Astrum Space - The Surprising Danger of Building a Human Colony on the Moon

Episode Date: September 19, 2026

It’s actually happening. NASA has released their plans to build a moon base: humanity’s first ever home on another world. In this video, we’ll dig into the blueprint to reveal what the habitat w...ill look like, how we’ll survive the harsh lunar environment, and the deadly challenges waiting on the surface. But NASA isn't alone. Who else is racing to claim this region first?▀▀▀▀▀▀For 1 week, 15% OFF all Hoverpens with code ASTRUM, or click the link https://noviumdesign.shop/Astrum - Free shipping to most countries. Also on Amazon: https://noviumdesign.shop/RNIUW6▀▀▀▀▀▀A huge thanks to our Patreons who help make these videos possible. Sign-up here: ⁠https://bit.ly/4aiJZNF

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Starting point is 00:00:22 free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaa and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. It's the year 2032, and humans are living on the moon. Somewhere near its South Pole, at the edge of a crater so deep that sunlight has never touched the bottom, a cluster of silver and white structures mark a stark contrast to the black star-filled sky. Inside one of those little white structures, someone is making a cup of coffee
Starting point is 00:01:24 and checking the space weather report to see when the next burst of deadly solar radiation will arrive. No, this isn't science fiction. This is what the first human moon base will actually look like. Because, for the first time in history, NASA has released a phased blueprint for how we will colonize the moon over the next 10 years, and the plan is already in motion. But, as with any revolutionary project, it has big questions to answer. Where do we build it?
Starting point is 00:01:56 How will we construct it before astronauts arrive? What will daily life look like once people move in? Although, perhaps more importantly, what I want to know is how we will use this space. There's talk of a much darker side to our lunar escapades. I'm Alex McCulligan and you're watching Astrum. Join me as we walk through the plans for humanity's first permanent home on another world. We'll look into the issues they might run into and explore how some of the tech, like a satellite launching electromagnetic catapult might have dangerous alternative uses.
Starting point is 00:02:37 Before we get too excited about the prospect of a lunar base, let's rewind for just a minute and recap on how exactly we got here. In 1969, Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the near side of the Moon, just north of the Lunar Equator. Over the next couple of years, five more Apollo missions touched down in other locations, and 12 different people walked on the surface, Each time the crew brought everything they needed to survive and stayed anywhere from hours to a few days. The Apollo program was incredible. It showed what humans were capable of.
Starting point is 00:03:14 But since 1972, no one has returned. The Artemis program is now using early missions to rebuild our foundational capabilities. Artemis 1 was an uncrewed test flights around the moon in late 2022, followed by Artemis 2 in 2006, which carried a good. crew further from Earth than any humans before on a nine-day journey around the moon and back. Artemis 3 will be NASA's most complex crewed mission to date, involving three separate rocket launches and two privately built lunar landers that will carry out a series of demonstrations in low Earth orbit designed to validate critical systems for future moon landings.
Starting point is 00:03:54 Artemis 4 will push further still, with astronauts actually touching down on the lunar surface, staying approximately a week, more than twice the Apollo 17 record. But these milestones are only steps towards a far more ambitious plan, transforming the moon into a place where people actually live. The problem is that when Artemis was announced, we didn't actually have a long-term plan for how to achieve it. But recently, that's changed. NASA has released a blueprint for how we will work toward a not-so-distant future
Starting point is 00:04:28 where humans can maintain a constant presence on our celestial satellite. The plan is broken down into phases, from robot explorers to livable infrastructure, starting now in 26 and continuing through 2030 and beyond. So, let's take a look. The first question NASA had to answer is, where should a moon base go? And there are two big problems with deciding on a specific location. Firstly, across the majority of the surface of the moon, day and night lasts about two weeks each.
Starting point is 00:05:02 A moon base and its inhabitants would need to survive two weeks of unfiltered, dangerous and blistering sunlight, followed by two weeks of total darkness, and temperatures that can fall to minus 180 degrees Celsius. That presents quite an engineering headache for everything from keeping their lights on to the safety of the astronauts. The other big problem is resources, water in particular. A permanent presence anywhere is only possible if we have access to it. We are water-based organisms after all, but with such extreme conditions,
Starting point is 00:05:38 where and how can we find that precious commodity on the moon's surface? Well, if you happen to have watched any of my previous videos about water on the moon, you will already know the answer to this. It lies at the Lunar South Pole. This is a particularly strange place, stranger than the rest of the moon. Why? Well, it all comes down to axle tilt and ancient comets. On Earth, our planet has a 23.5 degree tilt, which means that even though our polar regions
Starting point is 00:06:09 may experience polar night, spending months in darkness as the seasons change, so does the angle and the amount of sunlight that reaches these areas. There may be very deep polar ravines or caves that never. see sunlight, but really there are no parts of the surface of Earth that are continually in the dark. In contrast, the moon's tilt relative to the sun is almost totally upright at just 1.6 degrees, so some places in the lunar south pole never get direct sunlight. Instead, it barely skims the horizon without rising any higher. And while a tall crater ridge may get nearly continuous sunlight, the bottom of it may remain in perpetual shadow, with nothing to warm the surface.
Starting point is 00:06:55 Here, temperatures can get as low as minus 203 degrees Celsius. Mapped by NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter in 2013, and aptly named permanently shadowed regions, the insides of these craters haven't seen sunlight in more than 2 billion years, and may act like a deep freeze. Water brought to the moon by ancient comet impacts billions of years ago, got trapped down there in the dark, accumulating as ice. This geographically close contrast of light and darkness, hot and cold, presents a great opportunity. We've got a pristine, conserved water source, bridges with near continuous sunlight for solar panels collecting energy,
Starting point is 00:07:39 and great real estate options, boasting indirect, nearly constant light and milder temperatures in the twilight zone, so moon inhabitants wouldn't need to endure two weeks of the most harsh daylight or two weeks of extreme dark and frigid cold. Of course, any astronauts here would still probably need a little something from Earth to make this whole place feel a bit more like home. Perhaps someone should give them a parting gift as they head moonward, one that is useful for writing up those space weather reports, sits majestically on their lunar office desk
Starting point is 00:08:12 and perfectly helps them get into the low gravity zone. And what better fits the space theme bill than the hoverpen interstellar from today's sponsor Novium. The hoverpen interstellar is a floating desk pen that levitates from its base using permanent magnets. No electricity required. It floats at 23.5 degree angle, just like the Earth's tilt, and is made of aerospace-grade aluminium, as a perfect nod to Earth and Space. If you get the premium version, it comes with a piece of meteorite inside of it, an authentic piece. of space right on your desk. The hoverpen interstellar has a range of colors, starlight silver, space black, Mars magma and Neptune blue, so you'll always find the one you want. It's the perfect
Starting point is 00:08:57 gift for someone either on the moon or wanting to feel like you're already there. Check out Novium's hoverpen interstellar or the fountain pen or roller ball pen version, the hoverpen future by scanning my QR code or following the link in the description below. Shipping is free to most countries and for the next week only. Novium is offering my viewers a 15% discount if you use the discount code Astrum at checkout. Give it a look. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling
Starting point is 00:09:39 or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. That MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. All right. Now that we know where the moon base will be, what comes next? This is the start of the fun stuff, because the answer is robots. The blueprint for the moon base is divided into three phases. I'll summarize the phases for a big picture view first, then we'll get into the details of each step. Phase one is already in motion. and will continue through 2029. It focuses on robotic missions to survey the South Pole region, test critical technology, and prepare for surface operations. Phase 2 is slated for
Starting point is 00:10:32 2019 to 2032 and involves building semi-permanent infrastructure, testing key technology, logistics, and early habitation. Phase 3 covers 2032 and beyond, aiming for a sustained human presence on the moon with routine crew rotations and surface activity. After that, we'll take a look at what people other than NASA are dreaming up. And that's where things look a little less friendly. Seeing as we're already in phase one, let's get into the details of what's happening now. This series of missions will deliver payloads to the Lunar South Pole, the first of which has a targeted launch date of early 2027.
Starting point is 00:11:15 Among the equipment to be delivered on this first landing will be able to be a new one. stereo cameras to study how thrusters interact with the moon's surface, and a laser retro-reflective array used to measure precise distances and guide spacecraft. It will touch down on what's known as the Shackleton-connecting ridge, a narrow strip of high ground that extends away from the rim of Shackleton Crater. This is one of the most scientifically important permanently shadowed craters at the South Pole, because it provides the perfect mix of water ice at the crater floor, and almost constant sunlight at the rim that I mentioned earlier. It also has a clear line of sight,
Starting point is 00:11:52 making communication with Earth relatively easy, reducing the risk for the later crude landing of Artemis 4 in 2008. Other Phase 1 missions originally targeted to launch in 2006 will deliver international science payloads and Astrolab's Flex Lunar Innovation Platform, a rover that will demonstrate important mobility technology and inform future lunar terrain vehicle or LTV use. It's designed to deliver scientific instruments and equipment as well as operate autonomously.
Starting point is 00:12:23 I told you there'd be robots. Alongside these landers, NASA has announced a fleet of small hopping robots, nicknamed Moonfall Drones, to set launch in a single mission in 2008. Inspired by NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter, the Moonfall drones will fly to the moon aboard Firefly Aerospace's Eritre, Elytra spacecraft and deploy during descent to the lunar surface. Rather than carrying across the surface the way traditional rovers do, these drones are designed to fly from point to point across the rugged crater-pock terrain near the pole, a method that's far more effective than
Starting point is 00:12:59 wheel travel in an environment full of steep slopes and balder fields and aided by reduced gravity. Their job is to survey the terrain in high resolution, gathering detailed imagery that mission planners need ahead of the crewed missions. After their initial survey work is complete, the drones will continue operating for months, providing an ongoing stream of data about the region. Talk about a lofty set of goals to squeeze into the next three years. As many as 21 landings in just 36 months is a genuinely aggressive, short-term deadline, and it tells you something important about where we are in this story. Despite a proposed budget cut to NASA for 2027, which will cut total funding by 23% and reduce funding to science programs by nearly half,
Starting point is 00:13:47 the budget does maintain and actually increases funding for lunar exploration. That increase will help to fully fund the Artemis program and new robotic missions to establish a moon base. This isn't a plan sitting in a drawerer waiting for funding decades into the future. This is hardware under contract with named companies. being funded and built right now, and aimed for completion during the specific window of just three years. Think about what that means practically. Long before any astronauts' boots touch the ground near the South Pole, this small army of rovers, landers and drones will
Starting point is 00:14:29 already have crawled, driven, and hopped across the exact terrain that the base will eventually sit on. They'll measure the ice. They'll map the boulders and the slopes. They'll test the solar panels and the navigation systems. By the time a crude mission arrives, the base's own robotic ancestors will already have done the reconnaissance to make sure the environment is safe for humans and the water is good to drink. But then comes the hard part. If phase one is characterized by scouting, then phase two is all about building, beginning
Starting point is 00:15:02 in 2029. This phase will include the delivery of up to 60 tons of cargo across as many as 20. 24 landings. Last thing from 2029 to 2032, phase 2 will see the deployment of new and expanding power systems and the delivery of upgraded rovers and potentially more advanced moonfall drones. A highlight of these LTVs is a pressurized rover that will be built by the Japanese aerospace exploration agency. This will provide astronauts with the ability to travel greater distances, living and working in the rover for up to 30 days, allowing them to conduct. research more efficiently and comfortably without the need to wear a spacesuit during the commute.
Starting point is 00:15:45 It's sort of like a lunar camper van, and I certainly wouldn't mind trying one of them out. Next is communication and navigation. On Earth, we're quite used to having GPS and cell networks, but on the moon, astronauts have had to navigate without those, which is a serious limitation for a permanent moon base that needs continuous, reliable connectivity. I mean, even astronauts will want to be able to call home. NASA plans to deploy a dedicated surface-to-orbit communication stations, providing higher data capacity and more reliable connections. This is also where the European Space Agency's Moonlight program comes in.
Starting point is 00:16:24 Moonlight is designed to be, in effect, the Moon's own version of GPS and cellular infrastructure combined, a constellation of satellites in orbit around it, providing navigation and communication services to landers, rovers and eventually astronauts on the surface. Moonlight is being developed in coordination with NASA and Japan Space Agency, Jaxa, around a shared set of technical standards known as LunarNet, so that missions from multiple countries and companies can all use the same lunar communications backbone, rather than everyone building their own incompatible system from scratch. NASA will
Starting point is 00:17:01 also position surface communication notes around the Lunar South Pole that cover roughly an area of 10 kilometers each, these nodes will act similar to cell towers on Earth. And with all this infrastructure coming online in Phase 2, you might wonder where all the power will come from. Well, although solar power is a practical source, it still has limitations, and a moon base needs consistent power to support habitation. Even at the South Pole, there will be periods of darkness or shadow. Dust may accumulate on panels. or there may be growing demand for power as the base expands from a handful of visiting astronauts
Starting point is 00:17:41 to a genuinely permanent population. To solve this, plans are underway for a lunar fission reactor. A small nuclear power system designed to provide steady, reliable electricity, independent of the sun's position in the sky, supplementing solar power and providing the kind of always-on baseline energy that a truly permanent settlement requires. And to help inform these large-scale endeavors, NASA plans to use RTGs, or radioisotope thermoelectric generators during this phase,
Starting point is 00:18:14 capable of producing hundreds of watts of power our lunar residents can use. These three things form the backbone of phase two, mobility rovers, connectivity and power, the beginnings of habitation. But there's one more important piece to phase two. What will moon inhabitants do about radiation? On Earth, we're protected from the harshest forms of space radiation by a combination of our planet's magnetic field, which deflects charged particles around the sun,
Starting point is 00:18:47 and our thick atmosphere, which absorbs a huge amount of the radiation. But the moon has no global magnetic field, and an atmosphere so thin, it might as well not exist. That means the lunar surface is bathed in two kinds of dangerous radiation, A steady background of galactic cosmic rays arriving from outside our solar system and periodic, sometimes intense bursts of energetic particles thrown out by the sun itself during solar storms. In 2020, a dosimeter inside China's Changi 4 probe found that the astronauts on the moon would be exposed to roughly 200 times the radiation levels as people on Earth,
Starting point is 00:19:27 and even more during solar storms. For a mission lasting a few days like Apollo, this exposure was manageable, for a mission lasting months or years, for a genuinely permanent settlement where people might live for a large fraction of their lives, it becomes one of the single most serious health risks astronauts will face. They will need to be protected from the constant radiation, but especially from the radiation spikes during storms. On top of that, there's also the danger of micrometeorites. A recent modeling study estimated that an ISS-sized moon base near the lunar south pole
Starting point is 00:20:05 could be struck by around 15,000 micrometeoroids each year. Without an atmosphere to burn up incoming debris the way Earth does, even tiny particles of rock and dust from space strike the lunar surface at extraordinary velocities, up to 70 kilometers per second. That's around 70 times the speed of a bullet, when it leaves the muzzle of a rifle. A structure built entirely on the open surface
Starting point is 00:20:35 has to be engineered to withstand this constant low-level bombardment indefinitely. So how do they get around that? The answer may come from ancient volcanic activity on the moon, more specifically in the form of lava tubes. In its early history, the moon experienced periods of active volcanism, with rivers of molten lava flowing across its surface. surface. As the outer surface cooled and hardened into rock, in some cases, the still molten lava
Starting point is 00:21:05 underneath drained away, leaving behind long, hollow, tunnel-like structures. In 2024, researchers studying this phenomenon found the first ever evidence for lunar lava tubes with ceilings more than 100 metres thick and interior chambers potentially large enough to enclose entire city blocks, with diameters spanning hundreds of meters across. While no official plans have been unveiled about building inside lava tubes just yet, a publication in the International Journal of Mining Science and Technology found that these lava tubes could provide excellent radiation shielding and robust protection from micrometeorites.
Starting point is 00:21:47 And in 2006, a multidisciplinary team at Space Treks, the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration Laboratory at the University of Arizona, designed structural concepts for using existing larvae tubes to house a lunar data center, an astronaut refuge, and a lunar command center. The benefits don't stop at radiation shielding or micrometeorite protection either. Lava tubes also offer remarkably stable internal temperatures, with some research suggesting interior conditions holding steady at around minus 20 degrees Celsius, even when surface temperatures measured swings between 110 degrees to minus 170 degrees Celsius.
Starting point is 00:22:29 A structure built inside a lava tube wouldn't have to be engineered to survive that entire punishing range. Just a moderately cold environment, which is a vastly simpler engineering problem, and nothing some parts of Earth aren't used to anyway. The concept of living and working in these ancient lunar lava tubes is a real possibility. And if we are going to utilize these natural structures, plans will likely come together soon. Although it doesn't leave much time for picking out furniture. And if we don't get it all sorted in time for the Artemis 4 touchdown, then another possible solution is a Whipple Shield.
Starting point is 00:23:08 Similar to the protection already used on spacecraft, such as the ISS, this is a thin outer layer that breaks apart incoming particles, spreading their energy across a gap before the fragments reach the habitat's main wall. A recent modelling study estimated that a Whipple Shield could stop about 99.9997% of incoming micrometeurore. But, and it's quite a big but, a powerful enough impact to blast through the defences might hit roughly once every 42 years, so a full protection scheme is still a work in progress, which brings us to the final phase. According to the blueprint, it'll be a busy time for moon-based inhabitants.
Starting point is 00:23:53 Beginning in 2032, phase 3 takes things to the next level, with 29 launches, and all but one plan to actually land on the moon. This is the part when major moon dirt gets moved and permanent infrastructure is laid down. Although less is known about this phase of the plan, what we do know is that NASA has plans to transition from short-term habitats to semi-permanent habitation modules with more comfortable interiors for the crew, as well as operational fission power systems. Phase 3 will mark a transition from simply demonstrating the collection of lunar resources to actually using those resources like water, oxygen and hydrogen in a sustained way. This will also be a shift to a more advanced network of logistics to keep the base running year round, supported by the crew,
Starting point is 00:24:46 autonomous rovers, uncrewed payload return trips, and delivery of up to 38 tons of cargo annually to sustain the systems, operations and inhabitants. So, while we're it look like to live on the moon? This is the part of the story that's hardest to pin down with facts because a functioning day-to-day lunar settlement doesn't exist yet, so we can't know for sure, but perhaps that just makes it more fun to imagine. And based on everything we've talked about so far, we can at least paint a reasonable picture of what daily existence is likely to involve. Near the South Pole, the sun never climbs high overhead. Instead, it only just peaks above the horizon as it slowly circles, casting long, dramatic shadows. Getting around would mean
Starting point is 00:25:34 relying heavily on the rovers. But given the harsh radiation and temperatures on the moon and the sheer physical toll of working in a pressurized space suit, time spent directly on the open surface might be carefully rationed and monitored, much like how spacewalks are scheduled and tracked today. Communication back to friends and family on Earth and between different parts of the base itself, we likely run through the satellite networks like moonlight circling overhead, providing the kind of steady connectivity that hasn't existed for any previous lunar mission, an important quality of life improvement. And perhaps you live in a shielded module connected to several others, or maybe your living quarters would be built inside a hollow lava tube for protection.
Starting point is 00:26:21 It's worth being honest about what we don't know yet. Would there be long-term psychological effects of living in relative isolation? Will all of the inhabitants' food need to be sent from Earth, or will we find ways to produce it on the moon? What happens if someone needs urgent medical care? A permanent moonbase will help us begin to answer many of these questions directly, through lived experience rather than through speculation alone. But establishing a moon base now, this rapidly, is not just about scientific questions. There's some strategy behind you. it. And with that, may come conflict. The Moon South Pole is not a big place. There are limited locations where the sun hits the rim of a crater just right to create the ideal conditions for a
Starting point is 00:27:09 sustained moon base. And NASA isn't the only space program eyeing the same small patch of lunar real estate. China has its own ambitions for a permanent lunar research station, described as an international collaborative effort intended to support long-term robotic and eventually crude operations on the moon, and they are looking at the same place NASA is for the same reasons. Resources and sunlight. Meanwhile, commercial players are pursuing their own, even more ambitious visions for the Lunar South Pole entirely independent of any single national space agency. For example, SpaceX has aspirations for a lunar city designed to expand and become increasingly self-suffalo, sufficient over time, rather than remaining a small, fixed research station indefinitely.
Starting point is 00:27:59 It's no coincidence that everyone wants the same land, and with major gaps still remaining in international policy governing lunar resources, simply getting there first may dictate who sets the rules and who gets the resources. This truly may be a second space race, with high stakes indeed, and as with many geopolitical discussions, weapons may not be far from the table. One piece of proposed lunar technology that's drawn a lot of attention from security analysts recently is what's called the electromagnetic mass driver. Essentially, SpaceX is looking to build a magnetic catapult on the moon. It works by using a long track of electromagnets, similar
Starting point is 00:28:46 to the technology behind Maglev trains on Earth to accelerate an object of very high speed using magnetic fields alone, rather than burning rocket fuel. On the moon, with its lower gravity and absence of atmosphere to create drag, a sufficiently long electromagnetic track could, in principle, accelerate cargo, or even fully assemble satellites to lunar escape velocity and beyond, launching them into space without ever burning a drop of rocket fuel. But as genuinely exciting as that idea may be from a purely engineering and economic standpoint, there's a catch. A 2026 security analysis published by the American Foreign Policy Council pointed out that,
Starting point is 00:29:29 fundamentally, a device designed to accelerate and launch objects at high velocities is inherently dual use. As in, not only could it launch satellites or cargo, it could also launch weapons from a worryingly, unstoppable, undetectable platform. The report identifies several categories of concern. First is kinetic energy impactors. Dense objects launched at extremely high velocity, which, due to the sheer energy involved in that speed, can cause damage roughly comparable to an explosive weapon, without needing any explosive material at all, because the destructive force comes purely from
Starting point is 00:30:10 velocity and mass. Second, anti-satellite weapons. The same launch capability could be used to threat to the destructive. or destroy the growing number of satellites that modern life, from communications to navigation to weather forecasting, is deeply dependent upon. Third and most seriously, the report raises the theoretical possibility of using such a system to launch nuclear payloads. Modern nuclear-armed nations maintain extensive, sophisticated early warning systems designed
Starting point is 00:30:42 to detect the distinctive heat signature and trajectory of a conventional rocket launch, whether from land, sea or air, giving crucial minutes of warning time. But a launch originating from the lunar surface, using electromagnetic acceleration rather than fuel, would not trigger those same detection signatures. This would be a whole new level of threat, and whoever controlled it, could wield great power over essentially the entire planet. But it isn't just SpaceX looking at this technology. The same report notes that China is also pursuing the development of its own lunar magnetic launcher concept. Given the high stakes, the report recommended that the United States pursue an aggressive,
Starting point is 00:31:25 sustained, permanent presence specifically at the Lunar South Pole in order to establish strategic control. As you can see, the Moonbase may serve multiple purposes, both scientific and strategic, and both of these stories can be true at the same time. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out of that. out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak
Starting point is 00:32:04 to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. When Westcham first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. For more than 50 years, humans on the moon has meant a handful of extraordinary but brief visits. But soon, it could mean much more. We have a blueprint for staying. We've chosen the location and the first steps
Starting point is 00:32:54 are already well underway to send robotic scouts ahead of us. By the early 2030s, we may have humans living on the moon full time. Going somewhere as extraordinary as another world was never going to be simple or free of difficult questions. It's going to involve innovative engineering, international cooperation and almost certainly genuine tension. It has to be carefully and thoughtfully navigated. But here's what I keep coming back to and what I hope you'll take away from this too. For the very first time in human history, we have a plan, not just a dream, a plan, to venture beyond our own planet for more than just a visit. And that, I think, is incredible. If you've ever watched an astrom video and found yourself pausing just to take in the beauty of space,
Starting point is 00:33:50 you're not alone. The colours, the motion, the scale, they remind us how vast and awe-inspiring the universe really is. Have you ever had your breath taken away when seeing these videos of our sun, Milky Way or perhaps Venus? Well now, Patreon members have access to these wallpapers for your phone and laptop. Sign up with the link below. It's a single. It's a simple way to bring that sense of wonder into your daily life while supporting future Astrum creations. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned and today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things
Starting point is 00:34:38 usually get worse before they get better. Apparently that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.

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