Nagin Cox: What time is it on Mars?
Nagin Cox: ¿Qué hora es en Marte?
Nagin Cox explores Mars as part of the team that operates NASA's rovers. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
the movie "The Martian."
la película "The Martian".
it's a movie about an astronaut
es una película sobre un astronauta
and his efforts to stay alive
por permanecer vivo hasta que
to bring him back to Earth.
para traerlo de vuelta a la Tierra.
reestablecer la comunicación
astronaut Watney, at some point
en cierto momento,
on Mars until he can be rescued.
hasta que lo rescaten.
or even if you haven't,
o incluso si no la han visto,
how far away it is and how distant.
y distante que queda.
have occurred to you is,
les haya ocurrido es
of working on another planet --
trabajar en otro planeta,
and there are rovers or people on Mars?
y vehículos o personas en Marte.
families and co-workers
amigos, familiares y colaboradores,
or in other parts of the world.
o en otras partes del mundo.
to communicate with them,
you probably first think about is:
piensen primero es:
¿Estará bien que llame?
with colleagues who are in Europe,
colegas que se encuentran en Europa
communication when people are far away?
comunicación cuando la gente está lejos?
right now, but we do have rovers.
pero sí tenemos vehículos.
it is 6:10 in the morning.
son las 6:10 de la mañana.
de la mañana en Marte.
on Mars since the mid-1990s,
a Marte desde mediados de los 90
to work on three of them.
trabajar en tres de ellos.
a spacecraft operations engineer,
de operaciones espaciales
in Los Angeles, California.
de la NASA, en Los Ángeles, California.
are our robotic emissaries.
son nuestros emisarios robóticos.
and they see the planet for us
y ven el planeta por nosotros
on other planets through these rovers.
por medio de estos vehículos.
on Mars right now,
de hora con Marte ahora mismo,
is longer than the Earth day.
más largo que el terrestre.
the Earth to rotate,
la Tierra en rotar,
40 minutes to rotate once.
unos 40 minutos en hacer una rotación.
is 40 minutes longer than the Earth day.
es 40 minutos más largo que el terrestre.
the rovers on Mars, like this one,
que operan los vehículos en Marte,
on Earth, but working on Mars.
pero trabajamos en Marte.
on Mars with the rover.
estuviéramos en Marte con el vehículo.
of which I'm a part of,
del cual formo parte,
to tell it what to do the next day.
decirle qué debe hacer al día siguiente.
or tell her whatever she's supposed to do.
o decirle qué se supone que haga.
and the rover does sleep at night
y el vehículo sí duerme de noche
to recharge her batteries
the cold Martian night.
la noche helada de Marte.
on her program for the next day.
en su programa para el día siguiente.
at the same time every day on Mars --
a la misma hora cada día en Marte,
at work at 5:00 p.m.,
en el trabajo a las 17 h,
at 5:00 p.m. Mars time every day,
a las 17 h en hora marciana cada día,
on the Earth 40 minutes later every day,
Tierra 40 minutos más tarde cada día,
todos los días.
the next day 40 minutes later at 8:40,
40 minutos más tarde a las 8:40,
más tarde a las 9:20,
in the middle of the night --
en el medio de la noche,
how confusing that is.
qué confuso es eso.
have been mechanically adjusted
the rovers back then.
los vehículos de aquel entonces.
we'll just have the time on our computers
la hora en nuestras computadoras,
and that would be enough.
misión, y sería suficiente con eso.
working on Mars time,
trabajando en la hora de Marte,
en la hora de Marte.
about what time it was.
sobre la hora que era.
on your wrist to tell you:
en la muñeca que nos dijera:
What time is it on Mars?
¿Qué hora es en Marte?
that was confusing;
que nos confundía;
to talk to each other about it.
hablar entre nosotros sobre esto.
again, 24 hours and 40 minutes.
de nuevo, 24 horas y 40 minutos.
that's happening on the Earth,
que ocurre en la Tierra,
"Oh, let's invent a language."
"inventemos un lenguaje".
walked up to me and said,
on the vehicle tomorrow, on the rover."
en el vehículo mañana, en el rover".
or Mars, tomorrow?"
o mañana de Marte?"
we needed a way to talk to each other.
necesitábamos una manera de entendernos.
"solmañana" o "mañasol".
for the words they use.
preferencias con las palabras que usan.
and some of you might say "pop."
y otros pueden decir "gaseosa".
"nextersol" or "solorrow."
"solmañana" o "mañasol".
a few years of working on these missions,
años de trabajar en estas misiones,
on the rovers, we say "tosol."
en los vehículos, decimos "solhoy".
landed missions that don't rove around,
aterrizaje y no andan con vehículos,
you worked on from your Martian accent.
por tu acento marciano.
and you're detecting a theme here, right?
ya estamos detectando un patrón aquí, ¿no?
could confuse us.
podía confundirnos.
you've come to work
llegas al trabajo
from the windows
this image of the control room
imagen del centro de control
about a week before landing,
edificio una semana antes del aterrizaje,
until we went off Mars time.
que dejáramos la hora de Marte.
for the house, for at home.
para el hogar, cuando estás en la casa.
and my husband is like,
y mi marido se acopla.
and dark curtains and shades
y cortinas oscuras, y persianas,
this darkened environment, but so was he.
oscuro, pero también él.
emails from him when he was at work.
quejumbrosos suyos desde el trabajo.
¿Estás despierta?
so he needs a Mars watch.
él necesita un reloj de Marte.
so there's an app for that.
y hay una app para eso.
we can also use our phones.
usamos nuestros teléfonos.
was just across the board;
era a nivel general;
who were working on the rovers
trabajamos en los vehículos
one of our flight directors,
uno de los directores de vuelo,
with his family at 1:00 in the morning.
de Los Ángeles a la 1 de la mañana.
to school until September,
a la escuela hasta septiembre,
with him for one month.
con él por un mes.
más tarde cada día.
de trabajo de papá.
and had these great adventures,
y tuvieron estas grandes aventuras,
in the middle of the night
en el medio de la noche
that we all discovered
lado en Los Ángeles
when there's no traffic.
and bother our families,
y molestar a nuestras familias,
going locally to eat something,
de comer en un lugar cercano,
all-night deli in Long Beach,
delicatessen las 24 hs en Long Beach
it was like the 60s, no traffic.
como en los 60, sin tránsito.
and the restaurant owners would go,
y los dueños del restaurante decían:
at 3:00 in the morning?"
a las 3 de la mañana?"
that there were these packs of Martians,
existían estos grupos de marcianos,
in the middle of the night --
en el medio de la noche,
start calling ourselves Martians.
a llamarnos marcianos.
would refer to ourselves as Martians,
de Marte nos llamábamos marcianos,
a time-zone every day,
un huso horario todos los días,
from everyone else.
de todo el resto.
"I survived Mars time. Sol 0-90."
"Sobreviví la hora de Marte. Sol 0-90".
up on the screen.
is because we work on Mars time
trabajamos en la hora de Marte
with the rover on Mars,
con el vehículo en Marte,
de nuestro tiempo.
for more than three to four months.
por más de tres o cuatro meses.
time, which is what we're working now.
modificada, que es la que usamos ahora.
your bodies, it's hard on your families.
es difícil para la familia.
who actually were studying us
investigadores del sueño
to try to extend their day.
tratar de extender su día.
sleep deprivation experiments on.
de privación de sueño.
and I fell asleep in each one.
y me dormía.
this eventually becomes hard on your body.
se hace difícil para el cuerpo.
with the other members on the team,
con los otros miembros del equipo,
steps out into the solar system.
el primer paso fuera en el sistema solar.
on more than one planet.
to become multi-planetary.
para volvernos multiplanetarios.
a Star Wars movie,
una película de Star Wars,
from the Dagobah system to Tatooine,
sistema Dagobah a Tatooine,
people spread out so far.
tener personas tan esparcidas.
of the distances between them,
de distancias entre ellos,
separate from each other
a sentirse entre ellos
to Mars yet, but we hope to.
todavía, pero esperamos hacerlo.
space agencies of the world,
internacionales del mundo,
in the next few decades.
en las próximas décadas.
and we truly will be multi-planetary.
y realmente seremos multiplanetarios.
in this audience or listening today.
en esta audiencia o escuchando ahora.
on these missions since I was 14 years old
en estas misiones desde los 14 años
de ser parte de ellas.
in the space program,
en el programa espacial,
you don't have enough time in your day,
que su día no dura lo suficiente,
of your Earthly perspective.
de la perspectiva terrestre.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nagin Cox - Spacecraft operations engineerNagin Cox explores Mars as part of the team that operates NASA's rovers.
Why you should listen
Nagin Cox has been exploring since she decided as a teenager that she wanted to work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was born in Bangalore, India, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her experiences as a child in a Muslim household showed her how easily we separate ourselves based on gender, race or nationality, and it inspired her to do something that brings people together instead of dividing them. The Space Program helps the world "look up" and remember that we are one world. Thus, she has known from the time she was 14 years old that she wanted to work on missions of robotic space exploration.
Cox realized her childhood dream and has been a spacecraft operations engineer at NASA/JPL for over 20 years. She has held leadership and system engineering positions on interplanetary robotic missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Kepler exoplanet hunter, InSight and the Mars Curiosity Rover.
In 2015, Cox was honored as the namesake for Asteroid 14061 by its discovers. She has also received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals. She is a U.S. Department of State STEM Speaker and has spoken to audiences around the world on the stories of the people behind the missions. She has also served on Cornell University’s President's Council for Cornell Women.
Before her time at JPL, Cox served for 6 years in the US Air Force including duty as a Space Operations Officer at NORAD/US Space Command. She holds engineering degrees from Cornell University and the Air Force Institute of Technology as well as a psychology degree from Cornell. (Sometimes she is not sure which one she uses more: the engineering degree or the psychology degree.)
Cox is currently a Tactical Mission Lead on the Curiosity Rover, and every day at NASA/JPL exploring space is as rewarding as the first. You can contact her at nagincox(at)outlook.com.
Nagin Cox | Speaker | TED.com