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well the international space station is

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helping prepare us to carry out deep

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space exploration missions of the future

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to destinations like an asteroid and

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ultimately to the planet mars

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much of that work here at nasa to

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prepare for those missions is being done

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under the direction and guidance of the

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agency's human exploration and

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operations directorate which is led by

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associate administrator bill

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gerstenmaier who joins us here in the

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international space station flight

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control room this morning

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nice to have you here it's great to be

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here tell me what you're doing here in

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houston park this uh

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presentation you're a part of today yeah

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i get a chance today to talk to the

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teams here in houston about the future

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and our plans for exploration um you

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know we have many things on it going

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right now we have the space station

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which is really the first piece of space

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station activity or exploration that

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we're doing we call that kind of the

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earth reliant region as you can see last

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week when the crew came up on the soyuz

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you know a six-hour jaunt from the earth

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to the space station is not too tough

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and we get there if we have parts we

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need to bring back like the suit that

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you described earlier that we were able

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to deliver that on the spacex dragon

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vehicle but as we think about moving

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human presence out into the solar system

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we have to start breaking those ties

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with the earth so we kind of move from

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this earth-reliant region and the space

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station and activities that we do there

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to a region we're calling the proving

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ground of space and that reaches out

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somewhere around the moon to kind of the

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cis lunar space or the region between

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the earth and the moon and the idea

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there is to to gain experience in

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operating kind of away from the home

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planet where it now takes five days

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potentially to get back if something

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doesn't work right you have to do

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rendezvous potentially on the other side

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of the moon where you have to do

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autonomous rendezvous without the ground

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teams being able to watch and monitor

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things we also get a chance to look at

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news and things like lunar gravity

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assist to maneuver spacecraft around

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we get a chance to kind of practice

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things that you're going to want to go

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do when they really become more serious

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as you move into kind of this third

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region so further even further away

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and so if you think about the apollo

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program what we did in

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mercury and gemini is we did a series of

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flights that really prepared us for

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apollo we did eva activities to prepare

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for those we did rendezvous proximity

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operations in both the lunar

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vicinity and also on the earth or in the

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vicinity of the earth so we need to do

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the same things in this proving ground

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region of space so that's kind of our

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next location we will do that with the

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asteroid redirect mission so instead of

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going out to an asteroid the intent is

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to bring an asteroid back in around the

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moon and then allows us to go practice

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in this proving ground region of space

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then eventually we get to this further

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out region which we call essentially

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earth independent so by the time we're

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there ready to do mars class missions we

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need to be really independent of earth

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where our crews can really operate we've

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got the risk level up we understand the

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operations and techniques but the cool

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thing is really all this stuff really

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starts back at the space station so the

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things you talked about today where the

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the crews are looking at the

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the uh how the biology system of the

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human changes in the microgravity

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environment that's going to be obviously

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important to see how the microbiome of

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the of the human changes as you're there

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for a year so you want to learn that

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here if there's something unique that's

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not quite right with the way things work

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you want to know now yeah

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the crew is working with the veggie

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which is interesting you know before

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we've we just did

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plant research to to grow unique plants

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do we understand the genomics of the

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plants and we were trying to understand

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how to feed ourselves not trying to feed

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ourselves so this is the first time

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we're actually growing plants with the

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intent that we can we can actually eat

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these and this will augment the crew's

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food supply which will be which will be

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intriguing and interesting so it'll be

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neat to see the images from station see

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how big the plants are growing this time

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we'll freeze these these plants will

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bring them back to the earth to just

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make sure that there's nothing from a

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biological standpoint that's occurred at

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a plant that would be problems if you

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went ahead and ate it so it's it's kind

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of one quick check before we do that but

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then the crews will essentially now have

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potentially a source of fresh vegetables

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and lettuce

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for there to augment their daily uh diet

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which i think will be interesting to the

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crews here but absolutely mandatory as

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we go on exploration class missions we

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try to talk about that a lot and how the

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work that's being done on the station is

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building towards these other things and

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and and it's the other things it's the

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going to mars that tends to get people

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really excited yeah i think you know

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when you

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you know some people kind of go well why

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mars well part of the reason for mars is

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it's it has some basic capabilities of

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things that we can use so we don't have

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to carry everything with this you know

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we it has a carbon dioxide environment

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or atmosphere um so we we can

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potentially pull oxygen out of the

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atmosphere with a like a sabati a

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reactor very similar to what we do on

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space station

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and so we can pull that oxygen out to

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compress it and then we have a source of

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oxygen to breathe and then also

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potentially oxygen was an important

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component of rocket fuel to potentially

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get you off of mars when it's time to

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come home we also know mars has a lot of

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moisture if you look at the physic

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phoenix lander in the northern poles of

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mars there's moisture there water so

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we've got water which we can use we also

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know there's nitrogen present in the

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martian environment that's an important

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component of growing food we believe the

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martian soil could potentially support

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growth of plants we'll maybe get a

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chance to look at that in some other

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investigations and we have a radiation

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monitor now actually on the rover

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curiosity rover that runs around and

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monitors the daily radiation environment

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on the surface of mars so so the point

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is mars has many things that we can use

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to make our journey tolerable to go

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those distances so we don't have to

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carry everything with this so we'll

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spend the next couple years

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investigating things about what we can

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use in the martian environment

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to to prepare us for eventually going

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there so when you when you think about

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it we're really kind of moving human

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presence from

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from the earth essentially into the

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solar system in one destination and one

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of the first destinations will be mars

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after we get through this kind of

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proving ground region to make sure we're

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really ready to go to commit to those

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mars class missions and we need a ship

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to get there uh where are we where are

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we staying right now in developing the

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the spaceship that will take us to mars

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yeah this last week was a tremendous

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event for the orion capsule they just

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attached the heat shield to the bottom

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of the capsule and that's the largest

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heat shield we've ever flown that

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that'll be flown on this

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expiration flight test in december of

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this year and and progress is moving

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really well you go down to the cape and

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it's exciting to see a real space

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vehicle there it won't have crew on

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board and doesn't have life support but

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it is it is a really a work of art the

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computer systems have all been checked

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out it will now the service module is on

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it'll get mated excuse me now that this

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heat shield is on it'll get mated to the

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service module they'll do some

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structural testings they'll do some more

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final electrical check and then towards

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the middle to end of july it's ready to

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be turned over to the launch vehicle the

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delta iv that'll launch on this fall or

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this december so it's a pretty exciting

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time for the orion team when i do the

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event today mark guyer will be there

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representing the orion team and and

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they're really excited i think i can see

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that

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we prepare for a launch and you see

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those many years of of work coming to

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culmination in in one of these really

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major events so this this is this heat

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shield performance test and returning at

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80 percent of lunar velocity will be a

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really dynamic test kind of interesting

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to see yeah we're also working on

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developing other crew vehicles not to go

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to mars but to to closer locations um

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where are we right now on those yeah

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where we are right now is we're looking

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at the next generation of crew

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transportation vehicles we have a

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procurement out then we have companies

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that have given us proposals for that

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and teams are off evaluating those

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proposals and our intent is to choose a

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commercial crew provider sometime in the

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august september time frame

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that one or one or more

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commercial crew providers in the august

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september time frame that will

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essentially be that next generation of

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low earth orbit transport to and from

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low earth orbit so

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again station is a very unique facility

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in the fact that it allowed us to do the

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cargo flights that we're seeing now

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commercially we acquired those in a very

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different way than we have before where

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typically nasa owned the vehicle now

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we're essentially just buying a service

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to transport cargo and then now we'll be

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getting ready to go essentially by a

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service to transport crew and and it's

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an exciting time to see these new

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providers come online so bring some new

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ideas

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take advantage of much of the research

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that nasa's done in the past and put it

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together in a vehicle that they can use

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to service nasa's needs but then they

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can also use it for their own needs and

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so it's a pretty exciting time and and

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station also potentially can be

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an innovation engine it can let

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commercial companies experiment with

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microgravity and see how it can affect

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the research that they're doing today so

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you know we we know

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bacteria mutate differently in space for

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some reason so could pharmaceutical

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companies use that to be potentially

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find new

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drugs or new vaccines

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so we're trying to expose terrestrial

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pharmaceutical companies to the

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environment of of space to see if they

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can use those unique properties in the

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microgravity environment to have them

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gain a research advantage over companies

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that are not doing research in

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microgravity so maybe they will come

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online and say we really need to do this

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research so then it's not just kind of

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the government's pushing research in

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space now terrestrial companies have a

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real need and they really want to go to

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space so we see that in in the

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pharmaceutical area we see it in new

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drug testing we'll fly some rodents on

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spacex the next spacex flight this

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summer

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and those rodents can be used kind of as

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a pass fail test to see if bone loss

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medication is effective because we know

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our crews lose bone

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so

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you'll get a very quick answer whether

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this drug is effective in controlling

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those things so

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our job is to expose essentially what we

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see every day in space and unique

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properties to a much broader community

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here on the earth and we use space

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station to do that and then they've got

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cargo established to their providers and

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they'll have crew provided also so then

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eventually someday they could have their

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own space station as nasa continues to

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push that edge and continues to keep

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moving humans further and further into

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the solar system very exciting to be

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part of it too thanks for

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giving us a couple of minutes

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thank you very much today bill

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gerstenmaier is our nasa associate