(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Dr. Ellen Stofan,
also known as Dr. E,
and I'm thrilled to welcome you
to a very special episode of E.Z. Science,
what we're calling "E.Z. on the Go."
Joining us from the Kennedy Space Center
is my cohost, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen.
Dr. Z, where are you right now?
- Hey, I'm in Florida, it's really warm.
I'm at that Kennedy Space Center,
and I'm right near the launch site,
where within 48 hours, this
spacecraft will go into space.
Right now, you see the rocket
moving from a building where it was
integrated vertically, standing up.
And on top of it, you see,
right, it's a spacecraft,
and it's being readied to go to Mars.
So we're right here, and
the rocket is moving.
Within less than 48 hours,
just a few hundred yards this way,
the spacecraft is going to go to space.
So I look forward to the launch.
I really miss you, I was
hoping you'd be here with me,
but tell me about your launches.
You've been to other
launches before, have you?
- That's right, my dad was in charge of,
first the Atlas-Centaur and
then the Titan-Centaur rockets.
So I went to my first launch
when I was four years old.
Went to launches down at the Cape
the whole time I was growing up,
but probably the most
special launch for me,
and one that I definitely, you know,
feel very nostalgic with this launch,
is the launch of the first
Viking Lander to Mars.
In August of 1975, I was 14 years old,
and it was at that launch
that I heard Carl Sagan
speak about why we were exploring
Mars to search for life,
and understanding its geology
and comparing it to Earth's
geology that I said,
I want to be a planetary geologist,
and that was what I ended up doing.
- What an amazing beginning of a career.
And so of course, on this rocket is
the perseverance and
ingenuity of all these
thousands of people who built it.
But what is the most
exciting part for you,
relative to the science,
you think we're going to get from this?
- So one of the things I'm
most excited about is MOXIE,
this instrument on board Perseverance
that's actually going
to pull carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere,
and split the oxygen away
from the carbon atoms.
That's important because
oxygen is a resource
that future human explorers
to Mars will need,
both for water, to breathe,
and to make rocket fuel.
We call it In-Situ Resource Utilization.
How do you live off the land?
MOXIE's the first step.
There's so much I'm excited about,
but you know, Thomas,
to me, it really comes back to
if the Viking launch inspired me,
who are we inspiring with this launch
with Perseverance, with Ingenuity.
- That's, you know for me,
my first launch was only,
can you believe that,
when I was in this job.
I was never able to go before.
And every time see a launch vehicle
and I see a launch, I
really turn emotional.
It actually affects me a lot
more than I care to admit.
That's just such an amazing moment when
something that is an engineering project,
becomes a space mission.
And I really look forward to that.
You'll be my thoughts
during the entire time.
And I'll be sure to send you
some pictures on the way, Ellen.
- Awesome.
Thank you, Thomas, and good luck.
Everybody is rooting for you.
Go Atlas, go Perseverance.
- Yes, thanks so much Ellen.
Bye bye.
- Bye.
I'm just so impressed by all the work
that the scientists
and engineers have done
to get us to this point to launch,
despite all of the challenges
that COVID-19 has brought.
It's shown a lot of perseverance.
I'm going to be watching
the launch from DC,
fingers crossed everything's
going to go well.
Thanks for joining us for this episode of
Easy Science On The Go.
(instrumental music)
