WEBVTT - From the Vault: Five Reasons to Never Take Your Space Helmet Off 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.800 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:12.639 Time to go into the Old Vault for a classic 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:14.360 episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This one was 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:19.400 originally published in May of It was called five Reasons 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.640 to Never Take Your Space Helmet Off. And I remember 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:23.599 why we did this episode is because we went to 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:28.320 the theater to see Alien Covenant, Yeah, which I haven't 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:32.120 watched again since the theater, but I am expecting actually, 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.800 despite the bad reviews, it probably holds up pretty well 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.640 as a new version of the nineteen fifties Mad Scientists 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.760 B movie. Yeah, I haven't seen it since it since 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.760 it originally came out, either, but I consider it better 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.760 than most science fiction films. Uh at any right, it 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.760 does involve a trope that frequently pops up in science 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.480 fiction people taking their space helmets off on uh, you know, 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.760 alien worlds, and then then they're surprised eyes when something 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.319 terrible happens. Right, just get that biosphere right in you right? 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.600 Or the other of course, example is where where characters 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.560 take their helmets off on alien worlds and nothing bad happens, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.160 which is also, as you'll learn in this episode, equally 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.720 preposterous like the old Star Trek episode. Yes, and actually 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.520 that's what I'm comparing Alien Covenant more too. It's like 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:29.240 it's like a beautiful if Ridley Scott photographed a version 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.119 of Bride of the Monster by Edwood. Well, the great 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.479 thing about Ridley Scott films is even even when they're bad, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.480 they're pretty good. So I mean, there's gonna be a 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.240 there's gonna be a certain degree of artistry that's going 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.679 to be present, even even of other avident areas of 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.160 the film, like Gunter Deliver. I think that was the 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:52.040 case here. I remember some severe scripting and pacing issues, 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.520 but I just kind of liked it anyway. Yeah. I 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.720 think they're about three movies slammed together into Alien Covenant, 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.520 and two of them I really enjoyed. Uh So, without 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.040 further ado, let's go ahead and pop the hatches on 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:12.080 our helmets and breathe deep the Vault episode. Welcome to 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:21.679 Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:23.480 you wasn't discussed to blow your mind. My name is 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.320 Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick and Boyd we have 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.760 a treat for you today because Robert and I saw 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.919 Alien Covenant this past weekend, right, yeah, on a Saturday. 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:35.919 Was Yeah, it was. So we're going to try to 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.359 avoid major plot spoilers, but this episode today is going 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.280 to uh spring off of an idea that came up 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.480 when we were watching the movie. So we are going 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.960 to talk about the movie a little in more general terms. 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.880 But if you absolutely cannot bear to hear anything at 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.400 all until you see it, you might want to pause 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:54.640 here and come back once you've seen it. Like I said, 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.400 no specific plot spoilers, but I mean, we've got to 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.040 talk about the movie, right, yeah, I mean, and I 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.320 don't agree with me talking about any more depth than 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.959 you would get out of the trailers for it. And 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.560 there were so many trailers for this film. I feel, yeah, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.920 I feel like this was the most part of it. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.720 May just be those sort of the algorithms of YouTube advertisements, 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.960 but I felt like I was absolutely bombarded to the 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.320 point where I just really wanted to respond and say like, look, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.560 I I'm on board, I'm gonna see it. Just stop 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.000 making me watch trailers for it, because I'm gonna it's 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.079 gonna reach the point where I'm gonna start losing interest. 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.280 So Ridley Scott did the same thing with Prometheus, where 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.600 he didn't just do trailers, but he did scenes that 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.600 take place before the movie starts. Sit with him and 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.680 that thing. I don't know. I think maybe part of 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.080 it just like shooting a lot of footage, and then 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.480 with this film in particular, I felt like there was 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.000 this is so one of the things with the film, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.360 like Alien Covenant, is that, by no means was just 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:55.480 a small movie. This is a large studio production. And 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.400 and over the years, Ridley Scott has has proven himself 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.320 one of these actors who knows how he has the 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.160 clout to work within that system, but he seems to 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.520 know how to to cater to expectations like you don't 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.680 not that I follow this kind of thing just religiously, 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.080 but you know, I don't remember ever hearing stories about 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.960 Ridley Scott's battle with the studio over something like he 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.880 seems to Yeah, it may have happened. I don't recall 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.880 hearing about that. It's not like hearing about David Fincher's 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.400 struggles on Alien three with Fox. Yeah, and part of 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.640 that is him having cloud you know, he's Ridley Scott 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.360 he's essentially, you know, a living legend of of the cinema. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.200 But but I also get the sense that he is 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.800 willing to He's willing to work. He's willing to adjust 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.200 that or to um to to to adjust the settings, 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.840 the trajectory on that, on that that vision he has 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.840 in order to see it to the theater. What you're 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.800 saying is he'll play ball. Yeah, I get the impression 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.040 that he's a he's a guy who will play ball. Okay, 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.440 So here's so it is an alien movie. I will 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.800 say it's an alien movie in the Alien franchise. That 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.359 actually felt kind of like an alien movie. And here's 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.880 my short review. Almost all the things I can think 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.120 of to say about it are criticisms. I felt that 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.479 it had really similar problems with Prometheus. With the script, 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:22.159 the human characters are underdeveloped. Their personalities and motivations didn't 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.640 seem to be consistent from one scene to another. Parts 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.520 of the plot definitely went on. And this is a cliche. 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.240 I hate to use it, but it is the best 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.320 descriptive term for it. It was on autopilot in certain parts. 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:40.040 But I just really liked it. I enjoyed it. Nonetheless, 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.560 despite all that it was beautiful to look at. Of course, 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.560 Ridley Scott's always a great set designer, great at the 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:50.479 visual aspect of his movies, creative and interesting things to explore. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.400 In the first half at least, I love the gleeful 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:58.559 sense of body horror repaired with this classically ponderous mad 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.799 scientist vibe, especially in the mid section of the movie. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:07.080 And Michael Fastbender is just heroically fun. So to the 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.400 extent this makes any sense, I felt like the movie 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:16.159 was somehow both stupid and an intensely pleasing work of art. Okay, 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.880 well this actually this in ways lines up with some 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.279 of my feelings about it. It was definitely from me 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.600 a film that I saw it. I wasn't sure how 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.560 I felt about it, but I keep thinking about it 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.359 every day since I saw it, and and I feel 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.479 like for me at this point in my life and 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.360 only the way I interact with films, like that's how 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.840 I tend to judge it. Is it something more than 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.839 like the structural completeness of a film, or the or 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.480 the character motivations and the character development, Like is there 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:48.720 something in the movie that I came back to because 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:50.840 there's for instance, there's so many just sort of paint 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.240 by number superhero films, and there are a lot of 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:57.400 fun I enjoy seeing them, but it's just really into them. Well, 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.160 I mean, I'm into them. I get excited about I'm 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.640 I'm excited to say, see the next Guardians of the 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.800 Galaxy film whenever it's you know, I can watch it 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.359 on an airplane or however it comes together. But I 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.000 enjoy seeing them, and then I don't. I don't chew 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.880 on them afterwards. They kind of go in in in, 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.640 one year out the other kind of right. So with 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.960 Alien Covenant, I I kept thinking about in terms of 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.640 of of Scott's vision for this film and the fact 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.559 that he you know, like we said, well play ball 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:34.640 um because it's uh. Because just as the the Malevolent 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.960 Organism and the Alien series draws its form via the 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.000 life forms that it annihilates, so too does Alien Cove. 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.280 Its covenant Seema a chimerical beast. So it's a it's 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.520 a Prometheus sequel and body, but with appindages that call 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.840 back to Aliens Alien three even a dash of a 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.800 VP in there for good measure. And you know, the 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.840 monster's form varies, enabling the creature to better consume it's 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.680 a victims, but the genetic mission remains the same. This 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:07.440 you know, unstoppable will of weaponized evolution, created and recreated 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.520 by those who would take on the mantle of gods. 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.520 And it's such really, Scott, I feel like he allowed 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.400 Covenants form to encompass fan and studio demands for more, 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.800 for more monsters, for dashes of past installments in the franchise, 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.160 but still at its heart, it's a Prometheus sequel. It's 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.440 the the second installment in a new film Mark that 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.520 one commentator on called called quote a weirdly religious science 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:37.080 fiction universe. And uh, you know, I'm me personally, I 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.840 love both space horror and virtually anything that's weirdly religious, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.360 so you know I'm on this bull's eye for me too. Yeah. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.760 I love it though with I mean, the those aspects 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.880 you mentioned, I love that they're all there, but they also, 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.400 um would you say, so many of them are not 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.160 followed through on. It's almost like they set something up 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.160 to happen in the movie and then it just never happened. Yeah, 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.040 I mean, I would be interested to learn more about 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:04.960 sort of behind the scenes and what was added, what 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.640 was changed, because for instance, there's a there's a shower 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.520 scene not to not just spoil anything later in the film, 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.880 and it's very a VP and it feels feels a 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.120 bit tacked on. It's like the moment it goes Multiple 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.679 reviewers have commented on this that at some point the 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.480 movie suddenly becomes a slasher movie. It's like a Friday 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.800 movie for a few minutes, and that's sort of how 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.320 it felt to me. Yeah, and uh and I also 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.559 have to say that when it comes to the characters 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.720 of this film, like, really, this is a film about 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.120 two androids, and uh and and to A and to 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.240 a lesser extent, a third character who is Um who 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.840 is sort of like the associate captain who ends up 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:51.199 taking over the Billy CREDITU character. Uh. Everyone else is 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.320 is far less developed. But at the core, I mean, 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.720 a film about to androids sort of struggling to figure 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.800 out like where they stand in relationship to the to 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.280 these these these lesser creators are they are they their 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.600 their guardians or are they there destroyers? You know, I'm 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.680 I'm I'm on board of that kind of thing. Yeah. Okay, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:12.960 so we got to get into the meat of the episode. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.240 But one final comment about the movie, do you think 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.680 they're ever going to stop with the the title format 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:23.800 of franchise named colon, abstract noun. I'm so sick of it. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.320 Alien Resurrection, Alien Coming, and all the franchises do it now. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:33.079 It's you know, it's like, uh, Terminator, Genesis, whatever. It 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.120 makes me feel like the next one is going to 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.360 be called like Alien Gamification. It just feels like such 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.560 a product I hated. I wish they could give each 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.239 movie its own title. Well, the last one was Prometheus, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.920 so thumbs up for that. I get the feeling that 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.680 it is about tying everything into this overarching brand. Yeah, 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:51.640 I think it's just to get people in the theaters. 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.679 And I mean sometimes we use the noun noun colon 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:01.800 additional keywords, uh template when say titling episodes of this podcast, 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:03.760 because a part of it is like I've only got 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:05.680 so much space, and I really need to convey what 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.559 this is about, So aliens Colon Covenant. That lets you 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.160 know that it's going to involve aliens, It's gonna involve 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.320 Colon's involve something quasi religious, and that's all you need 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:18.600 to know. But if we were to really follow this format, 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.480 every episode of ours, somebody called something like stuff to 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:26.080 blow your mind colon respiration, which is sort of what 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.600 we're going to get into today. So, without spoiling anything 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.360 significant about the plot, I wanted to point out something 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.000 this movie movie has in common with Prometheus. So it's 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.120 got space explorers, that's no surprise. Astronauts go into other 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.680 planets and they just plunge their faces straight into the 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:47.040 atmosphere and biosphere of an alien planet without protection. And 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.160 Prometheus they are these scenes where they take their helmets 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.880 off for no reason I can really remember. I think 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.439 they're just for the heck of it. In Covenant, they 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.120 just walk out of their landing vehicle without suits of 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:03.800 any kind. They're there's wear in some hats and some overcoats. Now, 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:08.520 I'm fine with characters behaving irrationally or unrealistically, and horror 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.640 and sci fi movies, I think that's a pretty common 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.720 element and I'm okay with it. Yeah, I mean basically 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.680 the whole movie Covenant, it begins with a hey, should 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.720 we go check this out scenario like so many horror films, 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.680 And if your characters were smart enough to stay on 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.000 the path right, then they would never we would have 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.320 no movie because what was that noise? In the bushes, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.960 and it's horror stories are about going off the path? 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.320 Should we go off the path? Should we go explore that? 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:36.719 And yeah, you don't do that, you never get out 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:38.200 of the boat. But if you never got out of 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.240 the boat, we would have no film, right, So I'm 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.960 fine with that happening, providing I get provided that there's 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:49.200 some consistent level of realism. Most modern sci fi movies, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.880 I would say, have a very healthy dose of fantasy 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.960 in them, And that's just one expression of that here. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.920 But today we wanted to explore the topic of why, 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.679 if you're an actual exo play, a colonist or explorer, 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.880 you really shouldn't want to take your helmet off or 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.480 otherwise open yourself up to the alien environment and and 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.880 the sea of unknown possibilities that could come flooding in 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.800 upon you. Right. One thing to keep in mind here 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.920 is that that we're definitely looking at why you should 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.640 keep that that helmet on and the dangers that are 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:28.440 inherent to any any kind of alien environment we might experience. However, 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:30.880 I feel like an important caveat to all this is 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.880 that anytime we're looking at a fictional people landing on 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.439 a fictional world, and taking their helmet off. I always 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.480 have to wonder, Okay, would any sufficiently advanced civilization capable 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.400 of not only interplanetary but interstellar travel, would they have 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.079 all that worked out? Like, would they have sufficient scanning 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.360 technology to know just like down to the finest detail 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.720 that the air was breathable? Uh? Well, without spoiling too 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:01.120 much about Alien Covenant, obviously they don't know that. But 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:05.200 they're also religious fanatics. Not to have played David's advocate 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.560 too much, but but they are. They are driven by 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.400 by religious optimism in that film. So what you're saying, 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.920 Robert is you're a little more gung ho. I think 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.720 maybe you're saying, breathe in, breathe in, Brothers. I'm thinking 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.040 that if the tap, if your technology is not picking 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.160 it up, if there's a danger out there that you're 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:27.680 interstellar technology is incapable of picking up on, let it 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:32.160 act fast. Because movies movie movies like Alien Covenant show 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.520 it's like there's no there's no real victory, And being 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.840 a survivor, it's better to be that that individual that 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.000 gets that has something jumped out of him rather quickly. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.080 Right at least you go out with a with a 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.240 burst yeah, a big chesty burst. Okay, well, so maybe 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.920 we should start by just acknowledging the concept of a 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.200 space suit. Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of easy 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.640 to forget why we have them because we end up 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.920 just focusing on how cool they look most of the time. Right, So, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.800 a space suit is I think I remember reading a 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.240 NASA resource at some point a long time ago that 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.200 put it like this, and it was it's a spacecraft 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:12.120 for one person. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Uh. So, 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.480 for example, the extra vehicular mobility units that are worn 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.040 by astronauts. When you've got to go outside and perform 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.920 external work on the International Space Station and do a spacewalk, 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:24.800 you put this suit on and it cools your body 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.080 it uh. It supplies you with oxygen and breathable atmosphere. 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.480 It purges the CEO two that you exhale when you're 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.960 out there. Uh. It shields you from radiation, It shields 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.000 you from impacts from space debris. So, and these are 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.880 all very important things. But another important aspect of any 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.200 type of suit for extra vehicular activity when you're out 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.040 exploring the cosmos is that it's a contained environment. It's 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.240 supposed to create a sealed barrier between external conditions and 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.000 internal conditions. So this sort of means making the inside 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.120 of the suit as earth like as possible, no matter 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.600 what the outside of the suit is. And of course 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.480 this would also mean keeping out things that really just 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.680 don't go well with your Earth adapted biology, for example, 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:19.120 for and dust, gas, particles, radiation, and potentially life. Yeah, 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.760 it comes back to the idea of like the spacecraft itself, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.160 it's it's the idea that we as humans evolved not 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.120 only to live on Earth, but to live within a 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.080 very um thin portion of the atmosphere and under very 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.440 specific environmental settings. And uh and and so there are 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.160 places on our own Earth whereof we we go, we perish, 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.280 and therefore we have to we have to bring part 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.440 of our world with us, even if it's just a 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.240 skin layer in a suit. Yeah. Now I can totally 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.840 understand the impulse to want to take the space suit off. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.560 I can imagine if I was somebody colonizing an exoplanet 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.360 that was, you know, that we thought would be habitable, 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.640 that we could start living there. Obviously, protocols would be 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.000 to maintain that seal, to to keep the quarantine as 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.760 long as there was any doubt whatsoever that what was 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:11.080 outside could hurt us. But you just can't live that way, right, 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.680 I mean, anytime you go outside, you've got to wear 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.760 the suit. You you can't touch the rocks in the trees, 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:22.120 you can't interact by contact, by respiration, by anything except 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.159 through this barrier with the planet you live on. That 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.760 sounds like a horrible existence. Well, I don't know, you know, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.440 environmental standards are changing a little every day, Joe, So 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.440 we'll check back in on this in a few years. Yeah. 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.040 So I guess now we should get into the five 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.000 reasons that we've come up with, at least why you 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.679 should really not want to take your helmet off on 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.880 an alien planet. Would be a good list to have, 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.480 you know, in in in reduced form as a sticker 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:52.919 on the inside of your helmet. And then if when 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.480 you're tempted to, when you're overcome by the beauty of 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:58.480 you know, exo planet. I love it when an exo 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:03.080 planet has a nice diaby lollical name like uh in 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.280 Furness b yeah or Mantibolga six, so you know, whatever 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:08.719 it happens to be when you when you land there 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.119 and you think, Ah, this place with this uh, this 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.280 creepy name is actually rather beautiful. I'm gonna get a 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:16.640 breath of fresh air. Look to the lower left hand 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.240 portion of your visor and go through this list. Pope 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:26.600 satan Alpi six e. Alright, so reason number one is 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:28.919 going to be the obvious one, the one that you 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.240 probably don't even need to think about. It's gonna be 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.480 atmospheric gas. Right. Can I breathe this atmosphere that I 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.040 am seemingly moving through? And we should be generous. This 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.199 is one that sci fi almost always takes care of. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.440 There's a line in the script where somebody says, atmospheric 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:49.080 conditions nominal the air, we can breathe it. But it's 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.560 worth looking at what the atmospheres of other planets generally 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.399 look like. Jean Paul Starchas said, you know, Hell is 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.719 other people once you start looking beyond Earth. I propose 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.959 an update, which is Hell is other people's planets because 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:07.080 we are just so tightly adapted to the Earth biosphere 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.520 and and uh, and it's very particular balance of gases, 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.520 and to upset that balance significantly would be to change 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.400 the properties of Earth, and thus to change the biosphere 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.720 so we need our atmosphere to be the way it 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:24.119 is seventy eight percent nitrogen, one percent oxygen, about point 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.320 nine percent are gone, and point one percent trace gases, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.600 primarily carbon dioxide, plus a lot of variation in water 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.159 vapor in the air. Now, we don't know exactly what 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.479 the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets are going to be. We 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.120 know we can see some gas giants orbiting other stars 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.320 in the galaxy, and those of course are going to 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.120 be composed generally like gas giants are like, they'll have 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.200 hydrogen and helium atmospheres. But as far as the terrestrial 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.840 exoplanets are go out there, we we don't know exactly 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.480 what their atmospheres are going to be. Like. If you 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:02.560 look at other terrestrial planets in our Solar system, you 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:04.639 do start to get a picture that might be local 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.840 to us, but we don't know. Venus atmosphere is about 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.600 carbon dioxide. Yeah, not good, not so nice. Mars has 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.040 an incredibly thin atmosphere. It's you know, a one percent 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:21.880 or kind of atmosphere, and what's there is about carbon dioxide. Yeah, 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.639 And of course of Venus to the reality is that 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.280 if you're breathing that on the surface. You're essentially standing 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.919 in a pressure cooker too, yes, so so yeah, But 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.920 you're just talking about just the breathe ability of the air, right. Uh. 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.119 And even if you arrived on Earth at a different 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.320 point in Earth's history, you would have encountered a very 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.639 different atmosphere on the primeval surface of Earth, say about 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.600 four billion years ago, we also had an atmosphere of 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.919 much higher CEO two concentration before the biogenic oxygenation of 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:55.760 Earth about two billion years ago you had the original terraforming. Now, 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.560 carbon dioxide is obviously not good to breathe. That is 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.760 what you exhale. It's a waste product of of human respiration, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.560 and breathing it in can lead to bad effects at 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:12.240 low concentrations and death or asphyxiation or poisoning high concentrations. 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.440 I found an interesting chart put together based on research 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.800 on carbon dioxide toxicity, and the chart was made by 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.600 the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network, and it's got a 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.800 sort of ascending scale of CEO two concentration in the 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.000 air you're breathing and what the effects would be. So 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.640 they say, you know, two to three percent of air, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.560 you're not really going to notice what's going on. But 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.040 there will be a shortness of breath if you exert yourself. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:45.360 If at three percent exposure, you're breathing gets deeper, uh, 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:49.400 three to five percent exposure, you're breathing rhythm speeds up 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.560 and you might get headaches. At five percent exposure, your 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.720 breathing gets really labored. You're gonna have headaches, sweating, heavy pulse. 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.480 At seven point five percent exposure, you're gonna have really 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:07.520 rapid breathing, increased heart rate, headaches, sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.560 loss of strengthen the muscles, probably some mental fuzziness, like 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:14.960 inability to work things out in your head. You're gonna 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.120 get sleepy and hear ringing in your ears. At eight 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:24.680 you get the really bad stuff vertigo, vomiting, loss of consciousness, uh, 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:29.280 possibly death in this range, and then at you're gonna 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:33.240 have convulsions, rapid loss of consciousness and death. And of 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.160 course this is a situation too in control environments where 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:40.480 the CEO two level can can creep up. If if 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.159 things are are are out of wax, says in a 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:47.280 submarine environment, yeah, or in the space shuttle or or 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:49.840