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" I grew up in this business... A lot of my life has been centered around this question about how NASA is helping us to understand our own home planet... and to understand our place in the universe. "

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" Mars was this water-based planet, and we know there was stable water on the surface for a long time, which is critical for life having a chance to develop. "

Ellen Stofan

Life

Know

Chance

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

" Mars missions will require up to three years in reduced gravity, so we need to make sure astronauts can not only survive but thrive as they move outward to explore this new world. "

" 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

House

Husband

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

Ellen Stofan

Washington

Sitting

" 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. "

" The public has an incredible capacity for appreciating the wonder of our planet, our solar system, our universe. "

" 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. "

" A lot of my role is advocacy, and as a scientist, you're an advocate, too, because you are coming up with a theory and having to convince your fellow scientists that you're right. "

" As chief scientist, it's sort of my job to look at bridges between what we do and to see the connections. But when we try to understand how are planets around other stars habitable... to looking back at the Earth - how are the changes that are taking place, how are they going to affect humanity? "

" You see countries like India really investing in their space program because they see it as inspirational and good for their economy. "

" Prior to Magellan, due to the fact that we knew it was so hot on Venus, we thought that the rocks at the surface would behave more plastically, more like Silly Putty than like solid rock in the way that we think of it, like the rocks that I'm sitting on. "

" Water-based life is very much an Earth-centric view, and we can push the envelope on that here in our own solar system. We have the methane seas of Titan. "

" As we visit Mars multiple times, we will build up infrastructure on the surface to expand the capabilities and reach of humans on Mars. "

" We actually look to the scientific community to kind of come back to NASA and tell us what the priorities should be. And then at NASA, we try to look within our budget and say, 'What can we accommodate, and what are the most important things for the nation?' "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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.' "

" I'm actually a NASA brat. My father was a rocket scientist. He started working at NASA before it was NASA in 1959. "

" Communication is an issue where we can improve, and if I can do anything to help, I am happy to. "

" When we go to explore, we do it as a globe. "

Ellen Stofan

Explore

Globe

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

" 'The Martian' may be fiction, but at NASA, we are working to make it a reality. "

" Everybody has busy lives, but you can tell people, 'Go outside and look at the night sky. We've been able to demonstrate that every star you see probably has a planet around it.' "

" When you look at Venus and the Earth, they formed at about the same place in the solar system. They're made of about the same materials; they're about the same size. "

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

" There's a huge question of whether you really need water for life. "

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

" Instead of being able to look at smaller interesting research projects, I am trying to see the links between all the research NASA does. For me, that's extremely fun because I get to go play and learn about areas of science that I know nothing about. "