All language subtitles for One.Strange.Rock.S01E06.Escape.720p.HDTV.x264-DHD[ettv]

From on board the spaceship, you
can see the world has a secret.

At dawn or at dusk, where the shadows
are lining up just the right way,

you're at just the right place in
time to see an asteroid crater.

Where a bullet from the universe left a perpetual
hole in the smooth surface of our planet.

There are a billion
years worth of impacts.

Huge asteroids have smashed into the world,
and turned it into an enveloped fire.

Uninhabitable to almost
all life on the surface.

The world will get hit again.

It's just a matter of when.

So, what should we
do as a species?

Should we just, like the
dinosaurs, look up and die?

The reasons the dinosaurs are extinct
is they didn't have a space program.

We do.

We have the capability to
perhaps escape the Earth.

Escaping Earth?

Leaving home is hard
at the best of times.

Imagine how hard it would be
if you were never coming back.

Not just back to your home
town, but your home planet.

A one-way ticket away from everywhere,
everything and everyone you know and need.

8 astronauts with over 1,000
days in space between then,

can tell us how being up there
helped them to understand

why we are going to
have to make a choice.

Faced with extinction
of life on Earth.

Our best chance of survival is to
build another colony somewhere else.

Having a base on Mars, a base
on the moon or in other places,

is important to keep
our civilization going.

It's really kinda up to us how long
we wanna survive as a species.

Can we really cut the cord
with the planet that made us?

And face the physical extremes
and mental torment of space?

Theanswers are
right here on earth.

In some pretty
unexpected places.

Like
multi-million-year-old blood.

Mutant bugs.

And humans that had
left the land behind.

It is not going to be easy to get
ourselves safely away from the Earth

and onto another planet.

People will die.

This maybe what saves us.

It's decision time on The Rock.

Escape or extinction?

Earth's been
through some big changes.

Ice ages have come and gone...

Volcanoes have blanketed
the world in ash.

And all of this
could happen again.

In fact, sooner or
later, it's going to.

So, if we knew a huge
asteroid was bearing down...

Or a giant eruption was about
to suffocate the planet...

We'd feel a lot better
if we had a Plan B.

To put a human base on another
planet, it will involve risk.

It pushes our technology right to
the very edge of our capability.

But the benefit is
for the whole species.

So today, what we're going out there
to do is intercept the eclipse.

Really experience the full eclipse
since it happens so rarely.

Fly and chase the moon.

You can't do it every day.

At 15 is rated almost
up to mach 2.5.

So, our goal is approximately three
minutes of time in the shadow.

Alright, let me break that down.

Luckily, my dad was in the
Air Force, so I can do this.

These guys are going to try something
they've never done before.

Something that shows how hard it
is to go from 1 planet to another.

Everything in our
galaxy is moving.

During an eclipse, when the
moon slides across the sun...

Its shadow speeds over the
air at 1700 miles per hour.

But it's easy to forget
that we're moving too.

Our planet spins at
1,000 miles per hour.

To stay in the moon's shadow, the planes
have to fly faster than earth spins.

33 units, mark ready, ready now.

This is definitely
the ultimate intercept.

Chasing the fastest object
that we could chase.

If we can do this, we
can intercept anything.

Keep it tight, the
eclipse is coming.

Here comes the shadow
out in front of us now.

Alright stand by for.

OK.

That's pretty cool.

20 seconds.

It's almost like
you're in outer space.

As a kid, you know, you always think
about astronauts and travelling

to space and circling the moon.

But I never thought of how
fast the moon was travelling.

OK 5:30 into the eclipse.

Here comes the daylight.

And it's daytime.

If you're in an aeroplane and
trying to chase that shadow,

that's really just a little hint of how hard
it is to launch a rocket ship and go intercept

the moon or go all the way out to
Mars where everything is moving.

And the Earth isn't
just rotating.

It's moving through space at
almost 70,000 miles an hour.

While Mars is moving at
over 50,000 miles an hour.

It's like grabbing a gun and trying
to hit a bullet with a bullet.

We've sent probes to Mars
and to Jupiter and to Saturn.

But probes are machines.

Getting people there?

That's a whole other
level of difficult.

So before we make that commitment
and fire those engines,

we really wanna be sure
we know what we're doing.

The natural human reaction
to the unknown is fear.

But the greatest antidote
for fear is preparation.

Part of the reason I love
flight is how it makes me feel.

It pushes me a little bit closer
to the limit of my capabilities.

Especially when you're
flying an older plane.

Just barely give it
a couple of these.

You have to focus, you have to constantly thing
about what are the things that are gonna try

and kill me.

Try and predict what the
dangers are going to be.

And then try and
get ready for those.

Pull her out.

Yeah.

Here we go.

Permanently leaving the earth.

Turning our tail to the planet and
firing the engines to go somewhere else,

that is still right on
the edge of impossible.

But in 1902, flying
was impossible.

But after the Wright Brothers, it
was something we knew how to do.

Summer of '69, impossible
to walk on the moon.

And then 12 people put their grey, dusty
footprints into the surface of the moon.

So I think we'll go from a space station
to the moon and eventually onto Mars.

Because it's a necessary thing
for the survival of our species.

They call it
a Goldilocks planet.

A world that's not too
hot and not too cold.

Just like Earth.

Until we find it, we're
looking at the next best thing.

Life on Mars.

But even if we have the technology to
leave our home, do we have the biology?

Nothing good lasts forever.

Earth is no different.

If we want to outlast our
home, we need to franchise.

Set up an outlet
on another planet.

When we leave earth, we leave
behind more than a rock.

Earth is a living planet.

An interconnected web of life.

We are part of it
and it is part of us.

So when we go, what
comes and what stays.

One of the final stages of preparation
for my third space flight

to fly a Russian spaceship, was wiping
my entire body with rubbing alcohol.

To try and get rid of as
many bacteria as possible.

You don't want the spaceship to become
unhealthy for the people living there.

But bacteria have been colonizing
the planet for billions of years.

And they're pretty good
at getting everywhere.

To spot them we have to use something
else that's survived for a long time.

Horseshoe crabs were alive 200
Million years before the dinosaurs.

And yet, they've turned out to
be surprisingly useful in space.

Their immune system is
primitive but effective.

So we make use of their
incredible blue blood.

When cells in their blood come into contact
with bacteria, they instantly release enzymes.

And these enzymes can be used to detect
bacteria at less than one part per trillion.

That's like detecting one grain of sugar
in an Olympic size swimming pool.

So we can use a tiny spec of horseshoe
crab blood to spot contamination.

It's easy to think of the bacteria on my body
as some foreign matter that I would like

to get rid of.

But if you look at us under a
microscope, we're crawling with life.

There are more bacterial cells in our
body than there are human cells.

An entire universe inside me.

The more we study the human microbiome, all
of the little microbes that live within us,

and especially when we start thinking
about leaving earth, the more we realize,

the bacteria aren't
stowaways, they're crew.

And we're going to have to bring some of
them with us, when we go to another planet.

How far are
they, ahead, do you think?

I would say absolute minimum of
two, probably at least three miles.

We are searching for
the world's biggest creature.

The blue whale.

Most species on the planet are totally
dependant on their microbiomes to survive.

It's amazing how similar
whales and humans are.

Even though we walk on the land
and they swim in the abyss,

the same biological
mechanisms are in play here.

The reality is, it's very difficult
to collect data on whales.

Imagine if an elephant disappeared under
the Serengeti and came up five miles away.

Whale's right
over here at ten o'clock.

Every time a whale exhales, it's throwing
up this biological treasure trove.

Starting engines, clear.

So how can you collect biological
data in a non-invasive manner?

The answer is, snot bot.

30 plus feet, you're just
going off for visual?

Yeah, you're in good shape.

And I see the whale now. OK.

You're right to 16 feet, 16.

14.

Alright. She's dived.
No words, lovely dive.

Might not have liked that head on
approach, but there's no way to know.

As excited as we are with this tool, you've
gotta be at the right place at the right time.

OK, so the whale's been
doing 9-minute dives.

Let's launch the drone at 8 minutes and
then we're ready when it comes up.

Hopefully we'll get
the second blow.

Looking good,
right on track. That's 14 feet.

They're exchanging a lung full of
air, probably bigger than a VW

in one or two seconds.

It's incredible.

- Staying with it.
- What's my height?

You're at 14.

Whale's looking really calm.

Moving very slowly.

Bingo.

Good job team, good job.

Alright, you guys ready
for landing, bring her in.

And this is gonna
be a snotty dish.

We know bacteria in the stomach of
whales is necessary for digestion,

but we're starting to see that the
microbiome in the lungs plays a key role

in fighting infection. Just
like it does in humans.

There's a world of bacteria outside
us and a world of bacteria inside us.

And nobody knows what will happen when
those two worlds are pulled apart.

But we know one thing that
we can't take with us.

And it's something that
keep us all grounded.

The feeling in the platform is full of
emotion, is fear, pressure, tension.

It's something that
you love to do.

Even when you know that
you can kill yourself.

You have only 2.9 seconds.
Anything can go wrong.

If you did a mistake
in the air...

That's it, it's over.

We are all intimately
familiar with gravity.

The huge mass of the
world pulls us down.

We call it 1 G, that's
how the world pulls on us.

But we're the only species that
has found a way to cheat that.

Perhaps the most magic moment in an astronaut's
life is when the rocket ship has done its job.

You are at the right height, you're at
the right speed, the engine's shut off.

You're in space and for the first
time in your life, you're weightless.

You feel like something is magically
pulling you towards the ceiling.

It's just fun to be weightless.
And leaves a smile on your face.

You wanna play with it.

You wanna play with your food, you
wanna do a thousand somersaults.

You wanna get into a big part so the space
station so you could push off the wall

and fly across like superman.

But even as you feel super human, you
quickly start to realize just how much

the human body needs gravity.

With gravity, I can
tell which way up is.

The weight of my body as I sit down,
the weight of lifting my arms.

All of those things constantly
tell me which way is up.

But as soon as
your weightless...

all that's gone.

And it makes you nauseous.

I was feeling terrible
when I first got to space.

And I thought to myself,
is this really fun?

When you wanna throw up,
really nothing's fun.

I did puke on my
first day in space.

When you're on Earth, gravity is pulling
all the fluids in your body down.

When you're up in space,
there's a major fluid shift.

It feels like you've been standing
on your head for about three hours.

Gravity defines how big our heart has
to be and what the configuration

of our cardiovascular
system looks like.

The whole design of the human body, the skeleton
underneath it, the strength of the muscles,

it's really shaped by the
gravity of the Earth.

We don't really think about it, but we're
constantly weight lifting on Earth.

Holding our head up, holding
our body up, fighting gravity.

Without gravity, your muscles and
your bones start to waste away.

We have machines that, that we push against
and lift against and elastics that hold us

on the treadmill.

Sort of gravity simulations.

But even with the best exercise equipment we've
invented so far, I lost about eight percent

of the bone density across
my hips and my upper femur.

My skeleton started
to waste away.

What do the effects of weightlessness
mean for interplanetary exploration?

With that long time in weightlessness
have degraded our bodies enough that

we'd be useless
when we get there?

We're working on it, but we definitely
haven't solved all those problems yet.

Astronauts.

Their heads swell and
they throw up a lot.

You don't see that
in the movies.

The truth is, we are
a part of this planet.

It is baked into our bones.

Down here we're
nurtured and protected.

But when we go, we'll
be going it alone.

If humanity wants to survive, sooner or later
we are going to have to get off planet

Plan B.

But the second we step outside the
safety of our home, we are exposed.

Our sun is constantly
spewing out radiation.

And occasionally there's a huge solar
flare, where a big mass ejection

that could threaten
life on Earth.

The Earth is protected by a
magnetic field in the atmosphere.

And that force field helps
deflect the deadly radiation.

And it keeps it from driving right
through and hitting our bodies.

On board the International Space
Station, we are much more vulnerable.

If the scientists on earth have seen one of these
huge storms from the sun coming towards us,

we go to the parts of the space station that
have the best protection from the storm

of radiation that's
about to pour past.

You're subject to not just the sun's radiation,
but all of the radiation of the universe.

A strange thing
sometimes happens.

You see a flash of light
out of the darkness.

A reminder that you're
not in Kansas anymore.

When a star out in our galaxy dies in an
enormous explosion that we call a supernova,

it releases a huge
amount of energy.

Cosmic rays racing across the universe
at essentially the speed of light,

186,000 miles a second.

So fast that those little radiation particles
come by Pluto and make it all the way

to the earth in just five hours.

And if you're above
the earth's atmosphere,

there is nothing to stop
them slamming into your body.

Most of them you're unaware of.

But sometimes one of these little cosmic
rays goes through your optic nerve.

And because of the way our vision is designed,
it actually reacts like a flash of light.

And what you're actually seeing
is radiation going through you.

I'd be lying there in my
sleeping bag and zap, zap, zap.

One of the best light shows I've ever seen
but at the same time, I knew that that meant

that my head was getting
zapped by charged particles.

And it can be a show stopper, it can be a
bombardment of radiation than not only,

you know, increases your chances
of cancer down the line.

But literally gives you
radiation sickness on the way.

If you're gonna spend weeks or
months or years on a space ship,

you have to start considering
that this causes mutations.

It overwhelms your body's
ability to repair itself.

So, on our trip to colonize the stars,
we know we'll get seriously zapped.

We need to prepare for that.

We can start in a place where the
Geiger counter clicks like it would

in a deep space mission.

Despite the fact
that this is a dangerous place,

Chernobyl provides this unique opportunity
to examine what happens to the evolutionary

process when you kick it with
a little extra mutation.

Back in '86, I
was a senior in high school.

And I remember the nuclear meltdown
that caused 400 times more fallout

than the first atomic bomb.

When the reactor exploded, it was
kind of like a volcano erupting.

With radioactive metals being
ejected into the atmosphere.

That landed on the ground in a haphazard
way, so there are these hot spots.

You come into this landscape that was once
thriving with happy people doing their thing.

It gives you an eerie feeling.

You really have to look around
and see what's being affected.

Many of the spiderwebs that were draped
alongside some of the houses in the villages

were extremely unusual.

Some of the webs end up
looking extraordinarily messy.

They were very irregular.
They had big holes in them.

The spiders were having a
problem spinning a normal web.

It's not just behavior
that's changing.

Some of the creatures are even
starting to look different.

And firebugs are pretty hard to miss.
F you look at it straight on,

you'll see what looks
like an African face mask.

Two big eyes, a nose and a chin

And because of the symmetry, it makes
it very easy to detect deviations.

One of my colleagues picked one up and
said, "Look, Tim, it's a mutant."

This one bug was missing
one of the eye spots.

So, we starting collecting as
many bugs as we could find.

Bugs with really unusual color patterns were
only found in these areas of high radiation.

This is more serious than
changing your spots.

Mutations can kill you.

Humans in space
have a big problem.

So, mission cancelled?
Oh, not so fast.

There might be a fix.

One of the more striking,
unexpected observations

is that some species
appear to have adapted.

Some of the bacteria where there have been
thousands of generations since the accident

are becoming more
radiation resistant.

As a species, humans are interested
in expanding our horizons.

Moving into space,
moving to other planets.

If we can develop a better understanding
of the defenses used by organisms,

that maybe useful in developing
ways to protect humans.

Both here on this rock...

As well as in outer space.

A traveler to Mars has to survive 9 months
in space and a 30-Million-mile journey.

But once they get there, they'll
face their biggest challenge of all.

And this time, it's personal.

One of my favorite things so see
from space is a pace that you know.

You know, somewhere you grew up.

The town you were born in.

Or where you got married or
where you went on vacation.

It's a delight to have a memory,
like a present unwrapping itself.

The further you get from earth, one
of the significant problems is,

how do we mental the mental health of the crew
when you're so isolated from the rest of humanity?

We don't really know how difficult it's
gonna be for humans to leave Earth.

I mean, we're a part of earth.

There you are just removed from mankind
and that distance, being off the planet,

you feel a disconnect.

And I'd say, you know,
I'm sort of in a prison.

You know, I didn't do anything wrong
for sure, but I am in a prison.

If I were the commander, heading to Mars, I
would have a talk with the crew and say,

"Earth is now behind us.
We are now Martians."

Have they really been living in this 1,000
square foot done for over 130 days?

After surpassing the halfway point in the
mission, I'm feeling utter disbelief.

With the nature of an isolated and confined
environment, we are effectively trapped.

HI-SEAS stands for the Hawaii Space
Exploration Analogue and Simulation.

We want to know how to keep
people safe and happy in space.

Can they stay
friends, not go crazy?

Work well together for the two to three
years it will take to go to the Red Planet

and back again.

Contact.

Testing, one, two, three.

Go with the exit protocol now.

You begin to think about how harsh it
is to live on Mars, all the technology,

all the trouble you have to go
through just to go for a walk.

One of the greatest challenges to
space travel isn't technical at all.

It's the human vulnerability.

You don't see the ocean,
you don't see palm trees.

And you just see this
black and red lava.

It doesn't have the different gravity,
the real harsh danger of Mars.

But it does have
the confinement.

And it has the isolation from
your family and friends.

I was surprised by how much the stress affected
not just how I felt, but how I performed.

Being away from your family can
be tough, even for a week or two.

Life on Mars is an entirely
different kind of separation.

You're a pioneer.

You're never going
to see home again.

Everything you'll ever
own, you brought with you.

The rest? You'll have
to use what you find.

Luckily, that's something
humans are pretty good at.

We're already using simulated Martian dust
to figure out how to build a settlement,

somewhere besides our planet.

So, we're definitely
taking the first step.

Even if we survive the journey, and
make the place feel like home,

we still might not
save our species.

Because just by being there, we
might turn into something else.

Life tends to naturally settle where
the conditions are best for it.

And from orbit, you can actually
see where we have chosen to live.

Those patterns of human
habitation repeat themselves.

Some parts of the world are so desirable that
there's not enough land to support everybody

who wants to live there.

We've taken nature and modified it to make the
earth more habitable for more human beings.

We don't really think about it, but
we've significantly terraformed earth.

The farmer's fields, the
terraces, the dams we've put up.

And when we go somewhere else, we're going
to inevitably have to do the same thing.

But at the same time, we are influenced
by the environment around us.

That shapes us.

Your body is constantly changing itself and
adapting to best perform in the environment

that you put it into.

The Bajau live
in a world of water.

Their kids swim
before they walk.

No need for goggles or oxygen tanks, their
bodies have learned to do without them.

The differences go deeper.

As children, the lenses in their eyes adapt so
their underwater vision is twice as sharp as ours.

Pretty handy when
you're hunting.

In the short term,
humans can adjust.

In the long term...

We evolve.

Maybe there is a Goldilocks
planet out there, another Earth

If so, we'll be spending
lifetimes getting there.

What might happen to
generations born in space?

One of the ways to test that is to take life
forms from Earth that have a very rapid

life cycle and take them up to the space
station and see how they develop.

Jellyfish have small
sensors, like hairs.

And that lets them know about
gravity and which way's up.

Sort of like the balance system
we have in our inner ear.

When we took jellyfish to the space
station, they did not develop normally.

When they came back to Earth, the ones born
in space couldn't tell which way was up.

It's a sobering thought, getting to a new home
might change us in ways we can't predict.

I'm confident that no matter what is thrown
at us during this incredible journey,

we'll find a way to survive.

But there is a cost.

What we think of as us,
can only exist here.

We will no longer be
earthlings when we get there.

We will be become aliens.

Sometimes you can only really
see something from a distance.

No one ever got
homesick staying at home.

Earth has been
our constant companion.

There when the first cell flickered to
life, here now as we turn to the stars.

She's in our bones.

And in our guts
and in our minds.

We may one day ventur
out from our strange rock.

But we'll never
get the Rock out of us.

Next time.

How our paradise planet
was made by life.