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00:00If you look right behind me, you'll see the center of the universe.
00:03And the reason it's called the center of the universe is because that's NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
00:08and all of the orbiters, probes, and spacecraft we've sent out into the solar system and beyond
00:13send all their signals right back here to be processed.
00:16And that will ever be more apparent than in a few days when the next Mars rover named Perseverance
00:21concludes its seven-month journey to our neighboring red planet Mars,
00:25autonomously navigating itself for a terrifying seven minutes,
00:28traveling from 15 times the speed of a bullet to a gentle 3 miles per hour touchdown,
00:33all while live streaming the key data the whole way down.
00:36And as many of you know, for me, this is like coming home,
00:39because long before I started making YouTube videos, I came here to work every day for nine years,
00:44seven of which were working on the last rover we sent to Mars named Curiosity.
00:48So today we're going to talk to some of my old friends and see the actual rover up close
00:52as I bring you up to speed on everything you need to know about this rover landing.
00:56Because once you have an overview of what's going to happen and what it even took to get us to this point,
01:01I feel certain you're going to feel just as pumped about this historic landing as I am.
01:06And to accomplish that, we're going to talk about the who, what, why, where, and how of this rover.
01:11And we'll start with the why and the where we're going.
01:133.5 billion years ago, Earth and Mars were pretty similar.
01:16Both had liquid water on the surface, and both were protected from the sun's radiation with magnetic fields.
01:21And so it begs the question, if life first developed on Earth at that time, could it have also developed on Mars?
01:28So this is a massive lake in Jezero Crater, billions of years ago.
01:31And this is it now.
01:32This is where Perseverance is landing, the bottom of an ancient lake the size of Lake Tahoe.
01:37Because using Earth as a guide, at the base of a river of fresh water is where scientists believe we have the best chance of finding evidence of past biological life on Mars.
01:45So thanks to Perseverance, we could be on the verge of the monumental first discovery of actual life outside our planet.
01:52And being able to pinpoint a landing spot this tight shows how NASA is constantly advancing its technologies.
01:58With Florida for scale, here's an oval showing the uncertainty of the landing spot for previous missions.
02:03Pathfinder in 1997, and then Phoenix in 2008, Curiosity in 2012, and now Perseverance.
02:11Being able to shrink down a landing target just gives you way more options of interesting places to land.
02:15Plus, once you do land and start driving towards the actual science location, it could shave off a year or more of drive time.
02:21And not only does studying Mars like this help us understand Earth's past and future, but the rovers we're sending are the advanced scouts.
02:27Taking data and notes for us on the ground and sending all the info back to Earth.
02:31They're also testing some new technologies, which I'll cover in a second, that humans will need to use when we're exploring the planet ourselves in the very near future.
02:38Because the first person to set foot on Mars is alive right now.
02:42And it could be you.
02:43And if none of that gets your heart pumping and you're like, but Mark, why would we spend resources and time exploring the solar system
02:49when we still have big issues here on this Earth we haven't solved?
02:52I tackled that exact question, giving five reasons we can't afford not to invest in space in another video you can watch after this one.
02:59So that's the where and the why.
03:01Now let's talk about how we're going to do all that.
03:03Because this is where it gets really wild.
03:05Meet Perseverance.
03:07And I should mention, I have my monthly videos all planned out about a year in advance.
03:11Which is why exactly this time last year, I knew for this video I needed to fly down to check out the rover right before it got shipped off to Florida to be launched.
03:19But before I checked out the rover, I first stopped in to see Ben, who was my old boss.
03:23When I was here, he was leading a small team that designed the jetpack that lowered the rover to the ground.
03:28But now I heard he's all fancy in charge of like 400 people, so I wanted to get a sense of how things had changed for him.
03:33So anyone we see walk by, you can like boss them around?
03:37How about this guy right here?
03:38You can boss him around?
03:39Yeah, I can boss him around.
03:40Okay, cool.
03:41Go on.
03:42We first geeked out for a bit over a bunch of examples of parts from previous space missions.
03:46And a hardware wall like this is just a great illustration of what makes JPL such a cool place to work.
03:51Actually, I designed this.
03:53This is my hardware from Grail with Andy.
03:56This is cool because you got these like flexures for like temperature variation.
04:00So this isn't just for show. This is like literally when you're trying to figure out a way to do things.
04:04These are examples of how it's been done before, right?
04:06Right. And a lot of these are made by examples of this is the way you shouldn't do it.
04:09Oh, so that's why my hardware.
04:10That's why your hardware is up there, right?
04:12So after that, we headed down to check out the rover and meet up with my friend Emily.
04:15But before we could just go in and see it, we had to get suited up because the rover is looking for signs of biological life.
04:21And we don't want to contaminate our samples before we even arrive.
04:24So a bunny suit and air shower can go a long way.
04:27Emily, by the way, was the vehicle assembly lead for the descent and cruise stages, which is a big responsibility.
04:32This is the rover.
04:33The flight rover. It will be on Mars 12 months from now.
04:37It's so complex when you come up and get this close.
04:41In fact, Perseverance is the most complex thing humans have ever built and sent to another planet.
04:46It's got laser, x-ray, and radar capabilities, plus 19 cameras, and a nuclear powered battery system for energy.
04:52And while it might look pretty similar to the past rover Curiosity, all the science instruments are completely different because the science objectives have changed.
04:59The most notable difference is this time the drill isn't there just to create rock dust to study on the rover.
05:04Perseverance has a hollow drill bit to core out a chunk of rock the size of a piece of chalk and then package it up and leave behind 43 separate samples for a future mission to collect and send back to Earth.
05:16That way we could study the samples for those past signs of life using the most state-of-the-art instruments on Earth that we could never fit on a rover.
05:23So then to capture that chalk size rock sample, not only is there an arm on the outside, but this time there's one on the inside too.
05:30It is a miniature robot arm inside the body of the rover that manipulates the sample tube.
05:36And there's one right here.
05:37Wow. And so is this what you leave behind?
05:40Exactly.
05:41Is it fair to say this is like the poop of the rover?
05:43Exactly.
05:44Okay.
05:45Do you like that analogy? Because they didn't like it earlier.
05:47Yeah.
05:48You like it? Okay, cool.
05:49We do like to say that the rover is going to poop out samples all over this.
05:52Okay, good. See? That's a good analogy.
05:54So Perseverance is really only the first leg of returning a piece of Mars to Earth.
05:59Future missions will complete what I like to call the poop, scoop, and shoot maneuver.
06:02This is my friend Liz, by the way, and she's in charge of all the testing for the sample retrieval system.
06:07We're doing things that nobody else does, so we have to test it.
06:10So she tests all sorts of different configurations in a chamber that recreates the extreme temperatures and pressures to make sure it will function on Mars.
06:18Because once you send something to space, it's gone, and you can't exactly fix it.
06:22So it just has to work, which is why testing is such a big deal here at JPL.
06:26My buddy Matt here mentioned another way this is done.
06:28We build two spacecraft, one that goes to Mars and one that we keep here on Earth to test.
06:32And this is an exact replica of Curiosity who's driving around on Mars right now.
06:36And then we use this one to test driving around obstacles and driving over rocks.
06:40And he knows a thing or two about driving over rocks because he was a rover driver for both opportunity and curiosity.
06:46This guy is like one of maybe 40 people in the world who has driven a vehicle on another planet, which is kind of a big deal.
06:54And so a few more cool things about Perseverance are that it has a mini helicopter drone stowed away on its underbelly named Ingenuity.
07:00This will be mankind's first powered flight on another planet, which sort of makes this a Wright Brothers moment.
07:05And the rover and the drone will get great footage of each other, but we're mainly testing it out so that in the future,
07:10we might use drones to scout out terrain for us or get samples from hard to reach locations.
07:15Or you could have swarms of drones carrying materials for humans from one site to another.
07:20Perseverance is also testing out a new instrument called MOXIE that basically amounts to a mechanical tree
07:25because its function is to convert CO2 into oxygen, which future explorers will need to breathe and for rocket fuel.
07:32The rover has been in this clean room for about a year and a half, starting as just a chassis, just the skeleton.
07:38And then all the teams and engineers have been taking turns coming down and building up their part until it's done.
07:43In fact, I was in that exact position on Curiosity, designing my hardware for about three and a half years,
07:48and when it was all tested and complete, integrating it on the rover right here in this room.
07:52And then for the other three and a half years, like I mentioned before,
07:55I was working with Ben on a small team of engineers on the jetpack descent stage.
07:59So now we've covered the where and the why we're going, also the how we're going to do all that with the rover.
08:04Now let's talk about the what, for what's going to happen this Thursday when it lands, and what you should expect to see.
08:09As I edit this video, the spacecraft is gliding toward Mars at a cool 48,144 miles per hour.
08:15How fast is that? It's this fast. It's 15 times faster than a bullet.
08:20It's traveling the length of a hundred soccer fields in exactly this long.
08:23And it will keep on that trajectory until the big moment on Thursday when it starts its entry, descent, and landing, or EDL.
08:29It's also known as the seven minutes of tear, because we've literally got seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars,
08:36going from 13,000 miles per hour to zero in perfect sequence and perfect timing,
08:42and the spacecraft has to do it all on its own with no help from us on Earth.
08:46When it first hits the upper atmosphere, the friction causes the heat shield to start glowing like the surface of the sun,
08:51all the while thrusters are firing to steer and adjust its course towards the target location.
08:56And that aerobraking gets rid of 99% of the energy, so for the last 1%, we deploy a supersonic parachute.
09:02Then we've got to pop off the heat shield we no longer need, like removing a lens cap, so the radar can start viewing the ground.
09:08But even with the parachute, it's still traveling 200 miles per hour, which is way too fast to land.
09:13And so that's where we cut loose of the back shell and fire the rockets.
09:16But we can't quite land in this configuration, because the rockets will kick up too much debris and damage the rover.
09:21So then we lower it from a 21-foot rope and gently land the rover on the surface,
09:25as my sky crane zooms off to face an honorable, catastrophic dending as far away from the rover as its remaining fuel will carry it.
09:32And so in just seven minutes, the spacecraft has completely metamorphosized,
09:36shedding all its sacrificial elements until you're left with just a rover sitting alone, safely on the surface of Mars.
09:43Now everything you just saw was a CGI animation, but a few days after landing, we'll all be blown away by actual HD landing footage
09:50from the 23 cameras and two microphones on board.
09:53We'll see the parachute inflate and hear the crunch of the aluminum wheels as they touch down and make contact with the Martian surface.
09:59And because Mars is so far away, to get a signal from the vehicle to our planet, it takes about 12 minutes at the speed of light.
10:06So that means, after the spacecraft sends a signal that has reached the top of the atmosphere,
10:10by the time that signal reaches Earth to kick off the seven minutes of tear,
10:14for at least five minutes, the vehicle has actually already been on the surface, either alive or dead.
10:20Which is why it has to be autonomous.
10:23That means it makes all its own choices on the exact timing of things and where to steer,
10:27without anyone from Earth controlling it.
10:29Which means all we can do is watch and monitor and hope.
10:32And this is a good time to remember that as easy as these dedicated teams of engineers make it look,
10:36landing on Mars is really hard.
10:38Historically, only about half the attempts have been successful.
10:41But the willingness to take big risks, to reap big rewards, is the foundation on which NASA is built.
10:46The livestream to watch the landing starts on Thursday, February 18th at 11.15am Pacific.
10:51It will hit the top of the atmosphere an hour and a half later at 12.48pm,
10:56which starts the seven minutes of tear and we touch down at 12.55pm.
11:00I will leave a link to the livestream in the video description, as well as some other really cool sites,
11:04such as this video game-like demo where you can interactively experience the seven minutes of tear in preparation for the landing.
11:10We covered the where and the why we're going, we covered the how with the rover, and the what with the landing details.
11:16Now, it's time for the who.
11:18The human side to sending robot explorers to other planets.
11:22What makes NASA and JPL really great aren't its robots, it's the people who build them.
11:27And while it's not really possible for me to capture what it's going to feel like for them to see it land this Thursday,
11:31the best I can do is to show you what it felt like for me eight years ago when I was in a very similar situation.
11:37I made a video when Curiosity landed, but at the time my channel had less than 100,000 subscribers,
11:41so I know that most of you haven't seen this footage, but even if you have, with the landing less than a week away,
11:46it's a great time for a second watch to get you pumped up.
11:49And for context here, you should know that during my time I was working on the rover, I had a son and lost my mom to ALS.
11:56And while my contribution was small relative to the overall picture,
11:59I tried to capture the human element here of what it feels like to basically have seven years of your life and career
12:05vindicated with that beautiful phrase, touchdown confirmed, we are safe on Mars.
12:10So with that, consider this my tribute to everyone out there working to push the limits of human understanding,
12:15with a little bit of help from adorable little young Mark Grober.
12:19So we're still two days from landing, but you can see the news media has already started to descend on JPL here.
12:31Since we're all kind of nerves around here, our pools look a little different than most.
12:35This is the landing ellipse for the rover, and we all kind of place guesses on where we think it's going to come down.
12:42So we're headed down to NASA JPL to hang out with everyone and watch the landing.
12:48So it's pretty exciting, kind of sick to my stomach at the same time.
12:51Basically seven years of my life and career come down to about seven minutes.
12:56Kind of freaking out.
13:03I owe half my curl results to that guy right there.
13:06Excellent chances.
13:07Excellent chances.
13:08I'm not nervous.
13:09Okay.
13:10No, it's going to work.
13:11I'm nervous.
13:12We should be heading for the target.
13:18Cruise stage operation.
13:21When Mark gets nervous, he starts shivering like he's freezing.
13:25Right now it's probably about 85 degrees out here, so Mark is really nervous.
13:41I'm moving lean to a tank.
13:42Ashley's running for sure.
13:43Oh, my gosh.
13:44Thank you, sir.
13:45I'm sorry.
13:46I'm nervous, and I'm nervous.
13:48You're in the morning.
13:49I'm nervous.
13:50I'm nervous, sir.
13:51I'm nervous.
13:52I'm nervous.
13:53I'm nervous.
13:54I'm nervous.
13:55I'm nervous.
13:56I'm nervous.
13:57I'm nervous.
13:58I'm nervous.
13:59I'm nervous.
14:00Parachute deployed.
14:10We are in powered flight, standing by for Skycreen.
14:16Skycreen is starting.
14:30Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars.
14:36That's touchdown!
14:46Time to see Rock 3 on field danger.
15:00It was honestly a moving experience to see that picture come up that showed just the shadow of the rover dominating the Martian landscape.
15:20It's just a crazy thought with it.
15:22I think that's something I've designed, I've touched, I've built, I've integrated, I've tested, is now safely resting on another freaking planet.
15:34It's a crazy feeling.
15:52Just like the beach, for some of the people that have been on the clock, you're in the middle of the night.
15:55Okay, let's play there.
15:56Then I can see you.
15:57This is the Hudson.
15:58Here's the Hudson.
15:59It's the Hudson.
16:00What the way is in the Hudson?
16:01Here, San Jose, is the Hudson, where she is!
16:04The Hudson.
16:05It's the Hudson.
16:06It's the Hudson.
16:07Here, he is the Hudson.
16:08There he is.
16:10Every morning he's the Hudson.
16:11There, and not the Hudson.
16:12There, and he is the Hudson.
16:13There are not roads.
16:14There, and there's Hudson.
16:15There, and there's the Hudson.
16:17Hole 12th.
16:18There's the Hudson.
16:19You
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