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American Morning

Mars Close-Ups

Aired January 06, 2004 - 09:35   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: NASA scientists have picked the first target for exploration by their Mars Probe, the Spirit. They want to send the rover to a dusty depression that's just about 40 feet from where the Spirit landed. The target was picked right after the probe sent back a three-dimensional view of the landing area, and that left scientists breathless. So what are we learning from the Mars landing and scenes from the Red Planet so far?
Joining us this morning from Miami is Jack Horkheimer. He is the director of the Miami Planetarium. He's also the host of the PBS show "Stargazer."

Good morning to you, Jack. Nice to see you.

JACK HORKHEIMER, DIR., MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: OK, so a perfect landing. You and I both know that is not always the case. Something like 19 out of the last 30 space missions to Mars have ended in a big expensive failure. Why do you think this one worked? Do you think it was just sheer luck at this point?

HORKHEIMER: Not luck. It was a lot of hard work and a little more money than we had in the last two that didn't work. As you said earlier, any landing like this is a good landing, even if it's bumpy.

I would call this the off-planet ultimate reality show. If people who are really hooked on reality shows want to see something real, this is the thing to stay tuned in, because the science experiments onboard this lander are the most sophisticated we've ever sent to another planet.

Back in 1976, the Viking landed on Mars for the first time for the bicentennial. One of the major scientists, Gerald Soft (ph), was bemoaning the fact that there was no microscope on board. Well, there is a microscope onboard this lander, and on Opportunity, which will land in three weeks. And that microscope may finally give us some real answers about whether or not Mars was ever warm and wet, had a lot of water, rather than what it is now. Because right now, Mars is a cold, very, very cold, very dry desert world.

O'BRIEN: Let me jump in here, because I want to ask you a question about that in just a moment. But before we do that, I want to talk about this Gusev (ph) Crater. Pretty much, that's where Spirit landed. So why is it going to take a week before you'll be able to explore that area? Why so long? HORKHEIMER: Well, you have to get the lander completely checked out, and it takes time. Remember, we got to recharge those batteries every day on the lander. And you're going to have to test each instrument. There are several sophisticated science packages onboard this. So they're going to do slow, sure testing before they cut the umbilical cord and retract the parachutes and let the lander start to do its job of moving about the planet. So, it's going to take five or six, seven days before everything is A-okay. And then, once you got all systems checked, then it's going to be a go.

O'BRIEN: You mentioned a moment ago about that sort of detective mission, trying to figure out. Mars now, as you say, a cold, dry place, but was it sort of a warm, moist place at one point. Why is it so important to know the answer to that question?

HORKHEIMER: Everywhere on Earth where there is water, we find life, no matter how hot the water is, the deepest sea vents at the bottom of the ocean, or the water, no matter how cold it is in Antarctica. And we think that in order for life to ever get its start, we need to have water.

And many scientists believe that where we've landed in Gusev Crater, was once a huge crater lake. It's 100 miles wide. It's kind of like a huge version of maybe the Lake Tahoe of Mars.

O'BRIEN: I want to ask you a quick question before I let you go. How important is the success of the Spirit to the overall success of the space program? Obviously, we are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster.

HORKHEIMER: This is really important, Soledad. See, if this is a success, the opportunity is a success, it means we will be going back to Mars roughly every two years. And this is just opening up a whole new world, a whole new frontier, and I think this is one of the most exciting times to be alive in the history of humanity.

O'BRIEN: Jack Horkheimer, joining us this morning. It's nice to see you. Thanks a lot for being with us.

HORKHEIMER: Keep lookin' up.

O'BRIEN: As he always says.

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 January 6, 2004 - 09:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: NASA scientists have picked the first target for exploration by their Mars Probe, the Spirit. They want to send the rover to a dusty depression that's just about 40 feet from where the Spirit landed. The target was picked right after the probe sent back a three-dimensional view of the landing area, and that left scientists breathless. So what are we learning from the Mars landing and scenes from the Red Planet so far?
Joining us this morning from Miami is Jack Horkheimer. He is the director of the Miami Planetarium. He's also the host of the PBS show "Stargazer."

Good morning to you, Jack. Nice to see you.

JACK HORKHEIMER, DIR., MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: OK, so a perfect landing. You and I both know that is not always the case. Something like 19 out of the last 30 space missions to Mars have ended in a big expensive failure. Why do you think this one worked? Do you think it was just sheer luck at this point?

HORKHEIMER: Not luck. It was a lot of hard work and a little more money than we had in the last two that didn't work. As you said earlier, any landing like this is a good landing, even if it's bumpy.

I would call this the off-planet ultimate reality show. If people who are really hooked on reality shows want to see something real, this is the thing to stay tuned in, because the science experiments onboard this lander are the most sophisticated we've ever sent to another planet.

Back in 1976, the Viking landed on Mars for the first time for the bicentennial. One of the major scientists, Gerald Soft (ph), was bemoaning the fact that there was no microscope on board. Well, there is a microscope onboard this lander, and on Opportunity, which will land in three weeks. And that microscope may finally give us some real answers about whether or not Mars was ever warm and wet, had a lot of water, rather than what it is now. Because right now, Mars is a cold, very, very cold, very dry desert world.

O'BRIEN: Let me jump in here, because I want to ask you a question about that in just a moment. But before we do that, I want to talk about this Gusev (ph) Crater. Pretty much, that's where Spirit landed. So why is it going to take a week before you'll be able to explore that area? Why so long? HORKHEIMER: Well, you have to get the lander completely checked out, and it takes time. Remember, we got to recharge those batteries every day on the lander. And you're going to have to test each instrument. There are several sophisticated science packages onboard this. So they're going to do slow, sure testing before they cut the umbilical cord and retract the parachutes and let the lander start to do its job of moving about the planet. So, it's going to take five or six, seven days before everything is A-okay. And then, once you got all systems checked, then it's going to be a go.

O'BRIEN: You mentioned a moment ago about that sort of detective mission, trying to figure out. Mars now, as you say, a cold, dry place, but was it sort of a warm, moist place at one point. Why is it so important to know the answer to that question?

HORKHEIMER: Everywhere on Earth where there is water, we find life, no matter how hot the water is, the deepest sea vents at the bottom of the ocean, or the water, no matter how cold it is in Antarctica. And we think that in order for life to ever get its start, we need to have water.

And many scientists believe that where we've landed in Gusev Crater, was once a huge crater lake. It's 100 miles wide. It's kind of like a huge version of maybe the Lake Tahoe of Mars.

O'BRIEN: I want to ask you a quick question before I let you go. How important is the success of the Spirit to the overall success of the space program? Obviously, we are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster.

HORKHEIMER: This is really important, Soledad. See, if this is a success, the opportunity is a success, it means we will be going back to Mars roughly every two years. And this is just opening up a whole new world, a whole new frontier, and I think this is one of the most exciting times to be alive in the history of humanity.

O'BRIEN: Jack Horkheimer, joining us this morning. It's nice to see you. Thanks a lot for being with us.

HORKHEIMER: Keep lookin' up.

O'BRIEN: As he always says.

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