WEBVTT - Can We Terraform Mars? 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.440 Hey, welcome to sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:08.639 hoor Cham and today we are going to Mars. We're 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:10.639 going to find out what it's like there on our 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.800 red sister planet and if we could ever transform it 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:18.720 to make it livable for billionaires and space colonists. We're 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.200 going to talk to a NASA expert as well as 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.920 a comparative planetologist who specializes in the Mars atmosphere. So 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.840 pack your spacesuit and bring extra sunscreen because we are 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:39.120 moving to Mars for the next half hour. Here unsigned stuff, enjoy. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.120 Hey everyone, here are some facts you might not know 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:52.280 about the planet Mars. It's about half the diameter of Earth. 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.280 It takes almost two earth years to go around the Sun. 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.240 The gravity there is forty percent what it is year. 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.560 It's home to the largest mountain in the Solar System, 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.039 which is two and a half times taller than Mount Everest, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.720 and it's home to the biggest canyon in the Solar System, 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.560 which is five times deeper than the Grand Canyon. On 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:21.640 February twenty twenty one, that says Mars rover Perseverance recorded 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.920 audio from one of its external microphones. So here's what 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:45.080 it sounds like to be on Mars. Seems pretty peaceful, right, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.680 So threecap Mars is smaller, so everything there would be closer. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.480 You technically be half as old if you count your 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.400 age in Mars ears. You can duncate basketball more easily 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.760 there because the gravity is lower. Its amazing sights to see, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.680 and at least for now, there are no crowds. Sounds 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.920 like a pretty nice place to move to, right And 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.520 in fact, people have been talking a lot about moving 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.680 to Mars recently, and it's not just because a crazy 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.320 billionaire is investing in it. Some people say it's clear 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:21.639 we might run out of space here on Earth someday, 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:26.079 or we might ruin it with nuclear war or environmental disaster, 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:28.320 in which case it would be nice to have a 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.760 backup place to move to. And others say it's human 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:36.240 destiny to move beyond Earth and conquer the stars, starting 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.120 with the closest planet to us. But as we'll learn today, 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:45.799 Mars is not quite the ideal relocation destination to explore this. 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.160 Today's episode is split into two parts. First, we'll ask 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.120 could we move there right now? What's it like there 0:02:54.120 --> 0:03:00.839 on Mars? And could we survive living there? Second, we'll 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.880 talk about the idea of terraforming Mars, which is the 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.000 idea that we can change Mars to make it more 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.000 like Earth. What would it take and is it even possible? 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.640 All Right, the first person I talked to was doctor 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:21.520 Sandra Sillystrom, scientist at NASSE. Well, thank you so much, 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.000 Actor Silistrom for joining. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:24.600 Us, Thank you for letting me come here. 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.160 Can you tell me who you are and what you do. 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.639 So I am an astrobiologist looking for life in the universe, 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:36.000 and particularly looking for life on Mars. So I'm currently 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.920 part of the science team from the NASA Perseverance Rover 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:45.760 that's currently roving Mars and collecting sample for Mars Super turns. 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.080 So bringing rocks back from Mars. 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.400 Well, that's amazing and so cool. To start us off, 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.240 can you describe for us what it's like on Mars, Like, 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.680 what is the atmosphere, like, what is the terrain there? 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.400 Well, so, it's not a very nice place to be 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:07.720 for living things and humans. It's a very hostile place. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:12.320 It's cold and very dry, so there's no lands or animals. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:17.560 It's just rocks, loose sand lying in dunes, and the 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.960 atmosphere is very thin. The pressure on The surface of 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.440 Mars is on a one percent what we have on 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:24.599 the surface of Earth. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:26.360 What does that mean one percent? 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.000 It means there's no oxygen or anything for us to breathe, 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.719 but it also means there's no protection against radiation coming 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.640 in frown space. So it's not a very nice place 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:39.239 to visit. 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:41.599 And how cold is it there? 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.039 It's typically below freezing. It can go down to less 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.800 than one hundred degrees celsius and it rarely goes above 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.000 freezing or zero degrees celsius. 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.880 For those of you that prefer fahrenheit. Mars has an 0:04:55.920 --> 0:05:00.040 average temperature of about minus eighty degrees fahrenheit, and in 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.440 the North and South Poles it can get as cold 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.200 as minus two hundred and twenty five degrees fahrenheit. 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.040 And it's very dry because there's no running water on 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.800 the surface and almost no humidity, so it's a very 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.520 dry place, basically a dry desert, cold dessert. 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.400 Is the whole planet like that or only parts of it? 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:21.480 Is there any variation? 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:25.599 Well, in terms of climate, it's pretty similar. I mean 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.200 yet equator. You can have sometimes actually above freezing a 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.719 couple of days, and it's colder of course at the poles, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.679 but in general it's below freezing all over the planet, 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.440 plus very dry. 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:40.919 So what would happen if I just teleport it to 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.880 Mars right now without any protection? What would happen to me? 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.839 I think you would die pretty fast. I mean, first 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.000 of all, because there's no oxygen right, so you couldn't 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.560 breed anything. So I think that would kill you before 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.920 you froze to death. You will definitely not survive very long. 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.520 I see now is the problem that there's no air 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.880 for that, the air that is there doesn't have oxygen or. 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.280 Both both, so it's a low pressure environment. You would 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.440 need some kind of pressure suit, but you also would 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.200 need oxygen to bring with you to breed. Right the 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:17.360 atmosphere it's ninety five percent CO two and there's basically 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.039 no oxygen, so I don't remember the exact number, but 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:21.400 it's below one percent. 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.240 What's Mars always like it is right now? Or did 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:25.480 it have a different history? 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.200 So actually, if you go there and just take picture 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.640 of the surface, you actually see there's a lot of 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.760 feature indicating that we're flowing water at some point. So 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.800 there are water on Mars, but most of it is 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.120 either frozen at the poles, or just beneath the surface. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.159 But at some point some of that water actually flowed 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.800 and it carved out like meandering river structures. You can 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.560 see deltas at the end of rivers into the lake. 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:54.400 Wow, how long ago was that? 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.800 This was a long time ago, so maybe aund four 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.840 billion years ago, so very early in the story of Mars. 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.080 So four billion years ago, if you went to Mars, 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:05.279 you would see lakes. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.960 And rivers, yeah, presumably. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:12.880 And clouds and brain yeah. Oh what about the atmosphere? 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.240 Was it always one percent or was it different? 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:15.600 No? 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.360 So it's believed that the atmosphere were thicker, and this 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.360 is one of the reasons people think there's no water now, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.200 is because the atmosphere creates pressure, right, and the pressure 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.320 makes the water be able to be liquid and not frozen. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.520 So what people think is that there was a thicker atmosphere, 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.000 but that disappeared quite early in the history of Mars. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:40.600 And when the atmosphere disappeared, the liquid water also froze. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:46.120 Oh, so it's due to the lack of atmosphere that disappeared. 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.200 Do we know what happened to the atmosphere? Why did 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:48.800 it go away? 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.760 So this is also one big research topic about Mars, 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:57.120 and one of the reasons is there's no magnetic field, 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:01.120 and also Mars has less gravity they hold atmosphere. 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.120 Okay, so it sounds like Earth and Mars were sort 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.120 of like twins at the beginning. I mean they were 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.400 very similar, rocky, there were lakes, there was water, there's 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.480 a thick atmosphere. But now Earth it's super different than Mars. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.440 Yes, so that makes it also very interesting. One is 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.360 teeming with life and you have the oceans a lot 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.960 of life, but the other one is like a dry desert. 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.679 Do you also have venos Actually, oh right, Venus, which 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.320 is almost the opposite because they have too much atmosphere 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.840 and it's very warm. Instead, it's covered by that thick case, 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.599 so it's hard to serve the surface and if you 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.280 try to land something, it kind of dies within a 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.600 couple of minutes because it's the heat is so high. Wow. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:46.560 So it's like there were triplets. They're all like the 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:48.400 same and they all took different paths. 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:49.840 Yeah, I see. 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.840 Okay, So there's a lot of talk now about going 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:57.600 to Mars, maybe establishing a colony there, exploring it. Is 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.920 it a place where humans could live? Are there resources there? 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.640 For us to live out the land or do we 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.240 have to bring everything with us like a camping trip. 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.480 So there is a lot of research going into city 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:14.319 to resource utilizations. This is like using stuff on ground. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.400 There are some resources. For example, you could take the 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.120 CEO two and then split that and make O. 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.760 Two and so we have that technology to turn COE 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:25.280 two back into oxygen. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.640 Yes, hopefully we'll make some way to make oxygen so 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.720 you can breathe, and then we would have to make 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.840 food and also shelter. So one of the big problems 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.960 because we don't have that atmosphere is radiation. So the 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:43.160 radiation level on Mars is much higher than on Earth. 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.600 So one thing if we go there is to build 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.080 a shelter that you would maybe be able to manufactures, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.920 although there's rock materi lying on the surface like a 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.719 dome to protect from radiation. 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.079 Like, you couldn't just rely on your suit or a 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.160 camping tent. You need a thick wall to protect you. 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.679 Yeah, maybe you could go there and stay for a 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:10.120 shorter time in some like inflatable type of habitat, but 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.560 then if you want to stay longer, you would probably 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.520 need to build some type of thicker like a dome. 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:16.400 I see. 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.120 Another thing people are thinking about. So there seems to 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.040 be caves, so you would be able to, you know, 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.360 live in a cave or something, because then you would 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.640 have automatically that prediction. 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.720 I see, But then you might run into Martian bears. 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:32.640 Well I don't think. 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.880 So, okay. The last thing I talked to you, doctor 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.880 Sillystorm about was whether we could grow food on Mars 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:47.400 right now? Okay, so maybe we have energy shelter oxygen there. 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.400 What about food? Is there is there a possibility to 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:51.480 grow food there? 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:56.000 There've been some scientific tests where they kind of grow 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:01.560 things and Martian analog soils, and it seems possible. One 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.320 problem is that there's toxic things in the Martian soil 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.920 that's not very good. There's type of salt called percurates, 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.760 which is quite common on Mars, that is not very 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.720 beneficial for the growth. You need to add like nitigen phosphorus, 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.160 which may not be abundant and not I mean, the 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.040 sun is also less strong on Mars because we're further away, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.920 so you need to have netlives or something to get 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.080 the photosynthesis. You have plenty of seal too, so that's 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.440 not a problem. 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:40.040 Okay, to recap. Mars is not the dream destination some 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.120 movies make it out to be. In fact, it seems 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.000 pretty dangerous to live there. It's freezing cold. There's very 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.520 little air or oxygen while the water is frozen at 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.679 the poles. You can't really grow food there. You need 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.959 to wear a pressurized suit the whole time, and most 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.560 likely you have to live in a cave that's not 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:06.160 peaceful or relaxing at all. Now, there is something that 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.600 serious scientists think we can do to make Mars a 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:15.440 nicer place to live, and that is terraforming. So when 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.040 we come back, we'll talk to an expert about what 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:22.800 that is and whether it could ever work. Don't go anywhere, 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:36.040 we'll be right back and we're back. Okay, we learned 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.560 that Mars is not a cozy place. It's not nearly 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.240 as bad as the other planets in our Solar System, 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.120 but still living there would be like living in Antarctica, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.800 except there's almost no air to breathe. There's a ton 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.960 of radiation, and if you took off your spacesuit you'd die. 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.439 This is why people have talked about terraforming Mars, which 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.079 is to change at mosphere. Now to fill us in 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.520 on how that works and whether it's possible reached out 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:10.520 to a Mars terrorforming expert. Doctor Francois Forge is an 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.360 astrophysicist who has worked on many space missions for NASA 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.200 and the European Space Agency. Here's how he describes what 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:18.720 he does. 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:25.240 So, I'm a planetary scientist. I study mostly the atmosphere 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.000 on other planets and in particular Mars. I've been working 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.200 on many a space mission on the ground and in orbit. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.280 I'm among the person who does climate modeling, the same 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.520 thing you do on the Ears to do climate prediction, 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.760 but we apply these models to other planet, in particular 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:41.440 planet Mars. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.920 The start off, what is it like in Mars if 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:44.679 we were together there? 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.680 And mass today has many similarities with the Ears because 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.480 the length of the day is twenty four hours and 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.199 forty minutes. You have seasons just like on the Earth. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.000 Because the tilts of the axis of rotation is about 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.160 the same that on Earths. As the consequence, you have 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:05.040 a low pressure system jet. When you have moonsunjets, you 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:08.680 have many similities. Of course, it's different because it's much drier, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.320 the pressure is very low. You have on average six 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.800 hundred and ten million bars, but that's one hundred time 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.240 less than on the Earth, so it can be very 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:20.760 cold that it deserts like planet. 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:27.760 Next, I ask him to describe what terraforming is. Now, 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.160 you wrote a paper about this idea of terraforming bars, 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.800 can you explain to us what terraforming is. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:39.000 Okay? Terraforming is to modify your environment at the planetary 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:45.320 scale so that you can either make life easier for humans, 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:50.240 or you can also a low life, typically terrestrial life, 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.080 to grow and develop there, and ultimately you can even 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.280 imagine completely adapting it to a human life. 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:04.200 According to doctor Farge, there are three levels of terraforming. 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:06.480 It's sort of like when you go to the spa 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.400 and you get a choice of three levels of treatment. 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.200 You can get just a bag massage, or you can 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.280 get the full body massage, or you can get the 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:20.080 full body massage plus the modbath, the hot stones and 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.120 those little cucumbers that cover your eyes, or you can 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.720 think of it like levels in a video game. They're 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:30.480 all terraforming, but each level gets harder and trickier. Here's 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.040 how doctor Farge describes each level. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.680 One is to directly raise the pressure so that you 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.920 can walk around without a spacesuit, a seconetist who adapts 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.800 mass to some form of terroristial life, and finally to 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.840 adapt mass for humans to be just like the Earth. 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.720 Interesting. There's three levels of terraforming. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:53.680 Yeah, and there are side options. 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.960 Now we'll get into each of these levels, but first 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.920 I was curious about where the side came from. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.760 This is not a new idea. It's something you can 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:11.040 find in many science fiction books, movies, even games. It's 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:15.120 quite a popular concept. Ellen Musk has been popularizing it 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.200 because he wants to do that. But in reality, if 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:22.040 you look at the technical and scientific literature, there are 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.760 very very little studies, not many studies about that, so 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.280 you can become a specialist quite quickly. So the point 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.440 is to say that there have been some speculations, some 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.800 scientific studies in the seventies and the eighties. A key 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:43.400 scientific studies was published in nineteen ninety one by Chris McKay, 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.640 Riot Tune, and Jim Casting. They were all together at 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.560 the Nazaims Research Center. I was there just after this, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.760 so I know them well. And this is really something 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.240 that is at the basis of many of the speculation 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.840 that you can read today in the pular literature and 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.400 stuff like that, and lots of the concept that I 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.280 will describe today are in fact described very well in 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:07.560 this interesting paper. 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.520 Okay, to start, here's level one of terraforming Mars, and 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.160 that is to simply raise the atmospheric pressure. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:17.360 There. 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.040 As mentioned before, the air on Mars is one hundred 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.720 times thinner than it is on Earth, so all you 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.000 have to do is make more air. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.080 So now let me go to the first step, that 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.760 is to raise the atmospheric pressure so that you can 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.320 live without a spacesuit. And the side effect of this 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.720 will be too allow to have liqid water on the 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:41.840 surface more easily. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.280 Can I just ask why does the low pressure require 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:45.360 you to use a space suit? 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.760 Well, there are two reasons. The first one is the 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.520 fact that if you go to Mars right now, you 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.280 can't have liquid water at all because water will boil 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.520 at two three degrees celsius. That means that, for instance, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.679 if you walk around you're a saliva will boil and 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.399 your blood will want to boil as well. At thirty 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.560 seven degrees you're well above the boiling point, so you're 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.440 like a pressure cooker. You don't want to do that. 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.679 Yeah, not having your blood boil would be nice. The 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.520 second reason you need a pressure ized suit is that 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:23.520 at those low pressures there wouldn't be enough oxygen atoms 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.040 for your lungs to breathe, even if you wore a 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.960 pure oxygen mask. So clearly it would be nice to 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.560 raise the air pressure on Mars, But how would you 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:34.920 do that? 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.119 So the conclusion you need a space suit today, and 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.000 if you don't want a space suit, you need to 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.960 find a way to raise the pressure of the atmosphere 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:51.000 on Mars up to at least one hundred twenty millibars 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.399 typically okay, and that's a lot because right now on 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.720 Mars you have six midi bars of mostly CO two. 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.880 So the question is how can you raise the pressure 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.359 up to one hundred and twenty million mars or even higher? 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:06.040 Okay? 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:10.000 So you need some gas. And they had this idea 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.960 that especially in the polar regions, there should be frozen 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:19.400 COEO two ready to be released. So they say that, mmm, 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.760 we think that if we can heat the pole, we 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.600 can sublime in other world, transform the seal to ice 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:32.479 into seal to gas sufficiently so that you increase the 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:33.720 amount of seal to gas. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.959 Okay. So one idea to raise the pressure on Mars 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.200 is to take all the CO two ice we see 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.520 in Mars' north and south poles, melt it so it 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:49.120 turns to gas, and fill up the atmosphere with it. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.800 Now scientists think that you wouldn't have to melt all 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.919 that coeo to ice. That'd be like melting all the 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.679 ice in our north and south poles. You could do 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.920 it by triggering global warming. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.400 Seal two, by the way, is a greenhouse gas, so 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.199 if you increase the amount of gas, there could be 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.399 a runaway greenhouse effect in other worlds. You heat a 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.040 little bit the polese, it really is a little bit 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.959 of seal two s to hat the planets, and then 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.879 you have a runaway process that sublimes all the CO 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.920 two around and suddenly you have a very nice thick 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:27.680 atmosphere made of seal two. 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.840 Yeah, what could go wrong? All right? So then how 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.879 do you get this global warming started? And this is 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.960 where things start to get a little science fictioning. 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.959 On this basis you may have heard. All we have 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.399 to do is to initialize this, for instance, by using 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:53.200 mirrors to hit the poles of mass, and that could 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:58.119 trigger this runaway climate change that will suddenly transform mass. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.879 So one idea is to float mirrors in space around 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.080 Mars and point them so that they focus the light 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.840 from the Sun to the North or South poles, sort 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:15.200 of like a giant space magnifying glass. And from there 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.160 the ideas get even crazier. 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.600 Some people have suggested that you could spread the I 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.760 don't know, very dark material on the cap and sudden 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.399 need will absorb the sola heat and go into this process. 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.080 If you know Ellen Musks, it goes around with a 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.760 T shirt where it's threetened nuke mass. And this idea 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.720 is that, okay, let's release the coal two frozen at 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.240 the poles by putting nuclear bombs and it will sudden 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:44.880 nut ones from MASSO. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.679 That's right. One idea is to paint the North and 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.639 South poles black so they absorb more heat, and the 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:59.679 other idea is to explode nuclear bombs to vaporize the 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:03.960 North and Sells poles. Like I said, what could go wrong? 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.320 But not all ideas are it this destructive. Another way 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:13.520 to cause global warming is to simply pollute the Martian atmosphere. 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:19.000 A very popular weight that has been studied was to 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:23.600 make factories and create super efficient greenhouse gas. With the 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:28.280 fluoro carbon. For instance, you can make artificial greenhouse gas 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.240 that will really create a strong greenhouse effect with only 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.480 a few part per millions. So factories will be enough 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.080 to create that if you find the material to make them. 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:44.640 We could invent aerial salts metallic carrosalts with the form 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:49.160 of a needle that will be especially optimized to also 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:51.280 create a very efficient greenhouse effect. 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.840 Okay, that's terraforming. Level one increasing the pressure so we 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:02.320 don't need spacesuits to walk around. Level two is having 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:04.960 life grow on Mars. 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.359 Step two will be to have plants than life that 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.280 could survive on Mars, to adapt mass in a way 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:21.080 that you could imagine, have plants, algae, something living that 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.840 could survive and thrive on the surface. So some people 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:28.600 will find that exciting because you bring life to somewhere 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.920 else down on the Earth. Some people will be motivated 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:34.639 by the fact that plants will be a way to 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:39.880 modify an atmosphere. For instance, photosynthesis could transform CO two 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:44.080 into oxygen, and this is a way to transform Mars 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.040 in something more suitable for humans. 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.000 That sounds great. Why doesn't that work? 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:55.840 The reason is that life is very good as growing everywhere, 0:23:56.119 --> 0:24:01.760 even if it's called one acidic whatever. But life requires 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.960 liquid water on the Earth is very simple. If there 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.359 is liquid water, you have life. Even if it's salty water, 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:11.760 if it's at minute ten degrees, if it's very hot 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:14.160 water at the bottom of the ocean at one hundreds. See, 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:18.080