WEBVTT - Environmental Sensors in Space Travel 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.440 Forward Thinking either and welcome to Forward Thinking, the podcast 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:16.880 that looks of the future and says, sailors fighting in 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.599 the dance hall. Oh man, look at those caben go. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.520 I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Focaban, and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.799 So today we're going to be answering a question that 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.240 came in from a podcast listener via Facebook. Yeah, Benjamin 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.519 wrote to us and said, I have a question. In 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.760 the movie Mission to Mars and a lot of other 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.960 sci fi movies, the characters have a special device built 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.479 in their suit to analyze and display the composition of 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.879 their surroundings or the atmosphere composition. I would like to 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.840 know if such a device already exists or not yet. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.720 So good question, Benjamin, And actually the answer was not 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.520 as straightforward as I would have thought. I thought I 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.880 could just google this and and be like, Yep, there 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.280 it is. You know, we've already talked about the Star 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.920 Trek tricorder, which we were talking specifically about. It's it's 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.120 medical uses, right, the ability to scan a patient for 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.080 potential illnesses or injury. Right, but of course what the 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.959 tricorder can also do is after you've beamed down to 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.200 a planet and you're standing there with no helmet on, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.560 it will tell you if you can breathe the air right, 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:23.080 which is important information that you probably should have gathered 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.760 before beaming down. Well, well that's the other cool thing. 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:27.800 And stuff like Star Trek they can they can, you know, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.240 roll on up to a planet and say, like analyze 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.760 the atmosphere, and then they'll come back with this detailed 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:39.199 analysis instantaneously of exactly what is composing this planet. Probably 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.399 also give you Nielsen ratings for what the indigenous population 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.680 of that planet are watching at any given time. The 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.600 Star Trek technology is is pure magic. This planet is 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:54.760 still stuck in reality TV. Keep going. Okay, so Warp 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:59.840 twenty the prime directive holds sway in such situations. Okay, 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:02.800 So I figure we should sort of expand the question 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:07.600 a little bit, not just about analyzing the atmospheric composition, 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:13.720 but generally the state of institute environmental sensors, the kinds 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.560 of things that can tell you the conditions on an 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.079 alien surface or a planet, any place astronauts might want 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:24.000 to go and generally answer the question should I take 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.520 my suit off or would that be a bad idea? 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.440 All right, and you watched this movie, so you can 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:32.920 actually see how the sensors are being used. Right. I 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:34.520 was thinking one of you might have seen it, but 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:36.760 neither of you have seen it. Right now, Okay, So 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.720 Mission to Mars was a Brian de Palma's sci fi 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.600 thriller that came out in the year two thousand and 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.359 it was I believe, part of a spate of Mars movies. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.359 That other one with Val Kilmer I think it's called 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.079 Red Planet. It's the same sort of thing we see 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.120 in Hollywood all the time, right where you you see 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.519 a batch of films that are all more or less 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.360 looking at the same kind kind of ideas. Yeah, that 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.960 kind of confluence of theme that I'm never sure whether 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.080 it's purposeful or competitive or I have a feeling it's 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:08.959 one of those things where they hear, oh, such and 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.480 such studio as making a volcano movie, will will make 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.840 a volcano movie. So yeah, all of these Mars movies 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.680 from two thousand got pretty terrible reviews. But do you 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:21.880 think it was justified? Well, I don't want to get 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.000 too far into my own opinion. I will say that 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.080 I did find some things about the movie kind of funny, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.560 such as that I don't know, maybe this is really 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.359 the case at some point, but the like Mars exploration 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.880 vehicles had you know, product logos on them. They said, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.640 like Pin's Oil and Kawasaki not if we're going the 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.640 route of the Mars one colony. That seems like it 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.240 could actually happen. Well, you know, honestly, I mean, like 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.240 if it lets us get more space exploration in there, 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.800 I'm for it, Like like like NASA, Like why aren't 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.040 we doing this? You're emerging NASA and NASCAR, so you 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:00.600 have like the slim Jim Landers, the Budweiser buggy. Yeah, 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.000 I'm okay with it. I think it would be great. 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.560 I honestly, that's one thing that I don't think is 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.440 that far fetched considering the privatization of space exploration, right, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.120 But who's there to look at it? I mean, I 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.280 guess if you're filming the whole thing anyway, anyway, we 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.160 should move on because this isn't a brand extension. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.120 I think it's more of your problem that like Penn's 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.479 Oil is the wrong sponsor. It should be like dippin 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.640 dots the space ice cream or something. Honestly, guys Mors 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:31.080 is an untapped market. Yeah, so issues of plot and 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.720 characterization asides. A lot of critics had problems with it. Strangely, 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.719 I think I read that it was kind of popular 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.400 among a lot of French critics. But here's the basic 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.880 plot of the movie. There is one Mars expedition. It's 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.560 the first manned mission to Mars, and the characters go 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.000 there and they're doing some science. They're attempting to begin 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:54.800 a colonization effort, and something goes horribly wrong. There's a 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.520 second team that is sent as part of a rescue mission, 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:02.200 and that's the basic set up of the story. Got okay, 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.320 So I figured it would be good to go roughly 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.599 in order because I was taking some notes while I 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.400 was watching the movie about different environmental sensing moments in 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.520 the film, and one of the first things I noticed 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.279 that I thought was kind of interesting was that early 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.000 in the movie, there's a part where they use a 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.520 passing satellite that's in orbit around Mars to scan for 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.560 radiation levels at a base camp on the surface of 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.720 the planet. And I thought, but before we even get 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.719 to the in suit sensors, that was an interesting question 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:33.919 to me alone, is that possible? Can you scan for 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:39.080 radiation on the surface from orbit? Now, there's some issues 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.080 I have. First of all, you have to define radiation 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.120 because radiation on its own could mean lots of different stuff, right, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.240 I mean, I guess if they're looking for harmful radiation, 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.000 they're looking at nuclear radiation. But largely when we talk 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.960 about radiation, we're talking about electromagnetic radiation. A lot of 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.880 that you could pick up remotely because you could have 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:03.560 sensors that detect various electromagnetic radiation levels. You know, there 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:04.719 are a lot of ways you could do that with 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:06.960 a satellite. I guess what they're they're probably thinking of 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:12.080 is ionizing radiation, right, That is trickier. Um, So you 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:18.159 there are ways you could remotely since radiation, either directly 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.120 or indirectly, But most of the ones I am familiar 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:26.279 with are more immediate to sense radiation, Like like it's 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.520 more of a of a device you wear in order 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.360 that will alert you when you start to encounter dangerous 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.760 levels of radiation. Yeah, yeah, it's it's an even from 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.719 a few feet away. In most cases, it's it's anything 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.440 that is directly interacting with your sensor. Right there. Yeah, exactly, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.440 you have to be pretty close and we'll give some 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.920 reasons for that. First of all, radiation is caused by 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:50.120 nuclear decay or you can have cosmic radiation, so that 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.120 you know, this will cause substances to give off these 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.560 high energy particles. And that's the kind of nuclear radiation 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.560 way think of when we think, you know, the dangerous 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.680 stuff that that could give you radio asian poisoning. Uh. Now, 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.200 cosmic radiation alone is really dangerous, and we've talked about 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.200 how if you were on Mars you would be prone 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:13.680 to because they don't have Mars, they the planet. Those 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.640 people on Mars, they don't They don't have the benefit 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:23.920 of a magnetosphere, a magnetic field that would repel cosmic radiation, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.600 nor do they have a strong enough or a thick 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:31.400 enough atmosphere to help absorb that energy. So yeah, people 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.800 who astronauts who would be on the surface of Mars 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.480 would be vulnerable to this kind of radiation already. So 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.239 presumably they're not scanning for that because they would already 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:46.520 be aware of the potential for encounters with cosmic radiation. Now, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.080 if we're talking about nuclear radiation, do we you know 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.040 here on Earth we would use something like a Geiger counter. 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.720 Um and there is always a level of background radiation. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.080 When you're on Earth. You're always exposed to radiation everywhere. 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:04.920 I mean, there's there's certain things that are in the 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.680 atmosphere that are radioactive. But life evolved on Earth in 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.080 this environment, which means that we have a certain capacity 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.560 to deal with radiation naturally. It's when those levels go 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.040 beyond that background level where we start to encounter problems. 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.600 Right when we start to have larger doses of radiation 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.360 that can be harmful. But if you're working, let's say 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:30.960 in a granite building, you actually are working in an 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.200 area that has a higher level of background radiation than 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.760 someone who works and say a log cabin. Because granite 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.120 is slightly radioactive. Now we built these things, you know 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.320 it is, yes, and also it's not dangerously radioactive like 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.600 bigger hunks of of uranium in there or plutonium. Then yes, 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.800 then you've got some other issues to worry about. Maybe 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.240 you need to look into that quarry. But at any rate, 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:59.040 we now have these devices Geiger counters that are really isful. 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.680 Geiger owners detect radiation. They have an inert gas inside 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.960 a tube, so the gas itself normally has no charge. 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:13.240 When that gas encounters something one of these high energy particles, uh, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.840 like even a high energy photon, the gas begins to 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.200 ionize and conduct an electrical charge. But that doesn't sound 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.160 like that would work at a distance, especially from orbit. No, 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.000 this is something that you would have to be close 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.000 enough for those high energy particles to affect that that gas. 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:32.280 And there are different types of radiation, and some of 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.959 them travel really long distances and some of them don't. 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:39.240 So for example, gamma radiation, that's this really high energy 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.040 radiation that can travel quite a long way. We're talking 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.480 like gamma rays, X rays. That sort of stuff falls 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.959 into this category, uh that you know you could scan 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.800 for from a distance. Actually you wouldn't have to be 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.640 right there to find it. But alpha radiation and beta radiation, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:59.040 which are also hazardous at least potentially hazardous. You they 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.600 don't those those and ie particles don't travel very far. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.360 We're talking a few feet in the case of alpha radiation, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.760 We're talking inches less than a foot, and it's still 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.160 very hazardous stuff. You don't want to come into contact 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:11.800 with it. You certainly don't want to breathe it in. 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.320 But you wouldn't be able to detect it directly with 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:21.760 a Geiger counter until you were right there. Yeah, nowation 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.800 fries exactly. Now there are there's some other things we 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.240 should mention. Alpha radiation is pretty low energy. It doesn't 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.040 have enough energy to penetrate the skin. However, if you 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.520 were to breathe it in, yeah you don't, you could 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.920 cause massive problems for you. Any kind of way of 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.960 bringing it into your body. You've got some serious issues. Um. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.400 Beta radiation can penetrate a little more than alpha radiation can. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:50.360 But still, if you have a decent kind of space suit, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.240 you would be protected from this sort of stuff. Um, 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.000 and a guy your counter would alert you to the 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.080 presence of that kind of stuff too, so you would know, 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.040 all right, I don't want to once once the meter 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.960 starts clicking, uh, beyond a certain level, you know that 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.160 you don't want to go any further in that direction 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.120 because it's bad times for you. But again, really tricky 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.080 to detect remotely because these these particles aren't traveling very far. 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.800 So how do you detect the presence? Maybe you don't 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.520 look for the direct evidence. Maybe you look for indirect evidence. Ah, yeah, 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:25.160 I've seen some research that's working on getting more distant 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.760 detection of this kind of stuff by by looking for 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.560 say like free electrons in the air due to gamma 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.840 radiation or due to ultraviolet air molecules caused by fluorescing 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.360 nitrogen atoms due to alpha radiation UM. The hitches that 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.800 we're still talking about really short distances, like maybe four 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.280 meters that's about thirteen feet for that gamma radiation, and 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.680 maybe fourty centimeters that's like sixteen inches for for the 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:54.280 alpha radiation UM and and the other double bind here 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.559 is that would probably need to know the atmospheric composition 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.760 in order to make that detection work. Now, for something 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.640 like the actual planet of Mars, knowing the atmospheric composition 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.480 isn't that big of a deal because we've already got 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.600 instruments down there so we know about it. But if 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.520 we're talking about this, this hypothetical situation in which we're 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.400 rolling up on a planet and going like, Wesley, tell 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.079 me how much nitrogen this planet has in its atmosphere, 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:23.079 that's a little trickier. Right, Well, that's a good transition 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.280 to our next point. So I'd say, with the remote 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.200 sensing of radiation, the point right now would be that 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.600 we don't know how that would be done. Maybe there 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.720 is a way, I don't know, but we haven't found it. 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.680 But when it comes to the surface of the planet, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.240 we get a lot more specific with the kind of 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.880 things we're looking for. So imagine you are an astronaut 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.960 walking around on the surface of Mars. Say you're Gary Sneeze. 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.840 I'm usually gee sometimes I am too. And you find 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.440 a cavern or something like that, and you want and 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.840 you go inside it, and you say, I wonder if 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.160 now that I'm in this cavern or enclosed area, the 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.160 conditions are safe for me to take my helmet off 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.840 and just just experience the fun of breathing in a 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.640 fresh breath of Mars. So so somehow this cavern has 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.560 has got a pocket of breathable atmosphere. Might let's say, okay, 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.280 good point. Let's reimagine this and say it's in fact 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.480 a room that was previously part of an astronaut's habitat, 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.440 And now you don't know if the conditions inside this 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.320 habitat have been maintained properly, and you don't know if 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.840 it's safe to remove your helmet and get a fresh 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.679 breath of you know, a couple of years old. Astronaut 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.240 b oh, right, you don't have you don't have necessarily 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.679 working computer systems in the environment that would tell you 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.240 what the levels at least should be. Let's let's say 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.960 that you're completely blind in this situation as far as 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.199 what the conditions are, right, So there would be a 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.840 bunch of things you need to check for, right. Yeah. 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.959 One of the main ones would be the gases present 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.240 in the atmosphere and the pressure at which they're present. Well, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.320 I think we'll get to that one more in the 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.520 last part, because that's sort of the big question. Other 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.680 things that that I see happening in the movie Mission 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.480 to Mars that they're testing our temperature for one thing 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.880 that takes the temperature in the suit. That seems like 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:19.000 a pretty easy one. Pretty the thermometers are really useful. 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.920 They are They're pretty common. You can you can send 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.520 that information directly to a digital readout. It will show 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.560 up on the little screen on Gary Sinie's wrist and 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.920 he says, ah, yes, it is twenty five degrees c. 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.520 That is that is fine. Now if if I'm not 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.800 Gary sineee, but I still have his wrist, is that 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.680 still did you cut off his wrist. And let's just 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:44.360 say that I like into my possession. I'm not a 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.560 very nice ass. Don't necessarily mean that I remove the wrist, 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.440 but somehow I have it. I think this is why 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.080 you're not allowed to go to Mars. That's fair, Okay? 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:58.240 With Gary Sinee specifically, For example, there are parts in 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:03.280 the movie where they have an instrument that say checks 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.800 for radiation and then checks I made notes here, also 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:12.600 seismic and they mentioned the phrase anonometer steady one of 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.000 those things. Even all right, well, I can answer some 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.920 of this. So so if you're using like a rover 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:19.560 to check for these things, which I think is what 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.560 they're using, they roll a rover up to something. So 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.280 we'll get back to Gary Sinise's wrist in a minute. Okay, Yeah, 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.640 because there there's some big questions. A lot of our 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.800 conversation is going to focus on those questions, but we 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.160 wanted to save that for the end because there's a 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.080 ton of it. So if we're looking at a rover 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:39.120 sending a rover out to to get some readings for us, 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:41.280 first of all, that would make a whole lot more 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.840 sense because a rover, you know, obviously even if if 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:49.960 it should fall to some sort of of malfunction or 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.760 it is damaged in some way, it's not a person 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.680 all right, Right, rovers are pretty great canaries because you can, yes, 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.760 not have to worry about its livelihood, and they're they're 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.600 probably not going to be affected by radiation the same 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.120 way people are. It will be able to continue to operate. So, yes, 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.560 you could put instrumentation on a rover that would give 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.440 you lots of useful information. Right. So, for example, if 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.800 you wanted the rover to roll up to some feature 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.120 on the surface of Mars and check for radiation, well 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.120 we've already talked about that. It's pretty simple. You can 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.280 have a Geiger counter, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.280 would just monitor it remotely. You would have something that 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.880 would that would record the Geiger counters findings and then 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:33.280 you'd say, okay, well that spot is dangerously radioactive, we 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:38.720 should not go there. Okay. What about seismic activity, very simple, yeah, yeah, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.160 seismic activity. Essentially you're looking for movement on the ground, right, 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.520 looking for seismic waves. Yeah, So as long as the 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.400 rover has a chance to sit down for a second 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:52.440 plant plant itself, then that one's yeah, that's that One's easy. 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.640 You could have an accelerometer on there, or you could 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.320 even have one of the seizom seismometers that we tend 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.480 to use, things like and and these really pretty simple 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.000 stuff like imagine you have a suspended weight that is 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:11.160 able to move freely relative to a stable frame. Okay, Now, 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.399 when the frame starts to move, that weight will, because 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.120 of inertia, move at a different rate than the rest 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.640 of the frame. And it's through that difference that you're 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.800 able to tell how much movement is going on in 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.040 the relative environment. That's how a regular one here on 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.240 Earth would work. Uh, you might just have a digital 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.400 accelerometer on there that would detect movement. The important thing here, 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.840 like you were saying, Lauren, is the rover itself would 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.359 have to be stationary at that point. You know, you 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.240 couldn't take readings as it's moving because it would be 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.080 corrupting its own data. So assuming that you could have 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.200 it stop and planned itself nice and firmly so that 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.320 it could it could do these readings, I don't see 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.080 a problem with that one either. Okay, here's another environmental 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:57.040 datam it takes. They say anonometer steady. I didn't know 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.200 what that was. When anonometer, I'm picturing some thing that 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:07.320 looks like a scene enemy, right, Yeah, anemometer and important. 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.160 But an anemometer is is a device for measuring wind speed. Okay, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.840 so it's I mean, it's like the most basic of things. 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:16.720 Like if you've ever looked at one of those scientific 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.119 weather vanes, it tends to have a little kind of 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.240 pin wheel type thing that's uh, horizontally mounted, not vertically, 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.240 so it's got usually like little cups and that it 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.520 will spin around in a circle when the wind is blowing, 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.160 and the speed of that rotation. We end up converting 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.960 that into figuring out how hard the wind is blowing? 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.360 Wind speed is that how we we interpret that? Right, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.520 So it's essentially a conversion you do of revolutions per minute, 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.640 and then you you factor and how hard the wind 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.760 is blowing. So again, as long as you're not moving, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.720 because if you're moving forward, then you're obviously generating your 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.760 own right, right, you're moving through an atmosphere, you would 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.280 be fouling the readings. But if it were stationary, then 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.560 it could certainly take that reading. What a stable reading 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.680 would be I don't necessarily know, except to maybe say 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.639 that the wind is blowing at a continuous speed, or 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.919 maybe it was just in the script. Yeah, calling it 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.919 calling it stable is not terribly meaningful. You would need 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.200 to have a speed associate with it. You could say 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.920 no wind, but that's different from stable. Stable to me 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.920 means that it's turning at a There there are a 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:28.920 lot of lines in this movie kind of like we 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.639 are ago that we're just kind of like there's just 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.119 some just some jargon that's gone in to make it 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.240 sound science art. Okay, but we we've done our little 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.720 rover detour, sorry to tease, and then go down that road. 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.160 Now we're coming back to Gary Sinise's wrist. Well should 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.760 his wrist monitor? Right? So, as we mentioned, he can 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.840 look down at his space suit and there's little monitor 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.440 mounted on his arm that has a bunch of tabs 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.879 along it. I actually paused the movie and saw what 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.959 the different tabs were. One says oxygen, one says environment, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:07.600 and one says med, one says thrust. I don't know 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:09.480 what that's all about, and then the other one seemed 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:14.560 to be about calms. So med I assume is medical 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.119 of some kind, and we can talk about that in 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.440 a minute. Oxygen and environment. Those tabs seem to show 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:26.200 atmospheric composition outside the suit and also atmospheric pressure. So 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.840 so oxygen in this case, isn't his space suits oxygen supply? 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.520 You think? No, I mean, well, I don't know if 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.240 that might be what that tab shows, but environments certainly 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.240 would be the external environment. So yeah, because I would 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.840 my first assumption would be anything that says oxygen would 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:49.000 be the the space suits oxygen supply. Environment would be. Well, 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:53.080 anyway he's using seeing these tabs might not mean anything 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.360 at all. He'd be like they told the visual effects guy, 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:01.880 make it look technical, right, Yeah, you're rust is good? Yeah, 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.159 I don't Maybe he's like a big fan of the 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:06.919 time warp. Well they have little suit jet packs. It 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:08.600 could have something to do with that. There you go, 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:10.960 There you go. Surely no one is going to pause 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:14.360 this movie right on the screen and deconstruct on all 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:20.880 of these buttons. Anyway, take on one. It'll be great 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.439 to all use science fiction filmmakers out there, because we 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.680 will watch your movie and we will pause the screen. Okay, 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:32.600 so let's focus on those environmental conditions. This seemed to 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:35.920 be the core of what Benjamin was actually asking, so 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:41.400 things like the pressure, the temperature, all these atmospheric conditions, 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.440 and especially the composition of the gases and the environment 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.399 outside the suit. Is it feasible to have a suit 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.879 that gives readings on all these things in real time? 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.840 I think we're gonna have to get to atmospheric composition last. 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.679 But when you're talking about a lot of these conditions, 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.560 the there is definitely yes. Oh sure, yes, some of 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.280 these are are incredibly I mean, on the grand scale 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.560 of things, simple, yeah, And so obviously we have machines 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.159 on Earth that can do all these things, but the 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.600 question is could it fit on an astronaut suit and 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.080 work fast enough to operate in real time? So the 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.760 first thing I want to talk about is the pit boy. Man. 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:27.320 I love the Fallout games so much. The pit boy 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.400 is incredibly useful in those. I don't have as much 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:32.199 experience with fall I have played a little bit of 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:34.359