Keith and students: What is up, everyone? I am at the Intrepid Sea, Air Space Museum in New York City with these students from Michigan, who are getting an inside look at a future mission to Mars. Let's get started. Channel One News starts right now!
Arielle: Keith is coming up with a sweet ride to Mars in just a bit. Hey guys, I am Arielle Hixson, and let's get going.
Now, first up today, President Trump was on the road promoting his biggest policy achievement as president — his tax plan.
President Trump made a stop in Blue Ash, Ohio, near the city of Cincinnati, where he praised his recent tax overhaul bill passed in December.
President Donald Trump: Your taxes are going way down, and right now, for the first time in a long time, and you've seen it: Factories are coming back; everything is coming back. They all want to be where the action is. America is once again open for business. Right?
Arielle: The president also toured a nearby factory, saying his administration has created nearly 2.6 million new jobs.
Trump: …including more than 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing — we love manufacturing. Those are real jobs.
Arielle: And that brings us to Words in the News: manufacturing, which is to make or produce goods by hand or machinery, especially on a large scale, like in a factory.
Okay, on to an out-of-this-world selfie. Check this out. It is the Mars Rover Curiosity snapping its own selfie on the red, dusty terrain of the planet Mars. Looking good, Rover! The pics were snapped on January 23 from a small self-focusing camera on the end of the Curiosity's arm. Then all the pictures were pieced together to create the amazing selfie moment. Pretty cool, right?
And NASA is pretty busy working on another project, a new Mars Rover that would be able to take humans to Mars in about 15 years. Of course, Keith Kocinski couldn't resist, so he hopped on to check it out.
Keith: The Intrepid Sea, Air Space Museum has a special visitor who is getting ready for a trip to Mars, and we got a first peek. So it is time to take a look.
It is a new rover, and while this is just a concept, NASA hopes to send a similar rover to Mars around 2030.
Is this something similar to what NASA will use for a future mission to Mars?
Rebecca Shireman: It certainly could be, based on the information that we know now, what are the challenges that we’ll face and what kind of vehicle would astronauts be looking for when they do get to Mars. And this is the vehicle that we came up with.
Keith: It is pretty cool looking, but I have got to ask you, why does it look like the Batmobile?
Shireman: Well, it's certainly an attention-getting vehicle. It's unlike anything that is seen anywhere else.
Keith: Of course, this wouldn't be the first rover to land on Mars. That was the Pathfinder Sojourner back in 1997.
And of course, you can’t forget about the most famous selfie-snapping machine, the Curiosity, the largest rover to ever land on Mars — about as tall as a basketball player and weighing 2,000 pounds. Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012. Its mission was to find out if life or living things ever existed on Mars.And Curiosity has done just that.
So here is a pop quiz question for you.What did the Curiosity Rover find on Mars that could mean the red planet once had life?
Is it
a. signs of oxygen
b. signs of hydrogen
c. signs of water or
d. all of the above
Take 10 seconds.
All right, time is up. The answer is d, all of the above.
In early 2013 scientists hit the jackpot when Curiosity beamed back information from drill samples that included hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen — all building blocks that could support life. Then, in 2014, another breakthrough: Curiosity found traces of lakebeds that existed millions of years ago on Mars. And one year later in 2015, even bigger news:
Expert: Liquid water has been found on Mars.
Keith: And water today on Mars raises the question: Is there life on the planet? Well, we are not sure just yet, but we could find out soon.
How would you describe the planet Mars?
Man: Orange and in space.
Man: New areas just ready for us to explore, go to, because it's just the unknown right now.
Keith: And NASA is prepping for a future human mission to the planet in about two decades.
Is a human mission to Mars actually a realistic thing?
Shireman: Absolutely. Experts estimate that the first person to step foot on Mars has already been born and is likely in elementary school right now.
Keith: It will be a challenging mission, taking up to a year to make it to the red planet. So who is on board?
Would you do it?
Woman: No, no, I would be way too scared.
Woman: I don't think so. I am completely fine with being on Earth.
Man: Yes. I would go there.
Keith: Why is that?
Man: Just to try new things, maybe. Because I’m into sports, maybe try a couple sports out there like baseball and basketball.
Keith: Keith Kocinski, Channel One News.
Arielle: It looks like we may have found the first sports star on the red planet. Good thing he has a couple of decades to practice.
All right, now, after the break, it affects one out of every five teens: concussion. Find out what doctors are doing to better understand them.
Arielle: Okay, well, it is no secret that the more you know, the better prepared you are for the future, right? Well, one area researchers are trying to find out more about is concussions, especially in teens. And the state leading the way is Texas. That is where we find Emily Reppert as she tells us about a new study — the largest of its kind — that could be the key to understanding concussions.
Emily: On any typical afternoon, you could probably find Audrey Holder on the basketball court. But nowadays…
Now you're not doing any contact sports?
Audrey Holder: No.
Emily: The former basketball player decided to call it quits last year…
Audrey: I got elbowed in the head twice.
Emily: …after a collision with another player…
Audrey: And then my head hit the ground.
Emily: …causing a concussion, something this Texas teen didn't think could happen to her.
Audrey: You know, like, maybe in a car accident, someone getting a concussion, or, like, football, because that happens a lot, I guess, and so I never would think, oh, me just hitting the ground. I never thought that that was going to be…
Emily: Didn't think it was severe enough?
Audrey: Nothing happened like that, like, I never blacked out, passed out, threw up — any of that.
Emily: A concussion is a type of brain injury that is caused when a fall or a blow to the head or body shakes the brain inside the skull.
Dr. Munro Cullum: You know, the brain is squishy, so it can bounce around.
Emily: Your brain is a soft organ, and your skull is hard, so if your brain crashes into your skull, it can cause severe damage. And when it comes to identifying a brain injury, it is not always black and white.
Cullum: The challenging thing about diagnosing concussion is that no two injuries are actually alike. So if I’m hit with a certain amount of forces, and I maybe have trouble walking; my balance is disrupted. If you’re hit with the same forces, you might just feel a little foggy in your thinking, but your balance may be fine. One of the classic sayings is when in doubt about a concussion, sit it out.
Emily: According to the CDC, children under the age of 15 account for the largest group of people visiting the ER for a traumatic brain injury.But still, there is no system in place to figure out exactly how many concussions occur in youth sports.
Cullum: I’ve had a longstanding interest in concussion.
Emily: Which is why Dr. Cullum and his team from UT Southwestern’s O'Donnell Brain Institute have joined forces with the UIL, Texas' governing body for public high school sports, for the nation's largest statewide effort to track brain injuries among youth athletes in Texas.
Cullum: We need to learn more about what's causing these distinct differences across individuals and then their age effects, maybe hormonal effects, genetic factors.
Emily: The registry, called ConTex, is tracking concussion cases reported by middle and high school athletic trainers in UIL-sanctioned sportsto provide a gauge for whether certain rules or equipment changes are improving player safety. And with more than 800,000 students participating in high school sports across the state, Dr. Cullum says this registry may also be a key step in creating a nationwide database for concussions.
Cullum: It's only through that amount of data that we're actually going to really be able to learn enough about this injury.
Emily: Information that will help researchers not only better understand concussions and how often they occur but also help reduce brain injuries and the recovery time for student athletes.
As for Audrey, she just finished rehab at integrative concussion therapy.
How do you feel today?
Audrey: I am a lot better. I feel back completely to normal, and I just got released. And if anyone has, like, any kind of symptom that they think could be concussion, and they’ve hit their head, like, they should be checked out. Just always, like, be sure that you’re getting checked and everything.
Emily: Emily Reppert, Channel One News.
Arielle: Great advice, Audrey. And awesome to see that she is feeling better too.
Now, Emily got a chance to hang out with her during her rehab and exercise sessions, and you can see more of what Audrey went through on the road to recovery. It is up on ChannelOne.com.
Okay guys, that is a wrap on today's show, but we will catch you right back here tomorrow.
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