Episode Details

For the first time since 1972, human beings have traveled to the vicinity of the moon — and on this episode of Modem Futura, Sean and Andrew sit with what that actually means. Recorded while the Artemis II crew was still in transit, this conversation is less a mission briefing and more a meditation on wonder: what it feels like to watch a tiny spacecraft carry four people a thousand times farther than the International Space Station, and why we seem almost hardwired to shrug at the extraordinary. The conversation ranges from the mind-bending physics of orbital mechanics — you don't fly to the moon, you fly to where it's going to be — to the surprisingly grounding banality of broken toilets and malfunctioning Microsoft Outlook at 250,000 miles from home. Sean and Andrew dig into the science aboard the Orion capsule, from sleep and immune research to radiation monitoring and organ-on-a-chip experiments, raising the deeper question: what does it actually take to make human beings safe in deep space? They explore the ethical gap between government and commercial space programs, the Shackleton-era question of whether exploration requires a return ticket, and what The Expanse gets right about how long-term spaceflight might quietly, irreversibly reshape the human body. Grounding it all is something harder to name — a particular kind of awe at the thinness of the atmosphere visible in those early lunar images, at a 10-year-old kid at the launch site who just couldn't believe we're going to the moon. This episode is an invitation to look up and sit with that feeling for a moment before the meh sets in.

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Modem Futura is a production of the Future of Being Human initiative at Arizona State University. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. To learn more about the Future of Being Human initiative and all of our other projects visit - https://futureofbeinghuman.asu.edu

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Host Bios:

Sean M. Leahy, PhD - ASU Bio
Sean is an internationally recognized technologist, futurist, and educator innovating humanistic approaches to emerging technology through a Futures Studies approach. He is the Executive Director for the Future of Being Human Initiative and Research Scientist for the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and Senior Global Futures Scholar with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.

Andrew Maynard, PhD - ASU Bio
Andrew is a scientist, author, thought leader, and Professor of Advanced Technology Transitions in the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society. He is the founder of the ASU Future of Being Human initiative, Director of the ASU Risk Innovation Nexus, and was previously Associate Dean in the ASU College of Global Futures.

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