Travel to Mars in 5 years, water on Mars?

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. You know, we let our minds wander. In the New York Times in the last couple of weeks, there was an article there was a big crative on Mars that they’re suspected that there’s a maybe water underneath, maybe there’s an ocean underneath. What is today is doctor Robert Zubrin, and he’s a renowned nuclear an astronautical engineer.

0:29 He worked for companies that contracted with NASA. And you know, I let my mind wander. Maybe maybe Mars was Krypton where they came to Earth. Who knows, well, doctor doctor Zubrin, give us what your thoughts are. You’ve studied Mars all your life. Give us your thoughts.

0:52 Speaker 2 Well, the early Mars was really very similar to the early Earth. They’re both rocky planets with the water oceans and with carbon dioxide atmospheres. And of course we know that Earth developed life, and the question is did Mars develop it too? If it is the case that all planets like that develop life, there’s probably billions of such

1:19 planets in our galaxy Alona, and life is undoubtedly everywhere. That’s one of the reasons why we need to explore Mars.

1:26 Speaker 1 I something always dreomy to Mars. Now, there’s also many, many rumors and many many discussions about Marses two moons. What do you know about them and all the rumors that exist about them.

1:47 Speaker 2 Well, there’s lots of rumors about Mars’s two moons, which are about the size of asteroids, and so one theory is they could be captured asteroids. That seems pretty probable to me. Or they could have, like our moon, be a fragment of Mars that broke off and was but couldn’t get completely away from the planet and so went

2:11 into orbit around it. Those are two possibilities. But I think you know, the real question here is the search for life in the universe. And as I think you’ve probably heard, there was a major discovery made this past week of a not on Mars, but a planet orbiting another star one hundred and twenty four light years away.

2:37 Astronomers using the Web Space Telescope discovered a compound and its atmosphere that is only made on Earth by a basically rotting seaweed. So that’s a signature of life.

2:54 Speaker 1 Well, I’ll tell you. And we’ve had those Mars rovers up there. I mean, you know, so many people who worked for NASA sometimes wink their eyes and say, there’s a lot of things you don’t know. Have any of them winked their eyes at you.

3:14 Speaker 2 Well, they wouldn’t because I know what they know. But the. But no, Look, the rovers have discovered lots of things that are how can I put it, compatible with the past existence of life on Mars. They’ve discovered that there were oceans there. They’ve discovered the kinds of rocks that are left when there was water in the soil and

3:38 then it retreated, the as salt deposits and conglomerate rocks and all this kind of stuff. In other words, but what they haven’t discovered is life itself. And I think there’s a reason for that, which is discovering either well, fossils.

3:55 You wouldn’t expect to find life on the Martian surface right now because there’s no liquid water, but what you could potentially find are fossils. But like you know, I live in Colorado here and a lot of dinosaur bones have been discovered in Colorado.

4:09 Speaker 1 But if you were to.

4:10 Speaker 2 Parachute a bunch of rovers into the rocky mountains, you’d never find a dinosaur fossil. You take some real life rock hounds exploring around to find dinosaur fossils, and that’s going to need if we want to find the fossils of life on Mars. Wow.

4:25 Speaker 1 Well, doctor Robert Zubrin, anything else you want to tell our listeners this Sunday morning.

4:32 Speaker 2 Yeah, I do. You know? The new Trump administration has let loose this thing called doge to try to cut the various federal budgets. And some of the stuff they’re cutting is indeed waste and should be cut. But some of these kids that come in and they want to do a fifty percent cut to NASA’s science budget, which is the most productive part

4:56 of NASA. It’s the one that sent the rovers, it’s the one that launched the web telescope, which has now discovered a signature of life on a planet on another star. That’s not the stuff that should be cut. And so this needs to be corrected. Yeah, we do need to save money in the federal government, but we should not

5:14 cut this stuff that are really the source of great discoveries that make America famous around the world, that open up new areas of science, you know, and that frankly, future ages are going to wonder at when they look at our time.

5:29 Speaker 1 I agree with you. So when I get to see the President, and I will mention that to him. So, doctor Robert Zubern, thank you so much for this Sunday morning, and thank you for expanding our minds. And we’ll catch up with you again. Wilson, all right, thanks, thank you,