Shadowing Practice: How to Terraform Mars - WITH LASERS - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Mars is a disappointing hellhole lacking practically everything we need to stay alive.
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It looks like we'll only ever have small crews spend a miserable time hidden underground.
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Except we could terraform it into a green, new world.
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But to solve the planet's problems, we first need to make it worse and turn it into oceans of lava with gigantic lasers.
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This isn't a far -fetched science fiction tale.
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If humanity solves some of its pressing problems and ventures into space to expand into the solar system, this may not be that far off.
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Okay, so how do we terraform Mars quickly?
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Well, it's complicated.
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Mars is dry and has no soil to grow anything.
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Its atmosphere is too thin to breathe or protect us from radiation, giving you a high risk of cancer.
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So to turn it into a new home for humanity, we have to give it a proper atmosphere similar to Earth's.
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It should be made of 21 % oxygen, 79 % nitrogen and a tiny bit of CO2, as an average temperature of 14 degrees Celsius and under one bar of pressure.
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fertile soil to host living things.
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Then we need to install a biosphere on the surface, and prevent it all from being undone by installing protective measures that can stand the test of time.
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It is difficult, but a big laser makes it a lot easier.
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Challenge 1: The atmosphere.
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Some 4 billion years ago, Mars had a nice oxygen -rich atmosphere and was home to vast oceans and rivers.
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It held onto it for several hundred million years before it got blown away.
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Ultraviolet rays broke down the atmospheric gases and then the oceans until they were swept away by solar wind.
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Today, Mars is a dry, barren wasteland.
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Luckily, a sizeable portion of the water is frozen in deep reservoirs and in the polar ice caps,
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And enormous amounts of oxygen are bound as minerals in the Martian rocks, like the oxygen in the iron oxides that give the planet its rust red color,
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as well as carbon dioxide in carbonates.
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To free these gases, we need to reverse the reactions that lock them away by using thermolysis, which occurs at temperatures as high as on the surface of the Sun.
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In short, we want to melt the surface of Mars.
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The best way to do that would be to put lasers in orbit, aiming their beams down on Mars.
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is the ELI -NP, able to produce beams of 10 petawatts of power for a trillionth of a second.
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To melt Mars we need a laser twice as powerful that runs continuously.
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The easiest way is to use a solar -pumped laser that can be powered directly with sunlight.
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At its core are metal -infused glass rods that absorb energy and release it as a laser beam.
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If we build an array of mirrors in space about 11 times the size of the United States, we can focus enough sunlight Let's do it!
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As the lasers hit the surface, about 750 kilograms of oxygen and some carbon dioxide emerge from every cubic meter of rock melted.
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If we are efficient, our lasers only need to melt through the top 8 meters of the surface to get enough oxygen.
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It would look terrifying.
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The skies would be shrouded in storms, while the ground would glow red -hot, criss -crossed by currents of lava.
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Tireless laser beams sweep over the landscape, leaving trails too bright to look at.
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After they pass, the ground cools quickly.
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A strange snow falls.
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The ashes from all the elements that solidify as they cool down, like silicon and iron.
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Mars is still a cold planet at this point.
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A happy side effect of this inferno is
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that all the water in the polar ice caps and even deep underground rises into the sky as hot steam, forming clouds that rain down over the entire planet.
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They would wash out the nastier gases from the atmosphere like chlorine, and carry away harmful elements that accumulated on the surface.
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In the end, they would form shallow oceans, saltier than on Earth.
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We might need to do an extra clean -up afterwards.
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It would take about 50 years of continuous lasering to create our oxygen atmosphere.
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We could use this opportunity to dig deeper in some places to create the basins for salty oceans
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or rivers and spare some landmark features like Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris.
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We're not done though.
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The resulting atmosphere is nearly 100 % oxygen and only 0 .2 bar.
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It's hard to breathe and very flammable.
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To make it similar to Earth and a lot safer, which Mars is sadly lacking.
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We have to import it.
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The ideal source is Titan, a large moon of Saturn, covered in a thick atmosphere that's almost entirely nitrogen.
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We just have to move 3 ,000 trillion tons from the outer solar system to Mars.
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While that's not easy, it is doable.
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To process that much of Titan's atmosphere, we have to construct giant automated factories on its surface, powered by our lasers, to suck in the atmosphere and compress it into a liquid.
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This gets bullet -shaped tanks, which a mass driver shoots all the way to the red planet, where they explode and mix with the oxygen.
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We've already been able to send individual missions to Saturn in just a few years.
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With enough resources, it should be possible to complete the task within two generations.
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Of course, it would be much more convenient to have nitrogen left over from terraforming Venus on the site.
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We explained this in detail in another video.
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So, about a century after the start of the terraforming process, we have a breathable atmosphere that has the right gases.
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If the liberated CO2 isn't enough to warm it up to temperatures we can stand, we just add some super greenhouse gases.
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Mars at this point resembles a black marble from all the cooling lava, spotted with growing oceans and red patches where the old surface remains untouched.
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It's still a wasteland, no better than a desert on Earth.
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to fill it with life.
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Challenge 2: Biosphere.
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Installing a biosphere on a new planet is very difficult.
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Unexpected interactions between species or sudden diseases can destabilize it to the point of collapse.
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We would probably begin by seeding our young oceans with phytoplankton.
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Without competition, it would bloom rapidly, filling up the oceans to become the bottom of an aquatic food chain.
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Life on land is harder.
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Plants need nutrient -filled ground to sink their roots into, but most of the surface is the congealed remains of lava and ash.
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We could wait for thousands of years for water and wind to grind it down into finer sands, or try to do it manually.
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But we want to be quick, and we have a big laser.
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Turning the beam on and off in rapid succession would cause the ground to quickly heat up and contract, which breaks it into smaller and smaller pieces.
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and you get a sort of dark mud.
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Into this mud we can mix fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria.
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They're able to absorb nitrogen and convert it into nitrate compounds to feed plants.
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The first plants we want to bring are native to volcanic
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islands on Earth since they're perfectly suited to the laser -blasted Martian landscape.
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Eventually the enriched mud becomes the foundation for grasslands and forests.
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In Mars's lower gravity trees can become very tall very fast.
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Their roots gather the nutrients they need and then dig deeper to turn more rocks into soil, forming a self -sustaining ecosystem.
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At this point, we can slowly introduce more plant varieties, insects and animals.
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Not mosquitoes, though.
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The new biosphere needs to be maintained to prevent it from falling out of balance.
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If plants grow too quickly and absorb too much carbon dioxide, the planet cools down too much.
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If key species die out, we could see Other species would move in to fill the void,
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but our Martian biosphere is not as flexible.
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It takes hundreds if not thousands of years before Mars becomes a stable environment.
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But eventually the planet will have the potential to sustain large human colonies.
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With air, water and food available, we can finally call Mars, black, blue and green, our home.
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A giant volcanic island in space.
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Will it last though?
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See? the long -term future.
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There is a problem we haven't addressed.
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Mars' core does not produce a magnetic field, so it doesn't have enough protection from solar radiation or cosmic rays.
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This becomes dangerous for the long -term health of Martian populations.
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So, as a final step, we need an artificial magnetic field.
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It doesn't have to be huge like Earth's, it just needs to deflect the solar wind enough so that it doesn't touch Mars.
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solar wind to the sides.
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A big superconducting ring powered by nuclear facilities is all it takes.
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It would orbit at the Mars Sun L1 point, keeping it constantly in between the Sun and Mars, and protect the new atmosphere.
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And that's it.
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Terraforming Mars would take some work, hefty resources, and probably a century or ten,
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but it would be the first time we've lived in a home designed and shaped solely by us and for us.
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A first step towards our future among the stars.
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Welcome to the Kurzgesagt Lab.
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Let's conduct a few stellar experiments.
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We'll first add some more mass to this protostar.
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More.
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A bit more.
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Wow, we've just created a blue giant, a star with ten times the mass of our Sun.
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Let's now add a couple of million years and see what happens.
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A supernova.
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Breathtaking.
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And look, it leaves behind a black hole.
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Fascinating stuff.
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Record our findings.
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Be careful to preserve the sparkle.
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It's now time for Duck's final inspection.
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This one is always a nail -biter.
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He has incredibly high standards.
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Lucky for us our work is scientifically accurate, offers an overview of important astrophysical processes, and is a real stunner.
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Duck approves.
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Looks like it's ready to be shared with the world as a poster.
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A very special piece of Kurzgesagt you can take home and touch.
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You can get this very special poster along with many other sciencey
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and spacey things created with love and care from our shop.
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Every Kurzgesagt product you buy directly funds another moment we get to spend working on our videos.
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Thank you so much for being a part of our story and for making this channel possible you -
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This video titled "How to Terraform Mars - WITH LASERS" presents a captivating exploration of Mars and the theoretical concept of terraforming the planet. Engaging with such scientific narratives offers a unique opportunity for English speaking practice as it combines complex vocabulary, innovative ideas, and animated descriptions that challenge learners. By practicing with this video, you can improve your speaking skills while discussing fascinating topics, making learning both enjoyable and intellectually stimulating.
As you shadow the speaker, you'll encounter a variety of sentence structures and terminology that enhance your fluency and comprehension. Moreover, discussing subjects like space exploration may also prepare you for common themes found in IELTS speaking practice. This not only expands your vocabulary but also boosts your confidence in articulating complex ideas.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
The speaker uses several intriguing grammatical structures and expressions that can enrich your English. Here are a few key examples:
- Conditional Sentences: The phrase "If humanity solves some of its pressing problems..." showcases a conditional structure, which is often used to hypothesize outcomes.
- Passive Voice: Throughout the video, terms like "is lacking" and "can be completed" highlight the use of passive constructions, which are essential for focusing on actions rather than the doer.
- Modals of Possibility: Expressions such as "may not be that far off" and "could use this opportunity" imply potential and possibility, enriching the modal verb usage in conversation.
- Descriptive Adjectives: The speaker's vivid language, e.g., "dry and barren wasteland", provides an excellent template for learners to improve their descriptive skills in English.
Common Pronunciation Traps
While listening to the video, pay attention to the following difficult words and phrases that might pose pronunciation challenges:
- Terraform: The speaker articulates this term often; it's crucial to practice the stress on the second syllable - ter-RA-form.
- Photosynthesis: When discussing life forms like phytoplankton, ensure clarity on the pronunciation, particularly the “synthesis” part - pho-to-SYN-the-sis.
- Atmosphere: This word appears frequently; practice stressing the first syllable - AT-mosphere.
- Radiation: This term is common in scientific discussions; focus on the long “a” sound - ra-DIA-tion.
Shadowing the speaker will help you're English pronunciation as you mimic their tone and rhythm, making it easier to incorporate new vocabulary into your speech. You can leverage this exercise to develop a natural flow when speaking about complex topics, ultimately enhancing your overall proficiency in English.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | should be made · were swept · is frozen |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | We've already been · haven't addressed · we've lived |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.