49:16 - 53:48 one hell of a speech.

"Five hundred years from now, people are not gonna remember which faction came out on top in Iraq, or Syria, or whatever. But they will remember what we do to make their civilization possible. This is the most important thing we can do in this time. If you have it in your power to do something great, and wonderful, and powerful, then you should." Well said.

This man is incredibly clever and quick on his responses. Fast thinker. Great to hear him speak. "Are we what life is or are we just one example drawn from much vaster tapestries of possibilities?"

NASA, it takes lot of courage to upload content which is critical of the organisation's (NASA's) approach and decision making. Thanks!

I hope this man never gives up on Mars. Thank you, Mr. Zubrin, for your vision and ideas.

When humans land on Mars, I hope Robert Zubrin gets equal credit to the person who actually steps on the planet.

Rough crowd. There was a moment of silence after 53:48, but since it isn't a Hollywood picture, the crowd didn't stand up to applaud Dr. Zubrin.

This guy gets it, cuts through all the red tape and hits every point, no evasion.

"We grow when we challenge ourselves, we stagnate when we do not."

"...So this is the most important thing we could do; most important thing we could do in this time. And if you have it in your power to do something great and important and wonderful, then you SHOULD." Where the fuck was the applause at the end of that amazing response?

This speech is legendary; can't stop coming back to this!

Excellent talk. I can feel his frustration with having to deal with politics taking control of rational science decisions.

I'm surprised no-one clapped after that speech.

Robert Zubrin is simply another name for ... "genius"

Excellent presentation as always by Dr. Zubrin, the dedication to a manned Mars mission this man has shown is astonishing and completely unparalleled. I for one sincerely hope a manned mission to Mars happens within his lifetime, it truly is the least he deserves for everything he and the Mars society have done.

Zubrin lays the smack down at 28:00 A splendid presentation by Zubrin at his absolute best. His critique towards the asteroid redirect and lunar missions are spot on -- they are a diversion from the core objective and should be seriously reconsidered.

How did he NOT get a standing ovation at around 53:40?

This man's mind is a beehive of critical thinking. Awesome.

Wow a practical plan for getting boots on Mars before all my hair falls out. Joining the Mars Society tomorrow!

I think Zubrin deserves respect, not only because of his engineering skills, but for his political commitment to the mars enterprise. Why the American government dropped the Apollo program and never returned to the moon or went on to put astronauts on mars, is a mystery in some rational sense. But when I see how the Apollo program got started, it is evident that there was a political reason behind it, the Cold War Space Race. This race was not even started by the Americans, but by the Russians. One could wonder about the Russian government's motivation to start their space program, if it was for scientific or political reasons, but the fact is that when the Americans saw themselves as the winners of the race, there was no political will to keep a space program for colonisation. And in turn the technology for space exploration was developed in Germany by the Nazis for war purposes. The engineers behind both, the American and Soviet space programs, where Germans. So even the Apollo program can be viewed as an accident of history. Everything a government does boils down to politics, and the political game is very often opposed to scientific and popular convenience. This seems IMHO the sad truth.

I've read the book 'The Case For Mars', by this guy, and I remain astounded by how feasible this project would be with a simple, common sense approach. I'm no technician but even I can see that this is simply not fantasy. I recommend the book to everyone interested in Mars exploration who haven't yet read it. It's a real eye-opener. 2024 is a real, feasible, estimate of possible first mission launches.

Dr. Zubrin...Much respect.

For more than two decades, Dr. Zubrin has been the most passionate, eloquent advocate for the exploration of Mars. He definitely has a clear and well-thought strategy that focuses on lean and practical means. I had the honor of having him sign my copy of the Case for Mars when I was an aerospace engineering undergrad at Cornell. Listening to him again today is still extremely inspiring.

A very good visionary person. Straight ahead and consistent.

Zubrin for NASA's president!

My role model, the man who made me admire and seek my engineering degree ! great speech hope to meet you soon Dr.

I love this guy.

"The Human-to-Mars program says to every kid in school today: learn your science and you could be the explorer of a new world."

Outstanding! There's value in pragmatism. Let's use these plans and go to Mars.

I keep going back to this video. The amount of value this has is tremendous. Thank you for this speech Dr. Zubrin "If you have it in your power to do something great and important and wonderful then you should"

Zubrin rips apart Nasa's culture through in through. The balls on Nasa to publish this video.

He spunt so many years trying to convince government to do a sensesble mars mission and has little to show for it, accept his clear agitation and stressed face. I feel bad for him.

i love this man!

Dr. Robert Zubrin brilliant speech

@c.23:35 - Priceless! The comment about Rumsfeld!

In 1492 the Reconquista was completed also.

I am sold.

I wish more people embraced his ideas. I wish we all could embrace his ideas. I do I have embraced his ideas since I first heard of them when I was a teenager. and it's sad you that it's been that long and still nothing has been done with his ideas. humans to Mars in 10 years pass it on

Zubrin is awesome. I swear he is running at 1.5X speed.

you, sir, make me happy.

Zubrin is an inspiration!

I enjoy Robert Zubrin's style and sense of humor in addition to the compelling subject matter. If you ever want a shortcut on figuring out who's probably right, it seems to be often the one who goes through all the other alternatives and arguments and picks them all apart in detail if none of the other prospective debaters will even mention the alternatives, let alone all of the alternatives or convincingly pick all of them apart. Now, this isn't a sure thing, but if this isn't your area of expertise it's a useful shortcut for laymen that works much of the time I find far more than pure random chance would account for, and it's fairly easy to spot when you have one stand-out on a topic who covers all the various sides of the argument and some of the others very blatantly do not, are non-specifically dismissive, or act like they are above the competition. Zubrin covers all the sides, is extremely specific, is inclusive, and puts everyone on the same level. Franklin Chang Díaz and much of NASA simply try to collectively pretend that Zubrin doesn't exist, partly because they individually and as an institution didn't come up with the superior ideas for this subject that Zubrin's promoting and they want the credit, and partly because of what I mentioned about being unable to fully rebut all the alternatives so they don't even try. Fortunately, there's apparently a minority at NASA that put on events like this one. If you need further evidence of my claim here, notice that Zubrin really puts forth a lot of effort when public speaking. His mind is moving faster than his lips can, some people think he has a bit of a stammer, and he's not going to one-up Hitler any time soon in influencing the masses to do anything with ease, good or evil. He has to really work at it, he does his best, and bless him for it, but nonetheless someone who's not a natural fluid & charismatic public speaker is having an actual impact and is highly respected. He's clearly not some slick charmer kissing babies with the ability to pour snake oil in your ears and I've never heard anyone even claim it's all an act, so it's further improbable that he's duping people to have gotten to this point. Potentially you could have someone covering all (or many) of the sides who has extraordinary speaking ability in such a way that you might be lured into believing them even though they're wrong or ignoring the key side and you might assume more than is warranted. Certainly you want to try and look into the topic yourself as best as you can and look at the other sides of the debate, but these are effective short hands for starting out when looking into a subject. At the very least, it’s useful for developing skepticism when there are people trying to own a debate based on positions of authority or status or charisma.

I wish I was half as smart as this guy!

Thank you Dr. Zubrin

A great man, a great plan. Thank you.

Great talk! Thank you for sharing!

More of Zubrin please. Thanks 🙏

I did my research and his hair checks out. Crazier the hair the more they know what they are talking about. He must be a genius.

Zubrin isn't going to see the fulfillment of his vision, but he will be one of the major players in having made it happen.

I named my KSP martian base after this guy.

Awesome! ❤❤❤ from Syria 🇸🇾😊

His passion is right there :-)

That!, was a fantastic end to the speech lol And the speech was lit too, like this guy!

fantastic.

How I love Mr R. Zubrin's vision! Going to Mars is a matter of will! Note: this video was made in 2014 ... the vision of the project thanks to the Starship ships is now easier ...

This guy and Elon Musk need to have a lunch date

Great speaker and very intelligent man!

I freaking love this man!

Amazing talk

He frickin' dropped the mike on this. Dr. Zubrin OUT.

What a shame. This mission should've been given the green years ago. It's a shame Dr. Zubrin has to waste his time arguing with the constituency in order to get this mission going when he could be putting his brain to much better use. Like on the actual mission itself.

This man is awesome.

Mars Direct is a big yes!

well done Dr Zubrin.. I really hope he is alive to see his dream forfilled .. I hope im alive to see us land on mars aswell.

So, its been about two years since the comments on this video where made. Seems like ancient history now, so much has happened. I guess it's true what they say, the more things change the more they stay the same.

22:55 And in 2021, we are looking forward to the Starship.

well done Robert.......a master class in sarcasm!

He is very passionate about going to Mars, it's good.

what an awesome dude!

Would love to see an update to this plan based on the new much larger starship

I love this man. He's raw and driven and well spoken

I really took exception with his Lewis & Clark analogy. Lewis & Clark did take tons of supplies and gifts for indian tribes, and didn't take it by wagon train, but took it up the Missouri River by keelboat. It was very very slow going...

This guy's so passionate about mars.

People really need to see this

Love this. Just a quick observation though, this guy talks and delivers and moves a lot like heath ledgers portrayal of the joker

thanks to Kerval I understood everything that he is talking about !

Dr. Robert Zubrin is DOPE ,1 of the few I know of to go hard against nasa!

Smart man.

I like this guy.

is there a transcript ?

53:44 Death silence after that genius speech why we should go to Mars.. What the F is wrong with that crowd?

We need to do it all in 3s ( threes ). So in that case we need 3 return vehicles waiting on Mars . We need to also send food and other supplies in advance. We should also have supplies and a lifeboat waiting half way to Mars just in case.

9:55 "A booster could blow Orlando away" That's why the Nexus SSTO from Convair in '63 would probably use a floating platform, towed out to sea. 2100 tonnes into LEO. Hell of a booster for a scaled-up Mars Direct 2-launch mission!

I say go with 'Mars Direct' phase 1 the unnamed fuel mission. In couple of years go with phase 2. Then go with phase three. You could probably go with the first step and the others as soon as the resources are available. Either that or load up a SPACE-X rocket, go there then get back. Answer the 'toxic brine' question first though.

Zubrin 2016

I love Zubrin. He's like the Mafia boss telling you that if you wiseguys don't get us to Mars within the next decade, we're going to send the boys 'round to rough you up!

To Ames Video Group, thanks for posting this. It all seems obvious but there is no pressing reason to go to Mars. Yes it is frustrating because it can be done but those with the money (lawyers and business people) have zero interest in such ventures. Though what we will remember 500 years from now which will not be current situation in Iraq, but first human on Mars will be something if it happens. In the space forums there has been discussion "The One-Legged Stool" which Zubrin promotes the Mars leg and others promote a Moon leg or a Asteroid leg. Too bad we cannot agree on all three. I'd love to organize a panel discussion with Zubrin, Wingo, Cowing, Spudis, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson to discuss these three "legs."

Тут дело такое! Вначале надо забросить на орбиту и на поверхность Марса типовые сменные модули с твёрдым топливом (оно лёгкое) . Это для того, чтобы , времени не тратя даром, сесть на Марс , заправиться , взлететь опять на орбиту, ещё заправиться и спокойно вернуться на Землю. Вот такую технологию я предлагаю. Но для этого сначала надо задействовать робот типа Кьюриосити для свезения в кучу модулей с горючим, которые надо бросать в одну примерно точку Марса для облегчения монтажа

Robert zubrin for president. At least he's got an agenda. Space travel where we should have been 30 years ago. NASA stands for not absolutely sure anymore

Once Phase 1 is on Mars producing fuel, oxidizer, etc. it should be easy to raise what is needed for Phase 2 and eventually Phase 3. We may even get NASA to donate space suits or Mars suits and any advanced equipment that may be needed. As far as Moon Direct is concerned it is also a good goal although Mars Direct should probably be first. In a Moon Direct we could set up a test mining facility for Illimite and Titanium or the International Village ESA talks about.

Just one year left and mars is still 50 years away.

I'm surprised Zubrin hasn't been hired by SpaceX.

While this speech convinced me of the value of exploring Mars, I still think Mars should have less priority than developing the technology and know-how needed for diverting asteroids from Earth. The same technology could be used for mining the asteroids or for steering ice asteroids to Mars for terraforming.

why just 100 kg of oxigen is needed in the hab for the semi-direct mission?

Curiosity is no fear for destroy any debris?(the weight)

Why this video looks like from 1970 ?

It will just take some time to asume that absolute truth. If you havent tought about it before. Amazing speach amazing thoughts this guy shuld rule the world :) :) :)

There's a lot to be said for not necessarily any involvement with the ISS, but just for fueling of upper stages in orbit. It might not even need much EVA.

If you can refuel at the space station, you can take a higher payload, like he already suggested himself when discussing advanced engines. Ion drives are very useful, low power, but very fuel inexpensive, so to those extends I don't agree with those two statements. But in the end .. this guy deserves his project funded. But we don't ave to set every plan aside. His plan on the other hand is excellent and stands through scrutiny. And boy .. is he mad :) One day he will die of a hearth attack. This is this guys legacy.

We are now nearing the end of 2021. Essentially, we just have 2 more years to meet the target date. Is it still doable?