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(instrumental music)
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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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NARRATOR: 140 million miles from Earth.
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Our planetary neighbor
and our greatest mystery...
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Mars.
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For centuries we've gazed at it in wonder.
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But it's always remained
out of our reach...
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until now.
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Today a pioneering spacecraft
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is bringing the planet
dramatically closer.
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Pixel by pixel,
it's beaming Mars back to us...
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as we've never seen it before.
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Now using these images,
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we can do something remarkable.
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And take you on a journey no human being
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has ever been on before.
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A single circuit of this world
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from dawn to dusk.
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Exploring its most spectacular...
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and surprising features.
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(rumbling)
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On a mission to unlock
its deepest secrets.
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And we join the quest to answer
the biggest question of all.
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Is there life on Mars?
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(beeping)
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Our journey begins at a vast black spot,
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one thousand miles wide.
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This is where humanity's dream
of Mars first began.
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It's called Syrtis Major.
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Hidden in this intriguing landscape
is a mysterious feature,
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that first made us hope that
Mars could be Earth's sister.
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Another planet teaming with life.
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DERRICK: It's almost unthinkable
that just 100 years ago,
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people actually thought that
there was civilizations on Mars
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and if there was a civilization there,
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what was the civilization like?
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Did they have commerce?
Did they have language?
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Could we communicate with them?
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Was there any chance for space travel
so that we could connect with them?
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NARRATOR: Here in
Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894,
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a Mars obsessed astronomer
built a state of the art telescope,
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to study the red planet in
more detail than ever before.
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What Percival Lowell saw
would shock the world.
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On the surface of the planet,
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he made out patterns,
structures, movement.
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Mars appeared to be alive.
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DERRICK: He looked at Mars
every opportunity he had
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and he kept records of what he saw.
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Here are three of
Percival Lowell's globes.
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He's detailed out
the regions of vegetation.
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He also seemed to observe
the change in the vegetation
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over time and over seasons.
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He's included vast networks of canals,
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bringing water from the melting polar caps
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down to the drier,
dying regions of the planet,
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providing water for the civilizations
that he imagined that lived there.
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NARRATOR: In the years
after Lowell's discovery,
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Mars fever gripped our planet.
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(rumbling)
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We imagined alien oceans,
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exotic landscapes and bustling cities.
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Even Martians staring back at us.
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(roaring)
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But we didn't get a chance
to find out if we were right,
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until 1964.
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MAN (over radio): Three, two, one, zero.
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All engines running, lift off.
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Roger, one, three seconds.
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MAN 2 (over radio): We're on our way.
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NARRATOR: Mariner 4 was
NASA's first successful mission
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to the red planet.
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At last a chance to study Mars up close.
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There was pressure.
There was definite pressure.
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We were inventing stuff
every step of the way.
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It was exciting.
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But you're working hard,
had guys working 50, 60 hours a week.
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This was the 60's,
the dawn of the space age.
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And it just fired our imagination about
you know, what could be there?
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Who could be there?
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AMY: Mariner 4 was a huge deal,
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because we'd never really
seen the surface of Mars,
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all we had was people looking
at Mars with a telescope
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and drawing what they saw.
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The public was expecting to see these
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lush civilizations built by Martians.
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I was 13 and I actually can remember
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watching the 6:00 news
and this was broadcast nationwide.
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NARRATOR: Nervously,
the world waited to see
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the first ever close-up image of Mars.
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(indistinct conversation)
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MAN (over PA): Picture number one
is coming in.
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JOHN: We didn't know what
it was gonna look like.
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It took eight hours
to get one picture back.
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We had these little tape recorders
that would just
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print one line of numbers after another,
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and each pixel was
represented by one number
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on this little strip chart.
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So we got the idea of,
why didn't we just take that
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and color those numbers appropriately.
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NARRATOR: As the data came back,
a picture emerged.
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MICHIO: It did not show
a tropical environment
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with cities and gleaming skyscrapers.
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No.
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No canals, no oceans, no rivers.
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No vegetation, no forests.
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We didn't see any cities,
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we didn't see any Martians
walking around at all.
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Mariner 4 was a historical bummer.
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(indistinct conversation)
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What amazed me was,
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when the first pictures came back,
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the first thing you noticed is that
it's dominated with craters.
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I never heard anybody predict that.
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I did never hear anybody
in the science community saying,
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"Well, when we get there,
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it's gonna look a lot like the moon.
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There's gonna be craters."
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No, there was never any of that.
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NARRATOR: For all our dreams
of a living Mars,
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we seem to have found
a dead, deserted world.
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How had we got it so wrong?
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Today we can see the answer.
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Circling above the planet's surface,
a new electronic eye.
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This is NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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On board, HiRISE--
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the most powerful camera
we have ever sent to another world.
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It's capturing Mars
in unprecedented spectacular detail.
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The HiRISE camera is a game-changer.
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It gives us the illusion,
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the feeling of flying over Mars
in a helicopter.
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The way you look out
and almost touch the landscape.
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Think about it-- One pixel,
one dot on the HiRISE photograph
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is the size of a basketball.
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NARRATOR: HiRISE is showing us that
Mars is much more than a barren desert.
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It's revealing a world
beyond our wildest imagination.
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JAMES: This is just not beautiful,
it is magnificent.
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AMY: They look like abstract paintings.
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DAVID: The planet comes alive
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and you see this vibrancy
and this-- this motion.
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TANYA: The beautiful
color palette of this planet,
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that we've always just
thought of as this red rock.
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DAVID: But once you can
see things in that detail,
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it's like, whoa, I got a new
prescription for my glasses
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and all of a sudden I can see the world,
(stammers) only it's the world of Mars.
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NARRATOR: Using HiRISE data,
we can now show you for the first time
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what Syrtis Major really looks like.
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This is a view no human has ever seen.
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Over 100 foot tall,
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stretching for 100 miles.
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These are the Nili Patera sand dunes.
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When Percival Lowell looked towards here,
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he thought he saw life.
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Today with HiRISE's powerful gaze,
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we can see how he got Mars so wrong.
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(electronic beep)
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The dunes move in the Martian wind.
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On a global scale,
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sand can be seen being
blown around Mars' surface.
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The size of shape of
regions like Syrtis Major
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ebb and flow.
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DERRICK: Percival Lowell could see these
large shaded regions
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that seemed to grow and change over time.
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Maybe even seasonally,
very much like we see vegetation
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changing with seasons here on Earth.
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He was actually observing
dust storms and shifting sands
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on the surface of Mars.
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NARRATOR: But was Lowell completely wrong?
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For years, humanity thought so.
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But now using HiRISE imagery,
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we can glimpse something extraordinary.
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A Mars that may once have been
much more like his vision.
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It's a story that begins
at our next destination.
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(beeping)
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3,200 miles southwest of Syrtis Major,
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is a window into Mars' deepest past...
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Noachis Terra.
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Noah's Land.
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At first glance,
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this looks like another dead landscape,
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but it holds an astonishing clue
to a very different world.
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A world with a real chance of life.
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This is one of the most
ancient places on Mars.
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Noachis Terra is
absolutely filled with craters.
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AMY: Some are huge, the size
of a city or an entire state.
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Some of them are
five or ten meters across, very small.
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We can also see that
some craters have been
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overprinted with other craters.
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MICHIO: Simply by counting
and analyzing these craters
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on Noachis Terra,
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we think it dates back almost
four billion years.
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NARRATOR: Now we can
build these craters from real data.
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Each is formed
by a single meteorite impact,
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that punched through rocks,
billions of years old.
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They are holes punched through time.
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These craters are like opening doors
into the geology of Mars,
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we can use it to dig down through
the various layers
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and we can see almost every kind
of Mars there was.
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NARRATOR: These craters
are 140 million miles away.
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So their secrets might
seem beyond our grasp,
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but incredibly they can be unlocked.
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By a rock found on Earth.
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NARRATOR: This is a rock worth
200 times more than gold.
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A rare and revealing treasure.
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JAY: There's so many objects
in this world that you can have.
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You can have diamonds,
you could have gold,
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you could have houses, cars
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and they really don't do anything for me.
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And this is NWA 8-4-5-5.
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This is NWA 10-608.
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This is NWA 8-6-8-7,
it's called a troctolite.
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And I liked it 'cause it was
shaped like a star. (laughs)
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Meteorites are like my babies.
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Sometime around May of 2011,
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I had a friend in Morocco,
he was a dealer.
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(camera clicking)
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He showed me a picture of this
black rock found in the desert
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that looked unlike anything
either of us ever seen.
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Then I said, "You know what,
I think it's a meteorite."
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It's called Black Beauty, NWA 70-34.
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And I loved when I got it in my hands,
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because the skin of it is so different.
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And so I knew that it was special.
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CARL: In this safe I have
unknown meteorites,
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they are things that I'm
working on currently.
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This is from the meteor crater.
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This is a Lake Murray meteorite.
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This is an iron meteorite
that fell in Odessa, Texas.
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One day I received a shipment from Jay
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and I looked at this very unusual
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dark black specimen--
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Black Beauty.
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The first thing that I thought was,
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this looks so black and shiny,
it can't be real.
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He told me he thought it had
shoe shine polish or that
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they polished it up and he really never
saw anything like it.
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And I said, "Hey, would you look at it,
but don't cut into it."
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And so I went over to the lab next door
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and put it on a diamond saw
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and sliced off the first piece of it.
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(saw whirring)
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I saw immediately that it wasn't something
that had been faked--
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That it was actually
something quite remarkable.
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The analyses were suggestive
of a Martian origin.
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And it took about a year
collaborating with other scientists
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to assemble enough evidence
that no one could argue with it.
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JAY: It is mind boggling to me,
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that I can hold a piece of Mars.
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(beeping)
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NARRATOR: The story of how
this Martian rock ended up on Earth
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is a remarkable one.
252
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:53,840
Mars' craters are the clue.
253
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,040
A violent meteorite strike,
254
00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:06,280
punched deep into the planet's surface.
255
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:16,800
Fusing together ancient rocks,
256
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,360
to form Black Beauty.
257
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:30,400
Like shrapnel, it was launched into space.
258
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,680
And for millions of years,
it wandered the solar system,
259
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:48,960
until it felt the tug
of another planet's gravity.
260
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:00,720
Safe on Earth,
261
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,120
the secret for Mars' craters
could be revealed.
262
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,520
CARL: What we have here
is a section of Black Beauty
263
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,920
and from those grains,
we're able to determine
264
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:20,760
a snapshot of geologic time
and the geologic history of Mars.
265
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:26,560
NARRATOR: Hidden in the layers of rock,
266
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:29,240
Carl discovered something incredible.
267
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:35,760
CARL: We were astonished because
out of Black Beauty was coming
268
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:37,320
a huge amount of water.
269
00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:44,040
Black Beauty was soaked with Martian water
270
00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:47,080
and remnants of that are still in there.
271
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,000
NARRATOR: So could water really
have flowed on this dusty world?
272
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,640
Black Beauty only gives us
a tiny, tantalizing hint.
273
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:16,080
To discover how big a part
water played on ancient Mars...
274
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:23,040
we've had to send probes
to the planet itself.
275
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,720
And that's proved a formidable challenge.
276
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:36,200
(beeping)
277
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:47,720
As we leave Noachis Terra behind,
278
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,640
and begin the next leg of our journey,
279
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,720
something strange sparkles
in the Martian dust.
280
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,600
Mars is kind of a graveyard of spacecraft.
281
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,840
In fact, there's something called
the Mars jinx.
282
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:09,760
Mars has its own plans
for whether this is gonna go well, or not.
283
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,680
NARRATOR: The quest to find water
and perhaps even life on Mars,
284
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,000
comes at a high cost.
285
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:26,840
More than half of the 45 missions
sent to Mars ended in failure.
286
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,360
AMY: The Soviet Union was the first
to start sending missions to Mars
287
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:35,920
in 1960 and they all failed.
288
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:39,800
Mars 2, Mars 3, the Mars Zond missions,
the Cosmos missions,
289
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:41,160
the Phobos missions.
290
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:43,360
The Brits have tried, Europe has tried.
291
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:46,400
NASA's Mars climate orbiter
burned up in the atmosphere,
292
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,880
because of a mix up between
metric and imperial units.
293
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:52,720
(whirring)
294
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,760
It takes so long
to get one of these missions
295
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,720
to go from a concept to
actual hardware that you fly.
296
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:05,200
This is somebody's entire career
and to see it just pfft.
297
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:11,800
You're going 13,000 miles an hour
298
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,680
and you have seven minutes to get down
to zero miles an hour
299
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:17,160
and hit the surface gently.
300
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:18,720
There's enough energy and motion
301
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,840
that it can melt or vaporize
the entire spacecraft.
302
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:22,960
(rumbling)
303
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:27,080
NAGIN: You can do everything right
304
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:29,600
and you can still have a bad day on Mars.
305
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,000
NARRATOR: Even if you can
make it through the atmosphere...
306
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,040
(explosion)
307
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,440
...landing is a whole new challenge.
308
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,160
ABIGAIL: It's nerve-racking
309
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:49,320
but, man, does it make it so
exhilarating when it works.
310
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:54,880
NARRATOR: And some really do work.
311
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,440
One that made it to the surface,
312
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,960
became arguably the most
successful mission ever.
313
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,960
Thanks to a mysterious alien force.
314
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:15,160
(beeping)
315
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,840
NARRATOR: The longest running rover
that has ever explored Mars
316
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,120
can be found at our next destination.
317
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,120
The sandy plains of Meridiani Planum.
318
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:44,120
Still sitting here today
is the lifeless shell
319
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:47,840
of NASA's Opportunity rover.
320
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,600
Expected to operate for 90 days,
321
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,760
it lasted 14 and a half years,
322
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:09,320
making a discovery that
transformed our understanding of Mars.
323
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,560
And the key to its marathon mission
was a mysterious force,
324
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,000
that leaves these
strange patterns in the sand.
325
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:29,200
(beeping)
326
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,520
MAN (over radio): Three,
two, main engines start,
327
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:38,400
zero and lift off of the Delta Rocket
with Opportunity.
328
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,960
NARRATOR: Opportunity's mission
was to hunt for evidence
329
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:45,040
of ancient water on Mars.
330
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:52,240
But first, it had to land
where so many others had failed.
331
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,680
CALLAS: Landing on Mars is very difficult.
332
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,280
And so in those tense moments,
either during the launch phase
333
00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:05,240
or you know, the arrival
and entry descent into landing,
334
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,600
you're on the edge of your seat,
335
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,040
waiting to hear word on
whether you are successful
336
00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:12,560
or whether it's a failure.
337
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,440
(instrumental music playing)
338
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:38,840
NARRATOR: To protect their rover,
339
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,800
the engineers came up
with a plan as bizarre
340
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:44,480
as it was audacious.
341
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,160
MAN (over radio): Suspected retro rock
and ignition on my mark.
342
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:47,200
Mark.
343
00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,240
NARRATOR: Shock absorbers...
344
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,560
MAN (over radio): At this point in time,
we should be on the ground.
345
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:03,960
NARRATOR: Space style.
346
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,040
CALLAS: When you think
about half a billion-dollar spacecraft
347
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,240
inside this gigantic beach ball
348
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,000
bouncing around on the surface of Mars,
349
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:31,680
it goes into the category of
"what were they thinking?"
350
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:34,760
(instrumental music playing)
351
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,360
NARRATOR: Opportunity
was safe on the ground.
352
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:12,760
Now it began using its
state of the art camera...
353
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:13,800
(cheering)
354
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:18,760
...to capture the most detailed images
of the Martian surface ever seen.
355
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,560
JAMES: When we landed
and we saw the first view
356
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,520
it's like, seeing King Tut's tomb.
357
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,960
There's the story we've been waiting for.
358
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:40,080
I remember crying and saying,
"This is exploration."
359
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:51,320
Opportunity is turning our camera back
on this tiny little shallow crater
360
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:53,960
and looking at the deflated airbags.
361
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,200
ABIGAIL: Opportunity was
able to leave the pad
362
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:03,800
and become a real rover.
363
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,800
NARRATOR: Opportunity showed
us icy clouds
364
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,320
dancing across an alien sky.
365
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,960
Even the other worldly setting
of our shared sun.
366
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,920
Opportunity's discoveries
were truly breathtaking.
367
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:44,920
Everyone wanted to see more.
368
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,400
But the clock was ticking.
369
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:56,880
CALLAS: I knew then end
would come at some point.
370
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,440
It's much like you have an aging parent.
371
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,560
Maybe they're in good health.
372
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,400
But you know that they're
not gonna last forever.
373
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:12,760
Every day was precious.
374
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:18,320
We thought we had a finite amount of time
to get our job done.
375
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,000
And it comes down to the fact that
the rovers are solar powered.
376
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,360
We knew that Mars is a dusty place
377
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,080
and that the dust falls
out of the atmosphere.
378
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:35,160
So we figured the rovers
would have enough time to last
379
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,000
90 days before the solar rays
were so dusty
380
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:40,960
that they couldn't generate
enough energy.
381
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,520
But Mars and the rovers proved us wrong.
382
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:55,320
(wind howling)
383
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:01,280
NARRATOR: The Martian dust did make
Opportunity's battery levels run down.
384
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,240
But then they would
miraculously bounce back up.
385
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:09,920
The rovers engineers were perplexed.
386
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:14,480
But some astonishing images
would provide the answer.
387
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:28,040
NARRATOR: As the Martian dust settled on
NASA's solar powered rover,
388
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,960
the engineers were puzzled
at how it kept going.
389
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:39,040
Then the received some
extraordinary images.
390
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,120
We have actually
a series of time lapse photographs
391
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:58,520
of the plains of Mars,
392
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:02,040
in which we captured a series
of dust devils moving across.
393
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,000
And we think it's something like that
394
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:08,680
that cleaned the dust off the rover.
395
00:34:17,240 --> 00:34:20,840
NARRATOR: As these dust devils
move across the landscape,
396
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:29,400
spiraling up to twelve miles into the sky,
397
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,560
they leave tell tail tracks behind them.
398
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,600
The mysterious patterns
that we can see with HiRISE.
399
00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:52,680
Incredibly it was Martian weather
400
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,160
that allowed Opportunity
to explore Mars for so long.
401
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:06,560
But in July 2018,
a global dust storm hit the planet.
402
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:10,800
CALLAS: The skies were so dark
that you couldn't see the sun.
403
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:14,920
The rover got too cold
and something broke inside.
404
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:17,680
We never heard from the rover again.
405
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,320
It's sad. It's emotional.
406
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:26,520
But to have fourteen
and a half years was such a gift.
407
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,040
NARRATOR: Over its mission
Opportunity sent back over
408
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:35,320
200,000 images.
409
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:39,040
Revealing a Mars we had never seen before
410
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,480
and confirming something extraordinary.
411
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,600
DERRICK: We can clearly see
these wonderful layers of rock.
412
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,840
Sedimentary layers are
always laid down in water.
413
00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:05,360
NINA: We call these Blueberries because
when we first saw them
414
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:07,800
we thought they looked like
blueberries in a muffin.
415
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:11,600
DAVID: They were formed out of haematite.
416
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,480
They seem to be telling us of
a time when there was
417
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:19,200
highly acidic water flowing through
and over the ground of Mars.
418
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,560
NINA: This is a vein
of the mineral, gypsum.
419
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:27,040
Has a lot of calcium and Sulphur in it.
420
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:29,720
And it only forms by evaporating water.
421
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,200
It's a mineral that has water
chemically bound inside.
422
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:39,560
This was the smoking gun.
We have it.
423
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,440
Water was here and we found it.
424
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,120
NARRATOR: The Black beauty meteorite
revealed moisture
425
00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:57,160
in an ancient Martian rock.
426
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:04,880
And Opportunity showed
there were once pools of water
427
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:06,000
on the planet's surface.
428
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,920
Our next stop is one of the most
intriguing features on the planet.
429
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,840
It will reveal just
how different ancient Mars must have been.
430
00:37:25,240 --> 00:37:26,520
(beeping)
431
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:35,240
1,600 miles from the final resting place
432
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:36,960
of NASA's Opportunity Rover,
433
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:44,040
is a chasm so huge
that it's visible from space...
434
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:48,240
Nirgal Vallis.
435
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,440
A clue to Mars' former life
etched into the rock.
436
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,840
DAVID: It's about 300 miles long.
437
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,960
It's narrower on one end
and wider on the other.
438
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,360
We can see these
long channels, like a tree,
439
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,000
all connected to a single trunk.
440
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:14,200
MELISSA: And these patterns they seem to
start out of nowhere.
441
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:16,480
And then they get deeper
and deeper as they go along.
442
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,320
And they connect together.
443
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:23,760
NINA: As planetary geologists
we're studying the surface of the planet.
444
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:28,440
Like detectives trying to understand
the history of a planet.
445
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:30,840
And how it came to be
the way that it is today.
446
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,440
NARRATOR: Only one substance
has the power to change
447
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,000
entire landscapes in this dramatic way.
448
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,760
KRISTEN: Water has a huge effect.
449
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,200
Chemically it slowly dissolves
different components of the rock.
450
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:10,000
But geomorphically
it can just do tons of work.
451
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,880
Water can move rock
in incredibly fast ways.
452
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:19,280
And actually shift entire landscapes.
453
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:26,000
It leaves a print so you can
see these beautiful canyons
454
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,040
carved out by rivers.
455
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,560
NARRATOR: Nirgal Vallis
reveals that ancient Mars
456
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:36,000
was awash with water.
457
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,080
MELISSA: We're not talking about
just a trickle of water.
458
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:40,440
We're talking about full rivers.
459
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:43,160
Full to their banks, flowing water.
460
00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:44,480
There were oceans.
461
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:45,760
There were clouds in the sky.
462
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:46,960
There were rain storms.
463
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:48,920
There were floods across the surface.
464
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:50,760
MELISSA: We're talking huge
volumes of water
465
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,120
and a whole cycle of water.
466
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:54,440
Precipitation.
467
00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,040
Maybe snowfall on the tops of mountains.
468
00:39:57,920 --> 00:39:59,400
(beeping)
469
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,920
NARRATOR: To cut Nirgal Vallis
into the landscape,
470
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,560
would have taken a raging torrent.
471
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:37,000
A river one and a half times
the size of the Nile.
472
00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:49,120
Carrying 4,800 cubic meters
of water
473
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:50,880
every second.
474
00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:21,360
DERRICK: You know Percival Lowell
might not have been
475
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,040
that wrong after all.
476
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:27,040
Although he might have been off by
four billion years or so.
477
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:31,120
But it looks like Mars
is a much more intriguing planet
478
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:32,720
than ever through before.
479
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,120
NARRATOR: But if Mars
once looked like this,
480
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:46,160
where did all the water go?
481
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:54,120
(beeping)
482
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,200
NARRATOR: Eight hundred miles
west of Nirgal Vallis
483
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,360
lie a pair of colossal features
484
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:07,560
the most spectacular on the planet.
485
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:11,600
They helped solve the mystery
of Mars' missing water.
486
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:16,760
The first, a gigantic cut
487
00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:20,080
running a fifth of the way
around the entire plant...
488
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,200
Valles Marineris.
489
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:27,760
MICHIO: It is about the size
of the United States of America.
490
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:33,280
It would extend from Los Angeles
all the way out to New York City.
491
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:34,920
It's six miles deep.
492
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:36,840
It's 150 miles wide.
493
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,440
If you stood on one end
you couldn't see the other end
494
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,080
because the planet itself
would curve away from you.
495
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,880
It's just incomprehensible
how big this thing is.
496
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:48,840
It's the longest canyon
in the solar system.
497
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:50,920
It's the big daddy.
498
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:58,600
NARRATOR: Just over the horizon
a feature so enormous
499
00:42:59,960 --> 00:43:01,640
it looks unreal...
500
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,320
Olympus Mons.
501
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,320
ADAM: It's the biggest mountain
in our solar system.
502
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:12,040
It's hard not to go there.
Right? That's pretty cool.
503
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,200
It rises literally out of the atmosphere.
504
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:19,800
DERRICK: This volcano was two
and a half times as tall as Mount Everest.
505
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:23,000
JAMES: Rising nearly
90,000 feet above its base.
506
00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:29,440
DERRICK: Since the gravity on Mars
is just one third that of Earth,
507
00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:32,800
there's much less gravitational force
holding things down.
508
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:36,080
And this is why Olympus Mons
dwarfs anything on the Earth.
509
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,360
NINA: If you were to look at
Olympus Mons from the side,
510
00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:42,760
just you know if you
were flying past Mars,
511
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,120
you could actually see the bump
512
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,440
above the curvature of the planet.
513
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:48,600
That's how big it is.
514
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,040
NARRATOR: Both Olympus Mons
and Valles Marineris
515
00:43:55,120 --> 00:44:00,240
are giant relics of an epic chapter
in Mars' history.
516
00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:08,320
They hold the story
of how Mars once lived.
517
00:44:08,720 --> 00:44:10,400
And why it died.
518
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:15,480
(beeping)
519
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:28,560
In Mars' infancy, raging volcanoes...
520
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:35,320
ejected a staggering billion, billion tons
521
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:38,520
of molten rock from its interior.
522
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:57,720
This lava formed a vast plateau
523
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:01,360
that stretched over 3,000 miles.
524
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:10,600
The colossal mass of this new rock
525
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,840
put huge stress on the surrounding crust.
526
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,680
Literally tearing the planet apart.
527
00:45:43,720 --> 00:45:46,280
Valles Marineris was born.
528
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,000
But with the violence of early Mars...
529
00:46:00,720 --> 00:46:02,160
...came creation.
530
00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:07,520
MELISSA: When volcano's erupted
on ancient Mars
531
00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:11,400
they released all sorts of gases
that made up the Martian atmosphere.
532
00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:14,080
DAVID: Carbon dioxide.
533
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:15,920
Sulphur dioxide.
534
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,160
Methane. Water vapor.
535
00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:21,680
This contributes to
creating a thicker atmosphere.
536
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,080
And once you have a thicker atmosphere
537
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,520
then you can have
water existing on a surface.
538
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:30,640
MELISSA: There has to be
enough atmospheric pressure
539
00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:32,840
to keep water in a liquid state.
540
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:36,800
Otherwise water goes
directly from a solid as ice,
541
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:38,000
into a vapor.
542
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:40,120
Having enough atmospheric pressure
543
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,240
is crucial to having running water
on a surface.
544
00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:52,280
NARRATOR: But Mars' atmosphere
wasn't to last.
545
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,200
And the story of how it disappeared
546
00:46:58,720 --> 00:47:01,880
holds a terrible warning for us on Earth.
547
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:13,800
Our planet is protected by a force field.
548
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,200
It extends 40,000 miles into space.
549
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:23,760
But it's generated,
550
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:32,360
at Earth's very core.
551
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:41,520
DERRICK: It's really kinda terrifying
if you think about it.
552
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:45,160
We stand on a very thin skin that encloses
553
00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:47,920
essentially a molten ball of iron.
554
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:51,880
NINA: This ball of iron that is moving
555
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,960
at a slightly different rate
than the rest of the Earth.
556
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,080
It's kind of sloshing around in there.
557
00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,120
That creates a magnetic field.
558
00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:02,400
That extends tens of thousands
of miles out into space.
559
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:12,320
NARRATOR: The Aurora in our night sky
560
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:16,080
is much more than a pretty light show.
561
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:25,160
You are perceiving directly
Earth's magnetic field.
562
00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:27,960
It's a manifestation
of this magnetic field.
563
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:32,920
DERRICK: Charged particles from the sun
564
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:36,360
travel through the solar system
at supersonic speeds,
565
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:38,560
impacting the atmosphere of the Earth.
566
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:42,480
If we didn't have the magnetic field
to deflect those around the Earth,
567
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:44,120
it would just slowly strip away
568
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:45,960
all the pieces
of our atmosphere over time.
569
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:50,760
GRUNSFELD: The atmosphere, you know,
570
00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:52,960
is just this tiny thin blue line.
571
00:48:54,160 --> 00:48:55,400
Barely big enough to see.
572
00:48:56,360 --> 00:48:59,280
And everything that lives on Earth
573
00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:02,040
is dependent on that thin blue line.
574
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:05,160
It really makes you think
how fragile our existence is.
575
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:09,880
NARRATOR: In the deep past
576
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:13,200
an Aurora also danced across
Martian skies.
577
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:19,440
But Mars couldn't hold on
to its precious force field.
578
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:22,120
About four billion years ago,
579
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:25,640
a terrible chain reaction began.
580
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:39,080
NARRATOR: Just like Earth,
ancient Mars' magnetic shield
581
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:41,080
protected its atmosphere
582
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:47,760
and allowed water to exist on its surface.
583
00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:53,520
But it wasn't to last.
584
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:58,520
MELISSA: The smaller you are
the faster you lose heat.
585
00:49:58,600 --> 00:49:59,760
It's simple physics.
586
00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:04,600
DAVID: Think of if you take
a bunch a bunch of potatoes
587
00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:05,840
out of the oven.
588
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:10,280
The tiny little mini potatoes
will cool off very quickly.
589
00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:12,880
And the large ones will take much longer.
590
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:15,600
Mars being half the size of Earth,
591
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:19,320
lost its heat faster than
Earth has lost its heat.
592
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:22,120
As the planet cools
the churning and the interior
593
00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:24,320
starts to slow down and stop.
594
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,800
NARRATOR: Mars started to
die from the inside out.
595
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:36,960
The protective force
field began to falter.
596
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,320
The solar winds stripped away
the atmosphere.
597
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:48,760
Volcanoes fell silent.
598
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,480
Gases no longer replenished the skies.
599
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:04,560
The planet's water
evaporated into space...
600
00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:12,960
killing Mars.
601
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:17,320
(beeping)
602
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:27,960
Today there are only two places
on Mars' surface
603
00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:30,360
where water can still be found.
604
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:34,120
They're the next stops on our journey.
605
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:40,000
The planet's most spectacular
and alien landscapes.
606
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:43,400
Its poles.
607
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:46,480
Mars has two polar caps
608
00:51:46,560 --> 00:51:48,920
and each has their own
distinct personality.
609
00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:56,880
The Mars North Pole is like this beautiful
610
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:00,640
hockey puck of ice
about the size of Greenland.
611
00:52:02,240 --> 00:52:06,000
It's 600 miles wide and 1.2 miles deep.
612
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:09,960
TANYA: The northern polar cap of Mars
613
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:11,360
has these amazing dune fields.
614
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:16,320
And these striking cliffs
that skirt along the outside.
615
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:19,960
We've even spotted avalanches in progress.
616
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:30,840
NARRATOR: At the other end of the planet,
617
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:34,400
the landscapes are even more breathtaking.
618
00:52:35,720 --> 00:52:39,480
The south polar cap
is over two miles thick.
619
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:40,520
That's a lot of ice.
620
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:44,680
MELISSA: The polar cap
forms these incredible
621
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:48,240
swirling patterns in whites
and oranges and reds.
622
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:51,480
It reminds me of orange sherbet
or a dreamsicle.
623
00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:55,920
TANYA: There are these bizarre
kaleidoscopic patterns.
624
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,800
JAMES: Areas where some of
the landscape has disappeared,
625
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:04,200
the holes.
626
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:06,560
Other places where it's built up as rings.
627
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:09,280
It almost defies words.
628
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:12,120
It's Ansell Adam-esqe but not terrestrial.
629
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:16,680
NARRATOR: Some volatile force
must have shaped this
630
00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:18,480
fantastical terrain.
631
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:21,800
But it can't be the water.
632
00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:27,800
It's so cold here
that it remains eternally frozen...
633
00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:30,000
like concrete.
634
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:32,040
So what is it?
635
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:35,760
The answer lies
at the edge of the ice cap.
636
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:41,840
And its revealed by HiRISE.
637
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:44,880
NINA: We can see here that
these are really
638
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:49,840
strange little starburst features
that radiate out from the center.
639
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:55,480
And so for obvious reasons
we call them spiders.
640
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:04,080
NINA: It turns out
that Mars has seasons
641
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:05,680
just like the Earth does.
642
00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:10,720
So as winter approaches
in the southern hemisphere of Mars,
643
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:13,480
the temperature basically plummets.
644
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:17,040
We get things like frost and snow.
But with a difference.
645
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:34,280
This isn't water snow.
646
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:38,040
It's actually snow made out
of carbon dioxide or dry ice.
647
00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:41,920
It's alien yeah.
648
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:43,720
I mean we don't see
anything like that on Earth.
649
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:47,400
NARRATOR: For the duration of winter
650
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:52,040
temperatures never climb above
minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
651
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:55,960
The entire polar region,
652
00:54:56,040 --> 00:54:59,760
water ice cap, and surrounding planes
653
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:03,960
is covered in a thick layer of dry ice.
654
00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:06,200
But as the spring comes,
655
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:08,160
things start getting
a little bit interesting.
656
00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:18,640
As the sun returns
the dry ice begins to melt.
657
00:55:18,720 --> 00:55:20,600
But it doesn't form a liquid.
658
00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:22,040
It actually goes straight to gas.
659
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:26,480
So you start building up pressure because
you're making more gas,
660
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:29,440
but trapping it inside of this ice layer.
661
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:32,480
And so you're building up,
building up, building up pressure
662
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:35,840
until that one point where
the pressure just increases so much
663
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:37,760
that it just explodes.
664
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,360
And that aftermath of that explosion
are these dark streaks
665
00:55:48,440 --> 00:55:50,600
that we see on HiRISE images.
666
00:55:54,720 --> 00:55:59,720
NARRATOR: Carved into the surface
by exploding jets of carbon dioxide,
667
00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:05,600
each one of these strange
spider formations
668
00:56:06,640 --> 00:56:09,200
took 10,000 years to form.
669
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:20,240
And it's the same force, carbon dioxide,
670
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:24,720
changing from gas to dry ice to gas
671
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:27,400
that makes Mars' poles
672
00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:30,360
so beautiful and bizarre.
673
00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:35,080
They're both
completely alien landscapes.
674
00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:37,160
And it's quintessential Mars.
675
00:56:37,240 --> 00:56:39,280
It's alien Mars.
676
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:45,600
NARRATOR: Exploding poles.
677
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:51,080
Scarred frozen planes.
678
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,360
A planet stripped of its atmosphere
679
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:58,400
and blasted by solar winds.
680
00:57:00,360 --> 00:57:05,000
The idea that Mars could ever support life
might seem hopeless.
681
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,520
But we now know that
billions of years ago,
682
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:16,880
when the first life forms
appeared on Earth,
683
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:22,480
the two planets were much more alike.
684
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:28,680
And if life emerged on our world,
685
00:57:29,040 --> 00:57:30,880
why not here?
686
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:36,840
(beeping)
687
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:44,560
NARRATOR: As afternoon turns to evening,
688
00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:47,360
we head towards the Marian Equator.
689
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:51,440
To a place where since 2012,
690
00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:55,240
NASA has been on an audacious mission.
691
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,160
In Gale Crater right now,
692
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:04,120
a high-tech Rover is hunting
for the very ingredients of life.
693
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:09,200
-MAN (indistinct over PA)
- (cheering)
694
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:12,920
ASHWIN: The night that we landed
695
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:15,640
I saw my engineering colleagues
across the room,
696
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:17,400
jump up and down in their chairs.
697
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:19,360
And you know some of them begin to cry.
698
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:22,480
And for me of course,
I felt all those same emotions.
699
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:24,920
But then it, all of a sudden
it hit me that now there gonna
700
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:28,280
give us the car keys
and it's really up to us as scientists
701
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:30,560
to fulfill the promise
of the whole mission.
702
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:36,880
NARRATOR: Three and a half
billion years ago
703
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:39,640
Gale Crater was filled with water.
704
00:58:42,640 --> 00:58:45,040
Today it's a dried-up lake bed.
705
00:58:47,000 --> 00:58:49,240
But it conceals clues
706
00:58:49,320 --> 00:58:52,440
to just how habitable Mars
might have once been.
707
00:58:58,760 --> 00:59:03,720
Combing its surface
is a one ton mobile science lab.
708
00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:10,720
The only Rover at work on Mars today...
709
00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:14,560
NASA's Curiosity.
710
00:59:22,720 --> 00:59:24,640
DIANA: Curiosity's an incredible rover.
711
00:59:24,720 --> 00:59:28,320
It is an SUV size,
laser beam eye robot
712
00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:32,320
that is going around Mars,
trying to figure out
713
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:35,560
if there was the environment
to sustain life at some point.
714
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:37,880
When I describe it that way
it just sounds like
715
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,920
I am talking about science fiction.
716
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:47,040
MELISSA: Curiosity
is a huge beast of a rover.
717
00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:50,320
Six-wheel drive,
stands seven feet tall.
718
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:57,520
She's powered by plutonium
that gives her a quantum energy source.
719
00:59:57,600 --> 00:59:59,840
She can run for years.
720
01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:04,920
Dust storms that kill rovers
don't touch Curiosity.
721
01:00:12,240 --> 01:00:14,040
GRUNSFELD: Curiosity is so big
722
01:00:14,120 --> 01:00:17,760
that we can see it with
HiRISE in great detail.
723
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:21,080
We can see the body,
we can see the wheels,
724
01:00:21,160 --> 01:00:22,920
we can see the wheel tracks.
725
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:30,560
NARRATOR:
Alongside its serious science kit,
726
01:00:31,560 --> 01:00:35,360
Curiosity has no fewer than 17 cameras.
727
01:00:38,320 --> 01:00:40,600
It can even take selfies.
728
01:00:41,240 --> 01:00:42,720
ASHWIN: We designed these rovers
729
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:45,680
to act like our human
surrogates on Mars.
730
01:00:46,680 --> 01:00:49,560
They have eyes that are about
six feet off the ground
731
01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:55,360
and they take color pictures that have
the same wavelengths as our human eyes.
732
01:00:56,480 --> 01:00:59,800
All this is designed
to put a human virtual presence on Mars.
733
01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:06,000
NARRATOR: Using half a million images
taken by Curiosity and Mars' orbiter's
734
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:11,280
NASA has rebuilt Gale Crater...
735
01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:16,720
on earth.
736
01:01:18,120 --> 01:01:21,320
DAWN: I feel like I have been
on the surface of Mars.
737
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:25,400
The images and the topography
738
01:01:25,480 --> 01:01:29,520
fills your mind and you get lost
in this virtual world.
739
01:01:30,720 --> 01:01:35,280
It's just so interesting to
actually use data
740
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:38,840
to transport yourself
into another environment,
741
01:01:38,920 --> 01:01:40,240
onto another planet.
742
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:43,840
NARRATOR: But this isn't just for fun.
743
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,800
Curiosity is far more
than a mobile camera.
744
01:01:50,560 --> 01:01:52,720
Dawn uses the virtual world...
745
01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:58,280
to choose the most promising places
for the rover
746
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:00,400
to deploy its high-tech toolkit.
747
01:02:02,600 --> 01:02:05,560
At its heart Curiosity
is a chemical laboratory
748
01:02:05,640 --> 01:02:07,520
that we've landed
on the surface of Mars.
749
01:02:07,600 --> 01:02:09,720
She's got a laser ablation spectrometer,
750
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:11,800
which is a laser to zap rocks.
751
01:02:11,880 --> 01:02:13,720
You know,
we can drive round and say, wow,
752
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:18,160
that looks interesting,
'zu', 'pu', what's in there?
753
01:02:18,800 --> 01:02:22,840
And what that allows us to do is
to see what Mars is made of.
754
01:02:25,400 --> 01:02:29,960
DAWN: Curiosity is designed to
take the powder and heat it up
755
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:33,680
and then it smells the chemicals
that--that come off
756
01:02:33,760 --> 01:02:37,400
and those chemicals will say
something about what's inside the sample.
757
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,560
It doesn't tell us everything we want
758
01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:44,160
to know but it gives us
some really nice clues.
759
01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:50,440
NARRATOR: In 2014,
Curiosity astonished the world
760
01:02:51,600 --> 01:02:53,680
with the biggest breakthrough yet,
761
01:02:56,080 --> 01:02:59,280
in our search for extra-terrestrial life.
762
01:03:01,800 --> 01:03:06,000
What we found was organic molecules
in mud stones.
763
01:03:09,400 --> 01:03:13,520
NARRATOR: Organic molecules
are complex molecules containing carbon,
764
01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:19,080
the ingredients that make up
all life on earth.
765
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:25,960
JAMES: Those molecules are clues.
766
01:03:26,040 --> 01:03:29,160
We can't quite decipher
exactly where they came from
767
01:03:29,240 --> 01:03:32,600
but they're so hopeful
that there could be
768
01:03:32,680 --> 01:03:35,400
part of the record of what might have
been ancient life on Mars.
769
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:44,960
The biggest overall find is that
Mars was a habitable planet
770
01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:50,120
and we didn't know that
before Curiosity went there.
771
01:03:54,920 --> 01:03:56,200
NARRATOR: Water on the surface,
772
01:04:00,320 --> 01:04:02,680
organic molecules in the rocks.
773
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:09,560
For at least a billion years
Mars had everything
774
01:04:09,640 --> 01:04:11,360
life needs to get started
775
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:18,360
and yet the final proof remains
just out of reach.
776
01:04:20,520 --> 01:04:23,720
ASHWIN: What we have not found
is that life ever took hold,
777
01:04:24,080 --> 01:04:27,200
ever made use those great conditions
that Mars provided.
778
01:04:29,720 --> 01:04:34,400
NARRATOR: So strong is our desire
to find that life on another planet
779
01:04:37,320 --> 01:04:39,560
that we have overreached before.
780
01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:47,000
The experts are saying tonight
781
01:04:47,080 --> 01:04:48,160
that they have, quote,
782
01:04:48,240 --> 01:04:52,400
"reasonable evidence
of past life on the planet Mars."
783
01:04:52,480 --> 01:04:54,320
NARRATOR: In 1996,
784
01:04:54,400 --> 01:04:56,600
NASA shocked the world.
785
01:04:58,200 --> 01:05:02,600
Inside a meteorite from Mars,
found in Antarctica,
786
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:06,160
they discovered bacteria
shaped structures.
787
01:05:06,640 --> 01:05:08,280
While the evidence may be
788
01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:11,480
just microscopic and perhaps
millions of years old,
789
01:05:11,560 --> 01:05:15,160
today they displayed the rock
that has rolled back years of findings
790
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:17,560
and has made science fiction a reality.
791
01:05:18,800 --> 01:05:20,400
NARRATOR: The whole world was asking,
792
01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:23,520
was this really life from Mars?
793
01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:26,760
If this discovery is confirmed
794
01:05:27,400 --> 01:05:30,600
it will surely be one of the most stunning
insights into our universe
795
01:05:30,680 --> 01:05:32,840
that science has ever uncovered.
796
01:05:35,440 --> 01:05:38,240
NARRATOR: But the dream
soon began to fracture.
797
01:05:38,840 --> 01:05:41,160
People started interrogating
and then doubting.
798
01:05:41,240 --> 01:05:44,040
It was so hard to prove the morphology,
799
01:05:44,120 --> 01:05:46,120
the shape of what we thought
we were seeing
800
01:05:46,200 --> 01:05:47,240
was actually made by life.
801
01:05:50,600 --> 01:05:53,920
AMY: This isn't something obvious
like digging up a dinosaur skull.
802
01:05:54,320 --> 01:05:57,920
This is a microscopic bacteria
billions of years old.
803
01:05:58,000 --> 01:05:59,640
We don't know what this is.
804
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:05,280
NARRATOR: The strangest puzzle
was the size of the shapes in the rock,
805
01:06:06,320 --> 01:06:09,480
smaller than any life
ever recorded on earth,
806
01:06:10,480 --> 01:06:13,800
smaller than life could ever exist
807
01:06:15,680 --> 01:06:17,960
or so we thought.
808
01:06:23,640 --> 01:06:28,120
(intense music playing)
809
01:06:32,840 --> 01:06:35,120
NARRATOR: Today,
one scientist's work
810
01:06:35,200 --> 01:06:39,080
is making us rethink
the search for life on Mars.
811
01:06:48,120 --> 01:06:53,360
(intense music playing)
812
01:06:58,840 --> 01:07:01,360
This is Dalol, Ethiopia,
813
01:07:04,800 --> 01:07:07,560
one of the most hostile places on earth.
814
01:07:11,600 --> 01:07:13,920
Here, volcanic forces
815
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:17,920
create conditions very similar
to those on ancient Mars...
816
01:07:22,160 --> 01:07:25,080
and that attracts astrobiologists
817
01:07:25,160 --> 01:07:27,360
like Felipe Gómez Gómez.
818
01:07:35,600 --> 01:07:37,840
FELIPE: There is a heavy smell in the air.
819
01:07:39,960 --> 01:07:42,720
The water coming out
from the chimneys
820
01:07:43,680 --> 01:07:47,440
can be higher than
one hundred degree Celsius.
821
01:07:49,880 --> 01:07:53,920
Salinity, it's practically
saturated in salt.
822
01:07:57,960 --> 01:07:59,240
The water pH
823
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:02,800
is more acidic than a car battery.
824
01:08:10,960 --> 01:08:14,840
Early Mars was quite similar
to this kind of environment.
825
01:08:17,360 --> 01:08:18,960
MAN 2: You don't want to put
your hands into that.
826
01:08:19,760 --> 01:08:22,840
No, it would be burned.
827
01:08:22,920 --> 01:08:24,080
Yeah, I know.
828
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:30,520
NARRATOR: Inside these samples,
829
01:08:31,440 --> 01:08:35,120
Felipe has uncovered
something no one was expecting.
830
01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:43,360
(speaking in native language)
831
01:08:50,800 --> 01:08:54,080
(speaking in native language)
832
01:08:58,000 --> 01:08:59,280
These are microbes?
833
01:08:59,360 --> 01:09:01,160
Yup. The bacteria.
834
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:06,760
These were found in Dallol,
in the pools of Dallol.
835
01:09:07,320 --> 01:09:08,360
Wow.
836
01:09:08,440 --> 01:09:10,720
Living inside the salt,
interacting with the salt.
837
01:09:10,800 --> 01:09:14,040
Multiplying themselves and colonizing
838
01:09:14,120 --> 01:09:15,960
this really extreme environment.
839
01:09:16,840 --> 01:09:18,760
So you are telling me
these things are alive?
840
01:09:18,840 --> 01:09:21,160
They are not fossils of bacteria?
841
01:09:21,240 --> 01:09:23,240
Exactly, they are bacteria
and they are alive.
842
01:09:23,320 --> 01:09:24,320
They are growing.
843
01:09:26,080 --> 01:09:28,560
NARRATOR: The very things
that make this environment
844
01:09:28,640 --> 01:09:30,760
so dangerous to us
845
01:09:30,840 --> 01:09:32,280
make it perfect
846
01:09:32,360 --> 01:09:36,240
for primitive lifeforms to get started.
847
01:09:39,480 --> 01:09:40,680
So they eat the salt?
848
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:41,760
They eat the salt.
849
01:09:41,840 --> 01:09:46,600
They are able to take the energy,
the power supply from the minerals.
850
01:09:48,160 --> 01:09:49,840
NARRATOR: But the breakthrough
851
01:09:49,920 --> 01:09:54,560
isn't just that bacteria exist,
it's also their size.
852
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:58,320
They are twenty times smaller
than the regular bacteria.
853
01:09:58,400 --> 01:09:59,560
It's nanobacteria.
854
01:10:01,120 --> 01:10:04,360
NARRATOR: The bacteria are
about the same size
855
01:10:04,440 --> 01:10:08,080
as the mysterious shapes found in
the Antarctica meteorite.
856
01:10:10,680 --> 01:10:15,720
This extreme environment is like
Mars was four billion years ago
857
01:10:15,800 --> 01:10:18,360
at a very early age of Mars.
858
01:10:18,440 --> 01:10:22,160
And if there is life here,
who knows that probably
859
01:10:22,240 --> 01:10:25,240
could be possible to find
similar life on Mars.
860
01:10:26,440 --> 01:10:27,720
(speaking in native language)
861
01:10:29,120 --> 01:10:31,960
NARRATOR: The discoveries
of extreme life on earth
862
01:10:33,560 --> 01:10:35,680
have reignited our hope...
863
01:10:39,320 --> 01:10:42,240
of finding life on Mars
864
01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:47,880
and that's exactly what NASA's
next mission will attempt to do--
865
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:52,400
Dig for alien fossils.
866
01:10:58,280 --> 01:10:59,720
(beeping)
867
01:11:07,200 --> 01:11:10,840
2,400 miles west of Gale Crater
868
01:11:10,920 --> 01:11:13,320
is the site targeted for the search.
869
01:11:17,160 --> 01:11:22,520
It will make Mars 2020
NASA's toughest mission yet.
870
01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:33,040
Jezero Crater is a rugged,
cracked landscape,
871
01:11:33,920 --> 01:11:37,280
with jagged channels
carved through the rock.
872
01:11:41,320 --> 01:11:45,840
Scientists now know
this is the fossilized remains
873
01:11:45,920 --> 01:11:48,280
of a giant river delta.
874
01:11:56,960 --> 01:11:58,920
On ancient Mars
875
01:11:59,000 --> 01:12:04,000
this would have been the perfect place
for life to thrive
876
01:12:06,360 --> 01:12:10,320
and Jezero also has
the perfect conditions
877
01:12:10,400 --> 01:12:13,960
to preserve fossils of it to this day.
878
01:12:17,760 --> 01:12:21,080
MAN: Over time,
sediment builds up, layer after layer.
879
01:12:23,920 --> 01:12:26,960
WOMAN: Any life forms present
or organic molecules
880
01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:29,560
would have been concentrated
in those layers of mud.
881
01:12:31,360 --> 01:12:35,080
It's a layer cake of stories
in the record of the rocks.
882
01:12:37,680 --> 01:12:39,720
DAVID: Buried treasure
that's been sitting there,
883
01:12:39,800 --> 01:12:41,480
waiting all these billions of years now
884
01:12:41,560 --> 01:12:44,080
for us to go and dig it up
and see what's there.
885
01:12:46,800 --> 01:12:49,200
NARRATOR: But the best place
for hunt for life
886
01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:53,400
is the toughest place to land
887
01:12:53,920 --> 01:12:56,400
and in February 2021
888
01:12:56,720 --> 01:13:00,800
that's exactly what NASA
will attempt to do.
889
01:13:01,800 --> 01:13:04,160
NAGIN: Of course, if it was
entirely up to the engineers
890
01:13:04,240 --> 01:13:07,000
we would pick a completely flat place
with no rocks
891
01:13:07,080 --> 01:13:10,160
and no winds and the scientists
would immediately say,
892
01:13:10,240 --> 01:13:11,240
well that's super boring.
893
01:13:13,080 --> 01:13:15,440
ADAM: This mission, it's a big deal.
894
01:13:16,680 --> 01:13:19,680
It's the most ambitious
mission we've ever attempted,
895
01:13:20,880 --> 01:13:25,440
so for 2020 we will take the rover
and put it in places
896
01:13:25,520 --> 01:13:28,440
that would be unthinkable
for Curiosity
897
01:13:28,520 --> 01:13:31,440
or the airbag landings of history.
898
01:13:34,640 --> 01:13:37,120
NARRATOR: Unlike on previous missions,
899
01:13:37,200 --> 01:13:42,560
this landing site will be
full of rover killing hazards.
900
01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:47,160
But NASA has a new trick up its sleeve.
901
01:13:57,760 --> 01:14:01,920
NARRATOR: Every mission to Mars
has faced one huge problem.
902
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:06,720
It takes 20 minutes
to get a signal back to earth.
903
01:14:10,280 --> 01:14:14,880
So engineers can't guide the spacecraft
from their control room.
904
01:14:17,520 --> 01:14:21,400
But Mars 2020 will have a super power.
905
01:14:25,080 --> 01:14:28,760
It will be able to navigate itself.
906
01:14:30,760 --> 01:14:33,120
ADAM: For Mars 2020
we took the landing system
907
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:38,440
that we'd used on Curiosity
and we added a very important feature,
908
01:14:39,520 --> 01:14:44,160
an ability to tell where it is on Mars.
909
01:14:45,680 --> 01:14:46,840
NARRATOR: For this mission,
910
01:14:47,320 --> 01:14:50,640
the engineers from NASA's
jet propulsion laboratory
911
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:53,440
have harnessed the power of HiRISE.
912
01:14:55,520 --> 01:14:59,800
They have used its images
to build a map of the landing site
913
01:14:59,880 --> 01:15:01,880
in incredible detail.
914
01:15:04,520 --> 01:15:08,840
We've used HiRISE
to help us understand the dangers
915
01:15:08,920 --> 01:15:11,120
that the terrain might provide.
916
01:15:15,640 --> 01:15:17,320
NARRATOR: Mars 2020
917
01:15:17,920 --> 01:15:21,360
will compare the map
with what it sees on the ground.
918
01:15:34,160 --> 01:15:37,600
Then it will zero in on its target.
919
01:15:47,880 --> 01:15:53,120
Retro rockets will guide
this $2.5 billion rover
920
01:15:55,520 --> 01:15:57,760
safely to the surface.
921
01:16:05,560 --> 01:16:07,520
(whirring)
922
01:16:42,600 --> 01:16:47,400
Once on the ground Mars 2020
will carry out its simple
923
01:16:47,480 --> 01:16:49,920
but awe-inspiring task,
924
01:16:53,480 --> 01:16:56,520
to burrow into the planet's surface,
925
01:16:56,600 --> 01:17:00,080
searching for fossils of Martian life.
926
01:17:05,840 --> 01:17:08,600
DIANA: Is there life or was there life
on the surface of Mars?
927
01:17:08,680 --> 01:17:11,600
It can't get more fundamental than that.
928
01:17:11,680 --> 01:17:15,080
I can't imagine a Mars
that wasn't alive in some way.
929
01:17:15,160 --> 01:17:17,480
If Mars 2020 can answer
that question
930
01:17:17,560 --> 01:17:21,480
I think that we can drop the mic at JPL
and just walk out of the lab
931
01:17:21,560 --> 01:17:25,240
because we had just answered the most
fundamental question of human history.
932
01:17:31,880 --> 01:17:35,640
NARRATOR: As these robot pioneers
hunt for life on Mars,
933
01:17:40,800 --> 01:17:44,160
we are laying the groundwork
for the next great challenge--
934
01:17:46,800 --> 01:17:50,480
sending human pioneers to join them.
935
01:17:51,560 --> 01:17:53,560
BRIDENSTEIN (over PA):
The moon is the proving ground,
936
01:17:53,640 --> 01:17:55,400
Mars is the horizon goal.
937
01:17:56,600 --> 01:17:57,880
WOMAN (over radio):
We have ignition of
938
01:17:57,960 --> 01:18:00,600
NASA's space launch system
solid rocket motor,
939
01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:02,520
powering us on our journey to Mars.
940
01:18:04,480 --> 01:18:07,920
NARRATOR: Engineers are racing
to develop the technology.
941
01:18:08,800 --> 01:18:09,960
ELON (over PA): Do you want the future
942
01:18:10,040 --> 01:18:11,840
where we become
a space faring civilization
943
01:18:11,920 --> 01:18:13,200
and are out there among the stars
944
01:18:13,280 --> 01:18:15,520
or one where we are forever
confined to earth?
945
01:18:25,840 --> 01:18:29,480
Space exploration,
a tough but not impossible thing.
946
01:18:32,320 --> 01:18:34,800
NARRATOR: The first humans
who will set foot on Mars
947
01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:36,520
are already among us.
948
01:18:37,000 --> 01:18:39,320
MAN: We intend to send her
to Mars one day, folks.
949
01:18:55,000 --> 01:18:57,440
NARRATOR: But this mission
will be together than anything
950
01:18:57,520 --> 01:18:58,920
we've ever attempted.
951
01:19:01,960 --> 01:19:03,960
There are two giant hurdles.
952
01:19:05,440 --> 01:19:08,400
First, you have to get there.
953
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:13,960
There's really no shortage of challenges
954
01:19:14,040 --> 01:19:17,240
when it comes to getting humans
to Mars, (stammers) not on Mars,
955
01:19:17,320 --> 01:19:18,640
just to Mars.
956
01:19:20,360 --> 01:19:22,160
ADAM: The navigation is hard.
957
01:19:22,560 --> 01:19:25,240
A little bit off
and you will burn up because
958
01:19:25,320 --> 01:19:27,080
you're coming in too steep
and then come in too shallow
959
01:19:27,160 --> 01:19:29,440
you'll skip off into the solar system
960
01:19:29,520 --> 01:19:32,320
and orbit the sun forever and be dead.
961
01:19:35,480 --> 01:19:38,480
LUJENDRA: It takes about
seven months to get to Mars.
962
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:42,080
Once you get on Mars
you have to be there for two more years
963
01:19:42,160 --> 01:19:44,520
before you can take
the return flight back to earth.
964
01:19:45,880 --> 01:19:48,920
WOMAN: You're going to have
a kind of cabin fever
965
01:19:49,000 --> 01:19:50,640
that's--that's unprecedented.
966
01:19:52,920 --> 01:19:55,080
NARRATOR: When you finally arrive
on the planet
967
01:19:55,160 --> 01:19:59,200
you have to survive
in terrifying conditions.
968
01:20:04,240 --> 01:20:05,760
Unbreathable air,
969
01:20:07,240 --> 01:20:12,440
extreme cold, toxic dust.
970
01:20:18,880 --> 01:20:23,080
And an unseen danger
that even spacesuits offer
971
01:20:23,160 --> 01:20:24,960
little protect against.
972
01:20:27,560 --> 01:20:29,000
Deadly radiation.
973
01:20:36,440 --> 01:20:38,600
It seems an impossible problem.
974
01:20:41,320 --> 01:20:44,600
But the planet also offers a solution.
975
01:20:48,080 --> 01:20:50,480
(beeping)
976
01:20:55,960 --> 01:20:59,600
NARRATOR: Just 350 miles
west of Jezero Crater,
977
01:21:00,120 --> 01:21:03,320
where Mars 2020 will hunt for alien life,
978
01:21:03,800 --> 01:21:06,280
we return to Syrtis Major,
979
01:21:06,360 --> 01:21:09,160
where we first thought we saw it.
980
01:21:11,480 --> 01:21:14,800
And here, where our journey began,
981
01:21:14,880 --> 01:21:20,480
we find the key
to living on Mars... ourselves.
982
01:21:25,840 --> 01:21:27,440
DAVID: Every once in a while,
we come across one of these
983
01:21:27,520 --> 01:21:31,720
sort of strange snaky, snake like forms.
984
01:21:33,680 --> 01:21:37,120
And this is in terrain
that's incredibly flat,
985
01:21:37,200 --> 01:21:38,440
highly cratered.
986
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:43,440
We're pretty sure
these features are lava tubes.
987
01:21:46,160 --> 01:21:48,120
NINA: Lava tubes form near volcanoes
988
01:21:48,200 --> 01:21:50,720
as lava is flowing out through fractures.
989
01:21:51,760 --> 01:21:53,840
TANYA:
And eventually that kinda drains out
990
01:21:53,920 --> 01:21:56,000
and it leaves these caverns behind.
991
01:21:57,680 --> 01:22:01,640
ABIGAIL: Sometimes we can see holes
punch through these features
992
01:22:01,720 --> 01:22:03,480
and these are dark holes
993
01:22:03,560 --> 01:22:06,280
and when you look down
you just see darkness.
994
01:22:10,640 --> 01:22:14,280
NARRATOR: No human invention
has yet cracked the radiation problem.
995
01:22:17,840 --> 01:22:23,160
But these underground wonders
might just be our salvation.
996
01:22:54,080 --> 01:22:56,480
Deep in the mountains of northern Spain
997
01:22:57,840 --> 01:23:01,960
a team of scientists is exploring
how we might survive
998
01:23:02,040 --> 01:23:04,280
in Mars' lethal environment.
999
01:23:06,120 --> 01:23:08,040
JOSÉ: I believe what
we're going to do on Mars
1000
01:23:08,120 --> 01:23:09,600
will be incredible.
1001
01:23:11,400 --> 01:23:12,720
But it is not easy.
1002
01:23:12,800 --> 01:23:14,560
We evolved on planet Earth
1003
01:23:14,640 --> 01:23:18,040
and our biology is accustomed
to this planet.
1004
01:23:19,280 --> 01:23:21,640
CARMEN: If you would live on Mars
for longer time,
1005
01:23:21,720 --> 01:23:23,080
even wearing the spacesuit,
1006
01:23:23,160 --> 01:23:24,760
the radiation would definitely be deadly.
1007
01:23:28,440 --> 01:23:31,360
We need to go
underground and obviously
1008
01:23:31,440 --> 01:23:32,720
the deeper we are
1009
01:23:32,800 --> 01:23:35,800
the more protection we will have
from radiation.
1010
01:23:41,240 --> 01:23:43,280
Some of these caves are
really, really long.
1011
01:23:43,360 --> 01:23:45,280
They could be several kilometers long,
1012
01:23:45,360 --> 01:23:50,280
so we could go deeper and deeper
and create a habitat for us to live.
1013
01:23:52,720 --> 01:23:56,040
NARRATOR: Here, in its own version
of a Martian lava tube,
1014
01:23:56,680 --> 01:24:00,560
the team can find out
what this subterranean life
1015
01:24:00,640 --> 01:24:02,040
might be like.
1016
01:24:02,840 --> 01:24:05,800
You lose track of time really because
1017
01:24:05,880 --> 01:24:07,360
you don't have any day or night.
1018
01:24:08,720 --> 01:24:10,480
You're in a confined environment,
1019
01:24:10,560 --> 01:24:12,800
in an extreme environment,
1020
01:24:12,880 --> 01:24:14,520
which makes it very challenging.
1021
01:24:15,840 --> 01:24:18,720
We need to be
independent in every way,
1022
01:24:18,800 --> 01:24:21,080
not just psychologically independent
1023
01:24:21,160 --> 01:24:25,640
but in terms of food,
materials, resources, energy.
1024
01:24:28,720 --> 01:24:31,640
This would be our home
on planet Mars
1025
01:24:31,720 --> 01:24:35,720
and we need to create an environment
for us to survive and to thrive.
1026
01:24:38,800 --> 01:24:42,400
NARRATOR: Lava tubes will provide
a readymade shelter
1027
01:24:42,480 --> 01:24:44,760
for the first intrepid pioneers.
1028
01:24:47,800 --> 01:24:49,320
And experts believe
1029
01:24:49,400 --> 01:24:52,760
they could also be sites
for longer term settlements.
1030
01:24:54,320 --> 01:24:58,960
Some may even be large enough
to fit whole cities inside.
1031
01:25:07,120 --> 01:25:12,200
JOSÉ: We live between the last human
single planetary generation
1032
01:25:12,280 --> 01:25:15,720
and the first
multi planetary generation.
1033
01:25:16,280 --> 01:25:20,040
Once we colonize Mars
we will change history,
1034
01:25:20,120 --> 01:25:21,880
we will change the future.
1035
01:25:24,680 --> 01:25:28,240
NARRATOR: And it may be,
in these lava tubes,
1036
01:25:28,320 --> 01:25:32,920
that the quest that has driven
our interest in Mars for centuries
1037
01:25:33,000 --> 01:25:35,760
finally comes to an end.
1038
01:25:36,560 --> 01:25:40,160
Those same conditions that will
keep us safe underground
1039
01:25:41,040 --> 01:25:44,280
might, for billions of years,
1040
01:25:44,360 --> 01:25:47,400
have kept something else safe too,
1041
01:25:48,560 --> 01:25:50,360
living Martian life.
1042
01:25:52,400 --> 01:25:56,240
DAVID: Because of the tremendous
radiation bathing the surface
1043
01:25:56,320 --> 01:25:58,960
any lifeforms that are there today
1044
01:25:59,040 --> 01:26:01,080
are gonna be buried under the surface.
1045
01:26:01,160 --> 01:26:05,120
This is a whole new place for us
to explore on Mars
1046
01:26:05,200 --> 01:26:06,920
and, in particular,
it's one of those places
1047
01:26:07,000 --> 01:26:10,280
that seems like it could be
a really good habitat
1048
01:26:10,360 --> 01:26:13,080
for any extant Martian life,
should it exist.
1049
01:26:25,480 --> 01:26:28,240
NARRATOR: Our day on Mars
is coming to a close.
1050
01:26:38,240 --> 01:26:41,880
The sun is setting over
the dunes of Syrtis Major.
1051
01:26:44,840 --> 01:26:48,880
Once this place made us
dream of an earth like world,
1052
01:26:51,040 --> 01:26:54,320
but our journey has revealed
Mars' story to be
1053
01:26:54,400 --> 01:26:57,280
more astonishing than anything
we could have imagined.
1054
01:26:59,360 --> 01:27:04,520
And now, at last,
it's almost within our reach.
1055
01:27:12,960 --> 01:27:14,760
NINA: Mars is like my second home.
1056
01:27:16,200 --> 01:27:17,360
I would love to go visit.
1057
01:27:21,480 --> 01:27:22,640
It is magnificent.
1058
01:27:26,160 --> 01:27:27,680
(explosion)
1059
01:27:35,520 --> 01:27:39,080
ADAM: I used to dream about being
the first person to climb Olympus Mons,
1060
01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:42,880
the biggest mountain in the solar system,
1061
01:27:42,960 --> 01:27:44,480
plant the flag on top.
1062
01:27:46,080 --> 01:27:49,720
DERRICK: Mars makes us redefine
who we are
1063
01:27:50,600 --> 01:27:53,640
and what are connection
is to the universe.
1064
01:27:54,800 --> 01:27:57,680
JAMES: Would I go?
Of course, in a heartbeat.