export_ofoct.com - 2021-01-04T130633.335

[00:00.89] Sarah: We've been hearing a lot about Mars in the news.

[00:03.89] John: Yeah, NASA keeps coming out with announcements every year.

[00:07.39] Sarah: We just found out that there's water on Mars - liquid water.

[00:12.39] John: Yes, recently they revealed that there's evidence of liquid water.

[00:19.64] Sarah: That's crazy.

[00:21.14] John: Last year they announced that they definitely found ice - solid water - in the soil.

[00:29.39] In the soil on Mar's surface the found frozen water. Now they found evidence of liquid water flowing.

[00:40.39] Sarah: Do you think people can go to Mars? Do you think we should send people to Mars?

[00:47.89] John: I definitely think we can go there. We've already sent a number of spacecraftto Mars, starting with satellites many decades ago.

[01:03.14] Then there were landers, where satellites landed on the surface and sent data back to Earth.

[01:13.14] Then we sent the rovers. Little robot cars that drive around on Mars, so we've already successfully sent many missions to Mars.

[01:28.39] I'm sure we can do it with humans.

[01:31.14] Sarah: But none of the satellites or landers or rovers, they've never come back.

[01:39.64] Do you think we could send people and they'd come back safely?

[01:44.14] John: Well, that is a problem. We could definitely send people to Mars, but bringing them back, having the astronauts come back to Earth, would be a much more difficult problem to solve.

[02:01.14] Sarah: So you think maybe we would send astronauts to Mars? They would never come back safely?

[02:08.89] John: Well, if you think about the old explorers, in the olden days ... explorers used to leave their home, and find new regions and not plan to go back.

[02:27.89] People used to take a risk, and maybe they couldn't return, so I think there are people who are willing to go on a one-way trip to Mars.

[02:45.89] I'm sure there are people willing to do that, but are the rest of the people willing to send someone on that mission? I think some people will say yes, and some people will say no.

[03:05.64] I don't know what the percent would be, but I'm willing to allow someone to do that.

[03:14.64] If someone says I want to go to Mars. I know it's a one-way trip, but I want to go.

[03:22.89] I think that's OK. We should let them go.

[03:26.14] Sarah: How about you? Would you volunteer to go?

[03:29.14] John: Oh, no. Not me. I'm staying here on Earth.

[03:33.14] Sarah: OK.