Space scientist and astrobiologist Erika DeBenedictis joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about The Red Planet. How long does the trip to Mars take with current technology? Why is it red? How realistic was the movie ‘The Martian?’ How long would it take to effectively terraform Mars to sustain human life? Does Mars have seasons? Did the conditions for life exist on Mars at one time? What lies just below the surface? Answers to these questions and more await on Mars Support.
0:00 Mars Support
0:16 Explaining why Mars is red (without sorcery)
0:44 Why did Elon Musk say “You can only depart to Mars once every two years”?
1:39 How realistic were the crop growing scenes in ‘The Martian?’
2:43 Terraforming Mars
3:25 Scientific inaccuracies in ‘The Martian’
3:50 How long is the trip to Mars? What about the return leg?
5:03 Mountains on Mars
6:07 Does Mars have seasons?
6:43 Why is everyone obsessed with colonizing Mars?
7:17 Didn’t we find water on Mars a while back?
7:53 What kind of batteries do the Mars rovers use?
9:01 Take deep breaths
10:17 How much would you weigh on Mars?
10:54 How fast would you die on Mars without a spaceship?
11:37 How old is Mars?
12:18 If the conditions for life existed on Mars at one time, why is there no evidence of life?
14:56 Have we learned anything new about Mars after landing there with a rover?
16:01 Staying fit in microgravity
16:50 What type of material is the surface of Mars primarily made of?
18:33 Nice place you’ve got here
Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► http://wrd.cm/15fP7B7
Listen to the Uncanny Valley podcast ►► https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncanny-valley-wired/id266391367
Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►► https://subscribe.wired.com/subscribe/splits/wired/WIR_YouTube?source=EDT_WIR_YouTube_0_Video_Description_ZZ
Follow WIRED:
Instagram ►►https://instagram.com/wired
Twitter ►►http://www.twitter.com/wired
Facebook ►►https://www.facebook.com/wired
Tik Tok ►►https://www.tiktok.com/@wired
Get more incredible stories on science and tech with our daily newsletter: https://wrd.cm/DailyYT
ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture.
Wired is a bimonthly American magazine that examines the impact of emerging technologies on culture, the economy, and politics…Watch on SloppBoxx.Com.
The point about your weight being 40% but still having the same mass is a fascinating physics problem – one of the reasons why astronauts on the Moon landings fell over constantly is because of this. It’s a strange feeling when you have to learn to walk again as your center of gravity is completely different when you move on the Moon. Your body is really hard to get moving and once that mass is in motion, it wants to continue going that way, but you no longer have the friction on your feet to stop it because you weight less.
Mars has 60% the mass of Earth, a thin atmosphere that admits massive radiation, and no magnetic pole to prevent atmospheric loss to the solar wind. Go ahead, terraform it. It’ll last a few years and then you can rinse and repeat.
Surely terraforming Mars is not possible or practical due to Mars having lost most of its atmosphere due to the solar wind, which happened because it does not have a magnetic field as Earth does.
Mars cannot be terraformed to any meaningful degree. The necessary conditions no longer exist.
Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field so the radiation would kill you and no breathable air ,toxic soil ,sandstorms that would shred you to the bone ,living on mars would be a nightmare
How could you terraform Mars if you can’t have an athmosphere because there is no protecting magnetic shield?
Humans are ridiculous. Fix the habitat we live in.