In 1850, if I were all like, "Good morrow friends, 100 years hence, we shall climb into
a contraption taller than that nearby six-story skyscraper and within it travel, TO THE MOOON."
People be like, "You crazy."
Rocketry is crazy.
It is!
Just admit it!
It's a painstakingly scrutinized scientific endeavor akin to Wil E. Coyote jumping in
a barrel sitting atop of dynamite.
Rocketry is the idea that we can take a missile and control it all the way to space… which
is insane in itself, but you have to ask yourself, what kind of CRAZY things can we DO once we
get OUT there?!
And when I looked into it, space scientists did not disappoint.
Saturn is a crazy place.
There's a weird hexagon swirling at it's North Pole, not to mention it's got rings or something.
But it's moon, Titan, has space scientists really excited.
Titan is one of the closest Earth-like planets we can study; NASA describes it as a frozen
version of Earth -- only… not.
Titan has a chemical rich atmosphere, and the surface is Earth-LIKE, with oceans, rivers,
mountains and even rain!
The thing is, the lakes and rivers and rain aren't water -- they're ethane and methane.
This planet is so similar yet so alien, and so familiar that scientists believe they can
send a probe equipped with a submarine.
A SUBMARINE.
The plan, unveiled earlier this month and penned for 2040, is to use a submarine powered
by radioactive pellets (like Curiosity on Mars) to dive below the methane seas and explore
the ocean, called Kraken Mare.
It's just a study and concept, but if they did it.
Wowza.
The Kraken Mare hovers around 90 Kelvin (-298 F/-183C), and because of the density of liquid
methane, nitrogen would have to be used for ballast.
Not to mention the Mare itself has choppy waves and tides.
This is some old school stuff, but not the old schoolest.
How do you feel about dirigibles?
If you saw our old video on them you know how I feel.
I think they're fantastic!
Another crazy idea from NASA, is HAVOC -- the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept -- alleviates
all that.
50 kilometers above the surface of Venus, the temperature is around 75 celsius (167F)
and gravity is similar to Earth, and daily radiation exposure on Venus is similar to
Canada, whereas Mars' exposure is 40 percent more than Earth average.
So why not live there??
The plan is to send robots and then humans who can permanently live above Venus in a
helium-filled solar-powered airship twice the size of a 747.
Venus is ideal for human explorations as its closer to Earth than Mars, but it's not as
popular for exploration maybe because the combination of dense crushing atmosphere,
heat and sulfuric acid rain… but what do I know.
And just to toss a wrench in the cool and crazy, but actually possible tone of this
episode.
I bring you the Daedelus.
In the 70s, the British Interplanetary Society wanted to create a craft that could study
the Fermi paradox -- or the idea that there are suns billions of years older than ours,
likely with Earthlike planets, so where the life at?!
They've had billions of years to colonize, so why ain't they?
The Daedalus is a deuterium and helium-3 fusion-powered spaceship that is just MASSIVE.
The concept weighed 450 tons, and would have been able to travel 12 percent the speed of
light after 46 years of acceleration.
It wouldn't be able to slow down, of course…
So… it's not exactly useful for data collection, human transport, or exploration.
Not to mention the cost to build, or the crazy engineering involved.
Daedalus was an engineering proof-of-concept.
The scientists wanted to prove interstellar travel WAS possible, assuming we could build
these crazy things.
Today, the 100 Year Starship Project, while crazy, probably has a better grasp on reality
these days.
Disco.
Daedalus.
Man, the 70s was a crazy time.
Have you heard about crazy space explorations?