Transcripts For CSPAN Summit On Human Exploration Of Mars Part 1 20170820

Watching us. To the fifth humans to mars summit. Not the center of the universe. Lease life this known fact is only been known and established 400 years every since because can person proved it mathematically. Humans can fly. Thats only uth with us for over a century. Humans can walk on the moon. A century than half of truth to us. Considering our times a human pecies on the planet those are all really short times to know these things. Now what i expect that in 16 small crew of 6 women and men will be on route mars. Think about it. Now. 16 years from that can be true too. Ut if we want that math to happen, we today, will have to we keep track with our human and mars program. Looking at you, my audience i know that im looking at the can make this happen. As you truly are the best and fields we st in all need to send humans to mars. Lets show our resolve and keep needed infrastructure and keep testing and improving. Humans on mars get us fact too and underway now. Pleasure tohe great introduce two people that have in gettinggently and humans off the planet and to years. For many first drake. Space architect with the space a space corporations. Brett has over 32 years of systems e of engineering and space flight both n design experience with nasa and industry. Nasa, he years with helped lead the agency into and analysis of human as i saidht and works for the Aerospace Corporation planet and on of to mars. He other speaker i would like to introduce is mike. Of ourone of the leaders last great space project and if of y great space project i course am mentioning the nterNational Space station and i think that being that so that makes him wellsuited for our space project putting blue humans on mars as e brings experience of large scale System Integration and International Corporation to our eam and both will be necessary for Human Missions to mars. 33 years as part f boeing company contributing to human space flight. Plenty of experience and explore is proud and happy to have him also on our directors. At present mike is president of corporation thats a texas based business dedicated o Planetary Science and education. Please come out. You. Ank good morning everybody. Im standing in for joe. Good morning. Everyone were here to talk this morning about the mars report just finished publishing and it came out this pressrelease and is available online. All of you that are here at the report in got this your packet so id encourage you to check it out and read it. Its an excellent report. Brett and i will spend a few minutes talking about whats in report and give you a high level over view. Years ago to try to pull together reliable information use the community could about the progress towards mars happen. G mars mission one of the really interesting and nice things about this is overtime these reports will chronicle the progress that and well be able to look back at them and see how we did. Lot of r weve made a Good Progress so based on that of e going for each section the report quickly. Should take about ten minutes or that, and o do going on we will get that now. The first section and critical mares t of the mission to is the science Precursor Mission to the human ior ones. They allow us to get all the nformation we need about mars thats critical to make the Later Mission happen. Big year een a very for the science program. Eve had a lot of great progress from msl curiosity rove. Ts been working its way up mount sharp and this year its been working its way through buttes formation area and got some of the most pictures that have ever been taken on the surface not seen if you have them go online and find them. But it makes it really clear this was a wet environment. Formation area had water in years and the ny sedimentation layers are visible just fantastic. Orbiters rting is the in orbit around mars, so the orbiter and odyssey and of n and exo mares is there course now as well. Hese have been finding subsurface ice and this is a lot estimates initially are several areas that look to be on of Lake Superior. Hese are quite large subsurface. Of the science programs is very busy. Theres a lot of activities planned and you can see those on charts here. A lot of International Businesses are coming forward now. Announced a mission Robotic Mission to mars. Nasa rse we have got several missions in the plans. Has another mission thats coming also and of course india and united emirates and there and the united emirates has one on the very its become a International Program and their commercial efforts as well. Can see spacex has a mission they hope to do up there as well the team looks forward to the things they really need to get done they have some and one of the first is, we need to replacement for the m r o that has yearsn orbit for ten plus now and so its been doing a marvelous job but its been and its time to get ready for a new one that ill take up that mission and provide the communications necessary. Also the mars simple return high priority for the team and this will start to work aspects that her well need for the human mission. Robotic lot of missions to mars but nothing has ver come back so the a scent portion is critical and the return will work that. You mike. So next section is a discussion architectures and systems ecessary for habitation of mars. 2016 and 2017 theres been advancements from a lot of the organizations looking at Human Mars Missions and what it would take. Examples shown here. Strategy which is starting off Orbital Missions systems on the surface and exploring and then leads a human reusable n mars and single stage lunch vehicle. Using liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Improving on pany the lou nor outpost leading to system. And then conduct Orbital Missions and then followed by Landing Missions so theyve improved their thinking. Spacex elon musk humanced this thoughts on exploration of mars a he envisionedhich reducing transport drastically any citizen to try to go to mars. Hes improving his thinking there. Things like Raptor Engine and large oxygen on the he has initial thoughts of wouldhe Early Exploration look like. Electrical ments in propulsion and recently nasa released thoughts on what to call deep space gateway. Outpost ing a small near the moon that would be critical in understanding and ms operations understanding some of the key technologies and a lot of the aspects that and well talk about in a little bit. Deepgateway can serve as a space important f you will for the assembly of the mars that return cles back to lunar space for the next mission so reasonable transportation is what nasa is thinking about right now. In terms of some of the key up ings that team has come with looking at things. We feel that affordability is of the key aspects. When all these teams look at concepts as you saw in the earlier discussion theres a ide range of system capabilities and concepts for Architectural Development but healthy thing getting alternative viewpoints table and n to the helps a community understand what makes sense and doesnt. Healthy dialogue among the Space Community. Is mentioned affordability one of the keys and we have to downsure we drive the cost and affordability is the key aspect that explore mares is at trying to Development Architecture if it doesnt have ufficient return for the stakeholders theyre not going to fund it. Ustainability is another key aspect the team has been looking on. In a lot of the aspects an architecture sustainable and one thats not ust a flash in the pan that would be a short duration but over at can be conducted many years. Theres a strong belief that a science objective and strategy can help bring the exploration uman communities together. Continuing that effort is very and bottom line from all of achievable. Is theres been a lot of discussion architecture s discussions in thinking mares is key and theres all these impediments keeping us from going to mars. Held ere was a workshop with explore mars in the air call society where we brought experts to look at what are the key long polls of us from getting from where we are today to mars. Ooking at the systems and technologies and all those teams looked at whats required to get are today to there and the common consensus is its hard but its not unobtainable. Impossible dream so that was good news from a lot of these aspects. Just lost it. Oh. So go forward, there we go. In terms of the systems for the are tecture a lot of them making progress. Rion are in production right now. Orion crew module undergoing tests and the Service Module is in part uction in germany as of a contribution from the lot of production is going on at marshal and at the theresspace center and a lot of assembly getting ready for exploration one. In terms of habitation. Eep space habitat nasa is following the next step broad area announcement and we have everal different Organizations Companies looking at habitation oncepts and thats driving towards this deep space gateway of something we can use to prove he systems and the technologies. Advancement continuing in event propulsion. Jet was award and contract for a thruster so well. S advancing really in terms of decent and as scent. Corral decisions to advance those systems. Expiration goals and are we going to use resources it with us . Because those all drive the izes of the vehicle that eventually drives the size of the descending vehicle. We need the land larger with can only land one metric concept is being exploreed for that and its making progress as well and then systems. Ce what were doing on the surface and such are oves in early conceptual phase right now. Report to Human Factors we have a special section on that this year where try to go into more depth on the Human Factors. Last year in ings 2015, 2016 the year long mission by scott kelly. Wealth of data showing humans space for long periods of time and theres such aswe need to solve decalcification but were etting good data and well continue to understand how human beings live and work in space and it periods of time will volume of the the gateway. Etting humans out beyond the magnet sphere and how humans and operate. Confined space for us long time. His will help provide us information we need on the drive towards mars and not just human human but the whole health and Research Program is aspects t 31 critical of human health. Im trying to drive those down a Research Program advancing that as well. Also a really report t part of this and we have looks like i went a farther. Oo there we go. And we have focused on it again year in this report. Normally its international and year ic policy and this tends to be more domestic. Were centered on the domestic part. Not that there isnt anything happening but a lot of things thats what we focused on this year and of course one big events it was passing of the nasa transition authorization act. Remind folks the last time that we had an authorization that passed was in 2010 so this was a really big deal that we had an and yet weion change still had strong bipartisan nasa and got this act passed and into law. Also in the sakt some of the strongest language weve seen a ociated with endorsing mission to mars so this is a harbinger for the Mars Community and people working on missions to mars. Proud to say that our report was act lly referenced in the so thats good. That means that people are makeng it and its helping a difference. The other big event thats is administration is announced the formation of the National Space council. Seen this actually happen yet but its planned so ell be watching that with great interest and talking about that next year in the report. To be final section of the report has to do with public engagement. This has been in the report from beginning as well. Its a really important part of sending all effort for humans to mars. Making sure that the public understands what were doing and why were doing it and is able it as well. Te in so we think its very important nd we think that theres signs that this is really starting to catch hold. Ouve seen a lot of media offerings coming out in the last year. Sorries. Books. Mars. Ix series on generation. These are all signs that the starting to lly engage. We always had strong poling mars support with the public and that strength we inues so as a Community Need to continue to support this and support the media when they help. For finally i just want to put up of all the folks that worked on the report. Of etty distinguished group people i think youll agree as you look at that. And work very hard on this did a terrific job. So if you get a chance pull it out of your packet and read it. If you are watching this Conference Online you can go to and youll website be able to download a copy of there. Port from so with that, chris . Done. Nk were yeah. So . Questions . Minute or may have a two. Thank you. Here comes. Much. You very thank you, mike and brett. Pleasure to y ntroduce the present administrator of nasa. Cting administrator but never the less. Obert became the administrator when the new president took office on the 23rd of january 2017. He has like many of us speakers 30 years of experience in space has been with nasa for nearly 30 years. And he started theres a test engines for the shuttle in 1989 serving in many ten years later resented him with a silver award. We love these awards for his ontributions to the success of human space Flight Missions so allinall a good man to have on our conference. To introduce you to t. U robert lightfoo well, good morning. Great to be here. Appreciate you asking me to participate in this gathering he way we talk about mars you would think its something were interesting in doing, huh . I was aeronauticswith the and Space Exploration board at academies last week, and this was a topic that came up in space and the destination for civil space in eneral and its interesting so see the different opinions and thoughts that i think the nice everybodyt it is that believe this our horizon goal as an agency is to get to mars. You think about it. Humans clearly were already on the th the roves surface now and but i think ever viking we said wow we need to get there. And frankfully driven us even ore to think about getting humans there. We have Current Administration supportive of the goal if you look at the bills whether proposed budgets approved or getting to mars 2030s. Ans in of course you can argue that you know were already there. I said a minute ago we have rovers there now. Doing work on the reconnaissance is there bringing all that data back. Wheels on say we have the ground and an eye in the sky around mars and that allows us where we want to go and what might still be there pretty exciting. Especially when you think back first flew by after the moon. You see this what looks like a world like mars and vehiclent change until and the first images that came back made us really want to go we e and understand what needed to do and i think the real goals of humanity have been mares for a while. And while we want to put humans mars that search for life elsewhere is something were doing as well. We ink its important when think about it and frankly thats why youre all here. We want to reach that horizon oal for all the humanity not just the United States or some particular, not just nasa. Do that and were going to do everything in our power to look for other forms of the universe. T just think about the fundamental that would have. Ven thinking of finding microbes or ancient microbes historically would be a complete way we are the thinking grand us, its kind of need until a haystack proposition. And think ig planet about earth. What we still discover when we explore this large planet and none of it was discovered like the first day. Right . Found things every time we moved across this globe. Think physical human presence can accelerate the rate at which we discover and i believe thats about humans to mars to allow that. And intelligence to search mars rapidly and we go forward, but you know, beyond the life find ition of what we can in this universe theres really desire as f innate human beings to extend ourselves as a species. Fornd ourselves further and us thats into space at this point. Deeper and deeper into space. When you think about landing on the moon, the great aber is very or thes that look into the other galaxies and this agency and our Planetary Missions that weve ouched every planet in the solar system. B jupiter and then saturn. That every vities time we answer a question, every it just begs more questions. Right . And we want to continue to nswer those question as we go forward. I dont think any of us is not images touched by the were getting back. I saw some this morning in the one of the most recent of almost eerie was when you see that giant planet sitting there. Its incredible. Just absolutely incredible so back up in time, the first pictures from mars we said that looks more like what we, here than there and we really wanted to go and when you think about moving forward you about humans on the surface of mars and if you just 1969 and the impact surface of the moon and just, i call it a discovery or evel impact when we do that and i dont say that lightly. Deal. A big just driving in this morning i top,ht, i was listening to mostly for traffic reasons like most of us that live in this and they had advertisement on the radio about something said,ly different and they this country is made on great its eries and of course neil armstrong. Making his first comments from surface of the moon. Thats the kind of impact we can have and i think thats what eventually rs will do to us and its even more compelling when you think how be. D this will i think at the annual gathering we he human to mars summit continue to look at the horizon goal and were looking to see those aspirations need to tomorrowsit becomes reall rightty so if we dont aspire were not going to get there. Humans on mares is a big thing. Not only does it take a lot of resources and commitment but complex and hard to do his and i think, i think for us, when you look at the impact going back to the landing on the discussion its a global effort, right . Not just us. Back and look at the above the fold newspapers from we landed on the moon. Just about every newspaper said, we did it. Right . It was a global event and to me, thats the kind, almost a shared triumph of humanity and see with ats what we humans to mars when we go there and thats the lie, right . To discover if theres life there and push ourselves as but cies to another level its also just that sheer claim hillary the same when hit the top of Mount Everest that we as a human race believe in and itll take a global effort to get there. Just accomplishment but global effort if you think about hat weve done with our International Partners interNational Space station of our Science Missions when you look at year mars nch next 2020 which is the next railroad International Component as well and then you hink about the next astronaut class announced this summer and they may be the first set of training to go to mars and may actually put together. Onyll certainly be training the systems in near term to get us ready for deep space we keep moving ball down the field or keep moving needle. Metaphor you want to use thinking about that going forward. Learn. E a lot to theres a lot left for us to learn. You guys will talk about that a lot. Of the challenges and radiation and life support. Mass of the surface. These are all challenges that on. Re taking our Space Technology and mixes director clearly knows the but were not just thinking of those were making theress on them in terms of technology were trying to knock down. We have sensors on mars today that data. Were using Science Missions to precursor work we can do. We want to put an instrument on mars 2020. Can we actually pull oxygen out of the environment. InterNational Space station were using thats a test bed for technologies for life as we go forward. You can have a panel in a minute important it how is youll see steve the head of technology and obviously from human exploration and the head of science. Youre going to see the three of them talk in an integrated way. Do this in a stove pipe manner in terms of how science humans go to nd mars and we develop technologies working every day to figure out a way to figure or do any to mars mission whats the opportunities gather as an agency to dat data. Were working on it ch. Always youll hear what were thinking as we move orward but we also have a lot that we can build off of. A lot of systems. Cooperation model with the interNational Space station we have today we believe we can off that. We believe theres a ton of foundational cooperation and i will help us with this global goal or generational mars. F bringing humans to i think the desire is there. Here if youldnt be didnt think this was a great thing to do and i think you large portion y of folks in this world not just here. Some e go out and do things internationally its ascinating we typically go to schools and have a group of school kids come in and it is the horizon goal of the next generation. Theyre interested and excited really hard questions. Theyre very smart. I dont remember having those in middle stions school that we often hear about going to mars. Ready to taken to mantle for us as we move forward as progress keep making so they can pick it up from us. I think theres a lot of this in n how we do terms of is it a government activity. R industry where sometimes i think were or. Ned by the tyranny of i believe this is an, and. It will take all of us and all industry. If you go back to the moon anding it took a government effort and the Industrial Base of this country to do this and i about hats what we talk ith the brackman were proving that today. Retty soon taking our astronauts from u s soil. Itll be exciting and i think off that as we move space. Ce further into so i think, to me, when you look t the progress on all of our syst systems, no matter. Missions our science incorporating the things we need mars man exploration to and theres progress being made and were all kind of focused on that. You know the technologies are will done today and steve talk about those and what hes working on but the teams are really, its really exciting because its stretching some things but also bringing out innovation in my mind not only that we see from nasa but the at industry teams and academia is see some of ng to the proposals in terms of taking challenges we have to basically get through to actually get to this point. An easy task. Is, is that thinks it not paying attention but its the next task and next thing to do that in my opinion we must do because just there is not really the benefit if you look back on us moon we got to the moon and incredible chievement but what we accomplished on the way and discovered on the way is just ering, technologies the lifechanging, sometimes weustry altering things that did to do that as a nation and incredible. Ffort was i think when we do reach mars, a civilization impact. Will say it again. To get cades of work there youre going to have an nternational team thats going to be a global human moment and just as everyone remembers where were when we landed on the moon i think its the same as something well endure for centuries. When you think of that. Centuries. Thats a Pretty Amazing thought process. And history of time today. Like to look back three or four hundred years thats not very far in history but those that happened this will be one of those like landing on the moon was going the u. S. Is think hoisted to lead that effort but we wont do this alone. Be able to as we move forward. Take all of us our International Partners and nasa frankly academiafrankly academi come along and itll take those middle elementary and school today to be with us when we get ready to do this so we inspiring them as well. Think its very positive the with the International Partners on this and where they want to go and to help us and what they think they can bring to the journey. Were going to be n pretty good shape from that standpoint. Hard. Know this is of not one eckage spacecraft where people have tried to make it. We have to learn each time we go and from every mission we take thank all of you for getting together and discussing that biggest ideas confront us in making us mission changing possible. This is beyond any budget cycle generational y discussion you guys are planting the seeds and what you guys will next bout over in the couple of days is humanities next giant leap and how were it and get there. Progress. Were not just making progress in the labs and the facilities but progress at the diplomatic ables and those are important too diplomatic tables were making progress getting into making sure the next again investigation is ready to board when they come on soon. Were kind of as you look at space re doing on station today, congratulate set the record for withtime in orbit up there a rookie. The two of them epitomize what ere trying to do with advancing exploration and what theyre learning and doing today helping us for this journey were on. At the end of the day this is a enterprise were trying to start. Lot of hope in terms of leadership and inspiration moving forward. Engaged in one has this discussion if new im glad you are part of the discussion debate that will go on but i hope it infuses your works a you hear something that will allow you as you get work teams whether industry or academia. Doesnt matter. Ake back what you learn and look for ways to inject your us get sm into helping there. If we do that and focus on that boots on mars in our lifetime. Thank you very much for being your nd appreciate interest in helping us get there. Thanks. Thanks. Now i understand that all of getting ry excited in to mars. Some of us might even be jittery. Interpret the fact that some of you have already mare for mars and left hall. Luggage in the even at best that luggage will please for 16 years so dont leave your luggage day. Tended even for a thank you. The next person im going to already known to you if you listen to his podcast among the do, you are many who do so. Is in his 15th years host and producer to planetary planetary radio. I personally love listening to obviously and im not the only one. As this program is really, popular. Broadcasted by about 130 public radio stations personally i love how matt s his guests from all walks of science life. Nd i love how he talks about the red planet of course most. Im partial to that. You can understand. Ow for the second year, matt will serve as host of the life breaks and of our were very glad to have him and im sure everyone online loves theres no break in our program really thats something to listen to thats really interesting. Matt will introduce the other panelists to you. Have the floor. Thank you. Im going to start out over here. Were still getting microphones on the distinguished panel back to pass the time we do have a little special video made for us yesterday by, well ill tell you who they are in a moment but i you that they are halfway through assimilated roll n to mars and we can that video. This is mission five crew here wishing everybody visit to the he mars summit. So that enthusiastic group of a ng people theyre about hundred days into roughly a 200 on stay on the mountain top the big island of hawaii. Mission five eas mars simulation. Something that is partially unded by nasa and the university of hawaii is behind. Who knows from the look of it those young people might be on a mission to the real thing in the 2030s. Like some of them might be about the right age to command a mission like that. Going to hope that our three panelists are all mics up now stage so to join me on lets bring them all out. Hi guys. An extraordinarily short panel and were going to try and takes a much of the we can to allow you helps o ask questions as you remember who all of us are that and im does guessing we still have one son [laughter] musical chairs. Thomas. Who i was. Ow thank you. Well since he was kind enough to properly well start with bill. Hes nasas associate human trator for the exploration and operations for all aspects of crude exploration. InterNational Space Station Development of that giant rocket. 1 100 scale model in the lobby if it would have been tenth scale there would not have been room for us. Orion ce launch the spacecraft thats preparing to far beyond. Nce served as manager and also provides guidance and direction for the commercial crew and nasa journey and to mars at the heart of what were talking about for the next days. D a half two nasa Exceptional Service awards go on and space pioneer and as word if you look him up in the all knowing findeen wikipedia you will this terrific photo of bill in a a model of the Space Transportation system. Ost of us know its a Space Shuttle with his hand up on this tunnel thats the 1978. While. N at this for a lets go on to that as with physics from university f burn in switzerland the associate administrator for the cience director prior to joining he was professor in erospace engineering at university of michigan and the founding director of the center in the college for engineering finding his name reviewed 0 peer articles. Involved in numerous science including 18 year recently s mission ompleted and the advanced composition explore or ace physics mission. Guessing the heat one has to take in washington is no big you . For low on the scale compared to what you get from the sun and wired up to go is steve. Administrator of the Space Technology director programs for he nasa focusing on exploration and Science Mission needs while also working on the capabilities by he greater a row Space Community and developing nations innovation economy. Servingto the job after for a while at the langley center. H work on some of our nations most technologies and he led the organizations programs included seven and the flight test of system. N launch aboard nasa has given him outstanding and rship medal distinguished exexecutive and a university of virginia so im obligated to say go cavaliers to thanks for joins on stage. We heard from your boss a few probably o and i will come back to that in a few minutes. Heard, i was told backstage that hes been humans to mars 2020. Ember of were working on that, right . Have to answer. Are we on track for humans to 2030s . Rs by the i think youve seen from the were ng discussions and which is a ocket huge activity going on and we ave the orion capsule in florida getting ready for Exploration Mission one thats development and real manufacturing work going on and even more importantly we the crews on board interNational Space station that re really starting to help us understand what its like to live in a sustained micro ravity for a long time and the other thing is were able to grab some new tools and get some dna sequencing material on board returning to d of the ground we can look how human na is potentially changing in the environment. We did it with one year mix w scott kelly but that rider us to return all these samples to the earth and now we can look at of the genetic change directly on space station and i be a uj way to advance how the human can live this environment thats going to be needed for mares so i look things and were making substantial progress. His is a challenge that requires all of us so how do we all Work Together . Ow do we use science and technology stuff and what thomas is doing on mars today with the for mars 2020 . An how do we advance at an even quicker pace . Pulling altogether is something that your boss talked about a few moments ago on stage. The integrated approach you are all striving for which im to taking essential on a challenge like this for any to . You to respond its absolutely clear that at theres moren time science there than infrastructure that relates to presence and therefore for us to make the we est progress possible need to start interfacing with each other and take advantage of go there so to robert mentioned. Mentioned the deep space optical instrument and i chime in too do some of these technologies were all working together the three us but get them to mars now so we can take some of these or deep space so we can take some of the technologies off the hecklist and make progress towards having a full set of technology so when the time of s were ready with some these enabling technologies. Absolutely right. Have kindpace tech we of a system capability driven approach to what were doing. Theyre like 38 or so enable ties we want to for Robotic Missions and human pace Life Missions and i think weve done a really good job. Ook at the demonstrations like noah come. And were paying zero and leveraging other missions and systems that and expiration are flying so were not developing more as part of a system on a future mission on a weve doneso i think a nice job focusing on the technologies needed for the moving forward and then integrate together try to and strate, develop demonstrate those technologies in the most efficient and effective way possible. I look at what robotic stuff is going on mares today. The fact we have radiation on the curiosity rover you see the but i like to look at the radiation environment on mars. Actually look at the radiation data you see the solar the magnitude but is not that dramatic and the roughly equivalent to space stations so that thin atmosphere is a surprise and the fact that it shields but hats only possible because we have an instrument on the curiosity rover that can provide hourly radiation measurements from surface of enabling. Hats the other thing is knowing where water is on mars and where it is below the surface and the data that comes back important bserver is for us so without the Science Mission director we couldnt knowledge to understand what challenges to push on and steve described the electric propulsion. Talk about moving large masses to help with human enabled byand thats the thrusters that steve and his group is putting together. Space next lorida its on the launch scheduled for june first deployed go and be during the Space Exploration and understand ta and how well it works and can be energyd high power solar is very important for these missions so thats a great way we us to Team Together so essentially can provide the ride and he provides the hardware and all get the data we can use to inform ourselves how we will challenges on how to put those on mars. Technologies . T i hope none of them are show stoppers but which ones make you the most anxious . Mars, you know, landing on human class systems to support safely to the surface and allow them to be productive really to be challenging so right now 900 sity was about ascending nd the vehicle for crude missions is tons so ately 20 metric we have about a 20 time increase to the surface of mars and thata assuming we can surface. He fuel on the the fuel because that is actually drive. Landing drive. What the viking guys did was amazing. We still use the same super same form shoot and for the vehicle and innovated air bags and were coming to the end of that architecture. Ton is all we can do so we have to invent new entry that are maybe larger to use atmospheric drag to slow down. Power suits will not work so we retro use super sonic bulges and looking at technology to land safely and precisely. Simulations and we predict landing like a ten surfacer ellipse on the but we want the precision to a hundred meters and so thats a also so landing there will definitely be a challenge and theres lots of systems that are challenging for example power. Think solar power will we developed small power theo be able to systems for crew as well as the do ems to produce to utilization like producing fuel and oxygen and et cetera and also going to be a challenge and then the thing thats not a show stopper but have to manager from a risk standpoint is Radiation Protection during long transit times. Pulsing. The micro gravity environment absent that but its going to be a long trip and shielding the cosmic rays is challenging. Its difficult to shield from actingsing materials and shielding materials are way too massive with way too much power have to s something we manage with a storm shelter and other measures so thats more of risk mananagement. More of a Risk Management type for getting big things to the surface i assume those folks with in spacex and the red Dragon Project . A collaboration on that. Here were helping them to no exchange of funds and were expertise m with our in simulation and system ngineering and what were getting back from spacex is the super sonic data. Theyre planning on a totally pro propulsion descending and that rade feedback that feeds into our modeling and systems moving forward. We actually did that on falcon when they land the first stage, they fire the engine in regime andonic speed so we actually have an agreement for the first few stage stages. Glad viking came up because i still marvel at the that the ience spacecraft were able to years ish more than 40 ago. Obviously the robots get better and smarter. What do you hope robotic xploration will do between now and the 2030s to help prepare us to get human theres and 2030s, how much more will humans still be able to do . Amazing of all theres science going on right now. Then mars scientists and loss s that talked about out of the atmosphere. We know where the water went now. Lot about, has a much broader set of implications planets and the importance of a Magnetic Field in some of the evolution of life. And s issues like that research from the ground where f course, theyre going around and really realizing just from curiosity and f now, really Building Blocks of sources, all of these good that relate to environment for potential life in the past. For us, you know the future is bright. Heres a lot of topics we want to do including the mars sample eturn thats very much on the trajectory of development that we want to do. Were going to learn how to come perhaps. We dont need a whole human mass back. Ple to get so get on that trajectory nalyzing these samples and bring them back to the best that that e to be clear though research will have that paradigm altering type of transition the humans are there and it example ll turn for investigation of life to something that deeply involves robots. Nd i dont think the time for robots will ever disappear. Critical to see these things in concert in every discussion that we have does both from the infrastructure support but research. M figuring how and where to go. Look around the corner over in the hill and make sure that walking there is worth it. Me, its really, a s ologist from cal tech talk planetary environment can tell from that environment. Other than that, that statement is true. About life andrn kind of really be ancient that life possibly when there was water on mars. Lot of the think a research and breakthroughs of hat will happen just like through research with people and of these that some paradigm altering topics that re there on mares to be discovered are going to happen. They can make it right there seeing. What they are and i also think thats a its important get there. Ways to it doesnt need to be the mass that were going to do in vehicle to come off mares with humans so its a sub scale between the two. The perfect example. Wed rather demonstrate what human but it can be a step if we can look at the ight way to get a combination between the two and then inject the right technology from steve but its a erfect compromise from all three. Not perfect from anyone of the is soor but the challenge demanding it requires all of us to compromise a little off our solution and look for that synergy between us and over arching gger goal moving humans towards mars challenge. The we tend to look at these in our own lanes and this is not perfect for human space flight or science or Technology Perfect for the goal to mars. Not individual ones. That will take compromise. As that journey to mars. Ecomes better and better defined. Increasingyou see an role for humans getting close, maybe stopping off before going for the gold and putting them down on the surface that advantage thomas, of course is being able to control the robots there with only a or two between you and them rather than the long delay earth . I think theres a variety of rchitectures that were thinking about that multiple people around the earth are thinking about and i think really exciting to see is the kind of convergence of and energy towards mars from many different directions. Window. 2020 launch the last time i counted we had four seven launches and potential want to be landers and shows is like that that theres, i think what that shows is excitement to that also that if you listen to aefb little bit in detail you realize people have some interest in to stop by in the neighborhood, so i think you know, provost is an interesting its deems is too but by itself we learn from oons elsewhere in the solar system dont underestimates moons. Sometimes they have the biggest underneath cles their surface and they surprise you, but the other thing also is clear that the spots xchange mass so when you look at the surface of provost and some of the areas very likely not too recent kind of mars the that came up and hit surface and theres a lot of research thats how hot they get are ejected and turns out the temperature is not that high. Ormously got a gut feeling this boiling in the ng off neighborhood and the short nswer, some of these much more sophisticated analysis . Not all of it. Of course the surface that gets hot, immediate contact surface but not all of that gets to that i think theres a lot of promise and thats reflected for example in some International Partners are doing that were excited to think about and well so i think that theres more than one. I dont think this is going to way to think about that kind of exploration from some kind of linear along the line type of thing its a response. Much more entrepreneurial. Like the point in the sky were to but were not going to walk into kind of an rchitecture and everything, very step along the way to detrimental of our own success like who would have guessed companies are . You mentioned spacex. Heres other wheres the companies are today, right . When ten years ago when iscussion on the states like this happened and for me, its like okay. Partnering re not with some of the companies, were really missing the boat, right . Its for us. Kind of ing, in the architecture that can really bring in the things that we learn. Important and it needs to be directed to the point in the sky we want to get to. Its not like going god knows where, we want to go to mars but sure we can take advantage of things, so to focus great idea i think that should be investigated going forward. Steve . Like to think about it is stalling analogy. Were going to go but how no idea how the seas and will and what equipment break and well have to adjust i think its but really important as we learn more through science, as we developing hrough and testing technologies that will feedback to architectures approaches that will enable some and make them more viable other be eliminate systems and in approaches in architecture. Important that we continue to look for opportunities to collaborate and take advantage technologies and look at their performance and feed that we donto the science that and what we learn there has to and in and as we go along make and learn more through science and make progress in you know well tag differently or replace equipment so i think that is absolutely were have to do if going to get there and it is oing to take not only integration but kind of consistency of purpose over a period of time to get there and i think weve been at for it a little while and well continue to move forward. Steven and thomas described architecture. Ible its clearly not linear the way aomas described so well take look and see what the government basic and where they put infrastructure in place if you dragon activity space x can do that only because of the deep Space Network and navigation and we as a government can provide that wants that hat ability. We built that key piece of infrastructure and difficult for a company to have these around basis. Rld to be the its not the right thing for the private sector but is for the we make that if available to anyone that wants to use that to have benefit back us to understand about propulsion thats great. Dont lock everything in but the should build the right piece of infrastructure a t then can be supported of broader Sector Community that want to go and do these things. The other thing thats important to set some standards. Deep Space Network has noperability and all the International Partners can communicate and use that same network. Comes back and thats almost everyones data so thomas talks about the six r seven missions those are all supported so that infrastructure is really, really important and things and he other its know about who gets the headlines or the credit, its how do we move Forward Together as a team. Careful we to be dont pick exactly the way we want to go to mars. The moon plays a key role thats a great thing if the starts moving forward maybe we go towards the surface to do y and dont have things with the moons. Maybe the moons will play an in moving forward. We discussed deep space gateway were using our own moon staging point and do the mars moons or maybe a highly mars a al orbit around better staging region than says mars orbit . The things we want academia to start studying and build that basic framework but dont get locked after linear Mission Mission create a structure resilient enough and feeds orward and theres not many weve ds on that you can weve this netWork Together. I love that concept of the deep space gateway. Lets move it on out and three the d sn as always. Were already more than halfway segment at theh tmz summit. Want to get to your questions. Theres there are microphones here and there in the audience, people will come up to those i will throw one more to you guys. We have heard about the to the logical challenges, your boss, the administrator and others have also addressed the other sorts of challenges that are less under your control. What is the bigger challenge . The technological or the public and political will . It is hard to separate the two. Whether it is managing to show the excitement and not having communication, the structure that comes from us. In other words there are others like us, people in the audience and others who are basically seeing value in this. They might have different motivations than we, but the likelihood of getting support, there are multiple voices that kind of went in the same direction. , and the lasttion decade is really that the voices are louder. Is going to help us i think, in the long run. That is going to help us also in our discussions with voters. We are at the pivot point. That is absolutely the point we want to mix, the pivot point pushing down the pedal, whatever partnerships and total money investment across the ecosystem. Thely start checking off system that you have. For me, i think it really will take both. Yes, i think it is back to the previous discussion about being flexible and learning and moving forward. I think we kind of get disconnected when we start to focus on the how. Or the who, i think we tend to engage in may be less than perfect conversations when we talk about the who and the how, and the way that i describe it is that this is a huge challenge. And we absolutely can do this. I collect all hands on deck, right . We need to take advantage of universities, companies, obviously, Government Agencies and International Partners. The bestto be using minds, the best ideas, wherever they are. In order to meet the goal that we are all agreeing on. Locking down on a detailed plan, will be just fine and will get there. And i think the other thing we need to look at two, is that we in this audience like to talk about the challenge side. We get excited about working the challenge but we also have to think about the benefits of achieving the challenge and what they mean to the society as a whole. We get asked questions, where are we moving humans to mars . What does that have to do with the problems that face today . Turn thoseneed to challenges back into real things that show how we are providing benefits back to people. It comes naturally to the younger generation, they see a Better Future by us moving out and being explorers. We dont often talk about that, about understanding how we do a closed loop light support system, resources being precious, having to recycle what recycle water, providing Water Purification for people in africa. Those are coming from Space Technology. Our whole view of the universe, our place in the universe has really changed from apollo on. How do you talk about that inspirational motivation the are really big . We as in denier engineers and scientists may focus on the challenge side but we also need to turn that around to the general population describing to them what the benefits are two attacking these challenges. And how they will have benefits for all of us here. We have to describe the other side, and i do not think that we as a community do a very good job of that, we could do better. I am going to bet that steve, you and your people could point to everyone of those 38 technologies and show us an effort for all of us who will be stuck down here on earth. Absolutely. On the practical side. You can talk to us now. With a someone microphone, hello. Introduce yourself and let us hear your question . Peter, from maine to read i was from maine. I learned last night that it atmosphere in mars is largely the 02. It may be wonder if perhaps we had been there before [laughter] in light of what we are doing to our planet. Where to put Landing Craft down, where to do the explorations, have you considered where the oceans the bodies of water would be, and if there had been chilled human Life Settlement on mars music coming wouldnt be would it not be logical that they would settle near the coast near former bodies of water, is that something you have considered . The film he is talking about, we got to see the terrific documentarymars last night. Absolutely wonderful document, terrific. Yes, our progenitors, the ones who may have started on mars, thomas . Thomas i will answer the first part, that is the do we know where the bodies of water are . The answer is yes. One of the biggest victories over the last decade is that we , thatrom end of a feeling there used to be water to not only a very good agreement of where the water was, but also where the iceday, is, where the water flows. Are, wherere we would would take advantage of resources once we landed there. There is also tremendous certainty, some of these resources have as much water in them as look as Lake Superior in michigan. That says a lot, i think the in the freshwater lake United States or in the world i think. The bottomline line is we found those, relative to signatures of people who might have lived there before, i would just say that we have not found any of those signatures and we have looked right . We have High Resolution cameras, which keep trying to learn about science and learn more of what there is to learn about this planet. At this point, really what we are doing is looking forward, the one thing that we know for sure is that intelligent life, life will be there once we land. As he said, we are the martians. We have already had workshops, science explorations to look at what the landing sites might he for human exploration. And it is progressing very rapidly. Theirctly, using research, and technologically, we are looking at the challenges of landing there safely, operating systems on the surface of that we need for the crew to be healthy and productive. That has already started and it will continue. I think also the co2 atmosphere is intriguing. He has been looking at the ability of oxygen in the atmosphere and for space, we take the Carbon Dioxide as the crew that the crew generates and combine it with hydrogen from the electrolysis of water into oxygen so that the crews can breathe. We combine that hydrogen with the co2 that the crew generates and we make more water, and we actually create methane. Dash methane mason is a propellant that can be used or vehicles, and etc. , there is a nice convenience to using that, refining those chemical processes and youre exactly right. Some of them have huge benefits especiallyth for us, for the co2 environment that we are potentially kicking up, it shows us how we can use it to make it something more compatible with life. It is really intriguing and again, mars, because of the necessity to solve these hard engineering problems it will force us to create these to solve these problems for the people. We have a question on this side. International partners and industry earners are mentioned as a key role in this infrastructure of reaching mars. I am wondering how you see china playing a role. I know that there was some outreach made to china but there are Security Risk involved in sharing technology. But have you heard any continuation of this outreach or discussion about how we could one day coordinate with china to build some bridges there, build new space infrastructure . Speaking of technological challenges, again, we are prohibited from working witch and a bilateral relationship, though we work with them and i multilateral forum. Members of all our international committees and we are well aware of what their activities are, what they are planning on and they are well aware of what youre doing, and we work with them on night multilateral manner where it makes then. Other terms of relationships, we are prohibited by law from having those interactions. I think that this challenge is so huge though, that we will figure out a way globally that we can work with them in the truth that we are given to figure out how to make these activities happen internationally. What they are doing is exciting, their space station, their mars activity is intriguing and we will look at that and see where it makes sense. They just successfully refueled robotically their space stations, so, hats off, a pretty big accomplishment. We set that International Docking standard and we were able to punish that publish , available for any country to use so that any other country in the world if traveling to these can figure out how to dock their spacecraft. We work on standards in terms of us architecture, Power Systems and etc. , it is not a mandatory standard, voluntary, but if people build to those standards, we have a compat ability and we could move components from one country to another country, i think it is a powerful way that we can take out of the political debate by just publishing open standards that are voluntary much like how ekstrom came about in the radiofrequency world spectrum came around in the radiofrequency world, bringing a Large Community together, publishing general ideas for the community and having a general consensus. You can definitely build this infrastructure we have been talking about in the large scientific community. Thomas, that debt that must sound incredible to you. In science, during the cold war, during every run of those political rifts during countries, they collaborated. It has been a platform for science discourse, and a platform which currently has u. S. President to really get science discourse going, even though there are political challenges. I think science has been, over time, many of these things have been unite ors. Have been have been unite. Rs uniters it is multilateral, people go to the same conferences, often around the world, sometimes here sometimes elsewhere. It is continuing as we go forward. We are getting close to the end of our time here, probably time for a couple more questions i hope. Sir . I am peter, im am not a scientist but im just an engineer. I wish you could talk about the mars mission, could you tell us about it . Let me tell you how i see my job. Im only good at some type of science, not all science, right . I have written over 200 publications or whatever you said, i forgot what the number is [laughter] in one narrow domain so i will not sit here and tell you that every reince we do in nasa, i am the same kind of level every science we do in nasa, that i am at the same level as every scientist. When someone like me guns into a job like i am in, we make sure that we are not sent immediately limited to words what i know or two words with someone else might know, we asked the National Academies to convene the best experts in any given field and give us the most compelling evidence, and the most compelling recommendations for programs that we should do. So the more sampled return is the highest recommendation also, there is a midterm that is just kicking off right now. We are really interested to see, science moves forward, and sometimes there is a super we startand overtime, answering some of these questions, we basically say, we are almost in with this. It will beon is that a high priority. And it will remain a high priority this time. The major reason really has to the ability ofh taking some of these samples and investigating them, the components with the tools that they need to be investigated. We do not know currently how to get the masses out there. But i will not sit here and basically say that i am an expert in all of the topics. Important ost the point is i am really following in this job at the National Academy and you should be glad that i am [laughter] the everybody programs would be far too narrow , take the observation of the new observations of x open its better out there. They come because xo exoplanets that are out there. We are finding some really exciting science out there. I have been ignoring the back of the room. One question from back there please . A quick one for you. I am mike dunn, director of a planet logistics company, developing the latitude research. My question has more to do with the last comments and discussions that you were covering. It has to do with the public enthusiasm and support for i ameys to mars what interested in finding out is that we had people approach as such as nike, i did us id idas, north face. They are interested in developing or getting involved in any efforts approaching mars. What would nasa or a government organizations currently available that we can refer people to from that industry, to help coordinate those kinds of efforts . They are predominately interested in developing shoes, and here, clothing and things of that nature. Could you comment on that please . Theres a couple of activities we have been looking at, for general clothing and other things. We have lots of other transactional authorities where we can get into pretty Creative Base agreements Creative Technology agreements with other companies and we stand open for any of those groups to come in and talk to us. They can do it through a variety of ways, we have requests of information where we are asking for specific hardware or components. And if they see some technology that they are working on that they would have interest, they can provide us a proposal, or unsolicited unsolicited information in that area so that we can Work Together to go do this thing. I think the agency is very open to a whole variety of Different Things with Different Companies that are maybe not necessarily in the Aerospace World today but they definitely have application and applicability for what we are trying to do. Let me give a quick example, we are doing a 3d renter challenge, 3d printer challenge, trying to use its technology to regulate water and inorganic printing the that youof a structure can then robotically assemble into a habitat on another planet. So we are partnered with caterpillar, who is interested in the machinery, also back tell, one of the Worlds Largest and 28 teams will be bringing their machines from around the world in a few months, and they get prize money for making certain milestones. That is an example of the a uniques, using approach to engage nonairspace or nontraditional learners. The other thing nontraditional partners. For me, if you go to the website, you can look at principal technologies and contact them. Ity will be the best person, to Start Talking to about your Technology Idea and they will steer you in the right direction to be able to submit a proposal or better formulate what you are trying to do. Hold ofu can get a them, they are like the front door for spacex. Dust well live in their will leave it there. I am very were going to leave it there, there are many more sessions over the next 2. 5 days. , the science guy at the Planetary Society likes to say that nasa is the best brand united has. The United States has. Theink it is and a lot of people sitting here have the credit and much of the responsibility for maintaining that reputation. Gentlemen, thank you so much and keep it up. [applause] thank you to you as well [applause] thank you. Thank you all. Still way, someone is having his or her luggage outside the door sitting there. We will send it to the moon soon unless you take care of it yourself. [laughter] sorry about that, but it really needs to be done. My next speaker, craig williams, for the last five years has served as a deputy attache administrator for policy in nasas human exploration and Operation Mission directorate. Do you not love these long words in these titles . He has been charting the future course of nasas human Space Exploration programs and for me, he battles the policy environment for all of us to make human spaceflight happen. Personally i would like to thank him for that, because that is a big job and it needs to be done, so thank you, greg for taking it on. He has been with nasa for a he stood at the inception of the interNational Space station. Greg started his career with marcella with nasa as a president ial intern in the office of space station at nasa headquarters so we all see what i need to ship can lead to. Greg williams. [applause] greg good morning. Youre heard several references to the deep space gateway constructs and i wanted to take a little bit of time before this morning to introduce in a little bit more detail. If you look in your program, at tbd, it is appropriate because it is representing the work of a number of people, a team that was led by vanessa white, jim, cruzan, a, jonathan number of folks involved in this activity and i wanted to be able to give them a shout out before we get started here. Our goals as we all know is we want to go to mars we want to send humans to mars and we want to be able to do it well we are all still alive and kicking. You have seen in your programs are referenced to the centers risibles, and the human to mars report, risible that are rewarding. Principles that are rewording. How are we really going rewarding. That are rewordi in the current fiscal environment that we are living in right now, we cannot expect huge spikes in budget to help us get to mars, we have to use it within a realistic funding envelope, the guiding principle today. Technology and science which were represented in the panel earlier today, architectural openness and resilience to read again, tremendously important, if we mapped out today all of the steps required to get from here to the surface of where the humans are and back again, the one thing we would know is that when we got there that is not the way would have done it. We need to be open to new partnerships, as we go and what we need to do now is make smart choices about the things we can do, the keys that we have right front of us. You saw, in your program, the partners the progress we are making on those. Then next thing we want to do is a deep bass gateway and it will show you in a second eight deep space gateway a deep gateway. We are doing incredible work, and we want to be able to operate this base station and have it overlap with that. Having long gaps in a Human Spaceflight Program is not commensurate with a sustaining of momentum and the progress that we have to make. Those are the principles that we have important to us. Movee conducting this towards mars in phases. Phase you may reach us at area code 202 7488001 for republicans; 202 7488000 for democrats and 202 7488002 for independents you may send us a tweet at cspanwj on twitter and join in on the conversation on facebook at facebook. Com cspan on facebook phase is zero is where we are today, and you heard him talking about some of the programs, the one year admission that we have. Thatll see publications on scientific literature later on this year. What we are doing in Technology Development in our internationals based nation is huge as well. We are encouraging things in robotic mode, and it will be hugely enabling for what we want to do in deep space. Intont to begin to move the region of space between the earth and the moon, encompassing orbits around them win, 70 thousand kilometers or so. The first phase will include building a deep space gateway, a transportation mode for us in space that we can use to mount expeditions to mars. We also will be confident that we can conduct deep Space Operations. That we can conduct autonomous docking, accomplish eba operations in deep space in an environment that will be similar to [indiscernible] that into build up phase one, and in phase 2 we want to accomplish deep Space Transport, and a vehicle that is capable of sending humans on 1008 missions and this will be the vehicle that we will set we will test, the vehicle that we will use for mass transit. 4 we begin to do those expeditions. We arere the steps taking and the key thing for us is a mentioned earlier in what infrastructure we need to put in place that will allow other International Partners to engage along with us in this journey . There was a reference with this morning to that nasa 2017 authorization act which is a huge deal for us. Acts called that transition because it was designed by congress to really got the transition from each administration is really a much longer view of that. You can tell the longer view by looking at the three goals that are described. Congress is really behind, both houses and both parties are really behind extending human presence deeper into the solar system. You can find mars is very strongly represented in the over 100 i document pages long, mars is mentioned over 74 times. Really remarkable when you compare it with the 2010 authorization act. It is in keeping with all the progress we have made and Congress Agrees that it is the right thing for our nation and for us. In phase one, you see the orion spaceraft, this deep gateway constructs is what we have planned next and it will show you how we do how we hope to do that together. Habitationt, the module, with airlock capability and robotic arms as well to enable autonomous operations. We want to be able to use this again as both as a demonstration that we can conduct safely crew operations in space and we also want to be able to move this gateway around of lunar system, in and out areas around the moon and including areas further, in order to be able to not only alsoe Mars Missions but enable other missions into the lunar system while the mars transit vehicle is headed to the red planet. Just a couple of brief points on gateway functionality, we hope to conduct missions with a crew of four for up to 42 days, 30 days on the vehicle and 12 days for transit 30 days off of the vehicle and 12 days for transit. It will be important for getting these longterm missions done and this is the next step, this is where we are going, on the way to mars. How we do it, we will use you thesee at the top, Exploration Mission 2, 3, 4, are those things we would use to build up the gateway. The process of the habitation module, then the logistic module, then from there as we continue to grow, the airlock to support a science operation. We will only be able to do that in the early to mid part of the decade, so the latter half of the decade we can then build up the deep bass transport system. Again, this will the deep Space Transport system. Half,eas of the second this will build the system up at the gateway, and we will then conduct a yearlong shakedown of our foundation cruise. We call it a shakedown cruise because of the Navy Background but it has a different followed with logistics flight that followed the shakedown crew and in the latter provide more0s for the trip to mars. Chartwill be a that shows how we will get to marspoint to a crude mission in 2033. Ofare in the process theicating and assembling vehicle. Do this in a to broad range of partnerships, we want to do this both with commercial partners and International Partners. We will be putting that package together, what players want to provide what internationally and how we can get together with an orchestrating role. Morningrly this references to gateway entrance for. I want to provide you with a contact. If we are going to get to send humans to mars, we have to have the capability to make the journey safe, affordable and sustainable. We want to have a thing capability to transit to mars building up almost like an Antarctic Research mode and eventually being able to extend permanent human presence to the red planet. With that, questions i can take. Otherwise, well move on. Thank you. [applause] i see a hand over here. [inaudible] yes. A couple things. One, the radiation environment is different. But from an operational standpoint, its really gaining the confidence that we can conduct these Space Operations before we depart the earth, moon system, where getting back is really tough. In fact, once you commit, you may wind up going all the way around and coming back, as the safest way to return. So we want to be able to convince ourselves that we can do automated rendezvous docking, that we can sustain crew productivity in deep space over a long period of time, and so its really a proving ground kind of activity as well as a staging area for those future missions. Anyone else . Sir . [inaudible question] thats what were aiming for, as an initial capability. We may grow from that. One of the things well be thinking about over the next year or two is the focus of the gateway now in our planning has been to enable the Mars Missions, but then while were doing that, when we get to do that, and were conducting those 1,000day or more missions to mars in the transport, well still have this gateway that we can use. So we may do longer duration things, depending on what our science and administration of directives evolve to be. Okay. I think were ready to go on to the next topic. Thank you for your attention. [applause] announcer throughout the afternoon on cspan, we have been bringing you programs about mondays eclipse, about nasa and its discoveries. We want to welcome your comments on the future of nasas space program. Use these numbers to share your thoughts. At cspanus a tweet and we welcome your comments on our Facebook Page ar. Eric said i like the