Why are we so
fascinated with Mars?
There's this visceral
connection that we have.
It's been a constant
steady light
in the night sky for us.
You and I can go outside
tonight on a clear night,
look towards the
southwestern sky,
and see a bright orange
star, the Red Planet.
(audience applauding)
Looking at Mars,
it's also of interest
because it is within what
we call the Habitable Zone
around the sun.
And so we're going to
be exploring tonight
a little bit more.
I'd like to ask our
guests here, our experts
on a little bit about that.
And let's get into
the challenges and
what it really takes
to get to Mars.
- Mars is incredibly
difficult to get onto,
because you have to go
through the atmosphere.
And the atmosphere
is not your friend,
because it swells
up because of dust.
When there's a lot of
dust in the atmosphere,
it shrinks.
There are lateral winds,
although the atmosphere is thin.
But it is a scientific bonanza
once you're on the surface.
It has ancient rivers
and ancient lakes,
hydrothermal systems.
All the evidence is there,
the geologic evidence.
It's from the first
half of geologic time.
So early in geologic time,
Mars was warm and wet,
and the international
exploration of Mars
robotically is all focused
on if it was habitable
and whether or not life
got started and evolved
and is still there.
- That's amazing.
So let's look at some
of the technology.
Let's talk about
this character here.
He's making a lot of
buzz in the media, right?
Elon Musk, he's
the head of SpaceX,
and his true love and
passion is space exploration.
And his vision is to
send humans to Mars.
So NASA isn't really alone.
They have partnerships.
Is that...
- Right.
- [Andrew] Really going
to be integral now?
- Yes, so NASA historically
has partnered with people,
has consulted and contracted
with organizations
all over the country.
And so as we're looking
into this next phase,
this going to Mars, there
are still going to have
to be these partnerships.
As you say, Elon Musk is one,
but there are others
that are going to help us
do the important
work of figuring out
what, exactly, the
best technology is.
But it is definitely
something that we're
going to have to do together.
- It's not an easy thing.
- No.
- Right, so take a look at this.
- [Male] T-minus four minutes.
- [Peter] We've reached
a tipping point.
Thousands of years from
now, whatever we become,
whoever we are, we'll
look back at these
next few decades as
the moment in time
that we are moving
off this planet
as a multi-planetary species.
- [Male] BC and DC verify
F9 and Dragon R at startup.
- [Male 2] F9 is in startup.
- And SpaceX stands
as nothing less than
a massive game changer.
- [Male 3] Stage One, Stage
Two present for flight.
- [Stephen] Elon Musk
says the only reason
that I founded this company is
to get human beings to Mars.
- [Male 4] LC, LD go for launch.
- The key to making
Mars economical
is the reusability of rockets.
- [Male5] T-minus one minute.
- I just don't think
there's any way
to have a self-sustaining Mars
space without reusability.
Getting the cost down
is really fundamental.
If wooden sailing ships in the
old days were not reusable,
I don't think the United
States would exist.
- [Male 5] T-minus 30 seconds.
- And if they nail this
ability to land a rocket
any way they want on
Earth, then they can nail
doing it on Mars.
- [Male 5] T-minus 15.
- This flight is a huge deal.
We haven't yet
landed the rocket.
So this is going to
be hopefully our first
successful landing.
- [Male 5] T-minus
10, nine, eight, seven
six, five, four, three,
two, one, zero.
We have liftoff of Falcon 9.
(spectators cheering
and applauding)
(dramatic music)
- [Male 6] Vehicle's reached
maximum aerodynamic pressure.
- [Male 7] Stage 1
propulsion is still nominal.
Altitude 32 kilometers.
Speed at one
kilometer per second.
Downrange distance
13 kilometers.
(explosive sounds)
(slow dramatic music)
- [Casey] Space is defined
by the strange relationship
between failure,
risk and innovation,
which is you can take risks.
You can try something
very innovative.
But you're more likely to fail.
- So what was it
supposed to look like?
Well, you'd have the
booster going up,
and what I'm showing
you here is going to be
a composite, a long
exposure photograph.
What it's supposed
to have looked like,
and then the booster
coming back down.
And what you see on your
right hand side of the screen
is the booster that came
down back onto the launchpad.
And what I want to know,
Jedidah, is why is it
so important to
have reusability?
I'm talking about
Mars, going to Mars.
Why is that so important?
- Yeah, over the long
term, the hope is that
if you can reuse something,
it's cheaper, right?
You want it to be cheaper
and more efficient.
It's sort of your workhorse
that you just continue to use.
It's not always the case
that things are cheaper
when you reuse them,
but you want something
that you can use,
rinse, recycle, reuse.
That's rinse, repeat,
that's what you want.
The other thing is, you
want to be able to use that
piece of technology
as scaffolding for the
next thing you do.
Maybe you use a piece
of your booster to build
the first structure, right?
Maybe you recycle
it in that way.
So you hope, first, that
there's a cost savings.
You hope that there's
a sort of efficiency
that you can build in.
And third, that you can
use it as a scaffolding
for the next thing.
- Let's look at the
idea of the timeline.
What is it, like seven
months to get there, right?
Just to get there.
So we need to, right now,
start building up on that,
and one of the most
recent attempts at that
is the year-long mission that
both the U.S. and the Russians
took part in.
U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly,
you can see here in this image,
spent a whole year,
coming back in March,
exploring this whole
concept of what happens
to human body
being exposed to microgravity
for long durations?
So we're starting to
work on those aspects.
And I'd like to know,
I mean, what toll
does it take on the human body?
What does space travel,
long term space travel,
do to a human body?
- The truth is we don't
really know, right?
We've never done this before.
Commander Scott Kelly
and his colleagues
were sort of the
first to stay in space
as long as they did.
And even there, they had
a lot more protection
from Earth, from the
sort of microgravity.
Also, we were still
in the magnetosphere,
so they had protection
from radiation.
Still, more radiation
than they'd have
if they were where we are,
but we don't know
what's going to happen
when you put a person
in sort of interstellar,
interplanetary travel
for seven months.
We don't know.
We know already that
you lose bone mass.
We know that you've got
these radiation effects.
We have no idea about
the psychological impact.
So these are all
things that we're still
trying to understand, and
his mission, their mission
is critical to understanding
at least step one
in the process.
So there's a lot
to be understood.
- When we get there,
I'd like to know
how are we going to
choose the landing sites?
Now, what I've got here
for you is the map of Mars,
and these are potential
landing sites that we have.
What goes in, Ray, maybe
you can speak to this,
about choosing...
- Well, there are
engineering aspects.
There are science aspects.
You want to go to a place that's
scientifically interesting.
Could be layer
deposits that represent
kind of ancient
riverbeds or lakes.
It could be ancient hydrothermal
deposits from volcanoes,
or whatever it turns out to be.
But you also need
to land in a place
that you can get back out of.
And that's the plus or minus 50.
It's relatively easy
to go back into orbit.
And not too cold,
because Mars is
cold to begin with.
It's way below
freezing on average.
And if you go to
the high latitudes,
it's super cold.
- You know, the ultimate
goal is to send humans.
So what I'd like to know
is what do you guys think
in terms of the specialties?
What kind of people should
we be sending to Mars?
- It's an important
point to recognize that
going to Mars is going
to be what they call
sociotechnological.
It is not just going
to be the technical
that takes us there.
It's not just going
to be the sociological
or the psychological.
It is going to be the
interaction of those two things,
the optimization of
those two things,
that makes it happen.
So, yeah, you want
people that have skills
that are technical.
You want them to be
able to fix things and
create experiments.
Physicians, you need
someone there in case
you have medical emergencies.
But you also want the
kind of mental stamina
to be able to deal with
all of the conditions
that you're going to
be sort of faced with.
So as I look at it, I think
about not just your skills
in terms of what you've
been educated to do,
I think of a variety
of perspectives,
of life experiences,
of outlooks on life,
because all of those things
are going to be necessary
to make this work.
So we need an
inclusive environment
and an inclusive set of people.
- [Andrew] I guess growing
food is going to be important,
isn't it, Jedidah?
- Yeah, so it's this idea
of being able to reuse
and create a sense of
self-sufficiency, right?
We cannot haul all the
food we'll ever eat
to Mars if we go, if we stay.
All of these questions.
You just can't bring it.
You've got to create
self-sufficiency
and food security there.
So the idea is that you'll
want to figure out ways
to grow things on Mars.
And not just for food, which
is going to be important,
but again towards
that social component.
You'll want something to
do that brings you closer
to nature.
We've seen Mars
is an arid place.
There's not much happening
there, as we can see so far.
So you want some green.
You'll want to get
your hands in the dirt.
You'll want to grow something,
see it progress over time.
So there's that mental
sort of restorative piece
of going and being out
in nature, even on Mars.
- I mean, that's interesting,
but when we're talking
about going to Mars,
to me this looks
like a candy wrapper.
I don't know, but
there's trash on Mars
right now already.
- Already.
- Right? There's trash.
I mean, we're already...
- What can you do?
I mean, it's probably a
piece of the sky crane.
- Right, but we're
not living there.
Humans aren't there yet.
We're sending our stuff there.
And then we're already
altering Mars, right?
There's already
alterations of Mars,
and there's talk about how
humans will be altered by Mars
as well.
There's a lot of
talk about that.
And I want you guys to
check this little video out.
This whole idea of
altering Mars and stuff.
It's really fascinating.
- Terraforming Mars
is not a small job.
This is a massive project.
This is a bigger project
than anything humanity
has ever attempted.
- Terraforming is
taking an environment
such as Mars and making
it more Earthlike.
- Terraforming is like super
science fictiony right now.
I don't think people
understand how big planets are,
so terraforming one
is a ludicrous task.
- You solve all the
problems except breathing.
So once Mars is terraformed
and made more Earthlike,
you're still going to have
to wear a helmet on your head
of some sort or some kind
of breathing apparatus.
- Might we have the urge
to tinker with our DNA,
such that you don't need
a spacesuit on Mars?
- We are on the edge
right now of being able
to change our own genome
and our own genetics
in our own bodies in real time.
- Our ability to control
DNA, the programming language
of life, helps us open up Mars.
What happens if there
is a virus that drives
some kind of a flu and
knocks out a large population
or large percentage
of your group?
You can actually
sequence the virus,
send it back to
Earth to analyze,
and you can send back from Earth
an upgraded T-cell.
- If you do interfere
with our genome
so that you can survive on Mars,
you're pretty much going
through a one-way door
and saying, I will
never go back to Earth.
- We might very well
have a future in which
you have different
kinds of humans
that look very different
from each other.
- Once we get computers
that are smarter than humans
at thinking about stuff
and coming up with stuff,
we can ask them to figure
out how to cure viruses.
- We can kind of tell them,
look, we want to explore,
and this is what
we'd like to do.
And then the robots, either
the rovers or the helicopters
or the balloons can
make their own judgement
and actually do the exploration.
- So ultimately we're
going to need things like
machines that can make
machines if we want to have
a solar system civilization.
- Well, future technologies
that we're developing
on Earth now, like 3D
printing and electric cars,
can actually be
extremely useful to us
in creating an outpost
of civilization on Mars.
- Imagine being able
to send a 3D printer
to the Martian surface that
sort of pulls the soil out,
adds some water, adds some
binder, and is sitting there
3D printing shelters in
advance of a community coming.
And you've got your
homes pre-built
waiting for you right there.
- So Jedidah, this is all nice,
but what happens if
we find life on Mars?
Will our plans be altered?
- I think they should be, right?
Because now we've got to
understand and figure out
what's happening, try not
to completely decimate
their way of being and
life in terms of, probably,
microbial structures and such.
Also just small tidbit,
no terraforming.
- No terraforming.
Interesting.
Why is that?
- It's a stupid idea.
- Okay. Why?
- It's out of equilibrium.
I mean, Mars is cold and
dry today for a reason.
Early in geologic time,
there were volcanoes.
There was a massive amount
of greenhouse warming
from the gases coming up.
Because it's small a
planet relative to Earth,
it stopped its internal
activity sooner than the Earth.
So the gases in the atmosphere
were on a one-way trip
to be oxidized and
placed into minerals.
So if you increase the amount
of sunlight with mirrors,
or whatever, you can
sublimate, get more water vapor
in the atmosphere, more rain.
But what's going to happen?
It's going to react
with the rocks
and go back down into the
subsurface eventually.
There's a famous reaction
that was codified
by Harold Urey.
He's a very distinguished
Nobel Prize winning chemist.
And it's the way the
Earth stays more or less
the way we like it.
Sometimes it goes
into deep freeze.
Sometimes it's really warm.
But what happens is, is the
volcanoes pump up the gases
that keep us warm.
But the hydrologic cycle
consumes those gases,
as carbonic acids,
CO2 goes into the water,
and it reacts and
forms limestones.
But the limestones
go back downstairs,
get decomposed, and
the gases come back up
as greenhouse gases
through volcanoes.
If you stop the internal engine,
you go in the
one-way deep freeze.
It's what happened to Mars,
because it's smaller
than the Earth.
So terraforming can
increase the temperature
of the surface, but you
can get some gas out.
But it will eventually
get corroded
and put back down
into the subsurface
in a one-way trip.
So it may work for
a couple decades,
but over longer
time, it's bogus,
in my opinion.
- And also would decimate
whatever is there
that we don't know yet.
- Yeah, there's a very
important paradigm
that all the nations
are following called
Planetary Protection.
So you sterilize spacecraft
before they're on the surface,
because the worst thing
to have happen is to
go to Mars in the future
and find ourselves.
- All right, I have a question.
One last question.
If you could take
anything from Earth,
any physical object on Earth,
what would it be, and
you take it to Mars.
Wouldn't you want to
take something to Mars?
What would one thing be?
- I'm going on my 47th
wedding anniversary,
and I really like my wife,
so she would go with me.
(audience applauding)
- Nice. You get points.
You get points for that.
- That's videotaped.
- Is this being taped?
- Yes it is.
(audience laughing)
