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Destination Tomorrow - DT6 - Mars Exploration

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Subido el 28 de mayo de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment highlighting NASA's contemporary exploration of Mars.

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For hundreds of years, humans have dreamed of exploring the planet Mars. 00:00:00
One important reason for this is that, other than Earth, Mars is the planet with the most 00:00:08
hospitable climate in our solar system. 00:00:13
The climate on Mars is so hospitable, in fact, that many scientists believe that liquid water 00:00:15
may have once flowed over its surface, harboring primitive bacterial life. 00:00:20
In an effort to investigate these intriguing possibilities, NASA's planned several new 00:00:25
Mars exploration missions. 00:00:30
NASA planners hope these missions will help explain many unanswered questions about the 00:00:32
Red Planet and how those answers will affect us here on Earth. 00:00:36
I spoke with Preysan Desai from NASA Langley Research Center to find out more. 00:00:40
In mid-2003, two Mars exploration rovers will be launched to explore the surface of Mars. 00:00:46
You may remember the Pathfinder mission from a few years ago. 00:00:50
These are very similar, but have some major differences. 00:00:54
The Pathfinder mission had a lander, which acted as a base station, and a small rover, 00:00:56
which was about a foot and a half in length. 00:01:01
The 2003 rovers have many more instruments and will be able to traverse much longer distances 00:01:03
on the surface of Mars. 00:01:07
These new rovers will act like mobile field geologists. 00:01:09
This mission is actually very exciting compared to previous missions. 00:01:14
For the first time, the rovers will be able to go much greater distances away from the 00:01:17
lander, and for the first time, we could also go to a hill on top of it and see what's 00:01:20
over it. 00:01:25
And so, we would be able to cover a lot more different areas and see different geological 00:01:26
features to try to get a better understanding of how Mars is evolving in those regions. 00:01:30
Preysan, what's the process of getting the rovers to Mars? 00:01:35
Well, Tonya, the rovers will be launched on Delta rockets in June and July of 2003. 00:01:38
The rockets will provide the appropriate speed needed to get the spacecraft to go to 00:01:44
Mars. 00:01:48
The spacecraft consists of a cruise stage, which supply the communications and power 00:01:49
during the seven-month journey to Mars, and a lander, which has the rover inside it. 00:01:57
Upon arrival at Mars in January 2004, the landers are separated and enter the Martian 00:02:10
atmosphere. 00:02:15
Once the lander enters the Martian atmosphere, the aeroshell design will slow the entry from 00:02:16
12,000 miles per hour to about 900 miles per hour. 00:02:20
A parachute will then deploy, further slowing the spacecraft. 00:02:29
Then airbags will inflate around the craft to cushion the landing. 00:02:48
At about 600 feet above the surface, retro-rockets will fire, slowing the craft even further. 00:02:53
Once the spacecraft stops rolling, the airbags will deflate and pedals will open up, bringing 00:03:04
the lander to an upright position. 00:03:09
Since the rovers carry all of their instruments on board, they'll be able to start exploring 00:03:12
the planet almost immediately without having to stay close to the lander. 00:03:16
How will the rovers be commanded? 00:03:23
Will they be driven by remote control from Earth? 00:03:24
Actually, the controllers from the Earth will only command the rovers to specific soil and 00:03:27
rock targets. 00:03:32
It'll be up to the rovers to find their own way to get there. 00:03:33
The reason we have to do this is because a signal from Earth takes too long to get to 00:03:36
Mars to have us operate them by remote control. 00:03:39
As a result, the rovers must be able to operate autonomously. 00:03:43
We will decide, based on information we get from the cameras and instruments that are 00:03:46
sitting on the rover, where are good sites to go to and then command the rovers to go 00:03:50
there. 00:03:54
We hope the rovers will be able to travel up to a half a mile from the landing site. 00:03:55
Okay, so once the rover gets to a rock of interest, how will it examine it? 00:03:59
The rovers have many different instruments on there that allow us to examine the rocks 00:04:03
down to the microscopic level. 00:04:07
Once we analyze this type of information, we can tell a lot of different things about 00:04:09
the rock themselves, like their mineralogy, elemental chemistry, their surface texture. 00:04:12
This type of information will give us evidence of ancient environmental conditions and the 00:04:18
possibility of some type of biological activity occurring. 00:04:22
Recent satellite images of Mars show geologic features like channels, which support the 00:04:25
theory that liquid water once flowed over the surface. 00:04:30
Today, the Martian temperature is too low and the atmosphere too thin for liquid water 00:04:33
to exist on the surface, but many scientists believe that liquid water may still exist 00:04:37
below the surface of Mars where temperatures are not as harsh. 00:04:42
If the rovers find convincing evidence of liquid water on Mars, then it's also possible 00:04:46
they may find proof of life on Mars as well. 00:04:51
There's a lot of evidence that there's frozen water just below the surface of Mars and a 00:04:54
lot of these missions that we're trying to go to Mars in the next few years is trying 00:04:59
to get a better understanding of how much water is there and is it in the liquid form 00:05:03
near the surface somewhere. 00:05:08
Three billion years ago, Mars and Earth were very much alike. 00:05:09
Mars was, at that time, much wetter and much warmer than it is now and something has happened. 00:05:12
So by trying to get a better understanding of how Mars' environment has evolved, it will 00:05:17
give us a better understanding of potentially how the Earth's environment would evolve and 00:05:21
give us an idea of how it's going to change in the future. 00:05:24
So by studying Mars, it may be able to tell where our future is headed in this space? 00:05:28
Exactly. 00:05:32
The reason we are exploring Mars and other places in the solar system for that matter 00:05:33
is to help answer two fundamental questions. 00:05:37
One, to explain the formation and evolution of our solar system and the Earth within it 00:05:40
and two, to seek the origins of life and its existence beyond the Earth. 00:05:45
During the next decade, Mars will be the solar system's most popular travel destination. 00:05:50
There are plans for nearly a dozen Mars missions being planned by three countries, the United 00:05:54
States, Russia and Japan. 00:05:58
Coming up, a new device developed by NASA might help parents and caregivers keep an 00:06:01
electronic eye on their children. 00:06:04
But first, did you know that the Viking 1 spacecraft was the first craft to land on 00:06:06
the Martian surface on July 20, 1976? 00:06:10
With its companion craft, Viking 2, the two landers analyzed atmospheric and weather conditions, 00:06:14
collected soil samples and took over 56,000 pictures of the planet's surface. 00:06:19
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Idioma/s:
en
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Autor/es:
NASA LaRC Office of Education
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
494
Fecha:
28 de mayo de 2007 - 17:04
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
NASAs center for distance learning
Duración:
06′ 25″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
480x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
37.37 MBytes

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