Original subtitles

Narrator: Inside this rocket

Is the rover that could find life on mars if it lands.

Grant: We've got to go from

Thousands of miles an hour to zero

And not do a bug on a windshield.

The new rover is called perseverance.

Zimbelman: Perseverance is the most sophisticated

Piece of robotic hardware ever launched off of the earth.

Narrator: It will search mars for signs of life

While smithsonian scientists roam the earth for reference.

Purdy: The search for life is one of the biggest questions

Humans have.

Narrator: Previous rovers set the stage.

Now perseverance could reset our view of the universe.

Schulte: We're gonna get one shot at this.

Narrator: Meet the rocket, the rover and the helicopter

That could change how we explore mars and beyond.

It's all riding on perseverance.

(ambient music)

February 18th, 2021.

The sky is orange.

Under bright sunshine, it's minus 80 degrees fahrenheit.

The 8-year old curiosity rover dutifully carries on.

Otherwise, mars is quiet as a desert.

But here comes the new kid on the block.

After seven months of smooth sailing through space,

The bumpy ride begins.

Schulte: As the spacecraft encounters,

The upper part of the atmosphere it will heat up.

Once it slows down enough,

Then the heat shield will come off

And we will deploy a parachute.

Grant: But we're still literally

Hurtling towards the surface,

Even after being on that parachute for a ways.

(dramatic music)

Remember, this is a car-sized object

That weighs almost a ton.

Narrator: No human steers it

But it has just seven minutes to thread the needle,

Or this next martian explorer will crash and burn.

(upbeat music)

Meet perseverance, our newest mars rover.

(upbeat music)

Purdy: It's a huge beast of a machine

And it is chock full of scientific instruments

That are going to explore the surface of mars.

Narrator: At nasa's jet propulsion laboratory

In california, perseverance comes together in a clean room.

If it's going to find life, it can't bring any life with it.

Stricker: It's really important to make sure that

We send a clean rover to mars because

If we do find something on mars, we have to make sure

It's something that actually came from mars

And not something that hitched a ride.

(upbeat music)

Narrator: They're building the most complex rover ever.

Including 23 different cameras.

Mastcam-z mimics human eyesight

By capturing stereo panoramas.

A chemistry cam on the robotic arm

Can zero in on the tiniest fragment.

And for the first time ever,

Video cameras will record the rover's descent and landing

From four angles.

Grant: So with perseverance, for the first time,

We effectively have the opportunity to make movies.

Narrator: Some of these cameras reach 5k resolution.

(clicking)

That will beat the pixels off of

(clicking)

This.

(dramatic music)

Grant: Prior to 1965, the best views of mars

Came from earth -based telescopes.

We really had no idea

Of what the detailed surface of mars looked like.

(upbeat music)

Narrator: In the absence of data, humans dreamed.

We had centuries to conjure up ideas about mars,

Some scientific, some silly.

Purdy: The popular view of mars is that it did have life,

There were aliens on it.

You have this entire sci-fi industry built upon that.

Man: You speak wisely. I will go.

Narrator: Nothing said martian fantasy

Quite like "little green men."

Man: I know. I don't think

You'll be causing any more trouble.

Narrator: Creative minds careened out of control.

Until

July 14, 1965.

Earthlings in california anxiously await a signal

From their latest attempt to reach mars.

Man: Two, eight (indistinct)

Narrator: The first two spacecraft failed.

But mariner 4 has a shot.

(dramatic music)

Purdy: It was intended to take

A few pictures of the surface as it flew by.

Narrator: After a 7-month journey,

Mariner 4 has less than 30 minutes

To get the first close-ups of mars.

Grant: The idea that you're gonna see something

For the very first time, if it works,

Is not only cause for tremendous excitement,

But also tremendous trepidation. Will it work?

Narrator: Images comes in as data,

Taking six hours per picture.

(dramatic music)

Finally, the printer comes to life.

But mars looks dead.

Grant: The initial reaction was,

"oh my gosh, it looks like the moon."

(dramatic music)

Purdy: It was just this sort of dry, desolate, cratered surface

And I think that that kind of punched a hole in the whole

Romantic idea that there were martians.

Narrator: Mariner 4 snaps just 22 photos

As it blows by mars

But they rock our little corner of the cosmos.

(dramatic music)

Zimbelman: That was an enormous surprise

And the beginning of our understanding

That mars is not the

Mars of science fiction.

But I think as a geologist, it's an even better place

With all of these amazing things to look at.

Narrator: With each mission,

Mars comes into better focus.

(dramatic music)

Mariner 6 takes 75 photos.

Mariner 7 snaps 126.

Then our first orbiter, mariner 9,

Circles mars for nearly a year

And takes more than 7000 shots.

Grant: Mars was sort of unveiled globally

For the first time to human eyes.

(dramatic music )

Narrator: Now we see more than just craters.

We see canyons and what look like dry riverbeds.

Grant: There were clearly branching systems

Of channels that were merging in a downhill direction

And of course, the most likely and logical origin for those

Was by running water.

Narrator: Mariner 9 doesn't reveal

When or why the water disappeared

But it jolts us toward a new theory.

Maybe mars isn't like the moon.

Maybe it used to be more like

Earth.

Smithsonian scientist, ross irwin,

Studies how water can shape a planet

And possibly spark life.

Irwin: About three and a half billion years ago,

Mars had many rivers on its surface,

Which were about this size and carved valleys

About the size of the one behind me.

When the mariner 9 spacecraft arrived at mars,

It was a surprise to see these river valleys

All over the place.

Narrator: Subsequent missions

Revealed other earth -like features.

Irwin: In some cases, we have alluvial fans

Where erosion of a mountain front

Has deposited sediment in a fan

Out across the floor of a basin.

And then we also have deltas.

And just like river deltas that you see here on the earth,

These river deltas on mars represent deposits of

Sediment out into a standing water.

(dramatic music)

All of these eroded river valleys and sedimentary deposits

Were compelling evidence of flowing water

On the surface of mars,

But it left a lot of unanswered questions.

How long was the water there?

Were these environments really favorable

For the origin and persistence of life?

Narrator: If ancient mars had surface water long enough,

It may have supported life and left evidence

Just like on earth.

Irwin: This type of rock is very good for

Preserving evidence of past habitability.

So it's not just indications that

This environment may have been suitable for life,

But it's also very good at preserving evidence

Left behind by life itself.

Obviously on mars, we're not looking for fossils,

But we're looking for indications of

Whether there was bacteria on the surface of mars

During these wetter periods early in its history.

Narrator: The only way to look that closely at mars

Was to get on the ground.

Mariner 4 did a drive-by.

Mariner 9 kept circling around the block.

Then viking opened the door.

(intense dramatic music)

Schulte: The anticipation for these missions was very high.

These landers were going to soft-land on the surface

And actually look for evidence of life

In the surface materials of mars.

(intense dramatic music)

Narrator: In 1976, viking skids

Into the martian atmosphere.

It will either make history, or crash violently.

(intense dramatic music)

Building perseverance to operate successfully on mars

Is one challenge.

Getting it to mars is another.

About every two years, the orbits of earth and mars

Put them in the same general neighborhood

But still millions of miles apart.

Grant: Mars is really far away

And getting the spacecraft there to a specific point

Is something that requires incredible time

And attention to detail to make sure it happens correctly.

Narrator: We did it incorrectly plenty of times.

Schulte: In the very early days,

We had mishaps on the launch pad.

We had spacecraft fail to achieve orbit.

We've had spacecraft hard impact on the surface.

We miscalculated trajectories.

We've had spacecraft that have had various

Hardware problems.

Man: The last I heard is that there was some funny business

In the first 10 -picture recording.

Schulte: Getting to mars is very, very hard.

Narrator: Enter viking, america's first attempt

To land on mars.

Grant: With viking, there was very much of an element

Of a mission into the unknown

(rocket launching)

Narrator: Nasa launches two viking landers,

Hoping that at least one lands safely.

Purdy: A huge amount is at stake.

If you don't land safely, you don't get any science.

Narrator: On July 20th, 1976,

Viking 1 begins the landing sequence.

It's too far away to control in real time.

(dramatic music)

Viking is on its own.

(dramatic music continues)

Famed astronomer carl sagan, joins the mission team

For the nervous moment.

It's his first taste of the seven minutes of terror.

Grant: There's this period of time

That the spacecraft has to go through, on its own,

To land on the surface safely.

(dramatic music)

Schulte: That process takes about seven minutes

From the time it hits the top of mars's atmosphere

Until wheels down on the surface.

So we call that "the seven minutes of terror."

Man: 66 feet, 73 feet per second. Come on.

Man 2: Acs is close to vertical.

Nav is green for touchdown.

Narrator: Finally, viking 1 signals from the surface.

Man: Touchdown, we have touchdown.

(cheering)

Purdy: Oh my gosh.

I think landing on mars for the first time,

It's just the most thrilling and exciting thing

That you could imagine.

Landing on another planet and then having it open up

And get your first image of a place that

No human has ever seen.

(intense dramatic music)

Zimbelman: July 20th, I turn on the tv

And there was a picture of mars from the surface

And it didn't look at all like what I would have guessed.

Schulte: It looked like being in the desert southwest of the u.S.

People could really relate

To what they were seeing on the surface of mars

I think for the very first time, because

It was sort of like you were standing there.

(intense dramatic music)

Narrator: Viking 2 lands a few months later.

Neither lander finds existing life or standing water.

But they begin a new era of space exploration.

Purdy: We had landed on another planet

And that view will be forever in the textbooks.

Narrator: The landers send back mountains of data

But they can't move.

Grant: They were fixed in one place on the surface

And there's always this sort of

What if we could just get to that rock over there?

Narrator: Viking was groundbreaking

But it wasn't pathfinding.

Grant: And so I think that there's this natural progression

To wanna build mobility in the form of a rover

Into a subsequent mission

That allows us to answer those questions.

Narrator: Twenty years after the viking missions,

Nasa embarks on a remarkable test drive.

Grant: So sojourner was a very little rover,

It was basically a microwave on wheels,

If you think about something along a

Sort of size comparison.

Narrator: It's named after civil

And women's rights pioneer sojourner truth

And it hopes to pioneer a new way to explore mars.

Schulte: It was primarily designed to be a demonstration

That we could send a rover to another planet

And have it operate successfully.

Narrator: It's tucked inside a lander called pathfinder

And both rocket off to try to make history.

Man: Main engine start

One, zero and liftoff

Of the delta rocket with mars pathfinder.

Man 1: Landers separation.

Narrator: After landing and waking up,

The spacecraft rolls out the first martian rover.

Man: Data.

Woman: We have imaging data.

Man: Yes!

Narrator: Even though it never ventures

More than 40 feet from the lander,

Sojourner makes the first tracks on mars in 1997.

Grant: This is a game changer. Sojourner was

Kind of a turning point in mars exploration because

Until that point I hadn't personally fully appreciated

What mobility could get for you.

Narrator: Mobility is now the main focus.

(instrumental music)

The new rover, perseverance, practices her moves

In what nasa calls the "mars yard".

(instrumental music continues)

Morgan: So we're here in the mars yard

And this is where our rovers practice

Driving over rocky terrain,

To make sure we can get the best science possible on mars

And go to the most exciting places we can get to

With the rover.

(upbeat music)

Narrator: Each wheel has an independent motor

And cleats for traction in the fine martian sand.

Legs are made of titanium,

The same lightweight metal used in the best bicycles.

Perseverance has to be strong and nimble

If it's going to break new ground.

Morgan: Often the most exciting geology outcrops

That we wanna study on mars

Are often the most challenging to go to.

Narrator: But it will not go fast.

Top speed is less than 0.1 miles per hour.

Interplanetary driving is a cautious business.

Grant: We're not talking about daytona speedway

In terms of they're moving around.

Narrator: But what it lacks in speed,

It has in scientific bling.

Zilbelman: Perseverance is the most sophisticated

Piece of robotic hardware ever launched off of the earth.

Narrator: It has a 7-foot long robotic arm

To reach out and analyze the terrain.

Lasers to see different wavelengths.

Spectrometers to identify different compounds.

It's a weather station, rock hound and chemistry lab.

All of it is designed to finally answer

Humanity's biggest question.

Grant: Are we unique in the universe?

Perseverance is the first rover

That really has the capability

To get in and maybe help answer that question

Of whether there was ever life on mars.

Narrator: The search began with viking.

Continued with pathfinder and sojourner.

But bigger could be better.

Nasa starts work on twin rovers that dwarf sojourner.

Spirit and opportunity are a bold gamble.

(upbeat music)

The new mars rover, perseverance,

Is in final assembly.

Scientists can't wait to unleash it on the martian surface.

Schulte: My job is to oversee

The science that the rover will do

Once it gets to the surface of mars.

Narrator: To get that science,

Mission planners hope it rolls for at least two earth years

And covers at least 12 miles.

By contrast, our 20th century martian explorers

Didn't explore very far.

Sojourner didn't venture more than 15 yards

From the landing spot.

(upbeat music)

It's as if a martian spacecraft landed in your backyard

And only got as far as the fence.

But in 2004, twin rovers take off.

Grant: So the mars exploration rovers spirit and opportunity

Really became that next step.

We wanted to follow the water.

We want to understand the role of water

In shaping the landscape of mars.

(intense dramatic music)

Narrator: Spirit and opportunity

Visit ancient riverbeds

For the first close-up look

At what water left behind

This time, with hands-on tools.

(dramatic music)

Purdy: These guys are about the size of a golf cart

At this point and so they're bigger.

They're built as sort of field geologists,

Robotic field geologists on mars.

Narrator: Both rovers roll for miles

And the alien landscape starts looking familiar.

Grant: And we started seeing rocks

That had ripple marks formed in them,

Ripple marks much like you might see in a riverbed

Where the water is flowing and transporting

Sand across the surface.

You can walk out your door and go to the local pond

And see those same kinds of features.

Narrator: The mission rolls beyond expectations

And seems to have a bit of luck.

When a wheel fails, spirit accidentally scrapes up a layer

Of the red sand, revealing white.

Grant: So this bright white material

That turns out to be almost pure silica

Tells us that it was probably precipitated

From relatively hot water in a volcanic area.

Narrator: Then spirit stumbles upon

Another wild discovery.

It beams home a series of images

That could pass for oklahoma.

Dust devils, direct evidence of martian wind.

Then a mars orbiter captures a dust devil rising

A half-mile high, casting a shadow across the landscape.

(dramatic music)

We know that on earth, wind can be a shape shifter.

Smithsonian's mariah baker is an expert

At recognizing its handiwork.

Baker: When you go to a desert or a beach like this,

You can see that wind

Is constantly sculpting the landscape.

When wind blows over a sandy surface,

It can cause ripples to form or dunes like these.

On mars wind does exactly the same thing.

In fact, it's been the dominant geologic force

For billions of years since all the water dried up.

(dramatic music)

Researchers like me

Can go to some of the most mars-like places on earth,

Like the great sand dunes in colorado

And the atacama desert in chile

To understand how surface features form on mars.

Narrator: But at some point the similarities break down

And the mysteries begin.

Baker: So in this dune,

We can see what are known as impact ripples,

Which are the smallest surface features formed by wind.

The smallest impact ripples that we see

Are formed in fine sand but larger coarse sand

Forms these larger wavelength ripples.

And when we arrived at mars

And we saw that these large ripples

Were also forming in just fine material,

We realized that we didn't quite understand

How they formed entirely.

Narrator: This is where mars gets alien.

Baker: On mars, we've got about a third of the gravity

That we have here on earth,

Which makes sand a little bit easier to move.

However, we also have an atmosphere that's about

A hundred times less dense

Than the atmosphere here on earth,

Which means that a 40 mile-per-hour wind

Might feel like just a breeze on our skin

And so we need much higher wind speeds

To actually move sand on the surface.

Narrator: But somehow, martian winds

Can still whip the entire planet into a frenzy.

Every year, mars throws a few dust storms

That last for weeks, but stay local.

On occasion, one of them goes global.

Purdy: When you have these occasional global dust storms,

It can basically kick up dust into the entire atmosphere.

It completely obscures the surface.

Narrator: In 2018, the sharp features of mars disappear

In just a few months as a thick red cloud

Envelops the planet.

The rover, opportunity, is now almost 15 years old

And has driven more than 28 miles.

But a big storm is coming.

Looking down,

It sees dust accumulating on its solar panels.

Looking up, it sees less and less.

Grant: And suddenly the sky literally darkens

Over the course of a period of just a few short days.

And the last image we have

Looking towards the sun from opportunity

Effectively shows us in being in darkness.

Schulte: The dust storm blocked out all sunlight

From reaching the solar panels.

Man: 14 for project manager.

Man 1: 14.

Narrator: For eight months, opportunity's mission team

Sends ping after ping to try to wake up the teenage rover.

Man: Mer 1, spacecraft id 253.

Purdy: It never, never did power on again to call home.

Narrator: Finally, nasa concedes.

Man: This is station 14 on behalf of the network,

It's a sad day for all of us.

Mer project off the net. Thank you.

Schulte: Because opportunity

Was operating for 14 and a half years,

People got very attached to the rover.

And I can tell you that the people who were on those

Conference calls when we decided to end the mission

Were very sad.

(clapping)

Narrator: Opportunity broke the mold for rover longevity.

Perseverance is designed to be even stronger.

Schulte: The first thing the rover has to survive,

Of course, is all the testing we do to it.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: They run perseverance through

Everything mars could throw at it.

Severe temperature swings,

Down to 200 below zero fahrenheit.

Blowing dust that could grind gears and blind cameras

But at least not cut power.

Grant: Perseverance is nuclear powered.

We don't have to worry about dust storms.

Narrator: It's called radioisotope power,

Essentially a nuclear battery.

It converts the heat from the decay of plutonium

Into electricity.

It could power perseverance for years,

If it survives the journey.

Grant: You design a rover for the sort of worst case scenario.

The worst case shaking on launch,

The worst case hard landing, all have to be survived.

(intense dramatic music)

Narrator: If perseverance lands safely,

It will see more than what's on the surface of mars.

It will take a peek underground at layers of history.

On earth, we see these layers at the most unlikely places.

Campbell: When we do geology on the earth,

We often get fortunate enough to have a road cut like this

From building a highway

And that road cut allows us to see the layers

That have built up over time.

Now, in a lot of cases on mars,

We're not going to be able to get some kind of

Cross-cut through the terrain like this

And what we have to do is use a remote sensing instrument

Called ground penetrating radar.

I work on an instrument called sharad,

The shallow radar on the mars reconnaissance orbiter.

Sharad transmits signals

And that pulse will travel down through a layer like this

And each time that signal bounces back to us,

We build up a cross section,

Just like you see in the road cut here

In order to tell the geologic history of that area.

They might be differences between sand layers

And ice in the polar caps.

But there's no substitute

For being able to look in greater detail

At what's right below your feet.

The perseverance rover

Will carry an instrument called rimfax,

Which will measure

The subsurface layers beneath the rover

Down to a shallower depth than sharad, perhaps 10 meters,

But with much finer detail.

Now, someday, astronauts may be able to simply walk up

To an area like this on mars

And make observations of the geologic history

Through the layering.

But for the time being,

Instruments like sharad and rimfax are invaluable.

Narrator: Perseverance is the first rover

That can see underground.

But it also carries something

That could see over the horizon.

(upbeat music)

At nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in california,

Perseverance has passed all of its flight tests.

It's a month away from leaving home.

It's built on the legacy of the rover that came

Just before it.

Grant: After the spirit and opportunity

Mars exploration rovers,

Curiosity became sort of the big sister on the block.

Narrator: In 2012, curiosity became

The next rover in line for mars.

It's a major upgrade.

Schulte: So it's about the size of a small suv.

In terms of its complexity and its size,

It's just far beyond what we've done before.

Narrator: All around the country,

Curiosity sparks mars mania.

On landing day, curiosity creates a buzz in new york city.

At nasa, it creates a roar.

Man: Touchdown confirmed. We're safe on mars!

(cheering)

Narrator: The biggest rover yet is safely on mars.

(cheering and clapping)

(indistinct)

It lands inside a fascinating landscape.

Purdy: Gale crater I think really is the place on mars

Where you feel like you are on earth.

(dramatic music)

Schulte: There's evidence that curiosity has collected

That there was a liquid water lake inside this crater.

Purdy: If you'd been standing there,

You would have been knee-deep in running water

And it would have been drinkable,

I mean you could take a cup and scoop it and drink it.

Narrator: Curiosity drills into this ancient lake bed,

Finding thick layers of sediment

That took thousands of years to build up.

Grant: For me, that was a real aha moment because

Suddenly here I was staring in the face

Sediments that were very much

Like the sediments that were being deposited

In the lake where I grew up in northern new york.

(intense dramatic music)

And I was kind of dragged kicking and screaming

Into this idea, but by god,

There was an ancient lake on mars

And it was there for a good long time.

Narrator: We now think water flowed on the surface

For up to a billion years

But dissipated about three billion years ago.

Purdy: The reason that the water

Became less stable on the surface

Is that the atmosphere changed and became very thin.

Eventually, it became very dry and cold.

Narrator: Perseverance will look at what water

Left behind, especially in craters.

Grant: Perseverance is landing in a place called jezero crater,

Where we see because of an inlet channel

And an outlet channel,

That water once filled that up and overflowed.

Perseverance is gonna go and evaluate

Those sediments and those rocks seeking signs of life.

Narrator: The search begins with the rover's amazing arm.

Trujillo: So I would say the robotic arm is

Incredibly important for the mission,

'cause it has everything on its hand.

And in fact, as I'm talking to you

You can see me moving my arm because

It is so intuitive also.

You're thinking about an arm just like yours,

An arm where the fingers are the instruments,

And immediately you can picture exactly what you will do

If you were a geologist standing on the surface of mars,

Bring it down, put me here, let me see it.

Narrator: At the end of the arm

Is a whole new suite of instruments

That will look for traces of past life.

Trujillo: The robotic arm also has a drill in it

Which is the actual unit that will collect the sample.

Narrator: A drill on a rover is old news.

But the fate of the sample could be big news.

Grant: Perseverance is going to collect and cache samples

For possible return to earth at sometime in the future.

Narrator: This rover will begin the most

Ambitious robotic space handoff ever attempted.

Grant: Perseverance will drill down and collect samples

And put them in an area

Where a second rover can come in the future

And pick them up.

(intense dramatic music)

They'll be put inside a small rocket.

They'll be launched up into orbit where they'll be captured

And eventually returned to earth at sometime in the future.

(intense dramatic music)

Narrator: If perseverance finds evidence of life,

We'll need the sample on earth to confirm it.

Within a decade, we could be holding the first evidence

Of alien life in our hands.

Grant: The kind of holy grail is sample return

And perseverance is the first step along that path.

Narrator: Packed inside perseverance

Is another space first.

(whirling)

It looks like a spider learning to fly.

(whirling)

But it's the first interplanetary helicopter.

(dramatic music)

Schulte: Ingenuity, which is the helicopter

That we're sending to ride along with perseverance rover,

Is designed as a technology demonstration

To, for the very first time,

Show that we can operate a powered flight aerial vehicle

On the surface of mars.

Narrator: Nasa creates a chamber

Simulating the atmosphere of mars,

Where liftoff will be 100 times harder than on earth.

Schulte: With the atmosphere so thin,

There is very little material

For the blades to push against.

So it's very light and the blades are very large

In order to get enough lift

To be able to lift off the ground.

Narrator: The copter passes the test on earth.

On mars, it will have to fly solo,

Because radio signals take an average of 15 minutes

To travel between earth and mars.

Grant: It has to be done completely remotely.

You have to be doing it

Without any real sort of real time joystick control

Of where this thing is gonna go.

Narrator: If it works, ingenuity could scout ahead

For perseverance,

Take detailed photos

And transmit them back to the rover

For a sneak peak of where it might go.

All while flying into the history books

As the first powered flight of an aircraft

On another planet.

But it has to get off this planet first.

(upbeat music)

The first step to mars is a cross country trip

From california to florida.

Sixteen semis truck in pieces of the capsule

That will carry perseverance to mars.

Schulte: Those can all be sent separately

But the rover itself, fully assembled,

Was sent on a large airplane to cape kennedy.

Narrator: At the launch site in florida,

They tuck perseverance into the capsule,

Cradle it into the top stage of the rocket and worry.

Grant: You're in a situation

Where you've got years and years of work

Wrapped up, folded, origami style almost,

On the top of a giant bomb.

(upbeat music)

And this thing goes bang and flies off into the distance

And it does so in a real hurry.

And so there's a lot of personal fear

That what happens if something goes wrong.

Narrator: Launch day awaits.

(upbeat music)

Just as the new mars rover

Prepares to launch off the earth,

Earth suffers a devastating blow.

Purdy: The rover is perfectly named as perseverance because

Getting this rover to the launch pad

Occurred during a global pandemic.

(dramatic music)

It's hard enough to get a rover built on time

And with no mistakes in it

And you layer on a global pandemic.

That's an extreme amount of stress and pressure.

(dramatic music )

Narrator: If something delays the launch,

Mars won't line up this closely to the earth

For another two years.

Schulte: We're gonna get one shot at this.

(upbeat music)

Narrator: Perseverance will ride on an atlas five rocket.

The boosters come from alabama.

The payload adapter comes from texas

And the physics come from experience.

(dramatic music)

It's not easy to hit a moving target at a cosmic distance.

Grant: The navigation people are trying to do this

Hundred-million- mile hole-in-one.

The spacecraft is actually put to a place

Where mars is going to be.

So think about a quarterback throwing a long bomb downfield,

Even though the receiver is still 20, 30 yards away

From where he's going to catch the ball

And knowing that the two are going to come together

At that last second at just the right time.

(dramatic music)

Man: What a beautiful morning here on the space coast.

Welcome everyone, behind us, the star of the show.

Narrator: After years of work,

The moments before launch are like a vacuum.

Man: Currently working no issues on the range

Or on the launch vehicle. It appears to be ready to proceed.

Zilbelman: They have a lot of their lives

Invested in these things.

It's as if your child is leaving home.

That is literally what is happening.

It's just in this case, the child is a robot

That is going to another planet.

Man: Go atlas.

Man 1: Go centaur.

Both: Go mars 2020.

Man: 2-1-0 and liftoff.

Narrator: Powered by four boosters, it leaps off the pad.

Man: The perseverance of humanity

Launching the next generation of robotic explorers

To the red planet.

Narrator: Barely 30 seconds in,

It breaks the sound barrier.

Man: And mach 1, atlas five is now supersonic.

Narrator: 90 miles up,

The solid rocket boosters peel off.

Man: And we have good indication

Of srb jettison of all four srbs.

Narrator: Just four and a half minutes in,

The rocket drops back.

Man: And we have good indication

Of atlas-centaur separation.

Narrator: Perseverance puts earth

In the rear-view mirror.

Purdy: To have watched this rover launch to mars

Was an incredible feat.

Man: Successful separation of mars 2020

With the perseverance rover. There we go.

Man 1: Awesome.

Narrator: Now it enters the cruise phase

Six months of silent sailing,

That will end with a terrifying 7-minute leap of faith.

(dramatic music)

Grant: When the spacecraft gets to mars,

It's literally going thousands of miles an hour.

And so we've got to go from thousands of miles an hour

To zero and not do a bug on a windshield.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: The heavier the spacecraft,

The harder it is to slow it down.

Viking was light enough to land with a parachute

And some retro rockets.

The heavier spirit and opportunity rovers

Needed giant balloons to cushion their impact.

Now, 1-ton perseverance will take a far trickier path.

Schulte: As the spacecraft encounters

The upper part of the atmosphere, it will heat up.

Once it slows down enough,

Then the heat shield will come off.

Once we've slowed down enough on the parachute,

Then the rover will separate from the back shell,

That's when the engines on the descent stage

Will actually ignite

And slow us down to eventually hovering over the surface.

The rover itself will actually be

Gently lowered, spooled on cables.

Once the wheels touch the ground,

The cables are cut and the descent stage flies away

And then we have a rover on the surface of mars.

Narrator: If it lands safely,

Perseverance could provide the first evidence

That mars supported life.

But it will also ask, "could mars support us?'

Purdy: It can be minus 200 degrees fahrenheit.

It can be windy. It can be dusty.

So it's a pretty tough place to exist.

Narrator: One experiment on perseverance called moxie

Could set the stage for future astronauts.

Schulte: The moxie instrument is going to take carbon dioxide

Out of mars's atmosphere,

Strip out oxygen from those carbon dioxide molecules.

So the instrument will be generating oxygen

With the materials already present on mars.

Narrator: Maybe future astronauts could breathe oxygen

Mined from the atmosphere.

Maybe they could draw water from the ice underground

And grow food inside their mars base.

(upbeat music)

Perseverance is blazing the trail for it all.

Zilbelman: I think all of us hope eventually

Humans will get there.

That's just the latest evolution

Of doing things on other planets.

Grant: Humans could be off doing scientific discovery

And robots could be left to do some of the

Mundane housekeeping, the creating of the

Resources needed to survive.

Schulte: Robots are great. But again, I think

They can only tell you so much.

Personally, I think we should go.

Narrator: A family photo of mars rovers

Reveals generations of explorers

With perseverance at the cutting edge.

(upbeat music)

One day, humans might launch in their wake

And an astronaut could make the first footprint

But she might look out

And see what made her footprint possible.

Miles and miles of rover tracks.