01x40 - A Hammer and a Feather / Commander Mom

[bunniefuu]

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

♪ That's his name ♪

♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

♪ He'll rocket to fame ♪

♪ When he arrived, he created a buzz ♪

♪ 'Cause there was no house ♪

♪ And then there was, he said ♪

- ♪ People of Earth! You ain't seen nothing yet! ♪

♪ I'm from Bortron , and my name is Jet! ♪

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

♪ That's his name ♪

♪ He looks like us ♪

♪ But he isn't the same ♪

- ♪ I'm a space tripper and a galaxy crosser ♪

♪ My parents brought me here in a flying saucer ♪

- ♪ And just to prove it was a fact ♪

♪ He flew them out to space and back ♪

♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

[spaceship whirring]

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!

- ♪ He showed up, and now it's a blast ♪

♪ Looks like the future really got here fast ♪

- ♪ Nice to meet you, human race ♪

♪ Tell me all about the place ♪

- Jet Propulsion!

- Jet Propulsion!

- Jet Propulsion!

all: Ready! Jet! Go!

- Okay, Jet.

Experiment number one: leaf versus acorn.

Ready to drop them?

Three, two, one,

drop.

[thump]

[cymbal clashes]

- [gibbers]

- Ha, the acorn got to the ground first.

Does that mean, as you Earthies say,

I win?

- Yep. So the leaf fell more slowly.

Why do you think that happened?

Maybe it has something to do with its shape?

- Er, well it's obvious.

The acorn got to the ground first because it has

it has an entire oak tree inside of it.

- [laughs] I'm not sure if that's it,

but interesting logic, Jet.

Okay, what should we drop next?

- Which do you want?

- Commander Cressida, of course.

Experiment number two:

comic book versus pencil.

Ready? Three, two, one,

drop!

- [gibbers]

- [humming]

Aw, yeah!

- What are you celebrating, Jet?

- Oh, hey, Sean.

We're dropping things over the railing

and seeing which one lands first.

- Yeah, I thought my Commander Cressida comic

would reach the ground first, 'cause it's bigger.

But Jet's pencil won the race.

- Cool. What a great science experiment.

Can I play, too? - Sure.

- Let's find two more items to drop.

- [gasps]

Ahh! Not my telescope!

Ah! No!

[screaming]

[inflates]

[drumbeat]

Yes!

[grumbling] Always taking my telescope.

- [chuckles] Next up...

- A feather? No contest.

- Well, I pick the hammer. - And I'll take the feather.

- Experiment number three: hammer versus feather.

Ready, Sunspot?

- [squeaks]

- Okay, three, two, one,

drop!

- [squeaks]

[thump]

- [gibbers]

- Wow. You're right, Sydney.

No contest, as you Earthies say.

- This is so cool.

Did you know the Apollo astronauts

tried the same experiment on the moon?

- What, dropping things? - Yeah.

An astronaut dropped a feather and a hammer

at the same time.

- And the hammer hit the ground first,

because it's much heavier?

- Right, 'cause of course the bigger, heavier object

would fall faster, just like here on Earth.

- Nope, actually, they hit the ground at the same time.

[together] What?

- Sean, are you sure you're remembering this right?

I mean, we just saw

how the hammer dropped straight to the ground

while the feather floated slowly behind it.

- Well, that's what happened.

- In my left hand, I have a feather.

In my right hand, a hammer.

And I'll, uh, drop the two of 'em here,

and hopefully they'll hit the ground at the same time.

How about that?

- See?

They both landed at the same time.

Thanks for backing me up, Sunspot.

- Okay, but how come?

- Hm. Maybe it has something to do with atmosphere,

'cause the Earth has one,

and the Moon barely has any atmosphere at all.

- [gibbers] - See, the astronauts tried

the experiment because their theory was

it's Earth's atmosphere that slows down the objects.

- Oh, sure, the atmosphere. Of course!

Wait, uh, what exactly is the atmosphere again?

- Um, atmosphere is this layer of stuff

that surrounds the Earth, but not the Moon.

- It's the air that we breathe, but it does much more than that.

Only, I'm not sure what.

- [squeals]

[heroic music]

Right, see?

That's air keeping Sunspot's parachute open.

- Ah, of course.

But I still don't get what atmosphere is.

- Maybe we should ask Face. - Hello.

Face , ready to assist you.

Like Sydney said, the atmosphere

is the layer of air surrounding the Earth.

- Wow, it looks kind of like a blanket.

- Exactly, Sydney.

It acts like a blanket to protect us

from freezing space.

It holds in the warmth from the Sun,

and without it, we wouldn't have air to breathe.

And-- - Right, exactly.

Uh, that's amazing, Face,

but why did the hammer and the feather

land on the Moon's surface at the exact same time?

- Hmm, I have an idea.

Why not fly to the Moon and try the experiment yourselves?

- You mean do the same experiment

the Apollo astronauts did?

That would be so cool. [together] Yes!

- And on the way, you'll travel out of the Earth's atmosphere,

where you will discover the answer to your question.

- Wow. Jet, if your mom takes us to the Moon,

we can learn about the atmosphere

and try the same experiment as the astronauts.

Whoo-hoo! Come on!

- Yeah! Let's go to-- wait.

Sean wants to go to space?

- You bet! I got to see this for myself.

- Ha, ha! To the Moon!

Excelsior!

Ahh!

[upbeat music]

- Hurry and hop in, kids, before Sean changes his mind.

[together] Whoo-hoo! Yeah!

To the Moon!

- So why the sudden interest in the Moon, Sean?

- Well, way back in --

- Five, four, three, two, one.

Doors are shut, engines on.

Everybody in their place?

Let's go into outer space!

all: Ready, Jet, go!

[tires squeal]

[rousing music]

all: Whoa.

- It does look like a blanket.

- Who knew that such a thin, little blanket

could do so much?

- The atmosphere is actually miles thick.

- But why doesn't the atmosphere just float away?

- The Earth is big enough, meaning it has enough mass,

that its gravity pulls the atmosphere close

so it doesn't float away into space.

That's why smaller bodies like the Moon and Mars

don't have much of an atmosphere.

There just isn't enough gravity to hold the blanket in place.

- And without your atmosphere,

there would be no life on Earth.

So it's very important that we protect it.

- That makes sense, but Celery,

can we please go to the Moon now?

I really want to try our experiment.

- [chuckles] I'm impressed with your enthusiasm, Sean.

I'll get you to the Moon as fast as Bortronianly possible.

Let me just put this hammer down.

[jet engines whooshing]

Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

- Uh, okay, that's maybe too fast.

- [squeals]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

[brakes screeching]

♪ ♪

- Helmets on, everyone? [together] Yes!

- [groans]

Then what are we waiting for?

- Let's step in it--

[breathes deeply] As you Earthies say.

- Race ya! - Yeah!

- Whoo-hoo!

- No, I'm going first. - Ooh, whoo-hoo!

- Okay, this looks like the perfect place

to perform our atmosphere experiment.

- Or no-atmosphere experiment.

Let's start dropping things right now.

- Hold on, Jet.

We need to be scientific about it.

- Uh, scientific? Like how?

- Well, we should do the hammer and feather drop

just like we did it on Earth.

- Okay, so I'll take the hammer, and Jet takes the feather.

And Sean, you do the countdown.

- Whoo, come join us, Sean.

We can be the judges panel.

- Oh, yeah. Whoo!

[grunts] Ready?

both: Ready.

- Three, two, one...

drop!

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[all cheering]

- So much fun! - So cool!

- Yeah! We proved it on the Moon,

just like the astronauts.

Boo-ya! Science!

- But why?

- Well, the reason that the feather

falls slower on Earth is because

your atmosphere slows its fall.

- And since the Moon has so little atmosphere,

there's hardly any resistance?

- Right.

- So objects fall at the same rate

no matter what their size or weight.

- No matter what their size or weight?

- No matter what.

- [laughs] Wow.

We have got to test that.

all: Yes! Excelsior!

[drumroll]

[thump]

[laid-back music]

♪ ♪

- Ahh! Not my telescope!

- Oh, right.

all: Whoa.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- [chirps]

[squeaks]

♪ ♪

[gibbers]

♪ ♪

[cheers]

- Wow, that parachute didn't slow his fall down at all.

- Huh. Parachutes aren't much help on the Moon.

Good to know. - Well, that was cool.

We totally tested our theory and got results.

- Oh, yeah.

We solved our problem in a way that's just terrific.

all: We used a method that's scientific.

♪ The Scientific Method ♪

- That's what I said.

all: ♪ The Scientific Method ♪

- You were paying attention.

all: ♪ The Scientific Method ♪ - Oh, yes.

all: ♪ The Scientific Method ♪

[alarm blares]

- Ooh. That would be Carrot.

He's trying some kind of new Earth recipe for dinner.

We better get back before it's cold.

Or hot. h*! I'm not sure which.

[jet engines revving]

- What?!

The hammer fell at the same speed as the feather?

Huh, that's incredible-- just like tonight's dinner.

- What do you mean?

- Well, since tonight's Earth specialty is egg drop soup,

I am inspired to attempt the same scientific experiment

on our dinner.

- Uh-oh, I think I know where this is going.

- Right, I'll drop this egg of a chicken

at the exact same moment as this egg of an Earth ostrich

and see if they drop in the soup at the exact same time.

What can possibly go wrong?

Here we go. Three, two, one...

egg drop soup!

- [jabbering]

- Whoa. Whuu--aah!

Ta-da!

- [squeaks]

[splat]

[splat]

- [laughs] Oh, well, the experiment is a failure.

But a delicious one.

What's left of the soup is on. Let's eat!

- Actually, Mr. Propulsion,

it's Pot Roast Tuesday at my house.

Why don't you all come over?

all: Pot Roast Tuesday?

[thump] [excited chatter]

- Last one to Sean's house cleans up this mess!

[excited chatter]

- When I was a little kid, I used to lay on my back

on the floor and pretend that I could walk

on the ceiling.

Did you ever used to do that?

- I did; I pretended like I was floating around in space.

- Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Mainzer,

and I'm here with Joy Dunn.

Joy's a senior manufacturing engineer at SpaceX.

So, Joy, why can't we walk on the ceiling?

- Because of this thing called gravity.

- What is gravity, exactly, anyway?

- Gravity is a force of nature

that helps keep us planted on the ground.

- But I can't see it, and I can't smell it.

- But you can feel it. - Ah, okay.

So I can feel the pull of gravity.

I guess even if I don't realize it,

gravity is keeping us both on the ground, isn't it?

- It is. - And the more stuff you have,

the more gravity you have, right?

- Exactly. - Ah, okay.

So, you know, if I toss this apple,

why doesn't it just fly off into space?

- Because the apple has a lot less gravity than the Earth.

The Earth has a lot of stuff,

so it's pulling the apple down to Earth.

- The Earth is way bigger than this apple,

and I guess even a lot bigger than this spacecraft over here.

- It is. - If I throw that into space,

too, I guess it's gonna fall down

just like the apple, right? - Exactly.

Even though the spacecraft is a lot bigger than the apple,

it's still gonna fall back to Earth,

because the Earth has more-- more stuff than the spacecraft.

- I mean, we have gravity, right?

- We do. - But not as much as the Earth.

- Right, not as much as the Earth,

and not as much as the Sun.

So that's why the Earth is actually orbiting

around the Sun.

- So maybe it's a good thing

we have all this wonderful gravity

keeping everything attached to the ground.

- That is true. Gravity's our friend.

- So the next you're looking up to the ceiling

and you wonder why you can't walk on it, just remember,

it's a good thing that gravity is keeping us grounded.

- Hey, Jet. Hey, Sunspot.

I got a new soccer ball.

Want to try it out?

Hello?

- Over here, Sean.

Hey, what are you guys making together?

- That's kind of the problem.

We are not making anything together.

We're each busy with our own projects.

- Oh, well, what are you making, Jet?

- Lots of things.

First, I've got to get this rocket chair working again,

then make a pancake machine,

then a long list of other projects.

- How about you, Sunspot?

- He thinks it's important to make an automatic ear-massager.

With the massager, he can also do other projects

at the same time.

- Okay.

Sounds very Sunspot.

Anyway, I have my whole list of other projects to get to...

attaching a telescope to a helmet

so I can watch myself in space;

then I'll invent magnetic gloves;

a pillow made of pizza;

jet pack pants...

- [squeals]

- And I also want to make a double-decker hover-scooter.

Oh, and a taco machine for the saucer, and--

- So you each have a lot of projects.

Maybe if you start by helping each other a little,

it could make things go faster?

- Good idea.

First thing Sunspot can help me with

is getting me a glass of water.

I'm so thirsty, but I'm too busy to stop and get a drink.

- [gibbers] - With two ice cubes, please.

- Actually, I think he's asking you to get water, Jet.

- Really? After all I do for him?

He is my pet.

Shouldn't he help me?

- [chattering]

- Ah, thanks, Sunspot.

See, Sean, we're going along with your

"help each other" suggestion.

- [sips] - Okay.

So we're not really helping each other,

and we both have our own projects

and could use help...

- You know what you both need?

- Oh! Electric slippers?

- Maybe, but I was thinking a robot assistant.

That way, you can each have a helper

to do exactly what you want.

- Great idea, Sean.

Making a robot wasn't even on my list!

- Guess what--you don't even have to build one.

- Ha, ha.

You're right!

Sunspot, make me a robot.

Problem solved.

Should be done any minute.

[clattering]

Okay, Sunspot's not dropping everything

to build me a robot assistant.

- That's what I was trying to tell you.

You already did built a robot:

Jet !

- [squeaks]

- Oh, yeah!

Hey, Jet !

- That's what he looks like now?!

- [chuckles] Well, I might have taken him apart a little bit,

to make him into different things.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

Sorry, Jet . - Hello.

Yes, fun.

- Boy, I think we need a robot

to figure out how to put this robot back together.

- Good idea.

Wait, so now we need two robots?

Better get busy, Sunspot.

- [bleats]

- Or, one robot that can do many things at once

to help you and Sunspot.

Just got another idea.

Let's go find Sydney.

Her mom knows a lot about robots.

- Really? Great! Come on, Jet !

Oh, right. I took your legs apart.

- Oh, no--under attack from the spider robot squad!

- Hi, Sydney. - [screams]

Oh, hi, guys.

- Sorry, we didn't mean to scare you while you were playing.

- That's okay. Commander Cressida was just

facing off with the spider robot squad from outer space.

For a second, I thought you were robots.

- [robotically] Thank you. I take that as a compliment.

- Uh, is that Jet half taken apart?

- Mostly taken apart, yeah.

We were hoping to rebuild it into a robot

that could help me and Sunspot

finish our many projects,

like magnetic gloves and an ear massager for Sunspot,

and apparently space wings with interstellar overdrive.

- Cool. You've come to the right place.

- You know how to fix Jet so he's super amazing

and can help us with everything?

And you can do it by this afternoon?

Aw, thanks, Sydney!

- [laughs] Jet, I didn't say that.

I'm still learning about robots.

But my mom works at the DSA as a robotics engineer.

She designs outer space robots for real!

- Wow. You think she can help us?

- Let's go find out. Maybe she can show us

how to make Jet into a super-amazing helper robot!

Come on!

[power tools buzzing]

- Hi, Mom.

- Ah! Hi, kids.

- You know Sean, and I brought our friend, Jet.

Jet, this is my mom, Dr. Skelley.

- Well, it's about time you all came to see me,

after all those times you've been by to see Sean's mom

in the other building.

- To be fair, Sean's mom does have that amazing pie machine

right by her office.

- Did you know we have an ice cream machine

in our building?

[dispenser whirrs]

- Ugh, yes, but we came anyway.

- Ice cream's not Jet's thing. But I love it.

- I see. What can I do for you kids?

- They're trying to put together a robot.

And I was telling them that you design robots for space.

- Which has got to be the coolest job ever.

- I know, right?

I am so happy you're excited about robots.

I do design space robots, and I believe that they're the future.

- Right, but we have sort of an Earth robot problem right now.

[clank]

- [laughs] I like a challenge. I'll help.

So what kind of robot are we making?

- You know, really friendly, maybe furry feet,

colored lights that go around,

oh, stands about yea high--

- What I meant was, what do you need your robot to do?

- Oh, uh, things that will help Sunspot and me

with all of our projects.

So I guess a robot that does a lot of things?

- You and your pet do projects together?

- [munching]

[burps]

[chirps, purrs]

- Sure, Sunspot and I do projects together.

And separately.

- [chuckles] Interesting.

Anyway, the great thing about robots

is that they can do a lot of jobs:

help in a grocery store,

rescue trapped animals during a storm...

- That's amazing, Mom. - Wow!

It sounds like a robot will do anything you ask.

Even get you a glass of water?

- [laughs] Well, you have to program it,

or type type the right instructions into the computer,

so it will know what you want it to do.

The computer can't just guess.

- Aww.

- But robots are doing things that we never even imagined,

in places we never thought they'd go.

- You mean in space? - Exactly.

Robots can go collect dust samples from a comet's tail

and help repair spacecraft--

even explore a Mars volcano.

- Yeah, robots are super helpful in space.

- That's right, Sean.

Can you imagine why it might be easier

for a robot than a human to be in space?

- Oh, oh! Oh! Because they don't miss their moms?

And their socks never get dirty?

- [gasps] I know, Mom.

Because robots don't have to breathe?

- Exactly right, Sydney.

- Oh, and--and also, robots don't have to eat.

Or sleep.

- And they probably don't care if it's cold.

- Good answers, Sydney and Sean.

Hey, you kids already know two space robots really well.

- We do? Who, who?

Oh, the Petersens?

- [laughs] both: No. Beep and Boop.

[robot beeping and whirring]

- That's Boop, Beep's sister on Mars.

- Right. We designed Beep here

so she can do things on Earth

that we want her sister Boop to do in space,

like experiments.

- [squeaks]

- That's, uh, quite a pet you've got there, Jet.

- Ha! Thanks.

He can be stubborn, though.

- So how do you come up with ideas for all these

space robots you design?

- That's my favorite part.

Scientists actually have to use

a lot of imagination.

We have to picture what will be needed in space

in the future and design it today.

all: Wow!

- When are you gonna build that?

- [laughs] Tomorrow.

- Heh. That's so funny, Dr. Skelley,

because Sydney always says...

[together] To do it tomorrow, you've got to imagine it today.

[both gasp]

- Yup, that's right.

I grew up loving Commander Cressida too.

And I was always dreaming about

what I would be able to build one day.

That's why I decided to study science.

- So if we keep imagining and learning science,

we'll be able to be like you someday, Mom?

- Maybe even way beyond me.

- And we can all go back to outer space with our own robots!

I mean, go to outer space for the first time ever...

with robots.

[kids laugh nervously]

That's--that's what I meant to say.

- First time ever. - [laughs]

I love your imagination, Jet.

So let's go to the Mars yard,

and I'll show you how we design space robots.

Every robot has three major parts:

sensors, actuators, and control systems.

- I'm not sure Jet has any of those.

- Let me show you how these parts work.

A sensor is something that can detect things around it.

- Like we can do with our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands?

- That's right--to touch. - [squeals]

- Now, an actuator makes things happen.

It's like you use your muscles--

- To make ourselves move.

- There she goes.

And every robot needs a control system, or else--

- Or else it's "out of control"?

[giggles]

- Or has no control at all.

See, the control system is like the "brains" of a robot.

- Hmm, so robots need eyes and ears,

muscles and brains.

- Well, Jet , you're gonna get all of that.

Maybe... somehow.

Let's go home and try to fix you.

Thanks, Dr. Skelley!

- Thanks, Dr. Skelley. - Thanks, Mom.

- You know, maybe I'll come help you.

This could be fun. - [gibbers]

- Sunspot, can you hand me that wrench?

- [squeaks]

[electronic warbling]

- Ah. - I think we did it.

[electronic warbling] - Hello.

Yes, fun.

- Wow! We just made Jet !

What do you think, Sunspot?

- [exclaims]

- [giggles] I think he liked it.

Now he can get his ears massaged.

- And I can finally get help with my projects.

- I programmed it to do one thing for you already.

Jet , go.

- Yes.

- I like this!

What else can it do?

- Let's program some more tasks.

- [squeaking]

- Hello. Yes, fun.

- Dr. Sydney's mom, thank you so much.

How did you think of all these programs?

- Imagination plus science equal amazing results.

- Right, Sydney. I even programmed Jet

to play some special music.

[electronic warbling]

- Ha, ha! Robots--what can't they do?

- ♪ Commander Cressida ♪

♪ She is the best of the ♪

both: ♪ Galactic astronauts ♪

♪ There's nothing she cannot ♪

♪ Commander Cressida ♪

♪ She's on the moons of Mars ♪

♪ Her boots are on the ground ♪

♪ Her head is in the stars ♪

♪ Fearless and curious with her space dog Sirius ♪

♪ Always in the chase ♪

♪ They'll surely win the race ♪

♪ 'Cause a kid's place is exploring space ♪

- , , , . --.

- Oh, ---.

- --, .

So what was that all about?

Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Mainzer.

And I'm here with Kim Swennen.

Kim's a software engineer at Google.

We're at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's

high-performance computing facility.

Computers use ones and zeros to talk, don't they?

- That's actually a computer's language.

It's called binary.

- Do we actually have to talk to the computer in binary?

- No, that would be really hard.

- That's good. I'm glad.

- So the nice thing is, we have programs

that can translate for us,

so you write code in English

and it gets translated into zeros and ones

for a computer to understand.

- Ones and zeroes--

that kind of sounds like "on and off."

- It's actually the exact same thing.

A program is just a series of instructions, right?

So let's make up some instructions

using zeroes and ones,

and we'll put a program together.

"Off" will be a zero,

and one is "on."

If I do off-on,

so zero-one,

that means turn to your right.

- Okay, zero-one, turn to the right.

- Like that. - Okay.

- Okay? And then if I do off-on, off-on,

like that, that means turn to your left.

- Turn to the left. - Perfect.

- All right, let's try it.

- All right, so let's put our program together.

So...

all right.

Perfect.

[upbeat music]

- Oh, hey. - There you go.

- Hey, it worked.

- That's actually a computer program.

- So the next time you say hello to somebody,

just think about how many zeroes and ones it takes

for your computer to do that, too.

- ♪ Commander Cressida ♪

♪ She is the best of the ♪

♪ Galactic astronauts ♪

♪ There's nothing she cannot ♪

♪ Commander Cressida ♪

♪ She's on the moons of Mars ♪

♪ Her boots are on the ground ♪

♪ Her head is in the stars ♪

♪ Fearless and curious with her space dog Sirius ♪

♪ Always in the chase ♪

♪ They'll surely win the race ♪

♪ 'Cause a kid's place is exploring space ♪