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Why This National Park is a Favorite of NASA Scientists
Amaze Lab
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8/26/2024
A California national park has been used as a testing ground for NASA missions for decades.
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Learning
Transcript
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00:00
About as foreboding and inhospitable as Mars, California's Death Valley, as its name suggests,
00:10
is no place for humans.
00:13
But despite its extreme temperature shifts, scientists from NASA have been visiting this
00:18
red planet's stand-in since the 1970s, if only because it's a lot closer.
00:25
About a five-hour car ride from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Death Valley National
00:30
Park serves as a testbed for Mars' missions due to its striking resemblance to the Martian
00:36
surface.
00:37
As explained by Park Ranger Matthew Lamar in a report by SFGate, the below-sea-level
00:42
basin is uniquely situated for research.
00:45
Quote,
00:46
Here in Death Valley, we have a unique ability to help understand other worlds.
00:50
Because it is so hot and dry, we lack things like vegetation.
00:53
When you come here, you can see that geology exposed.
00:56
That rocky terrain is in a lot of areas.
00:59
Because of the volcanic activity here in Death Valley, it can be compared to the surface
01:03
of Mars."
01:05
As NASA JPL's Alan Chen told SFGate, putting Mars rovers through their paces is vital to
01:11
the success of any mission, since commands can take up to 20 minutes to travel through
01:16
space.
01:17
Quote,
01:18
We have to make sure that everything can happen without us intervening.
01:21
We have to put the vehicle through everything that's possible it could see here on Earth."
01:26
He added,
01:27
Quote,
01:28
Southern California, and California in general, has a whole bunch of terrain that's very
01:31
Mars-like.
01:32
The fact that it's in our backyard is extremely convenient."
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