Translator: Ms Buffard's students Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
Let me take you on a journey,
a quick but faraway journey, a journey into the future.
Let's go to Mars, the red planet.
We're in 2050, we traveled 500 million kilometers.
We are comfortably installed in a Martian village.
500 million km, is about 4 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
When an Earthling sends us a message,
we have to wait 10 minutes for it to reach us.
It's not easy to communicate.
The 3.8G gravity makes us weigh about 40% of our weight on Earth.
This is peculiar, but rather fun!
But there are less pleasant things.
The atmosphere is unattractive:
a 6 millibar pressure,
that is an atmosphere about 150 times less dense than on Earth.
But above all, it is composed of 96% CO2, carbon dioxide,
so it is not breathable at all.
So you'd better be warmly-dressed and have your oxygen generator with you.
Gardening is anything but simple.
The sun, much farther,
only bring us 35 to 50% of the energy received on Earth.
The temperature therefore varies from -3 ° to -130 °.
-130 °... even Canadians find it cold!
(Laughter)
The winds and dust storms are permanent.
Solar radiation, cosmic rays
are stopped neither by the atmosphere nor by the absent magnetic field.
Here's a tip: do not get out of this room.
However, today, Mars has become a suburb of the Earth.
And if we can now spend some time,
safely and comfortably on this planet,
it is thanks to pioneering missions
that allowed our knowledge of this planet to advance by leaps and bounds.
Remember, it was on March 14, 2016.
A space mission, called ExoMars,
was beginning with the launch of a Proton rocket from Baikonur,
Kazakhstan.
The objective: to conquer this new horizon
and land on it the first European probe named Schiaparelli.
That day, the tension was at its peak
for the engineers and scientists working on the project.
They had the ambition to innovate,
to be those who would advance our knowledge.
Their dream, for 10, 15 years, to land their baby that far away,
after so many efforts, was becoming reality.
Years of work, months of verifications
weeks of preparation in Kazakhstan,
then the take-off, the long wait to be placed on the right path,
Video: the rocket now launched, relief is visible.
JJJ: Receiving signals from that space newborn,
indicating its good health.
Moments of intense emotion.
At the time, we were looking for traces of life on Mars.
With its scientific instruments
our sniffer satellite was going to analyze the Martian atmosphere.
The crucial question of the presence of methane on Mars
was about to be answered.
Methane is an indicator of potential biological life.
A neutron detector would indicate whether - and where -
water was to be found in the Martian ground.
Stereo images would provide details of the Martian landscape.
But above all, this mission was to prepare for the arrival of a vehicle, a Rover,
which left Earth in 2018.
A very long time ago, Mars and Earth were similar,
with huge liquid oceans on their surface.
The environment and chemical processes were similar,
like on twin planets.
Then Mars suffered a terrible climate change
3.5 billion years ago.
From that moment, Mars became arid, barren, cold, hostile.
On its surface anyway.
The solar radiation and the thin atmosphere
forbade all life on the surface.
The cosmic radiation chopped any potential organic molecules.
But what happened deep down, protected from these attacks?
A new mission was to penetrate this secret.
But landing on Mars was so perilous then.
The heat shield entered the atmosphere at 21,000 km/h and 120 km altitude
and it reaches 1,500 degrees.
The parachutes open at 1700 km/h and slow the probe down to 250 km/h,
at approximately 1 km altitude.
Then the retro-rockets finish the descent
that has not lasted more than 6 minutes.
Then our vehicle unfolds.
Then it will begin its journey on the surface of Mars.
This vehicle is equipped with a drill capable of reaching 2m deep.
Thanks to its onboard lab, it will analyze the extracted rocks and sediments.
Finally, for the first time
we were going to get an answer to this fundamental question:
Is life present, or has it been present elsewhere than Earth?
So how can we look at Earth in 2050?
The exploration of Mars has been a huge challenge for scientists and engineers.
The analysis of the atmosphere of Mars has allowed us to progress
in our understanding of Earth's phenomena and climate.
Conquering Mars has allowed us to progress
in our technical management and treatment of water
of waste reprocessing.
But above all, the spirit of conquest and exploration
shared by all those involved,
allowed to contribute to a more fraternal, solidary world,
and therefore more peaceful.
By the way, be careful, do not get lost,
because you've already seen that if you stay "alone on Mars,"
the situation will be tricky to manage.
(Laughter)
So after this short Martian stay,
I suggest you return to Earth, France, Cannes, late April 2016.
(Applause)