[MUSIC PLAYING]
So we're going to get started.
OK.
It's obviously my
distinct pleasure
to welcome Dava Newman to MIT.
Dava's been a colleague and
a dear friend for 23 years.
I remember that exactly.
We got into the
faculty the same year.
And Dava's got many
accomplishments.
And you can read those
on the internet and CVs.
I'm going to focus
a little bit more
on my personal
experiences and things
that Dava's done here at MIT.
So let me just say-- and
maybe you-- I mean, I think
maybe people are not so aware.
But Dava's been advocate
for many causes here at MIT,
but there are two
particular ones which
are particularly important.
One is that she's been
an advocate for students,
but also for getting young
women into STEM careers.
She's done that for
many, many years.
And in fact, this event that
we are celebrating today,
Women in Outer
Space, was actually
created by Dava and others.
So we continue on
the tradition Dava.
And we hope that
when you get back,
you can join us
with that as well.
And then there is another
thing that she has always
been very passionate about,
amongst other things.
But that's been going to Mars.
And I'm just so glad that
she is now in a position
where she can advocate
for us going to Mars.
I was just asking
her a second ago,
are we going to Mars or not?
And she seems confident
and I hear that the answer
is going to be yes.
But then I did some thinking.
And I discovered a
pattern here, which
is that when the country
needed to go to the moon,
they came to MIT to
get a NASA deputy
director, that was Bob Simmons,
and we went to the moon.
And no pressure, Dava.
Some big shoes.
Big, big shoes.
What we're all expecting here
is that you will get us to Mars.
With all that Dava, thank
you very much for coming.
It's wonderful to have you here.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, everyone.
It is my distinct
pleasure to be back home.
I am home.
And all you women in aerospace,
you're the Mars generation.
I'll do everything I can.
Well, boots on
Mars in the 2030s.
And you guys will be the
first Martian generation.
So let's take a whirlwind tour
through the universe, just
highlights from-- it's been
just now over a year that I've
served as NASA
Deputy Administrator,
so I want to give you some
of the highlights, some
of the privileges that
I've had to look at.
You are looking at Earth.
This is my new screensaver.
It's the far side, not
dark side, far side
of the moon that orbits.
This is our Discover mission.
So it's out at L1.
I don't have to explain
that to this audience, which
is so nice.
First time I've never had to
explain the Lagrangian point.
But it is the coolest
place to be, right?
Gravity neutral, between
the sun and Earth.
And it's our weather buoy.
This is our solar system weather
buoy out there, the Discover
mission, because it's looking
at the sun radiation, which
is very active, and
halfway between.
And it's hey, Earth, you know.
It's important.
Is the grid going to go out.
What's the weather like?
So it's great.
The EPIC camera is on board.
And just to have some
fun, because there are
some of my generation here--
[MUSIC - PINK FLOYD, "THE GREAT
 GIG IN THE SKY"]
You guys have to like
Pink Floyd, right?
You guys don't know Pink Floyd.
So that's dedicated
to Gui, my partner who
is here with me who we got
through school on Pink Floyd.
But what a beautiful image,
all of our exploring to Mars
and well beyond teaches
us about Spaceship Earth.
So we'll get back to that.
But a shout-out
for new horizons.
Hope all of you guys
were with us last year
when we made it to Pluto.
Yes, a dwarf planet.
I was a dwarf basketball
player in undergraduate.
Dwarfs count.
We have now been throughout
the solar system.
I mean, big deal.
We didn't know what
Pluto looked like.
It was fuzzy.
We didn't know.
We hadn't seen it.
Now every day, great
high-def images coming back.
Pluto has a heart.
I love tweeting that
for Valentine's Day.
And you know, Alan Stern, the
PI, many, many contacts here
at MIT, all over universities.
Again, all of our exploration
is from all universities.
And it's global.
There's just not a mission
I can talk about that's
not international,
it's not global,
doesn't have so
many universities.
And on the backs of all these
great, bright graduate students
and undergraduates before who
become the graduate students.
Amazing.
And spaceflight and
space exploration
is not for the faint of heart.
This is a 30-year mission.
People have dedicated 30 years.
This was funded, canceled,
funded, canceled.
And that's typical of lots
of our big, huge, audacious
missions.
And they hung in there.
Some of the PIs hung in there.
And then nine years
just to get to Pluto.
And you know, it's all worth it.
It's all worth it in the end.
Hopefully you know about
our Dawn spacecraft.
It's a beauty.
It has just found
another dwarf planet.
It's at Ceres right now.
It's orbiting Ceres.
And we've been looking
at those shiny-- it's
been sending us little signals.
What are those
shiny little dots?
We zoomed in.
We're taking a look at that.
I think we zoomed in
a little bit closer.
This is just in December.
We named Ahuna Mons.
Move over Everest, because
Ahuna Mons is 5 kilometers high
and 20 kilometers across.
And you know, again, it's a
planet we've never seen, Ceres.
It's between Mars and
Jupiter in the asteroid belt.
You heard that we found
water on Mars, I hope.
Yes.
OK.
You guys reading the news.
You're not studying
all the time, I hope.
It's big.
This is huge.
This is a huge
discovery in the-- we
know there's ice on the poles.
But with five
rovers and orbiters
there today-- it's seasonal.
You don't want to drink it yet.
It's pretty briny, salty.
And so now, just every
day we're learning more.
We're looking for this
seasonal water on Mars.
We found out how Mars
lost its atmosphere.
Huge.
The MAVEN orbiter.
We know Mars has 1%
carbon dioxide atmosphere.
Earth, Mars, sister planets,
4.5 billion years old each.
We think Mars now-- we're
pretty sure Mars was wet,
wonderful, maybe even wild.
But something went
terribly wrong probably
3.5 billion years ago.
How did that happen?
Well, MAVEN's just
given us a peek,
just the first papers
are being published now.
The sun, earth's
magnetosphere, right?
We have a nice shield.
Lucky for Earth, not
so lucky for Mars.
No magnetic shield to shield
it from the sun's radiation.
This is a great simulation.
This is just a snapshot of
the simulation of terabytes.
The ions are literally
being ablated off
the surface of Mars.
So we have a glimpse
into how Mars
loses its atmosphere,
which again, breakthrough,
breakthrough science.
It's 26 years.
Are you guys 26 yet?
Hubble has been there as
long as you've been alive.
You know, it's in Low
Earth orbit, a high orbit,
but Low Earth.
But it's peering out
into the solar system.
The discoveries,
one after another.
This is [INAUDIBLE] cluster
that I'm showing here.
You're flying through it.
And it's peered 13.5 billion
light years back in time now.
So talk about
exploring and seeing
our past to know where
we are at the present day
here on Spaceship Earth,
to think about our present.
So really amazing.
And it's just the gift
that keeps on giving.
It wasn't easy.
We kind of screwed it up
the first time, right?
Humans and machines
and brains all
got this straightened around.
And it's just been the world's
wonderful, most wonderful
observatory that we have.
But it will be replaced soon by
another beauty, just amazing.
16 years.
Now, you guys are older, at
least my main audience here.
Now, we've had humans,
we've had astronauts,
international astronauts
up on Space Station
16 years continuously
orbiting around Earth, right?
90 minutes.
It's a lot of sunsets
and sunrises every day.
Doing really important
science and experiments.
Tell you a little
bit more about that.
But for 16 years straight, we've
been working with the Russians
and the Japanese, all of
our European colleagues,
our Canadian colleagues.
So it really is global,
international exploration
and pretty breakthrough.
Space Station is our first
stage, our first phase
of our journey to Mars.
All of this, all these
last 16 years, this
is phase-- we have
a three-phase plan.
This is the first phase.
I'll tell you more about it.
The second phase is getting
back to lunar orbit.
We're under development
of our Space Launch System
and the Orion capsule that goes
on top to hold our astronauts.
Larger development than we've
ever seen since the Apollo
program, since the last deputy
administrator was a colleague,
wonderful mentor, Bob Seamans.
So I'm just lucky, fortunate.
Those are huge shoes I
couldn't hope to fill,
but I sure have read
all of his books.
And I sure have
studied, you know,
how he had tried to make
the best time-- make
the best of his
time in Washington.
So it's not just
PowerPoint view graphs.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
This is real.
This is what we do
every day at NASA,
1,000 contractors across
the US and in every state
we have working now.
Now, these are our NASA centers.
[INAUDIBLE], our big
assembly building.
That's animation,
of course, looking
at Kennedy Space Center.
This is real.
OK.
Little fast time, but-- the
coolest stir friction welding
machine ever I've seen.
I got to see that engine firing.
Here's our solids.
That's the Orion
pressurized capsule.
It's just been delivered to
our Kennedy Space Center.
OK.
That's animation.
But that's real.
It's all about the people.
All this is about the great
engineers and the people,
everyone working with us,
especially now in the US,
to make sure we're leading,
we're ready to lead exploration
and we get back to Earth moon
orbit and then onward to Mars.
I stopped this clip.
Oh.
Maybe it's not going
to stop here we go.
Show you a little bit about
entry descent landing.
You know, these are
happening daily.
We're hitting the milestones.
We're testing.
[END PLAYBACK]
So that's what we call EM-1.
That's our
Exploration Mission 1.
It will launch in 2018.
And again, just that
vantage point, just
to get back into lunar orbit
and look back on Earth.
Got to see the test
flight in December of '14.
That was amazing.
But now this is the real
Space Launch System.
EM-2 will go in the early 2020s.
And that will be the first
mission with astronauts
to deep space that we've done.
It will be the furthest that
humans will have ever traveled.
You had Jim Lovell
here recently.
I hope a lot of
you got to see Jim.
You know, he's the human being
that's traveled the furthest.
And he's the one that's traveled
the furthest than any human
being.
But we're going to surpass
him here in a couple years.
Amazing.
And again, I got to
speak with him recently.
He told a story-- I don't
know if he told you guys,
but it's really worth retelling.
He said he looked back on
Earth and he put his thumb up.
Put his thumb up, and
that covered all of Earth.
It was pretty emotional for him.
Everything he loved, everything
he knew in his entire life,
in his entire history,
in human history
was right there in that
little-- behind his thumbnail.
Makes you think a little
differently about things.
And he wanted to get home.
But amazing,
amazing perspective.
Amazing perspective
when you look
at Spaceship Earth that way.
You can fit-- and
everyone you know
and all of your human
relations behind that.
We're going to Jupiter.
I hope you know about that.
I don't know where
you'll be July 4th,
but thank goodness US is
throwing a big party for us.
We timed it, so we're on track.
The countdown is well underway.
So July 4th, we'll be
in orbit around Jupiter
with our Juno mission.
It's the largest, furthest
space solar craft ever.
And we'll go there and we have
a lot of science instruments
on board.
One of them, my favorite
one, is called JunoCam.
And it's our biggest experiment
yet in citizen science.
So we're opening it up.
We'll send down the
high-def photo on July 4th
and say, hey, world.
We're at Jupiter.
Come with us.
Where do you want
us to point JunoCam?
We're trying to get kids
and everyone involved here
and you explore Jupiter with us.
You tell us where
you want to look.
You want to look at the red
dot, we'll point it there.
And we'll be in orbit for the
next few years and citizen
science.
You're going to point our
camera and tell us where to look
and where to discover and then
name some more spots on Jupiter
for us, hopefully.
James Webb.
This is my recent
photograph of it.
I have to update it
just in the last day,
because the covers are off.
So Dr. Mather, our Nobel
laureate at NASA, he's the PI.
Tells me it's 100 times
more powerful than Hubble.
Now Hubble's optical.
James Webb is infrared.
But what an amazing telescope.
So this is really going to
go after dark energy and dark
matter, and again, peering
into the solar system
like we've never seen before.
Launches in 2018.
It's going to leave our Goddard
Space Flight Center next month,
goes down to Houston.
Big chamber testing in
Johnson Space Center.
Then it goes to
Southern California.
Grumman is the prime.
We're going to
final, final test.
And then we ship it on a boat.
It's going down
to French Guyana.
We're launching it
on the Ariane 5,
again with lots of international
help and collaboration
and instruments.
And hope it lasts for 20, 30,
40 years, just like Hubble.
Amazing, the James
Webb Space Telescope.
Those 18 mirrors that
can self-correct.
O-REx.
Folks know about OSIRIS-REx?
I hope so, because a
lot of folks here at MIT
are working on it.
So it's going to
launch in September.
And sorry about that-- I'm going
to have to see the launch date,
because Jaime and I were
talking about maybe getting
a lot of students there,
because again MIT has
been so instrumental in O-REx.
It's below budget and
ahead of schedule.
The NASA deputy doesn't
get to say that a lot.
Did you here that?
It's ahead of schedule
and within budget.
So guess what?
We're taking that $50
million and we just put it
on a new science mission.
Very cool.
Great job.
Great job by all.
We have [INAUDIBLE] keep on it.
It's going out to the asteroid.
It's going to be the first
asteroid sample returned.
So critically important
mission, critically important.
And I'm so proud of it.
I just got to see it
actually at Lockheed.
And it's been, I think-- what
are we at, the 24th, the 25th?
It's being shipped right
now to Kennedy Space Center,
I believe, probably today.
I see heads nodding, so
I have my points right.
Well, I am an aerospace
engineer, right?
I have to give a
shout-out to aero.
It's about as
exciting as it's been.
Aero is not dead.
It's alive.
It's well.
It's about the most
exciting thing going.
We are fighting for budgets.
The president and NASA, we've
requested-- we need to grow.
Supersonics, hybrid electric,
three demonstrators,
so we are back to X-Planes.
We need to be back.
It's been a bit of a dry spell.
We're back.
We just started funding the
low-boom supersonic craft,
the pointy one that
you see up on the top.
Companies are working on this.
This is the best example of
public-private partnership
and making the investments,
making the research
and technology investments so
that we have a huge, hugely
excited, and kind
of breakthrough
in terms of the
aeronautics that we need.
And the world needs them.
And again, the best example
of them turning it over
and commercialize.
So I sure hope-- heading
to Germany on Tuesday.
I would love that
to be half the time.
I want to fly at
Mach 1, 2, 3, 4.
So here's another look at
the X-Plane demonstrators
that we're starting to fund.
Like I said, supersonics
is the first out.
The two in the middle
are ultra-efficient,
ultra-efficient,
different designs.
The goal is 50% fuel
reduction and 50% less noise.
So that's what we look for
for our ultra-efficient.
Folks around here [? fond of ?]
the double bubble.
I get to have a mock-up of the
double bubble, a little model
of the double bubble
in my NASA office.
And down below, if
you haven't seen
a hybrid electric-- hybrid
electric demonstrator, 12
electric motors and 6
on each side, amazing.
So again, aeronautics
couldn't be more
exciting from where I stand.
Want to show you a little bit
about the history of Mars.
We have been exploring
Mars for 50 years.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
So I think the next 50
will even be better.
But I love this video
to show you the history.
You guys don't know--
Sheila, we remember, right?
You guys didn't have cars.
And you know, those
were our computers.
It's always good to
know your history.
-What an extraordinary
[INAUDIBLE]
NASA and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
Right now, the
wheels of Curiosity
have begun to blaze the trail
for human footprints on Mars.
-Well, today on Mars,
history was made on Earth.
The successful
landing of Curiosity
will stand as an American point
of pride far into the future.
-I just wanted to call
and say congratulations
to the entire [INAUDIBLE].
You guys should be
remarkably proud.
Insight's 2018 now.
[END PLAYBACK]
So that's what I'm
about is getting
those boots on
Mars, after, again,
the amazing 50-year history.
And like I say, the next
50 will be even much more
revolutionary.
We are charged by the president
by the mid-'30s to get humans
to Mars.
And so that's what I get
to do every day at work.
And I think the
evolution-- if you
haven't seen our Journey to
Mars plan, please download it.
Take a look.
I'm going to quickly
walk through or highlight
some of it.
But I hope you're all
reading it in your classes
and it was mandatory reading
for some of you, I hope.
Here's kind of a sketch of
what the US wants to lead,
NASA wants to lead.
But the point is, again,
it's international.
It's global exploration.
The administrator,
myself, we go around
and speak to all of the heads
of agencies for all the space
agencies, everyone from
emerging to all of our partners
in Space Station.
We say, this is what
we're investing in.
What do you want to lead?
You want a lunar lander?
Please.
Please.
Add elements here.
So first stage, as I
said, is Space Station.
We've been there for
16 years continuously.
We will have our
astronauts on Space Station
through 2024, so we have eight
years to continue buying down
the human health risks, making
the technology demonstrations.
So eight years.
Time is clicking .
We have a Mars horizon
goal, Mars 2030s.
And we back down
the requirements.
The goal is very
clearly Mars, so what
do we need to learn in
cislunar, earth moon
orbit, that second phase?
What do we need to
learn on Space Station?
So cislunar, on the Space
Launch System, and Orion,
we're exploring.
We'll be in lunar orbit for the
2020s and then in Mars orbit
in the 2030s and
then finally humans.
So again, these are all
the pieces, if you will,
that we're investing in.
Want to tell you
a little bit more
about, well, International
Space Station.
It's a pleasure for me to
have an experiment onboard
just when I took over this job,
working with the Europeans.
This is from Scott last night.
Let's see if this will work.
You guys all know Scott Kelly's
one-year mission, I hope?
Yes.
First time we got
to do genetics,
because of his identical
twin, the twin study.
And so I think I
tweeted and asked
Scott, if you had to invest
in science and technology
for Station for Mars,
what are the tall poles?
What would you do?
And--
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Yeah, I think the
life support systems
that we need to keep
us alive in space
are ideal candidates
for demonstrations
for our future journey to
Mars, as well as space suits.
We need I think new space
suit technology that
requires less maintenance
in space and something
that's going to
be easier to work
in on the surface under
the Martian gravity.
[END PLAYBACK]
So I just asked him about
science and technology.
Of course, he knew I was maybe
asking the question with Ellen
Stofan, our chief scientist.
And there's more in that.
We just had the pleasure to have
Scott in DC yesterday and kind
of celebrating his one-year
mission and his return.
He's still sore.
Interesting.
After two months, he's
not back to normal.
He's very candid
about where he's at.
Don't think he
wants to fly again.
He did have a good joke, though.
I'll tell you his good
joke, because you guys will
get the joke.
He says, first mission was
7 days and then 13 days
and then he was with Cady
Coleman, one of our alum,
on Station 100 and I think
34 days, and then 540.
He was like, someone
smart at NASA
told me that that's a
second-order polynomial.
So I like that,
so I'll repeat it.
So he didn't know what a
second-order polynomial is,
but that's all right.
So this is just a
snapshot of some--
but again, thinking
about Space Station
again, buying down the human
health risk, the astronauts,
and really pushing
for technology.
I'm pushing as much as I
can that Space Station is
a technology demonstrator.
The utilization has to help
us on this journey to Mars.
Plus it's just a
lot of fun to do
humanoid robotics, fire safety.
Fire burns completely different,
you know, round ball, so
everything in microgravity.
Oh, shout-out to BEAM.
BEAM, Bigelow's Expandable just
expanded at 5:00 AM today, 6:00
AM, I think when
we're flying up here.
So we just had a successful
expansion of BEAM
up on Space Station
today, just hours ago.
First food in space.
It's always about the food,
especially since I'm talking
to you over the lunch hour.
I had to show you.
But it's big.
So Veggie, this is
Veggie 3 up there.
They got to harvest.
But you know, again, it's
about the human spirit.
It's about the teamwork.
It's about them
working together.
They were really
psyched when they
could make their own salad.
It's a start.
We really need to push
bioregenerative life support
systems to get to Mars.
So again, just highlighting.
We're doing the DNA
sampling right now.
Scott returned.
It's expensive to do--
his identical twin Mark.
So we're just doing
the DNA sequencing now.
We'll have a ton of
physiological reports coming
out.
The microbiome results
are coming out now,
followed by all the genetics.
Of course, it's a small
sample size, N of 2.
But I made a tenured
career publishing papers
on an N of 2 and 4,
so you can do it.
But really looking forward
to the results that
are going to come out from
the year in space mission.
And of course, to give credit
to his colleague Misha, Mikhail
Kornienko, the Russian.
So it was really Scott
and Misha together
and it was really a
great example of NASA
and the Russian Space Agency
coordinating it and doing
as much science as
we possibly could.
And then, of course,
they were visited.
I think they said up to 22.
I think there were 22 different
crew coming visiting, coming
and going, because six months
is the typical mission.
So this was a year-long
mission, just under a year.
Want to make a really
important point.
It's the new NASA
since I've been
there, critically important.
We're not doing
it all ourselves.
We've always worked with
industry, of course.
But now-- and you know
SpaceX and Orbital ATK.
We just put under
contract Sierra Nevada.
They are delivering our
cargo to Space Station.
It's huge.
It's risky.
It's hard.
You've known about
the accidents.
And guess what?
You don't quit.
You just get back up.
Orbital was down for a year.
You just get back up.
You put all your
resources into it.
It just makes you try harder.
And now we've had really
successful cargo launches.
Also, the Russians,
of course, we
are dependent on the
Russians to send our crew.
Amazing relationship.
It's soft diplomacy, I think the
most important soft diplomacy
going on right now
for the US and Russia.
It's all in the space program.
And that's a responsibility,
but it's also really amazing,
because when you work together
as engineers and scientists
and become leaders of
these agencies and whatnot,
you're friends.
And you want to get your work
done, and so politics aside,
you've got to get the work done.
People's lives are at stake,
so we work very closely
with the Russians.
And that's the Japanese.
And thank goodness for
the Japanese, of course.
Great partners with us, but
we needed that HTV supply,
because three had gone down.
Orbital had the accident.
If you didn't hear, the Russians
had an accident, and then
SpaceX.
Three within a year.
Unprecedented.
What's the probability of that?
Very, very low.
So again, we're all in this.
We're all in this together.
Called up change cargo on
for-- we do plan ahead.
We're very good at
scheduling and planning.
We had a lot of spares on board.
But the crew were never in--
it got a little bit dicey,
but they were never, ever
in danger of running out
or anything in terms
of-- that was critical.
Slowed down the
science a little bit.
So what if we think about
Space Station as the experiment
itself?
Not just the 400 experiments
Scott did on his mission, not
just the 250 science
experiments that every crew does
on their six-month missions,
what if we thought about this
as the analog, Space Station?
So that's how Dave
Miller, colleague,
close friend, down
the hall from me now
as chief scientist,
Ellen Stofan,
that's how we think about it.
Space Station really
is an experiment
when we think about
our journey to Mars.
It's the analog.
It's the habitat analog.
So to our second phase, which
I've talked about a little bit,
again, this is where we'll
be in the entire 2020s.
Again, on Space
Station till 2024.
We have to get off.
Can't be the anchor tenant,
meaning the government.
We have to get beyond.
We hope that low earth
orbit-- and we're really
doing what we can to see the
demand for low earth orbit
be commercialized by
the commercial folks.
They'll do it better than we do.
They do operations.
And we need to get
on with exploration.
So then we get back
to lunar orbit on SLS,
and lots of technologies.
This is kind of my
only really busy chart.
You don't have to read it.
But we have a plan, really
have to concentrate,
what do we need to do, in
earth moon and cislunar.
We need in-space propulsion.
We're putting a
lot of investments
in solar electric
propulsion right now
and other alternative
propulsions.
Habitats.
You heard Scott's.
Closed loop life
support systems.
65% closed?
Not good enough.
That's what's on Station.
Tons of crew time goes to
fixing the life support systems.
We need breakthrough
technologies.
We can't just do the incremental
improvements in life supports,
in suits, other things, just
kind of pick your favorite.
We have a list of
85 technologies.
But we're really
trimming it down
to say what are the ones you
could do it on Earth first?
It's cheaper.
Then do it to Space Station if
you have to buy down the risk.
And then what are
the technologies
we have to buy down?
We have to demonstrate
definitely deep space habs,
solar electric propulsion.
These kind of things
we have to demonstrate
in the real environment.
And that's deep space.
That's beyond Earth moon orbit.
So that's what we'll
do in the 2020s.
In preparation we think
about some split missions.
What does that mean?
That means maybe send cargo
that might get to Mars.
Maybe send the cargo
and not the crew.
We take a look at the different
payloads and what makes sense,
because, again, we do feel
like we're going there.
Now you saw the video
for the last 50 years.
I put it in this
kind of infographic,
which I like a lot.
The point is Mars
is really hard.
So we started we
start in the '60s.
We were bold.
We were audacious.
Red is for the Soviet
Union at the time.
The blue is the US and the NASA.
But Mariner came by and Viking.
And we tried to fly by.
We were successful, the
little green checks.
A lot more failures.
Can we orbit?
OK, we got better.
We started orbiting.
And then, boom.
We stuck the landing.
Viking, the first Mars landing.
And I've blown up what's
happened just in the last 16
years, because we're
getting it right
and we're sharing
the information.
The Indians, the India
Space Agency, has MOM.
I love MOM.
MOM and MAVEN up there, they're
like two sisters orbiting Mars.
So great, proud accomplishment
for the Indian Space Agency.
And then we help them.
They use our deep space network.
They need to.
We had to give them
the navigation.
So we're all in this together.
So a win for one is
a win for everyone.
That's the point of this.
We want everyone to win.
We want everyone-- again,
it's global exploration,
ExoMars just launched
from the Europeans,
on the Russian craft.
So we're at it.
Mars 20-- Insight will
now launch in 2018.
We've just had a science review.
That slipped.
March 2020 is a big
fan around here.
I talk all the time
about this, MOXIE.
And we're going to
make oxygen on Mars.
Make oxygen on another planet
from that carbon dioxide
atmosphere.
Split those carbon atoms.
It's just amazing.
So I said, that's our
robotic-- and we'll
keep throughout the
20-- in the 2020s,
we keep doing the
robotic precursors,
because wow, we
have a lot to learn.
We still have a whole
bunch more to learn,
in-situ resource utilization,
entry descent and landing.
You might have heard--
it made some press.
I did it kind of
low key on my blog.
I don't think so many
people read my blog.
Said, oh, we have
a new-- we have
a whole bunch of partnerships.
I'm in charge of partnerships,
700 of them with 120 nations.
So it's much easier to say,
who are we partnering with?
But people like
SpaceX, if you guys all
want to go to work at SpaceX.
We extended our
SpaceX agreement,
because we already have
a lot of partnerships.
We're funding them, of course,
for cargo and crew to station.
But Red Dragon, that's-- Elon is
thinking about getting to Mars.
Said, OK, we're
in this together.
No exchange of funds for this
one, but we want the data,
and specifically, the entry
descent and landing data.
So we have that partnership
going on to push it forward,
to push these dates
that I just told you.
How fast can we do it, and all
of those other technologies.
Oh, and then we have to ascent.
First we've got
to figure out how
to land 10, 20, metric tons.
We don't know how to do that.
We can do one metric ton.
OK.
Maybe that scales.
Maybe we feel confident
for two metric tons.
Different ball game.
And we have astronauts
on board, so this
is really serious to
learn these things,
push these technologies.
So those are kind of a lot
of our high-level technology
pushes that we'll be
testing out in the 2020s.
We are going.
We land.
But we do intend
that folks will live.
Now this is a
round-trip journey.
Make no mistake about it.
I'm asked that question a lot.
Definitely round-trip.
Just talk to Scott.
Think you're really going to--
this is a 3-plus-year mission.
You're going to want to come
back and see your family.
We're only sending
a few folks out.
The point that I'd
make to you, and please
help me figure this out, we
want to take everyone with us.
We want to take
humanity with us.
So the lucky few get to
be the Martian astronauts,
but our point is to take
all of humanity with us.
That's really what we're after.
And we have some pretty
interesting ways to do that.
It's always been about
global cooperation for us.
It remains to be.
And I'm going to end my talk
here, come back down to Earth,
come back down to
Spaceship Earth.
All of our exploring,
no matter how deep
we go into our solar
system, we should really
reflect on our home planet.
We have 28 Earth-observing
satellites flying right now.
Now, NASA is special, that we
design and build and fly them.
But then we transition
a lot of them
over to NOAA, our sister
agencies, USGS, for weather
and things like that.
We're mapping the oceans.
We're mapping the climate, soil.
We're looking at everything.
Now the wildfires in
Canada, extreme hazards,
so we're pointing
our eyes on there.
We need to get all
the data that we can,
especially when there's
natural disasters.
And so we keep launching.
We keep doing this.
We keep fighting
for budgets there.
I want to show you a
century of climate data.
I put this in Fahrenheit.
I usually speak in SI units,
but just to make the point
I'm going to make sure
that everyone just
sees what's going on here.
Raise your hand
when you're born.
Oh, John, you're already born.
OK.
There I am.
Come on, Jaime.
Sheila, raise your
hand when you're born.
It's fun.
Gives you some exercise.
All right.
There you go.
So 2014 was the hottest year
ever in recorded history.
2015 surpassed it.
So guess what my prediction
is for the future?
So again, we collect.
We look at the data.
We tell the story.
We try to make sure that
we just give the facts.
We just give the
facts, but it's urgent.
I would argue that it's urgent.
Back to Spaceship Earth.
It's my favorite
planet, did I say?
Mars is number two, just
to be clear about that.
Spaceship Earth first,
Earth first, and then Mars,
because Mars is still
pretty cold and extreme,
even though I love it.
So again, just that special
view, that special view
back on the Earth.
And to end, for me it's actually
always been about STEAM.
Given this job, now it's STEAMD.
Put a D on the end, Jaime.
So the artists have always
been the visionaries.
I've always learned so much.
And they're the storytellers,
the journalists, the artists,
the folks in the humanities,
they paint our pictures.
They paint the
pictures of how we
get-- how we got
humans to the moon,
how we're going to
get humanity to Mars.
And I think-- I'm
working on this.
And I hope I'll come back
and work on it harder when
I get to write papers again.
The art-science, the
academic, the art-science,
that axis has been worked hard.
And there's a lot of
synergies and people
like to think about that.
I want us to start
thinking about the design
and engineering axis as well.
I think if we look
at it holistically--
if we look at it holistically,
that's the only way I
know how to get to Mars.
I mean, it has to
be transformative.
I need transformative
technology.
I need transformative--
transformation
in organizations and
frankly our business model.
So we have to look at
these things differently.
And again, that's
kind of the message
that I leave especially
with your generation.
It's the Mars generation.
You guys are going to-- that's
going to be one of your boots.
I'm just trying to do everything
I can do to make it happen.
And I want to show
you some beautiful art
as we end the talk.
And then I'll have
time for questions.
You can shout out if you know
where these are in the world.
China.
Russia.
Maybe you don't recognize--
where do you think this is?
Africa.
The Nile.
Hmm?
The Nile.
The Nile.
No.
This one's actually back
in China again, effluvia.
Thanks for playing.
This one you know.
It's really cold
on this continent.
Antarctica?
Yeah.
That's Antarctica.
That's a beautiful shot of
Antarctica, average ice.
10,000 people. we're
watching it and we
are-- big, big
changes, of course,
in the Antarctic ice sheet.
Oh.
This one's closer to home.
Anyone from the Southwest?
Southwest.
Southwest?
No?
Goodness sakes,
who are we-- there.
All right.
You from Utah?
Anyone from--
Arizona.
Arizona.
You're neighbors.
Now this one, everyone knows.
Come on.
You have to know this one.
Yeah?
What's in South America
that looks-- yeah.
The Nazca Lines in Peru.
That's what it looks
like from space.
It's pretty beautiful and
artistic and scientific.
So we've always been
about, again, celebrating,
having the visionaries.
That's a Rauschenberg.
Close Massachusetts
friend, Norman Rockwell.
You guys can go see that.
Hopefully you know Andy Warhol.
Eileen Collins, the first female
commander of the Space Shuttle,
taken by Annie Liebowitz.
So I'm going to leave my
comments there and play
this beautiful
imagery in the back.
But I think we have time for
I can take some questions
if you want.
Oh.
Can we not have
the sound for this?
It's just really
beautiful imagery.
If you haven't had
a chance, it just
opened a couple weeks ago, ultra
high-def, the IMAX 3D movie.
And again, to come back down.
Look at how beautiful
this planet Earth is
and we need to take care of it.
And all of our exploring
just comes full circle down
to humanity here on Earth.
I think we will
be interplanetary,
having people on Earth and Mars.
Thank you for your attention.
It's my pleasure to be with you.
[APPLAUSE]
It would have been more
elegant in zero gravity.
I'll give you some time.
I'm ready.
I'm good.
Thank you so much.
And clean.
[INAUDIBLE] We have
some questions.
Well, welcome back to MIT.
It's so great to
have you here today.
Thank you.
And your presentation
was awesome.
So we really missed you at the
Technology and Policy program
40th.
But what I do want to bring
up is in the Technology
and Innovation panel,
there was a lot
of discussion about
faculty members
temporarily stepping away
and going to government,
much as you've done.
And so what I would
love to hear about
is since you've been at NASA--
I know you just celebrated
your first anniversary there--
how have your perspectives been
enhanced or how have they
changed now that you're
on the ground at a very
practical implementation level
as opposed to
conducting research?
That's a great question, Siri.
You're going to graduate?
I am.
You're going to walk?
You're walking on Friday?
Yes.
Yes.
Good girl.
Yes.
Thanks.
I'm good.
It's water.
I'll dry.
But thanks.
It's something else.
I laugh, but this--
have an honor
to serve and be in this
position, I said, hmm.
Yeah, after three months,
after last summer on the job,
I said, oops.
I've got to go back to MIT and
rewrite all those Technology
and Policy case studies.
That was kind of academic.
Sorry.
You're going to
get a great degree.
But there's nothing
like going-- nothing
like getting to-- I think Sheila
can probably attest to this.
There's nothing like
being in Washington
and being part of it.
It's a huge privilege.
But it is complex.
It's the definition
of a complex system.
And again, it always
comes back to the people.
It's not about our technologies.
We want it to be about
our great technologies.
But if you want to get
things done-- you know,
I spend I think it's
probably about 20%,
25% of my time on the Hill
or at the White House.
It's about 20%, 25% time.
My big three foci
are journeys to Mars,
being the NASA spokesperson,
trying to be clear, articulate.
I spend time in
technology and innovation.
That's really fun.
Danielle helps me
a lot with that.
We get to do innovation.
I do education and outreach.
So those are my
three things we check
every week, like
how many hours I
got to spend on the big three.
And you know, then
it takes over.
So teamwork is amazing.
The government servants,
again, I've just joined them,
but man, they're
getting beat up.
And it's just not fair.
You know, they are
great, great folks.
They're working hard.
They are serving.
Sacrifice, you know?
And they're doing great work.
So we've got to change
the conversation, I think.
There's really good folks
trying to do really good things.
Of course, we need innovation.
We need to be leaner.
And people realize that.
So you can't rest on any merits.
You have to always
strive to be better.
But I wish we had
a-- and we're trying
to have a much more
productive discussion.
Lucky being from
NASA, it's fortunate.
Everyone supports us for
very different reasons,
but we have a lot of support.
What we don't have is
actually a lot of champions.
So when I go talk
to the members,
we need those champions.
[INAUDIBLE] is
retiring, huge NASA
champion for Goddard
Space Flight Center.
So that's just kind of
the day in the life.
But it's really
practicing the policy,
trying to make sure
that it's driven
by the technical
soundness, the facts,
and just being part
of the conversation.
So when I go look at all
the staffers on the Hill
or in the folks, it's great.
It's your generation, again, in
the White House, on the Hill.
And please, we need more of you.
We need more engineers.
We need more scientists.
We need more smart people.
And again, if you feel
a call to service,
I think you'll find
it really rewarding.
But that's when I
look around and see.
How many of the folks, how
many of my former students
are here doing great work?
Thanks for the question.
I have a question with
regards to NASA's interactions
with Earth-based
observatories, is NASA
continuing to work in
a consultant fashion?
Yeah.
Consultant.
Actually, we're more
than consultants.
We fund a lot of them.
Yeah.
A lot of money going into
still-- so it starts at Earth.
Again, all of our exploring,
do everything we can on Earth
except for the advantages
of course of space-based.
But again, anything
from teaming--
and again, it's always
international teaming,
to the Chilean
observatories, come
to Keck, the Keck Observatory.
So we're still doing everything
we can to in terms of the Earth
observations.
But it's a new day.
It's really
interesting just to see
some of the science we can do.
How many folks here have
worked on cube sats?
Not too many. [INAUDIBLE]
Cube sats used to be
kind of for universities,
get your hands dirty, build and
design, and use iPhone smarts.
Now, our science
mission directorate,
we're relying on some cube sats.
We need small, quick, cheap
things you can still do.
The science is getting so good
on small, inexpensive missions
from cube sats to small sats.
And then of course, we have
our great observatories.
So to me, it's really looking
at the whole portfolio.
And that really does
start right down on Earth
with the Earth observations.
The second part of my
question, to your knowledge,
has NASA consulted
at all on LIGO?
Oh.
Yeah.
On LIGO.
So really, NSF funded LIGO.
It's great.
Again, wonderful, love to
think about these things.
I don't know if anyone did a
talk on it at this conference
or not.
But we were
celebrating like crazy.
Gravity waves.
How was Einstein so smart?
Oh my-- man, what a--
how'd he get that right?
Just impressive.
I've been thinking about that.
But that was bold.
That was risky.
They were told no.
No.
I don't know if you're
part of the team.
But huge shout-out to
just be-- to persevere,
to say that we think
maybe we can take
these measurements from
Earth and maybe we'll
come up with a
novel way to do it,
because you probably know
that LISA Pathfinder,
the Pathfinder mission launched
just a few months before.
That's a Pathfinder mission
to do the real mission
to do gravity wave
investigations out.
So here it is, revolutionary.
But it's just a first step.
That's when people ask,
but the science is nowhere.
This is just some proof.
So now we can
really get it right.
We have to keep exploring.
But I love them.
Love the LIGO team.
We're proud to be
collaborating on it.
It was mainly funded by NSF.
But that's the good thing
about working so closely
with our sister agencies.
There's NASA funding as well.
And there's definitely
even more NASA funding
to the individual PIs.
And we're just going to keep--
and that's with the Europeans
as well.
LISA Pathfinder was
a European launch.
So you mentioned SpaceX
and how you kind of
collaborate with them.
And I know also one
of their big missions
is getting people to Mars.
In that sense, are
they a competition
for something like
Space Launch System.
If SpaceX were to make a system
capable of transporting people
to Mars before the Space
Launch System is active--
Yeah, they're not
competition with us.
--would the Space
Launch System continue?
Again, we're the government.
We're funding them.
Really lots of
billions right now,
because that's-- we
want them to succeed.
But we're interested in a
different business model
that commercial guys afford.
So not in competition
at all with NASA,
since we're funding them.
Again, the partnership
was just that point.
We can do different things.
When you think about this
split trajectory and the orbits
and things like that, cargo
and crew, and taking more-- so
we're going to be in this for
the next decade and the decades
to come.
The friendly
competition, there's
some friendly competition
between Elon and Jeff.
And I like that, you know.
That's how it should be, right?
They're making
each other better.
They're making each
other excellent.
So they're both great.
They're both different.
Again, not to say the
lessons learn-- Boeings
and the Lockheeds and the
larger aerospace companies too,
they're doing great things.
They're sharp in their
game and they're all in it.
So for us, anyone who
wins-- and we really
are funding all of
them, necessarily so.
That's what the
government should do.
And then when it's time
to be commercialized,
we'll step out and fund-- so
it's a really nice partnership
that we have.
So not competition for us.
I mean, the government
is cooperation.
And again, a little
friendly competition never
hurt from the business guys.
That's great.
So you think if SpaceX and
Space Launch System both became
capable of taking
people to Mars,
that would be beneficial to
have two systems instead of kind
of focus on one?
Yeah.
How many-- you know,
one launch a year.
We've got to pop
off these rockets.
I mean, if we could go more--
I mean, how many times can we
get in a year, because
then more of you can go.
So absolutely.
And that's just from the US.
I mean, what's the rest
of the world going to do?
So I don't think we have enough
or sufficient right now, even
thinking about going to Mars.
So again, we're all in.
We want to see everyone succeed.
And that's what we're trying to
do from our role as government.
Thanks.
I was wondering if
NASA is considering
some form of space
station around Mars
as a forward base for
exploring the planet?
Right now not a space
station and definitely not
International Space
Station version 2.0,
we like to say, not
even in cislunar,
because it's expensive.
This has been an incredible
scientific platform for us.
But we're thinking much
more agile and lean.
First deep space habitats
we are investing in
is out on the street right now.
Deep Space HAB's announcement
next step, because that's
kind of a partnering as well.
NASA's putting in some money
but we're asking industry, hey,
you need to put skin
in the game as well.
So for Mars, it's
really Mars orbit first,
but not with a space
station, not planning-- we
can live in microgravity here.
It's a lot closer.
The three phases I didn't
mention of our journey to Mars,
the first phase is Earth-reliant
to Space Station, very
Earth-reliant.
We're sending up spares,
very Earth-reliant.
The second phase is less
Earth-reliant, right?
Less Earth-reliant, it reminds
when Gui and I circumnavigated
and you cross all the oceans
and you're days to weeks
away in case of an emergency,
or just things like this.
The third phase at Mars, you are
completely Earth-independent.
Now autonomous systems
and things take a total--
and giving the crew
the autonomy and having
your autonomous systems takes
on a whole different meaning.
So that third phase, getting
the Mars orbit and then boots
on Mars, that's the third phase.
Again, but we don't envision
a big space station there.
Maybe small, more
small mobile things
makes sense because we're
going to focus on the landing.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
I understand we
have [INAUDIBLE].
OK.
Perhaps we take
another question.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Hi, Forrest.
Hey, how's it going?
This is real quick, but
so in a lot of my classes,
as becoming a new
engineer I've been
learning a lot about
different ways to do things.
And one of the
things I've learned
is how important
it is to understand
the history of the space
program and history
of the world in general.
And so when I saw your acronym,
you expanded it from STEM
to STEAMD, what do
you think about adding
an H on the end of that?
yeah I guess it's the
arts generally defined.
I always include the humanities.
That's when I
defined it in words,
I say, you know, it's
the storytellers, it's
the journalists, history.
History is critically important.
Again, we're really working with
the NewSpace folks right now.
And they're great examples.
Again, I think Blue
is a great example.
They're bringing on, guess
what, our retired shuttle engine
guys.
You know what, that
BE4, I love that engine.
But there's a lot of
decades of history to learn.
So when people work together
and you really get the history--
because again, it's hard.
We need to know our history.
We don't want to make--
we're too smart for that.
We don't want to make
all the same mistakes.
We have limited,
constrained budgets,
so we need to work this.
But I love that, so
history is critical.
You know, please, when I get to
come teach again, guess what?
Come take my class.
Mandatory great reading--
I haven't figured out
how to do it mandatory
for NASA yet,
but I can do it mandatory
when I'm a professor--
was the Challenger report.
The Columbia accident
investigation board.
Professor Sheila
Widnall was on that.
Critically important, critically
important to read that cover
to cover.
That's a long summer read.
Please read them.
It's important.
It's important to our history.
I was with sixth graders
just a couple hours ago.
They had a great question.
Has anyone ever died in space?
I said, absolutely.
That's the sacrifice.
They sure have.
It almost made me
cry, because we just
had the 30th anniversary
of Challenger.
But we remember.
To honor our astronauts
and our history,
we continue to explore.
That's exactly what they
would want us to do.
To honor them, we
continue to push.
But we have to know our history.
Forrest also mentioned culture.
That's a really interesting
part of the job, right?
We don't all think alike.
We don't all speak
the same language.
So trying to-- hope
you're all going out
for really wonderful,
worthwhile cultural experiences,
maybe working in
different countries,
maybe working with different
countries' space agencies,
interning, all those kind
of things, because that's
the way you'll
really understand,
what are they talking about?
What are they saying?
You can't imagine how
much time we've spent,
leaders of agencies,
journey to Mars, pioneering?
Oops.
Pioneering doesn't
really translate that
well into a lot of
different languages.
I mean, we're down at
that level of saying,
how do we get consensus?
How do we get consensus
on a lot of these things?
So it's hugely important to
be reaching out and embracing
everyone's good ideas
and all the cultures,
because it's pretty
global at this point.
And we want it to be global.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much once again.
You're very welcome.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Nice to see you all.
Thanks.
[INAUDIBLE]
Thanks.
Good to be here.
Good to be here.
