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[Music]

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when i was a little girl

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i remember standing in my yard almost

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every night staring into the sky at a

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i thought about what i learned in

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science class about the robots that

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humans sent to study and explore mars

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they were pretty limited in how far they

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could travel along its surface

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but the information they sent back

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transformed that red dot into an entire

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world

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they revealed evidence of water on mars

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from long ago and found organic

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compounds

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the chemical building blocks of life

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which suggested that it had possibly

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once been the home of tiny creatures

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the most recent robot they sent in the

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2020s continued in the search for

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evidence of past life on mars

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but it also had another goal

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to help pave the way for the first

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generation of humans to land on mars

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[Music]

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as we approach mars the idea of landing

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on its surface still feels like a

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distant dream

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the orbits of earth and mars around the

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sun allow for a trek to the planet about

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every 26 months or so

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which means round-trip missions can take

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anywhere from one to three years

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for this mission we will arrive back to

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earth just after a year and a half from

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launch

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it's surreal to know we will be the

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first humans to arrive to this world

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and that we will lay the foundation for

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future explorers

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a few of us might even return back to

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mars

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[Music]

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i've never really liked the colonial

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language that often clutters

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conversations about space exploration

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this is not manifest destiny

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this is the universe

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stretching its limbs a little further

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we are knocking on our neighbor's door

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one of the biggest questions is

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if there will be anyone there to answer

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the atmosphere of mars is 100 times

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thinner than earth's

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what's left of that atmosphere is 95

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carbon dioxide

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the average temperature of the planet is

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a frigid negative 55 degrees celsius

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if i let my imagination run wild

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i can dream of encountering ancient

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fossils from another epic that offers a

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glimpse into what life was like on mars

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when the lakes and rivers were abundant

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if life does exist on mars today it's

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likely in the form of microbes that the

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previous missions have suggested

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tiny martians scattered across the clay

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and soil on its surface

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if we do discover life

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we will know that the red point of light

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in our sky is living

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how many other points of light might

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illuminate a kaleidoscope of life hidden

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in the sky

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if there's life on mars

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i believe we should do nothing to

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disturb that life

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but if we arrive at a barren world

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we ourselves might learn to become its

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creatures

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slowly breathing life into the planet

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until that breath becomes its very

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atmosphere

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what we have learned from the harm we've

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caused the earth

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sometime soon i will find myself in a

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strange position

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i will look into the night sky but

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that red point of light that i love so

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much will have

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vanished instead

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a blue point of light will glimmer above

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me

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delicately suspended among countless

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and as i look at that blue point of

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light

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[Music]

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i will be looking at the home of every

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human being in the universe

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and i will hope that someone

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perhaps even a few people

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will be looking up at that red point of

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light in their sky

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and in that moment

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we will see each other across the solar

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system

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and i will say