Mars (1968) - full transcript

Mars

Written and directed by P. Klushantsev

Everything has begun that fabulous night

in 1877, almost a century ago. Italian

astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli came

to his observatory. It was a very silent night.

Schiaparelli led his telescope to Mars. Even

in such good weather conditions the vision

is not clear. But then he saw the straight

lines on the surface of the planet. He

couldn?t believe his eyes. ?It?s not an illusion,

I must draw it down!? Schiaparelli called

those lines the channels. A conventional

name, because they were of many km in width.

Later he wrote about these channels:

?Their strange look and geometrical

correctness led many people to the thought

that they were built by some creatures

living on this planet. I can?t neglect this theory

because it has nothing impossible in itself.?

Schiaparelli had on his mind the opinion

of the American astronomer Percival Lowell.

Lowell had built a special observatory

to study Mars. He created a theory

of Martian civilization. This theory caused

a lot of arguments and worldwide attention.

But there were no proofs.

In 50 years science and technic developed.

The automatic prospectors flew to the planets

of our galaxy. ?Mars-1? was the first one.

The space era has begun. Still, Mars

is a mysterious planet. The main question is

if there is life on Mars. The famous Russian

scientist G. Tikhov, the founder of astrobotany,

has studied this question for many years.

Today many scientists write about the possibility

of life on Mars. But we must know

the physical conditions of the planet. So a great

work of gathering facts is necessary. A lot

of new sensational theories appear and become

the basis for serious scientific works. Then

the theories collapse, and the new ones

appear on their ruins.

But we are still far from the truth. Is Mars

a dead planet or a flourishing one?

Are the satellites of Mars artificial or not?

Mars became the main topic

in the arguments between optimists

and pessimists. The optimists are more

active ? they talk about mind on Mars.

What if there are Martians? Are they cruel,

as H. Welles thought, or kind and beautiful,

as in ?Aelita? by A. Tolstoy? It is very

interesting. The world is preparing

for the assault of Mars. Soon we will know

everything, but the truth can be staggering.

We must sort out all the materials that we

already have. So we shouldn?t waste our time.

What are the physical conditions on Mars?

We like warmth. Is there warmth on Mars?

It is far from the Sun; maybe it is unbearably

cold there. Here in Crimea observatory we?ve

measured the temperature on the surface of Mars.

V. Moroz, Ph. D, guided this work. Now we

know the temperature conditions on Mars

quite well. We can be carried there in our

imagination. It is warm on Martian equator

at noon, and it becomes cold in the evening.

And at night the strongest frost appears.

In the morning the temperature raises quickly.

The climate is harder then we have

in mountains. But in comparison

with the Moon Mars is a resort.

We, people of Earth, breathe. We need air.

Is there air on Mars? Yes, there is. Without the layer

of air Mars would look this way, as the Moon.

There is atmosphere, but what kind of it?

We use spectroscopy to find out.

The sunrays have complex nature.

The atmosphere detains some part

of the rays. The black lines appear in specter.

With the help of this analysis we found out

that the air on Mars contains a lot of CO2,

a bit of H2O, and the rest is either N2

(as on Earth), or Ar. So far no oxygen

has been found. V. Moroz thinks that

the density of atmosphere on Mars

is around 1/100 of atmosphere on Earth.

The American spaceship confirmed this theory.

It defined the density of atmosphere

on Mars by fading of radio signals.

Here on Earth the atmosphere is 100 times

rarified on the height of 30 km. Only

balloons and special planes can fly here.

They could fly also on Mars but near

the surface. But the ?Mariner? data can be

inaccurate. It could check the density

on the level of mountains, and near

the surface it could be higher. But we?d still

need the space suit.

We, people of Earth, drink. Is there water

on Mars? Now we are in the observatory

in Pulkovo. N. Kozyrev, Ph.D., leads

the observation. The dark masses on the surface

of Mars were initially mistreated as the water

resources. They were called seas. But water

would shine under the sun, and the seas are matt,

the whole planet is dry land. Still there is moisture.

We can observe morning fog and small clouds.

The main water resources on Mars are contained

in polar caps. It probably is a layer of hoarfrost.

How much water is there on Mars?

Let?s collect it and spill all over the planet.

The whole layer would be only a few mm deep.

The same operation on Earth would cause

a water layer 3 km deep. Mars is drier than Earth,

and far damper than the Moon. So what result

do we have? Mars has almost no water,

bits of atmosphere, probably without oxygen,

a bit of warmth. The conditions on Mars

are very hard. Is life there possible?

What does biology say? What does our

experience say? The life on Earth is impossible

without water. It is in all our organisms.

It contains nourishing elements. That?s why

life must have appeared in ocean.

And only then it came on land. It led

to certain problems, first of all, to the lack

of moisture. But life showed a great ability

of adaptation. Plants in desert learned to pull

water from the deep, to use morning dew,

to create water reserves inside themselves.

In general, plants do not need a lot of moisture.

A sunflower drinks a lot in summer.

But for the building of its tissue it spends

only a glass of water. Two more liters it needs

to saturate with juices. It also spends 55%

of moisture on evaporation, to avoid overheating.

There can be no such need on Mars. And such plant

would be satisfied with a spoon of water per day.

Let?s come back to the desert. Plants collect

moisture inside themselves. Animals get

moisture by eating these plants. The bigger

animals get moisture by eating the smaller ones.

But what if there was no water at all?

The kangaroo rat can leave weeks without water.

It eats dry grains and produces water

with the help of special ferments, which split

molecules of carbohydrates. A lack of moisture

for plants and animals is an overcoming problem.

The other one ? cold ? is more serious.

The liquid protoplasm of living organisms

is against hard frosts of Arctic. And again

we can find examples of adaptation.

Lobelia, which grows in mountains, takes

the form of a sphere at night. There is positive

temperature inside. In the middle latitude,

some plants sleep the whole winter.

But the process of conifer?s photosynthesis

continues the whole year. Water in its cells

stays in liquid form, because of special ferments

that stop freezing. Many animals fall

in anabiosis in winter. Larvae of a corn

butterfly hide in corn stalks. They freeze

and the water in their tissues turns into ice.

In lab they can be frozen up to the temperature

of liquid Helium: -269 C.

They rock like stones.

But being warmed, they come back to life.

Warm-blood is a most effective way

of fighting cold. Such animals are heated

from inside. They create in themselves

an environment needed for a normal

functioning of their organisms. It is very cold,

but penguins are in a good mood. They walk

and sit out their nestlings. They are sure,

that there is no such cozy place in the world.

The adaptation of life is incredible.

The geysers have the temperature

of around 90 C, but water-plants are alive.

Their cells contain special protein,

that doesn?t coagulate in such conditions.

The seabed. Constant darkness, only bits

of oxygen. And still there is life. There is

no oxygen on the bottom of the Black Sea.

The water is full of hydrogen sulfide.

But if you take a sample of this water

you will find there some organisms, bacteria.

The microorganisms that can live without

oxygen are found even in oil taken

from the bowels of the earth. Different bacteria

can be found in the radioactive water

of the nuclear reactor, in sulfuric acid,

in the dust in stratosphere. The spores

of bacteria don?t die even in space,

under pressure of radiation.

Many scientists study the adaptability

of living organisms. In the Leningrad Institute

of Cytology, in the Laboratory of space biology

professor Lozina-Lozinsky tries to answer

a question if there is scope for life, and if yes,

is Mars included in it?

The Earth gives us many examples of hard

conditions. This device is called Photostat.

Ernest Zaar is one of its founders. Now another

group of earthmen goes to Mars: larvae

of a corn butterfly, worms unseen by unaided eye

and the smallest infusorian. Here they are

alive and active. We spill the water

with infusorian on the sand. Than we put

the subject of our experiment into the Photostat.

We asked to put there a glass of clear water

to show how quickly water evaporates in vacuum.

This water will disappear during the day.

Now air is being pumped out the camera,

and the nitrogen is being pumped in.

The pressure of atmosphere is as on Mars.

The automatic program of day and night

changing is switched on.

The experiment has begun.

It is hard for our animals.

They suffer from the lack of oxygen.

But atmosphere in this chamber is being

renewed every minute. Maybe this fact

will help them to gather appropriate amount

of oxygen. But still moisture evaporates very

quickly. There is such low pressure inside

the chamber that even cold water boils.

This way would our blood boil if we appeared

on Mars without the space suit. The special lamps

fill the chamber up with ultraviolet. The atmosphere

of Mars can?t delay this part of radiation.

The program says that it is night. The electric sun

sets. The radiation stopped. But the frost began

to intensify. How do our animals feel?

Maybe they are already dead? But then our hope

to find on Mars some creatures that look like us

will also die.

The experiment lasted a couple of days.

The 10th morning came. The sun rose

on our artificial Mars and it begun

to thaw out.

And we are running, hurrying,

hastening. Forgetting that at the same time

scientists solve such a grandiose problems.

Are we, the earthmen, alone? Or are we a part

of a Sun family, settled in different planets?

The larvae are dead. Vacuum killed them.

And what about nematodes? They are alive.

But they spent 10 days in anabiosis.

However, sleep is not death. The sand contained

water, and infusorian fell asleep only at night.

They led an active life, even propagated.

So our experiment succeeded, there are

such protozoa that can live on real Mars.

They would sleep in difficult periods of time,

and lead a normal life in favorable periods.

Life could have appeared on Mars billions

of years ago, and now there could be developed

forms of live.

However, the life on Mars is possible,

and if so maybe it can be discovered. But how?

What can we see on Mars through millions of km?

Here on Earth in such conditions the Crimea

would be an almost invisible dot. And it?s 300 km

in size. Still ac. Barabashov looks in the telescope.

Why? Isn?t this technic old?fashioned now,

when we send satellites in space to make photos

from close distance? These photos of Mars

made by ?Mariner-4?. Great photos, we can see

Martian mountains for the first time. Every photo

captured the area close in width to the Crimea.

This area looked like a dot in telescope,

but now we can see a lot of details.

But it is still not enough for the search of live.

The smallest object like this crater is a couple

of km in size. Look at the photos of Earth made

from satellite. That?s Italy. The white spots are clouds.

The Caspian Sea.

The Sinai Peninsula.

The Nile.

The Baltic Sea.

The Finnish Bay.

The Black Sea and the Crimea. Good photos,

but Martians wouldn?t find any life on Earth

with their help. Even such big cities like Leningrad

cannot be seen on them. So it?s pointless

to search life on Mars with ?Mariner?s? photos.

And how to search? How to distinguish organic

from inorganic? Now we see that telescope isn?t

old-fashioned. It helps to observe Mars for months,

and what is invisible in static becomes visible

in dynamic. Mars moves on orbit, the sun lights up

its pole, and this hemisphere has spring. Inorganic

is indifferent to it, but what about organic?

We have the melting of snow, the water warms up,

the ground comes to light, the first brooks purl and

interflow in rapid streams. The nature wakes up,

the great symphony of life begins. The colorless

vegetation darkens, becomes green.

Would Mars react on the appearance of warmth?

Look at the borders of the snow cover. See,

the seas near it darken and change their color.

The snow cover steps back to the pole. Imagine

how something alive reaches for the sun,

something familiar and clear.

Isn?t it beautiful?

But it?s only a dream. Let?s answer this question

in cold blood. The bright spots are dry and lifeless

deserts. The sands stretch for hundred and thousands

kilometers. But what can be the dark spots but

vegetation? What if it is some kind of a cloud?

No, the seas on Mars are too stable to be clouds.

Probably they are peculiarities of a relief.

As on the Moon, these seas can be plains of dark

stoned lava. Or they are the dark rocks in

the middle of deserts, or maybe none of it

because these areas have similar relief.

But they should differ from each other.

We managed to measure the temperature of seas

and deserts separately. The seas are warmer.

You think that this is the warmth of life but it isn?t.

Remember that leaves are colder than stones.

Plants spend part of warmth on evaporation

of water and on chemical processes, and the dark

stones are warmer than the light, just because

everything dark gets warmer.

So the easiest way to explain these seas is

to say that they are the dark rocks. But the rocks

are stable and the delineation of these seas change

with time. Here is the example. There were stains

here but now they are gone. The delineation

of the Sun Lake differs very much. Here the new

dark area appeared. Stones are incapable of this.

However the American scientist McLaughlin

thought that the inorganic could change due

to wind and dilapidation. Let?s concede, he said,

that Martian volcanoes produce a great amount

of dark dust. The wind moves these clouds,

and ash falls down creating the dark areas.

The sand covers this ash. After the new eruption

the wind can blow in other direction, so

the delineation of ashes varies. It would be

a good hypothesis if ash could flourish in spring.

In the Kharkov observatory ac. Barabashov

explores how Martian seas and deserts reflect

the light. The desert reflects light as plane

and smooth surface. The seas disperse light

that means that their surface is uneven.

Uneven and changing its colour surface has

the massif of plants. There is one more

argument pro plants. There are sandstorms

on Mars. It is scary in such time. The sand ocean

is awake; the vortex of stone dust gets wild,

the sand clouds hide the sun. Tornados mix

the desert with the sky. Millions of tones

of sand begin to whirl. And then it all falls

somewhere in hundreds of kilometers,

hides the dark stones and ashes, makes the planet

look like desert. But the dark spots on Mars

remain. Only life can resist the sandstorms.

Only organic can germinate through the sand.

So the dark spots on Mars can be explained

by vegetable life. Ac. Barabashow thinks

the same: ?There are enough evidences

to answer positively on a question about life

on Mars.? Martian seas are probably zones

of life. But what kind of life? Martian plants

should have a lot of peculiarities. How can we

find out anything? We know that there is

a special course of spring. Here on Earth plants

blossom out at first in South, in Crimea.

And then this process starts in North ?

in Kiev, then Moscow, Leningrad. The warmth

goes from equator to pole. And vise versa on Mars

- from pole to equator. This seems ridiculous.

Earth plants have routs in moist ground,

so they use local water. They need only warmth

to wake them up. Martian plants do not react

on warmth, because they are submerged

into dry ground. Water comes from pole,

from melting snow. This is imported water.

But how does water reach them? There is

not enough water on Mars to create a stream.

And probably moisture created by melting

evaporates avoiding liquid phase. This steam

can be transported by wind and at night it will

become hoarfrost. But winds cannot explain

the whole system of water supply on Mars.

Lowell thought that the mystery of hydrologic

cycle on Mars was connected with its strange

channels.

What are the Martian channels? These dark

lines are remarkable. They do not break

in the middle. It seems that they connect

some important centers. Mars is covered

with mountains and the channels use

the shortest ways ignoring all obstacles.

Here and there channels are seen against

the background of seas. Some channels

double themselves in a specific season.

In winter these mysterious lines cannot be

seen. In spring the surface of Mars darkens

beginning with seas and channels. They must

have similar nature. Being zoomed in, the channels

disintegrate into separate spots.

On these photos the channels

cannot be seen. That?s why skeptics doubt

that they exist at all. That?s not true.

Take a random newspaper photo and zoom it.

The image disappears, and only dots are left.

But you can?t claim that there is no photo.

It exists but the image can be read only

from distance. After the analysis of the photos

some spots and unevenness were discovered.

That can be lefts of plants that create an image

of lines from distance. So the channels are not

an illusion. But what will our satellites find

on their place? The file of craters with

green plants inside, or maybe the mountains

gathering moisture from air, or dunes covering

something alive from hurricanes, or ravines

where moisture comes out from depth?

Whatever it is, it?s still unclear why do these

details of relief create such a strange net.

Relief of a planet corresponds with fracture

in the rock strata. But on Earth relief doesn?t

create such net as on Mars. American scientist

Alan Webb mathematically analyzed the net

of Martian channels. He compared it to

the scratches on the dry ground, to the cracks

on a china vase, to a spider?s web, and

to the net of roads in Ohio, USA. The analysis

led to an interesting result. Martian channels

are close to an artificial net of roads. Webb

thought that these channels are traces of plants

along some service lines.

We want to remind you of the words

of ac. Kuprevich: ?The origin of such formation

cannot be explained by natural causes.

This is a creation of mind and will?.

Well said, but let?s be careful. We finish

the study of channels with the following quotation:

?We can find all the truth only there, on-site?.

Now we?re able analyze on-site only on the Moon.

But soon the similar machines will land

on Mars too. And we will wait for the first reports.

At first the robots will look for bacteria.

The device will suck the dust from Martian

ground. Then the special process will show

if there are any bacteria. If yes, they will propagate.

The radio will inform that there is life on Mars.

This device will also look for bacteria.

If will fire a shot with a scotch tape and

?lick off? the dust. These robots will be very

complicated, but we will never be able to trust

them fully. Imagine this robot?s work on Mars:

it will land, turn an antenna, find Earth and say:

?Landed successfully?. Meanwhile, the robot

will start his analysis. It will examine the area

and show us the desert, the dead planet.

But the robot won?t examine the place

of its own landing.

We will be sad. Maybe there are at least

bacteria? The robot will act following

the program, but it can?t foresee everything.

The tape will gather some dust, and the capstan

will pull it into. The insect will get to the chamber

where analysis takes place. And then another

mistake will take place. The breeding ground

appears to be very tasty. We will wait but we

won?t be able to see that the light goes through

the empty glass. The robot will report that no

bacteria were found. So there is no life on Mars?

Complete silence. Strange world, dead world.

Despite all the progress in robot technics only

human can solve the mysteries of Mars.

It will take time to make it possible.

We will fly around and look closely. It?s scary.

There were examples that people sent animals

ahead. The first earthman on Mars will

probably be quadruped. What will it see?

We can try to imagine Martian plants,

departing from our plants living in hard

conditions.

Protect our plants from winds,

frost, and drought ? like many scientists did

thinking up Martian flora. The fundamental

works in this field belong to soviet scientist

G. Tikhov. He though that Martian plants look

similar to ours from tundra, mountains and

the Arctic. He said that these plants must be

undersized, grass and bushes at first. They can be

of blue or purple colour due to hard conditions.

Not everyone agrees with Tikhov. Soviet

astronomer Lubarsky claims the opposite:

?There should be red or brown colours, but not blue

as Tikhov claims.? But the words of American

astronomer Sallsbery sound also verisimilar:

?Temperature drop should?ve caused

the development of pigmentation which makes

the plants look black. Martian plants should

expose wide plane surface to the sun. Turning into

a tube at night would reduce the loss of warmth?.

On the other hand, ac. Fesenkov said that there

couldn?t be any higher plants on Mars at all.

But the existence of lichen, algae, and bacteria

cannot be neglected. Ac. Fesenkov describes

cheerless Mars. We prefer another, optimistic

theory of ac. Kuprevitch. According to him,

the relief that we believe to be covered with lichen

is covered indeed with higher plants.

We?d like to believe our quadruped astronaut'll see

such Mars, blooming, full of sounds and colors.

Sallsbery made an interesting claim. There are

indeed some forms of flora on Mars. It leaves

a step, but a huge step to higher forms of life.

We must be prepared for everything, to stand

the encounter with Martian inhabitants.

Everything is possible. And until the man lands

on Mars its mysteries will torment us.

The main question is who is there. The theory

of Martians wasn?t neither confirmed

nor disproved. What if Lowell was right?

What if we will see structures of a unique

civilization? What if the channels are a huge

irrigation system? With the help of these strange

hydro-technical devices Martians collect

the moisture from poles, and direct it to

the equatorial districts of the planet. It is easier

to live there. The tubes stretch for a thousand km.

The plantations are situated along them.

And the crossings of the channels are

the centers of Martian civilization, the cities.

But what if it is all opposite? We will see

the traces of a long-dead civilization:

the ruins sleeping for thousands of years,

the buildings, which were full of life many

years ago, the evidences of existence of

a mysterious nation that didn?t wait for us.

And only the orbital city, created by genious

engineers, continues to fly around the planet.

It flies in the dark abyss ? slowly, with its

lights off, a silent monument of the great mind.

It is Phoebus, the satellite of Mars, which will

never stop.

But probably everything will be much simpler.

And we will say about the channels:

?We should have guessed!? Let?s speculate.

The channels look like a system of

communication. But even animals sometimes

create structures that look artificial.

Bee honeycombs for instance, or beaver weirs.

What are the schemes of bird migration

or the tracks of eel that crossed Atlantic Ocean,

if not a system of communication? So

the channels can be routes of some living

creatures? migration. Guided by an instinct,

they bring moisture from poles to equatorial

lands. There are a lot of them. They move in

a shortest way, using the cracks of surface.

The plants grow along these tracks. They use

water and give these animals shadow

and food instead.

Sure, it is merely a fantasy. We can create

a lot of such theories. It is not bad, because

we cannot cognize the world without fantasy,

without this great quality of human soul.

Don?t be afraid to dream, go and make your

landing on Mars. Today! Now.

The first man on Mars. The sun will rise

in an hour and light this unique world up.

In an hour we will unravel all the mysteries

that bothered us for ages. But it?s so hard

to wait this hour. The sky lightens. These white

smokes must be geysers or evaporation of hoarfrost.

And what if they woke up? The lights flashed out

in mountains. That can be either the sun lights

or the lights in the castle of Aelita.

People of Earth! Stand up, and be ready.

It?s a great moment ? we discover a new planet.

The discovery of Mars.

The end.