August 21, 2005: Space Technology and Mars - Sir Charles Shults III
Sir Charles details carbon nanotube technology that could make a space elevator feasible, noting these fibers can support their own weight across 3,400 kilometers. He predicts China will attempt to buy into Alberta's tar sands, now economically viable at current oil prices, and warns that China is adding cars at 85 percent per year compared to America's two percent growth rate.
The discussion shifts to Mars, where Sir Charles presents evidence of fossil sea life found by the Opportunity rover, including an organism with a five-pointed star pattern he names after Art Bell. He argues that simultaneous warming on both Earth and Mars points to the sun as the common driver of climate change and suggests NASA's reluctance to confirm life on Mars may stem from religious sensitivities.
Key Moments
J.C. Webster: hell is heating up, causing global warming: Returning character J.C. Webster III claims global warming is real but caused by sinful souls burning hotter in hell at Earth's core, with the heat radiating outward to drive volcanoes, tsunamis, and storms.
Mitsubishi plan to beam solar power from orbit: Shults reveals Mitsubishi is promoting an orbital microwave power satellite that would beam energy down to power cell phones, laptops, and PDAs at densities one-fourth that of natural sunlight, eliminating batteries.
Space elevator cable strong enough to reach geosync: Shults walks through how carbon nanotube cables could support 3,400 km of their own weight, allowing a one-meter-wide ribbon anchored at the equator to ferry 20-ton payloads to geosynchronous orbit in about eight hours.
Mars is a fossil planet that was once water-covered: Asked for the headline of his Mars research, Shults declares Mars is a fossil planet where life was common at the same time it arose on Earth, and that the entire planet was once covered by water.
Why NASA won't confirm Mars fossils: Shults says NASA insiders privately confirm his Mars fossil findings but officials stay silent, possibly because confirming life elsewhere would gut funding for planned exploratory missions and collide with religious sensibilities.