Know Before We Go: What Mars Exploration and IndyCar Racing Have in Common

Alexander Rossi
"Hi, I'm Alexander Rossi, driver of the number 20 Java House Chevrolet."

Al Chen
"And I'm Al Chen, manager of the Mars Exploration Program for NASA. Before we send humans to Mars, we need to understand the environment.

Alexander Rossi
"And when you're going 200 miles an hour, it's important to know every inch of the road."

Al Chen
"Here's what we need to know before we go."

Touchdown confirmed!

Al Chen
"We're essentially turning Mars from an unknown world into a place we understand. Human exploration requires confidence. Robotic exploration is how we build that confidence — by knowing the challenges and the risks that we'll be faced with so we can prepare for what comes next."

Alexander Rossi
"We do what's called a track walk before we race, and for us to get a good understanding of what the track looks like before we drive on it for the first time is super critical."

Al Chen
"NASA does the same thing at a planetary scale. Our orbiters map landing sites in extraordinary detail. Our rovers examine soil properties, slopes, rocks, and surface conditions. We study weather patterns and dust activity."

Alexander Rossi
"The variables that exist on the track start with the surface changes. You get expansion joints and patches and potholes, and because we're in a city, there's manhole covers — things that look fairly benign can have a pretty big impact on how the car's working."

Al Chen
"Just like a racetrack, Mars is a place where small details matter enormously. A slight slope can affect landing safety. Certain terrains can trap rover wheels. Dust can interfere with solar power and even mechanical systems. The better we know those details, the more capable and safer our missions become. We're learning our course before we ever send a crew to Mars, and we want to know everything we can about it."

Alexander Rossi
"And if you didn't do the track walk, you could turn into a corner at 140 miles an hour, thinking it was a certain radius — and that could be the end of your day."

Alexander Rossi
"The amount of time we spend studying video and telemetry and data, and spending time in the simulator before the event, would surprise a lot of people. And when I get in the car, I know that I'm very prepared and nothing foreign is going to come at me."

Al Chen
"Just like Alex simulates his drives for a race, simulation is a huge part of how we operate Mars missions. Before a rover executes a drive on Mars, teams often rehearse the activity using detailed software models and sometimes full-scale rover testbeds here on Earth. We simulate terrain, lighting conditions, vehicle behavior, arm movements, and communication timing. The goal is to understand possible outcomes before the rover commits to an action millions of miles away."

Alexander Rossi
"In racing, it doesn't matter what kind of driver you are if you don't have a team around you that can build a reliable car, make the correct setup decisions, and strategy decisions in the race — you're not going to be successful. So it comes down to the people and the team, the preparation, and ultimately the very small, if any, margin for error."

Al Chen
"Mars exploration is cumulative. We don't start over each time. We stand on the shoulders of 60 years of prior missions."

Alexander Rossi
"Being able to see firsthand what you're doing, I have a newfound appreciation for the effort and the work and the commitment that it takes to do what you're doing. It's truly otherworldly. So keep up the hard work. Thank you, and I look forward to learning more about it in the future."