Mars (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Crossroads - full transcript
In 2037, a devastating tragedy in the colony forces everyone to question the mission. In the present, SpaceX attempts another pioneering launch.
[NARRATOR READS ON-SCREEN TEXT]
HAMA: When you believe in a 903!
the way we believed in Mars...
...conviction alone Will sustain you
through almost any test.
[GASPS]
If you find evidence of a second genesis....
Evolution could begin again.
I've got faith.
| used to stand in the doorway
of the farmhouse where I grew up...
...Iooking out at all the crops,
thinking about all the people they‘d feed.
If we push too hard too fast,
something‘s gonna break.
ED:
If they fail...
...everyone’s out.
HAMA:
But faith doesn‘t guarantee success.
Without plants, we‘re nothing.
HAMA:
The real test...
...is what happens when you fail.
We 're coming in too fast now
Everyone is burning bright
Hundred and eighty-two seconds, baby
And heaven is a trick of the light
Calm down
My love
Calm down, my love
Love, love, love, love, love, love
We 're coming in too fast now
Everyone is writing letters home
Love, love, love, love, love, love
A hundred and eighty-two seconds, baby
And heaven is address unknown
Calm down, my love
Calm down, my love
Calm down, my love
Richardson, Leslie. Phase two.
Personal entry.
[COMPUTER CHIMES]
[H EAVY BREATHING]
Damn tragedy.
Oh, God.
HAMA:
The entire west section is destroyed.
[SIGHS]
LESLIE:
Paul was always late.
He would get so caught up in his work
that he would just lose time.
Complete/y forget about it.
And then he’d show up hours later, filthy...
...Iike a kid that had been playing
out in the mud all day.
And always with that look on his face.
That look...
...as if he knew that he was in trouble.
But it was all worth it.
There was this one night ] remember...
...it was whilst we were living
out in South America.
He was still in the forest collecting samples.
He was late, as usual...
...but somehow it was different.
Morning came.
Another day went by.
Final/y,
! could hear his footsteps approaching.
So ! rushed out to meet him.
Then all of a sudden,
all that fear and worry that I'd felt...
...turned into anger...
I know.
LESLIE: ...rage.
I couldn‘t believe how selfish he’d been.
And then he appeared...
Victor.
Yeah.
There he is.
LESLI E:
...covered from top to bottom...
...in mud...
...with that look on his face.
That lock.
And all I could say was:
"I love you."
PAU L:
Without plants, we 're nothing.
We are not nothing, my friend.
HAMA:
We had lost seven of our own.
The [ab and the greenhouse were destroyed.
Olympus Town was in complete lockdown...
...until the nations of the IMSF
decided on the fate of our mission.
Was Mars gonna be a giant leap forward?
Or just a passing novelty?
lt wasn’t the first time
humankind had faced this question.
DRUYAM: We accomplished the impossible
by stepping on the moon.
This was the first hop...
...and there would be a skip
and a jump aftenrvards.
And we ’d keep going and going and going.
And the future would be one
of endless possibilities...
...where the cosmos was ours.
REPORTER:
What do you think about this moon landing?
It's the beginning of a new frontier...
...a gateway to Mars.
That came to a very abrupt halt.
LAUMIUS: A major turning point for Apollo
was the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
LOVELL [OVER RADIO]:
Uh, Houston, we 've had a problem.
BERGMAM [OM TV]:
Here is a bulletin from ABC News.
The Apollo 13 spacecraft has had
a serious power supply malfunction.
Late report says the spacecraft now
is operating on battery power alone.
All unnecessary equipment
is being turned off.
KRAMZ [OVER RADIO]: Everybody keep cool.
Let’s not make it any worse by guessing.
We came close to losing astronauts,
and it scared the living daylights out of people.
Some leaders at NASA said
we gotta stop this.
This is too risky.
LOGSDOM:
We all lived through that in real time.
We were all wrapped up
with the fate of the astronauts.
[HELICOPTER WHIRRING]
It was a close call to get them back.
That real/y spooked Nixon.
lt soured him on the notion of sending humans
away from Earth into deep space.
So it was a catalytic turning point
in attitudes towards space exploration.
LOVELL: Jack and Fred and ! are very proud
and glad to be back here in Texas tonight.
There were times when, uh, we really
didn‘t think that we‘d make it back here.
After the anomaly on 13,
I thought that our space exploration...
...would continue to go.
But the extreme rate of progress
slowed down.
Apollo was this promise of what was gonna be
going on. We were going to the moon...
...not to stop,
there were plans beyond the moon...
...but all this got killed
as the political will petered out and was gone.
LAUMIUS: On a Mars mission,
there may be some loss of life in the process...
...there may be failures along the road,
but people Will take it on.
One of the things that you have to ask is...
...are the rest of us willing
to allow them to do that?
Space exploration is subject to public opinion
and political support...
...there‘s no question about that.
If you send astronauts to Mars
and they die there...
...l guarantee you public opinion
Will prohibit you from ever doing it again.
HAMA: As we buried our friends,
the fate of the mission was back on Earth...
...in the hands of my sister and the IMSF.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
Hi, Ed.
How long until we know?
l told the press everything I know.
The nations are meeting
to discuss how to proceed.
We'll make an official announcement.
You can’t let them give up.
You just can’t.
They knew something like this
was a possibility.
We all did.
Does that mean anything to you?
Of course it means something to me.
What are you talking about?
It's a time to be strong.
To make a statement that says
we're here to stay.
You're not going to influence
my recommendation to the committee.
We've come too far, Joon.
If the train is derailing, there is nothing
I can do to keep it on the tracks.
The nations respect you.
They Will listen to you.
You can inspire them
to stay the course.
Even if we can, Ed,
I'm not sure that we should.
What?
I'm not sure that we should.
Me, I'm sure of one thing. I won‘t let go.
LOGSDOM: Dreamers of space
have always had their eyes, their hopes...
...their aspirations on getting to Mars.
DREIER: Mars has been the goal since
Wernher von Braun got involved with NASA.
KING [OVER RADIO]:
Liftoff. We have a liftoff.
Von Braun overbuilt entirer
the rocket to go to the moon.
The Saturn V is the largest, longest,
and heaviest machine ever built by humans.
It's absolute overkill for going to the moon.
And the reason is,
von Braun didn‘t wanna go to the moon.
He wanted to go to Mars.
The only reason he got involved in rocketry...
...was because ever since he‘s a little kid,
he’s focused on this idea of getting to Mars.
He invented the V-2 rocket
when he was in his late-203.
And it was the first thing
that ever went into space from Earth.
MAM:
Von Braun surrenders to U. S. forces...
...he and his fellow rocket scientists
actual/y welcomed by the Americans.
PETRAMEK: After the war, he writes a book
called Das Marsprojekt...
...which is basically a manual
on how to build a fleet of ships...
...that can get to Mars and get humans back.
He 's worked out all the equations,
all the details of how it could actual/y be done...
...and it captured the mind of the world.
Nobody was thinking about
going to the moon.
They were all imagining going to Mars.
[HELICOPTER WHIRRING]
MAM: This closes a golden chapter
in the age of space exploration.
With the end of the Apollo program,
MASA'S beginning to lose its focus.
What do we do next?
And there are two proposals
on Richard Nixon 's desk.
One proposal is that we build a space plane
called the space shuttle.
The other proposal was from von Braun...
...and he was really storming the hai/s
of Congress to say that we could go to Mars.
WOMAN:
When would you see a man on Mars?
We could land a man on Mars in a little over
10 years if we really wanted to do it.
DREIER: Richard Nixon was never
that big of a supporter of the space program.
He came in wanting to out the budget
to lower taxes.
Space just was not a high priority
for that administration.
Basically, they just wanted fewer leaps
for mankind, right? Small steps. Small steps.
PETRAMEK: So Nixon chooses
the space shuttle over going to Mars.
Von Braun quits NASA,
and within a few years has cancer and dies.
MAN: lt must have taken a great deal
of determination to carry on...
...in view of some of the early failures
that you had.
Well, yes. You just shouldn‘t give up.
That’s very simple.
Something blows in your face,
try again, try again, try again.
One fine day, you'll wind up on top.
HAMA: After the devastation of the west section,
we needed to scavenge...
...from all our other resources to rebuild.
Even the old workshop.
[GRUMTS]
Figure we use the housings
to patch the corridor the best we can.
If we can get the sections
sealed with scrap...
...my team can start working
on the damage done to Olympus Town.
Mm-hm. Javier.
What?
[IN SPANISH]
[IN SPANISH]
JAVIER [IM ENGLISH]:
What is that?
Hm? Corrosion?
[IM ENGLISH]
Looks like, Uh, aragonite crystal.
Mm.
Possible the metal catalyzed percolate
carried by the storm.
Unless something reacted with the water
that came out of the condensation filter.
[SIGHS]
It‘d be nice if I had a lab.
Yeah.
[SIGHS]
It's getting dark.
Ah, Iet's get out of here.
[INHALES DEEPLY
THEN EXHALES]
Phobos and Deimos.
[IN SPANISH]
We lost two of our finest cosmonauts
to this catastrophe.
The support of the Russian people
is fading.
We've known this since Apollo. Once
novelty passes, so does public support.
And no one ever died on them.
Is this not a time to make a statement
that says we're here to stay?
We have committed resources,
delivered speeches.
Giving up now
could be a great embarrassment.
MAN:
More embarrassing than another tragedy?
We only accepted the risk in the '603
because it was a matter of national defense.
WOMAN 1: People love space,
but not when it means watching heroes die.
WOMAN 2: Secretary Seung,
you are as personally invested as any of us.
I would like to hear your recommendation
to the committee.
[SNIFFLES THEN SIGHS]
[DOOR CHIMES]
May |?
I'm so sorry.
Paul was my responsibility.
We don‘t need to do this.
They all were.
You didn‘t kill them and neither did Paul.
And neither did you.
| gave that order, not you.
We didn’t have a choice, Leslie.
Paul was right in front of me
and I didn‘t see him.
If we have any chance
in this place...
...we need you with us.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
Hana.
They asked me to make a choice.
Whether to keep push/ng
or to bring you home.
I try to go back to that feeling...
...that feeling we had staring up at the stars
and imagining what was beyond.
[IM KOREAM]
[IM ENGLISH] Do you remember
that recurring dream I used to have?
Walking along the regolith
under the twin moons?
Before ! even knew it was Mars
! was dreaming about.
[SIGHS]
JOOM:
When I think about you up there...
...if it had been you in that corridor....
HAMA:
If it had been me in that corridor...
...I only hope someone else
would have done the same.
This mission...
...it‘s bigger than all of us.
I've made my peace.
And I‘d do it again if I have to.
That dream ! used to have about Mars...
...I could never tell Mom
why I‘d wake up crying every time.
lt wasn’t because it was a nightmare.
It was because the dream was over.
Hana. ..
...I told them to bring you home.
I‘m gonna make a public announcement
next week.
I‘m sorry.
HAMA:
The mission had failed.
I‘d failed the crew.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
] failed Ben.
[SOBBIMG]
[CHUCKLES]
[BOTH PAMTIMG]
Oh, man.
This reminds me of a place I used to go
with my father when I was a kid.
It's so beautiful.
Yeah.
You know...
...they could give us a rover,
put us in EVA suits, but...
But that blue sky...
...I'm gonna miss that.
There‘s really no way of knowing
if we actually make it up there, is there?
Mo.
But what good would we be
if we didn‘t even try?
Huh?
Let‘s keep moving.
DRUYAM:
The tragedy, for me, of the shuttle?
It was as if we 'd lost our nerve.
lnstead of building on the technology
that had gotten us to the moon...
...and saying, okay, Iet‘s go to Mars...
...we ended up turning to a shuttle,
which was going nowhere.
DREIER: We went into low Earth orbit
for the next 40 years.
And I think a lot of people felt
a certain amount of betrayal.
So far, the previous generation
since Apollo...
...have not picked up that torch
and carried it forward.
We're approaching the 50th anniversary
of the Apollo moon landing.
People who watched it happen
are still around...
...and still remember a time
when we did things like this.
If anybody had told me that I would be 64
and we wouldn’t be on Mars...
...I would've thought they were crazy.
McCAIM: Dr. Zubrin, you're mad that this vision
has been stolen from a generation?
Yes. We turned our back on the Apollo vision.
It's like Columbus coming back...
...from the New World and Ferdinand and
Isabella saying, “Ah, forget it. Burn the ships."
The purpose of spaceships is to actually
travel across space and go to new worlds.
Mars is where the science is,
Mars is where the challenge is...
...and Mars is where the future is.
ZUBRIM:
That if we say, "No, that is beyond us“...
...it would real/y indicate that we 've become
less than the kind of people we used to be.
And that is something
this country cannot afford.
HAMA: As the others prepared Olympus Town
for the official evacuation order...
...Robert and I took a trip
to visit an old friend.
We needed her help taking us back.
There she is.
Never thought
we‘d be trying to take her back.
Me either.
lt looks like she's been through
a war.
She has.
ED: This is it.
Your home for the seven—month journey...
...and the first two years
you'll be living on Mars' surface.
When the time comes to face the unknown...
...there has never been another suit of armor
more skillfully crafted...
...than this one.
Take good care of her.
Shell take good care of you.
BEM:
! want you to stop and ask yourself...
...what really is important to you
about this mission.
And if the answer to that question
is not the most important thing in your life...
...then I‘m gonna invite you
to walk out that door...
...and pursue that thing, whatever it is.
And don‘t ever look back, because no one
Will ever have the right to hold it against you.
Well, all right.
Welcome home.
ROBERT:
External solar arrays are online.
Initializing for startup.
On my mark.
Three, two, one.
Engage.
[COMPUTER BEEPS
THEN POWERING UP]
MAE:
Pressurizing.
JOOM [OVER RADIO}: No pressure now, Hana.
It’s just all of humanity relying on you.
You ready for this?
ROBERT: Three...
Are you?
ROBERT:...tw0...
...one.
Ignition.
MAE:
Pressurization complete.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
NDES are registering
no micro meteoroid damage.
She'll need new parts
to address the damage from landing.
Cygnus brought us everything we need
to get a flight ready.
How will it be?
What’s that?
Going home.
I'm already home.
[PERSON COUGHING]
LESLIE:
Marta.
I thought you might be interested
in this.
It was Paul's.
I‘d like you to have it.
Is there anything I can do to help?
Thank you.
When Paul was working on his
early climate-resistant hybrid studies...
...I went with him to the western highlands
of Guatemala.
We knew that if we didn‘t plan our lives
around our work...
...we‘d never see each other at all.
He was always gone.
Sometimes weeks.
Because on top of his own research,
he also decided that he could figure out...
...how this particular pathogen
was spreading through local communities.
So I barer got to see him.
And I resented him for it.
It was as if plants were more important
to him than human beings.
Certainly, to my mind,
more important than me.
But eventually I understood that,
for Paul...
...every time he Iooked at those plants,
he could see...
...all the people they could feed...
...all the people they could heal.
So how did he figure it out?
Figure what out?
The pathogen.
How was it spreading?
Paul realized that the outbreak pattern
followed the same vectors...
...as one of the airborne blights
he‘d been tracking.
He‘d also been mapping these very
complex wind flows from the mountains.
And from that...
...he was able to conclude
that the pathogen must have mutated.
And it was able to survive in the air...
...and travel on the wind.
On the wind.
Yeah.
MAM [OVER PA]:
Prime IMSF executive order...
...a/l non-evacuation-related
extra-vehicular activity is now prohibited.
[JAVIER MUTTERING
IN VOICE-OVER]
JAVIER [IN SPANISH]:
Hey.
LESLIE: We‘d be looking
for another location with moisture...
...to replicate the reaction
used on the WAVAR.
So we’d be following the wind patterns.
Wind patterns?
Javier and I found something.
The samples were too contaminated
to analyze...
...but I figured it blew in
from the east in the storm.
Because of the easterly arc of the wind.
No way to track its source.
Your story made me think.
Even though I may not be able to pinpoint
where it came from...
...I can figure out where else
it might have blown to.
The way the Tharsis Plateau
affects the wind flow...
...it would have blown
straight into the recurring slope lineae...
...on these elevated bedrock outcrops
just to the west.
If there wasn't a moratorium
on nonessential EVAS....
What moratorium?
ZUBRIM:
The history of space exploration...
...begins with individuals...
...taking the road not taken...
...with people with a vision.
VON BRAUN: ! real/y never had any doubts
that it was possible to go to the moon.
Today, I know.
ZUBRIM:
People being able to see with their minds...
...what others had yet to be able to see
with their eyes.
DIAMANDIS: There is a direct correlation
between the dreams...
...and the works of science fiction
and the reality.
We as humans, over and over again,
create the future.
We create the future we envision.
And then we bring to bear
our resources, our capital...
...our technology, our friendships,
and then we make it real.
KAI: What’s this building called?
ELOM: This is the launch tower.
So this is where the astronauts would go up.
And then there would be a big arm
that would swing over to the spacecraft...
...and they‘d walk down the gangway,
climb in the spacecraft...
...go to space.
And this isn't floors, this is feet.
The long-term goal of SpaceX is to establish
a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.
Pretty cool.
lt just always seemed like
we should've gone there by now.
That‘s what everyone expected.
And we just kind of lost our way.
It's a long way down.
But now we're gonna get back there.
MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]:
SpaceX Falcon 9, go for launch.
MAN 2 [OVER RADIO]:
Stage 1 tanks pressing for flight.
MAN 3 [OVER RADIO]:
VC verify F9 is in startup.
MAN 2:
F9 is in startup.
MAN 3:
T-minus-four minutes.
MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]:
SpaceX Falcon 9, go for launch.
MAN 2 [OVER RADIO}: Vehicle is in manual.
MAN 3 [OVER RADIO}: T-minus-one minute.
ELOM:
This is a return to flight launch.
We‘d had a failed mission
on June 28th of 2015.
[GASPS]
After the failure,
the whole launch program ground to a halt.
It put a lot of strain on the company.
MAM [OVER PA]: All stations verify
ready for launch. T-minus-3O seconds.
Elon Musk has said the key to get to Mars
is the reusability of rockets.
He wants to be able
to fire a rocket into orbit...
...Iaunch a pay/oad into space,
and then fire retrorockets...
...and bring that rocket down
to land vertically, and reuse it.
That‘s an extremely difficult concept.
If he cannot make rockets truly reusable...
...then he cannot launch
a new civilization on Mars.
So the stakes
for every rocket launch are huge.
MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]:
T-minus-20 seconds.
MAN 2 [OVER RADIO}: Stage 2 tanks pressing
for flight. Computer has control of the vehicle.
WOMAN [OVER RADIO}: No, nothing.
MAN 3: They all say go for launch.
MAN 1:
T-minus-10, nine...
...eight, seven, six...
CROWD: Eight, seven, six...
...five, four, three, two, one.
...five, four, three, two, one.
[ALL CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
MAN 1 :
Liftoff.
It's going, baby.
MAN 4: Come on, baby.
Let‘s go.
I'm going outside. Check it out.
MAN 2: Speed 1.2 km
per second. Downrange distance, 11 km.
Short/y after main-engine cutoff...
...we're going to separate the stages
and begin the second—stage ignition.
MAN 5:
Yes!
Come on.
[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
MAN 6 [OVER PA]:
Main-engine cutoff.
The first stage is returning to land...
...as the second stage powers
the Orbcomm satellites to low Earth orbit.
The fairings have successful/y deployed.
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
The first stage Will soon begin
its series of three burns...
...to head back towards Cape Canaveral.
ELOM:
Okay, where is the--?
Okay, this is bad.
Potentially bad.
[CROWD MURMURING]
[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
WOMAN [OVER PA]:
That is that first stage coming back down.
History in the making, guys.
ELOM: It's standing up.
MAN: It's standing up.
ELOM: When we saw it coming in,
it sounded like an explosion.
Whool
Yeah, man.
Oh, my God.
[LAUGHING]
ROSEN:
Look at this. Look at it. It‘s just sitting there.
Look at that.
Holy smokes, man.
ELOM: It’s kind of amazing that
this window of opportunity is open...
...for life to go beyond Earth.
And we just don‘t know
how long that window‘s gonna be open.
But the thing that gets me
the most fired up...
...is that creating
a self-sustaining civilization on Mars...
...it would be the greatest adventure ever,
ever in human history.
It would be so exciting
to wake up in the morning...
...and think that that‘s what's happening.
ZU B RI M :
Apollo is still within living memory.
ARMSTRONG [OVER RADIO}:
Houston, uh, the Eagle has Ianded.
ZU BRI M:
But the longer we let it fade into the past...
...the dimmer our prospects become.
We do need to make discoveries.
We do need to find out the truth
about life and the universe.
To resolve mysteries
that thinking men and women...
...have wondered about
for thousands of years.
Look up. Look up.
There‘s everything out there.
There 's trillions of other Earths.
That‘s why we 're gonna do it.
And the next time we go,
we 're gonna go to stay.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
A story Leslie Richardson told me
sparked a thought.
Javier and I found something
at the Old workshop.
I need to go there.
HAMA: The wind patterns lead to a location
87 km west of Olympus Town.
We hope to find a new sample of the substance
Marta found on the WA VARs.
MARTA:
Leslie.
Have you ever driven
one of these?
MO, | haven't.
DO you wanna have a go?
[CHUCKLES]
REPORTER:
We're here at IMSF Headquarters...
...waiting for Secretary Seung
to make her announcement...
...regarding what we believe
Will be the end of the Mars mission.
ED:
We 've come so far.
If we stop now...
...the Mars dream is dead.
Today marks the end of an era...
...and the beginning Of a new one.
[GASPS]
There is life on Mars.
[AUDIENCE GASPS]
[ALL CLAMORING]
[CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING]
HAMA:
We had come so far.
We 're coming in too fast now
HAMA:
Overcome so many obstacles.
Everyone is burning bright
HAMA: And though there were times
when our faith flagged, we persevered.
Hundred and eighty-two seconds, baby
HAMA:
There would be no evacuation.
And heaven is a trick of the light
HAMA: And as we prepared
for the next phase, one thing was clear...
...our dream was alive.
HAMA: When you believe in a 903!
the way we believed in Mars...
...conviction alone Will sustain you
through almost any test.
[GASPS]
If you find evidence of a second genesis....
Evolution could begin again.
I've got faith.
| used to stand in the doorway
of the farmhouse where I grew up...
...Iooking out at all the crops,
thinking about all the people they‘d feed.
If we push too hard too fast,
something‘s gonna break.
ED:
If they fail...
...everyone’s out.
HAMA:
But faith doesn‘t guarantee success.
Without plants, we‘re nothing.
HAMA:
The real test...
...is what happens when you fail.
We 're coming in too fast now
Everyone is burning bright
Hundred and eighty-two seconds, baby
And heaven is a trick of the light
Calm down
My love
Calm down, my love
Love, love, love, love, love, love
We 're coming in too fast now
Everyone is writing letters home
Love, love, love, love, love, love
A hundred and eighty-two seconds, baby
And heaven is address unknown
Calm down, my love
Calm down, my love
Calm down, my love
Richardson, Leslie. Phase two.
Personal entry.
[COMPUTER CHIMES]
[H EAVY BREATHING]
Damn tragedy.
Oh, God.
HAMA:
The entire west section is destroyed.
[SIGHS]
LESLIE:
Paul was always late.
He would get so caught up in his work
that he would just lose time.
Complete/y forget about it.
And then he’d show up hours later, filthy...
...Iike a kid that had been playing
out in the mud all day.
And always with that look on his face.
That look...
...as if he knew that he was in trouble.
But it was all worth it.
There was this one night ] remember...
...it was whilst we were living
out in South America.
He was still in the forest collecting samples.
He was late, as usual...
...but somehow it was different.
Morning came.
Another day went by.
Final/y,
! could hear his footsteps approaching.
So ! rushed out to meet him.
Then all of a sudden,
all that fear and worry that I'd felt...
...turned into anger...
I know.
LESLIE: ...rage.
I couldn‘t believe how selfish he’d been.
And then he appeared...
Victor.
Yeah.
There he is.
LESLI E:
...covered from top to bottom...
...in mud...
...with that look on his face.
That lock.
And all I could say was:
"I love you."
PAU L:
Without plants, we 're nothing.
We are not nothing, my friend.
HAMA:
We had lost seven of our own.
The [ab and the greenhouse were destroyed.
Olympus Town was in complete lockdown...
...until the nations of the IMSF
decided on the fate of our mission.
Was Mars gonna be a giant leap forward?
Or just a passing novelty?
lt wasn’t the first time
humankind had faced this question.
DRUYAM: We accomplished the impossible
by stepping on the moon.
This was the first hop...
...and there would be a skip
and a jump aftenrvards.
And we ’d keep going and going and going.
And the future would be one
of endless possibilities...
...where the cosmos was ours.
REPORTER:
What do you think about this moon landing?
It's the beginning of a new frontier...
...a gateway to Mars.
That came to a very abrupt halt.
LAUMIUS: A major turning point for Apollo
was the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
LOVELL [OVER RADIO]:
Uh, Houston, we 've had a problem.
BERGMAM [OM TV]:
Here is a bulletin from ABC News.
The Apollo 13 spacecraft has had
a serious power supply malfunction.
Late report says the spacecraft now
is operating on battery power alone.
All unnecessary equipment
is being turned off.
KRAMZ [OVER RADIO]: Everybody keep cool.
Let’s not make it any worse by guessing.
We came close to losing astronauts,
and it scared the living daylights out of people.
Some leaders at NASA said
we gotta stop this.
This is too risky.
LOGSDOM:
We all lived through that in real time.
We were all wrapped up
with the fate of the astronauts.
[HELICOPTER WHIRRING]
It was a close call to get them back.
That real/y spooked Nixon.
lt soured him on the notion of sending humans
away from Earth into deep space.
So it was a catalytic turning point
in attitudes towards space exploration.
LOVELL: Jack and Fred and ! are very proud
and glad to be back here in Texas tonight.
There were times when, uh, we really
didn‘t think that we‘d make it back here.
After the anomaly on 13,
I thought that our space exploration...
...would continue to go.
But the extreme rate of progress
slowed down.
Apollo was this promise of what was gonna be
going on. We were going to the moon...
...not to stop,
there were plans beyond the moon...
...but all this got killed
as the political will petered out and was gone.
LAUMIUS: On a Mars mission,
there may be some loss of life in the process...
...there may be failures along the road,
but people Will take it on.
One of the things that you have to ask is...
...are the rest of us willing
to allow them to do that?
Space exploration is subject to public opinion
and political support...
...there‘s no question about that.
If you send astronauts to Mars
and they die there...
...l guarantee you public opinion
Will prohibit you from ever doing it again.
HAMA: As we buried our friends,
the fate of the mission was back on Earth...
...in the hands of my sister and the IMSF.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
Hi, Ed.
How long until we know?
l told the press everything I know.
The nations are meeting
to discuss how to proceed.
We'll make an official announcement.
You can’t let them give up.
You just can’t.
They knew something like this
was a possibility.
We all did.
Does that mean anything to you?
Of course it means something to me.
What are you talking about?
It's a time to be strong.
To make a statement that says
we're here to stay.
You're not going to influence
my recommendation to the committee.
We've come too far, Joon.
If the train is derailing, there is nothing
I can do to keep it on the tracks.
The nations respect you.
They Will listen to you.
You can inspire them
to stay the course.
Even if we can, Ed,
I'm not sure that we should.
What?
I'm not sure that we should.
Me, I'm sure of one thing. I won‘t let go.
LOGSDOM: Dreamers of space
have always had their eyes, their hopes...
...their aspirations on getting to Mars.
DREIER: Mars has been the goal since
Wernher von Braun got involved with NASA.
KING [OVER RADIO]:
Liftoff. We have a liftoff.
Von Braun overbuilt entirer
the rocket to go to the moon.
The Saturn V is the largest, longest,
and heaviest machine ever built by humans.
It's absolute overkill for going to the moon.
And the reason is,
von Braun didn‘t wanna go to the moon.
He wanted to go to Mars.
The only reason he got involved in rocketry...
...was because ever since he‘s a little kid,
he’s focused on this idea of getting to Mars.
He invented the V-2 rocket
when he was in his late-203.
And it was the first thing
that ever went into space from Earth.
MAM:
Von Braun surrenders to U. S. forces...
...he and his fellow rocket scientists
actual/y welcomed by the Americans.
PETRAMEK: After the war, he writes a book
called Das Marsprojekt...
...which is basically a manual
on how to build a fleet of ships...
...that can get to Mars and get humans back.
He 's worked out all the equations,
all the details of how it could actual/y be done...
...and it captured the mind of the world.
Nobody was thinking about
going to the moon.
They were all imagining going to Mars.
[HELICOPTER WHIRRING]
MAM: This closes a golden chapter
in the age of space exploration.
With the end of the Apollo program,
MASA'S beginning to lose its focus.
What do we do next?
And there are two proposals
on Richard Nixon 's desk.
One proposal is that we build a space plane
called the space shuttle.
The other proposal was from von Braun...
...and he was really storming the hai/s
of Congress to say that we could go to Mars.
WOMAN:
When would you see a man on Mars?
We could land a man on Mars in a little over
10 years if we really wanted to do it.
DREIER: Richard Nixon was never
that big of a supporter of the space program.
He came in wanting to out the budget
to lower taxes.
Space just was not a high priority
for that administration.
Basically, they just wanted fewer leaps
for mankind, right? Small steps. Small steps.
PETRAMEK: So Nixon chooses
the space shuttle over going to Mars.
Von Braun quits NASA,
and within a few years has cancer and dies.
MAN: lt must have taken a great deal
of determination to carry on...
...in view of some of the early failures
that you had.
Well, yes. You just shouldn‘t give up.
That’s very simple.
Something blows in your face,
try again, try again, try again.
One fine day, you'll wind up on top.
HAMA: After the devastation of the west section,
we needed to scavenge...
...from all our other resources to rebuild.
Even the old workshop.
[GRUMTS]
Figure we use the housings
to patch the corridor the best we can.
If we can get the sections
sealed with scrap...
...my team can start working
on the damage done to Olympus Town.
Mm-hm. Javier.
What?
[IN SPANISH]
[IN SPANISH]
JAVIER [IM ENGLISH]:
What is that?
Hm? Corrosion?
[IM ENGLISH]
Looks like, Uh, aragonite crystal.
Mm.
Possible the metal catalyzed percolate
carried by the storm.
Unless something reacted with the water
that came out of the condensation filter.
[SIGHS]
It‘d be nice if I had a lab.
Yeah.
[SIGHS]
It's getting dark.
Ah, Iet's get out of here.
[INHALES DEEPLY
THEN EXHALES]
Phobos and Deimos.
[IN SPANISH]
We lost two of our finest cosmonauts
to this catastrophe.
The support of the Russian people
is fading.
We've known this since Apollo. Once
novelty passes, so does public support.
And no one ever died on them.
Is this not a time to make a statement
that says we're here to stay?
We have committed resources,
delivered speeches.
Giving up now
could be a great embarrassment.
MAN:
More embarrassing than another tragedy?
We only accepted the risk in the '603
because it was a matter of national defense.
WOMAN 1: People love space,
but not when it means watching heroes die.
WOMAN 2: Secretary Seung,
you are as personally invested as any of us.
I would like to hear your recommendation
to the committee.
[SNIFFLES THEN SIGHS]
[DOOR CHIMES]
May |?
I'm so sorry.
Paul was my responsibility.
We don‘t need to do this.
They all were.
You didn‘t kill them and neither did Paul.
And neither did you.
| gave that order, not you.
We didn’t have a choice, Leslie.
Paul was right in front of me
and I didn‘t see him.
If we have any chance
in this place...
...we need you with us.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
Hana.
They asked me to make a choice.
Whether to keep push/ng
or to bring you home.
I try to go back to that feeling...
...that feeling we had staring up at the stars
and imagining what was beyond.
[IM KOREAM]
[IM ENGLISH] Do you remember
that recurring dream I used to have?
Walking along the regolith
under the twin moons?
Before ! even knew it was Mars
! was dreaming about.
[SIGHS]
JOOM:
When I think about you up there...
...if it had been you in that corridor....
HAMA:
If it had been me in that corridor...
...I only hope someone else
would have done the same.
This mission...
...it‘s bigger than all of us.
I've made my peace.
And I‘d do it again if I have to.
That dream ! used to have about Mars...
...I could never tell Mom
why I‘d wake up crying every time.
lt wasn’t because it was a nightmare.
It was because the dream was over.
Hana. ..
...I told them to bring you home.
I‘m gonna make a public announcement
next week.
I‘m sorry.
HAMA:
The mission had failed.
I‘d failed the crew.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
] failed Ben.
[SOBBIMG]
[CHUCKLES]
[BOTH PAMTIMG]
Oh, man.
This reminds me of a place I used to go
with my father when I was a kid.
It's so beautiful.
Yeah.
You know...
...they could give us a rover,
put us in EVA suits, but...
But that blue sky...
...I'm gonna miss that.
There‘s really no way of knowing
if we actually make it up there, is there?
Mo.
But what good would we be
if we didn‘t even try?
Huh?
Let‘s keep moving.
DRUYAM:
The tragedy, for me, of the shuttle?
It was as if we 'd lost our nerve.
lnstead of building on the technology
that had gotten us to the moon...
...and saying, okay, Iet‘s go to Mars...
...we ended up turning to a shuttle,
which was going nowhere.
DREIER: We went into low Earth orbit
for the next 40 years.
And I think a lot of people felt
a certain amount of betrayal.
So far, the previous generation
since Apollo...
...have not picked up that torch
and carried it forward.
We're approaching the 50th anniversary
of the Apollo moon landing.
People who watched it happen
are still around...
...and still remember a time
when we did things like this.
If anybody had told me that I would be 64
and we wouldn’t be on Mars...
...I would've thought they were crazy.
McCAIM: Dr. Zubrin, you're mad that this vision
has been stolen from a generation?
Yes. We turned our back on the Apollo vision.
It's like Columbus coming back...
...from the New World and Ferdinand and
Isabella saying, “Ah, forget it. Burn the ships."
The purpose of spaceships is to actually
travel across space and go to new worlds.
Mars is where the science is,
Mars is where the challenge is...
...and Mars is where the future is.
ZUBRIM:
That if we say, "No, that is beyond us“...
...it would real/y indicate that we 've become
less than the kind of people we used to be.
And that is something
this country cannot afford.
HAMA: As the others prepared Olympus Town
for the official evacuation order...
...Robert and I took a trip
to visit an old friend.
We needed her help taking us back.
There she is.
Never thought
we‘d be trying to take her back.
Me either.
lt looks like she's been through
a war.
She has.
ED: This is it.
Your home for the seven—month journey...
...and the first two years
you'll be living on Mars' surface.
When the time comes to face the unknown...
...there has never been another suit of armor
more skillfully crafted...
...than this one.
Take good care of her.
Shell take good care of you.
BEM:
! want you to stop and ask yourself...
...what really is important to you
about this mission.
And if the answer to that question
is not the most important thing in your life...
...then I‘m gonna invite you
to walk out that door...
...and pursue that thing, whatever it is.
And don‘t ever look back, because no one
Will ever have the right to hold it against you.
Well, all right.
Welcome home.
ROBERT:
External solar arrays are online.
Initializing for startup.
On my mark.
Three, two, one.
Engage.
[COMPUTER BEEPS
THEN POWERING UP]
MAE:
Pressurizing.
JOOM [OVER RADIO}: No pressure now, Hana.
It’s just all of humanity relying on you.
You ready for this?
ROBERT: Three...
Are you?
ROBERT:...tw0...
...one.
Ignition.
MAE:
Pressurization complete.
[COMPUTER BEEPING]
NDES are registering
no micro meteoroid damage.
She'll need new parts
to address the damage from landing.
Cygnus brought us everything we need
to get a flight ready.
How will it be?
What’s that?
Going home.
I'm already home.
[PERSON COUGHING]
LESLIE:
Marta.
I thought you might be interested
in this.
It was Paul's.
I‘d like you to have it.
Is there anything I can do to help?
Thank you.
When Paul was working on his
early climate-resistant hybrid studies...
...I went with him to the western highlands
of Guatemala.
We knew that if we didn‘t plan our lives
around our work...
...we‘d never see each other at all.
He was always gone.
Sometimes weeks.
Because on top of his own research,
he also decided that he could figure out...
...how this particular pathogen
was spreading through local communities.
So I barer got to see him.
And I resented him for it.
It was as if plants were more important
to him than human beings.
Certainly, to my mind,
more important than me.
But eventually I understood that,
for Paul...
...every time he Iooked at those plants,
he could see...
...all the people they could feed...
...all the people they could heal.
So how did he figure it out?
Figure what out?
The pathogen.
How was it spreading?
Paul realized that the outbreak pattern
followed the same vectors...
...as one of the airborne blights
he‘d been tracking.
He‘d also been mapping these very
complex wind flows from the mountains.
And from that...
...he was able to conclude
that the pathogen must have mutated.
And it was able to survive in the air...
...and travel on the wind.
On the wind.
Yeah.
MAM [OVER PA]:
Prime IMSF executive order...
...a/l non-evacuation-related
extra-vehicular activity is now prohibited.
[JAVIER MUTTERING
IN VOICE-OVER]
JAVIER [IN SPANISH]:
Hey.
LESLIE: We‘d be looking
for another location with moisture...
...to replicate the reaction
used on the WAVAR.
So we’d be following the wind patterns.
Wind patterns?
Javier and I found something.
The samples were too contaminated
to analyze...
...but I figured it blew in
from the east in the storm.
Because of the easterly arc of the wind.
No way to track its source.
Your story made me think.
Even though I may not be able to pinpoint
where it came from...
...I can figure out where else
it might have blown to.
The way the Tharsis Plateau
affects the wind flow...
...it would have blown
straight into the recurring slope lineae...
...on these elevated bedrock outcrops
just to the west.
If there wasn't a moratorium
on nonessential EVAS....
What moratorium?
ZUBRIM:
The history of space exploration...
...begins with individuals...
...taking the road not taken...
...with people with a vision.
VON BRAUN: ! real/y never had any doubts
that it was possible to go to the moon.
Today, I know.
ZUBRIM:
People being able to see with their minds...
...what others had yet to be able to see
with their eyes.
DIAMANDIS: There is a direct correlation
between the dreams...
...and the works of science fiction
and the reality.
We as humans, over and over again,
create the future.
We create the future we envision.
And then we bring to bear
our resources, our capital...
...our technology, our friendships,
and then we make it real.
KAI: What’s this building called?
ELOM: This is the launch tower.
So this is where the astronauts would go up.
And then there would be a big arm
that would swing over to the spacecraft...
...and they‘d walk down the gangway,
climb in the spacecraft...
...go to space.
And this isn't floors, this is feet.
The long-term goal of SpaceX is to establish
a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.
Pretty cool.
lt just always seemed like
we should've gone there by now.
That‘s what everyone expected.
And we just kind of lost our way.
It's a long way down.
But now we're gonna get back there.
MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]:
SpaceX Falcon 9, go for launch.
MAN 2 [OVER RADIO]:
Stage 1 tanks pressing for flight.
MAN 3 [OVER RADIO]:
VC verify F9 is in startup.
MAN 2:
F9 is in startup.
MAN 3:
T-minus-four minutes.
MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]:
SpaceX Falcon 9, go for launch.
MAN 2 [OVER RADIO}: Vehicle is in manual.
MAN 3 [OVER RADIO}: T-minus-one minute.
ELOM:
This is a return to flight launch.
We‘d had a failed mission
on June 28th of 2015.
[GASPS]
After the failure,
the whole launch program ground to a halt.
It put a lot of strain on the company.
MAM [OVER PA]: All stations verify
ready for launch. T-minus-3O seconds.
Elon Musk has said the key to get to Mars
is the reusability of rockets.
He wants to be able
to fire a rocket into orbit...
...Iaunch a pay/oad into space,
and then fire retrorockets...
...and bring that rocket down
to land vertically, and reuse it.
That‘s an extremely difficult concept.
If he cannot make rockets truly reusable...
...then he cannot launch
a new civilization on Mars.
So the stakes
for every rocket launch are huge.
MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]:
T-minus-20 seconds.
MAN 2 [OVER RADIO}: Stage 2 tanks pressing
for flight. Computer has control of the vehicle.
WOMAN [OVER RADIO}: No, nothing.
MAN 3: They all say go for launch.
MAN 1:
T-minus-10, nine...
...eight, seven, six...
CROWD: Eight, seven, six...
...five, four, three, two, one.
...five, four, three, two, one.
[ALL CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
MAN 1 :
Liftoff.
It's going, baby.
MAN 4: Come on, baby.
Let‘s go.
I'm going outside. Check it out.
MAN 2: Speed 1.2 km
per second. Downrange distance, 11 km.
Short/y after main-engine cutoff...
...we're going to separate the stages
and begin the second—stage ignition.
MAN 5:
Yes!
Come on.
[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
MAN 6 [OVER PA]:
Main-engine cutoff.
The first stage is returning to land...
...as the second stage powers
the Orbcomm satellites to low Earth orbit.
The fairings have successful/y deployed.
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
The first stage Will soon begin
its series of three burns...
...to head back towards Cape Canaveral.
ELOM:
Okay, where is the--?
Okay, this is bad.
Potentially bad.
[CROWD MURMURING]
[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
WOMAN [OVER PA]:
That is that first stage coming back down.
History in the making, guys.
ELOM: It's standing up.
MAN: It's standing up.
ELOM: When we saw it coming in,
it sounded like an explosion.
Whool
Yeah, man.
Oh, my God.
[LAUGHING]
ROSEN:
Look at this. Look at it. It‘s just sitting there.
Look at that.
Holy smokes, man.
ELOM: It’s kind of amazing that
this window of opportunity is open...
...for life to go beyond Earth.
And we just don‘t know
how long that window‘s gonna be open.
But the thing that gets me
the most fired up...
...is that creating
a self-sustaining civilization on Mars...
...it would be the greatest adventure ever,
ever in human history.
It would be so exciting
to wake up in the morning...
...and think that that‘s what's happening.
ZU B RI M :
Apollo is still within living memory.
ARMSTRONG [OVER RADIO}:
Houston, uh, the Eagle has Ianded.
ZU BRI M:
But the longer we let it fade into the past...
...the dimmer our prospects become.
We do need to make discoveries.
We do need to find out the truth
about life and the universe.
To resolve mysteries
that thinking men and women...
...have wondered about
for thousands of years.
Look up. Look up.
There‘s everything out there.
There 's trillions of other Earths.
That‘s why we 're gonna do it.
And the next time we go,
we 're gonna go to stay.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
A story Leslie Richardson told me
sparked a thought.
Javier and I found something
at the Old workshop.
I need to go there.
HAMA: The wind patterns lead to a location
87 km west of Olympus Town.
We hope to find a new sample of the substance
Marta found on the WA VARs.
MARTA:
Leslie.
Have you ever driven
one of these?
MO, | haven't.
DO you wanna have a go?
[CHUCKLES]
REPORTER:
We're here at IMSF Headquarters...
...waiting for Secretary Seung
to make her announcement...
...regarding what we believe
Will be the end of the Mars mission.
ED:
We 've come so far.
If we stop now...
...the Mars dream is dead.
Today marks the end of an era...
...and the beginning Of a new one.
[GASPS]
There is life on Mars.
[AUDIENCE GASPS]
[ALL CLAMORING]
[CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING]
HAMA:
We had come so far.
We 're coming in too fast now
HAMA:
Overcome so many obstacles.
Everyone is burning bright
HAMA: And though there were times
when our faith flagged, we persevered.
Hundred and eighty-two seconds, baby
HAMA:
There would be no evacuation.
And heaven is a trick of the light
HAMA: And as we prepared
for the next phase, one thing was clear...
...our dream was alive.