1 00:00:00,177 --> 00:00:03,180 NASA, the name conjures up images 2 00:00:03,180 --> 00:00:06,590 of dramatic space launches and exploring the stars, 3 00:00:06,590 --> 00:00:09,730 yet the Space Race has impacted our lives here on Earth 4 00:00:09,730 --> 00:00:12,070 in so many ways, it's hard to even imagine 5 00:00:12,070 --> 00:00:13,970 modern life without that force. 6 00:00:13,970 --> 00:00:17,370 Suddenly NASA technology just, poof, disappears, 7 00:00:17,370 --> 00:00:19,640 you're gonna be looking at a lot of rotting food. 8 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:21,540 It shapes our very existence 9 00:00:21,540 --> 00:00:24,590 with a steady energy we don't even see. 10 00:00:24,590 --> 00:00:26,770 Often, we take the Sun for granted on Earth, 11 00:00:26,770 --> 00:00:29,040 but that technology is also gonna be critical 12 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:30,930 for us to be able to explore space. 13 00:00:30,930 --> 00:00:34,610 Every AI always has a mission, and that's to be correct. 14 00:00:34,610 --> 00:00:36,830 Yet experience every day. 15 00:00:36,830 --> 00:00:39,040 There are a lot of follow-on effects 16 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:42,030 from the sorts of problems that NASA's thinking about today, 17 00:00:42,030 --> 00:00:44,750 that will be useful 10, 20, 30 years from now. 18 00:00:44,750 --> 00:00:47,240 But the next big step is going much further 19 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:49,015 and that's going to Mars. 20 00:00:49,015 --> 00:00:50,316 (rockets roar) (step thuds) 21 00:00:50,316 --> 00:00:53,483 (upbeat sci-fi music) 22 00:01:10,148 --> 00:01:11,611 (mysterious music) 23 00:01:11,611 --> 00:01:15,480 Space, the most inhospitable environment. 24 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,500 One that NASA had to conquer to reach beyond our planet. 25 00:01:19,500 --> 00:01:23,010 The dating world, too, can be an inhospitable environment. 26 00:01:23,010 --> 00:01:25,620 Every single has a story of a bad date, 27 00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:27,390 meetings with zero follow-through, 28 00:01:27,390 --> 00:01:29,770 one night stands that go nowhere, 29 00:01:29,770 --> 00:01:33,600 and budding relationships that crumble into nothing. 30 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:36,700 But how did an algorithm created for the Space Shuttle 31 00:01:36,700 --> 00:01:39,165 impact online matchmaking? 32 00:01:39,165 --> 00:01:41,998 (digitized music) 33 00:01:49,740 --> 00:01:52,970 It all starts here, with the Space Shuttle program, 34 00:01:52,970 --> 00:01:55,373 the world's first reusable space craft. 35 00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:06,160 This complex vehicle is comprised of an Orbiter, 36 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,460 two solid rocket boosters, and an external tank. 37 00:02:09,460 --> 00:02:12,290 Like its predecessors, it launches vertically, 38 00:02:12,290 --> 00:02:14,330 but unlike any other spacecraft, 39 00:02:14,330 --> 00:02:17,670 it reenters the atmosphere and glides to Earth, 40 00:02:17,670 --> 00:02:18,980 landing like a plane. 41 00:02:18,980 --> 00:02:20,610 The really marvelous thing about the shuttle 42 00:02:20,610 --> 00:02:21,810 is it could be reused. 43 00:02:21,810 --> 00:02:24,150 We would go into space, come back to Earth, 44 00:02:24,150 --> 00:02:26,017 be refurbished and then fly in space again. 45 00:02:26,017 --> 00:02:28,320 The Space Shuttle's where the crew was and the cargo, 46 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:30,890 and then it was mounted to that large orange structure, 47 00:02:30,890 --> 00:02:32,960 was the external tank that fed the engines 48 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:33,940 on the Space Shuttle. 49 00:02:33,940 --> 00:02:35,920 The two solid rocket boosters were on the side 50 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:38,710 and they provided most of the thrust for the ascent. 51 00:02:38,710 --> 00:02:39,950 We have little engines on board 52 00:02:39,950 --> 00:02:41,250 that can move the shuttle around. 53 00:02:41,250 --> 00:02:42,400 Then, when we're ready to come home, 54 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:44,257 we fire a couple of big engines that we have 55 00:02:44,257 --> 00:02:46,057 and that brings the shuttle back to Earth 56 00:02:46,057 --> 00:02:47,870 and it would just free-fall, 57 00:02:47,870 --> 00:02:51,410 and it lands like a massive 100-ton glider. 58 00:02:51,410 --> 00:02:53,561 So to give you some sense of the numbers involved here, 59 00:02:53,561 --> 00:02:56,180 one Apollo rocket in the late '60s 60 00:02:56,180 --> 00:02:58,700 cost a few hundred million dollars. 61 00:02:58,700 --> 00:03:00,550 If you were to extend that cost to today, 62 00:03:00,550 --> 00:03:03,720 it would be a few billion dollars for each spacecraft, 63 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:05,650 so it's pretty unlikely that we would have flown 64 00:03:05,650 --> 00:03:07,310 135 Space Shuttle missions 65 00:03:07,310 --> 00:03:10,750 with a billion-dollar price tag for each vehicle. 66 00:03:10,750 --> 00:03:12,500 The Space Shuttle was nothing less 67 00:03:12,500 --> 00:03:15,160 than a revolution in the space flight industry. 68 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,290 It lowered the cost of space travel significantly, 69 00:03:18,290 --> 00:03:20,410 though it meant NASA had to figure out 70 00:03:20,410 --> 00:03:23,070 how to keep the spacecraft in operating shape. 71 00:03:23,070 --> 00:03:25,160 How do systems received feedback? 72 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:27,620 How do they determine red flags? 73 00:03:27,620 --> 00:03:29,530 How do the different systems interact 74 00:03:29,530 --> 00:03:31,070 to produce the best result? 75 00:03:31,070 --> 00:03:33,040 The checklists are designed to make sure 76 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:34,990 that the spacecraft operates correctly 77 00:03:34,990 --> 00:03:37,610 in terms of sending information back and forth, 78 00:03:37,610 --> 00:03:40,230 and also that it makes the correct decisions 79 00:03:40,230 --> 00:03:42,190 based on whatever the situation is. 80 00:03:42,190 --> 00:03:43,669 So in the very early days, 81 00:03:43,669 --> 00:03:46,310 the checkout of the spacecraft 82 00:03:46,310 --> 00:03:48,100 used thousands of pages of paper, 83 00:03:48,100 --> 00:03:50,460 where someone would have to go step by step. 84 00:03:50,460 --> 00:03:53,843 Doing it manually eventually becomes impossible to do. 85 00:03:53,843 --> 00:03:55,730 That pushed companies like IBM 86 00:03:55,730 --> 00:03:58,410 to create these large mainframe computers 87 00:03:58,410 --> 00:04:00,070 that could handle these kinds of tasks. 88 00:04:00,070 --> 00:04:01,826 Would we have done these things ordinarily? 89 00:04:01,826 --> 00:04:03,730 We would have gotten to it eventually, 90 00:04:03,730 --> 00:04:05,351 but the fact that there was an impetus 91 00:04:05,351 --> 00:04:10,351 to handle this one very important data-driven task 92 00:04:10,806 --> 00:04:12,459 that helped push technologies, 93 00:04:12,459 --> 00:04:15,000 computer technologies in particular, forward. 94 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,282 Apollo was so complicated that we introduced computers 95 00:04:18,282 --> 00:04:22,060 into the preflight checkout, into the launch itself. 96 00:04:22,060 --> 00:04:25,240 As NASA continued to embrace more technology, 97 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,730 they developed a program called the reaction control system, 98 00:04:28,730 --> 00:04:31,399 allowing 44 small engines on the Space Shuttle 99 00:04:31,399 --> 00:04:34,060 to automatically adjust the flight. 100 00:04:34,060 --> 00:04:35,700 This system became more accurate 101 00:04:35,700 --> 00:04:37,616 with each transmission of the information 102 00:04:37,616 --> 00:04:40,367 and overall, made it much safer for the crew. 103 00:04:40,367 --> 00:04:43,650 That process of controlling the position 104 00:04:43,650 --> 00:04:45,940 that the shuttle was in, with those 44 engines, 105 00:04:45,940 --> 00:04:48,410 was really one of the first simple ways 106 00:04:48,410 --> 00:04:51,466 of artificial intelligence because the system is not only 107 00:04:51,466 --> 00:04:54,150 taking data but it's taking action. 108 00:04:54,150 --> 00:04:55,960 Taking more data, taking more action. 109 00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:57,670 So it was really this interactive loop 110 00:04:57,670 --> 00:04:59,460 between the system's performance 111 00:04:59,460 --> 00:05:00,910 and the data it was putting out. 112 00:05:00,910 --> 00:05:03,560 NASA has to come up with a complex AI 113 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,220 that will help control the systems on the shuttle. 114 00:05:06,220 --> 00:05:08,420 But the idea of giving the computer control 115 00:05:08,420 --> 00:05:11,670 is quite revolutionary and a cause of concern. 116 00:05:11,670 --> 00:05:15,710 In the movies, HAL9000 is this AI that exists 117 00:05:15,710 --> 00:05:19,450 to help these astronauts as they're exploring space, 118 00:05:19,450 --> 00:05:22,290 and the idea is that using an AI allows you 119 00:05:22,290 --> 00:05:23,570 to figure out the constraints 120 00:05:23,570 --> 00:05:24,750 and then from there, figure out, 121 00:05:24,750 --> 00:05:25,960 what actions do I need to perform 122 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:27,800 in order to make this command come to be? 123 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:29,273 You could get a human to do this, fine, 124 00:05:29,273 --> 00:05:31,880 but the idea of a computer is that 125 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:34,150 it can take in more data than the human could, 126 00:05:34,150 --> 00:05:35,620 it's not as prone to error, 127 00:05:35,620 --> 00:05:36,910 it doesn't need to sleep. 128 00:05:36,910 --> 00:05:40,140 The computer and the AI is able to take in this information 129 00:05:40,140 --> 00:05:43,180 and be able to act the way a human would 130 00:05:43,180 --> 00:05:45,800 and do it with a certain reliability. 131 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,980 The same innovator uses the NASA algorithm 132 00:05:48,980 --> 00:05:50,940 to launch a cutting edge dating website 133 00:05:50,940 --> 00:05:52,500 called weAttract.com. 134 00:05:52,500 --> 00:05:55,820 So in 2003, Match.com incorporated 135 00:05:55,820 --> 00:05:58,670 the weAttract software into their algorithms, 136 00:05:58,670 --> 00:06:00,680 they were the first dating platform 137 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,810 that incorporated an in depth personality questionnaire, 138 00:06:03,810 --> 00:06:05,040 were leaps and bounds 139 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,167 above any other personality questionnaire 140 00:06:07,167 --> 00:06:09,490 compared to pop psychology questionnaires 141 00:06:09,490 --> 00:06:10,880 that were out there at the time. 142 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:12,980 Every AI, matchmaking or otherwise, 143 00:06:12,980 --> 00:06:15,320 always has a mission and that's to be correct. 144 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:17,960 And if you feed the system with bad information, 145 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:19,720 it's gonna create bad matches. 146 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:22,025 And sometimes people's beliefs about themselves 147 00:06:22,025 --> 00:06:24,820 and their rank in the food chain 148 00:06:24,820 --> 00:06:27,170 is not a reflection of what's reality. 149 00:06:27,170 --> 00:06:29,790 Matchmaking software, it would develop a belief 150 00:06:29,790 --> 00:06:33,090 of what you are like and what other people are like, 151 00:06:33,090 --> 00:06:35,541 and it's not necessarily going to match you with the people 152 00:06:35,541 --> 00:06:37,610 that fit exactly what you're looking for. 153 00:06:37,610 --> 00:06:39,180 You may say you want these things 154 00:06:39,180 --> 00:06:40,817 but the AI would actually look at it and say, 155 00:06:40,817 --> 00:06:43,277 "Okay, well based on this, I figured out 156 00:06:43,277 --> 00:06:46,827 "that people who answer these profile questions in this way 157 00:06:46,827 --> 00:06:48,397 "are looking for this type of person, 158 00:06:48,397 --> 00:06:51,117 "even if that type is not necessarily a direct match 159 00:06:51,117 --> 00:06:52,210 "to the answers you've given." 160 00:06:52,210 --> 00:06:55,532 This idea of evolving beliefs is possible 161 00:06:55,532 --> 00:06:57,683 but it has to be something that's built into 162 00:06:57,683 --> 00:06:59,747 its original directives, to say, 163 00:06:59,747 --> 00:07:01,177 "In order to satisfy my directives, 164 00:07:01,177 --> 00:07:03,432 "I have to go beyond some of my original programming 165 00:07:03,432 --> 00:07:07,863 "and perform actions that might not have been anticipated, 166 00:07:07,863 --> 00:07:10,217 "but satisfy my directives better 167 00:07:10,217 --> 00:07:12,530 "than my programmers might have anticipated." 168 00:07:12,530 --> 00:07:14,900 Using these two people, we might discover 169 00:07:14,900 --> 00:07:18,330 that John's not ready to settle down even though Sandy is. 170 00:07:18,330 --> 00:07:21,300 Sandy believes in monogamy and she's on a date with John 171 00:07:21,300 --> 00:07:22,830 because his profile indicates 172 00:07:22,830 --> 00:07:24,480 that he believes the same thing. 173 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:27,550 Sandy believes that if she plays the fun girl, 174 00:07:27,550 --> 00:07:29,070 she'll get a second date with John. 175 00:07:29,070 --> 00:07:30,560 As an overarching desire, 176 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:32,890 she wants to get married and have kids. 177 00:07:32,890 --> 00:07:35,190 Finally, intentions are desires 178 00:07:35,190 --> 00:07:36,900 to which the agent has committed. 179 00:07:36,900 --> 00:07:38,580 She's chosen to stick out the date 180 00:07:38,580 --> 00:07:41,360 because she's decided that he's a good catch. 181 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:43,200 Next, desires. 182 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:45,511 John believes women are easy to acquire. 183 00:07:45,511 --> 00:07:48,173 Now, he ultimately does believe in monogamy 184 00:07:48,173 --> 00:07:49,450 but not right now. 185 00:07:49,450 --> 00:07:51,350 He desires to take Sandy home with him. 186 00:07:51,350 --> 00:07:53,050 John's also getting distracted 187 00:07:53,050 --> 00:07:55,660 by the two attractive women in the corner 188 00:07:55,660 --> 00:07:58,760 and he keeps looking at them when she's not looking. 189 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:00,399 Finally, intentions. 190 00:08:00,399 --> 00:08:02,550 He's chosen to stick out this date 191 00:08:02,550 --> 00:08:03,690 because he's discovered 192 00:08:03,690 --> 00:08:06,090 that Sandy's actually prettier than most 193 00:08:06,090 --> 00:08:07,530 and not uninteresting. 194 00:08:07,530 --> 00:08:09,990 John's belief that there's plenty of fish in the sea 195 00:08:09,990 --> 00:08:12,890 might actually prevent him from appreciating the woman 196 00:08:12,890 --> 00:08:13,940 right in front of him. 197 00:08:13,940 --> 00:08:17,020 weAttract work to build psychological models 198 00:08:17,020 --> 00:08:19,860 of data's emotional and cognitive attitudes 199 00:08:19,860 --> 00:08:21,390 to predict how they best accomplish 200 00:08:21,390 --> 00:08:23,003 what they ultimately desired. 201 00:08:23,940 --> 00:08:26,494 By having in-depth models of participants, 202 00:08:26,494 --> 00:08:28,810 the software not only susses out 203 00:08:28,810 --> 00:08:31,508 the basic demographic and behavioral attitudes, 204 00:08:31,508 --> 00:08:34,500 it also delves deep into their emotional 205 00:08:34,500 --> 00:08:36,440 and cognitive makeup. 206 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:37,940 Let's say that you love hiking, 207 00:08:37,940 --> 00:08:40,610 and the key to happiness for you is being outdoors. 208 00:08:40,610 --> 00:08:42,100 The software is not going to match you 209 00:08:42,100 --> 00:08:44,140 with someone that's not into fitness. 210 00:08:44,140 --> 00:08:46,690 There are new models and new information 211 00:08:46,690 --> 00:08:50,280 constantly being fed into modern day matchmaking algorithms. 212 00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:52,470 The information of what's on the internet, 213 00:08:52,470 --> 00:08:54,750 research studies, actual facts, 214 00:08:54,750 --> 00:08:56,040 things that our human brain 215 00:08:56,040 --> 00:08:58,448 cannot compute in one single match, 216 00:08:58,448 --> 00:09:01,200 so the technology gets more sophisticated. 217 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:04,030 It learns and it continues to perfect matches 218 00:09:04,030 --> 00:09:06,160 according to your behavior and beliefs. 219 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:07,460 If you're going at a party 220 00:09:07,460 --> 00:09:09,830 and you're trying to figure out who you want to talk to, 221 00:09:09,830 --> 00:09:10,663 you'd look at the way they dress, 222 00:09:10,663 --> 00:09:13,020 look at the way they're behaving, 223 00:09:13,020 --> 00:09:14,990 look at their face, and come up with 224 00:09:14,990 --> 00:09:17,960 an overall set of candidates of people you wanna approach. 225 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:20,490 We do this for a lot of things, humans. 226 00:09:20,490 --> 00:09:21,660 When we're trying to identify 227 00:09:21,660 --> 00:09:24,380 if somebody is someone you want to introduce yourself to, 228 00:09:24,380 --> 00:09:26,750 or somebody you might wanna feel threatened by. 229 00:09:26,750 --> 00:09:28,400 Facial recognition is AI. 230 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,250 It is not only able to identify faces 231 00:09:30,250 --> 00:09:33,470 in photographs and video, but it can do a fairly decent job 232 00:09:33,470 --> 00:09:36,110 of identifying or matching faces together. 233 00:09:36,110 --> 00:09:39,546 Humans can't possibly maintain a list of faces 234 00:09:39,546 --> 00:09:41,780 as well as a computer can. 235 00:09:41,780 --> 00:09:44,770 You can use AI to look at other faces, say at an airport, 236 00:09:44,770 --> 00:09:49,050 and identify who matches with a list of potential threats. 237 00:09:49,050 --> 00:09:51,600 NASA's tech has done far more to protect you 238 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,773 on an everyday basis than you can imagine. 239 00:09:55,078 --> 00:09:56,541 (engine roaring) (bell clanging) 240 00:09:56,541 --> 00:09:59,208 (horns tooting) 241 00:10:00,315 --> 00:10:03,590 (ominous sci-fi music) 242 00:10:03,590 --> 00:10:04,834 (quake rumbling) 243 00:10:04,834 --> 00:10:09,834 (debris crashing) (siren howls) 244 00:10:11,820 --> 00:10:13,590 Good technology you don't see or feel. 245 00:10:13,590 --> 00:10:16,400 It's designed to be seamless with the environment 246 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:18,920 so that it doesn't impact your experience. 247 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:20,260 People walking across bridges 248 00:10:20,260 --> 00:10:22,150 just assume it's going to be safe. 249 00:10:22,150 --> 00:10:24,330 We notice technology when it's not working. 250 00:10:24,330 --> 00:10:25,650 You just expect things to work, 251 00:10:25,650 --> 00:10:27,450 and because of engineering, they do. 252 00:10:29,750 --> 00:10:31,750 After Russia becomes the first nation 253 00:10:31,750 --> 00:10:35,760 to put a man in space, the U.S. ramps up its approach. 254 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:37,730 I believe that this nation should commit itself 255 00:10:37,730 --> 00:10:42,700 to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, 256 00:10:42,700 --> 00:10:44,270 of landing a man on the Moon 257 00:10:44,270 --> 00:10:46,571 and returning him safely to the Earth. 258 00:10:46,571 --> 00:10:48,560 The Russians really got way ahead of us. 259 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:50,370 They had the first satellite in space, 260 00:10:50,370 --> 00:10:51,820 they had the first animal in space, 261 00:10:51,820 --> 00:10:54,370 the first man, the first woman, the first space walk. 262 00:10:54,370 --> 00:10:55,990 We were really way behind, 263 00:10:55,990 --> 00:10:59,520 and it really is a testament to our combined effort 264 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,337 to actually catch up and then to get to the Moon first. 265 00:11:02,337 --> 00:11:04,420 In the early days of the Apollo program 266 00:11:04,420 --> 00:11:06,860 with this huge Saturn V rocket, 267 00:11:06,860 --> 00:11:09,370 they had to put it on a mobile launch platform 268 00:11:09,370 --> 00:11:12,677 that would move, essentially from the assembly building 269 00:11:12,677 --> 00:11:16,360 and bring this out the launch pad itself. 270 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:19,890 That rocket weighs millions of pounds, right, 271 00:11:19,890 --> 00:11:21,770 then so you're trying to launch 272 00:11:21,770 --> 00:11:24,640 this extremely heavy thing up into the air, 273 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,150 that's being pulled down by gravity the whole time. 274 00:11:27,150 --> 00:11:28,000 You're sitting on top 275 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,766 of essentially a controlled explosion, 276 00:11:30,766 --> 00:11:33,140 going from being stationary 277 00:11:33,140 --> 00:11:36,410 to traveling 25 times the speed of sound in 8 1/2 minutes. 278 00:11:36,410 --> 00:11:38,020 That's an incredible ride, 279 00:11:38,020 --> 00:11:39,870 and it's a ride associated with risk. 280 00:11:39,870 --> 00:11:42,400 You need that rocket to ultimately be moving 281 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:44,880 at something like 11 kilometers per second. 282 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:46,940 That takes a tremendous amount of force 283 00:11:46,940 --> 00:11:50,360 to launch this rocket upward and get to this speed 284 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:53,230 that you need to reach to be able to put something in orbit. 285 00:11:53,230 --> 00:11:54,550 To fuel the rockets, 286 00:11:54,550 --> 00:11:56,901 NASA comes up with a mobile launch platform. 287 00:11:56,901 --> 00:11:58,660 Nine umbilical arms 288 00:11:58,660 --> 00:12:01,437 attach to the rocket via electrical bolts 289 00:12:01,437 --> 00:12:03,780 and connect it with the rocket systems. 290 00:12:03,780 --> 00:12:05,590 Generating this much thrust, 291 00:12:05,590 --> 00:12:08,410 what's happening is that you can also create resonance 292 00:12:08,410 --> 00:12:11,610 that causes not only the rocket to vibrate, 293 00:12:11,610 --> 00:12:14,570 but it also causes anything around it to vibrate. 294 00:12:14,570 --> 00:12:17,097 You've gotta figure out, how can you disconnect this 295 00:12:17,097 --> 00:12:20,740 in a safe way without it snapping 296 00:12:20,740 --> 00:12:23,250 or interfering with the rocket as its launching. 297 00:12:23,250 --> 00:12:25,330 You know, you see that iconic footage 298 00:12:25,330 --> 00:12:28,470 of the Saturn V going up and there are these giant arms 299 00:12:28,470 --> 00:12:32,060 that swing away from the rocket before it takes off. 300 00:12:32,060 --> 00:12:34,600 Those are 10, 20, 30 feet long 301 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,090 and those gigantic arms, for example, 302 00:12:37,090 --> 00:12:38,320 have to swing out of the way 303 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,280 exactly at the right time, 304 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:42,040 or it's gonna be catastrophic failure. 305 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:43,800 If you didn't have any dampening, 306 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:45,640 the acceleration imparted on them 307 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:47,780 would cause them to just recoil. 308 00:12:47,780 --> 00:12:49,580 To address the issue of thrust, 309 00:12:49,580 --> 00:12:52,210 NASA engages Taylor Devices. 310 00:12:52,210 --> 00:12:54,550 Taylor Devices had developed these dampers 311 00:12:54,550 --> 00:12:58,522 to stop that vibration in fighter jets, 312 00:12:58,522 --> 00:13:01,940 that were undergoing very large accelerations 313 00:13:01,940 --> 00:13:04,380 as they went through different kinds of maneuvers. 314 00:13:04,380 --> 00:13:06,900 Dampers help you move large structures 315 00:13:06,900 --> 00:13:08,790 into a particular position quickly 316 00:13:08,790 --> 00:13:10,500 and don't allow them to bounce. 317 00:13:10,500 --> 00:13:14,650 It's basically a super-large effective shock absorber. 318 00:13:14,650 --> 00:13:17,750 A damper works by exchanging kinetic energy 319 00:13:17,750 --> 00:13:20,300 into heat or friction, redirects that force 320 00:13:20,300 --> 00:13:22,940 and tunes it down to an acceptable level. 321 00:13:22,940 --> 00:13:24,540 Taylor Devices would develop 322 00:13:24,540 --> 00:13:27,060 a revolutionary fluid-based damper, 323 00:13:27,060 --> 00:13:30,083 withstanding higher pressures than any that preceded it. 324 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,260 There are various fluids that you can use in a damper. 325 00:13:33,260 --> 00:13:35,160 Often it's a silicone oil. 326 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,650 The higher the viscosity, the thicker that fluid is, 327 00:13:37,650 --> 00:13:39,616 and the more dampening you're gonna get. 328 00:13:39,616 --> 00:13:42,440 Viscosity of a fluid is important. 329 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:45,600 This is the mechanism that helps us dampen these forces. 330 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:47,150 You can imagine swimming in a pool. 331 00:13:47,150 --> 00:13:48,800 If you're walking on the pool bottom, 332 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:50,360 you're not feeling too much resistance. 333 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:52,390 But say you start to try running in the water, 334 00:13:52,390 --> 00:13:54,730 you're gonna have resistance, you can't do it, 335 00:13:54,730 --> 00:13:57,260 and that is a dampening force. 336 00:13:57,260 --> 00:13:59,740 With rocket-grade dampers under their belt, 337 00:13:59,740 --> 00:14:01,900 Taylor Devices looked at commercializing 338 00:14:01,900 --> 00:14:03,040 their new technology. 339 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:05,550 Dampers are in all kinds of things 340 00:14:05,550 --> 00:14:06,870 that we don't even think about. 341 00:14:06,870 --> 00:14:09,820 In our cars we have shock absorbers, 342 00:14:09,820 --> 00:14:11,553 on the forks of our bicycles, on motorcycles, door closers. 343 00:14:11,553 --> 00:14:14,770 Hinges on kitchen cabinets, on drawers. 344 00:14:14,770 --> 00:14:17,871 Bridges, buildings, you think about earthquake areas, 345 00:14:17,871 --> 00:14:20,084 geologic disaster's kinda my thing, 346 00:14:20,084 --> 00:14:21,850 and the last thing that you want 347 00:14:21,850 --> 00:14:24,570 is to be on a bridge during an earthquake 348 00:14:24,570 --> 00:14:26,700 or in a tall building during an earthquake 349 00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:28,200 and not have dampers. 350 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,374 There's this famous video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge 351 00:14:31,374 --> 00:14:34,900 in Washington State, that was vibrating due to the wind 352 00:14:34,900 --> 00:14:37,250 and it started twisting back and forth 353 00:14:37,250 --> 00:14:39,240 to the point where the bridge snapped 354 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:40,940 and completely collapsed. 355 00:14:40,940 --> 00:14:43,313 There could be dozens of dampers on any structure. 356 00:14:43,313 --> 00:14:45,960 It's all part of dissipating energy 357 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,340 and ensuring that the structure performs 358 00:14:48,340 --> 00:14:49,640 the way that we're expecting it to. 359 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:51,310 When an earthquake occurs, 360 00:14:51,310 --> 00:14:53,030 you're talking about energy 361 00:14:53,030 --> 00:14:55,120 that's moving through the ground. 362 00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:58,280 You've got seismic waves that are gonna propagate outwards. 363 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:00,880 Well when that hits a building or a bridge, 364 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:03,410 that bridge and building is gonna take that energy 365 00:15:03,410 --> 00:15:04,896 and is gonna try and move it through that, 366 00:15:04,896 --> 00:15:08,520 and if you have dampers, the dampers are gonna help 367 00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:12,580 secure that bridge so that it won't shake and fall apart, 368 00:15:12,580 --> 00:15:16,680 or that building won't start to sway and then crumble down. 369 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:18,150 The potential lifespan of these dampers 370 00:15:18,150 --> 00:15:19,220 is pretty reasonable. 371 00:15:19,220 --> 00:15:20,540 They're pretty low-maintenance. 372 00:15:20,540 --> 00:15:22,360 You would need to ensure that they're not leaking 373 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:24,260 or any of that fluid is escaping out. 374 00:15:24,260 --> 00:15:25,950 We need to make sure that they don't corrode 375 00:15:25,950 --> 00:15:27,540 if they're exposed to the environment 376 00:15:27,540 --> 00:15:29,500 and if there's any points of lubrication, 377 00:15:29,500 --> 00:15:30,740 they need to be lubricated. 378 00:15:30,740 --> 00:15:33,200 The London Millennium Bridge is an excellent example 379 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:35,483 of why dampers are so cool. 380 00:15:35,483 --> 00:15:38,090 The Millennium Bridge connects Bankside 381 00:15:38,090 --> 00:15:39,770 with the City of London. 382 00:15:39,770 --> 00:15:41,910 The city's engineers considered everything 383 00:15:41,910 --> 00:15:44,200 including weather, but they overlooked 384 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,433 an unlikely human impact. 385 00:15:46,433 --> 00:15:48,800 Pedestrians fall under the category of a live load 386 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:50,410 and they can behave erratically. 387 00:15:50,410 --> 00:15:51,770 The pedestrians excited the bridge 388 00:15:51,770 --> 00:15:53,570 in a way that engineers didn't expect, 389 00:15:53,570 --> 00:15:54,920 a lateral excitation. 390 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:58,550 What happened was, as it would start to sway a little bit, 391 00:15:58,550 --> 00:16:02,170 people would step in line with the sway, 392 00:16:02,170 --> 00:16:05,930 so when it opens, it amplifies the effect. 393 00:16:05,930 --> 00:16:07,110 Was shaking it at a rate 394 00:16:07,110 --> 00:16:09,980 that made the whole thing sway rather alarmingly. 395 00:16:09,980 --> 00:16:12,066 People were like, "Whoa!", you know? 396 00:16:12,066 --> 00:16:13,960 "Is this bridge safe?" 397 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:15,770 They started getting sick or nauseous 398 00:16:15,770 --> 00:16:17,640 because of the swaying movement, 399 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:19,430 and they had to shut the bridge down. 400 00:16:19,430 --> 00:16:21,430 Just two days after opening, 401 00:16:21,430 --> 00:16:23,510 the Millennium Bridge closes. 402 00:16:23,510 --> 00:16:25,320 Taylor Devices steps in. 403 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:26,630 Then they renovated the bridge 404 00:16:26,630 --> 00:16:30,240 to install dampers underneath it, to stop that motion, 405 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:32,130 and these are exactly the same kind of dampers 406 00:16:32,130 --> 00:16:34,590 that they used for the retracting arms 407 00:16:34,590 --> 00:16:36,840 on the Saturn V launch platform. 408 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,680 It's a fascinatingly simple technology. 409 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,370 It's not anything electronic or computerized 410 00:16:42,370 --> 00:16:43,203 or anything like that. 411 00:16:43,203 --> 00:16:45,500 It is a cylinder full of oil 412 00:16:45,500 --> 00:16:47,880 and you're dragging a piston through it. 413 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:51,100 And by carefully engineering the shape of the piston 414 00:16:51,100 --> 00:16:52,540 and the shape of the cylinder, 415 00:16:52,540 --> 00:16:54,440 you can get exquisite control 416 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:56,420 over how much motion you get. 417 00:16:56,420 --> 00:16:57,920 Because we now have this technology, 418 00:16:57,920 --> 00:16:59,070 it's making things safer. 419 00:16:59,070 --> 00:17:01,239 We can build bigger, better, longer-lasting, 420 00:17:01,239 --> 00:17:03,810 more efficient, more comfortable structures. 421 00:17:03,810 --> 00:17:04,890 It's pushing the bounds 422 00:17:04,890 --> 00:17:06,680 of what we're able to do in the world. 423 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:09,400 This is just one way NASA's quest for space 424 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:13,030 actually ends up changing our daily lives on the planet. 425 00:17:13,030 --> 00:17:15,400 But you don't have to look at extreme disaster 426 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,623 to see its impact on your daily life. 427 00:17:18,650 --> 00:17:19,750 The supermarket. 428 00:17:19,750 --> 00:17:22,760 In these aisles, the freshest bounty is within reach. 429 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:27,010 Shiny apples, plump tomatoes, greener than green kale. 430 00:17:27,010 --> 00:17:30,530 In a world without NASA, strawberries rot faster, 431 00:17:30,530 --> 00:17:35,020 bananas go soft, broccoli curls and peaches go brown. 432 00:17:35,020 --> 00:17:37,620 Oh man, if you were sitting in the supermarket 433 00:17:37,620 --> 00:17:41,300 and suddenly NASA technology just, poof, disappears, 434 00:17:41,300 --> 00:17:42,220 you're gonna be looking at 435 00:17:42,220 --> 00:17:44,650 a lot of rotting food really quickly. 436 00:17:44,650 --> 00:17:45,910 If you think about the water budget 437 00:17:45,910 --> 00:17:48,580 for three people going around the Moon for about a week, 438 00:17:48,580 --> 00:17:50,770 that's manageable, but if you're talking about 439 00:17:50,770 --> 00:17:52,851 having people be in space for two, three months, 440 00:17:52,851 --> 00:17:55,910 and even stretching beyond that, it's just not feasible. 441 00:17:55,910 --> 00:18:00,350 In space, when we go to the bathroom and we void, 442 00:18:00,350 --> 00:18:02,690 the water in our urine actually goes through 443 00:18:02,690 --> 00:18:05,970 a very complex system of technology and is reclaimed 444 00:18:05,970 --> 00:18:08,580 and ultimately, we reuse it as drinking water. 445 00:18:08,580 --> 00:18:12,270 We've developed that technology to enhance our ability 446 00:18:12,270 --> 00:18:15,550 to have these closed loop systems work effectively. 447 00:18:15,550 --> 00:18:17,870 Weight is the currency of space launches. 448 00:18:17,870 --> 00:18:19,150 You don't want to have to keep doing launches, 449 00:18:19,150 --> 00:18:20,350 it's terribly expensive. 450 00:18:20,350 --> 00:18:22,030 You need a way to recycle 451 00:18:22,030 --> 00:18:23,153 what you have with you, to reuse it, 452 00:18:23,153 --> 00:18:25,740 and this is what NASA had to start thinking about 453 00:18:25,740 --> 00:18:27,930 as they were transitioning away from the Apollo era. 454 00:18:27,930 --> 00:18:30,300 But if humans are to survive in space, 455 00:18:30,300 --> 00:18:32,438 we'll need to figure out a reliable food source. 456 00:18:32,438 --> 00:18:36,590 The whole purpose of plants, isn't it, is to reproduce. 457 00:18:36,590 --> 00:18:37,750 What they've got to do first 458 00:18:37,750 --> 00:18:41,130 is attract insect and birds to take it, 459 00:18:41,130 --> 00:18:43,000 so they've got nice sweetness, 460 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,685 but then what they've got to do is ripen more. 461 00:18:44,685 --> 00:18:48,540 What they do to ripen is produce ethylene. 462 00:18:48,540 --> 00:18:51,350 So ethylene is what makes bananas 463 00:18:51,350 --> 00:18:54,470 going from green to yellow to brown. 464 00:18:54,470 --> 00:18:56,640 Tomatoes going from green to red. 465 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,050 Ethylene is what we call a plant hormone. 466 00:18:59,050 --> 00:19:01,110 We don't need it, but for a plant, 467 00:19:01,110 --> 00:19:04,774 ethylene is vital because it's that ripening process. 468 00:19:04,774 --> 00:19:05,607 One of the things that you can try 469 00:19:05,607 --> 00:19:07,270 that you may not have thought of, 470 00:19:07,270 --> 00:19:08,780 when it comes to ripening food 471 00:19:08,780 --> 00:19:10,360 that you've gotten at the grocery store, 472 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:14,630 is take an avocado that is unripe, it's still hard, 473 00:19:14,630 --> 00:19:18,540 and a banana, and because they both produce ethylene, 474 00:19:18,540 --> 00:19:21,100 this one produces more than this one, 475 00:19:21,100 --> 00:19:25,480 you can take them, drop them into a brown paper bag, 476 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:30,480 close it up and let it sit for 24 hours, or just overnight. 477 00:19:30,490 --> 00:19:33,600 What's happened is that ethylene has nowhere to go, 478 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:37,270 and it's going to cause our avocado to ripen quicker. 479 00:19:37,270 --> 00:19:40,593 And you'll be amazed at what happens when you come back. 480 00:19:40,593 --> 00:19:45,340 Voila, a ripe avocado, ready to be eaten. 481 00:19:45,340 --> 00:19:47,230 So now, when we take and apply 482 00:19:47,230 --> 00:19:49,000 our ethylene scrubber in space, 483 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:53,500 what that does is it reduces the ripening effect 484 00:19:53,500 --> 00:19:56,430 so that this stays fresh longer. 485 00:19:56,430 --> 00:19:58,080 When we go to the grocery store, 486 00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:01,890 that means that we get more fresh avocados 487 00:20:01,890 --> 00:20:04,670 and other fruits and vegetables all the time, 488 00:20:04,670 --> 00:20:08,920 instead of ripened fruit that must be eaten right away. 489 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:09,753 You could think of the Space Shuttle 490 00:20:09,753 --> 00:20:10,750 and International Space Station 491 00:20:10,750 --> 00:20:12,100 as giant paper bags, basically. 492 00:20:12,100 --> 00:20:13,050 Whatever you take up in them 493 00:20:13,050 --> 00:20:14,560 is just going to start rotting right away. 494 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:15,880 If NASA could figure out 495 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:17,460 a way to remove the ethylene, 496 00:20:17,460 --> 00:20:20,320 fruits and vegetables would last longer in space. 497 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:21,460 At Marshall Space Flight Center, 498 00:20:21,460 --> 00:20:23,600 scientists invented what is called a scrubber. 499 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:24,660 Scrubbers are devices, basically, 500 00:20:24,660 --> 00:20:26,984 that are titanium dioxide tubes that suck the air out. 501 00:20:26,984 --> 00:20:28,780 By scrubbing the ethylene gas, 502 00:20:28,780 --> 00:20:30,450 you have vast extended the shelf life 503 00:20:30,450 --> 00:20:31,560 of those fruits and vegetables 504 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:32,780 and that's perfect for space flight. 505 00:20:32,780 --> 00:20:34,250 And, the ethylene that gets removed 506 00:20:34,250 --> 00:20:35,220 from the fruits and vegetables 507 00:20:35,220 --> 00:20:37,950 actually gets converted into water; very valuable in space. 508 00:20:37,950 --> 00:20:40,510 So imagine being able to grow lettuce, 509 00:20:40,510 --> 00:20:42,010 grow tomatoes in space, 510 00:20:42,010 --> 00:20:43,870 on board the International Space Station, 511 00:20:43,870 --> 00:20:46,694 this is research that will be critical for us in the future 512 00:20:46,694 --> 00:20:48,507 to be able to go to the Moon and on to Mars and things. 513 00:20:48,507 --> 00:20:51,950 And so the way that these ethylene scrubbers work 514 00:20:51,950 --> 00:20:55,220 is that you're gonna take ethylene in the atmosphere 515 00:20:55,220 --> 00:20:57,430 and you're gonna push it through these tubes 516 00:20:57,430 --> 00:20:59,720 that are made of titanium dioxide 517 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:03,830 and basically you zap 'em with ultraviolet radiation 518 00:21:03,830 --> 00:21:06,810 and what happens is the ethylene actually breaks down 519 00:21:06,810 --> 00:21:09,370 into carbon dioxide and water. 520 00:21:09,370 --> 00:21:11,260 And so those two byproducts, 521 00:21:11,260 --> 00:21:13,640 well, they're actually useful for the plants. 522 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,357 To test this new technology, 523 00:21:15,357 --> 00:21:17,760 the scrubber is sent up in the Space Shuttle 524 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,380 with a crop of potato seedlings. 525 00:21:20,380 --> 00:21:23,690 Using the scrubber, NASA is able to stop the seeds 526 00:21:23,690 --> 00:21:25,750 from ripening and rotting. 527 00:21:25,750 --> 00:21:29,500 Not only do the scrubbers clear the air of ethylene gas, 528 00:21:29,500 --> 00:21:33,020 they also sterilize the air of bacteria and mold spores, 529 00:21:33,020 --> 00:21:37,220 even odors are all removed by the scrubbers. 530 00:21:37,220 --> 00:21:38,850 It's not only food transport and grocery stores 531 00:21:38,850 --> 00:21:41,850 where ethylene scrubbers have been a major step forward. 532 00:21:41,850 --> 00:21:44,150 They're also used extensively in hospitals. 533 00:21:44,150 --> 00:21:45,000 You think about hospitals, 534 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,252 there's a lot of stuff in the air there that you want out. 535 00:21:47,252 --> 00:21:50,960 If we get better at cleaning the air 536 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,570 that astronauts are breathing on a years-long trip, 537 00:21:53,570 --> 00:21:55,430 that's technology that we can use 538 00:21:55,430 --> 00:21:58,390 to clean carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere 539 00:21:58,390 --> 00:22:00,670 and reduce the impact of climate change. 540 00:22:00,670 --> 00:22:02,900 There are a lot of follow-on effects 541 00:22:02,900 --> 00:22:06,210 from the sorts of problems that NASA's thinking about today 542 00:22:06,210 --> 00:22:09,170 that will be useful 10, 20, 30 years from now. 543 00:22:09,170 --> 00:22:10,470 Some of the best tech 544 00:22:10,470 --> 00:22:12,813 has come from NASA innovations. 545 00:22:15,070 --> 00:22:17,520 Unfortunately, some of those lessons 546 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,527 also had to be learned through tragedy. 547 00:22:20,527 --> 00:22:21,968 (thrusters roaring) 548 00:22:21,968 --> 00:22:25,290 We've got fire in the cockpit. 549 00:22:25,290 --> 00:22:26,350 The Apollo I crew 550 00:22:26,350 --> 00:22:28,150 was training for their upcoming launch 551 00:22:28,150 --> 00:22:30,190 when fire broke out in the capsule. 552 00:22:30,190 --> 00:22:31,960 NASA attempts a rescue, 553 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,210 but the astronauts perish in the fire. 554 00:22:34,210 --> 00:22:36,600 Leading up to the Apollo I incident, 555 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:38,960 scientists and engineers were really trying 556 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:40,820 to minimize the amount of weight. 557 00:22:40,820 --> 00:22:43,330 They made the decision to try and use pure oxygen 558 00:22:43,330 --> 00:22:45,540 for the astronauts to breathe in the capsule. 559 00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:47,300 In pure oxygen environments, 560 00:22:47,300 --> 00:22:49,840 organic materials become very combustible, 561 00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,370 much more so than they would be in normal air. 562 00:22:52,370 --> 00:22:54,710 What happened was, in the pure oxygen environment, 563 00:22:54,710 --> 00:22:56,010 when that spark occurred, 564 00:22:56,010 --> 00:22:59,190 a fire very rapidly broke out in the capsule. 565 00:22:59,190 --> 00:23:00,630 The capsule is a sealed unit. 566 00:23:00,630 --> 00:23:02,310 Remember, it's supposed to go up into space 567 00:23:02,310 --> 00:23:06,680 so it has to retain the pressurization of the breathable gas 568 00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:08,740 in the capsule, when it's in space. 569 00:23:08,740 --> 00:23:10,340 Much like an airplane fuselage, 570 00:23:10,340 --> 00:23:12,070 where the door has to swing in 571 00:23:12,070 --> 00:23:14,270 and then pop out and lock into place, 572 00:23:14,270 --> 00:23:15,803 the capsule door was similar was similar 573 00:23:15,803 --> 00:23:18,070 in that it was held in place 574 00:23:18,070 --> 00:23:21,920 by the pressure of the capsule inside, when it was in space. 575 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:23,700 On Earth, if there was a pressure balance 576 00:23:23,700 --> 00:23:24,580 inside and outside, 577 00:23:24,580 --> 00:23:26,670 there would be very little force across that door 578 00:23:26,670 --> 00:23:28,630 and it would be easy to move in and out. 579 00:23:28,630 --> 00:23:31,410 In a fire environment, we're producing more gas, 580 00:23:31,410 --> 00:23:33,600 so we're starting to pressurize that capsule. 581 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,170 As heat's produced, the gas is also expanding 582 00:23:36,170 --> 00:23:38,070 and pressurizing that capsule. 583 00:23:38,070 --> 00:23:40,120 As the fire progressed, what ended up happening 584 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:42,050 was it basically became impossible 585 00:23:42,050 --> 00:23:44,210 for the astronauts to open the door. 586 00:23:44,210 --> 00:23:46,426 With the tragedy that day, 587 00:23:46,426 --> 00:23:47,990 NASA did learn some important lessons about space flight. 588 00:23:47,990 --> 00:23:50,080 If at the time of the accident, the astronauts had 589 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,010 a particular type of fabric on, and breathing apparatuses, 590 00:23:53,010 --> 00:23:54,940 they could have survived long enough, 591 00:23:54,940 --> 00:23:57,050 hopefully in time for responders who've gotten there 592 00:23:57,050 --> 00:23:58,100 and put out the fire. 593 00:23:59,100 --> 00:24:00,470 To move forward, 594 00:24:00,470 --> 00:24:02,940 NASA would have to look into the past, 595 00:24:02,940 --> 00:24:04,780 to a material first developed 596 00:24:04,780 --> 00:24:08,610 by chemists Vogel and Marvell for the U.S. Air Force. 597 00:24:08,610 --> 00:24:12,300 A lot of innovations in the world are happenstance, 598 00:24:12,300 --> 00:24:15,250 so we develop one material with something in mind 599 00:24:15,250 --> 00:24:17,250 and then we end up using it for something else. 600 00:24:17,250 --> 00:24:18,710 It takes time for scientists 601 00:24:18,710 --> 00:24:21,107 to have those epiphanies where they go, 602 00:24:21,107 --> 00:24:23,927 "Oh my god, this may be good in this situation, 603 00:24:23,927 --> 00:24:25,237 "even though that wasn't what 604 00:24:25,237 --> 00:24:27,550 "we originally intended this material for." 605 00:24:27,550 --> 00:24:29,480 With the debut of fighter jets, 606 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:30,790 drogue parachutes were needed 607 00:24:30,790 --> 00:24:32,740 to slow the aircraft down upon landing. 608 00:24:32,740 --> 00:24:35,416 Jets put out extremely high heat from their engines 609 00:24:35,416 --> 00:24:38,500 and these parachutes could not be made 610 00:24:38,500 --> 00:24:40,280 out of a material that would catch on fire. 611 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:44,075 The result, a polymer called Polybenzimidazole. 612 00:24:44,075 --> 00:24:46,290 The breakthrough with PBI is 613 00:24:46,290 --> 00:24:51,290 it resists the impact of radiation or flame contact. 614 00:24:51,540 --> 00:24:54,820 So when exposed to heat, instead of sustaining a flame 615 00:24:54,820 --> 00:24:57,500 and adding to the combustion that's ongoing... 616 00:24:57,500 --> 00:24:59,360 It doesn't actually catch on fire. 617 00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:01,070 Which is sort of exactly what you would want 618 00:25:01,070 --> 00:25:02,330 your astronauts to be wearing. 619 00:25:02,330 --> 00:25:04,850 And it's basically an aromatic hydrocarbon, 620 00:25:04,850 --> 00:25:06,390 so it has benzine rings, 621 00:25:06,390 --> 00:25:08,230 and the neat thing about benzine rings 622 00:25:08,230 --> 00:25:09,910 is they don't combust very well. 623 00:25:09,910 --> 00:25:13,070 They actually decompose, which is a little bit different. 624 00:25:13,070 --> 00:25:16,360 And stable at over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 625 00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:19,200 But this miracle material, PBI, was expensive. 626 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:20,720 The Air Force decided not to use it; 627 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:21,570 they left it on the shelf. 628 00:25:21,570 --> 00:25:23,710 They went to cheaper alternatives. 629 00:25:23,710 --> 00:25:26,165 That is until NASA came calling. 630 00:25:26,165 --> 00:25:30,540 Luckily, they also had the space race budget behind them. 631 00:25:30,540 --> 00:25:33,520 PBI is so durable, some of the only parts 632 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,930 that survive the reentry of Skylab are made of it. 633 00:25:36,930 --> 00:25:40,580 I remember Skylab, when it was falling to Earth, 634 00:25:40,580 --> 00:25:43,270 my understanding is the only parts that survived 635 00:25:43,270 --> 00:25:45,660 were those that had PBI on it. 636 00:25:45,660 --> 00:25:47,750 But NASA'S new material 637 00:25:47,750 --> 00:25:51,021 would be come invaluable to a whole other industry. 638 00:25:51,021 --> 00:25:54,550 (siren wails) (upbeat sci-fi music) 639 00:25:54,550 --> 00:25:57,000 Fire fighting technology has changed. 640 00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:59,157 Fairly recently, within my career, 641 00:25:59,157 --> 00:26:03,470 when I started in the Fire Service, I still had a canvas 642 00:26:03,470 --> 00:26:06,530 two-side-with-rubber-in the-middle type coat. 643 00:26:06,530 --> 00:26:09,970 Rubber boots, we did not have what is known as bunker gear. 644 00:26:09,970 --> 00:26:13,890 That was relatively new in the late '80s, early '90s 645 00:26:13,890 --> 00:26:15,000 is when we saw it. 646 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,240 Our SCBA, or self-contained breathing apparatus 647 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,370 were steel tanks, very heavy, cumbersome, 648 00:26:21,370 --> 00:26:24,760 and then again, in the late '80s, early '90s, 649 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,490 we started to see composite fibers, 650 00:26:27,490 --> 00:26:29,580 materials that were much lighter. 651 00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:32,200 In the 1970s and 1980s, 652 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:36,040 PBI is used for flight suits, clothing, webbing, 653 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,010 and tethers to the Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle missions. 654 00:26:40,010 --> 00:26:43,043 Any and all gear that may experience thermal extremes 655 00:26:43,043 --> 00:26:45,070 include PBI. 656 00:26:45,070 --> 00:26:47,550 Since its first use on the Apollo missions, 657 00:26:47,550 --> 00:26:51,160 blends have been created to amplify the material's quality. 658 00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:53,160 It remains one of the most flame proof 659 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,440 and durable materials around. 660 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,050 NASA's triumph helped create the shield 661 00:26:58,050 --> 00:27:00,060 for your local fire heroes. 662 00:27:00,060 --> 00:27:03,143 But NASA also had a hand in helping them breathe. 663 00:27:04,850 --> 00:27:06,872 NASA technology and innovation 664 00:27:06,872 --> 00:27:11,700 allowed humans to brave the most inhospitable environments. 665 00:27:11,700 --> 00:27:15,371 Against the odds, firefighters can face the inferno, 666 00:27:15,371 --> 00:27:19,430 protected from heat and with an air supply. 667 00:27:19,430 --> 00:27:21,330 The Fire Service, as early as 1825, 668 00:27:21,330 --> 00:27:24,732 was looking at ways to bring air to firefighters, 669 00:27:24,732 --> 00:27:26,250 whether that was through a hose 670 00:27:26,250 --> 00:27:28,296 to a, almost like a diving helmet. 671 00:27:28,296 --> 00:27:31,122 All throughout history of what we call now 672 00:27:31,122 --> 00:27:33,950 self-contained breathing apparatus, SCBA, 673 00:27:33,950 --> 00:27:35,940 there was an evolution to, if you will, 674 00:27:35,940 --> 00:27:37,330 bringing your own air 675 00:27:37,330 --> 00:27:41,150 and having a self-contained breathing apparatus. 676 00:27:41,150 --> 00:27:43,370 In the 1970s, fire chiefs started noticing 677 00:27:43,370 --> 00:27:44,610 that a lot of their firefighters 678 00:27:44,610 --> 00:27:47,977 were having smoke inhalation injuries and problems. 679 00:27:47,977 --> 00:27:49,210 And that shouldn't have been the case, 680 00:27:49,210 --> 00:27:52,600 because they had fire fighting breathing apparatuses. 681 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,377 But when they investigated it, 682 00:27:54,377 --> 00:27:56,900 they noticed that a lot of firefighters 683 00:27:56,900 --> 00:27:59,615 were choosing to go into burning buildings 684 00:27:59,615 --> 00:28:02,460 without their breathing apparatuses. 685 00:28:02,460 --> 00:28:03,440 When we started out, 686 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,870 they were what they called pressure-demand. 687 00:28:05,870 --> 00:28:07,487 The way that these things worked is 688 00:28:07,487 --> 00:28:10,960 you had to suck that thing onto your face a little tight 689 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,055 to get it to feed the air to you when you were working. 690 00:28:14,055 --> 00:28:16,916 Some of the barriers to these earlier SCBA 691 00:28:16,916 --> 00:28:19,220 and why people didn't want to wear them, 692 00:28:19,220 --> 00:28:21,250 is they weren't comfortable. 693 00:28:21,250 --> 00:28:23,850 They were big, they were bulky, they were cumbersome. 694 00:28:23,850 --> 00:28:25,480 They took a lot of lung power 695 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:26,870 to get the air out of the tank. 696 00:28:26,870 --> 00:28:30,577 All those aspects of the design made people just go, 697 00:28:30,577 --> 00:28:31,887 "Maybe I'll just leave this on the side, 698 00:28:31,887 --> 00:28:33,630 "I can move better in the fire." 699 00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:35,151 And a number of chief officers, 700 00:28:35,151 --> 00:28:38,917 leading lights in the Fire Service, went to NASA and said, 701 00:28:38,917 --> 00:28:41,957 "Can you help us with these space-age technologies 702 00:28:41,957 --> 00:28:43,877 "to improve, if you will, the technology 703 00:28:43,877 --> 00:28:46,000 "that the Fire Service can use?" 704 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:47,560 And so, some of the developments 705 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:49,580 were direct spin-offs from NASA, 706 00:28:49,580 --> 00:28:52,400 with respect to regulators, compressed air cylinders 707 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,840 that now use composites instead of heavy metals, 708 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,490 aluminum, carbon fiber, many things that were used 709 00:28:58,490 --> 00:29:01,790 to lighten, if you will, the Apollo spacecraft. 710 00:29:01,790 --> 00:29:02,940 And so those technologies 711 00:29:02,940 --> 00:29:04,850 all got transferred into the Fire Service 712 00:29:04,850 --> 00:29:07,157 through a research effort that was directed, if you will, 713 00:29:07,157 --> 00:29:10,490 by the U.S. government and NASA as an agency. 714 00:29:10,490 --> 00:29:12,250 The first major overhaul 715 00:29:12,250 --> 00:29:14,530 was of the system's air canisters. 716 00:29:14,530 --> 00:29:18,660 NASA contracts Martin Marietta and Structural Composites 717 00:29:18,660 --> 00:29:20,390 to build lightweight air cylinders 718 00:29:20,390 --> 00:29:23,470 inspired by rocket motor casings. 719 00:29:23,470 --> 00:29:25,130 Some of these casings that NASA developed 720 00:29:25,130 --> 00:29:27,955 had to hold a million liters of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. 721 00:29:27,955 --> 00:29:31,040 The key to making all this work of compressing that gas 722 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:33,200 and having to withstand these tremendous forces 723 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,800 is the metal, is the material that you're using. 724 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:37,580 By compressing the oxygen for firefighters, 725 00:29:37,580 --> 00:29:39,820 this means you can have a smaller tank 726 00:29:39,820 --> 00:29:42,930 or you can have much more that you need in the tank 727 00:29:42,930 --> 00:29:45,920 to get the job done and you have the material 728 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:47,970 that can withstand that interior pressure 729 00:29:48,853 --> 00:29:49,690 and withstand the exterior heat 730 00:29:49,690 --> 00:29:51,470 that the firefighter's going to be exposed to. 731 00:29:51,470 --> 00:29:52,530 For firefighters, 732 00:29:52,530 --> 00:29:55,240 there are also payload specifications. 733 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,350 Fire fighting agencies had to come up 734 00:29:57,350 --> 00:30:00,920 with strict weight guidelines on how much one could carry. 735 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:02,610 Making the canisters lighter 736 00:30:02,610 --> 00:30:04,730 meant engineers could actually increase 737 00:30:04,730 --> 00:30:08,380 the size of the canisters to hold more compressed gas. 738 00:30:08,380 --> 00:30:11,990 A 30-pound tank could hold enough air for 30 minutes. 739 00:30:11,990 --> 00:30:13,782 Newer canisters with the same amount of air 740 00:30:13,782 --> 00:30:16,270 weighed just 20 pounds. 741 00:30:16,270 --> 00:30:18,450 This allowed them to make bigger tanks 742 00:30:18,450 --> 00:30:22,175 that could hold enough compressed air for 45 minutes. 743 00:30:22,175 --> 00:30:24,670 The harness was also overhauled. 744 00:30:24,670 --> 00:30:26,230 Previous tanks could be slung 745 00:30:26,230 --> 00:30:28,120 around the firefighter's shoulders, 746 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,580 but the new harness would shift critical weight 747 00:30:30,580 --> 00:30:32,530 to the firefighter's hips. 748 00:30:32,530 --> 00:30:35,330 The modern cylinder is a combination 749 00:30:35,330 --> 00:30:37,730 of aluminum and carbon graphite fiber 750 00:30:37,730 --> 00:30:40,240 that is wrapped and has tremendous strength, 751 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,197 and it's considerably lighter, about half the weight, 752 00:30:43,197 --> 00:30:46,060 than this old steel cylinder. 753 00:30:46,060 --> 00:30:48,950 The modern pack, there's better padding on the shoulders, 754 00:30:48,950 --> 00:30:51,890 the frame itself is considerably different 755 00:30:51,890 --> 00:30:55,140 and it's designed to be adjusted for the user, 756 00:30:55,140 --> 00:30:57,470 and very specifically, spread the weight 757 00:30:57,470 --> 00:30:59,390 across the back in a better way, 758 00:30:59,390 --> 00:31:01,541 and much easier in terms of the harness, 759 00:31:01,541 --> 00:31:04,190 so that the weight is shifted to the hips 760 00:31:04,190 --> 00:31:05,640 as opposed to the shoulders. 761 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:09,850 You can see the width, as well, very similar, 762 00:31:09,850 --> 00:31:11,140 but the padding's different 763 00:31:11,140 --> 00:31:13,940 and the behavior of this pack system 764 00:31:13,940 --> 00:31:15,640 redistributes the weight to the firefighter 765 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:17,140 in a much more efficient way. 766 00:31:17,140 --> 00:31:19,615 In the old system, you'll notice the pack, 767 00:31:19,615 --> 00:31:23,077 it's just a flat sheet of metal, but with a bump on it, 768 00:31:23,077 --> 00:31:25,330 and it was really quite uncomfortable. 769 00:31:25,330 --> 00:31:28,480 The straps themselves were holding most of the weight, 770 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,010 which compressed on your shoulders. 771 00:31:31,010 --> 00:31:33,610 The assembly at the waist was poor 772 00:31:33,610 --> 00:31:36,210 and threw you off-balance if you were working on ladders 773 00:31:36,210 --> 00:31:37,820 or if you were throwing an ax. 774 00:31:37,820 --> 00:31:40,856 It could throw off your center of gravity very, very easily. 775 00:31:40,856 --> 00:31:43,870 A new face mask boasted a closer fit 776 00:31:43,870 --> 00:31:45,500 and better visibility. 777 00:31:45,500 --> 00:31:48,570 In addition, a new warning system is put into place 778 00:31:48,570 --> 00:31:51,293 to alert firefighters when air is running low. 779 00:31:52,740 --> 00:31:54,350 When you look at the face piece, 780 00:31:54,350 --> 00:31:56,410 there's a set of lights in here that tells you 781 00:31:56,410 --> 00:31:59,790 your air supply is down, and as the air goes down, 782 00:31:59,790 --> 00:32:01,047 you'll see orange, telling you, 783 00:32:01,047 --> 00:32:03,771 "Hey, heads up, you're about half way through," 784 00:32:03,771 --> 00:32:05,600 and then when it goes to red, you're about a quarter. 785 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:06,877 You've got time to get out. 786 00:32:06,877 --> 00:32:10,840 And in the older systems, there is a bell on the back. 787 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,130 This warning device, and in a fire, you may not know 788 00:32:14,130 --> 00:32:15,110 whose bell's going off, 789 00:32:15,110 --> 00:32:17,530 so you had to reach back and feel your bell. 790 00:32:17,530 --> 00:32:19,306 There's a lot of noise in a fire. 791 00:32:19,306 --> 00:32:21,917 Machines operating, people yelling, 792 00:32:21,917 --> 00:32:24,669 people chopping holes in floors or walls, 793 00:32:24,669 --> 00:32:26,037 and you're in the interior of a building 794 00:32:26,037 --> 00:32:27,965 and you may not hear that warning bell. 795 00:32:27,965 --> 00:32:32,130 Both Captain and I came on with the same materials 796 00:32:32,130 --> 00:32:34,420 and it is a very clunky material. 797 00:32:34,420 --> 00:32:35,710 So the gear has changed 798 00:32:35,710 --> 00:32:38,380 from the perspective of its performance ergonomically, 799 00:32:38,380 --> 00:32:39,970 its capacity for heat, 800 00:32:39,970 --> 00:32:42,149 but equally, in other unintended consequences, 801 00:32:42,149 --> 00:32:44,219 is the superior protection. 802 00:32:44,219 --> 00:32:46,160 We now have to explain to firefighters 803 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:47,830 the limitations of this gear, 804 00:32:47,830 --> 00:32:49,840 whereas in this one, there's such a delay 805 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,280 in that transmission of heat to the body, 806 00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:54,020 the firefighters are so well protected, 807 00:32:54,020 --> 00:32:55,571 they may not recognize the danger. 808 00:32:55,571 --> 00:32:58,000 So we're teaching them how to recognize 809 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,090 and what to look for in other cues, 810 00:33:00,090 --> 00:33:03,000 other than what we would normally have done in the past 811 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,760 which is, "Hey, my ears are burning, I better back out." 812 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,100 There is a phenomenal amount of protection in this. 813 00:33:08,100 --> 00:33:10,470 If you put both of these people in the same fire, 814 00:33:10,470 --> 00:33:11,990 this firefighter would be backing out 815 00:33:11,990 --> 00:33:13,880 much earlier than this firefighter. 816 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:15,610 NASA and its contractors 817 00:33:15,610 --> 00:33:18,460 increased the amount of time firefighters can spend 818 00:33:18,460 --> 00:33:20,033 inside a burning building. 819 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:23,250 They've given firefighters more breathing time 820 00:33:23,250 --> 00:33:26,500 and reduced the weight they carry into the flames. 821 00:33:26,500 --> 00:33:30,200 In '74 and '75, firefighters in big cities in the U.S., 822 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:31,970 in New York, Houston and Los Angeles, 823 00:33:31,970 --> 00:33:34,000 they were equipped with these space age systems. 824 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,150 They got to give them a go and the firefighters loved them. 825 00:33:37,150 --> 00:33:39,850 This was so much better than what they were using before. 826 00:33:39,850 --> 00:33:42,650 It let them go into the smoke-filled buildings, 827 00:33:42,650 --> 00:33:44,060 it let them withstand the heat, 828 00:33:44,060 --> 00:33:46,626 it really let them do their job so much better. 829 00:33:46,626 --> 00:33:49,292 There's so many aspects of the Apollo program 830 00:33:49,292 --> 00:33:51,955 that found their way into the Fire Service, 831 00:33:51,955 --> 00:33:53,620 whether it's the clothing, 832 00:33:53,620 --> 00:33:55,214 whether it's our breathing apparatus, 833 00:33:55,214 --> 00:33:58,200 the equipment, all the types of equipment we use, 834 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,110 it's that science that is everywhere 835 00:34:01,110 --> 00:34:02,520 in the Fire Service today. 836 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:04,460 Keeping us safe right here on Earth 837 00:34:04,460 --> 00:34:07,410 is something NASA seems to do regularly. 838 00:34:07,410 --> 00:34:08,750 But you might be surprised 839 00:34:08,750 --> 00:34:11,870 that NASA tech helps with crime fighting. 840 00:34:11,870 --> 00:34:15,490 As a surveillance camera looks on, a car is stolen. 841 00:34:15,490 --> 00:34:17,670 The camera had just captured the event 842 00:34:17,670 --> 00:34:19,690 but the footage is grainy. 843 00:34:19,690 --> 00:34:22,000 When police try to zoom in on the license plate, 844 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,400 it's too distorted to read. 845 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:28,490 In the late 1990s, solar physicist David Hathaway, 846 00:34:28,490 --> 00:34:32,060 and atmospheric scientist Paul Meyer are hard at work 847 00:34:32,060 --> 00:34:33,860 at the Marshall Space Flight Center. 848 00:34:35,190 --> 00:34:39,090 Both Paul and I were in the business of processing images. 849 00:34:39,090 --> 00:34:43,250 Paul processed images, satellite images of the Earth, 850 00:34:43,250 --> 00:34:47,100 of clouds and formations in the Earth's atmosphere. 851 00:34:47,100 --> 00:34:49,950 I was processing images of the Sun. 852 00:34:49,950 --> 00:34:52,480 Some of that involves trying to make them clearer, 853 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,280 but there's a little bit of blur 854 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:57,410 that comes with those as well, and you like, clean it up, 855 00:34:57,410 --> 00:34:59,460 and these are very specialized instruments 856 00:34:59,460 --> 00:35:03,260 that you can literally split up sunlight 857 00:35:03,260 --> 00:35:04,882 into a million different colors. 858 00:35:04,882 --> 00:35:07,930 From the fine division of that, 859 00:35:07,930 --> 00:35:10,300 you can not only tell the chemicals that are there, 860 00:35:10,300 --> 00:35:11,940 you can tell how they're moving. 861 00:35:11,940 --> 00:35:13,160 It's the Doppler Effect, 862 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,248 the same thing that the radar gun does. 863 00:35:15,248 --> 00:35:18,180 To deal with the occasional shaky images 864 00:35:18,180 --> 00:35:21,000 and imprecise data being beamed down to NASA 865 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:23,180 from a low Earth orbit, 866 00:35:23,180 --> 00:35:25,167 Meyer and Hathaway developed software, 867 00:35:25,167 --> 00:35:30,167 video image stabilization and registration, or VISAR. 868 00:35:30,550 --> 00:35:34,980 We dealt with algorithms for taking fuzzy images 869 00:35:34,980 --> 00:35:37,300 and making them clear, and that's what Hubble needed, 870 00:35:37,300 --> 00:35:40,910 was Hubble would have a single image and it was blurry. 871 00:35:40,910 --> 00:35:41,780 The great thing with Hubble, 872 00:35:41,780 --> 00:35:43,970 you knew exactly how it was blurry. 873 00:35:43,970 --> 00:35:44,850 'Cause they're stars, 874 00:35:44,850 --> 00:35:47,640 and stars are single little points of light, 875 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,350 so you know this is a pinpoint, 876 00:35:49,350 --> 00:35:52,140 and if you put it together right, it should be a pinpoint. 877 00:35:52,140 --> 00:35:54,140 VISAR actually started out as an eye test, 878 00:35:54,140 --> 00:35:56,616 where we tried to do it by hand. 879 00:35:56,616 --> 00:35:59,617 It was like, "All right, move it over a pixel and a half 880 00:35:59,617 --> 00:36:01,377 "and up three-quarters of a pixel. 881 00:36:01,377 --> 00:36:04,137 "Is that better than moving it over this far? 882 00:36:04,137 --> 00:36:05,220 "Is A better than B?" 883 00:36:05,220 --> 00:36:07,938 And so it was literally like an eye test. 884 00:36:07,938 --> 00:36:11,644 We did that for longer than we ever should have. (chuckles) 885 00:36:11,644 --> 00:36:13,807 As far as how much time we spent on it. 886 00:36:13,807 --> 00:36:18,629 "We can automate this," just write a program 887 00:36:18,629 --> 00:36:21,990 using what we know about how to measure motions of things, 888 00:36:21,990 --> 00:36:24,683 and that became VISAR. 889 00:36:24,683 --> 00:36:26,900 If VISAR could help scientists uncover 890 00:36:26,900 --> 00:36:30,140 more of the Earth's atmosphere and our solar system, 891 00:36:30,140 --> 00:36:33,770 could it also help us solve crimes down here on Earth? 892 00:36:33,770 --> 00:36:35,620 After the 1996 bombing 893 00:36:35,620 --> 00:36:38,010 of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, 894 00:36:38,010 --> 00:36:40,450 the FBI are at an impasse. 895 00:36:40,450 --> 00:36:43,250 Though they have photos of the suspect depositing bombs 896 00:36:43,250 --> 00:36:44,678 they can't make out faces. 897 00:36:44,678 --> 00:36:48,545 Hearing about Hathaway and Meyer's stabilization software, 898 00:36:48,545 --> 00:36:53,430 the FBI approached the NASA scientists and asked for help. 899 00:36:53,430 --> 00:36:54,380 We had never had any idea 900 00:36:54,380 --> 00:36:56,550 we'd ever be working for law enforcement. 901 00:36:56,550 --> 00:36:58,305 They knew the evidence was there, 902 00:36:58,305 --> 00:37:01,030 as far as they've got lots of video, 903 00:37:01,030 --> 00:37:03,610 but if you look at a single image, 904 00:37:03,610 --> 00:37:04,650 even if you brighten it up, 905 00:37:04,650 --> 00:37:06,390 because of the video noise, you're breaking it up, 906 00:37:06,390 --> 00:37:07,400 you just see the noise. 907 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:09,380 This is where Paul and I came in. 908 00:37:09,380 --> 00:37:11,490 So Hubble was easy, the problem we had 909 00:37:11,490 --> 00:37:14,120 in particular when we get into the forensic ends of things 910 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:16,600 and video from the Olympic Park bombing, 911 00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:18,990 is you don't know how fuzzy things are, 912 00:37:18,990 --> 00:37:21,330 you don't have a star to look at to tell you 913 00:37:21,330 --> 00:37:25,870 how fuzzy it is, and so we did do a fair amount of research. 914 00:37:25,870 --> 00:37:28,670 The real gains in what we did 915 00:37:28,670 --> 00:37:31,180 came simply from adding images together, 916 00:37:31,180 --> 00:37:33,757 and fro that, the noise eventually goes away 917 00:37:33,757 --> 00:37:36,304 and you end up with a clean image 918 00:37:36,304 --> 00:37:37,680 that you can see all kinds of detail. 919 00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:39,900 Hathaway and Meyer were able to clarify 920 00:37:39,900 --> 00:37:41,640 the footage that was originally made 921 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:43,540 with hand-held camcorders. 922 00:37:43,540 --> 00:37:46,240 From the footage, investigators were able to learn 923 00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:48,610 more about the bomb and the explosions. 924 00:37:48,610 --> 00:37:50,700 This was used on a daily basis. 925 00:37:50,700 --> 00:37:51,800 I think the State of Florida 926 00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:53,390 bought a whole bunch of their workstations. 927 00:37:53,390 --> 00:37:54,720 People were using this every day, 928 00:37:54,720 --> 00:37:56,290 and so I couldn't even guess 929 00:37:56,290 --> 00:38:00,570 how many cases were ultimately worked on with that tool. 930 00:38:00,570 --> 00:38:02,194 You never quite know 931 00:38:02,194 --> 00:38:05,120 where the next big discovery's gonna come from, 932 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:09,230 but if you give people the resources and the freedom 933 00:38:09,230 --> 00:38:10,970 to pursue some activity, 934 00:38:10,970 --> 00:38:15,046 then perhaps they'll come up with something, like VISAR. 935 00:38:15,046 --> 00:38:18,370 There were people like myself that studied the Sun, 936 00:38:18,370 --> 00:38:20,397 people that studied the Earth's magnetosphere 937 00:38:20,397 --> 00:38:22,230 and the Earth's atmosphere. 938 00:38:22,230 --> 00:38:24,480 This is serendipity of discovery, 939 00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:28,990 that you never know when something totally unexpected 940 00:38:28,990 --> 00:38:30,620 is gonna come out of something, 941 00:38:30,620 --> 00:38:32,450 and I think for that matter, 942 00:38:32,450 --> 00:38:34,780 it behooves us to continue to explore 943 00:38:34,780 --> 00:38:37,980 because it's in exploring that we make these discoveries. 944 00:38:37,980 --> 00:38:40,410 We are a power-hungry society. 945 00:38:40,410 --> 00:38:44,730 As technology advances, so too does the demand for energy. 946 00:38:44,730 --> 00:38:48,190 NASA also has power challenges in deep space 947 00:38:48,190 --> 00:38:50,050 and it's in their quest for solutions 948 00:38:50,050 --> 00:38:52,850 that we might find our most breakthrough energy moment 949 00:38:52,850 --> 00:38:54,000 right here on Earth. 950 00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:56,290 We've spent the past 50 years 951 00:38:56,290 --> 00:38:58,000 transitioning step by step, 952 00:38:58,000 --> 00:38:59,380 getting off of the planet 953 00:39:00,335 --> 00:39:01,168 then getting to the Moon, 954 00:39:01,168 --> 00:39:02,870 establishing a shuttle program, 955 00:39:02,870 --> 00:39:05,720 building a space station, but the next big step 956 00:39:05,720 --> 00:39:08,530 is going much further, and that's going to Mars. 957 00:39:08,530 --> 00:39:11,550 I'm 29 now, so for my entire life, 958 00:39:11,550 --> 00:39:13,820 there has been a human being in space, 959 00:39:13,820 --> 00:39:15,580 the entire time, non-stop. 960 00:39:15,580 --> 00:39:17,130 That is incredible. 961 00:39:17,130 --> 00:39:19,750 We have this innate curiosity and desire 962 00:39:19,750 --> 00:39:21,860 to explore things that we don't understand, 963 00:39:21,860 --> 00:39:23,810 whether it's diving to the bottom of the ocean 964 00:39:23,810 --> 00:39:28,170 or going to outer space, but it is so far away. 965 00:39:28,170 --> 00:39:30,100 Going to the Moon took three days. 966 00:39:30,100 --> 00:39:31,880 It's about 240,000 miles away. 967 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,730 The distance to Mars is about 150 times 968 00:39:34,730 --> 00:39:36,990 the distance to the Moon, so you can imagine, 969 00:39:36,990 --> 00:39:40,620 that introduces all kinds of complications. 970 00:39:40,620 --> 00:39:43,535 If you wanna go past the Moon, then you need to worry about 971 00:39:43,535 --> 00:39:47,330 the truly gigantic amount of fuel that you have to have, 972 00:39:47,330 --> 00:39:48,940 and where is that gonna come from? 973 00:39:48,940 --> 00:39:50,760 There are no gas stations in space 974 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:52,950 that are gonna just conveniently fill you up 975 00:39:52,950 --> 00:39:55,450 with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen 976 00:39:55,450 --> 00:39:56,750 between here and the Moon. 977 00:39:56,750 --> 00:39:57,880 Humans have devised 978 00:39:57,880 --> 00:39:59,900 numerous ways to harness energy, 979 00:39:59,900 --> 00:40:02,180 but most are not an option in space. 980 00:40:02,180 --> 00:40:04,810 Here on Earth, most of the electricity 981 00:40:04,810 --> 00:40:09,400 is generated by burning fossil fuels, coal and natural gas. 982 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:11,550 Fossil fuels are what their name describes. 983 00:40:11,550 --> 00:40:13,450 They are quite literally from fossils. 984 00:40:13,450 --> 00:40:16,520 They are from organic compounds decaying in the ground. 985 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:18,160 All these things get compressed in the ground 986 00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,690 and they form oil, we mine the oil, we use it for energy. 987 00:40:20,690 --> 00:40:22,130 If we go to other planets, 988 00:40:22,130 --> 00:40:23,640 based on the current data we have, 989 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,077 we do not anticipate encountering 990 00:40:25,077 --> 00:40:28,130 other forms of organic matter, 991 00:40:28,130 --> 00:40:30,810 which means we're not gonna have fossil fuels. 992 00:40:30,810 --> 00:40:32,740 There's different ways to power things in space. 993 00:40:32,740 --> 00:40:34,440 If we look at the Voyager spacecrafts, 994 00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:37,427 they use plutonium batteries, really crazy technology. 995 00:40:37,427 --> 00:40:39,120 But they last forever. 996 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:41,590 We've used fuel cells in space for a long time, 997 00:40:41,590 --> 00:40:43,470 in various battery technologies. 998 00:40:43,470 --> 00:40:46,541 One of the ways that we could help solve the fuel problem 999 00:40:46,541 --> 00:40:49,570 is to use what is available to us there in space. 1000 00:40:49,570 --> 00:40:52,210 There's hydrogen and oxygen in the atmospheres 1001 00:40:52,210 --> 00:40:54,440 of other planets, but then you just have the same problem 1002 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:55,273 that you had to begin with, 1003 00:40:55,273 --> 00:40:58,650 where you have to go down into the gravity of those planets, 1004 00:40:58,650 --> 00:41:01,643 get the stuff, come back out, that's just as hard 1005 00:41:01,643 --> 00:41:04,110 as bringing it up from the Earth in the first place. 1006 00:41:04,110 --> 00:41:06,070 Space is empty, there's not a lot to work with there 1007 00:41:06,070 --> 00:41:07,876 but what is there is sunlight. 1008 00:41:07,876 --> 00:41:11,500 Solar is popping up in really interesting places 1009 00:41:11,500 --> 00:41:13,040 so we're getting to the point 1010 00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:14,749 where people are thinking about 1011 00:41:14,749 --> 00:41:18,480 how can we incorporate solar into our every day lives? 1012 00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:20,580 Often we take the sun for granted on Earth, 1013 00:41:20,580 --> 00:41:22,860 but that technology is also gonna be critical 1014 00:41:22,860 --> 00:41:24,540 for us to be able to explore space. 1015 00:41:24,540 --> 00:41:25,910 All of the electricity 1016 00:41:25,910 --> 00:41:27,940 that we generate by burning fossil fuels, 1017 00:41:27,940 --> 00:41:30,680 or nuclear reactors, or hydroelectric plants, 1018 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:33,650 that's just absolutely dwarfed by the amount of energy 1019 00:41:33,650 --> 00:41:35,270 that comes to us from the Sun. 1020 00:41:35,270 --> 00:41:38,610 We see solar energy fields all over the world now. 1021 00:41:38,610 --> 00:41:41,933 We've gone past the barrier where it's cost prohibitive now 1022 00:41:41,933 --> 00:41:45,210 to where it's cost effective to make electricity 1023 00:41:45,210 --> 00:41:46,260 out of solar panels. 1024 00:41:46,260 --> 00:41:49,410 Arguably, we'll drive the development of that technology 1025 00:41:49,410 --> 00:41:52,010 in space to create more efficient solar arrays 1026 00:41:52,010 --> 00:41:54,270 and then use that technology here on Earth. 1027 00:41:54,270 --> 00:41:55,980 Solar energy is really nice, 1028 00:41:55,980 --> 00:41:58,840 because once we get it up there, it's there forever. 1029 00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,060 We don't have to bring more fuel up. 1030 00:42:01,060 --> 00:42:03,670 It keeps on going and going and going. 1031 00:42:03,670 --> 00:42:05,582 So where we're close enough to the sun, 1032 00:42:05,582 --> 00:42:09,030 as much as possible we like to use solar panels 1033 00:42:09,030 --> 00:42:11,540 to provide energy to the spacecraft. 1034 00:42:11,540 --> 00:42:14,120 Basically what happens is we have a silicone crystal 1035 00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:16,080 and it has to be very pure silicone. 1036 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:19,000 We then cut that into really, really thin sheets 1037 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,229 and we put thin wires on the top 1038 00:42:21,229 --> 00:42:22,330 and the bottom of the sheet. 1039 00:42:22,330 --> 00:42:24,180 You can think of the light coming from the Sun 1040 00:42:24,180 --> 00:42:25,750 as a stream of photons. 1041 00:42:25,750 --> 00:42:28,580 Each of those photons carries a small amount of energy. 1042 00:42:28,580 --> 00:42:31,810 Photons coming from the sun hit the solar panels, 1043 00:42:31,810 --> 00:42:34,500 eject electrons, you connect that to a circuit, 1044 00:42:34,500 --> 00:42:36,210 you can do all of the things 1045 00:42:36,210 --> 00:42:38,100 that you can do with electrical power. 1046 00:42:38,100 --> 00:42:39,537 From our car's perspective, 1047 00:42:39,537 --> 00:42:41,320 the car is driving along, 1048 00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:43,740 and it has solar cells on top surface of the car. 1049 00:42:43,740 --> 00:42:46,350 The sun, when it hits the solar cells, 1050 00:42:46,350 --> 00:42:49,470 it generates voltage, and it also generates 1051 00:42:49,470 --> 00:42:51,440 a current flowing through the solar cells 1052 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:53,560 and into our battery box. 1053 00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,580 Between our battery box and between the solar cells, 1054 00:42:55,580 --> 00:42:57,680 we have something called the peak power trackers. 1055 00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:00,650 This essentially dictates what is the maximum power 1056 00:43:00,650 --> 00:43:02,350 that we can get from the Sun, 1057 00:43:02,350 --> 00:43:04,700 and what the voltage and the current is supposed to be. 1058 00:43:04,700 --> 00:43:07,070 So the motor would be able to use the energy 1059 00:43:07,070 --> 00:43:08,690 that is harnessed from the Sun 1060 00:43:08,690 --> 00:43:10,940 to drive the wheels and to go forward. 1061 00:43:10,940 --> 00:43:13,100 It seems straight forward here on Earth, 1062 00:43:13,100 --> 00:43:15,920 but in space, there are other factors to consider. 1063 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:17,720 If we're gonna use solar arrays 1064 00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:19,460 and solar power out in space, 1065 00:43:19,460 --> 00:43:20,980 well, we gotta get it up there. 1066 00:43:20,980 --> 00:43:22,580 Getting there, we have to worry about weight. 1067 00:43:22,580 --> 00:43:24,730 Every kilogram we launch into space 1068 00:43:24,730 --> 00:43:27,770 costs thousands and thousands of dollars, 1069 00:43:27,770 --> 00:43:31,400 so anytime we can reduce the weight of those panels, 1070 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:32,440 there's a huge advantage. 1071 00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:35,150 So almost more than anything, that weight constraint 1072 00:43:35,150 --> 00:43:37,120 is the biggest one we gotta engineer for. 1073 00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,380 But we also need a huge surface area. 1074 00:43:39,380 --> 00:43:42,280 We need hundreds of square meters of solar panels 1075 00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:44,410 on a spacecraft like the ISS. 1076 00:43:44,410 --> 00:43:47,290 You can't put 100 meters square area 1077 00:43:47,290 --> 00:43:49,690 on the surface of a rocket and send it into space. 1078 00:43:49,690 --> 00:43:51,910 There's too much friction, too much drag. 1079 00:43:51,910 --> 00:43:53,010 It's kinda like putting your arm 1080 00:43:53,010 --> 00:43:54,520 outside the window of your car 1081 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:55,740 at 120 kilometers an hour. 1082 00:43:55,740 --> 00:43:57,740 You can feel the wind pushing on your arm. 1083 00:43:57,740 --> 00:44:00,330 If we had solar panels that were sticking out of a rocket, 1084 00:44:00,330 --> 00:44:01,820 they would just be ripped off, 1085 00:44:01,820 --> 00:44:02,900 and so what happens is, 1086 00:44:02,900 --> 00:44:06,187 we tuck all that stuff inside the rocket 1087 00:44:06,187 --> 00:44:08,189 and then once we get it up into space, 1088 00:44:08,189 --> 00:44:10,467 that whole assembly opens up 1089 00:44:10,467 --> 00:44:13,790 and these solar arrays roll out. 1090 00:44:13,790 --> 00:44:14,880 If you want to reenter, 1091 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,230 you gotta fold those solar panels back up 1092 00:44:17,230 --> 00:44:19,640 and put 'em back inside some type of vehicle. 1093 00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:23,059 Reentry is probably the most difficult thing to deal with 1094 00:44:23,059 --> 00:44:24,630 in terms of space. 1095 00:44:24,630 --> 00:44:26,430 You've gotta go through the atmosphere, 1096 00:44:26,430 --> 00:44:29,410 and you're going to be moving very fast when you enter. 1097 00:44:29,410 --> 00:44:31,780 You have to deal with the enormous amount 1098 00:44:31,780 --> 00:44:35,080 of heat and friction that's generated as a fast moving thing 1099 00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:36,560 comes into the atmosphere. 1100 00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:38,700 The temperatures that we're talking about 1101 00:44:38,700 --> 00:44:40,734 in those type of reentries can be 1102 00:44:40,734 --> 00:44:45,140 2,000 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, so well beyond 1103 00:44:45,140 --> 00:44:48,260 the melting temperature of most common materials. 1104 00:44:48,260 --> 00:44:50,240 So we really have to spend a lot of time 1105 00:44:50,240 --> 00:44:53,230 developing technologies that can resist that heat 1106 00:44:53,230 --> 00:44:56,310 but again, like all space materials, it has to be light. 1107 00:44:56,310 --> 00:44:58,430 In addition to all the light and heat 1108 00:44:58,430 --> 00:45:00,720 that the Sun sends out, there's a constant stream 1109 00:45:00,720 --> 00:45:02,800 of high energy particles coming from the Sun. 1110 00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:06,650 That radiation is mostly blocked by the Earth's atmosphere 1111 00:45:06,650 --> 00:45:09,300 for people on the ground, but if you're out in space, 1112 00:45:09,300 --> 00:45:11,850 that radiation is much harder to screen out. 1113 00:45:11,850 --> 00:45:14,780 We are gonna be exposed to really strong radiation 1114 00:45:14,780 --> 00:45:18,211 on the way to Mars, and so we will have to figure out a way 1115 00:45:18,211 --> 00:45:22,090 to deal with that, so that the astronauts can survive 1116 00:45:22,090 --> 00:45:23,210 when they go to Mars. 1117 00:45:23,210 --> 00:45:26,600 So then think what it might do to your equipment as well. 1118 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:30,010 That movement of charged particles past the Earth 1119 00:45:30,010 --> 00:45:32,690 and through our ionosphere, and through the Van Allen belts, 1120 00:45:32,690 --> 00:45:36,040 generates electric fields in the long power lines on Earth 1121 00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:37,580 and can lead to blackouts. 1122 00:45:37,580 --> 00:45:39,530 This same thing can happen on spacecraft. 1123 00:45:39,530 --> 00:45:41,100 Those particles can lead 1124 00:45:41,100 --> 00:45:42,790 to problems with the electrical systems 1125 00:45:42,790 --> 00:45:45,260 and can lead to short circuits and damage. 1126 00:45:45,260 --> 00:45:46,470 There's other issues to deal with. 1127 00:45:46,470 --> 00:45:49,520 There's space debris, of which there's a lot up there now, 1128 00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:51,090 and most of it is human's fault. 1129 00:45:51,090 --> 00:45:52,950 So these are tiny, tiny little bits 1130 00:45:52,950 --> 00:45:55,320 that are flying around the Earth. 1131 00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:58,230 Any one of those hits your solar panel and cracks it, 1132 00:45:58,230 --> 00:45:59,330 bye-bye solar panel. 1133 00:45:59,330 --> 00:46:02,230 So over time, there is some degradation in the panels 1134 00:46:02,230 --> 00:46:04,750 but we put a lot of technology into making sure 1135 00:46:04,750 --> 00:46:06,180 that those panels don't degrade 1136 00:46:06,180 --> 00:46:07,930 and they stay as functional as they can 1137 00:46:07,930 --> 00:46:09,520 over long periods of time. 1138 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:12,400 So you can generate electricity relatively easily. 1139 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,480 The trick is, how do you use that then 1140 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:16,490 to propel your spacecraft forward? 1141 00:46:16,490 --> 00:46:19,109 It's not like you can just hook up a fan 1142 00:46:19,109 --> 00:46:21,890 and blow yourself through space, 1143 00:46:21,890 --> 00:46:24,130 'cause there's no air to push against. 1144 00:46:24,130 --> 00:46:26,280 The electrical current from the solar panels 1145 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,270 must be converted to thrust. 1146 00:46:28,270 --> 00:46:32,013 You're producing thrust basically by taking stuff 1147 00:46:32,013 --> 00:46:34,800 and throwing it out the back of the rocket 1148 00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:36,630 at the highest speed you can. 1149 00:46:36,630 --> 00:46:38,110 Which means you're essentially setting off 1150 00:46:38,110 --> 00:46:41,380 a lot of little explosions ejecting material, 1151 00:46:41,380 --> 00:46:42,640 but that means you've gotta start 1152 00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:43,960 with an enormous amount of stuff 1153 00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:45,780 that you can throw out the back. 1154 00:46:45,780 --> 00:46:48,050 Typically, these days they use liquid hydrogen, 1155 00:46:48,050 --> 00:46:50,610 liquid oxygen, you mix the two of them together 1156 00:46:50,610 --> 00:46:51,580 and give it a spark; 1157 00:46:51,580 --> 00:46:54,040 they'll burn and produce water, essentially. 1158 00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:57,020 That's a very rapid reaction, generates a lot of energy, 1159 00:46:57,020 --> 00:46:59,475 shoots the water vapor that's produced 1160 00:46:59,475 --> 00:47:02,200 out the back of the rocket at extremely high speed 1161 00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:03,210 and propels it forward. 1162 00:47:03,210 --> 00:47:06,260 So how can a solar array create thrust? 1163 00:47:06,260 --> 00:47:09,420 Through something called solar electric propulsion. 1164 00:47:09,420 --> 00:47:11,620 At NASA's Glenn Research Center, 1165 00:47:11,620 --> 00:47:15,200 engineers have designed solar electric propulsion technology 1166 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:17,840 that would feed energy into thrusters. 1167 00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:19,820 The thrusters would generate and track 1168 00:47:19,820 --> 00:47:21,790 electrons in a magnetic field, 1169 00:47:21,790 --> 00:47:25,500 and use them to ionize an onboard propellant, xenon, 1170 00:47:25,500 --> 00:47:29,320 to create an exhaust plume of plasma, or thrust. 1171 00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:32,530 This is as close to a self-sustaining power source in space 1172 00:47:32,530 --> 00:47:34,120 as we've ever come. 1173 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:37,410 The amount required is 10 times less than current systems, 1174 00:47:37,410 --> 00:47:38,930 reducing the weight of the craft 1175 00:47:38,930 --> 00:47:40,803 and allowing for longer missions. 1176 00:47:42,070 --> 00:47:47,070 As we design for space exploration and solar in space, 1177 00:47:47,390 --> 00:47:50,310 and we overcome the hurdles that are associated with that, 1178 00:47:50,310 --> 00:47:52,160 we become efficient. 1179 00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:55,130 That technology directly comes back to Earth 1180 00:47:55,130 --> 00:47:58,580 and makes us more efficient here with solar energy. 1181 00:47:58,580 --> 00:48:02,270 That's important because we need to get off fossil fuels. 1182 00:48:02,270 --> 00:48:03,820 The world is still getting warmer 1183 00:48:03,820 --> 00:48:05,251 and there are gonna be consequences. 1184 00:48:05,251 --> 00:48:07,500 We're gonna have to deal with that. 1185 00:48:07,500 --> 00:48:09,630 You know, it's really in our DNA to go explore 1186 00:48:09,630 --> 00:48:12,100 because every time we explore, it seems like 1187 00:48:12,100 --> 00:48:15,172 we gather information that makes our lives better. 1188 00:48:15,172 --> 00:48:17,230 And so, through exploration, we often find things 1189 00:48:17,230 --> 00:48:18,580 that we never could have expected 1190 00:48:18,580 --> 00:48:20,260 and it's benefited our lives. 1191 00:48:20,260 --> 00:48:23,220 And I predict that we will be on the surface of Mars 1192 00:48:23,220 --> 00:48:26,113 and have humans walking and exploring the surface of Mars 1193 00:48:26,113 --> 00:48:29,090 before the 100th anniversary of Apollo, 1194 00:48:29,090 --> 00:48:31,203 and that's gonna be remarkable, 1195 00:48:31,203 --> 00:48:33,830 because those astronauts are probably alive today. 1196 00:48:33,830 --> 00:48:36,610 They may be five years old, they may be seven years old, 1197 00:48:36,610 --> 00:48:38,530 we don't know, and if you walked up 1198 00:48:38,530 --> 00:48:39,677 to one of those kids and said, 1199 00:48:39,677 --> 00:48:42,200 "Hey, have you ever thought about being an astronaut?", 1200 00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:43,957 they go, "Oh, I'd love to be an astronaut!" 1201 00:48:43,957 --> 00:48:46,477 "You could be one of the first people 1202 00:48:46,477 --> 00:48:48,570 "to walk on the surface of Mars," 1203 00:48:48,570 --> 00:48:51,170 and that's something that's absolutely incredible, 1204 00:48:51,170 --> 00:48:53,470 and really, that's what the space program is all about, 1205 00:48:53,470 --> 00:48:55,300 making the impossible possible. 1206 00:48:55,300 --> 00:48:58,600 Return to the Moon, Mars, and our solar system 1207 00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:00,440 are merely the next stepping stone 1208 00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:02,460 in our quest for the heavens. 1209 00:49:02,460 --> 00:49:05,280 With NASA's inspiration, many other ventures 1210 00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,270 have set their sights on the stars 1211 00:49:07,270 --> 00:49:09,943 and as a result, newer and better technologies, 1212 00:49:09,943 --> 00:49:13,830 materials, and systems are being tested every day. 1213 00:49:13,830 --> 00:49:15,970 The conquest of space may seem like 1214 00:49:15,970 --> 00:49:18,190 an expensive and dangerous endeavor, 1215 00:49:18,190 --> 00:49:20,250 but it's the ripple effect and spin-off 1216 00:49:20,250 --> 00:49:23,510 that has created the very life we live here on Earth, 1217 00:49:23,510 --> 00:49:26,680 and we've only just begun venturing out of our home. 1218 00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:29,693 Imagine where the push for space will take us next. 1219 00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:33,274 (footstep thuds) 1220 00:49:33,274 --> 00:49:35,857 (upbeat music)