June 8, 2025 • 12 mins
Guest host Rich Berra and futurist Kevin Cirilli discuss mankind's possible plans for Mars.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Kevin, let's talk about Mars. Is it our manifest destiny
to go to Mars? Or is our escape plan when
we screw up this planet? Which one?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Is it? No?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I think it's I think it's Humanity should be everywhere.
I mean meaning I think that the Solar System. A
lot of people when they think of the Solar System,
they think of it as just nine planets and a
couple of moons. It's there's actually more than a million
objects in the Solar System and our Solar System alone,
and some moons have or some planets have more than
(00:36):
one hundred moons. And so with Mars, Mars is like
the rest stop to the rest of the galaxy. And
people talk about the Moon a lot. But if we
can't when we get some Mars, it's not even if
when we get some Mars and Elon Musk likely will
go there before twenty thirty three according to his latest
public comments and SpaceX what they're planning for. But it's
(00:57):
how we get some Mars and being able to when
we're there, be able to get fuel on that planet
so that we don't have to bring the fuel there.
That's what is the biggest challenge.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So there is fuel available on that planet that we
can somehow make spaceship worthy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
There's technology available that we can create energy on that
planet to then come back and if and that is
the game changer. It's just never been done before. So
Alon Musk said, I think it was this week, if
not definitely in the last ten days, that when he
goes to Mars, they're going to send humanoid robots. And
(01:35):
I think he said publicly he did say publicly, think
of the image that that'll that that'll be when we
touch down on Mars with humanoid robots, and then the
next step is to then, you know, bring humans. There's
actually a new development that came that just found that
there's a shortcut to Mars. Because of the solar and
(01:55):
the way that the planets are and the and the
orbit and everything, there's a window to that could get
us there with existing technology and I think three to
four months, which is crazy, crazy, crazy fast. Oh wow,
So we could turn Mars into a rest stop. That's
that's what I tell people when I when I talk
about it, when I've been reporting on this, the scientists
(02:17):
and the technologist.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
They they view Mars.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I don't want to call it a gas station, but
a rest stop to be able.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
To go to all their places of the milky ways.
What you're saying, yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Pretty much pretty much.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And should we terraform it or I mean great.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I love this topic, this is I think terraforming. There's
a debate in the scientific community. I get so excited
when I talk about this. I geek out on this.
But there's a debate in the scientific community right now
about if terraforming Mars is you know, humans altering and
it's not our place to change a planet, or if
(02:55):
it's that's the negative side of it, or if you're
for terraforming Mars, that is set Actually we're restoring it,
and we are taking a planet. If you've ever seen
an old beat up house and then it's a fixer
upper almost, and you go and you restore it because
the science indicates that, you know, millions of years ago,
Mars looked a lot different. There might have been oceans
(03:17):
on the planet, just like there might have been water
on it. There could have been it, you know, candidly,
probably did look very different. And if we're restoring it
back to what it looked like that that's a good thing.
I believe in that. I'll be honest, My bias is
that I think that humans will be able to take
(03:38):
care of Planet Earth as well as other parts of
the Solar System if we are able to look at
and explore different parts of the Solar System, because the
properties and the rules and the way that gravity works,
for example, on different planets, and air works, and you know,
if we're able to create air so that you wouldn't
have to wear a spacesuit, all those topics, that science
(04:02):
is just going to make life for humans way more better.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I would argue we're talking to futurists. Kevin surreally, all
his information is linked up at coast to coast A
m talking about the future, and I'm kind of wondering
as you're talking, I'm kind of sizing us up as
America against other countries. Is it like the Moon race.
I'm going to do that in quotes there. Whoever gets
(04:26):
there first with Mars has power? Or is it just
kind of like the we're we're just evolving, we should
all be working together.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, I think it's a great question. I mean, America
is definitely the number one space force, right now, but
China and Russia are catching up. Last month, I interviewed
one of the top generals of the US Space Force
at the National Press Club in DC, and Major Gagnon,
and he and I asked him, you know, what do
(04:57):
you want people to know about the work that you do,
And he said that China and Russia are a real
threat in outer space. And if you're listening, you might
be thinking to yourself, Okay, well, what do I care
about outer space? The average American interacts with space more
than two dozen times per day. Because if you think
about every device, even you and I, I mean, there's
(05:20):
some satellite up there that is bouncing our communication off
of And so if if the Russians in the Chinese
are able, the Communist Party of China are able to
go up to these satellites and hack into our communication systems,
that's a huge problem. But then you talk about things
not just from a human standpoint, but space weather and sunstorms.
(05:44):
There was a huge sunstorm in the last seven days
that actually people talk about the Aurora lights, but it
took out some satellites and mess up some communications. It
wasn't a major disaster by any means. I'm not trying
to be you know, over dramatic about the thing.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Well, you know, I think that's a that's an ongoing
conversation here on coast to coast, A MR. What what
what solar flare is going to take us out? Because
I'm sure that's coming at some point. I think about
that all.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
The time, because there was the there was the last
major sunstorm there was one was in the eighteen hundreds,
so we're kind of due for one. But this and
and but the difference between now and the eighteen hundreds
is we have so much more technology. So if there
were to be that sunstorm, or a solar flare or
a corona mass ejection as they're called a CME, that
(06:37):
would that would work? That would you know, arguably the
big question is that would make the pandemic look like
a you know, a vacation. And I hate to be
so flippant about referring to the pandemic in that way,
but it's the reality. I think a lot about asteroids,
And you know, we just learned in the last two weeks.
(06:57):
This is never on the news either, by the way,
we just learned in the last two weeks that Venus
is hiding asteroids. It's gravitational pull. There are asteroids that
are orbiting it that our satellite imagery can't even see
because it's, you know, the Sun, it's the glare of
(07:18):
the Sun blocks it. So all of the technology with
artificial intelligence that's developing in quantum that's coming after that
just to be able to map our own solar system.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well what about that? What about just mapping the weather
of the Sun. Is there any is I guess that's
more important now than ever. In the eighteen hundreds, you
didn't have as much stuff that could be taking offline.
But now do we have a way? Is there an
app for that that you can monitor the Sun's weather
and know when a flar's coming up?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well, the government has a lot of you know, I
like to say, I'd love to be the al Roker
of the future. Here's what's happening in our neck of
the galaxy. Because the government does track what's happened with
the Sun. But they also just announce more funding to
truly have a weather report on the Sun. It's a
little bit more complicated then it's hot, you know, I mean,
(08:10):
it's it's they have it has cycles and we're living
through right now every eleven years or so, I want
to say every eleven years or so, the sun goes
through a cycle, and right now it's the most active
part of that cycle, which is why there's a lot
of aurora lights on planet Earth and in parts of
(08:31):
the country where you're not able to see typically the
aurora lights, and it's because of what's happening in the sunstorm.
But the good news is that I don't when people
hear sunstorm they think of I think they think of,
you know, a doomsday situation. That's not really what happens.
It's it's you can't really see the flares, but the
(08:52):
energy travels to the planet and then our atmosphere is
actually able to protect us from a lot of these
things that are happening our planet. Candidly, I'm Catholic, but
it was almost designed to protect us, and so you
know it. But the but the stronger the storm, the
(09:14):
riskier it gets. And all it takes is one event
like what happened in the eighteen hundreds to really reak havoc.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I think your your website's one of those things that
people should should keep meet the future dot TV we
should say, linked up at coast I think it's one
of those things that you should almost look at every day,
because thank you, you're kind of getting a little glimpse.
It's almost like a day or so ahead. And wasn't
I seeing even on your website that the Sun was
taken off some of the some of that like burning
(09:44):
through some of the tech on some of the satellites,
rendering them kind of useless. Is that I kind of
you kind of alluded to that. But that's sort of
a big deal, isn't it. Those can't be cheap to replace.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
No, exactly, And and and even just you know, China's
looking into this where they're they're sending some of their
satellites to the Sun to study it and get really
really close. NASA has as well, and just you know,
to be able to to do that, to to to
explore this this huge star is super important, and and
(10:15):
to be able to to understand what it's doing. The
meteorology of of this massive thing in our solar system
that we all revolve around is really really important because
again there's sunstorms and space weather, and it's not just
the Sun either, if you go out to the asteroid
belt or even the Wark Cloud. We just learned I
(10:36):
think in the last this decade for sure, just the
way that other planets and the asteroids that are around them,
how they can be a deterrent from other objects coming
to Planet Earth. It's it's really fascinating stuff that, you know.
I again, I'm just stunned that the traditional media doesn't
(10:56):
cover there was a planet. There was more than one
hundred moons that were just discovered this year alone in
our Solar system. How did we not know there was
more than one hundred moons just floating around other planets?
You know, I mean, well, you know what.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I think is so fascinating about that too, is how
did we get the biggest moon as far as its
size to Earth or our planet? There's really nothing like
our moon in around any of the other planets, Which
what are the odds of that? Has anybody calculated that?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Well? No, what are the odds of that? But then
also the fact that it doesn't it doesn't rotate, and
so you know the dark side of the Moon and
how cold it is, and then there's actually so if
you think of and if you think of the Moon
as a potential place for colonization, there are now like
(11:53):
the scientists are studying the parts of the Moon that
would be the most the most applicable to modern life,
for where they would be able to mine, where they
would be able to get I want to say rare
Earth minerals, but rare Moon minerals for lack of a
better word. And and the real estate on the Moon
(12:15):
that you know you asked me earlier about about, you know,
the United States having dominance in the space race against
adversaries like the Communist Party of China. The positioning on
the Moon is so incredibly important because obviously whoever has
the proper domain and geography on the Moon will have
(12:35):
a lot of advantages, not just for influence on the Moon,
but also influence on planet Earth.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one a m Eastern and go to Coast to coastam
dot com for more
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Kevin, let's talk about Mars. Is it our manifest destiny
to go to Mars? Or is our escape plan when
we screw up this planet? Which one?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Is it? No?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I think it's I think it's Humanity should be everywhere.
I mean meaning I think that the Solar System. A
lot of people when they think of the Solar System,
they think of it as just nine planets and a
couple of moons. It's there's actually more than a million
objects in the Solar System and our Solar System alone,
and some moons have or some planets have more than
(00:36):
one hundred moons. And so with Mars, Mars is like
the rest stop to the rest of the galaxy. And
people talk about the Moon a lot. But if we
can't when we get some Mars, it's not even if
when we get some Mars and Elon Musk likely will
go there before twenty thirty three according to his latest
public comments and SpaceX what they're planning for. But it's
(00:57):
how we get some Mars and being able to when
we're there, be able to get fuel on that planet
so that we don't have to bring the fuel there.
That's what is the biggest challenge.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So there is fuel available on that planet that we
can somehow make spaceship worthy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
There's technology available that we can create energy on that
planet to then come back and if and that is
the game changer. It's just never been done before. So
Alon Musk said, I think it was this week, if
not definitely in the last ten days, that when he
goes to Mars, they're going to send humanoid robots. And
(01:35):
I think he said publicly he did say publicly, think
of the image that that'll that that'll be when we
touch down on Mars with humanoid robots, and then the
next step is to then, you know, bring humans. There's
actually a new development that came that just found that
there's a shortcut to Mars. Because of the solar and
(01:55):
the way that the planets are and the and the
orbit and everything, there's a window to that could get
us there with existing technology and I think three to
four months, which is crazy, crazy, crazy fast. Oh wow,
So we could turn Mars into a rest stop. That's
that's what I tell people when I when I talk
about it, when I've been reporting on this, the scientists
(02:17):
and the technologist.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
They they view Mars.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I don't want to call it a gas station, but
a rest stop to be able.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
To go to all their places of the milky ways.
What you're saying, yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Pretty much pretty much.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And should we terraform it or I mean great.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I love this topic, this is I think terraforming. There's
a debate in the scientific community. I get so excited
when I talk about this. I geek out on this.
But there's a debate in the scientific community right now
about if terraforming Mars is you know, humans altering and
it's not our place to change a planet, or if
(02:55):
it's that's the negative side of it, or if you're
for terraforming Mars, that is set Actually we're restoring it,
and we are taking a planet. If you've ever seen
an old beat up house and then it's a fixer
upper almost, and you go and you restore it because
the science indicates that, you know, millions of years ago,
Mars looked a lot different. There might have been oceans
(03:17):
on the planet, just like there might have been water
on it. There could have been it, you know, candidly,
probably did look very different. And if we're restoring it
back to what it looked like that that's a good thing.
I believe in that. I'll be honest, My bias is
that I think that humans will be able to take
(03:38):
care of Planet Earth as well as other parts of
the Solar System if we are able to look at
and explore different parts of the Solar System, because the
properties and the rules and the way that gravity works,
for example, on different planets, and air works, and you know,
if we're able to create air so that you wouldn't
have to wear a spacesuit, all those topics, that science
(04:02):
is just going to make life for humans way more better.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I would argue we're talking to futurists. Kevin surreally, all
his information is linked up at coast to coast A
m talking about the future, and I'm kind of wondering
as you're talking, I'm kind of sizing us up as
America against other countries. Is it like the Moon race.
I'm going to do that in quotes there. Whoever gets
(04:26):
there first with Mars has power? Or is it just
kind of like the we're we're just evolving, we should
all be working together.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, I think it's a great question. I mean, America
is definitely the number one space force, right now, but
China and Russia are catching up. Last month, I interviewed
one of the top generals of the US Space Force
at the National Press Club in DC, and Major Gagnon,
and he and I asked him, you know, what do
(04:57):
you want people to know about the work that you do,
And he said that China and Russia are a real
threat in outer space. And if you're listening, you might
be thinking to yourself, Okay, well, what do I care
about outer space? The average American interacts with space more
than two dozen times per day. Because if you think
about every device, even you and I, I mean, there's
(05:20):
some satellite up there that is bouncing our communication off
of And so if if the Russians in the Chinese
are able, the Communist Party of China are able to
go up to these satellites and hack into our communication systems,
that's a huge problem. But then you talk about things
not just from a human standpoint, but space weather and sunstorms.
(05:44):
There was a huge sunstorm in the last seven days
that actually people talk about the Aurora lights, but it
took out some satellites and mess up some communications. It
wasn't a major disaster by any means. I'm not trying
to be you know, over dramatic about the thing.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Well, you know, I think that's a that's an ongoing
conversation here on coast to coast, A MR. What what
what solar flare is going to take us out? Because
I'm sure that's coming at some point. I think about
that all.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
The time, because there was the there was the last
major sunstorm there was one was in the eighteen hundreds,
so we're kind of due for one. But this and
and but the difference between now and the eighteen hundreds
is we have so much more technology. So if there
were to be that sunstorm, or a solar flare or
a corona mass ejection as they're called a CME, that
(06:37):
would that would work? That would you know, arguably the
big question is that would make the pandemic look like
a you know, a vacation. And I hate to be
so flippant about referring to the pandemic in that way,
but it's the reality. I think a lot about asteroids,
And you know, we just learned in the last two weeks.
(06:57):
This is never on the news either, by the way,
we just learned in the last two weeks that Venus
is hiding asteroids. It's gravitational pull. There are asteroids that
are orbiting it that our satellite imagery can't even see
because it's, you know, the Sun, it's the glare of
(07:18):
the Sun blocks it. So all of the technology with
artificial intelligence that's developing in quantum that's coming after that
just to be able to map our own solar system.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well what about that? What about just mapping the weather
of the Sun. Is there any is I guess that's
more important now than ever. In the eighteen hundreds, you
didn't have as much stuff that could be taking offline.
But now do we have a way? Is there an
app for that that you can monitor the Sun's weather
and know when a flar's coming up?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well, the government has a lot of you know, I
like to say, I'd love to be the al Roker
of the future. Here's what's happening in our neck of
the galaxy. Because the government does track what's happened with
the Sun. But they also just announce more funding to
truly have a weather report on the Sun. It's a
little bit more complicated then it's hot, you know, I mean,
(08:10):
it's it's they have it has cycles and we're living
through right now every eleven years or so, I want
to say every eleven years or so, the sun goes
through a cycle, and right now it's the most active
part of that cycle, which is why there's a lot
of aurora lights on planet Earth and in parts of
(08:31):
the country where you're not able to see typically the
aurora lights, and it's because of what's happening in the sunstorm.
But the good news is that I don't when people
hear sunstorm they think of I think they think of,
you know, a doomsday situation. That's not really what happens.
It's it's you can't really see the flares, but the
(08:52):
energy travels to the planet and then our atmosphere is
actually able to protect us from a lot of these
things that are happening our planet. Candidly, I'm Catholic, but
it was almost designed to protect us, and so you
know it. But the but the stronger the storm, the
(09:14):
riskier it gets. And all it takes is one event
like what happened in the eighteen hundreds to really reak havoc.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I think your your website's one of those things that
people should should keep meet the future dot TV we
should say, linked up at coast I think it's one
of those things that you should almost look at every day,
because thank you, you're kind of getting a little glimpse.
It's almost like a day or so ahead. And wasn't
I seeing even on your website that the Sun was
taken off some of the some of that like burning
(09:44):
through some of the tech on some of the satellites,
rendering them kind of useless. Is that I kind of
you kind of alluded to that. But that's sort of
a big deal, isn't it. Those can't be cheap to replace.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
No, exactly, And and and even just you know, China's
looking into this where they're they're sending some of their
satellites to the Sun to study it and get really
really close. NASA has as well, and just you know,
to be able to to do that, to to to
explore this this huge star is super important, and and
(10:15):
to be able to to understand what it's doing. The
meteorology of of this massive thing in our solar system
that we all revolve around is really really important because
again there's sunstorms and space weather, and it's not just
the Sun either, if you go out to the asteroid
belt or even the Wark Cloud. We just learned I
(10:36):
think in the last this decade for sure, just the
way that other planets and the asteroids that are around them,
how they can be a deterrent from other objects coming
to Planet Earth. It's it's really fascinating stuff that, you know.
I again, I'm just stunned that the traditional media doesn't
(10:56):
cover there was a planet. There was more than one
hundred moons that were just discovered this year alone in
our Solar system. How did we not know there was
more than one hundred moons just floating around other planets?
You know, I mean, well, you know what.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I think is so fascinating about that too, is how
did we get the biggest moon as far as its
size to Earth or our planet? There's really nothing like
our moon in around any of the other planets, Which
what are the odds of that? Has anybody calculated that?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Well? No, what are the odds of that? But then
also the fact that it doesn't it doesn't rotate, and
so you know the dark side of the Moon and
how cold it is, and then there's actually so if
you think of and if you think of the Moon
as a potential place for colonization, there are now like
(11:53):
the scientists are studying the parts of the Moon that
would be the most the most applicable to modern life,
for where they would be able to mine, where they
would be able to get I want to say rare
Earth minerals, but rare Moon minerals for lack of a
better word. And and the real estate on the Moon
(12:15):
that you know you asked me earlier about about, you know,
the United States having dominance in the space race against
adversaries like the Communist Party of China. The positioning on
the Moon is so incredibly important because obviously whoever has
the proper domain and geography on the Moon will have
(12:35):
a lot of advantages, not just for influence on the Moon,
but also influence on planet Earth.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one a m Eastern and go to Coast to coastam
dot com for more
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