WEBVTT - Over the Moon 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.680 Works dot com. Hey, whatnot the stuff to Blow your Mind? 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.680 My name is Robert Lamb and Julie Douglas. Julie, what 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.480 is What is your relationship with the moon? Hell about it? Yeah? 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.160 Don't you? Well no, maybe I should. Maybe it would 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:25.920 you could do to get in touch with my primal 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.360 self when never when you see a full moon, you 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.960 just ever scream up at the sky la la la, 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.680 and then start howling. No, I guess when I see 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.240 the see the full moon, I my hit just runs 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.280 with some of those uh you know, logical theories about 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:44.720 the moon making everyone crazier and bringing out the teen wolves. 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.560 Well possibly between wolves. Yeah, pregnant ladies going to the 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.400 labor teenager is turning into wolves. It's weird. I don't 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:57.000 actually buy into any the supernatural ideas about the influence 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.680 of them of the moon over human behavior, but I 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.400 still kind of buy into it at an almost subconscious level. 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.080 Like I end up, it ends up moving around in 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.080 the back of my mind anytime I see a full moon. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.319 I think it's because it's one of those really primal 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.480 things where that relationship where you look up and you're like, Wow, 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.880 it's just it's, you know, this big luminous light in 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.400 the night sky, and you know, our ancestors thought a 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:22.640 lot about it, and we'll talk a little bit more 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.480 about that, but um, we're kind of looking at this 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:30.760 topic the moon and thinking of it in terms of 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:35.039 of a corporation. You know, we're we're Earth Ink and 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.280 we've got that moon. It's one of our subsidiary. Because 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.120 we're jerks like that, right, we think that we are 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.920 just the center of everything, and so we're looking at 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:49.240 all of our assets here in the milky Way and saying, 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.600 you know, what can we do here to increase our 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.960 earthly profits? And of course we set our sights on 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.600 that glowing orb in the night sky to say, I 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:02.000 hope you're not thinking of letting the men go, because 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.080 it's it's a very important subsidiary. If we're going to 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.120 discuss it's it's not just it's we're not we're not 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:12.400 losing money on this investment, the totally delivering. It's more like, 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.080 how could we make the moon more productive for us? 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.239 And what sort of resources and outputs could we nudge 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.080 from it? Right, And when we can talk more about 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.600 we can kind of review its resume here in a 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:25.919 minute and kind of see what it's been doing for us, 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.400 and then maybe what else it could produce for it. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.360 But let's talk about this idea that the Moon is 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.760 really our companion in orbit. Well, first of all, where 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.239 the Moon come from? Right, what's the the origin story 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.760 on the Moon. Well, the leading origin theory right now 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.040 is that a Mars sized body collided with her at 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.160 approximately four point five billion years ago, and then the 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.679 resulting debris from both the Earth and this uh alien 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:58.000 sphere accumulated all right to form this big molten Moon, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.839 which um over the course of time cools down um 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.080 most of the magma ocean crystallizes, with the less dense 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.639 rocks floating upward and eventually forming the lunar crust. Okay, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.919 so essentially like a big glob of the Earth came 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.200 off and then combined with other materials out there to 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.560 form the Moon. Yeah, and the Earth is unique among 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.520 terrestrial planets and having a large satellite. This Moon, which 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.160 relative to the Earth, has the largest mass of any 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:31.079 satellite parent system. And this is really important because we'll 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.840 talk about this relationship between the Moon and the Earth. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.080 But it has really set us up for success here 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:42.120 on this planet because as a result of its orbiting 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:46.240 around us and it's coming it's materials coming from the Earth. Uh. 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.960 The subsequent evolution of the Earth and the emergence and 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.640 development of life has been strongly influenced by the presence 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.720 of the Moon. But certainly it's not the only moon 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.000 in our solar system. Jupiter has a number of moons, 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.000 but but none of the Jovian moons, even several of them, 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:06.640 are incredibly fascinating and important to our understan evolving understanding 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.920 of of the cosmos. They're not as essential, uh in 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.240 their relationship with their host planet. And uh and and 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.560 that's really to your point. The remarkable thing about our 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.000 moon is that it's a very important subsidiary. It is, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.040 and of course the Sun is as well, but we're 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.680 not discussing the Sun today, and the Sun talking about 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.200 egos and this corporate structure of the Sun is pretty 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.360 big there. Um. But you know, we often overlook the moon. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.560 And let's take out the the resume of the moon, 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.839 because there's some really very powerful stuff here. A stabilizing 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:42.000 factor for the axis of rotation of the Earth, basically 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.000 ensuring that the difference and heating between the poles of 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.279 the Earth and the equator is sufficient to promote healthy 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.920 and diverse range of climates without veering off into one 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.440 extreme or another. So if you look at Mars, for instance, 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.080 and you see that that rotational access has um changed 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.240 and spanned from thirteen to forty degrees over the last 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.120 tense twenty million years, this causes really unpredictable swings and 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:12.320 fluctuations of climate. And this instability, of course is not 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.440 good for life. Right. So the Moon basically brings a 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.160 lot of stability. In fact, you could say as a 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.160 as a a corporation kind of speak, it brings a 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:26.960 a a culture of stability to the overall Earth environment. Exactly. 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.640 It is a stabilizing force and hippie speak, it is 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.040 our big satellite of love out there. Now. The other 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.560 big area, of course, is it's it's impact on the tides, 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.720 and this is something that we've creates tidal patterns that 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.560 promotes the the alteration and the migration of organisms from 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.400 one environment to the other. It, I mean, just the 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.480 remarkable aspect of the tides to both reveal and then 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.800 uh and then flood areas, you know, creating these Uh, 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.720 these transient areas for life to flourish in. It is 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.799 pretty remarkable in and of itself, right, is basically seeding life, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.599 spreading it over the planet. Now, as I look at 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.880 the Moon's resume, I see a third point here, a 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.039 third bullet point, and it's pretty huge. Um. It says 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.120 it helped to establish a twenty eight day period of 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:18.200 observable differences in light emittance, establishing a reliable rhythm for 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.320 early humans to create complex systems by which depend the 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:26.600 concept of time too. And it says my existence ability 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.720 to reflect the Sun's light in orbit helped to create 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:34.320 conceptual calendar systems, seasons, best agricultural practices, not to mention 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.719 greatly influencing navigation explorations, and mythology, including the one about 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.159 the Moon being made out of cheese. Yeah, you really 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.279 can't overstate the importance of the moon for uh, just 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:50.560 our basic understanding of celestial mechanics of our even earliest 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.240 stages of beginning to understand that the cycles in our 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.720 immediate universe. I was actually reading a little bit about 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.520 eclipses the other week. Espectually, I was interested in uh, 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.719 in ancient Indian ideas of eclipse as well as as 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.960 ancient Indian astronomy, because you see this, you know this 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.480 sort of on one hand, you have religious and and 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.320 mythic ideas of what's going on with an eclipse is 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.160 perhaps the decapitated head of a fallen ostra trying to 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.440 consume the sun and or the moon. Um well, there's 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.960 that idea. But then also you had early Indian astronomers 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.720 who were really figuring out exactly how eclipse has worked 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:31.920 and uh and and exactly how the Sun and the 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.480 moon and the Earth are are are playing with each 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.320 other in these in these amazing phenomena. Yeah. So you 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.600 have all of these um this mythologies, these narratives that 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.040 are just rich tapestries of different cultures. And then you 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.080 have something like the Farmer's Almanac, which is at a 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.000 very basic level just this this sort of like, hey, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.560 this is how you grow your crops the best way, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:59.280 but it is absolutely dedicated to the moon, this almanac. Yeah, 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.480 because you have all theseferent cycles of the moon and 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:03.400 uh and the not not only I mean you get 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.120 into all the weird moons too, because there's there's the 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.520 there's the basic full moon and half moon, etcetera. But 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.600 then you get into. Yeah, then you get into all 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.360 these like strangely colored moons and the different harvest uh, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.960 you know, letting you know it if a sailors should 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.960 take warning or not. We just get really rich in 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.880 our attempts to just almost psychoanalyze what the moon is 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.240 doing and what the Moon is trying to do to 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.680 the planet. All we're gonna take quick break and we 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.480 get back. We're gonna talk about harnessing the energy of 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:44.400 the Moon, changing some of this duties. All right, we're back. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.280 We are reviewing the Moon. We're reviewing its potential to 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.120 the Earth Corporation, all the stuff that it is doing already, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.680 but also the places in its schedule where we could 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.880 conceivably insert more duties, more work to make us an 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.120 overall stronger company. Yeah. I was just looking at the 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.520 review that Earth Inc. Handed down, and it says the 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:07.960 candidate has proven over billions of years to be a 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.640 stabilizing influence for the foreseeable future, at least for the 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.400 next two billion years. Candidate is expected to continue supporting 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.720 efforts to maintain life on Earth in a fairly consistent manner. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.959 As a result, candidate may have extra time and resources 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.839 to offer. Yeah, we get into this area of things 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.000 that we have done to the moon, things that we 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:28.720 are doing to the moon, and things that we would 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.000 like to do to the moon. Uh, to get more 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.120 out of it. Now. Of course, we've been through the 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.720 phase of lunar exploration where we've send sent machines there, 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.320 we've sent men there, we put a flag on it. Yeah, 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:45.640 we uh. At one point with Project A one nineteen, Uh, 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.920 this is pretty amazing, we actually considered detonating a nuclear 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.600 weapon on the lunar surface in order to see how 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.920 the mushroom cloud would expand and contract in a low 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.199 gravity setting. And even more interesting, this was a United 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.960 States Air Force planned by the way cold war scheme. 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.079 Even more interesting, though, a young Carl Sagan was a 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.760 part of the project. Uh, the very man who would 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.520 go on to champion nuclear disarmament and the dangers of 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.360 nuclear winter. And he even tried to use his research 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.080 from the project to acquire an academic fellowship, possibly breaching 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:20.040 natural national security in the process. Wow. So you know, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.360 he gotta wonder if he tried to get involved in it. 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.600 So he'd be like, hey, guys, this this terrible idea. 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:30.079 I know it shows the sort of pyrotechnics that we can, 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.600 you know, put forth towards the Soviet Union and try 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.040 to scare him during the Cold War. But really bad, 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.920 bad idea, I think. I think that's possible. Also, I 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:40.959 can't help but but but think it might be a 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.360 situation where saying his thinking that is a horrible idea. 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.040 But if we're gonna do it, it's pretty cool. So 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:48.960 I would like to be a part of it. I mean, 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.440 if someone's gonna nuke the moon and it'll then at 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.000 least let me get in on the science of it. 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.240 Let's at least nuke it, right people. Yeah, And you know, 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:57.040 I can't help but think about him in a turtle 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.000 kneck as a young man and m now I'm thinking 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:00.960 about him as a baby, the turtleneck, like he was 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.679 born with the turn neck, like a baby saging like 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.360 a muppet baby Sagan. Yeah, all right, that is completely irrelevant. 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.360 Let's get back to this moon. How do we put 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.360 it to work? Well, one of the big areas, of course, 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.960 is can we get energy from the moon. That's and 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:17.959 there are a few different answers to that, but one 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.760 of the the more readily available ideas here is we 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.160 have the Moon up there in orbit, and it's exposed 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:29.640 to a lot of sunlight, so we're just reflecting it. Yeah, 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.480 it's not really doing anything. It's just sunlight bouncing off 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.360 the Moon. But what if we could harness that energy, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.840 use the Moon to harness sunlight, and then send it 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.280 back to Earth. It's brilliant, right because here here on 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.640 Earth we're having problems with us, right, like how are 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.520 we going to really service our future energy needs? And 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.080 we do need to think about this in creative ways. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.520 So someone came up in an extremely creative way to 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.079 deal with this, and it's called a solar belt. And 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.599 this was or this is a plan as being championed 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:06.240 by the Shimizu Corporation. We're talking about installing on the 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:10.360 surface of the Moon via a massive twelve mile wide, 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.840 six hundred mile long lunar ring of solar panels. Yeah, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.320 it's pretty amazing looking. Essentially, you would look up into 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.080 the night sky and on a on a good night 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.200 when you could really see the Moon, you would look 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.040 like it's wearing a crazy disco belt. Because because this, 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.400 the strip of solar panels would go all the way around, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:35.080 uh the equator, and it would and and The idea 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:39.040 here is that you'd have a thirteen thousand tara wats 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.640 of continuous energy sent to from the Moon to receiving 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.400 stations around the Earth, and then it's distributed to the 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:47.680 power of you know, the power the population to power 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.600 all the stuff that we have to charge up. And uh, 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.439 they think that we could begin construction on this by 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.160 five if we if we really wanted it. Yeah, And 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.560 the plan here in addition to this is that um, 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.439 the corporation can develop robots that will mind the Moon's 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.439 natural resources to produce the concrete and the solar cells 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.320 some of the materials that they're going to use there. 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.600 So that gets into this whole idea of like, well, 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.800 that's right, the Moon does have a couple of resources 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.160 to mine, doesn't it. Yeah. The building material thing alone 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.800 is interesting because because, as as they point out, water 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.000 can be produced by reducing a lunar soil with hydrogen 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.079 that is imported from the Earth, and then submitting material 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.040 can also be extracted from the lunar sources resources. So 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.199 suddenly you have concrete, you have bricks, you have you 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.080 can essentially build yourself all the buildings and infrastructure you 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.800 need right out of the lunar surface. Right, you don't 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.000 have to bring your legos with you. The legos are 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.440 there essentially. Yeah, of course you're gonna need machines to 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.080 do that, and you're gonna need machines to continue to 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.160 care for what you've built, because the Moon is a 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.480 pretty harsh and bombarded surface for a reason. So so 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.040 if you build a massive disco belt, you're gonna need 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.280 not only the robot to build it, throw us to 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.800 maintain it and uh and deal with any of the 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.120 holes that emerge there over time. Indeed, now, one of 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.439 the things that NASA is working on is a little 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.800 plan with private corporations because as we know, they have 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.200 a mandate not to spend any more money on the Moon, right, 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.120 so how are they doing this? Uh, they are working 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:23.520 with Bigelow Aerospace to develop a commercial sector which would 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.000 be involved with them, and is especially focused on plans 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:31.120 to build a lunar base and mind the moon for 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:35.720 helium three as well as rare earth metals. Yes, the 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.520 helium three, of course is important, not because we need 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.480 to fill up a bunch of balloons here on Earth, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.320 but by because mainly because helium through would play a 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:48.440 vital role in nuclear fusion power. Helium three, just to remind, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.400 everybody has two protons but only one neutron, and when 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:56.160 it's heated to really high temperatures and combined with deuterium, 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.120 which is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen, the 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.040 reaction really just an incredible amount of energy. So just 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.320 two point two pounds or one of helium three combined 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.360 with one point five pounds or zero point six seven 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.760 kilograms of deuterium produces nineteen megawatt years of energy. Roughly 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.640 twenty five tons of the stuff could power the United 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.640 States for an entire year. That's nuts, right, Yeah. The 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:22.320 other side of that is that the Moon has tons 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.040 of it, not so with Earth. Indeed, actually there are 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.400 seventeen chemicals in the periodic table that are an increased 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.600 demand because they're heavily using everyday electronics. So if you 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.960 look at that lunar soil, it is rich in these 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:39.680 coveted rare Earth elements and the moon could provide those. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.960 So again it makes sense to kind of look at 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.680 and say, so you're up there, you're stabilizing us, thanks 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.440 a lot, but we're not just gonna step on you 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.840 and and take a peek at what some of your 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.520 soil is composed of. We're actually going to put you 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:55.720 to work here. Yeah. And the really the great thing 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.000 about about some of these plans we're discussing here is 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.120 that ultimately the goal of NASA and sort of the 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.000 goal of humanity's efforts in space, it's to get that 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:10.080 foothold on the Moon, to explore Mars, to get to Mars, 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.520 to get more robots and hopefully people on Mars and 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:16.840 then bring them back again. But to do that, you've 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:18.520 got to you've got to build up, and you've got 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.200 to build out. And what better way to get boots 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.560 on the ground, on our boots on the lunar ground, uh, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:27.720 than to have there be a profit in the mix 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.120 their minerals energy. Yeah. And uh, NASA is not just 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.160 looking at the actual Moon itself, but also asteroids. And 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:38.960 we've talked about this before a couple of ideas about 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.440 how to ensnare an asteroid one because it could be 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.720 a threat, it could be in the orbit orbit and 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.000 coming right out of us UM. But in this scenario, 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.640 NASA is looking at building a robotic spacecraft to grab 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.360 a small asteroid and then place it in a higher 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.400 lunar orbit where they can kind of look at it 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.280 a little bit more of the asteroid itself and um, 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.600 and then kind of dock it over on the Moon 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.760 after they put a huge bag around it. I'm not 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:07.840 kidding this. These are the descriptors, like, we're going to 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.200 take this giant bag and then bag it and haul 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.159 it over to the Moon where they can mind the 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.960 asteroids as well. Yeah, it's it's This is a great 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.040 idea because in the same way that the the ultimate 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.600 goal is to say, explore the cosmos, get to Mars, etcetera, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.560 the larger goal here would be let's develop and perfect 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.040 a way to deal with near Earth objects that pose 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.440 a risk to our planet. Uh. But in the to 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.639 get us there, well, let's harvest the asteroids and and 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.480 then in the process we're also studying and we're learning 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.440 more about them, we're developing our means to catch them. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.720 And somebody can make a buck or two off of me. Yeah, 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.360 and that's always kneel the grass. Tyson's argument for going 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.120 to the moon right, like, hey, don't abandon it. This 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.120 is a really great set up for us to try 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.680 to figure out best practices elsewhere in the universe. And 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.000 also to have resources. Yeah, I was really thinking about 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.760 our past conversations of Neil yesterday because I heard part 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.440 of a Fresh Air interview with him um during a 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:06.800 Pledge drive for NPR yesterday, and I was thinking back 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:08.800 to our conversations with him, And then I thought about 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.520 our recent episodes about Future Shock, uh by the book 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.320 by Alvin Toffler, which which really of course drives home 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.040 the idea that that no technology happens in a vacuum. 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.840 When new technology comes around it it changes us. It 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.359 changes culture, that changes the way we think about things 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.439 and the way we think about ourselves and what and 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.280 what we're going after and uh and Tyson seems to 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.680 to really push that idea as well, that that it's 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.679 not just it's not just about oh, let's develop this rocket. 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.000 It's in developing that rocket, other technologies spin off of it. 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.960 It changes that the mindset of the people who build it, 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.680 the mindset of the culture responsible for exploration and innovation. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.959 Oh gosh, I mean half of home Depot's items wouldn't 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.760 exist without NASSA. If you think about the cordless drill, 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.680 you know it did not come about because people were like, hey, 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.359 it would be great if we had this cordless thing. 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.439 It was really trying to figure out pragmatically how to 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.520 do things um in space and do them in a 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.080 way that made sense. So yeah, I mean there's all 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.280 these sort of benefits, these indirect benefits that flow out 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.440 that you don't really have a grasp of what those 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:14.000 are going to be until that technology is in place. Yeah, 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.520 and with a lot of these efforts, it's it's more 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:18.280 about that. It feels like it's more of a definitely 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.919 a dangled carrot as opposed to residual effects. It's instead 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:24.080 of like a bunch of little residual effects saying here's 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.320 the big one. Look at all this energy to be gained. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.280 Let's get up there. Yeah, and any sort of moon mining, 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.639 asteroid mining, of course you're gonna have to and we 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:34.520 had a whole episode on this, but you're still going 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.480 to have to consider space junk and the removal of that. 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:39.919 So in a way, this could be a boon to 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.680 those concerns that people have that mining uh the Moon 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:48.520 would just create more and more debris or stripping of 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.400 resources as we have seen here on Earth. The actual 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:57.320 pursuit of mining really does necessitate a pretty big degree 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.920 of responsibility on our part. You know, as we're reviewing 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:05.280 the moon's performance here, I do have one critique. I 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.120 think the moon could dress it up a little bit more. 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:10.840 We do have a dress code here at ear. Think, uh, 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:15.520 could the moon lighten its appearance a bit, make itself 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.000 a little more shiny in the night sky and thus 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.119 a little more illuminating. You know what's crazy about that 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.120 is that when the moon is only it's full brightness, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.320 it appears to our eyes as being like half is bright. 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.160 So I don't know, I think the moon, to play 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.400 devil's advocate, might turn around to us and say, ah, 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.920 but if you guys could just enhance your visual systems, 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.400 you could see how hard I am working to be 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.000 bright for you. Well, that's all well and good. But 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.959 the Fourio Institute they have another idea, of course, and 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.000 this is this is why you know, I started looking 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.800 at this. I was awfully skeptical, because the idea is, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.199 let's make the moon brighter so that there's more so 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.400 that our nights are brighter, that we can cut down 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.359 on our energy usage of or street lamps and what 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.359 have you. So, I mean, you think about natural sunlight 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:05.560 streaming into your windows, right, and how you don't have 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.560 to always put on the lights. Yeah, basically that this 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.000 is directly from the four Other Institute's pitch for this. 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.480 They say the four Institute has found an extremely smart 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.280 and feasible solution that can deliver enormous results to address 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.119 the global energy crisis. Nobody has ever considered that a 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.520 small transformation of the moon face is possible by increasing 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.199 the reflectivity of sunlight, that can bring the equivalent of 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.879 four extra nights of having a full moon. Combined with 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.400 smart street lighting sensors are used to dim or completely 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.280 power off lights when not needed. Uh. This will dramatically 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.080 cut the world's energy consumption. And so the ideas you're 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.520