All language subtitles for B T W S04E04 1080p WEB h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

(upbeat music)

- After half a century, NASA
has plans to return the moon.

The Orion spacecraft
is the vehicle

that will take them to the moon.

While other players
in the space industry

set their eyes on Mars.

- Clearly the real
objective is Mars

and it's where the future is.

It is the planet that has on
it all the materials needed

to support not only life,
but human civilization.

- Each breakthrough brings
humanity one step closer

to becoming a
multi-planetary species,

exploring further than
we've ever gone before.

- I think ultimately
the Artemis program

is really just about human's
enduring drive to explore.

Hopefully through the Artemis
program and through Orion,

we'll unlock some
secrets to the universe.

- I'm Cray Novick.

- And I'm Myrna James.

- [Cray] It's time to
go "Behind the Wings."

- In this episode we're going
to explore the question,

"Back to the moon or
straight to Mars?"

It's not the first time
we've been to the moon,

but this time it's
gonna be different.

- It's been over half a century
and it will be different.

It's about going back for
good to setup a lunar base,

the CisLunar economy, a gateway,

there's still a lot to learn.

- It's really incredible.

Artemis is NASA's plan to
put people back to the moon

and possibly be a
base to go to Mars.

- To start off, we talked
with Mars Society founder,

Dr. Robert Zubrin, who's
been thinking about

pushing the limits of space
exploration since he was a kid.

Why is space
exploration important

and how did you
first get started?

- Why is space important
and how did I get into it?

I was five when Sputnik flew

and while the adults may have
been terrified of Sputnik,

I was delighted with it
because what Sputnik said to me

was "This was gonna be
true, this was the future

gonna move into space."

And I wanted to be part of it,

flex a child's delight with
the possibility of an exciting

and amazing future,
that is what we need.

We need an exciting, amazing,
lively, optimistic future.

If we can expand into space,
then we can all understand

that there's no reason
to kill each other,

fighting over provinces
if by working together

we can open up planets.

- Welcome to Lockheed Martin.
Thanks for joining us today.

- Yeah, I'm happy to be here.

- Kids are unique in
that they just have

this innate curiosity and wonder
and sense of exploring it.

It's something that we sometimes
lose as we become adults.

They walk outside, they're the
first to look up at the sky

and to point out the moon

and they just wanna ask
why, they just wanna explore

and understand things
and see what's next.

And I think on us as adults
that's part of our job

is to keep fostering
that sense of curiosity

and that wonder.

I'm Heather McKay.

I'm the engineering
development senior manager

on the Orion program.

Astronauts have been
to the moon before

on the Apollo program.

But really that was
just the initial step

when it comes to exploration.

There have been many famous
explorers in the world.

You think about Lewis and
Clark, Magellan.

And just imagine if
they'd turned around

at the first obstacle
or even the first island

that they found, and that's
kind of where we're at

with space exploration.

The Apollo astronauts
were great explorers

and Artemis plans to really
pick up where they left off.

- The plans to go back to
the moon are ambitious.

Everything they
wanna build there,

the infrastructure on the moon

is gonna take a lot of
launch capabilities.

- Yeah, it's a lot of mass,
it's a lot of capacity.

And the early rockets, they
had trouble even just reaching

that escape velocity, right?

How fast you have to
be going to escape

the gravitational
pull of an object.

And this plan just takes
that to the next level.

You're not just
launching people.

You're launching all
the infrastructure

to build a permanent
base on the moon.

It takes some big
rockets like this one.

We've gotten in touch
with Tory Bruno.

He's the CEO at United
Launch Alliance.

They're building the upper stage

that's gonna take
humans back to the moon

for the first time
in half a century.

You know, we'll meet him at
the Mission Control Center.

I think he can tell us
what it's all about.

- Last time we went to the
moon to explore it briefly,

to go there a few times
and then we stopped.

This time we're
going back to stay.

I'm Tory Bruno,

the president and CEO of
United Launch Alliance.

And for the balance
of our time together,

I'm your personal
rocket scientist.

A big difference is
since the last time

we went in the Apollo program

and mostly in the upper stages

so today we can fly much
more complicated missions.

When that Saturn V went to
the moon the first time,

it was a big deal that the
third stage with its J-2 engine

could actually burn twice
after a short coast.

Now we can do lots
and lots of burns.

We can do long multi-hour
coasts in between.

And when we put that together
with the tremendous computing

power we can put
on a rocket today,

we can take more mass there.

We can go faster. It's
safer for the crew.

So those two big technologies,

the advanced upper stage
and these powerful,

powerful computers,
I mean, your watch

has got as much computing power

if not more as we went to
the moon with the first time,

imagine what we can do now.

- In Greek mythology,
Apollo had a twin sister,

her name was Artemis,

and this program is
named after Artemis

the Goddess of the Moon.

And it's apropos given the time

Artemis and the Orion spacecraft
will carry the first woman

and the first person of
color to walk on the moon.

We are the Artemis generation.

With the Artemis program,
NASA plans to build

a sustained human
presence there.

And the moon has so
many interesting things.

It's got interesting
geology and craters

from when the universe
was first created.

It has water ice that we
can use for future fuel

and propellant on
future missions.

And ultimately it's
this proving ground

where we can test
out our equipment

and our technologies and
our tools to prepare us

to send humanity
deeper into space.

- This is very much an important
moment in human history

because it's gonna change
the destiny of our species.

As we sit here on earth today,

we're living on a planet
with limited resources,

and we're putting a lot of
attention and our thought

into how do we leave
a smaller footprint

to extend the
inevitable consumption

of our planet's resources

and the collapse of our
society and our civilization.

This changes all of
that future for us.

There is incredible natural
resources on the moon

and on the asteroids
or near Earth objects,

as we call them that are
within easy reach of the moon

in this greater space,
we call CisLunar Space.

There is such an abundance

that it literally defies
human imagination.

And when we are
able to tap that,

it changes everything for us,

a post scarcity human future
is what we're looking at.

You know, putting a 50 story
building on a launchpad

that is 90% high explosive
to just break the bounds

of gravity. Right?

Defying the tyranny of our
planets gravitational force

to hold us down is impossible.

And yet we do it all the time.

It's become routine.

When we look to the
potential future for humanity

and for the entire globe
that exists through the moon,

through that gateway,
to these resources,

you're just so inspired
by it, you're not daunted.

You just have to go do it.

- We're here in Houston, Texas,

home to Johnson Space Center,

NASA's center for human flight.

There's so much cool space
stuff here that in 1967,

it earned the
nickname Space City.

We met up with Jim Geffre

who works on the
Orion spacecraft.

- My role is to be the
vehicle integration manager

for Orion's spacecraft program.

Orion is the spacecraft
that's gonna take humans

back to the moon for the
first time since early 1970s,

and they'll do so on
the Orion capsule.

Starting with the International
Space Station program,

we've had a continuous presence
in orbit for over 20 years,

and we're using that to develop
long duration technologies,

understand what it takes
to keep humans alive

for months in space.

And now this summer
we're gonna launch

the first Artemis mission.

Artemis 1 will be a
crewed test flight.

It could be four
to six weeks long.

And what we're gonna do is
launch the Space Launch System

and Orion for the first time
and take it out to lunar orbit

we'll test out all the
technologies that are needed

for safe crew exploration

and demonstrate that
we're ready to put humans

on board on Artemis 2.

One of the hardest things
about the Artemis program

is the integration, all the
different pieces coming together

at the same time to
accomplish one job,

launch our astronaut crews
to the moon and back.

And so that requires
a lot of integration,

coordination and communication
across the country,

and really across the world
with our European partners.

They're all contributing to
help Artemis be a success.

- The Orion spacecraft
is very complex.

It has thousands of parts,
and it's specifically designed

for these very complex
missions to deep space.

So this is a small scale
mock-up of the Orion spacecraft.

You can see some of
the key elements,

the big blue things
are the solar panels,

so we can provide
power in deep space.

You see the small squares,
those are the windows,

so the crew can look out
and see where they're going.

On top of this would be
the launch abort system

that jettisons at launch.

It would reveal
the docking systems

so we can dock to the gateway
and the human lunar lander.

On the back end
would be the booster

that Space Launch Systems
that falls back to earth

once its does its job on launch.

It's really a state
of the art spacecraft

and part of the next era
of human space flight.

Lockheed Martin is the
prime contractor to NASA

building the Orion spacecraft,

but it takes a whole team around
the world to make it work.

Lockheed Martin has
over 2,900 subcontracts

with businesses in every
state of the country

many of them small businesses.

We also have
international partners.

The Europeans are building
the service module.

Men and women are working
hard all over the country

to building this spacecraft,

getting it ready to
take people to the moon.

- It is so cool to be
going back to the moon

with people after half a
century of not being there.

ULA is participating in a
couple of different ways.

We're gonna fly one of the
early robotic uncrewed missions.

Something called the
Peregrine Lunar Lander,

which is really cool in itself

because it's the first
commercial lander to the moon.

And then we're also part
of SLS's first missions.

We're providing the upper stage,

the Interim Cryogenic
Propulsion Stage for Artemis.

So we're just really
excited to be both a part

of the uncrewed missions
and part of the activity

leading to the crewed missions

when people will go to the moon

and put boots in the regolith
finally, after five decades.

- The Space Launch System
is a very versatile

and capable system.

It was developed using
systems that are derived

from the Space Shuttle program.

The solid rocket boosters
that people are familiar with,

the big orange tank
in the middle that
holds the propellants

The main engines
are formerly known

as space shuttle main engines.

So using the development
work we've done previously

in that flight experience,

we're now using them
in different ways
in order to support

a different mission,
deep space exploration.

So the SLS is capable of
launching the Orion spacecraft.

It's also capable of developing
a cargo configuration

where we could put very
large payloads into space.

- There'll be a space
station orbiting the moon.

There'll be permanent
facilities on the moon.

There will always be a
continuous human presence

on or at the moon,

much like the International
Space Station today.

That means logistics is
everything. There's cargo,

there's fuel, there's water,
there's trash coming back,

there's toilet paper and coffee.

This is gonna be a huge
job to support those people

who are exploring this really
important body right here,

just a week away from where
you and I are sitting here

in our control center.

- We're in the operations center

and what exactly
goes on in here?

'cause I imagine
on a launch day,

we have lots of
chairs and computers.

They're usually full of people?

- They are,

there's a person in every
chair on every monitor.

And this room is
actually supporting

the Mission Control Center

that would be down
at the launch site.

These are full of engineers.

Every part of the
rocket has an engineer

personally responsible for it.

And they're on this
during the countdown,

they're monitoring
telemetry on the pad

from their equipment.
- Wow.

They can on these screens,

get all the data for
that piece of hardware

since the dawn of time,

they can make sure
everything is good

and if it's not, they'll
huddle up in this room

and they'll solve problems.

- And give me a sense,

what would this room look
like on Artemis 2 launch day?

- You can see the headsets.
They'll all be on there.

They'll have all kinds
of data on their screens.

They'll be talking
amongst themselves,

making sure everybody's
comfortable or solving problems.

You'll hear comms
going back and forth.

Like these little
devices will allow us

to tune into different channels.

There's so much happening.

It's a giant
orchestrated effort.

- So many firsts
have happened in here

and with the Orion and
with the Artemis missions

there's gonna be more.

Do you ever get used to it?

- No, never.

So we're at over
140 launches now.

We'll be up over 150
here shortly here at ULA.

I personally across
my career have done

close to 400 launches and I'll
tell you it never gets old.

It never gets routine. I get
butterflies every single time.

- Wow.
There's nothing like it.

- Well, Tory, thank
you very much.

- Thank you.

- I think we're in the early
stages of space exploration.

There's a lot more to
learn about how to operate

in a deep space environment
for similar lengths of time.

We're developing now
the systems with Orion

to take people to deep space
exploration destinations

and bring them back.

So, the upcoming
Artemis missions

will be the early demonstrations
of those capabilities,

but there's a tremendous future
ahead for us to go explore.

- My name's Jacki Mahaffey.

I am the chief training officer
for the Artemis 2 mission.

So our first Orion
crewed mission

and my job is to
lead the development

and execution of the
training of our astronauts

that will be on that mission
as well as the simulations

that we will provide for
the mission control team.

And when the mission
control team practices

with the crew together.

All of the astronauts
that we'll be taking

for our Artemis missions,

will have had our
astronaut candidate

training or a equivalent,

if they're an international
partner crew member.

So we have some baseline
that we can expect from them

in terms of understanding
space, flight,

understanding how
teams work cohesively.

And then from there,

we look at what are
all the different tasks

that the crew is going to have
to perform on the mission.

- So the Orion spacecraft,

this is a big part
of their training.

Should we take a closer look?

- Yeah, let's grab our
helmets and head in.

- All right.

- You can see the four seats

and the configuration
they have in here.

What you may not be able to
see if you look behind you,

you can see are
the display units.

So these seats here are
for our commander and pilot

and they will be
during pre-launch

and during launch
monitoring the data

coming from the launch vehicle,

as well as the Orion vehicle

and just understanding
everything is going well

or communicating
with mission control

about something that may
not be going as planned.

First couple missions,
Artemis 3 in particular

will be about proving our
capabilities to land on the moon

and exercising all of the new
equipment, new space suits

we have to go explore the moon.

Artemis 4 folds in the
gateway that outpost

that will be around the moon.

You know, we're gonna practice
having that as an outpost

to support our lunar missions.

And we will learn a lot about
how we can use an outpost

like that to help support
our missions to mars

one day.

- This is basically a
deep space space station.

It's a much smaller version

that will orbit around the moon.

It'll allow astronauts
to do extended missions

above the moon, to
and from the moon

and for Orion to
dock and return.

When they're not exploring
the moon or in Orion,

they'll be able to do
this deep space science

that will enable us to
further explore deep space.

- So once the astronauts
are suited up,

one of the first things
they'll do is come in

and get strapped in the seats.

Is that something
we can try out?

- Yeah. Sure.

- So how do you get
into these seats?

- [Woman] Put you feet
up on the foot rest.

I have a little
extra strap with me.

- And I mean, now it feels like

a very kind of awkward position,

but if you're in zero gravity,

it won't feel quite
so awkward maybe?

- Yeah, although remember
they'll be in this position

for launch and entry.

This is like the total
extent of switches,

which if you've ever seen the
inside of the space shuttle,

it was covered with switches
and circuit breakers.

And so most things are operated
through the display panels.

- It is just really
cool to think

that this is kind of
the setup and situation

that the next humans are
going back to the moon

and maybe one day Mars.

So that was really cool.

Thanks for showing me.

- [Woman] Yeah, absolutely.

- All right.

- Watch your head.

For me going back to the moon
after 50 years means a lot

because my generation
never saw that happen live.

And I grew up knowing
the space shuttle

and being familiar with it,

seeing us be on ISS on the
space station for over 20 years.

And those things
feel very normal.

But knowing that this
really cool thing happened

and never having seen it live,

I'm personally really
excited about like,

let's see it happen again.

And then let's do even more.

- It's a big question. How
do you decide moon or Mars?

- There's really two main
camps to answer this question.

The first camp of course, is
NASA and the Artemis program

with an incremental
stop at the moon

in order to get to Mars.

But that way people can
get used to living in space

and they have this
incremental option.

And the other option
is straight to Mars.

- Straight to Mars, it
sounds pretty good to me

if it's doable, it's
not really a new idea.

Robert Zubrin and others
actually proposed this in 1991

something called the
Mars Direct proposal.

And part of it is
the idea that Mars

is just a very
interesting planet to
go to - the atmosphere,

there's a lot you can do there,

you can make the fuel,
you can make water.

And it sounds like a
good place to live.

You know, today Elon Musk and
others have kind of adopted

their own version of it, Elon
with SpaceX and Starship,

which is the ship they're
building to make trips to Mars.

So, the Mars dream is
not dead, in general

and for NASA as well.

- Do we go right to Mars?

Do we go back to the
moon and then go to Mars?

I'm more of a moon first
guy, only because it seems

somewhat kind of serendipitous
that the moon is there.

You know two days away
instead of 200 days away.

The moon has a sixth
of the gravity of earth

as compared to Mars having a
third of the amount of gravity.

The moon has no atmosphere,

which in some ways can
make things easier.

Other things it makes
more challenging.

- The moon holds
a lot of secrets.

We wanna go to new
places on the moon

that we weren't able to explore
during the Apollo missions,

places where the
sun has never shone.

We may find early parts
of the solar system

captured in these extremely
cold craters around the moon.

- Well, Orion has been built
for the Artemis program

and these lunar and
deep space missions.

Ultimately we believe it
has a place at Mars too.

We believe the Orion
spacecraft can be used

for up to a thousand days,

which is just about
how long it would take

for a mission to Mars.

And Lockheed Martin
has this concept

called the Mars Base Camp,

where it uses Orion
as a cornerstone

and then adds habitats
and other things

that are needed to explore Mars.

It might be possible someday.

We need or want to become a
multi planetary faring species.

And along the way, we'll
do some interesting science

and we'll develop technologies
that will help us here

on Earth and inspire
the next generation.

- It seems like the moon
was perfectly placed

for us to practice,
to learn things

that will help us
go Mars someday.

Now having said
that it's expensive

and if you have to
make the choice,

"Do I do both? Do I just do one?

How much money do I have?"

You know, maybe you could
make the argument that,

Bypass the moon
and go on to Mars.

- Clearly the real
objective is Mars,

Mars is where the science is.

It's where we're gonna
discover the truth

about the potential prevalence

and diversity of
life in the universe.

And it's where the future is.

It's the planet that has
on it all the materials

needed to support not only
life, but human civilization.

For us, Mars is the new world.

What's the fastest way
there? Mars Direct.

- And then a journey
into tomorrow,

a journey to another planet,
a manned mission to Mars.

- NASA in well, 1989,

the first President
Bush called upon NASA

to implement a program, return
to the moon and on to Mars

and this time to stay, it
was the 20th anniversary

of the Apollo moon landing, and
that's how he celebrated it.

And so NASA went off
and developed a plan

that was gigantic in
its cost and schedule.

They're making this
much more complicated

than it needs to be.

It's like designing
a school play

to make sure all the
kids have a part.

Great for school play,

but when you're talking about
tens of billions of dollars

and it starts adding up.

The concept was immediate,
caused a lot of excitement,

and it immediately
became controversial.

There were a lot
of people in NASA

and even among our competitors
who thought this was great,

this is a way we can
actually get to Mars.

Technologically speaking

it was within the realm
of our technology in 1990,

when we came up with the
plan and it still is.

Along comes Elon Musk.

Now he's certainly
not interested

in doing things to spend money.

He's interested in spending
money to do things.

So he has embraced a version
of the Mars Direct plan

as the basis for his plan
for human Mars missions.

The designs of the
vehicles are different.

They're his own designs.

And there are certain
aspects of the plan

that are different.

But it's basically
direct flight to Mars,

no on orbit assembly,

no need for other
orbital infrastructure

and direct return from
the surface of Mars

using propellant made on Mars.

That's Mars Direct.

That was the plan that Baker
and I laid out in 1990.

And that is the plan
that Musk has embraced

in his own way today.

We are most likely to
get to Mars this decade,

once Starship
becomes operational.

Starship uses methane
oxygen propellant,

and that is why it uses that

instead of other
possible propellants,

because it's the propellant
you can make on Mars.

Heavy lift vehicles
using propellants

that could be made on Mars
regularly flying to Earth orbit

with payloads comparable to
that of a Saturn V moon rocket,

but 1% the cost
because it's reusable.

He's got the transportation
system, that's the main thing.

We develop everything
else, put this together,

a public private partnership,

we could be on Mars before
the end of this decade.

And that is what I
think will happen.

- My name is Dr. Shannon Rupert,

and I'm the director of the
Mars Desert Research Station.

The Mars Desert Research
Station was built to study

what life would be on Mars,

how we as humans would
not only live but explore

and do science. We're in a
true geologic Mars analog.

What that means is that
you see the same patterns

and processes in the
geology of the area

where the station's set
that you see on Mars.

The idea is when you
put humans on Mars,

they can get so much
more information

than we can get from a
single robotic mission.

- We asked so many people
in the space industry

what their dream is for the
future of space exploration.

Engineers, astronauts,
entrepreneurs, historians.

It's a great question because
there's not just one answer.

- My hope is that NASA
and the Artemis program

can help make humanity be
a multi planet species.

- I wanna see the space
industry get to a point

where we can access the
infinite resources of space.

- Just forget about
moon and Mars.

I think we are kind
of the upward swing

of more common access to space
than we've had previously.

- Ordinary people like you
and I live and work in space,

'cause our jobs are there

and we can have a
better life there.

- There are so many smart
people working on this question,

what is the future
of space exploration?

And the only way that we
can realize that future

is by dreaming and
working together.

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