Why Is The World Rushing Back To The Moon?

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The Moon has been one of the most important theoretical stepping stones to our understanding of the universe. We’ve long understood that it could also be our literal stepping stone: humanity’s first destination beyond our atmosphere.
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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
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Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
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[@markmuller7962]

"We could only pretend that we are the center of the universe for so long when we can literally see the detailed surface of another world with naked eyes" *quote of the decade*

[@erric288]

I mean to be fair to scientists of the past observing the heavenly bodies, it does appear as if everything is orbiting around us at first glance.

[@ObjectsInMotion]

@@erric288 Not just that, but if the stars were infinitely far away, then it is impossible to tell which is the real center without a third object outside the system. Until we had telescopes able to measure stellar parallax and see the stars do indeed shift as we move around the sun, it literally was an unanswerable question. And you cant be faulted for being wrong on something it was impossible for you to prove one way or another anyway. Pre-renaissance astronomers were not ignorant they were just limited.

[@aguywithanopinion8912]

Well we are all at the centre of our own observational universe. So they were kind of right

[@markmuller7962]

@B0tch0 You guys ain't getting the quote, he doesn't mean that they had to have all figured out but that the process was inevitable and inevitably quick

[@gavinriley5232]

Counterpoint. I am the center of my light cone and therefore the center of the universe from my perspective.

[@NeonVisual]

Because we're running low on cheese.

[@joshuagohres7902]

Best answer

[@theremoteman4504]

Swiss cheese to be exact

[@hashfors]

I prefer cows over humans..

[@bmxerkrantz]

the 1.2 billion pounds of cheese in US caves would like to have a word with you

[@lorenzoblum868]

Where shall we go the day we run low on crackers?

[@darrennew8211]

I read a sci-fi short story once in which many of the people watching the eclipse were disguised aliens here to just go "Wow, that's crazy!"

[@GreenPixel-Moosie]

Name?

[@sevex9]

Oh my Glorp! Do you see that Worm Monkey!? Not in 10 trillion parsects can such a spectacle beheld by the naked photosensitive organ!

[@darrennew8211]

@@GreenPixel-Moosie I'd have said if I remembered. It was just one of thousands of short stories I've read over the decades.

[@yanina.korolko]

🤣😂 wow, that's crazy!😂

[@JustinMShaw]

That would be a huge improvement on silly doomsday invasion stories if, instead of wanting any resource we have, they just wanted our great views.

[@DanielSolis]

"Okay, boss. We finished building your lunar base!" "Why is it shaped like that?" "You wanted a **checks notes** crude lunar base." "I wanted a CREWED lunar base."

[@AgentFire0]

My eyes kept swinging to the subtitles to confirm that no, he did NOT say crude.

[@laconicscout7555]

If Spinal Tap went to the Moon...

[@luayuahmed]

I think Mars is interesting from a scientific perspective, but from an engineering perspective for a society who is looking to expand beyond Earth, the Moon is the easiest way to develop technology and procedures for continued expansion.

[@AnthemUnanthemed]

we already got to mars, people dont need to go to mars, there are planned sample recovery missions that got their budgets continually cut overtime, sending people would be so much more expensive than a robot that is objectively better for taking measurements because it eliminates human error, the biggest issue in human led testing.

[@jtjames79]

LoL. I keep hearing people say that, none of them have a business plan, and half of them are Communists. I'm going to Mars, not "we", I don't identify as a waste of oxygen earthling. I'm just a temporarily embarrassed multi-planetary trucker.

[@luayuahmed]

@@jtjames79 you don't hear people when they speak.

[@maxwellsimon4538]

@@jtjames79 I, a venture capitalist and ore processing tycoon, wish to go to the moon for the much closer and much less EPA regulated moon rocks.

[@skycloud4802]

I think Moon would be a great place to practice before moving on to bigger things. If astronauts get seriously hurt, ill or things go wrong on the moon, then people on Earth can render aid from not too far away. But planets are too far away for those on Earth tondo much to help.

[@O.M.G.Puppies]

China was not the first unmanned probe to return rock samples. The Soviets did it with Luna-16 and 20 returned rocks,. and Luna-24 drilled and returned a two-meter core sample.

[@iamgroot4080]

If You believe everything that soviets or russians tell you, they even have an unicorn, builded the moon, Putin was first to carry those heavy bricks there.... Shirtless... On a bear.... One hand driving the bear, no joke!

[@lilith3953]

@@iamgroot4080 The Russians have a long history of either telling the truth or saying nothing. Unlike the US who lies and or has lied about absolutely everything you could possibly lie about. If the Russians said that they had put a man on the moon, then I would believe that the US probably had too. But when it's something that only the United states of liars claims, I have no reason to believe it.

[@whophd]

“that PARTICULAR Cold War” 😬

[@Nphen]

I've been referring to it as "The First Cold War" for years now. I consider the proxy wars against Russia & China to be one unified "Second Cold War" but some scholars are saying they're 2 different new Cold Wars.

[@SpellMenderDev]

@@Nphen Instead of "Cold War II" It's "Cold War IIa" and "Cold War IIb" 🤣🤦‍♀

[@melonlord1414]

So I wasn't the only one who tripped over that sentence

[@pennyandluckpokerclub]

Chilling.

[@3zzzTyle]

@@pennyandluckpokerclub Bing.

[@christopherbrand5360]

I kept hearing 'crewed' as 'crude' and thought that was a pretty bold comment on the sophistication of those missions

[@josem1419]

always cc activated for me because I keep mishearing things :(

[@yitzakIr]

They ate with their hands

[@michaelpettersson4919]

Any space faring vessel we can build with our current technology are doomed to be crude in comparison what we will need to really explore and colonise our own neighbourhood.

[@christopherbrand5360]

@@yitzakIr 😂

[@michaelporzio7384]

Correction 9:38 The Soviet Luna 16 (in 1970) was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth and represented the first lunar sample return mission by the Soviet Union and the third overall.

[@B0tch0]

Too bad Russians are more interested in washing machines and toilets these days

[@KuK137]

You're of course right, but with recent rabid Russophobia (bordering on 30s antisemitism levels) we'll soon read Vanguard was the first artificial satellite of Earth...

[@Rivulets048]

🤓actually

[@thorr18BEM]

Crazy to think that until there hadn't been a single lunar sample returned since 1976. The entire Luna program brought back only a total of 326 g compared to 382000 g brought back by Apollo program which was even longer ago. Chang'e5 brought 1731 g in 2020.

[@B0tch0]

Russia will never make it back to the moon. If they have a washing machine in Russian homes by the end of the decade, it's already a win for them.

[@catchphase]

I love the book, Artemis, written by Andy Weir. At the end of this century, we've colonised the moon and discovered rich aluminium oxide deposits. Andy Weir is the one that wrote The Martian, and Artemis is definitely as worthy of a read.

[@chiron9948]

'We'? The U.S., a shareholder company, a billionaire, or the World, as defined in the space treaty? Or is the space treaty toppled with the Artemis treaty, that supersedes the UN one, and makes basically the U.S. the sole owner?

[@catchphase]

@@chiron9948 in my comment, I meant 'We' as in, the human race. I don't really recall that any politics were involved in the story. It was just about a space-age street urchin getting dragged into a conspiracy about factions vying for control of the aluminium supply. I think the organisations involved may have been privately owned. Read the book :P

[@dkennell998]

Just wrapping up Hail Mary! I was skeptical about Artemis from the reviews, but I'll give it a shot now based on this comment. Thanks!

[@SanderHollebrand]

Well, Charon probably doesn’t count anymore because Pluto is a dwarf planet these days…but Charon is crazy big compared to Pluto…

[@michs342]

Probably also because I have seen more and more astronomers calling it the Pluto-Charon system. So it seems that it is slowly tilting towards being considered a bi-planetary system instead of dwarf planet and moon. While it officially (as far as I know at least) is still classified as a planet and moon system that might change at some point in the near future. Which does make sense as the gravitational center of that system is somewhere between the two bodies instead of inside the bigger one as it is in all other planet-moon systems.

[@terdragontra8900]

@@michs342 That definition of binary system always seemed weird to me, because if you moved Charon closer it wouldn’t be true anymore, but the system wouldn’t feel less “binaryish”, I would think only the ratio of masses ought to matter

[@gabor6259]

Will it be called a bi-dwarf-planetary system?

[@SpellMenderDev]

@@michs342 Pluto is "Bi" confirmed.

[@lewis7315]

Mercury and Pluto are the same size, (+- 300 miles) so there are really only seven planets :)>

[@shmookins]

Crazy to think that one day soon, we'll have a 4k live feed from the Lunar surface.

[@Kier_1]

With a 2+ second delay

[@eternisedDragon7]

I'm making sure that we'll never settle on the moon.

[@plSzq1]

@@eternisedDragon7 I hope you are not some kind of powerful super villain casually sharing his great plans with us npcs.

[@eternisedDragon7]

@@plSzq1 1. Not villain but utilitarian, there's a big difference, it's me that has the moral high grounds here, and several Professors that I reached out to already agree with that. 2. Knowledge isn't power (or otherwise power would be knowledge, and that certainly isn't true), but it enables it. 3. Yes.

[@plSzq1]

@@eternisedDragon7 It's an honor to meet such superior being. I might not have a moral high ground here where I stand but yours is so high that I can see it from here. It's very impressive. I am happy that you acquired contact with certified entitled people. I hope you will succeed with your quest traveler. I used to be an adventurer like you one day but then I realized that I am the one that is deceiving myself. I hope that I spoke with sufficient regard and manners. Cheers

[@whophd]

Lunar Time - needs its own episode surely!

[@Menthix]

Wow those predictions are extremely optimistic to say the least.

[@pierfrancescopeperoni]

14:09 time on the moon ticks a little bit faster (weaker gravitational field), not slower.

[@abxorb]

Maybe they meant slower because the Moon orbits the Earth at speed, so moving faster relative to us, and therefor experiences slower time?

[@pierfrancescopeperoni]

@@abxorb Knowing that for GPS to work general relativity corrections on the satellite clocks count more than special relativity, this should also be the case but even amplified, since the difference in gravitational field, compared to the Earth surface, is even larger on the moon than on the satellite, and the moon is slower than the satellite.

[@kindlin]

I had to think about this for a second to be sure, but yes, the moon's surface is a lesser gravity well than the Earth, and the moon itself is further from Earth's gravity well itself, so it must have less total gravity than the surface of the Earth.

[@netjeff314]

Yes. "To an observer on the Moon, an Earth-based clock will appear to lose on average 58.7 microseconds per Earth-day with additional periodic variations." This is an excerpt from the recommendation for Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) from the US Office of Science & Technology, see page 2 of www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Celestial-Time-Standardization-Policy.pdf

[@marciusnhasty]

For each 1. 5 billion Earth seconds the Moon expiriences extra 1 second for observer down on Earth. That's one second faster per 47 and a halfish Earth years.

[@user-bb2ei1rw3v]

Spacex's Dragon will not be involved in Artemis. Starship will. It's a pretty wierd mistake to make...

[@Breakemoff2]

Always a great day when PBSST posts 🎉

[@CH-mp8eu]

Excellent! Finally, and episode I understood from start to finish!

[@el_grace]

3 minutes in, and you're blowing my mind more than any physics by putting the moon's significance into context. no wonder this channel is GOAT

[@MusabAksakal]

After so many years, being 31 now, I was worried we've truly given up on space, felt like this quote hit too hard: "We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt" - Interstellar, but now seeing this gives me hope 🙂

[@kevincronk7981]

Yeah that eclipse was so great, I really loved the cloud cover so thick I couldn't even tell where the sun was

[@LuisSierra42]

RIP

[@juneguts]

no wars on the moon please, signed me

[@mallninja9805]

Nah, it'll all be advertising

[@SuperMarioOddity]

no >:( - America, probably

[@susannehartl3067]

Wherever mankind goes, war follows at its heels.

[@death_parade]

What is happening in our global commons on the Earth, i.e. the oceans and Antarctica, is an accurate reflection of what will happen between the Great Powers on the Moon. Whatever happens on the Moon, even if it is war, it will help humanity grow.

[@oleksiyalkhazov9201]

ruzzians should be banned in space then. That'd be great.

[@Sekyra865]

I am really glad that you created an informative video about the moon's importance in our near future and how we can expect thing to unfold with future missions. Surprisingly, approximately 43% of the oxygen is trapped in the lunar soil in form of minerals, which means that there is a plentiful supply. I am proud to support this cause and be part of the research team that is exploring the extraction of oxygen using hydrogen, which will help in generating water on the moon and sustain life. Excellent work as always PBS!

[@tbsq1114]

2:05 this is terrifying

[@7heHorror]

I'm still rewatching that part.

[@pacotaco1246]

big history has lots of spooky moments

[@jamesmnguyen]

Luckily, it wasn't that fast in real life. I think.....

[@mvmlego1212]

I think you'd be fascinated (and terrified) by the animations on a channel called "Aleksey__n".

[@rofl0rblades]

@@jamesmnguyen not even remotely. Which makes it even more terrifying in a way. Earth wasn't habitable at that time but if you stood there, the whole ground would be shaking and deforming from tidal forces probably hours before the actual impact.

[@scottymoondogjakubin4766]

Would be wild to see artificial lighting on the moon from all the moonbases ! Like all the lighting from cities on earth !

[@CybersteelEx]

neon signs

[@mallninja9805]

@@CybersteelEx Selling us crap

[@estp23010]

I figure most of the infrastructure would be underground and that few lights would be outside, but maybe!

[@death_parade]

The Expanse intro theme intensifies.

[@TeddyRumble]

Yup, that would be very cool!

[@cavemanpretzel9520]

0:31 black hole sun wont you come

[@Xeridanus]

And wash away the pain

[@theydisintegrate]

I saw the shadow of the eclipse a couple dozen times through a colander ... light is so trippy

[@christophermullins7163]

I have 100s of pictures of the C shaped unshadows of trees and bushes.

[@christophermullins7163]

Antishadows?

[@melaniabladeofmiquella]

​@@christophermullins7163 Ashadow

[@Merennulli]

Careful with that. If you look through the colander, you'll strain your eyes. 🙂

[@theydisintegrate]

@@Merennulli lol, to clarify, the eclipse went through the colander. My eyes were on the ground (to clarify again, looking at a piece of paper on the sidewalk). Seeing so many of them, each per hole, reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope, and it's weird that if you joined any adjacent holes, they would become one larger eclipse per joined holes, or maybe not? after all if you joined all the holes you wouldn't see anything ..hence trippy

[@EresTremulent]

Artemis III has already been postponed to 2027

[@belstar1128]

i bet the next us president is just going to cancel it happens every time.

[@v0ldy54]

And It will probably be postponed even more because the way the project is being handled is an absolute joke

[@mikeguilmette776]

@@v0ldy54 No doubt. There is no urgency, and I swear NASA is trying to re-invent the wheel while forgetting that they went to the moon before . . . in just six years.

[@TeddyRumble]

​@@belstar1128Obama certainly screwed space up totally.

[@GalacticNovaOverlord]

​@@mikeguilmette776cut the education budget for decades and privatize it and we get this

[@CarletonTorpin]

0:52 - That intro moon-shot. Beautiful work, PBS Space Time crew.

[@uthor707]

You're the best science communicator I'm aware of, thanks Matt.

[@jakefromstatefarm1405]

Go watch Kyle Hill too 👍

[@Jiraton]

What is abundant in this video is the expression "stepping stone".

[@kevinpotts123]

My wife and I went to southern Illinois to see the eclipse and it was perfect. One of the highlights of our lives.

[@TeddyRumble]

They are beautiful. I've seen two. 1979 and 2017, both in Oregon.

[@peepohappy6309]

Just when im about to sleep, perfect timing

[@LordBrittish]

No sleep. There is only scrolling on your phone. 📱 Is your phone still on? Go to sleep!!! 😜

[@hasithmalika]

Me too.

[@AnotherOddTree]

Glad I'm not the only one. Lol.

[@Nova_Afterglow]

spacetime makes me a happy peepo too!

[@RakeshSamaddar]

14:08 Doesn't time tick a tiny bit slower on earth compared to moon's surface?

[@AthAthanasius]

Yeah, this. 1) The Moon is further out of the Earth's gravity well than when you're on the surface of the Earth, so time will tick slower closer to the Earth, *especially* if you're following an Earth geodesic at the further distance, rather than resisting it as on the surface. 2) The Moon is following a geodesic with respect to the Earth, so shouldn't have any GR time dilation with respect to the Earth, right ? 3) If you're on the surface of the Moon, and thus not following a geodesic with respect to it you'll have GR time dilation there, but less than if on the surface of the Earth. And if we trust Wikipedia to have been well sourced, and those sources correctly interpreted: "The two main differences to timekeeping on Earth is the length of a day on the Moon, being the lunar day or lunar month, observable from Earth as the lunar phases, and the differences between Earth and the Moon of how differently fast time progresses, with 24 hours on the Moon being 58.7 microseconds faster," en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timekeeping_on_the_Moon (the citation is www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/02/moon-nasa-coordinated-lunar-time which says "ecause there’s less gravity on the moon, time there moves a tad more quickly - 58.7 microseconds every day - compared with on Earth.", which should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt, given the source).

[@landonian1223]

i thought i had relativity all wrong for a moment!

[@belledetector]

The Lower gravity on the Moon makes time tick slightly faster - 58.7 microseconds faster than on Earth - every day!

[@SmogandBlack]

So I'm not the only one who got discombobulated hearing that... happy to read confirmation that among the inner planets we got the slowest time on surface 💪🏆

[@greensteve9307]

The measurement of time is nominal, and it was created on Earth, so Earth-time is the default.

[@DanG-xl5op]

I really appreciate the focus on the moon and just how unique it is. Nobody ever really talks about it. I never realized that our moon and its size relative to our planet is such a rare occurrence. Super cool!

[@hilliard665]

Ahh matt ive had a bad week mate, your videos are so chill its helping lol Fact full to keep me entertained but chill so i dont get reactive

[@landonian1223]

time is faster on the moon, not slower. awesome video!

[@stazeII]

Was coming to say this. Maybe he meant it’s slower on earth than moon.

[@RhynoD2]

8:46 Um, actually - it's stillsuit, not stimsuit.

[@Chaisz3r0]

Thank you! That ticked me off, too.

[@jeremiahwollander7364]

Was looking for this comment. It's even more flabbergasting because the host seems like the kinda dude that should KNOW these things.

[@davidemelia6296]

@@jeremiahwollander7364 He's a working astrophysicist, not a nitpicking loser obsessively watching YT videos to point out irrelevant mistakes

[@jeremiahwollander7364]

@@davidemelia6296 You should probably smoke a joint and eat a ice cream sandwich dude, you might be a happier person for it 🤣

[@RhynoD2]

@@davidemelia6296 Matt also seems like the kind of guy that is too friendly to call other people losers.

[@barthpaleologue]

This gives me a lot of hope for the future! Thanks for that

[@KeithCooper-Albuquerque]

Great episode, Matt! I hope the world's future space endeavors are peaceful!

[@amit53shukla]

I was already pretty convinced on "rare earth hypothesis" of fermi paradox but after watching this video I am 100% sure we are way ahead of any aliens. It looks like it's designed to help humans develop faster.

[@theslay66]

Yes. Maybe we don't see alien empires colonizing the whole galaxy because none of them could figure out there was something to colonize up there in the first place. Would we have figured out that the planets of our solar system are more than just moving stars in the sky, if we didn't had our moon as an example of such object ? Would we have built tools to magnify these objects, if we didn't know there was actually something of interest to observe ? And then, how do you get to the idea of gravity, without these observations ? How do you get to relativity without a concept of gravity, and no way to test it without access to space ? How do you understand nuclear reactions without E=mc² ? How do you get from there to quantum physics, to electronics and the wide set of technological advancements those theories provided us with ? It may be that most alien societies in the galaxy are at best stuck at an industrial level, for the sole reason that they don't have such object in the sky to drive their curiosity. And it even may be that those societies, without access to space, wouldn't even realize the damage their activity do to their own environment, and are stuck in a cycle of societies rising and self-destructing.

[@AlekThunder47]

Imo Fermi Paradox is simple, you don't get to have FTL travel. At least as far as we know, this seems pretty fundamental to our reality. And rare earth is also something that looks very much plausible.

[@TeddyRumble]

We are alone. It is our duty to populate the galaxy. At the least.

[@sighfly2928]

If you do a little more digging, Zoo Hypothesis also makes a lot of sense. Our cage is on the edge of the oort cloud.

[@ldbarthel]

My take is that we are not alone: we are isolated. While planets with all the prerequisites for a space-faring technological society may be rare, there are enough galaxies for even low-probability situations to abound. But with ever-increasing distances between galaxies, we'll never be pen-pals, let alone actually meet. (Even the Star Trek warp drives couldn't put a dent in the distance to Andromeda - and it's part of our local group!)

[@Nuovoswiss]

That mechanism of solar wind hydrogen reacting with oxides on the lunar surface also explains why phosphine might be found in Venus's atmosphere. It has gaseous phosphorus oxides, which could react with enough solar wind to form PH3 and H2O.

[@piarasdonnachaidh2540]

Caption correction suggestion: @5:09 - 5:11 Matt: "Please continue your regular activities", Caption: "Please continue your regular duties"

[@PPYTAO]

I'm in awe of the moon every time I see it, I may not clap, but I am humbled and appreciative of its beauty. I happen to have a tattoo of the moon so perhaps I'm biased

[@brianbb177]

When he said the space station would be crude and the lander would be crude I was thinking they should spend a little more and make it sophisticated.

[@demondoggy1825]

Small correction, Falcon heavy will launch Dragon XL, a new larger cargo dragon.

[@samuelprice538]

It's not clear at this point that dragon XL will ever be built or that FH will have any part to play in Artemis..one thing that is clear and omitted by Matt is that starship is needed and will be used for early human moon landings.

[@gh0stcassette]

Unless I'm missing something, aren't the Artemis missions using the SLS and the Orion craft, which are both NASA-developed?

[@samuelprice538]

@@gh0stcassette Orion is not a lander.

[@demondoggy1825]

@@samuelprice538 Falcon heavy will launch Dragon XL, Unless Starship replaces it wholesale. Better? :V

[@samuelprice538]

@@demondoggy1825 yeah I guess. That "unless" is doing more lifting than FH though🤣 I'm pretty sure dragonxl has been dropped. Once SS is flying reliably falcon will only be used for meat, and then only until SS is human rated.

[@mungurk18]

Just discovered this channel and I've been watching some of the older videos, this new intro animation👌

[@Chon2052]

GREAT EPISODE! Feels so Sci-Fi, but the way Matt presents it, it seems really possible! Thank you for the explanation, and let's hope we can see soon astronauts back in the moon!

[@jonathansykes4986]

We’re late on some books we checked out.

[@LordBrittish]

I still owe a $2.00 late fee on a library book from 2001. The police are on their way to arrest me.

[@karmasutra4774]

@@LordBrittishThere was a news story the other day where a lady was arrested for not returning a book from years ago

[@ozzymandius666]

To expect warfare not to follow where humans go is the height of folly.

[@shaider1982]

I think there were plans om how to wage one during the 1950's.

[@LuisSierra42]

War never changes

[@Archgeek0]

So.... 'moon's not haunted yet, but it's gonna be?

[@ecogreen123]

i would also argue that presuming people wouldn't be there to oppose it would also be quite folly.

[@sisko89]

Muslims will never reach the moon so it's going to be fine

[@martinjohnson2549]

3:22 Quite cool to make this realisation.

[@stormstaunch6692]

It's 9:30 at night and I definitely should be going to sleep but nope, I'm watching this instead.

[@quercus11]

Hang on, what's this about no humans on the moon for 50 years ? Wallace and Gromit went for a holiday to the moon not so long ago.

[@robertstuckey6407]

That was more than 30 years ago

[@Skylancer727]

Yeah and I saw a documentary called "Regular Show" where our two "cast members" went to the moon with a xylophone. "A bunch of baby ducks, send them to the moon".

[@justalex4214]

Didn't Gru steal the moon? That does count, right?

[@zemorph42]

Wasn't there a secret Nazi base on the moon too?

[@justforplaylists]

Human "s"

[@ToddTheMetalGod]

I already knew h2o could be used to make rocket fuel, not because I'm smart, but because i watched breaking bad.

[@redveinborneo4673]

All i want is some hd footage from the trip to and from the moon. I would watch that on a loop.

[@p3t3mit]

One of my favorite topics. Thanks for covering it.

[@ShawnDrymen]

I'd have thought we would be doing Mario kart on the moon at this stage seen as they were driving on it back in the day 🫤

[@markmartin5555]

I would have thought we would have been launching missions from the moon or a space elevator to an ISS, type station that we launch from.

[@satanistclub]

Hopefully to piss off the conspiracy theorists some more.

[@day3455]

How fascinating! This was one of your best videos I think!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[@charlesbrightman4237]

'BATTERYLESS BATTERIES': To help power equipment in outer space: Potential endless energy source basically anywhere in this universe: a. Small aluminum cones with an electrical wire running through the center of the cones, cones spaced apart (not touching I'm thinking) but end to end. b. Electromagentic radiation energy in the atmosphere interacts with the aluminum cones. c. Jostled atoms and molecules in the cone eventually have some electrons try to get away from other electrons of which those electrons gather at the larger end of the cone, of which also creates an area of positive charge at the smaller end of the cone. d. The electron's in the wire are attracted to the positive end of the cone and the positive 'end' in the wire are attracted to the negatively charged end of the cone. e. Basically a 'battery' has been created inside the electrical wire itself, different areas of electrical potential. Basically a 'wire battery' or a 'batteryless battery', however one wanted to call it. f. Numerous cones placed end to end increases the number of 'batteries' in the wire. (In series to increase voltage, in parallel to increase amperage). * Via QED (Quantum Electro Dynamics) whereby electromagnetism interacts with electrons in atoms and molecules, one would have to find the correct 'em' frequency for the correct material being utilized for the cones. The shape of the cones could also come into play. The type and size of the wire as well as the type and thickness of the insulation between the cones and the wire would also be factors. * Of course also, possibly 2D triangles made up of certain materials with a conductor going down through the center of the triangle could possible achieve the same 'batteryless' battery system. * Plus possibly with the 2D concept, layered 2D's that absorb different energy frequencies, thereby increasing the net output.

[@gecho194]

Dragon XL cargo craft. Though potentially Starship might fulfill that roll for an order of magnitude more capability instead if it becomes operational in time. NASA has been pretty quiet about Dragon Lunar Gateway progress.

[@theves3040]

Why does time tick slower on the moon? Isn't it that time ticks slower the stronger the gravity is? So on earth time would be slower than on the moon?

[@mrsmiastef]

Absolutely love your videos! Thank you so very much!

[@CaryTheEagle]

You should do a video on mars sample return. It would be great to go over some of the issues NASA is facing with the current plan and talk about past mars sample return mission concepts + potential new ideas on reducing cost and complexity.

[@pocketcork9530]

Time ticks faster on the moon not slower

[@GalacticNovaOverlord]

Well faster from an earthing's perspective

[@mattp1337]

National and international programs visiting the Moon are a win for humanity as a whole. Private missions take us a step deeper into dystopia.

[@KlaunFuhrer-du7fr]

Exactly... well said...

[@HichigoShirosaki1]

Realistically, using the moon is the best option in general regardless of water because lower gravity enables much more efficient space exploration.

[@topherblair5073]

All the talk of space exploration got me feeling so hopeful about humanity, then the line "that *particular* Cold War ended" brought me crashing back down.

[@Lukesab3r]

My favorite show. Hooked for life!!

[@hansolo1571]

The World is more rushing towards WW3 rather then colonizing Moon. Almost willingly rushing.

[@TheAltieresdelsent]

Not the world, the governments in Russia, France, Germany, Israel and USA are rushing to WW3, the world is watching in horror and everyone is complaining openly to how inhumane and reckless is what they are doing.

[@justforplaylists]

WWIII or Cold War II? Also, some people think the Cold War was WWIII.

[@lukepowers4749]

War breeds innovation. Maybe people want better technology, as a lot of things we have today are results of inventions from WWII. Take radar, for example.

[@mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38]

​@@lukepowers4749 "Take radar, for example." False. Radar was discovered in 1922. Radar stations were being built in 1936. World war II started in 1939.

[@lilith3953]

The world or the US?

[@calmkat9032]

"Our moon is the first stepping stone to the universe" Man that is so poetic.

[@psychoedge]

Love that we're getting back to our big night light. Hope we keep fair play up in space, even when companies and rivaling superpowers are at work.

[@SecretRaginMan]

11:00 Major correction: Falcon Heavy will not launch Crew Dragon to the Moon. It will only launch Dragon XL, a specialized cargo spacecraft, to Gateway. That is after it launches a few elements of Gateway to the Moon. Lunar Starship, NASA's first choice for HLS (Human Lander System), will deliver crew to the Moon.

[@DekuScrubby]

SPACE RACE is the type of COMPETITION and RIVALRY we need. Not War for territories here on this rock.

[@filonin2]

So war for territory on a different rock.

[@belstar1128]

mister Putin i challenge you to a race !

[@charlethemagne5466]

@@filonin2 still better than this shitty rock that everyone ever has had to die on. Im not interested in being like our primitive and uninformed ancestors.

[@osmotreno]

No, we need the cooperation of all humanity, but I’m afraid this is impossible now and will only happen after some catastrophic event with billions of deaths.

[@MarioXcore1]

@@filonin2yes

[@thomascerise1076]

The way he said "The rest" had me rolling. We'll get there.

[@burtvanheel128]

I would love to have an episode about orbital elevators; while we do not as of yet have a material strong enough to build one to geostationary orbit here on the planet, we do have materials of sufficient strength needed to build one on the moon. It would also be a way to get cost effective transport around the solar system, if slow, as described by Dr. Charles Sheffield : A system of momentum transfer satellites positioned at certain points in our system would serve very nicely.

[@LA-MJ]

None of this has answered WHY we need a CREWED mission on the Moon

[@christophermullins7163]

We dont. He better served contacting the under ocean and under glacier aliens for some new tech stuffs. They're everywhere.

[@gh0stcassette]

Well, with recent developments in fusion, fusion reactors are likely to become viable for large scale energy production in the coming decades, and the moon has a shitload of helium-3, which is an ideal fuel for fusion. So landing on the moon isn't the goal, establishing a base (which would eventually grow into a mining colony) is. A lunar base would also serve as a launching point for asteroid mining, and any given asteroid is likely to have literal trillions of dollars worth of various metals.

[@belstar1128]

because its hard. jfk 1962

[@LA-MJ]

​@@gh0stcassetteflying robots should be cheaper. They have done it for 50y

[@mikeguilmette776]

I'll admit, I've long wanted to see crewed missions throughout the solar system, but those thoughts are holdovers of my childhood fantasies of myself going to space. In recent years, I've come to realize that space exploration is going to gradually drop off and be approached much like ocean exploration is now - by a relative handful of people with niche interests.

[@aliali-ce3yf]

resources and control - that is what motivates any country

[@ciarancullen9703]

theres no resources on the moon and nothing to control once you are up there

[@benjaminmeusburger4254]

it is not any more most countries on the world had their last conflict with change of the actual border some ~80 years ago at WW2 the rest was civil wars and the 'cold war bullshit' between USA/sovjet union by provoking proxy wars in the middle east Your statement is 100% true for the time when countries were controlled by nobility / monarchs resources are exploited by private companies and they can not influence a democracy as easily as indiviuals (kings etc) to unprovoked attack/war - at least that is not the case outside of the US

[@theslay66]

To be true : it's what motivates any life form.

[@zacharywong483]

Fantastic video, as always!

[@jorelc6]

needing to get just to the moon and refueling from there fixes a lot of problems tbf! "the next" bigger space ship could be waiting for the crew at the moon and we just need a "light" rocket to get them there. I like all this :D

[@VladTchompalov]

It's an incredible time to be alive

[@MrDino1953]

It’s always an incredible time to be alive, whenever that time happens to be.

[@markovcd]

When I was like 10 or 9 I was thinking about the moon and figuring out we can have space station on it to have launching pad to the universe. How proud I was of myself when I saw the same exact idea few years later on some documentary show.

[@Skylancer727]

The issue is it's reliant on the idea we can make fuel on the moon. That's a pretty rough ask. At best we've made methods to make fuel on Mars or Venus. But the moon has no atmosphere. We'd have to process rocks to make fuel which is way more costly than on earth.

[@Starchaser38]

​@@Skylancer727 Wouldn't it be severely damaging to the Moon, too?

[@Howtheheckarehandleswit]

@@Starchaser38 Not really. The moon isn't Earth sized, but it's still absolutely enormous on a human scale, we couldn't realistically damage the moon in any meaningful way even if we tried.

[@NameUnknownz]

​@@Skylancer727Moon has a very thin weak atmosphere technically 🤓

[@Howtheheckarehandleswit]

@@Skylancer727 No one was ever suggesting using the Martian atmosphere to make fuel (I don't know about Venus, that might be viable), the plan was always to electrolyze water from it's polar ice caps, which is pretty much exactly the same thing being suggested for use on the Moon here, with the added benefit that the Moon has much less intense surface gravity and doesn't have dust storms to cover up the solar panels powering the whole thing, and it's close enough to Earth that the people running the whole operation can be cycled out regularly and have halfway decent communication with Earth while they're there.

[@lh4394]

Can't wait 🖖 exultant vid again

[@SnowySleet]

Imagine the benefits to science and our species development if the nations of the world could overcome their differences and work together to achieve these huge milestones. Our potential for development would almost be limitless ✌️

[@okankyoto]

An important thing about the Gateway is that the NRHO orbit it is in has the lowest ∆V requirements to enter and exit from interplanetary space. So its an ideal location from which to launch and receive anything from samples to a full Mars transfer vehicle (parts of which are to be prototyped on Gateway) which are also much easier to re-use. All thanks to how big our moon is!

[@firexgodx980]

Starship is the only rocket capable of bringing humans to Mars and back, and it won't use gateway. Starship makes so much of what NASA is doing obsolete.

[@fwiffo]

@@firexgodx980 Starship can't do any of those things.

[@theovanelsberg1937]

​@@fwiffo What makes you think this? NASA's SLS (soon obsolete) is only capable of bringing people to the moon in NHRO. From there SpaceX Starship (and maybe others) will land them on the Moon and back. Starship (which is fully reusable) also will be the only solution to get huge amounts of resources needed into orbit. And it is designed to eventually take people to Mars.

[@linecraftman3907]

It also has to do with maintaining communication with earth at all times and heat management

[@shanent5793]

Lowest compared to what. A distant orbit about the lagrange points has an even lower Earth access delta-v, which is relevant because departures should have their periapsis as close to Earth as possible to convert all that potential energy into velocity

[@jeffallen3382]

Maybe they figured the last 50+ years they wasted that it was about time to get going again?

[@garysnider5342]

We know more exponentially more about Mars than 50+ years ago. But yeah, they wasted all that time eh?

[@numbdigger9552]

They realized that creating a moon base is exponentially easier than even landing a human on mars.

[@chrimony]

It's only because China is going that all of a sudden it's now become a priority again. And China is only going to prove themselves. The whole thing is a boondoggle.

[@dionysusbacchus4321]

It is rather simple, really: Soviet Union started the entire competitive race thing, with the demise of the former the US lost any interest and motivation for doing meaningful things in space exploration. The only reason that the race is likely be renewed now is: China :) Simple as that.

[@dionysusbacchus4321]

@@garysnider5342 It is true, it terms of space exploration the time has absolutely been wasted. Thank the bing bang theory and religious institutions for the imaging technology (telescopes) being still developed. Otherwise - there is no interested parties to pay for any of this. Until now, when the military may get involved :(

[@mal201]

I was mid way through the video when I realized that when Matt said a “crewed space station” he wasn’t saying a “crude space station”. I was thinking, I know they are pioneers up there but that doesn’t mean they are gonna be in log cabins. 😂

[@san-chil]

I am pretty sure that time should tick faster on moon than on Earth. Time flows slower on and around denser objects, which is why we had that weird situation in interstellar.

[@jameshart2622]

You are correct. When we send atomic clocks to the moon, we will be able to measure the difference. It's far too small on a human scale to notice, though.

[@AnubisDaJackal]

Anything in orbit around earth time ticks slower. It's already been proven with atomic clocks it's also why GPS needs constant modification of time. He said time ticks slower on the moon due to relativity not mass. The speed the moon orbits means time ticks slightly slower.

[@jameshart2622]

@@AnubisDaJackal A quick Google search suggests that the relative rate of time on things in orbits depends on the orbit itself. There are two effects in play: gravitational time dilation, where things deeper in a gravitation well have their clocks tick slower compared to clocks less deep in the well, and "special relativity" time dilation, where the fact that the clock in orbit is moving relative to Earth slows its tick. For low orbits, it's slightly less deep in the gravity well (which makes the clock tick faster relative to the surface) but has to move pretty fast to stay in orbit (which slows the tick down relative to Earth) and it works out to a relative slower tick. For higher orbits, though, you both get out of the gravitational well, and need less speed to stay in orbit, and so eventually the gravitational effect wins. I think the Moon is well outside of that range.

[@AnubisDaJackal]

@jameshart2622 Hmm 🤔 that's a really good way to think about it. One day we'll know for sure though i guess.

[@san-chil]

@@jameshart2622 Excellent points. There are two aspects or reasons for time flow speeds. Mass density and motion of objects. Probes orbiting Earth or even taking a walk into a coffee shop slows the clock whilst dense objects such as star cores can also slow time due the warping of space. Time flows slower on Moon relative to outer space where the space is undisturbed. However, time on Moon should be a fair bit faster than that on Earth because Moon is less dense than Earth.

[@christeanaz]

I hope one day in the future, all the nations can work together in the pursuit of space travel.

[@gh0stcassette]

You should watch For All Mankind, it's set in an alternate history where the USSR beat the US to the moon, which caused the space race to continue escalating for decades, they had moon bases in the 70s, lunar mining operations in the 80s, and a Mars base in the 90s

[@dionysusbacchus4321]

@@gh0stcassette The premise is slightly flawed: the space race stopped, not because someone landed on the Moon, but because the USSR fell apart. E.g. right before its end, the USSR produced a mind-blowing Buran spacecraft.

[@davestier6247]

​@dionysusbacchus4321 it's hard to separate the two, the space race and massive military build up definitely played a part in the disintegration of the USSR

[@CaptainXJ]

Not until religion is finally relegated to history where it belongs.

[@TeddyRumble]

Never going to happen. Something about competition for things. Water, food, women.

[@JS-fd5oh]

It's all fun and games until bone loss enters the chat.

[@ryanb9749]

It's probably much better on the moon than zero g

[@alazarbisrat1978]

they're not gonna spend their whole life there, just some short and long trips

[@LoLaSn]

@@ryanb9749 Unlikely, the lunar gravity is only about 1/6th of the Earth's It's better, sure, but not by much Mars sits at about 1/3rd, so still nowhere near ideal

[@STho205]

And sharp, seal cutting, regolith dust

[@ryanb9749]

@@STho205 idk how we can fix that one. Artificial rivers prior to settlement?

[@cenred4821]

You misspoke Matt. You said time moves slower on the moon. It moves faster. Love your show.

[@danieljensen2626]

The human landing system does not involve falcon heavy or the dragon capsule. It's based on Starship (the new one).

[@adriank8792]

Because it's always been our dream to set up a permanent Moon base and then go to Mars to do the same. Luckily with SpaceX's Starship this is finally possible. Previous rockets couldn't take the amount of mass needed to set up an actual outpost so all we could do is visit for a few days

[@NeinStein]

That is: with SpaceX's Starship this might perhaps be possible in some undetermined future.

[@Wrociem]

Starship has a long way to go, it is not a functioning rocket and who knows when it will be. People should stop thinking in fantasies especially when it comes to musk

[@oBCHANo]

If you think Starship makes this possible then you haven't paid any attention what so ever to Starship, lmao.

[@filonin2]

@@NeinStein It didn't take them that long to develop the move successful rocket ever.

[@SahasaV]

@@oBCHANo Last test only failed on re-entry tho, right? Don't really need re-entry capabilities to plop some junk on the moon. Like, if they quit now, that's still a perfectly good orbital delivery vehicle.

[@HypaspistOrange]

SpaceX is going to sink the Artemis program, biggest mistake NASA has ever made

[@skyemac8]

Wrong.

[@LA-MJ]

​@@skyemac8companies are not your friends. Go find another fanclub to join

[@oBCHANo]

@@skyemac8 How is it wrong? You want to have a look at the artemis schedule and tell us where Elons plans lie on that? Where is the time needed to develop Starship 2 and 3 like he claims? They haven't even got starship working in the first place, 3 failures in a row in an industry where everyone else has a close to 0 failure rate at this point, lmao.

[@zotfotpiq]

i called my congress people and asked them to pull the plug.

[@filonin2]

The most successful rocket company in the world is going to sink NASA? How? With their enormous profits? Lol.

[@196cupcake]

I'm on board with the modeling of the terminal part of the collision that lead to the earth/moon. Now, the part I'm most interested in is how it got to that point. I would have expected the earth/mood to be a single combined object. What was different here? If the two parts were in the same general orbital zone of the protoplanetary disk, then why were they not combined from the start? If one part - realistically there were many, many parts - came from much closer or much further away from the sun, then how did it end up around our area? Outside, or very eccentric orbit, seems most plausible, but then I would have expected Jupiter or Saturn to have soaked up those sorts of objects. Whatever happened, it seems to have been unusual and big. Venus and Uranus spin in the wrong direction. Something happened. Now it's a question of what happened.

[@JoshKaufmanstuff]

Wow, I can’t believe the fact-checking blunder. Falcon Heavy & Dragon are NOT a part of Artemis. It’s Starship HLS that was awarded the first contract and BO the 2nd. There has never been any commitments to human-rating Falcon heavy.

[@atticmuse3749]

Yeah, was surprised by that part too, seems hard to understand how that even got in there, has it ever been part of the plan? Certainly not for the last couple of years at least.

[@rkr9861]

Falcon Heavy and LUNAR Dragon are part of Artemis, as a means of getting cargo to Gateway. HLS will be for lunar surface.

[@atticmuse3749]

@@rkr9861 huh, so it is! Guess I should have just googled to double check. Looks like parts of Gateway will be launched on Falcon Heavy too. Thank you!

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

THANK you for correcting this O'Dowd guy, Josh.

[@Pottery4Life]

Dragon XL would be launched on Falcon Heavy

[@ShihammeDarc]

It'd be really cool looking up and seeing human activity like lights and other artificial habitats on the moon from the earth. It'll be such a own to nature.

[@zemorph42]

Wonder how flerfs will take such a sight.

[@mallninja9805]

"What's that on the moon?" "...Drink...Coke?!"

[@sstruks3773]

Rest in peace Samantha Davis ❤

[@WilliamFord972]

Hey-o! Appreciate the Dune analogy!

[@CraftyF0X]

I heard that Artemis may not go as well as ppl would think...

[@falsevacuum4667]

Artemis I was already a success and the first crewed Artemis mission (orbital testing) will take place either next year or the year after. We will have landed people on the surface again before 2030.

[@fwiffo]

@@falsevacuum4667 The same people promising people on the surface before 2030 were promising crewed missions to Mars in 2024. I've been hearing promises about a return to the moon for my entire life. Every promise has been broken, and I'm getting old now.

[@firexgodx980]

​@@fwiffo you care about dates too much. Just pretend dates don't exist, and focus on the real progress. You'll be less disappointed lol

[@falsevacuum4667]

@@fwiffo But Artemis I already happened. The SLS Rocket is operational. They are quite literally putting the finishing touches on the Artemis II crewed moon orbit mission right now.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

​@@falsevacuum4667 No we won't. Stop pretending your aspirational claims are proved past tense history. See? I can pontificate, too, about the future.