Michio Kaku: The Search for Life on Mars | Big Think

Michio Kaku: The Search for Life on Mars
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Where should NASA go to look for intelligent life on Mars? To get to the truth, journalists say follow the money. Astronomers say follow the water. Dr. Michio Kaku says "if you were a Martian on Mars three billion years ago when Mars was probably a lush environment with liquid water oceans—and you realized that the water was escaping to the icecaps, escaping into outer space or going into the permafrost," then you would "probably go either into outer space to leave Mars or drill into the permafrost or go into the polar icecaps. So I think that's what NASA is going to do next."
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MICHIO KAKU:

Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today. He has written 4 New York Times Best Sellers, is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning and has hosted numerous science specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery/Science Channel. His radio show broadcasts to 100 radio stations every week. Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study as well as New York University (NYU).
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TRANSCRIPT:

Dr. Michio Kaku: Congratulations to NASA! NASA scored a gold medal on Mars, a ten. It was a perfect launch, perfect execution, and the dismount was a perfect ten on the Red Planet. But that's just the first step of many steps to come. Next we want to go to perhaps the polar icecaps or perhaps even drill underground.

If you were a Martian on Mars three billion years ago when Mars was practically a—probably a lush environment with liquid water oceans—and you realized that the water was escaping to the icecaps, escaping into outer space or going into the permafrost, where would you go? Journalists say follow the money. Astronomers say follow the water. And if the water is going to go into outer space, underground or the polar icecaps, you would also probably go either into outer space to leave Mars or drill into the permafrost or go into the polar icecaps. So I think that's what NASA is going to do next. Of course, it's more difficult to land on the polar icecaps because the terrain is quite rocky.

Also, rock retrieval; we need to actually take rocks from Mars and bring them back to earth because we have tantalizing evidence that possibly microbial life existed on Mars. We have Mars rocks right here on the planet earth, and when you slice them open you see little tiny, squiggly things that look like multi-celled organisms. Well, we're not sure. It's a raging debate. Some people say bah-humbug, it's nothing but a crystalline structure that seems to look like a multi-cell organism. The result of the question is we have to have rock retrieval and after that I think perhaps we should put a blimp or a helicopter on Mars. Now the atmosphere of Mars is quite thin, only one percent the atmospheric pressure here on the planet earth, so the wings of the helicopter or the size of a blimp would have to be different to compensate for that.

And then of course we should try for a manned mission to Mars. But let's be real. It's going to be expensive and it will take time. It costs $10,000 to put a pound of anything into near earth orbit. Imagine your body made out of solid gold and that's the cost to put you into orbit around the planet earth. To put you on the moon costs about $100,000 a pound. To put you on Mars costs about a million dollars a pound. So think twice before you think that we're going to go to Mars with astronauts in the next few years. It's going to take decades to prepare for a manned mission to Mars.

Directed / Produced by Jonathan Fowler & Elizabeth Rodd

[MarioDragon]

As a religious person myself I find it incredibly hard to believe the probably centillions of galaxies and even more planets that reside inside them are all completely void of life, and that the entire expansive universe that is so ridiculously huge no human mind can even begin to comprehend it was made only for us. It just doesn't make any sense.

[nimishabardia]

i love the way he explains :) makes it very simple :)

[nahulseyon]

Michio Kaku that was really awesome. I'm your big

[PanzerX]

And those of us who chose to understand the world in order to better it and ourselves, we will still be here.

[s]

My favorite scientist Mr. kaku. Make science more interested.

[julianabrown]

Spacex is making those price numbers much much lower then the NASA 'cost plus' method of pricing a project.

[Javer]

I have never actually seen or heard this man speak before. He's very pleasant.

[MrPrankmastergeneral]

I just love this guy. Every science show he is on, he brings such enthusiasm and joy to the viewers.

[ikaemos]

I'm kinda hopeful in the last few years. We've only just begun searching for planets in the recent decades and we've already found loads of them. Dozens of them are rocky and situated in the habitable zones of (relatively) nearby stars. Planets really are a lot more common than we ever imagined they would be. And if we safely assume that life isn't equally common, and most of those planets are barren rocks, Mars will be a good case study for how we could live in such harsh conditions.

[TheLBJNumba]

i love watching this guy. So easy to listen to and very interesting. I see videos of him all the time at school and they are very cool.

[trentedwards]

I want more Michio Kaku ^-^ I love hearing this guy talk, just watched the 40 minute video 'Universe in a Nutshell' and now I can't stop.

[FaKiiGreedz]

My role model is miachu kaku probably the best physcist in the world

[Madog]

This is incredible. Life on mars is amazing and if there ever was than we should go there

[EforEvery]

Be the change you want to see in the world. As much as it is hard at times I believe it's the right thing to do.

[sydrduke]

Excellent point about the unicorn, I hadn't thought about it that way. And I wasn't familiar with James, I've just read his book and he seems to be a decent, moral person with some excellent advice to offer, eg James 1:19, 2:1-13, 4:13-14. So thank you for that!
However I don't think he ever claims to have known Job. He presumably read from the Torah/Tanakh and the teachings of early Christians and had no reason to doubt the book of Job - I'm afraid that this, to me, is not confirmation.

[MrDontwannafight]

This man is pushing me to finish out my physics degree, my hero!

[ThePathOfEudaimonia]

I'm seriously rooting for the Mars One project to succeed in their future endeavors.

[BigDaddySlick]

Whats sad is we are always preparing in commonalities... Yes, if we use current technologies to go to Mars it will take decades... if we begin to focus on the how rather than the when we can develop a more efficient and effective method of travel.

[TheDeadricCheese]

This is the best youtube channel ever!

[iGamerSoul]

if a miracle were to happen and immortality can be given to one person and one person only, this man, Dr. Michio Kaku, have my vote.