How will a human Mars mission play out? Where exactly should it go? What unexpected challenges will we face? We’re discussing all these aspects with Rick Davis. He is the Assistant Director for Science and Exploration, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
🐦 Rick Davis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/redplanetrick
👉 NASA Blog Article on choosing the landing site on Mars:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/redplanetdispatch/2022/12/13/criteria-for-landing-site-selection/
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00:00:00 Intro
00:01:29 Training for Mars on Earth
00:07:11 Choosing a landing site
00:20:37 Unexpected challenges of Mars
00:52:38 Planetary protection
00:56:51 Exploring lava tubes
00:59:49 What’s next?
01:09:24 Outro
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Neglected to ask what your understanding is what a planet is?
I wish someone would land a rover next to Olympus Mons or Vallis Marineris so we can get some close up photos of them. Ever since I did a science project on these locations in 5th grade I've been waiting for someone to do this.
4-6 people means they don’t take Elon seriously.
@52:00 roads are going to need to be molten regolith. it's east to bring one machine to melt rock vs thousands of tons of binders.
Awesome interview, thanks
Great show, but the way things are going ,SpaceX will get to mars 10 years before NASA.
Isn’t Venus an easier place to go to. At first robotically. All that heat. All that chemical atmosphere for building airships, And fuel. A community like Earth’s nautical oceans.
Great interview! I found the "more crew is better" concept intriguing… It makes sense, but seemed counterintuitive initially
thanks for this awesome interview
Every video the same—so much padding…and cringe soliciting.
UNSUBBING.
Is the fact that martian "soil" is regolith a sign there was not life similar to earths in its past as the regolith would have been changed to a more soil like substance. If earth had been dead for that long would we find regolith or something else
Great interview! I'm enjoying!
Frasier, Jezero is pronouncing as Yezero and it means Lake. Its Serbian language, my native.
Question, I have heard that one valley that's deepest point on Mars (I don't know the name, sorry… But I know that is deepest point) if we go there, pressure would be exactly the same as here on Earth? Is that true? Why we don't go there. Sorry if he answered on the question, I have more to go.
How has Skylab influenced today's planning?
Doesn't it make sense that the first communities on Mars be underground, in caverns already there near water. You could seal them with explosives that scatter the sealant.
Consider the following:
1. Martian gravity will cause speciation in humans. This will have profound impacts on humans even living there for more than a year.
2. Are we ready to deal with more than one species of humans? Homo Martianis? We have a hard time tolerating differences in skin color and religion. How are we going to deal with the differences imposed by Martian gravity?
3. It is cost prohibitive to haul people all the way to Mars, have them develop "institutional" knowledge from working there, and then lose that knowledge when they have to return to Earth after only a year or two. And on top of that, the expense of shuttling people back of earth is not sustainable. No one will be able to live there full time, unless they want to say goodbye to Earth, permanently.
In consideration of all of these issues, it seems to me that the most sensible solution is to build massive stations that can simulate 1G through centrifugal force. To this end, the station needs to be large. The larger the better.
A single SLS launch costs over $2B. For the costs of 3 launches, we could afford 150 launches of SpaceX's Starship. 100 launches would send up inflatable segments the size of Starship's fairing (9m x 18m). Inflated, the segment would be 18m x 36m. With 36m, you have two mwin decks, with two sub decks at the top and bottom for aquaculture and engineering. 100 segments would provide for a station over 3km in circumference, around 1km in diameter.
This would provide for the necessary gravity rehab, ample environment for rescue should the shtf on surface, as well as 1G for child development, etc.
We should be working on the station first, before going to Mars. Or even the Moon.
The station should come first.
I'm glad he kept saying Fraser in case you forgot he was talking to you.
Sounds just like Jeff Goldblum 😂
So fun to watch this Fraser. First, your prep was fantastic, or “spot on” as Rick mentioned, resulting in your always fascinating questions. And secondly, Rick is so genuine and interesting. Love his realistic perspective and openness. Two thumbs up!!!
Thanks Fraser for doing this and thanks Rick for your insight to our future on our second planet.
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as Hell
Fantastic interview🤓thx
Fabulous interview. Thank you, Mr Cain and Mr Davis. The main things we will learn by humans going to Mars is about the challenges of getting to Mars, surviving there for a time, and coming back safely to earth. As far as studying the planet itself, what can hands-on science do more effectively and more cost effectively than will the next generations of robots?
This discussion is a good dose of reality that should be required viewing for Musk fans.
The #Mars mission is a #SpaceX private mission not a government #mission. The #government is going to the #Moon aka #NASA. All the credit is for #Elon #Musk and his team not the USA government.
This is such a fascinating subject. If we can find a way to recreate gravity would be huge.
Of all the Mars rovers sent there it beggars belief that none can clear a landing field for a human landing expedition. I mean it's cool having wheeled robots that can avoid boulders and rocks and craters on their own, but it doesn't help clear an area for a manned crew to land on Mars, there'll be still a minefield of rocks and stuff to get in the way. There should be a few robot "bulldozers" sent there to actually do the work of clearing an area in preparation for a base camp or landing strip for a manned rocket.
Oh I can't wait more CGI propaganda organization that robs rips off 50 million dollars a day from the American taxpayer. To show your mental inept critical thinking watermelon head pretty CGI pictures and the biggest storyline oh crap. Their numbers don't line up their science doesn't line up but as long as you think you're smart listening to it in the few of us critical thinkers examine exactly what they're saying it's the same old Jesuit pseudoscience it's been deceiving the world Thousand Years. It never ceases to amaze me that is smart in more advanced Society gets the more ignorant stupid people get. Just tell me anything I'll believe it.. a science-fiction Hollywood floats around the back of your head reconfirming the programming galaxies beyond the firmament and Little Green Men. Your history has been stolen from you fake news has been around for 2,000 years dictating what your history is. Dictating what they want you to know. So while you sit here thinking you're getting smart don't forget about that football game or soccer game that's keeping you dumber than a box of rocks. The beginning of the internet exposed everything you look hard go goblet it up because it's being scrubbed fast. YouTube is the only platform for this stuff because uncensor free platforms we don't put up with this pseudoscience s***.
Thanks for having a guest that can actually speak English 👍
Cross Jeff Goldblum with Mr. Rogers and you got that NASA guy.
Wouldn't there be a lot of water in the bottom of the Valles Mariannis canyon? After all it was the absolute deepest sea level millenias ago, that was the bottom of the ocean. It could be frozen on the bottom of the trench and just covered with a few feet of dust. If you could hit it with a meteor and reveal that water ice you would know it is a frozen lake and the warmest place on Mars.
Good convo!
What I would like the 'Mars group' do (if they haven't already done) is put out a complete list of non-human payload that's required to sustain a group of people on Mars for 2+ years….
– Medical equipment (x-ray machine, MRI, artificial blood, surgical robots)
– Water filtration/recycler
– Habitat builder
– power generation (solar panels, mini-nuclear plant…)
– Sabatier plant (CH4 generation)
– 3D printers
etc etc.
What a fascinating man to listen to Fraser. and a great interview!!
Another real world example of small group of people, physically isolated for months with inconsistent communication back to the world are the winter overs in the various bases on Antarctica. Look at the winter overs at Pole. They are isolated physically from the world with no flights in or out. With a hostile environment outside where exposed skin can be frost bitten in minutes. And communication only for a few hours a day. If something happens when there is no satellite communication, they have to either solve it or be able to hold on for hours before they can communicate back north. Granted, once communication is back up the delay is only about a second (transmission to geosynchronous orbit and back). But that communication window is only a couple hours long. Not an exact parallel to moon or Mars, but I would expect there can be some lessons learned there.
I wonder if Valles Marineris, or one of the side canyons, would be a good place to start a potential human habitat. It is a lower elevation, so more/ denser atmosphere. And there would be easier access to layers of rock in the side cliffs, and possible water. Also, where the valley narrows, one can imagine a clear roof installed and possible enclosing the ends to form an earth like atmosphere and habitat.
Could we stop bone decalcification in space ultra-sonically?
Say, you hop in an ultra sonic bath that's tuned to your bones and so it "damages" you a tiny bit.
Great interview,frustrated when the split screen disappeared sometimes.
All the crew will have CML leukemia by the time they even emerge onto the toxic hellscape that is Mars.
Is he related to Jeff Goldblum? he sounds and looks a bit like him.
Fascinating. I wonder how they would feed 4 – 6 astronauts for a 3 year mission? I'm guessing lots of freeze dried, and dehydrated stuff. I doubt you could take many MREs, they weigh too much… maybe a turkey dinner or two for Thanksgiving or something! But gosh, it's going to be the 21st century hardtack diet, isn't it!
Frazier. Great interview!
It’s about dam time! Thank you Elon Musk!! He got rid of those suits!! Nice design and comfortable.
I think it's funny how scientists don't seem to connect the unexpected ice sheets with the huge and frequent dust storms.
My guess is that once we get there and really look at it, it'll become obvious that lots of areas have had layer after layer of thin ice laid down as temperatures drop in dust storms that then cover the ice with enough weight (pressure) to keep it from sublimating. Probably not the only mechanism, but seems like it would be all over the place far enough away from the equator to keep the ice cold enough.
This might also be related to how such huge dust storms are powered – blow away some dust and expose some of the ice, which allows it to sublimate, adding air pressure to the dust storm. Eventually the global pressure equalizes, the winds stop, the lower air gets very cold, water vapor freezes out to create a thin layer of snow or a coating of ice, dust settles and compresses it enough to keep some areas frozen until the next dust storm.
And when a meteor strike breaks through a bunch of layers, the striated ice would start to sublimate at the crater walls, causing the exposed surface to become weak and eventually crumble away, creating 'flows' of dust that look like water has washed it down. The collapsing dust mostly seals the crater face slope, keeping sublimation slow.
Love this guy – he seems to have a pure joy in thinking about engineering problems and solutions.
I don’t know if humans to Mars is really something we should try to do (I’m not convinced the benefits outweigh the cost and risk), but his enthusiasm is infectious.
At the 36 min mark answer from Fraser that's when I knew he is one of people to go to Mars
This came out really good, fellas. Good chemistry. Easy to watch. Thank you
loved this interview. probably hands down my fav thus far. Thank you Rick and Fraser!
No mention of phobos