The Only Thing Stopping Us Colonizing Mars Tomorrow (ft. Veritasium)

Summary

In a captivating video discussion, Astrum and special guest from Veritasium explore the tantalizing prospect of colonizing Mars. They delve into the logistical and technological challenges, environmental hazards, and innovative solutions necessary for human settlement on the Red Planet. Critical topics include overcoming radiation exposure, managing Mars' extreme weather, and creating sustainable living habitats. The creators also highlight ongoing developments like autonomous robots and novel approaches for producing water, oxygen, and food on Mars. As humanity edges closer to extraterrestrial living, the exciting race against cosmic odds unfolds.

Highlights

• NASA's goal for Mars colonization is as early as 2050, with first human visits in the next decade. 🚀
• Mars' environment is harsh and requires tech-savvy solutions to combat its deadliness. 💀🔧
• Radiation exposure during the trip to Mars poses a significant health risk. Shielding and magnetic fields could mitigate this. ☢️🛡️
• Mars shares similar rotational day length with Earth but has an extreme climate with wide temperature fluctuations. 🪐🌡️
• Dust storms on Mars are immense, with the potential to cover the entire planet, challenging any technological installations. 🌪️
• Martian soil contains many necessary nutrients for plants, although it requires enhancements and detoxification. 🌱
• Innovative robotic designs are enabling exploration of less accessible Mars terrains, broadening scientific possibilities. 🤖
• Future Mars missions envision autonomous robots and construction technologies to prepare habitats before human arrival. 🏗️

Key Takeaways

• Colonizing Mars is a thrilling possibility but comes with huge challenges, from radiation to dust storms. 🌌
• Innovative solutions like hydrogen shielding and magnetic fields could protect Mars travelers from harmful space radiation. 🛡️
• Mars and Earth share similar day durations, but its extreme temperature shifts are a tough puzzle for colonizers. ❄️🔥
• Seasonal dust storms on Mars are a massive engineering hurdle with their planet-wide reach. 🍂🌪️
• Mars' thin atmosphere complicates growing food, but simulated tests show plants can grow with some adjustments. 🌱
• Cutting-edge rovers and drones, like the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, showcase human ingenuity in space exploration. 🚁
• Autonomous robots from Boston Dynamics could revolutionize exploration, showing promise for future missions. 🤖
• Despite formidable obstacles, the dream of a Martian colony is alive and ambitious efforts continue. 🚀

Overview

Exploring the idea of colonizing Mars has sparked major interest and debate. As NASA continues to work towards sending humans to Mars by the late 2030s, the challenges ahead are monumental. Astrum, along with Veritasium's guest, breaks down what to expect and how humans might adapt to the Martian environment.

Key among the challenges are the harsh weather conditions, such as massive dust storms, and the health risks from prolonged radiation exposure during the journey to Mars. To thrive on Mars, innovative protections against radiation, methods for effective agriculture, and robust autonomous systems are essential.

With pioneering efforts already underway, robots are being designed to autonomously explore and prepare the Martian landscape for human settlements. As these technological advancements continue, humanity's dream of living beyond Earth seems closer than ever, offering a glimpse into a future where Mars may host thriving human colonies.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction NASA aims for a human landing on Mars by the next decade, potentially setting up permanent colonies by 2050.
• 01:30 - 04:00: Challenges of Martian Colonization The chapter titled 'Challenges of Martian Colonization' explores the various obstacles and conditions that aspiring colonizers will encounter on Mars. It opens with the idea of needing to join a space program to become part of this new frontier. As future colonizers watch Earth fade away from their spacecraft, they must prepare for the harsh reality of Mars. The chapter delves into the specific challenges and deadly environment that await on the Martian surface.
• 04:00 - 22:00: Martian Weather and Dust Storms The chapter 'Martian Weather and Dust Storms' explores the unique and harsh environmental conditions on the planet Mars. Unlike Earth, Mars is described as a 'dead world,' presenting significant challenges to anyone attempting to explore or inhabit the planet. The discussion emphasizes the necessity of advanced technology to overcome these obstacles. The segment is hosted by Alex Mccoan, alongside a special guest, and is part of the program 'Astramm,' which aims to delve into the Martian environment and its implications for potential explorers.
• 22:00 - 27:00: Martian Soil and Plant Growth The chapter discusses the challenges of growing plants on Mars, focusing on the arid and rusted Martian soil. It highlights NASA's efforts to develop solutions for future colonists to transform these harsh conditions into viable habitats for plant growth.
• 27:00 - 37:00: Exploration Technologies The chapter discusses the challenges of space travel, particularly focusing on the duration and conditions of a journey to Mars. It mentions that a trip could take about 3 months with optimal launch conditions, akin to a long cruise. However, during this time, astronauts would lack the protection of Earth's magnetic field, exposing them to the dangers of solar wind and cosmic radiation. Such exposure is linked to severe health risks, including increased chances of cancer and Alzheimer's symptoms.
• 37:00 - 52:00: Potential Martian Settlements The chapter discusses potential protective measures against harmful radiation for astronauts on maritime settlements. It suggests using materials rich in hydrogen, like water tanks, within the spacecraft to serve as shielding. Another proposed method is generating a magnetic field around the spacecraft, which would necessitate a compact but powerful reactor, a technological feat yet to be safely achieved.
• 52:00 - 69:00: Living on Mars: Daily Life and Challenges Mars shares similarities with Earth, including the length of its solar day, which is just 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than Earth's day. Mars' year is also longer, lasting 1.88 Earth years.
• 69:00 - 75:00: Conclusion and New Channel Announcement The conclusion discusses the resemblance of Mars to Earth in terms of its seasonal cycle. Mars has seasons that are very similar to Earth's due to the comparable tilt in its axis. This results in Mars experiencing summers and winters akin to those on Earth.

The Only Thing Stopping Us Colonizing Mars Tomorrow (ft. Veritasium) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 by the end of the next decade the first human feet will likely touch down on the dusty red soil of Mars this is NASA's timeline and it is by no means unrealistic and while that first visit might be similar to a stop by in line with the moon landing some scientists are claiming permanent human colonies could be set up on Mars as early as 2050 that means it could be you alive today and watching this video who is the one
• 00:30 - 01:00 who sets out to tame that new frontier you'd need to get into a space program pretty sharply if you're not in one already but it is possible that you'll one day look out of a little bay window and watch as our pale blue dot vanishes into distant space but as you turn your gaze to your new home what conditions can you expect to find on Mars what challenges face any wouldbe Martian colonizer what deadly
• 01:00 - 01:30 weather will you encounter what will the red planet throw at you for unlike our home planet Mars is a dead world and anyone hoping to set foot there will need to overcome its daunting challenges with technology that is at the very cutting edge i'm Alex Mccoan and you're watching Astramm join me and a very special guest today in this super cut on the environment of Mars as we explain both
• 01:30 - 02:00 the hostile conditions and exactly what NASA is developing to help future Martians like you to tame those arid rusted wastelands and stick around till the end of the video for a very special announcement you don't want to miss [Music] it obviously to colonize Mars you first have to get there the trip itself to Mars would take about
• 02:00 - 02:30 3 months with the most optimal launch conditions this doesn't seem too excessive it's like a long voyage on a cruise ship but you have to consider that you would spend at least 3 months outside the safety of Earth's magnetic field out here you are exposed to the solar wind and cosmic radiation prolonged exposure to this kind of radiation can cause astronauts to develop cancer and even symptoms of Alzheimer's before they reach Mars
• 02:30 - 03:00 fortunately there are some thoughts about how to protect against this the astronauts could be shielded using materials in the ship's construction that are rich in hydrogen in fact the cabin could be surrounded by a water tank in the walls water being rich in hydrogen another option is to create a magnetic field around the spacecraft but this requires generating a huge amount of energy from a reactor small enough to fit on the ship something we don't have the technology to do safely just
• 03:00 - 03:30 yet once there for an alien planet Mars is not as foreign as you might think earth and Mars share a lot of similarities one being the length of day the solar day on Mars is only slightly longer than it is on Earth 24 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds its year is slightly longer than ours 1.88 Earth years or 1 year 320 days and 80.2 hours
• 03:30 - 04:00 but that's to be expected for a planet that's further from the sun and so has a larger orbit of all the planets in the solar system the seasons of Mars are the most Earthlike due to the similar tilts of the two planets rotational axes 23.5° on Earth and 25° on Mars so what does that imply it means Mars has summers and winters just like Earth does these
• 04:00 - 04:30 temperatures in the different seasons can vary quite a lot and different locations can widen the range even further temperatures can be as low as -43° C at the polar winter caps to as high as 35° in the equatorial summer it has polar caps just like we do during each pole's winter the pole lies in continuous darkness just like on Earth however unlike on Earth the
• 04:30 - 05:00 temperature gets so cold that the atmosphere there freezes into slabs of CO2 ice which collects on the surface of the permanent polar caps there these caps themselves are not primarily made of CO2 but instead are made up mostly of water ice the ice at the poles waxes and waines in this short video you can actually see the differences of the size of the polar cap from the cap's winter
• 05:00 - 05:30 to the cap's summer one thing I love about Mars are these strange spiral patterns in the ice both of the poles show signs of these beautiful spirals which scientists believe are a result of the corololis effect the CO2 at the poles does not remain there forever as the CO2 ice on the poles sublimates it has a knock-on effect on another aspect of the planet its winds sublimation of dry ice can create enormous wind speeds which causes
• 05:30 - 06:00 one of the most unique and terrifying aspects of Martian weather its dust storms if you peered across the rusted Martian surface through photos you would be forgiven for thinking that Mars is a place of stillness flat dusty landscapes seem to stretch out in all directions with nothing but scatterings of rock and the faint whistling of the wind to keep at bay the almost oppressive solitude but stay a while on this red world and
• 06:00 - 06:30 you would soon see a towering wall of dust and sand brewing on the horizon you might think to yourself that this dust storm is similar to those we see on Earth and have no idea that this storm is about to grow so large its thick dust will swallow up not just a region not just a continent but the entire planet this all enveloping supertorrm arises on Mars usually every 3 Martian
• 06:30 - 07:00 years or about 5 1/2 Earth years its choking dust will blot out light for weeks even months and represents a huge challenge to the continued functionality of any technology that we put up there if humans ever want to settle down on the red planet it will be a hurdle we have to overcome which is a problem as there is much about the origins of these storms that we still don't know mars didn't used to have to deal with
• 07:00 - 07:30 planet-sized dust storms although Mars is now a barren arid planet it once had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support the existence of running water however over the course of the billions of years of Mars's existence Mars dried out and its atmosphere bled away until atmospheric volume was at less than 1% of what we have here on Earth those dust storms didn't just start happening because Mars became dry though although we don't understand
• 07:30 - 08:00 everything about such storms origins we assume that a key component is Mars's temperature with less atmosphere in spite of Mars's high CO2 levels Mars became far worse at retaining heat when the surface starts to cool there is no air to catch the escaping warmth it is at the point where if you were to stand on the planet's equator during its warmest time of the day your feet might feel 23° C while at your head it would be
• 08:00 - 08:30 0° as mentioned earlier this means between day and night Mars has some intense temperature swings temperature differences can cause winds to form which can bring different weather systems across the planet however Mars's arid weather is no longer driven by rain and water cycles but cycles of dust dust plays a surprisingly crucial role on Mars and without it those planet spanning storms would likely never form
• 08:30 - 09:00 the atmosphere might be too thin to capture and transport heat but the Martian dust now that's another story it all begins with that Martian dust getting into the air there are a few mechanisms that make this happen one is dust devils of which Mars experiences thousands every year usually during the Martian spring and summer warm rays from the sun heat the ground causing the air directly next to
• 09:00 - 09:30 it to rise and cool air from the atmosphere to be drawn down to fill the vacuum these contrasting winds create rising spirals of air that can end up hundreds of meters wide and 8.5 km tall although many are much smaller regardless of their size as they meander their way across Mars's allencompassing deserts they suck up dust and hurl it up into the atmosphere creating a haze of
• 09:30 - 10:00 slightly darkened skies in their wake this process is thought to contribute to a myasma of background dust that constantly lingers in Mars' atmosphere while this is the flashiest way by which dust gets into the atmosphere it's not the most prevalent far more common is the simple influence of wind moving across Mars's dusty surface and a process known as saltation mars's dust is surprisingly difficult to get up into the air small
• 10:00 - 10:30 particles have a lot of cohesion due to being slightly electrostatic kind of like packing peanuts so that they stick together which means they need a certain amount of momentum to get them going oddly enough larger particles are actually easier for the wind to get moving as they experience less cohesion so it's these larger sand grains that are lifted by gusts of wind and are moved for short distances but because they are ultimately too heavy for the wind to suspend they crash down again
• 10:30 - 11:00 and the force of these tiny impacts imparts enough momentum to overcome cohesion and get the lighter dust airborne however once it gets up there Mars's lower gravity means that it's easy for dust to remain in Mars's atmosphere for a really long time weeks or months and this is enough to start driving the formation of storms because unlike the thin air around them particles of dust are really good at
• 11:00 - 11:30 collecting heat from the sun as the sun warms dust in the atmosphere they act like little radiators slowly releasing the gathered heat into the air around them where previously the warmth would have passed through the ground below this makes the atmosphere nearby much warmer warm air rises but now it begins doing so on a much larger scale than when forming the dust devils earlier wind has to be drawn in from the sides of the rising air mass
• 11:30 - 12:00 but this only adds more fuel to the fire more wind means more saltation and more dust being thrown into the atmosphere and more opportunity for the atmosphere to warm eventually this outofcontrol process ramps up into a regional dust storm the good news is that on a local scale a dust storm on Mars is not very dangerous in and of itself wind speeds top out at 97 km an hour only half the
• 12:00 - 12:30 speed of hurricane winds on Earth and even this is misleading due to the thinness of the atmosphere even when it is traveling quickly you wouldn't feel much in the same way a single person has less pushing power than a whole crowd despite what you might see in some science fiction stories based on Mars dust storms are not powerful enough to push over spacecraft or break satellite dishes but that is not to say they can't cause problems consider the case of
• 12:30 - 13:00 NASA's Opportunity rover on the 28th of June 2007 or 1,200 souls into the mission Opportunity prepared itself for its descent into Victoria Crater but just as it perched itself on top of the slope the biggest dust storm Opportunity had seen yet rolled in decreasing the brightness of the sun by 96% that's not quite as bad as it sounds as the dust also scattered some of the
• 13:00 - 13:30 sunlight towards the rover 2 meaning it was generating 128 watts on the darkest day compared to its usual 700 W on a clear day but this is bad news for a solar powered rover that kind of power level isn't enough to keep the rover going in fact anything under 150 W means the batteries begin to run flat so operations were cut back substantially until the storm was over and Opportunity was commanded to only
• 13:30 - 14:00 communicate back to Earth once every 3 days if the batteries did run flat the components on board Opportunity could be damaged due to the intense cold on the planet during the night typically the motors have heaters powered by the batteries during the night to keep the motors warm if the batteries run flat there would be nothing to stop there being extreme temperature differences between the night and day at the equator anything up to 20° C during the day and minus 75° C at its coldest at night
• 14:00 - 14:30 which would damage the sensitive components as for the dust storm mission controllers initially thought it would only last a week but by the 15th of July the storm had reached its peak these are true color images showing a time-lapse of the storm and as you can see it does get very dark thankfully the severity of the dust storm was not quite enough to trigger the low power fault this time although it did get worryingly close for a while eventually by the 21st of August
• 14:30 - 15:00 or Saul 1271 the storm had cleared enough so that Opportunity could start to move forward again a lucky turn of events for opportunity but not all rovers on Mars are so lucky at the end of that same year the Spirit rover was facing serious problems martian storms had been increasing in recent months leaving the solar panels heavily covered with dust as well as
• 15:00 - 15:30 blocking up to 99% of the light through the atmosphere survival was becoming harder and operations were now much reduced from its peak the aging spirit was generating only 128 W hours which is less than the 150 it requires to keep itself warm as mentioned if the heating fails then the rover's components will eventually fail too two small cleaning events took the energy output of the solar arrays to
• 15:30 - 16:00 372 this gave the rover enough energy to charge its batteries and begin to move again but the flow of time is always cruel spirit began to experience unexplained memory gaps in April 2009 with the rover now only 4 m away from its resting place on soul 1,892 Spirit hit incredibly soft dusty soil at a location named Troy where
• 16:00 - 16:30 Spirit would make its last stand underneath its wheels was gerasite which is a mineral of iron sulfate gerasite has remarkably low cohesion meaning that achieving enough traction to move was proving impossible despite efforts by the JPL back on Earth to explore techniques to escape the sand trap no progress was made on Soul
• 16:30 - 17:00 2,155 nasa reclassified the mission as a stationary research platform while there our rover took measurements of the atmosphere and several more images including its last panorama from Troy spirit was still able to perform soil studies and extraction tests because the functionality of its arm was still excellent spirit needed to have a busy research schedule to use the power it was generating to maintain good battery health but the final winter was
• 17:00 - 17:30 approaching for Spirit and it was a bitter one over the next few months the power generation continually dropped and by soul 2,196 it was again down to the critical 150W hours sometime on soul 2,28 it is believed spirit suffered a low power fault the spirit rover went quiet for good so it's very bad news for any
• 17:30 - 18:00 Martian rover that relies on solar power to function if a dust storm filled with slightly sticky electrostatic dust particles suddenly passes overhead gradually dust deposited from such storms is enough to block sunlight from reaching a rover solar panels which has spelled the end of more than one mission from Earth but the problems magnify when you start scaling such storms to larger and larger sizes mars does not have a perfectly
• 18:00 - 18:30 circular orbit every year around the Martian southern hemisphere spring and summer the planet is at its closest to the sun and as a whole is warmest for reasons we don't fully understand during this time of year regional dust storms start merging into a supertorrm the size of a continent it's of course possible that several storms just happen to be forming anyway and they started to merge just by proximity although their
• 18:30 - 19:00 regularity makes it seem like coincidence is insufficient an explanation after all these happen yearly like clockwork once the temperature gets warm enough those are just the continent-sized ones scientists of yet do not have an explanation for the stage above that the planetsized storms these occur once every three Martian years which seems like a short enough time scale that you can rule out Melankovich cycles as their origin those
• 19:00 - 19:30 normally work on time scales of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years perhaps there is some aspect to the dust cycle that needs to restock and it takes three Martian years or around 5 1/2 Earth ones to do so we don't really know while most dust storms on Mars last only a few days these apex of storms can last for weeks the impact of these storms can be profound for any human technology around the planet scientists
• 19:30 - 20:00 can measure the availability of sunlight on Mars using aerosol optical depth or AOD to check how much sunlight is being absorbed or reflected by pollutants in the air the AOD on Mars is usually around 0.5 for context an AODD of less than two is needed before rovers like Opportunity or landers like Insight can charge their onboard batteries the thick smoke caused by a wildfire on Earth that starts to
• 20:00 - 20:30 turn day into night is an AOD of 7 these planetized dust storms hit AOD of 9 to 11 they represent a near total blockage of light in 2018 a storm of this variety killed the Opportunity rover by swamping its solar panels and forcing it into hibernation mode without power running through its onboard heaters the wildly oscillating dayight temperatures caused
• 20:30 - 21:00 something critical to break in the rover and it never woke up these storms are a problem for other rovers too even ones with onboard nuclear batteries like Curiosity the clouds are thick enough to block communication to and from the surface meaning scientists have little choice but to wait them out but that's not all even satellites can be affected by these storms the colossal amounts of warming dust in the air causes the entire
• 21:00 - 21:30 atmosphere to expand bringing some of it into the orbital paths of satellites they have to burn precious fuel making course corrections to ensure the atmospheric drag doesn't bring them crashing down out of the Martian sky if you were a human hoping to settle on Mars you'd need to find a way to overcome these issues solar powered settlements would not survive such storms without another source of power and humans don't do well at such freezing temperatures losing the ability
• 21:30 - 22:00 to contact our satellites could also leave us isolated and vulnerable for those few weeks people would need to have a certain degree of self-sufficiency as if anything were to go wrong while a storm was blowing you wouldn't be able to call for help still in time these storms prove to be their own destruction blocking so much light eventually means that the surface stops getting warmed enough to create the upswelling winds that lifts the dust into the air in the first place without
• 22:00 - 22:30 more rising dust these storms starve themselves and peter out do you want to know what the wind on Mars sounds like you don't have to imagine it in 2018 the Insight lander recorded the sound of Mars's wind using its onboard seismometer which had not yet been deployed to the ground to detect Mars quake vibrations this is what it sounds like
• 22:30 - 23:00 although I should note that you will probably either need a subwoofer or headphones to hear this this has not been sped up these literally are the vibrations caused by Martian wind going over the solar panels of the lander the frequency of the vibrations converted to audio what is fascinating is that we don't just have to imagine the wind passing by insight
• 23:00 - 23:30 as it was also able to capture footage of water ice clouds passing by overhead visibly showing the direction of the wind yes although Mars is currently a barren wasteland there is still a tiny amount of water vapor in the atmosphere overall the atmosphere and weather on Mars remains inhospitable but what of its soil many of us have seen The Martian in
• 23:30 - 24:00 my opinion a great film about surviving on the Martian surface one part of the film focused on growing potatoes using Martian soil but how practical is that in reality does Martian soil really have the nutrients needed for plants to grow and would there be any adverse side effects from eating produce grown on Mars as it turns out Martian soil does in fact have a lot of the essential nutrients needed for plants to grow depending on where exactly you are on
• 24:00 - 24:30 Mars just like Earth with some areas that have nutrient poor soil and some with nutrientrich soil some parts of Mars would be better suited for growing plants than others however the soil on Mars is more like regalith it hasn't had a history of worms insect and plants mixed in in 2016 researchers grew tomato rye radish pea leak spinach garden rocket crest quinoa and chives in an imitation
• 24:30 - 25:00 Martian soil on Earth producing only slightly less produce than they would have in Earth's soil interestingly they did the same experiment again with imitation moon soil which produced about half the amount of produce yet these crops still grew with only spinach really struggling to perform however it should be noted that organic matter was added to the soil in this experiment cut up grass to
• 25:00 - 25:30 fertilize the soil and fluff it up allowing water to pass through the soil to the roots without that the plants wouldn't have lasted long another barrier scientists would have to get through is the abundance of heavy metals and importantly something called calcium perchlorate in the Martian soil calcium perchlorate is a salt which like heavy metals is toxic if consumed in large quantities this perchlorate and metals in the soil would
• 25:30 - 26:00 be absorbed into the plants not so great for the plants anyway but humans would then also absorb it into their system when they eat the plants but pchlorate isn't all bad in fact it could help humans survive on Mars for one thing it sucks water out of the air which can then be used as liquid water which is critical for survival on Mars it can also give off oxygen again another critical checkbox for survival
• 26:00 - 26:30 ticked so in short it seems there are two major problems to be overcome when growing plants on Mars the first is the need for fertilizer going back to the film and book The Martian Wattney overcame this problem by using feces from the toilet as fertilizer typically this is dangerous as feces contains pathogens however if the feces have been processed to kill the pathogens it can then safely be used as fertilizer once production gets underway you could always use the
• 26:30 - 27:00 compost collected from old plants and food the second problem is the toxic pchlorates well this has a simpler solution than you may think running water through the soil would rinse the pchlorates out and you could then separate the water and pllorates later so nothing is wasted the alternative is to use pchlorate eating bacteria which give off oxygen as a byproduct there is a reason why growing
• 27:00 - 27:30 plants in future colonization efforts is so important not only does it make the colony self-sufficient but there is also evidence that fresh foods such as tomatoes blueberries and red lettuce are a good source of antioxidants having fresh food like these available in space could have a positive impact on people's moods and could also provide some protection against radiation in space so it is possible to grow plants in Martian soil provided you could get the
• 27:30 - 28:00 fertilizer right and adapting to Mars's unique environments is the name of the game when it comes to colonization nasa and other space agencies are utilizing many different technologies to adapt to the specific environments on Mars but rather than explain it all myself why don't I hand over to our special guest from Veritassium to introduce one of those ways derek thanks Alex the atmosphere on Mars is really thin so for a long time flying there was thought to be
• 28:00 - 28:30 impossible but we've been working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to get exclusive access to Ingenuity the first helicopter on Mars ingenuity made use of super lightweight materials and two sets of carbon fiber blades to achieve a total of 72 groundbreaking flights over the course of her 3-year lifespan she traveled over 17 km and took some really cool shots along the way it's a great example of how engineers adjust their tech to the environment thanks Derek
• 28:30 - 29:00 over on his channel Veritasium Derek has done an incredible video on the Ingenuity helicopter this will be the first power flight in another planet so if you want to know more about this groundbreaking mission you should really head over there and give it a watch helicopters are not the only technology they're developing at JPL for Mars exploration though one other really cool design is something being developed in collaboration with Boston Dynamics exploration robots that can walk if you've been keeping up with the
• 29:00 - 29:30 sort of robots that scientists have been sending to Mars you'll notice that they all have a fairly similar design spirit opportunity curiosity perseverance even the Chu Rang rover deployed on Mars by China are six- wheeled rovers with large bodies some over 2 m tall carrying various kinds of scientific equipment and cameras this is because form follows function wheels are an easy way to help a robot to get around on a flat surface and a large body allows for more
• 29:30 - 30:00 scientific equipment to be carried however wheels also come with downsides in that they limit the kinds of places these robots can explore remember Spirit's mission suffered a serious setback in 2009 when it got stuck in soft sand a trap it never escaped from although scientists wanted to continue using it as a stationary platform to study the area immediately around it getting stuck was essentially the end of the mission for Spirit especially when it drained its batteries trying to get
• 30:00 - 30:30 out and a similar thing happened to Opportunity in 2005 although fortunately in its case Opportunity was able to escape from wheel spinning after just over a month of being stuck however there was also a point in the first year of Opportunity's mission where it was exploring Endurance Crater the exposed rock in the sides of this crater were ideal for answering questions about the history of water on Mars opportunity had limits on how steep a surface it could drive on about 30° and it was uncertain
• 30:30 - 31:00 whether it could get out of the crater again if it drove into it in the end scientists decided to send Opportunity into the crater anyway as it happened Opportunity was able to drive out and continued exploring Mars's surface for another 15 years but all that science wouldn't have been possible if Opportunity's wheels had meant it couldn't escape Endurance now compare that with this this robot known as Big Dog was
• 31:00 - 31:30 created by robotics company Boston Dynamics a company that makes some truly impressive robots you should check out their parkour robot Atlas a humanoid robot capable of running jumping and climbing over obstacles in a way that almost feels human and you can really see the advantages that legs can offer in these kind of situations big Dog could easily traverse powdery conditions even up slopes allowing it to explore a greater range of areas in an environment like
• 31:30 - 32:00 Mars however it was a later version that caught NASA's eye meet Spot spot is a walking robot originally designed for tasks on Earth such as data collection and mapping spaces for industry or going into dangerous areas that humans can't enter such as in areas that are heavily irradiated it's able to carry weights of up to 14 kg and can perform repetitive tasks and walk upstairs over gravel and other
• 32:00 - 32:30 uneven surfaces it comes with cameras that can see all around it mapping the space if it falls over it can self-right itself even from being completely upside down unlike the rovers on Mars which have top speeds of about 0.2 kmh Spot can travel at around 5.8 kmh but the cleverest part about it is its intelligent AI by using information it sees in its cameras Spot is able to create a 3D image in its onboard
• 32:30 - 33:00 computer and it can use that information to figure out the best way to travel over obstacles you don't necessarily control it instead you tell it where you want to go and it figures out for itself the best way to get there actively avoiding obstacles if they present themselves if it does start to fall it can figure out what it needs to do to stop falling and moves its legs to arrest its fall in a way that almost feels alive it is this autonomy mixed with Spot's incredible range of
• 33:00 - 33:30 versatility and movement that makes it ideal for exploration of other planets it's not possible to directly control a robot on another planet the distance is so great that there would be several minute lags between a scientist sending a signal and the robot taking an action so a lot of decision-m needs to be done by a robot on location this is true of the rovers NASA has sent to Mars already like Spirit and Opportunity however Spot can take this to another level thanks to a collaboration with
• 33:30 - 34:00 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Spot is proving to be capable of working with a series of other robots to explore Martian analog caves here on Earth completely independent of humans they are exploring the whole layout on their own choosing their path walking over obstacles they can handle pitch black lighting conditions smoke dust and even water they can recognize points of interest and investigate them one area of Mars and the moon that NASA
• 34:00 - 34:30 would like to explore in future are caves caves are scientifically interesting for several reasons they allow scientists to see deep into the geology of a planet without needing to do any drilling which is a difficult process helping them tell what the structure is like or whether water was ever present they are sheltered ecosystems while things on the surface might be eroded over time by wind or cosmic radiation caves offer shelter preserving anything scientifically interesting for us to find nasa's
• 34:30 - 35:00 Braille program is even interested in whether any bacteria might have survived in such an environment on Mars or at least if the remains might be there finally this shelter and protection from radiation also make them a good location for future human colonization making it all the more important for us to map them out for any future human missions currently we struggle to explore caves on other planets taking photos from space only really tells us information about maybe the
• 35:00 - 35:30 entryway scientists can't map cave structures from orbit rovers like Opportunity would struggle to explore such a cave as the ground would probably not be very flat the passageway might become too narrow for a 2 m wide robot and the terrain would be uncertain and perhaps worst of all signal to Earth would quickly become blocked by all that rock meaning a robot that requires any human input would not get very far in other words a robot that was sent to explore a cave on Mars would need to be
• 35:30 - 36:00 able to go in and explore the entire thing on its own with no prior knowledge of what the terrain might look like in there it would need to see and map the terrain decide how to move around it and finally bring that information back out to the surface and this is what NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Boston Dynamics are currently doing by combining Nebula an advanced decision-making AI with the versatile platform of Spot NASA is hoping to one day be able to send several of these
• 36:00 - 36:30 robots to a cave on Mars or the moon and have them go in and map it independently organizing themselves by working as a group using cameras robotic arms and scientific equipment to identify objects of scientific interest relaying that information to each other and then sending in the robot carrying the right equipment to further study and photograph graph the object of interest there is currently no set date when spot would be ready to explore the moon or Mars this is still in the testing phase however this technology
• 36:30 - 37:00 offers a tantalizing possibility one day robotic dogs or things like it might form the backbone of exploration or even labor and construction on Mars future humans on Mars would need to be self-sufficient it's not like they would be able to call for help from home we take it for granted that on Earth if you phone someone on the other side of the planet you might only get a
• 37:00 - 37:30 split-second time delay at these distances the speed of light is incredibly fast with astronomical distances it's pretty slow on Mars itself the distance to Earth means the transmissions will be delayed by anything between 3 to 22 minutes this is only one way so accounting for the return transmission the minimum delay is 6 minutes making a normal phone conversation highly impractical text audio and video
• 37:30 - 38:00 messages are possible but Martian settlers will have to fend for themselves if they need to make any immediate decisions for example in cases of emergencies or equipment failures making remote operations or assistance in real time unfeasible but let's say all these difficulties are overcome and that the colonists reach Mars where would they settle at the moment there is no one favorite candidate the North Pole is a distinct possibility due to the presence of water
• 38:00 - 38:30 ice in the caps there another interesting option is the 81 km wide coralv crater as it's also filled with water ice the atmosphere isn't thick enough for liquid water to pool on the surface of Mars for any lengthy period of time however pockets of water locked up in ice can be found at the bottom of craters where it is cold enough on Mars there is also the possibility of settling near underground water deposits found in perafrost under the crust studies based on data from a
• 38:30 - 39:00 combination of Mars orbiters have revealed and mapped out locations for water under the ground all across the planet although more difficult to extract than surface ice it could open the door to colonies in more equatorial latitudes regions that are much warmer where solar panels for energy production would be much more effective mission planners would probably try to combine this finding with a location in the northern hemisphere the ground elevation
• 39:00 - 39:30 there is much lower meaning the atmosphere is thicker perfect for slowing and landing a spacecraft as mentioned another consideration when looking for a settlement location is to see if there are lava tubes nearby a lava tube is basically a long cave that formed when magma flowed through it that has since emptied resulting in fairly uniform tunnels we see many examples of these on Earth and on Mars they could even be large enough to house buildings inside
• 39:30 - 40:00 while lava tubes and caves have been identified on Mars suitable candidates will also need to consider what we mentioned before the elevation of the location and the prospects of nearby water once a site has been chosen missions can begin to make the area suitable for a human habitat not everything colonists could possibly need would fit in one spaceship to Mars so several forerunner missions will have to take place laying the foundations
• 40:00 - 40:30 autonomously for what the colonists will need there have been several architectural competitions to find the best design for long-lasting habitats although there is no model that is said to be definitive yet there are a wide variety of proposals from creating habitats using ice to habitats built with the design structure of fungi however the majority of the suggestions utilize the regalith found all over the surface of Mars to build a habitat using
• 40:30 - 41:00 3D printing techniques through autonomous robots unfortunately robots like these don't exist yet so they have to be developed before this idea even becomes a possibility but basically this concept requires excavating material from the surface which would then be processed and mixed with water ice into something similar to concrete the structure is then 3D printed layer by layer by the autonomous robots robotic assistance and artificial intelligence will be invaluable in preparing the
• 41:00 - 41:30 habitat for the colonist's arrival doing it by hand once they are there would be an impossible task since astronauts are confined to their suits especially things requiring hard and prolonged manual labor once the 3D printed habitat is complete it needs to support the weight of additional regalith these habitats must efficiently protect the inhabitants from radiation so in the final phase of many of these proposals they recommend covering the habitat with
• 41:30 - 42:00 more regalith simply by shoveling it on top this is because Mars does not have a magnetic field like Earth so radiation is a big problem on the surface too so the more material there is between the sun and the colonists the better they will be protected from its harsh radiation once the habitats are suitably prepared for humans the colonists can begin to arrive even with the help of the autonomous robots they still have a lot to do connect up power set up
• 42:00 - 42:30 equipment just generally get the site up and running while this is going on they probably have to reside in temporary habitats be it their own ship that they arrived with or maybe inflatable habitats in any case these habitats would not be very spacious and only provide the basics for survival when the permanent habitats are ready they will need to be pressurized one method for creating breathable air is acquiring oxygen through electrolysis
• 42:30 - 43:00 and then mix it with nitrogen electrolysis has the added benefit of generating hydrogen which can then be refined into hydroine as fuel once generated this pressurized environment can easily be sustained through air recycling systems something that is already being used by the International Space Station another method to get oxygen is from the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere that's why the Perseverance rover also incorporates the Moxy module which is an experiment to
• 43:00 - 43:30 see if this is possible however for these tasks substantial energy production is needed one obvious source of energy is solar panels on Mars however solar production is only about 40% of what you would get with the same solar panels on Earth because Mars is further away from the sun and receives less light so it's a source that is helpful only half the time due to the day and night cycle not to mention the sandstorms we talked
• 43:30 - 44:00 about earlier so this by itself isn't reliable enough for a colony another option is to send a not yet invented cold nuclear reactor which will guarantee a more stable energy source obviously the best solution incorporates a hybrid of both combined with reliable batteries to store power in the event of power outages or emergencies the settlers would also need to consider the need to produce and purify water for consumption and other
• 44:00 - 44:30 purposes ideally they will be able to generate 5 L per settler per day this shouldn't be too much of a problem because we know where to find water already on Mars in the form of water ice additionally the colonies should also incorporate water recycling systems to minimize water waste this technology again is already used effectively on the International Space Station the production of water is as simple as extracting the ice cooking it in an oven
• 44:30 - 45:00 until it evaporates condensing it in water and filtering it again using ceramic and carbon filters with these steps combined we have all the ingredients necessary to create a habitat suitable for life an enclosed protected environment with a steady production of oxygen and water with the addition of grown food which we talked about earlier the colony would be self-sufficient although it would not be
• 45:00 - 45:30 an easy life confined to a small space stuck with the same people often eating the same things and with constant tasks and stress the psychological demands would be very taxing even on Earth we have some very remote and lonely places where people live for instance scientists in Antarctica or submarine crews these groups undergo regular psychological checks to protect their mental health and even in these
• 45:30 - 46:00 situations people there know that they can always be sent back home but colonists on Mars are trapped there's no immediate turning back if ever so only individuals with a strong mental fortitude could persevere in addition there is an array of health problems associated with low gravity the zeroravity experiment with the Kelly twins on the ISS brought up serious health issues that include loss of muscle and bone mass vision problems
• 46:00 - 46:30 poor fluid distribution a loss of balance sense spine misalignment cardiovascular problems and a weaker immune system while we don't know exactly how the human body will cope in a low gravity environment for extended periods settlers on Mars may struggle with some of these issues too to counteract the risks the settlers will have to do a lot of exercise which further lengthens their working hours nasa has even gone as far as to consider
• 46:30 - 47:00 genetic modifications for the astronauts who embark on long stay missions to combat the dangers of radiation and microgravity among others this could even be plausible with current technology although a lot of controversy on the moral limits of such manipulation arises still even with all these considerations there's no shortage of volunteers wanting to go every time there's been an opportunity agencies and companies have received a barrage of applications from hopeful candidates
• 47:00 - 47:30 these colonies will depend on how technology evolves here although at the moment it seems that we already have a lot but not all of what is necessary to create bases outside of [Music] Earth do you think mankind will ever get a colony on Mars with NASA's aim for the late 2030s do you think that's reasonable and after my travel tour of the red planet how sold are you on being
• 47:30 - 48:00 among those early colonizers have I scared you off or are you thrilled at the thought of rising to the challenge and carving out a foothold in the face of great odds remember this could happen within our lifetimes you or people you know could conceivably be among the first to ever live on another planet of course going down in history against the backdrop of that and filled with the curiosity to see what life would be like under a truly alien
• 48:00 - 48:30 sky perhaps a little part of you is tempted which says all you need to know about humanity given the context of that dusty stormcovered planet that is Mars humanity has only in the last half century established a foothold in the space beyond our sky which means that for the overwhelming majority of human history our home has been right here on
• 48:30 - 49:00 Earth there are still so many mysteries about our home planet that you could spend a whole lifetime exploring it all have you ever wanted to learn more about its fiery geology its verdant life its mysterious seas and tumultuous skies do you love learning about Earth's processes its origins its endings and everything that comes between that's what we hope to bring to life in our new
• 49:00 - 49:30 channel Astramm Earth i'm so excited for this channel space is incredible and as I've been making these videos I realized there are so many aspects of our own home planet that are incredible too astrome Earth will be launching top quality videos every 2 weeks about our planet where you can get a breathtaking look at some of the most amazing sites and phenomena our Earth has on offer but
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• 50:00 - 50:30 help us keep making the content we love and if you want to join the Patreon there's never been a better time to get in on the party just sign up with the link in the description when you join you'll be able to watch the whole video ad free see your name in the credits and submit questions to our team meanwhile click the link to this playlist for more Astramm content i'll see you next time