Living on Two Planets: Mars Time | Nagin Cox | TEDxBeaconStreet
-
0:14 - 0:17So many of you have probably seen
the movie "The Martian." -
0:18 - 0:22But for those of you who did not,
it's a movie about an astronaut -
0:22 - 0:26who is stranded on Mars,
and his efforts to stay alive -
0:26 - 0:31until the Earth can send a rescue mission
to bring him back to Earth. -
0:32 - 0:35Gladly, they do re-establish communication
-
0:35 - 0:38with the character,
astronaut Watney, at some point -
0:38 - 0:43so that he's not as alone
on Mars until he can be rescued. -
0:44 - 0:46So while you're watching the movie,
or even if you haven't, -
0:46 - 0:48when you think about Mars,
-
0:48 - 0:53you're probably thinking about
how far away it is and how distant. -
0:53 - 0:55And, what might not
have occurred to you is, -
0:55 - 0:59what are the logistics really like
of working on another planet -- -
0:59 - 1:02of living on two planets
-
1:02 - 1:07when there are people on the Earth
and there are rovers or people on Mars? -
1:07 - 1:13So think about when you have friends,
families and co-workers -
1:13 - 1:17in California, on the West Coast
or in other parts of the world. -
1:17 - 1:19When you're trying
to communicate with them, -
1:19 - 1:21one of the things
you probably first think about is: -
1:21 - 1:23wait, what time is it in California?
-
1:23 - 1:26Will I wake them up? Is it OK to call?
-
1:26 - 1:30So even if you're interacting
with colleagues who are in Europe, -
1:30 - 1:32you're immediately thinking about:
-
1:32 - 1:39What does it take to coordinate
communication when people are far away? -
1:40 - 1:45So we don't have people on Mars
right now, but we do have rovers. -
1:46 - 1:52And actually right now, on Curiosity,
it is 6:10 in the morning. -
1:52 - 1:55So, 6:10 in the morning on Mars.
-
1:55 - 1:57We have four rovers on Mars.
-
1:57 - 2:02The United States has put four rovers
on Mars since the mid-1990s, -
2:02 - 2:05and I have been privileged enough
to work on three of them. -
2:05 - 2:10So, I am a spacecraft engineer,
a spacecraft operations engineer, -
2:10 - 2:15at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Los Angeles, California. -
2:15 - 2:20And these rovers
are our robotic emissaries. -
2:20 - 2:26So, they are our eyes and our ears,
and they see the planet for us -
2:26 - 2:28until we can send people.
-
2:28 - 2:33So we learn how to operate
on other planets through these rovers. -
2:33 - 2:37So before we send people, we send robots.
-
2:38 - 2:42So the reason there's a time difference
on Mars right now, -
2:42 - 2:44from the time that we're at
-
2:44 - 2:48is because the Martian day
is longer than the Earth day. -
2:48 - 2:51Our Earth day is 24 hours,
-
2:51 - 2:55because that's how long it takes
the Earth to rotate, -
2:55 - 2:57how long it takes to go around once.
-
2:57 - 2:59So our day is 24 hours.
-
2:59 - 3:06It takes Mars 24 hours and approximately
40 minutes to rotate once. -
3:06 - 3:13So that means that the Martian day
is 40 minutes longer than the Earth day. -
3:13 - 3:18So teams of people who are operating
the rovers on Mars, like this one -- -
3:18 - 3:20this is one of our teams that I'm part of,
-
3:20 - 3:22I usually sit at this table over here --
-
3:22 - 3:27what we are doing is we are living
on Earth, but working on Mars. -
3:27 - 3:33So we have to think as if we are actually
on Mars with the rover. -
3:33 - 3:37Our job, the job of this team,
of which I'm a part of, -
3:37 - 3:43is to send commands to the rover
to tell it what to do the next day. -
3:43 - 3:47To tell it to drive or drill
or tell her whatever she's supposed to do. -
3:47 - 3:52So while she's sleeping --
and the rover does sleep at night -
3:52 - 3:54because she needs
to recharge her batteries -
3:54 - 3:58and she needs to weather
the cold Martian night. -
3:58 - 3:59And so she sleeps.
-
3:59 - 4:04So while she sleeps, we work
on her program for the next day. -
4:04 - 4:07So I work the Martian night shift.
-
4:07 - 4:09(Laughter)
-
4:09 - 4:16So in order to come to work on the Earth
at the same time every day on Mars -- -
4:16 - 4:18like, let's say I need to be
at work at 5:00 p.m., -
4:18 - 4:24this team needs to be at work
at 5:00 p.m. Mars time every day, -
4:24 - 4:31then we have to come to work
on the Earth 40 minutes later every day, -
4:32 - 4:34in order to stay in sync with Mars.
-
4:34 - 4:37That's like moving a time zone every day.
-
4:37 - 4:42So one day you come in at 8:00,
the next day 40 minutes later at 8:40, -
4:42 - 4:46the next day 40 minutes later at 9:20,
-
4:46 - 4:47the next day at 10:00.
-
4:47 - 4:51So you keep moving 40 minutes every day,
-
4:51 - 4:54until soon you're coming to work
in the middle of the night -- -
4:54 - 4:56the middle of the Earth night.
-
4:56 - 4:59Right? So you can imagine
how confusing that is. -
4:59 - 5:02Hence, the Mars watch.
-
5:02 - 5:03(Laughter)
-
5:03 - 5:04(Applause)
-
5:04 - 5:06I think they're going to zoom in.
-
5:06 - 5:09(Applause)
-
5:09 - 5:14This weights in this watch
have been mechanically adjusted -
5:14 - 5:16so that it runs more slowly.
-
5:16 - 5:18Right? And we didn't start out --
-
5:18 - 5:21I got this watch in 2004
-
5:21 - 5:24when Spirit and Opportunity,
the rovers back then. -
5:24 - 5:25We didn't start out thinking
-
5:25 - 5:28that we were going to need Mars watches.
-
5:28 - 5:32Right? We thought, OK,
we'll just have the time on our computers -
5:32 - 5:36and on the mission control screens,
and that would be enough. -
5:36 - 5:37Yeah, not so much.
-
5:37 - 5:40Because we weren't just
working on Mars time, -
5:40 - 5:44we were actually living on Mars time.
-
5:44 - 5:48And we got just instantaneously confused
about what time it was. -
5:48 - 5:52So you really needed something
on your wrist to tell you: -
5:52 - 5:55What time is it on the Earth?
What time is it on Mars? -
5:55 - 6:01And it wasn't just the time on Mars
that was confusing; -
6:01 - 6:06we also needed to be able
to talk to each other about it. -
6:07 - 6:12So a "sol" is a Martian day --
again, 24 hours and 40 minutes. -
6:12 - 6:15So when we're talking about something
that's happening on the Earth, -
6:15 - 6:17we will say, today.
-
6:18 - 6:20So, for Mars, we say, "tosol."
-
6:20 - 6:23(Laughter)
-
6:23 - 6:28Yesterday became "yestersol" for Mars.
-
6:28 - 6:33Again, we didn't start out thinking,
"Oh, let's invent a language." -
6:33 - 6:34It was just very confusing.
-
6:34 - 6:36I remember somebody
walked up to me and said, -
6:36 - 6:40"I would like to do this activity
on the vehicle tomorrow, on the rover." -
6:40 - 6:45And I said, "Tomorrow, tomorrow,
or Mars, tomorrow?" -
6:45 - 6:50We started this terminology because
we needed a way to talk to each other. -
6:50 - 6:52(Laughter)
-
6:52 - 6:56Tomorrow became "nextersol" or "solorrow."
-
6:57 - 7:01Because people have different preferences
for the words they use. -
7:01 - 7:04Some of you might say "soda"
and some of you might say "pop." -
7:05 - 7:08So we have people who say
"nextersol" or "solorrow." -
7:09 - 7:13And then something that I noticed after
a few years of working on these missions, -
7:13 - 7:18was that the people who work
on the rovers, we say "tosol." -
7:19 - 7:22The people who work on the
landed missions that don't rove around, -
7:22 - 7:24they say "tosoul."
-
7:24 - 7:29So I could actually tell what mission
you worked on from your Martian accent. -
7:29 - 7:30(Laughter)
-
7:31 - 7:34(Applause)
-
7:34 - 7:38So we have the watches and the language,
and you're detecting a theme here, right? -
7:38 - 7:40So that we don't get confused.
-
7:41 - 7:44But even the Earth daylight
could confuse us. -
7:45 - 7:47If you think that right now,
you've come to work -
7:47 - 7:49and it's the middle of the Martian night
-
7:49 - 7:53and there's light streaming in
from the windows -
7:53 - 7:55that's going to be confusing as well.
-
7:55 - 7:58So you can see from
this image of the control room -
7:58 - 8:00that all of the blinds are down.
-
8:00 - 8:03So that there's no light to distract us.
-
8:03 - 8:08The blinds went down all over the building
about a week before landing, -
8:08 - 8:11and they didn't go up
until we went off Mars time. -
8:12 - 8:15So this also works
for the house, for at home. -
8:15 - 8:18I've been on Mars time three times,
and my husband is like, -
8:18 - 8:20OK, we're getting ready for Mars time.
-
8:20 - 8:26And so he'll put foil all over the windows
and dark curtains and shades -
8:26 - 8:29because it also affects your families.
-
8:29 - 8:34And so here I was living in kind of
this darkened environment, but so was he. -
8:34 - 8:36And he'd gotten used to it.
-
8:36 - 8:39But then I would get these plaintive
emails from him when he was at work. -
8:40 - 8:43Should I come home? Are you awake?
-
8:43 - 8:46What time is it on Mars?
-
8:46 - 8:49And I decided, OK,
so he needs a Mars watch. -
8:49 - 8:51(Laughter)
-
8:51 - 8:55But of course, it's 2016,
so there's an app for that. -
8:55 - 8:56(Laughter)
-
8:56 - 9:01So now instead of the watches,
we can also use our phones. -
9:01 - 9:05But the impact on families
was just across the board; -
9:06 - 9:09it wasn't just those of us
who were working on the rovers -
9:09 - 9:11but our families as well.
-
9:11 - 9:14This is David Oh,
one of our flight directors, -
9:14 - 9:18and he's at the beach in Los Angeles
with his family at 1:00 in the morning. -
9:18 - 9:20(Laughter)
-
9:20 - 9:23So because we landed in August
-
9:23 - 9:27and his kids didn't have to go back
to school until September, -
9:27 - 9:32they actually went on to Mars time
with him for one month. -
9:32 - 9:37They got up 40 minutes later every day.
-
9:37 - 9:39And they were on dad's work schedule.
-
9:39 - 9:43So they lived on Mars time for a month
and had these great adventures, -
9:43 - 9:45like going bowling
in the middle of the night -
9:45 - 9:47or going to the beach.
-
9:47 - 9:50And one of the things
that we all discovered -
9:50 - 9:54is you can get anywhere in Los Angeles
-
9:54 - 9:58at 3:00 in the morning
when there's no traffic. -
9:58 - 9:59(Laughter)
-
9:59 - 10:01So we would get off work,
-
10:01 - 10:04and we didn't want to go home
and bother our families, -
10:04 - 10:08and we were hungry, so instead of
going locally to eat something, -
10:08 - 10:11we'd go, "Wait, there's this great
all-night deli in Long Beach, -
10:11 - 10:13and we can get there in 10 minutes!"
-
10:13 - 10:16So we would drive down --
it was like the 60s, no traffic. -
10:16 - 10:20We would drive down there,
and the restaurant owners would go, -
10:20 - 10:23"Who are you people?
-
10:23 - 10:27And why are you at my restaurant
at 3:00 in the morning?" -
10:27 - 10:32So they came to realize
that there were these packs of Martians -- -
10:32 - 10:33(Laughter)
-
10:33 - 10:38roaming the LA freeways,
in the middle of the night -- -
10:39 - 10:41in the middle of the Earth night.
-
10:41 - 10:45And we did actually
start calling ourselves Martians. -
10:46 - 10:52So those of us who were on Mars time
would refer to ourselves as Martians, -
10:52 - 10:54and everyone else as Earthlings.
-
10:54 - 10:56(Laughter)
-
10:56 - 11:01And that's because when you're moving
a time-zone every day, -
11:01 - 11:07you start to really feel separated
from everyone else. -
11:07 - 11:11You're literally in your own world.
-
11:12 - 11:19So I have this button on that says,
"I survived Mars time. Sol 0-90." -
11:19 - 11:22And there's a picture of it
up on the screen. -
11:22 - 11:27So the reason we got these buttons
is because we work on Mars time -
11:27 - 11:32in order to be as efficient as possible
with the rover on Mars, -
11:32 - 11:35to make the best use of our time.
-
11:35 - 11:39But we don't stay on Mars time
for more than three to four months. -
11:39 - 11:44Eventually, we'll move to a modified Mars
time, which is what we're working now. -
11:45 - 11:49And that's because it's hard on
your bodies, it's hard on your families. -
11:49 - 11:54In fact, there were sleep researchers
who actually were studying us -
11:54 - 11:59because it was so unusual for humans
to try to extend their day. -
11:59 - 12:03And so, I wore an [actigraph].
-
12:03 - 12:04And they had about 30 of us
-
12:04 - 12:08that they would do
sleep deprivation experiments on. -
12:08 - 12:11So I would come in and take the test
and I fell asleep in each one. -
12:11 - 12:18And that was because, again,
this eventually becomes hard on your body. -
12:18 - 12:21Even though it was a blast.
-
12:21 - 12:26It was a huge bonding experience
with the other members on the team, -
12:26 - 12:29but it is difficult to sustain.
-
12:29 - 12:36So these rover missions are our first
steps out into the solar system. -
12:36 - 12:41We are learning how to live
on more than one planet. -
12:41 - 12:46We are changing our perspective
to become multi-planetary. -
12:46 - 12:49So the next time you see
a Star Wars movie, -
12:49 - 12:53and there are people going
from the Dagobah system to Tatooine, -
12:53 - 12:58think about what it really means to have
people spread out so far. -
12:58 - 13:01What it means in terms of
the distances between them, -
13:01 - 13:05how they will start to feel
separate from each other -
13:05 - 13:08and just the logistics of the time.
-
13:09 - 13:14We have not sent people
to Mars yet, but we hope to. -
13:14 - 13:18And between companies like SpaceX and NASA
-
13:18 - 13:21and all of the international
space agencies of the world, -
13:21 - 13:25we hope to do that
in the next few decades. -
13:25 - 13:31So soon we will have people on Mars,
and we truly will be multi-planetary. -
13:31 - 13:34And the young boy or the young girl
-
13:34 - 13:41who will be going to Mars could be
in this audience or listening today. -
13:41 - 13:47I have wanted to work at JPL
on these missions since I was 14 years old -
13:47 - 13:49and I am privileged to be a part of it.
-
13:49 - 13:53And this is a remarkable time
in the space program, -
13:53 - 13:57and we are all in this journey together.
-
13:57 - 14:02So the next time you think
you don't have enough time in your day, -
14:02 - 14:07just remember, it's all a matter
of your Earthly perspective. -
14:07 - 14:08Thank you.
-
14:08 - 14:12(Applause)
- Title:
- Living on Two Planets: Mars Time | Nagin Cox | TEDxBeaconStreet
- Description:
-
We've often wondered about living in space; how would we breathe, eat, and move? But there are also logistic issues, like the fact that the Martian day is ~40 minutes longer than the Earth day. Scientists and engineers on Martian missions, even here on Earth, change their schedules to "live on Mars" for a few months at the start of every mission. What's it like to live on another planet? Watch Nagin to find out!
Nagin Cox is currently on the mission operations team for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)- NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover. She graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and a BA in Psychology and was commissioned as an officer in the US Air Force. As a captain, she served as an Orbital Analyst at NORAD/Space Command in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs. In 1993, Nagin joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and has since served as a systems engineer and manager on multiple interplanetary robotic missions including NASA/JPL’s Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rover Missions and the Kepler telescope mission to search for earth-like planets around other stars.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 14:23
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Living on Two Planets: Mars Time | Nagin Cox | TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Living on Two Planets: Mars Time | Nagin Cox | TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Living on Two Planets: Mars Time | Nagin Cox | TEDxBeaconStreet |