Between 1987 and 1991, NASA constructed Biosphere 2, a self-sustaining ecosystem designed for eight people to test technologies that we could use to colonize Mars. The project was used twice and the results were less than impressive. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars and years of planning by some of the brightest minds in the world, the project failed miserably. So the question is, if we can’t make that work here on Earth, how are we going to colonize Mars. Video blogger Joe Scott says that plans to go to Mars is rife with all sorts of problems and it’s really a bad idea. In the following episode, Scott lists five major reasons why Americans should scrap the Mars mission.
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The Physics Girl, Dianna Cowern, caught up with UCLA planetary geologist Raquel Nuno to discuss the many ways that Mars is actually a death trap for humans. One of the most surprising ways that Mars is hostile, Nuno says, is its wild tilt.
While the Earth’s tilt is generally 23 degrees, Mars bounces chaotically between zero and 60 degrees, dramatically affecting the planet’s atmosphere, which would in turn dramatically affect human colonizers. Then there’s harmful radiation and the solar system’s largest volcano! Tune in to more details with Cowern and Nuno on PBS Digital.
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It’s clear that our space program is obsessed with colonizing Mars. But with all the obstacles surrounding the colonization of the Red Planet, is the Green Planet–Venus–a better option? Granted the surface temperature on Venus is a sweltering 450 degrees celsius, with crazy pressure, but there might be a smart way around that, making it a better option for long-term colonization. Find out how in this episode of PBS SpaceTime.
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Space X founder and CEO Elon Musk says he envisions a future when we will revisit the Moon and land a man on Mars for the very first time. Musk dreams of the day when reusable rockets will transport people to the Moon and Mars and he’s focusing on humans becoming a multi-planet species. “Sending crews to Mars in four years, I think that’s sounds pretty doable, Musk says. “Internally we’ll aim for two years, but in reality it might be four.” Musk speaks to Time Magazine editor-at-large Jeffrey Kluger on CBS Sunday Morning.
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While the idea of anti-gravity space flight, or a breakaway German colony on the Moon, or a subterranean UFO base in Antarctica, might all sound like science fiction, what can be said for certain is that they are not new ideas, nor do not seem to be easily explained away. My name is Robert Sepehr, thank you for keeping an open mind.
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Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, says we could expedite Earth’s colonization of Mars by nuking the Red Planet. Musk’s point is to make Mars habitable really quickly by nuking its poles. “The idea is the bombs would be a quick way to to terraform Mars, in other words, make the planet capable of supporting human life,” Hank Green says. Green explains in this edition of SciShow.
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One of mankind’s enduring dreams has been to one day colonize our Moon. But although visiting our orbiting satellite in 1969 went fairly well, an actual colony on the Moon would face a myriad of problems. For starters, the absence of an atmosphere makes for some radical temperature changes, going from 240 degrees during the day to -280 at night. And imagine the influx of radiation because of no atmosphere. And one big problem–a Moon day lasts 29 Earth days! Now that would take some adjusting to. Join Jake Roper as he reveals some more Moon gems in this celestial edition of Vsauce3.
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The rapid advancement of technology will play a large role on how we evolve as human beings. For instance, our future relatives will more than likely have eyes that become unnervingly larger and blink sideways to avoid cosmic rays. They will also grow as we colonize alien planets in dimmer environments. Discover nine more evolutions to the human race in this edition of Alltime 10s.
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The two biggest obstacles of sending astronauts to Mars are exposure to radiation and propulsion. SciShow’s Hank Green discusses the challenges astronauts will face on a journey to the Red Planet and the technology to overcome these obstacles.
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