History Unplugged – The Age of Discovery 2.0: Episode 3
Episode three of the six part series, The Age of Discovery 2.0, from the podcast, History Unplugged, is now available here.
This episode features Robert Zubrin. From the description:
A new space race has begun. But the rivals, in this case, are not superpowers but competing entrepreneurs. These daring pioneers are creating a revolution in spaceflight that promises to transform the near future. Astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin spells out the potential of these new developments in an engrossing narrative that is visionary yet grounded by a deep understanding of the practical challenges.
Fueled by the combined expertise of the old aerospace industry and the talents of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, spaceflight is becoming cheaper. The new generation of space explorers has already achieved a major breakthrough by creating reusable rockets. Zubrin foresees more rapid innovation, including global travel from any point on Earth to another in an hour or less; orbital hotels; moon bases with incredible space observatories; human settlements on Mars, the asteroids, and the moons of the outer planets; and then, breaking all limits, pushing onward to the stars.
Zubrin shows how projects that sound like science fiction can actually become reality. But beyond the how, he makes an even more compelling case for why we need to do this—to increase our knowledge of the universe, to make unforeseen discoveries on new frontiers, to harness the natural resources of other planets, to safeguard Earth from stray asteroids, to ensure the future of humanity by expanding beyond its home base, and to protect us from being catastrophically set against each other by the false belief that there isn’t enough for all.
Listen to it. It is definitely worth your time.
The next episode is mine.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Episode three of the six part series, The Age of Discovery 2.0, from the podcast, History Unplugged, is now available here.
This episode features Robert Zubrin. From the description:
A new space race has begun. But the rivals, in this case, are not superpowers but competing entrepreneurs. These daring pioneers are creating a revolution in spaceflight that promises to transform the near future. Astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin spells out the potential of these new developments in an engrossing narrative that is visionary yet grounded by a deep understanding of the practical challenges.
Fueled by the combined expertise of the old aerospace industry and the talents of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, spaceflight is becoming cheaper. The new generation of space explorers has already achieved a major breakthrough by creating reusable rockets. Zubrin foresees more rapid innovation, including global travel from any point on Earth to another in an hour or less; orbital hotels; moon bases with incredible space observatories; human settlements on Mars, the asteroids, and the moons of the outer planets; and then, breaking all limits, pushing onward to the stars.
Zubrin shows how projects that sound like science fiction can actually become reality. But beyond the how, he makes an even more compelling case for why we need to do this—to increase our knowledge of the universe, to make unforeseen discoveries on new frontiers, to harness the natural resources of other planets, to safeguard Earth from stray asteroids, to ensure the future of humanity by expanding beyond its home base, and to protect us from being catastrophically set against each other by the false belief that there isn’t enough for all.
Listen to it. It is definitely worth your time.
The next episode is mine.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Been downloading these but haven’t had a chance to listen yet.
–maybe this is covered somewhere; at what point does Exploration morph into migration and colonization?
Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun / Mars Direct Mission
Pink Floyd animation
https://youtu.be/a9ntxCcjVjE
9:47
Wayne,
The current episode with Zubrin really digs into that.
For your edification, here is the series summary copied from the web site.
No decade transformed Western Civilization like the 1490s. Before then, Europe was a gloomy continent split into factions, ripe for conquest by the Islamic world. It had made no significant advances in science or literature for a century. But after a Spanish caravel named Nina returned to the Old World with news of a startling discovery, the dying embers of the West were fanned back to life. Shipbuilding began at a furious pace. Trade routes to Africa, India, and China quickly opened. At the same time, printing presses spread new ideas about science, religion, and technology across the continent. Literacy rates exploded. Because of the Age of Discovery, for the first time in generations, Europeans had hope in the future.
Today, an Age of Discovery 2.0 is upon us. With Elon Musk promising affordable rocket rides to the Moon and Mars within a decade, planetary bodies will be as accessible to humans as the New World was to adventurers in the 1500s.
“How will the Age of Discovery 2.0 change our civilization the way the first one did five centuries ago?
To find the answers, History Unplugged is interviewing historians, scientists, and futurists who have spent decades researching this question. We will learn how:
•Spain’s 16th-century global empire was built on the spice trade (cinnamon was worth more than gold) and those same economics will lead to Mars colonization (its stockpiles of deuterium are a key ingredient for cheap fusion power
•How slavery was a conscious choice in the American colonies (Virginia embraced it while Puritan New England rejected it) and how the same choices on human rights could make the future a libertarian paradise or a neo-feudal dystopia
•How the East India Company’s control over India foreshadows SpaceX’s control over Mars and what happens when a corporation effectively controls a nation (or in this case, a planet).
•The labor shortage – and lack of regulation – in off-world colonies will lead to incredible innovation, as did the lack of workers and government restriction in colonial America drove the rise of “Yankee ingenuity’s” wave of inventions.”
For years I’ve been skeptical of the usefulness of Mars in the settlement of our solar system, but Bob makes a good case for the Red Planet in this podcast. Definitely worth a listen.
Skunk, may I call you Skunk :), at the risk of showing my naiveté as a consumer of science fiction, I’m thinking Mars may be as it is depicted in “The Expanse” series. It is a base of operations which provides a jumping off point to the more valuable real estate in the asteroids and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. And, as in “Expanse” it’s limitations with regard to resources may eventually render it obsolete as we move further and further out.
Are there transcripts available anywhere? I don’t really want to spend a couple of hours listening to talking heads (no offense) when I can read the same info in a few minutes.
V, here’s the site – https://www.historyonthenet.com/welcome-to-the-age-of-discovery-2-0. I couldn’t find any transcripts, but you may have better luck.
“And, as in “Expanse” it’s limitations with regard to resources may eventually render it obsolete as we move further and further out.”
Well, all good things come to an end….
Obviously “eventually” comes faster when you dig up an alien constructed shortcut to moving further out.
But Bob Zubrin clearly has a more optimistic view of the future than The Expanse does. It really comes out in this episode. Colonized Mars as a kind of hyper-entrepreneurial America on steroids rather than a militarized nationalist corporatist state.
I think Bob too easily glides over the drawbacks of Mars as a human habitation (hey, he’s a pitchman). But he is also not wrong (and neither is Elon) that Mars really is the best place to start right now. O’Neill Cylinders are not a 21st century prospect, alas.
P.S. I love that Bob worked in the line “Mars needs women!”
I too was impressed with Zubrin’s arguments – both content and delivery. Yes, “Mars needs women!” was great, and he apparently enjoys it too, because I believe he used it several times!
The Expanse –
Planetary Railgun Strike on Mars (Inc All Build Up Scenes)
https://youtu.be/sjFfw7dcYqY
6:38
Gary–
thanks for that summary.
(I’m going to listen to these all-at-once. I have 20 hours of Kyle Rittenhouse trial-video to watch the next few days.))
A (multiple) repeat from me, but appropriate….
Pink Floyd
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun / Mars Direct Animation
https://youtu.be/a9ntxCcjVjE
9:47
Take a look at around the 5:50 mark with the ‘old-timey’ map– “there be dragons” is radiation, zero-g, and back-contamination.