Science, Technology and the Human Quest
"EARTH IS THE CRADLE OF MANKIND," WROTE THE GREAT RUSSIAN ROCKET PIONEER, KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY, "BUT ONE CANNOT LIVE IN THE CRADLE FOREVER."...
AND YOUR GENERATION MAY BE THE FIRST TO SET FOOT ON MARS.
chapter head: SEEING THE UNIVERSE
IN THIS VIDEO, HOW WE'VE LEARNED TO PUT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY AND MATH TO WORK IN ORDER TO SEE THE UNIVERSE AROUND US...
chapter head: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, RISKS AND REWARDS
...A LOOK AT SOME OF THE SPACECRAFT AND MISSIONS WE'VE BUILT TO STUDY THE SOLAR SYSTEM... AND THE HUMAN RISKS AND REWARDS OF ATTEMPTING THE CHALLENGING AND NEAR IMPOSSIBLE...
chapter head: THE NEXT GENERATION
...AND A PREVIEW OF WHAT THE NEXT DECADES OF SPACE EXPLORATION MAY BRING.
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program 8
EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND
Science, Technology and the Human Quest
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THIS IS HOW WE OPENED OUR SERIES... WITH THE FAMILY PORTRAIT OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM TAKEN BY THE VOYAGER 1 SPACECRAFT.
HERE ARE THE GAS GIANTS...
AND HERE ARE THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS.
WE HAVE TO CONFESS UP. WE DRESSED IT UP A LITTLE.
THE LAYOUT OF THE PLANETS IS JUST WHAT VOYAGER SAW, BUT WE USED THE MOST DETAILED AND COLORFUL CLOSE-UPS OF THE PLANETS WE COULD FIND FROM MANY DIFFERENT MISSIONS.
THIS IS WHAT VOYAGER ONE ACTUALLY SAW.
THOSE SMALL POINTS OF LIGHT ARE THE GAS GIANTS...
AND THIS IS EARTH, LOOKING JUST LIKE WHAT ASTRONOMER CARL SAGAN CALLED IT, "A PALE BLUE DOT", CAUGHT IN A SUNBEAM.
IT'S VERY HARD TO SEE THE SOLAR SYSTEM, EVEN WITH A SOPHISTICATED SPACECRAFT LIKE VOYAGER.
BUT SPACECRAFT REVEAL MUCH MORE THAN WE CAN MAKE OUT, DOWN HERE ON THE SURFACE OF EARTH.
LET'S FIND OUT WHAT IT TAKES TO SEE THE UNIVERSE.
chapter head: SEEING THE UNIVERSE
THINK OF A RAINBOW. THE RAINDROPS SPREAD OUT THE SUN'S WHITE LIGHT INTO DIFFERENT COLORS, OR WAVELENGTHS.
ALL THOSE COLORS FROM RED TO BLUE WERE IN THERE, ALL THE TIME, "HIDING" IN THE WHITE LIGHT.
A GLASS OR PLASTIC PRISM, OR A DIFFRACTION GRATING, PERFORMS THE SAME FUNCTION AS A RAINDROP... BUT MORE EFFICIENTLY.
THE GREAT MATHEMATICIAN, ISAAC NEWTON, WAS THE FIRST TO EXPERIMENT SYSTEMATICALLY WITH LIGHT THIS WAY, AND TO DESCRIBE THIS UNVARYING PATTERN OF COLORS.
WHAT WE SEE IS CALLED THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM... BUT THE FULL ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM IS MUCH WIDER, AND MANY CELESTIAL OBJECTS SUCH AS EXPLODING STARS AND GALAXIES EMIT MOST OF THEIR ENERGY AT WAVELENGTHS WE CAN'T SENSE WITH OUR UNAIDED EYES.
HOWEVER, THE WATER VAPOR IN EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE THAT MAKES LIFE ON EARTH POSSIBLE DEGRADES OR CUTS OFF SOME OF THESE WAVELENGTHS.
TO SEE THE FULL SPECTRUM WE HAVE TO CLIMB ABOVE THE CLOUDS WITH BALLOONS, OR PLANES, OR-BETTER YET-SPACECRAFT, TO STUDY THE HEAVENS.
EVEN THEN, AND EVEN WITH A POWERFUL INSTRUMENT LIKE THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, YOU GET AT BEST DISTANT, WIDE SHOTS OF THE PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.
FOR CLOSE-UPS, REVEALING THE SECRETS OF WATER ON MARS...
OR CLOUDS ON NEPTUNE...
OR RINGS AROUND SATURN...
YOU HAVE TO SEND SPACECRAFT TO THOSE PLANETS.
AND THAT MEANS PUTTING NOT JUST NEWTON'S LAWS BUT MANY OTHER SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES TO WORK.
name title:
WAYNE LEE
Mars Mission Designer, JPL, NASA / Caltech
When you send a spacecraft to another planet, let's say Mars, you actually have to apply almost everything you know about basic physics. First job is to get the spacecraft off the surface of the Earth. We do that with a rocket. A rocket is a device that operates on one of Newton's fundamental laws, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." And so a rocket operates by expelling hot gas, out, outside of it and the hot gas in turns pushes back on the rocket and makes the rocket rise into the air.
Once you get the rocket into space, the next job is to uh, get it to Mars and that's where Kepler's laws come in. It turns out that Kepler was an astronomer a long time ago, I think 500 years, that discovered that all objects move around the Sun in orbits that look like ellipses. Now ellipse, of course, is a squashed circle.
And what we do is that we put the uh, rocket in an orbit around the Sun that will eventually intersect the orbit of Mars. And it turns out you can compute what this orbit looks like using Kepler's laws.
So you can see by getting something from the surface of the Earth to Mars, we've used Newton's laws, we've used Kepler's laws, and we've solved some mathematical equations governing motion.
IF NEWTON'S LAWS HELP YOUR ROCKET GET CLOSER TO THE TARGET, IT'S ONBOARD TELESCOPES AND CAMERAS, WITH PRINCIPLES OF OPTICS DATING BACK TO GALILEO AND NEWTON, THAT RETURN SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC DATA.
THIS IS THE SUN SEEN BY A TELESCOPE DOWN HERE ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH...
THIS IS THE SUN SEEN IN X-RAYS BY AMERICA'S SKYLAB IN THE 1970'S...
THESE ARE IMAGES FROM THE U.S.-EUROPEAN "SOHO" SPACECRAFT...
THIS IS WHAT THE U.S.-JAPANESE "YOHKOH" SPACECRAFT-THE NAME MEANS "SUNBEAM"-SEES...
AND THESE INCREDIBLE IMAGES OF MAGNETIC FIELD LINES-THE SHAPERS OF SUNSPOTS AND THE GENERATORS OF FLARES AND CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS-ARE FROM THE NEWEST AMERICAN SPACECRAFT, "TRACE."
EACH GENERATION OF CAMERAS AND FILTERS REVEALS NEW DETAILS AND HELPS US BETTER UNDERSTAND THE LAWS OF NATURE.
DOWN HERE ON EARTH, COMPUTERS TAKE SPACECRAFT DATA AND TRANSFORM THEM INTO POWERFUL TOOLS FOR A NEW APPRECIATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
MINUTE VARIATIONS IN RADIO SIGNALS FROM "MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR," PLUS ELEVATION DATA FROM ITS LASER ALTIMETER, LET US VISUALIZE THE RELATIVE THICKNESS OF THE CRUST OF MARS AND COMPARE THE YOUNGER NORTHERN HEMISPHERE WITH THE GEOLOGICALLY MORE ANCIENT SOUTH.
AT JPL, EXPERTS USE COMPUTERS TO ALLOW US TO FLY LOW OVER THE AMAZING LANDSCAPES OF THE MOONS OF THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM AS IF IN A SMALL PLANE, EVEN THOUGH THE ACTUAL SPACECRAFT IS THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY.
AND ADVANCES IN OUTER SPACE ALLOW US TO UNDERSTAND OUR HOME PLANET BETTER, AS THE SAME KINDS OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS LET US TO SAMPLE TREE HEIGHTS...
MAP ICE FLOES...
OR SEARCH THE LAND FOR FAULT LINES WHERE EARTHQUAKES MAY OCCUR.
LOOKING FAR AWAY, WE SOMETIMES FIND OUR CLOSE-UP VISION ALSO IMPROVES.
chapter head: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, RISKS AND REWARDS
WE'VE SEEN THAT EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE MEANS PUTTING SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES TO WORK... BUT IT ALSO TAKES WHAT THE ENGINEERS CALL "BENDING METAL", MAKING INSTRUMENTS AND MACHINES, THAT MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO BRING BACK ALL THAT DATA.
SOME CHANGES FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF THE SPACE AGE ARE PRETTY OBVIOUS.
THIS WAS MISSION CONTROL FOR THE MARINER 10 MISSION TO MERCURY-THE ONLY SPACECRAFT SENT SO FAR TO THE CLOSEST PLANET TO THE SUN.
IT'S AN ALMOST MILITARY FEEL... AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE IS MALE.
THIS IS MISSION CONTROL AS THE PATHFINDER SPACECRAFT TOUCHED DOWN ON MARS.
INSTANTLY YOU CAN FEEL THAT THINGS HAVE GOTTEN MUCH MORE INFORMAL... AND YOU CAN SEE THERE ARE WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN WORKING IMPORTANT JOBS IN THE MISSION.
JENNIFER HARRIS, IN FACT, WAS IN CHARGE FOR THAT FIRST EUPHORIC DAY ON MARS.
MISSION TEAMS NOW TEND TO BE SMALLER IN NUMBERS, WHICH MEANS MORE WORK, AND IN SOME WAYS MAKES EVERY MEMBER ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT.
IT'S NOT JUST THE HUMAN TEAMS THAT HAVE GROWN SMALLER.
YOU CAN SEE IT'S A CASE OF "HONEY, WE SHRUNK THE SPACECRAFT" AS WAYNE LEE AND ROB MANNING TAKE US BEHIND THE SCENES AT NASA'S JET PROPULSION LAB., TO SHOW US SPACECRAFT PAST AND FUTURE...
WAYNE LEE:
This is a life-size model of the giant Galileo spacecraft. Galileo was launched in October of 1989 from the space shuttle Atlantis. Galileo is currently in orbit around Jupiter taking data about the planet and its many moons.
What you see here is a high gain antenna for the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini when fully assembled will be about 2 stories tall. It will arrive at Saturn in the year 2004.
name title:
ROB MANNING
Systems Lead, Mars 2003 Exploration Rovers
JPL, NASA / Caltech
ROB MANNING:
Because of my interest in Mars I'm very excited about devices like this tunable diode laser. This instrument can detect water on Mars. A little over ten years ago this instrument could have been the size of a Volkswagen.
(points to small computer chip on board in his hand)
Today... can you believe it?!?
Let me show you something else. This is a seismometer that can detect Marsquakes. Ten years ago it would have been the size of this computer.
(walks to small display)
And what's the payoff? Let me show you...
Spacecraft... this is an actual size spacecraft. This spacecraft can explore the outer reaches of our solar system at a fraction of the cost we could do it in the past.
THESE ARE AMAZING MACHINES, BUT AS YOU WOULD EXPECT, NOT EVERYTHING IN SPACE EXPLORATION ALWAYS GOES AS PLANNED.
MISSIONS TO MARS SEEM ESPECIALLY RISKY.
WAYNE LEE:
Diagnosing a problem on a spacecraft at another planet is very difficult. Unlike the space shuttle in orbit around the Earth, we don't have astronauts that can use their hands, eyes and tools to fix a problem. There is no one on board a spacecraft at Mars, for example. So if a spacecraft is misbehaving, we have to rely on ones and zeroes coming back from the spacecraft. This is what we call telemetry. It is data that the spacecraft sends back to Earth-it tells us how it's behaving. Based on that telemetry, we have to predict what is happening and diagnose a plan.
For example, those ones and zeroes coming back might tell us that a spacecraft is wobbling out of control, and if that's what we believe then we can send commands to fire rockets to stop the wobbling.
But in essence it is using data that the spacecraft sends back, applying the laws of math and physics to predict what is happening, and then sending back a plan to compensate without actually seeing what is happening with your own eyes.
IN THIS SERIES WE'VE ENCOUNTERED MANY OF NASA'S PAST AND PRESENT MISSIONS.
NOW LET'S LOOK AHEAD...
chapter head: THE NEXT GENERATION
LAUNCH DATES AND OTHER SPECIFICS MAY CHANGE, BUT IN COMING YEARS WE'LL SEE MISSIONS TO FLY BY THE NUCLEI OF SEVERAL COMETS, SAMPLING THEIR GAS AND DUST...
WE'LL SEE PLANS TO ACTUALLY LAND ON COMETS, AND SPECIAL TOOLS TO ANCHOR SPACECRAFT ON THEIR ICY SURFACES...
OR HOP ABOUT THESE DIRTY SNOWBALLS TO GATHER SAMPLES.
WE'RE MOVING FROM AN ERA OF FLYING BY THE PLANETS AND MOONS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM TO A TIME WHEN WE'LL BE ABLE TO DO WHAT'S CALLED "IN SITU" OBSERVATIONS.
WE'LL SEE MORE MISSIONS USING SPACE TO HELP US UNDERSTAND EARTH AS A PLANET AMONG A FAMILY OF PLANETS.
THIS SPACECRAFT WILL STUDY HOW THE SUN'S X-RAY AND EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION IS ABSORBED IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE, IN A REGION WE CAN'T STUDY FROM EARTH OR BY RESEARCH AIRCRAFT.
name title:
CHRIS CHYBA
Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute / Stanford Univ.
CHRIS CHYBA:
The next ten or twenty years are going to be among the most exciting years in the history of planetary exploration. Let's just think about what's going to happen.
We are going to have catalogs of other solar systems. We're going to have lists of hundreds, probably thousands of extrasolar planets. We're going to begin to answer the question, is our solar system typical or is it rare, and we're going to know whether the Earth is unique...
ALREADY THE INTERNET MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO SIMULATE SPACE MISSIONS AS NEVER BEFORE.
OUR "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" WEBSITE ALLOWS YOU TO FIND OUT MUCH MORE ABOUT MANY OF THE RESEARCHERS YOU'VE MET DURING THESE VIDEOS.
THIS AND MANY OTHER NASA WEBSITES EVEN LET YOU SUBMIT QUESTIONS AND INTERACT WITH THE RESEARCHERS DURING MISSIONS.
INCREASINGLY YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIT BACK AND WATCH THE EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. YOU CAN PARTICIPATE WHILE YOU'RE STILL AT SCHOOL, AND, IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, GET READY FOR A CHALLENGING BUT REWARDING CAREER IN SPACE SCIENCE OR ENGINEERING.
WAYNE:
This is a very exciting time for kids in school right now because I think in the next thirty years will be the most exciting years in space flight. We will make advances where people will be living in space stations permanently. In fact, that's already beginning to happen with the International Space Station.
I believe that within the next thirty years, we'll be able to send astronauts to Mars, and in fact I think the first human to step on Mars is one of you kids sitting in the classroom here today.
name title:
CLAUDIA ALEXANDER
U.S. Project Scientist, ROSETTA Comet Mission
JPL, NASA / Caltech
CLAUDIA:
I think that we will discover life outside of Earth, extraterrestrial life. I feel very strongly that we will discover it in the next 20 years, maybe sooner.
And I also think that the next big thing to expect is to be able to walk on the surface of Mars in the next 25 years. I think that... those are the two big areas that are going to happen.
And they will take, both of them, very big engineering advances, that it won't be just my generation that will be involved in it, it'll be the next generation engineers who are sitting in classrooms today.
Those'll be the people who will come up with the new ideas, the fresh way of looking at things that is going to enable us to get there, to get to Mars, and to land on the surface, and to be able to conduct business on the surface of Mars in person, and also to make the advances that will allow us to discover life on other planetary bodies.
WAYNE:
There's two reasons that I really enjoy working in the space business. The first is getting to explore the unknown. It's getting to go places where nobody has been before.
But I think what really thrills me is the same reason that every kid athlete dreams about being in the Superbowl when its fourth down and ten with two seconds left to win the game.
Space flight is very difficult. When you work in this field you're being put on the spot to get something right, and that's what really drives me and what excites me is the challenge of making it right the first time around.
FOR ALL WE'VE FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM IN THE PAST DECADES, THERE'S STILL MUCH MORE TO DISCOVER...
AND THAT TAKES GIANT TELESCOPES ALL AROUND OUR PLANET...
SPACECRAFT IN EARTH ORBIT, SILICON EYES TURNED TO THE HEAVENS...
AND ROBOTS, SENT ON MISSIONS FAR BEYOND EARTH, OUT TO THE PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.
BUT ABOVE ALL IT TAKES MEN AND WOMEN WITH BRAINS AND IMAGINATIONS, CURIOUS, EXCITED, AND COMMITTED... THEY, AND ALL OF US WITH OPEN EYES AND CURIOUS MINDS, ARE PART OF THE COSMIC EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. WE ARE, INDEED, TO PARAPHRASE ASTRONOMER GEORGE WALD, A WAY FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM TO KNOW ITSELF. THIS... IS OUR NEIGHBORHOOD... THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE, AND WE'RE BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND IT AS NEVER BEFORE.
