Have
you ever read
COSMOS,
a thick book by
American astronomer
Carl Sagan
(1934-1996)
?
Some of you may have watched the cosmos documentary on TV rather than a book. In Cosmos, where the world of astronomy was easily explained in popular language by the best astronomers of the time, Carl Sagan's extensive knowledge, cosmic imagination, reverence for the universe, and humility for human existence. The ship is intact.
“COSMOS is everything that has existed in the past, has existed, and will be in the future.
You can feel the deep reverberation in your heart if you use cosmos.
Every time I get caught up in a very strange feeling, as if my spine became creepy, my voice trembled, and looming from a far high place into the abyss of memory.
This is because the contemplation of the cosmos is confronting the unknown of the unknown.
Therefore, the reverberation, the feeling, and the emotion are not the natural reactions that everyone has, but what will be?”
Carl Sagan likens the mystical and vast universe to the sea.
“If you think of cosmos as a huge sea, the surface of the earth is a seashore.
Most of what we know about the'sea of space' is that we stand on this beach and see and learn for ourselves.
Going directly into the sea water is extremely recent.
It was barely soaking your toes.
No, at best I think I've got my ankles wet.”
A human figure looking out at the vast expanse of the vast ocean with small feet dipped in the water.
Humans have spread their infinite wings of imagination in fear of what kind of unknown creatures live in the deep sea of the universe and what kind of wonderful world unfolds beyond the horizon.
And that imagination is gradually being filled with the challenge of curious mankind called'space exploration'.
It's still very weak, but...
1969 is a very important year in the history of space exploration.
That's because of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
NASA, on July 20, 1969, landed the first manned spacecraft in human history, the Apollo 11, to the lunar surface.
The moment when mankind finally set foot on a celestial body other than Earth for the first time.
Standing tall on the lunar surface,
Neil Armstrong makes a famous saying.
Since then, the challenge of mankind's exploration of several planets has continued and is still ongoing.
Space exploration technology is also undergoing rapid development compared to the past.
After the Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969, NASA three years later carried an astronaut on the Apollo 17 and made another lunar expedition.
But do you know?
The fact that this was the last exploration of humans to leave Earth and go to other celestial bodies.
In other words, nearly 50 years since 1972, humans have never set foot on a planet other than Earth.
SBS
invited
the
last astronaut Yujin Seonan (smaller in 2017)
as a keynote speaker
while planning the SDF called <Imagination-Technology, Information, Media, Entertainment, and Beyond the Universe> in 2008
.
And
Anne Druyan,
co-producer of the Cosmos documentary and
the spouse of Carl Sagan,
also visited Korea as a speaker for SDF.
Watch the lecture by Eugene Cernan
at the time.
Watch the lecture
by Ann Druyan at the time.
It was a month ago.
NASA's NASA's successful landing of the Mars rover, Perseverance, is raising interest in space again.
A long journey that took seven months to leave Earth.
Armed with state-of-the-art technology,'Personality' has been tasked with finding traces of ancient life that may have existed on Mars.
Mars exploration is a big issue.
In addition to the successful landing of Personality, Tesla and Elon Musk, famous for SpaceX, are jumping into the space business, raising expectations for the'Mars migration project'.
Can mankind truly leave Earth and settle down on Mars, a barren land, to sustain life?
On March 18th,
I met
Dr. Myung-Hyun Lee
, an
astronomer
at the
science bookstore'Galdar
'
at the end of Samcheong-dong
.
Dr. Myung-Hyun Lee, who received a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, is a representative of the interesting bookstore'Galda' from the name, and is an astronomer who strives to deliver difficult science to the public more easily.
Q. First of all, what kind of place is <Galda> introduced as the Samcheong-dong Liberal Science Bookstore?
<Galda> is one character from the leading scientists Galileo and Darwin.
It is a science bookstore
.
The science bookstore <Gada> is a space that curates liberal arts science, displays and sells readable books for the general public to read, and conducts events such as book talks.
I didn't start with a big purpose, but when there was a space in Samcheong-dong, one or two people gathered to talk about doing something, but when they were all young, their dream was to be the owner of a bookstore.
Then let's do a bookstore, and since we do science, let's do a science bookstore for the general public.
So,
more than 110 scientists, science writers, and artists, novelists who share their will, and these people gathered to create the science bookstore <Galda>, and I am the representative.
Q. I want to ask a question about Mars.
Of the many planets, what is the reason why humans are intensively exploring Mars?
Perhaps the most interesting planet in history other than Earth is Mars
.
There are several reasons for this.
Mars is about half the size of Earth.
But
when I look at Mars, it has an atmosphere like Earth.
The composition is very different from the earth, but it means there is air anyway, right?
So the wind blows, sleet falls there, and ice comes out when you dig the ground.
Moreover, there are a lot of traces of water flowing on the surface.
Something like gravel can be found in the riverbed.
In addition, traces of water seeping out and entering again are also found in time, and there are glaciers in the Antarctica and the North Pole.
And when we observe the underground near Antarctica using resource exploration technology, it seems that there is a lake.
Currently, there is no river or sea that flows like this.
Nevertheless, there must have been a river or a sea.
Even if you try to just say
something like this,'Oh, it's a little like Earth?'
You can think of this, right?
In fact, since Mars has the conditions most similar to the natural environment of the Earth in the solar system,'If so, would we be able to find some life there?','And someday people on Earth can go and settle and live. Wouldn't it be?'
I have
this expectation
.
Another thing is that
Mars has no such
thing
as a magnetic field.
It seems to have existed in the past, and there seems to be no water.
Then,
the interest of scientists is,'Isn't it that it used to be, but now it is not?'
'Isn't the future of the Earth going to be like that?'
Well, I think that the causes of such interests and these things are compounded, so I think Mars is the focus of the attention of scientists in the 20th and 21st centuries or the general public.
Q. Can you tell us the history of mankind's mars exploration challenges?
Mars is actually one of the celestial bodies in the solar system that humans sent the most probes.
The first success was in 1976.
Vikings No. 1 and No. 2 went.
The Vikings No. 1 and No. 2 took pictures there and sent them by digging and analyzing the soil.
However
, the purpose of Vikings 1 and 2 was to find out whether there is life on Mars and whether it is an environmental condition suitable for humans.
Even now, the purpose is almost unchanged.
After the success of the Vikings 1 and 2, probes were sent from various countries, including Russia, which failed.
So, the 80s and 90s failed a lot of exploration, almost like the dark age of Mars exploration.
Then, when the
US sent a probe called'Pathfinder' in the late 90s, the probability of success increased from then on.
So, there are
still things that were launched in
2011,
called'Curiosity
'
, including'Pathfinder', which
has been
successfully landed and is now active
.
I was active for about 2 years, but unlike expected, I've been active for about 10 years now.
There is something called'Insight
'
that
was launched in
2018,
but the probe is not moving, and while it is settled in one place, it is carrying out a mission to measure natural phenomena such as earthquakes, wind, and temperature on Mars.
Recently,'Personality' landed.
That's why these three generations are now active on the surface.
Q. The Mars exploration rover'Personality', which landed on Mars a month ago, is a hot topic.
I think it's technically a lot more advanced than any other exploration rover so far. How smart are you?
'Personality' is a probe sent by NASA on February 18, 2021.
It's part of a project called'Mars 2020' and it has a few big meanings.
One of the characteristics of the personalization is
that it carries an excavator in addition
to the
robotic arm.
So I dig the ground.
There are traces of water flowing on the surface of Mars, but there is currently no water flowing, but I think there will be liquid water that is dissolved because the temperature is warmer when it enters the ground.
If you can imagine, it will be like mud, right?
Then there are observational evidences that there is a high probability that there is a living organism such as bacteria.
I brought a drill, an excavator, very suitable for that exploration.
Finally, for the
first time, such an opportunity to deliberately dig deeper into the land of Mars, and for the first time in history, Perservance will do the work of deliberately digging deeper into the land of Mars with a certain purpose.
The second one takes a
drone.
It is a drone called'Ingenuity'.
Drones need air to float, but since Mars' atmosphere and Earth's atmosphere are different, drones made suitable for Earth will fall off quickly when flying.
Mars has a much lighter atmosphere than Earth.
It means there is not much air.
Then, on Mars, where you'll go two rounds, you'll have to do 50 turns to collect that much air.
So, the rotation speed of the Ingenuity drone is very fast.
But it won't fly long.
But anyway, flying
drones
like scouting from a place where only rovers were used
is very good in terms of diversification and diversification of exploration, as well as allowing more precise exploration of Mars atmosphere.
So
, there are two main purposes of
this
Perseverance.
One is to check the existence of life directly, once really, more precisely, and the other is to re-check the natural environmental conditions of how humans can adapt properly when they go to Mars.
Q. In addition to exploring the surface of Mars, there were also spacecrafts orbiting and observing Mars.
Yes
orbiter's Mars Global Surveyor
radeunga, and
network Galicia not sent from India
yiradeunga,
Maven sent from the United States
and to the activities and actions by the recent orbiter, China and the United Arab Emirates entering.
And the
next event is a Chinese probe going in orbit.
It is probably expected around May, but I plan to drop the lander below.
So, as I said now, there have been several attempts on Mars in the past, and I am still actively working like this.
Some things are scheduled for the next.
And
until now, when I go to Mars and do an investigation, I've never done anything about returning to Earth by taking samples such as stones or dirt there.
However, NASA has such a plan.
The date has not been set, but I know I plan to try it in the next few years.
Q. So, have you ever brought samples from Mars to Earth?
If successful this time, Perseverance could be the first exploration rover to bring Martian soil and rock samples directly to Earth.
Yes
Mars exploration is one way so far.
So I sent a rover and got off there and wandered around.
The reason is that
the technology of going to Mars and returning from Mars to Earth requires a very different technological leap.
If you try to come from Mars to Earth, you have to beat the gravity on the surface of Mars and fire a rocket, right?
When you start from Earth, you have to bring extra fuel and you have to bring projectiles.
If that happens, there is a problem that the scale of sending here will also increase, but in fact, such a technology has not yet been fully resolved.
So,
NASA is actually preparing for a next-generation project that comes back with samples from Mars.
I don't know if that will be right after Perseverance this time or after one more pass in the meantime, but everyone expects it won't go beyond the 2020s.
Q. Looking at the history of Mars exploration, it started around the same time as the lunar exploration, but you haven't sent a manned probe yet.
Why haven't humans stepped on Mars yet?
Didn't you send it?
Did you not send it?
There are a lot of unmanned probes on Mars now and they are active.
The next step is to take a sample from Mars, and then a real person goes, that is, a manned expedition to Mars.
On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 first loaded up and landed on the moon, right?
And on the moon in December 1972, Apollo 17 also carried three astronauts, and two astronauts walked down to the moon.
That is the first and last time humanity has left Earth and has gone to another celestial body.
Then,'Why didn't you go to Mars after that?'
You can ask a question like this.
The problem is, Mars is too far away.
It's a very fast rocket that goes over 15 kilometers per second, and it takes three days to reach the moon, with the Apollo rocket.
Then I stay for a day and come back and it's a week's round trip.
But
Mars is a planet that orbits outside the Earth.
The earth revolves around the sun once a year.
Mars spins about once every two years.
So when the Earth spins once a year and returns to its place, Mars spins half a turn.
As a result, the relative distance between Mars and Earth repeats every two years and two months, getting closer and farther away.
Then, you have to send a rocket when it's closest to you, right?
However, it takes 6 or 7 months at the earliest to send it when Mars is close to it.
And it took another month to stay and return, so
it takes at least 500 days to return to and from Mars.
500 days is about a year and a half, but 500 days travel is not a simple matter considering life-sustaining and the equipment you take.
Technological leaps such as life support devices should be secured enough to be convinced, right?
We haven't reached that kind of technology yet.
Q. Research has been conducted to transform Mars into an Earth-like environment.
It's called'Terraforming'. Is'Mars Terraforming' realistically possible?
Terraforming is a combination of the words terra and forming, which means globalization when translated.
In other words, we want to make other planets like the moon and Mars like Earth.
The premise of making it like Earth is that we migrate and Earth people don't wear spacesuits, they just act like Earth and make it like this, another celestial body.
However, there are several conditions.
In terms of humans, it makes oxygen because you have to breathe with oxygen.
Then the water has to flow, so make water, aren't there such things?
But when I look at the moon, there is no atmosphere and there is no such thing as a welcome.
But on Mars, there is an ice sheet called the pole, and there is an atmosphere anyway, so I think this way.
'Even if we go to Mars, we have to wear a space suit, so why not make the
whole Mars an oxygen-rich area like Earth?
Also, couldn't we create a water-rich area?'
You think like this.
Then, there are glaciers in the Antarctica and the North Pole, so if you take a nuclear weapon and explode it, will it melt?
Then it will just flow down and become the sea, and I think that and the other thing, things like moss have high viability even in extreme regions, so if you put some moss on Mars, it eats carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen, so after a while, water and oxygen Make it a covered area.
The plan to do this is'Terraforming'.
That's a really cool idea.
But the problem is that this is not the realm of science, but the realm of engineering, which should be actually implemented, right?
Mars is about half the size of Earth.
It's a big one, really?
However, the idea or idea of transforming the entire Mars like Earth is wonderful. Can we really control nature at the stage of realizing this?
Considering realistically, terraforming is a great idea, but it's now known that it's not engineeringly possible.
We simulated and talked in the midst of technical romanticism, but now we have virtually no progress and are discarded as ideas from the past.
So, nowadays, rather than full-scale terraforming, practical work is underway in this way, as it is a somewhat reduced terraforming to the extent that a certain base is built locally to make it self-sufficient in it.
Q. While talking about Mars, I can't help but talk to Elon Musk, CEO of'Space X'.
Manned exploration of Mars is now being conducted in two branches.
One is a public field with credibility like NASA in the United States.
In this field, we're carrying scientists and astronauts, sending out rovers, doing scientific work and getting ready to come back.
The timing is planned around the end of the 2030s,
but other countries seem to have similar thoughts.
Another thing is that private tours to Mars are being promoted, but the grain is slightly different.
They usually say that they will go ahead of NASA by the end of the 2020s.
The things that NASA has pushed forward is a plan for scientists and astronauts to work on a certain mission and then come back.
It takes about 500 days.
One-way trip is the main difference between Elon Musk and other privately promoted ones.
You go and don't come.
When you say you don't come, you mean you're going to settle down.
Technically, the technologies we send to Mars are much less difficult because they are secured, so it is highly feasible.
After that, I have to settle down, but I will build a base and live there.
So Elon Musk is now developing a projectile that goes to the Moon or Mars, called Starship.
The experiment is being successful until landing now. After that, he sent about 3,000 people to Mars through his starship to create a settlement isolated from the outside, where he was self-sufficient and became Mars. I'm dreaming of creating a base or some small city on Mars.
I will send someone in the late 2020s.
We are promoting with this plan.
Q. How do you view Elon Musk's'Mars migration project' represented by'one way trip'?
Even the most barren regions on Earth right now are better for humans to live than on Mars.
We can breathe anyway, we ship the goods and then we can.
Nevertheless, I don't think you are going to Mars because of that convenience.
People like Elon Musk are now a new type of tycoon.
So, compared to the chaebols of the old era, the dreams of people like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, which we know now, seem to have an interest and vision for building their own world that transcends the earth.
Mars is the most suitable natural factor for that, and if so, what goes there, a bit of a pioneering spirit rather than enjoying a bountiful life?
The explorer spirit?
That's why it seems to be based on the spirit that we try to do things that others cannot do.
However, technically, I have to carry people for a long time, but I don't think the life-sustaining device has yet to be completely resolved.
Anyway, in order for life to be maintained, breathing, food, and mental things must be prepared and resolved, and I think that technical factors will soon be resolved.
If so
, going to Mars itself is a matter of time without difficulty.
And I think there will be no problem with settling down and living for about a generation.
But the question is, how many generations can we go so sustainably as if settling in any other part of the planet?
The question is, what kinds of resources can be harvested from Mars and have the skills to be self-sufficient with them?
I think it ran there.
Elon Musk thinks like that, and maybe after he's settled, he's making bricks there, making some oxygen there, improving the soil and doing farming, and I know he's working on these things together.
Q. It may be Woomoon. Do you personally believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life?
Extraterrestrial life now refers to life outside the Earth like us.
The definition of life is also very complicated,
so when we just talk about alien life, it is based on carbon in the Earth, and certain molecules attach to it to become organic molecules, and that form that expresses that it is now a life phenomenon is broadly referred to as life. I understand.
So when we say extraterrestrial life there could be a very different kind of life activity, and what we're looking for right now is a carbon-based life that resembles life on Earth.
This time, Perservance is going to take an excavator to check and check it, but looking at the observations over the decades,
there is a very high possibility or probability that even things like microbes and bacteria are alive on Mars.
In my opinion, from observations of the solar system so far, it is highly probable that not only Mars, but also Jupiter's moon Europa, and in some places, there are quite a lot of carbon-based life forms, such as bacteria and microbes.
Q. However, from the perspective of an extraterrestrial life that may exist, there may be concerns that the Earth's people are contaminating the ecosystem of extraterrestrial celestial bodies in the process of space exploration.
We're sending a space probe, and it's like a probe that can get things like Earth's bacteria and microorganisms on it.
In fact, when the Apollo probe was exploring the moon, some devices were installed on the lunar surface, and later Apollo astronauts retrieved it.
But something very interesting happened, and when I recovered it, the bacteria were found.
So, when I searched old newspapers, there was an uproar that'an alien life was found on the moon.'
But actually, the bacteria on the planet weren't well sterilized, so they stuck to the observation device.
Here's the good news and the bad news.
The good news is that these bacteria have been alive on the moon for a year or two.
That means life on Earth can survive in barren alien spaces like Mars or the Moon.
This is good news.
And one more thing could be bad news, because they were alive and could have already polluted the alien ecosystem.
But very fortunately, they didn't go far because they had nothing to eat and nothing to absorb energy.
So there is no evidence that it has contaminated the moon.
So it's a little bit of relief, but there's a lot of rovers sent to Mars, and then there's no law that there won't be any happenings that occurred in the Apollo plan I've been talking about, right?
So I'm doing more thoroughly now.
In the United States, NASA has declared a banned area for areas where there are signs of water spillage on the surface of Mars or where there is a high possibility of life.
Of course, there is no space probe that can go there yet, but I have set it up like that.
Q. Let's talk about Professor Carl Sagan's book "Cosmos".
He said that he was very impressed when he was in school. It is also a science book, but it contains a lot of content that gives us humanities literacy and lessons.
If you look at the first part of your book, you reach the beach.
How many things must we have known to get to that beach.
That's why we know a lot of things, and we think so, but when we reach the beach, we can't figure out the vast ocean, right?
So there are so
many things about
our scientific knowledge
and the universe that have been accumulated over the last few thousand years through science.
However, one person reached the beach and realized that he is barely dipping his feet in the sea water, and how much mystery is the endless sea that can be seen from there and the world under the sea that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
I think I compared those things to the universe.
So, although we are getting to know little by little, we will have to get to know more in the future, and we may not know it in our whole life, but we will have to get to know it from generation to generation.
I think I wanted to tell you these things.
Q. I am experiencing an experience that the whole world has never experienced due to Corona.
How is it affecting space exploration?
It's a very big blow.
Because first of all, space exploration has to be pushed out of priority.
Of course, support for exploration and the like is bound to fall.
For space exploration, cooperation between various organizations and international cooperation are essential in order to continue experimenting, but all of those things have stopped.
So overall, the space exploration field was also hit hard.
Those are the direct influences.
But on the contrary, there are areas that are positively affected.
Now it's called the Untact Age, but if you look at this, for example, you're at the International Space Station, or you go to the moon, when you do this, you go to an isolated place, right?
So, in
space exploration and space travel, the basic communication method is time delay and spatial distance.
These are just the defaults.
And I knew that these characteristics were very uncomfortable and insurmountable, but I am experiencing similar situations in space while experiencing the Untact Age.
As if I was at the International Space Station, the people right next door communicate non-face-to-face, and as a result, it seems to discover some new possibilities.
Rather, I now think that this situation may lead to a change of perception that breaks the cultural barriers people have about going on space travel or space exploration, and the barriers of prejudice they have vaguely.
In that case, if you go to the moon or Mars, there will be a sense of spatial distance, but the sense of resistance that seemed to be difficult to overcome in terms of communication may be reduced, so it may have a positive effect on the change of people's perception of space exploration.
If you imagine an extremely vast universe, human existence seems very weak.
As astronomer Carl Sagan puts it,
"Humanity lives with a single point'Earth' buried in time and space of eternity, and all human deaths
may seem
extremely insignificant and chore when viewed from a'cosmic point of view'
."
But again his words as
"even if only in the presence of human beings' Cosmos' that 'point the dust floating in the splendid morning sky," the future of humanity will be our largely depends on how well understand today's "Cosmos", "
Lim Looks obvious.
Another name for Mars is'Red Planet'.
The name is given because there is a lot of soil with iron oxide on the surface of Mars, so it looks red to us when sunlight is reflected.
In the distant future, if our Earthlings living in the'Pale Blue Dot' settle in the'Red Planet' and give birth to descendants, is humanity born on Mars a'Earthman'?
Or is it the birth of a new'Martian'?
It would not be bad to try the 700 pages of Carl Sagan's Cosmos someday.
(Written by reporter Lee Jong-hoon whybe0419@sbs.co.kr)
*** SBS Press Headquarters Future Team's report file is written year-round by SBS's representative social contribution knowledge sharing platform called <SBS D Forum> by future team members of the SBS Press Headquarters.
It is based on the newsletter <SDF Diary>, which looks into the topics that our society should be interested in, and conveys meaningful new perspectives and attempts from various angles.
Every Wednesday, a chapter of discourse gathering wisdom unfolds!
If you want to see the contents of the SBS Future Team's coverage file, please'subscribe' to the SDF Diary!
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