Are Meteorites A Big Problem for The Moon? | Q&A 455

How much stuff falls on the moon every day? What if von Neumann probes had AI? How did studying the universe change my worldview? And in Q&A+, should I grind my own telescope mirror? All this and more in this question show. It's time for the question show, your questions, my answers. As always, wherever you are across my channel, if a question pops in your brain, just write it down, grab them up, and I will answer them here. All right, let's get to the questions. B. Michael Neal If von Neumann probes had independent AI, would they be von Neumann probes? Is the movie Batteries Not Included about von Neumann probes? It's been a long time since I've watched the movie Batteries Not Included, and I'm kind of afraid to do so because I'm sure it doesn't hold up. But if I remember some kid finds some robots from space and repairs them, and then they become buddies, that's the movie. That's the gist of the movie. And so almost those are von Neumann probes, except they should have a better ability to repair and recover from whatever disaster befell them. So you would want your probes to be able to go to a star system, not run out of batteries, and instead, find all of the local resources and start to duplicate themselves. But the the AI side of it, I think, is very interesting. Because, like, when we have life here on Earth, you can sort of imagine all life as little von Neumann probes, right? Bacteria goes, harvests the things that it needs from the environment around it, and then turns that into more copies of itself. And then those copies go to other places, and they make copies of themselves. Like, like, we've seen this game before. Mice are von Neumann probes. They go to your house, they eat a bunch of stuff, they make a bunch of babies, those babies go to other places. And so the world is covered in mice. And so it's that same idea. But the things that happen in, on Earth, with life, are the kinds of things that if someone was trying to design von Neumann, von Neumann probes, self replicating robot probes, they would have to account for that as well. Which is that if there is no way to correct or get any kind of redundancy in the genetic code, or resiliency, then you get these dead ends and lifeforms will peter out. Evolution has come up with all of these ideas. Sexual mating, where you sort of mix your genetic code with another entity, and so then the offspring is the mix of that. You have various ways to prevent cancers from happening, and so on, right? And so if you try to create a von Neumann probe, where you are programming it, and you've given very specific, strict instructions on what to do, and then a cosmic ray hits it, and knocks out a chunk of its memory, that says, you know, when you've built 10, go to sleep. And then it just, that part is gone. And so it's just like, never go to sleep, just build as many as you can. And you can imagine over time, these von Neumann probes, their errors will build up over time. And so probably any civilization that is serious about having their self replicating robot probes go across the cosmos, they're going to need to put some kind of intelligence level into the machine itself, so that it can detect the presence of possible errors, flaws, deal with new situations in a way that makes a lot of sense, and then think about how it's going to add more redundancy when it makes a copy of itself. So, you know, whenever I sort of think about this idea of von Neumann probes, I always think about the book, We Are Legion, I Am Bob, where, you know, spoiler alert guy gets turned into a von Neumann probe, and then has to help save the Earth. And, and deals with a lot of the kinds of issues that you would sort of imagine. How do you make more copies of yourself? Are the copies different than you? Why are they different than you? How do you prevent this decay and so on? So it is a it is a huge challenge. And, you know, like, obviously, we ever got to the point where we really could make self replicating robot probes, then this is one of the issues, how do we prevent their decay, their inevitable drip genetic drift, from all of the damage that they're going to take while they're out there. And then those copies will make copies, and they will carry the bad code. And probably the solution is some level of intelligence, artificial intelligence. Christian is telling you, if the Earth gets 100 tons of meteorites a day, how much does the moon get? And how much of a problem is that for a future moon base? I don't know the exact math of how much debris is rained down on the moon, it's essentially a function of its surface area compared to the Earth's surface area. The Earth is bigger, therefore, the Earth gets more. But is that a problem for a future moon base? It's not no problem. But it's probably not a big problem. But the issue is, is that the moon doesn't have an atmosphere. And so on Earth, all of that 100 tons of debris that's raining down on planet Earth, and most of it is, is teeny tiny, right? It's mostly it's it's dust sized or sand size is it burns up in the atmosphere. And so we get a meteor. When that stuff gets to the moon, there is no atmosphere, so that stuff hits the ground, and you get this kind of pelting of these micrometeorites hitting the surface of the moon all the time. And there's this term for it, it's called lunar gardening, I think it's called, because essentially, all of this debris is constantly raining down on the surface of the moon and kind of churning it up and mixing in that top layer of the moon. And most of it is going to be harmless that you'll be out, you know, you'll be standing in your moon base under the big dome on the moon. And every now and every now and then you'll hear this little ping, where a piece of space debris, or, or, you know, a micrometeorite hit the dome, and, you know, didn't do enough damage to be able to go through it. But you just look at the surface of the moon. And that tells you all you need to know about what can happen. And so there are larger objects. And in fact, we are now observing them on a regular basis, you know, when the Artemis two astronauts were doing their flyby around the far side of the moon, they were able to look on the dark portion of the moon, and they saw a flash from a micrometeorite impacting the surface of the moon. If there was a base under that place where the micrometeorite hit, or, you know, maybe it was a meteorite, like something bigger, then then there would have been some damage. And we would have, you know, a hull breach, and there would be red lights going off and people be running around and air would be swooshing out of the base. And that would be a bad day. And it's, you know, not a question of if it's just a matter of when, you know, if you leave that base on the surface of the moon for a long period of time, it's just a matter of time before that thing gets hit. So what is the solution? The solution is to go underground. Solution is that you, you build your lunar base in a lava tube, you know, and again, you can see a lava tube, the lava tube formed 3 billion years ago, the surface of the tube has a hole, but it's not constant, the holes across the entire thing. So if you build inside a lava tube, you're probably safe. But really, all you got to do is put your base down and then bring a bulldozer and just dump regolith on top of it. And that will protect you from the kinds of objects that could hit your moon base. And then the other option is that you can put your base down in a chasm on the moon. So, you know, instead of being just out there on the highlands out in, you know, in the shooting gallery, you find some place that's a deep crack, and then you put your base down at the bottom of that deep crack. And so it has to be a perfect angle for a meteoroid to hit your base and do any damage. And that's also a good protection from radiation, because cosmic rays are just like meteoroids, right? They are going from some out there distant location, they're just a particle, and they're moving at close to the speed of light. And so if you're out there on the surface of the moon, then you are going to experience hundreds of times as much radiation as we experience down on the surface of the Earth. But if you go down to the bottom of some chasm, sort of think, imagine some box canyon in the southwest of the United States, then the cosmic rays have to have a direct hit straight down inside the canyon. And you can match up the radiation exposure that you get being on the surface of the moon to what you would experience on Earth, as long as you found the right structure to put your base down at the bottom. So I think a good place to put a moon base would be some kind of box canyon with really steep sides on the surface of the moon. Of course, then, you know, there could be a landslide that could drop rocks down on top. But, you know, now we're just coming up with cool plot points for a future space movie set on the moon. It's time to shout out all the new $5 patrons above. Ren Kaidu, Brian Altschul, Mark Eister, Stefano Landi, Amy Zhang, Mario Ian Bell, Murph411, Charles Shopson, and Kevin Mace. Join the club at patreon.com slash universe today. PagePotter, has studying the universe changed any of your personal philosophies or values? How? I was raised in a secular household, right? You know, religion in Canada is not as big as it is in other nations. You know, I knew people who were raised in a religious household. I was not. And so I've never experienced religion in a sort of like, I knew people who were some denominations, some people were Jewish, some people were Christian, but I just was raised like, you just like, you just exist. Here we are. Who knows what happens when you die? We don't go anywhere on Sundays. We just go to the park. But one of the things that you see in people of religious faith is this just kind of sense of wonder and, and, and appreciation of this larger scale, this larger universe that we find ourselves in. And, you know, I think for people who are religious, they find themselves part, you know, they're part of some plan. And that makes them feel good, right? That, that life isn't just this meaningless, pushing around your atoms in a hostile universe until you die. And then you, you never mattered. Right. And so religion gives people some level of comfort. It was just like, I never understood it. Um, uh, I didn't understand that. Like, it doesn't make any sense to me. Um, how do you know, what is your evidence that this is true? Like, would you rather believe things that you know to be true versus things that you hope are true? Isn't it better to kind of know what's real? And then you can sort of base your life on that thing that's real. Um, but I think that we crave as human beings, it's just, you know, the way we evolved under purely natural reasons, um, to, to crave this connection with the divine, to create this connection with, with something that is bigger than us. And that if you think that there is nothing that is bigger than us, or you, you know, your, your sort of worldview, your model is that you just like nothing is convinced to that it is, that is a thing that is true, that is bigger than you. Well, there is something that is bigger than you and that's the universe. And that when you think about the scale of the universe, both in terms of the, just the size of the universe and the age of the universe and the amount of stuff that's in the universe and all of the different combinations that could be out there in terms of stars and planets and life, your mind just goes, whoa, right? That, and that, whoa, feeling is nice for me. I don't know. Other people may not like that feeling. I know a lot of people like, man, does space freak you out? And I see these posts on Reddit and stuff where people are like, man, space just scares me. And it just doesn't scare me at all. I just like, I just think, wow. And when you go outside and the sky is dark and you look up into the cosmos and you can see all of these stars and you know that, that there are these galaxies that are out there beyond these stars and that you can just keep following countless galaxies all the way back to the very beginning of the universe in all directions. It fills you with this, just this sense of awe and, and wonder. And I think it's that process of understanding the scale of the cosmos, the complexity, the interesting things that happen there out in the universe. It's filled my spirit, just sort of my existence with a sense of wonder and, and awe and enthusiasm and excitement. And in, in the same way that I have when I was like a four-year-old, I think if you had known four-year-old Fraser, you would have found him very annoying because he just never stopped asking questions and he never stopped talking, but he was just so curious and so effervescent. I don't know how to describe it. I was a lot. Okay. I was a lot as a kid. And I think that as people get older, they lose that connection. They get ground down, life shows up, you've got responsibilities, life gets tough. And for me, being connected to this field, being connected to this kind of research, just science in general, just makes me feel wonderful. And it gives me that connection that I think a lot of people lack, that they just don't have this chance to just go, whoa, right? That you want sometimes. So I would say that is the sort of like the biggest philosophical feeling. I don't think it's changed my values, right? Like I think I have, you know, my values remain largely unchanged, but I think just, just contemplating the scale of the cosmos is, is something that allows, allows you to be grounded and, and be humble about your place on Earth, in the family, in your relationships, in your family, you know, what you do here on this, on this planet. And so I think that's, that's been, that's been good for me. Did you know you can watch the same video with no ads and get a bonus question over on Patreon completely for free, we call it Q&A Plus. This week's bonus question, should I grind my own telescope mirror? I'll put a link in the show notes. All right, those are all the questions that we had this episode. Thank you, everyone who asked your questions into YouTube comments. Everybody who joined me for the live show. We are back from our summer hiatus, and we are doing more live streams. So we've already done one. We're about to do a second one before I head off on a trip. And I'm going to do them while I'm on the road. I want to talk about a really cool YouTube channel with a couple of travelers who have been on my island, on Vancouver Island, and it blew their minds. And for good reason. It's an amazing island. So I'm going to talk about that in a second. But first, I'd like to thank our Patrons. So a YouTube channel that I have been following recently is called James and Josie Travel. And they are a couple of people from England who are they bought a van and they are now traveling across Canada. And they wisely started on Vancouver Island, which is where I live. And I think they had originally expected they were going to come over and visit it briefly. And they ended up being here for a long time. The better part of a month, a month, two months. And that's great. It's perfect. You get a chance to really see what Vancouver Island looks like and not just go to Victoria, go to Tofino, see some of the beaches and big trees and things like that, but actually go to some of the smaller towns here on the island and really get a sense of what it's like, how we swim in all of the rivers, the kind of wildlife that we have around us. And it was great to just experience their experience of Vancouver Island as a couple of travelers who just like didn't grow up here and just don't have this in their blood to see this outside perspective. And I travel a lot. I've been to many places in the world and there's places that I really enjoy. I really enjoy Japan. I really like Thailand. I love Europe. I love the US. But I know that Vancouver Island and Canada in general is a great place. And, you know, I sort of keep that in mind. And every time I leave Vancouver Island, I really miss it. And and so it's just incredible to see someone properly explore Vancouver Island. And I think the they still underexplored it. I, I sent them an email like, you got to do this, you got to do that, you got to do this thing. But they ran out of time and had to, you know, they're doing the whole country. But if you want to get like, I have never seen a video series that as well encapsulates the experience of Vancouver Island, you know, what it's like to be a local and the kinds of things that we do. They even sort of walk past right past my property here on the island. And if I had noticed, I would have gone and said hi and give them a place to camp. But it was too late. But yeah, so if you are interested in Vancouver, you want to get a better sense of what my home looks like and what is sort of all around me. And they picked the perfect time. Summer, July, August. It is paradise here on Vancouver Island during that period. They're hoping that the rest of Canada is going to live up to what they experienced here on Vancouver Island. I doubt it. And Canada is great. But Vancouver Island is the best. All right. We'll see you next time.