spacecraft began collecting data on the asteroid thursday the same day as the furniture forum of 2011. panelists including nasa scientists and engineers talked about the future of the agency and moving forward in tough economic times. from the university of maryland in college park, this is an hour. >> i want to start by saying a simple fact and that is this the greatest achievements, the greatest things we do as individuals or as a society really began with dreams, some thought of something we may view as unachievable but worth thinking about and worst training about and as our capabilities evolves and we become smarter as technologies are brought forth these streams evolves into aspirations we are all of a sudden or not of a sudden but in the time it's not

so crazy to think about going to the moon or going to mars or looking at a distant stars and the edges of the universe so they become aspirations to get some to maybe one day shoot for and as we continue to become smarter or develop market devotees and technologies the next step in this continuum is the pursuit, the aspirations become pursuits, something we can go after and said aris light on the golan and focus efforts and work towards the realization of the goals. finally the last step in the sequence is the achievement. we go from dreams to aspirations to pursue to achievement, and i believe that sequence has been borne out time and time again at nasa in the past and is being borne out in the present and will be borne out in the future. one great thing about

achievements is the lead to new dreams come up so the cycle can just keep coming to me i would say the sky's the limit of the universe is the limit and i don't even think that is the limit. we will learn as we go. so, nasa has a history of producing a credible achievements and these are not just human achievements in exploration and taking people to places that for most of humankind was thought to be impossible to read these are scientific achievements, the discovery about our surroundings, about the earth, about the universe. the administrator listed a number of achievements in either the last couple of months or the coming few months, but the last six months of this year really is incredible with two missions to study the earth commissions to study the interior of the moon we are on our way to jupiter now and we are going to be exploring mars in ways that

we haven't been able to to date and we are in order of the asteroid, learned about the origins of the solar system. we recently entered or around mercury in february we were launching an x-ray telescope to look out further than has been looked before with an x-ray, astronomy. this is over the course of mabey and eight month or nine month period. i would say this is a period of great achievement with many that lie ahead and when i think about the science of two words come to mind, inspiration and and service. i think what nasa does is inspirational. i think it speaks to the very core of who we are as human beings. ..

>> we've discussed methane lakes and rivers on the surface, we've discovered at least great -- strong indications of liquid water on mars. we are understanding our own planet, how it functions, how it's changing, and what those changes mean for life on earth. that gets to the second element. i said inspirational, the second is service. the science that we do helps us understand not just the stuff that we dream about, but where

we live. and the second aspect of the human spirit besides exploration is the desire, the need, the hunger to survive. not just survive, but thrive in our own environment. surviving or thriving, depends if you are a pessimist or optimist is thriving in the changing environment requiring information. requires the perspective and scale and context of observation that comes from looking from space. you know, i'm sure nearly all of you have seen the earth rise image of the earth hanging -- well, floating -- actually floating isn't the right word. being in the darkness and silence of space. and that picture really changed how we view our planet. as did the pale blue dot image.

that perfective, understanding how the earth works, interacting components, will not only allow us to survive in the face of the changes that our planet faces, but really thrive. really make the most of the evolution of our planet. so in that sense, science at nasa both inspires and serves human kind. and what pursuit could be greater, frankly, i think it's fitting that we're here at the university. because i often compare investing in nasa science and exploration to investing in college. you know, we are in difficult economic times. but any parent that has scraped to save money, despite hard times to send their child or children to school for a brighter, better future understands what we do at nasa for the nation and for the world. with that, i'll pass it over to

laurie. thank you. [applause] [applause] >> thanks, wally. good morning, everybody. thank you. gentleman, i am here representing human exploration, and i am here to report that reports of our death has been greatly exaggerated. in fact, i'm here to declare that the next phase of human exploration is upon us. and we at nasa are here to make that next phase a reality. i just like to talk with you today a little bit about where we are going in the future with human exploration. as we go we will be building on extraordinary legacy. the legacy of apollo, perhaps the greatest achievement of the last century of humankind. the legacy of the space shuttle program, which we successfully brought to a close only weeks

ago with an extraordinary mission, final mission of the space shuts to the international space station. how many people wanted the launch? anybody go? right on. i was privileged to be there. it was a special time. and we owe extraordinary kudos and that team deserves a kudos, all the the kudos that we can give them. the program takes stride and achievement. it has been extraordinary. we are looking towards the future, as charlie said. it was time to retire the shuttle and move forward. we will be going farther. we will be going beyond where the shuttle could go, beyond leo, beyond low earth orbit, we will be going to as -- asteroids

and mars, why? well, one there's so much to know about these places. asteroids can teach us incredible things about the birth of our solar system. they are the remnants of the cloud of material of which the sun and planet swarmed. they are the oldest rocks. we can use them to unravel the householder systems, and even how things like the organic material that we are all made of were delivered to the conforming planets. in addition, asteroids can have a countereffect on life on our planet as we know. and anyone who loves dinosaurs knows that these objects occasionally intersect the orbit of the earth when the earth is sitting there. they can cause major changes in life on our planet and have done

so. in fact, one might argue, and a lot of people have that we are here today as a result of an asteroid impact. we would not like not go the way of the dinosaurs, but understand how to prevent it. after an interesting object scientificically, from a hazard perspective, who knows, maybe we can help save the world by explores them. mars is one of our future destinations for humans. it's compelling. with a long history of holding a special place in humanities dreams for exploration. i believe it's our best chance to discover life on another world. you all heard about the great water cover relast week. potential for flowing water even today on mars. it's my opinion that we're going to need human explorers to go and definitively answer about whether there has been or is life on mars. that's an extraordinary scientific reason to go.

and in addition long periods of stay for humans away from earth, mars seems like a logical place to go do that. so we do it because there's so many to know. we also do it because it's pushing the boundaries of what's possible is part of our dna as human beings, and it's part of the -- the dna of our country, that i would say. it's part of american dna. we're going to continue to push beyond where we have been before. and also because under taking audacious challengeses like saying we're going to send humans to mars drives our nation to strive and invent and ultimately prosper. i truly believe we must take on challenges as a country in order to continue to drive forward and prosper. so how are we going to do this? how are we going to create the future for human space flight when so many people are saying there's no program? i'm here to tell you, there's a great program. we actually have all of the

pieces in place in the programs that we are putting together to under take the next phase of human exploration. we have those phases in place, thanks to congress that passed the authorization act and to the administration who supported that. those -- what are those elements? it's three pieces to the future program of human exploration. they start close to hope in low earth orbit with the international space station and extension until 2020. it's the laboratory, astronauts are there, it's been occupied for 11 years and we intend to keep it going for another decade. we are use it in ever expanding ways, ply it with cargo and ultimately crew using innovative approaches partnering with the private sector for new ways for nasa to create new industries and new commercial opportunity so not in the traditional nasa program sense which we can talk

about more in the q and a. in developing a service. that service is available to more than just nasa. it's a great opportunity to expand separation explore -- space exploration. next is beyond. the new thing about doing the great innovative resources, it's a resource for nasa to focus on beyond the low earth orbit. nasa should be focusing. we know we need a capsule and big rocket. we are starting on those right away. they are in formulation right now. actually starting to be constructed. and third we need research and we need to develop technologies and new capabilities in order to go beyond low earth orbit. in addition to the castle and we are working on those as well. there are hard questions that we need to answer about human survivallability on long

spaceships beyond earth. there are new habitats, new kinds of propulsion, new kinds of space walking suits, new kinds of shuttle craft to maybe fly asteroids -- or fly astronauts around the asteroids. we had a new question on twitter about the new kinds of technology. those are some new kinds of system that we need as we go beyond low earth orbit. the rocket and capsule are necessary, they are not sufficient for us to get there. we need to invent a lot of other things as well. i'm bobby will say more. we have all of the those elements in our programs now. we have all of the different pieces. the low earth worth -- orbit, and rocket and castle. we need to follow through on driving all of those things. but i want to close by saying having cool destinations and having the various pieces isn't enough to make the operation

become reality. making this endeavor a reality is going to require inventing something that's more challenging that inventing new technologies or new systems. i think it's going to require inventing a new way of operating for nasa and for our community. it's going to require inventing new ways of collaborating, new ways of exploring. we need to collaborate across different parts of nasa. science and exploration working together. we need to collaborate in new ways with the private sector, like we are trying to do. but even in the nasa programs, we need to work differently with the private sector colleagues. we need to collaborate with other nations in new and expanded ways. we need to collaborate with universities to make sure we are getting the best of the brightest students and the best research possible. we probably need to collaborate with the public in the ways we haven't collaborated with them before. we need to create a worldwide

exploration movement in order to make this aspiration a reality. my request of all of you today is to think about how you can help us do that. talk to us, tell us ways we can help create the worldwide exploration movement. tell us how to do that with you. worry less about who's going to build it or what the rocket exactly is going to look like. and more about how we create the coalition of human beings who won't rest until a person is walking on mars or even going beyond that. and let's just think about that for a moment. what is that moment going to feel like as that first astronaut sets foot on mars? he shakes that red soil from her boots -- >> i like that. >> i hope you all will remember this day that we all rededicate yourselves to working together to enable an amazing future for nasa. thanks. [applause] >> and now i turn it over to my

dear friend, bobby brown. >> thank you. thank you both. remind me not to try to speak after you two again. [laughter] >> i want to start out by just making a couple of remarks. i guess the best way for me to say this is to say that i love being affiliated with nasa. i'm an engineer who has dreamed of building things and had the privilege of actually working on some flight systems in my career who's been transplanted here to washington. and i love being affiliated with nasa. and i've been thinking about why that is. and the reason, i think, is because nasa to me is a little microcosm that is the best. we are a nation that's not

satisfied with status quo. we are always trying to out innovate ourselves. we can always do it better in this country. we are never there. sure, there are physical challenges that our country faces today. but this country still remains the land of opportunity. and when i look at nasa, those are the exact same characteristics that i see for our future. by the way, those are the same characteristics, that mentality, that approach, that approach to operation is the same characteristics required for success in the 21st century. and in the global technological marketplace that we find ourselves in. we heard some about nasa's future science mission, some of nasa's future human exploration missions. these missions are bold. these missions are grand in stature. and to me, one thing that i'm proud of is that our country can dream big through nasa. now from a technology stand

point, many of the missions that we're accomplishing today are based on engineering principals and on engineering principals and systems that were first demonstrated in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. while we are doing great missions today, and while we will be doing bigger missions in the future, it's imperative that we use the low level and make the technology and investments required for our future. make the basic research and applied research and investments required for the future. when i think of nasa, i think all the way back to the space act. i think of three long standing core competencies. basic and applied research, flight system, that includes software and development and mission to operate. you take any one of those three things out and nasa is not nasa. all three are required. from a budget stand point, they don't all require equal budgets.

that's not what i'm saying. all three have to be nutured. all three have to be at a critical mass. because our technology investments at nasa are motivated by our missions and our missions are only as big as the technologies and capabilities that we have proven. these are integrated core competencies and they are the at core of what makes nasa a special place for our country and special place for the engineers and scientists across the country. i've had the privilege of this past year and a half of representing the folks that are doing the basic in applies research. the technology development that are critical for our nation's future and for our future in space. and i can tell you first -- from first hand accounts these folks have been epicenters in industry, small business, likes university of maryland are thrilled and excited and ready to go. these are contributing today to

our nation's future in space. with the work they are doing, they will come to fruition in the future. now we make technology investments for a number of reasons. we make them as a saying to enable our future in space, to enable the future in exploration missions. we also make the -- the federal government makes the investments because they build the economic competitiveness. we know that dollars -- when the federal government invests dollars in basic and applies research, the economy reaps a multiplier of the dollar that is are invested. just the past few weeks, by the way, there were a bunch of news article out about the human genome and every dollar the federal government invested, in human genome, over $100 were put into the economy. if nasa could get that kind of multipliers, think of what that

would do in terms of people around the country in terms of jobs and the economy. we also invest in technology because it's a way of staying at the cuts edge. universities know this. nasa knows this. that's why there's a strong partnership between universities and them. small business, larger companies they know this as well. it's by pushing boundaries of aeroscience and taking informed risk that the future missions will one day be possible. the 21st century will be won by those who innovate, by those who seek breakthroughs, but those who create that future. i'm here to tell you today that nasa is doing that. nasa is doing that every day. the engineers and scientist were making great strides towards that future. and when we create these missions, the future science missions, future exploration missions, when we create that future in space, i should also point out we improve life every day here on earth.

the technology development that goes into nasa's future space missions are often spun off into new businesses, new products, new services that we utilize every day. in the biomedical industry, the protective armour that our police, firefighters, and military personnel wear. blood flow monitoring, artificial heart, even lasik eye surgeon. even the phone in my friend, joe perish's car. they come from the weather channel and past investments in space. they have certainly improved my life. i'm sure you would agree they have improved yours. when i think about our space program, i first of all as an engineer, i immediately am drawn to the charm of our future missions in science and human exploration. but i'm also reminded that those missions can only be as bold as

our technology -- technological investments that we make today are wise. and they -- without those technological investments, we won't reach where we are trying to go. we will be grasp for that future with older technology that will make it harder to have a sustainable and affordable exploration in the future. like i said, i'm an engineer who believes this passionately. i think it's been a real honor and a service for me to come to nasa and get to represent the engineers and scientists that are going to make the future possible and are making the future possible every day. there's one question that i did want to get to before i pass it on to leyland. it also came in on twitter. and the question that was asked is a very wise question: how do

we ensure that the best ideas are harnessed? everyone has great ideas. i'm sure if i got 10,000 students today, there would be 10,000 great ideas. there are ideas coming in from across the country, they come from universities, small businesses, nasa centers, the one thing i want to mention is we can maybe discuss it more in the future is one the things that nasa is trying to do is engage america in this journey. we can't do this by ourselves. so the technological development that i'm speaking about, the technological development that we need for our future science and exploration mission, they will come from across america. they are come from innovators all around the country. we have to do this in an open and competitive manner. and you see us taking steps that way with some of the solicitations that administrator mentioned in his speech.

he mentioned that nasa institute for advance concepts which this week announced 30 visionary advanced concept awards. those awards, by the way, just happen to be divided about 30% went to the nasa centers, about 30% went to academia and the rest went to small and large businesses around the country. to me, that's a little bit of a proof that there are great ideas everywhere. there are innovators everywhere in this country. one the things that nasa needs to do is engage them. that will enable the future that we seek. thank you. [applause] >> so let me turn it over now to my good friend, mr. leyland. >> thanks, bobby. i'm really excited to be here because my job up in the last eight months have been the associated administrative for

education. and charlie has charged me to help inspire and motivation our next generation of explorers. so all of the missions that wally and laurie is talking about, innovation, we need a technologically and digitally literate work force to make it happen. and it starts at a very early age. usually middle school is where students get turned on and turned off to science. sometimes before that. now i have had two very defining moments in my life at an early age. and the first one was when i turned over a desk in my elementary school class and mrs. martin grabbed my ear and took me to the principal's office and mrs. cronwell, back then you had corporal punishment. i had a hand in my development from the principal. as i walked home, i stopped by my friend butch's house. his mother was a teacher.

they had the telepathy thing. she had a hand. when i got home, i got the real deal from my dad. i say this because it takes a village to raise is child is an african proverb. we are all part to make sure everything in their power to succeed and to be the future technological, the future involve innovators, the future rocket scientist, the future explorers. the only way that we are going to move forward in our society is to allow the village to come together as we are doing here, and have a role in the part in the development of these children. now there's another piece of this -- so that was my first defining moment, showing the community cared about my education, my development,

making sure i'd be a part of a functioning society that does great things. the second defining moment was, i think i was in 8th grade and my mom gave me a chemistry set. this was before osha had, you know, child appropriate age for doing things. so i mixed these two similar chemicals and created a fantastic explosion that orange and white smoke and burned a hole in my mom's carpet and had another hand in my development. this futured my curiosity to become a scientist. i became a chemistry major. the out of school, hands on experiential activity helped me see the excitement in science and engineering. :

we work in programs where we support teachers with curricula, hands-on experience. it's not just for the case. it's for the teachers, too. a couple weeks ago i was in houston at nasa jnc and we flew on the zero g airplane, which we affectionately call amami

commented, but we had 84 k-12 teachers specify research experiment in working groups of four and research experiments they flew on the zero g airplane. and i take down whenever white house to knowledge a policy analyst with me to let him see what our than nasa's unique things we can offer so kids can be motivated and inspired. we all have to figure out what do we uniquely have to offer to show that piece of inspiration. that's what this is all about, this village coming together to share these unique experiences to blow up the road to my moms room to have these defining moments so that they would know that there's something out there for that in the future, the science, the engineering. how many of you in here by show of hands have had a defining moment early in their life that led you to where you are today?

a teacher or an experiment or building a bicycle or doing something with your hands? we have programs that were trying to reach underrepresented in underserved students in having a summer experience because lots of times the summertime is when you get the summers i than the students don't do anything. by the time they get back to school in the fall they have to play catchup again. so this is a program where we reach out to students, but also teachers to give teachers the same types of hands-on experiences. we're looking for current operations with industry, nonprofit, for-profit, other government organizations to see how we can better leverage nasa resources. they can be experts that come into a school or work or giving toward unification are bashing to have the winner fly on the

zero g aircraft are wary student or teacher can actually build the international space station. so these are some of the assets and things we have to we can offer up in a strategic partnership. we have an announcement of opportunity i'm going that you can apply to give a speech agreement with nasa. i'll talk about these things later in the paper this afternoon. one of the other things that we're doing is we have a vision for nasa education to advance high-quality stem education from using nasa unique capabilities. the president and the america competes act of the office of science technology, the paper in january of next year to show how the federal government and the stem fields are working together so we don't duplicate efforts. how many summer camps are doing the same thing with? for many are doing other things?

had we pulled together to make a bigger impact. i want to try to help motivate and inspire enough that nasa education is doing. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you to our panel and our speakers and now is the really great part, an opportunity for me to ask questions of our panelists. we have microphones here in the isles if you'd like to ask a question of one of our panelists, please go to the night. we asked to choose the microphones in her i/o spirit your first question, sir. >> good morning, folks. i have a general question about type knowledge e4 u. at nasa. how much do you think there is a

synergy between green or feel technologies and exploration technologies? how strong do you think this energy is if you think it exists and how much do you put -- how much mental effort you think you guys can come meshed and have invested in making a synergy cornerstone of how you run a technology research? >> at the great question. thank you for that. i think it's very true that the technology investments we make for a future space missions can help us right here on the earth and in particular in energy. i can give you a couple examples. when i was an engineer for on a mission to mars 2001 lane dirt and to be honest with you it never flew. there is a payload on that

mission designed by a university professor at arizona state university. after that was developed he left the university and started a small business. he realized if he took this payload that is designed for her constituents out of morrison rented in reverse, he passed a very efficient system. those are now popping up all over california. their call balloon boxes. for instance, nasa has gotten a new energy-efficient building at the nasa ames research center and it's got boomboxes for some of its power. their google headquarters, ebay had orders. so there's a direct example for you. in your speech the administrator

the spacecraft to go as far as jupiter. it's only able to accomplish its mission because of the high efficiency solar cells that will provide power for the instrument to do that mission. this high-efficiency solar sail took years of investment by nasa to develop in collaboration with business and universities to develop those cells. and those same files can be transferred in some cases and in many cases have been transferred to commercial applications break here in the earth. so those are just a couple examples. but i should also tell you in my role as chief to knowledges, i am working to set up partnerships with other government agencies. i talked with the direct your admin over to d.o.e. and a

number of other agencies that aren't in the energy sector as well. one of the things i've noticed that agencies, we all have different missions. it has a different mission than the d&d. but where we all have commonality is an advanced technology. and so, when nasa make the investment in technology, it creates partnerships across government. and in a way, it makes the pie bigger for all of us. and the fact that nasa is now making technology and essman and is talking about how those investments will help her missions has created some inertia, positive inertia and momentum of this other government agents these, including d.o.e. so i think you'll see nasa continue to make advances in technology and power and

propulsion for in space missions and will continue to transfer those advances to benefit life here on the earth. >> by which is sad one quick thing to that, which is very unique part of this, which is the long-term life support system to sustain a human mission of up to each year to an asteroid or two to three years to mars company must by definition -- you can't take everything with you. you need to live for two or three years. you have to be old to generate or recycle. we're going to have the most efficient recycling system around on the spaceships that we're going to send to these other worlds. and zero, the water systems and other important systems, advanced packaging systems, all kinds of ways this can flow back into our everyday lives when you put humans in that equation. >> were doing a bunch of that today actually.

>> a reminder if you are following us on twitter you can follow the conversation that pound nasa future. you can also send questions to us through the nasa twitter account protect knowledge he@ -underscore technology. we'll take one in the back. >> good morning. my name is ray sedgwick in a peek at the university of maryland. and in my naïve opinion, it seems the biggest problem nasa has this actually pr. he does appreciate the fact that you're preaching to the choir and it runs fine on twitter or the web are also part of the choir. nasa does a lot in terms of outreach, but the aerospace community is very small. it's a very niche market at.

and it seems to me that our military advertises. you know, the general public knows that the military does because they see advertising for it. you reach out to the kids in the hope is that they are going to get excited in the information was disseminated. at the kids don't vote. it's the parents that though. maybe there's something that restricts nasa from being able to make commercials, but i think you need to get creative and signed away from that. the biggest problem is really exciting the adult public and letting them know what nasa is doing and what they're doing for their kids than with the technologies they really benefit from. >> well, you're correct. there is that you exactly what the military does bear, but the truth were created in getting more creative all the time and

you know, you start to see nasa popping up in pop culture or references a lot of places, tv shows, things like that. that's not all an accident. so we do what we can to get things out there. you're absolutely right though that is part of the challenge i hope we all take on is too shy to go beyond the people who we party convinced that are already great supporters of nafta. and there are a lot. it's really can assume we do polls and it's between 50% and 70% of the country support if all time. nasa has great brand recognition around the world. but you're right. we need to unleash an even broader base of support. what we can do that is by having created programs to engage people in new ways. anything for example of the commercial approach to bringing

crude cargo to low earth orbit will open up space for people to experience ultimately it will take a little while to get there. for more people to experience than ever before in my mind i'll be the best advertising we can get, have more people experience going to space. >> i'd like like to add one thing. you mention preaching to choir. i actually want to ask her the choir's help. for more about the same kind of them are people passing by the church may poke their head in to see what's going on. there's a lot of magic at nasa and i think the people in this room know that, believe that and feel it. i mean, i think we really feel it otherwise we wouldn't be here. so ideas that you have a conversation to in to help get that magic out because i do think it's contagious with helpful to all of us.

>> i think one of the other things we need to do is look at nontraditional partners. last year during the summer renovation program we get a psa with mary jay flash, the multi-plat and music recording artists in r&b. and she supports a school in new york of the women's academy of excellence. and so she's giving scholarships to students and new york city a lot of kids are single parent and don't have a lot of resources, but just this relationship with mary jay flash and her foundation for advancing women get that out to a demographic that usually doesn't know what we do at nasa. so i think more strategic art cars that we don't usually see or work with is really important to ensure this message goes out. donovan mcnabb, we had kids in his football camp gets hot by a nasa physicist physics of football. if you understand physics will

be a better ballplayer. but here's a creepy student that would never think of physics associated with football. again, reaching out to groups that would not traditionally be part of the mainstream because that gets replicated, replicated and goes out and using social media is also a big area to get the message out, too. >> please send us your ideas. >> say to a conversation. we need support from you guys out there also. okay, sir. >> i and henry, i am a professor at johns hopkins university in baltimore and i have a question for mr. leland melvin. we are all attempting to inspire the young people in the national spacecraft program allows nasa to interpret not just space such

as mailing because the nasa center, but every single state of the union. i'm wondering what your vision is, mr. melvin, for the future of their space program? >> we just went through a redesign of mass education and were meeting september the ninth to start shaping where were going to go with our new vision for nasa education. so have to get back to you september 9. we really look at how to give kids more experiential moment to get that defining moment in their lives. so middle-school teachers is another area we try to increase pipeline gives them higher at kid these experiences. some of things he do now, but how we take it to scale even more with better strategic partners to get even more reach. so it's coming. will be talking to you guys a

lot, partly for spacecraft working together to see how we can use the dollars to be more to work on with their vision. >> thank you. i say we've gotten a couple cards handed out from followers on twitter. would any of our panelists like to take a question? >> sure. i'll take one that came and asked for international partnerships are currently available and how can these benefits the u.s. economy? we have a number of partnerships from argentina to japan to throughout europe to brazil. various sensors, instruments and very spacecraft, some of her loftier ambitions going deeper into the solar system, looking out foreign to the university has strong partnerships and in particular with the space station the period and ac moore in the future.

we cannot do this alone. we can do a lot of it alone, but we can't do as much as we should be doing about. these partnerships allow all nations involved that they could realize individually. certainly there are many existing partnerships. i look forward to many future partnerships as part of the national space. and as far as how these can benefit the u.s. economy, it all ties into a body was talking about, investments in innovation producing significant economic benefits. the further we reach, the more we pursue, and the more we can learn from a car share with our partners, the more benefit we can realize their new technologies, capabilities we otherwise would not have developed on their own through,

i would argue that missions that go farther, look deeper can be more inspiring to young people who will benefit our economy through their contributions down the road. there are many opportunities in many benefits. >> and i'll just add that today we have an extraordinary international partnership and the six agencies working together and we have expanded the group to be thinking about the future of human exploration. we have a group called the space exploration coordination group. and about another couple of months i would say, you will see come out the first international roadmap for human space exploration that is 14 space agencies coming together from all over the road to think about what are the destinations and pathways might want to think and what does that drive us to today to think about that is a need to collaborate on.

we've had really laid the foundation for of the success we've had internationally into the future. can i answer one quick one from twitter? and from turner asks, and asked that i hope to be a geologist on your first human mission to mars. how can make this a reality? >> erin, you'll have to throw me out of the way first. no i'm kidding. i'd be throwing up the the entire time. it's a great question and what motivates a lot of us is to think about the in getting to experience that spaceflight and getting to be the person that does step foot on mars. what i would say is keep pursuing or scientific work and i loved the idea of the scientists going first to mars. keep sending your geology and make sure you throw some biology in there because the looking for life when we get there. and i want to ask treated to to say some thing about what else

this person should do in becoming a master not. >> your green beans. [laughter] you know, i'd never thought about becoming an astronaut and i was working for 10 years when a buddy of mine handed me an application and i looked at him and i said i never even imagined, never thought of it until my friend who applied in god and yet i said to myself, if they let knuckleheads like batman, maybe have an opportunity to get in. you know, it's really about doing the best you can in the field you're in. people always say, do i have to get a degree in material science in mechanical engineering? is just choosing what you love and doing the best you can in being a tired and motivated. as you fly in space, you're not really an expert in one theme. if the solar panels raikes, we

have to fix it so you're not a focused specialized person. you're a generalist to your engineering or science classes i taught you how to learn, honda grow, how to paint. >> as a scientist, you probably want to get a phd. and then come work with us at nasa. >> ureter mailing. even knuckleheads can be an inspiration. >> okay, we'll take another question from hearing the audience. >> thank you. good morning. first things first. thank you for being here today and giving us the chance of talking to you. it's wonderful. i'm a graduate student here at maryland. i study aerospace engineering and we have the scores last semester with professor herbert

from nih and we were discussing many of the challenges nasa has in terms of education, ask duration, manned versus unmanned robotics, expiration and we were rounding up all these issues. but in the end it seemed that one of the major problems with two sustain or increase nasa's budget authorized by the government. someone of our solutions as graduates do this was to say okay, why don't you approach the problem from the standpoint of motivating the american public to motivate the congress at the point of authorizing and these pages so that people will say yes, nasa does this for us, nasa does that. so my question is, what would be

needed for an asset to be more present in the civilized, just like he did with the trillion miners? so, nasa has many technological advances that can help humanity at this point. drought, famine, things that would definitely make a big publicity envelope in the general population size to how great nasa is. i do think nasa is great. thank you very much. >> well, first i'd like to say i hope you run for political office. last night's >> secondly, in our earth science division, we too have an application program that really is highlighted at how we can use the space observation to serve society directly.

secondly, i think, you know, one reason we wanted to have this forum was to hear this kind of feet back, and bright ideas from you because we don't have audience hears. but i believe our content is incredibly original. i believe that anyone who's sort of even looked at the old footage, even if it was before you were born, goosebumps. they appeared when i watch the satellite last friday launched with jupiter, it was possible that people in the public watching this rocket carried this team to create new destinations were energized. and somehow we are trying to bring that appreciation, the inspirational aspect in the service to society outward in this conversation is one step in

that process. our outreach efforts are working diligently. we are always open to new and innovative and exciting ideas. >> if i could just add a little to that. i think your question is very wise. coming from an aerospace engineer i am proud. but i should say that i'm also a university professor. i am a guy who has been affiliated with nasa for most of my career. but before you send this position, i have but in question. now that i'm not nasa, i see the content. i see it every day. and you described it well. it's rich. it's amazing the way nasa and asked the nation so many ways. economically, and disaster relief across the world. you know, weather, monitoring of

the earth. i mean, it's unbelievable actually. but i can tell you that as someone in the choir, previously in the public like yourself, i didn't know. i didn't know about all the great things nasa was doing. one of the things i've been doing is chief technologist as we been ramping not our communications is a spinoff program. nasa has a fantastic spinoff program. where we take the technological investment for future missions and thinness of into commercial products or services that are a country. and we're publicizing that much more now. just this past year there were a whole series of magazine articles that came out about a month is enough. for highlighting on our website more. there's always been a spinoff's

website. and this is just a story. you know, we haven't made a dent in where we need to be with this. but what i think you will see this year and in the next few years is a much greater emphasis on societal benefit in communicating that societal benefit to the general public because nasa does have a great story to tell. >> so i will add one thing in my perspective on this as we are living in a time in our country, were thought to dramatically increase budgets are probably not realistic, right? we all just watched the great debate about the debt ceiling and reducing to federal spending. so part of our job in the way we dress is is how do we do more with what we have? how do we bring other kinds of support to the table beyond just federal dollars? and we have several ways we are doing that.

back to the innovative partnerships partnership sweetland was talking about. how do we leverage and desmond be made by others to advance the cause of space exploration? i think that is something that is really a great opportunity for us. through her commercial programs we don't give a government contract. contractors bring their own investment to the table. with focus and in the game. that expands the party. were partnered with google, where privately funded folks are off trying to build nations to go explore the moon. what could be better? that's not nasa money. if they make it and are successful we incentivize very tiny amounts of investment. from the nasa site in google site as well. today's extraordinary opportunities for us to leverage other than that there is a way of increasing and nasa needs to