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thanks Selena and thank you for allowing

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me the opportunity to come here and talk

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about my favorite subject I am Doug Ming

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I'm the chief scientist for the ash

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materials exploration and research Rex

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parade s materials research and

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expiration science division here at the

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Johnson Space Center and yes I am a

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scientist I have a doctor's degree in

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mineralogy and I have been working here

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at Johnson Space Center for just about

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30 years when I first came here I got

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heavily involved in the band's life

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support program and so for about 15

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years I worked really hard on that

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particular effort of how we could

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develop life support systems for

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long-duration missions on the moon and

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on Mars about 15 years ago I had the

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really unique opportunity to get more

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into this back into the science that I

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was trained in I had the opportunity to

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get involved in a marsh land admission

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since that time I've been very fortunate

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to be actively involved in five landed

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missions to the surface of Mars on the

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science and the operation teams so when

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people ask me what I do I tell them i

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say i go to work on Mars every day now I

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don't put my boots on the surface but

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through the eyes of these robotic

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missions I am able to do research almost

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real time on the surface so it's great

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that I get up and say I'm going to work

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on Mars today now i am evolved in two

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missions right now i'm involved in the

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mars exploration rover Opportunity and

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i'm also on the science and operation

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teams for the Mars Science Laboratory

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Curiosity I have a job that I do for the

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curiosity mission I am what they call

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the science operation working group

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chair and what that is is I am the one

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that leads the science team in defining

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what the rover is going to do for that

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particular day on Mars are we going to

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drive over there are we going to look at

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that rock are we going to drill this

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rock what are we going to do so I've

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been heavily involved in leading those

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tactical operations and it's been a

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really honor to be in that position now

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we all know here in Texas everything is

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bigger in Texas we've all heard that how

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many times

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well folks Mars has really big features

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Valley Marineris stretches all the way

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from the eastern to the western coast of

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the United States boobs here on earth

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and Olympus Mons is the highest volcano

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in the solar system it's three times

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higher than the highest volcano on earth

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which is Mon Aloha out in Hawaii and

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that's from the base down in the in the

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ocean all the way to its top now we

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landed in Gale Crater with curiosity and

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things are also big in for curiosity and

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Gale Crater it's 150 5 kilometer wide

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diameter crater then has this mound in

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the middle no as I said mound but to us

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here on earth that is a mountain it's

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over 16,000 feet high from the floor of

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the crater itself and you can see Mount

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Rainier is only about fourteen thousand

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four hundred feet and so if you're

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standing in Seattle Tacoma looking off

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at Mount Rainier that is an incredible

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view well you can well imagine the view

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that it is for our rover curiosity on

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Mars right now so the prime goals of the

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mission are to characterize and assess

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the past habitability at the landing

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site both present and past could life

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have evolved and could it have persisted

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there we're doing that by living to

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biological potential what are the

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elements for life are they there that

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are necessary characterizing the geology

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and geochemistry looking for water water

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is important for life right and then

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also looking at the record in the rocks

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themselves the mineralogy to look at

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what past climates on Mars might have

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looked like we also have it pay on the

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payload and the capability to do

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radiation assessment we launched

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November 26 2011 we landed august six

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2012 and this is an incredible image

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caught by our hi-rise camera on the Mars

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Reconnaissance Orbiter as the parachute

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was an spacecraft were going into entry

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descent and landing now edl this was six

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to seven minutes of terror

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error they called it and there was a lot

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of things that happened parachutes

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deploying slowing down the spacecraft

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breaking away from that parachute and

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then descending to the surface with a

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controlled descent Lander in the form of

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a sky crane and on a tether we rolled

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out the rover when it hit the ground the

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wheels were deployed we were ready to

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roll the sky crane was released and flew

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away this image is a high-rise image on

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the left side are the burn marks from

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that decent Lander you can see and then

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we made tracks over to the east about a

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kilometre mile and you can see the rover

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tracks of curiosity here to an area

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called Yellowknife Bay this is a low and

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this in these lows is where you would

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expect what water to accumulate so our

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theory was this was an area where water

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might have actually a pundit on our way

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down there we stopped at this wind

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blowing deposit called rocknest and here

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you can see rocknest that in front the

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rover we used the scoop to scoop up some

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of this material this image was taken

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with our geologic Hamlin's the Molly

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that was out on the end of the arm and

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back off in the distance you see that

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monsters looming Mount sharp now he took

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some of this material and we deliver it

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to our instruments we also looked at the

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physical chemical mineralogical

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properties of this material and you can

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imagine how important this is not only

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for science but to understand these

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materials on how they will interact with

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our humans and machines when they're on

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Mars how will the effect our spacecraft

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suits airlocks and the humans themselves

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all important questions that are being

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answered by the datasets being returned

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by curiosity now we deliver some this

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material to one of our estimates on

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board the spacecraft this instrument of

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the sample analysis of Mars or the Sam

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instrument and what this does it heats

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the sample up and it sniffs the gases

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that are driven off with a gas analyzer

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we found water about two-way percent of

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the material here with water could this

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be used for propulsion systems could it

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be used for life support systems this is

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something we need to consider we also

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saw oxygen hydrochloric acid along with

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some hi Courtney

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hydrocarbons being released and we have

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attribute this to a compound called epic

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Laurie chlorate salt is this stuff

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useful or is it dangerous something we

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need to understand so we headed down

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into this low this depression our

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hypothesis of this lake deposit of

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Yellowknife Bay and we came to this area

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that we call the John Klein area and if

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you look at this and it's been a really

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dry year here in houston we got lots of

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clay all of us know what clay is here in

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the houston area and this material is

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wet it's ponded it dries out it cracks

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these are mud cracks now these aren't

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exactly like the ones here in the

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Houston area but these materials have a

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lot of the same properties they're a

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little more resistant there's a little

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bit more fractures in this but there are

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larger fractures that we think could be

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to desiccation of potentially clay type

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materials we drill the hole we had a

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drill on the end of we have a drill on

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the end of our arm we were able to drill

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this material out and put it in one of

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our instruments on the rover and in this

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case we put it in the chemistry and

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mineralogy the chemin instrument and

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this instrument detects the mineralogy

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now there are two images on this

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particular slide on the left is this

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image of this sand deposit this wind

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blowing deposited rocknest that I just

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talked about and on the right is the one

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from this kind of we call it a mudstone

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this really fine grain material that we

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drilled out of this myth the sediment

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and near the bottom of this diagram on

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the right there's this really bright

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bright region and this is due to the

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diffraction of x-rays that's what's

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using this instrument to diffract off of

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the mineral and then this case it's a

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clay mineral called phyllosilicate so we

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discovered that yes this stuff is like

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stuff around Houston this is these are

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clay minerals and we had about 20 weight

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percent of these materials in our sample

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so our conclusion here in this brief

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jaunt over to Yellowknife Bay was that

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this was a intermittent river system

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with probably shallow lake deposits now

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one thing also we found we got the water

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we have an environment that could have

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been supportive of

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biological systems what about the key

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ingredients we did discover carbon

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hydrogen nitrogen oxygen phosphorus and

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sulfur all key for human for living

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systems so we did find what we call a

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habitable environment now we left this

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little jaunt over to Yellowknife Bay and

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we travel nine kilometers down to a

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place called the Pahrump Hills now along

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the way of course we did a lot of

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science and one of those I love this

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picture by the way and I was actually

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leading tactical operations this day and

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I said since I got the final word I was

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able to get this in I said I would

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really like to drive over this

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particular this the positive wind

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blowing materials stop the rover take

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our eyes turn around take a shot of this

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and this was a shot we that we acquired

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now this is great for you know it's a

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beautiful picture number one number two

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it provides us with some science input

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but it really helps with us looking for

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for humans how will our if we have a

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rover or wheels interact with these

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kinds of materials how far do we sink

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these are really key things that we are

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looking at that will feed forward to

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human missions we also notice that all

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of the sedimentary deposits these

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layered deposits of sediment were

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tilting towards Mount sharp what that

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told us is that these were probably

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transported by water systems lakes maybe

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and fall off into a delta into a from a

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river system and they were all tilting

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and depositing towards the mount Sharp's

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suggesting that this at one time had

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quite a bit of water here we had a lot

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of water inside this crater probably

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around three plus billion years ago we

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also discovered not all the time but

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once in a while with our sniffer the

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atmospheric sniffer on the the rover

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that we discovered methane and we didn't

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see it all the time just once in a while

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we would get a signal of methane now we

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didn't get a lot just a few parts per

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billion but this is pretty significant

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we're seeing methane what does that mean

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could mean a lot of things but these

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periodic of discoveries of methane

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suggest that there's some kind of a

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local hot spot now it could be that dust

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is raining down organic

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terial from out there in the cosmos UV

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light is interacting with it and

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degrading it to form methane more likely

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there's a geologic source underneath us

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that is spewing out methane into the

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atmosphere however we cannot rule out

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the possibility if we were on earth

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we've probably attribute that methane to

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what to living systems that is one of

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the by-products methane so it could be

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something dealing with life but more

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likely it's a geologic explanation now

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our friends at headquarters heo heo md

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as we all know was a very important

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contributor to this payload they

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provided a instrument called the

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radiation assessment detector rad to

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look at the radiation environment not

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only on the surface but during transit

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and what we found with this instrument

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is that if you were an astronaut going

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to Mars you're on the surface for five

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days you would basically get in transit

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and on the surface about 1,000

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millisieverts now station for six months

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75 million here in Houston for one year

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2 to 3 milli Siemens so radiation we

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know it's going to be a problem we're

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definitely going to have to address this

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with humans now we just finished about a

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six month campaign at the base of Mount

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sharp we're here what we call the

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foothills of Mount sharp we went up to

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this this this outcrop and we really did

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a detailed characterization here of the

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physical properties the mineralogical

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and chemical properties because this is

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probably the base of Mount sharp this is

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as low as we're going to get in the

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stratigraphic section because here we go

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up there going to be deposited after

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this material now this is a great image

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from high rise this is this prompt hills

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that i just showed in the previous slide

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and what you will notice here is that

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the rover is just leaving / hills and

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we're starting up this dr called artists

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valley and today on Mars it is sold 971

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we've had 971 days mars days of

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operation we have gone over 10

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kilometers of roving and we right now

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are setting at a place called Logan's

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pass that's where the rover is as we

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speak

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so how is curiosity helping us to look

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forward to human missions what is it

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providing us resources what are the

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resources information that we're

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gathering well we know there's water how

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can that water be used can we extract it

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can we then split it and use it for

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propulsion systems coming as they use

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that life support systems what about

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these blue chlorate salts can they be

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used as a fuel as well both in the

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Rockets propulsion systems as well as in

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fuel cells co2 to the atmosphere we know

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we got an atmosphere that contains co2

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can that be extracted can that be

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utilized to potentially make oxygen for

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propulsion systems methane can we find a

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hot spot for methane you know we the

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methane is kind of a hot topic for

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propulsion systems around here at JSC is

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it a possibility we could use methane

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and then the hazards we've got to

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address the hazards as well dust that's

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always on everybody's mind what is going

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to happen when you must get dust in

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their lungs and then the radiation we

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got a pretty good idea about the

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radiation from this this mission and

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then this compound called perchlorates

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is it going to be toxic something we

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will have to address so our goal from

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here on is to continue exploring the

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lower reaches of Mount sharp and let me

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tell you what from the view right now of

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the rover it is absolutely incredible

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we've got these layers these sedimentary

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layers that contain iron oxide they

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contain clay minerals they can claim

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sulfates just a whole entourage of stuff

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and it's it the missions really just

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starting now because the stuff we're

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getting into is just absolutely stunning

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from orbit I can't wait to get there in

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real life so on to the slopes of Mount

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sharp and as we do this curiosity is

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trailblazing in my view the path for