All language subtitles for Spaces.Deepest.Secrets.S06E11.Marss.Alien.Secrets.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE[eztv]

Narrator:
Mars, our cosmic neighbor.

More spacecraft have been sent
to mars than any other planet.

One day, humans will visit,
as well.

Humans should go to mars,
and we should do it quickly.

Narrator: This rocky planet
could almost be home.

Mars is very different
than earth,

But in many ways,
it's like a long-lost brother.

Narrator:
Yet, mars is an alien world.

Looking at mars gives us
some disturbing lessons

About the future
of our own planet.

Narrator:
What lies ahead for the first
human astronauts

To set foot on mars?

To find out, we will strip
the red planet...

We'll peel open
its dusty surface...

And dive deep into its alien
underworld,

Revealing the secrets

That await the first
human explorers on mars.

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

Mars -- it sits 142 million
miles from the sun.

The average temperature
is minus 80 degrees fahrenheit.

Today, scientists are racing
to reach the red planet.

In addition to the mars
missions currently in progress,

Upcoming operations are intended
to study mars' atmosphere,

Geology, and weather systems
in more detail than ever before.

The ultimate goal --

To land the first
human astronauts on mars.

Oluseyi: Eventually, humans have
to leave planet earth.

Mars is our first step
outward.

I think that's going to be
the key to our own survival

Is going there
and living on this planet,

And we'll be able to explore
the rest

Of the solar system from there.

Sending humans to mars is
really the next great challenge.

We will get there --
it's just a matter of when.

Narrator: Mars may be one
of our closest planets,

But it is also home to some
of the greatest

Unsolved mysteries
in the solar system.

Hidden inside...

A frozen world may hold the key
to martian life.

♪

Vast canyons that would
stretch from new york to l.A.

Scar the surface.

Violent dust storms
engulf the planet,

While some of the tallest
volcanoes in the solar system

Rise up from its plains.

These supervolcanoes
hide an alien underworld.

Mars is a tantalizing
destination

For human exploration.

When we first got to mars,
it just looked like

A cold, dry, dead planet,
but the more we study it,

The more we learn that
it's actually dynamic, alive.

Narrator: Before nasa launches
a manned mission,

They must confirm that mars
is habitable for humans.

So they've sent
a scouting party --

The mars curiosity rover.

Curiosity
touched down in August 2012.

It has roamed the martian
surface ever since.

This 1-ton robot is
the size of an suv.

It uses its
high-resolution cameras

And scientific instruments
to uncover the secrets of mars.

Here on earth at nasa's
jet propulsion laboratory,

Chris roumeliotis is
one of curiosity's drivers.

Chris can't make mistakes
with $2.5 billion worth of gear.

So he practices his skills
on jpl's own little piece

Of the red planet,
the mars yard.

We have all the rover drivers
come up here,

And we test things to the limit
so we see what happens.

Every maneuver
that has been done on mars

Has essentially been tested
in this mars yard.

Narrator:
Chris uses a full-sized
working model of curiosity

To perfect his maneuvers.

If you ever try to drive
your car over this --

Not gonna happen.

She can do it -- no problem.

We actively try to avoid rocks
like this, if we can.

But look how gracefully
she goes over that rock --

Doesn't even drop.

Narrator:
Chris and his team have
successfully driven curiosity

Over 12 miles and counting
across the martian surface,

Thanks to practice here
in the mars yard.

For humans to survive on mars,

The first thing curiosity
must find is water.

Mars looks like
a dry desert now...

But features
in the landscape suggest

That mars was once
covered in liquid water.

Three layers of rocks lie
beneath a top coating

Of red dust.

The bottom rock layer
is the oldest.

It's an ancient lake bed that
contains compressed clays

And minerals
once carried by water.

Next is a salty layer
one mile deep.

When the water evaporated,

It left this salty residue
behind, like a pan boiling dry.

On top lies a cold,
dusty surface,

Worn down and smoothed over
by billions of years of wind.

Scientist ashwin vasavada leads
the search for water on mars.

We've been chasing evidence
of liquid water on mars

For decades.

Narrator: Curiosity's
discoveries are astonishing.

One of the first things we found
with curiosity

Was rounded pebbles, about
this size, rounded corners.

You don't see that naturally

Without something
grinding the rocks together,

And the action of the liquid
water flowing in a stream,

Grinding those rocks created
this ancient stream bed.

Narrator:
This dry stream bed proves

That there was once
liquid water on mars.

Vasavada:
We're really talking about water
flowing maybe ankle-to-hip-deep.

You know, this is the first time
we're really encountering,

You know,
and holding in our hand,

So to speak, this evidence
of a habitable environment.

Narrator: But could mars
support humans today?

To find out, ashwin needs
to uncover

What happened to all the water.

One of the big mysteries
about mars

Is that early in its history

Is where we find all this
evidence for flowing water,

Lakes, maybe even an ocean.

What happened on mars to create
this dry environment

That we see today?

Narrator:
Scientists now believe that,
4 billion years ago,

Oceans, lakes, and rivers
covered the surface of mars.

Deep inside, mars had a hot core
of flowing metal,

Just like earth.

Mars' molten core created
a magnetic field

Around the wet planet.

This shielded its atmosphere
from the sun's radiation,

But, eventually,
the core cooled

And stopped powering
the magnetic field.

Without protection, mars' water
evaporated into space...

And mars the water world
became mars the desert.

On the martian surface,
curiosity looks for proof of how

And when this happened.

The rocks may hold the secret
to figuring out

How mars evolved
from that life-sustaining state

In its early history
to where it is today.

Curiosity is a rover, but it's
also a geochemical laboratory.

It's so big because we took
these advanced

Chemical instruments
to mars inside the rover,

And we feed those instruments
with samples of rock and soil.

Narrator:
The rover now sits at the base
of a 3-mile-high mountain,

Mount sharp.

Its layers of rocks were laid
down over billions of years.

They provide a record
of the conditions on mars

At different points in its past.

We really hope that
whole geologic record

Of mars' environmental history

Is preserved for us and that,
just by driving through it,

We'll be driving
through 3 billion,

4 billion years of mars history.

-How's it going, ashwin?
-Hey. Good to see you.

Hey.
Yeah.

So...
Where we driving?

Yeah, we had some...

Narrator:
Chris and ashwin use a 3-d
landscape viewer

To plan curiosity's routes
toward mount sharp.

Here, we're doing an arc
to the left to avoid a rock.

They see what the rover sees
on mars -- accurate to an inch.

Pretty gnarly terrain.

A lot of rocks.
Yeah.

But she needs to go
very slow today.

Yeah, right.
Because of...

The hazards, huh?
The hazards, yeah.

Got it.

There's a 20-minute
communication delay

Between earth and mars, so chris
can't drive curiosity live.

Instead, he sends a whole day
of instructions

To the rover at once.

Roumeliotis:
Everything that's done,
in terms of operations,

Has to go through this room.

It is the center of the universe
for us and our spacecraft.

Narrator:
At jpl's mission control,

Chris hands over
the list of commands.

How's it going?
I think we're ready.

At the click of a button,
tomorrow's maneuvers

Head to mars,
guiding curiosity

On the next leg
of her groundbreaking journey.

Nasa's missions prove that,
at some point,

Mars was stripped
of its water and atmosphere.

But was all of mars' water
lost to space?

Will future astronauts
find any water

Left hidden
beneath mars' desert surface?

And could they encounter
martians already living there?

♪

Narrator: Within a generation,
a human will set foot on mars.

The first visitors
will experience

A cold, barren terrain.

Curiosity confirmed there
was once water on mars.

Could human explorers
still find water there today?

Mars is so cold
that its atmosphere freezes.

Carbon dioxide snow covers
the northern plains.

3 feet below this snowy crust
lies an earth-like secret --

A massive reservoir of frozen
water over a mile deep.

These are mars' ice caps.

If these ice caps melted,
they would cover the planet

With over 60 feet of water.

They contain 100 times
the water in the great lakes.

With this much water
on the planet,

Could there also be life?

Gates: Water is a precursor
for life itself.

If there's water,
there's a possibility of life.

So maybe the martians
are not science fiction.

Narrator:
But mars is so cold that water
on its surface

Only exists as ice.

For future human explorers
to find life,

They must look for liquid water
that isn't frozen.

Batalha:
Life on earth is very diverse.

Not all life-forms
require oxygen.

Not all life-forms
even require sunlight.

But it seems that every single
life-form on earth,

No matter how diverse,
requires liquid water.

Narrator:
Our best chance of finding
liquid water on mars

May lie beneath the surface.

Scientists believe
that not all mars' water

Escaped into space --

Some became trapped
beneath the landscape.

Just below the martian surface,

The freezing ground
locks the water ice

In a layer
called the cryosphere.

The cryosphere stretches
6 miles down

And could hold up to
50 times more water

Than the ice caps themselves.

Below this layer,
the ice disappears,

But the rock holds patches
of a chemical substance

That could sustain life --
salt.

Salt in the rock acts like
antifreeze and melts the ice.

It creates deposits of salty
liquid water

That could stretch up
to 16 miles into the ground.

Could martian life survive
in these extreme conditions?

In boulby, northern England,

Astrobiologist sam payler
searches for the answers.

He explorers one of the most
hostile environments on earth --

Mines 3,500 feet
below the surface.

Payler: We always thought life
was this kind of thin film

That surrounded the earth,

But, actually,
we found over the years

That life extends much further

Than we thought
into the deep subsurface,

Into the rocks and into
the actual fabric of the earth.

Narrator: The conditions
in this working salt mine

Mirror the extreme environment
beneath the surface of mars.

Mars is covered in salt,
and we believe those salts

Extend down
into the deep subsurface.

In order to understand
whether anything can live

In those deep salts on mars,

We need to come to a salty,
deep environment here on earth.

Narrator:
Sam collects a sample of salty
water deep in the mine

To determine whether any
microbial life survives here.

Payler: This water has come
out of the rock

From the local geology around,

And we're basically going to
sample it in as sterile a way

As possible with sterile tubes
and sterile equipment --

So we don't infect it with any
of our nasty human bacteria --

And see what's living in there.

Narrator: He analyzes the sample
in the world's

First permanent
underground astrobiology lab

That sits 2/3 of a mile down.

Payler: We've actually found
lots of different types

Of organisms in here.

They're all salt-loving.

They all require salt.

And we've actually been able
to get some images of them.

You can actually see the cells
in the microscope slide.

We're seeing something here
that's lived

1.1 kilometers
below the surface.

It's grown, lived, and evolved
down here for many, many years.

Narrator:
Sam's work suggests that
martian life could be similar

To these microbes,
if it exists at all.

Payler: The really key
to exploring mars

Now is to get down
into the subsurface.

That's where our highest chance
of finding any life

Would certainly be.

We see life in so many
environments on earth

That it's almost unimaginable

That it isn't living
somewhere out in the universe.

Narrator:
Water trapped deep inside
the red planet

May hold the key
to martian life,

And mars is not the only place
in the solar system

With hidden water reserves.

You might think that water's
very rare in the cosmos,

But, actually, we're starting
to find it everywhere we look.

Water is on other planets.

It's on other moons.

There are even asteroids
with lots of water.

Narrator: This is enceladus,
a moon that orbits saturn.

Enceladus is one of the wettest
places in the solar system.

It's only a seventh the size
of our own moon,

Yet it holds a secret.

Fountains of water
and ice explode

Through its frozen surface

And shoot more than
120 miles into the sky.

These plumes erupt
from a 6-mile ocean

Hidden deep below.

But sitting almost
a billion miles from earth,

Humans won't be visiting this
exotic water world anytime soon.

For now, our best hope of coming
face-to-face with water and life

Outside our own planet
is on mars.

Yet, global dust storms blanket
the planet,

While carbon dioxide explosions
erupt from the surface.

Many dangers await
the first astronauts.

♪

Narrator:
Mars has 24 1/2-hour days

And light clouds
that drift in the sky.

It could almost be home.

The red planet even has
four seasons like our own.

But its weather
is nothing like earth's.

On earth, our seasons are caused

By the tilt in our axis,
and in fact,

Mars has a similar tilt
to its axis, so it has spring,

Summer, winter, fall,
just like here.

And at springtime,
the winds begin to blow on mars.

There are little dust devils
and tornadoes.

There are global sandstorms.

Mars comes to life
in the spring.

Narrator:
Frozen carbon dioxide
cakes the red planet's

Northern plains during winter,

But in spring,
it wakes from its slumber.

Temperatures rocket and bring
the martian landscape to life.

Beneath the frozen surface,

Carbon dioxide warms up
and turns into gas.

The gas pressure builds,
cracking the ice above.

When the pressure gets too high,
violent plumes of sand and dust

Burst six stories into the sky.

The ice melts to reveal
a vast expanse of sand dunes

The size of texas --
the north polar sand sea.

To protect humans on mars,

We need to prepare them
for sudden weather extremes.

Fenton:
Mars has weather, so that's
absolutely something

That we need to know more about

Before we can send people there
and expect them to survive.

Narrator: Scientist lori fenton
uses sand dunes

To create a martian
weather forecast.

She studies the landscape

At the white sands
national park in new mexico.

Fenton:
There's dunes all over mars,

And we can use them
to understand

What the wind is doing
and what it has been doing.

In a sense, this whole dune
field is a microcosm for mars.

Narrator: To predict the weather
of the future on mars,

Lori must first understand
the weather of the past.

Fenton:
Every time the wind moves
the sand,

It gets locked up
in these dunes.

And as the dune migrates on,

It sort of traps
its own history,

And that's the secret --
under our feet right here.

Narrator:
Aerial photographs suggest
that the sand dunes on mars

Behave in the same way.

Fenton:
Mars is the most photographed
planet other than earth.

Here's an image of a sand dune
on mars.

This is the same kind of dune

That we're looking at here
at white sands.

Narrator:
The north polar sand sea...

Is one of the largest fields of
sand dunes in the solar system.

The dunes are time capsules
of martian weather.

Each layer is just a
few inches thick,

And, like a photograph,

Captures a snapshot
of the season's activities.

A seam of fine particles
indicates global dust storms.

Next, a thick, coarse layer
reveals an avalanche of sand

From severe springtime winds...

While a dark strip
of ash suggests

Violent volcanic eruptions
engulfed the landscape.

The first human astronauts
must unlock these clues

To predict future
martian weather.

Digging a trench like this
on the red planet

Will give them
vital information.

We could use these layers
to forecast weather on mars

By measuring
how thick they are --

That tells us
how much sand has moved,

And that gives us an idea
of how strong the wind was,

How long a wind event lasted,

And then we can start
to really understand

Weather patterns in many,
many places on mars.

Narrator: Sand dunes are not
the only phenomenon

Created by the martian winds.

During mars' summer,
strong winds also whip up

One of the most common sights
on the planet -- dust devils.

These giant tornadoes on average
soar 5 miles high.

They race across mars' surface,
creating wormlike tracks.

Mars' unique geology causes
these epic dust storms.

This circular zone
is hellas basin in mars'

Southern hemisphere.

It's the largest bowl of dust
in the solar system.

The basin is an impact crater
nearly 5 miles deep.

A thick layer of red dust
cakes the surface.

The summer sun heats the fine
dust and lifts it into the sky.

These giant dust clouds block
out the sun

And plunge temperatures
far below zero.

In a martian dust storm,
there's nowhere to run.

When you consider the sizes
of the dust storms on mars,

It's on a scale like nothing
we've seen here on earth.

They are planetwide.

Plait: We've seen this happen,

Where mars
just kind of goes away --

It just becomes
this big, fuzzy ball

Because it's enveloped
in a global dust storm.

Narrator:
Even if the first explorers
on mars

Survive these lethal storms,

They still face
another deadly threat --

Giant tremors called
"marsquakes"

That rock the planet
to its core.

♪

Narrator: The first astronauts
to visit mars

Face bone-chilling temperatures
and global dust storms,

But their biggest challenge

May not lie
on the martian surface --

The threat could
come from below --

Planetary tremors
called "marsquakes."

We're now picking up more
and more evidence

That there are
substantial tremors on mars --

In fact,
the equivalent of something

Like a magnitude 7 earthquake
here on earth.

That's substantial.

These are not just
little quakes, but large events.

Narrator:
These quakes suggest a secret

Lies below the surface
of the red planet.

They are evidence that mars
still has a molten core

That is hotter and more fluid
than once thought.

This hot interior could be what
triggers the quakes on mars.

We have a lot of evidence that,
about 3 1/2 billion years ago,

Mars effectively died.

The plate tectonics stopped,
everything cooled off,

And mars got very solid
and dead in its core.

But now we're beginning
to reevaluate that.

Maybe we're wrong.

Maybe there is still some life
left inside mars.

Narrator: To find the answer,
scientists plan to give mars

Its first physical
in 4 billion years.

Bruce banerdt leads
the martian medical team

At nasa's jet
propulsion laboratory.

Banerdt:
We're going to learn about
the very deep interior of mars.

And in order to do that,
we're going to sort of

Take its pulse to figure out
what's going on inside,

Much as the doctor
would do in his office.

Narrator: This 800-pound robot
is called "insight."

After insight landed
in late 2018,

It used a seismometer to
accurately measure mars' quakes

And discover
where they are coming from.

We have the seismometer,

Which is this
orange object here.

We're gonna pick that up
with this arm and grapple

And place it on the surface.

Narrator:
This is a prototype of the
lander that is exploring mars.

Bruce's team programs
the robotic arm

To place the seismometer

In exactly the right spot
without any damage.

The delicate maneuver went off
without a hitch

And successfully recorded
the first marsquake

On April 6, 2019.

The team hopes that insight
will reveal

Exactly what causes
the quakes on mars.

Here on earth,

The planet's crust
is split into tectonic plates.

As these plates move
against each other,

They cause earthquakes.

Bruce thinks a very different
geological process

Triggers marsquakes.

Banerdt:
On the earth, we have lots of
plates moving around

All the time
in a very dynamic fashion.

Mars has one plate --
it's just the whole crust

Is a single plate --

And so there's nothing
that actually moves around there

Because there's no cracks that
allow that motion to take place.

Narrator:
A single slab of rock forms
the crust of mars.

It extends 30 miles down
into the planet,

5 miles deeper
than the earth's crust.

The thick mantle layer
below holds it in place.

As mars' hot core cools,
it contracts.

This draws the mantle inwards
and pulls on the crust.

Tension builds.

[ rumbling ]

The crust buckles...

And triggers a marsquake.

[ rumbling intensifies ]

If all goes to plan,
bruce's seismometer

Will pinpoint
the origin of the marsquakes

And help to confirm this theory.

Banerdt: I'm extremely nervous.

I mean, any kind
of a space mission

Is an enormously
complicated endeavor,

And there's millions
and millions of things

That have to go right in order
to even get to mars,

Much less, you know,
actually do the measurements.

Narrator:
Mars' unique crust also
holds clues

To other mysteries
of the solar system.

Thaller:
Because of plate tectonics
on the earth,

Everything is in this
grinding state of change,

Always moving around,
melting down, building up.

On mars, however, things froze
in time billions of years ago.

So you have an intact crust,
an intact record

Of what the solar system
was like a long time ago.

Narrator:
This unblemished record
helps us understand

One of the most puzzling
features of the red planet --

The two faces of mars.

One half of mars is carved
with mountains, valleys,

And highlands.

Craters from ancient impacts
pockmark the landscape.

Traveling over the planet,

The craters and mountains
start to disappear.

Scientists believe that
3.9 billion years ago,

An asteroid half the size
of our moon slammed into mars.

It destroyed all
the surface features

And left behind
a sea of molten rock.

The rock hardened to form
this massive,

Flat plain, completely different

From the jagged peaks
on the other side.

These are the two faces of mars.

Craters and mountains are not
the only geological features

Preserved on
the surface of mars.

The deserts on the red planet
are also home

To the four biggest volcanoes
in the solar system,

Where giant lava chambers
could hold the secret

To human survival on mars.

♪

Narrator:
Mars may be a small planet,

But it has colossal
geological features.

This is tharsis,

A volcanic region covering 1/5
of the planet's surface.

This range boasts
the four highest peaks

In the solar system.

The tallest of them all?

Olympus mons.

It covers a landmass the size
of arizona and soars

Three times taller
than mount everest.

This monster volcano
holds an astounding secret.

Under its skin lies
an alien underworld,

A labyrinth of lava tubes
and caves

Carved out by the searing magma

That once spewed
from the volcano's vents.

The tubes stretch
for hundreds of miles.

Protected from
the harsh surface,

These lava tubes could shelter
future visitors

To the red planet.

If you're looking for a place
to go on mars,

One interesting place
for astronauts to explore

Might be near these lava tubes,

Might give you some
natural protection

From radiation
and meteorite hits

And things that you're not
gonna be protected by

'cause you don't have
an atmosphere.

Narrator:
Volcanologist scott hughes

Searches
for habitable martian caves.

His team investigates the king's
bowl lava field in idaho

Because this volcanic region
on earth

Is remarkably similar
to tharsis on mars.

It turns out that the features
that we see here

On the snake river plain
are representative of mars.

If we understand how fissures
and pits work on earth,

We're getting a much better idea
of how we can explore them

And what we need to
explore them on mars.

Narrator: Scott knows
from aerial photographs

That lava flows like this
cover the surface of mars.

Hughes: And you see this
outflow channel there,

And there's one here,
and there's one over here.

These are like lava channels

That we see
around volcanoes on earth.

Narrator: Here in idaho,

Scott's team maps out
the rock patterns on the surface

To identify telltale signs
of lava tubes below.

Could they have made this thing
any heavier?

They use a special
laser-scanning technology

Called "lidar"

To create a 3-d model
with millimeter precision.

Garry:
Lidar is a way to use little
laser pulses

To be able to capture
the topography

And the dimensions of the field

That we're in,
of the geologic features.

Narrator:
Mapping these volcanic features
on earth

Will help guide them toward
the hidden lava tubes on mars.

For some of us,
this is the closest

We're ever gonna get to mars,

So we got to do our best here
to understand it so that,

When the next generation
of astronauts

Is able to make their own
footprints on mars,

We have as best an understanding

Of where they're going in
those landing sites as possible.

Narrator:
Lava tubes not only offer
radiation protection

For future astronauts --

They could also contain
precious metals and minerals

For a mars colony.

Around 200 million years ago,

Magma from deep
within the planet rose

To the surface
through volcanic vents.

As the lava flow cooled,
tunnels formed.

Deep below lies a layer
of minerals and precious metals.

Mars' lava tubes formed
the perfect mine

Shafts for future prospectors
to assess these vital resources.

Hughes:
Once we get a good handle
on these internal processes,

We can have a better idea
about where we can explore

For the resources
needed to maintain a --

Maintain a civilization.

Narrator:
Where did mars' ancient
volcanic activity come from?

We find evidence
of past volcanism

All over the solar system.

This activity began
4 billion years ago,

When asteroids and comets
bombarded the early planets.

Oluseyi:
The bombardment that these
planets suffered early

In their origin
created a lot of heat.

Now, inside these planets,

A lot of that energy
wants to get out,

And the way that
they get out is volcanoes.

So, as a body cools,

The volcanic activity
will become less and less.

Narrator:
Like mars, most objects
gradually lose their volcanism

As they cool...

But not all.

Io, a moon orbiting jupiter,

Is the most volcanically
active object

In the entire solar system.

Hundreds of volcanic vents
blister its surface.

The vents shoot plumes of sulfur
up to 250 miles into the sky.

A single volcanic vent on io

Creates a giant umbrella
of debris

Like nothing seen on earth.

Io doesn't cool like mars
or earth

Because it has
an extra heat source.

Its huge cosmic neighbor,
jupiter, keeps it hot.

Oluseyi: When you have a really
big planet

And you have a small moon
orbiting close to it,

Like, say, io near jupiter,
then what can happen

Is that you'll get tidal
flexing of the moon.

And just like you can take
a wire hanger

And bend it back and forth
and it'll become hot,

As you take that moon
and you bend it and compress it

Because of jupiter's
strong gravity,

What happens is that
the interior becomes hot.

And for that reason, io still
has abundant active volcanism.

Narrator:
Without a big planet nearby,
mars continues to cool.

The dormant volcanoes are more
likely to provide a shelter

Than danger for humans.

But before the first astronauts
even set foot on mars,

They must conquer perhaps
the biggest challenge of all --

A dangerous 7-month journey
through deep space.

♪

Narrator:
We've sent more than 40 robotic
missions to explore mars.

Now the dawn
of human exploration

On the red planet approaches.

By the mid-2030s, I believe
we can send humans to orbit mars

And return them safely to earth,

And a landing
on mars will follow,

And I expect to be around
to see it.

[ applause ]

We can get there.

We've proven we can get things
there and control them there

And remain in communication

And do great science
and exploration.

This is a place we can go to,

And I think it is a place
we will go to --

I don't think
there's any question.

There's just a question
of when that will happen.

Narrator:
But the trip of a lifetime
will feel like a lifetime

For the brave first astronauts.

Mars sits almost 600 times
further away from earth

Than the moon,
significantly further

Than humans
have ever traveled before.

A one-way journey will take
seven months.

A return --
almost two years.

Isolation will be
a huge challenge.

Massimino:
We're not meant, as people,
necessarily, to be alone, right?

You don't want people
to feel isolated.

It's not healthy.

And even if you didn't care
about it

From a health perspective,

It's not good
for mission success.

You want people to be productive
in space,

And in order to be productive,
they generally need to be happy.

It's a good thing, right?
We're people.

Narrator:
The first astronauts to set foot
on the red planet will live

And work
inside an earth-made habitat.

They face a deadly threat
from cosmic rays,

Lack of oxygen,
and mars' violent dust storms.

To survive, they must live
inside this colony

For a year or more.

Scientists at nasa's
human research program

Investigate how astronauts
will handle living

In this confined environment.

Lauren leveton simulates
the conditions

Of a typical mars mission.

She monitors its effects
on these test astronauts.

Leveton:
We can deprive them of sleep,

And we can look
at their performance

And stress them in that way
and look at the team dynamics.

Narrator:
On a real mars mission,
the crew of four astronauts

Would share this space habitat
for many months at a time.

Leveton:
These are unprecedented missions

When it comes to their duration
and their distance,

And so we will be putting crews
in habitats like this facility

To make sure that the crew
remains psychologically okay

And that the team itself
continues to function.

Narrator:
Nasa will use intelligent
computer systems

To watch over their astronauts
in deep space.

Leveton: There are promising
new technologies,

And facial recognition
is one of them,

That could track positive
and negative behaviors

From just reading your face.

Narrator:
A network of cameras observes
the astronauts at all times

To assess
their psychological well-being.

Leveton:
The optical computer recognition

Is reading the faces
of each of the crewmembers

And the way the mouth moves
and the eye moves,

And we're testing it now
to see what it can pick up,

In terms of stress
and fatigue.

They have to be prepared
to do the work

When they get to the planet,

And they have to be in good
shape on the trip home, too.

Narrator:
These astronauts will spend

Just seven days
in their space habitat.

The longest a human has ever
spent in space is 14 months.

Living on mars will be
a colossal challenge.

But for many scientists,
it's also a necessity.

Mars will be a statement
that we are capable

Of becoming
an interplanetary species.

Oluseyi: The wonder that we have
for mars today

Our future generations
are going to have

Because we're still searching
for life there on mars,

And there is still a lot
to be learned about the planet.

Narrator:
Mars is a world of secrets just
waiting for human explorers --

A burning core
that shakes the planet...

Hidden reservoirs of water
that may harbor life...

An alien underworld
of lava tubes and caves

That offer shelter
and resources...

And dust storms that rage
across the planet.

This is the next stop on the
human journey into deep space.