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Chris McKay: I'm Chris McKay.

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I'm a planetary scientist at

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NASA Ames Research Center.

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And this is my Martian Moment!

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(Music)

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Chris McKay : What I'm interested in

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is the dirt on Mars.

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Because when astronauts go to Mars, they're

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going to be walking through the dirt,

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driving through the dirt.

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It's going to get in the habitat, it's going

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to get in the water supply.

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They're going to want to grow crops

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in that dirt.

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So we need to understand the dirt.

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And Mars has already told us that there's

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some surprises in the dirt.

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The Phoenix mission to Mars discovered that

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the form of salt in the dirt on Mars,

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is a form called "perchlorate."

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That's toxic to humans.

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That means we're going to have to wash that

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perchlorate out of the soil before we use it

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to grow crops.

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We're going to have to have ways to remove

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perchlorate from the drinking supply and

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from the air inside the habitat.

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All for human safety.

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What other suprises are there in the dirt?

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We don't know yet.

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So we are working on missions and instruments

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that will analyze the dirt.

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Tell us what other chemicals are in it.

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Search for evidence of any life in it

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or past life in it.

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And that's the way we're preparing for human

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exploration to Mars.

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(Music)