I. For. And you are listening to 94 point one k. P.f.a. And 89.3 b.n. Berkeley 88 point one care in Fresno 97.5 k.t. For 8 b. Are in Santa Cruz and on line at. The time is too. Old for in the afternoon stay tuned for continued programming here on. welcome this is Dr Michio Kaku professor of theoretical physics at the City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and this is exploration every week and exploration we discuss the fascinating world of science but 1st let me make a short announcement and that is all be on a book tour promoting a new book called The future of humanity we're talking about perhaps a new era in space exploration the question is what about the pros and cons how much will it cost the dangers the excitement what about the future of humanity in outer space so once again the name of the book is the future of humanity and I'll be speaking in San Francisco Los Angeles New York Boston Chicago Philadelphia and Washington d.c. And maybe I'll be speaking at a city next to you 1st of all in New York in New York City on February 19th on Monday at 7 pm I'll be speaking at the Barnes and Noble on 82nd Street and Broadway once again that's Monday fiber. Wherry 19 I'll be at the Barnes and Noble right here in Manhattan and then in March in March I'll be in break Lee Marsh sticks I'll be speaking for k p f a radio a Pacifica affiliate of these Speaking at the 1st Congregational Church at 2345 Cheney way and so once again on February 19th I'll be speaking in Manhattan at the Barnes and Noble in Upper West Side on March 6th I'll be speaking at the 1st Congregational Church at 2345 Cheney way and if you want to find out more but on my website I am cocky dot org And a new or. Well in this segment of exploration I like to answer some of the e-mails that I've been getting specifically e-mails concerning space exploration just last week we had that rather sensational launching of the Falcon Heavy rocket a moon rocket the 1st moon rocket in 50 years to be launched from Cape Canaveral and the question is What does it mean does it mean there were entering a new era of space exploration or is it just deja vu all over again and it's going to peter out so in this segment of exploration we'll try to answer some of the questions that I get concerning my book and also the future of space travel. Well the 1st question I get in my e-mails is the launch of the Falcon Heavy The media made a big thing about it but was it really historic I mean wasn't it deja vu all over again. Well 1st of all the was a little bit of deja vu I mean after all the rocket did not look like the space shuttle it looked like the Apollo mission that is the compartment for the astronauts would be placed right on top of the missile not to the side of the missile as in the space shuttle and power wise it was actually a little bit less then the power generated by the Saturn 5 So yeah in that sense there was a little bit of deja vu However that's when it's all different 1st of all the Saturn rocket cost an enormous amount of money in 1966 for example at the height of the space race it turned out that the NASA budget was 5 percent of the entire federal budget and that was unsustainable just think about that 5 percent of the entire you as federal budget went into NASA and the Space Race To The Moon Well that was unsustainable Well how much did the Falcon Heavy cost the taxpayers well get ready for a shock 00 It was funded by a private individual you know on musk of space x. And Tesla Motors that's right he did it on his private financing because in some sense we are entering a new era of the Space Age an era that was set into motion by President Barack Obama and that is private enterprise private enterprise coming in trying to make a buck but streamlining the process so that the energy and the initiative for private enterprise is harnessed to shoot rockets into outer space so let's take a look at the fact that this is really a historic development 1st of all the price of space travel has been dropping rather dramatically in the old days only the United States and Russia could send things into orbit now India and China. You can do it in fact India just a few years ago successfully sent a Mars probe probe all the way to Mars and did it on the 1st stride this is unheard of that's how much the cost of space travel has dropped that even developing nations like India can send packages all the way to Mars not to mention that China China has a vigorous space program is made it one of his priorities the next goal of the Chinese space program is to create a space station that orbits the Earth and then after that to plant the Chinese flag on the moon so China definitely has the moon in its sights and so what it means is that even developing nations see the opportunity because of the fact that the price of rocketry has dropped not to mention the fact that the Falcon Heavy after launching its payload a Tesla Roadster entire space the booster rockets landed back on the planet Earth now that is historic we're talking about re usable rockets entering into the commercial marketplace now think about the car the car used to be rather expensive for the average Joe after World War 2 we had all these G.I.'s that came back penniless from the war front wanted to buy a car but cars were still out of the reach of the average g.i. Then came the used car market that changed everything all of a sudden the used car became part of the American lifestyle songs were written about used cars in fact today more Used cars are sold then you cars that's how big the used car market is which has driven down the cost of transportation Well the same thing happening here if I take a rocket where does most of the energy go into well. You may say yourself that most of the energy of a rocket goes into the payload wrong Nope not the payload at all most of the energy of a rocket goes into sending its own rocket fuel into outer space now what a waste think about that most of the energy of a rocket goes into sending itself that is rocket fuel into outer space therefore why not reuse the booster rocket and that's what the Falcon Heavy was all about a reusable rocket to drive down the cost of space travel so how expensive is space travel it costs about $10000.00 to put a pound of anything into near earth orbit $10000.00 a pound that's your weight in gold Think about that you're waiting gold to put you in orbit forget the moon forget Mars to put you on the moon because about $100000.00 a pound to put you on Mars but it costs about a $1000000.00 a pound so think of your body made out of diamonds and you begin to understand how costly space travel is you know why historically only the great powers have access to outer space now prices are dropping according to Iran must make sacks they shooting for 10 percent 10 percent of the original cost they want to get it down to about a $1000.00 a pound to put you into outer space and they economics could change completely Now what else this is not the usual all over again this is a whole new vision emerging from the Silicon Valley entrepreneur is who are helping to foot the bill so that the taxpayers don't have to shoulder the burden of their vision is as follows Elon Musk's vision is to create a multi planet species so they were not stuck just on one planet earth in case something happens to the earth and for Jeff Bezos of Amazon dot com. His vision is to create the earth into a park so that the heavy industries would be put into outer space all the pollution would be off the planet earth the earth itself would become a park and then what about Amazon Amazon would become a delivery system for the Moon That's right the same efficiency that Amazon uses for deliveries on the planet Earth with then be used for deliveries to the moon now Jeff Bezos of Amazon does not talking into the wind he's putting his money where his mouth is he has funded a private spaceport now I think about this think of having your own private Cape Canaveral Well that's what Jeff Bezos has done he's the richest man in the world he has lots of money to blow and he's created a spaceport spaceport in Texas with private money not taxpayers' money to shoot tourists into outer space he's already Jeems of 3 varieties of rockets one rocket sub orbital simply to take passengers 70 miles straight up into outer space next would be rockets to go to the moon and then after that rockets to go to Mars perhaps and so we have visionaries coming from Silicon Valley who want to change the whole dynamic of the Cold War Now another question I get is Aren't some people getting ahead of themselves I mean look at all the problems on the planet Earth like global warming are you saying that we should flee the earth because of global warming is that the solution well no that's obviously not the solution the solution to global warming is a political one and that has to be ways on the planet Earth not in space whether or not the Earth is engulfed with a toxic toxic whether depends on the politics of the planet Earth nothing dynamics of said. Adding something to Mars or beyond 2nd of all no one is saying that the entire population of the earth is going to go into outer space where it's only talking about a settlement that is an insurance policy an insurance policy because one day life could really be threatened by natural and manmade sources 1st of all you have to realize that Mother Nature can be rather cruel 99.9 percent of all life forms on the planet Earth have gone extinct in other words extinction is the norm and why is extinction the norm because when the environmental conditions change either you adapt leave or die that's the law of nature after all what happened to the dinosaurs the dinosaurs aren't here today to talk about it because well they didn't have a space program. There was no way for the dinosaurs to deflect or to flee given the fact that an asteroid about 6 miles across was headed their way and plowed into the Yucatan of Mexico creating a crater 180 miles and diameter which sent up enough junk into outer space to blanket the sun so that dinosaurs died now again no one is saying that this is going to save the earth no one is saying that we're going to have to leave the earth with trillions of rocket ships in order to repopulate planets around the universe no one is saying that people are saying that we just need an insurance policy a settlement on the distant planets I was interviewed Carl Sagan right here on exploration and he explained it as follows Carl Sagan told me that the Earth is in the middle of a shooting gallery that we are surrounded by asteroids many of these asteroids will eventually hit the Earth and perhaps some of them are big enough to cause an extinction event so his point of view was we should become a 2 planet species that is life is simply too precious to be placed on one planet that we should place it at least on 2 planets not because we're going to evacuate one because of global warming to repopulate another no just to create a settlement so that we have an insurance policy against man made and natural disasters and the manmade disasters well you're familiar with them global warming is real it's not a fiction and the solution will have to be a political one then we have the question of bio germs is it possible that a weaponized virus can escape from a laboratory and infect the population of the world well you cannot rule that out and then what about nuclear proliferation that is also a possibility yet another possibility is a supervolcano. What happened about 75000 years ago it's absolutely amazing to me that when you look around the room and you look at all these peoples of different colors and nationalities and languages that we're almost all clones of each other we are extremely closely related so closely related that if you trace back our lineage you can trace back our genetic heritage to one woman and one man about 100000 years ago in other words there was some event that happened some a vent that happened 70 to 100000 years ago that wiped out most homo sapiens and we all are the survivors we are the ones who made it but most of our fellow human beings did not make it but that's why we're almost clones of each other so what event was so catastrophic that it killed most humans and only a handful of us were left in Africa to repopulate the entire Earth amazing only a few 100 to a few 1000 of us were left to repopulate the entire planet What was that event Well we don't know one theory is that 75000 years ago of all Kaino called the Toba volcano erupted it was the most massive super volcano eruption in 4 for millions of years and as a consequence of that there was a darkening of the atmosphere around Indonesia and around Africa and that probably is what killed off many of our ancestors we don't know for sure but then the question is could it happen again and the answer is yes right in our own backyard we have Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park we have Old Faithful many of us go there to take photographs of Old Faithful but lurking underneath. Lurking underneath all fave all is a super volcano that could go off who knows when maybe tomorrow maybe not for another 10000 years we really don't know that much about the super volcano that could wipe out life on the planet Earth so that was a question that people ask me and that is what about what's new what's new with this new launching of the Falcon Heavy Well I know the question I get asked is Mars isn't it far fetched isn't it far away isn't it dangerous Well yes all of the above but technology is bringing more is much closer than we realize 1st of all we're talking about private funding we're talking about evil and must in space x. Already already they have a new rocket that they're considering called the b f r b for big r. For rocket and you can guess what the f. Is for the b.f.r. Is a rocket that will take us to the planet Mars and then of course enough question is how dangerous is it what would it be like to go to Mars Well 1st of all it would take about a 2 year journey that to go to the moon was a piece of cake the moon is only 3 days away from us you go there on Monday you come back on Friday and so the moon is only 3 days away Mars is 9 months away so a round trip to Mars would take about 2 years that's with rockets that we have today with other kinds of rockets lie on rockets some people we think we can squeeze it down to a few months but with the rockets of today we're talking about a trip around ship to Mars taking about 2 years where we have to worry about we have to worry about weightlessness. What are we going to eat when we get to Mars what about energy how are we going to live well let's take these things one at a time 1st of all how are we going to live on Mars cheaply Well the 1st thing we can do is to explore lava tubes lava tubes exist naturally left over from ancient volcanoes and they are ready made just ready to be walked in and that could provide shelter from radiation micrometeorites dust storms already made habitat called the lava tubes on the surface of Mars and then next What about fuel And what about water what about air to drink well more is actually has plenty of ice it is a frozen desert and because it's a frozen does or the water can be melted and with the milking of water we can create 1st of all oxygen for breathing we can create liquid water for drinking and hydrogen the hydrogen locked in water could be used as rocket fuel and so another wears the 1st thing our residents would want to do is well of course this play your solar panels to gain energy but the energy if all of our solar panels would be used to process ice by mining ice we could extract out oxygen liquid water for drinking purposes and hydrogen for rocket fuel and then 3rd to make it self-sustaining. You would have to Terra for Mars Now this of course gets us into science fiction but the 1st step would be to use genetic engineering to create algae that can thrive in the Martian atmosphere algae that can withstand cold temperatures that love carbon dioxide algae and super plants that would thrive in the Martian atmosphere to create a Martian agriculture that is a definite possibility and then the last possibility is to send up solar satellites to gradually melt the polar icecaps Now this of course is science fiction but is within the realm of possibility perhaps in a century or so and that is launched satellites that have solar panels on them the solar panels direct sunlight onto the polar ice caps and the polar ice caps begin to melt so that liquid water liquid water flows freely on the surface of Mars for the 1st time in 3000000000 years now Elon Musk the visionary has his own ideas for a tear for me Mars he's toyed with the idea of using nuclear weapons to be dead and they did the ice caps and that would be the energy source that melt the ice caps Well personally I think that could maybe not a good idea after all we're not sure about the stability of the ice caps would you drink water that's radioactive We don't know what that would do by detonating hydrogen bombs on the ice caps but his sentiment is correct and that is there's plenty of water on Mars there's water in the permafrost in the tundra underground right under your feet and there's water on the polar icecaps water that could be melted water that could be melted and then used for drinking purposes for oxygen and then for. Rocket fuel as well. And then the question is well who's going to pay for all these things I mean these things are not going to be cheap even with usable rockets things are going to be expensive Well this is where once again private funding comes in Google has already stated that they've set up a company called Planetary Resources to look into the question of mining the asteroids it turns out that the asteroids have many valuable minerals that are rare on the planet Earth These are called Rare Earths they're used in Silicon Valley and they are precious and China has a near monopoly on them and the Chinese just a few years ago exercise have a novelty and send shivers shivers right through Silicon Valley because Silicon Valley realized that they are wholly dependent on the Chinese for rare earths to keep Silicon Valley going well it turns out these asteroids have plenty of wear earth on them also platinum like metals that are quite valuable and if you could a rope one of these asteroids bring him down to earth you could mind them for tens of billions of dollars of course you'd have to do this very carefully now as originally have what is called the asteroid direct program the asteroid direct program was precisely that to send the s.l.s. Booster rocket into outer space land on an asteroid rope it and then slowly bring it down to the planet Earth doesn't sound like science fiction because NASA has looked at the dynamics of the economics of this mission however it was cut because the priority is now to go to the moon and to go to Mars but again Silicon Valley billionaires from Google are seriously looking at the possibility of mining the asteroids because after all look at the Gold Rush the gold rush in California took this wasteland that Thomas Jefferson thought would take a 1000 years to come. Nice and jump started the development of the west within a matter of a few decades so the very existence of California and western United States was due to the Gold Rush Well why not have a gold rush in space well then the last question says what about going to the stars the planets are nice but what about the stores I mean after all scientists have discovered about 4000 planets going around other stars in our sector of the galaxy there could be billions billions of Earth like planets in outer space and maybe just maybe there aliens out there who also have an advanced technology maybe one day will bump into them so the question is is that a good i