WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 I want to talk about 4.6 billion years of history 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.000 in 18 minutes. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.000 That's 300 million years per minute. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Let's start with the first photograph NASA obtained 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.000 of planet Mars. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 This is fly-by, Mariner IV. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.000 It was taken in 1965. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:23.000 When this picture appeared, 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.000 that well-known scientific journal, 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000 The New York Times, wrote in its editorial, 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.000 "Mars is uninteresting. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.000 It's a dead world. NASA should not spend 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:38.000 any time or effort studying Mars anymore." 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Fortunately, our leaders in Washington 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.000 at NASA headquarters knew better 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.000 and we began a very extensive study 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.000 of the red planet. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.000 One of the key questions in all of science, 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:54.000 "Is there life outside of Earth?" 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000 I believe that Mars is the most likely target 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.000 for life outside the Earth. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 I'm going to show you in a few minutes 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:04.000 some amazing measurements that suggest 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.000 there may be life on Mars. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 But let me start with a Viking photograph. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000 This is a composite taken by Viking in 1976. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.000 Viking was developed and managed at the 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000 NASA Langley Research Center. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.000 We sent two orbiters and two landers in the summer of 1976. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:27.000 We had four spacecraft, two around Mars, 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000 two on the surface -- 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.000 an amazing accomplishment. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.000 This is the first photograph taken from 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:35.000 the surface of any planet. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.000 This is a Viking Lander photograph 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000 of the surface of Mars. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.000 And yes, the red planet is red. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.000 Mars is half the size of the Earth, 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 but because two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.000 the land area on Mars 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 is comparable to the land area on Earth. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.000 So, Mars is a pretty big place even though it's half the size. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.000 We have obtained topographic measurements 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 of the surface of Mars. We understand 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 the elevation differences. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.000 We know a lot about Mars. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.000 Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system, 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.000 Olympus Mons. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.000 Mars has the Grand Canyon 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 of the solar system, Valles Marineris. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.000 Very, very interesting planet. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.000 Mars has the largest 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.000 impact crater in the solar system, 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Hellas Basin. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.000 This is 2,000 miles across. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000 If you happened to be on Mars 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000 when this impactor hit, 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000 it was a really bad day on Mars. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.000 (Laughter) 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.000 This is Olympus Mons. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:42.000 This is bigger than the state of Arizona. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.000 Volcanoes are important, because volcanoes 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.000 produce atmospheres and they produce oceans. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.000 We're looking at Valles Marineris, 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 the largest canyon in the solar system, 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 superimposed on a map of the United States, 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 3,000 miles across. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.000 One of the most intriguing features about Mars, 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.000 the National Academy of Science says 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.000 one of the 10 major mysteries of the space age, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.000 is why certain areas of Mars 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.000 are so highly magnetized. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.000 We call this crustal magnetism. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 There are regions on Mars, where, for some reason -- 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.000 we don't understand why at this point -- 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.000 the surface is very, very highly magnetized. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 Is there water on Mars? 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:26.000 The answer is no, there is no liquid water 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:28.000 on the surface of Mars today. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.000 But there is intriguing evidence 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.000 that suggests that the early history of Mars 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.000 there may have been rivers 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.000 and fast flowing water. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.000 Today Mars is very very dry. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 We believe there's some water in the polar caps, 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:46.000 there are polar caps of North Pole and South Pole. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.000 Here are some recent images. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.000 This is from Spirit and Opportunity. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.000 These images that show at one time, 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.000 there was very fast flowing water on the surface of Mars. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.000 Why is water important? Water is important 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:03.000 because if you want life you have to have water. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.000 Water is the key ingredient 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.000 in the evolution, the origin of life on a planet. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.000 Here is some picture of Antarctica 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.000 and a picture of Olympus Mons, 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000 very similar features, glaciers. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 So, this is frozen water. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.000 This is ice water on Mars. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:24.000 This is my favorite picture. This was just taken a few weeks ago. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.000 It has not been seen publicly. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.000 This is European space agency 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.000 Mars Express, image of a crater on Mars 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:33.000 and in the middle of the crater 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.000 we have liquid water, we have ice. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Very intriguing photograph. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000 We now believe that in the early history of Mars, 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.000 which is 4.6 billion years ago, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.000 4.6 billion years ago, Mars was very Earth-like. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 Mars had rivers, Mars had lakes, 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.000 but more important Mars had planetary-scale oceans. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:00.000 We believe that the oceans were in the northern hemisphere, 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.000 and this area in blue, 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.000 which shows a depression of about four miles, 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:08.000 was the ancient ocean area 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.000 on the surface of Mars. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.000 Where did the ocean's worth of water on Mars go? 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.000 Well, we have an idea. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.000 This is a measurement we obtained a few years ago 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:22.000 from a Mars-orbiting satellite called Odyssey. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 Sub-surface water on Mars, 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 frozen in the form of ice. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:30.000 And this shows the percent. If it's a blueish color, 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.000 it means 16 percent by weight. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:35.000 Sixteen percent, by weight, of the interior 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.000 contains frozen water, or ice. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.000 So, there is a lot of water below the surface. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.000 The most intriguing and puzzling measurement, 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.000 in my opinion, we've obtained of Mars, 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.000 was released earlier this year 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.000 in the magazine Science. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.000 And what we're looking at is the presence of the gas methane, 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.000 CH4, in the atmosphere of Mars. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.000 And you can see there are three distinct regions of methane. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 Why is methane important? 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.000 Because on Earth, almost all -- 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000 99.9 percent -- of the methane 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.000 is produced by living systems, 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.000 not little green men, but microscopic life 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.000 below the surface or at the surface. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.000 We now have evidence 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:27.000 that methane is in the atmosphere of Mars, 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.000 a gas that, on Earth, 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.000 is biogenic in origin, 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.000 produced by living systems. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:37.000 These are the three plumes: A, B1, B2. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.000 And this is the terrain it appears over, 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 and we know from geological studies 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:47.000 that these regions are the oldest regions on Mars. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.000 In fact, the Earth and Mars 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:53.000 are both 4.6 billion years old. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:57.000 The oldest rock on Earth is only 3.6 billion. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:00.000 The reason there is a billion-year gap 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.000 in our geological understanding 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.000 is because of plate tectonics, 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:07.000 The crust of the Earth has been recycled. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.000 We have no geological record prior 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.000 for the first billion years. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.000 That record exists on Mars. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.000 And this terrain that we're looking at 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.000 dates back to 4.6 billion years 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.000 when Earth and Mars were formed. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.000 It was a Tuesday. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.000 This is a map that shows 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:32.000 where we've put our spacecraft on the surface of Mars. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 Here is Viking I, Viking II. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.000 This is Opportunity. This is Spirit. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 This is Mars Pathfinder. This is Phoenix, 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.000 we just put two years ago. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.000 Notice all of our rovers and all of our landers 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.000 have gone to the northern hemisphere. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.000 That's because the northern hemisphere 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.000 is the region of the ancient 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:55.000 ocean basin. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.000 There aren't many craters. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.000 And that's because the water protected the basin 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.000 from being impacted by asteroids and meteorites. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.000 But look in the southern hemisphere. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.000 In the southern hemisphere there are impact craters, 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:11.000 there are volcanic craters. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.000 Here's Hellas Basin, 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.000 a very very different place, geologically. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.000 Look where the methane is, the methane is in a very 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:23.000 rough terrain area. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.000 What is the best way to unravel 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:28.000 the mysteries on Mars that exist? 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:32.000 We asked this question 10 years ago. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.000 We invited 10 of the top Mars scientists 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.000 to the Langley Research Center for two days. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 We addressed on the board 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:44.000 the major questions that have not been answered. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:47.000 And we spent two days deciding 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.000 how to best answer this question. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 And the result of our meeting 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:59.000 was a robotic rocket-powered airplane we call ARES. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:03.000 It's an Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Surveyor. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.000 There's a model of ARES here. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.000 This is a 20-percent scale model. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 This airplane was designed at the Langley Research Center. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.000 If any place in the world 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.000 can build an airplane to fly on Mars, 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000 it's the Langley Research Center, 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.000 for almost 100 years 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.000 a leading center of aeronautics in the world. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.000 We fly about a mile above the surface. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:28.000 We cover hundreds of miles, 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.000 and we fly about 450 miles an hour. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:34.000 We can do things that rovers can't do 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.000 and landers can't do: 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 We can fly above mountains, volcanoes, impact craters; 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:41.000 we fly over valleys; 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.000 we can fly over surface magnetism, 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.000 the polar caps, subsurface water; 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:48.000 and we can search for life on Mars. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.000 But, of equal importance, 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.000 as we fly through the atmosphere of Mars, 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:56.000 we transmit that journey, 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.000 the first flight of an airplane outside of the Earth, 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.000 we transmit those images back to Earth. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:06.000 And our goal is to inspire the American public 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:09.000 who is paying for this mission through tax dollars. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:12.000 But more important we will 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.000 inspire the next generation of scientists, 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:18.000 technologists, engineers and mathematicians. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:22.000 And that's a critical area of national security 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.000 and economic vitality, to make sure 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.000 we produce the next generation 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.000 of scientists, engineers, mathematicians and technologists. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:34.000 This is what ARES looks like 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.000 as it flies over Mars. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.000 We preprogram it. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.000 We will fly where the methane is. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.000 We will have instruments aboard the plane 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:46.000 that will sample, every three minutes, the atmosphere of Mars. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:48.000 We will look for methane 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.000 as well as other gasses 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.000 produced by living systems. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.000 We will pinpoint where these gases emanate from, 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 because we can measure the gradient where it comes from, 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.000 and there, we can direct the next mission 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.000 to land right in that area. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:08.000 How do we transport an airplane to Mars? 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.000 In two words, very carefully. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:15.000 The problem is we don't fly it to Mars, 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 we put it in a spacecraft 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.000 and we send it to Mars. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.000 The problem is the spacecraft's 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.000 largest diameter is nine feet; 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.000 ARES is 21-foot wingspan, 17 feet long. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.000 How do we get it to Mars? 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.000 We fold it, 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.000 and we transport it in a spacecraft. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:41.000 And we have it in something called an aeroshell. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.000 This is how we do it. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:47.000 And we have a little video that describes the sequence. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:52.000 Video: Seven, six. Green board. Five, four, three, two, one. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.000 Main engine start, and liftoff. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.000 Joel Levine: This is a launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:16.000 This is the spacecraft taking nine months 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.000 to get to Mars. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.000 It enters the atmosphere of Mars. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.000 A lot of heating, 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 frictional heating. It's going 18 thousand miles an hour. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.000 A parachute opens up to slow it down. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.000 The thermal tiles fall off. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.000 The airplane is exposed to the atmosphere for the first time. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.000 It unfolds. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.000 The rocket engine begins. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.000 We believe that in a one-hour flight 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.000 we can rewrite the textbook on Mars 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.000 by making high-resolution measurements of the atmosphere, 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:02.000 looking for gases of biogenic origin, 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.000 looking for gases of volcanic origin, 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:08.000 studying the surface, studying the magnetism 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.000 on the surface, which we don't understand, 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.000 as well as about a dozen other areas. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.000 Practice makes perfect. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:17.000 How do we know we can do it? 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:21.000 Because we have tested ARES model, 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.000 several models in a half a dozen wind tunnels 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:27.000 at the NASA Langley Research Center for eight years, 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.000 under Mars conditions. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.000 And, of equal importance 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:35.000 is, we test ARES in the Earth's atmosphere, 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:38.000 at 100,000 feet, 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:41.000 which is comparable to the density and pressure 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.000 of the atmosphere on Mars where we'll fly. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.000 Now, 100,000 feet, if you fly cross-country to Los Angeles, 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.000 you fly 37,000 feet. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.000 We do our tests at 100,000 feet. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.000 And I want to show you one of our tests. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:57.000 This is a half-scale model. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.000 This is a high-altitude helium balloon. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.000 This is over Tilamook, Oregon. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.000 We put the folded airplane on the balloon -- 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.000 it took about three hours to get up there -- 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:10.000 and then we released it on command 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.000 at 103,000 feet, 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.000 and we deploy the airplane and everything works perfectly. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.000 And we've done 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.000 high-altitude and low-altitude tests, 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.000 just to perfect this technique. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.000 We're ready to go. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:29.000 I have a scale model here. 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:31.000 But we have a full-scale model 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.000 in storage at the NASA Langley Research Center. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.000 We're ready to go. All we need is a check from NASA headquarters 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.000 (Laughter) 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 to cover the costs. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.000 I'm prepared to donate my honorarium for today's talk 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.000 for this mission. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.000 There's actually no honorarium for anyone for this thing. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 This is the ARES team; 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.000 we have about 150 scientists, engineers; 00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:59.000 where we're working with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.000 Goddard Space Flight Center, 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:04.000 Ames Research Center and half a dozen major universities 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.000 and corporations in developing this. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:13.000 It's a large effort. It's all at NASA Langley Research Center. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.000 And let me conclude by saying 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.000 not too far from here, 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.000 right down the road in Kittyhawk, North Carolina, 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:23.000 a little more than 100 years ago 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:25.000 history was made 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:28.000 when we had the first powered flight of an airplane on Earth. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.000 We are on the verge right now 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.000 to make the first flight of an airplane 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.000 outside the Earth's atmosphere. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:38.000 We are prepared to fly this on Mars, 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.000 rewrite the textbook about Mars. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.000 If you're interested in more information, 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:46.000 we have a website that describes this exciting 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.000 and intriguing mission, and why we want to do it. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.000 Thank you very much. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.000 (Applause)