SPEAKER: Welcome, everybody,
to one more Talks at Google.
Today's edition
is NASA at Google.
Thanks to our little NASA at
Ames Research Center Relation
Group.
Wave, guys.
Today's guest is
Ms. Dava Newman.
She's the Deputy Administrator
of the National Aerospace
Agency.
I was watching yesterday
a documentary on YouTube.
I was preparing myself for
this talk knowing that Dava
has worked on space suits.
And I was thinking, having
followed the space program
for many years and having a lot
of knowledge about the Apollo
program-- well, what were
the most challenging things
to solve?
And I've read many books.
I read a book about how
the KSC was put together--
the Kennedy Space Center.
It was a huge
logistical nightmare.
I read a book
about the Crawler--
how difficult it was
to solve that problem.
It was first thought, oh,
we'll do it with barges.
Then somebody saw this big
equipment moving earth--
actually, coal.
Someone said, maybe
we should try that.
Guidance to the moon--
that was solved at MIT.
That was a huge
challenge, as well.
Although, it had some roots, at
least, in World War II efforts.
But the thing that
I think were truly
the challenges are the thing
that gets the rocket up,
which is the rocket engine.
And after all, it is
called rocket science.
But if you look today,
I think we pretty much
nailed that problem.
On the space shuttle
program we have now,
we had our rockets
that can throttle,
that can change the impulse.
But the other piece
that I thought
was really remarkable and very,
very hard was the space suit.
And it's completely
unappreciated.
It's like, hey, it's
just a suit, right?
It's like we have
divers and whatnot.
But when you read about
it-- there's books out.
There's actually a talk
also on Google Talks
about the space suit itself.
There's also
documentaries out there.
It makes the difference.
It makes a complete
difference in a program.
What's the point of
sending humans to the moon
or sending humans
to Mars if you're
going to keep them
in a tin can--
if they can't do what
humans do, like walk around
and do things the
way humans do it?
So watch that on YouTube.
I'm going to go with the
introduction to Dava Newman.
But this is truly
something that she has
contributed at NASA, as well.
So Dr. David Newman was
nominated by President Barack
Obama in January
2015 and confirmed
by the US Senate in April
2015 to serve as the Deputy
Administrator of the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
Prior to her tenure
with NASA, Newman
was the Apollo program
professor of Aeronautics
at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, MIT,
in Cambridge.
Ms. Newman's expertise is in
multidisciplinary research
encompassing aerospace,
biomedical engineering.
Her latest research efforts
included advanced space suit
design, dynamics and
control of astronaut motion,
sociotechnical systems
analysis and space policy,
also ongoing efforts in assisted
and wearable technologies
to augment human
locomotion here on Earth.
David Newman is the author
of "Interactive Aerospace
Engineering and Design,"
an introductory engineering
textbook published by
McGraw-Hill in 2002.
She has also published more
than 250 papers and journals
and referred conferences.
She has served on numerous
national academy studies
and panels on human spaceflight,
human robotic interaction,
and active learning
for engineering,
and design, and education.
Please join me in welcoming
Dava Newman to Google.
[APPLAUSE]
DAVA NEWMAN: Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
It's great to be here.
Hello, everyone.
Good morning-- or afternoon.
Thank you for coming.
So we'd just like
to share our vision
for the future of
human space exploration
as well as leave
a lot of questions
for Q&A. I'm joined today
with NASA Ames colleagues.
Dr. Eugene Tu, the
director, is here.
And Terry Fong is here.
And we have seven-- on my
count-- seven partnerships
right now with Google and NASA.
And so we're really glad to work
with you and partner with you.
And we're always
better together.
And as I say, it's
kind of the new NASA.
Since I've been in
government the last year,
it's been my privilege
and pleasure.
But we're just asking how
can we partner creatively?
How can we get things done?
And this is all about, really,
for me, the human spirit,
and exploration, and
raising ourselves--
see what potential do
we have as humanity.
And I think it's making
people interplanetary.
So with that, tell you some
highlights-- highlights
in the last year.
It's the 26th
anniversary of Hubble.
So everyone in here 26 or
younger, raise your hand.
It's a lot of you guys.
Fantastic.
Your entire life, the
Hubble Space Telescope,
or the world's greatest
optical telescope observatory,
has been up there.
And it's only in
low Earth orbit.
But we've looked back
13 billion light years.
So these are our
enduring questions.
Are there other
habitable planets?
Is there life out there?
And then was there
past life ever on Mars?
So my favorite
story about Hubble
is there was a really
dark spot in the sky.
And we had never seen it, right?
So put up your thumbs.
A thumbnail.
Your thumbnail.
We looked at that really
dark spot in the sky.
Does anyone know what we found?
AUDIENCE: Galaxies.
DAVA NEWMAN: Hm?
AUDIENCE: Galaxies.
DAVA NEWMAN: Galaxies.
3000 new galaxies.
So just amazing.
Really, actually, hard.
I think I'm pretty good
with orders of magnitude.
But that just blows my mind.
And so celebrating Hubble--
it's a really great--
there's many more.
It's James Webb or JWST--
it's NASA's acronyms.
You guys have a lot of
Google acronyms, as well.
So James Webb is going
to launch in 2018.
It's 100 times more
powerful, Dr. Mather--
that's our Nobel
laureate-- tells me.
He's the PI.
18 really amazing, adaptive.
Now, this is infrared.
So this is an
infrared telescope.
And its purpose
is, again, help us
with these enduring questions.
Dark energy.
Dark matter.
What's 96% of the stuff
that we don't know?
So looking again for the
beginnings and the origins
of the solar system.
So again, James
Webb coming at you
and launching on an Ariane 5.
Again, look at our
international partnerships.
Lots of international science
on board that we welcome-- we
seek.
How many of you know about
new horizons last year?
Thank you.
Pluto.
I count dwarf planets.
I'm an aerospace engineer.
So we didn't know
what it looked like.
It was fuzzy.
We had never seen it.
We have never been there.
Pretty amazing to
zoom in on Pluto.
It has a heart.
I like that part.
I got to tweet it
for Valentines.
Just amazing.
So now, we know what
it's made out of-- icy.
And who knew Pluto would have
mountains and this structure?
Anyone heard about
our Dawn spacecraft?
It's wonderful.
Just won the Collier Trophy.
We're so proud of this team.
So Dawn-- it's orbiting another
dwarf planet called Ceres.
It's in between Mars,
Jupiter in the asteroid belt.
And it's been twinkling at us.
And we didn't know what
those shiny spots were,
so we zoomed in on it.
And we actually just-- looks
like there's some deposits--
some sodium deposits.
We've really zoomed in on
it in just last December.
That's Ahuna Mons.
Move over Mt.
Everest.
Ahuna Mons is 5 kilometers
tall, 20 kilometers wide.
And we see some reflections.
And we see these reflections--
these high intensity
reflections coming
at us from Ceres--
and, again, maybe sodium
and other deposits
that we're seeing.
But really amazing.
Who would have thought
that there would ever
be this type of mountain
on Ceres-- not us
when we started the mission.
So exploring the solar
system and beyond
is what we're all
about with our probes.
Where will you be
on 4th of July?
Here?
Big fireworks in the
Bay Area-- hope so.
Well, we're really
happy because everyone's
throwing a big party for us.
We're glad for
all the fireworks.
We get to Jupiter on July 4th.
Good timing, huh?
We go into our-- we're
inserting our orbit.
It's-- gosh, you
know, it was 18 days.
18 days and counting.
So we've been going since 2011.
But we'll get to our closest
point in the orbit July 4th.
And just an amazing mission.
It's the largest
most complicated
solar powered probe ever to
go into the solar system.
So this is really off the grid.
It's way out there.
And one of my favorite
things about it is JunoCam.
Sends back HD images.
And we're saying, hey, world.
It's our largest effort to
date in citizen science.
Where do you want to explore?
Tell us where to point JunoCam.
You tell us.
So we're really trying to
bring the world with us--
to bring all of you with
us into exploration.
And so that's just
really exciting.
OSIRIS-REx.
Anyone heard of OREx?
It's the first time we're
going-- no one's heard of OREx?
What are you guys doing?
Working too hard here at Google?
Come on.
Get on our website.
It's pretty amazing.
We're going to an
asteroid-- Bennu.
And we will launch in September.
And it, of course, takes a few
years to do the whole mission.
I think in 2023, we
get the sample back.
But it'll be our first
asteroid sample return.
Great mission.
Since you guys-- you Googlers
been working so hard,
what about flowing
water on Mars?
You know this happened?
There you go.
Huge.
Scientifically huge.
We knew there was ice
on the polar caps,
but water-- seasonal water.
So we're studying this.
We're looking,
again, this season.
And watch this.
Mars has 1% carbon
dioxide atmosphere.
So what happened to
Mars's atmosphere?
We've been wondering about
that for a long time.
We have five Landers and
Orbiters at Mars today.
And this one's from Maven.
A simulation.
Solar winds.
These are the solar winds.
And this is literally the ions
being ablated off of Mars.
Mars has no global magnetic
field, unlucky for Mars,
real lucky for Earth.
Our magnetic shield is really
important-- so in real time.
But the papers are
just being written now
about Mars's atmosphere and what
could have happened to Mars.
Why are we so
fascinated with Mars?
Mars and Earth-- 4.5
billion years old each.
Sister planets.
Mars is really far away.
It's really hard to get to.
And we've been doing this
for 50 years with Landers
and Orbiters.
But again, now, we perhaps know
the evidence of maybe how Mars
lost its atmosphere
because we think
3.5 billion years ago,
Mars was wet, wonderful,
could have harbored life.
And then what went
so terribly wrong?
That's really important
for us to learn for Earth.
All of our exploring,
I'd like to say,
just teaches us about
Spaceship Earth.
Earth is my number one planet.
Mars is my second
favorite planet.
But make no mistake
about our home planet
and Spaceship Earth.
So gosh-- anyone
here 16 or under?
I got all the 26 years old.
OK.
Exactly.
You guys are really smart
high school interns.
So for their entire life-- and
I call them the Mars generation.
The young-- the folks in
college and high school today,
they are our Mars
generation because they're
the ones who are going to
be the explorers of Mars.
But 16 years.
So this is phase one
of our journey to Mars,
which I'll tell you more about.
But 16 years-- international.
We're working with 15 other
countries, five major partners.
Amazing.
How many of you know
about our big rocket?
A few.
This is not just
for PowerPoints.
Take a look.
It's serious.
And it's being well
constructed today.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
This is a fun video.
It's SLS, our Space
Launch System.
This gets us beyond
low earth orbit.
First to lunar orbit,
deep space, in the 2020s.
And then 2030s, onward to Mars.
We're investing 1,000 companies
across every state in the US
to get this done.
It's the coolest stir
friction welding machine ever.
That's our Michoud
assembly building
just out of New Orleans.
That's animation, but
we've been testing--
this is the animation part.
But the rocket's real.
These are the real engines.
We've been firing
them ad testing them.
That's at our
Stennis Space Center
to test-- do the static fairs.
The solids have
been tested in Utah.
Has the Orion capsule on top.
That's the Orion capsule.
European support module ring
around it, you just saw.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Entry, descent, and landing.
That's a tough problem.
That's a huge, huge
challenge for us--
well, for a human mission.
That's a good day in
the office, right?
We drop things out of
planes and test them.
A lot of sensors.
So that's what we call,
EM-1, Exploration Mission 1.
[END PLAYBACK]
And 2018, we'll launch.
It'll be followed shortly
by EM-2, Exploration Mission
2, which will be the first
one with astronauts on board.
EM-1 has the Orion Capsule.
And then second mission has
the astronauts on board.
So it's pretty fun.
It's pretty great.
We've never been under
this much development
in the last four decades to
do development of space launch
system, development of Orion.
These are major, major
development programs for us.
And show you this.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
As I said, we've been
on Mars for 50 years,
we've been exploring
Mars with our rovers.
So this is the highlights reel.
You can raise hand
when you were born.
'65.
Some of us are-- Eugene
and I. Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You guys know there's a big time
delay between Earth and Mars,
right?
So we really [INAUDIBLE]
moments of terror.
You're waiting to
get the signals back.
So boy, when there's a
successful mission landing,
you are really psyched.
Now, you guys are all born.
Hopefully, you remember
some of these missions.
We land in every way you can
possibly land to test out.
Air bags to cranes
to retro rockets.
[CHEERING]
So we call that
MRO-- still giving us
incredible data today.
There's dust devils
on Mars, too.
That's real.
The Martian didn't
just make that up.
We have a whole bunch of them.
-27 meters.
20 meters.
15 meters.
Standing back for touchdown.
[APPLAUSE]
[APPLAUSE]
So, curiousity, yeah.
-Led by the extraordinary
men and women of NASA
in our Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
Right now, the
wheels of Curiosity
have begun to blaze the trail
for human footprints on Mars.
-I just wanted to
call and [INAUDIBLE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAVA NEWMAN: This is Maven that
I showed you the data from.
It's our next big
rover, Mars 2020.
[END PLAYBACK]
That's our future.
So I say Boots on Mars.
Success with people.
Big challenges.
And so our journey to
Mars-- we have a plan.
Please download it.
It's clear and it's concise.
It's really audacious.
It's tough.
But again, we think that
it's the right thing
to do for NASA to lead
and for the US to lead.
And we are looking for
all kind of partners,
specifically public,
private industry folks,
and international folks
who are all in saying,
here are our plans and
it's global exploration.
No one nation, no one space
agency does this alone.
We're saying, these are the
pieces we're committed to.
This is what we can do, we
can sustain, we can afford.
And then, hey, world,
what do you want to do?
And so phase one, Space Station.
We've been there for 16 years.
We're going to keep-- we'll
be on Space Station til 2024.
But in parallel, space launch
system-- the 20th space launch
system, Orion,
we're in cislunar.
We call that the proving ground
to really make the technology
investments that we need.
And then phase three
is onward to Mars.
So that's our plan.
We are charged by the President
to get humans to Mars orbit
and then Boots on Mars
in the coming decades.
And so I like to say, it's
not something that just keeps
moving out and moving out.
We're closer than we've
ever been in humanity
to sending people to Mars.
So it's really-- like I said,
the metal is being built.
We're investing in all these
systems-- so really amazing.
It's still out
there til the 2030s,
but that's going too far
because we're making progress
and we're making
these investments
to stay with this vision
and stay with this focus.
Who knows about our
one year into space?
Scott Kelly.
Great.
And he just came back.
And he's a little sore.
Two months down.
Now We were just with him.
His feet hurt.
His feet hurt.
We're still really looking to
the physiological effects--
psychological effects
and the physiology.
We have to keep looking at this.
And there's about 35, 36
biomedical human risk factors.
We're down to the top
three or so, really
trying to make sense of it.
Gave us the first time to
do our genomics in space.
His identical twin
brother, Mark,
as you know, a former
astronaut, down here
on ground, the control,
with Scott up there.
So we're just doing
the DNA sequencing now.
I can't wait for the data coming
out in the next six months.
We already know the microbiome
from Scott in weightlessness
is very changed--
radically altered.
So great mission.
This is just at lunch
time-- this talk.
So make you guys hungry.
First time we get to eat--
anything you can eat fresh
in space is a good day.
This is our veggie experiment.
So there's Kjell Lindgren
and Scott harvesting
with a Japanese colleague.
And a little salad.
Veggie's kind of small.
It's veggie three.
Just some of the
technologies-- the way
I like to explain
it is here's Mars.
We have our Mars requirements.
And then we back it down.
What can we do in the 2020s
in deep space cislunar?
What can we do today
on Space Station.
What are those essential
Mars requirements?
Technology, and the physiology,
and the human health,
astronaut performance.
Here's just some
of the technologies
that we're testing
in microgravity
and we're investing in.
How do you refuel?
What about habitable structures?
Beam just got expanded.
It's there for two years.
Take in data.
We need that data because we
have to think about deep space
habitats.
And you can see there's
humanoid robotics.
There's EVA systems,
we talked about.
Fire in space-- not
that I recommend it,
but it's really cool in
terms of the physics, right?
You don't have
convection and things.
It's a blue flame.
It's not being fed.
So actually, a fire
experiment is going up
on the next cargo launch.
Manufacturing.
[INAUDIBLE]
We're working with private
industry to do manufacturing.
We have our second 3D printer
up on Space Station today.
So I asked Scott-- I tweet.
You can follow me
at DavaExplorer.
So I asked Scott what he thought
we should be doing-- what
technology do you
think we really
needed to work on for Station?
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-I think the life
support systems
that we need to keep
us alive in space
are ideal candidates
for demonstrations
or a future journey to Mars,
as well as space suits.
We need, I think, new
space suit technology.
DAVA NEWMAN: I didn't
plant it, Boris.
I didn't know you were
going to say that.
- --in space.
And something that's
going to be easier
to work in on the surface
under the Martian gravity.
[END PLAYBACK]
And maybe.
He's a little biased because he
probably knows my background.
But again, we're really trying
to say, what are these pushes?
What do we have to
invest in so that we're
ready-- we'll be ready?
And we have to be
strategic about that.
Again, wanted to make sure--
this is really incredible.
Now, NASA is-- we're
buying services.
They're not all of ours, right?
SpaceX and Orbital ATK--
they're bringing our cargo up.
We're so glad to, again
look at a new space
and what's possible
because we want to go
further out and further out.
And so we're very glad.
And turn that over to industry.
And also, Russia, you see there.
Russia is sending up cargo and
our astronauts, at this point.
And then that's the Japanese.
That's the HTV.
So also, cargo
coming up from Japan.
Again, we're all
in this together.
We want everyone to succeed.
That's where we're
placing our bets.
We need everyone to
succeed to get this done.
And you probably
know in the future
then our commercial
crew, SpaceX and Boeing,
will be sending
our astronauts up.
They'll be sending
our astronauts
up just in over a year.
We'll do the
testing out in 2017.
And then we'll be sending
our astronauts up hopefully
early 2018.
That makes us not
dependent, right now,
on the Russians, which we are.
So really investing in American
US economy to get that done.
We want to return launches
back here to the US.
So really, I look at Space
Station-- the entire Space
Station and this entire phase
one as the experiment itself.
I look at-- is that's
the experiment.
So that's how I
like to vision this.
It's actually, maybe--
think of it as the analog--
the habitat analog.
Now, it's really
huge and wonderful
and as big as a football
field-- whether you
like real football or American
football, anyhow, good thing
is they're same size fields.
That's how big Station is.
And we're not sending
anything like this to Mars.
But the experience,
and the analog,
and living, and working in
these extreme environments
is the experiment that tells
us how we can go forward.
And I'd like to-- hope
you guys can see this.
It's just an infographic.
You saw the video that had
50 years of being on Mars.
But I only showed
you the successes.
So truth in advertising here.
It's hard.
It's really far away.
So the orange, red lines--
that's the former Soviet
Union and Russia.
The blue are the US
and NASA attempts.
We just tried to fly by.
And then we had to--
can we orbit Mars?
Can we land?
And you saw that--
well, the green checks--
that's when we nailed it.
That's when we hit it.
But try, try, try.
That's what it's all about.
You just have to keep trying.
And it kind of blew up
in the last 10 years.
Now, really the last 15 years.
Man, we've been nailing it.
And you see Europe there.
And you see the US
with Russia's help.
And then you see the green
line-- India, first attempt.
So again, when anyone
succeeds, we succeed.
We provide them our
deep space network,
and we helped, and we did
the navigation because we
want everyone to succeed.
That's in all of our interests
is how do we do this together.
And ExoMars, which is the
European Space Agency mission,
launched out of Russia.
It's en route to Mars today.
There's five rovers
and vehicles there.
We're learning every day.
Did you guys check the weather
on Mars before you came today?
I check every morning.
It's beautiful.
You're spoiled.
I mean it's beautiful
California sunny weather.
I used to live here.
I remember this.
Well, it's cold on Mars today.
It's freezing-- couple
degrees below freezing.
It's always cold on Mars.
And in the 2020s,
what we're doing
is we-- our robotic precursor
missions-- they keep going.
They necessarily keep going,
so we get data every day.
We get a lot of data back
from Mars to get ready.
So here's some icons
of what we need
to figure out in the
2020s with our precursors.
We'll be in deep space.
Again, this is all in parallel.
And EDL, Entry,
Descent, and Landing.
You saw it in the
movie-- coming in hot.
We don't how to do that.
We know how to do it for 1
metric ton, right-- our rovers.
2 metric tons.
Maybe it scales--
1 to 2 metric tons.
10, 20 metric tons?
We got to figure that out.
We got to figure that out.
So a lot of research.
And we really-- coming in hot.
Mars has a 1% atmosphere.
It's just a nuisance.
Doesn't help at all.
That's not enough
drag to slow us down.
Doesn't help at all.
So really, coming in hot.
Now, we have humans on board.
So this is a big challenge
for us, entry, descent,
and landing.
When we're on the surface--
what about in-situ resource
utilization.
All successful exploration
in humanity-- people
live off the land.
They make use of the resources.
You don't take
everything with you.
So we have to figure this out.
When you go camping
across California
or the US-- guess what?
You need those
fuel depots, right?
You need those caches.
You have your caches
out when you go camping.
So how do we do that?
We're thinking in
that mentality.
How do you really get it right?
How do you have,
maybe, the fuel?
Methane.
Looks like Mars has
even more methane
than we ever thought, right?
Hey, methane makes
good propulsion.
So all these are really
research areas for us
about fuel and all the things--
the human robotic interface,
and hopefully all the things
that you guys are so smart in
and work on.
And all these-- the autonomous
systems are critical.
I can't overstate the importance
of the criticality of-- when
we get to Mars, it's
so far away, you
have to be completely
Earth independent.
We've never done that before--
completely Earth independent.
The proving ground--
your days to weeks
away from help in an emergency
or to get resupplies.
But not with-- So it's a
really different paradigm
when we really get to Mars.
So our precursors
will be helping.
This is just a shout out, again.
One fun thing at
NASA I get to be
in charge of-- partnerships--
over 700 of them.
We work with 120 nations.
So it's much easier to say
who we're not working with.
So just a big celebration.
We're all in.
And we're looking for partners.
And some different
countries-- emerging
countries that just
want to be part of it--
and we're saying absolutely.
Mars 2020 is up on the left.
That's, again, the
next big Rover.
Just great cooperation.
Has this really cool
experiment on board-- well,
they're all cool experiments.
But MOXIE-- it's
going to make oxygen.
So we're going to make oxygen
the first time on a planet.
And it splits off the carbon.
Since Mars is CO2 atmosphere,
it splits off the carbon atom.
So then you're left with
oxygen. Now, not enough
for a person to survive
on, but it's a start.
First time we can make
oxygen on another planet.
And let's see.
I wouldn't-- I'm here in
NASA Ames, our center that--
it leads in across the spectrum.
But we got to give a shout out.
I am an aerospace engineer.
So let me tell you,
flight is very exciting.
And I can't tell you-- we just
have a new aviations horizons--
a huge initiative.
Hopefully, the next 10 years,
we'll invest $3.5 billion
into aeronautics and aviation.
And this is the best
example, I think,
of what the
government does, what
NASA does-- putting in the
research and development.
So up top-- that's our low
boom supersonic demonstrator.
Just got back from Europe.
I sure wish it was three
hours or four hours,
not the eight hours, right?
I just flew in last night here.
Man, that would've been a
great two hour flight, right?
So it's low boom.
Continental US-- so it has to be
like a thump-- the supersonic.
And we can do it mostly
through geometry and moving
the shock back and off.
And just announced
Friday, the little guy
on the bottom-- it's
actually a hybrid electric.
So hybrid electric air
flight coming to you.
And again, we'll
hand it over and then
the commercial folks will
hopefully commercialize it.
Just again, it's really
our best example.
In the middle, these are ultra
efficient-- 50% fuel reduction
and 50% noise reduction.
So those are our eco-airplanes.
They're our ultra
efficient airplanes.
So this is-- we're
back in the business
of X-plane, experimental
aircraft demonstrators.
It's incredibly exciting for us.
So I'm going to come full
circle back to Earth, as.
I said, my favorite planet.
I don't know if you know
of our Discover mission.
I hope you do.
Download the app
because you get to look
at these beautiful
images every day.
Now, Earth.
Sun.
Lagrangian place.
I love a technical
audience, right?
You guys probably
actually know what L1 is.
So this beautiful places
in between Earth and Sun.
And it's gravity neutral.
So it's a really good
place to hang out.
So Discover is hanging out.
And I just describe it as our
solar system weather buoy.
So all that solar wind
and solar radiation--
Discover is measuring
that and saying, hey,
Earth here's what's
coming your way--
since it's out there at L1.
And then every month,
you get to see,
this is-- oh, you guys are going
to like this if you're my age.
[MUSIC - PINK FLOYD, "DARK SIDE
 OF THE MOON"]
How many hours of grad
school did you study--
[LAUGHTER]
Doesn't everyone
listen to Pink Floyd?
Now, all my 26 and unders.
All right.
I got a few.
I got a few.
Well, thanks for--
but they got it wrong.
There's not a dark
side of the moon.
It's the far side.
It's the far side of the
moon is nice and lit.
We just haven't been there.
But now, Discover has shown us
what the far side of the moon
looks like.
So again, in all
that reflecting,
we have over 20 Earth
science observing satellites.
We just say, eyes in the sky.
But we're pointed
right down on Earth.
So I just found out about the
Santa Barbara forest fires
happening.
Last month, we
just point our eyes
when Canada-- when the great
forest fires now in Canada--
will be a busy
summer unfortunately.
What resources, what assets do
we have to look at the Earth?
Look in an ocean.
Look in an ocean sea rise.
Melting, temperature,
all this-- what
all our earth-- and
now, NASA, what we
do, we design, and build,
and fly the satellites.
We hand them over to our
sister agencies NOA and USGS.
And we work together really
well for all this earth
science data.
And don't need to convince
this crowd, but let me show you
a century.
It's in Celsius.
Blue is lower than
average-- 1 or 2 degrees.
And yellow is 1
degrees Celsius above.
Dark red is 2 degrees
Celsius above average.
So take a look at-- raise
your hand when you're born.
Woo.
C'mon '70s.
You guys there?
All right.
So 2015, hottest year
in recorded history.
2016, we just got the
data back from May.
Hottest month recorded.
Guess what my
prediction is for 2016.
So that's just the data.
I'm not interpreting it.
It's pretty amazing.
Pretty amazing.
So it's just critical
and it's essential.
Take a look at this.
So I want to leave you with my
last few little slides for fun
here.
I've spent my whole
career on STEM education.
Isn't this what a rocket
scientist looks like?
I think maybe not.
So I turned it into STEAMD.
And add a Rich Gold.
Maybe some of you guys ever
had the pleasure to meet him.
I think it's really--
the art science
access has been worked a lot.
I think it's really important.
I love that literature.
But I think, as an engineer,
that maybe the design
engineering access-- we
need to-- if we really
looked at this holistically,
we have big problems to help
solve for humanity, right?
Water, climate, exploration.
Again, all of this, I think,
we'd be best served to-- we're
all in.
So for the artist, we need you.
They've always been part of
NASA's history and the US
history because they're
the storytellers.
They paint the pictures.
Who better to paint our
picture of the journey to Mars
than artists, and the
storytellers, the journalists?
And I actually now do a
lot of talks and speeches.
I always put on the end STEAMD.
First, I'm pretty ticked off.
I'm steamed.
We are not making
enough progress quickly.
And it's urgent.
So we really need all in.
I need every girl
and boy out there
to say, oh, we can do that?
I see myself working on
one of these projects.
So we need everyone.
We have to be very inclusive.
We can't filter people out.
Just the opposite.
I think we need
to filter everyone
in to-- what a better vocation.
And again, so I just
can't speak enough to-- we
have to be inclusive.
We need an all hands on
deck to work with all of us.
And so my shout out to
the artists painting
NASA's pictures from Earth
observation-- we actually
have this wonderful book
called "Earth As Art."
Anyone know where
this is in the world?
Take a guess.
This one's hard.
China.
I'll be flying there
in a couple days.
How about this one?
Any guesses.
That's Algeria.
This one-- that's a
really cold continent.
Everyone should know that one.
Still-- but beautiful, magical.
Now, everyone should know this.
Down south-- South America.
People?
The Nazca.
I think I heard it.
Yeah.
These are from orbit.
These are the Nazca
lines in Peru.
There you go.
Andy Warhol even got
into the-- again, all in.
These are enduring.
These images stay with us.
And Eileen Collins was our
first female shuttle commander.
And this is a photograph
by Annie Leibovitz.
So they've always been with
us to tell our stories.
So anyhow, this is the
fun, incredible job
that I have every day to be able
to talk to people about how we
get humanity, interplanetary,
and Boots on Mars
and by, we say, 2030s.
So I'm going to finish
my comments there.
And I have some
beautiful images here.
And I will take any
questions and just show you
these beautiful images.
This is a new IMAX movie,
"A Beautiful Planet."
And it just came out.
Hopefully, it's open
in the Bay Areas.
Do you guys know
if it opened here?
AUDIENCE: I don't know if
it has opened here yet.
DAVA NEWMAN: Maybe it
hasn't opened up here.
Just came here.
It's really beautiful--
ultra hi-def images taken
by our astronauts on board.
So thanks for your attention.
What's on your mind?
[APPLAUSE]
AUDIENCE: Thank you so
much for talking to us.
My question is about
the kind of interplay
between NASA and
SpaceX with respect
to putting people on Mars.
So in what ways do NASA
and SpaceX work together
towards that goal?
And in what ways do
they do their own thing?
And then also,
what is NASA's goal
after we put people on Mars?
Like SpaceX's is to actually
colonize Mars and have
a backup of the human race.
What does NASA want to do after
we are able to put researchers
on Mars?
DAVA NEWMAN: So thanks.
Great questions.
So we worked together
in partnerships.
As I said, right now,
SpaceX has given us cargo
to Space Station.
And then astronauts
coming for the crew.
And then in terms
of Red Dragon--
don't you read my blog?
We extended our Space
Act Agreement for EDL.
Again, we're all about the
data and let's get this right.
And so, we're working
in cooperation
with SpaceX on Red Dragon to get
that EDL-- the entry, descent,
and landing data
for larger masses.
So that's what we're
doing together, today.
It's our huge investment.
Again from NASA into
SpaceX because I
say we're counting
on them to succeed.
And we're not in
competition at all.
We're seeding.
It's government funds going
into, again, the private sector
to make sure that they succeed.
Now, Elon's vision of getting to
Mars and people-- that's great.
We, as a government and the
US-- we'll be there together.
There's really interesting
opportunities then,
as I mentioned before--
cargo and split missions.
And things like that.
So we really do think
then in the coming decades
that people will be on Mars.
Now, from NASA's
perspective, it's
round trip-- very important
to call that out just
so there's no confusion--
so round trip.
So we look at multiple missions
and getting people there.
But go back to the
enduring question for us.
Again, it's to look for
the past evidence of life,
like being a fossil
hunter, if you will.
Our Rovers are there.
We're getting data every day.
But was Mars once habitable?
So for us, there's also the
big science drivers-- looking
for past evidence of life.
Now, if Elon and Jeff are in
competition with each other,
as well, that's a good thing.
That's friendly competition.
But that's not the government.
Again, where we're
partnering with everyone
and looking for
everyone's success.
So hopefully, does
that help answer?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Is there any
concern about being
reliant on one country--
in this case Russia-- given
geopolitical tensions about them
being the ones that are taking
astronauts up to Space Station?
DAVA NEWMAN: So great the
question. [INAUDIBLE].
What about being
reliant on the Russians
for a launch for astronauts?
And they're great partners.
I would like to hold up--
this is soft diplomacy.
It's my best example
I can give you
with tensions-- political
tensions in the world.
But guess what, NASA, meaning
the US and Russia-- we've
been working together
famously dependent on one
another for 16 years.
So really, we're held up as an
example of what's going right.
And it really is soft
diplomacy and working together.
We just figure out a way to
do it, given other politics.
We just-- we're
in this together.
We have great-- we're
engineers and scientists.
So these are great friends.
I've worked with the
Russians since the '90s.
We have three decades
of great history.
And even before that--
you know Apollo-Soyuz?
Not lost on us.
In the tension of
the Cold War, there's
an astronaut and a Russian
cosmonaut shaking hands.
So we just look it
up as an exemplar.
And that's why we're interested
in partnering in the future.
We think it's a
great partnership.
But then when it
comes to the economy
and helping US businesses
and things-- well,
we're all about that, too.
And that's what
government-- so that's
why we're so excited about
returning the launches back
to US soil-- so
that, again, it's
nice to have a nice portfolio.
But we'll be comfortable
when SpaceX and Boeing are
launching our astronauts back
here from the Kennedy Space
Center.
So that's how we look at it.
Again, great partners, soft
diplomacy, great example.
And then again, working
with everyone we can.
Thanks
AUDIENCE: What's your
take on Mars One?
DAVA NEWMAN: As I said,
the government-- we're
doing a round trip.
And inspiration.
Good inspiration.
I love the vision.
But not credible.
No funding.
Not the right technology.
Not expertise.
Great.
good vision.
It's great to inspire.
I like the inspire part.
AUDIENCE: So in the '60s,
there was a lot of excitement
around the space program with
going to the moon and stuff.
How do we build that same
level of excitement today?
DAVA NEWMAN: Thanks
for the question.
This is where-- I am
a former academic.
So I'm going to start
asking you guys questions.
I need to hear from you.
I can tell you what we're
doing-- citizen science.
And we really want to
take humanity with us.
This is-- four fortunate
astronauts-- the first Mars
Explorers, and even
the commercial guys--
it's still a very limited
number of folks, right?
So how do we open it up?
How do we take everyone with us?
So it's as compelling as
the-- what did we just see?
The Tilt Brush--
that I was there.
I was just in 3-D space.
So how can we take
the world with us?
So we're really thinking about
that for citizen science.
We're making these investments
for all of humanity.
And again, the Apollo
heritage is so great
that humanity really-- we
wont be going and planting
in a US flag.
What we'll be doing is
saying, hey world, we're here.
And we're doing this together.
But we really want
to hear from you all,
and tell us how we can work
together, and take and open it
up so that everyone
feels like they're
part of the mission because
that's really our goal--
kind of part of every
mission because I
got to highlight a few.
We're doing 100 solar
system missions, right now.
How many aeronautics
campaigns are we doing Eugene?
Dozens and dozens.
So in my limited
time, I don't get
to tell you about the
hundreds of-- it's
a big portfolio,
which is so cool.
But we want to
open it up and have
whatever people's
interests are and passion--
so it might be climate.
It might be flight.
It might be something else.
We want to say, hey,
we're open government.
We're trying to do a
lot of these things
in terms of innovation,
open government,
to make sure everyone can
participate because it's
your tax dollars, after all.
AUDIENCE: How much will be
happening just next door?
And can we go see the planes?
And then also, the
multi-propeller hybrid electric
models-- are you looking at
full electric propulsion,
no petrochemicals
at all for those?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVA NEWMAN: So it's
hybrid electric.
And I'll get Eugene
involved in here.
A lot is happening
here it NASA Ames.
What can people see?
EUGENE: Don't know yet, but the
actual airplanes themselves,
I'm anticipating, will be
tested down in Armstrong
down in the Mojave Desert.
But we will likely
do quite a bit
of wind tunnel testing up here.
So scale models of
them or if, of course,
they need the full scale test
in the largest wind tunnel,
it could be full scale.
Also, we're likely
here, at Ames,
to be quite involved in much
of the autonomy work related
to them, much of the
computational analysis
with our supercomputers.
And so we do expect to see
quite a bit of work related
to these X-planes here at Ames.
Whether you'll actually see the
flight vehicles themselves up
here or we'll have to get you
down to Southern California--
that remains to be seen.
DAVA NEWMAN: Yeah.
So Armstrong is our
flight research center.
But hopefully they'll
come by and just buzz us
a little bit-- they
give us a little wing
tip or something like.
But yeah, so definitely west
coast kind of investments.
Very exciting.
It's been a long time to get
this investment back to era
where we should
be just to lead--
to lead in these
things-- really critical
that the US is making these
investments in X-planes
for the future.
And it is-- just to make
sure-- it's hybrid electric
for the motors.
That's six motors on each wing.
So that's 12 electric motors.
But we always call it
the hybrid electric.
It's the second out of the
gates after the supersonic
because we can do
phase one, right now.
That's my day job is trying
to secure the NASA budget-- so
see what we can get in terms of
support so we can keep going.
But that's why we just
announced on Friday--
I think it was Friday--
to do the phase
one for the hybrid electrics.
And then phase 2 is much larger.
But no time.
We got to get started.
SPEAKER: I guess I
have two questions.
One is more sciencey and one
is more political since NASA--
DAVA NEWMAN: Do science first.
SPEAKER: So the
sciencey one is this.
So there's people who
say why are we going all
the way to Mars with humans?
Why don't we do the moon, again,
first, and train, and whatnot,
and only then do Mars.
DAVA NEWMAN: So I'll
take that first one.
So those building
blocks, that road map,
we've said we will be in
earth moon orbit, cislunar.
So we're going to the moon.
We have constrained budgets.
And so we're saying for our
investments and technology,
solar electric propulsion,
deep space habitats,
advanced life support systems--
all these technologies
we need to prove out in
cislunar and even deep space.
But we're saying, hey, world, if
someone wants to lead and have
a lunar Lander, great.
Then, we'll get a NASA
astronaut on board.
We'll take you out there.
But we're saying,
for our investments,
you can't do it all.
It's just too expensive.
So we're saying, we'll
get you out there.
We're going to be focused on
our technology development--
proving ground.
But for sure, we're going
to see humanity on the moon.
And again, given this--
that's why we're opening up.
It's a global exploration.
So hopefully, that's
multi-- hopefully
that's global-- real global.
We just can't lead
in all those things.
So that's what NASA-- so
that's why our vision is Mars.
Clearly, that's a horizon goal
because it's so hard and never
been done.
And again, we're going there to
look for past evidence of life.
So we're really
clear about that.
Does that help?
SPEAKER: Yes.
It makes complete
sense to me, as well.
Now the second, a little
bit tougher question
is NASA is a big organization.
It covers--
DAVA NEWMAN: 17,500--
just down from 18,000.
SPEAKER: It is still not as
big as the United Nations
because I remember, when I was
working at the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees,
it was 120,000 people.
But it is pretty big.
And it does have aeronautics
and space within it.
Things seem to take a little
bit longer time, people say,
than they used to in the '60s.
There are people who
are saying, oh, we just
did a seat of the pants thing
without so much analysis
and whatnot.
We just tested things-- they
worked, we went with them.
Some people complain
about red tape.
Some people complain
about misuse of funding.
Can you tell us a little
bit the internal scoop--
the higher level scoop--
DAVA NEWMAN: What are we doing.
SPEAKER: What are you guys
doing to counterbalance
the growth and the spreading
of [INAUDIBLE] administration,
because I think that
lesson might be useful
here at Google, as well.
DAVA NEWMAN: OK.
Yeah, because the big and
growth-- and actually,
so at NASA we're reducing--
so it used to be 18,000.
Now civil servants-- we're
going down to 17,500.
And again, you want the
best and the brightest.
And you want to have
these great challenges.
That's how you get great
people-- same as Silicon Valley
here.
But it's important to know we
can have 3 to 1 contractors,
too.
So our family is not
just the civil servants.
Really, the numbers
are much larger.
And that's just
kind of what we're
calling inside the
gates, our contractors--
not even our big contracts that
we let out, but our brothers
and sisters.
So it is large.
But again, we're trying
to-- we get that.
And when you're 50 year--
you're a bureaucracy.
We have to see how
can we do things
so-- the partnerships-- Ames
is actually a great example.
How can we do this?
It's hierarchical.
For a former
academic, no kidding.
But you say, how can you
be really successful?
How can you still be lean?
How can you do a mission
like this and get it right?
And to me, it comes
down to innovation.
And so that's not
surprising that we're here
at Google and other places.
And really, I think
it's innovate or die.
So how do we get
the technologies
and-- here's NASA's budget.
There's other very large
government budgets out there.
We're here.
There's large ones.
So we say, for us,
it has to be very
specific to NASA-- we have to
invest in those technologies
that only NASA should
because the rest of them--
we should be able to get and
partner with other agencies
or with industry.
And we have to change
organizational model.
How do we change the
organizational model
to get this done?
So we're on that.
But again, that's
why we're really
going out and talking
to industry folks
and saying how do we--
what are new ways--
help us think about new
ways to get this done.
And we're very
cognizant of that.
So it's pretty exciting because
we're also somewhere in history
that I think is
truly a crossroads.
NASA's been working
on commercial space
for a long time and a
lot of different offices.
And now, we just know
it's here to stay.
So we're at this really
incredible place in history
that is just is here to stay.
And we think low Earth orbit
will be commercialized.
Well, guess what?
We're placing all our
bets there because we
need to get out into the--
we want to get to the moon
and then get to Mars.
But please, again, you
guys are growing, as well.
So again, how to do that and
stay innovative and efficient
is something-- good lessons
learned for government
agencies, as well.
SPEAKER: And probably just
to put it in perspective
so people don't take this as a
negative thing-- NASA is big.
But it's my new school like in
budget comparisons compared to,
for example, the
Department of Defense
or some of the other agencies.
DAVA NEWMAN: Yeah.
Order of magnitude
less and then some.
SPEAKER: It's like 1/2%, right?
DAVA NEWMAN: We're, right now,
less than 0.5% of the GDP.
We're 0.48% or
something like that.
Apollo-- we were 5%?
Yeah.
So we're down an
order of magnitude.
And it's still a
robust-- we're not--
we're fighting for every
penny because we want
to make these
investments in aero
and we want to get this done.
And we think, within these
budgets, if we do it right,
and sustainable, and
affordable, we'll get there.
It takes a little bit
longer, of course.
AUDIENCE: Thank
you for your talk.
Just a quick question,
did you consider
sending animals to Mars?
DAVA NEWMAN: Early
test flights, again,
with the Russians and the US.
Some animals, now.
In terms of the biology
and the physiology,
we actually fly animal models
up in Space Station, today.
We use it as even little
quadrapeds-- mouse and rodent
models and figure
out how they're doing
in the weightless environment.
And we get to Mars, of
course, we have gravity again.
So it's this really
interesting three year
plus mission where,
essentially, you
go out with conventional
rocket propellant.
About eight months there,
say, two year round trip,
let's call it-- take
the short leg out.
And then 600 days on
the surface of Mars.
And so three days gravity
when you get to Mars.
But so we learn.
We learn from animal
studies, and rodents,
and things like that.
Right now, that's the
scientific research.
They're not the critical path
to getting the astronauts there.
But we're learning a lot.
I can give you a couple
examples, like musculoskeletal.
So bone loss up on
space station-- 1% to 2%
per month of bone
mineral density loss.
Now, you want to do on your one
year mission for Scott Kelly.
Well, he doesn't have
that much bone loss
because we're exercising.
We call them countermeasures.
So exercising and
things like that.
So cardiovascular,
not a problem.
Neurovestibular-- you might
be sick for a few days.
That's OK, if you're
up there a year.
But we have a new
phenomena, VIIP.
So we have a visual-- we have
interocular pressure that's
really causing some visual--
not with all of our astronauts,
but with some of
them, and especially
some of the veterans.
What's that?
So we are on it-- figuring out.
We have to make sure
people have good vision.
And what's this into
intraocular pressure
because you're in microgravity
and the fluids shift.
And it's probably pressing on
the cranial nerve and things
like that.
And so we're thinking about
how do we deal with that.
Can't be sending people in this
long duration to Mars mission
until we figure that out.
And that's a new one just
in the last few years.
So some of this
physiology, again-- so when
we look at something
like that-- and radiation
for our astronauts is the number
one-- radiation protection.
So again, thinking
about how you do that.
How do you do
radiation protection?
We're in low earth
orbit on station.
That's kind of
nice and protected.
So we've got to figure this out.
We're going to be
literally bombarded
by the galactic cosmic rays.
So we need radiation protection.
And that's again,
the proving ground.
We learned a lot
more about that.
Curiosity, the Mars
MSL-- our current Rover
has this cool experiment
called RAD on it for radiation.
And it was really great.
We turned it on its
mission to Mars.
So we got a radiation profile
all the way out to Mars.
And it's still
working today on Mars.
So again, every
day we're learning
more about the radiation
environment on Mars.
But we really have
to protect-- again,
all the electronics,
as well as the people.
AUDIENCE: Hi, Dr. Newman.
Thanks for the talk.
So I forget the term
for this concept,
but there's a concept related
to the quantity of satellites
that you have in orbit.
And at some point
you reach saturation,
and they start colliding,
and chain reacting.
This seems like a really
big concern, especially
as the number of satellites
that we're putting up
is accelerating, as
the number of launches
that we're having
is accelerating
with satellite internet,
and cable, and so forth.
Is there a research
team at NASA looking
into how to deal with
this sort of thing?
DAVA NEWMAN: Yeah.
So we look at orbital debris.
And especially in
low Earth orbit,
you can take some good images.
And they probably are shocking,
if you haven't looked at it.
So there's a lot of
stuff which is great.
It's good that it's busy.
But again, just take
low Earth orbit.
It's going 17,500
miles per hour.
So a little fleck--
a little paint chip
is like a serious
bullet that can
rip through our solar panels.
We get nicks on the Space
Station since it is so big.
We get nicked in every
station that's up there.
So a couple things.
In terms of orbital debris,
interestingly enough,
this gets really into
the policy area of things
because we need
international agreement
and treaties because
it's not just us.
It's not just NASA.
It's not just the US.
This is really
international space.
So interesting to think about
governance and orbital debris.
And it also puts
a premium, to me,
as an engineer-- the
thrusters and how you deorbit.
CubeSat going out there.
They're great.
They're small.
Everyone can do it.
And they'll burn up.
They're nice.
Small six unit.
But we got to make sure
that can we deorbit them?
Do they burn up?
And can we have some--
we have thrusters
and that's how you adjust
your attitude, basically,
when you're up there.
And so it really puts a
premium on that aspect of it.
US space command just
tracks a centimeter--
I think it's just 1
centimeter and above.
Other, smaller particles,
and things like that are not.
So it's a great question
as we get more populous.
And then again, geo--
we go up to geoorbit.
Well, guess what?
A lot of people like to go to
geo, as well, because that's
great for Earth observations and
it's great for spy satellites.
So as we do this--
but to the point.
We think about it a lot.
There's a lot of studies done.
So NASA's very active.
But what happens is
we have to engage.
We are engaged.
I just was at the
UN last week and I
was on the Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
So we were talking about
long term sustainability.
I'm talking with the
world, literally,
about these kind of
issues-- orbital debris,
planetary protection,
things like that.
SPEAKER: Thank Dava Newman
for visiting Google.
DAVA NEWMAN: Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
My pleasure.
