Speaker 1: Oh, hello, Hi, it's still your stepbrother's girlfriend with the
Speaker 1: pet rat because Ali Ward is back for yet another
Speaker 1: episode on Mars. I'm not on Mars because, honestly, fuck that.
Speaker 1: I get lonely, like on business trips. I'm on a
Speaker 1: business trip right now in a hotel room outside of Detroit.
Speaker 1: I'm a little lonely, but I understand. There are fireflies
Speaker 1: outside and I'm just waiting for it to get dark.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so this episode is on Mars. If you
Speaker 1: haven't heard part one yet, like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? There's so many spoilers, such as
Speaker 1: the fact that we just found fish in a dry
Speaker 1: lake bed on Mars, so we talk about that in
Speaker 1: part one. Wait is that shoe? No it's not, but
Speaker 1: go back and listen to part one anyway. Part one
Speaker 1: will give you all the primers you need on what
Speaker 1: is Mars deal, why is it cold? Why was it
Speaker 1: named after the deity of battle? What's up with its
Speaker 1: two moons, one named after the Fear and the other
Speaker 1: of the dread that a company wore, And why does
Speaker 1: one of them crash and reform itself over and over again?
Speaker 1: And how many rovers are up there? And what happens
Speaker 1: when you give birth to a moon rock? And where
Speaker 1: is the next Rover going? And what is the best
Speaker 1: Martian sci fi? Okay, all of that in part one,
Speaker 1: but now onto part two, all the weird juicy questions
Speaker 1: you guys asked about Mars and had answered. But first
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be quick Ologiesmarch dot com. This is the
Speaker 1: part where I shouted out there are hats and shirts
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Speaker 1: subscribing via iTunes. That keeps whole podcast Van Dad Board
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Speaker 1: And also you know I read your reviews. I do
Speaker 1: it every week. I just want you to feel seen
Speaker 1: and then to prove it. I read one each week
Speaker 1: because also it's really delightful that you guys even write that.
Speaker 1: So this week, first off, I want to say get
Speaker 1: well to Sara Maiah who left a review about snapping
Speaker 1: her FIBs and tibbs on a trail run Get better man. Also,
Speaker 1: Justin So wrote had to go to an Apple store
Speaker 1: to leave a review. I know how important iTunes reviews
Speaker 1: are for uncle al So, I may or may not
Speaker 1: have gone to an Apple store, used a MacBook there
Speaker 1: and left her this five star review. I love this
Speaker 1: podcast and have been binge listening to it. Also, thank
Speaker 1: you to no Nicknames Left, who says remember when Discovery Channel,
Speaker 1: the Learning Channel and the History Channel word just all
Speaker 1: aliens and reality TV? Remember when you could randomly find
Speaker 1: a documentary on the three Gorgeous dam in China and
Speaker 1: would just be sucked in for the ologies?
Speaker 2: Is that? So?
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for leaving those reviews. I
Speaker 1: just read three of them. I normally just pick one,
Speaker 1: but today I just I just wanted to say thanks,
Speaker 1: to more than one person, but I do. I've read
Speaker 1: all of them that you guys left this week, and
Speaker 1: you're just charming, your charming human beings. But let's get
Speaker 1: the heck back on Mars. Do you want to? Okay? Good? So,
Speaker 1: first off, many of you were like, word areology. Has
Speaker 1: that got something to do with nip slips or what?
Speaker 1: And sadly no, Areology comes from Aris, the Greek god
Speaker 1: of war, so Mars is his Roman stage name, and
Speaker 1: the nipples ariola region comes from the Latin for little garden,
Speaker 1: which I don't know. Maybe that says something about Roman
Speaker 1: breast hair. I'm not sure. I just wanted to answer
Speaker 1: that oversight of the part one episode that should have
Speaker 1: been the first thing I even talked about. Everyone's like,
Speaker 1: how did you not talk about ariolas? So boom part two?
Speaker 3: I did it?
Speaker 1: Okay, Speaking of questions, let's now commence the part two
Speaker 1: of all listener curiosities answered in very very squeaky chairs
Speaker 1: at Caltech by the very prepared and enthusiastic, wonderful, hilarious
Speaker 1: brainiac interplanetary rock enthusiast and areologist doctor Jennifer Booze. I
Speaker 1: have one million questions for you. Okay, is it okay?
Speaker 1: If I ask you one million? Yeah, okay, so many questions.
Speaker 1: I love that you know you are a patron. You've
Speaker 1: looked at some of these Yeah, you've looked at all
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 3: The ones that were posted as of a few hours ago.
Speaker 1: Like this is what I want in someone who studies
Speaker 1: other planets. Is this level of like detail and preparation,
Speaker 1: like this gives me faith the space program.
Speaker 3: Well I didn't. I didn't want to leave anyone hanging.
Speaker 1: They're amazing, it's amazing. Okay, Well, then in that case,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do a met of order. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you're amazing. You have notes spread up. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: oh my god. Okay, I'll put my notes away. Maybe
Speaker 1: you can. You can reference them. You can reference them
Speaker 1: if you need them. This is the level of preparation
Speaker 1: is like warming my heart. Right, I was excited too
Speaker 1: deep roll. Okay, I'm going to do im a little
Speaker 1: bit out of order.
Speaker 3: You go for it.
Speaker 1: Jessica tubasaying wants to know was the god of war
Speaker 1: being named Mars a suitable choice? The god of war
Speaker 1: being named Mars? Was it a suitable choice? Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I thought about it and so the reason they
Speaker 3: named it that is because it's red, and so they're
Speaker 3: like blood and war and stuff. And so I was thinking, like,
Speaker 3: are there other planets that would be like more warlike
Speaker 3: and I think maybe not planets, but like moons that
Speaker 3: have a lot of volcanoes and they're like turbulent kind
Speaker 3: of they're kind of more angry. But I do like
Speaker 3: that Mars. I think it's appropriate because it also has
Speaker 3: volcanoes and it has like ash deposits and stuff, so
Speaker 3: you know that like stuff was exploding. Oh and uh,
Speaker 3: but it also has these like catastrophic flood events that
Speaker 3: we think happened, so like huge amounts of water just
Speaker 3: like flowing over a surface and like so it is
Speaker 3: like it does have some like super active processes and
Speaker 3: so yeah, I think it is appropriate. I like it,
Speaker 3: and I like that it's red.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people figure this is I'm
Speaker 1: saying a lot of people, I mean me, because it's red.
Speaker 1: We associate that with heat, and we associate like Mars
Speaker 1: with like fury and fire. I think it's hard to
Speaker 1: wrap your brain around how cold it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now now it's cold.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember I asked a question of of
Speaker 1: a friend who works at JPL. I was like, how
Speaker 1: do these rovers will stand the heat? And they're like, Uhmitch,
Speaker 1: it's cold there.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, well I thought it too,
Speaker 3: Like I was like, would Venus be better for a
Speaker 3: war planet because it's really hot on the surface of Venus.
Speaker 3: But then I was like, the volcanoes on Venus are
Speaker 3: like the lava from Hawaii, which is like really flowy
Speaker 3: and it's not very explosive. And I was like, that's
Speaker 3: not very warlike.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a good point.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about the book mena from Mars?
Speaker 1: Women Are from Venus.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about that book.
Speaker 1: It's garbage, Okay. Next question, Stu wants to know what
Speaker 1: is the latest stance on Mars habitability with regards to
Speaker 1: things such as bone density deterioration and other physiological aspects
Speaker 1: from reduced gravity and cosmic radiation. Biologically. Could we deal
Speaker 1: with Mars?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think it takes a lot of engineering, but
Speaker 3: we could. The Man is like one tenth the gravity
Speaker 3: of Earth, I want to say, and Mars is about
Speaker 3: one third the gravity. So there's still gravity on Mars,
Speaker 3: and so it's like probably not going to be as
Speaker 3: bad as like other places you go, for example, like
Speaker 3: the space station where it's like no gravity, so you
Speaker 3: can be a human, I feel like on Mars. But yeah,
Speaker 3: you got to take your other stuff with you, like
Speaker 3: your air and your water and your food.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like byoe, like bring around everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly for real. Yeah, but it's not impossible.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah cool. Greg ariel Belk, Craig Curry, and Jorge
Speaker 1: Barnett all asked the same basic question. Okay, so this
Speaker 1: is a super question. Okay, in light of the giant
Speaker 1: dust storm that seems to have knocked out the curiosity,
Speaker 1: what is the most useful to humanity right now information
Speaker 1: that it has collected since its arrival to the red planet.
Speaker 1: So questions about dust storms yea, and what's the best
Speaker 1: stuff that the rovers have gotten?
Speaker 3: Okay, So, like I was thinking about this a lot.
Speaker 3: What's the best stuff the rivers have gotten? I think
Speaker 3: that like seeing that Mars was habitable in the past
Speaker 3: was probably the most interesting and maybe useful to humanity
Speaker 3: kind of thing because we can see like how we
Speaker 3: see how Mars has changed with time and like how
Speaker 3: Earth might change with time to and also like what
Speaker 3: the different extremes like that we can have on different
Speaker 3: planets are So that's like super interesting. And then yeah,
Speaker 3: the dust storm, I don't know, it's just like a
Speaker 3: cool global phenomenon it but yeah, for curiosity, we're not
Speaker 3: super worried about it. That's the other stuff, the other rivers.
Speaker 1: And this is a pretty big one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is a I think it is a global
Speaker 3: dust storm. And there have been global dust storms that
Speaker 3: have lasted I think like months. I don't know that
Speaker 3: they know how long this one will last because I
Speaker 3: think it's still getting worse. Oh yeah, the first like
Speaker 3: one of the first satellites they sent to Mars. When
Speaker 3: they got there, it was in a dust storm, so
Speaker 3: they actually couldn't even really see the surface, which so frustrating.
Speaker 3: And it was like a flyby too. I think it's
Speaker 3: like not like they could go back.
Speaker 1: Oh it's like getting your period on your wedding day.
Speaker 1: Yeah maybe sorry, Mars red planet indeed, Okay, Elliott Anya
Speaker 1: and el Martinez both wants both want to know realistically
Speaker 1: how close are we both politically and technically to a
Speaker 1: crude mission to Mars happening. And by crude I mean
Speaker 1: crew see ew, not like a crude mission.
Speaker 3: Where it's just like crud.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like crude. And I'm saying crude because sometimes people
Speaker 1: still say manned, and let's be honest, it's crude if
Speaker 1: you're like, what, okay, So manned suggests all dudes, which
Speaker 1: is not accurate sometimes. And also, if we want more
Speaker 1: women in space, let's not suggest that they do not
Speaker 1: belong there. So manned is kind of as awkwardly specific
Speaker 1: as saying woman crude, nice and neutral. So saying a
Speaker 1: manned mission to Mars just FYI in today's day and
Speaker 1: age is a little crude because manned is a little
Speaker 1: old fashioned.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. So, like NASA has plans to have
Speaker 3: humans on Mars by the twenty twenty thirty three. I
Speaker 3: think there's like a directive or something, but I don't
Speaker 3: think that there's like actual a lot of like stuff
Speaker 3: happening related to that. I'm not positive about that. But
Speaker 3: that was like they were like we will do this,
Speaker 3: we will do this, and then but like SpaceX, like
Speaker 3: they want to be on Mars like in the twenty twenties.
Speaker 1: What yeah, that's uh, that's so soon, that's within like
Speaker 1: ten years. I one hundred percent have underwear older than that.
Speaker 1: But yes, NASA and SpaceX have crude Mars missions on
Speaker 1: their ten year to do list, So I.
Speaker 3: Think that like, technologically, I mean, I'm not someone who
Speaker 3: does this kind of engineering work or whatever, But politically
Speaker 3: I think, I mean, like when NASA wants to go there,
Speaker 3: and then technologically I think like we're capable of some
Speaker 3: pretty incredible things. So my god, I don't think it's
Speaker 3: like impossible. I feel like it seems really soon to
Speaker 3: meet too though, But like I said, I'm not involved
Speaker 3: in that kind of stuff, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: Who do you think they should pick for stuff like that.
Speaker 3: There's a graduate she was a post doc in this
Speaker 3: department and she was just selected as as an astronaut
Speaker 3: last year. Her name's Jessica Watkins and she studied Mars.
Speaker 1: Oh Man. This lady, Jessica Watkins from Colorado, former rugby player, pilot,
Speaker 1: thirty years old and officially an astronaut. I tried to
Speaker 1: see if she had an Instagram upon which I could
Speaker 1: fan girl, but alas I could not find her. So
Speaker 1: maybe the trick to kicking ass is doing less scrolling
Speaker 1: of memes and not looking at videos of people. Man
Speaker 1: handling slime late at night. I don't know, but if
Speaker 1: I ever meet Jessica Watkins, I'm going to ask her
Speaker 1: for all of the life tips. Her tip will probably be,
Speaker 1: I don't know, just be me.
Speaker 3: She's a marisciologist and now a NASA astronaut.
Speaker 1: Holy I'd be.
Speaker 3: So psyched if she was the one going on that.
Speaker 1: Does she want to go?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's into it. Yeah, she's so into it. Oh
Speaker 3: my god.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's like, by Earth your toast.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't blame her. It's pretty garbage right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a good time to hit the eject button
Speaker 1: on All Earth where it's like, well we fucked this up.
Speaker 1: Mariner cosplay, Al Martinez, uh Irakasha, Stephen Titus, and Justin M.
Speaker 1: Gifford all wanted to know what are the biggest hurdles
Speaker 1: for terraforming and is there an initiative within NASA or
Speaker 1: another agency to do so. Also follow question from Ali Ward,
Speaker 1: what is terraforming?
Speaker 3: I think terraforming. I don't know the definition, but I
Speaker 3: feel like it's when you make the surface like have
Speaker 3: grass on it. Really No, no, definitely not. That's just
Speaker 3: what I imagine is like.
Speaker 1: What terraforming is landscaping. It's partial landscaping. Yeah, uh, you'll
Speaker 1: have to look that up. But so quick definition here.
Speaker 1: Terraforming is mostly at present a sci fi term, and
Speaker 1: it means to transform a planet to be more like Earth,
Speaker 1: presumably so that we can go live there. So I imagine
Speaker 1: in the future HGTV will have a whole Flip or
Speaker 1: Flop esque series dedicated to making over dry, barren planets
Speaker 1: into like lush, boho habitats of our dreams. All we
Speaker 1: have to do is just painstakingly alter but already naturally exists.
Speaker 3: Can you review the question?
Speaker 1: Yeah, essentially, what are the biggest hurdles for terraforming?
Speaker 3: Okay, so, yeah, that we don't have a lot of
Speaker 3: water or oxygen the atmosphere there's or or that the
Speaker 3: atmosphere is so thin in general. So uh, it's either
Speaker 3: going to have to be like you make the atmosphere
Speaker 3: thicker somehow by like melting the caps or like taking
Speaker 3: an atmosphere, but then you need a shield for the atmosphere.
Speaker 3: So like I think if you, like if they existed
Speaker 3: in bubbles, like if we had like a big dome,
Speaker 3: maybe you could kind of start doing that that way,
Speaker 3: where you can like contain your atmosphere and your water
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. Yeah, so those are the big hurdles.
Speaker 3: In Radiation is another hurdle.
Speaker 1: Because there's not a lot of atmosphere to shieldy from
Speaker 1: it exactly. Even though the sun is farther away, you're
Speaker 1: still like sizzling. So even if you landscape Mars, you're
Speaker 1: still going to get a pretty high dose of radiation
Speaker 1: because of a really thin atmosphere. And also the place
Speaker 1: is pretty dry, it's pretty sandy. Now there is water
Speaker 1: trapped in minerals, but getting it out would be, in
Speaker 1: technical terms, h a shit ton of work, which brings
Speaker 1: up the age old question of why bother Jeffrey Katz
Speaker 1: wants to know. Is it worth the trouble and expense
Speaker 1: to send humans to Mars or should we put our
Speaker 1: effort into more sophisticated robots. Hello, I am a sophisticated
Speaker 1: robot now, ILike French films and expensive coffee.
Speaker 3: So robots live for a very long time and you
Speaker 3: can put all sorts of cool instruments on them, and
Speaker 3: in that sense, robots maybe the way, But like humans,
Speaker 3: like we've gone to the moon and collected rocks and
Speaker 3: it's like so useful for a person to just like
Speaker 3: if you walk around and you know what's cool and
Speaker 3: you pick it up, you put it in your pocket
Speaker 3: and also be super sick to be on Mars. So
Speaker 3: that's like really cool too. But then like if you
Speaker 3: go to Mars, you can't only be there for so long,
Speaker 3: I mean without taking like a ton of stuff with you,
Speaker 3: so like you probably need just like way more stuff
Speaker 3: with you, and so it's going to be like way
Speaker 3: more expensive than just sending like a robot that doesn't
Speaker 3: need food.
Speaker 1: It's also it also seems like a pride thing, like
Speaker 1: why why send humans to Mars when we could have robots.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like because we can, Yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 1: it'd be cool because we did that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But the robots can accomplish a lot, and we
Speaker 3: can send you know, like ten robots to Mars, like
Speaker 3: to ten different spots. You know, it's just like way cheaper.
Speaker 1: If you go to Mars and you pee on it.
Speaker 1: Who owns Mars? Do you own Mars if you just
Speaker 1: peede on it? Is that how it works? Or is
Speaker 1: it just like in an does the world? Does Earth
Speaker 1: even own Mars? Or does Venus own Mars?
Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, I think it's like a big debate. I
Speaker 3: don't know if necessarily it's debated, but it's a big
Speaker 3: issue with with Mars. There's like a whole thing called
Speaker 3: planetary protection, where like when we send stuff, we have
Speaker 3: to go through like incredible lengths to make sure that
Speaker 3: we're not contaminating the planet. Like NASA has like they're like, no,
Speaker 3: you can't do that, Like you can't even go a
Speaker 3: place place that you think there might be water because
Speaker 3: they're like, well, what if we accidentally took some bacteria
Speaker 3: and then we accidentally colonize Mars. You know, like there's
Speaker 3: all this debate about that. But then there's all these
Speaker 3: like private companies and they're like, well, we're going to
Speaker 3: do it, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: We're kind of going to be trespassing. Yeah, So there
Speaker 1: is a wealth of information about planetary protection. This is
Speaker 1: keeping space microbes off of Earth and also not shipping
Speaker 1: our gross Earth microbes to Martians. These planetary protections include
Speaker 1: these complex equations of how many spores per square meter
Speaker 1: are acceptable on equipment so that we can send it
Speaker 1: into outer space, and the whole thing just kind of
Speaker 1: reads like a very long winded like employees must wash
Speaker 1: hands after using the restroom sign like so duh. But
Speaker 1: also if these rules weren't in place, you know, some
Speaker 1: people would be like, Eh, whatever, Okay, Guy R. Thomas
Speaker 1: wants to know. My daughter wants to know how many
Speaker 1: different rocks have been identified on Mars and how long
Speaker 1: does it take to send commands to the rover and
Speaker 1: get a response back.
Speaker 3: Okay, So there are many different types of rocks that
Speaker 3: have been found of Mars, but they're pretty much all
Speaker 3: the same as Earth rocks. So there's like basalt, which
Speaker 3: is like what we get like kind of lava from
Speaker 3: Hawaii type rocks. And then there's like sedimentary rocks that
Speaker 3: like from the lakes, so like layered rocks. There's like
Speaker 3: sandstones like mudstones. There are meteorites on Mars. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: came from other places, yeah, that we found with the rovers.
Speaker 1: There's it's weird to think there's a chunk of Earth
Speaker 1: on Mars and someone's like.
Speaker 3: What, Yeah, actually I think that like they wanted to
Speaker 3: send a part of a meteorite back to Mars just
Speaker 3: like a little bit. Yeah, but yeah, it's harder, I
Speaker 3: think to get a rock from Earth to Mars, like
Speaker 3: because of their orbits and they're dis instrument the sun.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I mean, you know, there's probably
Speaker 3: as one though, because things there's been a lot of
Speaker 3: time in history.
Speaker 1: Danny Kay wants to know, is it possible to have
Speaker 1: a water balloon fight on Mars the atmosphere.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so so yes, in certain places at certain times.
Speaker 3: So the question is related to the fact that water's
Speaker 3: not stable on the surface for a lot of the time.
Speaker 3: So it's either it's like too cold, so it'd be ice,
Speaker 3: or it's like low pressure so it would be gas.
Speaker 3: So like liquid water is not really there, so you'd
Speaker 3: have like a like a soft like a baseball, or
Speaker 3: like an exploding balloon. But if you go like low
Speaker 3: enough elevation, I think you can get in some places
Speaker 3: for brief moments in time enough pressure and enough atmosphereic
Speaker 3: I mean enough pressure and a high enough temperature that
Speaker 3: you could maybe do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so certain spots, and that's why we need to
Speaker 1: send more rovers. It's to find out where to have
Speaker 1: the water balloon fights.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also the street value of that water balloon is
Speaker 1: like millions of dollars because it had to be shipped
Speaker 1: from elsewhere. Yeah, so that's like having a balloon fight
Speaker 1: with a gold dust on our you know what I mean. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: don't even think about a super soaker. This is asking
Speaker 1: too much. So side note for more information on the
Speaker 1: inventor of the super soaker, who was a NASA engineer.
Speaker 1: You can see my minisode about Summer that just went
Speaker 1: up a few weeks ago. A yastology should be a word,
Speaker 1: So it's all about Summer in the history of water
Speaker 1: fights and also melan genetics. Laura Mulligan wants to know
Speaker 1: if you were to get bored or tired of Mars,
Speaker 1: what other planets would you like to study and why?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, so, like I already studied the Moon, and
Speaker 3: I still think the moon's pretty cool. It's really cute
Speaker 3: and we can see it from Earth.
Speaker 1: It's really cute. It is really cute that it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's it's cool that it's like part of
Speaker 3: you know, it's part of Earth. There are a ton
Speaker 3: of small moons, like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn
Speaker 3: that I think are super fascinating, like the icy icy
Speaker 3: moons where there's like water underneath, and super volcanic moons
Speaker 3: and stuff.
Speaker 1: Quick check in on Jupiter and Saturn's moons. So well,
Speaker 1: Earth has one moon, kind of kind of like a
Speaker 1: sweet elderly couple who fell in love in high school
Speaker 1: and have just been married for like billions of years.
Speaker 1: Jupiter and Saturn have more populous relationships with their moons,
Speaker 1: like just a sexy, consensual poly situation. Saturn has sixty
Speaker 1: two moons and Jupiter has a blessed auspicious sixty nine,
Speaker 1: including the icy Europa, which is the star of an
Speaker 1: upcoming NASA flyby mission and a possible lander way down
Speaker 1: the line, all on the hunt for interplanetary critters. Despite
Speaker 1: that these two planets have like moon orgies and literally
Speaker 1: rain diamonds, perhaps the best planet is just whichever goddamn
Speaker 1: one you're sitting on.
Speaker 3: I really like Earth too. I am a geologist, and
Speaker 3: sometimes I want to spend a little more time thinking
Speaker 3: about Earth.
Speaker 1: Yeah do you do that on weekends?
Speaker 3: Yeah? All the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You just go hiking and you're like, look at that,
Speaker 1: yeah sandstone and that sentiment. Yeah, that's gotta be great,
Speaker 1: because you know how sometimes you'll go on a hike
Speaker 1: and if you don't know shit about geology, you'll like
Speaker 1: a bunch of cool rocks, but you kind of need
Speaker 1: someone to go with you to be like, look at that,
Speaker 1: look at that.
Speaker 3: Look. Yeah, I know I have a problem right now,
Speaker 3: which is I just moved to flag Staff and I
Speaker 3: have one friend.
Speaker 1: Flag staff people.
Speaker 3: And flagstaff should come on an a geology hike with me.
Speaker 1: Now I have to visit flag Staff. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like you're gonna have some serious flag staff friends after this.
Speaker 1: Flag Staff hit up Jen booze at Bugaboos bug A
Speaker 1: b u z on Instagram. B friends enjoy some rock hikes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a whole posse and flag Staff.
Speaker 3: That'd be cool.
Speaker 1: Okay, oloft doatch Key wants to know, is it true
Speaker 1: that the Mars day, which is twenty four hours and
Speaker 1: thirty seven minutes better suits the human bio rhythm?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think that would be really weird if that
Speaker 3: was the case. But so like the the rover teams
Speaker 3: when when the rivers first land the first ninety saws,
Speaker 3: they live on Mars time, so they are they artificially
Speaker 3: make their days that long and they do operations during that,
Speaker 3: but it's super hard because the Earth it's not on
Speaker 3: that time. So then then they'd be awake, like in
Speaker 3: the middle of the night and stuff. So it's hard
Speaker 3: for me to imagine that that's the case, but no idea.
Speaker 1: Is it only another thirty seven minutes? Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: adds up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like, get like two days into it,
Speaker 3: you're already like one hour off and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that we call them days. They
Speaker 1: call them souls. Sauls, Yeah, sauls. Yeah, that's kind of cute.
Speaker 3: Yeah it is. Yeah, so we celebrate the saals on Mars.
Speaker 1: That's cute.
Speaker 3: Uh A.
Speaker 1: Lonth just straight up wants to know is their life
Speaker 1: on Mars.
Speaker 3: I want to say that there's probably like no way
Speaker 3: that we took every single bug off the rivers that
Speaker 3: we sent, so like maybe there's like some little microbe
Speaker 3: still alive. And I want to say that, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe there were microbes way early on.
Speaker 1: This was a very pregnant pause, pregnant with moon rocks.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm not gonna say you know what, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: just I'm just gonna say.
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, this is a good prediction because later, like
Speaker 1: when they find it, you'll be like, please see my
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen interview where.
Speaker 3: I would just said definitively yes, I'm just gonna say yes.
Speaker 1: But again, Christopher Barley had a great question that I
Speaker 1: didn't even I hadn't considered. He says, Uh, I seem
Speaker 1: to remember that the northern half of Mars is completely
Speaker 1: smooth while the southern half is full of craters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's up? Do we understand what caused this and why
Speaker 1: the inconsistency?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, like, uh, I think that maybe the major
Speaker 3: idea for this is that there was a big impact
Speaker 3: that that came in like at an oblique angle and
Speaker 3: just like shaved off the top of Mars and then
Speaker 3: it was like low. And there's also a lot of
Speaker 3: debate about the they're called the Northern Lowlands the Southern Highlands,
Speaker 3: and so they Southern Highlands are like way older, super
Speaker 3: eft up landscapes, and people think that and there's like, uh,
Speaker 3: what we think were like catastrophic floods going up there.
Speaker 3: So there's some idea that there was an ocean up
Speaker 3: there too, which may explain that, and then like volcanism
Speaker 3: related to that like impact, so all things that could
Speaker 3: have smoothed it out.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's so odd. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: that about about Mars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's called the crystal dichotomy boundary. Oh, crystal dicotomy.
Speaker 3: So it's like it's got just like half of the
Speaker 3: crust is high and like left up and old, and
Speaker 3: the other half is low and smooth.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so interesting. It's like it got an acid
Speaker 1: peel and it's like new, but it's exfoliated on a
Speaker 1: half of space. Yeah, it was a group on it
Speaker 1: half of Thomas Mayor wants to know what thoughts on
Speaker 1: elon Musk and nuking the poles of the planet. What
Speaker 1: is that question about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So there's this idea that like, if you want
Speaker 3: to make the atmosphere of Mars thicker, you could just
Speaker 3: like melt the poles and so all that water and
Speaker 3: carbon dioxide that's like trapped in dry ice and water
Speaker 3: ice will be in the atmosphere.
Speaker 1: Got it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But I love Mars. It's like really pretty as
Speaker 3: it is. Yeah, I don't really want to do that.
Speaker 3: So that's my opinion on it.
Speaker 1: And also, now that I'm a Mars expert, there's kind
Speaker 1: of not going to be an atmosphere to keep all
Speaker 1: that stuff in or would that give the atmosphere to
Speaker 1: keep it in. Is there any of a shield?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think you. You'd have to protect it. Okay,
Speaker 3: it would go away eventually, like the rest of Mars
Speaker 3: atmosphere dead. I mean, I'm weren't careful. I'm pretty much
Speaker 3: like your coworker now because I know so much. I'm
Speaker 3: just checking.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about Elon Musk's fetishizing of Mars?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like the same. ID. I would be
Speaker 3: really sad if I if I looked at Mars and
Speaker 3: it was just like another Earth, because it's so cool
Speaker 3: that it's not, and it's like, it's like so fascinating.
Speaker 3: So it'd be it's like, what, you know, your favorite
Speaker 3: desert landscape, and then all of a sudden it's a suburb.
Speaker 3: It's like not the same, it's the lame.
Speaker 1: Suddenly there's a best buy on Mars and you're like
Speaker 1: the fuck?
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Chick fil A.
Speaker 1: You're like, who are you Mars?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Why does Elon Musk have such a boner for Mars?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: He's so horny for it. I'm gonna look into that.
Speaker 1: So why does he love it so much? I'm not
Speaker 1: quite sure, but he has said that Space travel is
Speaker 1: the best thing we can do to extend the life
Speaker 1: of humanity, and he said that he wants to die
Speaker 1: on Mars, just not on Impact. Now. In part one
Speaker 1: of Areology, I mentioned my hardcore, brilliant scientist friends, Casey
Speaker 1: and Christine, both NASA scientists, who introduced me to Jennifer.
Speaker 1: So the day after this episode went up, Casey and
Speaker 1: Christine happened to have seen their other pal, the science
Speaker 1: fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, who I mentioned. He's the
Speaker 1: writer of these really beautiful books, the Red Mars series
Speaker 1: that people love. I naturally freaked out, and Casey and
Speaker 1: Christine were kind enough to conduct an impromt do interview
Speaker 1: with them that they just recorded on one of their phones.
Speaker 2: Hi Eli, Hi Jennifer, It's stan Robinson.
Speaker 1: To get his take about interplanetary habitation. What did a
Speaker 1: brilliant science fiction writer who owned describing Mars say about
Speaker 1: us being on Mars?
Speaker 2: Well, it's a wrong idea, So you don't want a
Speaker 2: wrong idea hanging out there with the notion that and
Speaker 2: I think, actually, and maybe it's one of these ideas
Speaker 2: that floats around the Internet at the level of commentary
Speaker 2: that isn't really thinking, so maybe nobody really believes this idea,
Speaker 2: and it's not that much of a moral hazard, but
Speaker 2: the notion that we have any other place than Earth
Speaker 2: is clearly falls. And it's not that you couldn't care
Speaker 2: for Mars, it's just that it might take ten thousand
Speaker 2: years to do it, and we've got a one hundred
Speaker 2: year emergency that we're living in, so the time scales
Speaker 2: are badly off, and you don't want to ever think
Speaker 2: that we've got any other place than Earth. One thing
Speaker 2: that you do keep hearing from people is the idea
Speaker 2: that if we had five thousand people on Mars and
Speaker 2: the living semi independently of Earth, and then Earth was somehow,
Speaker 2: by some mysterious and basically fictional disaster that everybody on
Speaker 2: Earth died, that after that those five thousand people from
Speaker 2: Mars could come back to Earth and then it would
Speaker 2: all be okay. That you don't want to have all
Speaker 2: your eggs in one basket. This is how it's put
Speaker 2: that there should be a backup to humanity itself. To me,
Speaker 2: the badness of that idea is not only the moral hazard,
Speaker 2: like maybe we could just go ahead and blow ourselves up,
Speaker 2: but that that would be any kind of compensation for
Speaker 2: the loss of so many humans that humanity isn't that
Speaker 2: valuable that if we were to lose all of humanity
Speaker 2: on Earth and all of the rest of the mammals, etc.
Speaker 1: Etc.
Speaker 2: Who cares if some humans come back twenty thousand years later.
Speaker 2: We probably should have gone extinct at that moment from
Speaker 2: our own stupidity. So I'm completely against that whole line
Speaker 2: of thought of we need an emergency population somewhere else
Speaker 2: in case we excellently killed everybody off on Earth. You
Speaker 2: can't kill off everybody on Earth. We're like cockroaches. The
Speaker 2: only conceivable thing that might do it is a gigantic
Speaker 2: asteroid impact. To detect and deflect asteroids that are incoming
Speaker 2: and save ourselves from a big old bang is the
Speaker 2: obvious first thing that spacefaring work ought to be devoted to.
Speaker 1: So saving our species while kicking it on an annex
Speaker 1: planet while Earth burns maybe not a good idea. Sandymore
Speaker 1: wants to know how much time and money do we
Speaker 1: spend studying Mars and the Earth's oceans. Should we focus
Speaker 1: on one more than the other when it comes to
Speaker 1: making life better for life on Earth? Like essentially why
Speaker 1: are we studying more so much when we are catastrophically
Speaker 1: fucking up Earth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's actually a lot of people say, you know,
Speaker 3: we know more about Mars and we know about the
Speaker 3: bottom of the ocean. It's like really hard to study
Speaker 3: the bottom of the ocean. I don't know, Like Mars
Speaker 3: is like a thing that makes people so curious and
Speaker 3: like it just like broadens our perspective, and so does
Speaker 3: the bottom of the ocean. It's hard for me to
Speaker 3: really say we shouldn't study the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 1: But also there's that necklace from Titanic down.
Speaker 3: There, Yeah, Mars, Like there is a lot of the
Speaker 3: reason that we study Mars is because it was like
Speaker 3: early on in its history was so earth like and
Speaker 3: so it's like basically an old version of Earth and
Speaker 3: it's like so fascinating to see how it evolved and
Speaker 3: so whereas like, I don't know, you could say that
Speaker 3: about the ocean. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 3: I shouldn't compare them so.
Speaker 1: Much, but maybe it's like a cautionary tale.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know that could be us like cold
Speaker 3: and dusty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like when you watch Careful, like eat true Hollywood
Speaker 1: story and you're like, oh man, what happened? You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: what happened to them? So if you ever think that
Speaker 1: your life is kind of slow and boring, just think
Speaker 1: we are experiencing like a live fast, die young, crash
Speaker 1: and burn, tawdry cautionary tale every day just by using
Speaker 1: plastics and fossil fuels to ruin the planet. This was
Speaker 1: meant as like a lighthearted aside, but now I'm depressed anyway.
Speaker 1: Mars exploration is important both scientifically and existentially. Jennifer says, Okay,
Speaker 1: so maybe I'm going to say that it's a cautionary
Speaker 1: tale thing.
Speaker 3: I think it serves to broaden our perspective of life
Speaker 3: and of the Solar System and the evolution of it.
Speaker 3: And it's just like a great thing for us to
Speaker 3: think about. So that's how I think it gives us
Speaker 3: a little bit more of a perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think people get do you think people
Speaker 1: have a lot of existential crises thinking about Mars and
Speaker 1: other planets and that this isn't the only planet, Like,
Speaker 1: do you think that it's psychologically a lot of people
Speaker 1: kind of grapple with Mars and other planets as a concept.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I think, especially when we start to
Speaker 3: think about life. Yeah, so what does it all mean?
Speaker 3: You know, we're not alone on this Earth's not the
Speaker 3: only planet. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean how big.
Speaker 3: There's like more earths now, you know, like with all
Speaker 3: these exoplanets being discovered, a super earths and other types
Speaker 3: of planets. Yeah. Do you think people often like feel
Speaker 3: very small when they think about these things?
Speaker 1: Right? But I think it's almost a relief. I feel
Speaker 1: like you don't matter. Oh yeah, there's a relief in that,
Speaker 1: Like everything seems so huge, parking tickets and like this
Speaker 1: person like didn't follow me back on Instagram or whatever.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, oh shit, I'm just like a
Speaker 1: tiny microbe. It doesn't matter. Maybe I can relax a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unless you start to think that we are the
Speaker 3: only life, and then you're like we're the only life
Speaker 3: and we're fucking it up. Oh no, you could take
Speaker 3: it both ways.
Speaker 1: You're like an only child who ends up like being
Speaker 1: a HELLI in.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I do think that having an appreciation,
Speaker 1: fostering an appreciation for other planets maybe does make us
Speaker 1: look back. At least the question is being asked san anymore, like,
Speaker 1: should we be paying more attention to our own planet?
Speaker 1: Maybe appreciating Mars makes us have more appreciation of our
Speaker 1: own planet too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I don't think that Mars research is wasted
Speaker 3: money at all. I think it inspires a lot of
Speaker 3: people and it's super fascinating and we learn a lot
Speaker 3: about it and gives us a lot of perspective. So really, yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't think that. Yeah, in terms of like how
Speaker 3: much money we spend on it and stuff, I think
Speaker 3: it's worthwhile.
Speaker 1: Right, do you know how much people spend on like
Speaker 1: hair restoration and viagra?
Speaker 3: Yeah, like a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So just a little FYI, the US spends about a
Speaker 1: billion and a half dollars per year on viagra. It's
Speaker 1: like seventy dollars a pill. I had no idea it
Speaker 1: was so costly. Did you know that? Don't tell me?
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: The US Department of Defense alone spends roughly eighty four
Speaker 1: million annually on dick pills. So many dollars, So many dicks. Now,
Speaker 1: Americans spend eight hundred million dollars a year on hair restoration,
Speaker 1: and we collectively spend eight point five billion dollars on
Speaker 1: manicures in the us every year. So I don't know
Speaker 1: when it comes to what we spend our money on,
Speaker 1: I have no answers. I have no answers. It's all confounding.
Speaker 1: I mean, we should probably spend more on food for
Speaker 1: people who need it, and clean water or corn dogs
Speaker 1: hugs are free. I don't know. I don't have answers.
Speaker 1: Billy Marina wants to know from the data we've gathered
Speaker 1: so far, have we learned anything from Mars that has
Speaker 1: significantly changed the way we understand Earth?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so okay, So this is I was thinking about.
Speaker 3: We compare Mars lot to early Earth and so that
Speaker 3: in that sense, it is a little bit we have
Speaker 3: talked about a little bit about it because it gives
Speaker 3: us this different perspective of our own planet and like
Speaker 3: how these plants have evolved. But then there's also these
Speaker 3: like fundamental differences between Mars and Earth, Like Mars doesn't
Speaker 3: have a magnetic field, now, Mars doesn't have plate tectonics,
Speaker 3: Mars is super iron rich, Like what did those differences
Speaker 3: mean for us? Like because we only have one data
Speaker 3: point here, now we have like more info on this
Speaker 3: other planet and seeing how those things make it different.
Speaker 3: So that's like those are the like the big things
Speaker 3: that we learned. Just like comparatively, Mars gives us a
Speaker 3: glimpse into the early Solar system and stuff that was
Speaker 3: going on in that in that early time, and then
Speaker 3: we learn like processes that happen on Earth could have
Speaker 3: happened on Mars, but like in totally different ways, like
Speaker 3: sand ripples. Like my friend Mitiu did this work where
Speaker 3: it was like, uh, he found these like ripples on
Speaker 3: sand dunes on Mars that like are subequious here, but
Speaker 3: like they're they're just like because of the Mars atmosphere
Speaker 3: is different, they happen.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, so we can compare geologic features and realize
Speaker 1: that they can be created under two completely different Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: It's like kind of mind blowing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's nuts because you're like, oh that would this
Speaker 1: would lead you to believe it's definitely this causing it,
Speaker 1: and it's like not really exactly. Yeah, that's creepy. That's cool.
Speaker 3: So that's I think that's like really valuable stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, Baron wants to know since once there was water
Speaker 1: on Mars, is Mars dust as horrifically nasty as lunar
Speaker 1: dust and Apparently dust on the Moon had no water
Speaker 1: to a road around the edges, and so it was
Speaker 1: spiky and super damaging to equipment and fleshy bits like
Speaker 1: say lungs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the Mars dust in terms of like it
Speaker 3: being sharpened stuff, it's not as sharp as moondust. So
Speaker 3: it's just it's like really fine. It's like just like
Speaker 3: Earth a lot of ways, like earth dust, but it
Speaker 3: has sometimes it has like salts and stuff in it
Speaker 3: that are really toxic, so like you don't want to
Speaker 3: like you don't want to eat it necessarily, but it's
Speaker 3: not gonna like kill you either. I think you probably
Speaker 3: need to wear like a dust mask, but it's you know,
Speaker 3: otherwise I don't. I think it's probably fine. And actually
Speaker 3: they study there's like experience where they have like fake
Speaker 3: Mars dirt and dust and they grow stuff in it. Oh,
Speaker 3: just like thinking about if we could grow stuff on Mars.
Speaker 1: Does it work? Yeah, it does so from Andy Weir,
Speaker 1: taking your desiccated feces and mixing them with Mars dust
Speaker 1: possibly could work.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think I think they have to do some
Speaker 3: stuff to it, but like I think the idea is
Speaker 3: like could we And I think the answer is yes, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you guys have to put money in a jar
Speaker 1: every time someone in your lab says, let's science the
Speaker 1: shit out of this.
Speaker 3: No one ever says that just checking.
Speaker 1: If someone did, would you guys be like, oh, come on.
Speaker 3: I think so, I think there'd be some eyerols going on.
Speaker 1: Katherine Woodrow and Michelle Sullivan both asked about microbial life
Speaker 1: on Mars. Which type of bacteria do you think would
Speaker 1: be the most likely to be found. Michelle Sullivan was like,
Speaker 1: a cinobacteria.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like extremophiles, I think for sure. I don't
Speaker 3: I couldn't like tell you a specific bacteria, but like
Speaker 3: extrema files are things that live in extreme places, and
Speaker 3: so I think that's what we could find there. And
Speaker 3: I think cyan there's some cyanobacteria that fit that category.
Speaker 3: And then like these microfossils that they thought were in
Speaker 3: this meteorite, those were magneto tactic bacteria. So if it
Speaker 3: were true that that were that they were fossils, then
Speaker 3: maybe we could find that there. And since Mars did
Speaker 3: have a magnetic feel, it's not totally out of the
Speaker 3: question that they could have used it. Interesting, Yeah, and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of iron theres that's another possibility.
Speaker 1: So quick aside. I got to tour JPL with my
Speaker 1: lovely NASA engineer friend, Hollybunder Hi Holly, and I was
Speaker 1: particularly struck by the observation deck that looked into a
Speaker 1: clean room, which appears to be a scene from Charlie
Speaker 1: and the Chocolate Factory, but with more golden capped on
Speaker 1: space tape and wires and less candy. And I was like,
Speaker 1: these people building these rocket ships, like, do they have
Speaker 1: to shower twelve times a day every time they come
Speaker 1: in and out of this room? How does this work?
Speaker 1: If I applied to NASA, would they hook me up
Speaker 1: to a light detector test to find out how often
Speaker 1: I actually wash my hair? How do they know when
Speaker 1: they're building the rovers, when they're in the clean room
Speaker 1: that like it's actually clean.
Speaker 3: I think they have a bunch of these like things
Speaker 3: that measure how many particles are in the air. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: so they like have to be below a certain particle count,
Speaker 3: and then I think they also like probably autoclave a
Speaker 3: bunch of stuff, right, But otherwise I don't know.
Speaker 1: Jude Kidding wants to know what color is the sky
Speaker 1: on Mars, are there long sunsets or does it switch
Speaker 1: to dark quickly? And can you see Earth from Mars?
Speaker 3: Okay, so the color of Mars, the color of the
Speaker 3: sky on Mars is like a butter Scotch COLORO.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So the which we know like from taking pictures and
Speaker 3: stuff of Mars. So there's a lot of like dust
Speaker 3: in the atmosphere, so it's dimmer. It's like way further
Speaker 3: from the sun than Earth is, so it's dimmer, but
Speaker 3: there's still sunlight, but it's just darker, and so you think,
Speaker 3: and the days are about the same length, so I
Speaker 3: guess in a way it gets darker quicker, but only
Speaker 3: because there's less of light to begin with. Maybe, Yeah.
Speaker 3: But then the dust like interacts with the atmosphere in
Speaker 3: the sunlight differently than it does on Earth because it's
Speaker 3: just like super iron rich dust. And so I think
Speaker 3: that's why it's like a more butter Scotch color than
Speaker 3: here we have like this blue color.
Speaker 1: I know that asking like why is this sky blue?
Speaker 1: Is a kid question trope, and I'm always a little
Speaker 1: embarrassed that I'm a grown adult and I don't really
Speaker 1: remember why it is blue. It's always like eh, is
Speaker 1: the sky blue? I don't know, so if you're like, H,
Speaker 1: me too, I just looked it up for the both
Speaker 1: of us. So, according to a NASA web page made
Speaker 1: for five year olds, all the colors in the visual
Speaker 1: spectrum add up to white, but blue light is scattered
Speaker 1: more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves,
Speaker 1: so it scatters. We see it mostly blue. But on
Speaker 1: the red planet of Mars, the sky is this butterscotch
Speaker 1: color because of all the iron dust, which got me
Speaker 1: feeling very entrepreneurial. Hear me out, open up brunch place
Speaker 1: called blood and Butterscotch. It's all moder's themes. Everything is
Speaker 1: made of past iron skillets. It's very iron rich. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's red. It's really cold. But we never turn on the.
Speaker 3: Heater and we never dust anywhere.
Speaker 1: Never dust anything.
Speaker 3: It doesn't sound that advertizing. She gets points for honesty,
Speaker 3: but like it could have like that like interesting factor.
Speaker 1: Maybe we could only have like freeze dried food.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Composting toilets. I'm gonna work.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Kevin McPhillips wants to know five year old Finley McPhillips
Speaker 1: I'm thinking as a relative wants to know, would a
Speaker 1: helium balloon still float on Mars? Also, Finley, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: if you've heard me say the F word like fifty
Speaker 1: times in the course of every podcast.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think helium is still like lighter than
Speaker 3: the atmosphere of Mars, so it could work. But like,
Speaker 3: I guess you'd have to. So the way we have
Speaker 3: like balloons here is that they're buoyant, right, so like
Speaker 3: they're less dense, but there's like has to be enough
Speaker 3: density difference, including like the weight of the the balloon itself,
Speaker 3: like the plastic. So I think if it was designed well,
Speaker 3: I think it could work, but I think it could
Speaker 3: be better if it was hydrogen. I think the short
Speaker 3: answer is yes.
Speaker 1: Okay, what is one thing about Mars that people don't
Speaker 1: know that would really flabbergas them at a cocktail party?
Speaker 3: Just how like wet it used to be? People often
Speaker 3: ask me like, is it true that we found water
Speaker 3: on Mars? And I'm like, yeah, we found that like
Speaker 3: a million times already, Like, but that's the thing that
Speaker 3: they're often blown away by, right, But I think it's
Speaker 3: just still, for some reason not common knowledge yet that
Speaker 3: Mars used to be this like awesome place that was
Speaker 3: like not as cold and dry as it is now.
Speaker 1: It's like wet, just lush pools and spaws.
Speaker 3: Yeah maybe maybe slimy maybe. Well I was just thinking,
Speaker 3: like you said the last and I thought of like plants,
Speaker 3: but like in actually, if there was any life there
Speaker 3: would probably be like micro says like slimy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's okay too. What about some flim flam about
Speaker 1: Mars that you'd like to debunk?
Speaker 3: Flim flam?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's what's some real horseshit that you're like?
Speaker 3: No, dang, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: Is it that Matt Damon lives there?
Speaker 2: So I got to make water and grow food on
Speaker 2: a planet where nothing grows. But if I can't figure
Speaker 2: out a way to make contact with NASA, and none
Speaker 2: of this matters anyway.
Speaker 1: Once again, if you didn't listen to part one number one,
Speaker 1: what is wrong with you? Why didn't you listen to
Speaker 1: instructions from your old dad? I'm not mad, I'm just
Speaker 1: disappointed too. Also, the Martian Recap was a book then
Speaker 1: a movie with Matt Damon stranded on Mars.
Speaker 3: Oh, I think that that actually, I think that has
Speaker 3: generated a lot of misinformation is the dust storms, like
Speaker 3: they are global dust storms, but they are not destructive
Speaker 3: like that. Oh there because the atmosphere is so thin.
Speaker 3: There are strong winds, but there's just not a lot
Speaker 3: of atmosphere, so it's like just like a breeze really,
Speaker 3: so like them. The whole premise of that, which is
Speaker 3: was like the major thing that was wrong with it
Speaker 3: was that they were like stranded because it was that
Speaker 3: huge dust storm and destroyed their stuff. Right, But yeah,
Speaker 3: not going to happen.
Speaker 1: Because there's not the winds wouldn't create that much force
Speaker 1: because it's not pushing a lot of molecules that are
Speaker 1: in the atmosphere.
Speaker 3: There, things like aren't impacting you as much.
Speaker 1: Right, because there's not a lot of air that's actually
Speaker 1: pushing past.
Speaker 3: I think it's like one hundredth the amount of stuff
Speaker 3: in the air.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Okay, I that yeah, that is some
Speaker 1: solid flint flam that you just debunked. I never would
Speaker 1: have thought of that because you think about the dust
Speaker 1: storms and you're like, it's pretty much a hurricane full
Speaker 1: of dust.
Speaker 3: That's what people think. Yeah, they think it's like this
Speaker 3: crazy catastrophic thing. But yeah, no, it's just like dusty.
Speaker 1: Have you been caught in dust worms in Arizona or Mohave?
Speaker 1: Or have you been a burning man during a dust storm?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Pretty much all of those things have happened.
Speaker 1: Really, have you been a burning man?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How was it?
Speaker 3: I went in like two thousand and seven, and like,
Speaker 3: I had a good time, I thought, but I don't
Speaker 3: know that well, I obviously haven't been back.
Speaker 1: FYI. Burning Man is a festival set on this big
Speaker 1: dry lake bed in Nevada, and it features a lot
Speaker 1: of instagram worthy chainmail bikinis and steampunk hats and furry
Speaker 1: boots and glow sticks and electronic music and for some
Speaker 1: people a really sexy saturn in Jupiter's moon situation if
Speaker 1: you catch my drift kids. So, some people really into it,
Speaker 1: others not so much.
Speaker 3: I didn't do like so many drugs, you know, So
Speaker 3: I think that's how a lot of people have fun. Right,
Speaker 3: And then I thought it was like a cool experience,
Speaker 3: but that I could just do that experience and not
Speaker 3: pay four hundred dollars for.
Speaker 1: It, right, it costs even more than that now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think when I went, I even applied like
Speaker 3: for a low income ticket. I was like, I'm a student,
Speaker 3: but I really want to go to this, and then
Speaker 3: they gave it to me and I sent them like
Speaker 3: drawing that's nice. Yeah, but I think you can't do
Speaker 3: that now. I think it's like really intense.
Speaker 1: I think it's more intense. But what were the dust storms?
Speaker 3: Like? They were? Oh, it was like really bad. I
Speaker 3: remember I was wearing goggles but and I had like
Speaker 3: a bandana over my face because that's what you do.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 3: Could have had a dust mask on, but no one
Speaker 3: has dust masks on bandanas. Yeah, but yeah, like people's
Speaker 3: tents were blowing over and stuff, and I was riding
Speaker 3: a bike around Applia and like couldn't see anything, Like
Speaker 3: would lose your sense of direction really easily. And it
Speaker 3: was really abrasive on your skin.
Speaker 1: So if you need to go down a YouTube rabbit
Speaker 1: hole and you do, I highly recommend typing in Burning
Speaker 1: Man plus dust storm also known as a hoboob, which
Speaker 1: is appropriate for a festival that celebrates the freedoms of toplessness.
Speaker 1: So a user name just Joe captured one dust storm
Speaker 1: just ripping into the glamping oasis and it just looked
Speaker 1: like it turned it into a science fiction nightmare. Also,
Speaker 1: as long as we're diving into the etymology for Areola
Speaker 1: in this episode, why not follow up with a nugget
Speaker 1: on boobs. So boob and boobs totally different word origins.
Speaker 1: The meteorological event comes from the Arabic for blowing furiously,
Speaker 1: while the Mamaran features get their names from the German
Speaker 1: for teats and grandma bubby. So is this podcast getting
Speaker 1: too weird? Is it getting uncomfortable? I'm just, I just
Speaker 1: I'm here to present facts. I just want to give
Speaker 1: you facts. What were we talking about? Dust storms?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: Are the dust storms at burning Man worse than on Mars?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 3: Sure? Yeah, way worse. Wow? More art cars though, Yeah?
Speaker 3: And more you can't see them. You can't see them.
Speaker 3: That's really good to know. Never would have guessed that.
Speaker 3: What is one thing that about your job that's sick?
Speaker 1: What do you hate?
Speaker 3: I guess like some days I don't want to look
Speaker 3: at pictures on the computer.
Speaker 1: You said that in such a confessional tone, like Mom,
Speaker 1: I don't like your meat love.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it's really cool sometimes, but other times
Speaker 3: I'm like I want to go outside. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Can you ever take your desktop and drag it outside?
Speaker 1: And or do you have like four huge monitors. No, actually,
Speaker 1: I could work outside. It's more that like, I'd rather
Speaker 1: be looking at a rock than a picture of a
Speaker 1: rock some days. I get it. Yeah, I understand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like looking at a picture of your long lost love.
Speaker 1: You're like, I'd rather be just hanging out with exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: And also, like I do get asked a lot, is
Speaker 3: it true we found water on Mars? That might be
Speaker 3: like maybe my least favorite question, although maybe it should
Speaker 3: be my favorite question.
Speaker 1: But what do you say to that? Are you just
Speaker 1: like do you the first time? Are you like we
Speaker 1: did and then now you just like duh?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I try not to, but I'm like sometimes a
Speaker 3: little bit too honest, and then I'd be like yeah,
Speaker 3: and that's like the opposite attitude I should have for
Speaker 3: people who are getting excited about Mars, which I love.
Speaker 3: So maybe that's why it should actually be my favorite question.
Speaker 3: I'm working on that. You got to you gotta flip
Speaker 3: the script? Yeah, I need to do that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sorry, what's your favorite thing about Mars or your job
Speaker 1: surrounding Mars?
Speaker 3: I love that I can be paid to think about
Speaker 3: another planet and what it used to be like and
Speaker 3: what we could have been like and just these like
Speaker 3: crazy questions that are you know, really removed from the
Speaker 3: day to day but that like that's my job, like
Speaker 3: because I could have a really practical job, but I
Speaker 3: instead get to do this really out out of this
Speaker 3: world thing literally. Yeah, and it's like a really cool
Speaker 3: to be part of.
Speaker 1: These teams and so you're excited twenty twenty Rover, that's
Speaker 1: the thing that you're stuffed about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sticked about that. I've sticked up out a
Speaker 3: lot of things.
Speaker 1: Anything else that you're just like, I'm sorry that I
Speaker 1: turned into what sounded like a drunk dolphin. That was
Speaker 1: a happy noise.
Speaker 3: Like a thing. I really want to look at our
Speaker 3: dry lakes in the Mohabby and like relate them to Mars.
Speaker 3: And so that's like another thing that I'm like super
Speaker 3: psyched to be able to do hopefully.
Speaker 1: And any advice to anyone who's like I want to
Speaker 1: work on Mars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's so many ways to get involved with Mars stuff.
Speaker 3: And like one great thing about NASA is that all
Speaker 3: of our data that we get is publicly available. You
Speaker 3: can anybody with the internet can go on the Internet
Speaker 3: and look at like dope pictures of Mars for free
Speaker 3: download data the rover guts, Like anybody can have the
Speaker 3: same data that the the scientists who work at NASA have,
Speaker 3: So you can literally just become You can just do
Speaker 3: that on your own, and you can go to like
Speaker 3: seminars and stuff and meet people and read books. Like
Speaker 3: there's tons of podcasts and stuff like that. There's like
Speaker 3: a million ways to get involved with NASA stuff, and
Speaker 3: there's lots of NASA outreach that is like pretty accessible,
Speaker 3: I think to most people. Thank you so much for
Speaker 3: being on. Thank you, I am so excited. Thanks for
Speaker 3: caring about Mars. Dude, I do care about Mars. I
Speaker 3: love Mars even more now. Great it worked, So there
Speaker 3: you have it.
Speaker 1: I am so much more about Mars than I was
Speaker 1: before meeting the amazing doctor Jennifer Booze Now to become
Speaker 1: her friend, either online or in Flagstaff again. Her instagram
Speaker 1: Bugaboos buga buz, where she posts photos of insects and rocks,
Speaker 1: and her website, What a Destination on this world wide Web.
Speaker 1: It features self portraits of her as a turtle with
Speaker 1: octopus hair. It's gorgeously perfect. It's j nnfr dot BZ,
Speaker 1: so it's her name novals Now. You can find Ologies
Speaker 1: at Ologies on Instagram or Twitter. I'm on both at
Speaker 1: Ali Ward with one L and to support the podcast
Speaker 1: to make future episodes possible, you can head to if
Speaker 1: you want to Patreon dot com slash Ologies for hats
Speaker 1: and swimsuits and pins and totes. It's ologiesmerch dot com.
Speaker 1: We have you covered and once again summer sale code
Speaker 1: Campologies ten percent off everything in the shop in July
Speaker 1: and huge thanks to Shannon Feltas and Bonnie Dutch for
Speaker 1: helping me round that. And thank you to Aaron Talbert
Speaker 1: and Hannahlippo for adminting the Ologies podcast Facebook group, which
Speaker 1: is really full of the Internet's kindest and most lovable nerds,
Speaker 1: no turds among them. It's amazing. Thank you as always
Speaker 1: to Stephen Ray Morris who painstakingly pieces these episodes together
Speaker 1: from a thirty page transcript and makes each episode so
Speaker 1: so much better. The music is by Nick Thorburn of
Speaker 1: the band Islands, and special thanks to NASA engineer working
Speaker 1: on the Europa Clipper mission, Christine Corbett at Corbett Co,
Speaker 1: rb e Tt on Twitter and her husband Casey Hanmer
Speaker 1: ceg Handmer hndmr on Twitter, also of NASA's JPL for
Speaker 1: being such wonderful pals and supporters of ologies and conducting
Speaker 1: that supplemental interview with sci fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson.
Speaker 1: What a surprise that was. Now, if you listen pass
Speaker 1: It credits, you may know that I tell a secret
Speaker 1: at the end of every episode. In this one, this
Speaker 1: might be the most embarrassing episode. That's not true. I
Speaker 1: have more embarrassing secrets. I just haven't told you them.
Speaker 1: But this is pretty up there. So a few people
Speaker 1: asked me this week about Mars being in retrograde until
Speaker 1: August twenty seventh, and confession, I just read a whole
Speaker 1: article about it, even though I don't want to believe
Speaker 1: in it, and I don't, but still I'm like, should
Speaker 1: I not sign any contracts until after August? But I
Speaker 1: also just didn't understand what retrograde even was. And it
Speaker 1: turns out that it just means that it looks like
Speaker 1: the planet is traveling backwards in the sky, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of an optical illusion. So I emailed Jennifer and
Speaker 1: I asked, is there any pos stability in any realm
Speaker 1: scientifically that Mars being in retrograde could fuck with anything
Speaker 1: for real, like electronics or angering ghosts, And she said,
Speaker 1: I usually say that an apparent retrograde orbit has no
Speaker 1: bearing on anything physical because it's literally just a change
Speaker 1: in perspective. But the orbits are still the same. But
Speaker 1: as for ghosts, though, maybe they don't understand orbits and
Speaker 1: they live their afterlife strictly by apparent motions in the sky.
Speaker 1: So if Mars decides it wants to go backwards, they
Speaker 1: might also go backwards. Question mark, question mark, question mark.
Speaker 1: So I believe she was humoring me and entertaining my
Speaker 1: questions about Mars retrograde. I appreciate it. Okay, keep asking
Speaker 1: smart people stupid questions because I seriously I think that
Speaker 1: they love it. I think it's good for all of us.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. I heart you all very much.
Speaker 1: Bye Bye, pacadermic college, hobbiology, crypto zoology, lithology, ureology, meteorology, atology, apology, seriology, selenology.
Speaker 1: Pop pup up, pint, pop up up up, pint, pop
Speaker 1: up up, pintup up up.
Speaker 3: Yeah,