Nagin Cox: What time is it on Mars?
Nagin Cox: Che ore sono su 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."
il film "The Martian".
it's a movie about an astronaut
è un film su un astronauta
and his efforts to stay alive
e sui suoi sforzi per rimanere in vita
to bring him back to Earth.
una missione di soccorso dalla Terra.
a ristabilire le comunicazioni
astronaut Watney, at some point
on Mars until he can be rescued.
su Marte fino al salvataggio.
or even if you haven't,
o anche se non lo avete visto,
how far away it is and how distant.
have occurred to you is,
of working on another planet --
su un altro pianeta --
and there are rovers or people on Mars?
e anche rover o persone su Marte.
families and co-workers
familiari e colleghi
or in other parts of the world.
o in altre parti del mondo.
to communicate with them,
a cui pensate per prima è:
you probably first think about is:
with colleagues who are in Europe,
con colleghi che sono in Europa,
communication when people are far away?
la comunicazione fra persone distanti?
right now, but we do have rovers.
però abbiamo i rover.
it is 6:10 in the morning.
sono le 6:10 del mattino.
on Mars since the mid-1990s,
quattro rover dalla metà degli anni '90
to work on three of them.
di lavorare su tre di essi.
a spacecraft operations engineer,
ingegnere aerospaziale per le operatività
in Los Angeles, California.
a Los Angeles, California.
are our robotic emissaries.
i nostri emissari robotici.
and they see the planet for us
vedono il pianeta per noi
on other planets through these rovers.
su altri pianeti tramite questi rover.
prima di mandare le persone.
on Mars right now,
di orario con Marte
is longer than the Earth day.
è più lungo di un giorno sulla Terra.
the Earth to rotate,
a fare una rotazione,
40 minutes to rotate once.
a completare una rotazione.
is 40 minutes longer than the Earth day.
40 minuti in più di quello terrestre.
the rovers on Mars, like this one,
su Marte, come questa,
on Earth, but working on Mars.
on Mars with the rover.
su Marte con il rover.
of which I'm a part of,
della quale faccio parte,
to tell it what to do the next day.
per dirgli cosa deve fare il giorno dopo.
or tell her whatever she's supposed to do.
o qualunque cosa debba fare.
and the rover does sleep at night
to recharge her batteries
di ricaricare le batterie
the cold Martian night.
on her program for the next day.
al suo programma per il giorno dopo.
at the same time every day on Mars --
alla stessa ora ogni giorno su Marte --
alle 5 del pomeriggio,
at work at 5:00 p.m.,
at 5:00 p.m. Mars time every day,
alle 5, orario marziano, ogni giorno,
on the Earth 40 minutes later every day,
lavorare 40 minuti più tardi ogni giorno,
the next day 40 minutes later at 8:40,
il giorno dopo 40 minuti dopo, alle 8:40,
40 minuti più tardi, alle 9:20,
di 40 minuti ogni giorno,
al lavoro nel cuore della notte --
in the middle of the night --
how confusing that is.
la confusione che si crea.
have been mechanically adjusted
adattati meccanicamente
the rovers back then.
i rover di allora.
we'll just have the time on our computers
sui nostri computer
and that would be enough.
e che sarebbe bastato.
working on Mars time,
lavorando con l'orario di Marte,
about what time it was.
on your wrist to tell you:
avere qualcosa al polso che dicesse:
What time is it on Mars?
Che ore sono su Marte?
that was confusing;
to talk to each other about it.
di parlarne fra noi.
again, 24 hours and 40 minutes.
ripeto, 24 ore e 40 minuti.
that's happening on the Earth,
che succede sulla Terra,
"Yestersol" per Marte.
"Oh, let's invent a language."
dall'inizio: "Inventiamoci una lingua."
walked up to me and said,
on the vehicle tomorrow, on the rover."
questa attività sul veicolo, sul rover."
or Mars, tomorrow?"
o domani di Marte?"
we needed a way to talk to each other.
perché ci serviva un modo per capirci.
"Nextersol" o "Solorrow."
for the words they use.
nell'uso delle parole.
and some of you might say "pop."
"gazzosa" e altri "gassosa".
"nextersol" or "solorrow."
"nextersol" o "solorrow".
a few years of working on these missions,
per alcuni anni, ho notato
on the rovers, we say "tosol."
ai rover diciamo "tosol".
landed missions that don't rove around,
di atterraggio che non esplorano,
you worked on from your Martian accent.
su quale missione dall'accento marziano.
and you're detecting a theme here, right?
cominciate a notare un filo conduttore?
could confuse us.
sulla Terra può confonderci.
you've come to work
appena arrivati al lavoro
from the windows
della sala di controllo
this image of the control room
about a week before landing,
una settimana prima dell'atterraggio,
until we went off Mars time.
quando abbiamo lasciato il tempo di Marte.
for the house, for at home.
tre volte, e mio marito fa:
and my husband is like,
and dark curtains and shades
di alluminio e mette tende e schermi scuri
this darkened environment, but so was he.
di ambiente scuro, ma anche lui.
emails from him when he was at work.
da lui mentre era al lavoro.
so he needs a Mars watch.
di un orologio marziano.
so there's an app for that.
c'è una app per questo.
we can also use our phones.
i nostri telefoni al posto degli orologi.
was just across the board;
era su tutta la linea;
who were working on the rovers
che lavoravamo ai rover
one of our flight directors,
uno dei nostri direttori di volo,
with his family at 1:00 in the morning.
con la sua famiglia a l'una del mattino.
to school until September,
la scuola fino a settembre,
with him for one month.
insieme a lui per un mese.
40 minuti più tardi.
gli orari di lavoro del papà.
and had these great adventures,
hanno avuto grandi avventure,
in the middle of the night
nel cuore della notte
that we all discovered
ovunque a Los Angeles
when there's no traffic.
quando non c'è traffico.
and bother our families,
e disturbare le nostre famiglie
going locally to eat something,
di mangiare qualcosa là vicino,
all-night deli in Long Beach,
locale a Long Beach aperto la notte,
it was like the 60s, no traffic.
come negli anni '60.
and the restaurant owners would go,
e i ristoratori dicevano:
at 3:00 in the morning?"
alle tre del mattino?"
that there were these packs of Martians,
che c'erano branchi di marziani
in the middle of the night --
di LA nel cuore della notte --
start calling ourselves Martians.
a definirci marziani.
would refer to ourselves as Martians,
si definivano "marziani"
a time-zone every day,
fuso orario ogni giorno,
from everyone else.
da tutti gli altri.
"I survived Mars time. Sol 0-90."
sopravvissuta al fuso di Marte. Sol 0-90".
up on the screen.
is because we work on Mars time
perché lavoriamo con l'orario marziano
with the rover on Mars,
possibile con il rover su Marte,
for more than three to four months.
di Marte più di tre, massimo quattro mesi.
time, which is what we're working now.
modificato, ci stiamo lavorando ora.
your bodies, it's hard on your families.
sul fisico e sulle famiglie.
who actually were studying us
del sonno che ci stavano studiando
to try to extend their day.
cerchino di estendere la loro giornata.
sleep deprivation experiments on.
di privazione del sonno.
and I fell asleep in each one.
e mi addormentavo ogni volta.
this eventually becomes hard on your body.
dannoso per il corpo.
with the other members on the team,
moltissimo i membri della squadra,
steps out into the solar system.
i nostri primi passi nel sistema solare.
on more than one planet.
su più di un pianeta.
to become multi-planetary.
per farla diventare multiplanetaria.
a Star Wars movie,
che vedete Guerre Stellari,
from the Dagobah system to Tatooine,
dal sistema Dagobah a Tatooine,
people spread out so far.
persone sparse su un'area così vasta.
of the distances between them,
di distanza fra loro,
separate from each other
separati gli uni dagli altri,
alle logistiche temporali.
to Mars yet, but we hope to.
persone su Marte, ma speriamo di farlo.
space agencies of the world,
internazionali del mondo,
in the next few decades.
nei prossimi decenni.
and we truly will be multi-planetary.
e saremo davvero multiplanetari.
in this audience or listening today.
nel pubblico o in ascolto oggi.
on these missions since I was 14 years old
lavorare nel JPL a queste missioni
in the space program,
per il programma spaziale,
questo viaggio tutti insieme.
you don't have enough time in your day,
di non avere abbastanza tempo,
of your Earthly perspective.
di prospettiva 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