Why We Shouldn’t Live on Mars, Humanity’s Future in Space | Matt Wicks

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What will it actually take for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization, without ignoring the realities of physics? At NDC, SSW’s Matt Wicks sits down with Richard Campbell to explore what our future in space could realistically look like. From why building cities on Mars may not be the best idea to O’Neill cylinders, Moon bases, asteroid mining and artificial gravity, Richard breaks down the technologies we already have and the engineering challenges we still need to solve. They dive into extracting water ice from the Moon, NASA’s Artemis missions, cheaper commercial lunar landers, and how machine learning is already helping the Perseverance rover navigate Mars more independently. Richard also explains one of spaceflight’s less obvious problems: heat. In a vacuum, cooling high-powered computers, spacecraft and even astronauts becomes a major engineering challenge. The conversation then turns to human health in microgravity, rotating spacecraft for artificial gravity, lunar space tethers, asteroid resources, Moon-based data centres and even the legal questions humanity will face as space becomes increasingly accessible. The surprising takeaway? Becoming a true spacefaring civilization may require less new science than we think, and a lot more engineering, experimentation and determination.

00:00 | From science fiction to real spaceflight
02:00 | Why Mars may not be the best home
03:05 | O’Neill cylinders and artificial habitats
04:03 | Mining water ice on the Moon
06:51 | Artemis, Moon bases and robotic landers
10:04 | Faster, cheaper space missions and commercial contracts
12:49 | AI and machine learning in space
14:27 | The hidden challenge: cooling in a vacuum
20:04 | Gravity, human health and getting to Mars
26:38 | Moon tethers, asteroid mining and lunar data centres

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👋 Get in touch:
Get in touch:
Matt Wicks – SSW Solution Architect
About: https://www.ssw.com.au/people/matt-wi…

#Space #SpaceExploration #NASA #Artemis #Mars #Moon #ArtificialGravity #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #SpaceTechnology #AsteroidMining #RichardCampbell #MattWicks #SSWTV #NDC

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About the speakers

Matt is an elite SSW Solution Architect who runs the Newcastle office. Matt stands out in the tech landscape as a certified Scrum Master, an Octopus Insider, and is GitHub accredited. From the early days when .NET 2 was still in beta, Matt has been capitalizing on the full potential of the Microsoft stack, coding his way to ingenious solutions that deliver significant business value.

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