Real-Life Engineering and Space Travel

Greetings, my fellow Starfleet officers. I am

your captain on the deck, Mike the Birdman Dog,

and I'm not alone as I trek across the solar

system this week. I'm joined by my awesome XO.

Steve Megatron Phillips. In the first question

you should be asking, where the hell have you

been? Well, I don't have a good answer for that,

truth be told. Um... Future Imperfect is just

one of those shows where either Steve is really

busy because he just bought a house, had a kid,

understandably, that's life. Myself, really busy,

and at the time of this recording, it is unbearably

hot in my studio. You might be wondering, why

does Birdman sound like he's in a Jeffree's tube?

Because I kind of am. I'm actually recording

this in my living room on my Xbox One Isn't Technology

Cool? So we are getting more of these out. Actually,

as of this recording, we're recording a couple

of these tonight. So you will have some going

into July. We do apologize. We're just kind of

taking a look at what topics we can easily cover

and what topics we can do justice to. Because

I know a lot of people have been asking, where

is the Cisco episode? And honestly, my personal

opinion is Captain Cisco is one of those people

I think that is a lot more complex. than what

I was prepared to look at. He's one of those

guys I don't want to get it wrong, because there's

so much nuance to the writing of Deep Space Nine.

To get it wrong would do the character a great

disservice. And so that's kind of the show I

want to be able to spend a week watching nothing

but DS9, and unfortunately I've been watching

a lot of TNG because I just got the episode,

or the season six blu -rays for that, which that'll

be a replicator next show. which should be sometime

next week. Other than that, I guess, Steve, what

have you been doing with your time since we last

talked? It's been more than a month, if not two.

I just bought a house, so I've been spending

most of my time renovating it more or less because

it's a good house, but it's also double the space

of our townhouse that we were renting. As you

can tell, I'm no longer in a basement with a

furnace or air conditioning running. But we've

been going through replacing floors, carpets,

stairs need to be replaced or repaired, toilets

replaced. A lot of broken stuff that it's either

from the 70s when the house was built. or Crap

that's been neglected over the years. So we're

going through and we've repainted damn near every

room in the house Give or take a couple Pretty

much are getting unpacked now and we've been

here since the beginning of May and Then I had

no internet for the entire month of May I think

I would have died I had to use my phone to get

our TV shows Which thankfully I have sprint and

it has unlimited data, but sprint sucks for phone

calls. So it kind of was a Win -win. Yeah, it

kind of is a toss -up of garbage and then I just

signed up for Comcast and going through hellacious

problems with them now Which is nothing new And

then Geekcast Radio headed to your five celebration

June 2nd So you guys picked a winner in your

contest yet? Yeah, we actually had four submissions

and all four of them win So it was it was a Thanks

for paying attention to us. You know if we would

have got more it would have been two people but

We figured yeah, what the hell we'll spread the

wealth So yeah, it's it's kind of cool They're

they're pretty In -depth fans, so they they kind

of follow everything we do so it's it's kind

of cool But yeah, I mean there's there's a lot

of Content in the the the back burner there and

renovated the website as well. So Kind of like

going on So here's my question to you before

we get into today's topic Is your house haunted?

No damn Just cuz ghosts are cool. Um, just thought

I'd bring that up just because I can um So guys

on today's show for future of her which is brought

to you by SFI org Starfleet the world's largest

on Star Trek online fan club. We're gonna be

talking about space travel Yes, very exciting

stuff as you saw this past week NASA showed off

a design for a new warp ship, which is kind of

a concept, which has been tossed around for a

number of years. But back in 2013, when somebody

was actually talking about this at a conference,

this is the first time we've actually seen what

the ship could potentially look like. And it's

not exactly a coincidence that it looks kind

of like the Enterprise. In fact, this thing is

actually called the ISS Enterprise designed by

a physicist and a concept artist over the last

little while. There's there's actually a funny

aspect about this and Do you remember the the

orbital first warp ship enterprise that uh Was

before the nxl1 of Captain Archer. I do not actually

It's basically it's it's a ship Now it's more

like a a one singular tube that goes in the middle

of this but it's it's got two spheres that go

around exactly like this around the ship however

the ship is much much smaller and it's shaped

like a needle like a space needle type thing

almost um and it's supposed to be the first warp

enterprise that goes like warp one uh before

the nxl1 which goes warp five um so What they've

done is essentially they've mixed this orbital

ship with the NX -01, with the ass end, the rocket

end of like Princess Leia's, you know, rebel

ship in Star Wars. Oh, okay, so it kind of looks

like the Corellian blockade runner, kind of.

Yeah, basically it looks it looks like that but

it's got like the enterprise front end to it

and then it's got that orbital space needle dual

Rings around it It's taking me all day to kind

of I'm like I know I've seen some of this before

and I was piecing together the components now

the idea behind this episode to you our audience

is is to kind of talk about space travel. I mean,

looking at Star Trek's accomplishments with like

the slipstream drive, the quantum drive, whatever

the board used to go to Warp Towers, I think

it's just slipstream or something similar. But

also to look at real life tech. I mean, this

past year, or at least within the last couple

of years, we've had the first object, Voyager

2, I think, was the first object to exit The

solar system truly that the source of the go

past the heliosheath to actually get into the

interstellar space the true Intergalactic medium

where there's no solar wind or it's a very minimal

influence And they call it we're on kind of a

magnetic Highway, if you will and that's the

things they can keep this mission going. I think

another 10 years I think that's how much is left

in the battery of The space probe and the power

it's used for this thing is I think less than

what it takes to run a scientific calculator

right now. Just to give you an idea of how much

wattage, if you can even call it that, is running

through this spacecraft currently. And it takes

something like 17 hours plus to send a signal

there and to get a signal back. And we're talking

ridiculously slow speeds for this stuff to even.

We're talking bits and bytes, not megabytes or

gigabytes, which we can stream down from the

ISS or whatever else. No, we're talking It takes

a long time for the shit to come out. And we

stand at the cusp of an interesting time in space

travel and, you know, basically space exploration

as a whole because space travel, it gets funded

and it gets defunded. It gets really ambitious

and it gets really pulled back. And it's one

of those things where I think humanity needs

to start thinking long term. because we haven't

been back to the moon since the 70s. The Chinese

are talking about going to the moon very, very

soon. I think it was under the Bush administration

or the Obama administration talking about manned

missions to Mars sometime in the 2030s or 2020s,

something like that. And it's interesting just

to talk about where we've gone, where we've been.

I mean, the space program, between Russia and

the United States. We've touched down on Mars.

We've had probes on Venus. We've sent other probes

and other satellites into the atmospheres of

Jupiter. We've had probes fly by Uranus, Saturn,

Neptune. And there's that famous picture, I think,

taken by Voyager 1, which Carl Sagan called the

Pale Blue Dot. which is what Earth looks like

from, I think, the orbit, or close to the orbit

of Neptune, I think. I'm probably wrong in that.

So I might get this week in Geek .net to make

fun of me. And it's one of those things where,

like I said, humanity's really got to start thinking

long -term. And with Star Trek, for example,

we look at the Enterprise, the NCC 1701, the

regular Constellation class ship. we look at

all the amenities it has but we never think about

the engineering that would have gone into such

a fantastic device and it's not just things like

phasers or photon torpedoes or even the warp

drive which we will talk about is you have to

look at things like the hull and you might be

thinking well big deal it's made out of metal

well not exactly because in space there's no

such thing as gravity or at least there are things

that affect gravity but in general it's zero

but so let's say for example Steve I throw a

baseball in space we can both agree it's not

going to stop unless something physically stops

it right there is no opposing force no okay micrometeorites

are a very bad fucking thing And what I mean

by that is there are tiny bits of asteroid floating

around out in space or dust particles or even

more exotic elements flying at these incredible

velocities that would chip into the hull. I mean,

and I'm honestly surprised an astronaut has not

caught a bolt to the face and had their helmet

implode. because there's actually a documentary

on the movie Gravity, and they talk about all

the debris that's circling the earth right now.

And in that movie, the idea is there's this cloud

of debris circling at like 91 ,000 miles per

hour, some ridiculous number, that's going to

kill you. Some of it's fiction, some of it's

not. See Neil deGrasse Tyson's thing on it. And

when you look at the Enterprise constellation

class ship, it has solved that issue. I find

that to be a remarkable feat of not just engineering,

because that means they would have had to develop

some kind of metallurgy to develop some kind

of a new alloy, because I guarantee you that

means stainless steel or even titanium. And they

even developed ray shielding, which is a term

we've heard in Star Wars and Star Trek, to deflect

against cosmic rays. And cosmic rays can be anything

from x -rays, they can be even other forms of

radiation or even the most dangerous gamma ray

bursts which most likely won't turn you into

the Hulk which will most likely just vaporize

you and you're dead. The Star Trek ships have

come up with these things to accomplish these

great distances that the ships can travel because

they're going at these incredible velocities

but they're not having to worry about the dangers

of normal space and that's something that I think

Star Trek has done remarkably well is If you

read some of the technical manuals, for example,

they've actually kind of gone into this talking

about, it turns out there was one episode of

Star Trek where they talk about the navigation

shields, which is basically there's the shields

that go up, which would deflect against phaser

fire photons, whatever. Yep. Then there's kinetic

shields, which is protecting against micrometeorites.

And since we don't have the technology now to

generate a laser shield, it just doesn't exist.

Star Trek did that first and there's people trying

to develop things like this to protect us against

not just micro meteorites and other exotic elements

out there in space, but against cosmic rays.

One of the things about space flight, even in

the solar system that's a big concern right now,

is radiation. For example, astronauts on the

International Space Station have to keep an eye

on something that's known as space weather, which

you can do the same thing. Google space weather,

and I think it's called spaceweather .gov, where

you can actually watch what's happening on the

sun. You might be saying, well, what's the big

friggin' deal? Well, there's this thing called,

there are sunspots, and sometimes these things

pop, and that generates a solar flare. A solar

flare can... have something that's called a CME,

which is called a coronal mass ejection, piece

of the Sun or something or charged particles

fly off the Sun and come towards Earth. Generally

takes a couple days to get here. There's different

classifications, but I'll get into that. Or maybe

not. It's a little too, whatever. The point being

is the astronauts inside the ISS, they have to

hide from this radiation because if they're out

in their space suits, for example, they're dead.

they are going to fry yeah they don't become

the fantastic four yeah exactly nobody's getting

stretchy powers or orange rock skin here it just

no and they're actually having a few instances

in space flight the astronauts have had to hurry

their asses up to get protected by this because

they don't have the earth's magnetic shield to

protect them and yet in star trek for example

they can just casually stroll around the ship

and don't even have to worry about this and there's

even acceleration effects that could potentially

be fatal just because the object is moving so

fast, how does one stop going at the speed of

light without going through the ship, if you

get what I'm saying, like a cartoon? And the

idea behind warp, I probably don't have to explain

this to you people, our audience here, is warp

is talking about the idea of folding space behind

the ship and in front of the ship to bring two

spaces closer together. Anyway, um, and the idea

is with the warp ship we could apply the same

principles because there are there is a theory

in math That explains this is theoretically possible.

We can't do it yet But the technology is there

there. They actually do something like this with

computing and it's called quantum computing if

I understand it properly Where everything in

the universe the galaxy whatever is all connected

at some point So there's nothing to say stop

me my god Going to say galaxy m31 because there's

something there that probably connects us It's

like a quantum teleportation sort of thing. They've

actually done this with a molecule They transported

that thing like three meters across a lab So

this is possible right now and I think the applications

for this was space travel probably one two hundred

years to figure this shit out but It's incredible

just to think that Star Trek, with their vision

of the future that Zefram Cochran in like 2061,

I think? Something like that. Yeah, it's pretty

close. Yeah, or maybe 21. Either way, he figures

it out that we can do this, and he catches the

attention of the Vulcans. And just being able

to achieve Warp 1. Warp 1 is the speed of light,

which is I think 1 ,800... 100 ,800 miles per

something like that some really high number and

It's basically like an au I think or something

like that in a light year the distance light

travels in a year So with that with spaceflight

For us to travel to say Alpha Centauri for example,

I think it's only like four point three light

years away If we travel the speed of light, it

would take us four years That's also a problem

with spaceflight right now the longest missions

I think we've ever had are the ISS and going

to the moon and There's a bunch of logistical

problems which Star Trek has solved for example

food We've got the replicators or in the original

Star Trek. We had a little food cube things basically

protein powder or astronaut ice cream if you

will and then you look at other things like water

consumption Oxygen these are all things that

will have to be considered in the future yet

in Star Trek We have wonderful things like like

in Voyager for example I think they turned stellar

cartography into a hydroponics bay or something

or they converted Katherine January's private

dining room into like a garden or something I'm

pretty sure on enter on the Enterprise D. They

had Yeah, they had a full body lab And the cool

thing about this is too, once again with Star

Trek and Space Flight, is they've even thought

about things like recycling waste water. So every

time you go poop and pee in space, they can recycle

that. In fact, I think the replica, thank you,

my wife is, I'm not even gonna tell you what

she's doing, can recycle that material into something

usable again. And I've rambled on enough, feel

free to jump in any time here, Steve. And it's

one of those things where I think the more we

look to fiction, I think the more we can apply

these things into future ideas for space. Because

another thing that's actually been considered

too is entertainment. And that automatically

brings up the holodeck from Star Trek. Is this

possible? I think I've heard some are saying

no goddamn way. But I think the holodeck is possible.

I would wonder, I think you could recreate it

virtually, but I don't know whether you'd be

able to recreate something right in front of

you. Well, they've already figured out how to

do teleportation for objects without losing any

of its original coding. See, the thing I... I

can't remember what... There's a thing in the

transporter. It's something... I can't remember

what it's called. I want to say it's called...

The Heisenberg compensator or something like

that that may just be the breaking bad in my

back of my head speaking But but the principle

is your objects the molecules in your body your

atoms are always moving So when you replicate

it How does it know and that brings up another

question for you? Teleportation the transporter

is it actually transportation or is it really

high -tech murder? Just really think about that

for a second because it breaks you down. Yeah,

I mean really think about that You're technically

dead in one place alive in another and there's

actually a character original Barclay in enterprise

in TNG and in Voyager Don't use the transporter.

He's got teleportation phobia and for and you

know what I don't blame him Well, it's like bones.

Yeah, he's like screw this Completely having

my bones my bones and my atoms scattered across

the galaxy. And what was it that one line? I

think it was yeah, it was in the rebooted Star

Trek where they talk about the guy's prize beagle

Like they transfer Yeah, so what happened to

what happened to him? I don't know. I'll let

you when it shows up And there's stuff like that

and it's so crazy think about all this technology

that we would develop for this. But the point

I was trying to make is, looking at the holodeck,

that's a psychological device. And what I mean

by that is, there's been a number of documentaries

I've seen on this. Let's say you send a guy to

Mars, for example. They're actually talking about

this now with that huge Mars project. These people

need to be entertained. You might be thinking,

oh, big deal, bring a book. Well, they're gonna

be stuck there. Yeah, this is a one -way trip

likely more than likely you're going to die there

But at the same time How do you keep someone

entertained? Or that long because eventually

is going to start to break them down and if there's

a bunch of people living in a close quarters

personality Yeah, and they have these huge Mars

biodomes located in the Arctic or in the desert

or wherever to simulate the environments. In

fact, one notable movie, which is fucking terrible,

is Paulie Shore's biodome. I never thought I'd

mention Paulie Shore on a Star Trek show. Anyway.

But the idea is you have to observe these people

living together. And having a thing like, say,

the holodeck allows people to... have their fantasy

then what happens on the holodeck stays on the

holodeck catch my drift um Because that's one

of the things too because people can go crazy

from not being Stimulated enough. I mean you

look at people who go to jail for example solitary

confinement But in the back of their mind, they

know at least they're on earth. There's other

people if you are billions of miles away from

planet Earth and there's nothing outside that

wall between you and the empty vacuum of space,

you think about that long enough, you're probably

gonna go nuts. And that's something that the

original Star Trek never really touched on, but

TNG was smart enough too with like, Counselor

Troi. And I thought it was a very progressive

step to have the Counselor on the bridge, actually,

with... Star Trek not just because she was a

cheerleader in space But at the same time for

her to monitor the emotional health of Captain

Picard because The galaxy class starship was

meant to be I think it was the Federation flagship

So the odds of them encountering new people new

alien civilizations knew anything were really

really high and For Picard to deal with these

stressful situations day in and day out You have

to think about the mental fortitude that these

starfleet people would have to go through. And

this applies even now to the space program today.

You have to be cleared psychologically to go

to space. I mean, Steve, for example, can you

just imagine if someone flipped out on, say,

the ISS and opened one of the airlocks for fun?

Yeah, everybody would be dead. Yeah. I mean,

and that's the thing, too. It could happen. And

that's really kind of scary, too. And it's kind

of funny how a lot of people think space travel

is no big deal. But it kind of is. There's so

much that goes into it that, like I said very

early in this discussion, we need to start paying

attention to it. Because this planet, and this

is not meant to be a kick on the environment

or whatever else, take this for what you will.

There is no political agenda behind what I'm

saying. But resources on this planet are being

depleted at a pretty big rate. I mean oil natural

gas Basically and even nuclear resources are

being used up and it's having an adverse effect

on the environment and The fact that our population

I think has tripled since the 1800s That's a

lot of mouths to feed So the idea of colonizing

Mars or the moon Seems kind of like a good idea.

Or maybe even this is another idea. I think even

James Cameron and Google are behind this one.

So the Terminator dude, and well, Google, want

to bring an asteroid into Earth's orbit and mine

the crap out of it. There was a documentary I

was watching this past week, for example, talking

about one asteroid could have more gold, silver,

platinum, or whatever than the entire Earth combined.

Think about that, man. An asteroid made of platinum.

It's entirely possible. And what other resources

we could find on there? I know there's, I think

there's like a mineral called iridium or something

I think comes from asteroids. It's rare on Earth,

but I know, space. Stuff like that. So trying

to develop the technology to leave Earth. Safely

is great. The fact that we can get to the moon

reliably, there's nothing there, so to speak.

I mean, I think they said there's water or there's

ice underneath the crust or whatever. I'm not

100 % sure of that, so don't quote me on that.

But that's a start for at least sustainable human

habitat, is we need water. I don't know what

we'd do about food. Obviously, we'd have to grow

our own and whatnot. but Going to Mars the Martian

soil stuff like that. They're even talking about

there are these huge giant craters on Mars with

these enormous underground caverns and They're

theorizing right now. Those may be the best candidates

for life right now Could be underneath the Martian

surface with the surface being so hostile Maybe

not so much underground. There could even be

oxygen down there. You don't know the further

down you go, and then there's the Martian ice

caps. So I think we're in a good spot. Now that

we know we can leave the solar system, now we

just have to decide how and look at the dangers

associated with it. And one of the big things

that I don't think a lot of people realize, and

this may be kind of depressing, so follow me

here, is you look at look at the average human

we live maybe about 70 years right if we're lucky

if we're lucky and they're talking about now

what if biologic life is not meant to leave and

that's depressing because we've only been around

for like 200 000 years or whatever our planet's

been around for 4 .6 billion and eventually our

sun's going to expand into a red giant and we're

going earth is bye -bye mind you There's even

they're talking about this because the Sun is

getting hotter every year It may not matter because

Earth's oceans may boil away anyway suit or not

soon But soon in geological terms like a couple

mill like a couple hundred million years or something

either way point of the matter is What about

We've already sent probes to other planets and

out of the solar system our legacy may in fact

be robotic And there's this one theory that I've

heard, once again, where they're talking about

if there's intelligent life out there, let's

say the universe is 13 billion years old, let's

say that's the baseline. If human life has only

developed in the last couple hundred thousand

years, our planet's been around for 4 .6 billion,

there's a possibility we may just be really late

to the party, that life in the universe may have

already come and gone. Not likely, but it's possible.

And if that's the case, maybe robots and artificial

intelligence and other forms of machinery may

be what we can send out there as our legacy.

I mean, one really cool example of this that

I can think of, and Steve, you'll follow me on

this one for sure, in the cartoon Beast Wars,

there's this thing called the Golden Disk. The

Golden Disc is Voyager 1's golden record. The

record of humanity, the record of human life,

DNA, prime numbers, music, sounds, like stuff

recorded in like 50 different languages or something

like that. That may be what's left of humanity

at some point, is that's what we may leave behind

is something like that. And I don't think that's

a terrible way to end the legacy of humanity,

but it's not a great one either. Because I want

to see what's out there. I think I'd rather have

us find out whether there's stuff out there or

not. Absolutely. And that's why I'm hoping we

take space travel a little bit more seriously,

develop it a little bit quicker if we can. I

mean, I'm all for economic expansion and whatnot.

But I'd less I'd like to focus a little bit a

little bit less on Khloe Kardashian and a little

bit more on, say, Ganymede or say Titan or Io,

which I'm pretty sure are all moons of Jupiter.

I know Ganymede is. Titan I think is, I want

to say it's Saturn, but I'm not 100 % sure. And

stuff like that just to see what's out there

because if this work ship that's being proposed

would work, the sky's the limit. I mean, if we

can develop the technology to move, Then we just

have to develop the technology to make sure we

get there and aren't dead. Like shielding, food,

psychological issues. There's so much out there

in the universe to see. I mean, with radio telescopes

discovering new phenomena all the time. To see

these galaxy clusters where there's like hundreds

of thousands of stars packed into like 120 light

years. Or to see... a wolf rayet star, which

is this incredibly rare type of star that eats

another one and shoots off gamma ray bursts.

You probably don't want to see that, but it would

look really cool. Stuff like, stuff we've only

theorized about, like quark stars, or, you know,

seeing a pulsar, or, you know, being able to

see what a galaxy looks like from outside of

it. I mean, there's so much in space. that is

yet to be discovered, that we have yet to even

scratch the surface upon, and with the Kepler

array, or the Kepler telescope finding a super

earth that I think is only like 13 light years

away from here, there's possibilities for life

out there. I mean, if we can find a good planet

that has oxygen on it, and water, well, that's

half the equation. Now we just have to hurry,

now we just have to hope the biology of that

planet doesn't kill us. And that's something

else that Star Trek kind of never addresses or

at least addresses not so often. Well, I think

it started out addressing part of that, but then

I think as it progressed, I think it kind of

forgot. Oh, yeah, because you'd see bones or

you'd see the holographic doctor occasionally

giving someone an inoculation to go down to a

planet saying, hey, by the way, don't touch this.

Stuff like that because you think about the human

body is evolved to survive on earth Let's say

we go to earth to a common cold out on that planet.

Maybe as devastating as AIDS here. We don't know

and That's something else that I think space

travel. We haven't taken into consideration yet

That our bodies are gonna have to change. We're

gonna have to develop either new technology genetic

manipulation or something that hasn't even been

thought up yet. And that's exciting, too, to

think we could even have offshoots of humanity

out there. And, you know, it's not outside the

realm of possibility, when you really think about

it, to have another planet that kind of looks

like us, primates. Yeah? Yeah, I mean, it's not

unlikely. That's another thing exciting, too,

about space travel is we've taught... We've kind

of touched upon this, talking about life out

there. How did life develop on other planets?

How did it develop? Like, for example, if they've

got a different star than ours, they may not

see the same wavelengths that we see. They may

not even have eyes at all. Or they may have developed

past the need for verbal speech, literal telepathy.

Because in theory, it's just another form, thoughts

are just another chemical reaction. Who's the

say you couldn't other species couldn't read

that somehow some way and maybe in biology we

don't understand and I know we've talked a lot

about this about the what -ifs but looking back

at what we've accomplished in this 40 years 50

years of space travel is Astounding when Sputnik

one circled the earth sent that first signal

launched the space race Look at all the computer

technology that's come out of that look at all

the consumer goods that have come out of that

and it's it's kind it's really kind of amazing

when you look back and think about how much we

depend upon space and It doesn't need us, but

we need it Well, unfortunately, the sad thing

is is we haven't really done anything worthwhile

since the 60s. I Mean we have but we haven't

Yeah, there's been technological advances, but

nothing super groundbreaking. Well, they've never

actually tried to get out of here. And I wonder

why that is. I really do. I mean, if you've been

to the moon before, why not go back? Why not

try and build some kind of a moon station there?

Yeah, I mean it does raise interesting questions

and I'm sure there's some dark conspiracy theories

writing us an email right now as to why we've

never gone back and I would like to know the

answers to those questions. Unfortunately, I

don't think your administration currently or

ever will ever answer that question until such

and such a time Yeah, because they lie. Yeah,

I mean you're right though. Why haven't we gone

back? I mean sure we sent spirits an opportunity

in the big mars rover a couple years ago to mars

that's cool but we just kind of left the moon

alone the moon is something we can do in a matter

of days well the thing i don't get is i i know

that mars is pretty much a one -way trip for

whoever goes but my my thing is is if you can

build if you can get to the moon why not build

an establishment there and then you know you

could build a spaceship there without the constraints

of gravity hitting it. Yeah. And send it off

to Mars with fuel in it ready to go. Yeah, and

I think someone had proposed the idea to use

the moon as like a space station to fling stuff

at Mars because it would speed up the trip by

like a couple of months. Yeah, it doesn't make

sense why they wouldn't do this. However, though,

Did you know that asteroids and meteorites I

forget what the difference is between the two

so sue me um Actually hit the lunar surface more

often than you might think Really? Yeah, I didn't

know if there was a video I show I mentioned

this on nerd news a couple months ago But something

hit the moon made this gigantic flash And it

was something like two or three times the Hiroshima

blast released of energy Because there's no atmosphere

on the moon. So there's nothing to slow it down

So I could see maybe why they're a little hesitant

in that regard, but they could build it underground

or something There's nothing saying hey, let's

build a giant 7 -eleven on the moon But you know

there's stuff that they could do or stuff in

lunar orbit Stuff like that. There's so many

possible as to why because I think round trip

to the moon is like three days Everybody can

survive three days Well, yeah, so you're right

that it raises interesting questions why we've

never gone back or why haven't we done more detailed

explorations of say Venus Obviously, it's a hostile

environment actually the hottest planet in the

solar system due to the greenhouse effect and

Incredibly hostile, but it's terrestrial. In

fact, some people have even talked about the

idea of terraforming Venus Which is really cool

ready for a Genesis project yet. Yeah, I don't

see that happening But you never know and that's

something else to terraforming talking about

that as well The idea is for those of you that

don't aren't familiar with this term and I'm

sure 95 % of you are terraforming is taking a

planet that's maybe inhospitable to life now

and changing it over generations hundreds if

not thousands of years to make it more friendly

towards life. And there's nothing that says we

can't do it, we just don't know how yet. Like

changing the content of the atmosphere to produce

more oxygen and less nitrogen, for example. Maybe

there's a process that can do that. It's incredibly

fascinating stuff when you really look at the

history of space exploration and how Star Trek

has really opened up the doors for this. I mean,

seeing worlds there. I mean, one of the most

interesting episodes of Voyager that I saw was

this planet that exists outside of time just

a little bit. Like, time on that planet passes

incredibly fast because it has a really fast

rotation or something. Maybe there are planets

like that out there. I'm kind of doubting it,

but you never know. Or, like, say Star Wars.

You see planets like Hoth. The giant ice planet.

I know in Star Trek there's classifications of

worlds. Worlds that we want are class M planets.

We like that. Class L, I think, is tolerable,

but it's an ammonia -based atmosphere or something?

Yeah. I've talked about this an incredibly long

time. I'm trying to think, what else can I really

say? I mean, Star Trek is... The space vehicles

I want to see us get into. I'd love to be able

to cruise around in the Enterprise without fear

of gamma ray bursts ending my trip or bouncing

too close to a supernova or having been killed

by a marble in space. Or even figuring out how

to make a shuttlecraft that we can stop ripping

up places to make roads and you can just fly

these cars or shuttles across all over the place.

Yeah, and that's something else, too, that's

happening now. We're actually developing suborbital

flights for commercials. So we are getting closer

to the shuttlecraft in terms of being able to

move you from one corner of the Earth to the

other really fast. They've even talked about

things like skyhooks or basically these giant

space elevators. The technology is there. We

just have to build it and take a chance. i think

humanity will get there someday like i said if

we can focus a little less on justin bieber a

little bit more on kepler i think we're going

to see something really cool happen and hopefully

within our lifetimes and seeing this guy come

up with the concept of the warp ship saying it

is possible here's how but how do we do it it's

fascinating stuff to me So that's about all I've

got for this episode. Anyway, Steve, any other

thoughts out of you considering I've talked for

99 % of this? No, I mean, I think I think we

pretty much summed it up in in the episode, but

it's It's definitely something to look forward

to to finally see NASA doing something different

They kind of you know seeing them retire and

put on hold all Other projects that they had

going and and try and actually do something new

You know like like creating this this new enterprise

or make trying to make it out of the you know

Out of our our planetary orbit for once Yeah,

I mean I want to see what's out there. I'm excited

to see what's out there and Maybe we're gonna

maybe we're on the cusp of some new scientific

Era, and I really hope we are and I really hope

what we find out there is friendly But we're

gonna I hope so as well and And you know what

that's a topic for a different show we can talk

about Alien conspiracies cuz hey aliens happen

at Star Trek funny how they all have the weird

have weird shaped ears or shit on their faces

I Have yet to see a squid person But I will.

So I guess that's pretty much going to do it

for this edition of Future Imperfect. Next time

on the show, we're going to talk about the fandom.

In our first episode, me and Steve talked about

we were excited to be Star Trek fans. There's

conventions. There's podcasts. There's all sorts

of cool shit. 25 episodes later, is the excitement

still there? I guess we'll have to wait and find

out. So until next time, we have been... Steve

Megatron Phillips. And I've been Mike at the

Birdman Dot saying, Live long and prosper.