A tofu Turkey is pardoned for every like this video gets! Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a note on nuclear power - what comes out of a reactor is not waste, it's actually spent fuel. The reason it is called that is if you look at what makes up the spent fuel, about 0.5% by volume is actual waste (can't be used for anything). 95% of spent fuel is usable fuel (some U235, a lot of U238, some other fissiles created by neutron capture of U238, typically this is Pu239, but can get other things like Pu241, Am, and others). 2 to 2.5% of the spent fuel is usable isotopes in industry uses. 2 to 2.5% of the spent fuel is usable isotopes for medicinal uses. 0.5% of the spent fuel is waste that cannot be used for anything and typically has half lives that are 100 years or less. The actual waste can be safely contained for a 1000 years (we know how to do it) and after 1000 years it's no longer radioactive as it's decayed away. Source - my degree in Nuclear Engineering

Robert is a gem. I'm glad he's still pushing on the door for humanity's advancement.

It is sooooo refreshing to listen to this channel after sampling certain other channels (cough insane curiosity cough) which claim that we'll NEVER colonize Mars, that we'll NEVER reach the stars, etc., etc. Fascinating how some people can only see obstacles and problems while others see solutions. Thank you, JMG.

What could be better than an interview from John Michael Godier on Thanksgiving?

Love Dr Zubrin I hope he gets to see us go to Mars someday the dude just sounds so frustrated all the time lol. Like his common sense doesn't get through to anybody (who's in charge of the money, everyone else gets it)

Thanks for that excellent interview. Dr. Robert Zubrin is among my favorite guests.

Mr Zubrin is a gift for humanity!

I've always admired Dr. Zubrin. I remember seeing him on public tv back in the 80s giving demonstrations on electric motors with a vacuum cleaner and something to do with a car battery and headlight. His inspiration is part of what made me want to become an engineer.

What an incredible display of intelligent points of view. A celebration of science, human culture, hopes and fear. Superb 🙏🏼

Another home run from JMG, and the Event Horizon team, with this Robert Zubrin interview. Always, and I do mean ALWAYS, interesting to listen to Zubrin’s enthusiastic ideas about our future beyond the earth. Much admiration for Robert Zubrin’s ongoing and longstanding efforts to pull humanity into the future. A future that some human naysayers seem to resist, kicking and screaming as they go. Positivity and enthusiasm about our future is inspirational. I get that feeling from both JMG weekly and Robert Zubrin whenever I discover one of his interviews. Thank you JMG for providing this fascinating hour with R. Z.

It's almost criminal the way lobbyist the nuclear fission industry has been portrayed as unsafe and impractical. With energy independence from foreign fossil fuel imports and the reduction of carbon emissions at stake - we need to get this done.

Perfect timing for my Thanksgiving prep. Thank you!

Haven't watched it yet, but any Robert Zubrin episode has my attention. Will definitely watch later!

Gotta love Robert's 'Sheldon' laugh! 47:20

Dr. Zubrin... the "angriest" man in the universe (for a good reason). Still burning as hot as WR142. Respect!

Human embryos sport gills. No they do not. They have similar structures that in other animal embryos turn into gills. In human embryos they develop into different structures but not into gills

Just listening to the guest is pretty obvious that he has never read the limits to growth.

Fascinating talk. The first 15 minutes or so, shows Robert should be on some energy regulatory panels or the like. We need people like this in the right places moving us forward

I think the problem is finding people to volunteer for PERMANENT life on Mars. It would seem to be a very grim, restricted lifestyle akin to a prison sentence. I suspect a vast majority of these volunteers would eventually seek return to Earth

Nice turkey day surprise! I remember watching Roberts interviews in the 90s when he wanted NASA to go to Mars so badly. Thx so much!!

The horse breed that carried knights were called "destriers".

This was an outstanding interview!

WHY don't we try to live on our moon 1st before Mars?!!! Make a launch area from our moon to get to Mars?! Small steps?

I think we should send AI robots to Mars to build everything before people show up.

That interview was absolutely fascinating!!

I agree with Issac Arthur that the first Mars colony will most likely be an orbital station that drone landers can be deployed from.

Cracking great interview. This guy knows a lot of hella interesting stuff, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you for making and posting this.

Happy Thanksgiving, JMG

God bless Robert Zubrin! Finally, ultimate clarity and truth on nuclear power.

This was VERY informative, thank you for sharing the intellect of Dr. Zubrin! Going to buy his books now 🤘🏾🤘🏾🤘🏾🔥🔥🔥👊🏿👊🏿

This was great to finally get round to listening. I read "The Case For Mars" when I was 17. Generally have read every new book Mr Zubrin has released.

The issue for finding concentrated ores is, in my understanding, that ore concentrations on Earth come from processes involving water over billions of years. I suspect that those processes did not occur on Mars. We'll find out when we get there.

The big problem is how constant 1/3rd Gravity is going to affect human biology, particularly human reproductive systems. We currently have no idea how they will be affected. Assuming that there won't be negative effects is pure silliness. If we have to build O'Neil habitats to provide a 1 gee environment to reproduce in and raise children to near adulthood, that's a major complication.

I hope to get a nyc cab 🚕 ride from Dr Zubrin someday.

Great interview!

Happy Turkey Day Mr. Godier! Nothing beats tryptophan and Event Horizon 😴 thanks for all the content!

Great video and information !

Happy Thanksgiving!! That's for all the entertainment!!

One of the best podcasts ever

I believe in nuclear energy and I don't think people just hate or fear nuclear energy per se but instead they fear the companies and government which time after time (flint, michigan, three mile island) lie to them and treat them as disposable meat sacks so even though I think nuclear is the way to go, I wonder how could we ensure that they will actually protect the peoples interests and integrity in order to allow them to go full throttle.

What an awesome Thanksgiving day gift 🎁

Why not just live in... A space station? Planets are for boomers.

Another great interview, Robert Zubrin is a great guest.

An Orbital Ring is the horse after the cart.

I enjoyed this and find the speaker interesting but disagree with a lot of his historical takes on the opposition to nuclear power in the past. He doesn`t even mention Chernobyl.. Here in Europe that event triggered a LOT of opposition to nuclear power, not some fly boy in a suit bribing others to make a buck. Then there`s the idea of the deliberate pursuit of malthusian politics in India and Ireland? i`ve studied British history for 50 years (and have a degree in the subject ) and have never heard that advocated before or even discussed in English universities. It may be in America but its sim0listic, plain wrong, nieve and flys in the face of recorded British history. In truth i find his historical analysis of America and the "new societies" on Mars generally wrong on a number of points. As regards Mars in ten years? Even a small team? Not a chance, there are too many problems and Musk is a marketer of genius but that doesn`t extent to other fields and hes certainly no rocket scientist(he pays others to do that for him). I find his HOPES on solving problems in the future to establish a colony on Mars (synthetic food-the new mana from heaven, AI advances, ect ect ) are just that, Hopes not fact. Then there is the effects of zero and low gravity on humans, which is a real problem, and he doesn`t even mention that. To my mind the only solution to colonising the solar system, and Mars, is to build O`Neil or Torus stations in lo orbit. Then the falcon heavies would come into their own, and everything is far more simple. Then once built they can be moved out to start colonies on Mars. Think of them as cosmic Galleons.

Zubrin talking about the Club of Rome! Nice!

Nice job, JMG

Happy holidays production ideas

Excellent

That was awesome

Two problems: 1. Massive amounts of radiation on the surface of Mars, and nobody wants to live in underground caves/bunkers, or locked inside of artificial shelters for their entire lives. Perhaps there is an architectural and designing solution to this, but no matter what, you can't spend much time outside. This isn't easy to solve. 2. Lack of gravity. There's been little research on the effects of low gravity. We don't know exactly how much gravity the human body needs to remain healthy, or what the effects of low gravity might be on reproduction. We can't live in a giant centrifuge without vomiting all the time. Gravity issue may well be insurmountable.

The horses zubrin was talking about were called draft horses btw. they're huge.

This guy is good. Very interesting ideas. Good that he has an unusual take on a lot of things.

"They hate nuclear more than they hate fossil" Dr Paul Dorfman to a tee.

Where there is a profit to be made, we'll go

I giggled when I heard "the G star". Hahaha.

A very enjoyable hour!!!! i'm in nirvana now

Dr sounding very libertarian and capitalist

Happy Arthursday! Oh wait... Wrong Chanel.

11:25 indeed! well said!

one of your better interviews ......

Great

I think discounting the "Limits to Growth" study is a bit wrong minded. The next doubling of the human enterprise is not likely on earth.

There is something external or internal, or some combination of both, to humanity that keeps us from advancing.

The idea that we're going to adopt a less regulatory, heavy nuclear energy model with a increasingly unpredictable climate sounds insanely dangerous. I think I'd rather see us throw way more money and manpower into earth based and space based solar energy.

Hey John happy Thanksgiving. The Zubrin guy I think I remember him. Didn’t he at one time pitch Mars missions to NASA and congress both?

Cool

They approved those mini nuclear reactors proposed by an American firm to be built over here in Romania. We'll see how that pans out.

how big are the methane clathrate deposits on mars given there's a lot of subsurface ice to capture methane and it has has been percolating up over billions of years?

Я думаю, ядерная энергетика на Марсе начнется вначале с урановой и на МОКС-топливе версии, а уже потом может перейти на ториевую версию. Для получения урановой версии АЭС на Марсе у нас уже все есть, за исключением некоторым специфических для Марса проблем (теплоноситель на углекислоте, отдача тепла в грунт). А ториевые версии АЭС еще нужно только разрабатывать и проектировать и строить, сначала на ЗЕмле, чтобы все отработать, и потом только на Марсе. В конечном итоге перенос части ядерных материалов на Марс позволит повысить безопасность ЗЕмли, потому что ядерные материалы, особенно плутоний, которые может быть более успешно использован на Марсе в составе МОКС-топлива, чем на Земле, может быть использован в военных целях. На Марсе же пока воевать некому и не за что, там угроза ядерной войны если и возникнет, то еще очень нескоро, через сотни лет, если там вообще возникнут разные государства. Ториевая ядерная энергетика должна возникнуть на Земле и заменить ядерную и потом перейти в космос и на Марс, это несомненно. Еще я думаю, что малые АЭС на ЗЕмле и на Марсе должны использовать для преобразования энергии из тепла в электричество поршневые паровые машины, а не турбины. Турбины для получения достаточной эффективности требуют более высокого градиента нагрева активной зоны реактора, что резко снижает срок службы топливых стержней и реактора в целом. Для поршневых паровых машин такой градиент заметно ниже, и их использование позволит продлить срок действия одной топливной сборки на порядок или более. Той же цели служит размещение АЭС в местах с холодным климатом, что позволяет повышать эффективность выработки энергии по той же причине - понижение температуры активной зоны реактора и топливных сборок и продление срока их службы. На Марсе это случится само собой по естественным причинам - там холоднее, чем на Земле. А на Земле мы должны строить новые АЭС только в местах где холодно - в США это северные штаты, Аляска, в Южной Америка - Патагония и север Чили и так далее. А вот в таких местах как Турция и Иран АЭС не нужны совершенно, и мы можем однозначно признать, что строят там АЭС по одной единственной причине - получить ядерное оружие, а не с целью получить дешевую энергию.

My electricity bill came a few days ago, and there was a carbon tax. A very sizeable carbon tax indeed. My town is powered by a 200mw hydroelectric powerplant 30km up river, so what carbon? You'll never convince me the modern environmental movement isn't a total grift. While I'm in favour of nuclear power it is a tough sell round here. We're not that far from Chernobyl, and people remember the panic. My wife remembers lining up to be given iodine pills at school. Now obviously comparing an ancient (and mismanaged) Soviet reactor to a modern one is like comparing the Hindenburg to a 737, but people really just don't understand. Shows like the Simpsons don't help either.

He's the inventor who thought up the uranium salt fission rocket. The coolest idea ever but we dont have the materials necessary yet. Can't a thorium reactor "burn" nuclear waste?

yes we can...

Part of the problem with Nuclear power? Is that old style Nuclear power plants are connected to Breeder reactors that help make Nuclear weapons and uses big reactors like Chernobyl or Three-miles island. When you say Nuclear power, people think of old style Nuclear reactors.

I usually enjoy Zubrin's interviews, but he makes surprisingly sweeping assertions about why nuclear energy became so unpopular in the past. Seems to me that sloppy engineering standards and hidden costs destroyed the industry, not lobbying or bribes or whatever.

The naive optimism is refreshing. 😀

I would suggest Molten-Salt-THORIUM nuclear power.

A Kilo of granite having more potential power than 100kg of oil is an incredible statistic. I live half a mile away from the biggest granite quarry in Europe. That's one hell of a lot of potential non CO2 producing power right there.

Itz Zubrin its been a while

If we find out Mars has life exactly like ours (same dna), that would be incomprehensibly insane on so many levels. Some how organisms had a way of migrating across space, meaning life out in the universe, could be insanely vibrant. 😮

Enjoyed the episode. But did he say microbits per year? That sure is slow.

Interesting conversation. I'm yet to see spacex do something better or quicker than NASA however.

We literally have the solution already it's been around for 45+ years. TRIG Thermo radioactive isotope generators. These can be made small enough to charge electric cars, augment home power , home heating etc..

I agree with Dr. Zubrin, life on Mars, or any other terrestrial body in the solar system, is gonna be deep underground. I’m pretty confident it’s there. Rudimentary life only needed like 800 million years to exist on Earth, it’s almost like it happened as soon as it could, life is seemingly eager to exist. I think microbes could be common, but we have to dig for it. Scraping around in the surface regolith is a complete waste of time, in my opinion.

All the nuclear waste since the Manhattan project could be stored under one football field? Only if the hole was many MANY miles deep!

Seems like you could get free oxygen from radioactive decay too.

im trying to figure out how to put a farm in a bottle. Maybe we can practice colonizing mars, by prestaging in antiartica, practice with the modules but...baby steps, start with a thorium reactor, and then indoor farms, etc. as difficult as antartica is, mars is a hundred times more difficult

Biomass is not 'dirtier than coal' if it's pyrolized or gasified in a modern facility. I am in favour of nuclear but biomass shouldn't be 'lumped' in with coal.

I remember Robert Zubin on art bells radio show 20 years ago and he sounded like a little kid now he sounds middle-age that’s scary

What if we grew the food closer to the sun?

I wouldn't want to live on a planet/moon with less gravity than Earth.

I’ve asked this a number of times on a number of different podcasts. Could modern small scale Thorium reactors be a very realistic and safe answer to our energy needs? 🤓💚♾️

Dr. Robert Zubrin is such a quack

The real problem is people having power over other people.

we have zero point energy , zero emissions but ya know profits and all.

The last I read France had 58 functioning nuclear reactors, the vast majority on the coast line. Depending on your view of the earth, uniformitarianism versus catastrophism (or a bit in between) France is one violent episode / tsunami away from a nuclear disaster unparalleled in history. Sometimes scientists just need to look outside of their own field when promoting their technology.

The microbiome needs to be really considered

this was amazing. its so fascinating hearing how the anti-nuclear thing came about. its such a great shame for our species. climate change is because of oil and we could have had the solution this whole time. its upsetting

I love me some Zoob!