For millennia, humans have pondered our mysterious
red neighbor Mars.
?Is life there?
Could we live there?
What secrets does it hold?
How soon might we be able to go there??
These are questions that have fascinated me
as a film maker that NASA helped me to answer
in the upcoming film The Martian.
Sending humans to Mars safely, is a priority
of NASA.
It started the landing of the robotic rovers
on Martian soil such as Spirit, Opportunity
and Curiosity.
The data and images these magnificent robots
have sent back to earth have piqued our imagination
and heightened our determination to go.
Paving the way for the safe journey and touchdown
of humans in the 2030?s.
Humans are already preparing for this journey
by living 250 miles overhead on the International
Space Station, where there is no gravity.
The round-trip to Mars, could take 500 days
or longer.
The journey, require the most sophisticated
technology ever built, including the new Orion
spacecraft on the path of space launch system
rocket.
When we invent new technologies for space
exploration, it benefits all of humanity contributing
to new breakthroughs in medicine, communications
and manufacturing.
The journey to Mars, will change our history
books, forever, rewriting what we know about
the red planet, expanding humans, deeper into
the solar system.
