 Hey guys, it's Amy sitting not standing on the set of vintage space today aka my apartment Which means there are opinions ahead So if you don't really feel like listening to my own opinions then this is your chance to leave I'll wait while you close the window But if you do want to stick around and hear why I am not Super convinced we should be going to Mars in the immediate future stick around because I am on my soapbox So let's jump into this I have had this conversation with friends and with colleagues and former and current astronauts many times And I decided to talk about it today because a friend of mine emailed me an article About NASA's latest announcement of its plan to get humans to Mars in the 2030s So we know that this has been NASA's goal for a while the hashtag journey to Mars is basically NASA's mission statement at this point But now it's finally released a little bit more details on what this plan is going to look like and I do like it It does make a lot of sense So let's just go through it real quick The goal of course is for NASA in the United States to lead an effort that expands human presence Deeper into the solar system through a sustainable human and robotic spaceflight program So those of you who've watched more of my sort of ranty vlog style videos know that I am a huge fan of Sustainability in space. I love the idea of creating an architecture that can be used to get you to Mars But then also modified to get you to other places in the solar system There's no point I think in saying let's go here and then developing technology that can only go there Which was really my big beef with Apollo, but that is a whole separate ranty video So NASA does look like it has a really good plan for kind of building this sequential Lasting architecture for deep space exploration that will begin at the very least with humans to Mars So phase zero is current exploration on the international space station starting to figure out how humans really need to live and work in space And starting to solve some of the biological problems phase one is moving into cislunar space The meat of phase one is designing a small space station called the deep space gateway This is going to be more skylab-esque as opposed to space station-esque And that it's not designed to be staffed all the time with the continuing round of crews and resupply missions It's designed to support a crew of four for about 42 days It's got a propulsion module a habitation module possibly an airlock for spacewalks But it's not going to be the same long-term living space as the international space station So once the deep space gateway is built it will become a port for missions in the deep space Transport vehicle this is a much larger vehicle that can support a crew of four for about a thousand days It will be able to be resupplied refurbished and refueled at the deep space gateway And it should be long lived enough for three round trips to Mars So this thing is really built to last a while and to be reliable with minimal slash No need for any piece of it to return to earth for any kind of refurbishment Once the deep space transport vehicle is built it will be able to do some early reconnaissance missions at Mars And then phases three and four of this plan see missions to the Mars system and to the surface of Mars This whole plan of course depends on the space launch system or the SLS being built in time NASA needs its insane heavy lift capability to get all of this hardware off the ground to assemble it in Cislunar space and then also get more of the Supplies and the crews up to the station to get them on the vehicle to then send them to Mars So this plan looks good I mean it depends on technology and rockets that don't exist yet that are currently in sort of the thoughtful mind Development phase, but of course you have to start somewhere so that's great But the question that I have is should we really be focusing all our energy and attention on getting to Mars? Are we ignoring or just not really considering planets and moons that might be more interesting and might be more worthy of deep space human missions? So I can hear you guys yelling at me in the comments already because I know this is a deeply unpopular opinion to have But I'm not alone in this I have a lot of friends both with NASA and not with NASA Who are just giant space people who would love to see us focus more attention on other things in the solar system than Mars Now we know Mars We've been on Mars with a pretty constant robotic presence for more than a decade and since the 1970s We've been gathering a lot of data on the red planet. We know it. We can sort of see a life for us there It's the most likely to support humanity Even though it would be a life for a very long time under domes and in space suits Even if we could terraform it it would be so hard for Mars to hold on to that atmosphere It's unlikely to really really work. So why are we so focused on going to Mars? Well, we know it right like I just said we've been there We sort of have an idea what we're dealing with on Mars What is the real reason we want to go to Mars or should be focusing so heavily on going to Mars? Is it just because it's there and we need a destination to go to? Is it because we need to inspire the next generation or have a place where we can point to and say look That's where we're gonna live once we finish destroying our own planet from a human perspective I kind of get it and from a science perspective I also kind of get it any Geologist will tell you that a human can do as much work in the field in a day as a rover can do in a year So having a geologist on Mars having scientists actually doing in-situ research in the field on Mars Would really help us unlock a lot of the secrets of the red planet. That's great That's a reason I would say to go to Mars But there are so many other planets and moons that might be more interesting I feel like we're almost just not and I don't say this from like NASA focusing too heavily I mean like humans just the conversation around space I feel is so heavily focused on Mars that we're sort of forgetting the fact that there's a whole solar system of amazing places out there that I would so much rather we take the time to Understand and really dig into Because I'm not totally sure that Mars is the best place to focus our energy on to take the risk to send people to in the next 20 Years when we really don't know a lot about how to get there and we might not get what we want when we get there So There's a couple of ways. I think you can look at this You can look at it from the purely like selfish human perspective of we need a new place to live All right, fine. If you just want to go to a planet for the sake of going to another planet Mars is your your easiest bet We have the most successful landings there. We can deal with it We know how to do it more or less sort of the issues of radiation and like human survival and the whole like Not killing the crew thing of an issue there, but we can solve that right sort of maybe we need a lot more Money to solve that but if we're looking from a science perspective Do we need to be focusing on Mars right now the architecture to build this? sequential incremental journey to Mars thing is great and Expensive and when you put a crew on board that needs all those kinds of life support things Yes, it's more inspirational to have astronauts on board but they are also just adding to the cost and what's Suffering is all the other planetary exploration that we can't do because we don't have enough money to go to Mars And also explore moons. So let's just think really quickly about some of the other places that we could go I mean yes, okay. It's harder to get to moons of Jupiter or Saturn granted. I get that but let's just pretend That's not an issue for a second. What about Titan? Let's just talk about Titan for half a second Titan has such an interesting chemical environment with methane and ethane seas It's got a very similar chemistry and thought to have a very similar environment to primordial earth, which to me Is way more interesting because if we want to understand how life arose on earth Why not go to nature's laboratory that's mimicking early earth aka Titan and see what's there That could be a really fascinating place to send human Scientists to actually understand what's going on on that planet But I mean totally honestly, I would I would take a robot over a human for now just because it's it's easier and cheaper Like I really want to go to Titan and then there's moons like Europa Which is covered in a thick layer of ice but has a subsurface ocean We might not need humans to physically drill. I don't know why this is the drill But the physically drill down through that ice But it might make sense to have humans there to actually do the in-situ research because we don't totally know What we're going to get into but Europa actually might have a better atmosphere and environment for life I mean atmosphere like not literal atmosphere. Sorry Didn't yeah, don't yell at me for that Europa might have a better environment for life than Mars We might have a better chance of finding life on Europa than on Mars Right nasa's whole thing about space right now is finding life and looking for signs of life And if you want life you follow the water because we need water to survive follow the water Why are we not going to where there's water? I know we have a Europa mission on the books, but We're not landing on it Shouldn't we go to where there's water if nasa's whole thing is to follow the water? And then there's venus, which is Unlikely to harbor any kind of life But might actually make more sense for a human mission because venus's clouds are so dense Oxygen is actually a lifting gas on venus So you could have like a zeppelin style spacecraft that would float in venus's atmosphere and support life at the same time and we could do so much cool Science from living in venus's atmosphere even if we can't land on the surface That could be a very cool mission and yet we haven't been to venus in years So I think you can kind of see that there is a little bit of a division here where i'm talking So on the one hand, we've got human mission to mars Putting all of our eggs in the mars exploration basket and leaving like nasa's spare change for every other Possible thing in the solar system on the other hand We have more robotic exploration missions of other moons and other planets So this is kind of where I see the division happening You kind of have one or the other because spaceflight is really expensive and nasa doesn't have that much money Everybody feels like nasa gets so much money guys The military's air conditioning budget is more than nasa's budget. I'm not saying troops don't need air conditioning I'm just putting that into perspective for you guys nasa does not actually have that much money and it certainly doesn't have enough money To do both of these things at the same time So when we talk about sending humans to mars, there's a huge cost, but there's also a huge risk Now we don't actually know how to do all the things required to get humans to mars We're still figuring out a lot of things Radiation is of course the biggest issue. Okay. Yes, you can fly through the van allen belts video right up here Go watch it You can fly through the van allen belts Stop telling me that we didn't go to the moon because we can't fly through the van allen belts Flying through the van allen belts is one thing, but that is a very quick transfer It's really that long-term exposure to deep space radiation In the 500 or so days it takes to get to mars Of course the days will vary depending on where the two planets are when you launch But that is a big issue for crews is the radiation exposure not to mention mars doesn't have our lovely Magnetic field to protect the planet from radiation from space the way we are So once the crews get to mars, they will still be being hit with a lot of radiation And I spoke to a botanist about this not too long ago actually who mentioned and I never thought of this The soil is also being hit with radiation I don't know because I am not a botanist what this means for crops that would be grown theoretically on mars But I feel like there's just a lot of radiation to deal with on mars and radiation and humans are kind of like Too positively charged ions to quote millhouse van houten And there's so many other just like basic human life issues to deal with like how to feed the crew for that long Who would go what are the skill sets? What would happen in an emergency? There's so many questions. It's such an expensive venture And I feel like the motivation to get humans to mars in the immediate future is just not that strong Again, this is my personal opinion. Stop yelling at me. I'm allowed to have my opinion While you're yelling at me in the comments for my part I would love to see us take a step back from the need and that sort of push to get humans on mars In the next 20 years take a step back And actually take a bit more time to to figure out the research figure out how to actually solve all these problems While also exploring other places in the solar system Because I think that it might be the case that there is a way more interesting target for human scientists To go visit and to study in situ than mars And I think it would be so good If we knew a little bit more about all the planets and the moons in our solar system with a few other small Small missions. I mean think think something on the scale of like new horizons, right? That was not a massive vehicle, but it did so much with very little Let's get some more smaller missions to the outer moons to venus to other places in the solar system to really figure out Okay If we're going to take the risk and take on the expense of sending humans anywhere in the solar system Let's make it really worth it because it sort of comes down to this thing of like Do we want to just go there and and live because humans can't be single planet system? People thing race that's thord Or do we want to go for science? And I think it just depends on what side of that camp you you are on I am on team science for this. I really feel like I would love to see this these missions being done to understand More about how the the solar system came to be or why life arose on on earth and not other places And I would like to see those questions solved and really understand more about the intricacies of our own system As opposed to see humans on mars for the sake of humans on mars, which I feel like is the driving motivation I know that this is a deeply unpopular opinion, but I also know that i'm not alone in this I've talked to a lot of people about what two things to do go to mars with humans right away or go to other planets And other moons as robots and really understand what is going on in space before we send a crew somewhere These two things a lot of people are on team Explore more space and figure out where the best place to send humans is and really make sure that when we do it It's worthwhile and it's the right mission. It's the right place for the right reasons because I'm not sure about mars I don't know There's so many other places. I'd like to see us go There's so many other like mysteries that I would love to see us solving that would be best done with humans Now there is another option for a mars mission with humans that I am so behind I love the idea and maybe this will ultimately be a first step before we have humans on mars, but The idea of sending A crew to mars orbit and doing tele robotic missions on the surface Now this takes away the issue of how to land something as heavy as a manned vehicle on mars with its Much thinner atmosphere and I think once you hit the atmosphere to surface. I think you have about seven minutes That's not a lot of time for like super fast acceleration, especially when you are dealing with a human crew And you know the mass of a human crew in that spacecraft So take that out of the equation have humans in orbit have them controlling a rover Without the light time delay of the earth mars distance for communication See that I could get behind because it's not about having humans on mars for the sake of inspiration or because it's there It's about having humans go to mars because again the geologist Working in real time with tools on mars Even if he can't pick up and feel the rock and look at it with his own eyes Can actually do a lot more science in a lot less time without that light time delay So maybe that is a really happy medium for the near future Maybe there's ways to sort of have a more metered approach that doesn't throw all of our money into humans on mars Because if it doesn't work out If it doesn't come to pass we've spent so much money at the cost of exploring all of these other bodies in the solar system I mean I totally get that having humans involved in spaceflight makes it so much more inspirational makes people care more Makes the public really more interested and makes kids that much more excited about pursuing careers in science and engineering and math and technology Aka stem, but I don't see why we can't have robotic missions that are doing the same thing I mean, yeah, there's no human you can't see yourself reflected in the visor to imagine yourself walking on that planet, but The idea of developing a spacecraft that is unlocking secrets of a distant moon that you can't even see from the earth But it's out there. I mean that is so cool. I would love to see us focusing more or at least equally on Seeing what else is out there seeing what else is worth exploring with humans and not Throwing almost everything we got into the mars basket. Now. I'm not saying humans shouldn't go to mars eventually I mean, of course I'm a fan of exploring all of the things with the people in situ to do really good science right there where it's happening But I just don't want to lose all the other space exploration We have because this one goal is Immediate enough to be taking up so many of the already few resources we have for space exploration So who out there agrees with me anyone or you all just gonna yell at me in the comments I'm not even gonna tell you to tell me your thoughts in the comments because I know you're gonna do it Set it before Amy soapbox is all about my own opinions. 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