I think there has to be in the universe -- how easy it's going to be to find, is another question, statistically every time you're looking at a star you're likely to be looking at a planetary system. Play the math game, there's billions of stars, so eventually you'll come out saying there has to be another body where life could have evolved to a fairly sophisticated level.

Ellen Stofan

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Mars is the other body in the solar system that we're very likely to find that life evolved, so being able to have a laboratory on Mars, being able to have some sort of sustained human presence on Mars in the future, I think is critically important for science.

Ellen Stofan
us-news

You know, we're really spending that money here on Earth, we get amazing technology spinoffs from the work NASA has done.

Ellen Stofan
us-news

Think about these things you used to see on TV from science fiction, like communicators on Star Trek, well now we actually have them, space exploration pushes us to say 'here's things we've just dreamed about, but we can turn that into reality.'.

Ellen Stofan
us-news

It's part of the human character to want to know what's over the next hill, to want to know what's beyond.

Ellen Stofan
hill know want character

What we expect to find, certainly in our own solar system, are probably simple single or multiple-cell forms of life. To get to intelligent life takes stability of conditions over huge, long periods of time.

Ellen Stofan
simple time life long

Humans can actually read a landscape, go through a lot of rocks - crack them open, throw them, pick up the next one. Rovers are great - they do amazing science - but it is a lot more tedious process; they go much less far than a human can cover in a day.

Ellen Stofan
amazing day great science

One of the big things about space exploration is that it is as expensive as it is complicated, and you need all the countries of the world to help if you want to accomplish big goals.

Ellen Stofan
goals you space world

I always like to say just think you were a doctor with only one patient. You might understand how that person gets sick, how they get better, but you understand nothing about the progression of disease or how humans in general get ill. Now take an Earth scientist: you only have one planet to study.

Ellen Stofan
doctor better you sick

We like to talk about pioneering Mars rather than just exploring Mars, because once we get to Mars, we will set up some sort of permanent presence.

Ellen Stofan
will talk like permanent

So many people I talk to who work in technology, you ask them, 'What got you interested in science?' and those from my generation say, 'The Apollo landings.'

Ellen Stofan
you technology work science

If you think of the Apollo capsule coming into Earth with a parachute, the Mars atmosphere is just so thin, you've got to find some way of slowing yourself down really rapidly.

Ellen Stofan
yourself think you way
My key aim is to get man on the surface of Mars by the mid-2030s. by Ellen Stofan

My key aim is to get man on the surface of Mars by the mid-2030s.

Ellen Stofan
key man mars aim
I live an hour from NASA's HQ in Washington, D.C., and sitting in... by Ellen Stofan

I live an hour from NASA's HQ in Washington, D.C., and sitting in a jam stresses me out.

Ellen Stofan
nasa live me sitting

To avoid congestion, I get up at 5:10, grab a slice of raisin toast, and leave the house at 6 A.M. My husband, Tim Dunn, who works for an environmental agency, is still asleep when I slip out, and I find that rather annoying.

Ellen Stofan
find environmental husband house

We're not going to get humans to Mars until at least the mid-2030s, and the world is going to change by then.

Ellen Stofan
going mars change world

With the mission to Mars, the whole world wants to get involved. So we actually have 13 different space agencies from around the world working on the global exploration road map.

Ellen Stofan
mission road space world

Every time I give a talk, I ask the audience - especially if it's kids - how many want to go to Mars. At least half raise their hands. I don't think there's going to be any shortage of volunteers.

Ellen Stofan
think want time hands

To unambiguously settle the questions of whether there was life on Mars, it will take scientists down on the surface.

Ellen Stofan
down will questions life
We want to make sure we get living astronauts to the surface of M... by Ellen Stofan

We want to make sure we get living astronauts to the surface of Mars.

Ellen Stofan
living mars space want
We're going to understand that there is life on other bodies in t... by Ellen Stofan

We're going to understand that there is life on other bodies in the solar system.

Ellen Stofan
solar going understand life