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Welcome to "Watch This Space." I'm NASA
Administrator Jim Bridenstine and NASA

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is going forward to the Moon. This time
we're doing it differently than we've

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ever done it before. Recently, NASA
announced nine commercial partners that

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will take NASA payloads to the surface
of the Moon. These are highlights from

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that recent announcement. Not only are we
announcing today a number of very

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innovative companies that are going to
go to the Moon for the first time

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commercially. In other words, we're going
to buy the service. We're not going to

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purchase own and operate the hardware. 
We're gonna buy the service, but we're

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also announcing a change that I think is
important for NASA and that is this is a

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response to the science community who
has for a long time decided that we

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needed to do science on the surface of
the Moon and yet NASA for a long time

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has focused the Moon within the human
exploration and operations Mission

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Directorate and not the Science Mission
Directorate but now we're changing that.

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We believe there is a lot of amazing
science that we can do on the surface of

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the Moon. In fact, science that we can't
do anywhere other than the surface of

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the Moon. We want multiple providers that
are competing on cost and innovation so

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that we as NASA can do more than we've
ever been able to do before and advance

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the human spirit science and human
exploration go together and we should

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not be surprised that I'm standing here
as a scientist really excited about

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exploring this celestial body right next
door to us. The Moon, like any other body

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in the solar system, the Moon is full of
secrets that we don't know yet. For

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example, if you really want to decide
what the h's of the solar system just

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like you look at the rings of a tree
when you cut it if you want to learn

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that you go to the moon and you analyze
the samples that are there

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today we are at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory the Charles elachi Mission

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Control Center where we had the
opportunity to participate in the Mars

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insight Lander I am here with Emily
manor Chapman who is an instrument

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engineer on the Mars insight Lander and
of course today we've had a very

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exciting day and in fact a very
successful day her part in this was the

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development of instruments that have
been you know not just engineered but

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built and now delivered to the surface
of Mars so congratulations on a

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wonderful day thank you so much
definitely so exciting today that's so

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great tell me what is the instrument
package that you worked on I work with

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what we call the auxilary payload sensor
suite which is a collection of

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environmental or weather sensors oh so
we have a sensor that can measure air

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temperature wind speed atmospheric
pressure and also a magnetometer that

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can measure the magnetic field at Mars
so tell us are we gonna get like

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continuous updates on the weather you
know on Mars we will starting this week

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we'll do a short check out with the
instrument just to make sure everything

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is working correctly after landing if
that's successful then we'll turn on the

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instrument and it basically stays on
almost continuously at that point so we

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will get a full Sol's worth of weather
data every Saul how long is it going to

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take before there's a number of
instruments here and of course your your

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package is one of many instruments
that's right there's a seismometer on

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the mars insight Lander and there's
something called the mole let's let's

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talk about the seismometer first what is
that gonna help us understand

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so the seismometer will measure quakes
on Mars or Mars quakes as we call them

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okay and by looking at the type of
seismic activity on Mars will tell us

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something about how Mars formed and what
it's made of so scientists can look at

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the waves and data picked up by the
instrument tell us about how do seismic

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waves move through the material on Mars
and looking at how they move what

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and I've been told that it can even pick
up like maybe even micro meteor

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meteorites that actually hit the surface
of Mars even on the other side of the

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planet yeah that's correct we think
we'll be able to detect those as well

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wow that's fantastic so okay the mole
tell me about the mole so the purpose of

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the mole is to measure how heat changes
and moves around inside of Mars so the

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mole is kind of a big nail about the
size of my forearm and it can actually

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hammer itself underneath the surface of
Mars and so with the mole we're gonna go

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deeper underneath the surface of Mars
and any other mission has before will go

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down - up to about 15 feet and trailing
behind that mole will be a series of

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temperature sensors and so it will be
able to take temperature over time and

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again see how the heat is moving around
how is it changing inside Mars and again

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that tells us something about how Mars
formed and what it's made of

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amazing tell me what do you know about
the core of Mars well first if you look

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at the at our core here on earth we know
that we have a kind of molten metallic

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core and that core is what drives the
magnetic field that we have here at

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Earth and so as you said we don't see
that mobile magnetic field anymore at

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Mars so we want to find out is the core
liquid or is it solid and what does it

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made of because if we see something it's
like maybe it's a solid core so you

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don't have that dynamo action in the
center of the planet like we do your

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hair so we don't have anything to drive
that magnetic field of Earth and so

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we're actually gonna use radio signals
between a radio signal between the

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lander on Mars and an antenna here on
earth looking at changes in that radio

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signal will tell us about what the core
is made of is it solid or is it so how

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long until we start getting some you
know really serious science data from

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insight it will actually be about two to
three months because the next thing that

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we need to do with insight is so we're
on the surface but as we when we landed

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all of our science instruments are
sitting up on top of the lander and we

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really want to get our seismometer onto
the ground because it's gonna take much

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better data if it's actually in contact
with the Martian surface and for our

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probe obviously it also needs to be on
the ground cuz we wanted to hambar

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underneath the surface so the next two
to three months we're gonna spend using

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the robotic arm and the robotic arm you
could think of like one of those

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carnival games with the claw and you go
and pick stuff up and put it on the

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ground and that's basically robotic arm
has a have little claw and you go pick

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up the instruments and set them onto the
ground so

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in the neck then the coming a couple
weeks we're gonna be looking out where

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did B land taking lots of images to see
what's in front of the Lander picking

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where do we want to put the seismometer
where do we want to put the mole and

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then actually start that process of
using the robotic arm to pick up those

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instruments and get them onto the
surface of Mars amazing well Emily thank

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you for your great work what an amazing
accomplishment today we're all so proud

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of you and your entire team here at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory and of course

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the insight team so thank you so much
for your great work thank you absolutely

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well I'm here with Vivian son who is a
systems engineer here at the Jet

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Propulsion Laboratory and she has been
involved in picking the landing site for

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the Mars 2020 Rover which of course is a
mission happening in 2020 and we're all

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very excited about that so tell us what
goes into selecting a landing site on

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Mars for the 2020 Rover right so
actually this process began several

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years ago so it first started in 2013
when an open call was put out to the

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Mars community basically saying that
anyone who wishes to propose a landing

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site for this Mars 2020 mission can do
so and the only requirements are that

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this landing site had to demonstrate
that there used to be liquid water at

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this site and that this liquid water had
a chemistry that could have supported

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life had it existed on Mars at that time
and so with those requirements the first

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landing site workshop was held in 2013
and there were about 30 years so

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landings like candidates that were put
forth by different members of the

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community and so at the workshop we
discussed the pros and cons of each site

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would each site had to offer what kind
of samples we might collect at every

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site and so in this sort of fashion
we've had several more landing site

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workshops we just concluded with the
fourth and final one this past fall just

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about a month ago
and throughout that process that initial

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list of 30 landing site candidates was
eventually whittled down to the three

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that we had just a month ago which is of
course jezero crater northeast syrtis

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and Columbia Hills and so at the
conclusion of the final landing site we

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discussed again the pros and cons of
every location what a kind of mission

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might look like to each of those sites
and then we came out with jezero crater

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you mentioned that the water was
critically important as the the maybe

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maybe the the the type of chemicals that
would have been in that water that may

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have been able to help support life and
and that's what went into this selection

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process so what we're actually going to
do is cache samples on the surface of

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Mars with the Mars 2020 Rover what what
do we get when we cache samples why do

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we do that so the reason why we've
really

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to cache samples with Mars 2020 and the
reason why this is such a critical step

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for Mars sample return and understanding
the history of Mars and its potential

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for ancient life the reason is because
even though our Rovers are incredibly

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sophisticated on the surface of Mars
they're still limited compared to the

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analyses that we could do here on earth
in our laboratories where we have access

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to the most the state-of-the-art
technologies and so to really look at

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them sample to look at a rock and be
able to tell whether something is the

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true bio signature or whether it's
something that was truly evidence for

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past life you really need to do that
kind of analysis here on earth with our

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sophisticated labs yeah yeah so the idea
is Mars 2020 just passes a sample then

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we have to do a Mars sample return
mission which of course we don't have a

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date for yet but in my view we need to
do it as soon as possible to get those

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samples back to earth and at the end of
it the goal is to discover whether or

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not Mars is habitable or maybe at one
time was habitable or even today

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could it have life is that the intent
here yeah so for sure we want to

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understand whether the environments that
we're investigating were habitable or

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not and from the satellite data or the
orbital data that we have we have pretty

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good hints that there probably habitable
that they used to have water and that

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that water had chemistry that could have
supported life if it existed there but

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what we don't know is if there was life
that's one question if there was life do

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we have evidence that preserves for
example fossils or other bio signatures

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do we have that evidence that there was
past life in any of these

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that's something that we can only figure
out by returning those samples back okay

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well Vivian I want to tell you we're
grateful for your work we're looking

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forward to coming back 26 months from
now and we have a a successful Mars 2020

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landing on the surface of Mars and we'll
we'll revisit this again and talk more

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in depth about what the next steps are
so thank you so much and Mars is a

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wonderful place we need to learn more
thank you you bet we now have an

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opportunity to meet Mimi um who of
course has been highly involved in

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what's called Mars helicopter so when we
said Mars 2020 to Mars in 2020 of course

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it's not only going to have the rover
it's also going to have attached to the

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rover a helicopter that Mimi has been
involved in developing now for many

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years as a matter of fact over four
years so tell me how did this come to

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your mind as an idea was it was it out
there before was it your brainchild had

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it how did this come into being no a
feasibility of helicopters flying at

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Mars have been proven in the early in
the 90s okay in fact Bob elrom who's the

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chief engineer on our project he had
done research in those days showing that

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you know feasible it's possible there's
enough atmosphere to lift fly a

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helicopter the challenge of course is it
has to be very light yeah

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similarly over in Ames you Larry Young
has some research that have been proven

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but the thing that had not made it
possible until recently is the

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availability of technologies with these
lightweight capable flying vehicles okay

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so around 2012 or so our previous
director Charles elachi was on a lab

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tour and he will see these drones being
used to demonstrate autonomous

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navigation algorithms and after the Tory
said hey why don't we do this at Mars

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Wow and so we connected him back in fact
I happened to be on the bus in his tour

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because he was visiting our division
autonomous systems division and I was

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deputy divisions manager of autonomous
systems division at the time anyway so

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so why don't we do this so we connected
him back to Bob Bell Ram who had done

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research in the 90s and then he started
from there okay so maybe tell me why is

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it important to have a helicopter on
Mars today we explore planets from

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spacecraft in orbit and Rovers on the
surface but we're not using the aerial

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dimension to explore surfaces so the
helicopter would open doors to exploring

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you know exploration through aerial
dimension yeah

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and that will help with forward
reconnaissance far ahead of Rovers or in

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the future astronauts right astronauts
are there to explore and so for

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reconnaissance is very important and
it's a new dimension secondly we'll be

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able to get to places we simply can't
get to today right right and and even in

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the future with Rovers or even
astronauts for example you know sites of

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these cliffs right recently there are
these exposed ice carps that have you

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know we would have to fly there to get a
sample and analyze them on Leonard

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assets or bottom of crevasses and steep
volcanoes yeah a new dimension adding it

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so so when the Mars 2020 rover lands the
helicopter will be underneath it is that

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correct that's right and then it will be
released it will unfold and then it will

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take off how long will it be able to fly
we plan to do incremental series of

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flights so the first thing we would want
to do is repeat the flights that we have

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demonstrated in Mars like atmospheric
density in our 25-foot chamber here all

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right so that would be the first flight
we'll want to do you exactly what we

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have modeled and demonstrated on earth
and so we will go up and hover and come

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down go up to 3 meters so I want to take
a moment when you lift off of Mars and

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then set down on Mars what do you think
that moment will be like I would if you

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yeah if I dare say so it would be just
like a rights brother moment yeah really

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because flying in this thin atmosphere
is it just hasn't been done before

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yeah so it's Ordinary tell me about the
atmosphere we compared it to earth what

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is what is it has
it's very thin so compared to earth less

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than 1% of Earth's atmospheric density
so we have algorithms that show that we

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can fly we can control but too real and
we have done experiments on earth in our

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chamber but to definitively demonstrate
doing this on Mars it's the huge master

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will be and ok so as you mentioned you
have your Wright brothers moment where

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you actually take off the surface of
another world and then land again with a

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helicopter okay then after that what's
the next test that you want to do then

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we'll start doing incrementally further
lateral flight so we'll ascend and then

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go laterally start with modestly with a
few tens of meters and they come back

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and land and then after that you know
falling incrementally further up to 150

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meters or so out and back okay and that
would fully confirm all the models all

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the assumptions that we've done in and
can definitively include what it's it's

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weird to think about because when you're
in atmosphere that's that thin as you

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mentioned less than 1% of Earth's
atmosphere it seems like once you start

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going it becomes very difficult to stop
so everything it has to be so much more

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precise the way the way you start moving
requires a certain you know a certain

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amount of you know L over D in order to
tilt the helicopter and move it but then

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you have to be able to stop it but the
atmosphere is sufficiently thin is does

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it does it scale is it comparable to
Earth's atmosphere I mean it seems like

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it's far more complicated than it is
what normal people might think that it

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is yes it's very counterintuitive the
thin atmosphere reacts the the blase

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reactive friendly with the thin
atmosphere for example their residence

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resonances in all rotorcraft you know
and on earth very with very thick

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atmosphere a lot of the resonances get
dampened out sure within atmosphere they

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continue ring so for example our
development our test demonstration and

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the design and the selection of
frequencies have to be very carefully

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aligned and be aware of those reaction
of the vehicle while it's a thin

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atmosphere response is actually slower
in

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since and faster than others so for
example you know you turn the blade and

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here on atmosphere you are pushing so
much air you suddenly turn right there

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it takes a little longer so definitely
our team had had to model from the very

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fundamentals of a blade
taking a blade that's you know where 1.2

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meter diameter blades so rotor system so
1/2 a point 6 meter or so per blade we

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actually had to cut into 33 virtual
pieces and analyze them for the lift and

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the drag of each of the piece well you
know with the high fidelity CFD analysis

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take the lift and drag integrated them
and then model how the dynamics of the

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vehicle would be in this thin atmosphere
these little Reynolds numbers and this

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is you know low density area you're
starting from scratch starting from

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scratch and it's been a surprise nice
surprise and it's made it very fun yeah

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but definitely starting from the
fundamental right so that's why when you

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asked us now about how would you feel
what does it mean that very first like

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to unconditionally confirm our models in
the real environment fantastic first of

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its kind it'll be monumental we're so
looking forward to seeing it happen and

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of course it's gonna be part of the Mars
2020 Rover so it's really not that far

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away we're almost there
and we look forward to coming back here

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in 26 months in order to watch a very
safe and effective Mars 2020 lander and

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thereafter a Mars helicopter take off
and land on the surface of another world

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for the first time in human history
Thank You Mimi um for all of your great

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work thank you and waiting to see all of
your accomplishments in the future

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well thank you for watching watch this
space I'm NASA Administrator Jim

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bridenstine you can follow me on twitter
at jim bridenstine and of course if you