Neil deGrasse Tyson on Crowdfunding a Mission to Mars

A fan asks, "If we can crowdfund a Veronica Mars movie, why can't scientists and true science geeks do a Kickstarter for a mission to the real Mars?" The reason, as Neil deGrasse Tyson explains to Eugene Mirman in this Cosmic Query, is a question of scale, not will.

Catch up with StarTalk Radio around the web:

[ralphyetmore]

It would be interesting to get an overview of the process of creating a mission, and give the average person some insight into the work and cost of space exploration.

[StarTalk]

New Video: Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson explain to Eugene Mirman why crowdfunding a mission to Mars isn’t as easy as crowdfunding a Veronica Mars movie: Neil deGrasse Tyson on Crowdfunding a Mission to Mars

[zydicious]

The Center for Strategic and International Studies produced an article in 2009 suggesting an estimated cost of $35 billion to build a Lunar Base at or near the Moon's Southern Pole with upkeep costs of $7.35 billion per year. Sure $35 billion is a chunk of money but it's the equivalent of less than $5 per every person on the planet ($4.967 to be exact). Obviously the outlay would fall heavier on the developed nations which would shift the cost per contributor but not to any excessive amount.

[joshuamerrill]

Why the FUCK am I just finding out about Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson's YouTube channel now?

[Apropoetic]

Agreed. Also, I don't believe Neil ever said it is impossible, but he likely thought that it is so incredibly unlikely and that more likely and perhaps more efficient methods are better considered.

[zydicious]

Combining only the populations of China, India, U.S., Brazil, Russia & Japan gives a population of 3, 358, 090, 943. That equates to $10.422 per citizen from those countries as cost to build a $35B Lunar Base. Obviously if some of the wealthier people were to offset that amount by donating a couple of thousand it would make the price tag even more palatable.

[rudy_ier]

asker must have been thinking of star citizen, that game has raised about 20 million so far.

[TheMrObsanity]

Obviously it would be very difficult to fully fund a mission to mars through donations but we can fund the technology through donations. For example, my goal is to go to college and major in physics and minor in nuclear engineering so that I can gather some like minded people to help develop a nuclear fusion rocket for space travel, funded by enthusiasts and scientists who can see the value in such a project. We can't tackle the problem all at once but we can get there with baby steps.

[morosis]

I think the trick is making space sexy again, and then having a respected leader heading the effort. Just with the adult population of US and Europe, $10 each as a one off donation would be $7b. The trick is getting enough people to care just a tiny bit - $10 is not very much, people happily donate several times that per month to humanitarian efforts.

You'd need someone like Branson at the helm - he has the public image of being a bit daring and successful due to his daring.

[donchon]

you could kickstart some of the technology

[Direkin]

No he didn't. He just said it's the money factor that's the problem.

[FoxerBoxerNaaniwa]

I think Neil is supremely underestimating how much people would donate. The most successful crowdfunded video game (Star Citizen) hit its primary goal  in a matter of weeks. Not only that, it exceeded the goal and has made so far over 63, 000, 000 dollars. It made all that, and its not really a cultural phenomena. Ask random people off the street if they know what Star Citizen is and 9/10 people won't know what you're talking about. Now, if some company or research facility were to honestly and seriously crowdfund a mission to Mars, it would be EVERYWHERE in a matter of days. Literally everyone but super impoverished and/or totalitarian states would know about it. The backing would be EXTREME. I think the main reason it hasn't been done before is because of legal reasons more than anything.

[thexneo]

Umm. But sir...Elon Musk did this with 120 million dollars.

[Direkin]

Yeah, unfortunately we're still stuck with our petty squabbles and meaningless boundaries around land. We could accomplish so much if we combined our efforts, rather than wasting all that energy on each other.

[eaglewolfzen]

I'm telling you, taxes should have electives to pay into as a thinking citizen. Essentially, some of the tax payers money should bypass the legislature. If the people, and I mean like 300 bucks of everybody's final invoice, is matched and goes somewhere in the system, choice can influence infrastructure on a yearly basis. If you want to see a station on the moon, have 50 go to NASA's budget directly using the IRS as simply a courier of that amount. Afraid of minorities, send 100 to the border police. Afraid of people from a bit further away, put your taxes directly into the CIA and research for better antiICBM defense systems.

[CyrusOfNaias]

Billions of people on the planet. Billions on the internet every day.
$1/day x Billions of people = $Billions

[SvereignX]

There really should be a way to decide what your individual taxes go towards, I'd be increasing my NASA contribution. No matter how I look at the future I don't see any good future for mankind if it secludes itself to a single world, many argue that we shouldn't because we'll just kill that planet too but I believe the potential loss of this one should teach us a valuable lesson. Its not really a question of resources or capability at this point, only funds (other than the radiation issue maybe)

[nephildevil]

what does work is crowdfunding for a cat food dispenser so the dominant cat gets to eat as much as the rest, only bullshit like that is what most ppl are interested in

[AlphaBetaParkingLot]

you make it sound like it is trivially easy to find individuals with millions and billions who are willing to donate it to crowdsourcing.

We're talking 1, 000 to 10, 000 times more money that most of the largest crowdsourcing projects ever done. That's pretty far fetched. A much better method (albeit, not working great right now) is taxing citizens and diverting an appropriate level of funding.

[noahrotter]

im glad Neil does the exact thing whenever I hear billions and billions, that is, do a Carl Sagan impression