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Find out the strange thing Neil Armstrong first noticed when he landed on the Moon! How much weight could you lift on different planets? And what could aliens want from Earth?
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00:00Neil Armstrong had been getting ready for his mission on the Moon for over three years.
00:05To resist microgravity conditions, he had to learn how to walk sideways by being strapped
00:11and suspended at an angle in trying to walk along walls.
00:15His limits were tested through an intense diet and sleep regimen, since in space he
00:20would only have beef and vegetables, previously dehydrated and stuffed into a package.
00:26Back in the day, astronauts had to experience the desert, jungle, open sea, and Arctic survival
00:32training.
00:33These days it's a lot more structured, but back then, it was more of a let's drop this
00:38person in the middle of nowhere with no supplies and see if they make it.
00:42Before landing on the Moon, he had to gather and study rock samples in the Grand Canyon,
00:48explore ancient volcano formations in the Nevada National Security Site, and look into gas and
00:54lava vents, lava lakes, and pit craters in various locations in Hawaii.
01:00On July 20th, 1969, Armstrong was given a hearty breakfast before blast-off.
01:06Steak, eggs, toast, juice, and coffee.
01:09He received what doctors call a low-residue meal, which means he wouldn't have to go to
01:14the bathroom soon after.
01:17It took him 109 hours and 42 minutes to reach the surface of the Moon, in an area called the
01:23Sea of Tranquility.
01:25He had to travel 240,000 miles to get there.
01:29The crew could have gone for the Ocean of Storms or the Central Bay, but this place was
01:34chosen for landing because it had good visibility, was relatively smooth, and was easily reachable
01:40with as little propellant as possible.
01:42When he was at about 500 feet above the surface of the Moon, Armstrong had to maneuver the
01:47spacecraft manually to make sure they wouldn't land in a dangerous crater.
01:51He continued to hover for about a minute and a half, moving it sideways until he felt comfortable
01:57to land.
01:58As soon as his device landed safely, he immediately radioed to Mission Control, located in Houston,
02:04Texas.
02:05The now-famous message,
02:06The Eagle has landed.
02:10Steadily, he went down the lunar module's ladder.
02:13While a television camera was attached to the craft to record his progress, the camera also
02:19transmitted the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions of people were anxiously
02:24waiting.
02:24At precisely 10.56 p.m. EDT on the same day, Armstrong placed his feet onto the lunar soil,
02:32saying,
02:33That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
02:40The schedule said that the astronaut needed to sleep before the first moonwalk.
02:45But he chose to go outside earlier than planned, since he obviously couldn't sleep.
02:51If Armstrong had walked on the moon without special equipment to breathe, he would have smelled
02:55a weird odor, sort of musty and sulfuric.
02:59Still, he had the chance to smell it when he returned to the lunar module.
03:03The thing is, the dirt had clung to his feet, so the odor spread all over the cabin.
03:09He described it as wet fireplace ashes, or how the air smells after fireworks shows.
03:15Who would have thought you needed to pack a scented candle when going to the moon?
03:20Apart from the people that have since made it to the moon, no one ever got the chance to
03:24know precisely what the crew was smelling.
03:27Even during that first mission, when moon soil and rock samples were transported to labs
03:32in airtight containers, once they were opened back on Earth, surprisingly, the smell was gone.
03:39He also felt the surface of the moon to be fine and powdery, but said he had no difficulty
03:45in moving around.
03:47One other member of his crew joined him about 20 minutes later.
03:53The whole moonwalk took a little over two hours.
03:55During this time, Armstrong and his teammates set up various devices on the surface of our
04:01satellite.
04:02One was meant to precisely measure the exact distance from there to Earth, by timing how
04:08long it took for a laser beam to travel from Earth to the lunar surface and back.
04:13Another meant to measure moonquakes and potential meteor impacts, which leads us to the discovery
04:19that the moon was pretty alive after all.
04:22We know today that the largest moonquakes are much weaker than the largest earthquakes, though
04:27their movements can last for up to an hour, way longer than on Earth.
04:32They managed to gather somewhere around 50 pounds of rock in soil samples.
04:37They also snapped many photographs of the terrain, where they also planted a U.S. flag.
04:44The astronaut even got the chance to catch up with President Richard Nixon for less than
04:49a minute, though.
04:51The final thing on the list for Armstrong was to go for a walk to what is now known as
04:56East
04:56Crater, 65 yards east of the lunar module.
05:00It was the greatest distance traveled from the spacecraft on that specific mission, approximately
05:06the length of half a football field.
05:09As soon as his tasks were done, Armstrong went back into the lunar module and safely closed
05:15the hatch to get some sleep.
05:17While preparing for liftoff, Armstrong and his crew discovered that, because of their chunky
05:22spacesuits, they managed to break the ignition switch for the ascent engine.
05:26No big deal, they thought.
05:28So they used a part of a pen to push in the circuit breaker to start the launch sequence.
05:35At 1.54 p.m., the famous eagle began to ascend.
05:39Apart from the scientific equipment installed on the surface of the moon, a plaque was also
05:44left there.
05:46It read, Here, men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 A.D.
05:53We came in peace for all mankind.
05:58Years later, Armstrong said that NASA limited their time on the moon because they didn't
06:03know how the spacesuits would handle the moon's extreme temperatures, as high as 260 degrees
06:09Fahrenheit during the day to as low as 280 degrees Fahrenheit below zero at night.
06:16Things got a bit more complicated when Armstrong landed back on Earth.
06:19Since he had been exposed to unknown space particles, the result?
06:24He and his team had to be placed in planetary protection quarantine on their return as soon
06:29as their space capsule safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.
06:35That specific quarantine for the Apollo 11 astronauts is one of the reasons why we have microwaves
06:42in our kitchens today.
06:44When they first returned from the moon, they initially spent their first few days in a mobile
06:49quarantine facility, or MQF.
06:52Sure, the MQF featured comfortable chairs, bunks, a toilet, and showers, but it didn't
06:58leave a lot of space for fancy cooking.
07:00Since there was no room for a standard oven or grill, and to also reduce the potential fires
07:05that might have occurred, NASA had to get creative.
07:10That's how the original countertop microwave oven was developed, to easily help astronauts
07:15get their meals without the hustle of a fully equipped kitchen.
07:19These days, you can see that first microwave in a museum in Oakland, California.
07:25After returning to Earth, Armstrong claimed he would never reach for the stars again.
07:30But he didn't stop exploring, though.
07:32Back in 1985, he joined a professional team of other greatest explorers to the North Pole.
07:40He was joined by mountaineer Edmund Hillary, aviator Steve Fawcett, and photographer Patrick
07:47Morrow, reaching the pole on April 6, 1985.
07:52Armstrong claimed he wanted to see what the Earth's icy pole looked like from the ground,
07:57out, since he had only seen it from the surface of the moon.
08:01The Apollo 11 mission was nevertheless unforgettable for Armstrong since.
08:06In 2015, the Smithsonian Institution uncovered that he had kept hidden a cloth bag full of
08:13small parts from the lunar module.
08:15It included his waist tether, some utility lights, and their brackets, an emergency wrench
08:20in the optical sight that was mounted above Armstrong's window of the space module.
08:25It also contained the data acquisition camera that recorded the iconic footage of Armstrong
08:32taking his small step on the moon.
08:37Armstrong kept it to himself for many years, until his widow Carol eventually found it.
08:43He even kept it a secret from his official biographer, who at many times asked if he had kept
08:49any memorabilia from his famous mission.
08:52He didn't sneak those objects back on Earth, though.
08:55He just mentioned it to be a bunch of trash he wanted to bring back.
09:00Picture this.
09:01You've won a membership to a space gym.
09:04You get to travel around the solar system and work out.
09:07But gravity changes on different space bodies.
09:10So let's find out if you can get stronger elsewhere or if you should keep practicing on Earth.
09:15Your spaceship is approaching dwarf planet Pluto.
09:19It's getting chillier by the second.
09:21No wonder!
09:22The Sun is over 3.7 billion miles away.
09:25You must be glad you brought your thermal spacesuit along, right?
09:30To leave the spacecraft, Earthlings would need the help of a gravity machine, since gravity
09:34on Pluto is a mere 1 15th of that on Earth.
09:38Gravity is the force that pulls you toward the ground.
09:40The smaller the mass of a space body is, the weaker its gravity.
09:45So, on Pluto, you can't do any sports that involve running.
09:49If you did, you'd most likely fly away.
09:52You can try out elephant lifting, though.
09:54After all, you can't do it back on Earth.
09:57On Pluto, picking up an elephant weighing 2,000 pounds feels like lifting 120 pounds.
10:04The next stop is Neptune.
10:06It's over 30 times farther away from the Sun than Earth.
10:09The atmosphere there is dark and cold.
10:12You might get overwhelmed by the planet's gigantic size.
10:15It's called an ice giant for a reason.
10:18Maybe today, you'll feel like doing some winter sports?
10:22To say Neptune exists in perpetual winter is an understatement.
10:26The average temperature on this planet is around minus 373 degrees Fahrenheit.
10:31But gravity here is only 10% stronger than that on Earth, so you don't feel much difference.
10:37This world doesn't have a solid surface, so you won't be able to leave the spacecraft.
10:42Is that an ice hockey rink I see?
10:45Grab your ice skates and your stick and get ready to outplay your fellow passengers.
10:51How about a quick pit stop on Uranus?
10:53This is another ice giant, and gravity here is 90% of that on Earth.
10:59You can do a few push-ups inside the spacecraft, as you won't be stepping outside.
11:04The slushy surface of the planet is made up of water, methane, and ammonia in its liquid form.
11:09There's no solid ground to walk on.
11:11But if you somehow found a way to go outside, you'd feel lighter than on Earth.
11:18If you weighed 100 pounds back home, it would be 90 pounds here.
11:22Can we call this a Uranian diet?
11:25When approaching Saturn, please mind its rings, which aren't actually rings.
11:30They consist of pieces of asteroids and meteors flying around the planet.
11:35Saturn's mass is so big that it attracts many other space bodies to its orbit.
11:40And right now, you're one of them!
11:42Time to get creative with your workout!
11:45You've scheduled a skydiving experience here.
11:48If you freefall in Saturn's atmosphere, you'll reach the speed of 30 miles per second!
11:54Don't forget to open your parachute!
11:56On second thought, though, you won't be able to touch the ground anyway.
12:00Saturn's surface is pure gas.
12:03Quick fun fact!
12:04Once Saturn got in the way of the tenth planet forming in the solar system,
12:08The planet's debris, which partially makes up Saturn's rings now, could have blended into a planet.
12:14But it was pulled into Saturn's orbit instead.
12:18You're nearing Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.
12:21Gravity here is so weak, you feel weightless.
12:24Let's say there's a rock climbing wall there.
12:27How about you give it a try?
12:29Usually, this sport requires a lot of physical strength.
12:32But here, you'll only have to carry 13% of your weight.
12:36Your climb to the top will be easy peasy in these conditions.
12:41Entering Jupiter's atmosphere will feel like being inside a cloud.
12:45See that red spot in the bottom left corner?
12:48That's a storm twice the size of Earth that's been raging for hundreds of years.
12:52To have some fun here, why don't you do some jumping jacks?
12:56I'll count to 100.
12:57Ready, set, go!
13:00Gravity here is super strong.
13:02It's two and a half times as powerful as gravity on Earth.
13:05So, you'll probably get exhausted at the count of 30.
13:08Hmm, too bad.
13:10Uh-oh!
13:11Passengers aboard the spacecraft fasten your seat belts.
13:14You might experience some heavy turbulence.
13:17To travel from Jupiter to Mars, you'll have to move through an asteroid belt.
13:22Just in case you're worried your ship will bump into something, relax.
13:26There's a distance of 300,000 miles between asteroids.
13:30Let's stop at Ceres, the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.
13:34Gravity here will make you feel pretty strong.
13:37How about practicing some caber tossing?
13:40Cabers are heavy logs that can measure up to 20 feet long.
13:44The goal is to throw them as far as possible.
13:46Here, a 180-pound pole feels as if it weighs 5 pounds, which is, basically, the weight of
13:53a melon.
13:54Ready for the Ceres caper competition?
13:57Woo-hoo!
13:58Finally, Mars.
14:00Remember all those handstands you've always wanted to try?
14:03Well, here's the place to do them.
14:05Mars' gravity is about two and a half times weaker than that on Earth, which means you'll
14:11probably be able to lift your own body weight without any difficulty.
14:14Since people keep trying to terraform Mars, opening a gym here doesn't sound like a bad
14:19idea, does it?
14:21Passengers and crew members, we're now beginning our descent to Phobos.
14:25It's one of Mars' moons.
14:27Gravity here is incredibly weak.
14:29If you've always dreamed of having superhuman strength, this is the place for you.
14:34You can work out here by, say, doing some artistic gymnastics.
14:39Start off with a cartwheel, then move on to tricks performed in the air.
14:43On Phobos, you can start doing triple back handsprings in no time.
14:48Ah, look.
14:50Earth is about to appear on the horizon.
14:52It sure looks majestic from here.
14:54But we won't stop there now.
14:56Instead, let's visit Earth's sister, Venus.
14:59It has almost the same mass as Earth, which means these planets have similar gravities.
15:04Now, Earthlings can't survive on Venus' surface because of the large amount of ammonia in its
15:10atmosphere.
15:10But let's imagine you could practice some outdoor sports there.
15:14Do you feel like trying bumper bubble soccer?
15:17That's when you dress yourself in a giant bubble ball vest and keep bumping into other
15:21players.
15:22People play this game on Earth.
15:24On Venus, with its slightly weaker gravity, it might be a little bit easier.
15:29But still, you have to consider you'll be wearing a 25-pound ball as a vest, kinda like a hamster
15:35back on Earth.
15:36Not to mention your outfit will restrict your arms and legs.
15:40It's a challenge, but it sounds fun to me.
15:43Moving on.
15:44If you land on the sunny side of Mercury, you'll experience scalding hot temperatures of 800 degrees
15:50Fahrenheit.
15:51If you're feeling tired after your space workout, a relaxing, steamy sauna will be just the thing.
15:57You'll feel like a brand new person by the time you arrive on the next planet.
16:02We'll fly as close to the Sun as we can so that you can have a taste of its gravity.
16:07The Sun's mass is huge.
16:09It's over 333,000 times the mass of Earth.
16:13And gravity here is extremely powerful.
16:15You'd have trouble lifting something as light as a bottle of water if you managed to step
16:20on the surface of the Sun.
16:22Too hot, you say?
16:23Well, I imagine it's a whole lot cooler if you come back at night.
16:27Haha, just kidding.
16:29On our way back home, we'll stop by the Moon.
16:32I mean, our Earth's natural satellite.
16:34Walking on the surface of the Moon will feel like jumping.
16:37You'll be able to jump as far as 33 feet.
16:39So, why not try some parkour?
16:42If you play basketball, scoring a point will be very difficult.
16:45But then, you can jump higher than the hoop and do an epic slam dunk.
16:50And how about baseball?
16:52If you throw the ball upward, you'll probably never see it again.
16:56Finally, we land on Earth.
16:58Sorry to disappoint you, but you're not coming back with any superhuman strength.
17:02Even when you were lifting an elephant, gravity was helping you out a lot.
17:07It was a good trip, though, don't you think so?
17:10So, how alone are we in our galaxy?
17:14Hmm, crickets.
17:15Yep, we're mostly alone out here.
17:17But, are there other civilizations lurking somewhere out there in the depths of the Milky Way?
17:23Could they possibly have evil intentions and be a threat to us?
17:27Hey, like we need more threats.
17:29Well, hey, let's have some fun with this.
17:31Some theorists reviewed humans' history and past actions toward one another.
17:36No miscongeniality awards there.
17:38And, assuming they were somehow like us, used this to calculate the probability of space invaders.
17:45They determined that there could be four evil civilizations in our galaxy.
17:51The four could be eager for intergalactic domination, or maybe just for a good game of dominoes.
17:57They could be highly advanced in technology, or they've only just invented an evil version of game consoles.
18:05To understand how advanced these cultures could be, and what to expect, there is a way to define their threat
18:11levels.
18:12A method called the Kardashev Scale analyzes intergalactic nations' possible abilities.
18:18With three different levels, it reviews the amount of energy a civilization could take from their star, indicating their tech
18:25level.
18:26This only includes those that have reached interstellar communication.
18:30So, any other beings out there using, let's say, space pigeons, will of course be excluded.
18:37Type 1 shows that they can harness the energy from the sun, but only from what is received within their
18:42own planet, like solar power panels.
18:45Type 2 is where they can use the energy directly from the sun, like through a Dyson sphere.
18:50It's used to harness all of the sun's energy, having been built entirely around it.
18:57And lastly, Type 3, where civilization can use all elements provided by the galaxy, with the power to not only
19:04harness the energy from stars, but also black holes, even the central supermassive one.
19:10These levels are important to assess how advanced civilizations could be out there.
19:15The Milky Way is estimated to be around 13.6 billion years old.
19:20Modern humans have only been around for the last 200,000 years, and we're only a Type 1.
19:26It's scary to imagine the time other beings have had to develop.
19:30We're considered a bit of a late bloomer in comparison.
19:33Now, with that in mind, how common would other intelligent beings be in the galaxy?
19:39With all the life-ending events Earth has survived, it's a miracle to have a planet like ours, and that
19:45we would be unique, or our way.
19:49Well, there are 100 trillion stars in our galaxy, and there are up to 200 billion planets,
19:55with an estimated 300,000 exoplanets capable of sustaining the kind of life we know about.
20:02From those habitable planets, how could we tell which ones have other beings eager to send us an email?
20:09No one's had the time to individually count, of course.
20:12The Drake equation can give us some rough numbers if we take averages of a few key factors.
20:18It breaks down the criteria of how many planets with life are intelligent enough to make communication.
20:25The numbers are huge, considering how many stars might have planets.
20:29And from there, we distill it down further to those within the habitable zone in the solar system.
20:35This zone is called the Goldilocks zone, as it's not too far from the sun and not too close to
20:41it.
20:41It's just right.
20:43We reduce the numbers even further by calculating which of those habitable planets will then be able to support life.
20:50And from those random places, the equation takes the probability of how many intelligent beings will be,
20:57and if they are intelligent enough to communicate.
21:00The criteria is complicated, and so it's not an easy equation to explain.
21:05But from its estimate, there could be up to 100 million planets with intelligent civilizations.
21:11But just like with Earth history or struggles, these civilizations may also have their own challenges.
21:18World-ending events should be thrown into the equation, like asteroids, solar flares, supervolcanoes, and supernovae.
21:26They could also destroy themselves through technology, like AI dominance or nanotech.
21:32Or by affecting their own ecosystems and running out of resources.
21:36Or by just acting stupidly.
21:39If we take these into the equation, the remaining living civilizations could be around 15,000.
21:45But what could they possibly want from humans?
21:49We do have an abundance of rare Earth materials that could be of value, ready to be harvested and easily
21:55collected.
21:56Besides an appealing vast amount of water they could suck dry, hydrogen is a required element of rocket fuels.
22:03Though these things aren't exactly rare in the galaxy, and could be harvested easier from other closer solar systems or
22:10asteroids.
22:12Our technology might be intriguing to them.
22:15Our range of innovations on Earth, invented while being isolated in separate countries, help provide different technology paths around the
22:23world.
22:24Other civilizations could have followed a completely different route, and didn't learn the importance of many things we have here
22:31on Earth, like karaoke.
22:34The same goes for applied sciences, where they may have evolved in different atmospheres with different elements.
22:40Their science would be mainly affected by that, and ours would provide them with more knowledge.
22:45Then, there's one of the rarest things in the galaxy, that Earth can support life.
22:51This would be very useful for an intergalactic traveler, rather than going through the long process of terraforming an unlivable
22:58planet.
22:59Why not just take it?
23:01With a cozy outpost, it would be a lovely little holiday destination when they need some time off from conquering
23:07other civilizations.
23:09Fortunately, they wouldn't be interested in eating us, or probably wouldn't have an appetite for anything on Earth.
23:15They would need to have similar biochemistry, and require the same enzymes to process the molecules we're built from.
23:22Whew!
23:23But, the most likely thing they would want is to remove any competition.
23:28The biggest threat to them is anything that would provide a challenge to their domination.
23:33But, before you get too frightened by these evil civilizations, this was based on human behavior.
23:39It's possible that any beings out there could lack or avoid many of our human emotions.
23:45For instance, their capacity for anger might be limited, or they could have evolved without it.
23:51They could come from a world with a history so different from ours, that they could be overly trusted, making
23:57us the bad guys.
24:00But, again, they may also lack empathy and other positive traits we have.
24:05Well, let's hope they only have our nice traits.
24:09Luckily, there's a big thing that separates us from everything else.
24:13The galaxy is huge, and it takes a very long time to go anywhere, even to our closest solar systems.
24:20The fastest thing we've sent into space is the Galileo probe, which travels up to 100,000 miles per hour.
24:27Even so, it would take 72,000 years to reach the closest star system, Alpha Centauri.
24:34Still, with a newly proposed laser-guided probe that could travel at one-fifth the speed of light, it would
24:41yet take up to 20 years to make that journey.
24:44On a larger scale, the Milky Way is over 105,700 light-years across.
24:50If a civilization was even capable of light speed, it would take them hundreds of thousands of years to travel
24:57from one end to the other.
24:59With a huge distance between the small number of civilizations, the only successful contact would be through advanced interstellar travel.
25:08But to achieve such a long journey, the greater the mass to be accelerated, the more energy is required.
25:14So it's not likely anything too large will be sent.
25:18But they could travel here very quickly in a small shuttle, using the ability to break cosmic speed laws.
25:24They may already be here, watching us closely, or just binge-watching Netflix.
25:30They would need very advanced technology, and the number of species obtaining this is theorized to be only 2 out
25:37of the 15,000.
25:39That means there's a one-hundredth of a percent chance of evil civilizations capable of visiting us soon.
25:46If they do know we're here, and they want something from us, it's likely to take them thousands, if not
25:52millions of years, to arrive.