- [Voiceover] Over the line!
(funky techno music)
- Exploring space is cool, inarguably,
but it's also pretty expensive.
So why do we keep throwing
so much money into orbit,
and why should we in the future?
Why does space exploration matter?
According to NASA,
about one time every ten thousand years,
an asteroid the size of a
football field smashes into Earth.
It causes tidal waves big
enough to flood the coasts.
But, there are bigger
asteroids out there too,
and that is what we need to worry about.
You see, a large enough asteroid
could unleash a fire storm.
We're talking end-of-the-world type stuff,
filling the atmosphere with dust,
wiping out forests and farms,
starving what it doesn't immediately kill.
Keeping an eye out for these objects
may save humanity from an untimely death.
The US space program is responsible for
tons of nifty stuff.
We already know about
freeze-dried food, right?
But there are so many more examples.
For instance, in the 1960s,
NASA developed this plastic
coated with a metallic reflecting agent.
When used in blankets,
this stuff reflects about
80% of a user's body heat back to them.
This helps accident victims stay warm.
And then there's Nitinol,
a flexible, resistant alloy
that was developed for use in satellites.
Today it's used in braces. No, seriously.
That's weird, right? Does
anybody else think that's...
Just me? All right.
There's gold out it in them there cosmos.
And silver and platinum
and other stuff too.
Private sector ventures envision mining
all the way out on asteroids,
but space miners don't
have to go that far.
The moon is a potential
source of helium three,
that's used in MRIs for instance,
and rare earth elements that you'll find
in electronics and solar panels.
And now here's one that I know
a lot of people have
been waiting for, aliens.
We have to mention it.
About half of Americans believe that
life exists somewhere else in the cosmos.
But so far, we've searched
for extraterrestrials in vain,
possibly because the earth's atmosphere
interferes with our reception.
That's why researchers are more eager
for observatories like the
James Webb Space Telescope,
which will search for the
chemical signs of life
in the atmospheres of distant planets.
I mean, it's a start,
but an even more aggressive effort might
finally help us answer one
of the biggest questions
in human history:
Are we alone?
I don't mean dating status.
You get it.
Satellites are helping us to monitor
pressing problems here on Earth,
from forest fires to oil spills.
But our population, our rampant greed,
and our pollution have severely
damaged our planet already.
According to a 2012 survey,
most scientists estimate that
Earth has a carrying capacity
of between eight and
sixteen billion people,
and here's the thing,
there are already over
seven billion of us.
So this has led some
futurists to argue that
we should be preparing to
colonize another planet and soon.
Our survival might depend on it.
But, you know, no pressure.
Thank you for watching.
Give us a like before the asteroids hit
and let us know what you
think of space exploration
in the comments.
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