June 19, 2020 • 54 mins
What is the Mars One project? Why is it a one-way ticket to Mars? What are the qualifications for Mars One?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host
Jonathan Strickland dum an, executive producer with I Heart Radio
and I love all things tech, and today it is
time for another tech stuff classic. Hey, today's topic it
(00:25):
comes all the way from June tenth, two thousand thirteen. Wow,
I was doing this all the way back then. This
episode is called get your Podcast to Mars, a classic
Arnold Schwarzenegger reference. I hope you guys enjoy this classic episode.
It's kind of an interesting approach to this, this question
of when are we going to actually set up a
(00:47):
colony somewhere other than on Earth, like like on Mars,
and and proposing the fact that it can be not
only commercial but um but but driven specifically by public interest. Really,
I mean because because here's the thing is that we
know that the government officials that are behind things like
(01:08):
like the space industry in the United States anyway, are
facing increasingly difficult battles in in funding. Right. It's it's
getting harder and harder to get a working budget. And
some of that is due to problems that the various
space industries have had, like specifically what NASA has undergone.
(01:31):
Where NASA has had a few projects more than a few,
maybe that some would argue we're improperly governed so that
they ballooned out of control as far as budget and
timeline is considered. And part partially this was also due
to just uh, everyone at the outset and not understanding
exactly what kinds of issues we're going to crop up
(01:53):
along the way and what kinds of problems would need
to be solved right, And sometimes it was because you know,
it wasn't necessarily mismanaged meant, but it might be that
you know, you have very limited uh people you can
go to when you need something like an enormous rocket,
and if the only company that provides the enormous rockets
that you need says, you know, I know that originally
(02:15):
we were going to say that this was going to
be you know, twenty million dollars per rocket, but in reality,
it looks like it's gonna be closer to sixty five.
You don't have a lot of options left. So it's
I don't mean to suggest that NASA was really bad
at managing this stuff. It's just that a lot of
a several high profile projects uh, ended up getting bogged
(02:38):
down in lots of problems, which and when you're and
when you're publicly funded, it's a lot more difficult to
handle that This this private funding could hypothetically, you know,
eat around some of those problems. You can sell more
advertising space or something like that. Right, I mean that
that's the whole idea behind the privatization of space exploration, right,
is that they aren't uh, they aren't tied down to
(03:01):
things like tax income. They don't have to go and
petition they have to answer to the taxpayers. That's right,
that's right, But they do have to raise those funds
some other way because it's not like they just magically
have access to those giant rockets. Uh. The supposed funds
that MARS one will require to to establish the settlement
(03:22):
is six billion dollars. That sounds so low, phenomenally low
to me low, but but it's it's starting with just
four settlers UM to to expand hypothetically by teams of
four every two years, and they're aiming for the first
round of settlers to to land in UM three. Uh.
Is the is the current proposed date, which is sen
(03:44):
years away. Yeah, I mean this isn't that. This is
already blowing my mind and we haven't even gotten into
what the actual challenges are yet. But just the challenge
of getting the materials together, testing your your various acecraft,
because obviously you're going to have to design special spacecraft
for these teams to go up in. And they're they're
(04:05):
talking right now to Elon Musk and the other kids
are at SpaceX using their their stuff, which would be important.
I mean, like using the Dragon spacecraft that kind of stuff. Uh,
obviously that would be something they'd have to take into consideration.
It just seems it seems really ambitious. That's not to
say that it can't be done or that they shouldn't try.
(04:26):
I think being ambitious is fantastic. It's just one of
those things where, having seen how difficult it is to
get a space project and I hate to use this
phrase off the ground, uh, tells me that things are
going to have to go really really well for them
to make that budget and to make that timeline. Maybe
(04:47):
it will, but let's let's talk a little bit more
about what this whole project is. So, yeah, the first
team lands, and now the thing is that in order
for anyone to land on Mars and have any expectation
of being able to survive there. Other stuff is gonna
have to get there first, a whole bunch of other stuff. Yeah,
because Mars doesn't have any supermarkets, so you would need
(05:12):
some way of getting supplies there. And I mean, you know,
you can't just pack everything you would need in your
single rocket. That would be very inefficient. That would be
way too much weight, right. Yeah, The more weight you
add to your launch vehicle, the more fuel you need.
And the more fuel you need, the more weight you
add to your launch vehicle, there does come a point
where your launch vehicle is too heavy for you to
(05:35):
be able to launch it using the fuel sources that
we typically use here on Earth. And and they are
they are planning a space launch rather than an Earth
launch of the actual crew module. Interesting, I did not
read that part, So you'll have to tell me more
about that if if you get a chance. Sure. But
but let's let's let's back all of this back up
(05:55):
the So, So, the Mars one project is run by
the Bye Bye Bye two parts. It's a there's a
nonprofit foundation called Mars one and there's a for profit
company called Interplanetary Media Group, which makes me laugh so hard.
That they are interplanetary serving all your needs, whether you
(06:15):
are on Earth or somewhere else. That's why I do
wonder whether whether the nice people who founded it are
on Earth or somewhere else. There is a fair, fair request.
Are you from here? This? This is these but both
of these of these organizations are are are based in
the Netherlands, co founded by bob's Landsdorp and are no wielders.
(06:41):
And uh Landstorp says that he got the idea when
he saw the revenue figures for the International Olympic Committee
a bunch of years ago and said, hey, there's money there,
there's money there, There's there's money in in televising these
epic human events. And you also uncovered that that Interplanetary
(07:03):
Media Group the you know, they're they're different organizations that
own shares in Interplanetary Media Group. Who owns the majority.
The Mars One Foundation owns almost of the shares in
Interplanetary Media Group. The nonprofit arm of mars One owns
(07:23):
nine of the for profit arm of the project. It's
it's also the sole supervisor of the for profit sectors
operations weight. So the nonprofit organization oversees the for profit
arm of this. Now, now this is just it raises
alarm flags in my mind. However, I will say, if
(07:46):
this works, it's a brilliant way of of funding this
because the nonprofit part can take them any money that's
generated from right, and there's no there's no processing fee
or whatever you want. There's not a convenience fee because
they have this governance and they have this ownership of
the the for profit arm. And if that money indeed
(08:07):
is going to fund this Mars project, that's exactly what
they're going to need in order to have that. That
a massive amount of capital they're going to need, right,
because because the foundation is going to be is going
to be the owner of the settlement on Mars and
uh and the employer of the mission teams. Right, and
then I am G. The the media group is essentially
(08:30):
in charge of of generating funds through things like the
televised broadcast of the process of selecting people to go
to Mars even and then once they get there, their
ongoing experience on Mars to be live stream televised seven
s five days a year. Yeah, it's Big Brother Red
(08:51):
Planet edition. And then they also but they're also going
to be generating money through things like merchandizing, right right,
And I am G will in fact hold exclusive um
to use this project to generate revenue through broadcasting, advertising, etcetera, etcetera. Right,
So you've got this interesting approach to trying to UH
(09:12):
to fund space colonization. Obviously, the only way this really
works is if it captures the public's attention enough for
them to want to watch it, right, because otherwise that
flow of revenue isn't going to come from to dry
up immediately, and then they don't have any money to
build or buy all the stuff they need in order
to get things to Mars. So let's talk a little
(09:34):
bit about what they are looking for, because clearly they
need to have people want to go. And I would
I would argue that that part of this, this application
process that we're about to talk about, proves that the
interest is there, because within the first two weeks that
applications were open, they got seventy eight thousand applicants. Yeah,
(09:55):
that's that's a that's a huge number. And the application
process is still open as of the recording of this podcast, right, Yeah,
this is UH. It opened in April. We are recording
this in May, and it will be open until August one, right,
so so there's still time, still time, And they say
(10:15):
that they expect half a million applicants by the time
it's all over, because obviously that that first rush is
from all the people who hear about it at the
very beginning. Now, before you rush out and fill out
your application, maybe you should uh learn a little bit
more about the parameters of the mission. This is more
likely than not a one way ticket. You will not
(10:40):
be coming back from Mars. If you were to go
to Mars on this mission. Um, there is every possibility
that that is where you would have to spend the
rest of your life. The the expense incurred to get
you back here would basically not be worth you. Well,
no no offense to you beyond that, I mean, just
the logistics of designing a spacecraft that could and back. Yeah,
(11:06):
you'd have to have even more fuel so that you
could escape the gravity of Mars. Remember, Mars's gravity is
not that different from Earth's, so you would have the
same issue. Now that the atmosphere is thinner, so you'd
have less air resistance, but that's kind of negligible when
you're talking about gravity. Um, so I mean to to
(11:27):
create a spacecraft that could get there and then launch
from the surface and come back is beyond the scope
of this project. So that leaves you literally on Mars.
So if you don't want to spend the rest of
your life there, you probably don't want to. UM to apply,
to apply very seriously, They're they're looking for people who
(11:48):
are at least eighteen years of age or older, keeping
in mind you will be ten years older if you
were selected to be one of the four people who
go up on that first launch. As of as of
May seven, the oldest person to apply was seventy one
years old, UM, which seems like probably he won't be chosen. Yeah,
(12:08):
now we don't know that for sure. And it's interesting
that how they're going to go about choosing the people
who go through this as right, there's there, there's there's
first of all, a whole bunch of of application of
selection criteria and did you want to do you want
to sure sure that they're looking for people who have
the following characteristics, And this is because they need people
(12:31):
who are going to be psychologically prepared for the challenge,
for the training and for the trip and to be
stuck on Mars for the rest of their lives, right,
and they have to only be have the psychological uh foundation,
but they also need to be willing and able to
pick up new skills because clearly you're you're talking about
(12:54):
a tiny number of people ultimately on that colony. It's just,
you know, not not many at all. So you everyone
needs to be able to do pretty much everything. Just
like astronauts aboard the International Space Station have to be
adept at working with all the different systems and be
able to react if anything goes wrong. The same thing
holds true on the colony. So you know, it's if
(13:17):
if you were to apply, you'd have to be willing
to go through some very rigorous training to learn how
to deal with any situation that they can come up
with that could conceivably happen while you're on the colony.
And the plan is for about six six to seven
years of training before launch, right for the first group,
which you know also on television. So the characteristics they're
(13:37):
looking for, they're looking for resiliency, and they they break
these out by practical applications. So for resiliency, they mentioned
that your thought processes have to be persistent. You persevere
and remain productive even under difficult circumstances. You see the
connection between your internal and external self, meaning that you're
(13:58):
very self reflective. Is get a little metaphysical as they
go on. You are at your best when things are
at their worst. That is not me. I'm already out.
I mostly turned snarky when things are at their worst. Yeah, yeah,
you do. Also when they're at their best. You have
indomitable spirit. Nope, mind's totally domitable. You understand the purpose
(14:19):
of actions may not be clear in the moment, but
there is good reason, and you trust those who guide you.
That's terrifying to me, which is essentially saying shut up
and do your work. And um, I understand what they're saying.
They're saying like, look, we may tell you to do
something that requires you to, uh to endure uncomfortable circumstances
(14:40):
for an extended amount of time, but trust us, it's
it's all on your best interest. That always That always
gets me a little worried, uh, they and that you
have a can do attitude. The next criteria is adaptability.
Clearly this would be necessary on this kind of project,
right right, like like like Jonathan was saying, a second ago,
you need to be able to do freething up there,
(15:00):
so out there right, And I love that one of them.
One of the I won't go through all of the
practical applications of this one, but one of them is
you know your boundaries and how and when to extend them.
I didn't know the boundaries were that flexible, right, Like
I guess if you have boundaries of watch one of
those international boundaries. It's kind of you know, always always
(15:22):
in question, where it's just the dotted line instead of
the solid line. I think maybe it's like you would
be willing to do this and no more, but you
in certain situations will be willing to do yeah again,
kind of terrifying. Um. And then next would be curiosity,
which again if you don't have a sense of curiosity,
(15:44):
I can't imagine tomorrow unless you're just sick of everyone here,
of which I mean maybe you are. Maybe you're just
a Missinthrop and total misinthrop. So it would just be
like the Algonquin round table, but in space, which would
be kind of awesome. So which would I would watch
that show and they talk about the desire to transfer
(16:07):
knowledge to others and not just showcasing what you know
or what others do not know. I think that knocks
me out too, because I prefer the second version of that. No, seriously,
that's one thing I actually do like. I like to
I like to share knowledge because I find knowledge exciting.
That's that's probably why you're on a podcast that that
is a couple of them. And then there's the ability
(16:28):
to trust, which would be very important since you're working
with people who you know your life depends upon their work,
just as their lives depend upon yours. And then you
have to be creative and resourceful, which means that you know,
I kind of have a hacker mentality that if a
problem comes up, you find a way to solve it,
even if you don't have a like a a manual
(16:52):
that tells you what to do in that specific situation,
that you can adapt to the situation as necessary. You know,
maybe the manual tells you to react a specific way
if one particular situation arises, but maybe the situation is
more complicated than that, and you can't just do one
solution because that's not going to meet all the criteria
(17:13):
to fix the problem. That's why you have to be
both creative and resourceful. So that's that's like the basic
um features that they're looking for in the people who apply,
and then the way they choose or the way they
start to narrow down the candidates is also kind of interesting.
Like I said, the applicant pool was opened up on April,
(17:36):
I said April. It was on April. And it costs.
It does cost money to apply, between five and seventy
five dollars, depending on the wealth of your country of origin. Gotcha,
So if you're from a more affluent country, then your
your application fee will be higher. I think the fee
here in the United States is thirty eight dollars. Interesting,
So it's thirty eight that I'm curious to see which
(17:59):
kind trees are on the top of the scale. I
did not look that up, so I have no idea.
But I'm just wondering out loud, because you know, it's
that it's that national pride coming out. What do you
need thirty eight dollars? Why aren't we so many five dollars?
Not that I'm applying this. This this applicant pool is
going to be pared down during the course of several
rounds um The first is by popularity, because part of
(18:22):
the application is is you know your your resume and
this very short psychological work up, and then part of
it is a YouTube video that you are supposed to upload.
So how many people are watching and liking your video.
It's like having a cloud score for going to Mars. Yeah,
and again I could see someone who is just really
misanthropic winning just because people are like, get rid of
(18:45):
this guy into space, um so so. So this first
round is going to be by the by the popularity
of your of your YouTube video. It's like American Idol,
but you shoot him into space ahead, um and and
by by the application material the company is actually looking
at your resume. Rum in this I don't want to
(19:07):
send a whole bunch of people who obviously have no
business working any kind of intricate system. Yeah right, there's
there's no point in advancing those people to the next round.
The next round, speaking of, is going to be selected
down by region and based on the person's health. Various
background checks and in person interviews also very important. Obviously,
(19:28):
you want to have people who have those features we
talked about earlier, that are well rounded, that can work
well with others. You don't want to send a bunch
of psychopaths up in Mars, people who don't care about
anyone else, because that would be well counterproductive to the
mission at large. Sure sure, missent tropes, yes, Uh, total psychopaths, no,
(19:48):
not so much. No. Um. After that, you're going to
start seeing more of a more of a crowdsourcing process,
um via via reality TV shows, um, Internet polls, stuff
like that. Right, even when they narrow this down to
their pool of potential astronauts, and I think they're they
were aiming to get to around forty total when they
(20:10):
finally boil it down. I've seen a couple of different numbers.
But but but yeah, the idea being that not all
forty of those people would necessarily end up on those colonies.
It's rather that this is the pool of astronauts that
could go up. And uh, then throughout the television series,
we might even see something where the audience decides which
(20:31):
are which four would be the first ones to go right, right,
It's it's gonna be They're they're gonna start narrowing it
down by by TV and stuff, and uh to two people,
a man and a woman would be selected from each
applicant country, um, and then they will them plus a
few judge favorites who are not crowdsourced will proceed to
an international round and then be grouped into four's, um,
(20:54):
some fifty teams of four people and uh, which which
will be narrow to six teams who will train full time.
Got so then you're down. Then you're down to that,
right right? Um? And then yeah, in two that would
be when um, they would select whatever groups are ready
to go. The company would select the groups that they
(21:14):
think are good to actually astronaut and um, and then
the world gets to call in and vote on which
people get shot into space. This is incredible, all right?
And then um, uh you had a specific quote from
someone who had applied, right. Yeah. NBC News found out
(21:34):
that sci fi author David Brynn Um, who wrote for example,
The Postman, I Believe and and a bunch of other stuff,
he told NBC that that people can't imagine any sane
person making this choice. Uh. Editors note, did the choice
to go to Mars forever and never come back simply
aren't envisioning the wide range of human diversity? Um? And
(21:58):
and was just talking about, you know, the act that
he's got three kids and that at the very early
state that Mars one was going to launch, he would
be he would be seventy five, which means his kids
are grown up and on there. They're doing their own
thing at that point. They're in their careers. So it's
not like it's not like he's abandoning children. Sure, sure,
(22:18):
and you know he might choose to to spend these
last fewyears years of his life doing something truly remarkable, interesting.
And we should say that the the early stages of
this would require, uh, the candidates who were selected to
move on in the process to go undergo some extensive training,
like we've mentioned before, but they'd probably be going someplace
(22:39):
really remote and pretty desolate. Yeah. One one of the
plans of the group is to um to create on
Earth in in in some cold, desolate desert tundra kind
of area, a UM a little foe Mars base for
training purposes. That will become really important because you have
to know, you have to understand what are what's the
(23:04):
harsh reality of trying to live on Mars. Hey, guys,
I just heard from the Spiders of Mars as a
band that I follow, that it's time for us to
take a quick break, all right, So we've laid out
what the project wants to do and kind of their
(23:26):
general approach, the idea of sending up supplies ahead of
time and then landing people hopefully by three um and
uh four people and then initially and then another four
every two years, and that they're having this Mars colony.
So let's talk about why this would be a monumentally
(23:48):
difficult task, like what what are what are the challenges
that they face, because there are quite a few. Um,
you're you're you're dealing You're dealing with not only when
you get to Mars, um it not not having an atmosphere,
the thin atmosphere doesn't have a breath, right correct, sorry,
and not having the atmosphere that Earth does that lets
(24:08):
you you know, go out barefoot and walk around right.
Um yeah, not only that, but there's uh, well we'll
get into it. Let's let's start with them. Well let's
start with dirt. Yeah, because because Mars dirt is toxic. Yeah,
just like Britney Spears, No way, she just did that song.
That's I guess. I guess you could say either one
(24:29):
that you wanted to. I'm not going to argue either point.
So the dust that covers Mars is called regular. If
I am pronouncing that correctly, are excellent win um it's
it's really human unfriendly it. Um contains a bunch of things,
for example, uh perchlorate per chlorate, thank you, which which
is a group of chemicals that are used as oxidizers
(24:52):
in rocket fuel. And if that doesn't give you an indication,
it sucks to to breathe in. Exposure can can cause
serious damage to your thyroid. UM, which is an important
bit UM. Lots of silicates UM, silicate silicic uhcts, most
(25:12):
commonly including feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, all of which react
with water to form hydrogen, peroxide, hydroxyl and superoxide UM,
all of which quartz dust does and UM is blamed
for things like lung cancer and uh silicosis in miners,
(25:33):
which which basically means that you inhale this this dust
and it reacts with the water in your lungs and
it is not good right right, This is it starts
to form chemicals that can be very harmful and lead
us to a not living situation, right right. Another another
thing in there is gypsum um, which is a self
(25:54):
fate mineral that forms again in the presence of water.
This one isn't actually toxic the way that the silicates are,
but on the level of coal dust, it is an eye,
skin and respiratory irritant. So obviously we would have to
take precautions against getting dust into any habitable area in
the Mars one colony, right, and again because of the
(26:17):
atmosphere situation, you're not going to have people running around
barefoot in Mars dust. However, it's a very sticky substance really,
and especially due to um. Just like static electricity, it's
going to wind up getting on all the equipment, and
you know, even if you get it out through through
air filters in some kind of airlock, it's going to
get into the system. Yeah, it's it's one of those
(26:38):
things where you really have to design like a clean
room type environment, the same kind of environments that we
think of for creating a microprocessor, where even a single
mode of dust can ruin a sheet of silicon wafers
when you're trying to design a microprocessor, because you're designing
things on such a tiny scale, we would need that
level of precision to to ensure the health of anyone
(27:02):
who's living on one of these colonies. Not to say
that it can't be done, but when you are doing
this on another planet that's already essentially trying to kill you,
it's a really really tough challenge. The way the way
I've seen it described is that it's it's not so
much that at a certain point you're never going to
get the dirt completely separated from your living quarters, and
(27:25):
so it's almost more of a of a what can
we do to combat the issues that this dirt is
going to cause some sort of chemical scrubbing process that
could make this inert, or or some kind of medical
process that we can act upon the poor human people
that are out there, because it's gonna it's gonna affect
them right right. So to to even think that we
(27:45):
could create a system that would negate all of this
is probably being a little too Yeah, you definitely can't
just assume that, because as soon as you do, then
tragedy can strike. Well, there are there are other challenges
as well, not just the the dirt. Uh, there's also
radiation before you even get to the planet. Yeah, because
a journey to Mars is going to take months. Uh,
(28:07):
And that's because the way that Mars and Earth line up,
you have to figure out the right trajectory to launch
to get from Earth or even Earth's orbit uh to
Mars in the most efficient way possible. So when the
Curiosity Rover launched, you know, if you were to look
at the closest point between well, when Earth and Mars
(28:27):
were closest together, if you were somehow able to maintain
that distance and go from Earth to Mars, it might
take you a few months to get there. It took
Curiosity Rover more than I think, like eight months to
get there. You might say, well, why is that so, Well,
it's because we can't get those plants to stop moving.
They keep going around the Sun, which continues moving through
(28:48):
space itself. So what you're talking about is trying to
create a trajectory that's the most efficient pathway between Earth
and Mars, and it's not. It's not a straight line
because you can't do that. You know, you would end
up being where Mars was as opposed to where it is.
So you have to actually aim for where Mars will be.
So uh, that means that your journey through space is
(29:09):
going to take some time. If if you did it
at the speed of light, it would be fourteen minutes.
We cannot go at the speed of flames, right, so
it's going to take months to get there. And the
downside of that is that space has got some nasty
radiation out there that can kill you. UM. So if
the vacuum is not bad enough, the radiation is worse.
(29:30):
So on Earth we are very well protected. In fact,
one of the reasons why we have life as we
know it here on our planet is because our plan
has two things really helping us out. One is the
atmosphere we have, which helps uh reduce the energy of
any incoming radiation radiation particles coming into the atmosphere slow
stuff down. Um. And then also we have a magnetosphere,
(29:54):
this magnetic field that surrounds the Earth that repels a
lot of the part icles that otherwise we bombard. Our planet,
Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so it's not as protective,
and there is no magnetosphere around Mars, so there's not
that magnetic you know, you can think of it almost
(30:15):
like a force field. There's not that magnetic field that
can repel UH charged particles as they come blasting through space.
And what's blasting them, you might ask, the Sun? Yeah, yep,
the same thing that allows life to happen here on
Earth in almost every case. I mean, there's some some
life out there that that relies on chemicals that are
produced geothermically, but but most of it is through some
(30:37):
kind of root of photosynthesis and then eating things that
are synthesized exactly. So, so the Sun is responsible for
most of the life on Earth. It's also blasting out
stuff that would kill you. Now you might think, well,
what about people who are aboard the space station. How
do they managed to stay up there so long? It's
a lot of shielding still inside the magnetic field of Earth, correct,
(31:00):
And they're really only supposed to stay there for a
few months at a time. One of one of the
many reasons why they try to bring people back pretty right, Yeah,
Another one being things like bone loss, which you can
suffer if you're out in space for a very long time.
So if you are going out from Earth to Mars,
you will eventually get to a point where you leave
Earth's magnetic field while you're in space, and once you
(31:23):
leave that magnetic field, the only protection you have from
this kind of radiation, this cosmic radiation, and and it's
radiation in a different form than you know it's not
energy beams coming at you like you would think in
a in a nineteen fifties science fiction film, Cosmic radiation
or cosmic rays are not made up of light energy.
They're actually, uh, the nuclei of adams like hydrogen and
(31:47):
helium and iron that are traveling at hundreds of thousands
of kilometers per second through space that have been ejected
by the Sun. And that the in fact, the University
of Rochester Medical Center published study not that long ago
that suggested that long exposure to this kind of radiation
could increase the risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer's. So uh,
(32:09):
you know, exposure to this stuff is dangerous. So you
would have to build some form of shielding within your
spacecraft so that if there were a period of cosmic radiation,
the soun's not constantly blasting this stuff out. It comes
in these little short bursts. But if you were to
detect such a burst coming at the spacecraft, you would
have to be able to go into a specially shielded
(32:31):
compartment and waited out and it usually lasts a few hours.
So actually Mars one is fairly cavalier and saying like
it wouldn't be a very comfortable, uh situation. You'd be
kind of in cramped quarters for about you know, three
or four hours, but you know after it's over you
can come out. It sounds to me like you would
(32:52):
be essentially need to knee with the rather astronauts waiting
for waiting for this to finish well, but you're clearly
best friends with them, after going through six years of
extensive training on a desert base on Earth, hoping no
one TV cameras in your face because no one has
cracks under that kind of pressure, right, and hoping that
no one had the chili uh space meal just before
(33:13):
space Chili be bad boy. Chris would have appreciated that
joke like crazy. Well, anyway, that's something you would really
have to deal with on that whole trip from Earth
to Mars. Once you get the Mars, the thin atmosphere
does provide some protection. Uh. In fact, I saw one
report that suggested that, uh, information from the Curiosity Rover
(33:35):
may show that it's non lethal levels of radiation. Now
that does not mean that there, Yeah, you might it
might still increase your chances of developing certain diseases, but
they it wouldn't outright kill you like there there are
radiation levels that are so high as to give you
radiation poisoning, which can be lethal. But the point that
(33:58):
he was making was that, Uh, they aren't that intense
on Mars. Now we're recording this, uh, just a day
before NASA releases more information about the radiation on Mars.
So um, by the time you hear this, we'll know
more about it. But Lauren and I don't because we
can't see into the future. So how does Mars one
(34:20):
expect to deal with the radiation problem on Mars? Well,
even with it being non lethal, obviously, you don't want
to have prolonged exposure to radiation if you can help it.
So they are proposing that they will have the habitat
part of Mars one, the place where the astronauts actually look,
or the colonists if you prefer, where they actually live
(34:40):
and do most of their work, will be underground, so
somehow using rovers, They're gonna launch rovers up before they launch,
launching the ast along with some supplies and stuff like that.
In fact, I think the first the first scheduled landing
would be just supplies and then the second round would
(35:00):
have the first rover landing. The rovers are going to
be these robotic rovers just kind of similar to the
Curiosity rover, but with a lot of construction ability, like
they'd obviously have to be able to dig out and
put up structures for the incoming colonists, the idea being
that the colonists would arrive in mostly everything would already
(35:23):
be together, right right, Yeah, the I've got a little
bit about the timeline. Do you want me to do? Well, yeah, sure,
we can talk a little bit about that and then
jump back to to this. But well, let me just
say this. The whole idea about putting it underground is
that by being under the soil, which we've already established
is dangerous stuff all on its own, the soil would
protect against radiation, and that, according to mars One's frequently
(35:47):
asked question section five meters of soil, which is about
sixteen point four feet of soil, would be equivalent to
being protected by Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere. So they would
dig down five meters and put the habitats that far down,
so almost two stories if you're thinking of of of
a building, so you would imagine that you would arrive
(36:08):
on Mars and then go down two flights of stairs
and be two flights of stairs underground and that's where
you live, right. The The idea is to UM UH
launch supply mission starting in UM, rover launch in UM.
Also starting at that point a live video stream from
(36:29):
from the rover which features heavily and their their stated
timelines on their website, which cracks me up just a
little bit. And I understand that this is how they're
making money, but it's you know, they're very like scientific
advancement live on video and I don't know, it's yeah,
it tickles me, UM, but we're in that post real
world world. I guess, yeah, it's it's it's true, UM,
(36:53):
but so so yeah, so and then would be when
UM the settlement come opponents would launch, including two living
units to life support units, more supplies, and a second
rover along with the second video stream UM. And then
yeah and then again, like we said, two, would be
when the astronauts would launch and would be when they
(37:15):
would land along with UM five other cargo missions that year. Yeah,
and the rover's job would be to actually collect those uh,
those bits that landed and and to put them together
and to assemble them. And that blows my mind. The
idea of a rover capable of of maneuvering, lifting, carrying,
(37:36):
and positioning these various modular components so that it can
make a living space for the astronauts by the time
they land. That's a really sophisticated job for a robot
to do, and and robotics is advancing continually. But they're
talking about launching this critter in that's five years off, right,
which means that they have to start building it right now.
They can't. You know, these things take a lot of
(37:58):
time because they have to build it, they have to
test it, make sure that's going to withstand the pressures
that needs to that can actually fulfill the functions of
the mission before they even try and launch one. And
of course it's also all assumes that all these launches
are successful, and I mean, we certainly hope they are,
but there's never a guarantee, you know, you can never
be completely certain. Hey, guys, I just gotta visit from
(38:20):
this dude named Marvin from Mars. He tells me that
it's time for us to take another quick break. Going
back to the Mars. One fact about the radiation, they
also had this helpful section which I found, uh again
(38:41):
a little scary as described in an f A. A
And University study from two thousand five, a journey to
Mars and back. In the case of the study, toting
five thirty six days in space would mean the chance
of contracting cancer for twenty to thirty four year olds
is around ten for men and seventeen for women. But
let's compare it to people who do not go to
(39:03):
Mars in their lifetimes. Men have a twelve percent chance
of contracting prostate cancer and women have twelve point five
percent chance of developing breast cancer. Or let's compare it
to people who smoke. Smoking more than five cigarettes a
day leads to a twenty four point six percent chance
of developing lung cancer for men in their lifetimes and
eighteen point five percent for women. And finally, our restaurants
(39:24):
will spend only two d to two hundred twenty days
in space compared to five dred thirty six days the
study mentioned above. Staying in Mars will result in much
lower doses even if astronauts stay for a long time.
These these numbers, um, I didn't actually you would put
them in our notes and I and I kind of
glanced over them, and I was just noticing that that's
not necessarily those numbers don't all align because we're talking
(39:47):
about very specific different types of cancer caused by very
specific carcinogens. Not to mention different time frames. They talk
about how the lifetime versus over a lifetime, over groups,
and exactly a lifetime versus a trip. This is this
is a tiny bit misleading and us shockingly unscientific for
(40:08):
a group of people who are looking to go to Mars. Right. Yeah,
when you say a tiny bit misleading, you are understating
it drastically. I think I think you're giving them too
much credit because uh, and I mean I want us
to have colonies on the Moon and on Mars. Trust me,
I think that that would be amazing and a phenomenal
human achievement. But I don't think we get there by
(40:31):
downplaying some of the very real, uh challenges we face
and and the way that this is worded. I agree
with you, Lauren, this is not a very realistic like
It's it's like smoke and mirrors, right because you're you're saying, hey, look,
you might have if you were in going on the space,
you might have a increase in developing cancer, but throughout
(40:54):
your life you could have this much. Yeah, but we're
not talking about throughout my life. I'm talking about like
on a road trip. Especially when you're when you're recruiting
essentially civilians to to get into this project. It's it's
so hazardously misleading to put those kind of numbers in
someone's head without without That's that's irresponsible, is what that is.
When you're encouraging eighteen year olds to hop on YouTube
(41:16):
and apply for your program, and you're and you're basically
lying to them with statistics, right, if you're not lying,
I just went off a little bit. You should you
should know. That's why I included that. Actually what Jonathan does,
That's why I included those bullets because when I read that,
I had that same reaction that you did. But I also,
you know, took a bed drole before I came in here,
so I'm a little calmer. I wasn't doing it to
(41:39):
calm myself down. I was doing it because you know,
spring has sprung. So then let's talk about life support systems. Now.
I was very curious to hear how they were going
to provide life support on Mars. We've already ascertained the
soil is dangerous the atmosphere is not breathable, so how
do you know? And and getting supplies from Earth while
(42:02):
that will continue to be a thing, obviously that's not
going to be steady and constant. You're going to get
them in in bursts of deliveries, and that you have
to have some sort of self sustaining element or else.
You know what happens when it's trail. Yeah, eventually everyone
gets dysentery, I mean exact space dysentery. Well, what happened? Well,
(42:24):
my my question is if let's say that, let's say
that you don't have that self sustaining element there, what
happens when the television show gets canceled? Right? That's that's
a sobering thought. I mean, the main way that they're
going to be able to to keep people alive on
another planet is through television. If people stop watching television,
(42:47):
people die, right, I mean that's that's what the story is.
So you have to have some sort of self sustaining
element to it or else you're you are consigning people
to potential Nielsen raying actual death. Yeah, like your show died,
so did your astronauts. I mean that's terrible. But anyway,
so so they have addressed that, and this is how
(43:08):
they plan on providing life support. So what are the
things they're gonna need. They're gonna need water. Well, they're
saying what they're going to do is they're going to
extract water from the soil of Mars, this incredibly toxic stuff.
What but but we know that Mars has some ice
on it. So the plan is to dig up huge
(43:29):
amounts of dirt and put them through what are called extractors,
and the extractors will heat up the soil which will
melt the ice and turn it into water vapor. It
will then condense and filter that water vapor to turn
it back into water, and then that water will become
the drinking water and also the water for the food
(43:50):
supply aboard the colony, aboard at the colony. And uh,
the idea would that be the each life support unit
on Mars would have about fifteen hundred liters of reserve
water as well as the water that's actually providing to
the colony on a daily basis. So that way, by
the way, they're getting power through solar panels, that's the
(44:12):
ideas they used. They use solar panel arrays to generate
the electricity they need to run the colony. But in
the case of something like a dust storm where you
don't get that solar power, you have to be able
to still have access to the things that keep us alive,
or you've just again killed the entire colony. Um. So
that that's how they're answering water. So what about oxygen, Well, oxygen,
(44:33):
they're also looking at the water. Some of that water
that they will be gathering from the soil, they expect
to pour some energy into it to break those molecular bonds.
And we know that the two elements that make up
water are hydrogen and oxygen. So you release hydrogen and
you release oxygen. The oxygen you then mixed with nitrogen,
which you can get from Mars's atmosphere, and make it
(44:55):
into an a breathable mix, because pure oxygen would not
be a good idea. You want to mix that. You know,
here on Earth, the most abundant element in our atmosphere
is nitrogen. You know some people don't know that, but
that's in fact what their oxygen will mostly get you high, yeah,
and then dead, and then you can be quickly. You
can't have you can have pure oxygen um for long anyway,
(45:16):
so you would mix that together to make the habitats
air supply, not the band. And then finally, where are
they getting the food? And some of the foods coming
from earth, they will be supplied, but that's supposed to
be the kind of like emergency rations. The plan is
to use hydroponic farms. Hydroponic farms don't require soil to
grow plants and to use special L e d s
(45:38):
to provide the specific wavelengths of light that those plants
will need to grow. So these L e d s
will because their l eds they draw a very little power,
so you don't have to worry about running a whole
lot of power to them. They will then give that
that specific wavelength that will give the plants the best
chance to really grow in that environment. And since since
(46:00):
are doing this all of us underground, you don't have
the cheery Martian sunshine to fuel year right exactly, So
so you've got you're you're doing it all inside. That
will also mean that uh, it will use the carbon
dioxide generated not just by people breathing, but they'll they'll
also harvest CEO two from the Martian atmosphere as well,
(46:20):
and so that that's how they answer the water, oxygen,
and food problems. Uh. That sounds like an oversimplification to
me too. Again, this is talking about systems that we
have not we've proven that they can work on Earth,
but you know, to expect that all of these are
going to work on Mars is Uh? I mean, I
would hope they would, but it seems very optimistic, especially
(46:42):
within the timeline that they have granted, because we haven't
run those kind of tests to make sure that we
could do this kind of thing. Um. And I would
kind of want us to have a pretty confident, a
pretty high confidence level that would work before one of
the astronauts especially, I would want that thing. And they're talking,
they're talking about the habitats and the rooms that they're
in being in these inflated uh essentially kind of like
(47:05):
inflated tents in a way, which makes me wonder how
they design it so it can withstand the fact that
there are nearly seventeen feet of soil on top of them.
All the all the all the artistic drawings of the
plans that I've seen have have been these these kind
of bubbly little capsules above ground, So I'm not sure.
And those are supposed to be the other like the
(47:29):
life support units and stuff, the habitats, the places where
people live are supposed to be undergrad Like if you
look at some of those pictures, you'll see like there
there seems to be something that looks like a tunnel
that's built up a dome of Earth. But yeah, I
don't don't. I mean, you know, and it's I think
it's fair to to kind of put this stuff out there,
and especially since they're doing this essentially for profit, um
(47:52):
and it's all proprietary, keeping everything a little bit close
to the chest, I could, I could Devil's advocate being
part of their strategy. Well. And also there's there's an
argument that you can make saying that, uh, we're working
on the initial stuff now, we have the plan to
launch by and between now and then, we may have
developed the technology necessary to meet those challenges. I guess
(48:22):
this is the same sort of thing questions, right, Yeah,
and it's you know, it's it's my My biggest question honestly,
is is why we're looking at Mars and not say
the Moon. I have that same question. I think, well,
I mean, you've got some other problems with the Moon.
We have a one six the Earth's gravity, for example,
which again raises the question of things like bone loss,
and the Moon is actually more toxic than Mars from
(48:43):
what I understand, um, in terms of the particulate, but
it's also much closer, very much closer. If things go wrong,
it's a lot easier to correct. Right, Yeah, you're talking,
and we've already got the the experience of sending people
there and coming back, you know, unless you believe the
whole uh television studio thing. Right, Uh, but but that
(49:08):
did go to the Moon in nineteen but the nine
one was on a movie studio, was on general ben
that that aside. I mean, it's my just just the
ethical questions that this raises of whether or not it's
it's okay too to a send people to Mars on
one way ticket at all, and and be to do
it under the restrictions of reality TV. I mean, I
(49:29):
think that anyone who's watched any amount of reality TV
has seen that group breakdown that inevitably happens and is
and is partially, um I think, fabricated for the enjoyment
or or at least schadenfreud of the viewers, wherein the
group just hates each other and and someone gets kind
of Lord of the Flies out, and I just don't don't.
(49:52):
I don't want to watch that. I I don't. I mean,
I don't know, Like, of course I want to watch
people go to Mars. That's terrific and fascinating, agast science
and you know, human exploration. But at the same time,
I don't. I almost don't. Thinking about it makes me
nervous for those poor people. And and you know it
very well. Maybe that the popular approach that they're taking this,
(50:13):
this kind of you know, pop culture approach almost to
the whole project, uh is is really not indicative of
how serious they are. So a lot of the judgments
that we're making a lot of the conclusions we are drawing,
it's all based off of the approach we have seen.
So maybe a lot of our concerns that we've raised
(50:36):
are already well in hand. We you know, I'll go
ahead and say that might be the case. Uh And
it very well could be. That's just our ignorance of
the project that leads us to the skepticism. But anytime
you're talking about people's lives, I think critical thought and
skepticism need to be employed. Uh. Fully so that you
(50:56):
can make sure that these people know what they're doing.
They are very serious about it actually succeeding. They're going
to take every precaution they can to protect the people's
lives who are involved, that the mental and physical health
of these people, and and to to if all of
that pans out, then the potential scientific information we can
get from this experiment would be amazing and the phenomenal.
(51:20):
So I want it to work. I really do, and
and like, like, like we say a lot here and
also on our other podcasts, forward thinking, even if it
doesn't work out, even just trying could lead to terrific
scientific advancement, right anyway. I mean, the space industry alone
has created so many different advancements in technology and just
things that we rely on on a daily basis now
(51:41):
that that could very well be the case. So I
really do hope that that all of this is completely
on the up and up, and that uh, that we
see some real results from this. I just you know,
it's just enough warning flags for me to be really
cautious about it. But the same time, like, if there's
no risk, there's no reward, right, And I know that
(52:05):
there are a lot of astronauts out there who have
done some phenomenal things that a lot of us would
consider crazy. I mean it was just people from from
the test pilots who are first testing the the spacecraft
before it ever left the Earth's atmosphere, to the people
who have gone up to the Moon or the International
(52:25):
Space Station. These are phenomenal feats and they require a
great deal of courage and determination, more than I possess, frankly,
and I think it would be a shame to not
encourage that. I definitely want to see that kind of
indomitable spirit continue. I just want to make sure that
it's the right the right project. And uh, and so
(52:49):
far I'm not fully convinced with Mars one. That's not
to say that maybe in the year maybe I'm I'll
be I'll say, oh, they've met every single one of
my concerns with lying colors, and now I'm totally on board.
It could happen, but but we'll have to We'll have
to see what what develops. Yeah, what would it take
for you to go to Mars, Lauren? I would not
go to Mars. I mean I just nope, especially under restraints.
(53:15):
I mean, to be fair, I also would not appear
on a reality TV show, period, So that attitude news
for you, Lauren. There are cameras everywhere I've been doing
the House Stuff Works reality TV show we launch any
minute now. It's mostly us sitting at our desks with
headphones on, not paying attention to each other. It's not
terribly exciting, I'll admit, but you know, I've got high hopes.
(53:38):
Occasionally see things like Josh talks to Chuck, I expected
to drive a lot of views. I also would not
go to Mars unless there was a return ticket, in
which case maybe, but but with no return ticket, not
all my stuff is here. So that alone makes it
really hard for me to say goodbye. Yeah, that's that.
I'm a materialist. But come on, you know my Xbox
(54:01):
is over here. I worked hard on that gamer score.
And that does it for that classic episode of tech Stuff.
Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions
for topics for future episodes of tech Stuff, reach out
to me on Twitter or Facebook to handle for both
is Text Stuff h s W and I'll talk to
you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart
(54:26):
Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host
Jonathan Strickland dum an, executive producer with I Heart Radio
and I love all things tech, and today it is
time for another tech stuff classic. Hey, today's topic it
(00:25):
comes all the way from June tenth, two thousand thirteen. Wow,
I was doing this all the way back then. This
episode is called get your Podcast to Mars, a classic
Arnold Schwarzenegger reference. I hope you guys enjoy this classic episode.
It's kind of an interesting approach to this, this question
of when are we going to actually set up a
(00:47):
colony somewhere other than on Earth, like like on Mars,
and and proposing the fact that it can be not
only commercial but um but but driven specifically by public interest. Really,
I mean because because here's the thing is that we
know that the government officials that are behind things like
(01:08):
like the space industry in the United States anyway, are
facing increasingly difficult battles in in funding. Right. It's it's
getting harder and harder to get a working budget. And
some of that is due to problems that the various
space industries have had, like specifically what NASA has undergone.
(01:31):
Where NASA has had a few projects more than a few,
maybe that some would argue we're improperly governed so that
they ballooned out of control as far as budget and
timeline is considered. And part partially this was also due
to just uh, everyone at the outset and not understanding
exactly what kinds of issues we're going to crop up
(01:53):
along the way and what kinds of problems would need
to be solved right, And sometimes it was because you know,
it wasn't necessarily mismanaged meant, but it might be that
you know, you have very limited uh people you can
go to when you need something like an enormous rocket,
and if the only company that provides the enormous rockets
that you need says, you know, I know that originally
(02:15):
we were going to say that this was going to
be you know, twenty million dollars per rocket, but in reality,
it looks like it's gonna be closer to sixty five.
You don't have a lot of options left. So it's
I don't mean to suggest that NASA was really bad
at managing this stuff. It's just that a lot of
a several high profile projects uh, ended up getting bogged
(02:38):
down in lots of problems, which and when you're and
when you're publicly funded, it's a lot more difficult to
handle that This this private funding could hypothetically, you know,
eat around some of those problems. You can sell more
advertising space or something like that. Right, I mean that
that's the whole idea behind the privatization of space exploration, right,
is that they aren't uh, they aren't tied down to
(03:01):
things like tax income. They don't have to go and
petition they have to answer to the taxpayers. That's right,
that's right, But they do have to raise those funds
some other way because it's not like they just magically
have access to those giant rockets. Uh. The supposed funds
that MARS one will require to to establish the settlement
(03:22):
is six billion dollars. That sounds so low, phenomenally low
to me low, but but it's it's starting with just
four settlers UM to to expand hypothetically by teams of
four every two years, and they're aiming for the first
round of settlers to to land in UM three. Uh.
Is the is the current proposed date, which is sen
(03:44):
years away. Yeah, I mean this isn't that. This is
already blowing my mind and we haven't even gotten into
what the actual challenges are yet. But just the challenge
of getting the materials together, testing your your various acecraft,
because obviously you're going to have to design special spacecraft
for these teams to go up in. And they're they're
(04:05):
talking right now to Elon Musk and the other kids
are at SpaceX using their their stuff, which would be important.
I mean, like using the Dragon spacecraft that kind of stuff. Uh,
obviously that would be something they'd have to take into consideration.
It just seems it seems really ambitious. That's not to
say that it can't be done or that they shouldn't try.
(04:26):
I think being ambitious is fantastic. It's just one of
those things where, having seen how difficult it is to
get a space project and I hate to use this
phrase off the ground, uh, tells me that things are
going to have to go really really well for them
to make that budget and to make that timeline. Maybe
(04:47):
it will, but let's let's talk a little bit more
about what this whole project is. So, yeah, the first
team lands, and now the thing is that in order
for anyone to land on Mars and have any expectation
of being able to survive there. Other stuff is gonna
have to get there first, a whole bunch of other stuff. Yeah,
because Mars doesn't have any supermarkets, so you would need
(05:12):
some way of getting supplies there. And I mean, you know,
you can't just pack everything you would need in your
single rocket. That would be very inefficient. That would be
way too much weight, right. Yeah, The more weight you
add to your launch vehicle, the more fuel you need.
And the more fuel you need, the more weight you
add to your launch vehicle, there does come a point
where your launch vehicle is too heavy for you to
(05:35):
be able to launch it using the fuel sources that
we typically use here on Earth. And and they are
they are planning a space launch rather than an Earth
launch of the actual crew module. Interesting, I did not
read that part, So you'll have to tell me more
about that if if you get a chance. Sure. But
but let's let's let's back all of this back up
(05:55):
the So, So, the Mars one project is run by
the Bye Bye Bye two parts. It's a there's a
nonprofit foundation called Mars one and there's a for profit
company called Interplanetary Media Group, which makes me laugh so hard.
That they are interplanetary serving all your needs, whether you
(06:15):
are on Earth or somewhere else. That's why I do
wonder whether whether the nice people who founded it are
on Earth or somewhere else. There is a fair, fair request.
Are you from here? This? This is these but both
of these of these organizations are are are based in
the Netherlands, co founded by bob's Landsdorp and are no wielders.
(06:41):
And uh Landstorp says that he got the idea when
he saw the revenue figures for the International Olympic Committee
a bunch of years ago and said, hey, there's money there,
there's money there, There's there's money in in televising these
epic human events. And you also uncovered that that Interplanetary
(07:03):
Media Group the you know, they're they're different organizations that
own shares in Interplanetary Media Group. Who owns the majority.
The Mars One Foundation owns almost of the shares in
Interplanetary Media Group. The nonprofit arm of mars One owns
(07:23):
nine of the for profit arm of the project. It's
it's also the sole supervisor of the for profit sectors
operations weight. So the nonprofit organization oversees the for profit
arm of this. Now, now this is just it raises
alarm flags in my mind. However, I will say, if
(07:46):
this works, it's a brilliant way of of funding this
because the nonprofit part can take them any money that's
generated from right, and there's no there's no processing fee
or whatever you want. There's not a convenience fee because
they have this governance and they have this ownership of
the the for profit arm. And if that money indeed
(08:07):
is going to fund this Mars project, that's exactly what
they're going to need in order to have that. That
a massive amount of capital they're going to need, right,
because because the foundation is going to be is going
to be the owner of the settlement on Mars and
uh and the employer of the mission teams. Right, and
then I am G. The the media group is essentially
(08:30):
in charge of of generating funds through things like the
televised broadcast of the process of selecting people to go
to Mars even and then once they get there, their
ongoing experience on Mars to be live stream televised seven
s five days a year. Yeah, it's Big Brother Red
(08:51):
Planet edition. And then they also but they're also going
to be generating money through things like merchandizing, right right,
And I am G will in fact hold exclusive um
to use this project to generate revenue through broadcasting, advertising, etcetera, etcetera. Right,
So you've got this interesting approach to trying to UH
(09:12):
to fund space colonization. Obviously, the only way this really
works is if it captures the public's attention enough for
them to want to watch it, right, because otherwise that
flow of revenue isn't going to come from to dry
up immediately, and then they don't have any money to
build or buy all the stuff they need in order
to get things to Mars. So let's talk a little
(09:34):
bit about what they are looking for, because clearly they
need to have people want to go. And I would
I would argue that that part of this, this application
process that we're about to talk about, proves that the
interest is there, because within the first two weeks that
applications were open, they got seventy eight thousand applicants. Yeah,
(09:55):
that's that's a that's a huge number. And the application
process is still open as of the recording of this podcast, right, Yeah,
this is UH. It opened in April. We are recording
this in May, and it will be open until August one, right,
so so there's still time, still time, And they say
(10:15):
that they expect half a million applicants by the time
it's all over, because obviously that that first rush is
from all the people who hear about it at the
very beginning. Now, before you rush out and fill out
your application, maybe you should uh learn a little bit
more about the parameters of the mission. This is more
likely than not a one way ticket. You will not
(10:40):
be coming back from Mars. If you were to go
to Mars on this mission. Um, there is every possibility
that that is where you would have to spend the
rest of your life. The the expense incurred to get
you back here would basically not be worth you. Well,
no no offense to you beyond that, I mean, just
the logistics of designing a spacecraft that could and back. Yeah,
(11:06):
you'd have to have even more fuel so that you
could escape the gravity of Mars. Remember, Mars's gravity is
not that different from Earth's, so you would have the
same issue. Now that the atmosphere is thinner, so you'd
have less air resistance, but that's kind of negligible when
you're talking about gravity. Um, so I mean to to
(11:27):
create a spacecraft that could get there and then launch
from the surface and come back is beyond the scope
of this project. So that leaves you literally on Mars.
So if you don't want to spend the rest of
your life there, you probably don't want to. UM to apply,
to apply very seriously, They're they're looking for people who
(11:48):
are at least eighteen years of age or older, keeping
in mind you will be ten years older if you
were selected to be one of the four people who
go up on that first launch. As of as of
May seven, the oldest person to apply was seventy one
years old, UM, which seems like probably he won't be chosen. Yeah,
(12:08):
now we don't know that for sure. And it's interesting
that how they're going to go about choosing the people
who go through this as right, there's there, there's there's
first of all, a whole bunch of of application of
selection criteria and did you want to do you want
to sure sure that they're looking for people who have
the following characteristics, And this is because they need people
(12:31):
who are going to be psychologically prepared for the challenge,
for the training and for the trip and to be
stuck on Mars for the rest of their lives, right,
and they have to only be have the psychological uh foundation,
but they also need to be willing and able to
pick up new skills because clearly you're you're talking about
(12:54):
a tiny number of people ultimately on that colony. It's just,
you know, not not many at all. So you everyone
needs to be able to do pretty much everything. Just
like astronauts aboard the International Space Station have to be
adept at working with all the different systems and be
able to react if anything goes wrong. The same thing
holds true on the colony. So you know, it's if
(13:17):
if you were to apply, you'd have to be willing
to go through some very rigorous training to learn how
to deal with any situation that they can come up
with that could conceivably happen while you're on the colony.
And the plan is for about six six to seven
years of training before launch, right for the first group,
which you know also on television. So the characteristics they're
(13:37):
looking for, they're looking for resiliency, and they they break
these out by practical applications. So for resiliency, they mentioned
that your thought processes have to be persistent. You persevere
and remain productive even under difficult circumstances. You see the
connection between your internal and external self, meaning that you're
(13:58):
very self reflective. Is get a little metaphysical as they
go on. You are at your best when things are
at their worst. That is not me. I'm already out.
I mostly turned snarky when things are at their worst. Yeah, yeah,
you do. Also when they're at their best. You have
indomitable spirit. Nope, mind's totally domitable. You understand the purpose
(14:19):
of actions may not be clear in the moment, but
there is good reason, and you trust those who guide you.
That's terrifying to me, which is essentially saying shut up
and do your work. And um, I understand what they're saying.
They're saying like, look, we may tell you to do
something that requires you to, uh to endure uncomfortable circumstances
(14:40):
for an extended amount of time, but trust us, it's
it's all on your best interest. That always That always
gets me a little worried, uh, they and that you
have a can do attitude. The next criteria is adaptability.
Clearly this would be necessary on this kind of project,
right right, like like like Jonathan was saying, a second ago,
you need to be able to do freething up there,
(15:00):
so out there right, And I love that one of them.
One of the I won't go through all of the
practical applications of this one, but one of them is
you know your boundaries and how and when to extend them.
I didn't know the boundaries were that flexible, right, Like
I guess if you have boundaries of watch one of
those international boundaries. It's kind of you know, always always
(15:22):
in question, where it's just the dotted line instead of
the solid line. I think maybe it's like you would
be willing to do this and no more, but you
in certain situations will be willing to do yeah again,
kind of terrifying. Um. And then next would be curiosity,
which again if you don't have a sense of curiosity,
(15:44):
I can't imagine tomorrow unless you're just sick of everyone here,
of which I mean maybe you are. Maybe you're just
a Missinthrop and total misinthrop. So it would just be
like the Algonquin round table, but in space, which would
be kind of awesome. So which would I would watch
that show and they talk about the desire to transfer
(16:07):
knowledge to others and not just showcasing what you know
or what others do not know. I think that knocks
me out too, because I prefer the second version of that. No, seriously,
that's one thing I actually do like. I like to
I like to share knowledge because I find knowledge exciting.
That's that's probably why you're on a podcast that that
is a couple of them. And then there's the ability
(16:28):
to trust, which would be very important since you're working
with people who you know your life depends upon their work,
just as their lives depend upon yours. And then you
have to be creative and resourceful, which means that you know,
I kind of have a hacker mentality that if a
problem comes up, you find a way to solve it,
even if you don't have a like a a manual
(16:52):
that tells you what to do in that specific situation,
that you can adapt to the situation as necessary. You know,
maybe the manual tells you to react a specific way
if one particular situation arises, but maybe the situation is
more complicated than that, and you can't just do one
solution because that's not going to meet all the criteria
(17:13):
to fix the problem. That's why you have to be
both creative and resourceful. So that's that's like the basic
um features that they're looking for in the people who apply,
and then the way they choose or the way they
start to narrow down the candidates is also kind of interesting.
Like I said, the applicant pool was opened up on April,
(17:36):
I said April. It was on April. And it costs.
It does cost money to apply, between five and seventy
five dollars, depending on the wealth of your country of origin. Gotcha,
So if you're from a more affluent country, then your
your application fee will be higher. I think the fee
here in the United States is thirty eight dollars. Interesting,
So it's thirty eight that I'm curious to see which
(17:59):
kind trees are on the top of the scale. I
did not look that up, so I have no idea.
But I'm just wondering out loud, because you know, it's
that it's that national pride coming out. What do you
need thirty eight dollars? Why aren't we so many five dollars?
Not that I'm applying this. This this applicant pool is
going to be pared down during the course of several
rounds um The first is by popularity, because part of
(18:22):
the application is is you know your your resume and
this very short psychological work up, and then part of
it is a YouTube video that you are supposed to upload.
So how many people are watching and liking your video.
It's like having a cloud score for going to Mars. Yeah,
and again I could see someone who is just really
misanthropic winning just because people are like, get rid of
(18:45):
this guy into space, um so so. So this first
round is going to be by the by the popularity
of your of your YouTube video. It's like American Idol,
but you shoot him into space ahead, um and and
by by the application material the company is actually looking
at your resume. Rum in this I don't want to
(19:07):
send a whole bunch of people who obviously have no
business working any kind of intricate system. Yeah right, there's
there's no point in advancing those people to the next round.
The next round, speaking of, is going to be selected
down by region and based on the person's health. Various
background checks and in person interviews also very important. Obviously,
(19:28):
you want to have people who have those features we
talked about earlier, that are well rounded, that can work
well with others. You don't want to send a bunch
of psychopaths up in Mars, people who don't care about
anyone else, because that would be well counterproductive to the
mission at large. Sure sure, missent tropes, yes, Uh, total psychopaths, no,
(19:48):
not so much. No. Um. After that, you're going to
start seeing more of a more of a crowdsourcing process,
um via via reality TV shows, um, Internet polls, stuff
like that. Right, even when they narrow this down to
their pool of potential astronauts, and I think they're they
were aiming to get to around forty total when they
(20:10):
finally boil it down. I've seen a couple of different numbers.
But but but yeah, the idea being that not all
forty of those people would necessarily end up on those colonies.
It's rather that this is the pool of astronauts that
could go up. And uh, then throughout the television series,
we might even see something where the audience decides which
(20:31):
are which four would be the first ones to go right, right,
It's it's gonna be They're they're gonna start narrowing it
down by by TV and stuff, and uh to two people,
a man and a woman would be selected from each
applicant country, um, and then they will them plus a
few judge favorites who are not crowdsourced will proceed to
an international round and then be grouped into four's, um,
(20:54):
some fifty teams of four people and uh, which which
will be narrow to six teams who will train full time.
Got so then you're down. Then you're down to that,
right right? Um? And then yeah, in two that would
be when um, they would select whatever groups are ready
to go. The company would select the groups that they
(21:14):
think are good to actually astronaut and um, and then
the world gets to call in and vote on which
people get shot into space. This is incredible, all right?
And then um, uh you had a specific quote from
someone who had applied, right. Yeah. NBC News found out
(21:34):
that sci fi author David Brynn Um, who wrote for example,
The Postman, I Believe and and a bunch of other stuff,
he told NBC that that people can't imagine any sane
person making this choice. Uh. Editors note, did the choice
to go to Mars forever and never come back simply
aren't envisioning the wide range of human diversity? Um? And
(21:58):
and was just talking about, you know, the act that
he's got three kids and that at the very early
state that Mars one was going to launch, he would
be he would be seventy five, which means his kids
are grown up and on there. They're doing their own
thing at that point. They're in their careers. So it's
not like it's not like he's abandoning children. Sure, sure,
(22:18):
and you know he might choose to to spend these
last fewyears years of his life doing something truly remarkable, interesting.
And we should say that the the early stages of
this would require, uh, the candidates who were selected to
move on in the process to go undergo some extensive training,
like we've mentioned before, but they'd probably be going someplace
(22:39):
really remote and pretty desolate. Yeah. One one of the
plans of the group is to um to create on
Earth in in in some cold, desolate desert tundra kind
of area, a UM a little foe Mars base for
training purposes. That will become really important because you have
to know, you have to understand what are what's the
(23:04):
harsh reality of trying to live on Mars. Hey, guys,
I just heard from the Spiders of Mars as a
band that I follow, that it's time for us to
take a quick break, all right, So we've laid out
what the project wants to do and kind of their
(23:26):
general approach, the idea of sending up supplies ahead of
time and then landing people hopefully by three um and
uh four people and then initially and then another four
every two years, and that they're having this Mars colony.
So let's talk about why this would be a monumentally
(23:48):
difficult task, like what what are what are the challenges
that they face, because there are quite a few. Um,
you're you're you're dealing You're dealing with not only when
you get to Mars, um it not not having an atmosphere,
the thin atmosphere doesn't have a breath, right correct, sorry,
and not having the atmosphere that Earth does that lets
(24:08):
you you know, go out barefoot and walk around right.
Um yeah, not only that, but there's uh, well we'll
get into it. Let's let's start with them. Well let's
start with dirt. Yeah, because because Mars dirt is toxic. Yeah,
just like Britney Spears, No way, she just did that song.
That's I guess. I guess you could say either one
(24:29):
that you wanted to. I'm not going to argue either point.
So the dust that covers Mars is called regular. If
I am pronouncing that correctly, are excellent win um it's
it's really human unfriendly it. Um contains a bunch of things,
for example, uh perchlorate per chlorate, thank you, which which
is a group of chemicals that are used as oxidizers
(24:52):
in rocket fuel. And if that doesn't give you an indication,
it sucks to to breathe in. Exposure can can cause
serious damage to your thyroid. UM, which is an important
bit UM. Lots of silicates UM, silicate silicic uhcts, most
(25:12):
commonly including feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, all of which react
with water to form hydrogen, peroxide, hydroxyl and superoxide UM,
all of which quartz dust does and UM is blamed
for things like lung cancer and uh silicosis in miners,
(25:33):
which which basically means that you inhale this this dust
and it reacts with the water in your lungs and
it is not good right right, This is it starts
to form chemicals that can be very harmful and lead
us to a not living situation, right right. Another another
thing in there is gypsum um, which is a self
(25:54):
fate mineral that forms again in the presence of water.
This one isn't actually toxic the way that the silicates are,
but on the level of coal dust, it is an eye,
skin and respiratory irritant. So obviously we would have to
take precautions against getting dust into any habitable area in
the Mars one colony, right, and again because of the
(26:17):
atmosphere situation, you're not going to have people running around
barefoot in Mars dust. However, it's a very sticky substance really,
and especially due to um. Just like static electricity, it's
going to wind up getting on all the equipment, and
you know, even if you get it out through through
air filters in some kind of airlock, it's going to
get into the system. Yeah, it's it's one of those
(26:38):
things where you really have to design like a clean
room type environment, the same kind of environments that we
think of for creating a microprocessor, where even a single
mode of dust can ruin a sheet of silicon wafers
when you're trying to design a microprocessor, because you're designing
things on such a tiny scale, we would need that
level of precision to to ensure the health of anyone
(27:02):
who's living on one of these colonies. Not to say
that it can't be done, but when you are doing
this on another planet that's already essentially trying to kill you,
it's a really really tough challenge. The way the way
I've seen it described is that it's it's not so
much that at a certain point you're never going to
get the dirt completely separated from your living quarters, and
(27:25):
so it's almost more of a of a what can
we do to combat the issues that this dirt is
going to cause some sort of chemical scrubbing process that
could make this inert, or or some kind of medical
process that we can act upon the poor human people
that are out there, because it's gonna it's gonna affect
them right right. So to to even think that we
(27:45):
could create a system that would negate all of this
is probably being a little too Yeah, you definitely can't
just assume that, because as soon as you do, then
tragedy can strike. Well, there are there are other challenges
as well, not just the the dirt. Uh, there's also
radiation before you even get to the planet. Yeah, because
a journey to Mars is going to take months. Uh,
(28:07):
And that's because the way that Mars and Earth line up,
you have to figure out the right trajectory to launch
to get from Earth or even Earth's orbit uh to
Mars in the most efficient way possible. So when the
Curiosity Rover launched, you know, if you were to look
at the closest point between well, when Earth and Mars
(28:27):
were closest together, if you were somehow able to maintain
that distance and go from Earth to Mars, it might
take you a few months to get there. It took
Curiosity Rover more than I think, like eight months to
get there. You might say, well, why is that so, Well,
it's because we can't get those plants to stop moving.
They keep going around the Sun, which continues moving through
(28:48):
space itself. So what you're talking about is trying to
create a trajectory that's the most efficient pathway between Earth
and Mars, and it's not. It's not a straight line
because you can't do that. You know, you would end
up being where Mars was as opposed to where it is.
So you have to actually aim for where Mars will be.
So uh, that means that your journey through space is
(29:09):
going to take some time. If if you did it
at the speed of light, it would be fourteen minutes.
We cannot go at the speed of flames, right, so
it's going to take months to get there. And the
downside of that is that space has got some nasty
radiation out there that can kill you. UM. So if
the vacuum is not bad enough, the radiation is worse.
(29:30):
So on Earth we are very well protected. In fact,
one of the reasons why we have life as we
know it here on our planet is because our plan
has two things really helping us out. One is the
atmosphere we have, which helps uh reduce the energy of
any incoming radiation radiation particles coming into the atmosphere slow
stuff down. Um. And then also we have a magnetosphere,
(29:54):
this magnetic field that surrounds the Earth that repels a
lot of the part icles that otherwise we bombard. Our planet,
Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so it's not as protective,
and there is no magnetosphere around Mars, so there's not
that magnetic you know, you can think of it almost
(30:15):
like a force field. There's not that magnetic field that
can repel UH charged particles as they come blasting through space.
And what's blasting them, you might ask, the Sun? Yeah, yep,
the same thing that allows life to happen here on
Earth in almost every case. I mean, there's some some
life out there that that relies on chemicals that are
produced geothermically, but but most of it is through some
(30:37):
kind of root of photosynthesis and then eating things that
are synthesized exactly. So, so the Sun is responsible for
most of the life on Earth. It's also blasting out
stuff that would kill you. Now you might think, well,
what about people who are aboard the space station. How
do they managed to stay up there so long? It's
a lot of shielding still inside the magnetic field of Earth, correct,
(31:00):
And they're really only supposed to stay there for a
few months at a time. One of one of the
many reasons why they try to bring people back pretty right, Yeah,
Another one being things like bone loss, which you can
suffer if you're out in space for a very long time.
So if you are going out from Earth to Mars,
you will eventually get to a point where you leave
Earth's magnetic field while you're in space, and once you
(31:23):
leave that magnetic field, the only protection you have from
this kind of radiation, this cosmic radiation, and and it's
radiation in a different form than you know it's not
energy beams coming at you like you would think in
a in a nineteen fifties science fiction film, Cosmic radiation
or cosmic rays are not made up of light energy.
They're actually, uh, the nuclei of adams like hydrogen and
(31:47):
helium and iron that are traveling at hundreds of thousands
of kilometers per second through space that have been ejected
by the Sun. And that the in fact, the University
of Rochester Medical Center published study not that long ago
that suggested that long exposure to this kind of radiation
could increase the risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer's. So uh,
(32:09):
you know, exposure to this stuff is dangerous. So you
would have to build some form of shielding within your
spacecraft so that if there were a period of cosmic radiation,
the soun's not constantly blasting this stuff out. It comes
in these little short bursts. But if you were to
detect such a burst coming at the spacecraft, you would
have to be able to go into a specially shielded
(32:31):
compartment and waited out and it usually lasts a few hours.
So actually Mars one is fairly cavalier and saying like
it wouldn't be a very comfortable, uh situation. You'd be
kind of in cramped quarters for about you know, three
or four hours, but you know after it's over you
can come out. It sounds to me like you would
(32:52):
be essentially need to knee with the rather astronauts waiting
for waiting for this to finish well, but you're clearly
best friends with them, after going through six years of
extensive training on a desert base on Earth, hoping no
one TV cameras in your face because no one has
cracks under that kind of pressure, right, and hoping that
no one had the chili uh space meal just before
(33:13):
space Chili be bad boy. Chris would have appreciated that
joke like crazy. Well, anyway, that's something you would really
have to deal with on that whole trip from Earth
to Mars. Once you get the Mars, the thin atmosphere
does provide some protection. Uh. In fact, I saw one
report that suggested that, uh, information from the Curiosity Rover
(33:35):
may show that it's non lethal levels of radiation. Now
that does not mean that there, Yeah, you might it
might still increase your chances of developing certain diseases, but
they it wouldn't outright kill you like there there are
radiation levels that are so high as to give you
radiation poisoning, which can be lethal. But the point that
(33:58):
he was making was that, Uh, they aren't that intense
on Mars. Now we're recording this, uh, just a day
before NASA releases more information about the radiation on Mars.
So um, by the time you hear this, we'll know
more about it. But Lauren and I don't because we
can't see into the future. So how does Mars one
(34:20):
expect to deal with the radiation problem on Mars? Well,
even with it being non lethal, obviously, you don't want
to have prolonged exposure to radiation if you can help it.
So they are proposing that they will have the habitat
part of Mars one, the place where the astronauts actually look,
or the colonists if you prefer, where they actually live
(34:40):
and do most of their work, will be underground, so
somehow using rovers, They're gonna launch rovers up before they launch,
launching the ast along with some supplies and stuff like that.
In fact, I think the first the first scheduled landing
would be just supplies and then the second round would
(35:00):
have the first rover landing. The rovers are going to
be these robotic rovers just kind of similar to the
Curiosity rover, but with a lot of construction ability, like
they'd obviously have to be able to dig out and
put up structures for the incoming colonists, the idea being
that the colonists would arrive in mostly everything would already
(35:23):
be together, right right, Yeah, the I've got a little
bit about the timeline. Do you want me to do? Well, yeah, sure,
we can talk a little bit about that and then
jump back to to this. But well, let me just
say this. The whole idea about putting it underground is
that by being under the soil, which we've already established
is dangerous stuff all on its own, the soil would
protect against radiation, and that, according to mars One's frequently
(35:47):
asked question section five meters of soil, which is about
sixteen point four feet of soil, would be equivalent to
being protected by Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere. So they would
dig down five meters and put the habitats that far down,
so almost two stories if you're thinking of of of
a building, so you would imagine that you would arrive
(36:08):
on Mars and then go down two flights of stairs
and be two flights of stairs underground and that's where
you live, right. The The idea is to UM UH
launch supply mission starting in UM, rover launch in UM.
Also starting at that point a live video stream from
(36:29):
from the rover which features heavily and their their stated
timelines on their website, which cracks me up just a
little bit. And I understand that this is how they're
making money, but it's you know, they're very like scientific
advancement live on video and I don't know, it's yeah,
it tickles me, UM, but we're in that post real
world world. I guess, yeah, it's it's it's true, UM,
(36:53):
but so so yeah, so and then would be when
UM the settlement come opponents would launch, including two living
units to life support units, more supplies, and a second
rover along with the second video stream UM. And then
yeah and then again, like we said, two, would be
when the astronauts would launch and would be when they
(37:15):
would land along with UM five other cargo missions that year. Yeah,
and the rover's job would be to actually collect those uh,
those bits that landed and and to put them together
and to assemble them. And that blows my mind. The
idea of a rover capable of of maneuvering, lifting, carrying,
(37:36):
and positioning these various modular components so that it can
make a living space for the astronauts by the time
they land. That's a really sophisticated job for a robot
to do, and and robotics is advancing continually. But they're
talking about launching this critter in that's five years off, right,
which means that they have to start building it right now.
They can't. You know, these things take a lot of
(37:58):
time because they have to build it, they have to
test it, make sure that's going to withstand the pressures
that needs to that can actually fulfill the functions of
the mission before they even try and launch one. And
of course it's also all assumes that all these launches
are successful, and I mean, we certainly hope they are,
but there's never a guarantee, you know, you can never
be completely certain. Hey, guys, I just gotta visit from
(38:20):
this dude named Marvin from Mars. He tells me that
it's time for us to take another quick break. Going
back to the Mars. One fact about the radiation, they
also had this helpful section which I found, uh again
(38:41):
a little scary as described in an f A. A
And University study from two thousand five, a journey to
Mars and back. In the case of the study, toting
five thirty six days in space would mean the chance
of contracting cancer for twenty to thirty four year olds
is around ten for men and seventeen for women. But
let's compare it to people who do not go to
(39:03):
Mars in their lifetimes. Men have a twelve percent chance
of contracting prostate cancer and women have twelve point five
percent chance of developing breast cancer. Or let's compare it
to people who smoke. Smoking more than five cigarettes a
day leads to a twenty four point six percent chance
of developing lung cancer for men in their lifetimes and
eighteen point five percent for women. And finally, our restaurants
(39:24):
will spend only two d to two hundred twenty days
in space compared to five dred thirty six days the
study mentioned above. Staying in Mars will result in much
lower doses even if astronauts stay for a long time.
These these numbers, um, I didn't actually you would put
them in our notes and I and I kind of
glanced over them, and I was just noticing that that's
not necessarily those numbers don't all align because we're talking
(39:47):
about very specific different types of cancer caused by very
specific carcinogens. Not to mention different time frames. They talk
about how the lifetime versus over a lifetime, over groups,
and exactly a lifetime versus a trip. This is this
is a tiny bit misleading and us shockingly unscientific for
(40:08):
a group of people who are looking to go to Mars. Right. Yeah,
when you say a tiny bit misleading, you are understating
it drastically. I think I think you're giving them too
much credit because uh, and I mean I want us
to have colonies on the Moon and on Mars. Trust me,
I think that that would be amazing and a phenomenal
human achievement. But I don't think we get there by
(40:31):
downplaying some of the very real, uh challenges we face
and and the way that this is worded. I agree
with you, Lauren, this is not a very realistic like
It's it's like smoke and mirrors, right because you're you're saying, hey, look,
you might have if you were in going on the space,
you might have a increase in developing cancer, but throughout
(40:54):
your life you could have this much. Yeah, but we're
not talking about throughout my life. I'm talking about like
on a road trip. Especially when you're when you're recruiting
essentially civilians to to get into this project. It's it's
so hazardously misleading to put those kind of numbers in
someone's head without without That's that's irresponsible, is what that is.
When you're encouraging eighteen year olds to hop on YouTube
(41:16):
and apply for your program, and you're and you're basically
lying to them with statistics, right, if you're not lying,
I just went off a little bit. You should you
should know. That's why I included that. Actually what Jonathan does,
That's why I included those bullets because when I read that,
I had that same reaction that you did. But I also,
you know, took a bed drole before I came in here,
so I'm a little calmer. I wasn't doing it to
(41:39):
calm myself down. I was doing it because you know,
spring has sprung. So then let's talk about life support systems. Now.
I was very curious to hear how they were going
to provide life support on Mars. We've already ascertained the
soil is dangerous the atmosphere is not breathable, so how
do you know? And and getting supplies from Earth while
(42:02):
that will continue to be a thing, obviously that's not
going to be steady and constant. You're going to get
them in in bursts of deliveries, and that you have
to have some sort of self sustaining element or else.
You know what happens when it's trail. Yeah, eventually everyone
gets dysentery, I mean exact space dysentery. Well, what happened? Well,
(42:24):
my my question is if let's say that, let's say
that you don't have that self sustaining element there, what
happens when the television show gets canceled? Right? That's that's
a sobering thought. I mean, the main way that they're
going to be able to to keep people alive on
another planet is through television. If people stop watching television,
(42:47):
people die, right, I mean that's that's what the story is.
So you have to have some sort of self sustaining
element to it or else you're you are consigning people
to potential Nielsen raying actual death. Yeah, like your show died,
so did your astronauts. I mean that's terrible. But anyway,
so so they have addressed that, and this is how
(43:08):
they plan on providing life support. So what are the
things they're gonna need. They're gonna need water. Well, they're
saying what they're going to do is they're going to
extract water from the soil of Mars, this incredibly toxic stuff.
What but but we know that Mars has some ice
on it. So the plan is to dig up huge
(43:29):
amounts of dirt and put them through what are called extractors,
and the extractors will heat up the soil which will
melt the ice and turn it into water vapor. It
will then condense and filter that water vapor to turn
it back into water, and then that water will become
the drinking water and also the water for the food
(43:50):
supply aboard the colony, aboard at the colony. And uh,
the idea would that be the each life support unit
on Mars would have about fifteen hundred liters of reserve
water as well as the water that's actually providing to
the colony on a daily basis. So that way, by
the way, they're getting power through solar panels, that's the
(44:12):
ideas they used. They use solar panel arrays to generate
the electricity they need to run the colony. But in
the case of something like a dust storm where you
don't get that solar power, you have to be able
to still have access to the things that keep us alive,
or you've just again killed the entire colony. Um. So
that that's how they're answering water. So what about oxygen, Well, oxygen,
(44:33):
they're also looking at the water. Some of that water
that they will be gathering from the soil, they expect
to pour some energy into it to break those molecular bonds.
And we know that the two elements that make up
water are hydrogen and oxygen. So you release hydrogen and
you release oxygen. The oxygen you then mixed with nitrogen,
which you can get from Mars's atmosphere, and make it
(44:55):
into an a breathable mix, because pure oxygen would not
be a good idea. You want to mix that. You know,
here on Earth, the most abundant element in our atmosphere
is nitrogen. You know some people don't know that, but
that's in fact what their oxygen will mostly get you high, yeah,
and then dead, and then you can be quickly. You
can't have you can have pure oxygen um for long anyway,
(45:16):
so you would mix that together to make the habitats
air supply, not the band. And then finally, where are
they getting the food? And some of the foods coming
from earth, they will be supplied, but that's supposed to
be the kind of like emergency rations. The plan is
to use hydroponic farms. Hydroponic farms don't require soil to
grow plants and to use special L e d s
(45:38):
to provide the specific wavelengths of light that those plants
will need to grow. So these L e d s
will because their l eds they draw a very little power,
so you don't have to worry about running a whole
lot of power to them. They will then give that
that specific wavelength that will give the plants the best
chance to really grow in that environment. And since since
(46:00):
are doing this all of us underground, you don't have
the cheery Martian sunshine to fuel year right exactly, So
so you've got you're you're doing it all inside. That
will also mean that uh, it will use the carbon
dioxide generated not just by people breathing, but they'll they'll
also harvest CEO two from the Martian atmosphere as well,
(46:20):
and so that that's how they answer the water, oxygen,
and food problems. Uh. That sounds like an oversimplification to
me too. Again, this is talking about systems that we
have not we've proven that they can work on Earth,
but you know, to expect that all of these are
going to work on Mars is Uh? I mean, I
would hope they would, but it seems very optimistic, especially
(46:42):
within the timeline that they have granted, because we haven't
run those kind of tests to make sure that we
could do this kind of thing. Um. And I would
kind of want us to have a pretty confident, a
pretty high confidence level that would work before one of
the astronauts especially, I would want that thing. And they're talking,
they're talking about the habitats and the rooms that they're
in being in these inflated uh essentially kind of like
(47:05):
inflated tents in a way, which makes me wonder how
they design it so it can withstand the fact that
there are nearly seventeen feet of soil on top of them.
All the all the all the artistic drawings of the
plans that I've seen have have been these these kind
of bubbly little capsules above ground, So I'm not sure.
And those are supposed to be the other like the
(47:29):
life support units and stuff, the habitats, the places where
people live are supposed to be undergrad Like if you
look at some of those pictures, you'll see like there
there seems to be something that looks like a tunnel
that's built up a dome of Earth. But yeah, I
don't don't. I mean, you know, and it's I think
it's fair to to kind of put this stuff out there,
and especially since they're doing this essentially for profit, um
(47:52):
and it's all proprietary, keeping everything a little bit close
to the chest, I could, I could Devil's advocate being
part of their strategy. Well. And also there's there's an
argument that you can make saying that, uh, we're working
on the initial stuff now, we have the plan to
launch by and between now and then, we may have
developed the technology necessary to meet those challenges. I guess
(48:22):
this is the same sort of thing questions, right, Yeah,
and it's you know, it's it's my My biggest question honestly,
is is why we're looking at Mars and not say
the Moon. I have that same question. I think, well,
I mean, you've got some other problems with the Moon.
We have a one six the Earth's gravity, for example,
which again raises the question of things like bone loss,
and the Moon is actually more toxic than Mars from
(48:43):
what I understand, um, in terms of the particulate, but
it's also much closer, very much closer. If things go wrong,
it's a lot easier to correct. Right, Yeah, you're talking,
and we've already got the the experience of sending people
there and coming back, you know, unless you believe the
whole uh television studio thing. Right, Uh, but but that
(49:08):
did go to the Moon in nineteen but the nine
one was on a movie studio, was on general ben
that that aside. I mean, it's my just just the
ethical questions that this raises of whether or not it's
it's okay too to a send people to Mars on
one way ticket at all, and and be to do
it under the restrictions of reality TV. I mean, I
(49:29):
think that anyone who's watched any amount of reality TV
has seen that group breakdown that inevitably happens and is
and is partially, um I think, fabricated for the enjoyment
or or at least schadenfreud of the viewers, wherein the
group just hates each other and and someone gets kind
of Lord of the Flies out, and I just don't don't.
(49:52):
I don't want to watch that. I I don't. I mean,
I don't know, Like, of course I want to watch
people go to Mars. That's terrific and fascinating, agast science
and you know, human exploration. But at the same time,
I don't. I almost don't. Thinking about it makes me
nervous for those poor people. And and you know it
very well. Maybe that the popular approach that they're taking this,
(50:13):
this kind of you know, pop culture approach almost to
the whole project, uh is is really not indicative of
how serious they are. So a lot of the judgments
that we're making a lot of the conclusions we are drawing,
it's all based off of the approach we have seen.
So maybe a lot of our concerns that we've raised
(50:36):
are already well in hand. We you know, I'll go
ahead and say that might be the case. Uh And
it very well could be. That's just our ignorance of
the project that leads us to the skepticism. But anytime
you're talking about people's lives, I think critical thought and
skepticism need to be employed. Uh. Fully so that you
(50:56):
can make sure that these people know what they're doing.
They are very serious about it actually succeeding. They're going
to take every precaution they can to protect the people's
lives who are involved, that the mental and physical health
of these people, and and to to if all of
that pans out, then the potential scientific information we can
get from this experiment would be amazing and the phenomenal.
(51:20):
So I want it to work. I really do, and
and like, like, like we say a lot here and
also on our other podcasts, forward thinking, even if it
doesn't work out, even just trying could lead to terrific
scientific advancement, right anyway. I mean, the space industry alone
has created so many different advancements in technology and just
things that we rely on on a daily basis now
(51:41):
that that could very well be the case. So I
really do hope that that all of this is completely
on the up and up, and that uh, that we
see some real results from this. I just you know,
it's just enough warning flags for me to be really
cautious about it. But the same time, like, if there's
no risk, there's no reward, right, And I know that
(52:05):
there are a lot of astronauts out there who have
done some phenomenal things that a lot of us would
consider crazy. I mean it was just people from from
the test pilots who are first testing the the spacecraft
before it ever left the Earth's atmosphere, to the people
who have gone up to the Moon or the International
(52:25):
Space Station. These are phenomenal feats and they require a
great deal of courage and determination, more than I possess, frankly,
and I think it would be a shame to not
encourage that. I definitely want to see that kind of
indomitable spirit continue. I just want to make sure that
it's the right the right project. And uh, and so
(52:49):
far I'm not fully convinced with Mars one. That's not
to say that maybe in the year maybe I'm I'll
be I'll say, oh, they've met every single one of
my concerns with lying colors, and now I'm totally on board.
It could happen, but but we'll have to We'll have
to see what what develops. Yeah, what would it take
for you to go to Mars, Lauren? I would not
go to Mars. I mean I just nope, especially under restraints.
(53:15):
I mean, to be fair, I also would not appear
on a reality TV show, period, So that attitude news
for you, Lauren. There are cameras everywhere I've been doing
the House Stuff Works reality TV show we launch any
minute now. It's mostly us sitting at our desks with
headphones on, not paying attention to each other. It's not
terribly exciting, I'll admit, but you know, I've got high hopes.
(53:38):
Occasionally see things like Josh talks to Chuck, I expected
to drive a lot of views. I also would not
go to Mars unless there was a return ticket, in
which case maybe, but but with no return ticket, not
all my stuff is here. So that alone makes it
really hard for me to say goodbye. Yeah, that's that.
I'm a materialist. But come on, you know my Xbox
(54:01):
is over here. I worked hard on that gamer score.
And that does it for that classic episode of tech Stuff.
Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions
for topics for future episodes of tech Stuff, reach out
to me on Twitter or Facebook to handle for both
is Text Stuff h s W and I'll talk to
you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart
(54:26):
Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
TechStuff News
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Karah Preiss
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