1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,900 My Outro For My 20th Birthday 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:42,300 Coming up on Destination Tomorrow, NASA is preparing new Mars exploration missions that 3 00:00:42,300 --> 00:00:48,040 might help explain many unanswered questions about the Red Planet. Plus, a new device developed 4 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:53,280 at NASA will give parents a second set of eyes, keeping their children safer. And we 5 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:58,760 meet a retired NASA engineer whose revolutionary design helped launch America into the space 6 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:06,080 age. All this and more, next on Destination Tomorrow. 7 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:11,000 Hello everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal. And I'm Kara O'Brien. Welcome to Destination Tomorrow. 8 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,520 This program will uncover how past, present and future research is creating today's knowledge 9 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:20,220 to answer the questions and solve the challenges of tomorrow. In the near future, NASA is planning 10 00:01:20,220 --> 00:01:25,840 a series of new Mars exploration missions aimed at finding out more about the Red Planet. 11 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:30,680 Newer, larger, unmanned rover vehicles will be able to travel much farther than previous 12 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:35,920 missions, acting as geological surveyors exploring the surface of Mars. 13 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,800 NASA planners expect to land two identical rovers in different regions on the planet's 14 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,920 surface. The twin rovers will be exploring Mars' climate history while searching for 15 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:46,920 organic materials and signs of water and life. 16 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,840 Tonya St. Romain finds out more about NASA's new Mars rover and its incredible journey 17 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:57,640 to the Red Planet. 18 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:02,520 For hundreds of years, humans have dreamed of exploring the planet Mars. One important 19 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:06,680 reason for this is that, other than Earth, Mars is the planet with the most hospitable 20 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:11,900 climate in our solar system. The climate on Mars is so hospitable, in fact, that many 21 00:02:11,900 --> 00:02:17,000 scientists believe that liquid water may have once flowed over its surface, harboring primitive 22 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:18,000 bacterial life. 23 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:23,240 In an effort to investigate these intriguing possibilities, NASA's planned several new 24 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:28,920 Mars exploration missions. NASA planners hope these missions will help explain many unanswered 25 00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:34,280 questions about the Red Planet and how those answers will affect us here on Earth. I spoke 26 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:39,320 with Preysen Desai from NASA Langley Research Center to find out more. 27 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:44,040 In mid-2003, two Mars exploration rovers will be launched to explore the surface of Mars. 28 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:48,400 You may remember the Pathfinder mission from a few years ago. These are very similar, but 29 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,440 have some major differences. The Pathfinder mission had a lander, which acted as a base 30 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:57,560 station, and a small rover, which was about a foot and a half in length. The 2003 rovers 31 00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:01,480 have many more instruments and will be able to traverse much longer distances on the surface 32 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:07,920 of Mars. These new rovers will act like mobile field geologists. 33 00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:11,240 This mission is actually very exciting compared to previous missions. For the first time, 34 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:15,320 the rovers will be able to go much greater distances away from the lander, and for the 35 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:20,480 first time we could also go to a hill on top of it and see what's over it. And so we would 36 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,360 be able to cover a lot more different areas and see different geological features to try 37 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:28,720 to get a better understanding of how Mars is evolving in those regions. 38 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:32,040 Preysen, what's the process of getting the rovers to Mars? 39 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:37,120 Well, Tonya, the rovers will be launched on Delta rockets in June and July of 2003. The 40 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:44,120 rockets will provide the appropriate speed needed to get the spacecraft to go to Mars. 41 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:50,440 The spacecraft consists of a cruise stage, which supply the communications and power 42 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:57,440 during the seven-month journey to Mars, and a lander, which has the rover inside it. 43 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:05,440 Upon arrival at Mars in January 2004, the landers are separated and enter the Martian 44 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:09,120 atmosphere. 45 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,920 Once the lander enters the Martian atmosphere, the aeroshell design will slow the entry from 46 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:20,920 12,000 miles per hour to about 900 miles per hour. A parachute will then deploy, further 47 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:23,920 slowing the spacecraft. 48 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:43,920 Then, airbags will inflate around the craft to cushion the landing. 49 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:51,920 About 600 feet above the surface, retro rockets will fire, slowing the craft even further. 50 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,920 Once the spacecraft stops rolling, the airbags will deflate and pedals will open up, bringing 51 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:01,920 the lander to an upright position. 52 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,920 Since the rovers carry all of their instruments on board, they'll be able to start exploring 53 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:11,920 the planet almost immediately without having to stay close to the lander. 54 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,920 How will the rovers be commanded? Will they be driven by remote control from Earth? 55 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:21,920 Actually, the controllers from the Earth will only command the rovers to specific soil and 56 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:25,920 rock targets. It'll be up to the rovers to find their own way to get there. 57 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:28,920 The reason we have to do this is because a signal from Earth takes too long to get to 58 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:34,920 Mars to have us operate them by remote control. As a result, the rovers must be able to operate 59 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:35,920 autonomously. 60 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:39,920 We will decide, based on information we get from the cameras and instruments that are 61 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:42,920 sitting on the rover, where are good sites to go to and then command the rovers to go 62 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:43,920 there. 63 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,920 We hope the rovers will be able to travel up to a half a mile from the landing site. 64 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,920 Okay, so once a rover gets to a rock of interest, how will it examine it? 65 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:55,920 The rovers have many different instruments on there that allow us to examine the rocks 66 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:57,920 down to the microscopic level. 67 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,920 Once we analyze this type of information, we can tell a lot of different things about 68 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:05,920 Once we analyze this type of information, we can tell a lot of different things about 69 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:11,920 the rock themselves, like their mineralogy, elemental chemistry, their surface texture. 70 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,920 This type of information will give us evidence of ancient environmental conditions and the 71 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:18,920 possibility of some type of biological activity occurring. 72 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,920 Recent satellite images of Mars show geologic features like channels, which support the 73 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,920 theory that liquid water once flowed over the surface. 74 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:30,920 Today, the Martian temperature is too low and the atmosphere too thin for liquid water 75 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,920 to exist on the surface, but many scientists believe that liquid water may still exist 76 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,920 below the surface of Mars where temperatures are not as harsh. 77 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:44,920 If the rovers find convincing evidence of liquid water on Mars, then it's also possible 78 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,920 they may find proof of life on Mars as well. 79 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,920 There's a lot of evidence that there's frozen water just below the surface of Mars, 80 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:55,920 and a lot of these missions that we're trying to go to Mars in the next few years, 81 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:58,920 is trying to get a better understanding of how much water is there, 82 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,920 and is it in the liquid form near the surface somewhere. 83 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:04,920 Three billion years ago, Mars and Earth were very much alike. 84 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:09,920 Mars was, at that time, much wetter and much warmer than it is now, and something has happened. 85 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:13,920 So by trying to get a better understanding of how Mars' environment has evolved, 86 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,920 it will give us a better understanding of potentially how the Earth's environment would evolve, 87 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,920 and give us an idea of how it's going to change in the future. 88 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,920 So by studying Mars, it may be able to tell where our future is headed in this case? 89 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,920 Exactly. The reason we are exploring Mars, and other places in the solar system for that matter, 90 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:33,920 is to help answer two fundamental questions. 91 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,920 One, to explain the formation and evolution of our solar system and the Earth within it, 92 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:42,920 and two, to seek the origins of life and its existence beyond the Earth. 93 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,920 During the next decade, Mars will be the solar system's most popular travel destination. 94 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,920 There are plans for nearly a dozen Mars missions being planned by three countries, 95 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,920 the United States, Russia, and Japan. 96 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:58,920 Coming up, a new device developed by NASA might help parents and caregivers keep an electronic eye on their children. 97 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:06,920 But first, did you know that the Viking 1 spacecraft was the first craft to land on the Martian surface on July 20, 1976? 98 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:11,920 With its companion craft, Viking 2, the two landers analyzed atmospheric and weather conditions, 99 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:17,920 collected soil samples, and took over 56,000 pictures of the planet's surface. 100 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:23,920 Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been an alarming increase in deaths of infants and small children 101 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,920 after being left unattended inside a vehicle. 102 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:31,920 A new device developed at NASA may help to stop this disturbing trend from growing further. 103 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,920 Inspired by aircraft flight test technology, 104 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:40,920 the Child Presence Sensor has been designed to help prevent these tragic deaths from ever occurring again. 105 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:42,920 Jennifer Pulley finds out more. 106 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:54,920 According to a national non-profit safety organization called Kids and Cars, 107 00:08:54,920 --> 00:09:00,920 81 infants and small children died last year while being left unattended in and around a vehicle, 108 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,920 up nearly 100% from the previous year. 109 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,920 In many cases, parents simply forget they've left their children unattended.