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(dramatic music)

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In the last 50 years of exploring Mars,

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we've gone from thinking maybe there were canals and aliens

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that had created this whole ecosystem,

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transporting water from the polar caps

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toward gigantic farms,

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to getting there and seeing these pictures

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of just cratered landscapes,

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a surface that's baked in radiation,

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barely an atmosphere to speak of,

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not a place that could sustain life as we know it.

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We look at the planet Mars and its this rusty red ball

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and it doesn't look like it's a great place

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for life to live at all.

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You know, stagnant.

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When I was a kid, Mars looked

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incredibly dead and it was boring.

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The end, close the book don't ever go back.

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I think when the general public thinks of Mars,

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they imagine this dead red rock

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where we haven't found any evidence of life.

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So why do we keep exploring?

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Why do we keep sending these missions there?

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It seems Mars has failed to live up

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to our dreams of finding life beyond Earth.

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But is that about to change?

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With NASA's perseverance Rover mission,

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we may finally find out if Mars

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once hosted organisms on its surface.

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Perseverance, it is an entirely

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unfamiliar kind of mission.

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We've never done anything like this before.

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This feels like a revolution right now

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in our understanding of Mars.

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Whether Mars had life is the question.

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If it did start there, maybe life is really easy.

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If it didn't start there maybe is really hard.

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Touchdown confirmed.

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Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars,

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ready to begin seeking the signs of past life.

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Touchdown confirm we're gonna wait for the images.

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The second we landed,

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then we actually started getting to work

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as the images started coming down.

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Perseverance is continuing to transmit.

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Yes!

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Are we alone in the universe?

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And that's what we're trying to figure out.

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That's what exploration's all about.

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In 2012, Perseverance's predecessor,

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Curiosity Rover, begins its mission

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to establish if Mars ever had an environment

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that could support life as we know it,

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the essential first step towards seeking life itself.

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When Curiosity is driving around,

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it's driving over rocks that are billions of years old.

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Now Curiosity is not designed

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to actually look for signs of life,

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but it most certainly can identify an environment

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that has everything that's necessary for life to be there.

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I'm interested in knowing if there are organic molecules

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in the rocks that we encounter.

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Curiosity is the first Rover

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with a miniature laboratory on board

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capable of detecting organic molecules.

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Organic material is critical for life as we know it.

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So if we don't find any on Mars, that's a huge deal.

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Mars is just

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so inhospitable.

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The surface is being bombarded by ionizing radiation,

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which is not good for life or organic molecules.

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Not good.

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It tends to break them down.

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Every sample was a bit of a risk scientifically

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'cause we didn't know what we were gonna come across.

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I mean there were samples where we

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really didn't learn much of anything.

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If we had the conditions for life to survive,

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we would expect to find organic material.

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We still hadn't seen any with Curiosity

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and this was a big mystery.

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Was there never any organic material on ours?

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Our best hope was to just keep looking.

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We came across a bunch of cobbles

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and stones that were all rounded.

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The best way of doing that is in a river.

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We realized there had been water flowing

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on the surface of Mars in the past.

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Then we knew we were on the right track.

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We were heading to where we thought the lake was.

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We saw these features and they sort of indicated

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that there was shallow water.

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Shallow water is a great place for life to do its thing,

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get immediately trapped into the sediments.

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So I was particularly interested in that sample.

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And when we drilled into the first rock,

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the sediment was dark gray.

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It hadn't been rusted like everything else

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that you see on the surface of Mars.

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And there was a window into the past.

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There was organic matter in that rock

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and that it had survived eons

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of ionizing radiation at the surface of Mars.

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The discovery of organics

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is a huge step forward in establishing

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the habitability of Mars.

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But falls short of proving life ever existed there.

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Finding organics is not proof of life on Mars at all.

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It's a nice hint, but we don't know

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whether these organic molecules actually rained down

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on the surface of Mars in the form of meteorites over time.

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Okay, great.

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We finally have found organics on Mars,

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but it doesn't tell us anything about

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where those molecules came from

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and what they're doing there and what they mean to us.

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Because of missions like Curiosity,

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we know that Mars was absolutely habitable.

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So the next question is was it ever inhabited?

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(upbeat music)

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Back on Earth,

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a radical new mission is being prepared.

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The goal of the Perseverance Rover

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is to look for signs of ancient life on Mars.

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We finally put together the pieces

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of what Mars used to to be like

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and we know what evidence we need to definitively say

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whether there was or wasn't life on Mars.

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So Perseverance's goal is to take us to that next step.

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The purpose of Perseverance Rover mission

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is to find some ancient traces of life from us.

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And, for that purpose, the instruments need

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to be different from the Curiosity Rover.

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And we need to have more techniques to meet this requirement

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and that's a price to pay to be on board.

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(gentle music)

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But how do you begin to unravel

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the clues that point to life?

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On the end of Perseverance's robotic arm

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is an instrument called SHERLOC,

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designed to take Curiosity's investigations

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into organic molecules to the next level.

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Curiosity has a mass spectrometer

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and that's one way of detecting for organic molecules.

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What we do is something a little different.

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We are looking for spectral signatures.

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We shine a laser on a surface,

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and then we look at the back scattered light coming back

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and how that light changes tells us what's in the surface.

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They detect and classify organic molecules

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on a very fine scale.

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The astrobiologists are going crazy for this instrument

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because the wavelength at which the spectrometer operates

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is optimized for organics.

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(dramatic music)

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On the opposite side

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of the robotic arm from SHERLOC,

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is an instrument called PIXL,

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a radical reimagining of a geologist's most basic tool.

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I sometimes refer to it as a chemical hand lens.

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You know, the hand lens being the eye piece

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a geologist uses to look at the rock.

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Imagine being able to look through that and see,

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not just what the rock looks like,

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but also what it's made of.

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PIXL uses spectroscopy to create

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a chemical map of the surface,

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to reveal how life might have affected the rock.

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In a way it looks like a camera image,

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but it is really the fingerprints of the rock.

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And in turn those fingerprints tell you

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the history of the rock.

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How it was formed, what environment it was in.

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The PIXL instrument was something that arrived

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from doing field geology out in Western Australia one year.

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Trying to look for evidence of life

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in the oldest rocks on Earth.

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I found that trying to figure out on Earth

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whether something that was in a rock

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that was possibly biological was actually biological

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was really helped by this instrument

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called an x-ray microscope.

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It's like a huge...

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A pretty decent sized beach ball.

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It's connected to the mains power.

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And, of course, if anything goes wrong with it,

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then you get a crew come out to fix it.

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The most challenging aspect of building PIXL

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is the not being able to break.

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You have to be able to get off the surface of Earth,

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to Mars, land on the surface of Mars

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and then survive on Mars for the entire prime mission

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and hopefully well beyond.

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All of that had to be done

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in addition to getting it down from 80 centimeters cubed

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to about 20 centimeters cubed.

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There were certainly moments where it was like,

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oh my God, how complicated is this becoming?

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Tailoring these precision instruments

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for a future on Mars is a daunting engineering challenge.

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Even for those who have been there before.

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Oh, to develop an instrument for Mars is pretty easy.

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You just have to worry about every single thing

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down to the bolts and where the bolts go

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and where the bolts don't go.

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Most instruments that are SHERLOC-like

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do not like vibration.

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And we're attached to a drill that vibrates.

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The temperature swings on Mars every day

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is a hundred degrees Celsius.

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Electronics really don't like to be hot, then cold,

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then hot, then cold, then hot, then cold every single day.

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And the brutality of the Martian atmosphere

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is matched by the trauma of the space flight

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that will get them there.

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(dramatic music)

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We do testing informally known as shake and bake, right?

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Because you wanna shake it

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and you wanna heat it.

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Everything that goes into space

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has to be really thoroughly tested.

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You could almost say violently tested.

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We vibrate it at different frequencies

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and make sure no screws come loose,

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nothing falls apart.

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When I saw the shaking, I was like, my God,

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what about the optical alignment?

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It's a bit heartbreaking to see your instruments

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suffering like that.

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(gentle music)

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The jewel in the crown

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of Perseverance's instruments is the eye catching SuperCam.

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SuperCam is often described as the head of the Rover.

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And it is, it's sort of this cyclops laser eye.

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SuperCam's long range, rock busting laser

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could make all the difference in the search for life.

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We can shoot the laser at a rock

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up to seven meters away from the Rover.

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So we can actually analyze things

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all around us without having to drive up to it.

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The rock gets literally zapped

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and the atoms come screaming off

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at 10,000 degrees in a plasma

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and then, with that cyclops eye,

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we collect some of that light.

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We can tell what are the chemical elements

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that are present in that rock?

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It blows my mind that a scientist in a lab one day

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thought let's blow up rocks with lasers

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and see what they're made out of

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and now we're doing this on Mars.

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Just below SuperCam

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are two stereoscopic cameras,

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the key to navigating Martian terrain,

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with the driver using special 3D glasses.

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So, as a Rover driver, I'll put on my 3D goggles

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and getting the three dimensional data

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allows you to really visualize the terrain

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in order to determine if something's a hazard.

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And on Perseverance, the cameras are fantastic,

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very high resolution, so we'll be able to see a lot further.

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(gentle music)

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The complex optics for SuperCam

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and the entire head of Perseverance

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are made in Toulouse by the French space agency CNES.

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At the end of 2018, the launch is in sight.

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But the future of NASA's cyclops eye

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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)