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(intense upbeat music)

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It'll will begin

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with a series of rocket launches from Earth.

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(rocket blaring)

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Each powered by more than 10 million pounds of thrust,

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(rocket blaring)

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delivering some 50 tons of people

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and provisions beyond our atmosphere.

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(rocket blaring)

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Once a spacecraft leaves Earths orbit,

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it'll be some eight months before it reaches Mars' orbit.

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Then finally, a white knuckle plunge

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toward the surface of the red planet itself.

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(static whizzing)

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This is how our human civilization will begin on Mars.

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Once there we'll harvest water, build our homes,

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grow our own food.

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We may even attempt to raise children on Mars,

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tempting our bodies to evolve traits we would never find

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on Earth but the vision for a future

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on Mars began even before the birth

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of NASA or the European Space Agency.

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That vision began nearly a century ago,

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connecting Nazi war machines

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to a nearly forgotten space race and a series

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of epic launchpad failures to a series

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of blockbuster discoveries on our nearest neighbor.

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Today, we're going to announce

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that under certain circumstances,

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liquid water has been found on Mars.

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This is the story

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of how we took our first steps toward becoming Martian.

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(intense upbeat music)

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(wind howling)

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{\an8}Now, Mars is basically our cold little sister.

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It has about half the diameter of Earth

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{\an8}which means it has about one third the gravity

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{\an8}that we experience here on Earth and

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so the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide

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but it provides very little greenhouse effect and

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so the swing from day time temperatures

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to night time temperatures can be around a 100 degrees.

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{\an8}The air can't be breathed and the pressure isn't correct

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and the dust could be toxic.

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And to it off,

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its surface is bathed in radiation.

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Mars is a planet that was not made for humans,

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yet less than a 100 years ago,

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some scientists still held out hope

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that it could be home to another intelligent species.

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From the mid to late 1800s

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when telescopes were developed

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that were good enough to see the surface of Mars,

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people were dreaming about the civilizations

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that could live there.

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People like Nikola Tesla

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and others were wondering if perhaps some

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{\an8}of the structures that they thought they observed on Mars,

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{\an8}things that appeared like lines that they interpreted

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as canals might be an indication,

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not only of life on Mars

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but perhaps sophisticated sentient beings.

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There would be zones

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that were dark some years and light other years.

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We now know those were due to giant global dust storms

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but at the time they were convinced that

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that was indication of plants growing

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in different locations or some kind of storms.

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To many, Martians were engineers

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who had built a network of canals so massive they could

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be seen from Earth and then came the breakthrough

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that would finally put Mars,

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not just in view but within reach.

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They now realize what sort

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of terror weapon they were up against and

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that they had no defense whatever against it.

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World war Two,

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Germany's V2 ballistic missile transforms

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how wars are waged

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and teases a future beyond our atmosphere.

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It's a brutal destructive entry into the space age.

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After the war, the architect of the V2,

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Wernher von Braun,

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along with more than 100 German scientists

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and weapons engineers were spirited out

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of Nazi Germany and into the United States

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to continue their controversial yet groundbreaking work

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for their former enemies but in his spare time,

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von Braun's thoughts were elsewhere.

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Wernher von Braun in the 1950s was inspired

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to write out specific plans

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for how we could reach Mars and settle a colony there.

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His detailed notes consider everything

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from crew safety to the amount

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of cargo that could be carried between planets.

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He would share his vision first

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in a book and later in a Disney primetime special.

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That will make possible the long trip

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to Mars with only a small expenditure of fuel.

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950 Rocket launches would deliver astronauts

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and materials into lower orbit where an armada

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of Mars bound spaceships would be constructed

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by space walking astronauts in a weightless assembly line.

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This unusual ship will

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be 500 feet across and will carry a small landing craft

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for the final descent to the Martian surface.

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Each detail of the mission

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was carefully choreographed

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around the alignments of Earth and Mars.

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It's only really feasible to do

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that about every two years when the Earth

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and Mars are relatively close together

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in their respective orbits.

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When the planets reach their ideal alignment

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and are separated by just under 60 million kilometers,

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von Braun's astronauts leave Earth's orbit

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and head for Mars, a 260 day trip.

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When our ship reaches Mars,

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the landing craft will be released carrying men

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and supplies to the planets surface.

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By the time the astronauts return to Earth,

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they'd have been free of Earth's gravity for 969 days.

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Over 500 days longer than the current record

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for the longest mission in space.

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von Braun was thinking really far ahead of his time.

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von Braun's vision

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captured American's fascination.

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A plan for permanently settling on Mars was still a ways off

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but exploring this new frontier felt not just possible,

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but imperative.

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The first race for Mars had begun.

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The U.S. and Russia we're competing

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to get rockets in space and they were working

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as fast as they could to develop new technology

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to do things that just had never been done before.

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By 1960, the Soviets were

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on a major winning streak,

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having been the first to put an animal

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in space and the first

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to launch a satellite into Earth's orbit.

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It wasn't anywhere near the scale

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of what von Braun had envisioned

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{\an8}but in October, 1960,

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the Soviet Space Program makes two attempts

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to be the first to Mars, both fail.

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When the launch window reopens in 62,

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the USA joins the effort to leave Earth.

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On this year though, NASA's Mariner Program is heading

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for Venus instead of Mars.

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{\an8}Mariner 1 fails to reach its destination.

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{\an8}Then, Mariner 2 performs a fly-by a Venus

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{\an8}as planned becoming humanity's first successful mission

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{\an8}to another planet.

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With three more failed Soviet missions,

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{\an8}Mars remains out of reach.

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When the launch window opens again in late 1964,

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the race for Mars is running red hot.

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{\an8}Three probes will be launched in a span of just four weeks,

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{\an8}two more fail and then there's Mariner 4.

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{\an8}You get to launch day when there's one

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{\an8}of the highest risks of failure in the mission.

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{\an8}Sitting there watching a rocket launch

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{\an8}when that's a project that you've worked

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on for years and you're excited

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to see happen is, is so exciting.

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It's just this thrilling moment and also terrifying.

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And there's nothing quite like that sound

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when something gets tossed out into space off our planet.

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Mariner 4 has a clean launch

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and is sent on its way to Mars.

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Equipped with a telescope and a television camera,

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Mariner 4 headed for Mars.

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It's mission, to take close-up pictures

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which would hopefully resolve the mysterious wave

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of darkness and other unanswered questions.

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Onboard, a collection of sensors

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that will reveal the true nature

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of the condition on Mars and most importantly,

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a camera with enough processing power

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to send 21 pictures back to Earth,

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if the mission goes to plan.

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There's so many perils in the solar system,

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not just with your machinery

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but the solar system itself is spewing out

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high energy particles, not just from the sun

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but from other galaxies and those can disrupt communication

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or instruments aboard your vessel.

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Speeding through space

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at more than 10,000 miles per hour,

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guided by the star of Canopus,

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Mariner 4 approaches Mars on July 14th, 1965.

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It's been zipping through space

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for eight months and now it'll have just one day

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to photograph and probe the planet

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before cruising past it and entering the sun's orbit.

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The scientific team back at the Jet Propulsion Lab

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in Pasadena, California can do little more than wait

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to see if their mission has been successful.

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(electronic ringing)

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Then, the sound they've all been waiting for.

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It'll take days for computers

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to convert this digital code into images,

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far longer than it would take a trained scientist

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to do the same.

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They started coloring in squares based

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on the little bits of data they were getting back.

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So they could see the pictures

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that were being returned piece by piece.

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In all, Mariner 4 photographs around 1%

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of the Martian surface and reveals a landscape as parched,

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cratered and as empty as the moons.

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When we see the Mariner 4 images

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for the first time, it really made people realize

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that Mars is not a living planet.

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The scientists who have examined Mariner's pictures

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are not yet willing to identify any

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of the controversial canals.

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These and other conclusions

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about the planets surface will have to come later.

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It's onboard sensors capture

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for the first time, the troubling data

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that still haunt Mars mission planners today,

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daytime temperature readings of minus 100 degrees Celsius,

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air pressure, less than 1% of Earths and the absence

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of a protective magnetic field

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which leaves the planet exposed to intense radiation.

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They know now that the planet is even more inhospitable,

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more desolate compared to Earth than it was thought to be.

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I think it's possible

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that people could have seen the images

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from Mariner 4 and decided, you know what?

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It's not worth spending any more time

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or resources exploring Mars or even trying

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to have humans reach Mars

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but luckily that's not what happened.

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Clearly, humanity kept focus on Mars,

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even if it didn't completely understand

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what it was looking at.

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This is the theory.

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{\an8}If the Martian atmosphere contains carbon dioxide

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{\an8}and methane and they are exposed

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{\an8}to the ultraviolet radiation of the sun,

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{\an8}they may produce sugar.

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In other words, there may be a constant sugar fall on Mars.

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Each of the dozens of missions

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{\an8}to Mars since the 1960s has sharpened our view

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{\an8}of the red planet while the data

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{\an8}about its climate and radiation load is

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as daunting now as it was in 1965.

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{\an8}What we now know about its water resources gives us

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{\an8}far more hope about our chances

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{\an8}of visiting or even settling there.

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{\an8}In 1976, Viking,

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our first operational Mars lander gave us our first view

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of the Martian surface

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from the Martian surface.

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To the trained eye,

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the images of the hardscrabble landscape told a story

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of ancient river beds and floods.

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It's a story that we now understand well.

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{\an8}Around three and a half to four billion years ago,

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{\an8}Earth and Mars probably actually looked very similar.

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{\an8}Both had liquid water on the surface in the form

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of rivers and lakes and possibly small oceans

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and yet over time,

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Earth retained its water and kept this thick atmosphere

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because it has a magnetic field that protects it

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from the solar wind and Mars was very small

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and didn't have that magnetic field and slowly lost a lot

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of the water to space.

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The discovery that water had once flowed

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over the surface of Mars rekindled hope

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{\an8}that there could still be water somewhere on the planet.

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{\an8}(indistinct), lift off.

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{\an8}That mystery would be solved some 30 years later

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by another NASA robot, the Phoenix Lander.

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Touchdown, ground, safely.

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The basics of what it discovered can

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be demonstrated with simulated Martian dirt

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or regolith and a chunk of store-bought dry ice.

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This is dry ice,

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it's CO2 in the form of ice

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which you can see is sublimating to form a gas.

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So it's going straight from a solid state

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to a gaseous state because CO2 is stable

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as a gas in our atmosphere.

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Water on Mars in the extremely thin CO2 atmosphere

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that's present there,

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is stable, just like this dry ice is here on Earth.

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It's only stable as a gas basically and up near the poles,

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it's stable as ice and so ice in the mid-latitudes

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of Mars would behave just like this CO2 ice behaves here.

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In other words,

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most of the surface water ice

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on Mars would have long since sublimated

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into water vapor, the way dry ice turns straight

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to vapor here on Earth.

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However, there is some ice

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on Mars in the mid-latitudes that's protected.

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So it would be just like if we had this CO2 ice

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and we protected it by covering it up

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with the Mars regolith and

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so if there's a thick enough layer of regolith over the ice,

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it can actually protect it

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for an extended period of time on Mars.

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You can see there's actually a lot less

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vapor coming up off it,

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there's a lot less CO2 gas escaping just like on Mars

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where some of the water ice

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is protected under layers of dirt.

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In 2008, NASA's Phoenix Lander

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performed a similar experiment

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up near Mars' polar ice cap with a similar result.

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There's not water ice exposed at the surface like this

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but there is water ice just below the surface covered

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in a thin layer of regolith.

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Using its robotic arm,

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Phoenix scraped off the top layer

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of Martian dirt exposing what looked like sub-surface ice.

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Two pictures of that scrape taken four days

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apart told scientists all they needed

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to know about what that material was.

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So it'd be just like removing the dirt here

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and leaving a chunk of ice out on the surface.

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Now you can see that as soon as the ice is exposed,

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it starts sublimating again

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and there's a lot more vapor coming off

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of this chunk of ice.

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Similarly, with the Phoenix Mission,

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when we exposed a chunk of ice, it actually disappeared.

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Only one substance would sublimate on Mars'

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frigid low pressure surface like that, water ice.

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For those dreaming of settling on Mars,

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Phoenix's discovery was a game changer.

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Water ice means water to drink,

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water to grow crops,

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water to be broken down and used

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for rocket fuel and oxygen and we now know

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that water ice doesn't just form below the top layer

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of Martian regolith,

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microscopic traces of water ice can also hide

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within the seemingly dry regolith.

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So we did a little experiment here.

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We froze just a little bit of water

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with some of the regolith and you can see from this

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why it's hard to find even small amounts of water on Mars,

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even though it is there.

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So these two glasses look very similar,

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nearly identical but the little tiny bit of water in one,

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as we put these two glasses out here in the sun,

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will actually condense around the edges of the glass.

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For as long as we've been studying Mars,

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water has been in the picture.

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It's only in the last few years, however,

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that we've really been able to see it.

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It's a discovery we just keep remaking,

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you know, all throughout my career, I've heard about,

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oh, we just discovered water on Mars, again,

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in a new way, you know, at the poles

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or in these sediments or possibly

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in these structures that we see on the side of sand dunes.

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Mars has very little water compared to Earth

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{\an8}but there actually is a lot

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{\an8}of water ice stuck at the poles of Mars.

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{\an8}So if you added the north pole and the south pole

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{\an8}and if Mars were a perfectly round marble

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and you put all of that water as liquid water around Mars,

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you would actually have a global ocean

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about 22 meters deep around the entire planets surface.

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And now, we even have proof

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that liquid water exists deep

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{\an8}below the surface of Mars' poles.

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{\an8}We are here today

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{\an8}to present you our results and the fact

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that we have found liquid water on sub-surface of Mars.

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There may not be canals on Mars

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but there are natural reservoirs of water and ice.

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Resources that Wernher von Braun and the architects

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of the Mariner Mission could never have imagined.

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With that water, we now know

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that not only is there a chance

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that life can exist on Mars,

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there's a chance that human life can

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be supported long-term on Mars

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but for humans to become Martian,

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we're going to need to do more than just mine water

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from Mars' frozen ground.

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We're going to need to source food and shelter

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for our Martian settlements on Mars itself,

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all while the deadly conditions

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on Mars challenge the strength

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of our bodies and take aim at our fragile genetic material.

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Getting humans to Mars may take about a century

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of effort but it'll be just the first step

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{\an8}in our quest to become Martian.

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(upbeat music)