From Dr. Jean Masterson's perspective, establishing humans as an off-world species makes a lot of sense. During these tumultuous times, it seems like a clear path toward international and interpersonal collaboration; it seems like it could serve the species on multiple social, physical and spiritual levels. But as someone who designs life support systems for interplanetary and extraterrestrial travel at Paragon Space Corporation, she's quick to point out that actually surviving in the inky expanse of outer space is an enormous challenge. We talk about long-term radiation exposure, closed-loop resource systems and the difficulty of sustaining ecosystems in isolation. In addition to the technical details of survival in space, we delve into the role of science-fiction as inspiration for engineering, biological adaptation of humans to alien lands, and the quick and dirty promise of using poop as a radiation shield.  Subscribe & like so we can bring you more conversations!!!  Podcast version available at all usual locations: https://anchor.fm/demystifying-science  More readings from us: https://demystifyingscience.com/blog  Join the DemystifyingScience mailing list:  http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL  Let's talk!  @DemystifySci Twitter: https://twitter.com/demystifysci Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demystifysci Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/demystifysci ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shilo Delay:  https://soundcloud.com/laterisgone