All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S03E07.Mysteries.of.Mars.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Mars.

A glowing red orb
in the night sky.

A desert planet that could hold
signs of extraterrestrial life.

A new frontier for the future
of humanity.

For centuries, Mars has been
an enigma in the night sky,

beckoning us
to unravel its mysteries.

Now, as a new era
of space exploration begins,

we have never been closer
to setting foot

on its desolate surface.

But what will we discover
when people are finally able

to explore the Red Planet?

And could we possibly find
evidence that life exists there?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
Scientists and engineers

working at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory...

- (cheering)
- ...celebrate,

as some 245 million miles away
from Earth,

the Perseverance
Mars rover lands

on the surface
of the Red Planet.

KIRSTEN SIEBACH:
I am a participating scientist

on the Perseverance mission.

Landing on Mars
is a really complex operation.

We had been thinking about
this mission

for a decade before landing,

building the rover,
building the instruments,

designing everything about it.

It had been flying to Mars

for just over seven
and a half months.

To watch Perseverance being
lowered by a sky crane

in the Mars atmosphere,
I-I was speechless.

That incredible engineering
is so inspiring.

STEVEN BENNER:
Perseverance is now on the surface of Mars,

looking around for habitability,

the potential for life,
minerals.

And so Perseverance
is going to be

a tremendously valuable
scientific enterprise.

SHATNER:
Many scientists believe that the data being collected

by Perseverance will be
a giant leap forward

in our understanding of Mars.

But this mission is just
the latest chapter

in humanity's long quest

to unravel the secrets
of the Red Planet.

In fact, our fixation with Mars
dates back thousands of years.

ROBERT SCHOCH:
Mars has been an obsession since ancient times.

And one could ask, why is Mars
such an obsession?

I would suggest that it's sort
of a mysterious planet.

It's a red planet.

Red is a very important color

for ancient
and indigenous cultures.

It's the color of blood.

It's a sacred color.
It's the color of life.

It's the color of fearsomeness,

the color of the warrior.

It was just all really
tantalizing for ancient people.

IWAN RHYS-MORUS:
The Babylonians named the planet

after Nergal, their god of war.

Similarly, the Greeks
named the planet

after their god of War Aries;
it was the star of Aries.

And of course,
the Romans called the planet

after their god Mars.

And Mars's astrological
significance

is quite interesting
and revealing.

The astrological symbol for Mars

is a circle with an arrow
coming out of it.

That's the modern symbol
for maleness, for masculinity,

virility, warfare, solidity.

So, as far back
as our history goes,

it's clear that Mars always had
particular connotations

built into human understandings

of the planet's significance
right from the beginning.

AMY SHIRA TEITEL:
We have been fascinated

with Mars for a long time

because there's no planet we can
see as well as we can see Mars.

Venus is obscured by clouds,
and everything else

is too far away,
but Mars is there.

Before we had telescopes
to be able to reveal

anything on the surface,
it was the red dot in the sky.

And it, actually,
if you observe it from Earth,

seems to move backwards in
its orbit every once in a while.

It confounded scientists, and
people were moved to study it.

SHATNER:
Although humanity's fascination with Mars began in antiquity,

the development of telescopes
ushered in a new era

of investigation
of the Red Planet.

ROD PYLE:
In the 1600s, here comes Galileo Galilei,

a brilliant inventor,
scientist, artist.

He builds an early telescope

and starts looking
at the planets.

And he's wondering,
why are these stars different?

And this is really when it began
to become clear

that these were places.

They weren't deities,
they weren't stars.

They were places.

They were other rocky worlds
like Earth.

And this was a revelation.

Once human beings realized
that Mars was another planet,

we were really curious now,
because we wanted to know,

do we have neighbors
out there in space?

We long had a suspicion
that it's gonna look like Earth,

it's gonna feel like Earth,
and we hoped that it would be

the kind of planet we might be
able to go to someday,

and there might actually be
living things there.

RHYS-MORUS:
During the second half of the 19th century,

fascination with Mars
and the possibilities

of life on Mars
really takes off.

The American astronomer
Percival Lowell

enthusiastically takes up
this search

for evidence of civilization
on Mars.

So he establishes
his own observatory,

the Lowell Observatory
in Flagstaff, Arizona,

carries out detailed examination
of the Martian surface,

and then publishes
a number of books in 1895

describing what he's seen.

And this really strikes a chord.

And then, of course, famously,
just a few years later in 1898,

H.G. Wells writes
The War of the Worlds.

Wells chooses Mars as the home
of the alien civilization

that's going to be
invading Earth

precisely because Mars
was already in the public eye.

NICK POPE:
Mars has become synonymous

with the idea of aliens
and sometimes alien invasion.

We get movies like Mars Attacks!
and others.

So, there is this idea

that if there are other
life-forms out there,

particularly in our own
solar system,

Mars is where they might
come from.

SHATNER:
The idea of Martians invading our planet

makes for entertaining
science fiction.

But scientists believe
they are closer than ever

to finding evidence that some
form of life did, in fact,

once exist on the Red Planet.

But why do experts think
that a barren planet like Mars

could have, at one time,
given birth to life?

Imagine for the moment,
being a Martian explorer

three to four billion years ago.

What would we see?

Instead of seeing
this dead planet with craters

and-and gigantic
mountain ridges,

we see riverbeds, oceans.

We see a blue planet that looks
ripe for the creation of life.

BENNER: Today, Mars still
has a large amount of water ice

just below the surface.

And on Earth, wherever we find

that kind of ice,
there is life in it.

So, it's quite likely
that if Mars, uh, generated life

four billion years ago,
it is still there today,

and we almost certainly know
where to go looking for it.

And in fact, the Perseverance
rover that's on the surface now

is looking at places on Mars

where life might have been
in the past.

SHATNER:
In their search for evidence of life on Mars,

NASA scientists have sent
the Perseverance rover

to investigate a particular area
of the Red Planet

that is known
as the Jezero crater.

SIEBACH:
Jezero crater was formed by a large impact

sometime around
3.8 or 3.9 billion years ago.

Now, we know that at some point,
that this was a lake

about the size of Lake Tahoe
in the Western United States.

And so Jezero crater is great,

because we know the right
ingredients are there

to preserve ancient life.

We know that there was
ancient water,

and we know that Jezero crater
was ancient enough

that it was active

in the time when life
might have formed on Mars.

And so, because of that,
I am more optimistic

that with Perseverance,
we might be able to find

some of these organic materials

and some of the possible
evidence for ancient life.

SHATNER:
Could NASA's Perseverance rover

actually find evidence
of microscopic Martian life

in the Jezero crater?

We'll soon find out.

But what will happen if we do

discover signs of life on Mars?

SIEBACH:
It's a very exciting mission,

because if we find evidence
for life on Mars,

it means that when
the conditions are right,

life can start,

and that means
it's all over the universe.

That changes our understanding
of what we are,

are we alone,
where do we come from?

So, that kind of revolutionary
possibility of understanding

is worth a lot of exploration.

RHYS-MORUS:
If the current missions succeed,

and if there is life on Mars,
then, well,

it will be a different world
for all of us.

The implications of finding
evidence of life on Mars

are, frankly, staggering.

But if it's true that Mars
was once a blue planet,

teeming with microbial life,
then how did it turn

into the lifeless red desert
it is today?

There are those who believe
a clue may be found

in an ancient cataclysm
that was so devastating

it left a giant scar across
the surface of the planet.

SNATNER:
The United Arab Emirates

becomes the first Arab nation

to send a space vehicle
to the Red Planet.

The state-of-the-art
satellite, named Hope,

will spend two years
collecting information

on how sunlight, dust
and temperature have affected

the Martian atmosphere
in the past and present.

Astronomers hope this mission
will bring answers

to one of the most enduring
mysteries of Mars:

how did it become
the Red Planet?

When you look at Mars tonight,

in the night sky, for example,
you see this red dot.

Why red? Ferric oxide.

It's the Rusty Planet.

It's iron rust.

But it wasn't always that way.

Billions of years ago,
it was very similar

to what the Earth
looks like today.

The data coming from
the Hope weather satellite

could be essential for us
to piece together

this jigsaw puzzle.

We had a lush planet,
a blue planet,

teeming with the possibilities
of life.

And then we have this dead,
barren planet of today.

What happened in between?

SHATNER:
Scientists have theorized that Mars was changed

by some kind of massive
cataclysm in the distant past,

causing it to become barren
and lifeless.

But it's well-known
that Earth has endured

numerous global catastrophes,

and our planet is still
teeming with life.

So, what was different
about Mars?

KAKU:
Natural disasters happened

rather regularly
on the planet Earth.

We have volcanic activity,

gigantic earthquakes,

meteor impacts
blanketing out the Sun,

collapsing agriculture,
causing chaos.

So, in other words,
planet-killing events.

But we are here,
the Earth is teeming with life,

and Mars turned out
to be a dead planet.

We don't know for sure,
but we think the culprit

is Mars has a very low
atmospheric density,

only one percent
the atmospheric density

found on the planet Earth.

SIEBACH:
Mars once had that dense atmosphere,

but somewhere around
three billion years ago,

that atmosphere
was stripped away.

And as the atmosphere thinned,

liquid water became
less and less stable

and would have evaporated.

So, if there was life on Mars,

it lost one of the key
ingredients for habitability.

SCHOCH:
We think the atmosphere on Mars

was initially eroded by impact.

That is, meteorites, asteroids,

physical impactors
on the Martian surface

stripped away
the atmosphere of Mars.

TAYLOR:
When you look at Mars you realize

that the northern hemisphere
looks more like plains,

and it's very flat.

But the southern hemisphere
of Mars is heavily cratered,

and that suggests that there
are a lot of impacts there

that could actually have
destroyed the atmosphere

and everything else on Mars.

KAKU:
Without the atmosphere to preserve

the integrity of the planet,
as the solar wind from the Sun

hits Mars,
water would boil by itself,

would vaporize by itself,
and be lost into outer space.

And as a consequence,
liquid water

cannot remain liquid
on the surface of Mars.

SHATNER:
Did ancient asteroid impacts destroy the atmosphere of Mars?

Perhaps.

But some scientists suggest
there was

an even more powerful disaster
that was responsible.

And as evidence,
they point to a curious feature

of the planet's surface
known as the Valles Marineris,

or as many like to call it,
the scar on Mars.

TAYLOR:
The Valles Marineris looks as if

something just gouged
out of the surface of Mars.

And the question is,
did it occur naturally?

Because we don't really
understand what happened.

SCHOCH:
One theory that I've been exploring recently

is that the Sun has
major solar outbursts

that spread out
throughout the solar system

traveling at very high speeds.

Plasma: electrically
charged particles,

protons, electrons,
other charged ions.

And when these hit planets,
you can imagine them

as huge lightning bolts, hitting
the surface of the planet.

And this can gouge out
what look like canyons.

And this may have been
a major contributing factor

to the loss of the atmosphere.

KAKU:
We have lots of theories as to the geologic

and atmospheric profile of Mars,

but to be certain,
we have to go there

and actually touch and feel
and analyze these things.

From a distance,
from millions of miles away,

we can only speculate
about what could be causing

these unexplained
surface features on Mars.

Will we ever know
what caused Mars

to become so dry and desolate?

Well, there are those
who believe

that one way to learn more
about the past

is by examining possible
evidence that the Red Planet

was once home
to an ancient civilization.

SHATNER:
The Cydonia Institute,

a group of researchers that
investigate strange formations

on the surface of Mars
publishes a study

analyzing satellite photographs
taken of the planet.

The images show
what the researchers claim

look like four
and five-sided pyramids

and a series of curious mounds.

This whole idea
for The Cydonia Institute

started when NASA
announced in 1991

that they were gonna return
to Mars with the Mars Observer.

And over the last 30-some years

of our group studying
NASA photographs,

we have found
an enormous amount of evidence

that led us to believe there are
artificial structures on Mars.

What we're trying to do is get

a preponderance of evidence
together

so that we can prove the point

that there's ruins
all over the planet.

And just as you would
here on Earth,

you're gonna look
for straight lines,

parallel lines, circles,
squares, rectangles,

things of this nature.

And when you find them,

then you can start
to zoom in on areas

and look for even, uh,
stronger details.

HAAS:
When the Perseverance landed,

one of the first things
that I noticed

was a conical pyramid
in the distance.

The camera there took a
beautiful couple pictures of it.

It doesn't make any sense
to me geologically

how that could happen.

That was one of the biggest
anomalies that was seen.

We're still gonna get better
and better pictures,

we're going to have
more to look at,

as NASA releases all of these
images from Perseverance.

But we haven't gotten there yet,
because the Perseverance,

they landed in the middle
of a big lake.

And I think the only thing
we're gonna find there

is probably shells, things
from an aquatic environment.

I think all of the ruins
that people are looking for,

they're gonna be found once
they drive a little further,

in the perimeter.

SHATNER:
Cities and ruins on the surface of Mars?

Could the remnants of
an ancient Martian civilization

have really been hiding
in plain sight?

It's a question that researchers
have pondered

for more than four decades,

ever since NASA sent
the first satellites

into orbit
around the Red Planet.

Mars has piqued the curiosity

of scientists and the public
for millennia,

but it really wasn't
until the dawn of the Space Age

that we started getting an idea

of what the planet
was really all about.

Mariner 4 in 1965
flies past the planet,

sends back 22 fuzzy photographs,

and Mars looks
just like the Moon.

And then we sent two spacecraft,

Viking 1 and Viking 2, in 1976.

So we got tens of thousands
of photographs from orbit.

Since then, as we get
better-resolution photographs

from the surface of Mars,

people have thought they saw
all kinds of things there.

There is a not insignificant
group of people

that think that we've already
discovered life on Mars,

that there are structures there,

that there are buildings,
obelisks,

some kind of indicator
of ancient cultures

that is being covered up.

POPE:
You look at images of this,

and people are spotting
all sorts of strange shapes

and pyramids,

structures of some kind,
on the Martian surface.

Is it something left
by a lost civilization

as maybe a-a monument
to themselves

and their achievement?

SHATNER: For some,
the most compelling evidence

that an ancient civilization
once existed on Mars

can be found in a photograph

which shows what appears
to be a large structure,

that has come to be known
as the Face on Mars.

In Viking lander photographs,

it was discovered that there
was this weird-looking structure

that looks, for all the world,

in the Viking photos,
like a face.

MILLER:
Everything is proportional.

The-the face is a mile
and a half, two miles long.

The eyes are a quarter mile.

The nose about a half a mile.

So it's not a small structure,
it's a very large structure.

I believe that the Face on Mars

was created from, uh,
possibly an existing mesa.

SCHOCH:
It's not just the face, but on top of that,

people saw what they called
the D&M Pyramid,

which is this weird
five-sided structure

that looks like
a five-sided pyramid.

People were claiming this
had to be artificial structures.

HAAS:
The D&M Pyramid is a five-sided structure.

The five faces have all this
very symmetrical geometry

of 30 degrees, 60 degrees
and 90 degrees.

It's just a remarkable
out-of-place artifact

on the surface of Mars.

What researchers
looking at this found

is that because of
its exquisite geometry,

there's no way that this
could be created naturally.

SHATNER:
Decades after the famous photograph was taken,

the Face on Mars
continues to inspire

both fascination and debate.

Many researchers believe it
and other curious formations

on the Red Planet merit
further study and discussion.

POPE:
Some of this may just be a trick of the light,

funny-shaped rocks,
that sort of thing.

But only one of these things
has got to be the real deal,

and we're in game-changing
territory.

Was there once an advanced
civilization on Mars?

Some of the features
on the planet's surface

definitely make you wonder.

But there are those who claim
that we don't need

to send probes
millions of miles away

to search for signs
of Martian life.

They believe
that Martian life-forms

have already traveled here
to Earth.

SHATNER:
President Bill Clinton announces

that NASA scientists have made
a remarkable discovery.

Good afternoon.

SHATNER:
The scientists examined

an ancient Martian rock
that fell to Earth

as a meteorite
in the distant past

and found evidence which
suggests that the meteorite

once contained microscopic
Martian life inside it.

More than four billion
years ago,

this piece of rock was formed

as a part of the original crust
of Mars.

After billions of years,
it broke from the surface

and began a 16-million-year
journey through space

that would end here on Earth.

It speaks of the possibility
of life.

If this discovery is confirmed,

it will surely be one of
the most stunning insights

into our universe that science
has ever uncovered.

Its implications
are as far-reaching

and awe-inspiring
as can be imagined.

TEITEL: This asteroid,
called the Allan Hills asteroid,

was found in Antarctica.

It proved really valuable

because we've never been able
to bring samples back,

but now we have
this piece of Mars to study

in a lab on Earth,
which is really important,

because as our instruments
get better,

we can continue to study it
and learn more.

PYLE:
So when they crack the meteorite open,

they looked inside,

and they saw what looked
like fossilized life-forms.

They look like little tiny worms

and other bits of potentially
fossilized biological matter.

And these were really small.

They were smaller than
even a single-celled creature

would be on Earth.

But they looked like life-forms.

And there are other indicators,
in terms of the composition

and the makeup
and the distribution of them,

that led them to think
that they might be life-forms.

It was so remarkable-looking,

that it merited
an announcement to the public,

and it caused a major stir.

RICHARD ZARE:
Allan Hills meteorite

really changed
the field of astrobiology.

There was a bunch
of lines of evidence

that appeared to us
to suggest the possibility

that this had something
to do with primitive life.

SHATNER:
According to experts,

it's possible that
the Allan Hills meteorite

actually brought microscopic
evidence of Martian life

to our planet
when it landed here.

And the idea that any form
of life can travel

from Mars to Earth has caused
many scientists to consider

an even more profound
possibility:

what if life on Earth
was seeded from Mars?

There's an idea in the field of
astrobiology called panspermia,

and the essence of the idea
is this:

four billion years ago,
there may have been life

on Mars-- microbial--
but something.

A rock slams into Mars,
you know, some asteroid,

it kicks up a big clod
of Martian dirt.

Some of it gets kicked up
fast enough

to just leave Mars altogether,
wanders around the solar system,

but some of it, by chance,
would fall on the Earth

and might infect the Earth.

KAKU:
The panspermia theory cannot be dismissed.

And one reason is as follows.

In the early Earth, we were hit
by meteors and asteroids.

In fact, it turns out that
almost 300 meteorites from Mars

have been identified.

This means that perhaps DNA
may ride on these meteorites

as it goes
from planet to planet.

So if, for example, life
were to start on Mars first,

and a rock carrying Martian DNA

were to land
on the planet Earth,

then boom,
life gets off the ground.

So, one theory
is that if you want

to see a Martian,
look in the mirror tonight.

PYLE:
Has life migrated possibly from Mars to Earth?

It's possible.

We can't say yes,
we can't say no, yet.

Any Mars scientist you talk to,

any planetary geologist
will tell you,

they would love to have
that dinosaur bone moment,

they would love
for the rover to roll up

and find a giant fossilized
femur, or even something alive.

We may find these things
someday.

But we're not gonna know
until we get there

and find life on Mars,

and are able to look at it,
get some DNA out of it

and figure out if it ended up
on Earth,

or if it's something
completely alien to us.

SHATNER:
If scientists are someday able to confirm

that life came
from Mars to Earth,

then it begs the question,

what would such a discovery
mean to humanity?

Mars might hold the key
to understanding

the origin of life.

It has a lot of potential
to help us understand

where we fit
in the biggest-scale picture

of the universe
and the history of the Earth,

because we want to understand
the history of this planet.

How did we get to a place
where humans were here?

Science is based on things
that are testable,

falsifiable, reproduceable,
and as Carl Sagan once said,

"Remarkable claims
require remarkable proof."

But if, if we have one solid
piece of evidence

that Mars seeded the Earth,

that would force historians
of science to rewrite

all the science textbooks and
change our role in the universe.

Did life originate on Mars
and then evolve on Earth?

If scientists really believe
that it could be possible,

then perhaps one day,
we'll find the proof here.

Or maybe it will be revealed
when astronauts

set foot on the Red Planet
itself.

SHATNER:
NASA announces a series of bold new technologies

they are actively developing
to help astronauts

eventually reach Mars,

including cutting-edge
propulsion systems,

next-generation space suits
and nuclear fission generators.

This is such an exciting time
to be working on Mars.

There is unprecedented interest.

There are more government
space agencies

and scientists
around the world working

towards space exploration than
there have ever been before.

We have new rockets,

different instruments,

and we're at a time when
technology is getting closer

to sending people to Mars.

It's-it's really fun.
It's really exciting.

SHATNER:
In addition to NASA,

numerous space agencies
from around the world

have also stepped up their
efforts to send people to Mars.

There are many who believe
that this increase in activity

echoes the Space Race
from the 1960s,

when humanity strived
to land men on the Moon

for the first time.

PYLE:
July 20th, 1969,

Apollo 11 lands on the Moon,

and this is one of the proudest
moments in human history.

NEIL ARMSTRONG:
That's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

Two men down on the surface,
600 million people

watching around the world,

more listening to their radios,
people can barely believe it.

They stayed on the Moon's
surface for a day,

they achieved all their goals,
and it was just

a watershed moment
in Western civilization.

- (people cheering)
- And the next big question

is what are we gonna do
after the Apollo landings?

Wernher von Braun,
the famed rocket scientist

of German origins,
published a book

called The Mars Project,
where he actually laid out

the first real technically
accurate engineering plan

on how we could do this.

And they wanted to do it
by the mid-1980s.

But by the time Richard Nixon
came into the office,

we realized it was gonna be
a much bigger job

to send humans to Mars
than we thought.

But we continued to think about
it, and it continues today.

We want to go beyond to Mars
and find out

what's happening on that world,

because a human being can do
in about 15 minutes

what it takes a robot
six months to do.

So you have to send people.

SHATNER: It's not just NASA
and other space agencies

that have their sights
set on Mars.

Ordinary people
are also quite eager

to travel to the Red Planet.

In fact, when it was announced
in March of 2020

that NASA would begin recruiting
a new generation of astronauts

for its first-ever
manned mission to Mars,

200,000 people
submitted applications.

ZARE:
I think it's the nature of human beings to try to expand further.

There's a sense of exploration,
of-of being an explorer,

of being the first to go
somewhere,

and that really motivates
a lot of people.

This is a great time
in space exploration.

SIEBACH: We're at a time
when we have pictures of Mars

in our living rooms.

We have pictures of Mars
on our computer screens.

We're seeing that-that, yes,
we can reach out to Mars.

We can see it, we can touch it.
We're so close.

And that's really exciting
to see.

SHATNER:
One member of the new generation of explorers

that is hoping to be selected
to go to Mars

is 20-year-old Alyssa Carson.

She is so driven to be
among the first humans

to set foot on the Red Planet
that she's been

preparing for such a mission
her entire life.

Mars has kind of always
been my ultimate goal, uh,

mainly just because
of the curiosity of it,

you know, what is on Mars,

no one's been there before,
why not go?

So I started out by going
to all the NASA space camps,

I then joined a citizen science
research organization.

And with them, I've been
able to do g-force trainings,

microgravity flights.

Parabola two: success.

Water survival training,
space suit evaluations.

But, you know, I definitely
would say that the thing

that I'm most proud of
is the experience

of being on the NASA
MER 10 panel

with PhDs, scientists,
just so many amazing people.

I almost really can't explain

why I have such a passion
and drive for it.

If the only option
was a one-way trip,

then I would still want to go.

SHOSTAK:
When are we gonna go to Mars?

I get that question a lot.

You know, people who are
in the rocket business say,

"Well, certainly
within ten years,

we could send somebody
to the Red Planet."

And you might say,
but why do that, right?

It's dangerous,

uh, getting them there,
bringing them back.

There are all sorts
of technical problems,

not the least of which

is the fact that the Sun
occasionally burps

high-speed particles into space,
and those particles

would zip right through
the skin of any rocket

and give everybody inside
instant cancer,

that kind of thing.

I mean, these are,
these are serious problems.

SHATNER:
Why are so many people

willing to put their life
on the line

for a perilous journey to Mars?

Well, there are those
who believe

that we are motivated
to go to Mars

because there is a profound
connection

between humans
and the Red Planet.

And that evidence
of this connection

can be found in the human body.

TAYLOR:
The human body produces a good fat and bad fat,

and the good fat,
it turns out, we produce more of

if we're held at an average
temperature of 67 degrees

or a little bit lower than that
on a regular basis.

I find that
an interesting correlation

that the temperature
in the summertime on Mars

is 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

Does that suggest that humanity

is more suited to be healthy on
Mars than they are on Earth?

I don't know.

There are other aspects of Mars

that is interesting
with the human physiology.

When astronauts spend a long
period of time in microgravity,

their internal
biorhythm clock resets,

not to a day that's as long
as a day on Earth,

but in fact it resets
precisely to the time

a day is on Mars,
which is a little bit different

by a few minutes.

Why does this happen?

Is it telling us that there's
something in our DNA,

in our genetic code
that is more suitable

for Mars than it is for Earth?

We don't know,
but that is a possibility.

Could it really be possible
that Mars is in our DNA?

And that by going there,

we would actually be
returning home?

There are many
who believe it's true,

and feel so strongly that
humanity's future lies on Mars

that they're investing
everything they've got

to get us back there.

SHATNER:
On the 60th anniversary

of the United States'
first-ever manned spaceflight,

aerospace company SpaceX,

founded by billionaire
Elon Musk,

successfully completes
the ninth test flight

of its prototype launch vehicle.

Code-named Starship,
the reusable transport

is the latest advance
in a new space race

funded by private entrepreneurs
competing to see

who will be the first
to send humans to Mars.

KAKU:
Elon Musk envisions sending perhaps

a million colonists
to the Red Planet.

Is that possible?

Well, from an engineering
point of view, yes,

we have the technology.

It's just a question
of assembling the resources.

But then the bigger question is,
who's gonna pay for it?

And that's why we're entering
the second golden age

of space exploration.

Things are changing.

Silicon Valley billionaires

are funding their own fleet
of rockets,

paid for not by taxpayer's dime,
paid for by their own funds.

Elon Musk is in competition
with Jeff Bezos,

the richest man on the planet,

who has funded his own
private spaceport in Texas

with a fleet of rockets.

SHATNER:
Recently, SpaceX announced plans

to begin the colonization
of Mars by the year 2026,

with the goal
of establishing a permanent,

self-sustaining city
on the Red Planet

by the end of the 21st century.

But what would motivate
a billionaire like Elon Musk

to gamble his massive wealth
on such a risky endeavor?

TAYLOR:
Elon Musk is gonna go to Mars.

He's motivated to do so,
and the question is,

d-does he see, like, the next
big amount of money there?

There's likely oil on Mars,
methane on Mars,

there's very likely minerals,
rare earth elements

that are very expensive,

and could create
a huge economic engine.

But I'm not so sure
that that's his pure motivation.

He also seems to be motivated

by the survivability of humanity

by spreading out to the planets
and the stars.

KAKU:
Elon Musk had a dream as a child.

He read the Foundation
science fiction series

by Isaac Asimov, which talked
about a galactic civilization.

So, he thought to himself,
"Why not this

"be the destiny for humanity,

to become
a multi-planet species?"

SHATNER:
Will our journey to Mars be a mission of survival

or exploration?

Only time will tell.

But one thing is certain.

Despite the inherent danger
involved

with traveling to Mars,

human beings are compelled
to learn more about

and get closer
to the Red Planet.

We've been exploring Mars

basically since the beginning
of the Space Age,

and we've had a near-constant
presence on Mars,

on the surface,
since the late 1990s,

but we still don't know
too much about the planet.

We've only gone
with these rovers and landers

that look
for very specific things,

whether it's looking at geology
or looking at chemistry

or looking at the atmosphere.

KAKU:
Believe it or not,

we have only scratched
the surface of Mars.

We've never been
to the ice caps.

We don't know their state,
we don't know their consistency.

It's a big mystery,
the polar ice caps.

And also, Mars has some
of the biggest mountains

and the biggest volcanos
in the solar system.

We have never visited them.

And so for all these reasons,
Mars is still a hidden universe.

SIEBACH:
Exploring Mars is so exciting

because there are so many
mysteries left to solve.

Each rover mission,
each satellite observation

gives us one more
little puzzle piece.

All of these developments
are-are absolutely thrilling.

PYLE:
Human beings, as a species,

seem to want to go
beyond the next horizon.

They want to crest
that next mountain,

they want to go
over that next ocean.

We're building
these remarkable rockets,

these incredible spacecraft
to go to Mars.

Once we get there,
this is going to be a moment

that's pivotal in human history.

So, what do you think?

Could there have been
life on Mars in the past?

And will our destiny lead us
to travel there in the future?

Well, while we may be
surprisingly close

to uncovering
the Red Planet's secrets,

until we can explore
the surface firsthand,

the mysteries of Mars
will remain unexplained.

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