Hey there Martians; Trace here. This is episodes 3 of 5 on this series
about LEAVING EARTH! So far, we've talked about why we have to leave earth we've
talked about the ways that we're gonna be able to do it hopefully in the future
and some of the ways that we're doing it right now but now we're gonna talk about
where we're gonna go I'm super excited about this we have to leave the planet
eventually we have to the planet is gonna die we're gonna destroy it it will
be destroyed if humans want to be around and say a million years we cannot rely
on nature to adapt us to that we must rely on us to adapt us to that nature
got us this far we need to go the next mile so where should we go
the Mars I asked some friends so let's kick into it if we learned anything from
the last episode it is that rockets of the future will be a lot like Rockets
now but we need people to actually want to go places and we need a place to go
thanks to people like Elon Musk a lot of people are thinking Mars but is this
viable well the National Academies of Sciences engineering and medicine got
together in 2014 and wrote a paper that answered just that entitled pathways to
exploration : rationales and approaches for a U.S.. program of human space
exploration! It's almost 300 pages, and it's all about how human spaceflight
should be and also can be my friend Ariel was on that council so I called her!
I'm Ariel Waldman I'm an adviser to NASA I advise the NASA innovative
advanced concepts program that looks at futuristic ideas that could transform
future space missions anywhere between 10 to 40 years down the line which you
know here on earth antibiotics might be able to be shelf-stable for maybe a year
or so but expose them to radiation maybe they're not as stable so things like
that are important the National Research Council says that there is basically no
way that we can do this because the NASA's budget has been flat it's not
even adjusted for inflation it's essentially flat year over year every
year that means because it's not adjusted for inflation we're giving NASA
less money to work with the National Research Council's findings say that
they need to increase NASA's budget for two to four percent above inflation for
years and in due so they can then work on a Mars landing
and we need to do that with other space agencies around the world because they
aren't gonna be no merc a moment on mars we got to do this together no one nation
can go to mars on their own because it is that much more difficult to go to
mars than the moon and we need to have everything go perfectly in sort of a
unicorn and rainbows world and that would mean that we would be landing
humans on the surface of mars somewhere in the 2050s i think people in this way
sort of underestimate just how much is needed to go to mars versus going to the
moon and actually i think that is so awesome we have to become interplanetary
together as a group not as a nation or a state or a little pithy description or
even a single company or group instead as a people a populous a species which
just feels right when you're talking about leaving Earth forever what would
feel right is we all hate waiting and no matter when we leave the planet we're
gonna wait not only are we gonna wait till the 2050s to actually leave but
once we get to Mars we're gonna have to wait this idea that like we land and
then like after five minutes we'll just like open the hatch and go on a walk
like they're not gonna be able to do that when you actually get astronauts
onto the surface of mars everyone imagines this monumental moment where
like the doors open they've arrived on mars and now they're just gonna go step
out onto Mars the reality is is that when astronauts go to Mars they're
probably going to have to spend like the first week or two inside that space
shuttle or rocket or whatever they came in because they won't be able to walk
it's going to be too difficult for them to walk on Mars because of the loss of
all of that bone and muscle see this is why people say scientists ruin
everything humans did not evolve to live anywhere else just here yes we can go
places we can climb mountains top of mountains will also kill us though we
can dive underwater and being underwater will kill you after a while because you
know you can't breathe or you get crushed by the pressure whatever space
very similar another consideration for going to Mars is that you actually want
to go to Mars during solar maximum rather than solar
and this is because the Sun will actually protect you from extra galactic
cosmic rays which can be incredibly damaging when in terms of radiation and
what they can do to the body there's a little bit to unpack here Earth has a
magnetic field like a bubble like shield's surrounding our planet and it
stops us from dying so thanks magnetic field thank you it's
great and it does this by scattering solar and cosmic energies that are
flying around in space all the time the Sun is constantly sending out the solar
wind it's high-energy particles it's high-energy rays and if those things hit
our DNA it can hurt us deep space is also sending cosmic energies our
direction and some of these cosmic rays from deep space aren't just invisible
energy they're literally tiny bits of atoms tiny protons flying through space
superfast and when they hit something they burst into x-rays I think we all
know lots of x-rays is bad and since these are such high-energy particles it
can be damaging to our DNA Mars is a difficult place to live on the best of
days the average temperature is negative 63 Celsius not that that matters too
much because it's got no atmosphere which means you can't really breathe
there and the atmosphere is a hundred times thinner than Earth remember when
Frank Sinatra sang up there where there is rarefied pop songs they don't use SAT
words anymore but atmospheric pressure that low means a rarefied atmosphere
it's rarefied air it's thin atmospheric pressure at point six percent of Earth
means that it doesn't actually matter that it's cold on Mars because you won't
really feel it because you're not actually feeling the temperature you're
feeling the air on your skin that's the sort of a sidebar anyway also bad would
be radiation in general without that bubble the cosmic rays and the Sun solar
wind and the sun's radiation could hurt us the Sun seems all nice and yellow and
friendly here on earth but in reality it is a giant nuclear plasma furnace and
it's not out there to protect us it's out there because it is long-term
exposure to radiation on Mars could cause sickness and cancer genetic damage
and even death so just going to Mars to live may be not the best
the way I describe having a large population on Mars is why on earth would
you want to have a large group of people in in an intensive care unit I'm just
maybe too acutely aware of how lethal the place is I mean it really is lethal
and why on earth would you want to raise kids there that ray of Martian sunshine
is Pascal Li you have a planetary scientist with the Mars Institute in the
City Institute I'm based at NASA Ames but all opinions of my own and I think
most people are happy they are Pascal has spent his career thinking about
humans going to Mars and I gotta say he's not that into it I live and breathe
space and space exploration I've done that all my life and I really want to
see humans go back to the moon and go to Mars but somehow I don't resonate with
the settlers I think a lot of the attraction of Mars stems from the
romantic view that's inspired by the Martian landscape it looks like you know
the the Unconquered frontier I would prefer to see Mars becoming a you know a
world park that is studied scientifically with a research base and
even several research bases a bit like Antarctica 9 and 1/2 tourists and earth
people who have an opportunity to spend time there live there enjoy the place a
bit but you know not raise kids I mean you might have one park ranger who might
be raising you know her family there that's not settling Mars okay I mean
that that's that comes with the territory being a park ranger what if we
lived under the surface and we used local Martian resources would that be
better of course a cave is a really exciting environment on the moon of Mars
because you are shielded from high-energy ionizing radiation from the
galaxies and from deep space and from the Sun you are also shielded from micro
meteorite impacts you are shielded from the ultraviolet light and the Mars it's
800 times more intense than on the earth because there's no ozone a study by
beagle to a Mars probe found that below 190 nanometers waves heading to Mars
were blocked Arzo the atmosphere was rarefied but it
was enough that it would block UV radiation below 190 nanometers but
above that not so much and UVC and UVB radiation would fall above that so if
you were on Mars as an astronaut and somehow exposed your skin to the Sun
you'd get a gnarly sunburn because there wouldn't be enough atmosphere to stop
all of that high-energy from hitting your skin and of course over a very
short period of time it would damage your DNA so you've heard four you've
heard against but let's wrap it up should we go to Mars or not hey it's
Ariel here again the rationales for putting humans in space are actually
really fascinating and the conclusion was that there are pragmatic rationales
and there are aspirational rationales the pragmatic rationales
to the economy national security inspiration of students things of that
nature you know science development on the aspirational side however if we need
to become a multiplanetary species to survive or it's our shared human destiny
to explore then human spaceflight provides something unique the conclusion
though was that it was the combination of the aspirational rationales with the
pragmatic rationales that argues for a continuation of human spaceflight and
that no one rationale was better than another and no one rationale garnered
majority of support we can be a multi-planet culture and species by
having footholds on all these places but without kidding ourselves that
necessarily everywhere we go we need to turn that into a home because well we
just haven't even done that on the earth there are some places that are more
pleasant than others but maybe you're watching this in your thinking honestly
I'm still confused about the whole rocket stuff humne I feel you this is
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by the way if you're learning and you're like huh that's really cool so I think I
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plus if you try it you support me too okay but let's head back okay so
according to Pascal Li and Ariel Mars is out
Mars is good for science but not great for living I mean not for now for long
term living we would need to figure out how to stop cosmic rays where to live
how to get stuff up there and not to mention the psychological aspects of
never being able to go outside at all you can't feel a breeze that wasn't
moved by a fan or a person walking by you maybe not the best but that doesn't
mean we have to not go to Mars I think Mars is still valuable as a research
base as maybe even a national park but right now maybe we should think about
something just a little closer right if we are toddlers in the world of space
exploration let's not try and go to the next bedroom over let's just explore the
room we have and that means going to the moon could we live there forever you'll
have to find out more next time make sure you subscribe for all of the
episodes in this series we're halfway through that was episode 3 next is
episode 4 about living on the moon and then we get to Episode five and that's
gonna be big so make sure you subscribe again I am trace thank you so much for
tuning in to this series I'm leaving earth and I will see you in the future