Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Say there, everyone, and welcome to
Speaker 1: tech stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland. And and we're gonna take
Speaker 1: you to Mars. Fore maybe maybe the possibility. So so
Speaker 1: Mars one, Yeah, Mars one. It's this. It's this proposed
Speaker 1: project that would set up a human colony on Mars,
Speaker 1: funded mostly by the televisation of the entire process. Yes, so,
Speaker 1: um yeah, essentially turning a space exploration and colonization project
Speaker 1: into a reality TV show in a way actually more
Speaker 1: than just in a way a giant reality TV show
Speaker 1: in an entire like thirteen year series of reality TV shows,
Speaker 1: which is pretty impressive to sit there and say that
Speaker 1: any particular property is going to maintain interest in the
Speaker 1: public for at least thirteen years. Uh, and maybe it will,
Speaker 1: but um, it's it's kind of an interesting approach to this,
Speaker 1: this question of when are we going to actually set
Speaker 1: up a colony somewhere other than on Earth, like like
Speaker 1: on Mars, and and proposing the fact that it can
Speaker 1: be not only commercial but um but but driven specifically
Speaker 1: by public interest. Really, I mean, because because here's the
Speaker 1: thing is that we know that the government officials that
Speaker 1: are behind things like like the space industry in the
Speaker 1: United States anyway, are facing increasingly difficult battles in in funding. Right.
Speaker 1: It's it's getting harder and harder to get a working budget.
Speaker 1: And some of that is due to problems that the
Speaker 1: various space industries have had, like specifically what NASA has undergone,
Speaker 1: where NASA has had a few projects more than a
Speaker 1: few maybe that some would argue we're improperly governed so
Speaker 1: that they ballooned out of control as far as budget
Speaker 1: and timeline is considered. And part partially this was also
Speaker 1: due to just uh, everyone at the at the outset
Speaker 1: and not understanding exactly what kinds of issues we're going
Speaker 1: to crop up along the way and what kinds of
Speaker 1: problems would need to be solved, right, And sometimes it
Speaker 1: was because you know, it wasn't necessarily mismanagement, but it
Speaker 1: might be that you know, you have very limited uh
Speaker 1: people you can go to when you need something like
Speaker 1: an enormous rocket, and if the only company that provides
Speaker 1: the enormous rockets that you need says, you know, I
Speaker 1: know that originally we were going to say that this
Speaker 1: was going to be you know, twenty million dollars per rocket,
Speaker 1: but in reality it looks like it's gonna be closer
Speaker 1: to sixty five. You don't have a lot of options left.
Speaker 1: So it's I don't mean to suggest that NASA was
Speaker 1: really bad at managing this stuff. It's just that a
Speaker 1: lot of several high profile projects, uh ended up getting
Speaker 1: bogged down in lots of problems, which and when you're
Speaker 1: and when you're publicly funded, it's a lot more difficult
Speaker 1: to 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 and um uh is
Speaker 1: the is the current proposed date, which is ten years away.
Speaker 1: I mean, this isn't This is already blowing my mind.
Speaker 1: And we haven't even gotten into what the actual challenges
Speaker 1: are yet. But just the challenge of getting the materials together,
Speaker 1: testing your your various spacecraft because obviously you're going to
Speaker 1: have to design special spacecraft for these teams to go
Speaker 1: up in there. They're they're talking right now to Elon
Speaker 1: Musk and the other kids are at SpaceX R about
Speaker 1: about using their their stuff, which would be important. I mean,
Speaker 1: 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 to launch it using the fuel sources that we
Speaker 1: typically use here on Earth. And and they are they
Speaker 1: are planning a space launch rather than an Earth launch
Speaker 1: of the actual crew module. Interesting, I did not read
Speaker 1: that part, so you'll have to tell me more about that.
Speaker 1: If if you get a chance. Sure, but but but
Speaker 1: let's let's let's back all of this back up the so, so,
Speaker 1: the Mars one project is run by the by by
Speaker 1: by two parts. It's a there's a nonprofit foundation called
Speaker 1: Mars one and there's a for profit company called Interplanetary
Speaker 1: Media Group, which makes me laugh so hard that they
Speaker 1: are interplanetary serving all your needs, whether you are on
Speaker 1: Earth or somewhere else. That's I do wonder whether whether
Speaker 1: the nice people who founded it are on Earth or
Speaker 1: somewhere else. There is a fair, fair request? Are you
Speaker 1: from here? Uh? This this is these but both of
Speaker 1: these of these organizations are are are based in the
Speaker 1: Otherland's co founded by Bob's Landsdorp and ar Noo Wielders
Speaker 1: and uh Landscorpe 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 weights the nonprofit organization overseas the for profit arm
Speaker 1: of this. Now, now this is just it raises alarm
Speaker 1: flags in my mind. However, I will say, if this works,
Speaker 1: it's a brilliant way of of funding this because the
Speaker 1: nonprofit part can take them any money that's generally from
Speaker 1: right and there's no there's no processing fee or whatever
Speaker 1: you want. There's not a convenience fee here. Because they
Speaker 1: have this governance and they have this ownership of the
Speaker 1: the for profit arm. And if that money indeed is
Speaker 1: going to fund this Mars project, that's exactly what they're
Speaker 1: going to need in order to have that That a
Speaker 1: massive amount of capital they're going to need because the
Speaker 1: foundation is going to be is going to be the
Speaker 1: owner of the settlement on Mars and UH and the
Speaker 1: employer of the mission teams right, and then I am G.
Speaker 1: The the Media group is essentially in charge of of
Speaker 1: generating funds through things like the olevised broadcast of the
Speaker 1: process of selecting people to go to Mars even and
Speaker 1: then once they get there, their ongoing experience on Mars
Speaker 1: to be live stream televised seven six, five days a year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's big brother Red Planet edition. And then they also
Speaker 1: but they're also going to be generating money through things
Speaker 1: like merchandizing, right right, And I AMG will in fact
Speaker 1: hold exclusive rights um to use this project to generate
Speaker 1: revenue through broadcasting, advertising, etcetera, etcetera. Right, So you've got
Speaker 1: this interesting approach to trying to uh to fund space colonization. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the only way this really works is if it captures
Speaker 1: the public's attention enough for them to want to watch it, right,
Speaker 1: Because otherwise that flow of revenue isn't going to come
Speaker 1: to dry up immediately, and then they don't have any
Speaker 1: money to build or buy all the stuff they need
Speaker 1: in order to get things to Mars. So let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about what they are looking for, because
Speaker 1: clearly they need to have people want to go, and
Speaker 1: I would I would argue that that part of this
Speaker 1: this application process that we're about to talk about proves
Speaker 1: that the interest is there because within the first two
Speaker 1: weeks that 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 mortal
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 expense incurred to get you
Speaker 1: back here would basically not be worth you, well, no,
Speaker 1: no offense to you beyond that, I mean, just the
Speaker 1: logistics of designing a spacecraft that could and yeah, you'd
Speaker 1: have to have even more fuel. So that you could
Speaker 1: escape the gravity of Mars. Remember, mars is gravity is
Speaker 1: is not that different from Earth's, so you would have
Speaker 1: the same issue. Now that the atmosphere is thinner, so
Speaker 1: you'd have less air resistance, but that's kind of negligible
Speaker 1: when you're talking about gravity. UM. So I mean to
Speaker 1: to create a spacecraft that could get there and then
Speaker 1: launch from the surface and come back is beyond the
Speaker 1: scope 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, no,
Speaker 1: we don't know that for sure. And it's interesting that
Speaker 1: how they're going to go about choosing the people who
Speaker 1: go through this, right. There's there, there's there's first of all,
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of of application of selection criteria and
Speaker 1: did you want to you want to sure sure that
Speaker 1: they're looking for people who have the following characteristics. And
Speaker 1: this is because they need people who are going to
Speaker 1: be psychologically prepared for the challenge, for the training and
Speaker 1: for the trip and to be stuck on Mars for
Speaker 1: the rest of their lives, right, And they have to
Speaker 1: not only be have the psychological uh foundation, but they
Speaker 1: also need to be willing and able to pick up
Speaker 1: new skills because clearly you're you're talking about a tiny
Speaker 1: number of people ultimately on that colony. It's just, you know,
Speaker 1: not not many at all, So you everyone needs to
Speaker 1: be able to do pretty much everything. Just like astronauts
Speaker 1: aboard the International Space Station have to be adept at
Speaker 1: working with all the different systems and be able to
Speaker 1: react if anything goes wrong. The same thing holds true
Speaker 1: on the colony. So you know, it's if if you
Speaker 1: were to apply, you'd have to be willing to go
Speaker 1: through some very rigorous training to learn how to deal
Speaker 1: with any situation that they can come up with that
Speaker 1: could conceivably happen while you're on the colony. And the
Speaker 1: plan is for about six six to seven years of
Speaker 1: training before launch right for the first group, which you
Speaker 1: know also television. So the characteristics they're looking for, they're
Speaker 1: looking for resiliency, and they they break these out by
Speaker 1: practical applications. So for resiliency, they mentioned that your thought
Speaker 1: processes have to be persistent. You persevere and remain productive
Speaker 1: even under difficult circumstances. You see the connection between your
Speaker 1: internal and external self, meaning that you're very self reflective.
Speaker 1: These get a little metaphysical as they go on. You
Speaker 1: are at your best when things are at their worst.
Speaker 1: That is not me, I'm already out. I mostly turned
Speaker 1: snarky when things are at their worst. Also when they're
Speaker 1: at their best, you have indomitable spirit. Nope, mind's totally domitable.
Speaker 1: You understand the purpose of actions may not be clear
Speaker 1: in the moment, but there is good reason, and you
Speaker 1: trust those who guide you. That's terrifying to me, which
Speaker 1: is essentially saying shut up and do your work. Um,
Speaker 1: I understand what they're saying. They're saying like, look, we
Speaker 1: may tell you to do something that requires you to
Speaker 1: uh to endure uncomfortable circumstances for an extended amount of time,
Speaker 1: but trust us, it's it's all on your best interest
Speaker 1: that always that always gets me a little worried, uh
Speaker 1: they and that you have a can do attitude. The
Speaker 1: next criteria is adaptability. Clearly this would be necessary on
Speaker 1: this kind of project, oh right, right, like like like
Speaker 1: Jonathan was saying a second ago, you need to be
Speaker 1: able to do everything up there, so out there right,
Speaker 1: And I love that one of them, one of the
Speaker 1: I won't go through all of the practical applications of
Speaker 1: this one, but one of them is you know your
Speaker 1: boundaries and how and when to extend them. I didn't
Speaker 1: know the boundaries were that flexible, right, Like, I guess
Speaker 1: if you have boundaries of watch, one of those international boundaries,
Speaker 1: it's kind of you know, always always in question, where
Speaker 1: it's just the dotted line instead of the solid line.
Speaker 1: I think maybe it's like you would be willing to
Speaker 1: do this and no more, but you in certain situations
Speaker 1: will be willing to do more. Totally do more. Yeah again,
Speaker 1: kind of terrifying. Um. And then next would be curiosity, which, again,
Speaker 1: if you don't have a sense of curiosity, I can't
Speaker 1: imagine tomorrow unless you're just sick of everyone here, of
Speaker 1: which I mean maybe you are. Maybe you're just a
Speaker 1: missingthroa and of total miss so it would just be
Speaker 1: like the Algonquin Roundtable, but in space, which would be
Speaker 1: kind of awesome. So which would I would watch that show?
Speaker 1: And they talk about the desire to transfer knowledge to
Speaker 1: others and not just showcasing what you know or what
Speaker 1: others do not know. I think that knocks me out too,
Speaker 1: 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 the 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 in a specific
Speaker 1: way if one particular situation arises, but maybe the situation
Speaker 1: is more complicated than that, and you can't just do
Speaker 1: one solution because that's not going to meet all the
Speaker 1: criteria to fix the problem. That's why you have to
Speaker 1: be both creative and resourceful. So that's that's like the
Speaker 1: basic um features that they're looking for in the people
Speaker 1: who apply, and then the way they choose or the
Speaker 1: way they start to narrow down the candidates is also
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. Like I said, the applicant pool was
Speaker 1: opened up on April twenty two, I said April. It
Speaker 1: was on April. And it costs. It does cost money
Speaker 1: to apply, between five and seventy five dollars, depending on
Speaker 1: the wealth of your country of origin. Gotcha, So if
Speaker 1: you're from a more affluent country than your your application
Speaker 1: fee will be higher. I think the fee here in
Speaker 1: the United States is thirty eight dollars. Interesting, So it's
Speaker 1: thirty eight that I'm curious to see which countries are
Speaker 1: on the top of the scale. I did not look
Speaker 1: that up, so I have no idea, But I'm just
Speaker 1: wondering out loud, because you know, it's that it's that
Speaker 1: national pride coming out. What do you mean thirty eight dollars,
Speaker 1: Why aren't we seventy five? Not that I'm applying this.
Speaker 1: This this applicant pool is going to be pared down
Speaker 1: during the course of several rounds. Um. The first is
Speaker 1: by popularity because part of the application is is you
Speaker 1: know your your resume and this very short psychological work up,
Speaker 1: and then part of it is a YouTube video that
Speaker 1: you are supposed to upload. So how many people are
Speaker 1: watching and liking your video? It's like having a cloud
Speaker 1: score for going to Mars. Yeah, and again I could
Speaker 1: see someone who is just really misanthropic winning just because
Speaker 1: people are like, get rid of this guy shooting him
Speaker 1: into space. Um. So so, so the this first round
Speaker 1: is going to be by the by the popularity of
Speaker 1: your of your YouTube video. It's like American Idol, but
Speaker 1: you shoot him into space ahead, um and uh, and
Speaker 1: and by by the application material the company is actually
Speaker 1: looking at your resume. Right, Um, 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 a
Speaker 1: selected down by region and based on the person's health.
Speaker 1: Various 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 uh send a
Speaker 1: bunch of psychopaths up in Mars, people who don't care
Speaker 1: about anyone else, because that would be well counterproductive to
Speaker 1: the mission at large. Sure, sure, missing tropes, yes, Uh,
Speaker 1: total psychopaths, no, not so much. No. Um, after that,
Speaker 1: you're going to start seeing more of a more of
Speaker 1: a crowdsourcing process, um via via reality TV shows, um,
Speaker 1: Internet polls, stuff like that. Right, even when they narrow
Speaker 1: this down to their pool of potential astronauts, and I
Speaker 1: think they're they were aiming to get to around forty
Speaker 1: total when they finally boil it down. I've seen a
Speaker 1: couple of different numbers. But but but yeah, the idea
Speaker 1: being that not all forty of those people would necessarily
Speaker 1: end up on those colonies. It's rather that this is
Speaker 1: the pool of astronauts that could go up and uh
Speaker 1: then h throughout the television series, we might even see
Speaker 1: something where the audience decides which are which four would
Speaker 1: be the first ones to go, right right, it's going
Speaker 1: to be they're they're gonna start naring it down by
Speaker 1: by TV and stuff and uh to two people, a
Speaker 1: man and a woman would be selected from each applicant country. Um,
Speaker 1: and then they will them plus a few judge favorites
Speaker 1: who are not crowdsourced, will proceed to an international round
Speaker 1: and then be grouped into four's, um, some fifty teams
Speaker 1: of four and uh, which which will be narrowed to
Speaker 1: six teams who will train full time. So then you're down.
Speaker 1: Then you're down to that, right right? Um? And then yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be when um, they would select whatever groups
Speaker 1: are ready to go. The company would select the groups
Speaker 1: that they think are good to actually astronaut and um,
Speaker 1: and then the world gets to call in and vote
Speaker 1: on which people get shot into space. This is incredible,
Speaker 1: all right? And then um, uh, you had a specific
Speaker 1: quote from someone who had applied, right, Yeah. NBC News
Speaker 1: found out that sci fi author David brynn Um, who
Speaker 1: wrote for example, The Postman, I Believe and and a
Speaker 1: bunch of other stuff, he told HIMBC that people who
Speaker 1: can't imagine any sane person making this choice. Uh, editors note,
Speaker 1: did the choice to go to Mars forever and never
Speaker 1: come back simply aren't envisioning the wide range of human diversity.
Speaker 1: Um And and was just talking about, you know the
Speaker 1: fact that he's got three kids, and that at the
Speaker 1: very earliest state that Mars one was going to launch,
Speaker 1: he he would be he would be seventy five, which
Speaker 1: means his kids are grown up and on there. They're
Speaker 1: doing their own thing at that point there in their careers.
Speaker 1: So it's 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 few years years of his life doing something truly
Speaker 1: remarkable interesting. And we should say that the the early
Speaker 1: stages of this would require uh, the candidates who were
Speaker 1: selected to move on in the process to go undergo
Speaker 1: some extensive training, like we've mentioned before, but they'd probably
Speaker 1: be going someplace really remote and pretty desolate. Yeah. One
Speaker 1: one of the plans of the group is to UM
Speaker 1: to create on Earth in in in some cold desolate
Speaker 1: desert tundra kind of area, a UM a little foe
Speaker 1: Mars base for training purposes. That will become really important
Speaker 1: because you have to you know, you have to understand
Speaker 1: what are what's the harsh reality of trying to live
Speaker 1: on Mars. But before we jump into that discussion, we
Speaker 1: want to take a quick moment to thank our sponsor. Alright,
Speaker 1: so we've laid out what the project wants to do
Speaker 1: and kind of their general approach, the idea of sending
Speaker 1: up supplies ahead of time and then landing people hopefully
Speaker 1: by three um and uh four people and then initially
Speaker 1: and then another four every two years, and that they're
Speaker 1: having this Mars colony. So let's talk about why this
Speaker 1: would be a monumentally difficult task, like what what are
Speaker 1: what are the challenges that they face, because there are
Speaker 1: quite a few. Um, you're you're you're dealing you're dealing
Speaker 1: with not only when you get to Mars, um it
Speaker 1: not not having an atmosphere the well has a thin atmosphere,
Speaker 1: right correct, Sorry, and not having the atmosphere that Earth
Speaker 1: does that lets you you know, go out barefoot and
Speaker 1: walk around, right, Um yeah, not only that, but there's uh,
Speaker 1: well we'll get into it. Let's let's start with them. Well,
Speaker 1: let's start with the dirt. Yeah, because because Mars dirt
Speaker 1: is toxic. Yeah, just like Britney Spears. No, wait, she
Speaker 1: just did that song. That's I guess. I guess you
Speaker 1: could say either one that you wanted to. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to argue either point. Okay, So the dust that
Speaker 1: covers Mars is called regular If I am pronouncing that correctly,
Speaker 1: are excellent win Um it's it's really human unfriendly it.
Speaker 1: UM contains a bunch of things, for example, bowl uh perchlorate, perchlorate,
Speaker 1: thank you, which which is a group of chemicals that
Speaker 1: are used as oxidizers in rocket fuel. And if that
Speaker 1: doesn't give you an indication, it sucks to to breathe in.
Speaker 1: Exposure can can cause serious damage to your thyroid UM,
Speaker 1: which is an important bit. UM. Lots of silicates UM,
Speaker 1: silicate silic UH, most commonly including feldspar, pyroxine, and olivine,
Speaker 1: all of which react with water to form hydrogen, peroxide,
Speaker 1: hydroxyl and superoxide UM, all of which quartz dust does.
Speaker 1: And UM is blamed for things like lung cancer and
Speaker 1: UH silicosis in miners, which which basically means that you
Speaker 1: inhale this this dust and it reacts with the water
Speaker 1: in your lungs and it is not good, right right,
Speaker 1: This is it starts to form chemicals that can be
Speaker 1: very harmful and lead us to a not living situation,
Speaker 1: right right. Another another thing in there is gypsum um,
Speaker 1: which is a self fate mineral that forms again in
Speaker 1: the presence of water. This one isn't actually toxic the
Speaker 1: way that the silicates are, but on the level of
Speaker 1: coal dust, it is an eye, skin and respiratory irritant.
Speaker 1: So obviously we would have to take precautions against getting
Speaker 1: dust into any habitable area in the Mars one colony,
Speaker 1: right and again because of the atmosphere situation, you're not
Speaker 1: going to have people running around barefoot in Mars dust. However,
Speaker 1: it's a very sticky substance really, and especially due to um.
Speaker 1: Just like static electricity, it's going to wind up getting
Speaker 1: on all the equipment, and you know, even if you
Speaker 1: get it out through through air filters in some kind
Speaker 1: of airlock, it's going to get into the system. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things where you really have
Speaker 1: to design like a clean room type environment, the same
Speaker 1: kind of environments that we think of for creating a microprocessor,
Speaker 1: where even a single mode of dust can ruin a
Speaker 1: sheet of silicon wafers when you're trying to design a microprocessor,
Speaker 1: because you're designing things with such a tiny scale, we
Speaker 1: would need that level of precision too to ensure the
Speaker 1: health of anyone who's living on one of these colonies.
Speaker 1: Not to say that it can't be done, but when
Speaker 1: you are doing this on another planet that's already essentially
Speaker 1: trying to kill you, it's a really really tough challenge.
Speaker 1: The way the way I've seen it described is that
Speaker 1: it's it's not so much that at a certain point
Speaker 1: you're never going to get the dirt completely separated from
Speaker 1: your living quarters, and so it's almost more of a
Speaker 1: of a what can we do to combat the issues
Speaker 1: that this dirt is going to cause some sort of
Speaker 1: chemical scrubbing process that could make this inert, or or
Speaker 1: some kind of medical process that we can act upon
Speaker 1: the poor human people that are out there, because it's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna affect them. Right to to even think
Speaker 1: that we could create a system that would negate all
Speaker 1: of this is probably being a little too Yeah. Ye,
Speaker 1: you definitely can't just assume that, because as soon as
Speaker 1: you do, then tragedy can strike. Well. There there are
Speaker 1: other challenges as well, not just the the dirt, Uh,
Speaker 1: there's also radiation before you even get to the planet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because the 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 plant
Speaker 1: has two things really helping us out. One is the
Speaker 1: atmosphere we have, which helps reduce the energy of any
Speaker 1: incoming radiation. Radiation particles coming into the atmosphere slow stuff down. Um.
Speaker 1: And then also we have a magnetosphere, this magnetic field
Speaker 1: that surrounds the Earth that repels a lot of the
Speaker 1: particles that otherwise we bombard our planet. Mars has a
Speaker 1: very thin atmosphere, so it's not as protective, and there
Speaker 1: is no magnetosphere around Mars, so there's not that magnetic
Speaker 1: You know, you can think of it almost like a
Speaker 1: force field. There's not that magnetic field that can repel
Speaker 1: uh charged particles as they come blasting through space. And
Speaker 1: what's blasting them, you might ask, the Sun. Yep, 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 produced geothermically,
Speaker 1: but but most of it is through some kind of
Speaker 1: root of photosynthesis and then eating things that are synthesis
Speaker 1: exactly so, so the Sun is responsible for most of
Speaker 1: the life on Earth. It's also blasting out stuff that
Speaker 1: would kill you. Now you might think, well, what about
Speaker 1: people who are aboard the space station. How do they
Speaker 1: managed to stay up there so long? It's a lot
Speaker 1: of shielding, and they're 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. It's one of one of
Speaker 1: the many reasons why they try to bring people back
Speaker 1: pretty right, right, Yeah, Another one being things like bone loss,
Speaker 1: which you can suffer if you're out in space for
Speaker 1: a very long time. So if you are going out
Speaker 1: from Earth to Mars, you will eventually get to a
Speaker 1: point where you leave Earth's magnetic field while you're in space,
Speaker 1: and once you leave that magnetic field, the only protection
Speaker 1: you have from this kind of radiation this cosmic radiation,
Speaker 1: and and it's radiation in a different form than you know.
Speaker 1: It's not energy beams coming at you like you would
Speaker 1: think in a in a nineteen fifties science fiction film.
Speaker 1: Cosmic radiation or cosmic rays are not made up of
Speaker 1: light energy. They're actually, uh, a nuclei of adams like
Speaker 1: hydrogen and helium and iron that are traveling at hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of kilometers per second through space that have
Speaker 1: been ejected by the Sun. And that the In fact,
Speaker 1: the University of Rochester Medical Center published a study not
Speaker 1: that long ago that suggested that long exposure to this
Speaker 1: kind of radiation could increase the risk of developing diseases
Speaker 1: like Alzheimer's. So, uh, you know, exposure to this stuff
Speaker 1: is dangerous. So you would have to build some form
Speaker 1: of shielding within your spacecraft so that if there were
Speaker 1: a period of cosmic radiation, the Sun's not constantly blasting
Speaker 1: this stuff out. It comes in these little short bursts.
Speaker 1: But if you were to detect such a burst coming
Speaker 1: at the spacecraft. You would have to be able to
Speaker 1: go into a specially shielded compartment and waited out and
Speaker 1: it usually lasts a few hours. So actually Mars one
Speaker 1: is fairly cavalier and saying like it wouldn't be a
Speaker 1: very comfortable, uh situation. You'd be kind of in cramped
Speaker 1: quarters for about you know, three or four hours, but
Speaker 1: you know, after it's over you can come out. It
Speaker 1: sounds to me like you would be essentially need to
Speaker 1: knee with the rather astronauts waiting for waiting for this
Speaker 1: to finish. Well, but you're clearly best friends with them,
Speaker 1: after going through six years of extensive training on a
Speaker 1: desert base on Earth, hoping no one TV cameras in
Speaker 1: your face because no one has the cracks under that
Speaker 1: kind of pressure, right, and hoping that no one had
Speaker 1: the chili, uh space meal just for you to go
Speaker 1: in there. Yes, space chili be bad boy. Chris would
Speaker 1: have appreciated that joke like crazy. Well, anyway, that's something
Speaker 1: you would really have to deal with on that whole
Speaker 1: trip from Earth to Mars. Once you get the Mars,
Speaker 1: the thin atmosphere does provide some protection. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 1: I saw one report that suggested that, uh, information from
Speaker 1: the Curiosity rover may show that it's non lethal levels
Speaker 1: of radiation. Now that does not mean that there would
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, you might. It might still increase your chance, says,
Speaker 1: of developing certain diseases, but they it wouldn't outright kill you.
Speaker 1: Like there there are radiation levels that are so high
Speaker 1: as to give you radiation poisoning, which can be lethal.
Speaker 1: But the point that he was making was that, Uh,
Speaker 1: they aren't that intense on Mars. Now we're recording this,
Speaker 1: uh just a day before NASA releases more information about
Speaker 1: the radiation on Mars. So, um, by the time you
Speaker 1: hear this, we'll know more about it. But Lauren and
Speaker 1: I don't because we can't see into the future. So
Speaker 1: how does Mars one expect to deal with the radiation
Speaker 1: problem on Mars? Well, even with it being non lethal,
Speaker 1: obviously you don't want to have prolonged exposure to radiation
Speaker 1: if you can help it. So they are proposing that
Speaker 1: they will have the habitat part of Mars one, the
Speaker 1: place where the astronauts actually look, or the colonists, if
Speaker 1: you prefer, where they actually live and do most of
Speaker 1: their work will be underground. So somehow using rovers, they're
Speaker 1: gonna launch rovers up before they launch launching, along with
Speaker 1: some supplies and stuff like that. In fact, I think
Speaker 1: the first the first scheduled landing would be just supplies,
Speaker 1: and then the second round would have the first rover landing.
Speaker 1: The rovers are going to be these robotic rovers, just
Speaker 1: kind of similar to the Curiosity rover, but with a
Speaker 1: lot of construction ability, like they'd obviously have to be
Speaker 1: able to dig out and put up structures for the
Speaker 1: incoming colonists. The idea being that the colonists would arrive
Speaker 1: in mostly everything would already be together, right right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the I've got a little bit about the timeline, do
Speaker 1: you want me to do? Well, yeah, sure, we can
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that and then jump back
Speaker 1: to to this. But well, let me just say this.
Speaker 1: The whole idea about putting it underground is that by
Speaker 1: being under the soil, which we've already established is dangerous
Speaker 1: stuff all on its own, the soil would protect against radiation,
Speaker 1: and that, according to mars One's frequently asked question section
Speaker 1: five meters of soil, which is about sixteen point four
Speaker 1: feet of soil, would be equivalent to being protected by
Speaker 1: Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere, so they would dig down five
Speaker 1: meters and put the habitats that far down, so almost
Speaker 1: two stories if you're thinking of of of a building,
Speaker 1: so you would imagine that you would arrive on Mars
Speaker 1: and then go down two flights of stairs and be
Speaker 1: two flights of stairs underground and that's where you live. Right.
Speaker 1: The The idea is to UM UH launch supply missions
Speaker 1: starting in UM, rover launch in UM. Also starting at
Speaker 1: that point a live video stream from from the rover,
Speaker 1: which features heavily in their their stated timelines on their website,
Speaker 1: which cracks me up just a little bit. And I
Speaker 1: understand that this is how they're making money, but it's
Speaker 1: you know, they're very like scientific advancement live on video,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, it's it it tickles me. UM,
Speaker 1: but we're in that post real world world. I guess yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's true. UM. But so so yeah, so
Speaker 1: and then would be when UM the settlement components would launch,
Speaker 1: including two living units to life support units, more supplies,
Speaker 1: and a second rover along with the second video stream UM.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, and then again, like we said two,
Speaker 1: would be when the astronauts would launch and would be
Speaker 1: when they would land, along with UM five other cargo
Speaker 1: missions that year. Yeah, and the rover's job would be
Speaker 1: to actually collect those uh, those bits that landed and
Speaker 1: and to put them together and to assemble them. And
Speaker 1: and that blows my mind. The idea of a rover
Speaker 1: capable of of maneuvering, lifting, carrying, and positioning these various
Speaker 1: modular components so that it can make a living space
Speaker 1: for the astronauts by the time they land. That's a
Speaker 1: really sophisticated job for a robot to do. And and
Speaker 1: robotics is advancing continually. But they're talking about launching this
Speaker 1: critter in that's five years off, right, which means that
Speaker 1: they have to start building it right now. They can't.
Speaker 1: You know, these things take a lot of time because
Speaker 1: they have to build it, they have to test it,
Speaker 1: make sure that's going to withstand the pressures that needs
Speaker 1: to that can actually fulfill the functions of the mission
Speaker 1: before they even try and launch one. And of course
Speaker 1: it's also all assumes that all these launches are successful,
Speaker 1: and I mean, we certainly hope they are, but there's
Speaker 1: never a guarantee, you know, you can never be completely certain. Uh.
Speaker 1: Going back to the Mars one fact about the the radiation,
Speaker 1: they also had this helpful section which I found, uh
Speaker 1: again 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 or six days in space would mean the chance
Speaker 1: of contracting cancer for twenty five to thirty four year
Speaker 1: olds is around ten for men and seventeen percent for women.
Speaker 1: But let's compare it to people who do not go
Speaker 1: to Mars in their lifetimes. Men have a twelve percent
Speaker 1: chance of contracting prostate cancer and women have twelve point
Speaker 1: five percent chance 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 hundred thirty six days in
Speaker 1: the study mentioned above. Staying in Mars will result in
Speaker 1: much 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 talked
Speaker 1: about how the lifetime versus o a lifetime groups and
Speaker 1: exactly a lifetime versus a trip. This is a tiny
Speaker 1: bit misleading and shockingly unscientific for a group of people
Speaker 1: who are looking to go to Mars. Right. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you say a tiny bit misleading, you are understating it drastically.
Speaker 1: I think I think you're giving them too much credit
Speaker 1: because uh, and I mean, I want us to have
Speaker 1: colonies on the Moon and on Mars. Trust me, I
Speaker 1: think that that would be amazing and a phenomenal human achievement.
Speaker 1: But I don't think we get there by downplaying some
Speaker 1: of the very real, uh challenges we face and and
Speaker 1: the way that this is worded. I agree with you, Lauren,
Speaker 1: this is not a very realistic like it's it's like
Speaker 1: 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. And also especially when you're when
Speaker 1: you're recruiting essentially civilians to to get into this project.
Speaker 1: It's it's so hazardously misleading to put those kind of
Speaker 1: numbers in someone's head without without That's that's irresponsible, is
Speaker 1: what that is. When you're encouraging eighteen year olds to
Speaker 1: hop on YouTube and apply for your program, and you're
Speaker 1: and you're basically lying to them with statistics, right, if
Speaker 1: you're not lying, I just went off a little bit.
Speaker 1: You should You should know. That's why I included that
Speaker 1: what Jonathan does, That's why I included those bullets because
Speaker 1: when I read that, I had that same reaction that
Speaker 1: you did. But I also, you know, took a ben
Speaker 1: drole before I came in here, so I'm a little calmer.
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing it to calm myself down. I was
Speaker 1: doing it because you know, spring has sprung. So then
Speaker 1: let's talk about life support systems. Now. I was very
Speaker 1: curious to hear how they were going to provide life
Speaker 1: support on Mars. We've already ascertained the soil is dangerous,
Speaker 1: the atmosphere is not breathable, So how do you you know?
Speaker 1: And and getting supplies from Earth while that will continue
Speaker 1: to be a thing, obviously that's not going to be
Speaker 1: steady and constant. You're going to get them in in
Speaker 1: bursts of deliveries. And that you have to have some
Speaker 1: sort of self sustaining element or else. You know, what
Speaker 1: happens when teah Eventually everyone gets dysentery, Space dysentery. What happened?
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 have to keep people alive
Speaker 1: on 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: too potential Nielsen rating 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: Uh what but but we know that Mars has some
Speaker 1: ice on it. So the plan is to dig up
Speaker 1: huge amounts of dirt and put them through what are
Speaker 1: called extractors, and the extractors will heat up the soil,
Speaker 1: which will melt the ice and turn it into water
Speaker 1: vapor u. It will then condense and filter that water
Speaker 1: vapor to turn it back into water, and then that
Speaker 1: water will become the drinking water and also the water
Speaker 1: for the food supply aboard the colony, aboard at the colony.
Speaker 1: And uh, the idea would that be the each life
Speaker 1: of unit on Mars would have about fifteen hundred liters
Speaker 1: of reserve water as well as the water that's actually
Speaker 1: providing to the colony on a daily basis. So that way,
Speaker 1: by the way, they're getting power through solar panels. That's
Speaker 1: the ideas they used. They use solar panel arrays to
Speaker 1: generate the electricity they need to run the colony. But
Speaker 1: in the case of something like a dust storm where
Speaker 1: you don't get that solar power, you have to be
Speaker 1: able to still have access to the things that keep
Speaker 1: us alive, or you've just again killed the entire colony. Um.
Speaker 1: So 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 you can't have
Speaker 1: you can have pure oxygen um for long anyway, So
Speaker 1: you would mix that together to make the habitats air supply,
Speaker 1: not the band. And then finally, where are they getting
Speaker 1: the food? And some of the foods coming from earth,
Speaker 1: they will be supplied, but that's supposed to be the
Speaker 1: kind of like emergency rations. The plan is to use
Speaker 1: hydroponic farms. Hydroponic farms don't require soil to grow plants
Speaker 1: and to use special L e d s to provide
Speaker 1: the specific wavelengths of light that those plants will need
Speaker 1: to grow. So these L E d s will because
Speaker 1: their l eds they draw a very little power, so
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about running a whole lot
Speaker 1: of power to them. They will then give that that
Speaker 1: specific wavelength that will give the plants the best chance
Speaker 1: to really grow in that environment. And since since we're
Speaker 1: doing this all of us underground, you don't have the
Speaker 1: cheery Martian sunshine to fuel year right exactly, so so
Speaker 1: you've got you're you're doing it all inside. That will
Speaker 1: also mean that uh, it'll use the carbon dioxide generated
Speaker 1: not just by people breathing, but they'll they'll also harvest
Speaker 1: CEO two from the Martian atmosphere as well, and so
Speaker 1: that that's how they answer the water, oxygen, and food problems. Uh.
Speaker 1: That sounds like an oversimplification to me too. Again, this
Speaker 1: is talking about systems that we have not we've proven
Speaker 1: that they can work on Earth, but you know, to
Speaker 1: expect that all of these are going to work on
Speaker 1: Mars is uh? I mean, I would hope they would,
Speaker 1: but it seems very optimistic, especially within the timeline that
Speaker 1: they have granted, because we haven't run those kind of
Speaker 1: tests to make sure that we could do this kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Um, And I would kind of want us
Speaker 1: to have a pretty confident, a pretty high confidence level
Speaker 1: that would work. But if one of the astronauts especially,
Speaker 1: I would want that thing. And they're talking, they're talking
Speaker 1: about the habitats and the rooms that they're in being
Speaker 1: in these inflated uh uh essentially kind of like inflated
Speaker 1: tents in a way, which makes me wonder how they
Speaker 1: design it so it can withstand the fact that there
Speaker 1: 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 don't, don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, and it's I think it's fair
Speaker 1: to to kind of put this stuff out there, and
Speaker 1: especially since they're doing this essentially for profit, um and
Speaker 1: it's all proprietary, keeping everything a little bit close to
Speaker 1: the chest, I could, I could Devil's add get 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: You 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, you're talking, And
Speaker 1: we've already got the the experience of sending people there
Speaker 1: and coming back, you know, unless you believe the whole
Speaker 1: uh television studio thing. Uh but but that did go
Speaker 1: to the Moon in nineteen one, but the nine one
Speaker 1: was on a movie studio, was on general ben that
Speaker 1: that aside. I mean, it's my just just the ethical
Speaker 1: questions that this raises of whether or not it's it's
Speaker 1: okay too to a send people to Mars on one
Speaker 1: way ticket at all, and and be to do it
Speaker 1: under the restrictions of reality TV. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that anyone who's watched any amount of reality TV has
Speaker 1: seen that group breakdown that inevitably happens and is and
Speaker 1: is partially um I think fabricated for the enjoyment or
Speaker 1: or at least schadenfreud of the viewers wherein the group
Speaker 1: just hates each other and and someone gets kind of
Speaker 1: Lord of the flies out, and I just don't. I 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 scinat against science
Speaker 1: and in a human exploration. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I don't. I almost don't that thinking about it makes
Speaker 1: me nervous for those poor people. And and you know
Speaker 1: it very well. Maybe that the popular approach that they're taking,
Speaker 1: this this kind of you know, pop culture approach almost
Speaker 1: to the whole project, uh is is really not indicative
Speaker 1: of how serious they are. So a lot of the
Speaker 1: judgments that we're making, a lot of the conclusions we
Speaker 1: are drawing, it's all based off of the approach we
Speaker 1: have seen. So maybe a lot of our concerns that
Speaker 1: we've raised are already well in hand. We you know,
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and say that might be the case,
Speaker 1: uh And it very well could be. That's just our
Speaker 1: ignorance of the project that leads us to the skepticism.
Speaker 1: But anytime you're talking about people's lives, I think critical
Speaker 1: thought and skepticism need to be employed, uh fully, so
Speaker 1: that you can make sure that these people know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. They are very serious about it actually succeeding.
Speaker 1: They're going to take every precaution they can to protect
Speaker 1: the people's lives who are involved, that the mental and
Speaker 1: physical health of these people, and and to to If
Speaker 1: all of that pans out, then the potential scientific information
Speaker 1: we can get from this experiment would be amazing and
Speaker 1: be phenomenal. So I want it to work. I really do,
Speaker 1: and and like, like, like we say a lot here
Speaker 1: and also on our other podcasts, forward thinking, even if
Speaker 1: it doesn't work out, even just trying could lead to
Speaker 1: terrific scientific advancement, right, 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 at the same time, like, if
Speaker 1: there's no risk, there's no reward, right, And I know
Speaker 1: that there are a lot of astronauts out there who
Speaker 1: have done some phenomenal things that a lot of us
Speaker 1: would consider crazy. I mean it was just people from
Speaker 1: from the test pilots who are first testing the the
Speaker 1: spacecraft before it ever left the Earth's atmosphere, to the
Speaker 1: people who have gone up to the Moon or the
Speaker 1: International Space Station. These are phenomenal feats and they require
Speaker 1: a 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's
Speaker 1: the right the right project. And uh, and so far,
Speaker 1: I'm not fully convinced with Mars one. That's not to
Speaker 1: say that maybe in a year, maybe I'm I'll be
Speaker 1: I'll say, oh, they've met every single one of my
Speaker 1: 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 in
Speaker 1: their restraints. I mean, to be fair. I also would
Speaker 1: not appear on a reality TV show period, So that
Speaker 1: attitude news for you, Lauren. There are cameras everywhere I've
Speaker 1: been doing the house stuff works reality TV show we
Speaker 1: launch any minute now. It's mostly us sitting at our
Speaker 1: desks with headphones on, not paying attention to each other.
Speaker 1: It's not terribly exciting, I'll admit, but you know, I've
Speaker 1: got high hopes. Occasionally see things like Josh talks to Chuck.
Speaker 1: I expected to drive a lot of views. I also
Speaker 1: would not go to Mars unless there was a return ticket,
Speaker 1: in which case maybe, But but with no return ticket,
Speaker 1: not all my stuff is here. So that alone makes
Speaker 1: it really hard for me to say goodbye. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: that I'm a materialist, but come on, you know my
Speaker 1: Xbox is over here. I worked hard on that gamer score.
Speaker 1: It's totally alive. I've got a terrible gamer score. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: that's our our overlook of of Mars one. I really
Speaker 1: do hope that if this doesn't work out, I hope
Speaker 1: some other project that's kind of takes uh note of
Speaker 1: it and and tries to address some of the concerns
Speaker 1: that we have and approach it from a different way.
Speaker 1: I hope that happens, or that they answer my concerns
Speaker 1: and that and that this all works out, because that
Speaker 1: would be phenomenal. So um, we'll have to wait and
Speaker 1: see find out if this actually pans out. And uh,
Speaker 1: and guys, if you were interested in this topic, let
Speaker 1: us know what you thought. Let us know. Would you
Speaker 1: go to Mars? Is that something you would be interested
Speaker 1: in doing? Would you be able to say goodbye to
Speaker 1: everything else and and spend the rest of your life
Speaker 1: on a totally different planet? Have any of you applied yet? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to hear from you. Let us know. You
Speaker 1: can write us our email addresses tech stuff at Discovery
Speaker 1: dot com or to office. A line on Facebook or
Speaker 1: Twitter are handled. There is tech stuff hs W. You
Speaker 1: look forward to hearing from you, and we'll talk to
Speaker 1: you again. Really sad for more on this and thousands
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