Video Scripts
Here, students learn sustainable farming methods. live on Mars. Its members talk to government agencies
These methods have little or no negative impact on
the environment.
Gaspari Cordova: They teach us here how to be very
respectful to our environment. Not only to the people that
we’re working with, but also to our environment.
Narrator: Most of the university’s 400 students are from
Latin America, but some come from as far away as Africa
to study here.
Robert Lechipan: Where we come from, the northern
part of Kenya, Marsabit, is one of the poorest places we
have in Kenya.
Narrator: Lechipan says that Earth University teaches
many useful skills. When he returns to Kenya, he can use
these skills to make farming more sustainable there.
Students work six days a week, 11 months a year in the
classroom and in the fields. There’s even a banana farm
on campus. At the farm, students and professors can try
out new sustainable methods. The farm sells most of its
bananas to the United States. Money from banana sales
is used for scholarships to students from poor areas.
Mathew Rogers: The profits of the banana business
support scholarships for students from poor communities.
Narrator: In addition to farming, Earth University
students learn about ecology, business management,
and leadership.
According to university president Jose Zaglul, Earth
University students will do more than learn about
sustainable farming. He believes that they will learn
how to be leaders so they can help change their
own communities.
UNIT
Colonizing Mars
6
Narrator: Scientists around the world are interested in
exploring Mars. Over the past 30 years, there have been
dozens of unmanned missions to the red planet. However,
traveling to Mars is not easy: about two-thirds of these
missions were failures.
Because missions to Mars are dangerous and expensive,
plans for a manned mission to Mars have been delayed
for decades. The international space community is still not
ready to send humans there. However, a manned mission
to Mars is a goal that Dr. Bob Zubrin really believes in.
Dr. Zubrin: NASA had plans to send people to Mars by
1981. Those plans were credible. We should have been on
Mars a quarter century ago.
Narrator: Bob Zubrin is president of the Mars Society, an
international organization he helped start in 1998. The Mars
Society supports the goal of having humans explore and
206 | VIDEO SCRIPTS
42139_bm_ptg01_hr_203-208.indd 206
and private companies to get money to explore Mars.
Zubrin is also doing research to prepare for a manned
mission to Mars. The Mars Society set up living spaces
designed for Mars in the deserts of Utah in the western
United States, and on Devon Island in northern Canada.
These remote areas are similar in some ways to the
surface of Mars.
Dr. Zubrin: We’re trying to find out what field tactics
and techniques would be most usefully applied on Mars,
what technologies would be most useful to the crew.
Narrator: Zubrin has ambitious ideas. He plans
to colonize the planet.
Dr. Zubrin: We’re going to Mars because Mars is the
planet that has on it the resources needed to support life
and therefore, potentially someday, human civilization.
Narrator: For Zubrin, Mars is the new frontier.
Dr. Zubrin: Whether or not there has been life on Mars,
whether or not there is life on Mars, there will be life on
Mars. And it will be us.
Narrator: Zubrin isn’t the only one with plans for the
red planet. Dr. Chris McKay has another idea: he wants to
create an atmosphere on Mars so humans can live there.
Dr. McKay: If we go to Mars and find that there is no
life, then I say we might as well move in.
Narrator: McKay believes that for humans to eventually
live on Mars, they need to start by warming up its
atmosphere.
Dr. McKay: Well, we know how to warm up planets.
We’re doing it on Earth.
Narrator: The first step to warming up the planet is
putting greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere.
Dr. McKay: The effect of these gases would be to melt
the ice, bring back the atmosphere, and restore Mars to
the conditions it was billions of years ago.
Narrator: But if humans are going to live on Mars,
they’re going to need oxygen. Chris McKay has an idea
about how to create oxygen on Mars, using tiny organisms
called cyano bacteria.
Dr. McKay: These organisms are known as cyano
bacteria. It’s a type of algae, a single-cell type of algae,
that has a very long history on Earth. These were the
organisms that first made the oxygen. These organisms
could do the same thing on Mars. Send them to Mars and
ask them to change the world.
Narrator: Cyano bacteria—the planet changers!
Scientists continue to study Mars, so that one day humans
will travel to the red planet. And perhaps someday in the
future, humans will live there.
7/19/12 5:00 PM
 Video Scripts
Here, students learn sustainable farming methods.
These methods have little or no negative impact on
the environment.
Gaspari Cordova: They teach us here how to be very
respectful to our environment. Not only to the people that
we’re working with, but also to our environment.
Narrator: Most of the university’s 400 students are from
Latin America, but some come from as far away as Africa
to study here.
Robert Lechipan: Where we come from, the northern
part of Kenya, Marsabit, is one of the poorest places we
have in Kenya.
Narrator: Lechipan says that Earth University teaches
many useful skills. When he returns to Kenya, he can use
these skills to make farming more sustainable there.
Students work six days a week, 11 months a year in the
classroom and in the fields. There’s even a banana farm
on campus. At the farm, students and professors can try
out new sustainable methods. The farm sells most of its
bananas to the United States. Money from banana sales
is used for scholarships to students from poor areas.
Mathew Rogers: The profits of the banana business
support scholarships for students from poor communities.
Narrator: In addition to farming, Earth University
students learn about ecology, business management,
and leadership.
According to university president Jose Zaglul, Earth
University students will do more than learn about
sustainable farming. He believes that they will learn
how to be leaders so they can help change their
own communities.
UNIT
Colonizing Mars
6
Narrator: Scientists around the world are interested in
exploring Mars. Over the past 30 years, there have been
dozens of unmanned missions to the red planet. However,
traveling to Mars is not easy: about two-thirds of these
missions were failures.
Because missions to Mars are dangerous and expensive,
plans for a manned mission to Mars have been delayed
for decades. The international space community is still not
ready to send humans there. However, a manned mission
to Mars is a goal that Dr. Bob Zubrin really believes in.
Dr. Zubrin: NASA had plans to send people to Mars by
1981. Those plans were credible. We should have been on
Mars a quarter century ago.
Narrator: Bob Zubrin is president of the Mars Society, an
international organization he helped start in 1998. The Mars
Society supports the goal of having humans explore and
206 | VIDEO SCRIPTS
42139_bm_ptg01_hr_203-208.indd 206
live on Mars. Its members talk to government agencies
and private companies to get money to explore Mars.
Zubrin is also doing research to prepare for a manned
mission to Mars. The Mars Society set up living spaces
designed for Mars in the deserts of Utah in the western
United States, and on Devon Island in northern Canada.
These remote areas are similar in some ways to the
surface of Mars.
Dr. Zubrin: We’re trying to find out what field tactics
and techniques would be most usefully applied on Mars,
what technologies would be most useful to the crew.
Narrator: Zubrin has ambitious ideas. He plans
to colonize the planet.
Dr. Zubrin: We’re going to Mars because Mars is the
planet that has on it the resources needed to support life
and therefore, potentially someday, human civilization.
Narrator: For Zubrin, Mars is the new frontier.
Dr. Zubrin: Whether or not there has been life on Mars,
whether or not there is life on Mars, there will be life on
Mars. And it will be us.
Narrator: Zubrin isn’t the only one with plans for the
red planet. Dr. Chris McKay has another idea: he wants to
create an atmosphere on Mars so humans can live there.
Dr. McKay: If we go to Mars and find that there is no
life, then I say we might as well move in.
Narrator: McKay believes that for humans to eventually
live on Mars, they need to start by warming up its
atmosphere.
Dr. McKay: Well, we know how to warm up planets.
We’re doing it on Earth.
Narrator: The first step to warming up the planet is
putting greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere.
Dr. McKay: The effect of these gases would be to melt
the ice, bring back the atmosphere, and restore Mars to
the conditions it was billions of years ago.
Narrator: But if humans are going to live on Mars,
they’re going to need oxygen. Chris McKay has an idea
about how to create oxygen on Mars, using tiny organisms
called cyano bacteria.
Dr. McKay: These organisms are known as cyano
bacteria. It’s a type of algae, a single-cell type of algae,
that has a very long history on Earth. These were the
organisms that first made the oxygen. These organisms
could do the same thing on Mars. Send them to Mars and
ask them to change the world.
Narrator: Cyano bacteria—the planet changers!
Scientists continue to study Mars, so that one day humans
will travel to the red planet. And perhaps someday in the
future, humans will live there.
7/19/12 5:00 PM