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American Morning
Mars Pictures
Aired January 09, 2004 - 09:34 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: The Mars rover continues to send postcards from the Red Planet back here to Earth. This photo released yesterday, taken by the panoramic camera on the Spirit rover. What is NASA been learning from the 3-D views on Mars.
Denton Ebel, assistant curator of the Meteorites Museum of Natural History here in New York City, joining us for a bit more perspective.
Nice to see you, Denton. Good morning to you.
I want to put the picture on our screen here. What are you seeing when you see these picture back from Mars?
DENTON EBEL, ASST. CURATOR, METEORITES MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Well, we know that there was water on Mars once. How much water, we don't know. And the nature of these ponded deposits is going to tell us what that water -- how much water there was, and how these rocks got in this crater, perhaps some by water, some by ejection from craters, and we're not sure what the balance of those forces is on Mars, and that's what we're going to learn, one of the things we'll learn from this rover.
HEMMER: And we know the rover is going to descend from the lander at some point, maybe several days, perhaps longer than that. I know you know the news out of the White House about the president's speech next week, expected on Wednesday. What would human kind gain from a visit to Mars?
EBEL: Well, Mars is a mirror of earth. Mars once looked like Earth looked at some point in its history, and Mars may be the future of all terrestrial planets, way far in the future. And so we learn a lot about our own planet by studying weather systems, geology on other planets. One of the other important things that we're learning about is the possibility of life on Mars, and we follow the water to find out whether there might have been life on Mars once, and this is a fundamental question humans have had for a long time.
HEMMER: Let me ask you a personal question here a little bit here. I know you're a scientist but would you support the trip to put a man on Mars?
EBEL: I support a trip to put a man on Mars, yes.
HEMMER: And tell me why. EBEL: Because I think it -- space exploration represents a progressive and optimistic view of humans and our place in the cosmos, and I think we're growing up as a species, and this is part of it, exploring our environment, not just across our oceans, and into our atmosphere through flight, but throughout our solar system. Once we have the capability, I think this is part of our destiny as a species.
HEMMER: Enjoy the pictures. I know you are already. Denton Ebel, thanks, here in New York City. Appreciate it.
EBEL: Yes, I am.
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 9, 2004 - 09:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The Mars rover continues to send postcards from the Red Planet back here to Earth. This photo released yesterday, taken by the panoramic camera on the Spirit rover. What is NASA been learning from the 3-D views on Mars.
Denton Ebel, assistant curator of the Meteorites Museum of Natural History here in New York City, joining us for a bit more perspective.
Nice to see you, Denton. Good morning to you.
I want to put the picture on our screen here. What are you seeing when you see these picture back from Mars?
DENTON EBEL, ASST. CURATOR, METEORITES MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Well, we know that there was water on Mars once. How much water, we don't know. And the nature of these ponded deposits is going to tell us what that water -- how much water there was, and how these rocks got in this crater, perhaps some by water, some by ejection from craters, and we're not sure what the balance of those forces is on Mars, and that's what we're going to learn, one of the things we'll learn from this rover.
HEMMER: And we know the rover is going to descend from the lander at some point, maybe several days, perhaps longer than that. I know you know the news out of the White House about the president's speech next week, expected on Wednesday. What would human kind gain from a visit to Mars?
EBEL: Well, Mars is a mirror of earth. Mars once looked like Earth looked at some point in its history, and Mars may be the future of all terrestrial planets, way far in the future. And so we learn a lot about our own planet by studying weather systems, geology on other planets. One of the other important things that we're learning about is the possibility of life on Mars, and we follow the water to find out whether there might have been life on Mars once, and this is a fundamental question humans have had for a long time.
HEMMER: Let me ask you a personal question here a little bit here. I know you're a scientist but would you support the trip to put a man on Mars?
EBEL: I support a trip to put a man on Mars, yes.
HEMMER: And tell me why. EBEL: Because I think it -- space exploration represents a progressive and optimistic view of humans and our place in the cosmos, and I think we're growing up as a species, and this is part of it, exploring our environment, not just across our oceans, and into our atmosphere through flight, but throughout our solar system. Once we have the capability, I think this is part of our destiny as a species.
HEMMER: Enjoy the pictures. I know you are already. Denton Ebel, thanks, here in New York City. Appreciate it.
EBEL: Yes, I am.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
