Mars why is that so important
yeah over the long term the hope is that
if you can reuse something it’s cheaper
right you want to be cheaper and more
efficient it’s sort of your your
workhorse that you just continue to use
it’s not always the case that things are
cheaper when you reuse them but but you
want something that you can you know use
rinse recycle reuse right that’s rinse
repeat that’s what you want the other
thing is you want to be able to use that
piece of technology as scaffolding for
the next thing you do maybe you you know
a piece of your booster to build the
first structure right maybe you recycle
it in that way so you hope first that
there’s a cost savings you hope that
there’s a sort of efficiency that you
can build in and third that you can use
it as a scaffolding for the next thing
let’s look at the the idea of the
timeline what is it like it seven months
to get there all right just to get there
so we need to right now start building
up on that and one of the most recent
attempts at that is the year-long
mission that both the US and Russians
took pardon u.s. astronaut scott kelly
you can see here in this image spent a
whole year coming back in March
exploring this whole concept of what
happens to human body
being exposed to microgravity for long
duration so we’re starting to work on
that those aspects and I’d like to know
I mean what toll does it take on the
human body what the space travel
long-term spacer do to a human body the
truth is we don’t really know right
we’ve never done this before
commander Scott Kelly and his colleagues
were sort of the first to stay in space
as long as they did and even there they
had a lot more protection from Earth
from the sort of microgravity also we
were still in the magnetosphere so they
had protection from radiation still more
radiation than they have if they were
where we are but we don’t know what’s
going to happen when you put a person in
sort of interstellar trap interplanetary
travel for seven months we don’t know we
know already that you lose bone mass we
know that you’ve got these radiation
effects we have no idea about the
psychological impact so these are all
things that we’re still trying to
understand and his mission their mission
was Critias critical to understanding
least you know step one in the process
so there’s there’s a lot to be to be
understood when we get there I like to
know like how are we going to choose the
the landing sites now what I’ve got here
for you is the map of Mars and these are
potential landing sites that we have
what goes in ray maybe you can speak to
this about you know their their
engineering aspects their our science
aspect you want to go to a place that’s
scientifically interesting could be
layered deposits that represent kind of
ancient riverbeds or lakes it could be
ancient hydrothermal deposits from
volcanoes or whatever it turns out to be
but you also need to land in a place
that you can get back out of and that’s
the plus or minus 50 it’s relatively
easy to go back into orbit and not too
cold as Mars is cold to begin with it’s
way below freezing on average and if you
go to the high latitudes it’s super cold
you know the ultimate goal is to send
humans so what I like to know is what
you guys think in terms of the
specialties what kind of people should
we be sending to Mars it’s an important
point to recognize that going to Mars is
going to be you know what they call
socio technological right it is not just
maybe the technical that takes us there
it’s not just going to be the
sociological or the psychological it is
going to be the interaction of those two
things that the optimization of those
two things that makes it happen so yeah
you want people that have skills there
are technical you want them to be able
to fix things and create experiments
physicians you need someone there in
case you have medical emergencies but
you also want the kind of mental stamina
to be able to deal with all of the
conditions that you’re going to you’re
going to be sort of faced with so you
know as I look at it I think about not
just your skills in terms of what you’ve
been educated to do I think of a variety
of perspectives of life experiences of
outlooks on life because all of those
things are going to be necessary to make
this work so need an inclusive
environment and an inclusive set of
people I guess growing food is going to
be important isn’t that to diet yeah so
this idea of being able to reuse and
create a sense of self sufficiency right
we cannot haul all the food will ever
eat to Mars if we go if we stay all of
these questions right you just can’t
bring it you’ve got to create self
sufficiency and food security there
right so the idea is is that you you
want to figure out ways to grow things
on Mars and not just for food which is
going to be important but again towards
that social component you’ll want
something to do that brings you closer
to nature right we’ve seen Mars is an
arid place it’s there’s not much
happening there as we can see so far so
you want some green you’ll want to get
your hands in the dirt you’ll want to
grow something see it progress over time
so there’s that mental sort of
restorative peace of going and being out
in nature even on Mars I mean that’s
interesting but you know when we’re
talking about going to Mars to me this
looks like a candy wrapper I don’t know
but there’s like trash on Mars right now
already right this time I mean we’re
already used to peace probably a piece
of the sky cream right we’re not but
we’re not we’re not living there humans
aren’t there yet we’re sending our stuff
there and then
we’re already you know altering Mars
right there’s all the alterations of
Mars and there’s talk about you know how
humans will be altered by Mars as well
there’s a lot of talk about that and I
want you guys to check this little video
out this whole idea of altering Mars and
stuff it’s really fascinating
terraforming Mars is not a small jar
this is a massive project this is a
bigger project than anything humanity
has ever attempted terraforming is
taking an environment such as Mars and
making it more earth-like terraforming
is like like super science fictiony
right now I don’t think people
understand how big planets are so
terraforming one is a ludicrous to ask
you solve all the problems except
breathing so once Mars is terraformed it
made more earth-like you’re still going
to have to wear a helmet on your head of
some sort or some kind of breathing
apparatus might we have the urge to
tinker with our DNA such that you don’t
need a spacesuit on Mars
we’re on the edge right now of being
able to change our own genome and our
own genetics in our own bodies in real
time our ability to control DNA the
programming language of life helps us
open up Mars what happens if there is a
virus that bribes some kind of a flu and
knocks out a large population or a large
percentage of your group you can
actually sequence the virus send it back
to earth to analyze and you can send
back from Earth you know a upgraded
t-cell if you do interfere with our
genomes so that you can survive on Mars
you’re pretty much going through a
one-way door and saying I will never go
back to earth
we might very well have a future in
which you have different kinds of humans
that look very different from each other
once we get computers that are like
smarter than humans and thinking about
stuff and coming up with stuff we can
ask them to figure out how to cure
viruses we can kind of tell them look we
want to explore and this is what we
would like to do and then the robot
scisors or overs or the helicopters or
the balloons can make their own judgment
and actually do the exploration so
ultimately we’re going to need things
like machines that can make machines if
we want to have a solar system
civilization well future technologies
that we’re developing on earth now like
3d printing and electric cars can
actually be extremely useful to us in
creating a outpost of civilization on
Mars imagine being able to send a 3d
prayer of the Martian surface that sort
of pulls the soil out add some water add
some binder and is sitting there 3d
printing shelters in advance of a
community coming and you’ve got your
homes pre-built
waiting for you right there so to died
up this is all nice but what happens if
we find life on Mars with our plans to
be altered I think they should be right
because now we’ve got to understand and
figure out what’s happening
try not to completely decimate their way
of being in life in terms of probably
microbial structures and such also just
small tidbit no terraforming why is that
it’s a stupid idea
okay-y it’s out of equilibrium
I mean Mars is cold and dry today for a
reason early in geologic time there were
volcanoes there was a massive amount of
greenhouse warming from the gases coming
up because it’s a small planet relative
to earth it stopped its internal
activity sooner than the earth so the
gases in the atmosphere were on a
one-way trip to be oxidized and placed
into minerals so if you increase the
amount of sunlight with mirrors or
whatever you can sublimate get more
water vapour in the atmosphere more rain
but what’s going to happen it’s going to
react with the rocks and go back down
into the into the subsurface eventually
there’s a famous reaction that was
codified by Harold Urey it’s a very
distinguished Nobel what Nobel
prize-winning chemist and it’s the way
the earth stays more or less the way we
like it sometimes it goes into the deep
freeze sometimes it’s really warm but
what happens is the volcanoes pump up
the gases that keep us warm but the
hydrologic cycle consumes those gases as
carbonic acid co2 goes into the water
and it reacts in forms lime stones but
the lime stones go back downstairs get
decomposed and the gases come back up
you know as greenhouse gases through
volcanoes if you stop the internal
engine you go in the one way deep freeze
it’s what happened to Mars because it’s
smaller than the earth so terraforming
can increase the temperature of the
surface but you can get some gas out but
it will eventually get corroded and put
back down into the subsurface in a
one-way trip so it may work for a couple
decades but over longer time it’s bogus
in my opinion
and also would decimate whatever is
there that we don’t know yet yeah
there’s a very important paradigm that
all the nations are following called
planetary protection so you sterilize
spacecraft before they’re on the surface
because the worst thing to have happen
is to go to Mars in the future and find
ourselves alright I have a question one
last question if you could take anything
from or any physical object in there
what would it be any ticket to Mars but
you want to take something what would
what one thing going on by 47th wedding
anniversary and I really like my wife so
she would go with me you get points
there places as videos is this being
taped
there are many reasons that we want to
go to Mars the first big one is why did
Mars transition from what was once a
warmer wetter world to the cold dry
planet we see today
there’s this visceral connection that we
have it’s been a constant steady light
in the night sky for us you and I can go
outside tonight on a clear night look
towards the south western sky and see a
bright orange star the Red Planet
looking at Mars it’s also of interest
because it is within what we call the
habitable zone around the Sun and so
we’re going to be exploring tonight a
little bit more I’d like to ask our
guest here our experts on a little bit
about that and let’s get into the
challenges and what it really takes to
get to Mars Mars is incredibly difficult
to get on to because you have to go
through the atmosphere and the
atmosphere is not your friend
because it swells up because of dust
when there’s a lot of dust in the
atmosphere it shrinks there are lateral
winds although the atmosphere is thin
but it is a scientific bonanza once
you’re on the surface it has ancient
rivers at ancient Lakes hydrothermal
systems all the evidence is there the
geologic evidence it’s from the first
half of geologic time so early in
geologic time Mars was warm and wet and
the international exploration of Mars
robotically is all focused on if it was
habitable and whether or not life got
started and evolved and is still there
it’s amazing so let’s look at some of
the technology let’s talk about this
character here I have you means making a
lot of buzz in the media right Elon Musk
he’s the head of SpaceX and his true
love and passion is space exploration
and his vision is to send humans to Mars
so NASA isn’t really alone they have
partnerships is that right yeah integral
well yes so you know NASA historically
has partnered with people has consulted
and contracted with organizations all
over the country right and so as we’re
looking at to this next phase is going
to Mars where they’re still going to
have to be these partnerships as you say
Elon Musk is one but there are others
that are going to help us do the
important work of figuring out what
exactly the best technology is but it is
definitely something that we’re going to
have to do together it’s not an easy
thing no right so take a look at this
t-minus four minutes we reached a
tipping point
thousands of years from now whatever we
become whoever we are will look back at
these next few decades is the moment in
time that we are moving off this planet
as a multiplanetary species b c and d c
verify f 9 at Dragonheart startup f 9
isn’t start-up and SpaceX stands as
nothing less than a massive game-changer
stage 1 stage 2 pressing for flight
Elon Musk says the only reason that I
founded this company is to get human
beings to Mars lc/ld go for lunch the
key to making Mars economical is the
reusability
of rockets t-minus one minute I just
don’t think there’s any way to have a
self-sustaining Mars space without
reusability getting the cost down is
really fundamental
if wooden sailing ships in the old days
we’re not reusable I don’t think the
United States would exist t-minus 30
seconds and if they nail this ability to
land a rocket any way they want on earth
then they can nail doing it on Mars 2015
this was a huge deal we haven’t yet
landed the rocket so this is gonna be
hopefully after a successful landing –
10 9 8 7 6 5
three two one
vehicles reach maximum aerodynamic
pressure stable propulsion is still not
altitude 32 kilometers speed one
kilometer per second average distance 30
kilometers
space is defined by the strange
relationship between failure risk and
innovation which is you can take risks
you can try something very innovative
but you are more likely to fail so what
was it supposed to look like well you’d
have the booster going up what I’m
showing you here is going to be a
composite a long exposure photograph
what it’s supposed to have looked like
and then the booster coming back down
and what you see on your right-hand side
of the screen is the booster that came
down back onto the launch pad and what I
want to know to diet is why is it so
important to have reusability when when
we’re talking I’m talking about Mars
going to Mars why is that so important
yeah over the long term the hope is that
if you can reuse something it’s cheaper
right you want to be cheaper and more
efficient it’s sort of your your
workhorse that you just continue to use
it’s not always the case that things are
cheaper when you reuse them but but you
want something that you can you know use
rinse recycle reuse right that’s rinse
repeat that’s what you want the other
thing is you want to be able to use that
piece of technology as scaffolding for
the next thing you do maybe you you know
a piece of your booster to build the
first structure right maybe you recycle
it in that way so you hope first that
there’s a cost savings you hope that
there’s a sort of efficiency that you
can build in and third that you can use
it as a scaffolding for the next thing
let’s look at the the idea of the
timeline what is it like it seven months
to get there all right just to get there
so we need to right now start building
up on that and one of the most recent
attempts at that is the year-long
mission that both the US and Russians
took pardon u.s. astronaut scott kelly
you can see here in this image spent a
whole year coming back in March
exploring this whole concept of what
happens to human body
being exposed to microgravity for long
duration so we’re starting to work on
that those aspects and I’d like to know
I mean what toll does it take on the
human body what the space travel
long-term spacer do to a human body the
truth is we don’t really know right
we’ve never done this before
commander Scott Kelly and his colleagues
were sort of the first to stay in space
as long as they did and even there they
had a lot more protection from Earth
from the sort of microgravity also we
were still in the magnetosphere so they
had protection from radiation still more
radiation than they have if they were
where we are but we don’t know what’s
going to happen when you put a person in
sort of interstellar trap interplanetary
travel for seven months we don’t know we
know already that you lose bone mass we
know that you’ve got these radiation
effects we have no idea about the
psychological impact so these are all
things that we’re still trying to
understand and his mission their mission
was Critias critical to understanding
least you know step one in the process
so there’s there’s a lot to be to be
understood when we get there I like to
know like how are we going to choose the
the landing sites now what I’ve got here
for you is the map of Mars and these are
potential landing sites that we have
what goes in ray maybe you can speak to
this about you know their their
engineering aspects their our science
aspect you want to go to a place that’s
scientifically interesting could be
layered deposits that represent kind of
ancient riverbeds or lakes it could be
ancient hydrothermal deposits from
volcanoes or whatever it turns out to be
but you also need to land in a place
that you can get back out of and that’s
the plus or minus 50 it’s relatively
easy to go back into orbit and not too
cold as Mars is cold to begin with it’s
way below freezing on average and if you
go to the high latitudes it’s super cold
you know the ultimate goal is to send
humans so what I like to know is what
you guys think in terms of the
specialties what kind of people should
we be sending to Mars it’s an important
point to recognize that going to Mars is
going to be you know what they call
socio technological right it is not just
maybe the technical that takes us there
it’s not just going to be the
sociological or the psychological it is
going to be the interaction of those two
things that the optimization of those
two things that makes it happen so yeah
you want people that have skills there
are technical you want them to be able
to fix things and create experiments
physicians you need someone there in
case you have medical emergencies but
you also want the kind of mental stamina
to be able to deal with all of the
conditions that you’re going to you’re
going to be sort of faced with so you
know as I look at it I think about not
just your skills in terms of what you’ve
been educated to do I think of a variety
of perspectives of life experiences of
outlooks on life because all of those
things are going to be necessary to make
this work so need an inclusive
environment and an inclusive set of
people I guess growing food is going to
be important isn’t that to diet yeah so
this idea of being able to reuse and
create a sense of self sufficiency right
we cannot haul all the food will ever
eat to Mars if we go if we stay all of
these questions right you just can’t
bring it you’ve got to create self
sufficiency and food security there
right so the idea is is that you you
want to figure out ways to grow things
on Mars and not just for food which is
going to be important but again towards
that social component you’ll want
something to do that brings you closer
to nature right we’ve seen Mars is an
arid place it’s there’s not much
happening there as we can see so far so
you want some green you’ll want to get
your hands in the dirt you’ll want to
grow something see it progress over time
so there’s that mental sort of
restorative peace of going and being out
in nature even on Mars I mean that’s
interesting but you know when we’re
talking about going to Mars to me this
looks like a candy wrapper I don’t know
but there’s like trash on Mars right now
already right this time I mean we’re
already used to peace probably a piece
of the sky cream right we’re not but
we’re not we’re not living there humans
aren’t there yet we’re sending our stuff
there and then
we’re already you know altering Mars
right there’s all the alterations of
Mars and there’s talk about you know how
humans will be altered by Mars as well
there’s a lot of talk about that and I
want you guys to check this little video
out this whole idea of altering Mars and
stuff it’s really fascinating
terraforming Mars is not a small jar
this is a massive project this is a
bigger project than anything humanity
has ever attempted terraforming is
taking an environment such as Mars and
making it more earth-like terraforming
is like like super science fictiony
right now I don’t think people
understand how big planets are so
terraforming one is a ludicrous to ask
you solve all the problems except
breathing so once Mars is terraformed it
made more earth-like you’re still going
to have to wear a helmet on your head of
some sort or some kind of breathing
apparatus might we have the urge to
tinker with our DNA such that you don’t
need a spacesuit on Mars
we’re on the edge right now of being
able to change our own genome and our
own genetics in our own bodies in real
time our ability to control DNA the
programming language of life helps us
open up Mars what happens if there is a
virus that bribes some kind of a flu and
knocks out a large population or a large
percentage of your group you can
actually sequence the virus send it back
to earth to analyze and you can send
back from Earth you know a upgraded
t-cell if you do interfere with our
genomes so that you can survive on Mars
you’re pretty much going through a
one-way door and saying I will never go
back to earth
we might very well have a future in
which you have different kinds of humans
that look very different from each other
once we get computers that are like
smarter than humans and thinking about
stuff and coming up with stuff we can
ask them to figure out how to cure
viruses we can kind of tell them look we
want to explore and this is what we
would like to do and then the robot
scisors or overs or the helicopters or
the balloons can make their own judgment
and actually do the exploration so
ultimately we’re going to need things
like machines that can make machines if
we want to have a solar system
civilization well future technologies
that we’re developing on earth now like
3d printing and electric cars can
actually be extremely useful to us in
creating a outpost of civilization on
Mars imagine being able to send a 3d
prayer of the Martian surface that sort
of pulls the soil out add some water add
some binder and is sitting there 3d
printing shelters in advance of a
community coming and you’ve got your
homes pre-built
waiting for you right there so to died
up this is all nice but what happens if
we find life on Mars with our plans to
be altered I think they should be right
because now we’ve got to understand and
figure out what’s happening
try not to completely decimate their way
of being in life in terms of probably
microbial structures and such also just
small tidbit no terraforming why is that
it’s a stupid idea
okay-y it’s out of equilibrium
I mean Mars is cold and dry today for a
reason early in geologic time there were
volcanoes there was a massive amount of
greenhouse warming from the gases coming
up because it’s a small planet relative
to earth it stopped its internal
activity sooner than the earth so the
gases in the atmosphere were on a
one-way trip to be oxidized and placed
into minerals so if you increase the
amount of sunlight with mirrors or
whatever you can sublimate get more
water vapour in the atmosphere more rain
but what’s going to happen it’s going to
react with the rocks and go back down
into the into the subsurface eventually
there’s a famous reaction that was
codified by Harold Urey it’s a very
distinguished Nobel what Nobel
prize-winning chemist and it’s the way
the earth stays more or less the way we
like it sometimes it goes into the deep
freeze sometimes it’s really warm but
what happens is the volcanoes pump up
the gases that keep us warm but the
hydrologic cycle consumes those gases as
carbonic acid co2 goes into the water
and it reacts in forms lime stones but
the lime stones go back downstairs get
decomposed and the gases come back up
you know as greenhouse gases through
volcanoes if you stop the internal
engine you go in the one way deep freeze
it’s what happened to Mars because it’s
smaller than the earth so terraforming
can increase the temperature of the
surface but you can get some gas out but
it will eventually get corroded and put
back down into the subsurface in a
one-way trip so it may work for a couple
decades but over longer time it’s bogus
in my opinion
and also would decimate whatever is
there that we don’t know yet yeah
there’s a very important paradigm that
all the nations are following called
planetary protection so you sterilize
spacecraft before they’re on the surface
because the worst thing to have happen
is to go to Mars in the future and find
ourselves alright I have a question one
last question if you could take anything
from or any physical object in there
what would it be any ticket to Mars but
you want to take something what would
what one thing going on by 47th wedding
anniversary and I really like my wife so
she would go with me you get points
there places as videos is this being
taped
there are many reasons that we want to
go to Mars the first big one is why did
Mars transition from what was once a
warmer wetter world to the cold dry
planet we see today
Please follow and like us: