The Space Pirate
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2016
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listener Paul Don asks: "I'm wondering what's the feasibility of terraforming another planet i.e. Mars and if it's possible to do the same thing with something like the moon? Or, why isn't there already a moon-base? Surely that's easier."
Adam & Hannah consider moving to another planet, and discover what challenges they would need to overcome to live in space.
They consult engineer Prof Danielle George from the University of Manchester and Dr Louisa Preston, UK Space Agency Aurora Research Fellow in Astrobiology.
Adam also hears about attempts to recreate a Martian base on a volcano in Hawaii. He calls HI-SEAS crew member Tristan Bassingthwaighte, who has just emerged from a year of isolation.
If you have any Curious Cases for the team to solve please email curiouscases@bbc.co.uk
Features archive from 'Outlook' on BBC World Service, broadcast in August 2016.
Presenters: Adam Rutherford & Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, welcome to episode three of the podcast version of the curious cases of Fry and Rutherford. |
| 0:06.0 | And in today's episode we are investigating the curious case of the space pirate. |
| 0:12.0 | Did you like that? |
| 0:14.0 | I did. I like that a lot. |
| 0:16.0 | It's not actually about space pirates, it's about moon bases and living on Mars. |
| 0:20.0 | And the very real possibility that in the next few years, decades, |
| 0:26.0 | we'll have some permanent bases set up on either the moon or Mars. |
| 0:30.0 | Yeah. Because it does sound like science fiction, doesn't it? |
| 0:32.0 | I mean, there really are people whose actual jobs are to look into the practicalities of making this all work. |
| 0:38.0 | Yep, that's absolutely right. And there are several missions across the world every year, |
| 0:42.0 | where they effectively test how people are going to do. |
| 0:46.0 | There's the Mars 500, there's the high seas, which is in Hawaii, which we speak to a couple of people |
| 0:50.0 | from who spend a year living in isolation in Hawaii. |
| 0:54.0 | It's basically big brother in a tent in Hawaii. |
| 0:58.0 | With one crucial difference, which is that on big brother they pick people who are horrible, |
| 1:04.0 | quite horrible and are bound to do bad things to each other. |
| 1:08.0 | Yeah. And on the high seas projects, they pick exactly the opposite. |
| 1:14.0 | Nice people who are good. I seem to remember the tent was about, what was it, 11 metres wide? |
| 1:18.0 | Not very big, is it? No, it's not very big. |
| 1:22.0 | I don't think there's anyone in the world that want to be trapped in a tent for a year. |
| 1:26.0 | How long do you think you'd last with me and Michelle for a year trapped in a tent in Hawaii? |
| 1:32.0 | I've been on the one day a week that I've been spending room with the other mother fed. |
... |
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