1 00:00:11,136 --> 00:00:11,886 So this weekend, 2 00:00:11,886 --> 00:00:15,348 the moon is going to give us an incredible show, a real treat. 3 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:18,560 All weekend long will be treated to effectively a full moon. 4 00:00:18,768 --> 00:00:22,147 And it culminates on Sunday night with this beautiful lunar eclipse. 5 00:00:22,355 --> 00:00:24,607 So starting at about 10 p.m. 6 00:00:24,607 --> 00:00:29,320 Eastern on Sunday night, the moon will start passing through the Earth's shadow 7 00:00:29,529 --> 00:00:33,116 and right around midnight will be the peak of this eclipse, 8 00:00:33,116 --> 00:00:36,536 when the moon will turn this beautiful coppery reddish orange color 9 00:00:36,828 --> 00:00:39,622 and then gradually move out of the Earth's shadow. 10 00:00:39,622 --> 00:00:43,418 So all night long, late Sunday night into Monday morning on the East 11 00:00:43,418 --> 00:00:46,838 Coast, we'll be treated to this beautiful lunar eclipse. 12 00:00:54,804 --> 00:00:57,557 So this weekend we are treated to a spectacular 13 00:00:57,557 --> 00:01:01,352 sight of a full moon, culminating in a lunar eclipse. 14 00:01:01,686 --> 00:01:05,440 Now, I would encourage people to go out any time during the night, Saturday 15 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:07,108 and Sunday night, even Friday night. 16 00:01:08,068 --> 00:01:12,447 Look up to the sky and you'll see the beautiful majesty of a full moon. 17 00:01:12,822 --> 00:01:16,034 Now, during the eclipse, if it's cloudy, if it's. 18 00:01:16,659 --> 00:01:20,163 If it's. If you're surrounded by trees or tall buildings, you'll want to find 19 00:01:20,163 --> 00:01:23,416 a relatively open space where you have a good view of the sky. 20 00:01:23,458 --> 00:01:27,295 Now, there's no one critical moment that you have to be outside to see this. 21 00:01:27,545 --> 00:01:29,422 The eclipse will begin about 10 p.m. 22 00:01:29,422 --> 00:01:33,676 Eastern time on Sunday night, reaching its peak just around midnight. 23 00:01:33,885 --> 00:01:35,762 And then gradually the moon will be passing 24 00:01:35,762 --> 00:01:37,889 out of the earth's shadow over the next few hours. 25 00:01:37,889 --> 00:01:41,726 So find your ideal location, whether it's in your backyard 26 00:01:41,726 --> 00:01:44,020 or on the top of your building or in some location, 27 00:01:44,020 --> 00:01:46,064 or have a beautiful, unobstructed view of the sky. 28 00:01:46,064 --> 00:01:50,110 You want to be clear of bright lights or tall buildings around you, if you can, 29 00:01:50,860 --> 00:01:53,154 and just relax and enjoy the show. 30 00:02:00,870 --> 00:02:03,790 The moon turns this beautiful red color during the eclipse 31 00:02:03,790 --> 00:02:07,710 because of this really special connection between the earth and the moon. 32 00:02:08,336 --> 00:02:10,797 Just the same reason why when you go out at sunset 33 00:02:10,797 --> 00:02:14,342 or sunrise, the horizon turns that beautiful red orange color. 34 00:02:14,676 --> 00:02:18,138 Well, now imagine all of the sunrises and sunsets 35 00:02:18,138 --> 00:02:22,433 from the earth get projected onto the surface of the moon when it passes in 36 00:02:22,559 --> 00:02:23,643 to the shadow of the earth. 37 00:02:23,643 --> 00:02:27,897 And so during the peak of the eclipse, which is just to right around midnight 38 00:02:28,439 --> 00:02:31,067 Sunday night, East Coast time, 39 00:02:31,317 --> 00:02:34,195 the moon will turn this beautiful, coppery brown color. 40 00:02:34,445 --> 00:02:37,615 And again, that's the projection of all of the sunrises and sunsets 41 00:02:37,615 --> 00:02:39,659 on the earth onto the surface of the moon. 42 00:02:47,959 --> 00:02:50,044 We're preparing for the art of exploration 43 00:02:50,044 --> 00:02:53,506 of the South Pole of the Moon by doing really two fundamental things. 44 00:02:53,506 --> 00:02:56,634 One is we're analyzing the data that we've collected 45 00:02:56,634 --> 00:03:00,013 for the moon over the last 13 years, thanks to the Lunar Reconnaissance 46 00:03:00,013 --> 00:03:03,558 Orbiter, a spacecraft NASA's sent to the moon in 2009 to do 47 00:03:03,558 --> 00:03:07,812 just this, to help chart the the places that we want to send astronauts. 48 00:03:07,812 --> 00:03:09,939 We want to send robotic missions to 49 00:03:09,939 --> 00:03:13,401 to look for scientifically interesting and safe places to explore. 50 00:03:13,651 --> 00:03:14,903 And so, on one hand, 51 00:03:14,903 --> 00:03:18,656 we're studying that data to find those ideal locations to send crew. 52 00:03:18,907 --> 00:03:22,410 We're also preparing those astronauts, the Artemis astronauts have been selected 53 00:03:22,785 --> 00:03:27,540 to, you know, begin their education on geology, on planetary science, 54 00:03:27,540 --> 00:03:30,585 so that when they're on the surface of the moon, they can make the decisions 55 00:03:30,585 --> 00:03:34,464 of which samples to collect and what to do while they're exploring the moon. 56 00:03:34,923 --> 00:03:37,967 So we're at this very exciting point where we have the data, 57 00:03:37,967 --> 00:03:41,971 we have the talent, and it's now a matter of of letting letting time march on 58 00:03:41,971 --> 00:03:45,683 and prepare for 2025 to send that first crew to the South Pole of the moon. 59 00:03:54,108 --> 00:03:57,237 The Moon is a wonderful 60 00:03:57,237 --> 00:04:01,532 surface are a quarter of the processes that occur across the solar system. 61 00:04:01,908 --> 00:04:06,329 When we look at the lunar surface, we are gazing back to the earliest part 62 00:04:06,329 --> 00:04:09,207 of the history of our solar system, four and a half billion years. 63 00:04:09,582 --> 00:04:11,876 And so when we look at the craters that have formed 64 00:04:11,876 --> 00:04:13,711 on the surface of the moon and we look at the 65 00:04:13,711 --> 00:04:17,548 the volcanic eruptions that have occurred there, we are peering back in time. 66 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:20,593 And indeed, when we study any other object in the solar system, 67 00:04:20,593 --> 00:04:23,846 whether it's Mercury, whether it's Mars, whether it's Pluto. 68 00:04:24,305 --> 00:04:27,350 Our understanding of the processes, the changes that have occurred on 69 00:04:27,350 --> 00:04:31,771 those planets are in large part due to the understanding we have of the moon. 70 00:04:31,980 --> 00:04:33,022 We look at the moon. 71 00:04:33,022 --> 00:04:35,441 We understand the fundamentals of how planets work 72 00:04:35,692 --> 00:04:39,028 and then apply those rules to other objects in the solar system. 73 00:04:39,028 --> 00:04:42,282 So the moon is really this incredible Rosetta Stone for understanding 74 00:04:42,532 --> 00:04:43,700 how planets work. 75 00:04:43,700 --> 00:04:47,495 And so when we look at other objects around other stars, our understanding 76 00:04:47,495 --> 00:04:49,122 of what we think is happening there 77 00:04:49,122 --> 00:04:51,958 in large part is informed in our understanding of how the moon 78 00:04:52,208 --> 00:04:54,961 formed and evolved over four and a half billion years. 79 00:05:03,511 --> 00:05:07,181 To me, the most surprising thing that we've learned from the LRO spacecraft 80 00:05:07,181 --> 00:05:10,518 in its 13 year mission to the moon is that we were able to see 81 00:05:10,518 --> 00:05:13,271 the moon change underneath our feet. 82 00:05:13,563 --> 00:05:17,442 We've identified new impact craters that have formed in the last 13 years. 83 00:05:17,442 --> 00:05:18,693 We're seeing surface changes. 84 00:05:18,693 --> 00:05:21,029 We're seeing the presence of volatiles, water 85 00:05:21,029 --> 00:05:23,156 at the surface of the moon and how it moves around 86 00:05:23,364 --> 00:05:26,534 as a function of the time of day on the surface of the moon. 87 00:05:26,784 --> 00:05:29,579 We've really taken the moon from being what was once thought to be 88 00:05:29,579 --> 00:05:33,166 a sort of a static, unchanging world and are now actually able 89 00:05:33,374 --> 00:05:37,086 to measure changes on the lunar surface, the dynamics of the moon, 90 00:05:37,253 --> 00:05:40,089 and how it evolves, not over millions or billions of years, 91 00:05:40,089 --> 00:05:43,634 but over the span of a human lifetime of several years. 92 00:05:43,676 --> 00:05:47,013 And so we've taken the moon from being this ancient object 93 00:05:47,013 --> 00:05:50,224 and really showing how compelling and how dynamic it is. 94 00:05:50,475 --> 00:05:54,103 And again, all with the lens of how do we prepare to send future 95 00:05:54,103 --> 00:05:58,066 explorers, both crew and robotic explorers, to the surface of the moon, 96 00:05:58,358 --> 00:06:03,071 to take the lessons that we've learned from orbit and apply them to the surface? 97 00:06:03,321 --> 00:06:07,909 So this next era of lunar exploration is very exciting, but it's informed 98 00:06:07,909 --> 00:06:10,953 in large part of the discoveries that we've made over the last 13 years. 99 00:06:19,545 --> 00:06:20,713 We have a number of 100 00:06:20,713 --> 00:06:23,758 important science questions of things that we want to learn about the moon. 101 00:06:23,758 --> 00:06:27,095 We're still arguing among ourselves, the scientific community, 102 00:06:27,095 --> 00:06:29,138 about how the moon formed, how old the moon is. 103 00:06:29,430 --> 00:06:32,392 We think we have a good understanding of that, in large part 104 00:06:32,392 --> 00:06:34,644 because of the samples that were brought back by Apollo. 105 00:06:34,811 --> 00:06:35,895 But what Artemis will do in 106 00:06:35,895 --> 00:06:39,524 exploring the South Pole of the moon, a completely new frontier of the lunar 107 00:06:39,524 --> 00:06:43,027 surface, is inform those models, those hypotheses 108 00:06:43,027 --> 00:06:46,489 that we have, and ultimately potentially challenge those hypotheses. 109 00:06:46,489 --> 00:06:49,242 We may find out the moon is older than we think it is. 110 00:06:49,242 --> 00:06:50,785 The places that we want to go at the South 111 00:06:50,785 --> 00:06:52,787 Pole are going to be some of the oldest surfaces 112 00:06:52,787 --> 00:06:54,288 that we've ever explored on 113 00:06:54,288 --> 00:06:57,458 any planetary body, whether it's with humans or with robots. 114 00:06:57,458 --> 00:07:01,212 And so those first explorers will be peering back in time 115 00:07:01,212 --> 00:07:03,840 to the very earliest history of the moon. 116 00:07:04,215 --> 00:07:07,969 We'd also like to know what what the volatiles that we've mapped 117 00:07:07,969 --> 00:07:11,055 from orbit, the water that we see from orbit, what is it like? 118 00:07:11,806 --> 00:07:12,765 How much is there? 119 00:07:12,765 --> 00:07:16,936 And so these very first missions to the surface of the moon, to the South 120 00:07:16,936 --> 00:07:19,272 Pole are going to really be telling us something fundamental 121 00:07:19,272 --> 00:07:23,401 about the age of the moon , as well as how much water might be present there. 122 00:07:23,568 --> 00:07:27,155 And that water becomes a valuable resource that we could potentially use in 123 00:07:27,155 --> 00:07:31,117 future exploration of the moon to sustain a long term presence at the moon. 124 00:07:31,117 --> 00:07:34,954 And so the fundamental questions of how the moon formed its age 125 00:07:35,121 --> 00:07:38,416 and how this precious water actually got to the surface of the moon, 126 00:07:38,416 --> 00:07:40,126 are some of the key questions that we'll be asking. 127 00:07:48,342 --> 00:07:50,595 If you're interested in learning more about this eclipse 128 00:07:50,595 --> 00:07:52,472 and what we have learned about the moon in general, 129 00:07:52,472 --> 00:07:57,143 I would suggest people go to the website moon dot nasa.gov and really dive 130 00:07:57,143 --> 00:08:00,855 into everything we've learned, everything that we are learning about the moon. 131 00:08:01,481 --> 00:08:04,233 To help you understand how to take pictures of the moon. 132 00:08:04,275 --> 00:08:05,735 We have a number of resources there 133 00:08:05,735 --> 00:08:09,405 for four lunar observers over the weekend and during the eclipse. 134 00:08:09,447 --> 00:08:13,451 I would encourage people to tune in to our NASA's broadcast of the Eclipse. 135 00:08:13,784 --> 00:08:17,538 Go to nasa.gov, slash live and you'll get treated to 136 00:08:17,663 --> 00:08:21,292 a wonderful sharing of the lunar eclipse around the world. 137 00:08:21,334 --> 00:08:24,253 If it's cloudy where you are, you can tune in and still enjoy it 138 00:08:24,504 --> 00:08:25,671 from the comfort of your own home. 139 00:08:33,638 --> 00:08:35,306 The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched 140 00:08:35,306 --> 00:08:38,851 in 2009 for what was supposed to be a 1 to 2 year mission. 141 00:08:39,477 --> 00:08:43,523 We recently learned that we've been given a three year extension to our mission, 142 00:08:43,523 --> 00:08:46,943 which will take our operations out until 2025, at least. 143 00:08:46,943 --> 00:08:49,820 And so what we've done is take this 1 to 2 year mission 144 00:08:50,029 --> 00:08:53,115 and turn it into now a decade plus long mission. 145 00:08:53,407 --> 00:08:56,619 This June, we'll be celebrating 13 years of orbiting the moon. 146 00:08:56,869 --> 00:08:59,622 And in that time, we've discovered new impact craters. 147 00:08:59,622 --> 00:09:02,041 We've found that the moon is 148 00:09:03,125 --> 00:09:05,586 changing in ways that we had never expected before. 149 00:09:05,586 --> 00:09:09,799 We're actually able to see the surface change very slowly underneath our feet. 150 00:09:10,216 --> 00:09:13,511 We're able to measure the presence of water on the surface of the moon. 151 00:09:13,511 --> 00:09:16,722 And so over the next several years, we're going to be looking at the presence, 152 00:09:16,764 --> 00:09:20,184 abundance of water in places near the south pole of the moon, places 153 00:09:20,184 --> 00:09:23,854 that we hope to explore with future human and robotic explorers. 154 00:09:24,188 --> 00:09:26,774 We're also looking at the volcanic and impact history of the moon, 155 00:09:26,774 --> 00:09:30,611 the fundamental geologic evolution of the object over billions of years. 156 00:09:30,611 --> 00:09:33,948 And so the next three years of LRO data is going to really 157 00:09:34,740 --> 00:09:37,660 reveal some of the additional mysteries about the moon and set us up 158 00:09:37,660 --> 00:09:40,746 for the next decade and beyond of lunar explorations 159 00:09:40,746 --> 00:09:43,833 with both human and robotic explorers going to the surface of the moon.