Speaker 1: Guess what mango with that? Well, you remember back in
Speaker 1: our episode on Hawaii, we we talked about this year
Speaker 1: long simulation by a group of brave scientists and what
Speaker 1: they endured on the side of mounta Loa. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were trying to simulate what life might be like
Speaker 1: on Mars, that's right. So physicist Christiane Heineke, she wrote
Speaker 1: this great piece about the experience in Scientific American and
Speaker 1: I'd only read a little bit about it before, so
Speaker 1: it was fascinating to read this piece. But the experiment
Speaker 1: was to test a bunch of things, Like they obviously
Speaker 1: know that a real mission to Mars would be much
Speaker 1: more complicated than surviving in a dome on the side
Speaker 1: of a volcano, you know, especially when that volcanoes in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: As a side note, this is not the volcano that's
Speaker 1: been erupting recently. That might have made it a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a difficult experiment. But they did want
Speaker 1: to see what it would do to people if they
Speaker 1: were isolated for a year in a pretty barren environment
Speaker 1: and really only able to depend on each other. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's actually a term for that type of scenario.
Speaker 1: It's called ice, which stands for isolated, confined, and extreme.
Speaker 1: But the thing that's rucked me was the team they
Speaker 1: assembled for this mission was incredible. Yeah, it really makes
Speaker 1: you think about the different types of skills you need
Speaker 1: if you send a group like this too Mars for
Speaker 1: the simulation. They had a pilot and a flight controller
Speaker 1: that served as their engineer. There was a physician, an astrobiologist,
Speaker 1: a soil scientist. They even had an architect focused on
Speaker 1: space habitats. I mean, talk about an interesting job. And
Speaker 1: then there was Heineke who was a geophysicist. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so varied, it's awesome. Well there's a short bit from
Speaker 1: her piece that I thought was worth reading, and here's
Speaker 1: what she says. She said, cut off from civilization, we
Speaker 1: were dependent on ourselves and on each other. We had
Speaker 1: to perform any work that needed doing and fix anything
Speaker 1: that broke. All we had was the material contained and
Speaker 1: the storage unit dubbed the c can. The nearest supermarket
Speaker 1: was months away. We received news from Earth electronically with
Speaker 1: a twenty minute delay. That's about how long it takes
Speaker 1: for signals to travel the maximum distance of two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty million miles between the two planets to be honest,
Speaker 1: it took weeks for me to realize just what I've
Speaker 1: gotten into. Yeah, I mean, it's impossible to imagine what
Speaker 1: that would be like, but that hasn't stopped us from
Speaker 1: being incredibly curious about the experience. And I'm actually sure
Speaker 1: that many of our listeners know there's this new podcast
Speaker 1: from Gimlet called The Habitat and it's about this very simulation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's just one of many recent projects,
Speaker 1: both in fiction and in nonfiction, focused on what this
Speaker 1: journey to Mars, or even living on Mars might actually
Speaker 1: be like. And it's definitely starting to feel like we
Speaker 1: might witness humans landing or living on Mars in our lifetime.
Speaker 1: So in today's episode, we thought we'd explore questions like
Speaker 1: who will be the first to get to Mars, why
Speaker 1: are we so consumed with getting there? And how will
Speaker 1: humans survive once we do get there? So let's dive in.
Speaker 1: He their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 1: friend man guest Ticketer and on the other side of
Speaker 1: the soundproof glass wearing a shirt that reads in Musk,
Speaker 1: we trust Mars. Or bust. That's our friend and producer
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. And you know, I've got to say Tristan
Speaker 1: must know a guy, because I'm guessing this is yet
Speaker 1: another of his custom printed shirts, right actually, you know,
Speaker 1: I've seen that one advertised online. They're just so much
Speaker 1: excitement right now about the prospect to go into Mars,
Speaker 1: and it does kind of look like Elon Musk might
Speaker 1: be the guy to get us there well, and Tristan
Speaker 1: is definitely not the only one putting his trust in Musk.
Speaker 1: You know, after doing some research for today's show, I've
Speaker 1: got to say it's not such a bad bet. You know,
Speaker 1: the SpaceX program has made some serious strides towards getting
Speaker 1: mankind to the Red Planet within our lifetime, but SpaceX
Speaker 1: is hardly the only game in town. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are plenty of other companies, not to mention country Eas
Speaker 1: that have their eyes set on launching the first man
Speaker 1: mission to Mars, and their goal now seems closer than
Speaker 1: it ever has before. So with all that excitement in
Speaker 1: the air, I thought it'd be fun to kind of
Speaker 1: take stock of all these competing Mars missions and hopefully
Speaker 1: give us a clearer picture not only of who will
Speaker 1: make it to Mars first and when that might actually happen. Really,
Speaker 1: why we're also dead set on getting there in the
Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, So why don't we start by getting
Speaker 1: a little perspective on just how much public interest there
Speaker 1: currently isn't going to Mars. So historically there's always been
Speaker 1: this uptick and applicants anytime a new milestone starts to
Speaker 1: look achievable. So if you think about like nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: that's the year the Voyager mission set out on its
Speaker 1: tour the Solar System, NASA actually set a record with
Speaker 1: eight thousand applicants, and that record stood for nearly forty
Speaker 1: years until the agency's most recent call for new hires.
Speaker 1: You know, I was actually gonna ask how often NASA
Speaker 1: accepts applications, because if I'm not mistaken, it's not a
Speaker 1: yearly thing, right not. So, they typically bring on a
Speaker 1: new class of astronauts every few years or so, and
Speaker 1: the most recent class began applying in late two thousand fifteen,
Speaker 1: and the time before that was in late two thousand eleven.
Speaker 1: But this most recent crop of applicants was the biggest yet.
Speaker 1: More than eighteen thousand people applied to be part of
Speaker 1: NASA's new class, and that totally destroys the previous record
Speaker 1: by more than ten thousand people, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, there must have been more disappointed applicants than
Speaker 1: ever before. And I can't imagine NASA's in need of
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of astronauts and you know one time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely not. In fact, the newest class consists of just
Speaker 1: twelve people. There are five women and seven men, and
Speaker 1: even that is like three times the number of people
Speaker 1: needed for the four person crew NASA has a mind
Speaker 1: for its first Mars mission, So eighteen thousand people, which
Speaker 1: is we died down to twelve people and then from
Speaker 1: that only four will end up going on the mission.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's clearly more than enough interest out there.
Speaker 1: But did you get any sense of where all of
Speaker 1: this is coming from? And I know, we had the
Speaker 1: Matt Damon movie just called The Martian and it was
Speaker 1: a big hit, but there's got to be more to
Speaker 1: it than that, right, So I know it sounds strange,
Speaker 1: but The Martian is actually a great example of a
Speaker 1: kind of cross pollination between space flight and pop culture
Speaker 1: that's taken place in the last few years and it's
Speaker 1: actually no coincidence that the movie premiered just two months
Speaker 1: before NASA announced his latest call for astronauts, like the
Speaker 1: agency actually consulted a lot for the makers of that movie,
Speaker 1: largely because it saw the film as a way to
Speaker 1: generate more excitement for a future Mars mission. And if
Speaker 1: you took any marketing classes in college, which I think
Speaker 1: you might have taken one or two, you'll remember one
Speaker 1: of the golden rules of marketing, and that's, you know,
Speaker 1: nothing stokes the public interests like the promise of growing
Speaker 1: space potatoes fertilized with your own feces. I think it
Speaker 1: was like rule number seven marketing one on one. Rule
Speaker 1: seven's right. But the Martian isn't the only new recruitment
Speaker 1: tool to benefit NASA in recent years, like the one
Speaker 1: that's actually helped the most social media. So when NASA
Speaker 1: called for new hires back in two thousand eleven, the
Speaker 1: Shuttle program had just ended and this mission to Mars
Speaker 1: seemed too far off to put much stock in. But
Speaker 1: even then, like NASA's crop of applicants that year was
Speaker 1: still strong. It was I think around like six thousand total.
Speaker 1: But clearly something happened between then in the record setting
Speaker 1: response that we saw in two thousand and fifteen. And
Speaker 1: so you're saying that really was just social media. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it played a big role. So
Speaker 1: between two thousand eleven and two thousand fifteen, the number
Speaker 1: of American adults who used at least one social media
Speaker 1: platform grew by fiftent and you know, you can bet
Speaker 1: NASA took notice of that growth. So, according to NASA
Speaker 1: spokeswoman Stephanie Sheerholtz, she says, uh, we made a concerted
Speaker 1: outreach effort that incorporated social media like never before. So
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you have like astronauts tweeting pictures,
Speaker 1: you know, from their training sessions. You've got these like
Speaker 1: live streamed rocket launches and YouTube videos where astronauts on
Speaker 1: the s s are like cutting their nails and showing
Speaker 1: you how they take showers. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I know, we also liked watching Chris Hadfield's cover of
Speaker 1: Space Oddity, and he obviously did that from space and
Speaker 1: where we had him on the show. Such a nice guy.
Speaker 1: But in a way, it feels like social media made
Speaker 1: astronauts cool again, kind of like they had been in
Speaker 1: the early days of the Space program. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: the public had never gotten such an intimate and real
Speaker 1: time look at the life and work of astronauts before that,
Speaker 1: and ultimately it sparked this like new generation of people
Speaker 1: who were super passionate. Well, and so now we've covered
Speaker 1: a few factors behind the current space boom, I feel
Speaker 1: like we should talk about some of the major players
Speaker 1: that are hoping to capitalize on this interest. So we've
Speaker 1: already mentioned Elon Musk and the space X venture. You know,
Speaker 1: they've set this rather lofty goal of sending a manned
Speaker 1: rocket to Mars By and whether that actually happens, it's
Speaker 1: i'd say it's still pretty much up in the air
Speaker 1: at this point. Yeah, I mean, they've been testing the
Speaker 1: world's first partially reusable rockets, which could cut launch costs
Speaker 1: by as much as thirty then and obviously make the
Speaker 1: missions to Marrows much more feasible. But while the tests
Speaker 1: have been this huge success, like, there's still a lot
Speaker 1: of room for improvement, and it's tough to imagine making
Speaker 1: that much progress and just I don't know, five or
Speaker 1: six years. Well, you do have to remember that Musk
Speaker 1: has a secret weapon for getting to Mars and that's
Speaker 1: his so called bf are what he calls the big
Speaker 1: eff ng rocket, And this would be this massive three
Speaker 1: fifty feet tall rocket and it's propelled by thirty one
Speaker 1: smaller methane fueled rockets. Now, once again, the whole system
Speaker 1: would be completely reusable. So the idea is that the
Speaker 1: b FR would send a hundred people to Mars aboard
Speaker 1: a detachable spaceship. Now that you've got the system's rocket booster,
Speaker 1: that would just detach and then land back on Earth
Speaker 1: and be reused again and again. I mean, when when
Speaker 1: we watched that recent test that they did, it was
Speaker 1: just amazing to watch them land, and it would be
Speaker 1: really cool if they could manage to pull it off.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious, like, why does Musk want to go
Speaker 1: to Mars so badly? Like what does he know that
Speaker 1: we don't Well, I don't know. I was starting to
Speaker 1: think about that too, and and more likely than not,
Speaker 1: he's just eager for humans to explore more of that
Speaker 1: final frontier that we've heard so much about. And I
Speaker 1: don't know. You can kind of be the judge though.
Speaker 1: Here's here's one of must statements on the importance of
Speaker 1: a mission to Mars. He says, you want to wake
Speaker 1: up in the morning and think the future is going
Speaker 1: to be great. And that's what being a space faring
Speaker 1: civilization is all about. It's about believing in the future
Speaker 1: and thinking that the future will be better than the past.
Speaker 1: And I can't think of anything more exciting than going
Speaker 1: out there and being among the stars. History is going
Speaker 1: to buy for Kate along two directions. One path as
Speaker 1: we stay on Earth forever and eventually there will be
Speaker 1: some extinction event. The alternative is to be a space
Speaker 1: faring civilization and a multi planet species. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it sounds like there are two ideas of play from
Speaker 1: us here, Like one is exploration for the sake of exploration, right,
Speaker 1: It's like this desire to like see the cosmos and
Speaker 1: learn new things. And the other is this idea of
Speaker 1: self preservation that, like, you know, if you take a
Speaker 1: long enough timeline, something bad is bound to happen on
Speaker 1: this planet, so it's in our own best interest to
Speaker 1: set up shop on another one sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1: That sounds right, and I think there's merit to both
Speaker 1: of those ways of thinking. But you know, not all
Speaker 1: Mars hopefuls have such clear cut motivations. For instance, you've
Speaker 1: heard of Mars one, right, you know it's this private,
Speaker 1: nonprofit Dutch. Yeah. Yeah, And so they aimed to colonize
Speaker 1: Mars by I think one, And unlike other missions that
Speaker 1: we're talking about today, Mars one isn't worried about bringing
Speaker 1: space colonists back to their home planet. Mars one would
Speaker 1: actually just be this one way trip. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: heard about this obviously, and it's super controversial. I remember
Speaker 1: reading a study from M I T where scientists analyzed
Speaker 1: the proposed plan and they concluded that all the Mars
Speaker 1: one astromis would actually be dead within sixty eight days.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? I would not consider that a successful
Speaker 1: mission if that's what's happened, and all the money that
Speaker 1: would be spent for those sixty eight days. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you look at their initial proposal was super unrealistic.
Speaker 1: I mean, for one thing, the Mars one team isn't
Speaker 1: developing its own technology. They're they're really just planning to
Speaker 1: use whatever the other aerospace companies come up with. And
Speaker 1: they're estimating it would only cost six billion dollars to
Speaker 1: send four people to Mars. And I say, only six
Speaker 1: billion dollars. That sounds like a ton of money, but
Speaker 1: it's really a low number when you consider the Apollo program.
Speaker 1: They spent about a hundred and forty billion dollars to
Speaker 1: send twelve people to the Moon. Wait, so not only
Speaker 1: are they pinning all their hopes on using someone else's tech,
Speaker 1: but they're also hoping to score that tech for like
Speaker 1: bargain basement deals. That's exactly right. But you know what
Speaker 1: else is crazy about this is that, you know, Mars
Speaker 1: one hasn't even secured that low ball funding that they're
Speaker 1: hoping for. And this is where it really just gets
Speaker 1: even nuttier. Apparently the plan is to finance the mission
Speaker 1: through a reality TV show and a series of documentaries
Speaker 1: that would follow the crew through their training and this is,
Speaker 1: you know, all of that training leading up to going
Speaker 1: to Mars, And honestly, it just sounds like the worst
Speaker 1: plan ever. I mean, I can't see how a show
Speaker 1: like that would work, unless, like they were trying to
Speaker 1: make the first boy band assembled on Mars, or I
Speaker 1: guess send some Jersey housewives to Mars. Like that feels
Speaker 1: like a show i'd watch, but you're right, i'd watch that.
Speaker 1: But like, what if the show tanks as they're up
Speaker 1: there and people just lose interest, Like once that funding
Speaker 1: drives up, does the crew just like end up there
Speaker 1: on their own? I mean, I guess so, and and
Speaker 1: it it turns out that's just one of the many
Speaker 1: flaws in the Mars one plan. But but it actually
Speaker 1: doesn't stop more than two hundred thousand people from applying
Speaker 1: for the privilege to be, as Pacific Standards put it,
Speaker 1: among the first humans to die on Mars. I just
Speaker 1: thought that was great. I mean, I don't know who
Speaker 1: wants that title, but I can imagine how some like
Speaker 1: I guess Daredevil astronauts might be really into it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I think about it kind of like it
Speaker 1: is with cloning. I mean, if we ever find a
Speaker 1: way to bring back the dinosaurs, there's gonna be somebody
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the first to get eaten by the dinosaurs,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think I'd want my biggest claim
Speaker 1: to feign me that I was the first person ever
Speaker 1: eaten by a t rex. But yeah, maybe there's a
Speaker 1: certain kind of appeal there for something someone wants that.
Speaker 1: But I do think we should just like table this
Speaker 1: for another time, because I think it'd be fun for
Speaker 1: another episode. But right now, let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about NASA's plan for getting to Mars as well as
Speaker 1: some of the other challenges that are definitely gonna crop off.
Speaker 1: All right, that sounds like a plan, But first let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break. They're listening to Part Time Genius
Speaker 1: and we're talking about the who, when, why, and how
Speaker 1: of human kinds first mission to Mars. All right, Mango,
Speaker 1: So we've covered one promising program and one maybe not
Speaker 1: so promising program from the private sector. But now let's
Speaker 1: talk about the organization that probably stands the best chance
Speaker 1: of making it to Mars first, and that of course
Speaker 1: is NASA. Yeah. So NASA's car plan is to get
Speaker 1: humans into low Mars orbit by the early twenty thirties,
Speaker 1: and then they want to have a crew actually land
Speaker 1: on the planet's surface before the end of that decade.
Speaker 1: And to make that happen, the agency is hard at work,
Speaker 1: like testing this equipment they hope we'll get humans there
Speaker 1: and back. I'm sure you're probably wondering what type of
Speaker 1: stuff they're gonna use. Like one of the most promising
Speaker 1: pieces of hardware that they're working on is called the
Speaker 1: Space Launch System SLS. Is this new rocket meant to
Speaker 1: propel humans and cargo out of Earth's orbit. So this is,
Speaker 1: I guess, kind of like NASA's answer to the to
Speaker 1: the big fing rocket, right, yeah, exactly like muss And
Speaker 1: and for the crew itself, NASA is testing it's a
Speaker 1: Ryan capsule, which is meant to lay the groundwork for
Speaker 1: even larger deep space exploration vehicles. It's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that could consumably support a full crew for the
Speaker 1: entire one million mile trip. And that's you know, the
Speaker 1: distance is to get to Mars, all right, So it
Speaker 1: sounds like, no matter how you slice it, we're good,
Speaker 1: what fifteen to twenty years away from landing a human
Speaker 1: on Mars. And that's all assuming that research doesn't hit
Speaker 1: a brick all along the way. But given that timeline,
Speaker 1: who do you think is going to get there first?
Speaker 1: So NASA obviously has the you know, the best track
Speaker 1: record when it comes to space faring, and they've got
Speaker 1: like the technical know how, they've got you know, the crew.
Speaker 1: But like the biggest potential stumbling block is funding, and
Speaker 1: the Space Program's budget ebbs and flows with each administration.
Speaker 1: So even if NASA knows what it's doing there's zero
Speaker 1: guarantee that the money will be there to carry out
Speaker 1: the mission when the time comes. And of course, you know,
Speaker 1: NASA is totally aware its status as like a political football,
Speaker 1: so that's why the agency has been going all out
Speaker 1: on these marketing efforts, which we talked about earlier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I know those funding concerns are a big part
Speaker 1: of why some people consider SpaceX to be the front runner.
Speaker 1: And Elon musk pockets might not be as deep as
Speaker 1: the governments, but you know, in the past several years,
Speaker 1: he's definitely proven himself a lot more willing to put
Speaker 1: up the cash for space research than Congress has. But
Speaker 1: it is worth keeping in mind that a large chunk
Speaker 1: of SpaceX revenue is thanks to its own contracts with NASA,
Speaker 1: So if NASA's budget gets slashed, then you know, there's
Speaker 1: no guarantee that SpaceX will have the cash needed to
Speaker 1: fill that gap. So in a sense, the best chance
Speaker 1: of getting to Mars in the next couple of decades
Speaker 1: might actually be of SpaceX and NASA were to team
Speaker 1: up and and maybe pool those resources. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it would be fascinating to watch if that happens, And
Speaker 1: I actually think there's a decent chance it could happen
Speaker 1: as we get closer to their planned launch dates. But
Speaker 1: you know, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here.
Speaker 1: There are still all kinds of problems that need to
Speaker 1: be worked out before we can send anyone to Mars,
Speaker 1: and that includes challenges both for the journey itself as
Speaker 1: well as when we get there. Yeah, I mean speaking
Speaker 1: of that, I was actually reading about some of the
Speaker 1: physical strains that astronauts have to deal with when when
Speaker 1: they're there, and it's not a pretty picture. I mean,
Speaker 1: the g forces alone would be insane, so much so
Speaker 1: in fact, that some researchers have suggested removing the appendix
Speaker 1: and the gall bladder of any of these Mars bound
Speaker 1: crew members ahead of time. I mean, just to avoid
Speaker 1: the organs rupturing from all the pressure changes. Huh. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you can think about that, which is crazy,
Speaker 1: but also the psychological effects of such a long trip,
Speaker 1: like the voyage to Mars will take about four or
Speaker 1: five months each way. I mean, that's an awful lot
Speaker 1: of time to spend in those quarters with you know,
Speaker 1: just a handful of people, and that's while moving at
Speaker 1: the speeds you were talking about, Um, I even read
Speaker 1: this one study that suggested that, like, the prolonged exposure
Speaker 1: to cosmic radiation might actually mess with the astronauts brains,
Speaker 1: So mess with them how exactly? Yeah, this is based
Speaker 1: on research out at University of California, and it was
Speaker 1: one of several studies meant to examine the neurological effects
Speaker 1: of sending people on long outer space missions. It was
Speaker 1: to get an idea of what these cosmic rays might do.
Speaker 1: The researchers irradiated a bunch of lab mice with particles
Speaker 1: found in space, and the dosage they used was actually
Speaker 1: equivalent to what a human might experience on like a
Speaker 1: tended thirty day mission. And then the mice underwent a
Speaker 1: series of behavioral tests, and as you might expect, the
Speaker 1: irradiated mice performed much worse on these tests than the
Speaker 1: non irradiated ones. But strangers still, when the scientists actually
Speaker 1: dissected the mice two weeks later, they found that the
Speaker 1: radiation had effectively prune the mice's brain cells. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Many of the branches that allow the brain
Speaker 1: cells to communicate with one another, We're just straight up gone, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's just terrifying. So so would the same thing happen
Speaker 1: in a human brain. I mean, that's the thing, right,
Speaker 1: there's every reason to think so. And the biggest mystery,
Speaker 1: like once you know that, is that we don't know
Speaker 1: how these missing brain cells might actually impact the humans behavior,
Speaker 1: Like it's doubtful that these cosmic rays would actually prove
Speaker 1: life threatening, but they could jeopardize the mission in all
Speaker 1: sorts of other ways, Like researchers worried that the prune
Speaker 1: brain cells might reduce someone's ability to respond to new
Speaker 1: situations and you know, come up with creative solutions for things.
Speaker 1: It would obviously be a huge problem when exploring a
Speaker 1: different planet. So it's weird because this is the first
Speaker 1: I've heard about this, and I know we've obviously sent
Speaker 1: plenty of people into space by now. So what about
Speaker 1: the astronat aunts who landed on the Moon and came back,
Speaker 1: Like why didn't they have brain damage? Or you know
Speaker 1: the people that are on the International Space Station and
Speaker 1: they're there months at a time. Yeah, it's a really
Speaker 1: good question. So I looked into that too. But you know,
Speaker 1: the missions to the Moon only lasted a few days,
Speaker 1: whereas like the voyage tomorrows would take about a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty days, so we're talking a whole different experience
Speaker 1: than level of exposure here. And while it's definitely true
Speaker 1: that astronauts has spent that kind of time aboard, the
Speaker 1: I S. S Station is actually positioned below the Earth's magnetosphere,
Speaker 1: which means that's shielded from I guess most forms of
Speaker 1: space radiation. So I'm curious what the solution would actually
Speaker 1: be or is it just as simple as like wrapping
Speaker 1: the Mars ship and tinfoil or something like that to
Speaker 1: help shield it. I mean, I wish it was that easy.
Speaker 1: Like the truth is that, like trying to take anything
Speaker 1: that's big enough or strong enough to shield and block
Speaker 1: that amount of cosmic radiation would actually make the ship
Speaker 1: way too heavy to fly. So instead researchers are trying
Speaker 1: to figure out a solution for the astronauts themselves. Like
Speaker 1: the current hope is that they can find a new
Speaker 1: drug that would hopefully block the radiation before it can
Speaker 1: reach the brain. Well, and if you think about this
Speaker 1: is only the voyage to Mars that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: So once the astronauts actually reach the red planet, they
Speaker 1: will have a whole new list of problems to, you know,
Speaker 1: to kind of figure out. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've noticed this or not. Mego, but Mars isn't the
Speaker 1: most hospitable planet in the galaxy, and there's no breathable air,
Speaker 1: there's no food the planets, you know, protective atmosphere it
Speaker 1: burned away eons ago, which you know basically means we'd
Speaker 1: have to contend with all that cosmic radiation even after
Speaker 1: we've landed. And you know, there is some water on Mars,
Speaker 1: but even that is mostly inaccessible. Yeah, So I was
Speaker 1: reading about this concept in aerospace research called I s
Speaker 1: r U. It's called in situ resource utilization, and the
Speaker 1: concept is pretty simple. It's it's basically the science of
Speaker 1: mining and utilizing the natural resources that already exist on
Speaker 1: other worlds. So you know, rather than dragging everything we
Speaker 1: need to survive along with us, you make use of
Speaker 1: what's there. And I s r U is really the
Speaker 1: key to making a sustainable colony on Mars, because the
Speaker 1: planet really does have oxygen and water, it's just that
Speaker 1: they're locked away in this icy Martian soil. So if
Speaker 1: they're locked away, what what do we do to get
Speaker 1: them out? Well, right now, NASA is hoping to use
Speaker 1: microwave beams to heat the soil enough to break the
Speaker 1: chemical bonds that have trapped the water so As one
Speaker 1: NASA researcher explained, if you think about a cubic foot
Speaker 1: of this dirt and you heat it just a little
Speaker 1: bit a few hundred degrees, then you'll actually get off
Speaker 1: about two pints of water, like two water bottles you
Speaker 1: take to the gym, Which makes sense, right, It's really cool.
Speaker 1: And once we've mastered the are to making water, then
Speaker 1: we can zap the breathable gases like oxygen, nitrogen are
Speaker 1: gone right out of the water using electrolysis. And the
Speaker 1: best part is that all this could be accomplished with
Speaker 1: the power generated from a few solar panels. It would
Speaker 1: be a pretty self sustaining system as long as the
Speaker 1: planets sun obscuring dust storms don't last too long. Well,
Speaker 1: And that's an ingenious solution because if you think about,
Speaker 1: there's no way we could bundle up everything that we
Speaker 1: need to survive and just ship them all to Mars.
Speaker 1: And yeah, the heavier something is, the more expensive is
Speaker 1: to send into orbit. And you think about that, you've
Speaker 1: got a spaceship full of people and equipment that's going
Speaker 1: to be heavy and costly enough, and that's without adding
Speaker 1: this really almost like this indefinite supply of food and
Speaker 1: water into the mix. That's true, but really foods a
Speaker 1: whole different headache and of itself. And there's some promising solutions.
Speaker 1: But before we get into them, let's take another quick break,
Speaker 1: all right, mangoes, So why is it so hard to
Speaker 1: get a decent meal on Mars? You know, apart from
Speaker 1: the fact that it's outside the delivery zone of I
Speaker 1: think most of the pizza places I've been. I've been
Speaker 1: saving that joke up for a while. I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed it well. I mean it goes back to what
Speaker 1: we've already mentioned, which is that the air on Mars
Speaker 1: is poisonous and the terrain is too cold and sterile
Speaker 1: to sustain vegetations. So clearly we'll have to set I
Speaker 1: s r U aside on this one and actually send
Speaker 1: some food from home instead. But with Mars being like
Speaker 1: a hundred forty million miles away, those stack runs will
Speaker 1: have to be limited to like every few years. So
Speaker 1: with that in mind, NASA has been looking at ways
Speaker 1: of growing vegetables in Space for a while now, but
Speaker 1: despite what you would have seen on the Martian potatoes
Speaker 1: actually aren't on the menu. Instead, astronauts aboard the I
Speaker 1: S have actually been cultivating the first plant grown in space,
Speaker 1: which is a red romaine lettuce named Outregious. Did you
Speaker 1: say outrageous regius? Yeah, the fun in there. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: glad they're taking this so seriously. So, so what are
Speaker 1: they using to grow this stuff? That was It's like
Speaker 1: a hydroponic setup or something, Yeah, exactly. So the system
Speaker 1: the astronauts used is actually called Veggie, and it's basically
Speaker 1: an incubator of the size of the two drawer filing cabinet,
Speaker 1: you know, if you think about something that size, And
Speaker 1: as you guess, it's a completely soil free system. The
Speaker 1: incubator gives the seeds everything they need to thrive, so
Speaker 1: that means like water, nutrients, sunlight in the form of
Speaker 1: these led bulbs, and and then the astronauts do their
Speaker 1: part two just by exhaling carbon dioxide for the plants
Speaker 1: to breathe in. So I guess it sort of functions
Speaker 1: like this little onboard ecosystem. The humans feed the plants,
Speaker 1: plants feed the people and so on, exactly the circle
Speaker 1: of life. But you know, as handy as it is
Speaker 1: to have a regenerating food source on a spaceship, the
Speaker 1: real draw of this veggie system is the added texture
Speaker 1: it provides. And you don't think about this, but uh,
Speaker 1: you know, crunchiness isn't typically found in astronauts diets. That's
Speaker 1: because like crunchy foods like cookies and crackers, they tend
Speaker 1: to produce crumbs, which can be tough to wrangle in
Speaker 1: zero gravity. But growing produce and space actually solves that problem.
Speaker 1: So it finally allows astronauts to add something much needed
Speaker 1: crunch to their diets. And if you remember from our
Speaker 1: taste issue, fronch actually plays a role in making us
Speaker 1: appreciate our foods. Huh. I mean that that's something I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have thought about before. And you think about it, Lettuce,
Speaker 1: it's about his bland as it gets here on Earth,
Speaker 1: but in space it's it's kind of like fine cuisine
Speaker 1: actually so, and I would have to imagine, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not stopping it, Lettuce though, right, because it seems
Speaker 1: like a system like that would work with all kinds
Speaker 1: of vegetables, that's right. So NASA has a list of
Speaker 1: about ten different vegetables they're testing in the same setup. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess a future astronauts will be able to look
Speaker 1: forward to rashes, peppers, and even dwarf tomatoes. All right, well,
Speaker 1: any Mars abound astronauts will definitely need a safe place
Speaker 1: to grow and of course even eat the crops once
Speaker 1: they arrive, and they won't be able to stay on
Speaker 1: that ship forever. So it leads us to the next
Speaker 1: engineering problem the crew has to face, and that's how
Speaker 1: to construct a viable shelter. But thankfully this is one
Speaker 1: test they won't have to tackle alone because scientists believe
Speaker 1: they can offer a mechanical assist in the form of
Speaker 1: some high tech construction robots. And is one promising design.
Speaker 1: It's a droid named Justin and that was built by
Speaker 1: a German space agency called d l R. And I
Speaker 1: love that it's just called Justin. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but the engineers have been working on Justin for about
Speaker 1: a decade and during that time they've gotten about to
Speaker 1: do some pretty amazing things. I was just looking at
Speaker 1: the list of some of the things that can do.
Speaker 1: Of course, can use tools, catch flying objects, navigate around
Speaker 1: these obstacles, as well as shoot and upload photos. It
Speaker 1: can apparently also make a really good cup of tea
Speaker 1: or coffee, which seems pretty important when you're in space.
Speaker 1: But you know what's more impressive is this recent AI
Speaker 1: upgrade that enables Justin to actually think for itself, rather
Speaker 1: than having to be programmed with these specific instructions in advance.
Speaker 1: So there was an article about this in Wired, and
Speaker 1: I'll just read you a quote from there. It says
Speaker 1: this spot can autonomously perform complex tasks even though it
Speaker 1: hasn't been programmed to do object recognition software and computer vision.
Speaker 1: Let Justin survey its environment and undertake jobs such as
Speaker 1: cleaning and maintaining machinery, inspecting equipment, and carrying objects. In
Speaker 1: a recent test, Justin fixed a faulty solar panel and
Speaker 1: a Munich lab in minutes, directed via tablet by an
Speaker 1: astronaut aboard the International Space Station. Oh that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I guess in theory, astronauts could actually
Speaker 1: remain in the Mars orbit while supervising Justin's work on
Speaker 1: the surface below. But assuming we can send a team
Speaker 1: of robots to build shelters ahead of time for US
Speaker 1: and also make those cups of tea. You know, what
Speaker 1: are these shelters supposed to be built out of. I mean,
Speaker 1: we can get water and oxygen out of the Martian soil,
Speaker 1: but that's not gonna work for building materials like wood
Speaker 1: or steel. Right. Well, no, but there actually is something
Speaker 1: in the soil that could help with a lot of
Speaker 1: the construction, and that sulfur. So I was looking at
Speaker 1: this study out of Northwestern and they were showing that
Speaker 1: sulfur can be used in place of water to make
Speaker 1: this special kind of concrete. So that this is weird
Speaker 1: to say, but I was looking into concrete because of
Speaker 1: something I was doing on Edison, and I've actually heard
Speaker 1: of this stuff like I I feel like it's used
Speaker 1: in oil pipelines because it resists corrosion better than the
Speaker 1: regular kind of concrete. Yeah, that's true, and it's been
Speaker 1: around for decades at this point, but obviously it's never
Speaker 1: been put to use and kind of this off world construction.
Speaker 1: But that could change because these researchers at Northwestern were
Speaker 1: able to mix up their own batch of sulfur concrete.
Speaker 1: And to do this they use this simulated Mars soil
Speaker 1: and it has the same chemical and mineralogical properties of
Speaker 1: you know, the real stuff that you'd find there. And
Speaker 1: so when the researchers stress tested different kinds of concrete,
Speaker 1: they found that the sulfur concrete made from this Martian
Speaker 1: soil was actually twice as strong as the sulfur concrete
Speaker 1: we used to make the these oil pipelines. Really, like,
Speaker 1: do we know what makes it so much stronger? Not exactly,
Speaker 1: but the team does have a theory. You see, here
Speaker 1: on Earth, the sulfur in this kind of concrete just
Speaker 1: serves as a glue for the gravel. But in this case,
Speaker 1: the sulfur might have formed a chemical bond with the
Speaker 1: minerals inside that Martian soil. Yeah, yeah, so that that
Speaker 1: that bond could actually be the reason for the added strength.
Speaker 1: But actually the Martian sulfur concrete would be stronger still
Speaker 1: because the gravity on Mars is just a third of
Speaker 1: what it is here on Earth. And so really that
Speaker 1: would effectively triple the concrete strength on Mars. Huh. So
Speaker 1: the stuff is definitely strong enough to build a space
Speaker 1: shelter with. But are there any downside do you see here?
Speaker 1: Like or is this pretty much a short thing? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean there is one potential downside, and that's that
Speaker 1: this form of sulfur concrete is incredibly fast setting. I
Speaker 1: think it solidifies in an hour or less after it's mixed.
Speaker 1: But you know, really that would only be a deal
Speaker 1: breaker if we plan to mold all this stuff by hand.
Speaker 1: But what's more likely is that we'd use three D
Speaker 1: printing when working with sulfur concrete, and so that way
Speaker 1: you'd have this robot team that could print as many
Speaker 1: structures as you needed, and they would use this locally
Speaker 1: sourced Martian concrete and then you just slap this air
Speaker 1: tight membrane inside and you're good to go. I mean,
Speaker 1: living on Mars just got that much easier, may I mean,
Speaker 1: it is like exciting to hear about these ideas. They're
Speaker 1: so awesome, and I do have to say, like, that's
Speaker 1: one of the best ideas I've heard for surviving on Mars,
Speaker 1: because I feel like before that everything I've read about
Speaker 1: was like inflatable habitats that Nasla was testing. But you know,
Speaker 1: for someone like me and my anxieties, I'd never be
Speaker 1: able to relax in something that it's just inflatable, you know,
Speaker 1: with all those dust storms and like shards of things
Speaker 1: that it seemed to like fly around Mars. I'd be terrified. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that just might get popped or something. But you know,
Speaker 1: I do think that the threat of sudden extinction would
Speaker 1: be there no matter what kind of shelter you're in.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you. I'd rather test my luck in
Speaker 1: a concrete hut built by these robots than some sort
Speaker 1: of I don't know, like a balloon house. Yeah, bouncy house, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I live in a bounty house on Mars. But you know,
Speaker 1: I've actually heard this other idea that, uh, you can
Speaker 1: have a balloon house inside of an underground lava tube,
Speaker 1: because that's apparently one of the best best for avoiding
Speaker 1: the cosmic radiation we've been talking about. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of silly. I don't know. That just keeps
Speaker 1: getting better and better than I think. I think. I'm
Speaker 1: ready to sign up. But seriously, it's difficult and potentially
Speaker 1: terrifying as life on Mars might be. I I do
Speaker 1: hope our country stays the course and eventually gets us
Speaker 1: there safely, or not us exactly, but somebody other people
Speaker 1: should definitely go. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm staying here where
Speaker 1: the air and the water don't have to be zapped
Speaker 1: out of the dirt. But I am a d for
Speaker 1: other people taking this trip. Yeah, I'm with you, and
Speaker 1: obviously like the pool to explore is such a deeply
Speaker 1: rooted part of being human, and backing away from Mars
Speaker 1: now when we're finally so close after so many years
Speaker 1: of dreaming and planning, it really kind of feels like
Speaker 1: it could be a betrayal of our dreams, because you know,
Speaker 1: if we're not reaching for greatness and planets and stars, like,
Speaker 1: what are we doing? I don't know. I mean maybe
Speaker 1: we're listing facts back and forth and some sort of
Speaker 1: quasi competitive head to head challenge. What do you think? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not a trip to Mars, but you know,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to turn down the fact off. Yeah. Alright. Well,
Speaker 1: one group that may be eager to get to Mars
Speaker 1: is mountain climbers. There have been more than four thousand
Speaker 1: people to climb Mount Everest so far, but Everest has
Speaker 1: nothing on mars highest peak, Olympus Mons, which is more
Speaker 1: than seventy two thousand feet in elevation, and that's more
Speaker 1: than double Everest at its tiny peak of a little
Speaker 1: over twenty nine thousand feet And don't worry, NASA actually
Speaker 1: already has a trail map for those wanting to scope
Speaker 1: out how they might get to the top. You can
Speaker 1: find it online. I mean, that's ridiculous that they've created
Speaker 1: these maps and it will be interesting to see which sure,
Speaker 1: if I gets to the top first, but I guess
Speaker 1: they'll at least have gravity on their side on that planet.
Speaker 1: But um, speaking of first, did you know that there
Speaker 1: has already been the first song played on Mars. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: the Curiosity rover on Mars has helped us explore the surface,
Speaker 1: you know, of the planet, and it's controlled by a
Speaker 1: team here on Earth, and those communications come in the
Speaker 1: form of these vibrations which produce a series of harmonics.
Speaker 1: Well you know, typically these harmonics don't really produce anything
Speaker 1: we'd want to listen to. But on August five thirteen,
Speaker 1: to celebrate one year since Curiosity had landed on Mars,
Speaker 1: the team sent a series of vibrations which resulted in
Speaker 1: the playing of Happy Birthday, which seems so sweet until
Speaker 1: you realize it's probably the loneliest birthday in the universe.
Speaker 1: That's a good point. That's a very good point. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, when humans travel to new places, we of
Speaker 1: course think about what we might be exposed to and
Speaker 1: of the dangers related to that, but we don't always
Speaker 1: think about what we might be exposing the new environments too. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: NASA does think about this, because we really don't want
Speaker 1: a situation where we're introducing foreign microbes that you know,
Speaker 1: may take over an environment before we even get to
Speaker 1: learn anything about it. So there's actually a dedicated department
Speaker 1: at NASA known as the Office of Planetary Protection or
Speaker 1: op e P for short, and that just focuses on
Speaker 1: the policies to assist NASA and preventing those sorts of
Speaker 1: disaster scenarios. So I always wondered, is that what O
Speaker 1: p P? And that song stands for? Yeah, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that it was. Yeah, let's go with it. So
Speaker 1: one of the other things we might not think about
Speaker 1: is how much living on Mars would mess with our
Speaker 1: circadian rhythms. And a day on Mars is approximately twenty
Speaker 1: four hours and thirty nine minutes, And at first that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like that big a problem, doesn't seem that
Speaker 1: far off from Earth, but it would actually be pretty problematic.
Speaker 1: So the average woman's circadian rhythm lasts twenty four hours
Speaker 1: in six minutes, and for men it's twenty four hours
Speaker 1: and twelve minutes. And again, that doesn't seem far off,
Speaker 1: but it adds up, and what it really means is
Speaker 1: that every few days it would be like traveling west
Speaker 1: by a couple of time zones, which you know would
Speaker 1: be pretty tough on your body. Yeah, I hadn't thought
Speaker 1: about that before. When I first saw that twenty four
Speaker 1: hours and thirty nine minutes, I fell into the same thing,
Speaker 1: thinking like that wouldn't be a big deal at all,
Speaker 1: But that's it makes sense. All. We talked a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier about the most recent class of NASA astronauts,
Speaker 1: and it is pretty cool to see that for the
Speaker 1: first time half of them are female. And I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure cost has nothing to do with it, but it
Speaker 1: is interesting to note that it would actually be a
Speaker 1: good bit cheaper to send an all women crew to Mars.
Speaker 1: They're lighter on average, which means burning less fuel, and
Speaker 1: they need fewer calories, which also means transporting less food.
Speaker 1: I mean, how awesome would that view if, like the
Speaker 1: first crew to Mars was all women. Would that be incredible,
Speaker 1: be pretty cool. So here's the fact I think is
Speaker 1: super weird. If you're standing on mars Is Equator and
Speaker 1: measure the temperature at your feet and at your head,
Speaker 1: you find an almost forty degree fahrenheit difference. It's about
Speaker 1: seventy degrees fahrenheit on the warmer ground and at about
Speaker 1: thirty two degrees fahrenheit at the top of your head.
Speaker 1: It feels like you have no idea what to wear.
Speaker 1: If that was the case, right, yeah, you probably do.
Speaker 1: You do like flip flops and then progressively like colder
Speaker 1: and colder weather off, how would be so weird? Al Right, well, mango,
Speaker 1: I have no idea how we've talked about Mars without
Speaker 1: making a single bad candy bar jokes. I just want
Speaker 1: to go ahead and ruin this for us. And I'd
Speaker 1: like to mention that this Nickers bar, which comes in
Speaker 1: at number eight on my list of best candy bars,
Speaker 1: was named for a horse owned by the Mars family.
Speaker 1: So there, yeah, well, I mean you did ruin this
Speaker 1: for us. I love that. I'm going to give you
Speaker 1: the ward. Thank you so much, and thank you guys
Speaker 1: for listening. I'm sure there are tons of great facts
Speaker 1: about Mars that we didn't include in today's episode, and
Speaker 1: as always, we'd love to hear those from you. You
Speaker 1: can reach us by email part Time Genius and How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com, or you can call us one
Speaker 1: fact hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, and
Speaker 1: as always, you can reach us on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 1: But thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
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