Science Behind the Fiction- Robots

music r2-d2: noise ben burtt, sound director in "star wars" films: from what i've seen, especially with the recent landing of curiosity on mars, there is just amazing technology. the fact that we on earth can be steering and commanding machines on mars, so far away, is truly amazing. i never could have imagined that being the case back 40 years ago when we started on the first star wars. at that time, even the r2 on the set could barely move down the hallway. marcus richardson, "star wars" fan: we are making big leaps, i know that. just the fact that we landed

on mars is mind-boggling. next thing you know, we're gonna be putting people on mars. with r2-d2 going to mars, i'm sure he could do a lot better survey on mars than curiosity, but that's light years away. burtt: the development of robotics, of course, is a very exciting endeavor. r2-d2, of course, kind of paved the way, showing us that you could have a robot you could talk to and instruct and carry out your tasks in another place, on another world perhaps. slate: what would mars sound like? burtt: mars has wind and of course it has little tornado-like dust clouds moving about,

so i would imagine, there'd be some whistling around the edges of curiosity for instance and i'd love to hear it. slate: which "star wars" world would you send curiosity to, if you could? brian pauley, "star wars" fan: endor, definitely, because it's a forest planet, it'd make a nice habitat. maybe tatooine because you could have a beach resort out there you could probably do that. i'd probably stay away from mustafar because when people go to mustafar they end up losing limbs and getting burnt, so might want to avoid that planet. annette cheney, "star wars" fan: i love endor, but naboo's beautiful, too, i mean, with the waterfalls. it was filmed in one of my favorite countries, i mean, i love it.

but i think i'd say endor because there's so many different species there, the ewoks, the wookies and it looks so pretty. i'd like to see it up-close and personal. that'd be beautiful. christopher garrison, "star wars" fan: i'd have to send it to dagobah. what a challenge, swamp, mud, all kinds of junk everywhere, that would be fun. burtt: i would love to know something about alderaan. now that's a star wars world we never went to, so therefore i'd love to send curiosity to either dantooine or alderaan to see what's there because they're only referred to in the movies, we never go there so i can't tell you what to expect, that's why i would send a probe. slate: how does a fictional world or invention influence real-life?

brian pauley, "star wars" fan: i think good science fiction motivates good science. when you see something, you say i'd love to be able to do that, then you start going about trying to do it and when you accomplish it, it's like, i did this because i was a star wars geek. jasmine seales, "star wars" fan: people see all these sci-fi movies and then they hear about what people are actually doing to try to do things i guess that are similar to that, so i think it just fascinates them that we can do these things that have come out of old movies and nowadays we can do stuff like that and i think that really draws people in to everything. evan greenwood, "star wars" fan: it's going very fast, relatively. i mean, the movie was made 30 years ago and a lot of things that were in the movie are becoming real. ion drives?

they now exist. they did not back then. christopher garrison, "star wars" fan: i'd like to see some lightsabers and some blasters but aside from that we're getting close on the technology. it's happened a lot faster than we thought. slate: which "star wars" character would make the best astronaut to explore the galaxy? mariana king, "star wars" fan: han solo has the courage, but he's kind of reckless. so, maybe han. annette cheney, "star wars" fan: i'm partial, i think the best astronauts would be the stormtroopers because they're trained so much. they can do pracitally anything, so i think they could pick up nasa space training the fastest and easiest.

and they look really good in a spacesuit. tim martinez, "star wars" fan: definitely darth vader. he's already equipped to breathe in space, he needs nothing else, he's ready to go. definitely darth vader. kara gardner, "star wars" fan: probably jaina solo. she seems to be very mechanically inclined and astronauts need to be able to fix things extremely fast and efficiently. jasmine seales, "star wars" fan: clearly princess leia. she's the best character in all the movies. slate: what is the appeal of space exploration? david atteberry, "star wars" fan: every step we take gets us a little bit closer and that's one of the

things i found interesting about the curiosity rover, it's like we're finally getting out there, back into space and getting closer to that dream of being able to explore our galaxy. kara gardner, "star wars" fan: every time nasa takes another step out, i feel like that was the reason i fell in love with "star wars" was because i wanted to know what was out there. now we're finding out what's on mars and it's kind of like, well, that reminds me of this planet in the "star wars" universe. marcus richardson, "star wars" fan: it's a big unknown. we probably don't know a percentage of what's going on in the universe because it's so huge and it's endless, so it's a never-ending story.

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