October 13, 2018 1:06 pm

Do You Share Our Interest in Colonizing Exoplanets?

When the people working on Origin, the new sci-fi thriller series on YouTube Originals, reached out to us and asked us if we were interested in doing a sponsored promotion about the subject of colonizing exoplanets, we told them we were all over that.

We’ve done episodes about interstellar exploration on our podcast, on our TV show on the National Geographic channel, and even at StarTalk Live!

We even just did our first show at Caveat NYC, and guess what? StarTalk All-Stars host Natalia Reagan led comic co-host Harrison Greenbaum and guest exoplanet scientist NAME in an exploration of the subject of… exploring and colonizing exoplanets.

What Origin wanted from us was a discussion about the scientific reality behind the science fiction of their new series. So Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice sat down with one of our favorite guests, Dr. Sheyna Gifford, MD, to discuss the psychological and scientific aspects of sending humans out to explore our cosmos.

Dr. Gifford is perfect for the topic. She’s an expert in neuroscience and the psychology required for colonization, and served as the Crew Medical and Safety Officer for the NASA HISEAS Mission VI, a year-long analog astronaut Mars simulation in the isolated and remote high elevation region in Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano.

Together, Neil, Chuck and Sheyna talked about three major subjects: the psychological aspects of the mission, the technological aspects of sending humans on a journey that will take thousands of years, and the challenges inherent in finding suitable exoplanets and actually building a colony there using ISRU – in situ resource utilization.

So whether you share our interest in colonizing the stars or you’re just excited for the November 14th premiere of the exciting new sci-fi thriller series, Origin, watch Neil, Chuck and Sheyna now:

If you’re interested, you can find out more about the Origin series on their YouTube Originals channel, including watching the official trailer and special feature videos about specific aspects of the show, like “What it takes to survive in space” and even an advertisement to join the colonization project in the series, Siren. #LeaveEarth.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
– Jeffrey Simons