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[Music]

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I'm dr. Ellen stofan also known as dr. e

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I'm dr. Thomas servic and also known as

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dr. Z I am so excited that were ready to

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launch the next Mars mission but before

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we talk about it tell us where are we

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here we're at the Steven F udvar-hazy

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center which is one of our two National

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Air and Space museums but even more than

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that we're behind the scenes socially

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distancing at our Dulles collection

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facility where we keep aircraft and

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spacecraft that we don't have room for

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out on the floor this is one of the

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newest objects in our collection

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it's the testbed Rover that was used for

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the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers out at

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the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

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California so while those Rovers were on

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Mars the folks at JPL could use this

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Rover to help understand what was

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happening up on Mars where they couldn't

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get in there and actually fix things I'm

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so excited to stand here next to this

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you know Spirit and Opportunity have

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really changed how we think about Mars

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and you know you look at it it's like a

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golf cart sighs well the mission we're

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gonna launch perseverance is more like a

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car over 2,000 pounds seven feet tall in

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a much more complex machine with a very

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different purpose which is to prepare

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samples to bring back to earth the

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energy source at perseverance is the

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nuclear battery which is basically

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hanging from the side so that nuclear

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power source really gives you a lot more

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flexibility on the rover you don't have

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to worry about the sand getting on top

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of the solar panels and diminishing the

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power for the rover's so bringing those

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samples back that's not gonna happen on

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this mission that'll happen later but

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this is the mission that will actually

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collect and cache the samples and place

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them so that that next future mission

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can come and retrieve them and bring

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them back to earth that's something

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we've never done before oh we've never

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done this before and you know we always

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want to make history in these a mission

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just like Curiosity has with its landing

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technologically but also with its

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science I can't wait this is going

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be so exciting for all of us this summer

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we got a few questions in from our

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audience so here's one of them

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I feel the helicopter is such a cool

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part of this Rover I hear so little

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about can we hear some about what it

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will be doing and how long is it

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expected to operate the ingenuity

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helicopter as it's called a high school

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student in Alabama came up with that

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name and I'm really grateful for her

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input ingenuity will be the first

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controlled flight in another world so

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what it's really designed to do it's

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gets dropped off the surface it sets

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itself up and then it flies a few

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takeoffs first it's just up and down

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just you know if you have a remote

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control thing somebody gives you same

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thing just go up foot or two and then

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down just to make sure you know how to

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take off and land and then starts flying

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and then we're gonna learn on the

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surface how are you - you one of the

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reasons we actually want to hope the

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helicopter there's because we're

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thinking if we were there with humans we

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like to have Scouts that really can go

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ahead and look at how we can get to a

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crater for example those important

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science how do you get down there

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without having to get stuck on the way

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right kind of to do the inch-by-inch

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thing and we think that Scouts like that

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with data from space can really be an

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important part just like we use it on

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the ground for many applications today

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I'm really excited about it I'm gonna

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push you on something someday there will

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be humans going to Mars and I would

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really appreciate it if they would pick

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up that helicopter and bring it back

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here to the National Air and Space

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Museum because that helicopter covers

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everything that we talk about here so

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someday I think that's exactly the right

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thing here's the next question

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how could perseverance help is

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potentially for the future human

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exploration of the Red Planet

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you know in a number of ways from the

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science that's gathering to an actual

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experiment onboard first of all we have

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an instrument on board called moxie

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that's actually pulling carbon dioxide

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out of the atmosphere and splitting out

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oxygen oxygen is important because

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obviously it's something we need as

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humans to breathe but it's actually also

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a component

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rocket fuel and if we're gonna have any

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kind of sustained human presence on Mars

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we're gonna have to learn to live off

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the land yeah there's some things that

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you know just real easy the ingenuity of

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the scientists and the engineers the

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calibration target for Sherlock one of

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the instruments actually has specific

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materials that are of huge importance to

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human explorations there's three samples

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of astronaut suit materials there we

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learn how these materials interact in

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the Martian atmosphere so how cool is

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that that's really cool because here

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with our spacesuit collection that we

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have here at the urn Space Museum you

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can really tell the Apollo astronauts

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that walked around on the moon because

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their suits are covered with a very fine

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glassy lunar soil thanks so much for

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this discussion what an amazing story I

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were in the making here and also for

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doing this in this environment full of

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stories full of secrets in a place I've

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never been before and I can't wait to

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come back for another episode of easy

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science