00:00:00
- If you look right behind me
00:00:01
you'll see the center of the universe.
00:00:03
And the reason it's called
the center of the universe is
00:00:05
because that's NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
00:00:07
and all of the orbiters,
probe, and spacecraft
00:00:10
we've sent out into the
solar system and beyond
00:00:13
send all their signals right
back here to be processed
00:00:16
and that will ever be more apparent
00:00:17
than in a few days when
the next Mars Rover
00:00:19
named Perseverance, concludes
its seven month journey
00:00:23
to our neighboring red planet, Mars,
00:00:25
autonomously navigating itself
00:00:26
for a terrifying seven minutes,
00:00:28
traveling from 15 times
the speed of a bullet,
00:00:31
to a gentle three miles
per hour touchdown,
00:00:33
all while live streaming the
key data the whole way down.
00:00:36
And as many of you know, for me
00:00:37
this is like coming home
00:00:39
because long before I started
making YouTube videos,
00:00:41
I came here to work
every day for nine years,
00:00:44
seven of which we're
working on the last rover
00:00:46
we sent to Mars, named Curiosity.
00:00:48
So today we're gonna talk
to some of my old friends
00:00:50
and see the actual rover up close
00:00:52
as I bring you up to speed on
everything you need to know
00:00:55
about this rover landing.
00:00:56
'Cause once you have an
overview of what's gonna happen
00:00:58
and what it even took
to get us to this point,
00:01:00
I feel certain you're gonna feel
00:01:03
just as pumped about this
historic landing as I am.
00:01:06
And to accomplish that, we're
gonna talk about the who,
00:01:08
what, why, where and how of this rover.
00:01:10
And we'll start with the why
and the where we're going.
00:01:13
3.5 billion years ago, earth
and Mars were pretty similar.
00:01:16
Both had liquid water at the
surface and both were protected
00:01:19
from the sun's radiation
with magnetic fields.
00:01:21
And so it begs the question,
if life first developed
00:01:24
on Earth at that time, could
it have also developed on Mars?
00:01:27
So this is a massive lake in Jezero crater
00:01:30
billions of years ago.
00:01:31
And this is it now.
00:01:32
This is where perseverance is landing,
00:01:34
the bottom of an ancient
lake the size of Lake Tahoe.
00:01:37
Because using earth as a
guide at the base of a river
00:01:40
of fresh water is where scientists
00:01:41
believe we have the best
chance of finding evidence
00:01:43
of past biological life on Mars.
00:01:45
So thanks to Perseverance,
00:01:47
we could be on the verge of
the monumental first discovery
00:01:50
of actual life outside our planet.
00:01:52
And being able to pinpoint
a landing spot this tight
00:01:54
shows how NASA is constantly
advancing its technologies.
00:01:58
With Florida for scale,
00:01:59
here's an oval showing the uncertainty
00:02:01
of the landing spot for
previous mission's Pathfinder
00:02:04
in 1997 and then Phoenix
in 2008, Curiosity in 2012,
00:02:09
and now Perseverance.
00:02:11
Being able to shrink down a landing target
00:02:12
just gives you way more options
00:02:14
of interesting places to land.
00:02:15
Plus, once you do land
00:02:16
and start driving towards
the actual science location
00:02:19
it can shave off a year
or more of drive time.
00:02:21
And not only does studying Mars like this
00:02:22
help us understand
Earth's past and future,
00:02:24
but the rovers we're sending
are the advanced scouts,
00:02:27
taking data and notes for us on the ground
00:02:29
and sending all the info back to Earth.
00:02:31
They're also testing some new technologies
00:02:33
which I'll cover in a second,
00:02:34
that humans will need to use
00:02:35
when we are exploring the planet ourselves
00:02:37
in the very near future.
00:02:38
Because the first person
to set foot on Mars
00:02:40
is alive right now and it could be you.
00:02:43
And if none of that
gets your heart pumping
00:02:45
and you're like, but Mark,
why would we spend resources
00:02:48
and time exploring the solar system
00:02:50
when we still have big
issues here on this Earth
00:02:52
we haven't solved?
00:02:53
I tackled that exact
question giving five reasons
00:02:55
we can't afford not to invest
in space in another video
00:02:58
you can watch after this one.
00:02:59
So that's the where and the why.
00:03:01
Now let's talk about how
we're going to do all that.
00:03:04
'Cause this is where it gets really wild.
00:03:06
Meet Perseverance.
00:03:08
And I should mention, I
have my monthly videos
00:03:10
all planned out about a year in advance,
00:03:12
which is why exactly this time last year
00:03:15
I knew for this video I needed to fly down
00:03:16
to check out the rover right
before it got shipped off
00:03:19
to Florida to be launched.
00:03:20
But before I checked out the rover,
00:03:21
I first stopped in to see
Ben who was my old boss.
00:03:24
When I was here he was
leading a small team
00:03:26
that designed the jet pack
00:03:27
that lowered the rover to the ground.
00:03:29
But now I heard he's all fancy
in charge of like 400 people.
00:03:32
So I wanted to get a sense of how things
00:03:33
had changed for him.
00:03:34
So anyone we see walk by you
can like boss them around?
00:03:38
How about this guy right here?
00:03:38
You can boss him around?
- Yeah. I can boss him around.
00:03:40
- Okay, cool. Cool.
00:03:43
We first geeked out for a
bit over a bunch of examples
00:03:45
of parts from previous space missions.
00:03:47
And a hardware wall like this
is just a great illustration
00:03:50
of what makes JPL such
a cool place to work.
00:03:52
Actually I designed this.
00:03:54
This is my hardware from Grail with Andy.
00:03:57
This was cool 'cause you
got these like flexors
00:03:59
for like temperature variation.
00:04:00
So this isn't just for show,
00:04:02
this is like literally when
you're trying to figure out
00:04:03
a way to do things, these are examples
00:04:05
of how it's been done before, right?
00:04:06
- Right. And a lot of
these are made by examples
00:04:08
of this is the way you shouldn't do
00:04:09
- Oh, so that's why my hardware...
00:04:11
- That's why your
hardware's up there, right?
00:04:12
- So after that we headed
down to check out the rover
00:04:14
and meet up with my friend Emily.
00:04:16
But before we could just go in and see it
00:04:17
we had to get suited up
00:04:18
because the rover is looking
for signs of biological life
00:04:21
and we don't wanna contaminate our samples
00:04:23
before we even arrive.
00:04:25
So a bunny suit and air
shower can go a long way.
00:04:28
Emily, by the way, was
the vehicle assembly lead
00:04:30
for the descent and cruise stages,
00:04:32
which is a big responsibility.
00:04:33
This is the rover
- [Emily] The flight rover.
00:04:35
It will be on Mars 12 months from now.
00:04:38
- [Mark] It's so complex when you come up
00:04:40
and get this close.
00:04:42
In fact, Perseverance is
the most complex thing
00:04:44
humans have ever built and
sent to another planet.
00:04:46
It's got laser, x-ray,
and radar capabilities,
00:04:49
plus 19 cameras and a nuclear
powered battery system
00:04:52
for energy.
00:04:53
And while it might look pretty similar
00:04:54
to the past rover Curiosity,
00:04:55
all the science instruments
are completely different
00:04:58
because the science
objectives have changed.
00:05:00
The most notable difference
is this time the drill
00:05:02
isn't there just to create rock
dust to study on the rover.
00:05:05
Perseverance has a hollow drill bit
00:05:07
to core out a chunk of rock
the size of a piece of chalk
00:05:09
and then package it up and
leave behind 43 separate samples
00:05:13
for a future mission to
collect and send back to Earth.
00:05:17
That way we could study the
samples for those past signs
00:05:19
of life using the most
state-of-the-art instruments
00:05:22
on Earth that we could
never fit on a rover.
00:05:24
So then to capture that
chalk size rock sample,
00:05:27
not only is there an arm on the outside
00:05:29
but this time there's
one on the inside too.
00:05:31
- It is a miniature
robot arm inside the body
00:05:34
of the rover that
manipulates the sample tube.
00:05:37
And there's one right here.
00:05:38
- Wow. And so is this
what you leave behind?
00:05:41
- Exactly.
00:05:42
- Is it fair to say this is
like the poop of the rover?
00:05:44
- Exactly.
(Liz laughing)
00:05:45
- Okay. Do you like that analogy?
00:05:47
'Cause they didn't like it earlier.
00:05:48
- Well, yeah.
- You like it?
00:05:49
Okay cool.
(Liz laughing)
00:05:50
We got it.
- We do like to say
00:05:51
that the rover's gonna poop outside.
00:05:52
- Okay, good.
00:05:53
See that's a good analogy.
00:05:55
So Perseverance is
really only the first leg
00:05:57
of returning a piece of Mars to Earth.
00:05:59
Future missions will
complete what I like to call,
00:06:02
the poop scoop and shoot maneuver.
00:06:03
This is my friend Liz by the way,
00:06:04
and she's in charge of all the testing
00:06:06
for the sample retrieval system.
00:06:07
- We're doing things that nobody else does
00:06:10
so we have to test it.
00:06:11
- So she tests all sorts
of different configurations
00:06:13
in a chamber that recreates
the extreme temperatures
00:06:16
and pressures to make sure
it will function on Mars.
00:06:19
'Cause once you send
something to space, it's gone
00:06:21
and you can't exactly fix it.
00:06:22
So it just has to work.
00:06:24
Which is why testing is
such a big deal here at JPL.
00:06:27
My buddy Matt here mentioned another way
00:06:29
this is done.
00:06:29
- So we build two spacecraft,
one that goes to Mars
00:06:31
and one that we keep
here on Earth to test.
00:06:33
And this is an exact replica of Curiosity
00:06:35
who's driving around on Mars right now.
00:06:37
And then we use this one to
test driving around obstacles
00:06:39
and driving over rocks.
00:06:41
- And he knows a thing or
two about driving over rocks
00:06:43
because he was a rover
driver for both Opportunity
00:06:46
and Curiosity.
00:06:47
This guy is like one of
maybe 40 people in the world
00:06:51
who has driven a vehicle
on another planet,
00:06:53
which is it's kind of a big deal.
00:06:55
And so a few more cool
things about Perseverance are
00:06:57
that it has a mini
helicopter drone stowed away
00:06:59
on its underbelly named Ingenuity.
00:07:01
This will be mankind's
first powered flight
00:07:03
on another planet,
which sort of makes this
00:07:05
a Wright Brothers moment.
00:07:06
And the rover and the drone
will get great footage
00:07:08
of each other, but we're
mainly testing it out
00:07:10
so that in the future we might use drones
00:07:12
to scout out terrain for us or get samples
00:07:14
from hard to reach locations.
00:07:16
Or you could have swarms of
drones carrying materials
00:07:18
for humans from one site to another.
00:07:20
Perseverance is also
testing out a new instrument
00:07:22
called MOXIE that basically
amounts to a mechanical tree,
00:07:26
because its function is to
convert CO2 into oxygen,
00:07:29
which future explorers
will need to breathe
00:07:31
and for rocket fuel.
00:07:32
- The rover has been in this
clean room for about a year
00:07:35
and a half, starting as just
a chassis, just the skeleton.
00:07:39
- And then all the teams and engineers
00:07:40
have been taking turns coming down
00:07:41
and building up their
part until it's done.
00:07:43
In fact, I was in that
exact position on Curiosity
00:07:46
designing my hardware for
about three and a half years
00:07:48
and when it was all tested and complete,
00:07:50
integrating it on the rover
right here in this room.
00:07:53
And then for the other
three and a half years
00:07:54
like I mentioned before,
I was working with Ben
00:07:56
on a small team of engineers
on the jet pack descent stage.
00:07:59
So now we've covered the where
00:08:00
and the why we're going,
00:08:02
also the how we're gonna
do all that with the rover.
00:08:04
Now let's talk about the what.
00:08:06
For what's gonna happen
this Thursday when it lands
00:08:08
and what you should expect to see.
00:08:09
As I edit this video, the
spacecraft is gliding toward Mars
00:08:12
at a cool 48,144 miles per hour.
00:08:16
How fast is that?
00:08:17
It's this fast.
00:08:18
It's 15 times faster than a bullet.
00:08:21
It's traveling the length
of 100 soccer fields
00:08:23
in exactly this long and it
will keep on that trajectory
00:08:26
until the big moment on Thursday
00:08:27
when it starts its entry
descent and landing, or EDL.
00:08:30
It's also known as the
seven minutes of terror
00:08:33
because we've literally got seven minutes
00:08:35
to get from the top of the atmosphere
00:08:36
to the surface of Mars going
from 13,000 miles per hour
00:08:40
to 0 in perfect sequence
and perfect timing
00:08:43
and the spacecraft has
to do it all on its own
00:08:45
with no help from us on Earth.
00:08:47
When it first hits the upper atmosphere
00:08:48
the friction causes the
heat shield to start glowing
00:08:50
like the surface of the Sun.
00:08:52
All the while thrusters
are firing to steer
00:08:54
and adjust its course
towards the target location.
00:08:57
And that arrow breaking gets
rid of 99% of the energy.
00:09:00
So for the last 1% we deploy
a supersonic parachute.
00:09:03
Then we've gotta pop off the heat shield
00:09:05
we no longer need, like
removing a lens cap
00:09:07
so the radar can start viewing the ground.
00:09:08
But even with the parachute,
00:09:10
it's still traveling 200 miles per hour
00:09:12
which is way too fast to land.
00:09:13
And so that's where we cut
loose of the back shell
00:09:15
and fire the rockets.
00:09:17
But we can't quite land
in this configuration
00:09:19
because the rockets will
kick up too much debris
00:09:21
and damage the rover.
00:09:22
So then we lower it from a 21 foot rope
00:09:24
and gently land the rover on the surface
00:09:26
as my sky cream zooms
off to face an honorable,
00:09:28
catastrophic ending as
far away from the rover
00:09:31
as it's remaining fuel will carry it.
00:09:33
And so in just seven
minutes, the spacecraft
00:09:35
has completely metamorphosized,
00:09:36
shedding all its sacrificial elements
00:09:39
until you're left with just a rover
00:09:41
sitting alone safely
on the surface of Mars.
00:09:43
Now everything you just
saw was a CGI animation,
00:09:46
but a few days after landing
00:09:47
we'll all be blown away by
actual HD landing footage
00:09:51
from the 23 cameras and
2 microphones on board.
00:09:53
We'll see the parachute inflate
00:09:55
and hear the crunch of the aluminum wheels
00:09:57
as they touch down and make contact
00:09:59
with the Martian surface.
00:10:00
And because Mars is so far away
00:10:02
to get a signal from the
vehicle to our planet
00:10:04
it takes about 12 minutes
at the speed of light.
00:10:07
So that means after the
spacecraft sends a signal
00:10:09
that it's reached the
top of the atmosphere,
00:10:11
by the time that signal reaches Earth
00:10:13
to kick off the seven minutes of terror,
00:10:15
for at least five minutes
00:10:17
the vehicle has actually
already been on the surface
00:10:20
either alive or dead.
00:10:22
Which is why it has to be autonomous.
00:10:23
That means it makes all its own choices
00:10:25
on the exact timing of things
00:10:27
and where to steer without
anyone from Earth controlling it.
00:10:29
Which means all we can do is
watch and monitor and hope.
00:10:33
And this is a good time to remember
00:10:34
that as easy as these
dedicated teams of engineers
00:10:36
make it look, landing
on Mars is really hard.
00:10:39
Historically, only about half the attempts
00:10:41
have been successful,
00:10:42
but the willingness to take big risks
00:10:44
to reap big rewards is the foundation
00:10:46
on which NASA is built.
00:10:47
The livestream to watch the
landing starts on Thursday
00:10:49
February 18th at 11:15 AM Pacific.
00:10:52
It will hit the top of the atmosphere
00:10:54
an hour and a half later at 12:48 PM
00:10:57
which starts the seven minutes of terror
00:10:58
and we touch down at 12:55.
00:11:00
I will leave a link to the livestream
00:11:02
in the video description
00:11:03
as well as some other really cool sites
00:11:04
such as this video game-like demo
00:11:06
where you can interactively
experience the seven minutes
00:11:09
of terror in preparation for the landing.
00:11:11
We covered the where
and the why we're going,
00:11:13
we covered the how with the rover,
00:11:15
and the what with the landing details.
00:11:17
Now it's time for the who,
00:11:18
the human side to sending robot
explorers to other planets.
00:11:23
What makes NASA and JPL really
great aren't its robots,
00:11:27
it's the people who build them.
00:11:28
And while it's not really possible for me
00:11:29
to capture what it's
gonna feel like for them
00:11:31
to see it land this Thursday,
00:11:32
the best I can do is to
show you what it felt like
00:11:34
for me eight years ago
00:11:36
when I was in a very similar situation.
00:11:37
I made a video when Curiosity landed,
00:11:39
but at the time my channel
00:11:40
had less than 100,000 subscribers.
00:11:42
So I know that most of you
haven't seen this footage,
00:11:44
but even if you have with the
landing less than a week away
00:11:47
it's a great time for a second
watch to get you pumped up.
00:11:50
And for context here, you should know
00:11:51
that during my time I
was working on the rover,
00:11:54
I had a son and lost my mom to ALS.
00:11:57
And while my contribution was small
00:11:58
relative to the overall picture,
00:12:00
I tried to capture the human element here
00:12:02
of what it feels like to basically have
00:12:04
seven years of your life and career
00:12:06
vindicated with that beautiful phrase,
00:12:08
"touchdown confirmed we are safe on Mars".
00:12:11
So with that, consider this my tribute
00:12:13
to everyone out there
working to push the limits
00:12:16
of human understanding
with a little bit of help
00:12:18
from a durable little young Mark Rober.
00:12:20
(instrumental music)
00:12:24
- So we're still two days from landing,
00:12:25
but you can see the news media
00:12:27
has already started to
descend on JPL here.
00:12:32
Since we're all kind
of nervous around here
00:12:34
our office pools look a
little different than most.
00:12:36
This is the landing ellipse for the rover
00:12:39
and we all kind of place
guesses on where we think
00:12:41
it's gonna come down.
00:12:43
So we're headed down to NASA JPL
00:12:45
to hang out with everyone
and watch the landing.
00:12:48
So it's pretty exciting.
00:12:50
Kind of sick to my
stomach at the same time.
00:12:52
Basically, seven years
of my life and career
00:12:54
have come down to about seven minutes.
00:12:57
Kind of freakin' out.
00:12:58
(instrumental music)
00:13:03
I owe half my chromosomes
to that guy right there.
00:13:07
- Excellent chances.
- Excellent chances.
00:13:09
- I'm not nervous.
00:13:10
- Okay
00:13:11
- No, it's gonna work.
(instrumental music)
00:13:21
When Mark gets nervous,
he starts shivering
00:13:24
like he's freezing.
00:13:26
And right now it's probably
about 85 degrees out here.
00:13:29
So Mark is really nervous.
00:13:34
(instrumental music continues)
00:13:46
(engineers speaking indistinctly)
00:13:51
(rover swooshing)
00:13:55
- [Engineer] Dynamic phase.
Come back again with...
00:13:59
(instrumental music continues)
00:14:10
(rover swooshing)
00:14:11
We are in power flight.
00:14:13
Standing by.
00:14:34
Touchdown confirmed. We're safe on Mars.
00:14:35
(all cheering)
(instrumental music continues)
00:14:44
- Woo!
00:15:11
That was honestly a moving
experience to see that picture
00:15:15
come up that showed just
the shadow of the rover
00:15:18
just dominating the Martian landscape.
00:15:21
It's just a crazy thought to think
00:15:22
because it's, you know
something I've designed,
00:15:25
I've touched, I've built,
I've integrated, I've tested
00:15:29
is now safely resting on
another fricking planet,
00:15:34
which is, it's a crazy feeling.
00:15:38
(instrumental music continues)
