WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Gets Curious About Mars 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.840 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.800 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.400 how stuff Works and I love all things tech. And 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.080 it's time for another classic episode of tech Stuff. And 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:28.560 recently I did an enormous series about space travel, and 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.960 I've given you guys a few days to recover from that, 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.040 but now it's time to go back. This classic episode 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.200 has Chris Polette and I talking about the Curiosity Project, 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:42.440 the Curiosity Project that went to Mars, and it was 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.559 an incredible mission and one that was really inspiring for us, 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.960 so we had a great time talking about it. We 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.360 originally published this episode all the way back on August 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.600 twenty nine, two thousand and twelve. I hope you guys 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.120 enjoy it. Let's listen in today we are going to 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.760 talk about stuff. What beeps? Yes, stuff, what beeps? What 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.760 we shoot off into space to hit the red planet 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.280 that is near us sometimes near us? And well it's 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:14.640 funny because there there is another science podcast around here somewhere. Yeah, 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.720 stuff to blow your mind. Yeah, we're not talking about 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.480 them because we decided, well, occasionally we talked about the 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.080 same stuff because we're fascinated by it, and we decided 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:30.760 that we didn't care if they talk about this. There's 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.320 overlap because we wanted to talk about the Mars rover. Yes, 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.600 and and specifically we're talking about the Curiosity rover, which 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.200 successfully touched down on the surface of Mars, despite the 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.080 fact that the way of delivering said rover to the 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.360 surface of Mars was I think the scientific term is 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:53.640 absolutely freaking crazy. I was gonna say nuts, but that'll work. Yeah, 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.600 that's that's the short version of the full scientific term. Um. Yeah, 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.120 And we want to talk about why is it such 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.480 a big deal, why is it so hard to get 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:05.960 to Mars, and sort of talk about some of the 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.880 historical missions that led up to Curiosity as well as 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:14.560 the Curiosity mission itself. So, um, do you let's say that, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.800 let's say we're talking about the success failure rate of 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:22.320 missions to Mars. Yeah. Um, depending not pleasant to talk about, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:29.280 depending upon how you define success or failure. Uh. One 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.200 of the more common statistics I've seen, or are figures 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.359 I've seen, is that twenty three out of thirty eight 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.760 missions sent to Mars failed in some way. Yeah, all right, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.560 which gives it a pretty dismal success rate. Are you. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.560 Are you speaking of all missions to Mars a missions tomorrow? 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.120 So anybody who's ever shot something at the Red Planet, 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.639 anyone anyone on Earth. We just we can't just pointing 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.680 that out. We can't really talk about anyone from outside 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.000 of Earth. We don't know. Good point, but I meant 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.880 not you not it states. Of course we are located 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.959 in the United States, and why I just wanted to 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.399 point out that you're not talking You're talking at Earthlings. 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:11.480 The United States success failure rate is better. It's thirteen 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:16.560 successes out of eighteen tries prior to curiosity, I think 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.120 it is. It is important to point out too, that 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.440 the United States has been later to the let's throw 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.200 stuff at the Red planet party, and so maybe part 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.519 of the failures of the Soviet Union is well, part 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:31.880 of them is due to the fact that the Soviet 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.600 Union is no more. But when they were very active 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.840 at this, they were maybe not so good at it. 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.880 They were the probably be better at it now they 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:42.560 were the only ones doing it at the time. Yes 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.400 they were. So you might say, well, why is the 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.800 why is this success rates so low? Mars is hard 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.240 it's it's hard to get to and and here's the 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.520 moon might be a little closer. Yeah, let's I'll give 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.920 you some figures here. So the average distance between Earth 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.560 and the Moon is about two thou in nine miles 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:06.400 or three four thousand, four hundred kilometers. That's about how 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.120 far it is from Earth to the Moon. And it 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.560 takes a few days for us to send something to 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.240 go land on the Moon. So for example, astronauts aboard 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.800 and Apollo Capsule take a few days to get there, 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.200 and to get there in a few more days to 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:25.760 get back. Um, but that's that's doable. We did do it, 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:31.360 so clearly it's doable. It's a vacation. Getting someone to Mars. 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.120 Getting anything to Mars takes a lot more time. Now. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.640 Part of that is because the distance between Earth and 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.200 Mars is not constant. And the reason for that is 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:46.000 that you know, both planets are going around the Sun, right, 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.320 but they're going at different speeds and their orbits are 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:54.479 different sizes. So there are times when Earth and Mars 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.680 are aligned and they are about as close as they 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.599 poss can be. And there are other times where Earth 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.760 is on one side of the Sun and Mars is 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.280 on the other side of the Sun, and they're about 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.479 as far apart as they possibly can be, so the 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:15.400 distance varies dramatically. At the closest earthen, Mars are about 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:20.520 thirty three million, nine hundred thousand miles apart or fifty 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.520 four million, six hundred thousand kilometers. So to compare again 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.919 to the Moon, the Moon was two hundred thirty eight thousand, 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:32.880 nine hundred miles away, Mars thirty three million, nine hundred 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:37.159 thousand miles away, So that's not a day trip way further, 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.839 and that's at its closest. At its furthest away, Mars 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.039 is about two hundred forty nine million, one hundred sixty 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:51.640 thousand miles away or four hundred one million kilometers away. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.839 So if you're gonna make a mission to Mars of 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.680 any kind, um then you need to do a lot 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.880 of thinking about it and and plan in beforehand, because 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:03.960 you need to decide, Okay, well, what are we gonna 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.360 send there. We're gonna send a rover, um man, how 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:09.679 how much is that gonnaway? Well, it's gonna weigh about 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.640 this much? How much you know, rocket tuge do we 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:14.880 need to throw at it? Okay, so you got your 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.480 you've got your rocket tude, and your just makesically think 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.159 like some sort of nineteen eighties side scrolling video game. Rocket. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.479 I'm going to write that, um and your rover, you 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.120 know what, you know what you wanted to do, you 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.640 know how to get it there? Uh, you start having 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.080 to think about all sorts of other stuff. Okay, well, 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.640 so how much gravity? Uh does Mars have? How much 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.080 difference in the weight is there going to be once 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.240 this this rover gets there? How are you know how 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.520 much atmospheric interference is going to be there? Okay, so 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.280 you're gonna have to plan how long it's gonna take 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.000 for you to shoot this thing into space and get 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.440 to Mars, and how it's gonna stop when it gets there. Oh, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:57.760 and then you have to take a new account. If 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.760 you know roughly how long it's gonna take. Where are 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:02.800 the two planets going to be? Yeah, you have to 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.560 figure out when you're from there and go, Okay, they're 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.240 going to be at their closest here, so we have 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.480 to launch it then can make that happen. Technically, you 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.360 even have to launch it before then, because you have 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.160 to do what's called a transfer orbit. So so by 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.440 the let's let's say let's say we've got to the point. 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.280 By the way, it takes about two years for Earth 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.240 and Mars to line up so that they are at 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.640 their closest, and then it will take another two years 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.600 before they are at that same position relative to one another. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.840 So there's a two year gap between when uh your 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.400 closest when you're not and close is important because that 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.320 determines how much fuel you're going to need to get 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.520 whatever it is you're sending to Mars there. And fuel 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:50.240 is heavy because we depend on you know, uh, these 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.600 these chemical fuels that are you know, these solid chemical 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.120 fuels that that weigh a lot, They give off a 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.000 lot of energy and they are about as a fish 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:04.040 sent as we possibly can be with chemical uh fuel. 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.440 But um, yeah, their weight factors into the whole calculation. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.920 So you want to use as as little fuel as 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:17.360 possible to get your your spacecraft to Mars to be 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.680 as efficient as you possibly can be. This is also 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.920 why it's really difficult to talk about a manned mission 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.280 to Mars. I'll get to that in a second. But um, 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.560 so you when you when Earth and Mars are closest together, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.080 if you were to launch at that point, Well, you know, 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.800 you can't just point the rocket at Mars where Mars 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.679 is right now, because it is not gonna be there 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.480 by the time the the spacecraft would have made its 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.320 way to that point. You know, both planets are still 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.959 moving around the Sun, so your spacecraft would be going 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.440 to where Mars used to be, not to wear Mars 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:53.360 is going to be. So you actually have to planet 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.840 out ahead of time to make sure you are being 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.240 as economic as possible with your fuel use. So, yeah, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:01.960 a paraphrase the great one, you have to launch the 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.520 rocket at where the planet's gonna be. Yeah, you gotta 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.560 shoot for where it will be, not for where it is. 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.679 So I'm sorry, go ahead, I was just gonna say so. Essentially, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.640 there is a lot of thought that has to go 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.240 into this before before you even build the rocket, before 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.520 you even build the rover. You really have to think 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.720 about what you need to do to make it happen. 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.520 And so, you know, when you shoot something at the Moon, 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.480 the factors are lessened somewhat by the distance and and 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.800 the proximity of the Moon. You know what, you that 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.800 the orbit and all those things are are are lesser 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:42.080 and the more complex a project gets you know, the 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:43.920 more factors you have to deal with, and it's just 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.920 that that's going to make it more difficult to reach 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.760 Mars than it is to reach the Moon. And if 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.240 you were trying to reach Pluto, for example, the factors 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.199 get even more difficult. And Pluto's got such an odd 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:00.080 orbit anyway. So I mean, this is this is know, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:05.959 this isn't rockets, so it's it's complex. It's not brain surgery, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.280 so the yeah, so it takes about it takes about 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.760 between seven and eight months to get from Earth to 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:17.120 Mars using the methods that we have available to us today. 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.720 There are scientists who have suggested that we look into 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.079 using a nuclear powered propulsion system in order to get 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:30.240 from Earth to Mars, which would significantly reduce the weight 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.480 of your vehicle because you wouldn't have to have so 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.880 much chemical fuel aboard. But then there are other problems, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.440 of course with the idea of the nuclear propulsion system, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.720 especially if you're going to use some sort of chemical 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.400 propulsion to get you off the the surface of the 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.120 Earth into lower Earth orbit before you engage the nuclear 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.680 propulsion system. Having explosives next to a nuclear device makes 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.560 people nervous. I don't know why. There's also the possibility 0:10:55.600 --> 0:11:00.120 that people have said of of building the spacecraft in 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.160 lowerth orbit, So you would have space missions that would 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.199 go out build this craft and lowerth orbit, and then 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:10.200 you solve the problem of having to escape Earth's gravity. Uh. 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.280 You engage the nuclear propulsion system then and that also 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.679 gets around it at any rate. So you've got about 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.400 seven to eight months to get to Mars, depending on 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:25.240 you exactly what you're sending there and and the timing involved. Uh. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.559 This is and here's the reason why a manned mission 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.520 to Mars would be really really difficult. Let's say that 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.080 we sent let's say we we built the spacecraft that 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.040 that is capable of carrying a party of about six 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.520 astronauts to Mars. That tends to be about the number 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.880 of crew members that is considered ideal. Uh. This comes 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.640 from NASA, and NASA says that ideal number is somewhat 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.280 reached by You want to have enough of a mix 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:57.000 of people so that you can balance out any personality issues. 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.000 You also want to have enough so that you can 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.719 represent multiple nationalities because you have to have a lot 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.079 of partnerships with other countries in order for these projects 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.080 to come through, so there's a political element to it 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.439 as well. Um so let's say we've built the ship 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.120 that could hold six people, uh, that can hold all 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.240 the supplies they would need to get to Mars and back. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.040 It would still take thirty two months from the time 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.640 you launch to the time you touched down back on 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.360 Earth to do a Mars mission. And the reason for 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.640 that is that because it takes seven to eight months. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.600 You know, assuming that you're going for pure fuel economy 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.600 again to limit the weight of your spacecraft, takes seven 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:42.280 to eight months for you to get to Mars. By 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.840 the time you land on Mars, the Mars and the 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.760 Earth are no longer in that ideal situation where you 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.040 can easily get from one to the other. In fact, 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.200 at that point, by the time the Curiosity rover landed 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.040 on the surface of Mars, Mars was further away from 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.440 the Earth than the Earth was to the Sun. So 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.120 by the time you land, the Earth is further away 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.559 from you than the Sun would be if you were 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.360 still on Earth. So you have to wait for that 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.720 timing to be right again so that you can launch 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.760 from Mars and get back to Earth. That takes almost 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.600 two years, So from the time you leave to the 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.559 time you get back thirty two months past, so that's 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.760 a that's a very long mission. And during that whole 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.280 time you would also have to be able to to 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.120 not only provide all the resources your astronauts would need 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.000 to stay alive on the surface of Mars, which not 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.599 a very friendly planet for us, not too terribly accommodating. 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.240 It's it's not the worst, but it's not it's not 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.600 the best either. You would also have to figure out 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.800 how to protect them from things like radiation. The longer 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.440 you're out in space, the more likely you are to 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.560 encounter various forms of radiation that we are protected from 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.719 here on Earth due to factors like their's atmosphere and 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.360 its magnetic field. So you have to figure out how 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.160 do you protect the astronauts from things like I'm a 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.480 radiation out in space, so that they don't turn into 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.320 incredible incredible hulk or a cosmic race, so they don't 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.200 come back as the Fantastic six, because there would be 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.200 two more than the four UM. I also thought you 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:13.800 were going to point out that there need to be 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:18.600 enough people aboard so that when the aliens do start 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.360 bursting out of them that you know there's somebody left 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:22.680 at the end of Yeah, you have to have that 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:24.640 dramatic person at the end so they can come back 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.520 and tell the story and and and blame the corporation 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:32.600 from the documentary alien um the Yes. So there there 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.520 are a lot of factors that make it really really 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.320 hard for us to send amanned mission to Mars, which 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.800 is why the missions that we've sent to Mars so 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.840 far have been unmanned missions. And uh, even those have 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.960 not had a great success rate, although again the United 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.680 States success rate is significantly higher than if you were 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.160 to to think of the entire world UM, which is 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.160 mainly the USSR or SO Union at the time, UM 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.480 now would be Russia in the various countries around Russia. Uh. 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:09.280 The Japan also has attempted to send missions to Mars, 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.760 and there was I think a European mission as well. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:20.040 So the the first attempt to send a mission to Mars, 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.480 an unmanned mission to Mars was in nineteen sixty by 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.760 the Soviet Union and it was called corrobl four KO 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.560 R A B L and R in the B in 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.240 our alphabet. I don't read cilic, so I couldn't tell 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.600 you the other version but um, yeah, that was in 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.560 nineteen sixty It did not even it didn't reach Earth orbit, 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.560 so that was a failure early on it did not 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.080 um even make it into lower th orbit, much less 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.520 out into Mars. I actually saw that one listed as 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:57.320 Mars Nick Mars Nick interested. Uh, so this is the 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.360 information I got was from NASA. Okay, so I was 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.640 going from an article and Wired, so yeah, this is 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.280 this is from NASA, so they had to Actually that 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.320 went around the same time CORRABL four and five according 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.280 to NASA, but I'm sure I had different names in 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:16.520 the Wired article. The first attempt by the United States 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.720 was in nineteen sixty four with the Mariner three UM, 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.240 which was it was supposed to be a fly by mission. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:29.440 So this is a spacecraft that's supposed to pass by 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.280 Mars and take photos as it goes by. Uh. That 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:38.240 one was also a failure. The the shroud failed to jettison, 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:43.120 so it did not make it to Mars. But shortly thereafter, 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.440 the Mariner four was a successful fly by mission and 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:52.600 it returned twenty one images of Mars to Earth. So uh, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:54.480 the United States first attempt was a failure, but the 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.479 second attempt succeeded. UM. There were a lot of attempts 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:04.200 since then. Uh. Some of them, many of them were flybys, UM. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.919 Some of them were meant to be orbit ters. Uh. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.280 A lot of launch failures, a lot of orbits that 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:18.600 were obtained, but then the device failed before it could 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:24.480 really retrieve a lot of information. The first success really 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:30.120 for the Soviet Union UM was the Mars five which 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.639 was in nineteen seventy three, and that was that returned 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.080 sixty images of the planet and it but it only 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:43.200 lasted nine days. Yeah, Mars to actually attempted to put 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.199 a lander on the surface, but not so much with 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.280 the success. Yeah, the orbiter actually arrived into the orbit 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:55.359 of Mars, but yeah, the lander did not did not 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.399 land successfully. Chris and I have more to say about 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.040 the Curiosity ander over on Mars, but before we get 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.760 to that, let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:14.720 One of the challenges again that I had read about, 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.160 especially with the recent coverage on Curiosity again recent as 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.240 of the time we're recording this UM, is that the 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:26.560 the atmosphere of Mars is very very unlike that of Earth. 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.959 It's very thin. Yes, So I mean, you know, if 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.160 you think about Uh, for example, the Space Shuttle coming 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:38.400 back in or the Mercury and Geminy missions. I love 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.879 doing that because Jonathan wins Is every time I see Geminy. 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.520 Some of the astronauts called it that though. Uh, you know, 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.320 using the heat shields and coming in and having the 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.600 heat shield you know, burning as it comes through the 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.040 Earth's atmosphere. Uh, Mars's atmosphere does not act as a 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.720 slower downer, not not as much. It does. It does 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:00.560 slow down the vehicle, but not as much. Yeah, I 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.600 think I was going to say that. Okay, well you 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.360 said and as you said that, you said it wasn't 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.640 a slower downer. I wanted to correct, well, not as 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.040 I was going to say, not as much as it 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:14.000 does here, and with gravity being so different there too. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:20.040 Um it is those are our factors that the scientists 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.600 have to take into account. Um I if I am 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.000 not mistaken. You know there have been times when we 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.240 tried to use a big cushiony bouncy ball to try 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.480 to protect something and and it didn't work out to 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:38.280 what we But we have had Rover's Land using that approach. Um. 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.639 It's an air air bag approach, is really what it is. 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.359 A's airbags. Uh. Well, yes, the the atmosphere on Mars 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.440 is thinner than it is on Earth, and it does 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.520 not slow entry vehicles down to the same extent as 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.960 we would have here on Earth. So you have to 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.199 come up with other ways of slowing your entry vehicle 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.400 entry vehicle down, uh, if you don't want to go 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.359 boom on the surface of the planet. And there have 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.480 been a lot of different attempts to do that. So 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.080 previous attempts involved using parachutes, which can slow you down 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:10.439 a little bit, but even then the atmosphere is so 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.440 thin that you're going Uh. They, for example, the Curiosity 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.879 rover deployed the largest supersonic parachute NASA has ever built, 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.320 which way I think a hundred pounds total. That was 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:25.040 that was able to slow down the vehicle to two 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.880 miles per hour. Uh. And I don't have the kilometers 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.760 perer conversion. They're right in front of me, so I 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.679 apologized for that. But anyway, even at that speed, there 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.760 was no way the rover could land and maintain integrity. 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.399 It would have smashed to little tiny pieces. So they 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:43.840 had to find another way of slowing down. Uh. There 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:48.040 are other elements literally on Mars that make this difficult. 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.600 One of the potential things you could do is use 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:56.240 rockets to slow down your your entry vehicle. But the 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.760 closer you get to the surface of the planet, the 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.680 more those rockets are going to disturb the dust that's 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.080 on the surface. That dust can cause lots of problems. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:09.560 If you have sensitive scientific equipment. This equipment might get 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:12.400 gummed up by dust. The dust could damage it so 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.480 that it's unusable, which means that you might land successfully, 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.080 but you can't actually retrieve any data because your instruments 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.400 are fouled by dust. Um the dust itself could also 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:28.359 be corrosive, so there's some real problems there. So you 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:30.280 have to figure out, well, if you can't just use rockets, 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.480 then you have to find some other balancing features so 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.720 that you can lower the rover itself onto the surface 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.199 without getting the rockets so close to the surface that 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:46.679 they start to disturb the dust about kilometers per hour. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:51.119 Thank you so uh in some cases the way that 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.600 the rovers we have landed. Now, we we've also launched 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:59.040 orbiters that just orbit Mars and take uh scientific measurements 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:03.520 from orbit. So we've got some of those in orbit already. UM. 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.000 In fact, we've got a couple that we launched not 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:10.520 too long ago, we being the United States. UM. The 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.240 the there's the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was launched in 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.479 two thousand five and uh it's already returned more than 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:23.879 twenty six terra bits of data about the planet. There's 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:26.879 also the Odyssey Mars Odyssey, which was launched in two 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.919 thousand one UM and both of those have contributed a 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.560 lot to our scientific knowledge. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.680 a boarded a special camera called the High Resolution Imaging 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.479 Science Experiment or high RISE, and the high RISE actually 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:46.439 caught a great photo of the Curiosity rover as it 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.479 was landing with the parachute deployed. So you can actually 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.800 see the parachute, you can see the capsule that contained 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.480 the rover. You can if you look really carefully, you 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:59.120 can even see the heat shield that was jettisoned off 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.320 the bottom of the rover. We'll talk more about that 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:05.600 whole procedure in just a minute. UM. So, one of 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.280 the things you could do is you use rockets to 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:11.920 slow yourself down further from the parachute, so the parachute 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.479 gets you down to a certain speed. The rockets can 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:16.000 slow you down a little bit more, and then as 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:18.720 you get closer to the surface, you need to find 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.399 a way of lowering the rover itself so that the 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.439 rockets don't disturb the dust too much. One way of 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:28.959 doing that is to lower the rover, uh to essentially 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.480 drop it with all these air bags around it, which 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:33.640 cushioned the blow, and it lands and then it retrieves 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:35.920 the air bags and or or emerges from the air 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.520 bags and continues on submission. That's how the smaller rovers 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:44.720 um landed from the smaller ones being things like the 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:48.639 Spirit and the Opportunity, uh, the Phoenix Lander, things like 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:53.480 that used those sort of approaches because um they were 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:57.280 they were small enough where it wasn't that it wasn't 0:23:57.280 --> 0:23:59.680 as huge a challenge. With the Curiosity Rover. You're talking 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:04.359 about a one ton vehicle, and at that size, the 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:06.439 size of the air bags you would need are so 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:09.880 huge that you would really run the risk of even 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:12.520 if everything worked properly, you would run the risk of 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:16.520 fouling the drive system of the Curiosity Rover because it 0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:20.480 has to get out of this enormous air bag. So 0:24:21.000 --> 0:24:23.320 that was considered too risky. Another approach is to put 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:28.080 uh these so pretty much like stilts, like landing stilts, 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:33.000 so that when the the rockets lower the the descent 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:39.720 vehicle down, the the stilts touch ground and keep the 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:42.560 rockets at an elevation high enough so that they aren't 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:45.399 disturbing the dust too much, and then the rover can 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.240 drop down from there. Again. With the Curiosity rover, it 0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:50.600 was so large and heavy, the stilts would have had 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.600 to have been way too tall to do this in 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:56.040 a way that would have been easy to do. And 0:24:56.080 --> 0:24:58.960 also it would have really made it difficult to ensure 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:02.440 that the Curiosity would be undamaged as it came down. 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:04.280 So they had to come up with a different way 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:07.000 to get the Curiosity Rover onto the surface of Earth. 0:25:07.480 --> 0:25:13.840 And it was insane. A sky crane. Sky crane. Yeah, 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:17.160 so that sounds that sounds like some kind of strange, 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:21.080 other worldly company. And so we'll walk you through how 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:24.320 how this unfolded. And it's still incredible to me that 0:25:24.359 --> 0:25:27.320 this worked well. I think, um, and I don't mean 0:25:27.359 --> 0:25:29.399 this in any way to be a slight to the 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:32.880 scientists behind this. I think they were a little astonished. Well, 0:25:32.920 --> 0:25:39.679 the reaction that we saw at the and as we 0:25:39.760 --> 0:25:42.399 learned that the Curiosity had in fact landed successfully. And 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:44.359 by the way, by the time we knew that the 0:25:44.359 --> 0:25:48.600 Curiosity was successful in its landing, it had been on 0:25:48.680 --> 0:25:52.719 the surface of Mars for several minutes. Because again Mars 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:55.960 is further away at the point of the Curiosity landing 0:25:56.560 --> 0:25:58.439 from Earth than the Earth is to the Sun. It 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:00.639 takes it takes about eight minutes for light from the 0:26:00.680 --> 0:26:04.760 Sun to get to Earth. It takes fourteen minutes for 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:10.520 electromagnetic communication to get from Mars to the Earth Internet 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:13.800 now fourteen minutes for that information to get to us. 0:26:14.000 --> 0:26:18.160 It takes seven minutes from the time the landing capsule 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:21.440 enters the Martian atmosphere to the point where Curiosity would 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:25.040 touch down. That means there's a seven minute gap where 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:27.400 things have already happened and we do not know what 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:31.800 they were. Yes, so it was seven minutes of terror, 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:35.560 which is I think brilliant. There was a wonderful video 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:39.920 NASA put out that was very dramatic, almost almost comedically so, 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:42.960 because it was like it was like a thriller movie, right, 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:45.800 but it was all about the seven minutes of terror. 0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:48.840 The fact that you have to build a vehicle that's 0:26:49.280 --> 0:26:54.280 operating autonomously for for you know, there's nothing you can do. 0:26:54.400 --> 0:26:57.280 You can't make any adjustments because it's going to take 0:26:57.320 --> 0:26:59.320 fourteen minutes for that information to get to you, and 0:26:59.320 --> 0:27:01.240 then any information you send back it's going to take 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:03.919 fourteen minutes for it to get there. So by the 0:27:03.960 --> 0:27:06.440 time you send any sort of information, by the time 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:09.920 you react to a changing condition, it doesn't matter. Things 0:27:09.920 --> 0:27:14.520 have changed too much for that to have any effect. So, uh, 0:27:15.040 --> 0:27:18.480 the capsule enters the Martian atmosphere, there's seven minutes until 0:27:18.520 --> 0:27:21.359 it touches down, and then seven more minutes before we 0:27:21.400 --> 0:27:24.719 find out that anything about it. The first thing that 0:27:24.760 --> 0:27:28.440 happens is the atmosphere starts to slow down the capsule, 0:27:28.560 --> 0:27:31.080 and like we said, it's a thin atmosphere, so it 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:33.720 doesn't slow it down that much. It is, however, thick 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:38.399 enough to cause lots of heat from friction. So it's 0:27:38.440 --> 0:27:42.560 it's a double whammy for NASA right on the breaks exactly, 0:27:42.640 --> 0:27:44.359 all the heat none of a break. So you have 0:27:44.480 --> 0:27:46.880 to build a device that's capable with standing the heat. 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:48.920 But I have to make you have to take into 0:27:49.000 --> 0:27:51.440 account the fact that the atmosphere is not going to 0:27:51.520 --> 0:27:53.199 slow it down sufficiently enough for it to make a 0:27:53.200 --> 0:27:58.320 safe landing. What a headache. So that's already tough. Capsule 0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:00.280 enters the atmosphere, starts to heat up, has to have 0:28:00.320 --> 0:28:04.080 a heat shield to protect the innerds because electronics don't 0:28:04.080 --> 0:28:07.680 react well to heat. Said a billion times uh, not literally. 0:28:08.200 --> 0:28:13.120 The once it reaches a certain altitude, uh, it deploys 0:28:13.160 --> 0:28:17.680 the parachute, which slows down the the vehicle even more. 0:28:17.720 --> 0:28:19.600 And so it started to slow down once it hits 0:28:19.600 --> 0:28:22.000 the atmosphere. Actually takes a little while before it starts 0:28:22.040 --> 0:28:24.600 to slow down, but it does slow down. Hitting the atmosphere, 0:28:24.640 --> 0:28:27.840 the parachute slows it down further. Once it slows down 0:28:27.880 --> 0:28:30.879 as much as it possibly can with the parachute, it 0:28:31.080 --> 0:28:36.000 jettison the parachute, which is important because then it activates rockets. 0:28:36.080 --> 0:28:38.400 So if it activated the rockets first, then there's the 0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:42.840 danger of actually colliding with the parachute and fouling the 0:28:42.840 --> 0:28:47.080 whole system. So jettison's the parachute, parachute flies off, and 0:28:47.120 --> 0:28:53.320 then the rockets make a horizontal adjustment so that the 0:28:53.320 --> 0:28:55.720 descent vehicle is not going to be in the same 0:28:55.720 --> 0:29:01.920 path as the parachute. Uh. It eject the it detaches 0:29:02.000 --> 0:29:05.600 the the heat shield as well. Actually I think that 0:29:05.640 --> 0:29:09.840 even detaches while the parachutes deployed. Uh. And there are 0:29:09.880 --> 0:29:12.360 sensors on the bottom of the rover which can help 0:29:12.480 --> 0:29:16.240 guide the whole system, so it lands in the best spot. Now, 0:29:16.280 --> 0:29:19.600 they were aiming for the Gael Crater, which is was 0:29:20.280 --> 0:29:23.400 It's a crater that was created on Mars about three 0:29:23.520 --> 0:29:28.000 billion years ago with a meteor impact, So they wanted 0:29:28.000 --> 0:29:32.120 to land the rover in there. So the the sensors 0:29:32.120 --> 0:29:34.080 on the bottom of the rover detect where the right 0:29:34.160 --> 0:29:37.800 landing area is. The rockets position it properly and start 0:29:37.840 --> 0:29:42.400 the descent, continuing to slow that that the scent so 0:29:42.400 --> 0:29:47.960 that you're not plummeting to the surface. At about twenty 0:29:48.240 --> 0:29:55.240 meters above the surface of the planet, the rover descends 0:29:55.320 --> 0:29:58.720 on a on a set of cables from a crane 0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:02.320 that's in that descent vehicle. So you've got a crane 0:30:02.600 --> 0:30:08.920 essentially mounted on rockets lowering a one ton vehicle. The 0:30:09.000 --> 0:30:11.840 cables I think we're about seven meters long, and so 0:30:12.000 --> 0:30:15.080 it would then the rockets would then slowly allowed this 0:30:15.360 --> 0:30:18.240 entire thing to descend until the wheels of the rover 0:30:18.480 --> 0:30:21.920 made contact with the Martian soil. At that point, the 0:30:21.920 --> 0:30:26.760 bridles holding the cables to the rover were jettisoned, and 0:30:26.800 --> 0:30:30.720 then the the the descent vehicle with the rockets would 0:30:30.720 --> 0:30:35.000 then launch itself about four away to crash on the 0:30:35.040 --> 0:30:38.920 surface of the planet so that it would not um 0:30:39.120 --> 0:30:42.000 cause any problems to the rover because you don't want it. 0:30:42.040 --> 0:30:45.840 Tell just we've gently set the rover down. Oh and 0:30:45.880 --> 0:30:49.080 then our descent vehicle landed on our rover. That's a bummer. 0:30:49.800 --> 0:30:51.960 That would have been a bad thing. So the descent 0:30:52.080 --> 0:30:55.360 vehicle went about four away and crash landed. Uh, and 0:30:55.440 --> 0:30:58.080 the rover was safe on the planet. And we found 0:30:58.080 --> 0:31:00.520 out about it seven minutes after it happened. And everyone 0:31:00.560 --> 0:31:04.280 did a little dance and cheered and jumped and hugged 0:31:04.280 --> 0:31:06.440 each other. I don't think they did a little dance. 0:31:06.440 --> 0:31:07.880 I think they did a big dance. They did do 0:31:07.920 --> 0:31:10.320 a big dance. And there are gifts out there that 0:31:10.480 --> 0:31:13.840 show this that were very very popular. As soon I 0:31:13.840 --> 0:31:17.320 mean like seconds after the footage at the Internet, there 0:31:17.320 --> 0:31:20.479 were already memes about it. Yeah. Yeah, well, um, like 0:31:20.520 --> 0:31:22.120 I said, I think they were a little surprised, but 0:31:22.160 --> 0:31:24.840 in a in a positive way, Like they came up 0:31:24.880 --> 0:31:29.400 with an excellent solution, but without ever you know, trying 0:31:29.400 --> 0:31:33.680 it in practice. Um, you know it on Mars. They 0:31:33.720 --> 0:31:37.480 weren't certain, especially with their past success rate, whether it 0:31:37.480 --> 0:31:40.040 would work for sure or not, or would it deliver 0:31:40.200 --> 0:31:43.280 the rover in excellent condition, which it did, so they 0:31:43.320 --> 0:31:46.920 were they were very very happy about about that. And 0:31:47.120 --> 0:31:49.120 it's it's something that you can't really test here on 0:31:49.160 --> 0:31:51.360 Earth because the conditions here on Earth are so different 0:31:51.400 --> 0:31:54.040 from on Mars that even if you were to build 0:31:54.080 --> 0:31:57.920 something that works well on on here on our planet, 0:31:58.040 --> 0:32:00.080 you cannot be certain that the same thing is going 0:32:00.120 --> 0:32:03.000 to apply on Mars because the conditions are too different. Yeah, 0:32:03.320 --> 0:32:06.040 so you know, it wasn't just engineered well on paper, 0:32:06.080 --> 0:32:09.080 it actually in practice did did very very well. And 0:32:09.080 --> 0:32:12.440 there's quite a lot of equipment on on Curiosity as well. 0:32:12.440 --> 0:32:16.640 I mean there's seventeen cameras alone, uh, and most most 0:32:16.640 --> 0:32:20.200 of those are navigational and hazard cameras, but there is 0:32:20.240 --> 0:32:23.600 a mast. Uh. You know what my favorite piece of 0:32:23.640 --> 0:32:25.920 equipment aboard the Curiosity is, or do I have to 0:32:25.920 --> 0:32:27.920 ask what what? What is your favorite piece of equipment? 0:32:27.920 --> 0:32:34.680 It's a lazier, which the laser is used to concentrate 0:32:34.800 --> 0:32:40.360 a very focused beam of of light on rocks in 0:32:40.400 --> 0:32:44.120 the Martian soil, and UH they it does listen very 0:32:44.240 --> 0:32:47.560 very short bursts, like five ninosecond long bursts, and after 0:32:47.600 --> 0:32:52.120 about seventy bursts of this high powered, intense laser, it 0:32:52.200 --> 0:32:57.080 starts to a blate or evaporate the rock that it's 0:32:57.080 --> 0:33:00.400 focused on. And then what happens is a special camera, 0:33:01.240 --> 0:33:05.520 actually three different cameras will get information from our three 0:33:05.520 --> 0:33:08.960 different sensors will get information from a telescopic camera that 0:33:09.000 --> 0:33:13.880 will analyze the plasma this rock gives off, and by 0:33:13.880 --> 0:33:19.000 analyzing the plasma through UH spectroscopes, they can determine what 0:33:19.800 --> 0:33:24.200 chemical elements made up the rock itself. So essentially, what 0:33:24.280 --> 0:33:27.400 you're doing is you're burning something. Looking at burning is 0:33:28.160 --> 0:33:31.400 an oversimplification, but you're burning something, looking at the fumes 0:33:31.400 --> 0:33:34.360 it gives off, and based upon those you determine what 0:33:34.480 --> 0:33:36.920 the stuff is made of. The reason for this is 0:33:36.960 --> 0:33:39.840 one so we can learn more about the composition of Mars, 0:33:39.840 --> 0:33:44.040 but to also look for things that could be foundational 0:33:44.120 --> 0:33:48.560 building blocks to support life. Now, curiosity is not looking 0:33:48.680 --> 0:33:51.480 for evidence of life itself. It is not looking for 0:33:51.600 --> 0:33:56.680 microscopic life because it doesn't have any equipment aboard the 0:33:56.760 --> 0:34:00.320 rover itself capable of seeing things that that result Lucian. 0:34:00.760 --> 0:34:03.840 So it's not looking for evidence of microscopic life that's 0:34:03.920 --> 0:34:07.200 currently there on Mars. It's really looking for all the 0:34:07.240 --> 0:34:10.120 elements that would need to be in place for life 0:34:10.160 --> 0:34:13.800 to have at least one at one time been supported 0:34:13.880 --> 0:34:18.160 on Mars. That, however, has not stopped all the other 0:34:18.239 --> 0:34:21.759 memes that have gone around where there have been pictures 0:34:22.080 --> 0:34:27.840 circulated from curiosity and of course uh these pictures of curiosities. Uh, 0:34:28.120 --> 0:34:31.360 from curiosity's point of view, across the surface of Mars 0:34:31.440 --> 0:34:36.600 is it's big and flat. However, duty so far, the 0:34:36.719 --> 0:34:40.359 life forms I have seen superimposed over that landscape on 0:34:41.200 --> 0:34:45.880 social media include Marvin the Martian from this Q thirty 0:34:45.880 --> 0:34:51.520 two Space modul tour from uh, the Looney Tunes cartoons, uh, 0:34:51.600 --> 0:34:56.279 the Muppets from uh that that that go yep yep up. 0:34:58.960 --> 0:35:01.480 And I did see a couple of days ago some 0:35:01.640 --> 0:35:04.800 ad apts walking across the surface. So the empire is 0:35:04.840 --> 0:35:09.880 apparently they're already um, very very amusing all terrain attack 0:35:09.920 --> 0:35:12.640 transports or something like that. That's what it means. Yes, yes, 0:35:12.880 --> 0:35:17.680 So from Star Wars UM documentary Star Wars. Yeah, but 0:35:17.680 --> 0:35:20.120 but yeah, they there are several different cameras. They're they're 0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:25.440 taking photos three d um. So the James Cameron contingent 0:35:25.520 --> 0:35:29.439 is there, black and white colorful avatars are running around 0:35:29.440 --> 0:35:33.680 of there. Yep, yep. Um. So basically they're they're doing 0:35:33.680 --> 0:35:40.120 all kinds of of imaging and analysis of the planet's surface. Um. 0:35:40.200 --> 0:35:43.520 And you know they're it's it's pretty awesome to be 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:45.400 able to do this kind of work. Yeah, this is 0:35:45.440 --> 0:35:49.200 a this is an evolutionary step from what the previous 0:35:49.760 --> 0:35:53.360 rovers we've seen up there, like Phoenix and Spirit and Opportunity, 0:35:53.400 --> 0:35:59.040 where they were all very much geologic, uh, instruments, geological 0:35:59.080 --> 0:36:02.680 instruments really, so the geological formation of Mars and it's 0:36:02.680 --> 0:36:05.880 geological features. We have a bit more to say about 0:36:05.920 --> 0:36:08.920 the Curiosity project over on Mars, but I'm gonna go 0:36:08.960 --> 0:36:11.839 get myself a Mars bar and you guys can take 0:36:11.840 --> 0:36:22.680 a quick break and listen to our sponsor. Curiosity is 0:36:22.719 --> 0:36:27.040 more of like a fully fledged scientific laboratory that is 0:36:27.080 --> 0:36:30.640 on wheels and moves very very slowly. Uh. It's got 0:36:30.800 --> 0:36:32.879 but it's got a lot of sophisticated equipment like you said, 0:36:32.880 --> 0:36:36.239 it has that mast that projects above the rover itself self. 0:36:36.320 --> 0:36:40.640 Gun arm Um. You mentioned the KEM CAM, which is 0:36:40.640 --> 0:36:45.400 the laser. It's got a chemistry and mineralogy experiment or 0:36:45.440 --> 0:36:50.240 instrument called KEMEN. They remember we talked about the different 0:36:50.280 --> 0:36:55.520 parts of the Space Shuttle group. They love love love acronyms. 0:36:55.680 --> 0:37:00.000 So the CAM in instrument looks at minerals to identify 0:37:00.080 --> 0:37:03.680 whether water could have been there. Then there's the rover 0:37:03.840 --> 0:37:09.319 Environmental Environmental Monitoring Station or MS, which will give you 0:37:09.360 --> 0:37:16.680 the weather report. Yes it's not raining again. Uh. There 0:37:16.760 --> 0:37:19.799 there's so much aboard and um. One of the other 0:37:19.840 --> 0:37:22.400 things I think has been really remarkable about the past 0:37:22.440 --> 0:37:28.359 few missions to Mars is NASA's ability to communicate this 0:37:28.440 --> 0:37:31.800 information in a way that is really exciting to people 0:37:31.840 --> 0:37:39.239 who otherwise might not really have cared that much. The 0:37:39.280 --> 0:37:43.839 space exploration history in the in the entire world has 0:37:43.880 --> 0:37:47.160 really gone through sort of a roller coaster of as 0:37:47.239 --> 0:37:50.040 far as the public interest is concerned, right, because you 0:37:50.080 --> 0:37:55.400 had the space race for the Moon, which was politically motivated, 0:37:55.440 --> 0:38:00.719 I mean that was that was really all a few old, 0:38:00.920 --> 0:38:05.400 not literally but metaphorically by the political opposition of the 0:38:05.480 --> 0:38:09.920 United States and the Soviet Union, And so once we 0:38:10.000 --> 0:38:14.320 landed men on the Moon and got them back safely, uh, 0:38:14.400 --> 0:38:19.360 the political uh motivation to push people out into space 0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:22.600 really diminished, which is part of the reason why we 0:38:22.640 --> 0:38:25.480 didn't start immediately looking at Mars as being the next step, 0:38:25.640 --> 0:38:30.279 because a lot of the excitement and enthusiasm and funding 0:38:30.719 --> 0:38:33.840 had gone away because we already achieved this other amazing 0:38:34.239 --> 0:38:39.360 and insanely amazing goal of landing people on the Moon. Um. Then, 0:38:39.600 --> 0:38:42.640 like we had the Space Shuttle era, which started off 0:38:42.760 --> 0:38:48.440 with incredible interest. I mean, it was this amazing program, 0:38:48.440 --> 0:38:52.560 but then Shuttle mission after Shuttle mission, people started to 0:38:52.600 --> 0:38:55.279 think of it more as something that just happens and 0:38:55.440 --> 0:39:00.160 less as something amazing and special because it was you know, 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:02.360 it just seemed like, oh, yeah, another Shuttle mission is 0:39:02.360 --> 0:39:04.799 going up, which is, when you think about it, that's 0:39:04.800 --> 0:39:07.600 a crazy, crazy thing to just take for granted because 0:39:07.640 --> 0:39:09.800 the amount of work it takes to get people into 0:39:09.800 --> 0:39:13.520 space is phenomenal. But it did happen. Uh, once we 0:39:13.560 --> 0:39:17.120 started sending missions to Mars and have them be a success, 0:39:17.600 --> 0:39:22.360 you know, there were science fans who really thought was interesting, 0:39:22.360 --> 0:39:24.560 but the general public, I don't know that necessarily cut 0:39:24.600 --> 0:39:28.839 their attention. I think what really turned things around was 0:39:29.800 --> 0:39:34.800 when NASA started to leverage social media and began to 0:39:34.920 --> 0:39:40.640 use social media to to communicate scientific facts, figures, discoveries 0:39:40.640 --> 0:39:43.640 to the general public. That got people excited, and beyond that, 0:39:44.400 --> 0:39:48.960 they began to give almost a personality to some of 0:39:48.960 --> 0:39:51.640 the equipment they sent out. That's that's funny. I don't 0:39:51.640 --> 0:39:55.520 know if Jonathan heard this. This morning, UM, as I 0:39:55.640 --> 0:40:00.080 was driving to the train station to come in for 0:40:00.160 --> 0:40:03.720 this podcast, I was listening to National Public Radio NPR 0:40:03.880 --> 0:40:05.760 here in the United States, and there was an interview 0:40:06.320 --> 0:40:10.839 UM with Veronica McGregor now Veronica McGregor. She was the 0:40:10.880 --> 0:40:14.840 person who was in charge of updating a Twitter account 0:40:15.120 --> 0:40:19.959 for the Phoenix Mars Rover, and the Phoenix Mars Rover 0:40:20.200 --> 0:40:24.520 ended up getting an enormous number of fans following it, 0:40:25.040 --> 0:40:31.120 and it was able to know through the Phoenix Twitter feed, 0:40:31.560 --> 0:40:34.920 NASA was able to communicate a lot of interesting scientific information. 0:40:34.960 --> 0:40:38.040 But Veronica went a little step further and gave the 0:40:38.040 --> 0:40:43.200 Phoenix sort of again a personality. And I'll never forget. 0:40:43.280 --> 0:40:46.480 I mean, I remember I followed the Phoenix rover and 0:40:46.520 --> 0:40:50.759 it was truly an emotional moment. When the second to 0:40:50.880 --> 0:40:54.280 last tweet the Phoenix sent out during its official mission 0:40:54.880 --> 0:40:58.279 was It's very unlikely I'll wake up next spring, but 0:40:58.360 --> 0:41:01.080 if I do, I'll call home. Go luck with your project. 0:41:01.480 --> 0:41:06.080 And people thought about that, like, there's this little robot 0:41:06.840 --> 0:41:11.160 all alone, not really all alone. There are other robots 0:41:11.160 --> 0:41:14.000 on Mars too, but they're really far away. So more 0:41:14.040 --> 0:41:15.880 or less, there's this little robot all alone on the 0:41:15.920 --> 0:41:20.200 surface of this planet, uh, you know, miles and miles 0:41:20.200 --> 0:41:24.040 and miles away from Earth, and it is doing science 0:41:24.080 --> 0:41:27.040 for us, and it's doing it selflessly, and it's about 0:41:27.120 --> 0:41:30.719 to die because it's solar circuits aren't going to get 0:41:30.840 --> 0:41:33.560 enough juice to keep it going, and there's and by 0:41:33.560 --> 0:41:38.440 the time it comes out of that that essentially Martian Winter, 0:41:38.920 --> 0:41:41.400 for lack of a better term, by the time it 0:41:41.440 --> 0:41:43.759 comes out, it will not be able to reboot it 0:41:43.840 --> 0:41:47.000 system and it will be a dead piece of technology. 0:41:47.840 --> 0:41:51.359 It impacted people, I mean, people got teary eyed over 0:41:51.400 --> 0:41:55.200 the idea because they, yeah, people had had humanized this 0:41:55.320 --> 0:42:00.200 inanimate well animated but on a live object and has 0:42:00.200 --> 0:42:05.480 no actual feelings or personality. But Veronica had really imbued 0:42:05.719 --> 0:42:09.920 this thing with that kind of sense of purpose and 0:42:09.920 --> 0:42:13.160 and personality that people identified with, and it made a 0:42:13.200 --> 0:42:16.960 powerful statement and I think people connected to the space 0:42:17.000 --> 0:42:20.640 mission in a way they hadn't in many years. And 0:42:20.760 --> 0:42:23.440 NASA has continued that trend. And uh the last Twitter 0:42:23.480 --> 0:42:26.760 post it posted was all in binary and it's spelled 0:42:26.760 --> 0:42:33.000 out triumph all making a note here. Huge success. Well, 0:42:33.640 --> 0:42:36.799 they talked to Veronica McGregor this morning. She is the 0:42:36.840 --> 0:42:40.399 social media manager UM and is at it again. There 0:42:40.480 --> 0:42:44.280 there's a team of three women who, according to NPR, 0:42:44.360 --> 0:42:49.080 who work on the Curiosity rovers Twitter account, which has 0:42:49.120 --> 0:42:52.359 according to this uh UM Chicago Tribune, I couldn't remember 0:42:52.440 --> 0:42:54.759 Veronica's last name, so I looked it up and and 0:42:54.800 --> 0:42:58.239 this article posted earlier today. As of right now, more 0:42:58.280 --> 0:43:03.120 than eight hundred thousand followers UM already for Curiosity, so 0:43:03.160 --> 0:43:05.439 they will be following through the mission just in case 0:43:05.440 --> 0:43:09.880 you're curious. According to Veronica McGregor, the Curiosity as as 0:43:09.920 --> 0:43:13.080 she it has a female, she said. According to them, 0:43:13.080 --> 0:43:15.200 they had sort of talked about it and they they 0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:18.839 feel they get this feeling that it's a her. So 0:43:19.440 --> 0:43:22.440 I don't know, you go girl, it's interesting. But well, 0:43:22.520 --> 0:43:25.200 if if you put yourself in the shoes of someone 0:43:25.200 --> 0:43:28.960 who is talking about this. Um, you know you you 0:43:29.040 --> 0:43:30.920 kind of have to make a personality as you're building 0:43:30.920 --> 0:43:33.040 your personality, like you know what, I think, I think 0:43:33.040 --> 0:43:36.840 it's a woman, but I do. I do remember listening 0:43:36.840 --> 0:43:39.680 to or watching videos of the engineers talked about the 0:43:39.680 --> 0:43:44.480 Curiosity and they referred to the entire vehicle as a she, 0:43:44.640 --> 0:43:47.200 which at the time I didn't think unusual because I 0:43:47.320 --> 0:43:51.680 like the votes ships not boats. Well, some boats I 0:43:51.719 --> 0:43:57.239 think of. I think of ships or hurricanes. Um, the Enterprise, Yeah, 0:43:57.400 --> 0:44:01.319 the Star Trek, that's as she. Well. People have talked 0:44:01.320 --> 0:44:03.839 about the expense of the mission, and I'm sure there 0:44:03.880 --> 0:44:07.280 were people who are going, why on Earth were Mars? 0:44:07.320 --> 0:44:10.520 Do you care if it's a male or a female? Were? 0:44:10.520 --> 0:44:14.040 Over All, these things personalize it somewhat, and they do 0:44:14.160 --> 0:44:16.799 make it more accessible to us, and they also get 0:44:16.880 --> 0:44:20.520 us inspired to to try new things, to find ways 0:44:20.600 --> 0:44:25.560 to grow better crops or pure diseases, or launch the 0:44:25.600 --> 0:44:28.440 next mission to space. They make us want to try 0:44:28.640 --> 0:44:30.840 something that we haven't been able to do before, and 0:44:31.600 --> 0:44:34.040 it's valuable. The the effects that come out of this 0:44:34.320 --> 0:44:40.319 are across so many different disciplines, so not only one. 0:44:40.360 --> 0:44:43.359 We're learning about Mars. Two, we're learning more about our 0:44:43.400 --> 0:44:45.920 solar system. Three, we're learning more about the Earth as 0:44:45.960 --> 0:44:49.480 we learn what things are similar versus dissimilar between Mars 0:44:49.520 --> 0:44:54.120 and Earth. And and go ahead. Four we're inspiring future 0:44:54.160 --> 0:44:59.239 generations of scientists and engineers because this is genuinely exciting 0:44:59.320 --> 0:45:03.960 and people, little kids will think that is amazing. Look 0:45:03.960 --> 0:45:06.239 at what can be accomplished. I want to do that. 0:45:06.760 --> 0:45:10.239 And and five you're promoting science in general to the 0:45:10.280 --> 0:45:14.279 general public. And again, you know, promoting science, I think 0:45:14.280 --> 0:45:16.759 it's an incredibly important thing. It's not the easiest thing 0:45:16.760 --> 0:45:19.759 in the world to do, especially you know, some scientists 0:45:19.800 --> 0:45:22.719 are so focused on their field they may not be 0:45:22.760 --> 0:45:26.360 the best at communicating that that passion and enthusiasm to 0:45:26.440 --> 0:45:30.839 the general public. Even though they possess it themselves, they 0:45:30.880 --> 0:45:33.680 might not be able to communicate it effectively. So bridging 0:45:33.719 --> 0:45:37.440 that gap is really important so that the public understands 0:45:37.440 --> 0:45:40.120 why this is important and gets excited. It also helps 0:45:40.120 --> 0:45:44.960 with funding. Um it might inspire the next private company 0:45:45.080 --> 0:45:48.080 to try and go into something that they wouldn't have 0:45:48.120 --> 0:45:52.680 done before. So yeah, the the this is really a 0:45:52.680 --> 0:45:56.200 true domino effect, right. It's amazing the sort of stuff 0:45:56.200 --> 0:45:58.719 that can come out of a mission like this that 0:45:59.080 --> 0:46:04.759 may not even be obvious at first glance. Yep, and 0:46:04.800 --> 0:46:07.439 eventually we're gonna have to get off this rock. Well yeah, 0:46:07.640 --> 0:46:11.359 and we should mention also. NASA currently only has one 0:46:11.440 --> 0:46:16.360 other Mars mission planned, which is a launch in of 0:46:16.400 --> 0:46:22.000 the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution um SO or MAVEN 0:46:22.200 --> 0:46:25.040 this name of that, and don't really have a creative 0:46:25.080 --> 0:46:28.759 acronym for that. I'm who would have thunk it. Maven's 0:46:28.840 --> 0:46:33.320 purpose is to study the atmosphere of Mars. So again, 0:46:33.400 --> 0:46:35.719 the rovers we are sending are mostly looking at the 0:46:35.719 --> 0:46:40.160 composition of the soil and the geological formations that are 0:46:40.160 --> 0:46:43.120 on Mars, and to really look at the various layers 0:46:43.120 --> 0:46:45.160 that someone of the reasons why we landed uh, the 0:46:45.200 --> 0:46:47.520 curiosity of a crater is because they can look at 0:46:47.520 --> 0:46:50.960 different layers on the surface of Mars and see how 0:46:51.000 --> 0:46:54.520 it's how it has changed over time. But this will 0:46:54.560 --> 0:46:56.360 be more to look at the atmosphere. We do not 0:46:56.520 --> 0:47:00.480 have any manned missions to Mars planned, at least not 0:47:00.560 --> 0:47:03.720 NASA UM and there are other nations in the world 0:47:03.719 --> 0:47:06.399 that are also planning missions to Mars. NASA has only 0:47:06.440 --> 0:47:10.759 got the one and then after that, who knows. Um, 0:47:10.880 --> 0:47:13.879 we don't have any planned missions to Mars. There are 0:47:13.960 --> 0:47:18.120 some companies. There are some companies that have talked about it, uh, 0:47:18.160 --> 0:47:20.799 and some of the plans are kind of insane. But 0:47:20.840 --> 0:47:23.759 if you really want to hear a pretty crazy idea 0:47:23.840 --> 0:47:28.000 about landing on Mars, my favorite is the first one 0:47:28.040 --> 0:47:31.880 that I could come across, the first published um plan 0:47:32.239 --> 0:47:34.719 or calculation of what it would take to to send 0:47:34.760 --> 0:47:39.880 a manned mission to Mars, and it comes from Verna Magnus, 0:47:39.920 --> 0:47:45.279 Maximilian Friar von Brown or Verna von Brown as most 0:47:45.280 --> 0:47:49.280 people would know, who was a rocket scientist rocket scientists 0:47:49.320 --> 0:47:53.160 during World War Two built rockets for the Germans. After 0:47:53.320 --> 0:47:57.240 the end of World War Two, the United States UM 0:47:57.440 --> 0:48:00.640 essentially took him and put him to work for the 0:48:00.719 --> 0:48:04.920 U S Rocket program. Uh, it was That's a political 0:48:05.040 --> 0:48:08.120 story that is fascinating, and you should all write to 0:48:08.239 --> 0:48:11.160 stuff you missed in history class to talk about that. Actually, 0:48:11.200 --> 0:48:15.360 that'd be a fascinat fascinating podcast. But anyway, Van Brown 0:48:15.480 --> 0:48:18.040 first made rockets for the Germans and then began to 0:48:18.080 --> 0:48:19.880 make rockets for the United States. And one of the 0:48:19.880 --> 0:48:23.440 things he thought of back in nineteen was what it 0:48:23.480 --> 0:48:26.719 would take to send a manned mission to Mars. It 0:48:26.760 --> 0:48:30.319 wasn't published till nineteen fifty two. Eventually became an appendix 0:48:30.360 --> 0:48:32.840 in a novel he wrote, which was a fictional account 0:48:32.880 --> 0:48:35.359 of what that mission would be like. The novel, from 0:48:35.400 --> 0:48:40.879 what I understand, is not UM terribly good, I did 0:48:40.880 --> 0:48:44.600 not publish until two thousand and six. But anyway, in 0:48:44.680 --> 0:48:47.759 his in his version, it was going to be a 0:48:47.960 --> 0:48:54.320 ten spacecraft mission where these ten spacecrafts would carry about 0:48:54.400 --> 0:48:58.919 seventy crew members total, and the spacecraft would go into 0:48:59.040 --> 0:49:04.360 orbit around Ours and then the mission the the ground 0:49:04.360 --> 0:49:09.799 mission crews would detach from the orbiting UM spacecraft in 0:49:10.000 --> 0:49:14.680 winged vehicles that had skis at the bottom of them 0:49:14.680 --> 0:49:18.560 and would land at the polar caps on Mars. The 0:49:18.600 --> 0:49:22.120 thought being that the polar caps would be flat and 0:49:22.200 --> 0:49:24.120 so that would be the best place to land. Then 0:49:24.120 --> 0:49:28.080 they would take Mars crawlers to the equator on Mars, 0:49:28.120 --> 0:49:31.560 which would take about eighty days I think, and then 0:49:31.760 --> 0:49:35.759 build base camp there and then would come back to 0:49:35.880 --> 0:49:40.880 Earth when the those orbits would line up properly. Again. 0:49:41.320 --> 0:49:47.120 So that was his idea. UM didn't happen. It was 0:49:47.160 --> 0:49:54.080 It was an incredibly um Uh, I don't know difficult, 0:49:54.840 --> 0:49:56.880 I have difficult project. I mean it would have. It 0:49:56.880 --> 0:50:00.799 would have been much harder than anything else we have 0:50:00.840 --> 0:50:04.960 attempted so far. So but that that was my favorite 0:50:05.080 --> 0:50:08.680 of the proposed Martian expeditions, although there are some other 0:50:08.680 --> 0:50:10.839 ones there's been. There was one that was more like 0:50:10.920 --> 0:50:16.200 a reality television show, um which was a private endeavor 0:50:16.320 --> 0:50:18.560 and I won't go into it, but it did sound 0:50:18.600 --> 0:50:22.919 pretty crazy. So there have been some interesting proposals for 0:50:23.000 --> 0:50:27.080 trips to Mars. Mostly it looks like for the foreseeable 0:50:27.080 --> 0:50:30.800 future it's going to be unmanned missions from most of 0:50:30.800 --> 0:50:35.120 the world unless some crazy person with lots of money 0:50:35.600 --> 0:50:38.080 gets behind it and and and does what we think 0:50:38.200 --> 0:50:41.520 is think of as the impossible, which after the Curiosity 0:50:41.640 --> 0:50:43.880 ro overlanding, I'm not sure my my definition of the 0:50:43.920 --> 0:50:47.320 impossible needs to be adjusted. It was certainly not a 0:50:47.360 --> 0:50:51.440 mission impossible, that's true. That wraps up this classic episode 0:50:51.560 --> 0:50:54.080 of text stuff. I hope you guys enjoyed it. It 0:50:54.160 --> 0:50:58.799 was fun to revisit this. I remember actually following the 0:50:58.840 --> 0:51:04.080 progress of the Curiosity as it was happening, or really, 0:51:04.640 --> 0:51:07.600 you know, several minutes after it had happened because of 0:51:07.640 --> 0:51:11.880 the communications delay between Mars and Earth, and it was 0:51:11.960 --> 0:51:16.840 absolutely thrilling. I always find anything to do with space 0:51:17.120 --> 0:51:20.800 and space exploration to be really interesting and exciting, pushing 0:51:20.800 --> 0:51:25.120 back the boundaries of our ignorance, incredible engineering achievement of 0:51:25.160 --> 0:51:27.840 getting stuff into space. So I hope you guys enjoyed 0:51:27.880 --> 0:51:31.080 this classic episode. If you have any suggestions for future 0:51:31.080 --> 0:51:34.400 topics for tech Stuff episodes, send me an email the 0:51:34.440 --> 0:51:38.839 addresses tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com. If 0:51:38.880 --> 0:51:42.160 you want some of your very own tech stuff merchandise, 0:51:42.360 --> 0:51:46.160 like a tech stuff coffee mug, which I have and 0:51:46.400 --> 0:51:50.520 trust me, coffee just taste better in it, you can 0:51:50.520 --> 0:51:53.400 go check that out at t public dot com slash 0:51:53.440 --> 0:51:56.720 tech stuff. That's t E e Public dot com slash 0:51:56.760 --> 0:52:00.000 tech stuff, or drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter. 0:52:00.080 --> 0:52:02.359 I'm happy to hear from you. The handle for both 0:52:02.360 --> 0:52:05.640 of those is tech Stuff H s W. And don't 0:52:05.680 --> 0:52:08.600 forget to follow us on Instagram and I'll talk to 0:52:08.600 --> 0:52:17.800 you again really soon. For more on this and thousands 0:52:17.840 --> 0:52:30.040 of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com.