The Portuguese explorer Magellan
left his legacy in the
first circumnavigation of planet Earth.
Our first orbital experience on
our home planet. And today
looking forward 500 years from that
first voyage, we see the
expansive space, the cosmic ocean
that we've since conquered. And today
as we look forward beyond the legacy
of Magellan, we can see where we'll go
in the next 500 years
into that forever frontier.
Earth.
The ocean planet.
The Portuguese explorer Magellan
gave us the first orbit of our
home planet 500 years ago.
Today we see Earth through new eyes
satellite views that show us
the Earth's oceans that Magellan
experienced himself from space.
Little did he know.
As he sailed the oceans, we can
look forward 500 years to the cosmic
oceans that today we sail.
Magellan's ships carried him around
our Earth in a time
when it was unimaginable.
Now his legacy lives on in space
through spacecraft named for Magellan.
Who set sail from the space shuttle
30 years ago to map our
sister planet Venus
in all of its glory. Perhaps a former
ocean world, as was Earth.
The cosmic ocean calls us
every night across the
Milkyway into the space we now
experience through the eyes of
the Hubble Space Telescope and beyond.
This cosmic ocean is a
forever frontier for humanity
and it lives on in the record
of space exploration.
50 years ago we explored space
from beyond Earth at the moon
as the voyages of project Apollo gave us
Earth rise. You see our ocean
world from the landscapes
and the barren landscapes of our
nearest neighbor, the moon.
Where its seas are frozen in rock.
Today, through spacecraft
known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,
we can see the moon up close
as if we were there,
flying over its surface.
We can also imagine
living with a star
our planet's sun.
This sun drives the energy of our
solar system and it shows us what
other stars are like.
Today we set sail to get to know the sun
even better, through a mission known as the
Parker Solar Probe, because the sun's
energy drives the circulation
our oceans and our planet.
We move on to Venus, our sister world.
Where the spacecraft Magellan gave
us the views that carry our
imagination to the cosmic oceans
of this world where we believe it's
oceans were lost in time
billions of years ago.
From Venus on to planet
Mars where we ask the tough questions.
Are we alone? Is this a place we're going?
On Mars we know
the record of water is lurking in the rocks
in its climate history and we looked
beneath its landscapes into
story of those rocks from
the voyages of spacecraft know
as Curiosity.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
These spacecrafts show us the rockscapes.
Where the record of the oceans and
seas and the lakes of Mars is written
in the stones of time.
So from Mars we can see
the record of water
in planets like Jupiter, where its
beautiful systems
of clouds and circulation
can be captured with spacecraft through the
minds eyes of humanity.
We move on to the beautiful planet
known as Saturn. Where when we see
Earth at the scale of Saturn
we imagine how small we are
in that cosmic ocean.
From Saturn we can looks at its largest
moon, Titan.
Where oceans exist but now of water.
Little did Magellan know that
these other ocean worlds
would harbor different kinds of fluids.
Today the ocean
universe is dramatic, we see
even at the planet known as Pluto.
Now a dwarf world but
still in its landscapes
the magic of what an ocean world might
have looked like beyond Earth.
It gives us the views we can expect
of oceanic around other
stars, light years away,
unseen by humanity,
but our visioneering of them
carried by the grand telescopes
in space, takes us there,
extends our presents: Hubble
Next up is the James Webb Space Telescope.
A cosmic voyager like
Magellan, launching in 2021.
It will extend our imagination
to those worlds
and the bigger cosmic ocean landscapes
that we can only see in our minds eye.
Back home to Earth.
The Earth that Magellan experienced
can be now experienced from space
in the same way that Magellan
experienced sailing it.
From the record of biology on Earth
and circulation and energy
we can come home to the Iberian Peninsula
were Magellan set sail
500 years ago
and today thanks to Jose Marquez and his team
we commemorate the 500th
anniversary of our oceanic
exploration that carries us forward today
to the exploration of deep space.
The forever frontier.
Thanks to you Magellan
we're there.