Bill Nye

It would change the way each of us feels about being a living thing here in the cosmos.

And so furthermore, the cost of this exploration is very, very small.

compared to everything else in the federal budget the federal government spends money on.

And then I remind you guys, other countries, other space programs are going full on organized efforts to do almost mission for mission.

what the United States is planning to cut.

It's really a remarkable time.

But as I say, both the Senate and House have rejected the cuts.

What we want them to do is that business of reconciliation and then get this, as they say, over the finish line, this legislation.

It's two different things.

Sending rockets to low Earth orbit or even ferrying spacecraft to high Earth geosynchronous orbits and so on is one thing.

There is no business case.

Nobody's making money looking for evidence of life on Mars.

This is a replica of the Mars sample tubes.

These are rock samples that are on Mars.

Some of them are in the belly of the rover Perseverance.

Some of them are deliberately left on the surface where we can pick them up in case something goes wrong.

There's no plan to bring those back.

What's in those rocks, these so-called leopard spots, may be evidence of ancient life, which would have started on Mars.

That would be extraordinary.

All right, then everybody, you may have heard the expression dark energy, dark matter.