well hello everyone it’s a delight for
me to be here and to see all of you here
and I think this is going to be a very
interesting and pleasurable evening
certainly will be for us so I want to
start by telling you a little bit about
Mars a head shot of Mars taken by the
Hubble and showing in I think really
wonderful detail what the place kind of
looks like in the modern era when the
Mariner flybys went past Mars they found
some things that were really interesting
deep canyons and so on that increased
interest in sending a real sophisticated
mission there and that resulted in the
Vikings spaceships and before taking off
you may recall Carl Sagan whose
wonderful and incredibly talented person
nonetheless wanted cameras on Viking to
see the animals there was a great
expectation that there was going to be
not only life but like weird life big
life you know
cool life so when they arrived and they
saw a lot of rocks what it was kind of
disappointing and there was a big debate
about whether or not there was any
discovery of microbial life something
that NASA itself has said no one of the
PI’s says yes it all ended in both
confusion and disappointment for the
most part as a result Mars funding and
Mars exploration took a serious dip and
it wasn’t until 1997 that the next
Lander came on to Mars by the way just
an aside there have been six successful
landings on Mars and without being
nationalistic about this they’re all
done by NASA it’s like what we do really
really well putting that aside
putting that aside so in 97 the
Sojourner arrives and then soon after
the Spirit and Opportunity the two
little plucky Rovers that could arrive
and they just do all kinds of things
however they did not have capabilities
to do anything like what curiosity can
do but before we get into curiosity I
want to tell you a little bit about what
they were what NASA and other and
scientists were generally looking for
which was remember the mantra of follow
the water well initially that was like
looking for little gullies and and
looking for you know maybe little
streams of spouts that were coming out
in some way or signs that there had once
been large catastrophic floods and so on
but when first the Mars orbiter camera
went up and then later high-rise and
others they began seeing images like
these which sure looks like a delta to
me doesn’t it you know it’s like that
could be the Amazon that could be the
Potomac dried out badly dried out bad
drought and the whole notion of follow
the water took on a very different
meaning because it was clear that there
were signs many many signs that there
was significant water that had run on
the surface and all of the climate
modeling said that wasn’t possible but
yet it was the case also this picture
which is not a Jackson Pollock but
rather an an image of North Dallas which
is one of the oldest sections of Mars
and after it became clear that there
were signs of water then they began
looking for minerals there are classes
of minerals that are formed only in
water phyllosilicates which are clays
sulfates some others and they began
finding those so they had this orbital
information
now it was the time to do something
called ground-truthing which is
curiosity send curiosity to the ground
and let’s see what happens
this is the heatshield leaving you may
recall that curiosity and its seven
minutes of Terror will you hit the
atmosphere at 32,000 miles an hour had
seven minutes
stop 2-0 here’s the sequence going down
the black is indeed black sand alongside
of Mount sharp which is the big mountain
in the middle of the crater here the
thrusters are going there about to lay
on at this point it’s it’s largely the
rover itself and the descent device and
then first picture ever of an actual
landing look at it that’s the that’s the
tire right there that’s a tire of
curiosity about to land and it did it
became clear quite quite soon that this
was that they landed in a place that was
very different than other landing sites
previously they found pebbles that were
very interesting because they seemed to
suggest the presence of water at some
point they found other conglomerate
rocks that that did the same and then
also they were there was the proximity
to what appeared to be a fossil stream
all of which are kind of beyond cool
from the perspective of people
interested in Mars uh so and and the
original plan was to go directly to
Mount sharp which is this huge mountain
in the middle a through mile high
mountain in the middle of the crater but
they decided against that and decided
instead to take a detour to what turned
out to be named Yellowknife Bay now look
at this what does that look like a
dried-up lake right what do you think it
was a dried-up lake you know that’s kind
of the conclusion that they came to
probably nothing like this has ever been
seen on Mars before or any other planet
outside of the earth and it is an
enormous breakthrough to your upper left
is Mount sharp and that is
where they didn’t go but they will they
will go yeah because that’s what the
program says you’re supposed to go to
all right now the red planet right you
know Mars the red planet every story
except for mine say the Red Planet I say
no it’s not red it has Rouge on it this
this shows a rock that was run over by
the rover and look what color it is
inside blueish grey and it turns out
that most of Mars is colors other than
red that’s just an iron oxide dust that
kind of covers things so the Red Planet
I don’t think so the blue green planet
maybe Curiosity has an array of
instruments that are unlike anything
that’s gone before this was obviously
taken before they took off this is the
arm set a seven feet long with a turret
that has drilling equipment on it that
has a camera on it that has a number of
other instruments on it again nothing
like this has ever gone to Mars really
really hard you know to make this work
very heavy this is the first drill right
in the middle you see the thing go down
it’s drilling a hole that’s about half
an inch wide if I remember correctly
about two inches deep and what they
found it was something that made clear
that the redness just covered over a
level of potentially interesting
habitable potentially habitable
environments that we didn’t know about
before all right
how does curiosity get around it’s
interesting this is called driving blind
where what’s blind is not the people at
JPL who are driving this but rather the
rover which has its own autonomous
abilities but here it is driving based
on a program that was sent up to it
Rover drivers are well known to be among
the coolest people on earth but in fact
they don’t drive I mean they make
programs right you know they’re not at
the wheel but it’s it is nonetheless a
remarkable and
very very difficult job and with a lot
of pressure it turns out that after a
year and a half or so some serious holes
came up in the wheels various punctures
and rips this came from going over sharp
rocks that were embedded into a
sandstone as opposed to being in
something that would be like sand where
there wouldn’t be as much force and this
you know serious problem they really did
a lot of work figuring out how to deal
with it and they determined that it
would not ultimately affect the mission
that it would not shorten the mission in
any way because they could drive
backwards and that’s what they do now
they drive backwards
unfortunately the autonomous part which
is what makes them go really far cannot
go backwards and so they have to stop
going backwards then turn around and
then do the autonomous part forward
which is part of the reason why it’s
taken a long time to get to Mount sharp
but in any case there you go very
briefly
October 19th there is a comet that is
going to go past Mars initially they
thought that it was going to hit Mars or
it could hit Mars which considering the
billions of dollars that NASA has on
Mars and around Mars you know needless
to say was not a happy thought but it
they now believe it will go to the side
enough that it won’t be a serious danger
though you can never tell exactly what
happens the dust particles themselves
although there are just dust particles
are moving at something like 153
thousand miles an hour an hour which
makes them basically bullets so they
could go through to anything in any case
this is going to be passing by Mars and
it’s it to me it was really an
interesting reflection on where we where
we are as as people there are we’re now
a space faring civilization we something
can come close to Mars and it matters to
us and we can learn in enormous amount
from that this this comment will come
closer to Mars than any comet has come
to earth in recorded history
so and and that is but we can really get
a lot out of it because of having the
assets that we have there now and let me
just end with this image from the camera
that my colleague here
Ken edge it is the pi/4 you know those
are little grains of sand those are
little grains of dust in terms of Mars
up close I mean they’re getting really
really up close and not just in terms of
the images in terms of the geochemistry
in terms of the geology in terms of
understanding weather and all kinds of
and radiation and the like and and
that’s what I think is the the great
message that comes from the curiosity
mission so far which is that they’re
learning an enormous amount because they
have new tools and they’re right they’re
really seeing stuff
me to be here and to see all of you here
and I think this is going to be a very
interesting and pleasurable evening
certainly will be for us so I want to
start by telling you a little bit about
Mars a head shot of Mars taken by the
Hubble and showing in I think really
wonderful detail what the place kind of
looks like in the modern era when the
Mariner flybys went past Mars they found
some things that were really interesting
deep canyons and so on that increased
interest in sending a real sophisticated
mission there and that resulted in the
Vikings spaceships and before taking off
you may recall Carl Sagan whose
wonderful and incredibly talented person
nonetheless wanted cameras on Viking to
see the animals there was a great
expectation that there was going to be
not only life but like weird life big
life you know
cool life so when they arrived and they
saw a lot of rocks what it was kind of
disappointing and there was a big debate
about whether or not there was any
discovery of microbial life something
that NASA itself has said no one of the
PI’s says yes it all ended in both
confusion and disappointment for the
most part as a result Mars funding and
Mars exploration took a serious dip and
it wasn’t until 1997 that the next
Lander came on to Mars by the way just
an aside there have been six successful
landings on Mars and without being
nationalistic about this they’re all
done by NASA it’s like what we do really
really well putting that aside
putting that aside so in 97 the
Sojourner arrives and then soon after
the Spirit and Opportunity the two
little plucky Rovers that could arrive
and they just do all kinds of things
however they did not have capabilities
to do anything like what curiosity can
do but before we get into curiosity I
want to tell you a little bit about what
they were what NASA and other and
scientists were generally looking for
which was remember the mantra of follow
the water well initially that was like
looking for little gullies and and
looking for you know maybe little
streams of spouts that were coming out
in some way or signs that there had once
been large catastrophic floods and so on
but when first the Mars orbiter camera
went up and then later high-rise and
others they began seeing images like
these which sure looks like a delta to
me doesn’t it you know it’s like that
could be the Amazon that could be the
Potomac dried out badly dried out bad
drought and the whole notion of follow
the water took on a very different
meaning because it was clear that there
were signs many many signs that there
was significant water that had run on
the surface and all of the climate
modeling said that wasn’t possible but
yet it was the case also this picture
which is not a Jackson Pollock but
rather an an image of North Dallas which
is one of the oldest sections of Mars
and after it became clear that there
were signs of water then they began
looking for minerals there are classes
of minerals that are formed only in
water phyllosilicates which are clays
sulfates some others and they began
finding those so they had this orbital
information
now it was the time to do something
called ground-truthing which is
curiosity send curiosity to the ground
and let’s see what happens
this is the heatshield leaving you may
recall that curiosity and its seven
minutes of Terror will you hit the
atmosphere at 32,000 miles an hour had
seven minutes
stop 2-0 here’s the sequence going down
the black is indeed black sand alongside
of Mount sharp which is the big mountain
in the middle of the crater here the
thrusters are going there about to lay
on at this point it’s it’s largely the
rover itself and the descent device and
then first picture ever of an actual
landing look at it that’s the that’s the
tire right there that’s a tire of
curiosity about to land and it did it
became clear quite quite soon that this
was that they landed in a place that was
very different than other landing sites
previously they found pebbles that were
very interesting because they seemed to
suggest the presence of water at some
point they found other conglomerate
rocks that that did the same and then
also they were there was the proximity
to what appeared to be a fossil stream
all of which are kind of beyond cool
from the perspective of people
interested in Mars uh so and and the
original plan was to go directly to
Mount sharp which is this huge mountain
in the middle a through mile high
mountain in the middle of the crater but
they decided against that and decided
instead to take a detour to what turned
out to be named Yellowknife Bay now look
at this what does that look like a
dried-up lake right what do you think it
was a dried-up lake you know that’s kind
of the conclusion that they came to
probably nothing like this has ever been
seen on Mars before or any other planet
outside of the earth and it is an
enormous breakthrough to your upper left
is Mount sharp and that is
where they didn’t go but they will they
will go yeah because that’s what the
program says you’re supposed to go to
all right now the red planet right you
know Mars the red planet every story
except for mine say the Red Planet I say
no it’s not red it has Rouge on it this
this shows a rock that was run over by
the rover and look what color it is
inside blueish grey and it turns out
that most of Mars is colors other than
red that’s just an iron oxide dust that
kind of covers things so the Red Planet
I don’t think so the blue green planet
maybe Curiosity has an array of
instruments that are unlike anything
that’s gone before this was obviously
taken before they took off this is the
arm set a seven feet long with a turret
that has drilling equipment on it that
has a camera on it that has a number of
other instruments on it again nothing
like this has ever gone to Mars really
really hard you know to make this work
very heavy this is the first drill right
in the middle you see the thing go down
it’s drilling a hole that’s about half
an inch wide if I remember correctly
about two inches deep and what they
found it was something that made clear
that the redness just covered over a
level of potentially interesting
habitable potentially habitable
environments that we didn’t know about
before all right
how does curiosity get around it’s
interesting this is called driving blind
where what’s blind is not the people at
JPL who are driving this but rather the
rover which has its own autonomous
abilities but here it is driving based
on a program that was sent up to it
Rover drivers are well known to be among
the coolest people on earth but in fact
they don’t drive I mean they make
programs right you know they’re not at
the wheel but it’s it is nonetheless a
remarkable and
very very difficult job and with a lot
of pressure it turns out that after a
year and a half or so some serious holes
came up in the wheels various punctures
and rips this came from going over sharp
rocks that were embedded into a
sandstone as opposed to being in
something that would be like sand where
there wouldn’t be as much force and this
you know serious problem they really did
a lot of work figuring out how to deal
with it and they determined that it
would not ultimately affect the mission
that it would not shorten the mission in
any way because they could drive
backwards and that’s what they do now
they drive backwards
unfortunately the autonomous part which
is what makes them go really far cannot
go backwards and so they have to stop
going backwards then turn around and
then do the autonomous part forward
which is part of the reason why it’s
taken a long time to get to Mount sharp
but in any case there you go very
briefly
October 19th there is a comet that is
going to go past Mars initially they
thought that it was going to hit Mars or
it could hit Mars which considering the
billions of dollars that NASA has on
Mars and around Mars you know needless
to say was not a happy thought but it
they now believe it will go to the side
enough that it won’t be a serious danger
though you can never tell exactly what
happens the dust particles themselves
although there are just dust particles
are moving at something like 153
thousand miles an hour an hour which
makes them basically bullets so they
could go through to anything in any case
this is going to be passing by Mars and
it’s it to me it was really an
interesting reflection on where we where
we are as as people there are we’re now
a space faring civilization we something
can come close to Mars and it matters to
us and we can learn in enormous amount
from that this this comment will come
closer to Mars than any comet has come
to earth in recorded history
so and and that is but we can really get
a lot out of it because of having the
assets that we have there now and let me
just end with this image from the camera
that my colleague here
Ken edge it is the pi/4 you know those
are little grains of sand those are
little grains of dust in terms of Mars
up close I mean they’re getting really
really up close and not just in terms of
the images in terms of the geochemistry
in terms of the geology in terms of
understanding weather and all kinds of
and radiation and the like and and
that’s what I think is the the great
message that comes from the curiosity
mission so far which is that they’re
learning an enormous amount because they
have new tools and they’re right they’re
really seeing stuff
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