Destination Mars (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Astronauts - full transcript

(dramatic instrumental music)

(radio chatter)

(man sighs)

I believe there's a little pioneer

in each of us, and I believe
we all want to explore.

We all want to expand our horizons.

(radio chatter)

(rocket engines starting)

The human spirit will not be denied.

It's more powerful than
almost anything else.

(dramatic instrumental music)



(radio chatter)

There's no limit to where
we can go or what we can do.

(train horn and signal bells)

(energetic violin music)

I'm Dan Carey, and first of all,

it's freaking Mars
we're talking about here.

(whimsical violin music)

In Mars One, I'm in
charge of different parts.

One part is the selection by itself,

and then in continuing for
the training of the astronauts.

(chatter)

Salam

I've dreamt of going
to Mars since I was 11.

I want to go to Mars!



I really want to go to Mars.

Since I was a little kid,

all I wanted was to be a
doctor and travel in space.

I have dreamed about going
to Mars for my entire life.

What they have to do is

they had to deliver a one minute video.

Hi, my name is Oscar Matthews,

and all I've ever wanted
to be was an astronaut.

Answering three specific
questions we gave them,

so one question is why
do you want to go to Mars?

The other one, what kind
of humor do you have?

And why you think you would
be suitable for it, basically.

When we opened up our
selection process in 2013,

we had more than 200,000 applications,

but these people, it's their dream.

Their life will start
when they land on Mars.

200,000 people signed up to
go on a one-way trip to Mars,

and it sounds like a
lot, but it isn't that much.

That's one in 30,000 or
40,000 of all the people on Earth.

It's a very tiny fraction,

and I think that a tiny fraction

is willing to sign up for
almost anything. Right?

They'll sign up to climb Mount Everest.

Even though they have
no experience, they'll do it.

If people doubts the
motivations of our candidates,

they're probably not the types of people

who would apply for a mission
of permanent settlement.

If this is something that you aspire,

then you don't care how you have to apply.

You just take every
opportunity that you have,

and suddenly there's this Dutch company

that says they're going to Mars.

This might be a way for me
to make my dream come true.

(adventurous instrumental music)

I have met a fair number

of the Mars 100 candidates.

Some of them I think are a
little loose around the edges.

Others of them I think are
very high quality people.

I think that within the Mars 100,

there absolutely are 20 people

that could be...

would be entirely qualified to be selected

for the NASA Astronaut Corp, for example.

My life well on Mars.

The way people are
being selected for Mars One

makes it very democratic, you know?

Going to Mars isn't going to be restricted

to some people that NASA
selects or something like that.

We're going to open
this up to the entire world.

That sounds good, but in fact,

you know, going to Mars is so hard

and requires so much cooperative behavior

on the part of the participants,

that it may be that these kind

of populace selection criteria

will not pay off in the end.

Why would I be the perfect
candidate for this mission?

One of my main questions about Mars One

is how they're selecting
their people to go.

They will be Earth's,

the entire planet's
ambassadors to another world,

and although we don't expect
them to run into a Martian

or to meet an alien,
they are the first people

to colonize a new planet.

And although they shouldn't
necessarily be scientists,

or fighter pilots, or somebody
from the Astronaut Corp,

how they're selecting them

doesn't seem thorough enough

for people who are going to have to survive

such hard conditions, live in
such isolated environments,

and to be, basically, our
first representatives on Mars.

(majestic instrumental music)

(calm violin music)

It's fundamentally my dream to explore.

To be an astronaut is
an expression of that...

I guess, urge.

Being a settler on Mars feeds that need

in much the same way.

My dad was an F-16 mechanic,

a crew cheif in the Air Force.

We went to air shows
all the time growing up,

and it really just ignited
this passion for aerospace

and just jets and flying.

I thought that was the coolest thing.

I think that I have the right stuff

to be the first settlers on Mars,

one of the first group of Martians

because you want somebody who's adaptable

in the face of adversity,
someone who understands

when some sacrifices have to be made.

Challenges are what sharpen
the edge of the human spirit.

If you don't have challenges in your life,

you grow dull.

You go complacent.

You grow obnoxious and boring.

(Leila laughing)

♫ [Oscar] Hi-ho, hi-ho,
it's off to Mars we go,

♫ Bum-bum-bum, bum-bum ♫

I can't whistle.

This is yours.

You do the bass part.

Okay, you're the bass.

All right ♫Hi-ho, hi-ho,
it's off to Mars we go.

Actually, we're just camping today guys.

Don't get too excited. (laugh)

(adventurous instrumental music)

I'm camping with some
of the other Mars 100.

Oscar and Dan, we thought
it would be fun to go out

and do a team building exercise,

hang out, and get to know each other.

You know, set up the tent, and cook a meal,

and you know, just talk about

how this whole team building
works and see how it goes.

Let's just pop it up both times.

We're actually not sending
the best people to Mars.

We're sending the best teams to Mars,

and that's a very important difference.

You might have four brilliant people

who all are the right skill set

but if they can't work together,

then they're not going to make it.

So finding the right
teams is actually essential

for the success of our mission.

Looks like this pole actually broke.

Uh-oh.

We can fix that.
Duct tape.

We can fix it with duct tape, right.

Duct tape.

Obviously. Yeah, duct
tape will fix anything.

We need to bring about
a metric ton of it to Mars.

We need to find people
with the right skill sets,

but surprisingly, the right skill set

is not in the medical skills,
or the engineering skills.

We need people who are
the right types of people

to be in a small environment and cooperate

under any circumstances.

The people that are being selected

are selected on the basis

of being physically sound enough to do it,

and also being of the
right psychological mindset

so they won't strangle
the guy sitting next to them

because they don't like
the way he chooses food.

You know, eventually what you want to do

is send people who will be useful

in terms of exploring the planet.

So, I'm a scientist,

so I have a bias towards
sending scientists,

but I think that if you send geologists,

and biologists, and so forth to Mars,

you would get back so
much from that mission

that it would justify the whole effort.

I am an emergency medicine physician.

I basically fix pepole who are broken.

No matter what it is, you
come through the door

we take care of you.

(instrumental music)

Deep breath.

And I can't imagine a
permanent colony on Mars

without a doctor.

My husband, Ron, is the one who suggested

I should apply for Mars One.

And go to Mars one way.

I saw a story about Mars One,

about people who were
planning to go to Mars,

and I read it and I thought,

"Yeah, I can't do that."

And then I read it and thought,

"But Leila would!"

So I sent her an email saying,

"I don't want you to go.

"However, I'd feel like a terrible husband

"if I didn't at least tell you about it."

(Ron laughs)

I certainly understand that other people

would think it's odd that my husband

would suggest to me that I
might want to apply for a program

to go to Mars and never come back.

Ta-da!

You want your partner to
have everything in the world,

everything they want.

You want them to have every dream,

everything that they want to achieve.

You want to help them do it.

I knew who I married.

I knew who I've been
living with for 23 years.

This isn't some sort of surprise.

"Oh look, she values this."

That's ridiculous. I know
exactly what she values.

She wants to go to Mars.

It's not the end.

The end is space.

The end is a multi-planet species.

I believe that fully.

The more material skills like
engineering, medical skills,

growing your own food, we can teach that

to anyone with a good brain.

They study medicine. They study law.

They study geology, electromechanic,

so everybody is able to do
every job which is necessary

on the Mars station, basically.

We will train people for 10 years,

and they will be full-time
employees of Mars One

preparing for their mission.

Also, what's very important to realize

is that we don't need the people who invent

new life support technologies

or new medical procedures.

We don't need brain surgeons.

We need very good plumbers,

and we need very good field medics.

That is what we will do in the period

of 10, 12 years that they will train.

It's enough time to get a PhD

in engineering and in medicine.

Choosing your people to go to Mars

for Mars One is about...

At least in my opinion, is about

having people that are
entertaining and interesting.

However, from an astronaut perspective,

if you look at general astronaut selection,

you still want entertaining
and interesting people,

but they have to be
extremely capable as well,

and I worry that the people
being selected by Mars One

are not being selected
based upon their abilities,

but instead based upon
their entertainment value.

I think that Mars One would be wise

especially in its initial several missions

to test these crews

not in reality TV show style,

but in Mars habs on Earth
in places like the Arctic.

Send them there on long-duration missions,

have them spend a
year in the Arctic together

doing the same kinds of thing in the Arctic

that they would be doing on Mars

and see if they work out.

I think that this kind
of testing is important.

The only basis for
predicting future performance

is past performance.

Yeah, that's a little bit...

Oh, that's barely broken.
That's mostly okay.

It's mostly okay!

Yeah.
Okay.

$10 then. That was a great deal.

I don't know if I want to be

in an air-tight habitat with you guys.

"Oh, that's barely leaking at all."

Let's go.

When I was first thinking about applying,

and I was talking with the family about it.

My wife Ann said,

"What would they want
with a 50 year old data guy?"

Joss.

I look at some of the other candidates

who go out and they're parachuting

and climbing mountains,
and scaling rock walls

and all this kind of
stuff, and I'm just kind of

this sedentary guy in the suburbs,

but apparently they saw something there

that met a criteria.

To this day, I'm still surprised.

Smell it and make sure it's not too strong,

because otherwise it might be a little...

When I told my wife that I wanted to apply

for Mars One,

and that it was a one-way mission,

and she said,

"You would leave me?"

I really freaked out when he made the 100,

and I was like, "Holy Crap!

"You're leaving me. You can't leave me."

This is something that
he's always wanted to do

is the whole space thing,

but if he does the whole space thing,

then he's not here, and...

Yeah, no.

I'm not 100% on board with that.

Over time, I think she's
made peace with the idea

more or less.

She's just pinning her
hopes on the possibility

that Mars One doesn't get any money.

When I first land on Mars,

I want to go charging
out of the capsule and go,

(speaks in a fictional language)

"We are here."

(Dan's daughter laughs)

I have a daughter and a son.

They're both in their 20's.

With kids, you're always thinking,

"Okay, eventually they're
going to move away."

Maybe not far away, but they'll be out.

You are always kind of preparing yourself

for this...

bit of distancing that is almost certainly

going to happen at some point.

In this case, the distance

just happens to be astronomical.

No scotch - [Dan] We will have chocolate.

No scotch.

I can do without the scotch,

but the chocolate is non-negotiable.

No, you're going to be eating dirt.

(exciting instrumental music)

But really I could... Really!

I could live here.

Absolutely.
(Oscar laughs)

Yeah, me too!

(Leila laughs)

You know, plenty of space.

Lots of room to stretch out.

(laughing)

Yeah, lot's of room to stretch out.

One of the things...

While the living size is something

I think we're all saying we could live with

there is that consideration
that you can't just

get up and go outside.

I've never had to do it,

so I have no clue how I will handle

that kind of enforced contraint.

You know, living in one spot.

The affect of living on Mars permanently

with a small group of
people psychologically

is really hard to predict.

We really have no idea how humans

could react to that situation.

They're carefully selected
to be able to get along,

but the facts are that

maybe they're not going
to get along for very long.

This isn't going to be Star Trek.

It's not going to be all shiny equipment.

Their job, basically for their lives,

will be to keep themselves alive.

To me, actually, the greatest danger may be

the fact that all the colonists
are in one little habitat.

You know, they're all living
on the same city block forever,

and all you have to do is look at ships

of the 1600's sailing across the Pacific.

The crews went nuts.

They began to hate one another.

They would throw their captain overboard.

I would love

for groups like Mars One to be successful,

but in order to be successful

they also have to be realistic,

and I think right now,

the biggest problem is
that we're not ready yet.

It is going to be very challenging,

but humans are adaptable.

Humans accept new situations very quickly,

and they move forward within
the new set of boundaries

of their condition.

Imagine what some of the
humans throughout history

of our planet have been through

and how well they've dealt with it

even though no one had done it before.

(inspiring instrumental music)