1 00:00:00,370 --> 00:00:03,203 (dramatic music) 2 00:00:04,950 --> 00:00:06,970 In the last 50 years of exploring Mars, 3 00:00:06,970 --> 00:00:10,310 we've gone from thinking maybe there were canals and aliens 4 00:00:10,310 --> 00:00:13,040 that had created this whole ecosystem, 5 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:15,110 transporting water from the polar caps 6 00:00:15,110 --> 00:00:16,823 toward gigantic farms, 7 00:00:18,310 --> 00:00:20,470 to getting there and seeing these pictures 8 00:00:20,470 --> 00:00:22,653 of just cratered landscapes, 9 00:00:23,771 --> 00:00:26,520 a surface that's baked in radiation, 10 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:28,940 barely an atmosphere to speak of, 11 00:00:28,940 --> 00:00:31,440 not a place that could sustain life as we know it. 12 00:00:32,660 --> 00:00:36,130 We look at the planet Mars and its this rusty red ball 13 00:00:36,130 --> 00:00:37,730 and it doesn't look like it's a great place 14 00:00:37,730 --> 00:00:38,930 for life to live at all. 15 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:41,063 You know, stagnant. 16 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:44,170 When I was a kid, Mars looked 17 00:00:44,170 --> 00:00:45,860 incredibly dead and it was boring. 18 00:00:45,860 --> 00:00:48,713 The end, close the book don't ever go back. 19 00:00:49,810 --> 00:00:51,780 I think when the general public thinks of Mars, 20 00:00:51,780 --> 00:00:54,090 they imagine this dead red rock 21 00:00:54,090 --> 00:00:56,900 where we haven't found any evidence of life. 22 00:00:56,900 --> 00:00:58,260 So why do we keep exploring? 23 00:00:58,260 --> 00:01:00,460 Why do we keep sending these missions there? 24 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:03,670 It seems Mars has failed to live up 25 00:01:03,670 --> 00:01:06,433 to our dreams of finding life beyond Earth. 26 00:01:08,310 --> 00:01:10,143 But is that about to change? 27 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:16,360 With NASA's perseverance Rover mission, 28 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:18,790 we may finally find out if Mars 29 00:01:18,790 --> 00:01:21,493 once hosted organisms on its surface. 30 00:01:22,830 --> 00:01:25,190 Perseverance, it is an entirely 31 00:01:25,190 --> 00:01:27,290 unfamiliar kind of mission. 32 00:01:27,290 --> 00:01:30,700 We've never done anything like this before. 33 00:01:30,700 --> 00:01:33,500 This feels like a revolution right now 34 00:01:33,500 --> 00:01:35,073 in our understanding of Mars. 35 00:01:36,090 --> 00:01:38,910 Whether Mars had life is the question. 36 00:01:38,910 --> 00:01:41,190 If it did start there, maybe life is really easy. 37 00:01:41,190 --> 00:01:44,161 If it didn't start there maybe is really hard. 38 00:01:44,161 --> 00:01:45,020 Touchdown confirmed. 39 00:01:45,020 --> 00:01:47,820 Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, 40 00:01:48,770 --> 00:01:51,677 ready to begin seeking the signs of past life. 41 00:01:58,981 --> 00:02:01,600 Touchdown confirm we're gonna wait for the images. 42 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:02,800 The second we landed, 43 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:04,350 then we actually started getting to work 44 00:02:04,350 --> 00:02:06,360 as the images started coming down. 45 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,648 Perseverance is continuing to transmit. 46 00:02:09,648 --> 00:02:10,731 Yes! 47 00:02:12,530 --> 00:02:14,729 Are we alone in the universe? 48 00:02:14,729 --> 00:02:17,020 And that's what we're trying to figure out. 49 00:02:17,020 --> 00:02:19,287 That's what exploration's all about. 50 00:02:23,770 --> 00:02:27,060 In 2012, Perseverance's predecessor, 51 00:02:27,060 --> 00:02:29,590 Curiosity Rover, begins its mission 52 00:02:29,590 --> 00:02:32,510 to establish if Mars ever had an environment 53 00:02:32,510 --> 00:02:34,813 that could support life as we know it, 54 00:02:36,140 --> 00:02:40,780 the essential first step towards seeking life itself. 55 00:02:40,780 --> 00:02:43,520 When Curiosity is driving around, 56 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,393 it's driving over rocks that are billions of years old. 57 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,640 Now Curiosity is not designed 58 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:52,280 to actually look for signs of life, 59 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,290 but it most certainly can identify an environment 60 00:02:55,290 --> 00:02:58,950 that has everything that's necessary for life to be there. 61 00:02:58,950 --> 00:03:02,360 I'm interested in knowing if there are organic molecules 62 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:04,603 in the rocks that we encounter. 63 00:03:05,650 --> 00:03:07,890 Curiosity is the first Rover 64 00:03:07,890 --> 00:03:09,980 with a miniature laboratory on board 65 00:03:09,980 --> 00:03:12,403 capable of detecting organic molecules. 66 00:03:14,110 --> 00:03:18,160 Organic material is critical for life as we know it. 67 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:21,423 So if we don't find any on Mars, that's a huge deal. 68 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,680 Mars is just 69 00:03:26,780 --> 00:03:28,173 so inhospitable. 70 00:03:29,230 --> 00:03:33,490 The surface is being bombarded by ionizing radiation, 71 00:03:33,490 --> 00:03:37,410 which is not good for life or organic molecules. 72 00:03:37,410 --> 00:03:38,243 Not good. 73 00:03:38,243 --> 00:03:39,553 It tends to break them down. 74 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:47,840 Every sample was a bit of a risk scientifically 75 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,220 'cause we didn't know what we were gonna come across. 76 00:03:51,220 --> 00:03:53,110 I mean there were samples where we 77 00:03:53,110 --> 00:03:54,960 really didn't learn much of anything. 78 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,040 If we had the conditions for life to survive, 79 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:08,323 we would expect to find organic material. 80 00:04:09,270 --> 00:04:11,360 We still hadn't seen any with Curiosity 81 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:12,710 and this was a big mystery. 82 00:04:13,550 --> 00:04:16,063 Was there never any organic material on ours? 83 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,543 Our best hope was to just keep looking. 84 00:04:23,210 --> 00:04:26,730 We came across a bunch of cobbles 85 00:04:26,730 --> 00:04:28,733 and stones that were all rounded. 86 00:04:30,060 --> 00:04:33,513 The best way of doing that is in a river. 87 00:04:35,750 --> 00:04:38,760 We realized there had been water flowing 88 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:40,663 on the surface of Mars in the past. 89 00:04:42,290 --> 00:04:44,643 Then we knew we were on the right track. 90 00:04:45,850 --> 00:04:48,293 We were heading to where we thought the lake was. 91 00:04:54,570 --> 00:04:58,900 We saw these features and they sort of indicated 92 00:04:58,900 --> 00:05:00,423 that there was shallow water. 93 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,373 Shallow water is a great place for life to do its thing, 94 00:05:06,250 --> 00:05:09,240 get immediately trapped into the sediments. 95 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:13,070 So I was particularly interested in that sample. 96 00:05:13,070 --> 00:05:15,610 And when we drilled into the first rock, 97 00:05:15,610 --> 00:05:18,593 the sediment was dark gray. 98 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:22,260 It hadn't been rusted like everything else 99 00:05:22,260 --> 00:05:24,060 that you see on the surface of Mars. 100 00:05:25,940 --> 00:05:30,213 And there was a window into the past. 101 00:05:32,310 --> 00:05:37,310 There was organic matter in that rock 102 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:40,750 and that it had survived eons 103 00:05:41,730 --> 00:05:45,773 of ionizing radiation at the surface of Mars. 104 00:05:49,620 --> 00:05:51,040 The discovery of organics 105 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,380 is a huge step forward in establishing 106 00:05:53,380 --> 00:05:55,710 the habitability of Mars. 107 00:05:55,710 --> 00:05:59,363 But falls short of proving life ever existed there. 108 00:06:01,150 --> 00:06:04,603 Finding organics is not proof of life on Mars at all. 109 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,460 It's a nice hint, but we don't know 110 00:06:08,460 --> 00:06:11,310 whether these organic molecules actually rained down 111 00:06:11,310 --> 00:06:14,483 on the surface of Mars in the form of meteorites over time. 112 00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:16,710 Okay, great. 113 00:06:16,710 --> 00:06:20,120 We finally have found organics on Mars, 114 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:21,930 but it doesn't tell us anything about 115 00:06:21,930 --> 00:06:23,400 where those molecules came from 116 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,073 and what they're doing there and what they mean to us. 117 00:06:29,470 --> 00:06:31,890 Because of missions like Curiosity, 118 00:06:31,890 --> 00:06:35,180 we know that Mars was absolutely habitable. 119 00:06:35,180 --> 00:06:38,815 So the next question is was it ever inhabited? 120 00:06:38,815 --> 00:06:41,680 (upbeat music) 121 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:42,720 Back on Earth, 122 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,303 a radical new mission is being prepared. 123 00:06:50,100 --> 00:06:51,520 The goal of the Perseverance Rover 124 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:54,970 is to look for signs of ancient life on Mars. 125 00:06:54,970 --> 00:06:56,580 We finally put together the pieces 126 00:06:56,580 --> 00:06:58,440 of what Mars used to to be like 127 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:01,010 and we know what evidence we need to definitively say 128 00:07:01,010 --> 00:07:03,850 whether there was or wasn't life on Mars. 129 00:07:03,850 --> 00:07:06,743 So Perseverance's goal is to take us to that next step. 130 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:10,890 The purpose of Perseverance Rover mission 131 00:07:10,890 --> 00:07:14,500 is to find some ancient traces of life from us. 132 00:07:14,500 --> 00:07:16,840 And, for that purpose, the instruments need 133 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:19,730 to be different from the Curiosity Rover. 134 00:07:19,730 --> 00:07:23,530 And we need to have more techniques to meet this requirement 135 00:07:23,530 --> 00:07:26,088 and that's a price to pay to be on board. 136 00:07:26,088 --> 00:07:27,340 (gentle music) 137 00:07:27,340 --> 00:07:29,090 But how do you begin to unravel 138 00:07:29,090 --> 00:07:30,540 the clues that point to life? 139 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,580 On the end of Perseverance's robotic arm 140 00:07:34,580 --> 00:07:37,280 is an instrument called SHERLOC, 141 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:40,310 designed to take Curiosity's investigations 142 00:07:40,310 --> 00:07:43,650 into organic molecules to the next level. 143 00:07:43,650 --> 00:07:46,070 Curiosity has a mass spectrometer 144 00:07:46,070 --> 00:07:48,630 and that's one way of detecting for organic molecules. 145 00:07:48,630 --> 00:07:50,680 What we do is something a little different. 146 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,150 We are looking for spectral signatures. 147 00:07:53,150 --> 00:07:54,870 We shine a laser on a surface, 148 00:07:54,870 --> 00:07:57,730 and then we look at the back scattered light coming back 149 00:07:57,730 --> 00:08:00,663 and how that light changes tells us what's in the surface. 150 00:08:01,585 --> 00:08:04,620 They detect and classify organic molecules 151 00:08:04,620 --> 00:08:06,143 on a very fine scale. 152 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:09,230 The astrobiologists are going crazy for this instrument 153 00:08:09,230 --> 00:08:11,890 because the wavelength at which the spectrometer operates 154 00:08:11,890 --> 00:08:14,406 is optimized for organics. 155 00:08:14,406 --> 00:08:17,220 (dramatic music) 156 00:08:17,220 --> 00:08:18,360 On the opposite side 157 00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:20,470 of the robotic arm from SHERLOC, 158 00:08:20,470 --> 00:08:22,300 is an instrument called PIXL, 159 00:08:23,260 --> 00:08:27,790 a radical reimagining of a geologist's most basic tool. 160 00:08:27,790 --> 00:08:30,280 I sometimes refer to it as a chemical hand lens. 161 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:31,750 You know, the hand lens being the eye piece 162 00:08:31,750 --> 00:08:33,660 a geologist uses to look at the rock. 163 00:08:33,660 --> 00:08:35,510 Imagine being able to look through that and see, 164 00:08:35,510 --> 00:08:36,550 not just what the rock looks like, 165 00:08:36,550 --> 00:08:38,133 but also what it's made of. 166 00:08:39,510 --> 00:08:41,790 PIXL uses spectroscopy to create 167 00:08:41,790 --> 00:08:43,590 a chemical map of the surface, 168 00:08:43,590 --> 00:08:46,483 to reveal how life might have affected the rock. 169 00:08:48,630 --> 00:08:50,940 In a way it looks like a camera image, 170 00:08:50,940 --> 00:08:54,420 but it is really the fingerprints of the rock. 171 00:08:54,420 --> 00:08:57,690 And in turn those fingerprints tell you 172 00:08:57,690 --> 00:08:59,113 the history of the rock. 173 00:09:00,460 --> 00:09:03,383 How it was formed, what environment it was in. 174 00:09:07,177 --> 00:09:09,150 The PIXL instrument was something that arrived 175 00:09:09,150 --> 00:09:12,270 from doing field geology out in Western Australia one year. 176 00:09:12,270 --> 00:09:13,600 Trying to look for evidence of life 177 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:15,073 in the oldest rocks on Earth. 178 00:09:17,210 --> 00:09:20,520 I found that trying to figure out on Earth 179 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:21,610 whether something that was in a rock 180 00:09:21,610 --> 00:09:24,800 that was possibly biological was actually biological 181 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:26,740 was really helped by this instrument 182 00:09:26,740 --> 00:09:28,940 called an x-ray microscope. 183 00:09:28,940 --> 00:09:30,098 It's like a huge... 184 00:09:30,098 --> 00:09:31,340 A pretty decent sized beach ball. 185 00:09:31,340 --> 00:09:33,330 It's connected to the mains power. 186 00:09:33,330 --> 00:09:34,960 And, of course, if anything goes wrong with it, 187 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,360 then you get a crew come out to fix it. 188 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,660 The most challenging aspect of building PIXL 189 00:09:40,660 --> 00:09:42,640 is the not being able to break. 190 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:44,780 You have to be able to get off the surface of Earth, 191 00:09:44,780 --> 00:09:46,457 to Mars, land on the surface of Mars 192 00:09:46,457 --> 00:09:49,040 and then survive on Mars for the entire prime mission 193 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:51,040 and hopefully well beyond. 194 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:52,640 All of that had to be done 195 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,030 in addition to getting it down from 80 centimeters cubed 196 00:09:55,030 --> 00:09:57,583 to about 20 centimeters cubed. 197 00:09:58,650 --> 00:10:00,430 There were certainly moments where it was like, 198 00:10:00,430 --> 00:10:02,993 oh my God, how complicated is this becoming? 199 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:06,770 Tailoring these precision instruments 200 00:10:06,770 --> 00:10:10,880 for a future on Mars is a daunting engineering challenge. 201 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:13,163 Even for those who have been there before. 202 00:10:14,130 --> 00:10:16,700 Oh, to develop an instrument for Mars is pretty easy. 203 00:10:16,700 --> 00:10:18,940 You just have to worry about every single thing 204 00:10:18,940 --> 00:10:21,340 down to the bolts and where the bolts go 205 00:10:21,340 --> 00:10:22,790 and where the bolts don't go. 206 00:10:23,900 --> 00:10:26,210 Most instruments that are SHERLOC-like 207 00:10:26,210 --> 00:10:27,360 do not like vibration. 208 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:29,573 And we're attached to a drill that vibrates. 209 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:35,720 The temperature swings on Mars every day 210 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:38,180 is a hundred degrees Celsius. 211 00:10:38,180 --> 00:10:40,690 Electronics really don't like to be hot, then cold, 212 00:10:40,690 --> 00:10:43,730 then hot, then cold, then hot, then cold every single day. 213 00:10:43,730 --> 00:10:46,130 And the brutality of the Martian atmosphere 214 00:10:46,130 --> 00:10:48,800 is matched by the trauma of the space flight 215 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:50,443 that will get them there. 216 00:10:50,443 --> 00:10:53,010 (dramatic music) 217 00:10:53,010 --> 00:10:56,990 We do testing informally known as shake and bake, right? 218 00:10:56,990 --> 00:10:58,290 Because you wanna shake it 219 00:10:59,737 --> 00:11:01,003 and you wanna heat it. 220 00:11:02,410 --> 00:11:04,140 Everything that goes into space 221 00:11:04,140 --> 00:11:06,000 has to be really thoroughly tested. 222 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:07,943 You could almost say violently tested. 223 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:11,470 We vibrate it at different frequencies 224 00:11:11,470 --> 00:11:13,220 and make sure no screws come loose, 225 00:11:14,350 --> 00:11:16,463 nothing falls apart. 226 00:11:19,611 --> 00:11:22,710 When I saw the shaking, I was like, my God, 227 00:11:22,710 --> 00:11:24,447 what about the optical alignment? 228 00:11:25,925 --> 00:11:28,000 It's a bit heartbreaking to see your instruments 229 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:29,590 suffering like that. 230 00:11:29,590 --> 00:11:30,800 (gentle music) 231 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:31,900 The jewel in the crown 232 00:11:31,900 --> 00:11:35,703 of Perseverance's instruments is the eye catching SuperCam. 233 00:11:38,690 --> 00:11:42,070 SuperCam is often described as the head of the Rover. 234 00:11:42,070 --> 00:11:45,163 And it is, it's sort of this cyclops laser eye. 235 00:11:46,940 --> 00:11:49,920 SuperCam's long range, rock busting laser 236 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,620 could make all the difference in the search for life. 237 00:11:53,620 --> 00:11:56,180 We can shoot the laser at a rock 238 00:11:56,180 --> 00:11:59,440 up to seven meters away from the Rover. 239 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:01,540 So we can actually analyze things 240 00:12:01,540 --> 00:12:04,023 all around us without having to drive up to it. 241 00:12:05,850 --> 00:12:09,180 The rock gets literally zapped 242 00:12:09,180 --> 00:12:11,330 and the atoms come screaming off 243 00:12:11,330 --> 00:12:14,180 at 10,000 degrees in a plasma 244 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:17,490 and then, with that cyclops eye, 245 00:12:17,490 --> 00:12:19,520 we collect some of that light. 246 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:22,400 We can tell what are the chemical elements 247 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:23,900 that are present in that rock? 248 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,150 It blows my mind that a scientist in a lab one day 249 00:12:28,150 --> 00:12:29,970 thought let's blow up rocks with lasers 250 00:12:29,970 --> 00:12:31,600 and see what they're made out of 251 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,250 and now we're doing this on Mars. 252 00:12:34,540 --> 00:12:36,210 Just below SuperCam 253 00:12:36,210 --> 00:12:39,110 are two stereoscopic cameras, 254 00:12:39,110 --> 00:12:41,570 the key to navigating Martian terrain, 255 00:12:41,570 --> 00:12:45,610 with the driver using special 3D glasses. 256 00:12:45,610 --> 00:12:47,930 So, as a Rover driver, I'll put on my 3D goggles 257 00:12:47,930 --> 00:12:50,160 and getting the three dimensional data 258 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:54,680 allows you to really visualize the terrain 259 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:57,940 in order to determine if something's a hazard. 260 00:12:57,940 --> 00:13:02,000 And on Perseverance, the cameras are fantastic, 261 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,022 very high resolution, so we'll be able to see a lot further. 262 00:13:05,022 --> 00:13:06,760 (gentle music) 263 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:09,170 The complex optics for SuperCam 264 00:13:09,170 --> 00:13:11,290 and the entire head of Perseverance 265 00:13:11,290 --> 00:13:15,143 are made in Toulouse by the French space agency CNES. 266 00:13:16,860 --> 00:13:19,633 At the end of 2018, the launch is in sight. 267 00:13:21,970 --> 00:13:24,550 But the future of NASA's cyclops eye 268 00:13:24,550 --> 00:13:26,493 is about to be thrown into doubt. 269 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,133 We had a phone call every Tuesday with JPL. 270 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:34,434 We had a small modification to do on the instrument, 271 00:13:34,434 --> 00:13:36,500 just be for delivery. 272 00:13:36,500 --> 00:13:39,150 We were actually on the phone talking about 273 00:13:39,150 --> 00:13:40,740 final touches that they were doing 274 00:13:40,740 --> 00:13:42,333 on this beautiful masterpiece. 275 00:13:44,340 --> 00:13:45,750 And it happened during this phone call, 276 00:13:45,750 --> 00:13:48,110 my test team in Toulouse called me saying 277 00:13:48,110 --> 00:13:49,497 we have a big problem. 278 00:13:49,497 --> 00:13:51,460 (dramatic music) 279 00:13:51,460 --> 00:13:54,390 The last stage of the modification to SuperCam 280 00:13:54,390 --> 00:13:57,833 is to heat treat the glue used during final assembly. 281 00:13:58,780 --> 00:14:01,350 To make sure that the bonding is done correctly, 282 00:14:01,350 --> 00:14:04,370 we put the instrument into a small oven 283 00:14:04,370 --> 00:14:07,517 and we bake it at 50 degrees Celsius. 284 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:10,310 That's what we did. 285 00:14:11,300 --> 00:14:15,533 But we had an issue with the hardware, the thermal chamber. 286 00:14:17,460 --> 00:14:20,423 The thermal couple in that furnace broke, 287 00:14:21,950 --> 00:14:23,763 went to its maximum temperature. 288 00:14:25,290 --> 00:14:26,373 It was a disaster. 289 00:14:27,590 --> 00:14:28,660 Basically, we destroyed 290 00:14:28,660 --> 00:14:30,613 all the optical parts of the mast unit. 291 00:14:32,590 --> 00:14:34,793 Two months before they'd agreed to GPL. 292 00:14:35,980 --> 00:14:38,103 I was still on the phone call with GPL. 293 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:41,620 We started to realize that the people 294 00:14:41,620 --> 00:14:44,440 on the phone in France were very distracted, 295 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:46,973 said, this thing is destroyed. 296 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:50,800 And we had just a few months to go. 297 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,100 If something breaks on your flight model, 298 00:14:53,100 --> 00:14:55,453 that could actually end your mission. 299 00:14:59,620 --> 00:15:02,350 Part of the problem is the launch window for Mars 300 00:15:02,350 --> 00:15:04,800 opens up every 26 months. 301 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:06,420 If we miss this launch opportunity, 302 00:15:06,420 --> 00:15:08,273 we gotta wait 26 more months. 303 00:15:09,290 --> 00:15:11,520 Probably Mars 2020 304 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:13,173 will launch without us. 305 00:15:14,510 --> 00:15:17,573 But that's where we are, now what can we do? 306 00:15:17,573 --> 00:15:18,406 (gentle music) 307 00:15:18,406 --> 00:15:20,200 SuperCam is a write off. 308 00:15:21,170 --> 00:15:24,060 The team's only hope of hitting the launch deadline 309 00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:26,833 is to somehow repurpose existing hardware. 310 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:30,363 And they have one chance to pull this back. 311 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:34,470 In parallel to building the SuperCam flight unit, 312 00:15:34,470 --> 00:15:38,970 we were also building a laboratory unit almost identical 313 00:15:38,970 --> 00:15:42,970 so we could do experiments on Earth during the mission. 314 00:15:42,970 --> 00:15:45,010 We had to take that laboratory unit 315 00:15:45,010 --> 00:15:46,660 and try to make it flight worthy. 316 00:15:48,550 --> 00:15:51,290 But we had to constrain everything in six months 317 00:15:51,290 --> 00:15:53,883 instead of one year taken to build the first model. 318 00:15:55,419 --> 00:15:57,650 It is really a last ditch effort. 319 00:15:57,650 --> 00:15:59,760 It was like, oh, we've gotten this far 320 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:01,410 and then we're not gonna make it. 321 00:16:02,363 --> 00:16:05,423 We had to work days and nights the weekend and everything. 322 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:10,560 But in six months we had a new SuperCam mast unit. 323 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:11,890 Honestly, I'm so happy to see 324 00:16:11,890 --> 00:16:13,430 the performance of the instruments, 325 00:16:13,430 --> 00:16:15,873 it's really a perfect instrument. 326 00:16:20,130 --> 00:16:20,963 As Perseverance 327 00:16:20,963 --> 00:16:23,160 is packed and prepared for launch, 328 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:27,050 the mission is entering is most uncertain phase, 329 00:16:27,050 --> 00:16:29,270 where history has lessons for those 330 00:16:29,270 --> 00:16:30,820 choosing to visit other worlds. 331 00:16:36,411 --> 00:16:39,244 (dramatic music) 332 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,030 Getting to Mars is no easy task. 333 00:16:47,030 --> 00:16:50,600 You have two moving targets, Earth and Mars, 334 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:52,680 and then you're throwing in the third moving target 335 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:53,970 of the thing you're trying to get 336 00:16:53,970 --> 00:16:55,740 from one planet to the next 337 00:16:55,740 --> 00:16:57,853 at thousands of miles an hour. 338 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:05,880 Schiaparelli was a technology demonstration, 339 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:08,580 a tiny lander that was Europe's first attempt 340 00:17:08,580 --> 00:17:11,090 to land on the surface of Mars. 341 00:17:11,090 --> 00:17:12,190 Everything had been going right 342 00:17:12,190 --> 00:17:13,990 up to the point of parachute deploy. 343 00:17:15,430 --> 00:17:18,423 Supersonic parachute inflation, that's a very violent event. 344 00:17:19,690 --> 00:17:22,040 Was swinging too fast underneath the parachute. 345 00:17:24,540 --> 00:17:26,540 Couldn't figure out which way it was up. 346 00:17:31,326 --> 00:17:32,200 Unfortunately for Schiaparelli, 347 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,700 was like stealing defeat from the jaws of victory. 348 00:17:37,260 --> 00:17:40,370 Schiaparelli ended up smashing into the surface of Mars 349 00:17:40,370 --> 00:17:42,620 and left a nice little splot in the dust 350 00:17:42,620 --> 00:17:44,070 that we could see from orbit. 351 00:17:45,870 --> 00:17:48,340 Schiaparelli hit the ground going much faster 352 00:17:48,340 --> 00:17:50,080 than it was designed to do. 353 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:52,483 And we call that creating a new crater on Mars. 354 00:17:55,121 --> 00:17:57,620 And we felt, you know, really horrible for them 355 00:17:57,620 --> 00:18:00,273 'cause you know, there's years of work that went into that. 356 00:18:01,300 --> 00:18:02,620 You know, it was a terrible feeling. 357 00:18:02,620 --> 00:18:06,463 It was just like another crash on Mars and we could be next. 358 00:18:11,270 --> 00:18:13,900 The team on Perseverance looked at Schiaparelli 359 00:18:13,900 --> 00:18:18,513 as very much a reminder of just how hard this really is. 360 00:18:21,505 --> 00:18:23,367 Ten, nine, eight, 361 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,820 seven, six, five, 362 00:18:27,820 --> 00:18:29,393 four, three, 363 00:18:30,403 --> 00:18:31,236 two, one. 364 00:18:32,093 --> 00:18:34,317 (engines roaring) 365 00:18:34,317 --> 00:18:36,890 The 58 meter tall Atlas Rocket 366 00:18:36,890 --> 00:18:38,840 is only just powerful enough to deliver 367 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:42,633 the one metric ton Rover to Mars at its closest approach. 368 00:18:44,170 --> 00:18:47,716 Even so, the journey will take seven months. 369 00:18:47,716 --> 00:18:48,549 Yeah! (applauding) 370 00:18:48,549 --> 00:18:49,382 Woo. 371 00:18:50,260 --> 00:18:51,450 In the meantime, 372 00:18:51,450 --> 00:18:54,630 investigators turn their attention to the landing site 373 00:18:54,630 --> 00:18:57,350 that they believe offers the best opportunity 374 00:18:57,350 --> 00:18:59,303 for finding ancient life. 375 00:19:01,967 --> 00:19:03,440 (gentle music) 376 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,360 Jezero crater is tucked along the western edge 377 00:19:06,360 --> 00:19:09,393 of one of the largest basins in the northern hemisphere. 378 00:19:11,110 --> 00:19:12,760 If there was ever life on Mars, 379 00:19:13,770 --> 00:19:17,380 then a place like Jezero is gonna be spot on. 380 00:19:17,380 --> 00:19:20,413 Absolutely perfect to preserve evidence of life. 381 00:19:21,620 --> 00:19:24,190 Jezero has long been on the list 382 00:19:24,190 --> 00:19:26,860 of top possible landing sites 383 00:19:26,860 --> 00:19:30,880 because it looks like there was a long lasting lake, 384 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:32,093 a body of water. 385 00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:36,290 But the problem is that incredible topography 386 00:19:36,290 --> 00:19:39,083 is also incredibly dangerous for spacecraft. 387 00:19:40,350 --> 00:19:43,660 If you look at Jezero, there's just so many hazards, 388 00:19:43,660 --> 00:19:46,393 there's a delta with really steep cliff walls. 389 00:19:48,260 --> 00:19:50,320 Scientists want to go to places 390 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:53,480 that have a lot of topography, that have a lot of rocks. 391 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:56,030 But, as a guy who's trying to land Rover safely there, 392 00:19:56,030 --> 00:19:58,656 when you look at all those things, you just see danger. 393 00:19:58,656 --> 00:20:00,460 (dramatic music) 394 00:20:00,460 --> 00:20:03,240 Perseverance has a new technology called 395 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:06,360 Terrain Relative Navigation that recognizes 396 00:20:06,360 --> 00:20:09,373 hazards on the ground and takes avoiding action. 397 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,020 Terrain Relative Navigation 398 00:20:12,020 --> 00:20:13,710 means that Perseverance can tell 399 00:20:13,710 --> 00:20:16,000 whether there's a mound or there's a hill 400 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:17,210 or there's some other thing 401 00:20:17,210 --> 00:20:20,160 that the Rover could possibly land on that would be bad 402 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,700 and it steers the Rover away from that. 403 00:20:22,700 --> 00:20:25,910 And that's the only reason we could land in Jezero crater. 404 00:20:25,910 --> 00:20:27,750 Without this navigation system, 405 00:20:27,750 --> 00:20:30,160 you should expect that about 20% of the time, 406 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:31,410 you're not gonna make it. 407 00:20:32,410 --> 00:20:33,930 Although the new technology 408 00:20:33,930 --> 00:20:36,620 has been tested extensively on Earth, 409 00:20:36,620 --> 00:20:39,800 this will be its first time operating in concert 410 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:42,220 with the entire landing system. 411 00:20:42,220 --> 00:20:43,053 It's humbling right? 412 00:20:43,053 --> 00:20:46,430 To realize that the first time you get a chance 413 00:20:46,430 --> 00:20:49,050 to use your whole system is going to be 414 00:20:49,050 --> 00:20:51,053 when it has to work at Mars. 415 00:20:52,470 --> 00:20:55,320 On February 18th, 2021, 416 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,953 Perseverance is poised to enter the Martian atmosphere. 417 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:05,760 Now, 293 million miles from Earth, 418 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:07,250 the delay in communication 419 00:21:07,250 --> 00:21:09,910 means the spacecraft must act autonomously 420 00:21:09,910 --> 00:21:12,210 during the seven minutes it will take to land. 421 00:21:14,460 --> 00:21:16,195 That's seven minutes from when you hit 422 00:21:16,195 --> 00:21:18,860 the top of the atmosphere, going 12,000 miles an hour, 423 00:21:18,860 --> 00:21:19,860 until we touch down, 424 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:22,640 there's literally nothing we can do. 425 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:25,744 We're just finding out what has already happened 426 00:21:25,744 --> 00:21:28,170 about 11 and a half minutes ago. 427 00:21:28,170 --> 00:21:30,700 We have spent more than six years 428 00:21:30,700 --> 00:21:32,910 developing the instrument and you know that, 429 00:21:32,910 --> 00:21:35,820 in seven minutes, everything can change. 430 00:21:35,820 --> 00:21:38,140 Either you have the Rover on Mars 431 00:21:38,140 --> 00:21:40,463 or you lose everything in seven minutes. 432 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:44,880 Perseverance is on her own. 433 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,670 But sends status updates back to Earth 434 00:21:47,670 --> 00:21:51,523 in the form of a tonal code, similar to musical notes. 435 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:54,930 So it's kind of like it's singing 436 00:21:54,930 --> 00:21:56,920 a little song to us on the way down 437 00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,760 and each of those notes means something different. 438 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:00,710 You know, if you hit this note, 439 00:22:00,710 --> 00:22:02,180 that means we deploy the parachute 440 00:22:02,180 --> 00:22:03,240 or if you hit this other note, 441 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,940 it means something has really gone bad with something. 442 00:22:07,260 --> 00:22:08,560 You wait for that telemetry 443 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,540 to come back and see what it tells you. 444 00:22:10,540 --> 00:22:13,083 And if you're not getting the readings that you expect, 445 00:22:13,083 --> 00:22:15,673 your heart just sinks into the pit of your stomach. 446 00:22:19,070 --> 00:22:21,440 10 minutes before we get to the top of the atmosphere, 447 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:22,890 she tells us that something's gone wrong 448 00:22:22,890 --> 00:22:25,190 with one of the electronics boxes, one of the computers. 449 00:22:25,190 --> 00:22:26,082 (dramatic music) 450 00:22:26,082 --> 00:22:27,250 All stations at this point, 451 00:22:27,250 --> 00:22:30,220 let's limit our traffic on the net to critical issues only. 452 00:22:32,350 --> 00:22:33,890 If Perseverance was right, 453 00:22:33,890 --> 00:22:35,450 that something was wrong with that box, 454 00:22:35,450 --> 00:22:37,510 we would lose the ability to fire thrusters 455 00:22:37,510 --> 00:22:38,750 and the propulsion system not working 456 00:22:38,750 --> 00:22:40,150 would be certain death. 457 00:22:40,150 --> 00:22:40,983 Perseverance is actually being 458 00:22:40,983 --> 00:22:43,280 pulled in by gravity and accelerating. 459 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,330 The mission would be over, no question. 460 00:22:47,750 --> 00:22:49,700 There's a lot of silence in the room. 461 00:22:50,992 --> 00:22:53,950 Everybody's monitoring that telemetry so carefully 462 00:22:53,950 --> 00:22:57,180 knowing that we'd done everything we could. 463 00:22:57,180 --> 00:22:58,660 And yet this 464 00:23:00,870 --> 00:23:03,290 belief that it'll recover 465 00:23:03,290 --> 00:23:04,990 and we continue to have a mission. 466 00:23:07,380 --> 00:23:09,310 A vehicle slams into the atmosphere 467 00:23:09,310 --> 00:23:11,483 going at about 5.4 kilometers per second. 468 00:23:12,530 --> 00:23:13,510 On the outside of the vehicle, 469 00:23:13,510 --> 00:23:15,360 we're getting white hot like the sun. 470 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:18,410 All we can do is take a look at what 471 00:23:18,410 --> 00:23:22,050 Perseverance is telling us and worry. 472 00:23:22,050 --> 00:23:24,290 Are your engines really gonna work 473 00:23:24,290 --> 00:23:26,140 or are we about to fall to our death? 474 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:29,610 Luckily the spacecraft began to do things 475 00:23:29,610 --> 00:23:32,170 that were consitent with the box working 476 00:23:32,170 --> 00:23:35,503 because all of our thrusters seemed to be working fine. 477 00:23:40,270 --> 00:23:42,113 So crisis averted for the moment. 478 00:23:43,460 --> 00:23:44,910 But it definitely got our hearts beating. 479 00:23:44,910 --> 00:23:46,950 The navigation has confirmed 480 00:23:46,950 --> 00:23:48,470 that the parachute has deployed 481 00:23:48,470 --> 00:23:51,040 and we are seeing significant deceleration. 482 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,230 We had cameras all over the place, 483 00:23:53,230 --> 00:23:55,320 looking up at the parachute. 484 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:56,680 This was extraordinary. 485 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:58,310 This was a documentary. 486 00:23:58,310 --> 00:23:59,180 Our current velocity 487 00:23:59,180 --> 00:24:01,510 is 480 meters per second 488 00:24:01,510 --> 00:24:03,550 at an altitude of about 12 kilometers 489 00:24:03,550 --> 00:24:04,820 from the surface of Mars. 490 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:07,510 We're approaching at the mercy of the winds 491 00:24:07,510 --> 00:24:10,230 and at the whims of the rockets. 492 00:24:10,230 --> 00:24:12,890 If we happen to land on a too large a rock, 493 00:24:12,890 --> 00:24:13,910 the mission is over. 494 00:24:13,910 --> 00:24:14,800 Heat shields up. 495 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,020 Perseverance is now slowed to subsonic. 496 00:24:17,020 --> 00:24:19,000 Our new system called Terrain Relative Navigation 497 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,043 allows Perseverance on her own to figure out 498 00:24:21,043 --> 00:24:24,770 exactly where she is by taking pictures of the ground 499 00:24:24,770 --> 00:24:26,820 and matching them up with an onboard map. 500 00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:32,840 We light up rocket engines on that jet pack to slow us down 501 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:36,050 and steer us to the nearest safe spot that we can find. 502 00:24:36,050 --> 00:24:38,190 Current velocity is at 75 meters per second, 503 00:24:38,190 --> 00:24:40,810 at an altitude of about a kilometer. 504 00:24:40,810 --> 00:24:42,520 But right after that, you can hear 505 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,900 one of my teammates call out tier end safety level problems. 506 00:24:45,900 --> 00:24:47,450 Tier end safety bravo. 507 00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:51,490 What that was telling us was that 508 00:24:51,490 --> 00:24:53,740 Terrain Relative Navigation has done its job. 509 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,760 But the best place that it could land 510 00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,210 was not the best case scenario. 511 00:24:59,210 --> 00:25:02,080 It could no longer go to where we had originally targeted. 512 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,730 That causes us to freak out again. 513 00:25:04,730 --> 00:25:06,490 Suddenly you're thinking, oh, my chances 514 00:25:06,490 --> 00:25:08,150 just dropped to one in 20 515 00:25:08,150 --> 00:25:09,850 that we're gonna die at touchdown. 516 00:25:12,830 --> 00:25:16,320 Perseverance flew about 600 meters to the southeast region. 517 00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,713 If one thing goes wrong, its game over. 518 00:25:21,065 --> 00:25:22,790 Skycrane maneuver has started. 519 00:25:22,790 --> 00:25:24,010 20 meters above the ground, 520 00:25:24,010 --> 00:25:25,900 we deploy the Rover and its wheels 521 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:27,663 below that power jump pack. 522 00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:33,670 You have so much riding on this, like whether, 523 00:25:33,670 --> 00:25:36,560 as a Rover driver, you are actually going to have a job 524 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,203 all depends on this landing. 525 00:25:40,490 --> 00:25:42,740 It's nerve wracking the whole time, 526 00:25:42,740 --> 00:25:44,180 all of those little black things 527 00:25:44,180 --> 00:25:47,800 that were coming by the camera, I called those projectiles 528 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:49,930 that might have hit my instrument. 529 00:25:49,930 --> 00:25:51,063 That's the fear. 530 00:25:52,340 --> 00:25:54,180 We had our fingers crossed all the way through touchdown 531 00:25:54,180 --> 00:25:55,680 that we had found a safe spot. 532 00:25:58,140 --> 00:26:01,110 That skycrane let the Rover touch the ground 533 00:26:01,110 --> 00:26:03,093 and then cut the cables and fly away. 534 00:26:05,576 --> 00:26:06,540 Touchdown confirmed. 535 00:26:06,540 --> 00:26:09,517 Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars. 536 00:26:09,517 --> 00:26:10,350 (cheering) 537 00:26:10,350 --> 00:26:12,580 People are jumping up and down elated. 538 00:26:12,580 --> 00:26:14,730 So, to some people, landing looked perfect. 539 00:26:15,670 --> 00:26:18,120 But I mostly just felt a massive sense of relief. 540 00:26:23,900 --> 00:26:26,150 As soon as they gave us a coordinate, 541 00:26:26,150 --> 00:26:28,333 we were able to load where the Rover is. 542 00:26:31,247 --> 00:26:32,440 You're like, what is Jezero like? 543 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,073 You're curious about seeing the terrain. 544 00:26:36,780 --> 00:26:38,120 You put on the 3D goggles 545 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:41,590 and it really transports you as if you are on Mars, 546 00:26:41,590 --> 00:26:45,453 standing there from the perspective of the Rover's cameras. 547 00:26:47,050 --> 00:26:48,183 It's very immersive. 548 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:52,460 Jezero was really spectacular 549 00:26:52,460 --> 00:26:54,733 from the first image that came down. 550 00:26:55,690 --> 00:26:58,433 I think I did that for hours. 551 00:27:00,310 --> 00:27:01,970 Once we landed, the first thing I said 552 00:27:01,970 --> 00:27:04,787 to my engineering team was, oh God, now it has to work. 553 00:27:04,787 --> 00:27:07,200 (gentle music) 554 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:10,283 So our stress like started increasing. 555 00:27:12,460 --> 00:27:14,610 The investigators run calibration checks 556 00:27:14,610 --> 00:27:18,030 on the instruments to see if they've survived the landing 557 00:27:18,030 --> 00:27:20,123 and test the lasers on nearby rocks. 558 00:27:21,870 --> 00:27:23,080 We went for a target 559 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:25,740 just a few feet in front of the Rover. 560 00:27:25,740 --> 00:27:28,203 Made a nice target because we couldn't miss. 561 00:27:30,020 --> 00:27:31,680 We were crossing our fingers, 562 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:33,530 praying that everything's gonna work. 563 00:27:35,660 --> 00:27:38,520 When we saw the atomic emission spectra, 564 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:40,133 that was the moment of truth. 565 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:42,750 The spectra revealed 566 00:27:42,750 --> 00:27:44,950 that the test rock is a basalt 567 00:27:44,950 --> 00:27:48,493 common in ocean basins on Earth and across Mars. 568 00:27:51,260 --> 00:27:53,000 The result confirms their hunch 569 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,013 that this was once an ancient lake. 570 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,260 But there's nothing to suggest life 571 00:27:59,260 --> 00:28:01,933 ever existed here in the landing zone. 572 00:28:03,210 --> 00:28:05,940 However, Perseverance is just a few kilometers 573 00:28:05,940 --> 00:28:07,980 from the spectacular features 574 00:28:07,980 --> 00:28:09,773 that brought it to Jezero crater. 575 00:28:11,090 --> 00:28:13,390 So we landed right in front of a river delta 576 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:19,150 and what we're going to do is drive up this river delta and, 577 00:28:19,150 --> 00:28:21,010 along the way, we're gonna take samples 578 00:28:21,010 --> 00:28:23,603 and do scientific analysis on the rocks. 579 00:28:26,220 --> 00:28:28,410 A delta forms when you have a river 580 00:28:28,410 --> 00:28:31,060 that empties into some kind of standing body of water 581 00:28:32,290 --> 00:28:34,500 and all of the material that was being transported 582 00:28:34,500 --> 00:28:36,760 by that river stops moving 583 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,393 and sinks to the bottom and forms these layers. 584 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,430 Our experience from previous missions 585 00:28:44,430 --> 00:28:46,520 is that this fine grain material is good 586 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,850 for finding clay minerals, 587 00:28:48,850 --> 00:28:51,223 which might then contain organic molecules. 588 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,280 You can think about water being trapped in little ponds 589 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,430 and puddles around the place. 590 00:28:58,430 --> 00:29:02,540 That's the kind of complexity that can eventually tell you 591 00:29:02,540 --> 00:29:04,190 will lead to a discovery of life. 592 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:06,450 The delta has been dry 593 00:29:06,450 --> 00:29:08,910 for probably three and a half billion years 594 00:29:10,010 --> 00:29:13,243 but how would it have looked when water still flowed? 595 00:29:16,540 --> 00:29:19,710 I imagine if I was sitting on the edge of Jezero crater, 596 00:29:19,710 --> 00:29:21,130 just looking out over the lake, 597 00:29:21,130 --> 00:29:23,030 when it was there four billion years ago, 598 00:29:23,030 --> 00:29:25,890 you would have this very peaceful environment. 599 00:29:25,890 --> 00:29:28,760 You might hear the sound of the river coming into the lake 600 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:30,710 on the side where the delta is. 601 00:29:30,710 --> 00:29:33,060 It would probably just be this beautiful place. 602 00:29:34,310 --> 00:29:36,240 I would love to think that maybe there were 603 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,423 some kind of fish or algae living in there. 604 00:29:39,730 --> 00:29:41,560 I would love to see us discover a fossil 605 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,173 of some kind of plant, even if it's really unlikely. 606 00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:46,393 You never know. 607 00:29:46,393 --> 00:29:47,523 I wouldn't count it out. 608 00:29:51,350 --> 00:29:54,580 We know that Mars was once a very different planet, 609 00:29:54,580 --> 00:29:57,080 but there has been a lot of changes happened on Mars 610 00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,200 since Jezero crater was formed 611 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,883 and since that huge fresh water lake was deposited. 612 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:08,423 Mars today is drier than the driest places on Earth. 613 00:30:09,550 --> 00:30:12,840 In addition, the very extreme incoming radiation 614 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,320 would be an incredibly harsh environment, 615 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,003 even for the most hardy microbes on Earth. 616 00:30:19,230 --> 00:30:22,423 But how did Mars become so hostile to life? 617 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:25,410 The answer will give clues 618 00:30:25,410 --> 00:30:27,723 about where traces might still exist. 619 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,600 And investigators have focused on a critical period 620 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:36,633 when Mars had a molten planetary core like Earth does today. 621 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,660 Inside Earth, we have a molten core 622 00:30:42,660 --> 00:30:45,700 and that spins around and generates 623 00:30:45,700 --> 00:30:49,630 outside of the planet, the magnetic field, 624 00:30:49,630 --> 00:30:52,290 and that magnetic field protects our planet 625 00:30:52,290 --> 00:30:57,290 from the blast of ionizing solar wind coming off of our sun. 626 00:30:58,460 --> 00:31:01,283 Protects us, protects the whole biosphere. 627 00:31:03,940 --> 00:31:07,070 Now on Mars, it had that molten center 628 00:31:07,070 --> 00:31:09,010 just like Earth does today. 629 00:31:09,010 --> 00:31:11,610 But something happened on Mars 630 00:31:12,610 --> 00:31:17,610 where that started to solidify around 3.9 billion years ago. 631 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,840 All of a sudden, the magnetic field stopped 632 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:27,210 and the solar wind blasted the atmosphere away. 633 00:31:27,210 --> 00:31:28,560 It literally blows it away. 634 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,700 The moment the magnetic field was gone, 635 00:31:33,700 --> 00:31:37,333 ionizing radiation had a huge impact on the surface. 636 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,010 And, forever more, 637 00:31:40,010 --> 00:31:44,064 Mars was a completely unique, different place. 638 00:31:44,064 --> 00:31:46,440 (gentle music) 639 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,780 Perseverance Rover has a top speed 640 00:31:48,780 --> 00:31:51,230 {\an8}of just 0.1 miles per hour 641 00:31:52,630 --> 00:31:56,483 {\an8}and the journey to the delta is expected to take two years. 642 00:31:57,770 --> 00:32:00,410 But before the search for life can begin, 643 00:32:00,410 --> 00:32:04,100 Perseverance drives to a nearby flat expanse of regolith 644 00:32:04,100 --> 00:32:05,893 where it will drop off a passenger. 645 00:32:07,830 --> 00:32:09,880 Perseverance didn't go to Mars alone. 646 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:13,213 It took with it this tiny little drone called Ingenuity. 647 00:32:14,870 --> 00:32:18,480 Underneath the belly, Ingenuity is sitting sideways, 648 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:21,140 the legs swing down, and then we drop to the surface 649 00:32:22,030 --> 00:32:24,356 and from that moment on, there's no way 650 00:32:24,356 --> 00:32:28,320 to come back to the Rover and reattach the umbilical. 651 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:29,420 Our mission had begun. 652 00:32:30,410 --> 00:32:34,020 This 1.8 kilogram experimental helicopter 653 00:32:34,020 --> 00:32:36,760 could prove invaluable as an aerial scout 654 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:38,710 in the search for life. 655 00:32:38,710 --> 00:32:39,773 If it works. 656 00:32:40,690 --> 00:32:42,660 There's a lot of challenges when it comes 657 00:32:42,660 --> 00:32:44,582 to flying an aircraft on Mars. 658 00:32:44,582 --> 00:32:46,900 (dramatic music) 659 00:32:46,900 --> 00:32:49,220 One, the atmosphere is very thin. 660 00:32:49,220 --> 00:32:52,190 It's one percent that of Earth's atmosphere, 661 00:32:52,190 --> 00:32:55,260 there's almost nothing to generate lift with. 662 00:32:55,260 --> 00:32:57,710 Back in 2014, the first prototypes 663 00:32:57,710 --> 00:33:00,670 struggled to deal with the simulated Martian atmosphere 664 00:33:00,670 --> 00:33:02,683 created in JPL's laboratory. 665 00:33:04,270 --> 00:33:06,900 So how will it cope on Mars? 666 00:33:06,900 --> 00:33:09,030 It's as if you operated it on Earth 667 00:33:09,030 --> 00:33:11,440 at a hundred thousand feet, at 20 miles, high 668 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:12,543 and tried to fly. 669 00:33:13,910 --> 00:33:17,660 Ingenuity was a total mystery to us. 670 00:33:17,660 --> 00:33:19,300 Was it gonna work? 671 00:33:19,300 --> 00:33:21,100 It doesn't carry any science payload. 672 00:33:21,100 --> 00:33:23,940 The one and only purpose of Ingenuity 673 00:33:23,940 --> 00:33:25,740 is to prove that we can fly on Mars. 674 00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,120 And Martian weather is the wild card 675 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,023 that could make or break Ingenuity. 676 00:33:31,900 --> 00:33:33,640 Mars can be a gusty place. 677 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:36,880 And so we were not sure how that turbulence 678 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,780 might affect this helicopter. 679 00:33:39,780 --> 00:33:42,480 And perhaps the biggest threat to Ingenuity 680 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:43,973 is from Martian tornadoes. 681 00:33:45,020 --> 00:33:47,490 We did see some pictures of Ingenuity 682 00:33:47,490 --> 00:33:49,573 with a dust devil in the background. 683 00:33:50,500 --> 00:33:53,453 Dust devils could probably do a number on that helicopter. 684 00:33:58,379 --> 00:34:00,410 (gentle music) 685 00:34:00,410 --> 00:34:02,780 So today's the day of our first flight 686 00:34:02,780 --> 00:34:04,420 on the surface of Mars. 687 00:34:04,420 --> 00:34:07,760 We have sent the commands up the day before 688 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:09,560 and everyone's holding their breath. 689 00:34:11,740 --> 00:34:13,290 Definitely very nerve wracking. 690 00:34:14,850 --> 00:34:17,190 Equations tell you that you can get lift 691 00:34:17,190 --> 00:34:18,613 if you make it light enough, 692 00:34:20,060 --> 00:34:23,710 if you make the propellers big enough, 693 00:34:23,710 --> 00:34:26,043 but can you control the flight? 694 00:34:28,690 --> 00:34:30,040 That's another story. 695 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,583 Even taking off would've been a massive success. 696 00:34:39,169 --> 00:34:42,002 (dramatic music) 697 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,700 The sheer power of the rotor system 698 00:34:46,700 --> 00:34:50,180 to fight itself off the surface and produce lift. 699 00:34:50,180 --> 00:34:51,313 It was awe inspiring. 700 00:34:53,030 --> 00:34:56,343 The plan for the first flight is take off, hover, 701 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:00,170 come back down and land. 702 00:35:00,170 --> 00:35:01,003 That's it. 703 00:35:03,767 --> 00:35:04,600 (applauding) Yeah! 704 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:06,060 Woo! 705 00:35:06,060 --> 00:35:08,890 It came down on its feet, not on its side. 706 00:35:08,890 --> 00:35:11,293 And so we were really applauding. 707 00:35:14,180 --> 00:35:15,453 This is a big relief. 708 00:35:16,710 --> 00:35:19,240 We did it, our mission is successful. 709 00:35:19,240 --> 00:35:21,263 We have proven we can fly on Mars. 710 00:35:24,770 --> 00:35:28,530 Ingenuity is now off scouting for the Rover. 711 00:35:28,530 --> 00:35:31,890 One of my absolute favorite ideas 712 00:35:31,890 --> 00:35:34,220 is to descend through a skylight hole, 713 00:35:34,220 --> 00:35:36,453 into a lava tube cave on Mars. 714 00:35:38,170 --> 00:35:40,280 That was never thought to be feasible 715 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:41,780 before this Ingenuity mission. 716 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,730 The fact that we flew this helicopter, 717 00:35:46,730 --> 00:35:48,217 this drone helicopter on Mars 718 00:35:48,217 --> 00:35:51,263 was really awesome for all of us. 719 00:35:54,710 --> 00:35:56,700 NASA's faith in Ingenuity 720 00:35:56,700 --> 00:35:59,790 has given them an eye in the Martian sky. 721 00:35:59,790 --> 00:36:03,540 Now the search for signs of ancient life can begin. 722 00:36:03,540 --> 00:36:07,430 But what exactly should Perseverance be looking out for? 723 00:36:07,430 --> 00:36:09,820 Scientists have been trying to define what life is 724 00:36:09,820 --> 00:36:14,130 for decades and they still are talking about it. 725 00:36:14,130 --> 00:36:17,213 So there is no one clear definition. 726 00:36:17,213 --> 00:36:19,880 (gentle music) 727 00:36:20,730 --> 00:36:22,820 The problem with looking for life is 728 00:36:22,820 --> 00:36:25,350 there's a lot of problems with it. 729 00:36:25,350 --> 00:36:29,120 The definition of life, it always uses the phrase alive 730 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,210 somewhere in the definition of it, 731 00:36:31,210 --> 00:36:34,010 which is kind of circular and it doesn't make any sense. 732 00:36:35,170 --> 00:36:36,670 Looking for life on Mars, 733 00:36:36,670 --> 00:36:39,140 we have to make certain key assumptions. 734 00:36:39,140 --> 00:36:41,830 It would be really hard to recognize a form of life 735 00:36:41,830 --> 00:36:44,113 we've never imagined or encountered before. 736 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:47,283 So we start looking for something familiar. 737 00:36:48,490 --> 00:36:51,080 But the problem is that, even here on Earth, 738 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:53,960 where we have plenty of life to study, 739 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,330 it's really hard to actually tell the difference 740 00:36:56,330 --> 00:37:00,393 between chemistry, complex chemistry and life. 741 00:37:02,620 --> 00:37:05,700 My idea of life is organisms 742 00:37:05,700 --> 00:37:09,460 actually change the environment, they do things. 743 00:37:09,460 --> 00:37:12,360 It's not like they deliberately think about doing this 744 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:17,130 but life chooses certain things that it wants. 745 00:37:17,130 --> 00:37:19,960 So when we go look for life, 746 00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:24,440 I look for indications of something very specific 747 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:26,930 that wouldn't be there if it weren't for life 748 00:37:26,930 --> 00:37:28,773 needing that specific thing. 749 00:37:30,230 --> 00:37:32,583 One thing that the investigators can agree on 750 00:37:32,583 --> 00:37:34,730 is that the clues that point to possible 751 00:37:34,730 --> 00:37:37,743 ancient life are called biosignatures. 752 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,700 Biosignatures are things that are left behind by life. 753 00:37:42,700 --> 00:37:44,830 So the thing that was alive to have produced 754 00:37:44,830 --> 00:37:47,870 whatever you're looking at isn't necessarily there anymore, 755 00:37:47,870 --> 00:37:51,450 but you can tell it was there based on traces that it left. 756 00:37:51,450 --> 00:37:53,480 We're trying to find potential biosignatures. 757 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,490 So we wanna look for places that, at one point, 758 00:37:56,490 --> 00:37:59,730 had what we think life needs. 759 00:37:59,730 --> 00:38:03,420 So we're looking for hydrothermal material, 760 00:38:03,420 --> 00:38:05,190 minerals that could only be created 761 00:38:05,190 --> 00:38:06,513 in the hydrothermal vents. 762 00:38:07,740 --> 00:38:10,100 We're looking for carbonates, we're looking for things 763 00:38:10,100 --> 00:38:13,733 that we know on Earth biology likes. 764 00:38:15,090 --> 00:38:17,290 If we found something that looked like a hydrothermal vent, 765 00:38:17,290 --> 00:38:20,013 we would stop and look at it for months I would hope. 766 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:22,500 Hydrothermal vents 767 00:38:22,500 --> 00:38:24,750 that result from volcanic activity 768 00:38:24,750 --> 00:38:27,343 are associated with life processes on Earth. 769 00:38:28,580 --> 00:38:30,550 But Perseverance is also looking out 770 00:38:30,550 --> 00:38:34,610 for bulbous rock structures called stromatolites, 771 00:38:34,610 --> 00:38:37,653 a feature of Earth's most ancient landscapes. 772 00:38:38,510 --> 00:38:41,080 So stromatolites are great because they're macroscopic 773 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,700 and I think they're like the tip of the iceberg 774 00:38:43,700 --> 00:38:46,043 that alerts you to, oh hey, you know, look here. 775 00:38:50,620 --> 00:38:54,270 They're really rock formations but they have within them, 776 00:38:54,270 --> 00:38:57,810 organic carbon mixed with the rock layers 777 00:38:57,810 --> 00:38:59,563 that were the sediments. 778 00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,640 Life on the Earth tends to clump 779 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:05,740 and on Mars, we would expect the same thing. 780 00:39:05,740 --> 00:39:08,583 Lakes lay down layers, they lay them down flat. 781 00:39:10,490 --> 00:39:14,683 It's hard to imagine without biology how those things grow. 782 00:39:16,550 --> 00:39:20,000 So life can alter the appearance of rocks. 783 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,703 A biosignature carved into the landscape. 784 00:39:24,150 --> 00:39:26,760 But, on Earth, microbes can also affect 785 00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,600 the abundance of certain minerals and rocks. 786 00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:31,743 Could the same be true on Mars? 787 00:39:33,620 --> 00:39:34,600 When you think about the things 788 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,860 that life needs to survive, you probably think of water, 789 00:39:37,860 --> 00:39:40,350 maybe plants living off sunlight, 790 00:39:40,350 --> 00:39:41,273 but there are actually microbes 791 00:39:41,273 --> 00:39:43,940 that can live off of eating rocks. 792 00:39:43,940 --> 00:39:45,580 If you ask a different scientist, 793 00:39:45,580 --> 00:39:46,710 you'll get a different answer. 794 00:39:46,710 --> 00:39:49,480 But my particular biosignature of interest 795 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:51,360 is a family of minerals that are high 796 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:52,733 in the element manganese. 797 00:39:54,700 --> 00:39:57,850 Here on Earth, microbes absolutely love manganese 798 00:39:57,850 --> 00:40:00,890 because it has a lot of really critical chemical properties 799 00:40:00,890 --> 00:40:03,723 that they can use to actually do their metabolism. 800 00:40:04,940 --> 00:40:08,650 Microorganisms have this amazing ability to adapt. 801 00:40:08,650 --> 00:40:13,650 They are capable of getting energy in so many unique ways, 802 00:40:13,650 --> 00:40:16,640 give them a rock and they'll figure out how to use it. 803 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:18,510 On Earth, high concentrations 804 00:40:18,510 --> 00:40:20,940 of manganese oxide have been linked 805 00:40:20,940 --> 00:40:24,080 to the presence of ancient microbial life 806 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,790 and a similar over abundance of this mineral 807 00:40:26,790 --> 00:40:29,893 has already been found on Mars by earlier missions. 808 00:40:31,180 --> 00:40:34,680 These minerals tend to form little bumps and crusts. 809 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:36,560 You'll just roll up to a new spot 810 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:39,503 and suddenly there is manganese. 811 00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:42,490 And now Perseverance 812 00:40:42,490 --> 00:40:45,870 is discovering signs of more deposits. 813 00:40:45,870 --> 00:40:48,550 As we look through SuperCam data, we can see that 814 00:40:48,550 --> 00:40:51,943 there is manganese in these rocks in Jezero crater. 815 00:40:52,820 --> 00:40:56,043 It literally is the very first time we shot a rock, 816 00:40:57,310 --> 00:40:58,810 you could see manganese in it. 817 00:41:00,140 --> 00:41:02,360 You know, this is very intriguing. 818 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,470 It's not proof that life did this on Mars, 819 00:41:05,470 --> 00:41:07,290 but we can start looking for other things 820 00:41:07,290 --> 00:41:09,120 that can start building that case 821 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:12,677 that maybe life made these materials. 822 00:41:12,677 --> 00:41:15,539 (gentle music) 823 00:41:15,539 --> 00:41:17,330 Perseverance's instruments are designed 824 00:41:17,330 --> 00:41:20,510 to recognize the subtle imprint of microbial life 825 00:41:20,510 --> 00:41:23,253 and the familiar chemistry of organic molecules. 826 00:41:25,557 --> 00:41:28,750 But the devastating effects of ionizing radiation 827 00:41:28,750 --> 00:41:31,540 add another level of complexity to the challenge 828 00:41:31,540 --> 00:41:33,433 of locating biosignatures. 829 00:41:35,260 --> 00:41:37,680 We joke about the fact that it's planet bleach. 830 00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:41,250 Life as we know it needs water, an energy source 831 00:41:41,250 --> 00:41:42,273 and organic carbon. 832 00:41:44,035 --> 00:41:45,810 But Mars is a very bad environment 833 00:41:45,810 --> 00:41:47,803 for a lot of organic molecules. 834 00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:52,200 If there was life there, would that site 835 00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,690 have preserved the evidence in a way 836 00:41:54,690 --> 00:41:56,323 that we can find it today? 837 00:41:57,410 --> 00:41:59,410 The challenges facing the robotic search 838 00:41:59,410 --> 00:42:02,093 for life on Mars may appear overwhelming, 839 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,590 but Perseverance has come prepared 840 00:42:05,590 --> 00:42:07,373 to tip the odds in its favor. 841 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:12,420 If we're going to find evidence of life on Mars, 842 00:42:12,420 --> 00:42:16,020 we may get an incredibly lucky and do it on Mars, 843 00:42:16,020 --> 00:42:19,580 but far, far more likely it's going to be in a laboratory 844 00:42:19,580 --> 00:42:22,590 with proper equipment back on Earth. 845 00:42:22,590 --> 00:42:25,560 And so Perseverance is an entirely 846 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:28,270 unfamiliar kind of mission. 847 00:42:28,270 --> 00:42:30,640 Yes, we're driving around, we're looking at rocks, 848 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,990 we're doing science on rocks, 849 00:42:32,990 --> 00:42:36,373 but it's being done to select samples, 850 00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,300 take small drill cores from those samples, 851 00:42:40,300 --> 00:42:42,620 put them in hermetically sealed containers 852 00:42:42,620 --> 00:42:45,350 and leave them behind for a future mission 853 00:42:45,350 --> 00:42:47,170 that is only now being planned. 854 00:42:47,170 --> 00:42:49,560 An international mission to retrieve 855 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:53,013 and bring back to Earth, hopefully within the next decade. 856 00:42:54,530 --> 00:42:56,870 The sample's about the size of your index finger. 857 00:42:56,870 --> 00:42:58,430 And then you go and you unleash 858 00:42:58,430 --> 00:43:00,400 all the power of laboratories on Earth 859 00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,423 and try and look at even smaller scale. 860 00:43:03,870 --> 00:43:05,800 This is really important because we can 861 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:07,100 actually take those samples 862 00:43:07,100 --> 00:43:09,600 and look for signs of DNA in them. 863 00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:12,673 And DNA is irrefutable proof of life. 864 00:43:14,500 --> 00:43:16,410 We can tell you that it was not something 865 00:43:16,410 --> 00:43:18,120 that came from Earth, it was something 866 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:20,043 completely native to the Red Planet. 867 00:43:21,614 --> 00:43:23,620 Perseverance's instruments work together 868 00:43:23,620 --> 00:43:26,623 to identify potential samples for return. 869 00:43:27,830 --> 00:43:31,330 But trying to operate completely new hardware on Mars 870 00:43:31,330 --> 00:43:33,963 is proving to be an ongoing challenge. 871 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:41,190 The stress never gets any less. 872 00:43:41,190 --> 00:43:43,796 We're turning ourselves on today 873 00:43:43,796 --> 00:43:47,440 and we're gonna do some spectroscopy on the surface. 874 00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:49,663 I'm petrified that it's not gonna work. 875 00:43:51,490 --> 00:43:53,437 I used to have an old car and every time I would go out 876 00:43:53,437 --> 00:43:56,410 and turn the old car on, it's the same feeling. 877 00:43:56,410 --> 00:43:58,610 Is this the time the car is not gonna start? 878 00:43:59,710 --> 00:44:02,370 Mars is living up to its reputation 879 00:44:02,370 --> 00:44:05,830 as an unforgiving host for even the night itself 880 00:44:05,830 --> 00:44:08,373 is just another hazard to contend with. 881 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:11,280 What happens is, as soon as the sun goes down, 882 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:12,780 the temperature plummets, 883 00:44:12,780 --> 00:44:15,700 the metal that the Rover's made of starts to contract 884 00:44:15,700 --> 00:44:18,320 and the arm starts to move and drift down, 885 00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:20,853 and that drift was actually not at all trivial. 886 00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:25,260 PIXL needs 17 hours to create its detailed 887 00:44:25,260 --> 00:44:27,680 microscopic maps of rock surfaces 888 00:44:28,980 --> 00:44:30,950 and the sample must remain motionless 889 00:44:30,950 --> 00:44:32,963 under the sensor for the whole period, 890 00:44:33,950 --> 00:44:35,870 which created a headache for engineers 891 00:44:35,870 --> 00:44:37,420 during the development of PIXL. 892 00:44:38,610 --> 00:44:41,610 So we actually had to invent a new thing called a hexapod. 893 00:44:42,771 --> 00:44:43,950 Like a six legged device, 894 00:44:43,950 --> 00:44:46,590 legs that would sort of get longer and shorter to make sure 895 00:44:46,590 --> 00:44:48,750 that you can stay the right distance from the rock 896 00:44:48,750 --> 00:44:51,760 and actually stay over the right part of the right. 897 00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:54,370 The ingenious engineering is put to the test 898 00:44:54,370 --> 00:44:56,380 seven months into the mission 899 00:44:56,380 --> 00:44:57,820 when the team must decide on 900 00:44:57,820 --> 00:44:59,833 where to drill for a sample core. 901 00:45:01,890 --> 00:45:04,450 The first stage is to grind the clean surface 902 00:45:04,450 --> 00:45:05,813 so the rock can be tested. 903 00:45:06,650 --> 00:45:08,270 It's really cool because you see a rock 904 00:45:08,270 --> 00:45:09,590 that's completely different than the rock 905 00:45:09,590 --> 00:45:11,160 you see on the outer surface. 906 00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:15,070 It's pristine, it's not weathered, it's not dusty. 907 00:45:15,070 --> 00:45:17,800 You can see individual crystals. 908 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:20,810 They're not tiny, they're actually really big. 909 00:45:20,810 --> 00:45:22,913 It looks like it's a volcanic rock. 910 00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:26,100 But there are some other smaller features 911 00:45:26,100 --> 00:45:28,320 that are a little bit harder to resolve. 912 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:30,890 You have to go for a closer look. 913 00:45:30,890 --> 00:45:33,020 When PIXL scans the surface, 914 00:45:33,020 --> 00:45:36,600 four billion years of history is exposed. 915 00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:39,150 PIXL can make us an incredible map 916 00:45:39,150 --> 00:45:41,433 of the chemistry of this area. 917 00:45:45,810 --> 00:45:50,173 We can see that these smaller features appear to be salts. 918 00:45:52,250 --> 00:45:54,740 Crucially, the presence of salts 919 00:45:54,740 --> 00:45:57,720 means the rock has spent time underwater. 920 00:45:57,720 --> 00:45:59,540 But what nobody is expecting 921 00:45:59,540 --> 00:46:01,653 is the presence of calcium phosphate. 922 00:46:02,550 --> 00:46:05,500 What's so interesting about calcium phosphates 923 00:46:05,500 --> 00:46:06,690 is that they form in some 924 00:46:06,690 --> 00:46:08,930 very unusual environments on Earth 925 00:46:08,930 --> 00:46:12,593 and, in general, they're very closely associated with life. 926 00:46:13,530 --> 00:46:16,997 Phosphates have never before been discovered on Mars. 927 00:46:16,997 --> 00:46:19,660 And so that makes them incredibly intriguing 928 00:46:19,660 --> 00:46:21,483 to discover in Jezero crater. 929 00:46:22,730 --> 00:46:25,280 The team decides to drill for a rock core 930 00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:26,533 to return to Earth. 931 00:46:28,330 --> 00:46:30,890 This sample could rewrite Mars history 932 00:46:32,430 --> 00:46:35,230 and some believe that the salt could even contain 933 00:46:35,230 --> 00:46:37,753 a microscopic hoard of lake water. 934 00:46:38,900 --> 00:46:42,100 These types of salty materials in rocks 935 00:46:42,100 --> 00:46:46,160 can preserve traces, little bubbles of water, 936 00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:47,740 from when there was more water, 937 00:46:47,740 --> 00:46:51,370 when these materials were being in placed in the rock. 938 00:46:51,370 --> 00:46:53,770 And so these little bubbles of water 939 00:46:53,770 --> 00:46:55,930 can preserve organic materials 940 00:46:55,930 --> 00:46:58,683 so it's worth a look in these Martian samples. 941 00:46:59,620 --> 00:47:01,220 The rock sample is stored, 942 00:47:01,220 --> 00:47:02,653 ready to be dropped off. 943 00:47:03,740 --> 00:47:05,840 The first of more than 30 tubes 944 00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:08,023 destined for Earth laboratories. 945 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:11,150 The next step in solving a mystery 946 00:47:11,150 --> 00:47:14,649 that began perhaps four billion years ago. 947 00:47:14,649 --> 00:47:15,490 (gentle music) 948 00:47:15,490 --> 00:47:17,330 All of a sudden, Mars goes through 949 00:47:17,330 --> 00:47:20,890 this incredibly dramatic change. 950 00:47:20,890 --> 00:47:23,000 Something on a planetary scale 951 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,850 that we haven't experienced on Earth. 952 00:47:25,900 --> 00:47:28,003 Did life survive, if it had been there? 953 00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:31,923 Life does things with its environment. 954 00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:36,050 We're looking for signs that organisms 955 00:47:36,050 --> 00:47:38,740 are actually influencing what's around them 956 00:47:38,740 --> 00:47:40,530 in a way that their natural environment 957 00:47:40,530 --> 00:47:41,867 wouldn't do so on its own. 958 00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:46,540 The whole biosphere has affected the planet, 959 00:47:46,540 --> 00:47:49,370 have affected the mineral formation, every thing, 960 00:47:49,370 --> 00:47:51,370 and that has got to be recorded in the rock 961 00:47:51,370 --> 00:47:53,050 in some way, shape or form. 962 00:47:53,050 --> 00:47:53,883 I think. 963 00:47:55,930 --> 00:47:58,960 There should be something that we can decode from that. 964 00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:00,963 It might take decades. 965 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:06,230 Mars is a entire planet you know? 966 00:48:06,230 --> 00:48:09,460 A planet like Earth, full of diversity, 967 00:48:09,460 --> 00:48:12,093 of all kinds of things we can't imagine. 968 00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:17,613 So in a way, what I expect is the unexpected. 969 00:48:19,807 --> 00:48:23,010 I'd like to know why Mars didn't have life 970 00:48:23,010 --> 00:48:25,500 or why Mars did have life. 971 00:48:25,500 --> 00:48:28,110 We're an exploration species and we want to know 972 00:48:28,110 --> 00:48:29,970 where we fit in the universe. 973 00:48:29,970 --> 00:48:32,493 Either answer is wonderful. 974 00:48:33,930 --> 00:48:34,763 Are we alone? 975 00:48:35,650 --> 00:48:40,063 Is there life out there or is life so special 976 00:48:40,063 --> 00:48:41,513 that it's only here on Earth? 977 00:48:43,070 --> 00:48:45,630 We might find evidence of that randomness 978 00:48:45,630 --> 00:48:48,413 that defines the non-biological world. 979 00:48:49,970 --> 00:48:53,253 If there is evidence of life having once existed on Mars, 980 00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:58,220 then that tells us that life can exist on a planet 981 00:48:58,220 --> 00:48:59,520 and then it can disappear. 982 00:49:00,860 --> 00:49:02,315 That's pretty... 983 00:49:02,315 --> 00:49:06,947 That's the reason why we're doing this. 984 00:49:06,947 --> 00:49:10,873 You can't rely on your planet to always provide you a home. 985 00:49:12,310 --> 00:49:17,063 Every time we look at Mars in a different way, 986 00:49:17,940 --> 00:49:21,093 we discover something grand. 987 00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:24,480 But do I think that the samples 988 00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:26,013 have evidence of life in them? 989 00:49:27,290 --> 00:49:28,840 Depends on what day you ask me. 990 00:49:30,506 --> 00:49:33,339 (dramatic music)