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American Morning

Interview With Michael Shara

Aired February 12, 2004 - 07:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Even on Mars, it's a lot cooler in the shade, so cold, in fact, that NASA scientists had to keep the Spirit rover parked yesterday. Meanwhile, halfway across the red planet, Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity, still sending back pictures of its surroundings.
Michael Shara from the Museum of Natural History here in New York back to talk about all this with us.

Nice to see you, Mike.

Good morning to you.

MICHAEL SHARA, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: A pleasure to be here.

HEMMER: The chill on Mars, we know it's cold.

How cold and how does that impede the movement of Spirit?

SHARA: It can get down to about 130 degrees below zero at night and...

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SHARA: ... if you've ever tried starting your car in really cold weather, you know how tough it is to move. You've got to charge up the batteries. You've got to get all the motors running. Those temperatures make it really tough.

HEMMER: Is this a setback or is this something that is just a temporary stall, in a manner of speaking?

SHARA: No, it just gets cold at night. And the engineers knew that. And that's the way it is. So occasionally you have to wait, you have to wait for things to defrost. During the day, it heats up to a balmy 10 or 15 degrees. And once that happens, you can move around and do whatever you want.

HEMMER: Now, Spirit is moving. We know it went a certain distance the other day, and perhaps it will go again.

SHARA: Right.

HEMMER: That's probably great for technology, but does that indicate anything about science on Mars? SHARA: It certainly, well, it certainly means that the engineers now know how to move the rover with more and more autonomy. They're giving the rover the ability to move by itself, move over to rocks that look interesting, start to take samples. And by being able to go further, they can sample more different kinds of rocks and soils.

HEMMER: OK, there are a couple images we want to look at here. Robert E., a rock formation, compared to or also known as berries in a muffin.

SHARA: Right.

HEMMER: What are we seeing here, Mike?

SHARA: Well, the berries themselves are probably little spheres of glass that were created either by meteoritic impact or by volcanic eruptions. As the hot magma is tossed up into the air it forms these little spheres, which are then picked up in the rock, compacted, and then as the rock starts to come apart, the berries, if you will, are released into the soil. That's what we're saying.

HEMMER: Here's another image for you, stone mountain, taken by the arm of Opportunity.

What do we see here?

SHARA: Well, there's a rock that's clearly made of layers. Understanding what it's all about, what it's made of, is one of the goals now, being able to drill into the rock, fire particles at it, alpha particles, see what the thing is made of, what the minerals are like, that's what's going on now. And the Spirit and Opportunity are doing more and more of that.

HEMMER: Remind you of Stone Mountain, Georgia in the air?

SHARA: I haven't been there.

HEMMER: Just a little bit, though, if you ever come in on an airplane.

There's another image here from Opportunity. It's the back shell and parachute. This is the picture that you find the most intriguing.

Why?

SHARA: When you look back, you see where the lander came down and this is actually superimposed with a second image, which is the crater. That's in the top right of the picture now. And that little white dot on the center of the crater is actually the lander itself. This is a picture taken from orbit. And then back on the bottom left is the parachute.

So we've now got the landing site down to within a foot on Mars. We know precisely where it is and have been able to look back and really see that lander.

HEMMER: Boy, that is...

SHARA: I think it's an exquisite image.

HEMMER: That is absolutely remarkable the way you describe it.

Quickly, in the time we have left here, you used to work on the Hubble space telescope. There's a huge argument within NASA right now...

SHARA: Right.

HEMMER: ... whether or not a manned mission should go to Hubble and exact repairs in space. You believe it's extremely important to do this, but a lot of administrators within NASA do not feel the same way.

Why do you believe it's so critical to keep this telescope operating?

SHARA: The Hubble telescope has demonstrated to us that the universe is not just expanding but accelerating, allowed us to measure with exquisite precision its age. It showed us the places where stars physically collide inside clusters, show us planets and stars in the process of formation. It is, to my mind, with the other great observatories, amongst the best things that NASA has done in the last 20 or 30 years.

HEMMER: Think you'll win your argument?

SHARA: I hope so. I think that there is a serious review going on. It's probably doable. I'd really love to see it happen.

HEMMER: Michael Shara, come back any time, OK?

SHARA: A pleasure.

HEMMER: Always good to talk to you.

SHARA: Thanks, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 12, 2004 - 07:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Even on Mars, it's a lot cooler in the shade, so cold, in fact, that NASA scientists had to keep the Spirit rover parked yesterday. Meanwhile, halfway across the red planet, Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity, still sending back pictures of its surroundings.
Michael Shara from the Museum of Natural History here in New York back to talk about all this with us.

Nice to see you, Mike.

Good morning to you.

MICHAEL SHARA, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: A pleasure to be here.

HEMMER: The chill on Mars, we know it's cold.

How cold and how does that impede the movement of Spirit?

SHARA: It can get down to about 130 degrees below zero at night and...

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SHARA: ... if you've ever tried starting your car in really cold weather, you know how tough it is to move. You've got to charge up the batteries. You've got to get all the motors running. Those temperatures make it really tough.

HEMMER: Is this a setback or is this something that is just a temporary stall, in a manner of speaking?

SHARA: No, it just gets cold at night. And the engineers knew that. And that's the way it is. So occasionally you have to wait, you have to wait for things to defrost. During the day, it heats up to a balmy 10 or 15 degrees. And once that happens, you can move around and do whatever you want.

HEMMER: Now, Spirit is moving. We know it went a certain distance the other day, and perhaps it will go again.

SHARA: Right.

HEMMER: That's probably great for technology, but does that indicate anything about science on Mars? SHARA: It certainly, well, it certainly means that the engineers now know how to move the rover with more and more autonomy. They're giving the rover the ability to move by itself, move over to rocks that look interesting, start to take samples. And by being able to go further, they can sample more different kinds of rocks and soils.

HEMMER: OK, there are a couple images we want to look at here. Robert E., a rock formation, compared to or also known as berries in a muffin.

SHARA: Right.

HEMMER: What are we seeing here, Mike?

SHARA: Well, the berries themselves are probably little spheres of glass that were created either by meteoritic impact or by volcanic eruptions. As the hot magma is tossed up into the air it forms these little spheres, which are then picked up in the rock, compacted, and then as the rock starts to come apart, the berries, if you will, are released into the soil. That's what we're saying.

HEMMER: Here's another image for you, stone mountain, taken by the arm of Opportunity.

What do we see here?

SHARA: Well, there's a rock that's clearly made of layers. Understanding what it's all about, what it's made of, is one of the goals now, being able to drill into the rock, fire particles at it, alpha particles, see what the thing is made of, what the minerals are like, that's what's going on now. And the Spirit and Opportunity are doing more and more of that.

HEMMER: Remind you of Stone Mountain, Georgia in the air?

SHARA: I haven't been there.

HEMMER: Just a little bit, though, if you ever come in on an airplane.

There's another image here from Opportunity. It's the back shell and parachute. This is the picture that you find the most intriguing.

Why?

SHARA: When you look back, you see where the lander came down and this is actually superimposed with a second image, which is the crater. That's in the top right of the picture now. And that little white dot on the center of the crater is actually the lander itself. This is a picture taken from orbit. And then back on the bottom left is the parachute.

So we've now got the landing site down to within a foot on Mars. We know precisely where it is and have been able to look back and really see that lander.

HEMMER: Boy, that is...

SHARA: I think it's an exquisite image.

HEMMER: That is absolutely remarkable the way you describe it.

Quickly, in the time we have left here, you used to work on the Hubble space telescope. There's a huge argument within NASA right now...

SHARA: Right.

HEMMER: ... whether or not a manned mission should go to Hubble and exact repairs in space. You believe it's extremely important to do this, but a lot of administrators within NASA do not feel the same way.

Why do you believe it's so critical to keep this telescope operating?

SHARA: The Hubble telescope has demonstrated to us that the universe is not just expanding but accelerating, allowed us to measure with exquisite precision its age. It showed us the places where stars physically collide inside clusters, show us planets and stars in the process of formation. It is, to my mind, with the other great observatories, amongst the best things that NASA has done in the last 20 or 30 years.

HEMMER: Think you'll win your argument?

SHARA: I hope so. I think that there is a serious review going on. It's probably doable. I'd really love to see it happen.

HEMMER: Michael Shara, come back any time, OK?

SHARA: A pleasure.

HEMMER: Always good to talk to you.

SHARA: Thanks, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com