Blast off! Exploring our solar system and beyond

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.

**Natasha Mitchell** (0:08)
Remember that Black Mirror episode where you're scored on what kind of citizen you are? For renters, that already exists. Real estate platforms are now collecting up to 50 points of data on anyone who wants to rent a home. I'm Rae Johnston, and on Download This Show, I'm investigating what rental tech is doing to your chances of finding somewhere to live. To hear the series, search Download This Show on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, the Top 100 Books is back soon on ABC Radio National. This year, we are asking you to vote for your Top 100 Australian Books of all time. Voting kicks off later this month. I reckon a fair few kids books will be in the mix, including my number one nomination, by the way. Can you guess what it is? Victorian listeners, you can join me at a special Top 100 Books event in Melbourne on September the 1st with special guests, including the Australian Children's Laureate, Andy Griffiths, who will be discussing all our faves. And where their kids books have become maybe too didactic, too moralistic, what do kids want to read? Is it the same as what adults want kids to read? And much more. To book a seat, head to the Big Ideas homepage. Look for B in our audience at the bottom.
Now I know you are fond of books, but do you have a fondness for a particular planet in our solar system?

**Sara Webb** (1:37)
I would like to start out, I love Venus Club. I genuinely think Venus is one of the coolest places we have in our solar system.

**Natasha Mitchell** (1:43)
Or maybe Mars is more your type.

**Tamara Davis** (1:46)
I wanted to grow up, be a Martian when I was growing up. I wanted to get to Mars.
I remember having the thought that I want to be the first woman on Mars.

**Sara Webb** (1:55)
It's not too late, Tam.

**Tamara Davis** (1:56)
Then I realized that was really silly and I just decided I should be the first person on Mars.

**Natasha Mitchell** (2:02)
Today on Big Ideas, hello, Natasha Mitchell with you. We are exploring other worlds and our enduring search for signs of life beyond Earth. Is there anyone out there? Five, four, three, two, one, blast off.
Also on the show Warp Speed, we have seen it in the movies. Is it actually possible? Why is there human poo on the moon? And what has Matt Damon got to do with any of this? We're at the World Science Festival in Mianjin, Brisbane, with five superstars of space science today. From the US, Tracy Drain is the Chief Engineer with NASA's Europa Clipper Mission, launched in 2024, scheduled to enter Jupiter's orbit in April 2030
From the Queensland University of Technology, and formerly with NASA, studying space rocks as an astrobiologist is Associate Professor David Flannery. From the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory, Nobel Laureate and Astrophysicist, Distinguished Professor Brian Schmidt. From Swinburne University, author, science communicator, astrophysicist, Dr. Sara Webb, and last, never least, is the host from the University of Queensland, the internationally renowned dark energy researcher, sometime TV presenter, astrophysicist, Professor Tamara Davis.

**Tamara Davis** (3:36)
Okay, so, when I was a kid, I was inspired by all of these space voyages. And my dad, he was, he got himself an amateur pilot license. When he was young, the idea of being a pilot was completely way out there. And I was like, I want to be an astronaut. And he was like, well, you know, when I was young, the idea of being a pilot was way out there. But when you go up, maybe the idea of being an astronaut won't be as way out there as it used to be. And so I was like, oh yeah, so I'm going to be an astronaut and I'm going to get my private astronaut license and fly to the moon and all of that sort of stuff. And that hasn't happened. Interestingly, I'm now 50 years old and no one has walked on the moon in my lifetime. But there is an Artemis mission coming up, where we're looking at sending humans back to the moon.
So Brian, as the one panelist here who was alive.
When people did walk on the moon. What do you think of this and what do you know about Artemis as well?

**Brian Schmidt** (4:38)
So I was born in 1967 and I do not remember Apollo 11
But I do remember Apollo 13 It's one of my first memories. And I do remember the mission where we thought all the astronauts were going to die. And I remember I was in childcare and we got together and we watched them land. And then we had Apollo 14, 15, 16, and 17, which were a huge deal when I was a kid, right? And so they were connected to everything I was thinking and doing. And Harrison Schmidt, who was the geologist, the only scientist to have landed on the moon. And his name is spelled slightly different than me. He was my hero when I was five. So that was in 71, 72 when those things happened. So you're right. We haven't had anyone on the moon since 1972 It turns out it's actually quite hard to get there. And there are reasons why people are skeptical that we ever landed in the moon because it's so hard to do.