Speaker 1: Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland dum an, executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and I love all things tech, and today it is
Speaker 1: time for another tech stuff classic. Hey, today's topic it
Speaker 1: comes all the way from June tenth, two thousand thirteen. Wow,
Speaker 1: I was doing this all the way back then. This
Speaker 1: episode is called get your Podcast to Mars, a classic
Speaker 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger reference. I hope you guys enjoy this classic episode.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an interesting approach to this, this question
Speaker 1: of when are we going to actually set up a
Speaker 1: colony somewhere other than on Earth, like like on Mars,
Speaker 1: and and proposing the fact that it can be not
Speaker 1: only commercial but um but but driven specifically by public interest. Really,
Speaker 1: I mean because because here's the thing is that we
Speaker 1: know that the government officials that are behind things like
Speaker 1: like the space industry in the United States anyway, are
Speaker 1: facing increasingly difficult battles in in funding. Right. It's it's
Speaker 1: getting harder and harder to get a working budget. And
Speaker 1: some of that is due to problems that the various
Speaker 1: space industries have had, like specifically what NASA has undergone.
Speaker 1: Where NASA has had a few projects more than a few,
Speaker 1: maybe that some would argue we're improperly governed so that
Speaker 1: they ballooned out of control as far as budget and
Speaker 1: timeline is considered. And part partially this was also due
Speaker 1: to just uh, everyone at the outset and not understanding
Speaker 1: exactly what kinds of issues we're going to crop up
Speaker 1: along the way and what kinds of problems would need
Speaker 1: to be solved right, And sometimes it was because you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily mismanaged meant, but it might be that
Speaker 1: you know, you have very limited uh people you can
Speaker 1: go to when you need something like an enormous rocket,
Speaker 1: and if the only company that provides the enormous rockets
Speaker 1: that you need says, you know, I know that originally
Speaker 1: we were going to say that this was going to
Speaker 1: be you know, twenty million dollars per rocket, but in reality,
Speaker 1: it looks like it's gonna be closer to sixty five.
Speaker 1: You don't have a lot of options left. So it's
Speaker 1: I don't mean to suggest that NASA was really bad
Speaker 1: at managing this stuff. It's just that a lot of
Speaker 1: a several high profile projects uh, ended up getting bogged
Speaker 1: down in lots of problems, which and when you're and
Speaker 1: when you're publicly funded, it's a lot more difficult to
Speaker 1: handle that This this private funding could hypothetically, you know,
Speaker 1: eat around some of those problems. You can sell more
Speaker 1: advertising space or something like that. Right, I mean that
Speaker 1: that's the whole idea behind the privatization of space exploration, right,
Speaker 1: is that they aren't uh, they aren't tied down to
Speaker 1: things like tax income. They don't have to go and
Speaker 1: petition they have to answer to the taxpayers. That's right,
Speaker 1: that's right, But they do have to raise those funds
Speaker 1: some other way because it's not like they just magically
Speaker 1: have access to those giant rockets. Uh. The supposed funds
Speaker 1: that MARS one will require to to establish the settlement
Speaker 1: is six billion dollars. That sounds so low, phenomenally low
Speaker 1: to me low, but but it's it's starting with just
Speaker 1: four settlers UM to to expand hypothetically by teams of
Speaker 1: four every two years, and they're aiming for the first
Speaker 1: round of settlers to to land in UM three. Uh.
Speaker 1: Is the is the current proposed date, which is sen
Speaker 1: years away. Yeah, I mean this isn't that. This is
Speaker 1: already blowing my mind and we haven't even gotten into
Speaker 1: what the actual challenges are yet. But just the challenge
Speaker 1: of getting the materials together, testing your your various acecraft,
Speaker 1: because obviously you're going to have to design special spacecraft
Speaker 1: for these teams to go up in. And they're they're
Speaker 1: talking right now to Elon Musk and the other kids
Speaker 1: are at SpaceX using their their stuff, which would be important.
Speaker 1: I mean, like using the Dragon spacecraft that kind of stuff. Uh,
Speaker 1: obviously that would be something they'd have to take into consideration.
Speaker 1: It just seems it seems really ambitious. That's not to
Speaker 1: say that it can't be done or that they shouldn't try.
Speaker 1: I think being ambitious is fantastic. It's just one of
Speaker 1: those things where, having seen how difficult it is to
Speaker 1: get a space project and I hate to use this
Speaker 1: phrase off the ground, uh, tells me that things are
Speaker 1: going to have to go really really well for them
Speaker 1: to make that budget and to make that timeline. Maybe
Speaker 1: it will, but let's let's talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about what this whole project is. So, yeah, the first
Speaker 1: team lands, and now the thing is that in order
Speaker 1: for anyone to land on Mars and have any expectation
Speaker 1: of being able to survive there. Other stuff is gonna
Speaker 1: have to get there first, a whole bunch of other stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because Mars doesn't have any supermarkets, so you would need
Speaker 1: some way of getting supplies there. And I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't just pack everything you would need in your
Speaker 1: single rocket. That would be very inefficient. That would be
Speaker 1: way too much weight, right. Yeah, The more weight you
Speaker 1: add to your launch vehicle, the more fuel you need.
Speaker 1: And the more fuel you need, the more weight you
Speaker 1: add to your launch vehicle, there does come a point
Speaker 1: where your launch vehicle is too heavy for you to
Speaker 1: be able to launch it using the fuel sources that
Speaker 1: we typically use here on Earth. And and they are
Speaker 1: they are planning a space launch rather than an Earth
Speaker 1: launch of the actual crew module. Interesting, I did not
Speaker 1: read that part, So you'll have to tell me more
Speaker 1: about that if if you get a chance. Sure. But
Speaker 1: but let's let's let's back all of this back up
Speaker 1: the So, So, the Mars one project is run by
Speaker 1: the Bye Bye Bye two parts. It's a there's a
Speaker 1: nonprofit foundation called Mars one and there's a for profit
Speaker 1: company called Interplanetary Media Group, which makes me laugh so hard.
Speaker 1: That they are interplanetary serving all your needs, whether you
Speaker 1: are on Earth or somewhere else. That's why I do
Speaker 1: wonder whether whether the nice people who founded it are
Speaker 1: on Earth or somewhere else. There is a fair, fair request.
Speaker 1: Are you from here? This? This is these but both
Speaker 1: of these of these organizations are are are based in
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, co founded by bob's Landsdorp and are no wielders.
Speaker 1: And uh Landstorp says that he got the idea when
Speaker 1: he saw the revenue figures for the International Olympic Committee
Speaker 1: a bunch of years ago and said, hey, there's money there,
Speaker 1: there's money there, There's there's money in in televising these
Speaker 1: epic human events. And you also uncovered that that Interplanetary
Speaker 1: Media Group the you know, they're they're different organizations that
Speaker 1: own shares in Interplanetary Media Group. Who owns the majority.
Speaker 1: The Mars One Foundation owns almost of the shares in
Speaker 1: Interplanetary Media Group. The nonprofit arm of mars One owns
Speaker 1: nine of the for profit arm of the project. It's
Speaker 1: it's also the sole supervisor of the for profit sectors
Speaker 1: operations weight. So the nonprofit organization oversees the for profit
Speaker 1: arm of this. Now, now this is just it raises
Speaker 1: alarm flags in my mind. However, I will say, if
Speaker 1: this works, it's a brilliant way of of funding this
Speaker 1: because the nonprofit part can take them any money that's
Speaker 1: generated from right, and there's no there's no processing fee
Speaker 1: or whatever you want. There's not a convenience fee because
Speaker 1: they have this governance and they have this ownership of
Speaker 1: the the for profit arm. And if that money indeed
Speaker 1: is going to fund this Mars project, that's exactly what
Speaker 1: they're going to need in order to have that. That
Speaker 1: a massive amount of capital they're going to need, right,
Speaker 1: because because the foundation is going to be is going
Speaker 1: to be the owner of the settlement on Mars and
Speaker 1: uh and the employer of the mission teams. Right, and
Speaker 1: then I am G. The the media group is essentially
Speaker 1: in charge of of generating funds through things like the
Speaker 1: televised broadcast of the process of selecting people to go
Speaker 1: to Mars even and then once they get there, their
Speaker 1: ongoing experience on Mars to be live stream televised seven
Speaker 1: s five days a year. Yeah, it's Big Brother Red
Speaker 1: Planet edition. And then they also but they're also going
Speaker 1: to be generating money through things like merchandizing, right right,
Speaker 1: And I am G will in fact hold exclusive um
Speaker 1: to use this project to generate revenue through broadcasting, advertising, etcetera, etcetera. Right,
Speaker 1: So you've got this interesting approach to trying to UH
Speaker 1: to fund space colonization. Obviously, the only way this really
Speaker 1: works is if it captures the public's attention enough for
Speaker 1: them to want to watch it, right, because otherwise that
Speaker 1: flow of revenue isn't going to come from to dry
Speaker 1: up immediately, and then they don't have any money to
Speaker 1: build or buy all the stuff they need in order
Speaker 1: to get things to Mars. So let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about what they are looking for, because clearly they
Speaker 1: need to have people want to go. And I would
Speaker 1: I would argue that that part of this, this application
Speaker 1: process that we're about to talk about, proves that the
Speaker 1: interest is there, because within the first two weeks that
Speaker 1: applications were open, they got seventy eight thousand applicants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a that's a huge number. And the application
Speaker 1: process is still open as of the recording of this podcast, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is UH. It opened in April. We are recording
Speaker 1: this in May, and it will be open until August one, right,
Speaker 1: so so there's still time, still time, And they say
Speaker 1: that they expect half a million applicants by the time
Speaker 1: it's all over, because obviously that that first rush is
Speaker 1: from all the people who hear about it at the
Speaker 1: very beginning. Now, before you rush out and fill out
Speaker 1: your application, maybe you should uh learn a little bit
Speaker 1: more about the parameters of the mission. This is more
Speaker 1: likely than not a one way ticket. You will not
Speaker 1: be coming back from Mars. If you were to go
Speaker 1: to Mars on this mission. Um, there is every possibility
Speaker 1: that that is where you would have to spend the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. The the expense incurred to get
Speaker 1: you back here would basically not be worth you. Well,
Speaker 1: no no offense to you beyond that, I mean, just
Speaker 1: the logistics of designing a spacecraft that could and back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'd have to have even more fuel so that you
Speaker 1: could escape the gravity of Mars. Remember, Mars's gravity is
Speaker 1: not that different from Earth's, so you would have the
Speaker 1: same issue. Now that the atmosphere is thinner, so you'd
Speaker 1: have less air resistance, but that's kind of negligible when
Speaker 1: you're talking about gravity. Um, so I mean to to
Speaker 1: create a spacecraft that could get there and then launch
Speaker 1: from the surface and come back is beyond the scope
Speaker 1: of this project. So that leaves you literally on Mars.
Speaker 1: So if you don't want to spend the rest of
Speaker 1: your life there, you probably don't want to. UM to apply,
Speaker 1: to apply very seriously, They're they're looking for people who
Speaker 1: are at least eighteen years of age or older, keeping
Speaker 1: in mind you will be ten years older if you
Speaker 1: were selected to be one of the four people who
Speaker 1: go up on that first launch. As of as of
Speaker 1: May seven, the oldest person to apply was seventy one
Speaker 1: years old, UM, which seems like probably he won't be chosen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now we don't know that for sure. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: that how they're going to go about choosing the people
Speaker 1: who go through this as right, there's there, there's there's
Speaker 1: first of all, a whole bunch of of application of
Speaker 1: selection criteria and did you want to do you want
Speaker 1: to sure sure that they're looking for people who have
Speaker 1: the following characteristics, And this is because they need people
Speaker 1: who are going to be psychologically prepared for the challenge,
Speaker 1: for the training and for the trip and to be
Speaker 1: stuck on Mars for the rest of their lives, right,
Speaker 1: and they have to only be have the psychological uh foundation,
Speaker 1: but they also need to be willing and able to
Speaker 1: pick up new skills because clearly you're you're talking about
Speaker 1: a tiny number of people ultimately on that colony. It's just,
Speaker 1: you know, not not many at all. So you everyone
Speaker 1: needs to be able to do pretty much everything. Just
Speaker 1: like astronauts aboard the International Space Station have to be
Speaker 1: adept at working with all the different systems and be
Speaker 1: able to react if anything goes wrong. The same thing
Speaker 1: holds true on the colony. So you know, it's if
Speaker 1: if you were to apply, you'd have to be willing
Speaker 1: to go through some very rigorous training to learn how
Speaker 1: to deal with any situation that they can come up
Speaker 1: with that could conceivably happen while you're on the colony.
Speaker 1: And the plan is for about six six to seven
Speaker 1: years of training before launch, right for the first group,
Speaker 1: which you know also on television. So the characteristics they're
Speaker 1: looking for, they're looking for resiliency, and they they break
Speaker 1: these out by practical applications. So for resiliency, they mentioned
Speaker 1: that your thought processes have to be persistent. You persevere
Speaker 1: and remain productive even under difficult circumstances. You see the
Speaker 1: connection between your internal and external self, meaning that you're
Speaker 1: very self reflective. Is get a little metaphysical as they
Speaker 1: go on. You are at your best when things are
Speaker 1: at their worst. That is not me. I'm already out.
Speaker 1: I mostly turned snarky when things are at their worst. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do. Also when they're at their best. You have
Speaker 1: indomitable spirit. Nope, mind's totally domitable. You understand the purpose
Speaker 1: of actions may not be clear in the moment, but
Speaker 1: there is good reason, and you trust those who guide you.
Speaker 1: That's terrifying to me, which is essentially saying shut up
Speaker 1: and do your work. And um, I understand what they're saying.
Speaker 1: They're saying like, look, we may tell you to do
Speaker 1: something that requires you to, uh to endure uncomfortable circumstances
Speaker 1: for an extended amount of time, but trust us, it's
Speaker 1: it's all on your best interest. That always That always
Speaker 1: gets me a little worried, uh, they and that you
Speaker 1: have a can do attitude. The next criteria is adaptability.
Speaker 1: Clearly this would be necessary on this kind of project,
Speaker 1: right right, like like like Jonathan was saying, a second ago,
Speaker 1: you need to be able to do freething up there,
Speaker 1: so out there right, And I love that one of them.
Speaker 1: One of the I won't go through all of the
Speaker 1: practical applications of this one, but one of them is
Speaker 1: you know your boundaries and how and when to extend them.
Speaker 1: I didn't know the boundaries were that flexible, right, Like
Speaker 1: I guess if you have boundaries of watch one of
Speaker 1: those international boundaries. It's kind of you know, always always
Speaker 1: in question, where it's just the dotted line instead of
Speaker 1: the solid line. I think maybe it's like you would
Speaker 1: be willing to do this and no more, but you
Speaker 1: in certain situations will be willing to do yeah again,
Speaker 1: kind of terrifying. Um. And then next would be curiosity,
Speaker 1: which again if you don't have a sense of curiosity,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine tomorrow unless you're just sick of everyone here,
Speaker 1: of which I mean maybe you are. Maybe you're just
Speaker 1: a Missinthrop and total misinthrop. So it would just be
Speaker 1: like the Algonquin round table, but in space, which would
Speaker 1: be kind of awesome. So which would I would watch
Speaker 1: that show and they talk about the desire to transfer
Speaker 1: knowledge to others and not just showcasing what you know
Speaker 1: or what others do not know. I think that knocks
Speaker 1: me out too, because I prefer the second version of that. No, seriously,
Speaker 1: that's one thing I actually do like. I like to
Speaker 1: I like to share knowledge because I find knowledge exciting.
Speaker 1: That's that's probably why you're on a podcast that that
Speaker 1: is a couple of them. And then there's the ability
Speaker 1: to trust, which would be very important since you're working
Speaker 1: with people who you know your life depends upon their work,
Speaker 1: just as their lives depend upon yours. And then you
Speaker 1: have to be creative and resourceful, which means that you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of have a hacker mentality that if a
Speaker 1: problem comes up, you find a way to solve it,
Speaker 1: even if you don't have a like a a manual
Speaker 1: that tells you what to do in that specific situation,
Speaker 1: that you can adapt to the situation as necessary. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe the manual tells you to react a specific way
Speaker 1: if one particular situation arises, but maybe the situation is
Speaker 1: more complicated than that, and you can't just do one
Speaker 1: solution because that's not going to meet all the criteria
Speaker 1: to fix the problem. That's why you have to be
Speaker 1: both creative and resourceful. So that's that's like the basic
Speaker 1: um features that they're looking for in the people who apply,
Speaker 1: and then the way they choose or the way they
Speaker 1: start to narrow down the candidates is also kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the applicant pool was opened up on April,
Speaker 1: I said April. It was on April. And it costs.
Speaker 1: It does cost money to apply, between five and seventy
Speaker 1: five dollars, depending on the wealth of your country of origin. Gotcha,
Speaker 1: So if you're from a more affluent country, then your
Speaker 1: your application fee will be higher. I think the fee
Speaker 1: here in the United States is thirty eight dollars. Interesting,
Speaker 1: So it's thirty eight that I'm curious to see which
Speaker 1: kind trees are on the top of the scale. I
Speaker 1: did not look that up, so I have no idea.
Speaker 1: But I'm just wondering out loud, because you know, it's
Speaker 1: that it's that national pride coming out. What do you
Speaker 1: need thirty eight dollars? Why aren't we so many five dollars?
Speaker 1: Not that I'm applying this. This this applicant pool is
Speaker 1: going to be pared down during the course of several
Speaker 1: rounds um The first is by popularity, because part of
Speaker 1: the application is is you know your your resume and
Speaker 1: this very short psychological work up, and then part of
Speaker 1: it is a YouTube video that you are supposed to upload.
Speaker 1: So how many people are watching and liking your video.
Speaker 1: It's like having a cloud score for going to Mars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again I could see someone who is just really
Speaker 1: misanthropic winning just because people are like, get rid of
Speaker 1: this guy into space, um so so. So this first
Speaker 1: round is going to be by the by the popularity
Speaker 1: of your of your YouTube video. It's like American Idol,
Speaker 1: but you shoot him into space ahead, um and and
Speaker 1: by by the application material the company is actually looking
Speaker 1: at your resume. Rum in this I don't want to
Speaker 1: send a whole bunch of people who obviously have no
Speaker 1: business working any kind of intricate system. Yeah right, there's
Speaker 1: there's no point in advancing those people to the next round.
Speaker 1: The next round, speaking of, is going to be selected
Speaker 1: down by region and based on the person's health. Various
Speaker 1: background checks and in person interviews also very important. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you want to have people who have those features we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, that are well rounded, that can work
Speaker 1: well with others. You don't want to send a bunch
Speaker 1: of psychopaths up in Mars, people who don't care about
Speaker 1: anyone else, because that would be well counterproductive to the
Speaker 1: mission at large. Sure sure, missent tropes, yes, Uh, total psychopaths, no,
Speaker 1: not so much. No. Um. After that, you're going to
Speaker 1: start seeing more of a more of a crowdsourcing process,
Speaker 1: um via via reality TV shows, um, Internet polls, stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Right, even when they narrow this down to
Speaker 1: their pool of potential astronauts, and I think they're they
Speaker 1: were aiming to get to around forty total when they
Speaker 1: finally boil it down. I've seen a couple of different numbers.
Speaker 1: But but but yeah, the idea being that not all
Speaker 1: forty of those people would necessarily end up on those colonies.
Speaker 1: It's rather that this is the pool of astronauts that
Speaker 1: could go up. And uh, then throughout the television series,
Speaker 1: we might even see something where the audience decides which
Speaker 1: are which four would be the first ones to go right, right,
Speaker 1: It's it's gonna be They're they're gonna start narrowing it
Speaker 1: down by by TV and stuff, and uh to two people,
Speaker 1: a man and a woman would be selected from each
Speaker 1: applicant country, um, and then they will them plus a
Speaker 1: few judge favorites who are not crowdsourced will proceed to
Speaker 1: an international round and then be grouped into four's, um,
Speaker 1: some fifty teams of four people and uh, which which
Speaker 1: will be narrow to six teams who will train full time.
Speaker 1: Got so then you're down. Then you're down to that,
Speaker 1: right right? Um? And then yeah, in two that would
Speaker 1: be when um, they would select whatever groups are ready
Speaker 1: to go. The company would select the groups that they
Speaker 1: think are good to actually astronaut and um, and then
Speaker 1: the world gets to call in and vote on which
Speaker 1: people get shot into space. This is incredible, all right?
Speaker 1: And then um, uh you had a specific quote from
Speaker 1: someone who had applied, right. Yeah. NBC News found out
Speaker 1: that sci fi author David Brynn Um, who wrote for example,
Speaker 1: The Postman, I Believe and and a bunch of other stuff,
Speaker 1: he told NBC that that people can't imagine any sane
Speaker 1: person making this choice. Uh. Editors note, did the choice
Speaker 1: to go to Mars forever and never come back simply
Speaker 1: aren't envisioning the wide range of human diversity? Um? And
Speaker 1: and was just talking about, you know, the act that
Speaker 1: he's got three kids and that at the very early
Speaker 1: state that Mars one was going to launch, he would
Speaker 1: be he would be seventy five, which means his kids
Speaker 1: are grown up and on there. They're doing their own
Speaker 1: thing at that point. They're in their careers. So it's
Speaker 1: not like it's not like he's abandoning children. Sure, sure,
Speaker 1: and you know he might choose to to spend these
Speaker 1: last fewyears years of his life doing something truly remarkable, interesting.
Speaker 1: And we should say that the the early stages of
Speaker 1: this would require, uh, the candidates who were selected to
Speaker 1: move on in the process to go undergo some extensive training,
Speaker 1: like we've mentioned before, but they'd probably be going someplace
Speaker 1: really remote and pretty desolate. Yeah. One one of the
Speaker 1: plans of the group is to um to create on
Speaker 1: Earth in in in some cold, desolate desert tundra kind
Speaker 1: of area, a UM a little foe Mars base for
Speaker 1: training purposes. That will become really important because you have
Speaker 1: to know, you have to understand what are what's the
Speaker 1: harsh reality of trying to live on Mars. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I just heard from the Spiders of Mars as a
Speaker 1: band that I follow, that it's time for us to
Speaker 1: take a quick break, all right, So we've laid out
Speaker 1: what the project wants to do and kind of their
Speaker 1: general approach, the idea of sending up supplies ahead of
Speaker 1: time and then landing people hopefully by three um and
Speaker 1: uh four people and then initially and then another four
Speaker 1: every two years, and that they're having this Mars colony.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about why this would be a monumentally
Speaker 1: difficult task, like what what are what are the challenges
Speaker 1: that they face, because there are quite a few. Um,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're dealing You're dealing with not only when
Speaker 1: you get to Mars, um it not not having an atmosphere,
Speaker 1: the thin atmosphere doesn't have a breath, right correct, sorry,
Speaker 1: and not having the atmosphere that Earth does that lets
Speaker 1: you you know, go out barefoot and walk around right.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, not only that, but there's uh, well we'll
Speaker 1: get into it. Let's let's start with them. Well let's
Speaker 1: start with dirt. Yeah, because because Mars dirt is toxic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just like Britney Spears, No way, she just did that song.
Speaker 1: That's I guess. I guess you could say either one
Speaker 1: that you wanted to. I'm not going to argue either point.
Speaker 1: So the dust that covers Mars is called regular. If
Speaker 1: I am pronouncing that correctly, are excellent win um it's
Speaker 1: it's really human unfriendly it. Um contains a bunch of things,
Speaker 1: for example, uh perchlorate per chlorate, thank you, which which
Speaker 1: is a group of chemicals that are used as oxidizers
Speaker 1: in rocket fuel. And if that doesn't give you an indication,
Speaker 1: it sucks to to breathe in. Exposure can can cause
Speaker 1: serious damage to your thyroid. UM, which is an important
Speaker 1: bit UM. Lots of silicates UM, silicate silicic uhcts, most
Speaker 1: commonly including feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, all of which react
Speaker 1: with water to form hydrogen, peroxide, hydroxyl and superoxide UM,
Speaker 1: all of which quartz dust does and UM is blamed
Speaker 1: for things like lung cancer and uh silicosis in miners,
Speaker 1: which which basically means that you inhale this this dust
Speaker 1: and it reacts with the water in your lungs and
Speaker 1: it is not good right right, This is it starts
Speaker 1: to form chemicals that can be very harmful and lead
Speaker 1: us to a not living situation, right right. Another another
Speaker 1: thing in there is gypsum um, which is a self
Speaker 1: fate mineral that forms again in the presence of water.
Speaker 1: This one isn't actually toxic the way that the silicates are,
Speaker 1: but on the level of coal dust, it is an eye,
Speaker 1: skin and respiratory irritant. So obviously we would have to
Speaker 1: take precautions against getting dust into any habitable area in
Speaker 1: the Mars one colony, right, and again because of the
Speaker 1: atmosphere situation, you're not going to have people running around
Speaker 1: barefoot in Mars dust. However, it's a very sticky substance really,
Speaker 1: and especially due to um. Just like static electricity, it's
Speaker 1: going to wind up getting on all the equipment, and
Speaker 1: you know, even if you get it out through through
Speaker 1: air filters in some kind of airlock, it's going to
Speaker 1: get into the system. Yeah, it's it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where you really have to design like a clean
Speaker 1: room type environment, the same kind of environments that we
Speaker 1: think of for creating a microprocessor, where even a single
Speaker 1: mode of dust can ruin a sheet of silicon wafers
Speaker 1: when you're trying to design a microprocessor, because you're designing
Speaker 1: things on such a tiny scale, we would need that
Speaker 1: level of precision to to ensure the health of anyone
Speaker 1: who's living on one of these colonies. Not to say
Speaker 1: that it can't be done, but when you are doing
Speaker 1: this on another planet that's already essentially trying to kill you,
Speaker 1: it's a really really tough challenge. The way the way
Speaker 1: I've seen it described is that it's it's not so
Speaker 1: much that at a certain point you're never going to
Speaker 1: get the dirt completely separated from your living quarters, and
Speaker 1: so it's almost more of a of a what can
Speaker 1: we do to combat the issues that this dirt is
Speaker 1: going to cause some sort of chemical scrubbing process that
Speaker 1: could make this inert, or or some kind of medical
Speaker 1: process that we can act upon the poor human people
Speaker 1: that are out there, because it's gonna it's gonna affect
Speaker 1: them right right. So to to even think that we
Speaker 1: could create a system that would negate all of this
Speaker 1: is probably being a little too Yeah, you definitely can't
Speaker 1: just assume that, because as soon as you do, then
Speaker 1: tragedy can strike. Well, there are there are other challenges
Speaker 1: as well, not just the the dirt. Uh, there's also
Speaker 1: radiation before you even get to the planet. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: a journey to Mars is going to take months. Uh,
Speaker 1: And that's because the way that Mars and Earth line up,
Speaker 1: you have to figure out the right trajectory to launch
Speaker 1: to get from Earth or even Earth's orbit uh to
Speaker 1: Mars in the most efficient way possible. So when the
Speaker 1: Curiosity Rover launched, you know, if you were to look
Speaker 1: at the closest point between well, when Earth and Mars
Speaker 1: were closest together, if you were somehow able to maintain
Speaker 1: that distance and go from Earth to Mars, it might
Speaker 1: take you a few months to get there. It took
Speaker 1: Curiosity Rover more than I think, like eight months to
Speaker 1: get there. You might say, well, why is that so, Well,
Speaker 1: it's because we can't get those plants to stop moving.
Speaker 1: They keep going around the Sun, which continues moving through
Speaker 1: space itself. So what you're talking about is trying to
Speaker 1: create a trajectory that's the most efficient pathway between Earth
Speaker 1: and Mars, and it's not. It's not a straight line
Speaker 1: because you can't do that. You know, you would end
Speaker 1: up being where Mars was as opposed to where it is.
Speaker 1: So you have to actually aim for where Mars will be.
Speaker 1: So uh, that means that your journey through space is
Speaker 1: going to take some time. If if you did it
Speaker 1: at the speed of light, it would be fourteen minutes.
Speaker 1: We cannot go at the speed of flames, right, so
Speaker 1: it's going to take months to get there. And the
Speaker 1: downside of that is that space has got some nasty
Speaker 1: radiation out there that can kill you. UM. So if
Speaker 1: the vacuum is not bad enough, the radiation is worse.
Speaker 1: So on Earth we are very well protected. In fact,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why we have life as we
Speaker 1: know it here on our planet is because our plan
Speaker 1: has two things really helping us out. One is the
Speaker 1: atmosphere we have, which helps uh reduce the energy of
Speaker 1: any incoming radiation radiation particles coming into the atmosphere slow
Speaker 1: stuff down. Um. And then also we have a magnetosphere,
Speaker 1: this magnetic field that surrounds the Earth that repels a
Speaker 1: lot of the part icles that otherwise we bombard. Our planet,
Speaker 1: Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so it's not as protective,
Speaker 1: and there is no magnetosphere around Mars, so there's not
Speaker 1: that magnetic you know, you can think of it almost
Speaker 1: like a force field. There's not that magnetic field that
Speaker 1: can repel UH charged particles as they come blasting through space.
Speaker 1: And what's blasting them, you might ask, the Sun? Yeah, yep,
Speaker 1: the same thing that allows life to happen here on
Speaker 1: Earth in almost every case. I mean, there's some some
Speaker 1: life out there that that relies on chemicals that are
Speaker 1: produced geothermically, but but most of it is through some
Speaker 1: kind of root of photosynthesis and then eating things that
Speaker 1: are synthesized exactly. So, so the Sun is responsible for
Speaker 1: most of the life on Earth. It's also blasting out
Speaker 1: stuff that would kill you. Now you might think, well,
Speaker 1: what about people who are aboard the space station. How
Speaker 1: do they managed to stay up there so long? It's
Speaker 1: a lot of shielding still inside the magnetic field of Earth, correct,
Speaker 1: And they're really only supposed to stay there for a
Speaker 1: few months at a time. One of one of the
Speaker 1: many reasons why they try to bring people back pretty right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Another one being things like bone loss, which you can
Speaker 1: suffer if you're out in space for a very long time.
Speaker 1: So if you are going out from Earth to Mars,
Speaker 1: you will eventually get to a point where you leave
Speaker 1: Earth's magnetic field while you're in space, and once you
Speaker 1: leave that magnetic field, the only protection you have from
Speaker 1: this kind of radiation, this cosmic radiation, and and it's
Speaker 1: radiation in a different form than you know it's not
Speaker 1: energy beams coming at you like you would think in
Speaker 1: a in a nineteen fifties science fiction film, Cosmic radiation
Speaker 1: or cosmic rays are not made up of light energy.
Speaker 1: They're actually, uh, the nuclei of adams like hydrogen and
Speaker 1: helium and iron that are traveling at hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of kilometers per second through space that have been ejected
Speaker 1: by the Sun. And that the in fact, the University
Speaker 1: of Rochester Medical Center published study not that long ago
Speaker 1: that suggested that long exposure to this kind of radiation
Speaker 1: could increase the risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer's. So uh,
Speaker 1: you know, exposure to this stuff is dangerous. So you
Speaker 1: would have to build some form of shielding within your
Speaker 1: spacecraft so that if there were a period of cosmic radiation,
Speaker 1: the soun's not constantly blasting this stuff out. It comes
Speaker 1: in these little short bursts. But if you were to
Speaker 1: detect such a burst coming at the spacecraft, you would
Speaker 1: have to be able to go into a specially shielded
Speaker 1: compartment and waited out and it usually lasts a few hours.
Speaker 1: So actually Mars one is fairly cavalier and saying like
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be a very comfortable, uh situation. You'd be
Speaker 1: kind of in cramped quarters for about you know, three
Speaker 1: or four hours, but you know after it's over you
Speaker 1: can come out. It sounds to me like you would
Speaker 1: be essentially need to knee with the rather astronauts waiting
Speaker 1: for waiting for this to finish well, but you're clearly
Speaker 1: best friends with them, after going through six years of
Speaker 1: extensive training on a desert base on Earth, hoping no
Speaker 1: one TV cameras in your face because no one has
Speaker 1: cracks under that kind of pressure, right, and hoping that
Speaker 1: no one had the chili uh space meal just before
Speaker 1: space Chili be bad boy. Chris would have appreciated that
Speaker 1: joke like crazy. Well, anyway, that's something you would really
Speaker 1: have to deal with on that whole trip from Earth
Speaker 1: to Mars. Once you get the Mars, the thin atmosphere
Speaker 1: does provide some protection. Uh. In fact, I saw one
Speaker 1: report that suggested that, uh, information from the Curiosity Rover
Speaker 1: may show that it's non lethal levels of radiation. Now
Speaker 1: that does not mean that there, Yeah, you might it
Speaker 1: might still increase your chances of developing certain diseases, but
Speaker 1: they it wouldn't outright kill you like there there are
Speaker 1: radiation levels that are so high as to give you
Speaker 1: radiation poisoning, which can be lethal. But the point that
Speaker 1: he was making was that, Uh, they aren't that intense
Speaker 1: on Mars. Now we're recording this, uh, just a day
Speaker 1: before NASA releases more information about the radiation on Mars.
Speaker 1: So um, by the time you hear this, we'll know
Speaker 1: more about it. But Lauren and I don't because we
Speaker 1: can't see into the future. So how does Mars one
Speaker 1: expect to deal with the radiation problem on Mars? Well,
Speaker 1: even with it being non lethal, obviously, you don't want
Speaker 1: to have prolonged exposure to radiation if you can help it.
Speaker 1: So they are proposing that they will have the habitat
Speaker 1: part of Mars one, the place where the astronauts actually look,
Speaker 1: or the colonists if you prefer, where they actually live
Speaker 1: and do most of their work, will be underground, so
Speaker 1: somehow using rovers, They're gonna launch rovers up before they launch,
Speaker 1: launching the ast along with some supplies and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think the first the first scheduled landing
Speaker 1: would be just supplies and then the second round would
Speaker 1: have the first rover landing. The rovers are going to
Speaker 1: be these robotic rovers just kind of similar to the
Speaker 1: Curiosity rover, but with a lot of construction ability, like
Speaker 1: they'd obviously have to be able to dig out and
Speaker 1: put up structures for the incoming colonists, the idea being
Speaker 1: that the colonists would arrive in mostly everything would already
Speaker 1: be together, right right, Yeah, the I've got a little
Speaker 1: bit about the timeline. Do you want me to do? Well, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: we can talk a little bit about that and then
Speaker 1: jump back to to this. But well, let me just
Speaker 1: say this. The whole idea about putting it underground is
Speaker 1: that by being under the soil, which we've already established
Speaker 1: is dangerous stuff all on its own, the soil would
Speaker 1: protect against radiation, and that, according to mars One's frequently
Speaker 1: asked question section five meters of soil, which is about
Speaker 1: sixteen point four feet of soil, would be equivalent to
Speaker 1: being protected by Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere. So they would
Speaker 1: dig down five meters and put the habitats that far down,
Speaker 1: so almost two stories if you're thinking of of of
Speaker 1: a building, so you would imagine that you would arrive
Speaker 1: on Mars and then go down two flights of stairs
Speaker 1: and be two flights of stairs underground and that's where
Speaker 1: you live, right. The The idea is to UM UH
Speaker 1: launch supply mission starting in UM, rover launch in UM.
Speaker 1: Also starting at that point a live video stream from
Speaker 1: from the rover which features heavily and their their stated
Speaker 1: timelines on their website, which cracks me up just a
Speaker 1: little bit. And I understand that this is how they're
Speaker 1: making money, but it's you know, they're very like scientific
Speaker 1: advancement live on video and I don't know, it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it tickles me, UM, but we're in that post real
Speaker 1: world world. I guess, yeah, it's it's it's true, UM,
Speaker 1: but so so yeah, so and then would be when
Speaker 1: UM the settlement come opponents would launch, including two living
Speaker 1: units to life support units, more supplies, and a second
Speaker 1: rover along with the second video stream UM. And then
Speaker 1: yeah and then again, like we said, two, would be
Speaker 1: when the astronauts would launch and would be when they
Speaker 1: would land along with UM five other cargo missions that year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the rover's job would be to actually collect those uh,
Speaker 1: those bits that landed and and to put them together
Speaker 1: and to assemble them. And that blows my mind. The
Speaker 1: idea of a rover capable of of maneuvering, lifting, carrying,
Speaker 1: and positioning these various modular components so that it can
Speaker 1: make a living space for the astronauts by the time
Speaker 1: they land. That's a really sophisticated job for a robot
Speaker 1: to do, and and robotics is advancing continually. But they're
Speaker 1: talking about launching this critter in that's five years off, right,
Speaker 1: which means that they have to start building it right now.
Speaker 1: They can't. You know, these things take a lot of
Speaker 1: time because they have to build it, they have to
Speaker 1: test it, make sure that's going to withstand the pressures
Speaker 1: that needs to that can actually fulfill the functions of
Speaker 1: the mission before they even try and launch one. And
Speaker 1: of course it's also all assumes that all these launches
Speaker 1: are successful, and I mean, we certainly hope they are,
Speaker 1: but there's never a guarantee, you know, you can never
Speaker 1: be completely certain. Hey, guys, I just gotta visit from
Speaker 1: this dude named Marvin from Mars. He tells me that
Speaker 1: it's time for us to take another quick break. Going
Speaker 1: back to the Mars. One fact about the radiation, they
Speaker 1: also had this helpful section which I found, uh again
Speaker 1: a little scary as described in an f A. A
Speaker 1: And University study from two thousand five, a journey to
Speaker 1: Mars and back. In the case of the study, toting
Speaker 1: five thirty six days in space would mean the chance
Speaker 1: of contracting cancer for twenty to thirty four year olds
Speaker 1: is around ten for men and seventeen for women. But
Speaker 1: let's compare it to people who do not go to
Speaker 1: Mars in their lifetimes. Men have a twelve percent chance
Speaker 1: of contracting prostate cancer and women have twelve point five
Speaker 1: percent chance of developing breast cancer. Or let's compare it
Speaker 1: to people who smoke. Smoking more than five cigarettes a
Speaker 1: day leads to a twenty four point six percent chance
Speaker 1: of developing lung cancer for men in their lifetimes and
Speaker 1: eighteen point five percent for women. And finally, our restaurants
Speaker 1: will spend only two d to two hundred twenty days
Speaker 1: in space compared to five dred thirty six days the
Speaker 1: study mentioned above. Staying in Mars will result in much
Speaker 1: lower doses even if astronauts stay for a long time.
Speaker 1: These these numbers, um, I didn't actually you would put
Speaker 1: them in our notes and I and I kind of
Speaker 1: glanced over them, and I was just noticing that that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily those numbers don't all align because we're talking
Speaker 1: about very specific different types of cancer caused by very
Speaker 1: specific carcinogens. Not to mention different time frames. They talk
Speaker 1: about how the lifetime versus over a lifetime, over groups,
Speaker 1: and exactly a lifetime versus a trip. This is this
Speaker 1: is a tiny bit misleading and us shockingly unscientific for
Speaker 1: a group of people who are looking to go to Mars. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you say a tiny bit misleading, you are understating
Speaker 1: it drastically. I think I think you're giving them too
Speaker 1: much credit because uh, and I mean I want us
Speaker 1: to have colonies on the Moon and on Mars. Trust me,
Speaker 1: I think that that would be amazing and a phenomenal
Speaker 1: human achievement. But I don't think we get there by
Speaker 1: downplaying some of the very real, uh challenges we face
Speaker 1: and and the way that this is worded. I agree
Speaker 1: with you, Lauren, this is not a very realistic like
Speaker 1: It's it's like smoke and mirrors, right because you're you're saying, hey, look,
Speaker 1: you might have if you were in going on the space,
Speaker 1: you might have a increase in developing cancer, but throughout
Speaker 1: your life you could have this much. Yeah, but we're
Speaker 1: not talking about throughout my life. I'm talking about like
Speaker 1: on a road trip. Especially when you're when you're recruiting
Speaker 1: essentially civilians to to get into this project. It's it's
Speaker 1: so hazardously misleading to put those kind of numbers in
Speaker 1: someone's head without without That's that's irresponsible, is what that is.
Speaker 1: When you're encouraging eighteen year olds to hop on YouTube
Speaker 1: and apply for your program, and you're and you're basically
Speaker 1: lying to them with statistics, right, if you're not lying,
Speaker 1: I just went off a little bit. You should you
Speaker 1: should know. That's why I included that. Actually what Jonathan does,
Speaker 1: That's why I included those bullets because when I read that,
Speaker 1: I had that same reaction that you did. But I also,
Speaker 1: you know, took a bed drole before I came in here,
Speaker 1: so I'm a little calmer. I wasn't doing it to
Speaker 1: calm myself down. I was doing it because you know,
Speaker 1: spring has sprung. So then let's talk about life support systems. Now.
Speaker 1: I was very curious to hear how they were going
Speaker 1: to provide life support on Mars. We've already ascertained the
Speaker 1: soil is dangerous the atmosphere is not breathable, so how
Speaker 1: do you know? And and getting supplies from Earth while
Speaker 1: that will continue to be a thing, obviously that's not
Speaker 1: going to be steady and constant. You're going to get
Speaker 1: them in in bursts of deliveries, and that you have
Speaker 1: to have some sort of self sustaining element or else.
Speaker 1: You know what happens when it's trail. Yeah, eventually everyone
Speaker 1: gets dysentery, I mean exact space dysentery. Well, what happened? Well,
Speaker 1: my my question is if let's say that, let's say
Speaker 1: that you don't have that self sustaining element there, what
Speaker 1: happens when the television show gets canceled? Right? That's that's
Speaker 1: a sobering thought. I mean, the main way that they're
Speaker 1: going to be able to to keep people alive on
Speaker 1: another planet is through television. If people stop watching television,
Speaker 1: people die, right, I mean that's that's what the story is.
Speaker 1: So you have to have some sort of self sustaining
Speaker 1: element to it or else you're you are consigning people
Speaker 1: to potential Nielsen raying actual death. Yeah, like your show died,
Speaker 1: so did your astronauts. I mean that's terrible. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so so they have addressed that, and this is how
Speaker 1: they plan on providing life support. So what are the
Speaker 1: things they're gonna need. They're gonna need water. Well, they're
Speaker 1: saying what they're going to do is they're going to
Speaker 1: extract water from the soil of Mars, this incredibly toxic stuff.
Speaker 1: What but but we know that Mars has some ice
Speaker 1: on it. So the plan is to dig up huge
Speaker 1: amounts of dirt and put them through what are called extractors,
Speaker 1: and the extractors will heat up the soil which will
Speaker 1: melt the ice and turn it into water vapor. It
Speaker 1: will then condense and filter that water vapor to turn
Speaker 1: it back into water, and then that water will become
Speaker 1: the drinking water and also the water for the food
Speaker 1: supply aboard the colony, aboard at the colony. And uh,
Speaker 1: the idea would that be the each life support unit
Speaker 1: on Mars would have about fifteen hundred liters of reserve
Speaker 1: water as well as the water that's actually providing to
Speaker 1: the colony on a daily basis. So that way, by
Speaker 1: the way, they're getting power through solar panels, that's the
Speaker 1: ideas they used. They use solar panel arrays to generate
Speaker 1: the electricity they need to run the colony. But in
Speaker 1: the case of something like a dust storm where you
Speaker 1: don't get that solar power, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to still have access to the things that keep us alive,
Speaker 1: or you've just again killed the entire colony. Um. So
Speaker 1: that that's how they're answering water. So what about oxygen, Well, oxygen,
Speaker 1: they're also looking at the water. Some of that water
Speaker 1: that they will be gathering from the soil, they expect
Speaker 1: to pour some energy into it to break those molecular bonds.
Speaker 1: And we know that the two elements that make up
Speaker 1: water are hydrogen and oxygen. So you release hydrogen and
Speaker 1: you release oxygen. The oxygen you then mixed with nitrogen,
Speaker 1: which you can get from Mars's atmosphere, and make it
Speaker 1: into an a breathable mix, because pure oxygen would not
Speaker 1: be a good idea. You want to mix that. You know,
Speaker 1: here on Earth, the most abundant element in our atmosphere
Speaker 1: is nitrogen. You know some people don't know that, but
Speaker 1: that's in fact what their oxygen will mostly get you high, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then dead, and then you can be quickly. You
Speaker 1: can't have you can have pure oxygen um for long anyway,
Speaker 1: so you would mix that together to make the habitats
Speaker 1: air supply, not the band. And then finally, where are
Speaker 1: they getting the food? And some of the foods coming
Speaker 1: from earth, they will be supplied, but that's supposed to
Speaker 1: be the kind of like emergency rations. The plan is
Speaker 1: to use hydroponic farms. Hydroponic farms don't require soil to
Speaker 1: grow plants and to use special L e d s
Speaker 1: to provide the specific wavelengths of light that those plants
Speaker 1: will need to grow. So these L e d s
Speaker 1: will because their l eds they draw a very little power,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to worry about running a whole
Speaker 1: lot of power to them. They will then give that
Speaker 1: that specific wavelength that will give the plants the best
Speaker 1: chance to really grow in that environment. And since since
Speaker 1: are doing this all of us underground, you don't have
Speaker 1: the cheery Martian sunshine to fuel year right exactly, So
Speaker 1: so you've got you're you're doing it all inside. That
Speaker 1: will also mean that uh, it will use the carbon
Speaker 1: dioxide generated not just by people breathing, but they'll they'll
Speaker 1: also harvest CEO two from the Martian atmosphere as well,
Speaker 1: and so that that's how they answer the water, oxygen,
Speaker 1: and food problems. Uh. That sounds like an oversimplification to
Speaker 1: me too. Again, this is talking about systems that we
Speaker 1: have not we've proven that they can work on Earth,
Speaker 1: but you know, to expect that all of these are
Speaker 1: going to work on Mars is Uh? I mean, I
Speaker 1: would hope they would, but it seems very optimistic, especially
Speaker 1: within the timeline that they have granted, because we haven't
Speaker 1: run those kind of tests to make sure that we
Speaker 1: could do this kind of thing. Um. And I would
Speaker 1: kind of want us to have a pretty confident, a
Speaker 1: pretty high confidence level that would work before one of
Speaker 1: the astronauts especially, I would want that thing. And they're talking,
Speaker 1: they're talking about the habitats and the rooms that they're
Speaker 1: in being in these inflated uh essentially kind of like
Speaker 1: inflated tents in a way, which makes me wonder how
Speaker 1: they design it so it can withstand the fact that
Speaker 1: there are nearly seventeen feet of soil on top of them.
Speaker 1: All the all the all the artistic drawings of the
Speaker 1: plans that I've seen have have been these these kind
Speaker 1: of bubbly little capsules above ground, So I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: And those are supposed to be the other like the
Speaker 1: life support units and stuff, the habitats, the places where
Speaker 1: people live are supposed to be undergrad Like if you
Speaker 1: look at some of those pictures, you'll see like there
Speaker 1: there seems to be something that looks like a tunnel
Speaker 1: that's built up a dome of Earth. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't don't. I mean, you know, and it's I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to to kind of put this stuff out there,
Speaker 1: and especially since they're doing this essentially for profit, um
Speaker 1: and it's all proprietary, keeping everything a little bit close
Speaker 1: to the chest, I could, I could Devil's advocate being
Speaker 1: part of their strategy. Well. And also there's there's an
Speaker 1: argument that you can make saying that, uh, we're working
Speaker 1: on the initial stuff now, we have the plan to
Speaker 1: launch by and between now and then, we may have
Speaker 1: developed the technology necessary to meet those challenges. I guess
Speaker 1: this is the same sort of thing questions, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, it's it's my My biggest question honestly,
Speaker 1: is is why we're looking at Mars and not say
Speaker 1: the Moon. I have that same question. I think, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got some other problems with the Moon.
Speaker 1: We have a one six the Earth's gravity, for example,
Speaker 1: which again raises the question of things like bone loss,
Speaker 1: and the Moon is actually more toxic than Mars from
Speaker 1: what I understand, um, in terms of the particulate, but
Speaker 1: it's also much closer, very much closer. If things go wrong,
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier to correct. Right, Yeah, you're talking,
Speaker 1: and we've already got the the experience of sending people
Speaker 1: there and coming back, you know, unless you believe the
Speaker 1: whole uh television studio thing. Right, Uh, but but that
Speaker 1: did go to the Moon in nineteen but the nine
Speaker 1: one was on a movie studio, was on general ben
Speaker 1: that that aside. I mean, it's my just just the
Speaker 1: ethical questions that this raises of whether or not it's
Speaker 1: it's okay too to a send people to Mars on
Speaker 1: one way ticket at all, and and be to do
Speaker 1: it under the restrictions of reality TV. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that anyone who's watched any amount of reality TV
Speaker 1: has seen that group breakdown that inevitably happens and is
Speaker 1: and is partially, um I think, fabricated for the enjoyment
Speaker 1: or or at least schadenfreud of the viewers, wherein the
Speaker 1: group just hates each other and and someone gets kind
Speaker 1: of Lord of the Flies out, and I just don't don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to watch that. I I don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like, of course I want to watch
Speaker 1: people go to Mars. That's terrific and fascinating, agast science
Speaker 1: and you know, human exploration. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I don't. I almost don't. Thinking about it makes me
Speaker 1: nervous for those poor people. And and you know it
Speaker 1: very well. Maybe that the popular approach that they're taking this,
Speaker 1: this kind of you know, pop culture approach almost to
Speaker 1: the whole project, uh is is really not indicative of
Speaker 1: how serious they are. So a lot of the judgments
Speaker 1: that we're making a lot of the conclusions we are drawing,
Speaker 1: it's all based off of the approach we have seen.
Speaker 1: So maybe a lot of our concerns that we've raised
Speaker 1: are already well in hand. We you know, I'll go
Speaker 1: ahead and say that might be the case. Uh And
Speaker 1: it very well could be. That's just our ignorance of
Speaker 1: the project that leads us to the skepticism. But anytime
Speaker 1: you're talking about people's lives, I think critical thought and
Speaker 1: skepticism need to be employed. Uh. Fully so that you
Speaker 1: can make sure that these people know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They are very serious about it actually succeeding. They're going
Speaker 1: to take every precaution they can to protect the people's
Speaker 1: lives who are involved, that the mental and physical health
Speaker 1: of these people, and and to to if all of
Speaker 1: that pans out, then the potential scientific information we can
Speaker 1: get from this experiment would be amazing and the phenomenal.
Speaker 1: So I want it to work. I really do, and
Speaker 1: and like, like, like we say a lot here and
Speaker 1: also on our other podcasts, forward thinking, even if it
Speaker 1: doesn't work out, even just trying could lead to terrific
Speaker 1: scientific advancement, right anyway. I mean, the space industry alone
Speaker 1: has created so many different advancements in technology and just
Speaker 1: things that we rely on on a daily basis now
Speaker 1: that that could very well be the case. So I
Speaker 1: really do hope that that all of this is completely
Speaker 1: on the up and up, and that uh, that we
Speaker 1: see some real results from this. I just you know,
Speaker 1: it's just enough warning flags for me to be really
Speaker 1: cautious about it. But the same time, like, if there's
Speaker 1: no risk, there's no reward, right, And I know that
Speaker 1: there are a lot of astronauts out there who have
Speaker 1: done some phenomenal things that a lot of us would
Speaker 1: consider crazy. I mean it was just people from from
Speaker 1: the test pilots who are first testing the the spacecraft
Speaker 1: before it ever left the Earth's atmosphere, to the people
Speaker 1: who have gone up to the Moon or the International
Speaker 1: Space Station. These are phenomenal feats and they require a
Speaker 1: great deal of courage and determination, more than I possess, frankly,
Speaker 1: and I think it would be a shame to not
Speaker 1: encourage that. I definitely want to see that kind of
Speaker 1: indomitable spirit continue. I just want to make sure that
Speaker 1: it's the right the right project. And uh, and so
Speaker 1: far I'm not fully convinced with Mars one. That's not
Speaker 1: to say that maybe in the year maybe I'm I'll
Speaker 1: be I'll say, oh, they've met every single one of
Speaker 1: my concerns with lying colors, and now I'm totally on board.
Speaker 1: It could happen, but but we'll have to We'll have
Speaker 1: to see what what develops. Yeah, what would it take
Speaker 1: for you to go to Mars, Lauren? I would not
Speaker 1: go to Mars. I mean I just nope, especially under restraints.
Speaker 1: I mean, to be fair, I also would not appear
Speaker 1: on a reality TV show, period, So that attitude news
Speaker 1: for you, Lauren. There are cameras everywhere I've been doing
Speaker 1: the House Stuff Works reality TV show we launch any
Speaker 1: minute now. It's mostly us sitting at our desks with
Speaker 1: headphones on, not paying attention to each other. It's not
Speaker 1: terribly exciting, I'll admit, but you know, I've got high hopes.
Speaker 1: Occasionally see things like Josh talks to Chuck, I expected
Speaker 1: to drive a lot of views. I also would not
Speaker 1: go to Mars unless there was a return ticket, in
Speaker 1: which case maybe, but but with no return ticket, not
Speaker 1: all my stuff is here. So that alone makes it
Speaker 1: really hard for me to say goodbye. Yeah, that's that.
Speaker 1: I'm a materialist. But come on, you know my Xbox
Speaker 1: is over here. I worked hard on that gamer score.
Speaker 1: And that does it for that classic episode of tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions
Speaker 1: for topics for future episodes of tech Stuff, reach out
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