Dr Adriana Marais

Today's Solutionist Thinker is Dr. Ariana Marias. She is a physicist, to be specific a theoretical physicist… and she is head of innovation at SAP Africa. She is a volunteer to go on a one-way trip to Mars. Now the company with which she was Associated has gone bust. Terribly ambitious, but she hasn't changed her ambition to become one of the very first people to set foot on Mars for a future that none of us can begin to contemplate. Doctor Ariana Marais...

The only contribution we can make us humans then given that everything else is outsourced to two machines is to think beyond the current framework and that is asking big questions that is, you know, looking at the current status quo and saying do things need to be this way, can they be otherwise? And I think this is a capability that leap of imagination that you cannot code into a machine at least not currently…. So this is going to be our contribution - having a broad perspective asking the big questions and dedicating ourlives to these ideas that are bigger than us.

I'm Bruce Whitfield and you're listening to RMB Solutionist Thinking. What's so wrong with the world Adriana Marais that you want it to stop so that you can get off?

Well for problem solver, I think we living in an ideal time. Because solutionist thinking is just what we need and we are certainly surrounded by challenges. The kind of out-of-the-box thinking that I think – to use a cliché’d phrase - is really what we were in need of and I suspect that staying on the planet is not going to lead to the kind of leaps of imagination that is necessary to really emerge successful out of this era in which we were in the midst of.

From a little girl. I don't know H 5 6 10. How old were you when somebody said to you? What do you want to do? I want to go to space and made a long-held ambition that you've had.

Yeah at about age four or five. I remember sharing this weird moment of imagination. I had I said if there was a rocket that could only go one way and I heard about it on the radio, I would volunteer to get in that rocket to go look for new planets. So I would have a notepad and a pencil and a little window that I would look through in the rocket and I'd shoot off into space and presumably pass a few planets by and then pick one and live on it and call others to follow. This was what I shared with my friends. They had absolutely no clue what I was talking about. I remember Sarah and Sarah my two friends at the time, they you know, wrinkled the noises and scooted off air and I decided not to myself right then and there that that would be what I would do. So imagine my surprise when I read the newspaper headline calling for volunteers for one-way trip to Mars in 2013, 2012. And yeah, my mother's dug out a photo of my science project at age 14, which I must admit I'd completely forgotten about and she's like look your talk hasn't even changed much because the topics in the project are the same - power air water food city life - how we live on Mars. So clearly I've been thinking about living on another planet, turns out Mars in particular for quite a while and I think we're lucky enough to be living in the ERA with this revitalization of space exploration on many fronts - from China to UAE to US, also private sort of players coming in to partner with government and this is it I believe for Humanity. We are gonna witness of our species going multiplanetary in our lifetimes.

You may go, you may not go… you were on the short list of a hundred the Mars One project as stuttered, the business underpinning of Mars One project has declared bankruptcy. There may get some funding they may not get some funding. You may be on a one way spaceship what happens if it never happens for you.

So I mean the question we should really be asking is who's building the transport system to get there. That's obviously the first hurdle - leaving Earth traveling expenses to Mars.

You haven’t answered the question - what happens if it doesn't happen for you?

Oh that's a very real possibility, but then I assume that some of the many children I've talked to you over the last five years will be the ones to go and I hope I'm alive to see it. What is important is that we get there as a species or it's not important whether I'm one of them, although I'll do my damndest to get on that rocket,,,

You are a scientist, you understand the complexity of the project and the process. We've sent an unmanned vessels and vehicles the Mars rover died recently. We have had a presence as Humanity on Mars... it's harsh its unforgiving. It's difficult. Many of the vehicles that have gone there have not made it onto the surface of the planet. It's hard and that's why as you alluded to a moment ago, whoever's going to manufacture these vehicles and whoever's going to do the sums is absolutely critical.

So ja, the other players to watch your really are Elon Musk in the team at SpaceX because they're the only company investing in building a transport system to get to Mars that was written in the aims of the company established in 2002. SpaceX endeavoured to get the first crewed missions to Mars. So 2022, for those who want dates, although in the game of space exploration any schedule you have is always subject to change when things go wrong because of course, this is really at the forefront of our capabilities. So if all goes to plan and 2022 SpaceX will launch an uncrewed architecture that would be capable of taking crew to Mars to demonstrate that they can land a mission big enough to support crew on the surface of Mars. If that succeeds in 2022, then really the first Crews getting on that same architecture before 2030 is not unrealistic at all.

Then the big question is how is SpaceX going to allocate seats? Because every astronaut I've talked to you including Mikhail Kornienko, who spent one year in the space station, numerous other astronauts of course, you know heroes of humanity these people laughed and said all the best and no way no way would they consider doing such a thing as going to Mars and what's probably a one-way trip because we would be the people developing and testing the return. So I'm not sure the government astronauts are going to be the crew for this kind of mission. So where's the crew going to come from? This is the big question…

We know one person terribly keen to be on that ship. What is the motivation for you? What makes you think this is a jolly good idea. Adriana Maria, resident of planet Earth thinks it's a good idea to go one way to Mars. But to most people its a wonderful dream but in reality, they could never face it.

We are humans. What is our unique, you know value proposition. Let's say on this planet. Well, we've got a lot of things that we don't do perfectly but our capability to create knowledge I think is what uniquely defines us, whether it's the storytelling of you know hundreds or thousands of years ago, whether it's the Arts whether it's the technology eventually now in with which we store this information and communicate this information culminating in the internet basically. Living on Earth I can contribute to this knowledge but living on Mars I can contribute to it exponentially more because the level of unknown factors that we will face living on Mars will mean that I can create knowledge at a rate that would not be possible in the known environment… the known busy crowded environment that is Earth. So I'm basically just making sure that in my limited lifetime as a human in the solar system, let's say, let's not be limited to single planet. How am I going to contribute the most to the unique capabilities that I have as a human and that's as a researcher creating Knowledge from a new world where every question that one asks is a mountain of new knowledge and trying to try to answer it

Take me through the mechanics. Let's say for example tomorrow is blast off day. What happens? You go to Cape Canaveral for argument's sake you strap yourself in and blast off what happens after that?

So curiosity and research are the one of the reasons as I just start line now, but the second one is really on resource management because once you've survived through launch and landing which are the two sort of critical statistically risky…

What is that time frame between launch and Landing?

Currently six months. So the Curiosity Rover did a six-month journey. InSight which landed last year was also six to seven months. Elon, of course, proposes to reduce this and with the BFR we looking at less than a handful of months. I believe three to four. And the the trade-off here is really the landing gear. So you need to sort of have sophisticated landing gear in order to slow yourself down and not to, you know without dying… landing but it's rather touch down. So that's the trade-off - but the more sophisticated the landing gear the faster you can go. So let's say three or four months maybe in 10 years. Once we get there it's all about Resource Management as well. As you know, Human Resource Management, let's say. So the unity and the team spirit is equally as crucial as the way that you manage your scarce resources to survive.

And it's an extraordinary idea. Let's say you took six months to get there. You'd be in a terribly confined space. You'd be in a very intimate space. And maybe people that you might not like you will have a shared goal in a shared Mission, but if you ever fall out up there there, there aren't many places to hide.

Hence my martial arts career...

A lot of people would say yes Adrianna, this is very nice – a lovely hobby  you've got a proper job You’re Head of Innovation for sap Africa. So you travel to the African continent fabulous people in you're solving human problems on Earth. It's a Wonderful speaking gig for you on the side and you living out your childhood fantasy… but I think one way of showing your commitment is next year you're packing your bags and you’re doing a can we call it a dry run a supposed is quite dry in Antarctica. You’re going to go spend a whole year in the barren Wasteland or what I perceived to be the barren wasteland of Antarctic. Is that the warm up so to speak?

Yeah, that's the plan. So, I mean I felt like it was really not in my character to be talking to audiences and in general chats with people saying, oh we still waiting for the next announcement by Mars One. So why not put together our own training mission? In fact, the research around the social aspect the community Spirit interaction between people is probably the biggest Gap in the research for surviving Mars the technology, you know, we can look at what exists in the space station. We can look at how things operate there in that extreme environment obviously of space. But basically how the technology performs in relation to the people running their science projects there is something that as South Africans, have a unique opportunity for. So we can look at the UAE plans to build a Mars science City in the Emirati desert $150,000,000 a massive project where you know, you'll have youth coming through to look at what's going on. They'll have people living there, people doing developing Technologies, like 3D printing components for the habitat from the sand, Fantastic, but I don't imagine pitching that to South African governments and getting the go-ahead. So, how can we contribute as South Africans? Do we need to leave South Africa to participate in space as Elon Musk did? And he's now revolutionized the American Space Program, they'll be launching crew again in partnership with SpaceX from this year. So does it take leaving South Africa to have South Africa, you know, play a meaningful role in terms of the training of crew and our answer was no. We have access to Antarctica. Every year crews spend the Winter there holding down the fort doing the science, that’s DST and others run projects there… SAMSA as well, of course is involved. Can we join them? And can we run this as an experiment? So just like the Shackleton Mission and the documentary on YouTube has fantastic original footage by the National Geographic crew person that accompanied them and successfully turned article back in 1914, we plan to get production companies on board… because you know reality TV. Fine, can we add an educational angle to the reality TV can be at an excitement angle in terms of isolated confined and extreme environments and can we show the science that's so crucial for solving the challenges on Earth and Beyond in this environment. So that's that's an outline of our plan for 2020 Winter.

That's a good test as to whether or not the team, you, have got the metal for something even more extreme… and that is to go out of this hemisphere.

Yeah, so we'll hopefully have 12 carefully screened and selected volunteers. Each with a detailed project proposal of what they would do there because in fact is the boredom often that gets to you rather than the cold. So we'll all have tasks which will have to detail and schedule in detail of obviously, of course for the resources that we'd require. But resource management, I think something extremely important to our sustainability on Earth but a topic that maybe doesn't get enough direct attention…

Completely. I mean, we are denuding the planet. We’re utilising fossil fuels hand over fist South Africa as a culprit in terms of coal extraction burning in the pollution of the planet. We doing our very best to make it so dreadful for you that you feel obliged to go.

Well, I don't know. I think we've been living under the illusion of infinite resources for quite a long time, you know. Countries that had colonies for example literally were living in a scenario which looked very much like infinite resources. An infinite supply of stuff coming from outside. Well, guess what guys we still living on the same planet Earth. It's got a finite amount of resources and that illusion of development just happening at a you know, unstoppable rate… this cannot continue indefinitely. So we need to become more efficient in our resource utilization. We need better resource management schemes because our populations increasing our resources are staying the same. And miniaturization and optimization on are not going to be enough. We actually need to be much more broad in our thinking and getting off the planet is maybe not going to solve all problems in one foul swoop, but it will provide us with the perspective shift that I think we're in desperate need of..

I mean space travel generally over the last 50 or 60 years has revolutionized the way we live on earth mini of inventions made for space many of the thought processes of getting people to space have defined so much of what happens on Earth. I mean, advanced technology, humanity is improved as a result of space and space exploration. What do you see this universe looking like 50 years from now?

I mean, I hope it's you know, un sustainability goal number one eradicate poverty. I mean we need to get that right otherwise the future that we can arrive at is not going to be one that we can ever be proud of. I think the resource management their needs to come first so that we can first alleviate poverty to really unlock the potential of of 7 billion plus and counting people.

Ten by Twenty fifty or so

Maybe more. So that's that's really priority number one and also goal number one good. Let's assume we've eradicated poverty, everybody has enough food water and data access to technology Etc what next and I think this is these are similar questions that we grappling with with this whole discussion around the Fourth Industrial Revolution. And I think any any technology that we've developed always think within the framework in which we've developed it. So the only contribution we can make is humans then, given that everything else is outsourced to two machines is to think beyond the current framework and that that is asking big questions. That is looking at the current status quo and saying do things need to be this way. Can they be otherwise and I think this is a capability that leap of imagination them that you cannot code into a machine at least not currently. So this is going to be our contribution having a broad perspective asking the big questions and dedicating our lives to these ideas that are bigger than us

But will going to Mars fifty a hundred years from now be back Jumping On a Plane that or Tambo and ending up at Heathrow tomorrow morning

Funny. That's what a 10 year old at the time said to me when I was in Dar es Salaam giving a talk five years ago and she recently emailed me to say she's going to the US to study Aeronautical Engineering as a result of hearing my talk. And she said exactly that she wrote me a letter as I arrived and our she'd read my profile and written me a letter and she said we believe you we as the children understand that one day going from Earth to Mars will be no different than going from Dar to New York and for many Tanzanians the sounds like a crazy dream, you know taking a return flight to New York, but us thinking now of Mars, this I believe in a hundred years - I'm not sure what the Impossible Dream of 2100 will be. That's an interesting question…

But there's a future that we can't imagine. We can dream it. We can fantasize about it. But what we do know is that science advances humanity perpetually through generations, whether it was dealing with the plague and cholera epidemics and dealing with population control through through through birth control mechanisms through the 60s and 70s and giving people personal freedoms science has advanced Humanity. And science’s goal now whether we end up colonizing Mars will simply we learn tricks along the way to do Earth better, humanity should advance.

Yeah, I think I think also we need to leave Earth alone. So looking at the planets in the solar system earth is teeming with life and perhaps in the future we just protect Earth and leave it at that

Become like the Kruger Park. Yeah of the universe's of got a gun holidays and have a nice time. Yes…

But back to another idea I had to start and I wanted to then ask you do you think we've had any significant technological inventions since the mobile phone the personal computer and the internet? Because I've been thinking about that lately and besides the quantum computer, which is on the radar not yet developed. And these all emerge from the Apollo era. So this is an answer to your question. What will you know expanding our place in the solar system beyond Earth do, Well we don't know because before the internet personal computer and the fine, we didn't imagine that these Technologies would play such a crucial role in our lives.

I mean Neil Armstrong when he took the step with this is one small step for man one giant leap for mankind in 1969 – was it 11^th July 1969 – it was July. Yeah. I know I mean it was terribly impressive. He had 13 seconds or something or seven seconds of fuel left before he crashed and burned on the surface of the Moon but it opened an era that 50 years before seemed impossible.

And now we're sittiing 50 years later and what have we done with ourselves? I mean developments and automation robotics. I think I've been impressive and this needs to accompany crewed missions. So we couldn't have kept exploring beyond the moon successfully. I think with people with the kind of technology that existed in the 60s. So that was the kind of a miraculous success. Let's say given the level of computing power Etc. So now now we have the capability to monitor systems monitor systems remotely. I mean, I was just at IOT Next this morning look at the Fantastic South African based it systems and the global interactions that they having these this kind of capability to monitor your resource consumption and also the functionality of your systems - great for Earth in terms of efficiency, but absolutely crucial for systems that are far away from breathable air, you know other humans that you can talk to you exaggerate

Does Humanity's future depend on as leaving planet Earth?

There's certainly a lot of people who think so. I mean, I think looking at business looking at even science, you know publish or die innovate or die all of these catchphrases are coming through because I think there's only so much to such an extent that we can optimize and miniaturize. In terms of you know, all of the devices that seven and eight billion people need we are literally going to run out of resources on Earth, even if we manage to recycle at optimum rates, I don't think this planet can support our goals for the future in terms of the way we have been living. So either we need to drastically rethink the standard of living that we're going to have access to if we're going to stay on the planet or we can you know, keep expanding in terms of ideas and knowledge and capabilities and have access to the whole asteroid belt in which case we would never run out of metals. We could build as many touch screens as we wanted because Indium and Iridium are both, you know, elements starting with an eye both of which are a and which we may actually run out of in total even if we recycle so going forward. We need to look at a broader resource base mining the moon. I'm extremely opposed to by the way, but I think the asteroids are pieces of rock that we can pluck out of vacuum, which is the vacuum of space which would be easier than digging 6 kilometer deep holes.

You think stopping a spacecraft which has been hurtling through space for three months in time for you not to crash and burn on the surface of Mars is a problem, imagine trying to stop an asteroid from…

You match its velocity, you encapsulate it and you insitu resource extraction using gas. So we have a model for that.

I am so glad you explained it. I'm going to go away and think about that and relisten to it a hundred times, Doctor Adrian Marais. She is a scientist, she is a thinker. She's a Solutionist Thinker looking beyond the realms of what we understand today to be Earth limits and our limits as humanity, and looking to a future that very few dared dream about. Today's RMB Solutionist Thinker Dr. Ariana Marais.