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" 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
You
World
Space
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 'The Martian' may be fiction, but at NASA, we are working to make it a reality. "
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" 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.' "
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" 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. "
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" I'm so biased to this issue of the origins of life and the limits of life. "
Ellen Stofan
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Issue
" As a card-carrying space nerd and NASA's chief scientist, I love space movies, from 'Star Trek' to 'Star Wars' to my all-time favorite - 'The Dish', an Australian comedy that celebrates that first moment when Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the surface of our moon. "
Ellen Stofan
Moon
Love
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" I wish someone would redo 'Dune.' "
Ellen Stofan
Would
Dune
Someone
" To unambiguously settle the questions of whether there was life on Mars, it will take scientists down on the surface. "
Ellen Stofan
Mars
Settle
Questions
" 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? "
Ellen Stofan
Place
Stars
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" There's a huge question of whether you really need water for life. "
Ellen Stofan
Water
You
Really
" 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?' "
Ellen Stofan
Priorities
Look
Important
" 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. "
Ellen Stofan
World
Need
Mars
" 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. "
Ellen Stofan
Know
I Am
Fun
" 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
Science
You
Work
" 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. "
Ellen Stofan
Place
My Life
Life
" 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
Exploring
Mars
" My key aim is to get man on the surface of Mars by the mid-2030s. "
Ellen Stofan
Key
Get
Surface
" 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
Want
Hill
Human
" If I had an unlimited budget, I would really be probing that question of life because we know what the questions are, and we know what the destinations are. "
Ellen Stofan
Question
Life
Know
" 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
Long
" I'm actually a NASA brat. My father was a rocket scientist. He started working at NASA before it was NASA in 1959. "
Ellen Stofan
Rocket
Started
Working
" 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
" 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
Up
" I live an hour from NASA's HQ in Washington, D.C., and sitting in a jam stresses me out. "
Ellen Stofan
Me
Washington
Sitting
" 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. "
Ellen Stofan
Own
Life
Solar
" 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
Change
World
Then
" People see space as a place where you go and cooperate. "
Ellen Stofan
Space
People
Go
" We want to make sure we get living astronauts to the surface of Mars. "
Ellen Stofan
Want
Mars
Living
" 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. "
Ellen Stofan
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