Kind: captions
Language: en
what would it be like to travel to Mars
and be one of its first colonists well
to get a small taste National Geographic
is sponsoring this video and sending me
on a microgravity experience a vomit
Comet going on L G come on this plane
flies in a series of parabolic arcs so
that it and everything inside can
essentially be in freef Fall creating a
micro gravity environment the plane can
also simulate the gravity on other
bodies like the moon and Mars by
modifying the parabola if I were really
going to Mars I would experience not 30
seconds of microgravity as I do in this
plane but 8 months of it and then when I
got to Mars this would be the gravity on
the
surface who this is what it would feel
like to be on the surface of Mars there
the gravity is only about
37% of what it is on Earth which means
you'd be able to jump much higher if
you're an average jumper on Earth you'd
get double the air time on Mars and have
no problem at all dunking on a
regulation basketball
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hoop over on the surface of the Moon the
gravity is only a sixth of what it is
here on Earth so you could really do a
lot of
crazy aerobics without being exhausted
one major issue with low gravity is that
it's not very easy to exercise I mean
you're used to the fact that your arm
weighs about 5% of your body weight so
just lifting your arm in regular G is a
little bit of a workout you don't get
any of that when you are traveling to
Mars and you only get a fraction of it
when you're actually on Mars on a
journey to Mars as on the space station
your muscles would weaken and Shrink
they would atrophy Studies have shown
that muscle mass can decrease by up to
20% on space flights lasting just 5 to
11 days so you'd have to exercise
lifting weights would be useless so
you'd have to rely on elastic resistance
for example on the space station
astronauts are elastically Tethered to a
treadmill and they typically exercise 2
and 1/2 hours every day even so the lack
of weight pushing on Bones results in a
decrease in bone density
astronauts can lose 1 to 2% of bone mass
per month mostly in their lower
extremities that's over 10 times faster
bone loss than people on Earth
experience through osteoporosis as they
get older and in weightless conditions
other forces become significant like the
surface tension of water everyday
activities become a lot more challenging
even things like washing your face oh
have a look at
that wow
that is crazy look how the surface
tension the water holds it together like
that dealing with liquids in
microgravity is really difficult which
makes showering brushing your teeth and
going to the bathroom much harder it's
one of the most challenging
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things I think I just got it off my nose
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got it in the absence of Earth's gravity
you would also notice some strange
effects watch what happens when I spin
this disc I showed how on Earth this
disc flips heavy side up when you spin
it so I wanted to see what happens in
micro gravity
here do you see it flipping back and
forth did you see that let me slow it
down so you can see it better the disc
actually flips back and forth the hole
goes from one side to the other and
back watch which side of the disc the
hole is on first it's facing towards me
and then it flips away from me and now
it's towards me again and now now it's
away from
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me this effect has actually been seen on
the space station with a t- bar handle
it's an example of the intermediate axis
theorem that is rotation about an
intermediate axis not the least or
greatest moment of inertia is unstable
and any tiny disturbance will cause it
to rotate about another axis as well in
addition to dealing with microgravity on
a trip to Mars you would also be exposed
to significant amounts of radiation
when it's bedtime on orbit normally you
fall asleep pretty quickly cuz because
you're tired but once in a while you
have your eyes closed and you're not
asleep yet and you occasionally will see
a flash of light it's some sort of uh
human body reaction to radiation from
the universe and we think it is uh heavy
particles or or individual bursts of
energy coming from radiation that are
either going through the eyeball itself
or going through the optic nerve I
picture back to the first astronauts who
must have closed their eyes and seen
that radiation and going I'm not going
to tell anybody about this cuz uh no
one's told me about I'm not talk I can
just imagine the first two guys that
said hey I umum sometimes I see flashes
of light do you see flashes of light and
then oh we all see flashes of light oh
okay well that's that's all right
then to me all of these difficulties
represent not deal breakers but
challenges to be overcome for humans to
guarantee our long-term survival we must
become a multiplanetary species on Mars
simply stepping into a spacit which
currently weigh as much as 310 lb would
make you feel about as heavy as you are
on earth so maybe you wouldn't feel like
a basketball star after all but this
would also allow you to maintain your
muscle and bone mass it's not that hard
to Shield yourself for radiation you can
put it into the insulation of the ship
you can use water of course it's a
terrific radiation absorber so you you
can Shield the ship but you can't ignore
it and of
course one of the major challenges of
different gravity is the nausea that it
brings our bodies are not necessarily
evolved to be in these different gravity
situations so we've just gone through 15
parabas I don't know if I could last
many more before I'd start to lose my
breakfast you know what I'm
saying but you know our bodies evolved
for millions of years in 9.8 meters
perss squared gravity if we ever move to
Mars and actually establish colonies and
live there our Evolution may take us in
very different directions thanks to the
National Geographic Channel for sending
me on this zerog adventure is truly
awesome Life on Mars may be closer than
you think check out National Geographics
new season of Mars on Monday November
12th at 98 Central