Life on Mars? (Robert Zubrin)

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2024

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Robert Zubrin published his classic book The Case for Mars a quarter century ago, setting foot on the Red Planet seemed a fantasy. Today, manned exploration is certain, and as Zubrin affirms in The New World on Mars, so too is colonization. From the astronautical engineer venerated by NASA and today’s space entrepreneurs, here is what we will achieve on Mars and how.

Shermer and Zubrin discuss: why not start with the moon? • what it is like on Mars • whether Mars was ever like Earth • how much it will cost to go to Mars • how to get people to Mars • resources on Mars • colonization of Mars • public vs. private enterprise for space exploration • economics, politics, and government on Mars • lessons from the Red Planet for the Blue Planet • liberty in space.

Robert Zubrin is former president of Pioneer Astronautics, which performs advanced space research for NASA, the US Air Force, the US Department of Energy, and private companies. He is the founder and president of the Mars Society, leading the Society’s successful effort to build the first simulated human Mars exploration base in the Canadian Arctic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show. The Michael Sherber Show Hi everybody Michael Schremer here in the offices of Skeptic Society and
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1:00.8	volume one number one. We have of course the amazing Randy and then of
1:05.2	course Benosa because he's one of our heroes of skepticism his famous quote that
1:10.2	I like as our maxim I've made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule not to
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1:23.4	slash donate you can make a tax deductible donation of the society and support our
1:28.2	effort here. All right thanks. Here's the new book The New New World on Mars, What We Can Create on the Red Planet.
1:36.7	Robert, nice to see you again.
1:39.1	Do you think, as I mentioned, we might get there by the end of this decade.
1:43.2	Well it's conceivable. If
1:47.2	Elon Musk was to refocus on SpaceX, I think a lot of his energy is being diverted in unproductive directions right now with
1:57.1	Twitter and related things.
2:00.1	But if he was to refocus on SpaceX, you know, Starship just yesterday had its third test flight, not fully successful, but got further through the flight envelope than the previous flights and they'll no
2:15.1	doubt have another test flight in two months and I give that one 50-50 I'm being
	...

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