House Proceeding on Mar 11th, 2009 :: 1:46:45 to 1:51:00
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1:46:42 to 1:47:03( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: my colleagues to support ts resolution and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves his time. the gentleman from tennessee. mr. davis: i yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from california, mr. schiff. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. schiff: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. speaker, colleagues, five

1:46:45 to 1:51:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Adam B. Schiff

1:47:04 to 1:47:24( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: years ago in january, 2004, i had the privilege of being in the control room at the jet propulsion laboratory when spirit, the first of two identical mars rovers, landed in gustav crater. it was an amazing experience to watch the dozens of engineers, controllers, and scitists who worked so hard and for so long

1:47:25 to 1:47:48( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: on the rover project see its initial success. i'm proud to have many of them as my constituents, and i'm also honored to share j.p.l. with my colleague, david dreier, and have joined him in this resolution honoring five years of surface operations by spirit and its twin, opportunity. spirit and opportunity landed on mars to begin what was planned

1:47:49 to 1:48:12( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: as a three-month mission to evaluate weather -- whether conditions would at one time would have been suitable for life. j.p.l. employees worked around the clock to make the most of what was planned as a limited duration mission. equipped with cameras, speck

1:48:13 to 1:48:34( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: trom metters -- speck trom meters -- spectrometers and others were developed and they are still going strong. it's a testament to the quality of their design, and scientific bonanza for scientists here and around the world. the rover's discovery of evidence of past water on mars

1:48:35 to 1:48:56( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: was 2004's top scientific breakthrough of the year, according to the journal, "science." they have also uncovered evidence of mars' violent volcanic past and transmitted more than 36 gigabites of data back to earth. despite a gimpy wheel, spirit has spent most of the past year exploring an area dubbed home

1:48:57 to 1:49:19( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: plate which is rich in cilicia and other telltale sign of water. opportunity has had shoulder troubles but has covered a lot of ground in the last five years. the rover spent almost two years exploring victoria crater, and has now begun a long drive to its next major destination, a ch larger crater called endeavor. at 14 miles in diameter,

1:49:20 to 1:49:41( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: endeavor is more than 20 times larger than viktora. people around the world have been captivated by the stunning photographs of the martian surface and the ruddy sky. in the first two months after they landed on mars, j.p.l.'s rover website registered almost nine billion hits. since then we have watched the seasons change on mars and have

1:49:42 to 1:50:03( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: marveled at the changing terrain as the rovers have moved about the surface. nasa's jet propulsion laboratory managed by the california institute of technology, designed, built, and controls the rovers. j.p.l. has been the pioneer of our exploration of the solar system from the beginning of our space program and is one of the crown jewels of american science.

1:50:04 to 1:50:24( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: explorer one, america's first satellite, was a j.p.l. project. at the time it was launched, the united states had fallen behind the soviet union in the space race and several other attempts at getting an american sputnik into orbit ended in fiery explosions on the launch pad. not only did explorer one salvage our pride, but the tiny satellite discovered the van

1:50:25 to 1:50:45( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: allen radiation belts that circle the earth. since then j.p.l. probes have explored most of our solar system from the ranger series that paved the wayer for the apollo moon landings, to voyagers' grand tour of the planet, to last spring's landing on mars by the mars phoenix. and i have also surveyed the

1:50:46 to 1:51:00( Edit History Discussion )

Adam B. Schiff: cosmos as well as our own planet. in two years, nasa will launch a larger rover, the mars science laboratory, which will build on the work being done today by spirit and opportunity. with a little luck the rovers will still be working, still