The Mars Generation Page #7

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I know it's hard to understand,

but sometimes

painful things like this happen.

It's all part of the process

of exploration and discovery.

It's all part of taking a chance

and expanding man's horizons.

The future doesn't belong

to the fainthearted.

It belongs to the brave.

[newscaster] What we're seeing here

is very ominous indeed.

These are pictures which tell the story

that is clearly the Shuttle breaking up.

[Kluger] Somebody once asked me,

"Is it possible to write an article

on three ways to make the Shuttle safer?"

And my answer is

"Yes, I can write it right now.

Don't fly Discovery,

don't fly Atlantis, don't fly Endeavour.

Problem solved."

But we flew.

We lost no more people

and the program ended in

something close to triumph.

But 14 people died.

[mission control]

All three engines up and working.

Two, one, zero. And liftoff!

The final liftoff of Atlantis.

On the shoulders of the Space Shuttle.

America will continue the dream.

[Dr. Behnken] I really feel that it's

a part of each of our legacies

to carry on that piece that those

astronauts that we lost started.

Their legacy is

that we can continue the journey.

If we don't, we won't be able

to continue to evolve our presence

in low Earth orbit and on to Mars.

[mission control] The Space Shuttle

spreads its wings one final time

for the start of a sentimental journey

into history.

[Dr. Thomas] One of the big ideas

for why to retire the Shuttle

became this idea of going to Mars.

Let's leave low Earth orbit

and let's start going out further

to explore Mars.

[astronaut] Hello!

This is the International Space Station!

Well this is President Obama.

Who am I talking to?

Hello, Mr. President!

You're talking to the increment 28 crew

and the crew

of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

[Obama] Well, this mission marks the

final flight of the Space Shuttle program.

It also ushers in an exciting new era

to push the frontiers of space exploration

and human space flight beyond Earth,

and ultimately sending humans to Mars.

One of the reasons

that the Space Shuttle had to be retired

is that it was so expensive to operate

that we couldn't afford to invest

in the development of its successor.

That's why we've actually had a gap.

[mission control] Having fired

the imagination of a generation,

a ship like no other,

its place in history secured,

the Space Shuttle pulls into port

for the last time.

[deGrasse Tyson] When the Gemini program

ended, no one shed a tear

because the mighty Saturn 5 rocket

was sitting in an adjacent launch pad

ready to continue that mission,

and we knew that was going to the Moon.

When people shed a tear

for the last Shuttle landing,

I accuse them of shedding a tear

not because they'd miss the Shuttle,

but because there was not a next spaceship

to continue this adventure

that we could all then turn to and say,

"Mothball the Shuttle,

we're going to the next suite

of launch vehicles."

There was nothing there,

it was an empty launch pad.

[Russian choral music]

[cameras click]

[deGrasse Tyson] I'm a little embarrassed

that to get into space

we gotta hitch a ride with the Russians.

We're not even hitching a ride,

we're buying the seats on the Soyuz vessel

to get to and from the International

Space Station that we built.

So it's a little embarrassing!

I'll be honest with you.

[cheering applause]

[Dr. Kaku] Who'd have thought

that with all the intense rivalry

with the Russians to go to the Moon

that we would be dependent upon

hitching a ride on the Soyuz spacecraft?

Let's say there's a crisis that erupts

some place on the planet Earth

and all of a sudden we're in this awkward

situation of being beholden to them

for access to outer space.

Perhaps that's not such a good policy.

[Dr. John P. Holdren] It's been costly to

buy seats on the Soyuz from the Russians.

We don't like being absolutely dependent

on one other country

for anything as important as being able

to get our astronauts into space.

I think the idea that we have to pay

Russia $70 million

to send astronauts, our astronauts,

American astronauts, to the ISS

is absolutely ridiculous.

[Senator Nelson] If you talk to

the average person on the street,

they think the space program is over.

They associate our space program

with Americans flying on American rockets.

Not flying on the Soyuz

that we fly on right now.

[mission control] Liftoff.

Liftoff of the Soyuz TMA-05M

carrying Suni Williams,

Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide

on a two-day journey

to the International Space Station.

[Kyle] The reason why we put

the International Space Station

up there in the first place

is so that we could start doing

long-term experiments

on how a human

will be able to survive in space.

Because the journey to Mars

is going to take a long time.

You ready?

-[camper] Yeah, go for it.

-Set?

-Go.

-Two, three, four...

All right, so when an astronaut

goes into space,

their body has a hard time

adjusting to the fact

that now everything in their stomach

is floating around.

The fluid in their ears is floating around

and that's how we sense motion.

...twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

[Kyle] Your ears are telling you

that you're moving, you know,

you're not standing still.

But your eyes are telling you different,

and astronauts have gotten sick from this.

[all] ...41, 42, 43, 44, 45.

Take off the blindfold.

What?

[laughter]

Dude.

[laughs]

-[Kyle] You feel super disoriented, right?

-I'm still spinning!

[Alyssa] Space, in general,

is a very dangerous place to go.

Space wasn't really meant

for humans to kind of be in.

Hello! I'm Suni Williams.

I'm up here

on the International Space Station.

All right, come on back.

There's more to show you.

One of the things we do is we exercise.

We have some exercise equipment

onboard the Space Station.

[Dr. Thomas] A lot of our research up on

the International Space Station right now

is looking at ways to minimize

muscle loss, to minimize bone loss,

to minimize the effects

of radiation on the astronauts.

And why do we do this today?

It's all in regard to

these future missions going to Mars.

[Suni Williams] You might have noticed

a little moon on the outside.

This is our orbital outhouse right here.

It serves for two functions.

And, of course, you do have your privacy.

There's a little door.

One of the really important things about

living and working in space long term

is to learn how to recycle

all the things you need,

rather than bring them up

from the Earth.

[Marisa] Some of the obstacles that

we face heading to Mars is we need water.

Water is a major resource.

Right now, we're working

with the ECLSS system

where we can turn

our own urine into water.

-[camper] Oh, lost volume, OK I got you.

-[camper] We lost like a few milligrams.

[general chatter]

The thing is, if we were to use the cotton

we would lose so much.

[Zoe] ECLSS is the Environmental

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