In 1850, if I were all like, "Good morrow friends, 100 years hence, we shall climb into
a contraption taller than that nearby six-story skyscraper and within it travel, TO THE MOOON."
People be like, "You crazy."
Rocketry is crazy. It is! Just admit it! It's a painstakingly scrutinized scientific endeavor
akin to Wil E. Coyote jumping in a barrel sitting atop of dynamite. Rocketry is the
idea that we can take a missile and control it all the way to space… which is insane
in itself, but you have to ask yourself, what kind of CRAZY things can we DO once we get
OUT there?! And when I looked into it, space scientists did not disappoint.
Saturn is a crazy place. There's a weird hexagon swirling at it's North Pole, not to mention
it's got rings or something. But it's moon, Titan, has space scientists really excited.
Titan is one of the closest Earth-like planets we can study; NASA describes it as a frozen
version of Earth -- only… not. Titan has a chemical rich atmosphere, and the surface
is Earth-LIKE, with oceans, rivers, mountains and even rain! The thing is, the lakes and
rivers and rain aren't water -- they're ethane and methane. This planet is so similar yet
so alien, and so familiar that scientists believe they can send a probe equipped with
a submarine. A SUBMARINE.
The plan, unveiled earlier this month and penned for 2040, is to use a submarine powered
by radioactive pellets (like Curiosity on Mars) to dive below the methane seas and explore
the ocean, called Kraken Mare. It's just a study and concept, but if they did it. Wowza.
The Kraken Mare hovers around 90 Kelvin (-298 F/-183C), and because of the density of liquid
methane, nitrogen would have to be used for ballast. Not to mention the Mare itself has
choppy waves and tides. This is some old school stuff, but not the old schoolest.
How do you feel about dirigibles? If you saw our old video on them you know how I feel.
I think they're fantastic! Another crazy idea from NASA, is HAVOC -- the High Altitude Venus
Operational Concept -- alleviates all that. 50 kilometers above the surface of Venus,
the temperature is around 75 celsius (167F) and gravity is similar to Earth, and daily
radiation exposure on Venus is similar to Canada, whereas Mars' exposure is 40 percent
more than Earth average. So why not live there?? The plan is to send robots and then humans
who can permanently live above Venus in a helium-filled solar-powered airship twice
the size of a 747. Venus is ideal for human explorations as its closer to Earth than Mars,
but it's not as popular for exploration maybe because the combination of dense crushing
atmosphere, heat and sulfuric acid rain… but what do I know.
And just to toss a wrench in the cool and crazy, but actually possible tone of this
episode. I bring you the Daedelus. In the 70s, the British Interplanetary Society wanted
to create a craft that could study the Fermi paradox -- or the idea that there are suns
billions of years older than ours, likely with Earthlike planets, so where the life
at?! They've had billions of years to colonize, so why ain't they?
The Daedalus is a deuterium and helium-3 fusion-powered spaceship that is just MASSIVE. The concept
weighed 450 tons, and would have been able to travel 12 percent the speed of light after
46 years of acceleration. It wouldn't be able to slow down, of course… So… it's not
exactly useful for data collection, human transport, or exploration. Not to mention
the cost to build, or the crazy engineering involved. Daedalus was an engineering proof-of- concept.
The scientists wanted to prove interstellar travel WAS possible, assuming we could build
these crazy things. Today, the 100 Year Starship Project, while crazy, probably has a better
grasp on reality these days. Disco. Daedalus. Man, the 70s was a crazy time.
Have you heard about crazy space explorations?