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Maybe even one day go to mars. >> frankly, nasa will send robots ahead of the astronauts to the planet. these robots will start preparing the way for the human explorers. >> the first valkyrie has another mission. to compete in a robotic challenge sponsored by the department of defense. >> the robots at nasa johnson space flight center has been building is an extraordinary machine. of all the robots, it's the one with the most degrees of freedom, the most joints to move around. it's really quite sophisticated. i have high hopes for it. >> it's related to the robonaut, a robot on the space stat...

In the past and how easy it might be to live there in the future. this study does answer those questions. it is more focused on whether or not humans might be able to go there in the future. if you think about what this find might mean for humans, if you take a cubic foot of mars dirt and heat it up like we did, you can get out almost a couple of bottles of water worth of water out of it. that is a great resource for human explorers. >>elisabeth: that is good news. brian can go. we've been waiting to send him all week. >>brian: i'd like to see a different vacation. we're watching exactly what ...

That we're considering and now will be able to get funds needed to do that? >> this is a great question. and there is a 20% cut in next year's budget. this, i hope will inspire the public cause interest in nasa mars and other missions and maybe they can marshal this support to follow up in a level with mars exploration and perhaps to the moon so human explorers can follow up these kinds of discoveries. >> and thank you so much for being with us. you have been watching special coverage of the space rover curiosity's landing on mars which we now know was a success. we'll take you back to "gerald...

Astronauts putting their home work to bridge this goal of 35 million miles between earth and miles. by to 40 we might be ready to send human explorers there. that is many, many small steps and this is trying to build up capabilities for survival and existing on the surface using resources that is already there. >> for anyone just tuning this in, this is a very expensive mission. there is a lot riding on it. can you tell us what this means for the future of mars exploration? and planetary exploration? >> this is two and a half billion dollars.

Next big step in mars exploration which is bringing samples back from the red planet. learning about possible life there and paving the way for human explorers. gregg: derek, when tom and i were covering yesterday, we got e-mails from people saying billions spent on this is a waste. there are no martians on mars. that is not the point. the point is we're not looking for existing life there but the conditions that may have existed for organic life at one time? >> yes. what nasa is doing here is doing what is called chasing the water. for the idea of trying to figure out whether or not there eve...