1
00:01:29,506 --> 00:01:32,801
November 28th, 9:22 a.m.

2
00:01:33,468 --> 00:01:36,471
25 seconds and counting

3
00:01:36,471 --> 00:01:38,848
[unintelligible dialogue] on internal power.

4
00:01:42,393 --> 00:01:44,938
ready switch on

5
00:01:44,938 --> 00:01:47,941
Spacecraft to internal power.  Five

6
00:01:48,983 --> 00:01:50,902
Clear to launch

7
00:01:50,902 --> 00:01:51,820
[unintelligible dialogue]

8
00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:53,863
Engine start

9
00:01:53,863 --> 00:01:56,866
Ignition.

10
00:01:58,827 --> 00:02:00,120
Lift off

11
00:02:01,788 --> 00:02:05,583
Roger. Plus three seconds.  We’re on our way.

12
00:02:09,045 --> 00:02:10,880
Plus 10 seconds

13
00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,883
Looks steady.

14
00:02:16,010 --> 00:02:18,805
The trajectory looks nominal today.

15
00:02:18,805 --> 00:02:20,807
Roger.

16
00:02:20,807 --> 00:02:22,767
Science system engineer.

17
00:02:22,767 --> 00:02:25,061
All green, no deviations.

18
00:02:25,061 --> 00:02:26,855
Mechanical system engineer.

19
00:02:26,855 --> 00:02:28,314
All green

20
00:03:40,970 --> 00:03:43,097
For eight hours and 35 minutes.

21
00:03:43,097 --> 00:03:46,100
The figures cascade to the Earth
from the spacecraft.

22
00:03:46,476 --> 00:03:52,148
240,000 bits of binary code,
representing the shading of 40,000 dots

23
00:03:52,148 --> 00:03:55,151
that will finally make up
the first picture.

24
00:03:57,070 --> 00:03:59,197
A complex system of computers

25
00:03:59,197 --> 00:04:02,158
is required
to convert these numbers into pictures.

26
00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,536
But some workers decide to hand
make their own picture of Mars

27
00:04:05,536 --> 00:04:07,247
by shading the numbers.

28
00:04:07,247 --> 00:04:10,291
A fanciful exercise,
but one that gives Robert Leighton

29
00:04:10,500 --> 00:04:14,212
a chance to commune with numbers
from Mars, whose picture equivalent,

30
00:04:14,420 --> 00:04:16,506
He can hardly imagine.

31
00:04:20,176 --> 00:04:21,302
Very low numbers.

32
00:04:21,302 --> 00:04:25,640
Oh 837 38 15 20 21 and 15 

33
00:05:46,721 --> 00:05:48,765
you know,
I was just waiting with bated breath

34
00:05:48,765 --> 00:05:50,683
to see the first pictures come back.

35
00:05:50,683 --> 00:05:54,020
And I was expecting to see canals
and ancient cities.

36
00:05:54,312 --> 00:05:58,524
And I was a little disappointed to see
craters in this moon like landscape.

37
00:05:58,524 --> 00:06:01,527
But it was 
it was still very inspirational to me.

38
00:06:04,447 --> 00:06:07,450
If you read The Martian Chronicles and,

39
00:06:07,742 --> 00:06:11,621
you saw the, the images,
the, the drawings of Mars

40
00:06:11,621 --> 00:06:15,375
that Percival Lowell made,
you know, you had the idea

41
00:06:15,375 --> 00:06:19,587
that there may have been a civilization
on Mars, but Mars was a dying planet,

42
00:06:19,587 --> 00:06:22,757
and maybe the cities were all dead
and there were no more Martians there,

43
00:06:22,757 --> 00:06:23,883
which is kind of

44
00:06:23,883 --> 00:06:27,553
the theme of The Martian Chronicles,
you know, that the Martians had.

45
00:06:27,804 --> 00:06:31,766
we're all dying out, but, but Mariner
four kind of put the nail in the coffin.

46
00:06:31,766 --> 00:06:34,102
You know, there's,
there were no cities on Mars.

47
00:06:36,646 --> 00:06:37,980
Mariner four, I just took a

48
00:06:37,980 --> 00:06:42,110
small set of snapshots
across the planet of Mars.

49
00:06:42,485 --> 00:06:46,197
And it was a very narrow view of Mars.

50
00:06:46,197 --> 00:06:48,658
So we didn't see Mariner Valley.

51
00:06:48,658 --> 00:06:51,744
We didn't see the volcanoes, but,

52
00:06:51,744 --> 00:06:55,498
but we did learn something
about the geology of Mars from that

53
00:06:55,498 --> 00:06:58,709
and it kind of what our appetite
for the missions that followed.

54
00:07:01,129 --> 00:07:05,091
The images, came back as just, 
ones and zeros

55
00:07:05,091 --> 00:07:09,470
and, and numbers
for what the pixels were like.

56
00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:13,641
And so, some people at JPL
printed it out, you know, on a printer

57
00:07:13,641 --> 00:07:15,476
and had this big, long printout,

58
00:07:15,476 --> 00:07:18,479
and they had colored pencils
and they were just coloring in,

59
00:07:18,479 --> 00:07:22,400
you know what the number said
to come up with, the first images.

60
00:07:25,236 --> 00:07:27,029
We've had many missions to Mars

61
00:07:27,029 --> 00:07:32,702
and right now in the Mars program, we have
three orbiters and two rovers at Mars

62
00:07:32,702 --> 00:07:35,746
and they're all creating,
you know, producing incredible science.

63
00:07:37,665 --> 00:07:40,209
And all of this is a very helpful

64
00:07:40,209 --> 00:07:43,504
looking forward to,
paving the way for humans to go to Mars.

65
00:07:44,046 --> 00:07:47,925
You know, because there's a lot we need
to know about, potential landing sites

66
00:07:48,217 --> 00:07:49,677
where water is on Mars.

67
00:07:49,677 --> 00:07:53,347
You know, we now know that,
there are areas of Mars

68
00:07:53,347 --> 00:07:56,350
that have huge subsurface glaciers with,

69
00:07:57,101 --> 00:07:58,769
lots and lots of fresh water

70
00:08:00,855 --> 00:08:03,483
I’m really excited about humans
exploring Mars,

71
00:08:03,483 --> 00:08:06,527
because I think they will be able
to do a better job of searching

72
00:08:06,527 --> 00:08:10,531
for signs of past
and perhaps even present life on Mars.

73
00:08:10,656 --> 00:08:13,409
And when we're talking
about microbial life on Mars.

74
00:08:16,412 --> 00:08:18,664
Humans have incredible capability

75
00:08:18,664 --> 00:08:21,375
like as a geologist on Mars
to look for signs of life.

76
00:08:21,667 --> 00:08:25,338
But as far as a lot of the incidental
things like setting up

77
00:08:25,338 --> 00:08:29,717
infrastructure and maintaining things,
making a lot of the science observations,

78
00:08:29,717 --> 00:08:34,013
I think that that, the robotic systems
will be more effective

79
00:08:34,013 --> 00:08:37,016
so it'll be humans and robots
working together.

80
00:10:03,352 --> 00:10:05,646
And for the coming in
with such short notice.

81
00:10:05,646 --> 00:10:07,189
Oh no problem, preciate it.

82
00:10:07,189 --> 00:10:07,898
No problem.

83
00:10:07,898 --> 00:10:08,983
Okay. Easiest question.

84
00:10:08,983 --> 00:10:11,193
Let's start with your name
and your title, please.

85
00:10:11,193 --> 00:10:14,155
Okay I'm happy price
and I am chief engineer

86
00:10:14,155 --> 00:10:17,950
for NASA's
Mars Exploration Program at JPL.

87
00:10:18,284 --> 00:10:19,201
Great.

88
00:10:19,201 --> 00:10:21,370
Okay, so, you know,
we're here to talk about Mariner four.

89
00:10:21,370 --> 00:10:25,124
Yes. Can you summarize and I'm looking
for, like, really some vital

90
00:10:25,124 --> 00:10:26,417
billion versions here.

91
00:10:26,417 --> 00:10:29,420
The significance of the Mariner
four mission.

92
00:10:29,462 --> 00:10:32,465
So Mariner
four is a great inspiration to me

93
00:10:32,673 --> 00:10:36,135
because as a young kid, I was interested

94
00:10:36,135 --> 00:10:39,639
in spaceflight and astronomy.

95
00:10:39,639 --> 00:10:43,142
And so I had read the works
of Schiaparelli

96
00:10:43,142 --> 00:10:46,312
and Percival Lowell
and seen their maps of Mars with canals.

97
00:10:46,687 --> 00:10:50,232
And our school library had The Martian
Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

98
00:10:50,232 --> 00:10:53,361
So I read those.
And so I was very excited.

99
00:10:53,569 --> 00:10:55,613
In the summer after fifth grade,

100
00:10:55,613 --> 00:10:59,200
when Mariner four was going to go by Mars
and get the first Close-Up pictures.

101
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:00,201
And, you know,

102
00:11:00,201 --> 00:11:03,621
I was just waiting with bated breath
to see the first pictures come back.

103
00:11:03,913 --> 00:11:07,249
And I was expecting to see canals
and ancient cities.

104
00:11:07,541 --> 00:11:11,754
And I was a little disappointed to see
craters in this moon like landscape.

105
00:11:11,754 --> 00:11:14,757
But it was 
it was still very inspirational to me.

106
00:11:15,049 --> 00:11:18,803
And so then, after that,
I always followed all the Mariner

107
00:11:18,803 --> 00:11:22,932
missions, the following missions to Mars
and, the Mariner to Venus.

108
00:11:23,808 --> 00:11:24,100
Yeah.

109
00:11:24,100 --> 00:11:27,937
So can you also touch on
I mean, this was the first time

110
00:11:27,937 --> 00:11:31,065
that we've had a spacecraft
to take pictures of another planet.

111
00:11:31,065 --> 00:11:32,149
Is that is that right?

112
00:11:32,149 --> 00:11:35,069
Yes. That's right. Can you
can you talk about that?

113
00:11:35,069 --> 00:11:38,280
That is a huge
first for us to get these images to,

114
00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:40,783
to get this close
and be able to do this thing,

115
00:11:40,783 --> 00:11:43,786
like maybe talk about that
part of its significance as well.

116
00:11:44,036 --> 00:11:44,412
Yeah.

117
00:11:44,412 --> 00:11:47,540
Yeah. So, so that was, very impressive.

118
00:11:47,540 --> 00:11:52,128
And I was reading about JPL
and about the spacecraft,

119
00:11:52,503 --> 00:11:54,797
and, I was just amazed that we are.

120
00:11:54,797 --> 00:11:57,967
And we never had the capability
to fly to Mars and take images of it

121
00:11:58,217 --> 00:11:59,719
and learn more about it.

122
00:11:59,719 --> 00:12:03,514
And then the the images that came back
from the next flybys of Mars.

123
00:12:03,514 --> 00:12:09,145
I think this Mariner six and seven,
they, showed more interesting

124
00:12:09,145 --> 00:12:13,190
features like volcanoes and things
that look like riverbed kind of thing.

125
00:12:13,190 --> 00:12:16,485
So, you know, it became a little bit
more interesting and more lifelike.

126
00:12:17,194 --> 00:12:18,279
For the later images.

127
00:12:18,279 --> 00:12:22,158
And then when Mariner nine went to Mars,
it mapped the whole planet

128
00:12:22,283 --> 00:12:24,744
and we could see Mariner Valley
and all of that stuff.

129
00:12:24,744 --> 00:12:27,788
And, I was still in school
and fascinated by all that.

130
00:12:27,788 --> 00:12:32,960
And, I really wanted to work at JPL
and design spacecraft like that

131
00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:35,171
when I grew
up. You know, that was my dream.

132
00:12:36,922 --> 00:12:37,214
Yeah.

133
00:12:37,214 --> 00:12:39,592
So I guess
maybe we can talk about that a little bit.

134
00:12:39,592 --> 00:12:41,051
But maybe can you describe, like,

135
00:12:41,051 --> 00:12:44,805
specifically how the Mariner for mission
was inspirational for you?

136
00:12:45,473 --> 00:12:46,056
Yeah, yeah.

137
00:12:46,056 --> 00:12:48,976
It was inspirational in
just seeing the first image close up

138
00:12:48,976 --> 00:12:51,979
images of Mars and learning more
about what my eyes look like.

139
00:12:52,062 --> 00:12:54,857
And it kind of shattered
the dream of the canals

140
00:12:54,857 --> 00:12:58,152
and cities on Mars,
but just learning more about,

141
00:12:58,152 --> 00:13:02,323
Mars and what it was like on the surface,
what the atmosphere was like.

142
00:13:02,323 --> 00:13:04,408
I thought it was a very interesting.

143
00:13:04,408 --> 00:13:04,700
Yeah.

144
00:13:04,700 --> 00:13:06,702
On that note,
can you talk a little bit about

145
00:13:06,702 --> 00:13:08,871
about what
the mission taught us about Mars?

146
00:13:08,871 --> 00:13:11,248
You just mentioned the atmosphere
and the surface.

147
00:13:11,248 --> 00:13:13,918
I mean,
those are the biggest takeaways, right?

148
00:13:13,918 --> 00:13:17,838
So Mariner four
had the first clues about Mars

149
00:13:17,838 --> 00:13:21,550
and what it was like, but there wasn't
that much information about it.

150
00:13:21,884 --> 00:13:24,512
So the follow on missions,
especially Mariner nine,

151
00:13:24,512 --> 00:13:27,765
you know, we learned a lot more
about the geology and,

152
00:13:27,765 --> 00:13:30,768
and potentially
what the history of Mars was.

153
00:13:30,893 --> 00:13:34,480
And then, 
we had Mars, the other Mars orbiters,

154
00:13:34,855 --> 00:13:37,858
like Viking, provided much more data.

155
00:13:37,942 --> 00:13:41,987
And then the Viking landers, you know,
really provided the surface truth of that.

156
00:13:41,987 --> 00:13:46,992
So although Mariner four didn't
provide that much data,

157
00:13:46,992 --> 00:13:51,330
it was still revolutionary, just in seeing
what the surface of Mars looked like

158
00:13:51,330 --> 00:13:54,792
and that it was cratered,
that the atmosphere was a very thin,

159
00:13:55,251 --> 00:13:59,421
you know,
there was no sign of, of life on Mars.

160
00:13:59,421 --> 00:14:02,424
And before Mariner four,
people didn't really know,

161
00:14:02,591 --> 00:14:05,052
you know, they didn't know if there
were canals on Mars or not.

162
00:14:06,470 --> 00:14:09,431
Yeah,
there's even poster work of this mission.

163
00:14:09,431 --> 00:14:13,602
And it's like, you see the spacecraft
and you see Mars, and it looks like

164
00:14:13,602 --> 00:14:18,190
there are like, you know, some type
of civilization built around the surface.

165
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,443
So it really did dispel this idea. Yes.

166
00:14:21,861 --> 00:14:22,278
Yeah.

167
00:14:22,278 --> 00:14:25,281
And, you know,
if you read The Martian Chronicles and,

168
00:14:26,115 --> 00:14:29,994
you saw the, the images,
the, the drawings of Mars

169
00:14:29,994 --> 00:14:33,747
that Percival Lowell made,
you know, you had the idea

170
00:14:33,747 --> 00:14:37,960
that there may have been a civilization
on Mars, but Mars was a dying planet,

171
00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,130
and maybe the cities were all dead
and there were no more Martians there,

172
00:14:41,130 --> 00:14:42,256
which is kind of

173
00:14:42,256 --> 00:14:45,926
the theme of The Martian Chronicles,
you know, that the Martians had.

174
00:14:46,176 --> 00:14:50,139
We're all dying out, but, but Mariner
four kind of put the nail in the coffin.

175
00:14:50,139 --> 00:14:52,474
You know, there's,
there were no cities on Mars.

176
00:14:53,684 --> 00:14:53,976
Yeah.

177
00:14:53,976 --> 00:14:54,435
But we.

178
00:14:54,435 --> 00:14:56,312
So maybe we didn't find cities.

179
00:14:56,312 --> 00:14:58,397
We find tiny green men.

180
00:14:58,397 --> 00:15:00,900
But, I mean, this really excited people
in a lot of ways.

181
00:15:00,900 --> 00:15:04,111
Can you
can you talk about, what the mission did?

182
00:15:04,111 --> 00:15:04,570
Exactly?

183
00:15:04,570 --> 00:15:08,449
I understand that it flew by Mars
and it took 21 pictures.

184
00:15:08,490 --> 00:15:11,201
Right. Can you just talk about that?
That part of the mission itself?

185
00:15:11,201 --> 00:15:11,535
Yeah.

186
00:15:11,535 --> 00:15:15,122
It, Mariner four, I just took a small set

187
00:15:15,122 --> 00:15:18,125
of snapshots across the planet of Mars.

188
00:15:18,167 --> 00:15:21,879
And it was a very narrow view of Mars.

189
00:15:21,879 --> 00:15:24,340
So we didn't see Mariner Valley.

190
00:15:24,340 --> 00:15:27,426
We didn't see the volcanoes, but,

191
00:15:27,426 --> 00:15:31,180
but we did learn something
about the geology of Mars from that.

192
00:15:31,180 --> 00:15:34,350
And it kind of what our appetite
for the missions that followed.

193
00:15:35,351 --> 00:15:36,268
Yeah.

194
00:15:36,268 --> 00:15:40,314
So for you, you know, the
as those first images were coming in, I.

195
00:15:40,314 --> 00:15:42,191
What like what

196
00:15:42,191 --> 00:15:42,775
what was it like

197
00:15:42,775 --> 00:15:46,570
for you to see this sort of, like, grainy
black and white photo of another planet?

198
00:15:46,570 --> 00:15:47,237
I mean, it was.

199
00:15:47,237 --> 00:15:48,405
I was amazed by that.

200
00:15:48,405 --> 00:15:51,992
I was very impressed
because the telescopic images of Mars,

201
00:15:51,992 --> 00:15:53,410
you know,
it didn't show anything like that.

202
00:15:53,410 --> 00:15:56,747
And we just had no idea
what the surface of Mars looked like.

203
00:15:57,081 --> 00:15:57,498
And so

204
00:15:57,498 --> 00:16:00,542
although it's a little disappointing
to see that it looked more like the moon

205
00:16:00,542 --> 00:16:04,505
than the than the Earth,
it was still very fascinating for me,

206
00:16:05,089 --> 00:16:08,175
the team bacteria, JPL,
it was so eager to see

207
00:16:08,175 --> 00:16:12,179
the first image of Mars, so they couldn't
wait for all the data to to come through.

208
00:16:12,179 --> 00:16:15,307
My understanding is that they were hey,
can you talk about this sort of, like,

209
00:16:15,432 --> 00:16:17,726
color by number? Oh, yeah.

210
00:16:17,726 --> 00:16:18,185
Yeah, yeah.

211
00:16:18,185 --> 00:16:22,690
So, you know, the images, came back
as just, ones

212
00:16:22,690 --> 00:16:27,820
and zeros and, and numbers
for what the pixels were like.

213
00:16:28,070 --> 00:16:31,991
And so, some people at JPL
printed it out, you know, on a printer

214
00:16:31,991 --> 00:16:33,826
and had this big, long printout,

215
00:16:33,826 --> 00:16:37,287
and they had colored pencils
and they were just coloring in,

216
00:16:37,287 --> 00:16:40,749
you know what the number said to come up
with, the first images.

217
00:16:41,500 --> 00:16:44,795
What I think is funny about that
story, too, is I understand that,

218
00:16:45,004 --> 00:16:48,007
you know, GPS was trying
to keep the media away from seeing this.

219
00:16:48,090 --> 00:16:48,465
All right?

220
00:16:48,465 --> 00:16:50,718
It's like,
you know, arts and crafts project.

221
00:16:50,718 --> 00:16:51,427
Yeah.

222
00:16:51,427 --> 00:16:53,595
They wanted to show the actual image,

223
00:16:53,595 --> 00:16:56,598
but in reality,
everybody was so excited that this,

224
00:16:56,724 --> 00:17:00,936
this, drawing, so to speak, actually
became the first TV image of Mars.

225
00:17:01,270 --> 00:17:02,563
Yes. Right.

226
00:17:02,563 --> 00:17:02,980
Yeah. Yeah.

227
00:17:02,980 --> 00:17:05,107
So, so as a kid, I didn't see that.

228
00:17:05,107 --> 00:17:08,986
The first images I saw
were the official public released images

229
00:17:08,986 --> 00:17:11,822
that, that, that were in the newspaper
and in the magazines.

230
00:17:11,822 --> 00:17:13,282
Very cool. Yeah.

231
00:17:13,282 --> 00:17:14,033
All right.

232
00:17:14,033 --> 00:17:16,660
See me.

233
00:17:16,660 --> 00:17:19,705
Okay,
so we've been on Mars now for 60 years.

234
00:17:19,997 --> 00:17:23,250
Maybe it's worth just talking
about the significance of that milestone.

235
00:17:23,250 --> 00:17:25,335
60 years at Mars.

236
00:17:25,335 --> 00:17:27,880
Yeah. So we've had many missions to Mars.

237
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:33,552
And right now in the Mars program, we have
three orbiters and two rovers at Mars.

238
00:17:33,552 --> 00:17:36,597
And they're all curiosity,
you know, producing incredible science.

239
00:17:36,597 --> 00:17:40,934
We we continue to learn more about Mars,
you know, in its past and,

240
00:17:40,934 --> 00:17:44,480
how Mars got the way it is,
you know, the atmosphere on Mars.

241
00:17:44,772 --> 00:17:48,108
And all of this is a very helpful
looking forward

242
00:17:48,108 --> 00:17:51,070
to, paving the way for humans
to go to Mars.

243
00:17:51,195 --> 00:17:55,074
You know, because there's a lot we need
to know about, potential landing sites

244
00:17:55,365 --> 00:17:56,825
where water is on Mars.

245
00:17:56,825 --> 00:18:00,496
You know, we now know that,
there are areas of Mars

246
00:18:00,496 --> 00:18:05,667
that have huge subsurface glaciers
with, lots and lots of fresh water

247
00:18:05,918 --> 00:18:09,046
and some of these areas,
like in the Arcadia region of Mars,

248
00:18:09,421 --> 00:18:13,008
which is like around 40 degrees
north latitude,

249
00:18:13,467 --> 00:18:17,429
just has a very, shallow
covering of soil over it.

250
00:18:17,429 --> 00:18:20,432
So, you know, it's
not that hard to get down to the water.

251
00:18:20,557 --> 00:18:23,852
And to me,
I'm really excited about humans

252
00:18:23,852 --> 00:18:27,731
exploring Mars, because I think
they will be able to do a better job

253
00:18:27,731 --> 00:18:32,236
of searching for signs of past
and perhaps even present life on Mars.

254
00:18:32,361 --> 00:18:35,114
And when we're talking
about microbial life on Mars.

255
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:37,783
Yeah, that was going to be my next
question.

256
00:18:37,783 --> 00:18:40,786
Is what you hope for future
exploration of Mars?

257
00:18:40,786 --> 00:18:45,082
So what would be, you know,
as we're making these discoveries

258
00:18:45,082 --> 00:18:49,211
now, what is your message
to this next generation of explorers?

259
00:18:49,211 --> 00:18:52,214
What would you say
to to the young version of Happy?

260
00:18:52,965 --> 00:18:56,593
Well, I would say that,
you know, there's a great future in space

261
00:18:56,593 --> 00:19:00,472
exploration, both for robotic exploration
and human exploration.

262
00:19:01,098 --> 00:19:04,101
Private companies
like SpaceX and Blue Origin

263
00:19:04,268 --> 00:19:08,230
clearly have a vision of humanity
expanding out into space.

264
00:19:08,772 --> 00:19:13,360
And and robotic exploration
will certainly be important for that,

265
00:19:13,610 --> 00:19:18,198
because I think a lot of the tasks
that are done to support human exploration

266
00:19:18,198 --> 00:19:21,702
will actually be done by robotic probes,
you know, to find landing sites

267
00:19:21,910 --> 00:19:26,540
and just to support the human missions,
because, you know, humans have incredible

268
00:19:26,540 --> 00:19:30,377
capability, like as a geologist on Mars
to look for signs of life.

269
00:19:30,669 --> 00:19:34,339
But as far as a lot of the incidental
things like setting up

270
00:19:34,339 --> 00:19:38,719
infrastructure and maintaining things,
making a lot of the science observations,

271
00:19:38,719 --> 00:19:43,015
I think that that, the robotic systems
will be more effective.

272
00:19:43,015 --> 00:19:45,142
So it'll be humans
and robots working together,

273
00:19:46,393 --> 00:19:47,769
just like Star Wars.

274
00:19:47,769 --> 00:19:48,729
Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

275
00:19:48,729 --> 00:19:51,315
The droids were there,
you know, they couldn't

276
00:19:51,315 --> 00:19:54,276
they couldn't do what they were doing
without all the droids.

277
00:19:54,276 --> 00:19:55,611
Right

278
00:19:55,611 --> 00:19:56,361
now, I think this is.

279
00:19:56,361 --> 00:19:58,739
But, 
these are just a few questions that I had.

280
00:19:58,739 --> 00:20:01,450
Was there anything that you would want to
add about this mission

281
00:20:01,450 --> 00:20:04,912
or your experience, you know, watching it
or how it inspired you?

282
00:20:05,537 --> 00:20:08,207
Yeah,
I think Mariner four had a tremendous

283
00:20:08,207 --> 00:20:11,418
benefit for for the United States
and for the world.

284
00:20:11,668 --> 00:20:15,464
And developing new technology
is really inspiring a new generation.

285
00:20:15,464 --> 00:20:20,344
I mean, it was largely Mariner four
that started off the spark

286
00:20:20,344 --> 00:20:22,012
and my mind of studying space

287
00:20:22,012 --> 00:20:25,724
science and astronomy
and and wanting to work in this field.

288
00:20:26,058 --> 00:20:28,977
And so I think, looking forward,

289
00:20:28,977 --> 00:20:35,025
it's important for the space program
to continue, to develop new technology,

290
00:20:35,150 --> 00:20:38,862
which I think, really
helps out the economy in the long run.

291
00:20:38,862 --> 00:20:41,198
You know,
you need to look ahead to the future.

292
00:20:41,198 --> 00:20:44,284
And clearly,
the space program has had a big payoff,

293
00:20:44,534 --> 00:20:46,703
and I think it will continue to do that.

294
00:20:46,703 --> 00:20:48,664
And also just inspiring people.

295
00:20:49,790 --> 00:20:51,208
Absolutely.

296
00:20:51,208 --> 00:20:54,795
And learning more about,
our solar system,

297
00:20:54,795 --> 00:20:58,632
the cosmos, and really,
our place in the universe.

298
00:20:58,966 --> 00:21:03,220
And, you know, we have now discovered
lots of exoplanets.

299
00:21:03,220 --> 00:21:05,806
There are people searching for radio
signals from aliens.

300
00:21:05,806 --> 00:21:07,808
And, you know, eventually, someday,

301
00:21:07,808 --> 00:21:10,978
maybe, we'll learn if there are other
civilizations out there.

302
00:21:11,812 --> 00:21:13,647
It's obviously one of
the biggest questions we have. Right?

303
00:21:13,647 --> 00:21:15,857
Are we alone? Yeah. Exactly.

304
00:21:15,857 --> 00:21:16,233
What?

305
00:21:16,233 --> 00:21:19,236
What is your biggest question about Mars?

306
00:21:19,695 --> 00:21:20,821
Biggest question about Mars?

307
00:21:20,821 --> 00:21:25,617
I think it's, whether there was past
and present life on Mars, microbial life.

308
00:21:25,617 --> 00:21:28,870
Because when you go back, to like 3.5

309
00:21:28,870 --> 00:21:32,040
billion years ago, the conditions on Mars
and Earth were very similar.

310
00:21:32,332 --> 00:21:36,586
And, life arose very quickly
on the Earth, microscopic life,

311
00:21:36,586 --> 00:21:39,965
as soon as the conditions were right,
you know, life arose here.

312
00:21:40,299 --> 00:21:43,552
And so it begs the question, did life
similarly

313
00:21:43,552 --> 00:21:46,638
arise on Mars
to, you know, this microbial life?

314
00:21:46,638 --> 00:21:50,517
And there's some tantalizing things
we've seen, like, like,

315
00:21:50,517 --> 00:21:55,022
perseverance rover has taken a core sample
of this rock called Shyama Falls,

316
00:21:55,314 --> 00:21:58,567
which is this cool rock that has these
little leopard spots on them.

317
00:21:58,775 --> 00:22:00,193
And when we see

318
00:22:00,193 --> 00:22:03,655
those kind of rocks on Earth,
the first thing we think of is, oh, yeah,

319
00:22:03,655 --> 00:22:07,159
this was modified by microorganisms,
you know, billions of years ago.

320
00:22:07,492 --> 00:22:10,996
And so it doesn't mean
that you have a false rock on Mars,

321
00:22:11,371 --> 00:22:14,082
was modified by microorganisms.

322
00:22:14,082 --> 00:22:18,545
But, you know, there's a tantalizing idea
that it may have been.

323
00:22:19,004 --> 00:22:22,007
And so we have a great core
sample of that rock.

324
00:22:22,049 --> 00:22:25,427
We have an image of the end of the core,
and you can see a leopard spot

325
00:22:25,427 --> 00:22:25,969
right there.

326
00:22:25,969 --> 00:22:28,930
So I think it's really important
to bring that sample back

327
00:22:28,930 --> 00:22:33,852
as soon as possible and learn
whether there is potential evidence

328
00:22:33,852 --> 00:22:37,439
that there were microbes on Mars
3.5 billion years ago.

329
00:22:38,106 --> 00:22:40,359
Awesome, I agree, let's get that back.

330
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:42,819
Yeah, yeah. Bring back those samples.

331
00:22:42,819 --> 00:22:43,070
All right.

332
00:22:43,070 --> 00:22:45,739
Let me check with these guys and see
if they have any questions I know. Okay.

333
00:22:46,865 --> 00:22:47,115
Is there

334
00:22:47,115 --> 00:22:50,577
anything you guys would ask
that maybe missed eating okay okay.

335
00:22:50,869 --> 00:22:51,953
All right. I think we're good.

336
00:22:51,953 --> 00:22:54,164
Okay. Excellent. Great. Thank you so much.