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The Lawfare Podcast

Chatter: "A City on Mars," with Dr. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

History, Military, International Relations, Government, Constitutional Law, News, International Law, Current Events, Politics, Rule Of Law, Law, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, National Security, Intelligence, Terrorism

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2024

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Outer space is back in style. For the first time in decades, NASA is sending astronauts back to the moon. Millionaires are exiting the atmosphere on a regular basis. And Elon Musk says humans may land on Mars to set up settlements by 2030. But would mastering space be worth it?


In their new book, “A City on Mars,” co-authors (and spouses) Dr. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith argue that it’s probably not. From biology to engineering to international law, they charmingly survey the many charms and dangers that space inevitably entails, with pictures to boot. For this week’s Chatter episode, Scott R. Anderson spoke with Kelly and Zach about their book, what role they think space exploration and settlement should play in humanity’s future, and why space may not be all it’s cracked up to be anytime soon.


Among the works mentioned in this episode:



Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The following podcast contains advertising.

0:04.0

To access an ad-free version of the Lawfair Podcast,

0:08.0

become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com

0:16.4

slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath.

0:30.0

This is

0:33.0

this is Shatter. I'm Scott R Anderson. This week authors Kelly and

0:37.0

Zach Wienersmith on their book exploring the pros and cons of space

0:40.0

settlement, a city on Mars. The explicit purpose of settlements is to have families and generations living in space.

0:48.0

And so you're going to be getting exposed to radiation, you know, from the moment you are an egg in your mom's body all the way

0:54.6

through to the end of your life.

0:55.8

And that's a lot of time to be exposed to radiation.

0:58.2

It's dangerous to underestimate the psychological effect of space activity on Earth, like the day after Sputnik.

1:06.0

Both Eisenhower and Khrushchev failed to anticipate the huge PR effect.

1:11.0

I do think, you know, if tomorrow China revealed that they had three dudes hanging out in a

1:15.0

base on Shackleton Crater, I think there would be a pretty non-trivial Western response.

1:19.5

There is some water on the moon, and it's trapped in these craters so the premium

1:25.8

real estate in the place that we're most likely to start learning about how to do

1:29.3

settlement is very small and now getting into international law the rules about what you can do are very vague.

1:37.0

Kelly and Zach we're thrilled to have you here on Chatter today to talk about this very interesting book that combines science and

1:53.4

cartoons and the law in outer space and many of my favorite things.

1:55.5

And the law part is kind of a surprise like this is a law book in substantial part at least the last third or half is about international law in particular like as I was

2:05.2

reading and I read an excerpt from the Montevideo Convention of 1933 I think I swooned briefly

...

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