RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration
Jul 30, 2026 · 1 hr · 14 segments
Hear a live recording of The Future of Exploration with award-winning journalist and bestselling author Tim Marshall, interviewed by Matt Pycroft. Tim Marshall is one of the UK’s most respected…
Tim MarshallGuest
Matt PycroftHost
But you-- You know, I think that longing, you know, I definitely have it, that kind of urge to see it and that just that awe and wonder when we look up.
W-- I think the-- and again, the sci-fi geeks in us and a lot of what's going on right now, we talk about humans going.
Are we going to Mars? Is Elon gonna build a big house there? Who knows? But what we're doing right now, as I understand it, is sending robots, and robots seem to go and do things first.
I mean, this is a big debate in the space exploration community of which I'm not part of.
Professor Rees, uh, the Astronomer Royal, very strongly argues that only robots should go.
Why, why should we bother? I would argue that robots should go to do the heavy lifting and make it as safe as possible, and then the humans should go.
And that's for a whole bunch of reasons, and one of them is which I go to see football, right? I'm, um, Leeds United season ticket holder, home and away.
Um, and also if we're going to be an interplanetary species, I mean, and this is way, way out.
I mean, I can give you fifty-year timelines and five-- and then leap straight to five hundred-year timelines because between fifty and five hundred, I don't know, but I can make the stuff up about five hundred.
Fifty years, I think you can get a good stab at what may and may not be happening.
Um, but if we are gonna be, um, forgive my-- another joke, Homo spacian, I mean, I think we are, you can't just send robots up because then we're not Homo spacian.
Um, I think we will find miracles and wonders which will absolutely help us, including helping, um, on, on, uh, getting rid of fossil fuels, w-which we're already working on now through space.
But you-- You know, I think that longing, you know, I definitely have it, that kind of urge to see it and that just that awe and wonder when we look up.
W-- I think the-- and again, the sci-fi geeks in us and a lot of what's going on right now, we talk about humans going.
Are we going to Mars? Is Elon gonna build a big house there? Who knows? But what we're doing right now, as I understand it, is sending robots, and robots seem to go and do things first.
I mean, this is a big debate in the space exploration community of which I'm not part of.
Professor Rees, uh, the Astronomer Royal, very strongly argues that only robots should go.
Why, why should we bother? I would argue that robots should go to do the heavy lifting and make it as safe as possible, and then the humans should go.
And that's for a whole bunch of reasons, and one of them is which I go to see football, right? I'm, um, Leeds United season ticket holder, home and away.
Um, and also if we're going to be an interplanetary species, I mean, and this is way, way out.
I mean, I can give you fifty-year timelines and five-- and then leap straight to five hundred-year timelines because between fifty and five hundred, I don't know, but I can make the stuff up about five hundred.
Fifty years, I think you can get a good stab at what may and may not be happening.
Um, but if we are gonna be, um, forgive my-- another joke, Homo spacian, I mean, I think we are, you can't just send robots up because then we're not Homo spacian.
Um, I think we will find miracles and wonders which will absolutely help us, including helping, um, on, on, uh, getting rid of fossil fuels, w-which we're already working on now through space.
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