What time is it on Mars?

So many of you have probably seen
the movie "The Martian."

But for those of you who did not,
it's a movie about an astronaut

who is stranded on Mars
and his efforts to stay alive

until the Earth can send a rescue mission
to bring him back to Earth.

Gladly, they do re-establish communication
with the character, astronaut Watney,

at some point, so that he's not as alone
on Mars until he can be rescued.

So while you're watching the movie,
and even if you haven't,

when you think about Mars,
you're probably thinking about

how far away it is and how distant.

And, what might not
have occurred to you is,

what are the logistics really like
of working on another planet?

Of living on two planets when

there are people on the Earth and
there are rovers or people on Mars?

So think about when you have friends,
families and co-workers in California,

on the West Coast
or in other parts of the world.

When you're trying to communicate
with them, one of the things

you probably first think about is --

Wait, what time is it in California?

Will I wake them up? Is it okay to call?

So even if you're interacting
with colleagues who are in Europe,

you're immediately thinking about,

what does it take to coordinate
communication when people are far away?

So we don't have people on Mars right now,
but we do have rovers.

And actually right now, on Curiosity,
it is 6:10 in the morning on Mars.

We have four rovers on Mars.
The United States has put four rovers

on Mars since the mid-1990s,

and I have been privileged enough
to work on three of them.

So, I am a spacecraft engineer,
a spacecraft operations engineer,

at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Los Angeles, California.