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Trapped on Mars: How Long Would You Last? · The Infographics Show Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Beyond Seeing Phographics. We're the show that skips
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the surface level and well really digs into the details.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 1: Today we're focusing on sending humans to Mars. What it
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: really takes. I've been waiting through quite a bit of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: material on this.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: This a popular topic.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, definitely, lots of people. Maybe picture of the Martian,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you know, fixing things, growing potatoes.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Sure, that's the image, But the actual.
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  Speaker 1: Science, the engineering hurdles keeping people alive that far away,
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  Speaker 1: it's something else entirely.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, let's untack this absolutely, and the first thing you hit,
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  Speaker 2: even before you get there, are the fundamental dangers of
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  Speaker 2: just being in deep space.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Top of the list maybe is space radiation. It's invisible,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: you don't feel it immediately, but over.
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  Speaker 1: A long mission it adds up serious long term health risks.
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  Speaker 1: You can't just wear a lead vest for that.
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  Speaker 2: Can you really know it's pervasive. Then there's the whole
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  Speaker 2: being stuck in a tiny can for months, potentially years.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was looking at that simulation they did, the
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  Speaker 1: five twenty day one. The psychological stuff was.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that study really highlighted the human element, didn't it.
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  Speaker 2: You put people in close confinement that long, you're going
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  Speaker 2: to see things like what specifically we while they saw
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  Speaker 2: definite mood changes, sleep problems, insomnia was common, and conflict
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  Speaker 2: between the crew interestingly more friction with mission control back
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  Speaker 2: on Earth than within the crew itself. But still it
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: shows how vital psychological health is, and not everyone handled
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: it the same. I gather not at all. Only two
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  Speaker 2: out of the six participants, so just a third showed
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  Speaker 2: no significant behavioral issues or psychological distress. It really tells
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you something about crew selection and support for deep space.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you realize it's not just about the hardware,
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  Speaker 1: it's the people inside. And then there's the sheer unbelievable distance.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly Mars isn't like popping over to the Moon. We're
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  Speaker 2: talking what an average of one hundred and forty million miles, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: something like that around trip plus time on the surface.
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  Speaker 2: You're looking at maybe three years. That kind of distance
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  Speaker 2: changes everything. Communication delays, huge delays. Getting emergency supplies there,
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  Speaker 2: forget it, medical help. You're on your own. It's a
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  Speaker 2: whole different ballgame than lunar missions.
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  Speaker 1: And our bodies aren't exactly built for space, are they not?
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  Speaker 2: Really? We evolved for Earth gravity, So you go through
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  Speaker 2: zero G for months during transit.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Then Mars gravity, which is what about three.
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  Speaker 2: Eighths of Earth, right, and then back to full Earth gravity.
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  Speaker 2: That messes with your muscles, your bones, your inner ear,
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  Speaker 2: even your organs. It's a real physical challenge.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got radiation, isolation, stress, huge distances, weird gravity.
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  Speaker 1: What about just keeping the spaceship itself livable?
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  Speaker 2: That tiny bubble that's the hostile closed environment hazard. You
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  Speaker 2: need a miniature ecosystem. Temperature, pressure, lighting, noise levels all critical.
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  Speaker 1: And I suppose things like microbes become an issue definitely.
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  Speaker 2: Managing the microbial environment inside a sealed spacecraft is complex.
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  Speaker 2: Plus you have to consider how the astronauts immune systems
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  Speaker 2: might react in that unique setting. It's a constant balancing act.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, the challenges are significant, but we're good at
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  Speaker 1: solving problems. Right. What's the cool tech being developed to
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  Speaker 1: actually make this happen?
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  Speaker 2: That's the exciting part. There's a lot going on. A
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  Speaker 2: big one is propulsion getting there faster.
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  Speaker 1: Because three years is a long time to be exposed
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  Speaker 1: to all those.
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  Speaker 2: Hazards exactly, So faster travel means less radiation exposure, less
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  Speaker 2: time and zero G. That's where nuclear propulsion comes in.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I saw stuff about that. Nuclear electric and nuclear thermal, right.
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  Speaker 2: Two main types being looked at. Nuclear electric is super
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  Speaker 2: fuel efficient, but it's more like a slow, steady push.
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  Speaker 1: Low thrust like an ion drive, but nuclear powered sort of. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Nuclear thermal gives you much more thrust, more oomph for
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  Speaker 2: faster burns to shorten trip times significantly cuts down on
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: that transit time.
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  Speaker 1: Makes sense, less time and transit less risk. Okay, how
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  Speaker 1: about landing. Landing a big human habitat is harder than
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  Speaker 1: a small rover.
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  Speaker 2: Is soome much harder. You need to slow down a
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  Speaker 2: much heavier vehicle in that thin Martian.
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  Speaker 1: Atmosphere, so bigger parachutes.
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  Speaker 2: Well partly, but the key tech here seems to be
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  Speaker 2: inflatable heat shields. They launch compacted then blow up to
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  Speaker 2: a huge size, uh, creating more drag exactly, more surface
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  Speaker 2: area to break against the atmosphere, allowing you to land
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  Speaker 2: heavier payloads safely.
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  Speaker 1: Clever. And what about the suits they'll wear outside? They
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  Speaker 1: need to be pretty advanced.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, think of them as personal spacecraft. The XCMU
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  Speaker 2: suits for the Artemis Moon missions are starting.
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  Speaker 1: Point, but Mars needs upgrades.
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  Speaker 2: Definitely needs to handle the CO two atmosphere, much bigger
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  Speaker 2: temperature swings than the Moon, dust protection, radiation, and still
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  Speaker 2: let astronauts move around and work. It's a huge design challenge.
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  Speaker 1: So a suit is basically a kiny mobile habitat. What
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  Speaker 1: about the main habitat they live in work.
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  Speaker 2: The idea of a pressurized rover is really taking shape.
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  Speaker 2: It's like a high tech RV for Mars.
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  Speaker 1: So they can live inside, drive around.
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  Speaker 2: Work right in normal glows a shirt sleeve environment. Then
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  Speaker 2: they suit up just for excursions outside. They're testing similar
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  Speaker 2: concepts for the Moon now learning lessons from Mars.
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  Speaker 1: That sounds way better than being stuck in one spot. Ah.
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  Speaker 1: How do you power all this? Though, especially with Mars
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  Speaker 1: having those planet covering dust storms, Solar seems tricky, very tricky.
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  Speaker 2: Dust storms can last months, block out the sun. Day
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  Speaker 2: night cycles are also a limitation for solar. That's why
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  Speaker 2: nuclear fission power is looking very.
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  Speaker 1: Attractive, like a mini reactor.
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  Speaker 2: Essentially, yes, small reliable works day or night, storm or
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  Speaker 2: clear weather. They're testing systems on Earth and the plan
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  Speaker 2: is to use it on the Moon first, prove it out.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, and communication. How do we avoid those massive
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  Speaker 1: delays in sending data or talking.
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  Speaker 2: That's where laser communications come in. Instead of radio waves,
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  Speaker 2: you use lasers, much much higher.
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  Speaker 1: Band with so faster data HD video maybe.
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  Speaker 2: Potentially, Yes, imagine getting detailed Mars maps back in weeks
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  Speaker 2: instead of years. They've already tested it successfully from the
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  Speaker 2: Moon and more tests are planned.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, the tech is really pushing boundaries. Let's switch you
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  Speaker 1: gear slightly. What about Mars itself? What's the ground like geologically?
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  Speaker 2: Mars is fascinating. It's a terrestrial planet like Earth, with
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  Speaker 2: a core mantle crust. Data from the insight Lander even
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  Speaker 2: suggests there might be a layer of radioactive magma under
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  Speaker 2: the crust.
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  Speaker 1: Really wow, it looks very different North versus South hemisphere right.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, hugely different. It's called the hemispheric dichotomy. The North
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  Speaker 2: is generally smooth, low planes, while the South is much older,
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  Speaker 2: higher elevation, and absolutely packed with craters. Any idea why
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  Speaker 2: still debated. Maybe one or more giant impacts early on,
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  Speaker 2: or maybe internal geological processes. But it's a very ancient
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  Speaker 2: feature and.
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  Speaker 1: It has those enormous volcanoes.
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  Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, the Tharsus region a huge volcanic plateau home
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  Speaker 2: to Olympus bonds, which just dwarfs anything on Earth. The
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  Speaker 2: sheer weight of Tharsus has actually fractured the crust around it.
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  Speaker 1: Incredible scale and craters everywhere, especially in.
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  Speaker 2: The south, absolutely loads of them, over forty two thousand
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  Speaker 2: bigger than five kilometer cataloged. Because Mars has some atmosphere
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  Speaker 2: and subsurface ice, you actually get a wider variety of
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  Speaker 2: crater shapes and features than say the Moon. They tell
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  Speaker 2: us a lot about the planet's history and surface ages.
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  Speaker 1: So it's this ancient, cratered, volcanic and very very cold world.
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  Speaker 1: How do you survive their long term? You can't bring everything.
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  Speaker 2: From Earth exactly. That's where institute resource utilization ISRU becomes
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  Speaker 2: absolutely essential, using what's already there, like.
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  Speaker 1: Making oxygen I remember the oxygen eator in the Martian
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  Speaker 1: Is that real?
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  Speaker 2: It's actually happening. The MOXI experiment on the Perseverance rover
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  Speaker 2: is doing it right now.
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  Speaker 1: O way.
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  Speaker 2: It takes in the Martian atmosphere, which is like ninety
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  Speaker 2: five percent carbon dioxide, and uses a process called solid
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  Speaker 2: oxide electrolysis or SOX. Basically, it uses electricity and special
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  Speaker 2: ceramics at high temperatures to split the CO two into
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  Speaker 2: oxygen and carbon monoxide. It works, It works, It's successfully
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  Speaker 2: produced oxygen on Mars. It's a proof of concept, but
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  Speaker 2: a crucial one. The ceramics they use, scandia stabilized zirconia
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  Speaker 2: are key because they're stable and efficient at those high
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  Speaker 2: operating temperatures.
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  Speaker 1: Are you that method?
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  Speaker 2: It's efficient, durable, stable, all vital for something you send
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  Speaker 2: on a spacecraft to another planet. No liquids to leak
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  Speaker 2: or freeze. It's robust and.
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  Speaker 1: The goal is to scale this up, make breathable air,
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  Speaker 1: rocket fuel.
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  Speaker 2: That's the long term vision, produce oxygen for life support
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  Speaker 2: and maybe even combine it with hydrogen perhaps from water ice,
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  Speaker 2: to make rocket propellant for the return journey. MOX is
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  Speaker 2: running through different Martian seasons to see how it performs
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  Speaker 2: year round.
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  Speaker 1: That's amazing, real science, catching up to Sci fi. But
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  Speaker 1: even with oxygen, just living on the surface day to
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  Speaker 1: day sounds incredibly harsh, how it is.
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  Speaker 2: Let's just run through the environmental reality. First, temperature, it's
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  Speaker 2: cold bar from the sun, thin atmosphere. How cold even
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: on a nice day at the equator, It's like a
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  Speaker 2: cold winter day on Earth. At night it can plunge
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  Speaker 2: down to maybe minus two hundred and eighty degrees fahrenheit
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  Speaker 2: or even lower. He needs seriously good habitats with heating
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  Speaker 2: bruh okay, and the air. The atmosphere is over one
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  Speaker 2: hundred times thinner than Earth's and as we said, almost
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  Speaker 2: no oxygen, totally unbreathable. The pressure is the immediate killer, though,
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  Speaker 2: low pressure so low that your bodily fluids water and
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  Speaker 2: your eyes, mouth, lungs, even your blood, if exposed, would
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  Speaker 2: boil at body temperature.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So suits or habitats are non.
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  Speaker 2: Negotiable absolutely Without one, you'd lose consciousness in maybe under
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  Speaker 2: two minutes from lack of oxygen and the effects of
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  Speaker 2: the low pressure like tissue swelling.
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  Speaker 1: And we already mentioned radiation, but on the surface it's worse.
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  Speaker 2: Much worse than in transit. Potentially no global magnetic field
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  Speaker 2: like Earth's thin atmosphere, so the surface gets blasted by
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  Speaker 2: solar radiation, UV X rays, gamma rays plus cosmic rays
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  Speaker 2: from deep space. Big cancer risk needs heavy shielding.
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  Speaker 1: It's just one thing after another.
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  Speaker 2: There's more Martian dust. It's fine, abrasive, potentially toxic if
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: inhaled gets everywhere, bad for lungs, eyes, equipment, right, and
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  Speaker 2: micro meteoroids tiny space particles that burn up in Earth's
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: atmosphere just hit the surface on Mars. They could puncture
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  Speaker 2: a suit or damage equipment.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, freezing can't breed, radiation, toxic dust getting pinged
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: by space rocks. He sounds daunting. Yet people talk seriously
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: about colonizing Mars.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: That is the long term ambition for many. Yes, moving
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: beyond just visits to permanent settlement, but.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It takes what eight months just to get there? One
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: way around that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So initial missions like Apollo are exploration. Colonization means
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: self sustaining permanent settlements.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: That can grow, and those robots we've sent are paving the.
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  Speaker 2: Way crucial precursors finding resources like water, ice, checking out
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  Speaker 2: potential locations, testing technologies like amoxi before we send fee
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: for the long haul.
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  Speaker 1: I've even heard talk of tarraforming making Mars more earth like?
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  Speaker 1: Is that just fantasy?
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  Speaker 2: It's theoretically conceivable, but on a timescale of centuries, maybe millennia,
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  Speaker 2: very complex.
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  Speaker 1: How would you even start.
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  Speaker 2: The general idea is to thicken the atmosphere and warm
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  Speaker 2: the planet. Maybe use giant space mirrors to melt the
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  Speaker 2: co two ice caps trigger a greenhouse effect, then perhaps
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: introduce engineered microbes to start producing oxygen later more complex life.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: It's ambitious, wildly ambitious. Where would people even settle first?
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  Speaker 2: Potential spots include the poles where there's water eyes, or
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: maybe equatorial regions looking for caves for radiation shelter or
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: potential geothermal heat.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: This all sounds unbelievably expensive. How does the economics of
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: this ever work?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: That's the trillion dollar question? Isn't it huge? Upfront government
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: investment seems unavoidable initially like Apollo right, But long term
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: for sustainability, you need an economic basis, maybe using space
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  Speaker 2: resources from Mars or asteroids to fuel further expansion. Eventually,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: perhaps some kind of trade between Mars and Earth, though
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: it's hard to imagine what Mars exports early on, besides
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: maybe scientific knowledge.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: What about resources on Mars itself?
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  Speaker 2: Early Martian economy would likely focus on essentials water, ice extraction,
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  Speaker 2: maybe some basic manufacturing. You might even see trade between
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Martian settlements. Eventually, power is key. Solar will play a role,
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  Speaker 2: but nuclear seems more robust for a permanent base, providing
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: heat as well as electricity.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I remember reading about a space elevator concept from Mars.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because of mars lower gravity and rotation, it's theoretically
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  Speaker 2: more feasible than on Earth. Could drastically lower transport costs
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  Speaker 2: off the planet way down the line. But we're talking
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  Speaker 2: very long term.
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  Speaker 1: Are there other ways to fund this besides governments?
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: People talk about things like inducement prizes, rewarding private companies
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: for hitting milestones, and you have advocacy groups like the
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Mars Society, and of course private efforts like Elon Musk's
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: pushing for large scale colonization. It's a mix of approaches
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: being discussed. By the way, if you're finding this deep
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: dive into Mars as fascinating as we do, maybe consider
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: giving beyond infographics of five star rating. It really helps
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: others find the show.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: It definitely helps put things in perspective. So summing up,
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  Speaker 1: going to Mars isn't just launching a rocket. It's sackling radiation, isolation,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: extreme cold, no air, dangerous dust, finding power, getting resources.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It's so much more complex than a simple picture.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Shows, immensely more complex. We've really just scratched the surface
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: of the challenges and the incredible ingenuity needed to make
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: humanity multiplanetary. And thinking about all this, the tech, the hazards,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: the human element, the sheer cost and time, it leaves
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: me wondering, and maybe you our listener too, what's the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: single most critical factor that will ultimately decide if we
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: succeed in establishing a permanent, thriving presence off Earth. Is
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: it the technology finally catching up? Is it the psychological
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: strength and adaptability of the people we send, or is
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: it finding that economic reason, that sustainable model that makes
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: it not just possible but necessary.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: That's a great question to chew on. A huge thank
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you for joining us on this deep dive into the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: realities of Mars. Keep questioning, keep exploring the complexities of space.