Q & A | 10/09/2008 6:00 am
When Will Earth People Live on the Moon? (Audio)
Dr. Katja Van Herle courtesy of Mary Wells
MARY: So do you think people will be able to adjust to that?
KATJA: I do. I do. If we look at how society is … OK, look at some of the nuclear submarines in the world. I believe people can live on those for years on end. They have, I think, thousands of employees – 2,500, I think, on the big Russian subs. They’re huge. I mean, they serve as their own worlds under the sea. And that’s how we’re learning about oceans, obviously also warfare – since that’s how we’re screening and protecting our waters. So we know there is a precedent to living long durations in limited spaces with limited resources. We have a capacity, I think, to do something on the moon that’s much bigger than a 2,500-manned nuclear submarine. So people will acclimate. People are … see, this is the beauty of the human race — we are flexible. We may not always feel it, but we are. And through our intellect we have an amazing number of pathways in the brain that make us, I believe, very different than animals. We are built to survive, but we have different tracks in our brain that help us acclimate and be flexible in the environments we are given. Plasticity is what allows us to do this.
MARY: Do you think that there will be a variety of planets that will be available to people eventually?
KATJA: Yes. I do. And the Mars project that JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) is working on, I think there’re going to be two questions – when and how much? In other words, it’s going to take time and money to try and say, “Well, let’s do enough research to figure out, based on the environment on any one planet, that we can actually establish pods, that we can start populating other planets.” And it’s inevitable, as I described. Because we see the way that not only our human population is booming, but also how the resources are being usurped and the waste is accumulating. We must find other areas. When we look at our teaching programs – and I’ll bring it back to what Jacinta Behne brought to our division – our teaching programs are now to try and actually do education programs, simulating the moon experience for children to understand why, if you do exercise in this way, or why you eat this, or why if you have less garbage it makes a difference. So we actually are working toward developing “moon projects” now. The idea is to focus our younger generations to start thinking about the fact that it may not be on earth that they will be living. It may not be here for them.
This is an edited conversation between Mary Wells and Dr. Katja Van Herle about the realities of human life on the moon. To hear the conversation in its entirety, click the play button on the audio icon above.
KATJA: I do. I do. If we look at how society is … OK, look at some of the nuclear submarines in the world. I believe people can live on those for years on end. They have, I think, thousands of employees – 2,500, I think, on the big Russian subs. They’re huge. I mean, they serve as their own worlds under the sea. And that’s how we’re learning about oceans, obviously also warfare – since that’s how we’re screening and protecting our waters. So we know there is a precedent to living long durations in limited spaces with limited resources. We have a capacity, I think, to do something on the moon that’s much bigger than a 2,500-manned nuclear submarine. So people will acclimate. People are … see, this is the beauty of the human race — we are flexible. We may not always feel it, but we are. And through our intellect we have an amazing number of pathways in the brain that make us, I believe, very different than animals. We are built to survive, but we have different tracks in our brain that help us acclimate and be flexible in the environments we are given. Plasticity is what allows us to do this.
MARY: Do you think that there will be a variety of planets that will be available to people eventually?
KATJA: Yes. I do. And the Mars project that JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) is working on, I think there’re going to be two questions – when and how much? In other words, it’s going to take time and money to try and say, “Well, let’s do enough research to figure out, based on the environment on any one planet, that we can actually establish pods, that we can start populating other planets.” And it’s inevitable, as I described. Because we see the way that not only our human population is booming, but also how the resources are being usurped and the waste is accumulating. We must find other areas. When we look at our teaching programs – and I’ll bring it back to what Jacinta Behne brought to our division – our teaching programs are now to try and actually do education programs, simulating the moon experience for children to understand why, if you do exercise in this way, or why you eat this, or why if you have less garbage it makes a difference. So we actually are working toward developing “moon projects” now. The idea is to focus our younger generations to start thinking about the fact that it may not be on earth that they will be living. It may not be here for them.
This is an edited conversation between Mary Wells and Dr. Katja Van Herle about the realities of human life on the moon. To hear the conversation in its entirety, click the play button on the audio icon above.
Read more about: Audio, Change the World, Dr. Katja Van Herle, Environment, Health, Medicine, Moon, Science, UCLA
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- Joan Ganz Cooney Still Shops the Way She Always Has
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
- Announcing the Winner of Our 'Caption This' Contest
- Liz Smith Remembers the 'Good Old Days' of Department Stores
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Caption This!
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
wOw Features
Reader Voices
Caption This!
Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
13 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Eliza Dodd
Great Post and Informative!