Ellen Stofan

“If you think of the Apollo capsule coming into Earth with a parachute, the Mars atmosphere is just so thin, you've got to find some way of slowing yourself down really rapidly.”

“To unambiguously settle the questions of whether there was life on Mars, it will take scientists down on the surface.”

“We like to talk about pioneering Mars rather than just exploring Mars, because once we get to Mars, we will set up some sort of permanent presence.”

“Prior to Magellan, due to the fact that we knew it was so hot on Venus, we thought that the rocks at the surface would behave more plastically, more like Silly Putty than like solid rock in the way that we think of it, like the rocks that I'm sitting on.”

“My key aim is to get man on the surface of Mars by the mid-2030s.”

“If I had an unlimited budget, I would really be probing that question of life because we know what the questions are, and we know what the destinations are.”

“So many people I talk to who work in technology, you ask them, 'What got you interested in science?' and those from my generation say, 'The Apollo landings.'”

“A lot of my role is advocacy, and as a scientist, you're an advocate, too, because you are coming up with a theory and having to convince your fellow scientists that you're right.”

“Everybody has busy lives, but you can tell people, 'Go outside and look at the night sky. We've been able to demonstrate that every star you see probably has a planet around it.'”

“Being able to have a laboratory on Mars, being able to have some sort of sustained human presence on Mars in the future, I think, is critically important for science.”

“Instead of being able to look at smaller interesting research projects, I am trying to see the links between all the research NASA does. For me, that's extremely fun because I get to go play and learn about areas of science that I know nothing about.”

“As a card-carrying space nerd and NASA's chief scientist, I love space movies, from 'Star Trek' to 'Star Wars' to my all-time favorite - 'The Dish', an Australian comedy that celebrates that first moment when Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the surface of our moon.”

“It's part of the human character to want to know what's over the next hill, to want to know what's beyond.”

“'The Martian' may be fiction, but at NASA, we are working to make it a reality.”

“Mars was this water-based planet, and we know there was stable water on the surface for a long time, which is critical for life having a chance to develop.”

“Communication is an issue where we can improve, and if I can do anything to help, I am happy to.”

“I'm so biased to this issue of the origins of life and the limits of life.”

“We want to make sure we get living astronauts to the surface of Mars.”

“As we visit Mars multiple times, we will build up infrastructure on the surface to expand the capabilities and reach of humans on Mars.”

“Mars missions will require up to three years in reduced gravity, so we need to make sure astronauts can not only survive but thrive as they move outward to explore this new world.”