0:00:01.190,0:00:04.150 So many of you have probably seen[br]the movie "The Martian." 0:00:05.380,0:00:08.581 But for those of you who did not,[br]it's a movie about an astronaut 0:00:08.982,0:00:12.928 who is stranded on Mars[br]and his efforts to stay alive 0:00:13.700,0:00:17.466 until the Earth can send a rescue mission[br]to bring him back to Earth. 0:00:19.277,0:00:22.278 Gladly, they do re-establish communication 0:00:22.543,0:00:25.080 with the character,[br]Astronaut Watney, at some point 0:00:25.307,0:00:30.350 so that he's not as alone[br]on Mars until he can be rescued. 0:00:30.726,0:00:33.417 So while you're watching the movie,[br]and even if you haven't, 0:00:33.417,0:00:36.441 when you think about Mars,[br]you're probably thinking about 0:00:36.441,0:00:39.435 how far away it is and how distant. 0:00:39.591,0:00:42.486 And, what might not[br]have occurred to you is, 0:00:42.692,0:00:46.326 what are the logistics really like[br]of working on another planet? 0:00:46.636,0:00:48.937 Of living on two planets 0:00:48.937,0:00:54.183 when there are people on the Earth and[br]there are rovers or people on Mars? 0:00:54.719,0:00:59.520 So think about when you have friends,[br]families and co-workers in California, 0:00:59.520,0:01:01.871 on the West Coast[br]or in other parts of the world. 0:01:02.273,0:01:04.333 When you're trying to[br]communicate with them, 0:01:04.333,0:01:06.967 one of the things you[br]probably first think about is 0:01:06.967,0:01:09.190 Wait, what time is it in California? 0:01:09.190,0:01:11.880 Will I wake them up? Is it okay to call? 0:01:12.042,0:01:15.076 So even if you're interacting[br]with colleagues who are in Europe, 0:01:15.338,0:01:17.648 you're immediately thinking about, 0:01:17.648,0:01:20.929 what does it take[br]to coordinate communication 0:01:21.734,0:01:24.391 when people are far away? 0:01:25.144,0:01:30.001 So we don't have people on Mars[br]right now, but we do have rovers. 0:01:30.960,0:01:35.332 And actually right now, on Curiosity,[br]it is 6:10 in the morning. 0:01:35.912,0:01:38.309 So, 6:10 in the morning on Mars. 0:01:39.029,0:01:41.309 We have four rovers on Mars. 0:01:41.309,0:01:45.486 The United States has put four rovers[br]on Mars since the mid-1990s, 0:01:45.486,0:01:48.786 and I have been privileged enough[br]to work on three of them. 0:01:49.023,0:01:52.985 So, I am a spacecraft engineer,[br]a spacecraft operations engineer, 0:01:53.600,0:01:57.614 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory[br]in Los Angeles, California. 0:01:59.058,0:02:02.320 And these rovers are our[br]robotic emissaries. 0:02:03.096,0:02:08.624 So, they are our eyes and our ears[br]and they see the planet for us 0:02:09.313,0:02:11.510 until we can send people. 0:02:11.714,0:02:16.035 So we learn how to operate[br]on other planets through these rovers. 0:02:16.793,0:02:20.744 So before we send people, we send robots. 0:02:21.559,0:02:25.141 So the reason there's a time difference[br]on Mars right now, 0:02:25.436,0:02:26.846 from the time that we're at 0:02:26.990,0:02:30.483 is because the Martian day[br]is longer than the Earth day. 0:02:31.412,0:02:34.147 Our Earth day is 24 hours because 0:02:34.258,0:02:36.980 that's how long it takes[br]the Earth to rotate, 0:02:37.405,0:02:39.154 how long it takes to go around once. 0:02:39.352,0:02:41.264 So our day is 24 hours. 0:02:41.767,0:02:47.645 It takes Mars 24 hours and[br]approximately 40 minutes to rotate once. 0:02:48.404,0:02:54.367 So that means that the Martian day[br]is 40 minutes longer than the Earth day. 0:02:55.280,0:02:59.771 So teams of people who are operating[br]the rovers on Mars, like this one, 0:03:00.386,0:03:05.741 what we are doing is we are[br]living on Earth, but working on Mars. 0:03:06.043,0:03:10.703 So we have to think as if we are actually[br]on Mars with the rover. 0:03:11.789,0:03:15.065 Our job, the job of this team,[br]of which I'm a part of 0:03:15.398,0:03:20.350 is to send commands to the rover[br]to tell it what to do the next day. 0:03:21.087,0:03:24.602 To tell it to drive or drill or[br]tell her whatever she's supposed to do. 0:03:25.773,0:03:29.478 So while she's sleeping --[br]and the rover does sleep at night 0:03:30.111,0:03:32.230 because she needs[br]to re-charge her batteries 0:03:32.554,0:03:36.033 and she needs to weather[br]the cold Martian night. 0:03:36.491,0:03:37.894 And so she sleeps. 0:03:38.151,0:03:42.304 So while she sleeps, we work[br]on her program for the next day. 0:03:42.759,0:03:45.338 So I work the Martian night shift. 0:03:45.528,0:03:47.397 (Laughter) 0:03:47.668,0:03:53.947 So in order to come to work on the Earth[br]at the same time every day on Mars -- 0:03:54.107,0:03:56.558 like, let's say I need to be[br]at work at 5:00 pm, 0:03:56.558,0:04:01.112 this team needs to be at work[br]at 5:00 pm Mars time every day, 0:04:02.151,0:04:09.356 then we have to come to work[br]on the Earth 40 minutes later every day, 0:04:10.210,0:04:12.362 in order to stay in sync with Mars. 0:04:12.590,0:04:15.201 That's like moving a time zone every day. 0:04:15.639,0:04:19.881 So one day you come in at 8:00,[br]the next day 40 minutes later at 8:40, 0:04:20.978,0:04:24.246 the next day 40 minutes later at 9:20, 0:04:24.363,0:04:25.611 the next day at 10:00, 0:04:25.792,0:04:28.458 so you keep moving 40 minutes every day, 0:04:29.038,0:04:31.758 until soon you're coming to work[br]in the middle of the night -- 0:04:32.407,0:04:34.370 the middle of the Earth night. 0:04:34.370,0:04:36.862 Right? So you can imagine[br]how confusing that is. 0:04:37.871,0:04:39.836 Hence, the Mars watch. 0:04:40.544,0:04:42.265 This watch has been mechanically -- 0:04:42.536,0:04:46.364 the weights have been mechanically[br]adjusted so that it runs more slowly. 0:04:46.984,0:04:48.862 RIght? And we didn't start out -- 0:04:49.146,0:04:51.239 I got this watch in 2004 0:04:51.239,0:04:54.139 when Spirit and Opportunity[br]-- the rovers back then -- 0:04:54.552,0:04:56.388 we didn't start out thinking 0:04:56.483,0:04:58.519 that we were going[br]to need Mars watches. 0:04:58.720,0:05:02.384 Right? We thought, okay,[br]we'll just have the time on our computers 0:05:03.387,0:05:06.616 and on the mission control screens[br]and that would be enough. 0:05:06.863,0:05:08.417 Yeah, not so much. 0:05:08.470,0:05:11.192 Because we weren't just[br]working on Mars time, 0:05:11.282,0:05:13.901 we were actually living on Mars time. 0:05:14.392,0:05:18.091 And we got just instantaneously confused[br]about what time it was. 0:05:18.570,0:05:22.709 So you really needed something[br]on your wrist to tell you: 0:05:23.192,0:05:26.225 What time is it on the Earth,[br]What time is it on Mars? 0:05:26.529,0:05:31.689 And it wasn't just the time on Mars[br]that was confusing, 0:05:32.025,0:05:36.246 we also needed to be able[br]to talk to each other about it. 0:05:37.552,0:05:42.318 So a "sol" is a Martian day --[br]again, 24 hours and 40 minutes. 0:05:43.209,0:05:46.025 So when we're talking about something[br]that's happening on the earth, 0:05:46.110,0:05:48.037 we will say, today. 0:05:48.339,0:05:51.482 So, for Mars, we say, "tosol." 0:05:54.109,0:05:58.199 Yesterday became 'yestersol' for Mars. 0:05:58.984,0:06:03.058 Again, we didn't start out thinking,[br]"oh let's invent a language." 0:06:03.296,0:06:04.947 It was just very confusing. 0:06:04.947,0:06:07.076 I remember someone[br]walked up to me and said, 0:06:07.175,0:06:10.630 "I would like to do this activity[br]on the vehicle tomorrow, on the rover." 0:06:10.630,0:06:16.411 And I said, "tomorrow, tomorrow,[br]or Mars tomorrow?" Right? 0:06:16.581,0:06:21.187 We started this terminology because[br]we needed a way to talk to each other. 0:06:22.570,0:06:26.558 Tomorrow became "nextersol" or "solorrow" 0:06:27.418,0:06:30.552 because people had different preferences[br]for the words they use. 0:06:30.966,0:06:34.590 Some of you might say soda[br]and some of you might say pop. 0:06:35.061,0:06:38.545 So we have people who say[br]nextersol or solorrow. 0:06:38.679,0:06:42.771 And then something that I noticed after[br]a few years of working on these missions, 0:06:43.143,0:06:47.766 was that the people who work[br]on the rovers, we say "tosol." 0:06:48.475,0:06:51.886 The people who work on the[br]landed missions that don't rove around, 0:06:52.180,0:06:54.182 they say "tosol."[br][Different vowel sound] 0:06:54.264,0:06:58.704 So I could actually tell what mission[br]you worked on from your Martian accent. 0:06:59.059,0:07:00.965 (Laughter) 0:07:02.139,0:07:05.677 So we have the watches and the language[br]and you're detecting a theme here, right?. 0:07:05.941,0:07:07.964 So that we don't get confused. 0:07:08.559,0:07:12.060 But even the Earth daylight[br]could confuse us. 0:07:12.669,0:07:14.941 If you think that right now,[br]you've come to work 0:07:15.081,0:07:17.058 and it's the middle of the Martian night 0:07:17.058,0:07:20.488 and there's light streaming in[br]from the windows 0:07:20.578,0:07:22.602 that's going to be confusing as well. 0:07:23.277,0:07:25.643 So you can see from[br]this image of the control room 0:07:25.684,0:07:27.383 that all of the blinds are down. 0:07:28.093,0:07:30.726 So that there's no light to distract us. 0:07:31.065,0:07:35.108 The blinds went down all over the building[br]about a week before landing 0:07:35.362,0:07:38.358 and they didn't go up[br]until we went off Mars time. 0:07:39.027,0:07:42.114 So this also works[br]for the house, for at home. 0:07:42.361,0:07:44.945 So I've been on Mars time three times,[br]and my husband is like, okay, 0:07:45.313,0:07:47.305 we're getting ready for Mars time. 0:07:47.345,0:07:52.678 And so he'll put foil all over the windows[br]and dark curtains and shades 0:07:53.229,0:07:56.011 because it also affects your families. 0:07:56.315,0:08:00.961 And so here I was living in kind of [br]his darkened environment but so was he, 0:08:01.821,0:08:03.177 and he'd gotten used to it, 0:08:03.230,0:08:06.512 but then I would get these plaintive[br]emails from him when he was at work. 0:08:07.361,0:08:13.397 Should I come home? Are you awake?[br]What time is it on Mars? 0:08:13.807,0:08:16.198 And I decided, okay,[br]so he needs a Mars watch. 0:08:16.409,0:08:17.767 (Laughter) 0:08:18.166,0:08:22.358 But of course, it's 2016,[br]so there's an app for that. 0:08:23.549,0:08:28.005 So now instead of the watches,[br]we can also use our phones. 0:08:28.833,0:08:32.624 But the impact on families[br]was just across the board, 0:08:32.936,0:08:36.178 it wasn't just those of us[br]who were working on the rovers 0:08:36.542,0:08:38.656 but our families as well. 0:08:38.835,0:08:40.990 This is David O,[br]one of our flight directors, 0:08:41.399,0:08:45.174 and he's at the beach in Los Angeles[br]with his family at 1:00 in the morning. 0:08:47.246,0:08:50.156 So because we landed in August 0:08:50.348,0:08:54.249 and his kids didn't have to[br]go back to school until September, 0:08:54.684,0:08:59.048 they actually went on to Mars time[br]with him for one month. 0:08:59.462,0:09:03.689 They got up 40 minutes later every day 0:09:04.273,0:09:06.467 and they were on dad's work schedule. 0:09:06.661,0:09:10.388 So they lived on Mars time for a month[br]and had these great adventures, 0:09:10.388,0:09:12.527 like going bowling[br]in the middle of the night 0:09:12.527,0:09:14.135 or going to the beach. 0:09:14.510,0:09:17.318 And one of the things[br]that we all discovered 0:09:17.722,0:09:20.952 is you can get anywhere in Los Angeles 0:09:21.663,0:09:25.215 at 3:00 in the morning[br]when there's no traffic. 0:09:26.693,0:09:28.934 So we would get off work and we -- 0:09:28.934,0:09:31.420 we didn't want to go home[br]and bother our families -- 0:09:31.420,0:09:32.444 and we were hungry, 0:09:32.444,0:09:34.652 so instead of going locally[br]to eat something, we'd go, 0:09:34.752,0:09:37.693 wait, there's this great[br]all-night deli in Long Beach, 0:09:37.803,0:09:40.095 and we can get there in 10 minutes. 0:09:40.339,0:09:42.863 So we would drive down --[br]it was like the 60s, no traffic. 0:09:43.096,0:09:45.963 So we would drive down there,[br]and the restaurant owners would go, 0:09:46.682,0:09:48.745 Who are you people? 0:09:49.409,0:09:53.054 And why are you at my restaurant[br]at 3:00 in the morning? 0:09:54.191,0:09:58.014 So they came to realize that[br]there were these packs of Martians, 0:09:59.564,0:10:04.002 roaming the LA freeways,[br]in the middle of the night, 0:10:05.936,0:10:07.890 in the middle of the Earth night. 0:10:07.983,0:10:11.824 And we did actually[br]start calling ourselves Martians. 0:10:13.296,0:10:17.444 So those of us who were on Mars time[br]would refer to ourselves as Martians 0:10:18.178,0:10:20.934 and everyone else as Earthlings. 0:10:22.578,0:10:27.338 And that's because when you're moving[br]a time-zone every day, 0:10:28.265,0:10:33.759 you start to really feel separated[br]from everyone else. 0:10:34.145,0:10:37.590 You're literally in your own world. 0:10:38.765,0:10:45.854 So I have this button on that says,[br]"I survived Mars time. Sol 0-90" 0:10:45.928,0:10:48.203 and there's a picture of it[br]up on the screen. 0:10:48.697,0:10:53.312 So the reason we got these buttons[br]is because we work on Mars time 0:10:54.131,0:10:59.158 in order to be as efficient as possible [br]with the rover on Mars, 0:10:59.271,0:11:01.763 to make the best use of our time. 0:11:01.802,0:11:05.348 But we don't stay on Mars time[br]for more than three to four months. 0:11:05.586,0:11:10.124 Eventually, we'll move to a modified Mars[br]time, which is what we're working now. 0:11:10.379,0:11:14.937 And that's because it's hard on[br]your bodies, it's hard on your families. 0:11:15.243,0:11:19.611 In fact, there were sleep researchers[br]who actually were studying us 0:11:20.144,0:11:24.993 because it was so unusual for humans[br]to try to extend their day. 0:11:25.139,0:11:29.455 And they had about 30 of us that they[br]would do sleep deprivation experiments on. 0:11:30.334,0:11:33.637 So I would come in and take the test[br]and I fell asleep in each one, 0:11:34.049,0:11:37.705 and that was because again,[br]this was so, eventually 0:11:38.063,0:11:40.655 it becomes hard on your body. 0:11:40.923,0:11:44.359 Even though it was a blast. Right? 0:11:44.464,0:11:48.070 It was a huge bonding experience with[br]the other members on the team, 0:11:48.587,0:11:51.351 but it is difficult to sustain. 0:11:52.329,0:11:58.153 So these rover missions are our[br]first steps out into the solar system. 0:11:58.563,0:12:03.283 We are learning how to live[br]on more than one planet. 0:12:03.629,0:12:08.390 We are changing our perspective[br]to become multi-planetary. 0:12:08.901,0:12:11.590 So the next time you see[br]a Star Wars movie, 0:12:11.933,0:12:15.097 and there are people going from[br]the Dagobah system to Tatooine, 0:12:15.675,0:12:20.774 think about what it really means to have[br]people spread out so far. 0:12:21.104,0:12:24.015 What it means in terms of[br]the distances between them, 0:12:24.202,0:12:27.518 how they will start to feel[br]separate from each other, 0:12:27.935,0:12:31.572 and just the logistics of the time. 0:12:32.133,0:12:35.758 We have not sent people to Mars yet,[br]but we hope to. 0:12:36.459,0:12:40.285 And between companies like SpaceX and NASA 0:12:40.542,0:12:43.808 and all of the international[br]space agencies of the world, 0:12:43.975,0:12:47.325 we hope to do that[br]in the next few decades. 0:12:47.711,0:12:53.696 So soon we will have people on Mars[br]and we truly will be multi-planetary. 0:12:54.045,0:12:57.621 And the young boy or the young girl[br]who are the people 0:12:57.989,0:13:03.563 who will be going to Mars could be[br]in this audience or listening today. 0:13:04.385,0:13:09.376 I have wanted to work at JPL[br]on these missions since I was 14-years-old 0:13:09.864,0:13:11.980 and I am privileged to be a part of it. 0:13:12.171,0:13:15.563 And this is a remarkable time[br]in the space program, 0:13:16.188,0:13:19.266 and we are all in this journey together. 0:13:19.453,0:13:24.117 So the next time you think[br]you don't have enough time in your day, 0:13:24.810,0:13:28.988 just remember, it's all a matter[br]of your Earthly perspective. 0:13:29.320,0:13:31.450 Thank you.