00:00In April 2026, four people traveled farther from Earth than any human ever before.
00:10406,771 kilometers. Half a year later, the largest rocket ever built
00:17orbited the Earth for the first time. And right now, while you're watching this,
00:22more than 11,000 Starlink satellites are orbiting above your head.
00:26We are living in a decade that people will write books about in 100 years.
00:32The only question is whether you'll notice it while it's happening.
00:35My name is Gio Sirwan and this is Mars Chroniken.
00:43Why does this channel exist?
00:45Mars Chroniken exists because space exploration is too important
00:49to only be told through press releases and hype videos.
00:53Here it's about technology that everyone can understand.
00:56If it's explained properly.
00:58Numbers, the voices and the question we ask about every country.
01:02Who benefits from this and where does it lead?
01:05We celebrate when something succeeds.
01:07But we also say when something goes wrong or when a schedule was once again just wishful thinking.
01:13Opinion. We label it as opinion and every claim gets a source.
01:18The list of sources is under every video.
01:21You shouldn't have to just believe me. You should be able to verify everything.
01:25Starship and a new pace.
01:27Let's start with the machine that's turning everything upside down right now.
01:31Starship is about 120 meters tall and has been designed from the start to be fully reusable.
01:39On September 28, 2026, its upper stage reached orbit for the first time.
01:46SpaceX has already caught the booster three times out of the air with the launch tower.
01:51Next, according to Elon Musk, the company also wants to catch the ship itself.
01:56A rocket that lands, gets reviewed and takes off again like an airplane was science fiction for a long time.
02:03Now it's a test program.
02:05And then there's the pace.
02:06The FAA, the US Aviation Regulator, is currently examining the environmental impact for up to 400 years.
02:14156 launches per year just in Starbase, Texas.
02:18Currently, 25 launches per year are approved there.
02:22None of that has been approved yet.
02:24The process has just begun.
02:26But the number shows where things are headed.
02:29If launches become as commonplace as cargo flights, everything that follows will change.
02:35Satellites, space stations, moon bases.
02:38That's why we track every flight, analyze every mistake and are there live for the big launches.
02:44The sky is getting crowded.
02:46At the same time, the sky above us is changing.
02:49Of the roughly 16,800 active satellites in orbit, almost two-thirds belong to Starlink.
02:58Amazon is building its own constellation with Leo.
03:01China is building two, Guowang and Chiafang.
03:04Internet from space has become an everyday thing.
03:06On ships, in airplanes, in remote villages and on frontlines.
03:11And that's exactly where things get serious.
03:14Satellites have long been part of every modern army.
03:17They are jammed, blinded and hacked.
03:20Who owns the orbit when everyone needs it?
03:23And who sets the rules when no one can enforce them?
03:26I talked about this with international law expert Michael Byers.
03:31And I'm currently writing an entire book about it.
03:33But more on that in a moment.
03:35Back to the Moon.
03:36In April 2026, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen
03:42flew to the Moon with Artemis II.
03:45It was the first manned flight to the Moon in more than 50 years.
03:51Humanity is finally returning to the Moon.
03:53And this time to stay.
03:56NASA is aiming for the next landing in 2028.
04:00With a lunar lander from SpaceX or Blue Origin.
04:04China wants to bring its own taikonauts to the Moon before 2030.
04:08And SpaceX is now openly talking about a city on the Moon that will continue to expand on its own.
04:17So a new race.
04:18This time with more participants, more money and with companies that are faster than some countries.
04:25And then Mars.
04:26The planet this channel is named after remains the big goal.
04:30Musk has still pushed the schedule back in early 2026.
04:35The reason is simple.
04:36Celestial mechanics.
04:38But also the development status of Starship itself.
04:41And the politics surrounding it.
04:43A launch window to Mars only opens every 26 months.
04:47And the journey takes about 6 months.
04:50To the Moon you can set off about every 10 days.
04:54Musk now sees Mars itself in 5-7 years.
04:58My assessment is clearly marked as an opinion.
05:01This is not a farewell to Mars, but a dress rehearsal.
05:04Refueling in orbit.
05:06Landing on another world.
05:08Living without supplies from Earth.
05:10Everything a city on the Moon needs, a city on Mars needs as well.
05:15Whoever accomplishes one is a huge step closer to the other.
05:19And we will follow every one of these steps.
05:22Asteroids and the rest of the solar system.
05:24Between the planets, there are rocks flying that could become dangerous to us.
05:29In November 2026, the ESA probe Herrler will reach the small asteroid Dimorphos,
05:35which NASA intentionally crashed into with the DART probe in 2022.
05:40For the first time, we will see up close whether an asteroid can really be knocked off its course.
05:46On April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass by Earth.
05:51A chunk about 300 meters across.
05:54It will come closer to us than our geostationary satellites.
05:58About 32,000 kilometers above the surface.
06:02And you'll be able to see it in the sky with the naked eye.
06:05It's not a danger, but it's a rare opportunity to measure such a chunk up close.
06:10And further out, Europa Clipper is on its way to Jupiter's moon Europa.
06:16Under its ice shell lies an ocean.
06:19Dragonfly is supposed to fly over Saturn's moon Titan with a kind of helicopter.
06:24In addition, there are new rocket engines designed by AI up to nuclear reactors in space.
06:31The question of whether there is life beyond Earth will soon be answered
06:35by scientific instruments instead of science fiction authors.
06:39What you get here, you get all of this here in videos that take their time.
06:45In-depth analysis of engines, rockets and flight analysis after every starship launch,
06:50as well as episodes on geopolitics in space.
06:53And conversations with people who build and make sense of all this.
06:58I spoke with Josefine Lissner and Lynn Kaiser from Leap 71 about why they prefer to develop
07:04their AI designed rocket engines in Dubai rather than in Europe.
07:09With Michael Byers, I talked about why there hasn't been a war in space yet.
07:13And what needs to happen to keep it that way.
07:16For the big launches, we are live on YouTube and on Twitch.
07:20For Starship, we have our launch dashboard with mission clock, flight plan and all the background
07:25information on one screen. On marskoniken.space, you can find news, the launch calendar and dedicated
07:33pages for the most important missions. And once a week, our newsletter summarizes what was really
07:38important in space flight with sources instead of rumors. Anyone who signs up for the newsletter
07:45will receive a discount on our Ad Astra merch in the shop with the first issue.
07:50For everyone who wants to wear their enthusiasm to what's coming next and we are far from finished.
07:56I'm currently writing my first non-fiction book. It's called, tentatively, Krieg zum Multtarif
08:02and it tells how space is becoming the battlefield of the 21st century.
08:07For that, I'm talking to generals, international law experts, insurers and space companies.
08:12A lot of what comes out of these conversations also ends up here on the channel,
08:16either as its own interview or as interview clips in our analysis.
08:20We also want to get closer to the launch sites, to the people who work there and someday go to
08:27Starbase, Texas to see with our own eyes where Starship is being built.
08:32The next 10 years will decide whether humanity remains a species that occasionally travels to space
08:38or becomes one that lives and works up there. Many things will take longer than the press releases
08:43promise. Some things will go wrong and some things will explode.
08:48But the direction is right and the pace has never been this fast before.
08:53In 100 years, people will write books about this decade.
08:57We are already writing the chronicle now, week after week, launch after launch.
09:02If you want to be part of it, subscribe to the channel and turn on the bell.
09:06If you want to be even closer, become a channel member. Then you'll see every video before anyone else.
09:11And if you think more people should understand what's happening up there right now,
09:15share this video with them. My name is Jiro Sirwan.
09:18And this was Mars Chroniken. Thanks for tuning in. Per Aspera Ad Astra.
