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NASA's latest
robotic lander, InSight,

descends to the surface of Mars,

the challenging effort
greeted with elation.

Touchdown confirmed.

Meanwhile,

an orbiting ESA satellite, ExoMars,

begins its own exploration
of this enthralling planet.

The majestic stereo imagery
of Mars as seen from orbit

reveals a planet of
dynamic texture and form

slowly revealing its secrets.

- We've sent a lot of
missions to Mars in the past.

We've sent rovers, we've sent orbiters,

and they've done a lot of
really, really great science

and a lot of really
interesting measurements,

but those measurements just
scratch the surface of Mars.

We know a lot about the surface of Mars,

we know a lot about its atmosphere,

and even about its ionosphere,

but we don't know very much about

what goes on a mile below the surface,

much less 2000 miles below the
surface down to the center.

And this will be the first mission

that's going to Mars specifically

to investigate the huge extent
of Mars below the surface.

The basic idea of InSight is to map out

the deep structure of Mars
for the very first time.

We're gonna map out the
thickness of the crust,

the size of the core,

the composition of the mantle
and core of the planet.

Sort of get the first map
of the deep inside of Mars.

It's going to Mars to do the science,

to make the measurements,

that scientifically and personally,

I've been waiting for over 30 years for.

As a graduate student, I
was doing research on Mars

and I just needed to have
the thickness of the crust.

I just needed the thickness of the crust,

and we didn't have it.

And seismology was the way to do it,

and so I thought, well maybe
someday somebody will put

a seismometer on Mars
and get this measurement

so I can do my research.

And so it's kind of an amazing
journey for me to look back

and say, I'm the guy who's
actually going to put

that seismometer on Mars,
get that information,

and now I can go back and finish the job

I was trying to do 30 years ago.

It's an amazing feeling.

- The InSight mission will finally provide

a seismic information of Mars

that scientists have been wanting for

since the very first Mars lander, Viking.

It has a seismometer on it,
but for a variety of reasons

it never got back any seismic data.

There's been many other
attempts to get seismometers

onto the surface of Mars for
very good science reasons,

but they've, for one reason or another,

never been successful.

So now, we're right on the very edge

of getting a seismometer on Mars

that will finally give
us back seismic data.

That seismic data's incredibly
important to scientists

because it gives them an idea
what the size of the crust,

the mantle, and the core are,

as well as the properties
of each of those,

which are the basic internals
of every rocky planet.

- The most fun or interesting
thing about InSight

from an engineer's point of view

is really that we're playing the claw game

super far away on Mars.

We're taking this grapple,

and we're gonna pick up an instrument,

and lift it up off the deck
and put it down on Mars.

So, I like to say that
we're playing the claw game,

on Mars, with no joystick.

Next, a
wind and thermal shield

will be lowered over
the seismic instrument

to protect it from the environment.

The second instrument,
the heat flow probe,

will be placed on the
ground, and over time

will hammer itself down to
take subsurface readings.

- There's a lot of international
partners on InSight.

It really takes a whole world to produce

an exciting mission like this.

So most of our science missions

are actually being supported
by our international partners.

So for example, the SEIS
instrument, our seismometer,

has support from the French, the Germans,

the Swiss, the UK folks.

So we have a variety of those people.

The Heat Flow and
Physical Properties Probe

is being provided by the Germans

with some support from Poland.

- InSight is a mission to Mars,

but it's much, much more
than a Mars mission.

In some sense, it's like a time machine.

It's measuring the structure of Mars

that was put in place
4.5 billion years ago.

So we can go back and
understand the processes

that formed Mars just shortly after

it was accreted from the solar nebula.

By studying Mars, we'll
be able to learn more

about Earth, Venus,
Mercury, even the moon,

even exoplanets around other stars.

ESA's Trace
Gas Orbiter mission

arrived at Mars some time ago.

Since then, this 3.5 ton spacecraft

has been gently brushing the atmosphere

to gradually adjust its orbit.

In ESA's Planetary Missions Control Room

in Darmstadt, Germany,

flight controllers have
been checking systems

and commissioning instruments

on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

Now it's ready to begin
its science mission.

- It has been a long time
since we arrived at Mars

in October 2016,

and we have had a long, very long period,

one year of aerobraking,

which consisted in
reducing the orbital period

from the time when we arrived

where it was actually
several days, to two hours,

which is the nominal period
for science observations.

I'm looking forward to the
next few months enormously

because with TGO,

we'll finally be able to
show its full capability,

the full capability of its instruments

in terms of accuracy and
the quantity and quality

of data, pictures, spectra.

And also because we will
be able to do joint starts,

joint observations, with our
previous space traffic Mars,

Mars Express, which is
still alive and working

after 15 years, actually.

And having two space craft around Mars

in complementary orbits, from
a scientific point of view,

is very exciting and
will allow, certainly,

some very interesting
discoveries and observations.

ExoMars
will fill a double role

when its partner rover
is dispatched to Mars

in the coming months
in the search for life

on the dusty planet.

- It is a communications satellite,

on top of being a science orbiter.

And the so-called relay function

allows us to communicate
with all landers and rovers

on the surface of Mars.

At the moment, we are only
rovers and landers from NASA,

Curiosity and Opportunity.

Some tests had been done already,

soon after arrival at Mars.

And now we are gonna start a campaign

to calibrate and datamine
the best performance

to relay data.

The Trace Gas Orbiter's

primary mission, however,

is to identify gasses in
the Martian atmosphere,

particularly methane,

first hinted at by Mars Express,

and then by NASA's Curiosity Rover

as it sniffed the atmosphere
with special sensors.

- Well, we know that the lifetime
on methane is very short,

just a few hundred years.

It will be broken down by the sunlight,

by the UV, ultraviolet
component of the sunlight,

so if it is there now, we knew
that it has to be refilled

all the time.

And where does it come from?

That's the big question.

It cannot be synthesized
really in that atmosphere.

It has to come from the
surface or from the subsurface.

But what are the processes
that produces it?

This is what we want to find out.

One possibility is that it
is some geological reaction

between minerals and water.

Another possibility is that
actually those are microbes

down buried underneath the surface

that is producing it
today or has produced it

a long time ago and they are all dead now,

but that the methane had
been kept underground

and with some mechanism is released

to get up into the atmosphere.

So these are all these kind
of things we try to find out.

By using the
orbiter's powerful spectrometer,

scientists hope to discover
whether the methane

comes from a geological
or biological source.

95% of methane on our own planet

comes from living organisms.

The ExoMars Rover, landing in 2021,

will drill up to two
meters beneath the surface

to search for this evidence of life.

And the rover, as well as
NASA rovers and landers,

will use the orbiter to
keep in touch with Earth.

Mars exploration is an
international endeavor,

and every mission adds
to our understanding

of this alien world.

A place that some of us
might someday call home.

- Planetary exploration
is always very exciting,

but Mars, of course, has
its very special thing,

is that there's actually a place

that you can imagine yourself
walking on eventually,

within a not-too-far time in the future.

Surely, people will be walking on Mars.

That makes us very exciting.

And then to think about
this idea that there might

have been some kind of life,

or even exist today underground on Mars.

That makes it a very special place.

Curiosity
landed in Gale Crater

on an ancient lake bed.

A few months after arrival,

it drilled into sedimentary rocks

and detected traces of organic molecules

using an instrument called SAM.

- Well, the SAM instrument detected

a variety of organic
molecules in a sediment

that is from an ancient lake bed

in the middle of Gale Crater.

And what's important about these

is that we now have a lot more certainty

that there's organic molecules preserved

at the surface of Mars.

We didn't know that before.

But what's interesting
is that we don't know

what the source of these
organic molecules is right now.

There's just not enough
information from that.

However, if we drill deeper

and we look around a little bit more,

we might actually be able
to get to that information

and tell, did they come from life?

Did they come from geological processes?

Or maybe they were from meteorites

that were deposited in the lake.

We just don't know right now,

but hopefully we'll figure that out.

Curiosity is searching

for carbon-based organics.

- SAM made the new detections

by heating samples of crushed
rock to very high temperatures

above 1000 degrees fahrenheit.

This vaporized the samples,

and released several species
of small hydrocarbons

like benzene and propane.

Because the hydrocarbons

were released at such high temperatures,

they may be the fragments of bigger,

heavier molecules within the
rock, similar to kerogens.

On Earth, kerogens are found in rocks

like black shale and coal,

and are the products of
ancient plant and bacteria.

Some other
organics have been detected

like thiophene, which contains sulfur.

Introduced by geological processes,

this sulfur acts as a preservative,

binding organic molecules together

and making them resistant to oxidation,

so preserving them for millennia.

- Organic molecules could
be the food for life,

or they could be the product of life,

or maybe they're from
something altogether different,

such as geology or meteorites

that were deposited into the lake.

We don't know what the source
is, but there's a story there

and we're going to uncover what that is.

Scientists still
don't know if the discovered

organics on Mars are biological in origin,

but it's exciting to
find such old material

preserved right at the surface.

This finding is also encouraging
for future exploration.

So for a time, Curiosity
continued to travel,

find interesting outcrops,
drill holes, take samples.

Then, inexplicably, something went wrong.

The drill's feed mechanism,

which is responsible for
moving Curiosity's drill bit

into and out of rocks,
didn't move when commanded.

When Curiosity drills into a rock

the way it was designed to,

the drill's two stabilizer
posts touch the rock first

to steady the arm while
the drill's feed mechanism

moves the bit forward into the rock.

Without the feed mechanism
working, we can't drill that way.

To solve this problem,
we do what we always do.

We worked it out in the testbed

using Curiosity's twin, Honor.

Our team of engineers
and scientists have been

working for months to figure out a way

to collect and deliver rock samples

without using the feed mechanism.

Here's what we came up with.

Using our new technique,
called Feed Extended Drilling,

the stabilizers are not used.

The bit is now in a forward position

extended past the stabilizers.

Moving the drill straight into
a rock and retracting safely

without the stabilizers is challenging.

We move the arm instead
of the feed mechanism

to place the bit onto the rock

and press it forward as it drills.

Now let's
start holes beginning, over.

After making contact,
we apply a light preload

and drill a shallow pilot hole.

We use a force sensor in the robotic arm

to give Curiosity a sense of touch.

This lets Curiosity adjust its arm motion

and avoid getting stuck while drilling.

Kind of like you might adjust your arm

while drilling into a wall at home.

After drilling, we use a similar technique

to retract from the hole
without getting stuck.

With Rover
2020 design and construction

well underway,

engineers will be sure
to avoid such a problem

with Curiosity's cousin,

which will land in the
Jezero Crater in 2020.

2020 will be a banner year
for the exploration of Mars.

In addition to the launch
of NASA's Mars 2020 Rover,

the European Space Agency and Roscosmos

are sending the ExoMars
Rover to the red planet.

Rover 2020 and its companion helicopter

will no doubt expand our search
for life, past or present.

However, the big advance
forward in organic analysis

will be the game changer.

Both rovers will carry onboard a MOMA.

- The Mars Organic
Molecule Analyzer, or MOMA,

is the largest and most complex
instrument on the rover.

Its mass spectrometer subsystem
and its main electronics

were built and tested at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center,

which also contributed mass spectrometers

to NASA's Curiosity
Rover and MAVEN Orbiter.

MOMA is designed with a
mix of proven hardware

and innovative new technologies.

Here's how it works.

In gas chromatrograph
mode, crushed Martian rock

is put into an oven and
heated to 900 degrees celsius

in just two minutes,
vaporizing the sample.

Molecules of hot gas rise up

and flow into a narrow,
20 meter long tube.

Special coatings inside
the tube cause molecules

with certain chemistries to
slow down more than others,

separating the mixture
of molecules over time.

Next, a beam of electrons
ionizes the molecules,

giving them a positive electric charge

and deflecting them towards
the linear ion trap.

The ions are caught by a
fluctuating electric field

and sent to a detector to
determine their chemical makeup.

While gas chromatography
has been used to study Mars

since the Viking Program,

MOMA has a second method
for preparing samples

that has never been
used on another planet.

In laser desorption mode,

a sample is placed beneath a
powerful ultraviolet laser.

A beam of energetic light
builds within the laser

and fires in a billionth of a second,

concentrating its energy onto a spot

smaller than a grain of sand.

This rapidly vaporizes
a portion of the sample,

releasing large organic molecules

that could be broken down by oven heating.

The laser shot also ionizes
some of the molecules,

allowing the vapor to head directly

to the linear ion trap.

Neutral molecules are ejected by a vacuum

while the remaining ions
are sent to the detector

to determine their chemical makeup.

Laser desorption will enable MOMA

to detect long molecules like lipids,

the building blocks of cell membranes,

a leap forward in the
search for life on Mars.

The question of life on Mars

is among the most important
in planetary science.

And the evidence may be
buried just below the surface.

With the help of MOMA, we
will take one step closer

to uncovering the answer.

These images will pave the
way to a new understanding

of life in our solar system.