Skip to content

Mars

planet · in 48 videos (2007–2026)

The planet Hank says he has cared about forever: in 2008 he made a video applying to be among the first hundred colonists, and from 2015 news from Mars became a regular part of the brothers' podcast Dear Hank and John. Hank keeps stressing that Mars has lots of water, known for decades, and in 2025 he reported Perseverance finds that are hard to explain without past life there.

Videos by year: 2007: 2 · 2008: 2 · 2009: 1 · 2011: 1 · 2012: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2015: 7 · 2016: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2020: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2026: 2

Threads

Also named in the threads: John asks viewers to suggest what Dear Hank and John should be about, in comments (2015) · John asks viewers to judge who has the best Blue Steel, first event of Quadragocon 2015 (2015) · Dear Hank and John: the brothers' advice podcast (2015) · DFTBA Pin Pals: DFTBA's pin subscription club (2018) · John's weekly 2021 vision board (2021) · Hank: the Mars sample return mission will not happen in the 2020s (2025)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Earth (10) · AFC Wimbledon (12) · Dear Hank and John (8) · Donald Trump (4) · Google (3) · Peeps (2) · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast) (2) · Project for Awesome (5) · hankschannel (2) · DFTBA (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2007

  • 2007-02-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: February 16th — Hank: Quick answers: Hank is an 'absent-minded kid in a candy store' online, loves science fiction, would live anywhere his friends were, and his first concert was the B-52s. (playful) — 00:02:15

Also named in: November 5th: John's Not Happy about Pakistan

2008

  • 2008-04-01 · Please Google, Take Me to Mars — Hank says Google is apparently going to Mars and asking for videos on why one should be among the first hundred colonists; he makes his. (playful) — 00:00:00
    • Hank lists his qualifications: prime condition, having read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy many times, green-technology expertise and the vlog habit of non-conversational family contact. (playful) — 00:00:00
    • Hank says the first thing he ever had published in print was 'Let's Go to Mars', in Space Times Magazine, and reads an excerpt about Mars calling to us. (playful) — 00:00:53
    • Asked whether he is a founding member of the Mars Society, Hank says yes. (playful) — 00:01:23
  • 2008-06-24 · Questions Answered! — Hank insists there has always been ice on Mars and it has been known for about 50 years, so it is not news. — 00:00:02
    • Mars has ice caps, sometimes coated with carbon dioxide dry ice, but both are water ice at the core. — 00:00:25
    • Hank says the real news is only that the lander landed on ice, which is great for people who want to study the ice. — 00:00:34
  • …and 2 statements more in 2008 — all statements of 2008

2011

  • 2011-04-27 · NASA: Increasing Awesome — Hank: NASA is launching a remote-controlled laboratory, 'pretty much a remote-controlled SUV', to Mars with ten times the payload of any interplanetary mission, to ask whether Mars once harbored life. — 00:02:00
    • NASA is flying the final two Space Shuttle missions while developing a multipurpose crew vehicle that could reach Earth orbit, possibly the Moon, Mars, Venus and beyond. — 00:03:09

2012

  • 2012-03-09 · The Future of Manned Space Exploration — Hank says Ceres, a spherical dwarf planet 600 miles wide in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, may contain a subterranean ocean, and an unmanned probe will reach it in 2015. (hedged) — 00:02:23
    • Hank calls Mars the juiciest scientific fruit in the solar system: a third the size of Earth, with an atmosphere and a day of 24-point-something hours. (doubtful: a third the size of Earth) — 00:02:52
    • Hank says astronauts took about three days to reach the Moon while Mars takes about seven months; such missions are difficult, dangerous and expensive, so we proceed with caution. — 00:02:52
  • 2012-08-31 · Why The Rich Pay Lower Taxes — Hank: In Hank's opinion, money in the stock market isn't doing anything: companies can't use it to build cars, go to Mars or make video games. — 00:01:53
  • …and 1 statement more in 2012 — all statements of 2012

2013

  • 2013-06-07 · How To Be a Baby Properly — Hank: if all goes well, in Alice's lifetime humans will walk on Mars, computers become intelligent, the paralyzed walk again, absolute poverty all but end, and she may live past 100; or technological society may implode. It could go either way. (hedged) — 00:00:12

2014

2015

  • 2015-05-05 · Reunions! Birthdays! Podcasts! Mountains! Happy 35th Birthday, Hank — both: They plan segments on their own interests: John would do 'This Week (week of 4 May 2015) in AFC Wimbledon' on fourth-tier football and Hank would do Mars, which he has cared about forever. (playful) — 00:01:56
    • John asks viewers to tell them what the podcast should be about, whether Sydneys and Jesses, which Sydneys and Jesses to discuss, who has the best Blue Steel, and whether AFC Wimbledon or Mars matters more. — 00:03:01
  • 2015-05-26 · Sixteen Parts — announcement: John announces the brothers' podcast will be called Dear Hank and John (he thinks of it as 'Dear John and Hank'), answering Nerdfighters' questions with second-rate advice plus news from AFC Wimbledon and Mars. — 00:00:22
  • 2015-06-08 · Monday Bonus Video! — announcement: John: This week's (week of 8 June 2015) episode asks whether bowling can heal a broken heart and whether people have peed on every square inch of earth, plus news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. (playful) — 00:00:53
  • 2015-09-29 · Writing, Walling, Racing, and Wizard Schooling — John notes there is, apparently, occasionally flowing water on Mars; the SciShow people got so excited they made shirts and posters. (hedged) — 00:01:03
    • John is vicariously happy for Hank about Mars news but says we haven't taken a second lately to be psyched about flowing water on Earth: 'What a planet!' (playful) — 00:01:11
  • 2015-10-16 · Post-NerdCon Haze — announcement: Hank plugs the brothers' podcast Dear Hank and John: they answer viewer questions, give dubious advice and bring the week's news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. — 00:00:23
  • 2015-11-11 · Watch This If You Want To Smile (Pizzamas Day 3) — Hank: The last time Hank felt that level of uncontrollable excitement was in 2012, when the Curiosity rover was safely on the surface of Mars. — 00:03:08
  • …and 2 statements more in 2015 — all statements of 2015

2016

  • 2016-03-01 · Question Tuesday: The Potato Edition — Hank says potatoes can really be grown on Mars, though not the way the movie did it: other ways work. — 00:00:30
    • Hank says Martian soil contains perchlorate, a big problem because it is toxic to humans and also to plants. — 00:00:42
    • Hank says that if the perchlorate and other bad stuff are removed and some good stuff put in, potatoes could be grown in Martian soil. — 00:00:47
    • Hank: Asked about the lack of atmosphere, Hank says you would have to build a thing around the potatoes, an atmosphere. — 00:00:55
  • …and 1 statement more in 2016 — all statements of 2016

Also named in: P4A 2016 Hilarity Reprise - OVER $2M RAISED!!

2017

2018

  • 2018-01-19 · Many Years Ago, Someone Gave Me a Whole Bitcoin...then I lost it. — announcement: Hank: Until the end of January viewers can join DFTBA Pin Pals, DFTBA's new pin subscription, with free shipping worldwide; the third pin will be Mars Pathfinder. — 00:03:22
    • Hank calls Mars Pathfinder, the first rover on Mars, an extremely important object in his life. — 00:03:35
  • 2018-08-28 · The Book Was Better? — John: After John sold The Fault in Our Stars film rights to Fox 2000, they could have set the movie on Mars. (playful) — 00:00:40
  • 2018-10-30 · Watch My Dumb Dancing — Hank: It is spring in Mars's southern hemisphere, so carbon dioxide deposits under the surface are ripping through the ice above into geysers of gas and dust. — 00:03:14
  • 2018-11-02 · Let Us Now Praise the Panda Person — John expects to live to see the first person set foot on Mars, an astonishing feat but the obvious continuation of what humans have always done. (hedged) — 00:00:29

2020

  • 2020-02-07 · GET BUSY WITH THE FIZZY — Hank says he just can't right now, so instead he will indulge in three things he likes: home soda carbonation, Mars and pedantic overanalysis. — 00:00:00
    • Hank says liquid water on Mars is physically impossible: the temperature is too low, and with such low pressure it would immediately evaporate. — 00:00:58
    • Hank says we are probably never going to find liquid water on Mars, and there is already enough confusion about the water situation there. (hedged) — 00:00:58
    • Against the ad's 'Water on Mars' headline, Hank says people are excited to maybe find water on Mars, but it has lots of water, known for decades; melted, it would make oceans. — 00:02:26
  • 2020-03-03 · Consciously Experiencing Human Dignity — John: Through photography and art you have seen what you'll never see (Mars's surface, deep-ocean bioluminescent fish, a 17th-century girl with a pearl earring); through empathy, felt what you'll never feel. — 00:02:55
  • 2020-03-10 · A Strong but Fleeting Flavor: A Reunion Video — Hank: Asked how boxed cake directions would differ on Mars, Hank guesses you would need a different mix: with lower pressure and more oxygen in the hab, the cake would rise fast and big like a giant muffin. (speculative) — 00:00:55
  • 2020-06-19 · Only Shooting Stars — Hank says 0.2% of meteorites, meteoroids that land on Earth, come from the Moon or Mars, thrown up when big meteorites hit those bodies. — 00:01:30
  • 2020-08-25 · Somebody once told me… — In a comment John guesses SpaceX might send a rocket to Mars in 2026, assuming it is still solvent and growing, and notes even SpaceX has stopped saying 2022. (speculative) — creator comment
    • Against the TikTok's claim that SpaceX sends its first ship to Mars in 2022, John says SpaceX is not sending a ship to Mars in 2022. — 00:01:56
    • John says that even knowing the video is fake, Noah's predictions will sit in his mindscape when he thinks of chip implants, Mars or Trump, so Noah is real whether he exists or not. — 00:03:24
  • 2020-09-18 · They Say it Gets Colder — Hank says Mars and Venus were probably habitable for a long time; Mars is in the habitable zone, Venus is not. (hedged) — 00:00:29
    • Hank says the search for life in the solar system focused on Mars not because it is the best candidate but because it is much easier to work with. — 00:00:58
  • …and 3 statements more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

2024

  • 2024-03-01 · Flyana Boss Asks Hank Anything — Hank says water is common in the solar system: Mars has lots, the Moon has some, and some of Jupiter's moons hold more water than Earth. — 00:10:22
  • 2024-04-05 · Two Reasons Why This Eclipse is So Dangerous — Hank says any danger has two parts, the risk and the number of people exposed: going to Mars is very dangerous but not a public-health concern; this eclipse is dangerous because so many can reach it. — 00:02:02

Also named in: My Governor is Weirder than Yours

2025

  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says he doesn't feel up to the moment, one where everything seems possible and there are no good answers, so instead he wants to talk about life on Mars. — 00:00:00
    • In a channel comment, Hank says some water (ice) on Mars has been known since the 70s, but a long wet period only became consensus in the mid-2000s. — creator comment
    • Hank reports that NASA and a paper announced that after a year of work Perseverance found things on Mars that we do not know how to explain without past life there. — 00:00:30
    • Hank stresses that this is very different from saying there definitely was life on Mars, and even more different from saying there is life there now. — 00:00:30
    • Hank says the first spacecraft sent to the surface of Mars, Viking 1 and 2 in the 1970s, carried a little biology lab with experiments designed to detect life. — 00:01:00
    • Hank says that if the rock's leopard spots are really biosignatures, Mars was inhabited, but accepting that brings new mysteries, not closure. — 00:12:02
    • Hank says an independent origin of life on Mars would be the most exciting version: it would mean life, though not necessarily complex life, is extraordinarily common in the universe. — 00:12:02
    • Hank says Earth's oldest life evidence is limited by its oldest rocks; Mars could preserve early steps Earth erased and help explain how chemistry became biology. (hedged) — 00:13:37
    • Hank says that if Mars once had life and has warm subsurface water, it seems entirely possible that living microbes are still in Mars, which would be so cool. (hedged) — 00:14:37
    • Hank says the scale is starting to tip toward there having once been life on Mars; it could tip back, but to him, after long interest, it feels like it's going one way. (hedged) — 00:18:43
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John: Trying to recall the name of Hank's 1990s Mars website, John scrolled past a completely wrong Google AI response and learned from Wikipedia it was Hank Green's Mars Exploration Page. — 00:00:00
    • John says Dear Hank and John, a weekly podcast, has dispensed advice plus the news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon for over 10 years. — 00:00:58
  • …and 11 statements more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

2026

  • 2026-04-03 · I Had a Hallucination This Week — Hank: When Orin was little, Hank talked with him about three kinds of things: made by the universe (Mars, stars, mountains), by life (birds, pine cones, butterfly eggs) and by people (houses, TV shows, jokes). — 00:01:20
  • …and 1 statement more in 2026 — all statements of 2026

Also named in other years (nothing said): On Iran, Islam, and Amazingly Stupid Comments (2009-07-12), Project for Awesome 2019 Recap (BUTT IS LEGS) (2019-12-31)