1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:13,840 Right now, that rover, Perseverance, 4 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,960 is 200 million miles away, on the surface of Mars. 5 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,840 It's on the floor of Jezero Crater, and it's taking the images 6 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,240 and collecting the samples that might tell us 7 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:27,360 whether life ever existed on the Red Planet. 8 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:40,280 Jezero Crater is one of the most important and enigmatic sites 9 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:41,720 in the solar system. 10 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:45,800 Around 3.8 billion years ago 11 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:47,680 it was filled with a lake. 12 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:53,320 But that lake is long gone. 13 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,120 Mars has become a dry and barren world. 14 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,840 Today, Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter 15 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,680 are searching the crater for signs of the life 16 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:11,440 that may once have lived there. 17 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:17,160 What they find could transform our understanding of life - 18 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,680 on Earth and throughout the universe. 19 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,240 It is certainly the most audacious mission 20 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:29,320 ever sent to the surface of another world. 21 00:01:29,320 --> 00:01:32,200 TDL, this is mission. I have you five by five. How read? 22 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,000 I have you five by, as well. 23 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,120 This is a crucial seven days for the rover... 24 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,880 ..and I've been given extraordinary access to the Perseverance mission. 25 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,680 I'll be following the rover's every move 26 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:53,920 as it attempts to travel further and faster than ever before. 27 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,080 Through its cameras, 28 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:02,120 we'll show you what it's like to stand on... 29 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:06,440 ..and explore the surface of another world. 30 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,680 This week, we'll see the Red Planet 31 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:18,840 as no-one has seen it before. 32 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:54,680 This is Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 33 00:02:54,680 --> 00:03:00,440 4,800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California. 34 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,800 From the 1960s onwards, it's been the control centre 35 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,720 for Nasa's pioneering deep space missions, 36 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:17,120 and now it's the headquarters for the hundreds of scientists 37 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:19,640 and engineers who make up the Perseverance team. 38 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:27,120 JPL is a really special place for me because, way back in 1980, 39 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,440 I wrote to them because I was interested 40 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,160 in the exploration of the planets, and they wrote back! 41 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:34,280 And this is it. 42 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:37,200 Imagine the excitement when this brown envelope arrived 43 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:40,880 from California, filled with images of the solar system, 44 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,720 the moons of Jupiter, and the rings of Saturn. 45 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:49,080 This is one of the reasons I became a physicist. 46 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,920 Well, now, 40 years later, 47 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,920 I'm actually at JPL because, as I speak, 48 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,760 there is a rover roving across the Martian surface - 49 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,680 the first mission dedicated to the search for life on Mars. 50 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:06,920 And this week, we have unique access, 51 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:08,400 not only to Mission Control, 52 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,600 but also to the navigators who are plotting the path 53 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:14,600 of Perseverance around the boulders 54 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,040 and the mountains of Mars. 55 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:19,440 And we're also going to see the photographs, 56 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:21,160 the data come down in real time. 57 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:23,880 We're going to learn things about Mars that nobody 58 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:25,640 has ever known before. 59 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:28,320 Can't wait. 60 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,640 Just over a year ago, the world held its breath 61 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:38,560 as the Perseverance rover... 62 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,600 ..the flagship of the Mars 2020 mission, 63 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:45,880 made its final approach towards Mars. 64 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:49,880 After seven years of development 65 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:51,880 and a six-month journey, 66 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:55,520 no-one knew if the 2.7 billion dollar rover 67 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:57,960 would make it safely onto the surface. 68 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:13,200 Since then, Perseverance has been exploring the area 69 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,800 around its landing site in Jezero Crater, 70 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,960 sending back the most extraordinary images. 71 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:33,080 With the exception of the occasional animation, 72 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:35,480 every image of Mars in this programme 73 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,720 has been captured by the cameras on Perseverance, 74 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,320 or the other spacecraft around Mars. 75 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:52,600 Perseverance's mission is to search for signs of long-extinct life. 76 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:55,960 What it discovers 77 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,960 could answer one of the great existential questions... 78 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:04,560 ..are we alone in the universe? 79 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:19,480 This is JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility 80 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:22,720 or, better, Mission Control. 81 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:28,200 And this room is iconic for anyone that's into space flight, 82 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:31,880 because this is the room in which all those dramatic moments 83 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,160 that we all remember happened. 84 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,680 The dive of Cassini into Saturn, 85 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:38,680 the landing of Curiosity, 86 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:40,720 and Perseverance on Mars. 87 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,400 They're talking now to the solar system, 88 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:45,240 anything that's out there. 89 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:49,640 This is where all the data comes down from the Perseverance Rover. 90 00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:58,680 TDL, this is five by, I have you five by. 91 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:00,280 I have you five by, as well. 92 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,400 This morning, the crew in Mission Control are waiting 93 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:07,560 to hear from Perseverance, 94 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:12,560 which is currently 200 million miles away on the surface of Mars. 95 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:18,360 To find out how communication works across such vast distances, 96 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:21,040 I've come to see Rick Welch. 97 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,040 So this room, sometimes, we call the centre of the universe. 98 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,200 This is where all the data comes to this facility 99 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:28,240 from all our spacecraft out in the solar system. 100 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:30,720 So you can see up on the screen the different antenna. 101 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:33,440 We actually have antennas at three locations around the Earth, 102 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,120 which allow us to really look out and see spacecraft, no matter 103 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:37,840 what planet they happen to be at. 104 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:38,920 How does that work? 105 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,840 Because Mars is... What is it? About 200 million miles away, 106 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:43,560 give or take, at the moment. 107 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:48,120 Right now, as you said, we're about 300 million kilometres away, 108 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,720 and it's probably about 16 minutes to get our signal 109 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:52,000 all the way to Mars, one way. 110 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,440 So compare that to the moon. It only takes a couple of seconds 111 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,320 for a signal to get back and forth to the moon. 112 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:57,880 So even when we had astronauts there, 113 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:00,200 it seemed like we could talk back and forth in real time. 114 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:02,560 You know, 16 minutes is really too long to do any kind 115 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:04,200 of real-time communication. 116 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,760 This delay in communication between Earth and Mars 117 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:12,320 determines so much of how the mission operates. 118 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,040 Because the team are unable to control the rover in real time, 119 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:19,080 they must compile detailed sets of instructions to send 120 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:21,120 to Perseverance every day. 121 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:24,600 So the scientists and engineers here on Earth 122 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,640 spend about eight hours deciding the next things for the rover to do, 123 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:31,000 and building the commands. We then send that up in the Martian morning. 124 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,440 The rover is on its own to execute those the best it can. 125 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,440 And then we hear back in the Martian afternoon 126 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:36,880 what actually happened on Mars. 127 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,080 Oh, so that says, "Next UHF two hours." 128 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,280 So is that... is that what that means? That's right. 129 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,840 So we're very interested in getting our downlink today to see 130 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:45,960 how the rover is doing. 131 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:49,400 And that will be arriving here in about two hours. 132 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,240 While the crew in Mission Control wait... 133 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:56,960 ..Perseverance is uploading its latest data 134 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:59,640 to one of several spacecraft in orbit around Mars. 135 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:06,760 That spacecraft will relay the data back to Earth in two hours' time... 136 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,560 ..which gives me time to explore the JPL campus. 137 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,960 JPL is set in a beautiful location in the mountains around Pasadena. 138 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:28,400 It's about ten miles from Los Angeles. 139 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,680 And there's a reason that it's here, 140 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:34,480 isolated, because it began life as a rocket test facility. 141 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:37,160 And the thing about rockets when you're testing them, 142 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:38,800 is that sometimes they explode. 143 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:44,440 But in the 1950s, this became the centre of America's exploration 144 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:48,280 of the solar system and beyond, and the first American satellite, 145 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:51,760 Explorer 1, was built and controlled from here, 146 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,400 as were all those things I grew up with - 147 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:59,200 Voyager, Cassini, and now, the latest, Perseverance. 148 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:03,520 And in here, in the Mars yard, we're going to meet its twin. 149 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:21,680 This is Optimism. 150 00:10:21,680 --> 00:10:24,440 Engineers like their acronyms, so that actually stands 151 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:29,240 for Operational Perseverance Twin with the Integration of Mechanisms 152 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,360 and Instruments Sent to Mars. 153 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:37,680 But it is, in every important way, an exact engineering replica 154 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:39,640 of Perseverance. 155 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:41,480 There are a few things missing. 156 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:44,360 For instance, on Earth, it's not safe for the rover to be powered 157 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:49,240 by nuclear battery, so instead it's plugged into the mains. 158 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:51,880 But, for example, it has exactly the same 159 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:53,720 flight computers as Perseverance. 160 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:57,640 So if they want to upload new software, then they upload 161 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:01,200 it to that first, and test it to make sure it works. 162 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:05,400 And it's quite an imposing thing, isn't it? 163 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:07,640 It's bigger than I thought. 164 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:18,520 Weighing over a ton on Earth, and standing just over two metres tall, 165 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,040 the rover is a beast. 166 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:25,560 And it's packed with instruments designed to scrutinise 167 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:27,000 the Martian surface. 168 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,840 Among them are 19 cameras, more than any other spacecraft. 169 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,320 Five are mounted at the top of the mast 170 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:41,360 to give a human-like eye-level view 171 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,200 of the Martian landscape. 172 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:49,880 Lower down, cameras focus on the area in front of the rover... 173 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:56,720 ..where the robot arm is deployed to study and sample the surface, 174 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:58,600 looking for signs of life. 175 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,320 In just over a year, the rover's cameras have sent 176 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,040 over 200,000 images back to Earth. 177 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,280 This morning, the latest batch of photos 178 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:32,920 are just about to arrive at JPL... 179 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,920 ..and I'm going to look at them with the leader of the science team, 180 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:37,800 Ken Farley. 181 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:43,120 So here we have one of the images that just came down from Mars today, 182 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:46,960 and it's a great landscape looking off to the north and east 183 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:48,120 in Jezero Crater. 184 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:52,800 Yeah. And do you still get excited by the idea that nobody's ever seen 185 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,240 this planet from this angle before? It's completely new data. 186 00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,160 How could you not? I mean, this is just... 187 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:02,240 I love it. This is... Every day, to be able to take in a landscape 188 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,680 like this and be surprised by things that we see. 189 00:13:05,680 --> 00:13:08,560 Still exciting to see it every day. 190 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:12,880 Can you describe what we're seeing in this image? In the foreground, 191 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,960 you see the area that we've been exploring for most of the last year. 192 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:18,520 That's the crater floor. 193 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:22,120 And then the thing that just captures everybody's attention, 194 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:23,560 including mine, is the delta. 195 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:26,680 And the delta is very distinctive and it's got a flat top. 196 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:28,720 You can see the flat top on the left side. Yeah. 197 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:30,760 That's about 40 metres high. 198 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:37,280 The delta is the most important feature in Jezero Crater, 199 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:40,680 and it's the reason Perseverance was sent here. 200 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,360 It was formed at the mouth of a river that flowed into the lake 201 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:48,400 that once filled the crater. 202 00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:52,240 The delta's layers of sedimentary rock 203 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:54,800 are thought to be the most likely place to find evidence 204 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,760 of the life that may once have lived on Mars. 205 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:03,280 And it's where the rover is headed to next. 206 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:06,480 We are just about to embark on about a five-kilometre drive 207 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:09,600 to get to the Delta. We would love to just go straight there. 208 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:12,160 It's only about two kilometres, two and a half kilometres 209 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,200 as the crow flies. But there are boulders in the foreground 210 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:18,400 and, in the middle distance, that you can't easily see in this image, 211 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:20,960 there are sand dunes, so we have to go all the way around 212 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:22,240 to get there. 213 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:23,480 You don't want to get stuck. 214 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:26,960 We absolutely do not want to get stuck. That would be bad. 215 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:41,280 Well, we've arrived at an extremely exciting time 216 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:43,000 for Perseverance on Mars. 217 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:46,400 For the last year, it's been exploring this region around here, 218 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,440 but now it's going to set off to its primary target, 219 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:52,160 here in the ancient river delta. 220 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,760 Now, it can't, or they don't want to, take the direct route, 221 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,320 because that would be through this rocky dune field. 222 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:01,720 It would take a long time, might even be dangerous for the rover. 223 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,720 And so what will be happening this week is it's going to head off 224 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,800 about, hopefully, 200 or 300 metres a day 225 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:09,760 driving in this direction. 226 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:11,480 And then, by the end of the week - 227 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:13,600 I really am looking forward to this - 228 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:17,440 it's going to thread its way, we think, around the side 229 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:21,480 of this crater. It looks quite nasty from the air, but they say 230 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:23,040 that it's certainly passable. 231 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:27,560 And so, if we're lucky, then Perseverance will be around here, 232 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,120 at the end of our week here at JPL. 233 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:39,160 Over the next week, I'll follow the rover's every move as it starts 234 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:41,640 the most important drive of its mission so far. 235 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:46,280 To cover the 1,200 metres 236 00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:49,320 to La Orotava crater in just seven days, 237 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:54,280 the rover will need to break all distance and driving records. 238 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,560 No rover has gone so far across the surface of another planet 239 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:00,480 in such a short space of time. 240 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:07,320 We're hoping that journey will start today, 241 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:09,120 but first we need to be sure 242 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,040 the rover is ready to move on. 243 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:13,360 This is where it happens. 244 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,360 So Rick is taking me to the daily briefing meeting, 245 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:18,280 on the rover operations floor. 246 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:21,680 Coming in to the Perseverance Operation Facility, 247 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,040 we have this great selfie of the rover, 248 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:25,760 which is awesome to see. 249 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:28,640 And this picture is actually taken 250 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:30,440 with a camera at the end of the robotic arm. 251 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:33,720 So if you were the rover, it's taking over 50 different pictures 252 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,880 to actually build this mosaic. 253 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,480 I remember one of your engineers actually saying that it behaved 254 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:42,120 like one of his teenagers would, 255 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:45,240 because it landed and the first thing it did was take a selfie. 256 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:46,840 Exactly. Exactly. 257 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:59,800 This maze of rooms is the beating heart of the mission. 258 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,600 It's usually strictly off-limits to outsiders, 259 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,160 but today I've been given special clearance to join the team inside. 260 00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:11,280 So this is one of our big operations room. 261 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:13,840 We call this the Mission Support Area or MSA. 262 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:16,240 And this is where our data comes. 263 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:25,880 Our tactical downlink lead today is Keith. 264 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,280 He's actually checking in with all the team members, 265 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:37,440 all our engineering and science members to make sure 266 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:38,480 they can hear him. 267 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,560 This is the team's chance to check on the status of the rover, 268 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:49,240 and this morning it seems all is not well. 269 00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:02,840 Occasionally, we do need to say, we see some issue with this system. 270 00:18:02,840 --> 00:18:05,440 And so let's preclude use of that for tomorrow, 271 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,480 until we have more time to look at it. 272 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:09,960 Yeah, I think he said, didn't he, that the drill had paused. 273 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:12,200 Monday, we'll be looking... 274 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,520 Before it's even started its record-breaking drive, 275 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:19,360 the rover is facing a problem that could delay its progress. 276 00:18:19,360 --> 00:18:21,040 And it stems from this. 277 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:26,280 The last task in its investigation of the crater floor was to take 278 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:28,360 a rock sample from this boulder, 279 00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:30,400 informally known as Sid. 280 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:37,000 So what have we got? 281 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,240 This is a very interesting image, 282 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:42,880 because we are trying to take a core sample of this rock. 283 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:45,800 And the rock was too hard 284 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,880 and the coring faulted. 285 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:50,920 It stopped with the drill still stuck in the rocks. 286 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:52,320 It's not supposed to be like that. 287 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:54,560 I suppose you don't want to break a drill bit, right? 288 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:57,320 That's exactly right. If the rock is too hard, 289 00:18:57,320 --> 00:18:59,200 you start to dull the drill bit, 290 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,440 and we have a small number of drill bits and once they're all dull, 291 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:04,440 we're not going to be collecting any more rocks. 292 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,240 So we are very careful not to push the drill too hard. 293 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:11,840 And while the drill is stuck in the rock, 294 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:13,840 the rover can't go anywhere. 295 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:17,320 This is what it's like on a rover mission. 296 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:19,840 Every day, there's something new that you have to deal with. 297 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:22,120 So what do you do? We're asking for a core 298 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:24,560 that was about six centimetres long, 299 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:27,600 and we know it got to five centimetres before it faulted. 300 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:29,720 So five centimetres - good enough. 301 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:31,920 So you don't care about the extra centimetre. 302 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:33,680 You just want to get that core... Right. 303 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:37,000 We've decided that the best thing to do was to simply snap 304 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:38,840 off this core from the rock, 305 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,760 and ingest it into the rover and seal it. 306 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:49,120 As our first day at JPL ends, the instructions telling the rover 307 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:52,480 to break off the sample and withdraw the drill, 308 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,280 are sent to the Deep Space Network, and onwards to Mars. 309 00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:01,680 We won't know if it's been a success until we return. 310 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:17,560 Our fascination with Mars is nothing new. 311 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:26,720 We know now that, in the early years of the 20th century, this world 312 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,040 was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's. 313 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,160 Stories of Martian visitors were once a staple 314 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:42,640 of cinema and radio. 315 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:47,360 And at the time, those stories didn't seem as far-fetched 316 00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:48,600 as they do today. 317 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:56,560 Intellects vast cool and unsympathetic, 318 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,640 regarded this Earth with envious eyes, 319 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,400 and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. 320 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,240 It's hard to believe today, but a century ago - actually, 321 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:15,040 as recently as the 1930s - it was perfectly respectable 322 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:18,560 to imagine that there was a civilisation on Mars. 323 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:25,760 Gee-whiz. 324 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,480 Invaders from Mars, weird, fantastic beings 325 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,280 of a superintelligence, ruling a race of synthetic humans 326 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:38,160 and pitting them against mankind's dream to conquer the universe. 327 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:44,720 They were beings as intelligent or even more intelligent than us, 328 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,040 staring down at Earth. 329 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:50,280 This could be the beginning of the end for the human race. 330 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:53,400 For what men first thought were meteors, or the often-ridiculed 331 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,480 flying saucers are, in reality, the flaming vanguard 332 00:21:57,480 --> 00:21:59,360 of the invasion from Mars. 333 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,320 Even into the 1950s, it was reasonable to think that Mars 334 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,040 was covered in vegetation. 335 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:11,240 And the reason is that until the space age, 336 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:15,360 this was the best photograph we had of Mars. 337 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:18,480 This is from the 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson. 338 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:22,120 And these dark markings on the surface, which move around, 339 00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:26,120 actually, or appear to, as the months pass and the seasons change, 340 00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:29,080 look for all the world like vegetation. 341 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:36,280 This is a book written by the great Patrick Moore in the 1950s. 342 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,600 It's titled A Guide to Mars. 343 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:40,720 And in the chapter called Life on Mars, 344 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,000 Patrick Moore writes this, 345 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:47,720 "To sum up, there is no reason to suppose that low forms 346 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:50,600 "of vegetation may not exist on Mars, 347 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:54,760 "whilst there is a great deal of evidence that they do." 348 00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:01,360 But that changed with the dawn of the space age. 349 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:13,880 In November 1964, Nasa launched Mariner 4 towards Mars... 350 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:21,240 ..on a mission to return the first close-up images of the planet. 351 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,240 The spacecraft is flying toward Mars, about to pass 352 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,640 within 6,000 miles of its surface. 353 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:32,640 Back at JPL, they waited anxiously as the data trickled in. 354 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:37,720 This would be the first time we'd seen the surface 355 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:42,720 of another planet and, potentially, signs of extraterrestrial life. 356 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,240 But all that emerged was a barren, crater-scarred world, 357 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:57,200 with no sign of life and certainly no Martians. 358 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:13,120 On August 20th 1975, the first Viking spaceship was launched. 359 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:21,720 Subsequent missions revealed the planet 360 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,320 in greater and greater detail, 361 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,720 hinting at a very different past. 362 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,200 By the mid-1970s, the Viking missions had discovered 363 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,720 great river valleys, proof that large amounts of water 364 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:38,720 had flowed across the Martian surface. 365 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:47,000 To investigate that history of water, 366 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,600 a string of rovers were sent to explore the surface. 367 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:55,240 They discovered a very different world to the Mars we see today. 368 00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:58,840 There was evidence that, in the past, 369 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,720 Mars was covered in lakes and even oceans. 370 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:07,240 On Earth, we know that wherever we find water, we find life. 371 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:13,120 This all suggests that even if Mars is a dead world today, 372 00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:15,320 it may not always have been so. 373 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:21,800 In just 50 years, 374 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:26,480 we've come full circle, from Mariner 4 apparently suggesting 375 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,040 that Mars is a dead world, 376 00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,600 to believing again that it is certainly possible 377 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,560 that life may have existed at some point 378 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:36,280 in the history of the Red Planet. 379 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,720 And now it's up to Perseverance to see if that's true. 380 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:11,720 Day two at JPL, and I return to Mission Control 381 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,320 to see the new data that Perseverance has sent back. 382 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:23,360 Ken. So, last time we spoke, the drill bit was stuck in the rock. 383 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:25,000 So what happened? 384 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:30,040 Well, we have this image of a beautiful rock in the drill bit. 385 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:34,200 So now we know, just from this image alone, that the drill was able 386 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,440 to break off the rock core and pull out. 387 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:38,600 So that one's been solved. 388 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,680 The sample's safely stowed away. 389 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,680 So what's the plan today? 390 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,640 Well, that was the last thing we had to do to complete 391 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:47,680 the crater floor campaign, 392 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,680 and we are ready to begin the drive campaign. 393 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:55,120 So the main activity for the next few weeks is drive, drive, drive. 394 00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,520 With the time lost to the drilling fault, Perseverance will now 395 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,600 have to average 200 metres a day 396 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:08,000 if it is to reach La Orotava Crater 397 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:09,560 by the end of the week. 398 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:13,800 But the pictures from its cameras 399 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,520 showed that it's starting from a tricky position, 400 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:20,840 surrounded by a maze of rocks and sand traps. 401 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:26,440 To find its way onto clearer ground, 402 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:29,600 Perseverance is going to need help. 403 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,440 Vandi Verma is head of the Rover Driving Team. 404 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,720 Hello, Vandi. Hi. Nice to meet you. 405 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:40,320 So you're about to set off on the journey, the long journey 406 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:41,680 around to the delta. 407 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,640 So how do you plan the next route? 408 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,480 So we look at the images. So I would look at these 409 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,800 navigation camera images I took in the direction we expect to drive. 410 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,160 And we turn these 3D goggles on. 411 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,640 If I put it into stereo so you can yourself see it... 412 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,240 Oh, that really is quite impressive, actually. 413 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,440 I can see the surface of Mars coming out from the screen. 414 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,480 And you can see a curved ripple here, with the rocks on it. 415 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:13,160 It's a really good substitute for standing where the rover is 416 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,680 on Mars, and kind of looking out to see 417 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:17,520 how you would navigate the terrain. 418 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:24,080 Using the 3D images, Vandi can begin to plot Perseverance's route 419 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,040 through the obstacles. 420 00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,480 Essentially, we are saying we want to navigate around this area, 421 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,200 so we are doing the path so it goes around this. 422 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,200 But we don't want to go over here, 423 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,800 because it's very sandy, and sand, actually, 424 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:38,760 the wheels don't do very well in. Ah, yeah. 425 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,120 You can see all the layers as you start... 426 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,640 In hazardous terrain like this, 427 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,600 the only way the rover can safely find its way 428 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,640 is by following Vandi's carefully plotted route. 429 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:55,560 But this mode of rover driving is slow. 430 00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,280 It's only possible to programme 431 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,080 around 30 metres of driving each day, 432 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,520 nowhere near enough to cover the distances required 433 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:05,360 to reach the delta. 434 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,040 So once the rover reaches safer ground, 435 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,400 Vandi points it in the right direction 436 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,480 and activates its secret weapon. 437 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,640 So, now we're going to turn on AutoNav, 438 00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:17,520 because the rover will know more on Mars 439 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,040 at that point than we know here. 440 00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:30,360 AutoNav allows the rover to drive itself across open terrain 441 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:34,120 where there are fewer obstacles to avoid, 442 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:38,280 analysing the stereo images from its cameras in real time 443 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,080 to pick a route across the surface. 444 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:50,840 For a demonstration of how it works, 445 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:52,240 I'm back in the Mars yard 446 00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,040 to meet the Perseverance project manager, Jennifer Trosper. 447 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,800 So I was told we have to wear these coats. 448 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:02,600 I thought it was for my safety, 449 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,520 but I'm told it's for its safety, to protect it from me. 450 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:06,960 It is, it is. Static. Yes. 451 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:10,640 And that's why I'm hooking up right here, so that I don't zap 452 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,800 any of the electronics. 453 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,440 So, if I were to sit here - and I can't believe I'm saying this - 454 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,120 but if I sit down, will she recognise me? 455 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,520 Because of how well it's working on Mars, 456 00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:23,920 I wouldn't expect it to run over you, 457 00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:25,560 but we could give it a try. 458 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:27,200 Let's check it out. Let's have a go. 459 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,920 I love the words that you... "She should." 460 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,560 No, she will. "What should happen..." 461 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,640 She's... Really, just... 462 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,160 I mean, if I just sit here... 463 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:38,600 All right. 464 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:49,320 As I settle down for this game of interplanetary chicken, 465 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:52,280 the first thing that becomes evident is that Optimism 466 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,360 is more of a tortoise than hare. 467 00:30:55,360 --> 00:31:00,000 This is top speed, 4.2 centimetres a second 468 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,160 or just under one mile every ten hours. 469 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:09,480 I'd like to say it's nerve-racking but, in all honesty, 470 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,360 I could definitely get out of the way. 471 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:14,880 As the rover drives forwards, 472 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,520 it's constantly imaging the ground in front, 473 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:20,080 building a map of the obstacles that it will 474 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,160 need to avoid - in this case, me. 475 00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:31,000 She's just taking some more images to update her nav map. 476 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,280 Then she has to decide how to get around you. 477 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:34,920 So it should be identifying... 478 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:39,400 There you go. Looks like she has identified you as an obstacle 479 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:41,200 and is choosing to turn. 480 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,280 So it looks like she's not going to drive over you. 481 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:45,320 It does. 482 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:51,360 Although the wheels are slightly resetting towards me. 483 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:53,840 She's going to make a close pass, I think. 484 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:04,960 Oh, excellent. 485 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:08,760 It's gone straight over the GoPro. 486 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,520 So she was very careful with me, 487 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,560 but not so careful with our cameras. 488 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,920 The thing that's impressive is that nobody's driving. 489 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,280 So even though it doesn't look like it's driving fast, 490 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,840 you've got to remember that she's driving across unknown terrain, 491 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:33,160 making her own decisions. 492 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,920 And this makes this rover, Perseverance, by far the fastest 493 00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,760 thing we've ever sent to the surface of any other planet. 494 00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:47,040 It's this unique set of skills that allows the rover to travel 495 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:48,800 200 to 300 metres every day. 496 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:55,520 And if Perseverance is going to make it to La Orotava Crater 497 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:58,160 by the end of the week, it'll need to go flat out. 498 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:05,840 At the end of day two, I head back to the rover operations floor, 499 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:09,320 where Vandi and the rover driving team should have finished the plans 500 00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:11,800 for the first stage of that drive. 501 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:15,800 So when the rover's route has been planned, 502 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:19,560 then those instructions have first of all got to be checked 503 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,320 and amalgamated in with all the other instructions 504 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,520 to all the instruments on the rover. So what's the arm going to do? 505 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:27,320 What are the experiments going to do? 506 00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:29,320 Where are the cameras going to be looking? 507 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,360 And those sequences, those commands, are all put together 508 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:34,600 in this meeting, which is called the cam meeting, 509 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:36,080 the command approval meeting. 510 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:39,320 And only when everybody's happy, and all those commands 511 00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,560 have been sent to simulators - twice, actually - 512 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,080 that check that everything's going to be OK, 513 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:49,400 can those commands be signed off and sent to the Deep Space Network, 514 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,520 and onwards to the rover on Mars. 515 00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,760 In here, the team are putting together the final list 516 00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,200 of instructions that will determine exactly 517 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:01,840 what the rover does tomorrow. 518 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:05,760 There are thousands of lines of code 519 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,280 and each one must be scrutinised. 520 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,040 A single bug in the software could jeopardise 521 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,040 the carefully plotted drive plan. 522 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,200 What we do after we finish on this shift is we really celebrate 523 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:24,040 the effort that everybody put together, and we actually hit 524 00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,040 the gong behind me, that we would love for you to do it today. 525 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,040 Really? Because that is the tremendous honour. 526 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,560 Am I supposed to say something? 527 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:32,240 "I declare this meeting closed." 528 00:34:32,240 --> 00:34:34,080 That sounds about right to me. 529 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:40,680 And with that bang of the gong, 530 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,880 the instructions are sent off on their long journey to Mars. 531 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:51,040 All being well, the rover should receive them 532 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:52,760 and finally be able to start 533 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,360 on its record-breaking journey in the morning. 534 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,000 Perseverance has already changed the way we look at the Red Planet. 535 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,000 The photos it takes can be stitched together 536 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,760 into astonishing panoramas. 537 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:24,800 Scenes that let us stand on the surface of another world. 538 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:31,640 It is a stark and barren landscape, dimmer than the Earth. 539 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,600 Because it's farther from the sun, less than half the amount 540 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:37,920 of sunlight reaches the surface. 541 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:43,120 But, in some ways, it looks remarkably familiar. 542 00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:46,080 There are sand dunes and boulder fields that could have been 543 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,720 photographed in deserts here on Earth. 544 00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:53,040 There are even clouds in the orange-coloured skies. 545 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:02,920 And because Perseverance is the only Martian rover to carry microphones, 546 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,880 we can hear the sounds of Mars for the first time. 547 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,120 The whistling of the wind 548 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,800 that stirs up the dust devils that ghost across the surface. 549 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,560 Perseverance has even observed a solar eclipse, 550 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:27,440 as Mars's moon Phobos passes in front of the sun. 551 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,840 But although there are undoubted similarities to the Earth, 552 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,680 Mars is also a very alien world. 553 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,280 Because it's half the diameter of our planet, 554 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:44,000 gravity on the surface is just 38% as strong. 555 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:49,640 And while the Earth is wet, warm and welcoming, 556 00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:52,800 Mars is a desolate, inhospitable place. 557 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,680 Its dusty surface is bone dry, and covered by a thin 558 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:03,240 carbon dioxide atmosphere just 1% the density of Earth's. 559 00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:09,720 The average temperature is -63 degrees Celsius. 560 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,400 It is cold, dry and dead. 561 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:19,840 This is the world that Perseverance is exploring. 562 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,480 Day three, and it's an early start at JPL. 563 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,080 Just see it there. 564 00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:57,400 So coincidentally, early morning at JPL, 565 00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:00,760 we've just walked into Mission Control, 566 00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:05,040 and that bright point of light in the sky there, Venus, 567 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:08,920 and just below it, you can just see this faint red pixel 568 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:10,800 in the morning sky. 569 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:12,720 That's Mars. 570 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:16,600 In the brightening sky, 571 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:19,040 Mars is too faint for our cameras. 572 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,920 But somewhere out there, Perseverance will hopefully 573 00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:28,760 have just completed the first stage of its drive. 574 00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:33,760 So how did the drive go yesterday? 575 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,520 It looks like it went well, but we really can't tell yet. 576 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:41,200 The data comes down in bits and pieces, and right now 577 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:44,560 we have an image that was taken in the late afternoon 578 00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:48,880 at about the time I would expect the drive to stop. 579 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:52,320 This is looking forward, and if we look backward, 580 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,200 we should be able to see the rover tracks. 581 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:56,160 So now we're looking back the way we came. 582 00:38:56,160 --> 00:39:00,000 So it looks just as you would expect if it had executed its full drive. 583 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:01,400 That's interesting, actually, 584 00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:06,200 if you go back to that one, it's just so obvious when you say it. 585 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,640 You can tell it's late afternoon because of the long shadows on Mars. 586 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:11,160 Yeah, it's like Earth, you know, 587 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:14,000 it's not surprising. You figure it out. Of course. Yeah. 588 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:19,640 When the telemetry from the rover returns to Earth, 589 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:22,640 it shows exactly how well the rover has fared on its drive. 590 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:29,160 To start off, it follows Vandi's route through the treacherous 591 00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:31,000 sand patches and boulders. 592 00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,400 And then, as the AutoNav takes over, the rover swings north 593 00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:40,560 and drives itself towards La Orotava Crater. 594 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:47,640 Covering a total distance of 204 metres 595 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:49,600 and 96 centimetres. 596 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,400 It's a great start to the journey. 597 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:00,920 But after this initial success, 598 00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,240 the team are now facing an enforced change of plan. 599 00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:08,600 Tomorrow, the mission will temporarily lose access 600 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:10,480 to the Deep Space Network. 601 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:14,840 For 24 hours, they will not be able to communicate 602 00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:16,600 with the rover on Mars. 603 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:20,960 So to keep up with the schedule, they've been forced into 604 00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:22,880 a risky change of strategy. 605 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,920 So we're making a two-day drive plan, because tomorrow 606 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:32,680 we don't have access to the antennas that communicate with the rover. 607 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,280 So we send two days' worth of instructions and just let 608 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:38,120 the rover do its thing and we get a day off. 609 00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,400 So how far would you hope to get? About 500 metres. 610 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,600 Oh, really? Yeah, that's... That'll be a big jump. 611 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,000 Today, they will be doing a two-stop plan. 612 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,680 So when you're doing your assessment today, let's make sure 613 00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,760 that everything is green and go for these activities 614 00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:57,440 that will be coming up. 615 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:02,160 Now, we just heard that the plan for the next two days 616 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,440 is for Perseverance to do a two-day drive. 617 00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:08,120 And as I speak, you can see there, Canberra Deep Space Network 618 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,840 antennae 35, there's communication upwards to MRO. 619 00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:13,680 That's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 620 00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,320 So those are probably the instructions that are going 621 00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:20,640 to Perseverance to tell it what to do on that two-day drive. 622 00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:25,760 As the commands hurtle their way towards Mars, 623 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:28,840 I want to find out how Perseverance got to Jezero Crater. 624 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,480 Jezero is the most dangerous location that NASA has ever 625 00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:40,800 tried to land a spacecraft on Mars. 626 00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:47,200 It is full of hazards that could be fatal to the mission. 627 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:53,040 But if there's one place to come to find the engineers who could 628 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:57,240 pull off this feat of precision landing, it's JPL. 629 00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:05,000 And this is JPL's motto, Dare Mighty Things. 630 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,800 And JPL lives up, definitely, to that motto, 631 00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:12,560 as you can see from this award cabinet, the trophy cabinet. 632 00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,480 And it's just a history of space exploration. For anyone who's 633 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:18,480 interested in our exploration of the universe, 634 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:21,240 then this is just magnificent. 635 00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:23,720 You see awards for Voyager, 636 00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:25,880 Mars Exploration Rovers, 637 00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:30,800 the Dawn Mission, Cassini, just everything. 638 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,880 What's that one up there? That's quite ornate, isn't it? 639 00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,040 Appreciation for your support and participation 640 00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:42,360 in The American Space Experience at Disneyland. 641 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:51,560 Upstairs from the trophy cabinet is the office of Al Chen, 642 00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:55,400 the engineer who was in charge of designing the entry, descent 643 00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,000 and landing system that would allow Perseverance 644 00:42:58,000 --> 00:42:59,720 to touch down in Jezero. 645 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,760 The scientists tell us about, you know, the potential for life there. 646 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:07,360 But when we look at it from a landing perspective, 647 00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:09,680 all you can see are the ways we're going to die there. 648 00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:12,720 The death that's out there. It's a site unlike any other place 649 00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:13,960 we've tried to land on Mars. 650 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:16,440 It's just got hazards all over the place. 651 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,440 If we turn on the slope hazards here, you see the edge of the delta, 652 00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:20,920 which is that 60 metre-ish cliff. 653 00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:22,680 And then, of course, the edges of craters, 654 00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:24,480 and those are places we don't want to land. 655 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:25,680 But of course, that's not it. 656 00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:27,800 These are all the rocks that we could see from space, 657 00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:30,640 which means about a half metre tall or so, or more. 658 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:33,120 If you manage to encounter one of those red places, 659 00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:35,040 you're very likely to have a bad day. 660 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,520 So those blue areas, they're the safe areas. That's right. 661 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,480 When I look at that, it looks like mainly hazard to me. 662 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,120 Al's job was to design a system that would allow Perseverance 663 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:53,960 to identify and then land in one of the safe areas near the delta. 664 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:08,240 But the first time his landing system could be fully tested 665 00:44:08,240 --> 00:44:11,040 was on February the 18th, 2021... 666 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:20,400 ..as the spacecraft approached Mars at the end of its six-month journey. 667 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:22,040 You are not triggered for talk. 668 00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,600 It's kind of weird to have the only test that you ever get a chance 669 00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,920 to do, you know, in front of everybody else in the world, right? 670 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:38,360 Definitely, my heart was racing. 671 00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:40,800 I probably didn't want to know what my blood pressure was. 672 00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,480 As the spacecraft makes its final approach, 673 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,000 it's travelling at 20,000km per hour. 674 00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,720 The job of Al's entry, descent and landing system is to slow 675 00:44:58,720 --> 00:45:02,640 it down to walking pace by the time it reaches the surface. 676 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,240 Because of the delay in communication with Mars, 677 00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:14,480 the whole process is automated. 678 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:20,160 All the crew in Mission Control can do is watch and wait. 679 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,240 They call it the seven minutes of terror. 680 00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:30,480 In the first stage of the descent, 681 00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:33,960 the spacecraft skims across the top of the Martian atmosphere. 682 00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:39,320 Even though it's much thinner than the Earth's, the friction 683 00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:43,400 is immense, causing the spacecraft's heat shield to glow red-hot. 684 00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:59,480 After four minutes, the spacecraft has slowed 685 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,640 to 1,500 kilometres an hour. 686 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:06,080 It's now just 11km above the planet's surface. 687 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:12,560 Filmed with the lander's cameras, 688 00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,600 this is the actual video of the parachute deploying 689 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:17,480 in the Martian atmosphere. 690 00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:23,640 As the heat shield falls away, 691 00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:28,560 the unique artificial intelligence system Al designed kicks in. 692 00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,880 Its job is to scan the ground below and identify 693 00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:33,360 a safe landing zone. 694 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,160 2km above the surface... 695 00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,360 ..the parachute is released 696 00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,880 and the eight lander rockets fire up 697 00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,720 to steer the craft towards its chosen landing site. 698 00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,160 And then the most nerve-racking moment. 699 00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:11,280 The rover is lowered the last few metres on cables, 700 00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:13,960 touching down in a swirl of Martian dust. 701 00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:29,560 Where did Perseverance choose to come down? 702 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,800 Perseverance came down in the Seitah area, so we ended up kind of 703 00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:35,880 down in this region right about here. 704 00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:37,760 You can see the hazards that are out there. 705 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:40,840 But you can see that the area right around the rover is nice and clean. 706 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,800 It's the parking lot we were looking for. 707 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:50,760 The first pictures taken by Perseverance on the surface 708 00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:53,400 showed just how precise the landing was. 709 00:47:56,200 --> 00:48:00,160 It had picked out a tiny area of flat ground in a landscape filled 710 00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,240 with boulders and sand dunes. 711 00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:09,800 But this landscape was not always so dry and dusty. 712 00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:11,400 It was once submerged. 713 00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:18,320 About 3.8 billion years ago, 714 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,760 Jezero Crater was filled with water, 715 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,680 forming a lake 45km across. 716 00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,760 On Earth, we always find life where there's water. 717 00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:38,520 If the same is true on Mars, 718 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:40,600 then life could have existed 719 00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:45,080 in Jezero Lake at almost exactly the same time 720 00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:47,400 that it was evolving on Earth. 721 00:48:57,280 --> 00:48:59,480 With the Deep Space Network down, 722 00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,920 there will be no update from Perseverance today. 723 00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,040 But a couple of hours' drive from JPL 724 00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:12,040 is a unique lake called the Salton Sea. 725 00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,000 Set amongst the desert mountains, 726 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:20,520 I could almost imagine the lake in Jezero Crater. 727 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:27,200 I've come here to meet astrobiologist Tim Lyons. 728 00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:35,040 We're sat here in the middle of a desert. 729 00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,280 Very hot, very dry. No sign of rain. 730 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:41,360 And yet there's this lake. So why is the lake here? 731 00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:44,760 Well, the lake is here because of an engineering disaster. 732 00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:47,360 In 1905, an irrigation canal was breached 733 00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:50,640 by floodwaters from the Colorado, 734 00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:53,400 and it drained almost unabatedly into this basin for two years. 735 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:56,600 Subsequent to that, it has received agricultural runoff. 736 00:49:56,600 --> 00:50:00,280 So the water that we're looking at now is essentially waste water. 737 00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:02,440 It's a pretty nasty place, to be honest with you. 738 00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,280 And the fish are not doing very well, 739 00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:06,680 and the birds are correspondingly being impacted. 740 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:10,560 But algae, bacteria, microbes are thriving. 741 00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:13,600 It's not a healthy environment, but it is teeming with life. 742 00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:22,200 It's this lake's unique microbial ecosystem 743 00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:25,840 that makes it an ideal place for studying the origin of life 744 00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:28,640 on Earth and on Mars. 745 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,600 Look at these pools of colour. 746 00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:37,920 Pools of life! 747 00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,720 This is the stuff. 748 00:50:40,720 --> 00:50:44,800 That's the warm little pond teeming with life. 749 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:48,080 It looks just like... I'm a physicist. 750 00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:51,320 It just looks like some floating scum. 751 00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:53,560 That's one description of it, yeah. 752 00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:56,400 So this is what you'd call a microbial mat? 753 00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:59,680 Well, I would say that this might be a microbial mat in the making. 754 00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:03,520 And so this is what early Earth life was like. 755 00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:07,000 Some of our very best, most convincing evidence for life 756 00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:10,760 going back in time on Earth are microbial mats, things 757 00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:15,640 like this pond that end up with these laminated concentrations, 758 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:17,920 things we call stromatolites, 759 00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,040 found in places like Australia that go back, convincingly, 760 00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:23,080 to three and a half billion years ago, 761 00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:26,680 and some people would argue maybe even to 3.7 billion years ago. 762 00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:29,280 That's very close to the window of time 763 00:51:29,280 --> 00:51:31,480 that is being studied in Jezero. 764 00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:35,760 So if we were to imagine sort of, what, 3.8 billion years ago, 765 00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,400 standing on the shores of Jezero Crater, 766 00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:40,680 is there any chance it may have looked like this? 767 00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:42,320 Oh, absolutely. I think so. 768 00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:44,640 I think even a sceptic would have to admit that. 769 00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:47,080 And so here we're looking at the actual life 770 00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:48,600 that may have been present, 771 00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:51,680 analogous life present on Mars in Jezero, 772 00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:54,840 3.8, 3.7 billion years ago. 773 00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:20,800 Now I suppose you might reasonably ask, 774 00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,320 why are we so interested in the question, 775 00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:26,760 "Did life exist on a planet millions of miles away 776 00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,000 "three and a half billion years ago?" 777 00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:31,960 I don't think, actually, that's a reasonable question 778 00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:34,560 because the question, "Are we alone in the universe?" 779 00:52:34,560 --> 00:52:37,680 is one of the most profound philosophical questions. 780 00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,200 But if you want to be more pragmatic about it, then you might 781 00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,800 be interested in how life began here. 782 00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:47,400 How did we come to be here on Earth? 783 00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:51,200 And the evidence for the origin of life on Earth 784 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:55,200 has actually largely been erased, because Earth is an active world. 785 00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:58,040 There's plate tectonics which take the evidence 786 00:52:58,040 --> 00:53:00,760 and literally take it down inside the planet. 787 00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:04,680 There's weathering with rain and wind and the oceans. 788 00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:08,360 And so there's very little evidence of what Earth was like 789 00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:10,320 three and a half billion years ago. 790 00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:14,280 But on Mars, it's different, because Mars is a planet 791 00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:18,360 that's been in deep freeze for three and a half billion years. 792 00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:21,520 There is no plate tectonics. There's very little weathering. 793 00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:28,360 So if life began on Mars, the evidence may still be there. 794 00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:34,000 So paradoxically, if you're interested in how we came 795 00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,920 to be here, the answer might lie up there. 796 00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:46,320 It's these profound questions about the origin of life 797 00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:49,560 that make Perseverance's mission so important. 798 00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:53,520 But searching for signs of ancient life 799 00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:56,240 on the surface of Mars isn't easy. 800 00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,920 Finding the remnants of it and then proving that it really is evidence 801 00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:09,000 of life is the rover's biggest challenge. 802 00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:23,960 Back at JPL, I'm meeting Luther Beegle... 803 00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:25,640 Hello, Luther. Hey. 804 00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:29,800 ..one of the chief scientists on the Perseverance team. 805 00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:32,240 It would be one of the greatest discoveries 806 00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:35,160 in the history of science, wouldn't it? 807 00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:38,640 In the history of civilisation. "We're not alone in the universe." 808 00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:42,800 So how much would it take to convince you? 809 00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:46,920 I know that you can never convince a roomful of scientists. 810 00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:48,080 Not all of them. 811 00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,640 No, we're not... We're not convincing a roomful of scientists 812 00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:52,720 on what they had for lunch. 813 00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:56,320 But I don't know what that level of convincing would be. 814 00:54:56,320 --> 00:54:58,840 It's something that's going to take a lot of evidence and a lot 815 00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:03,440 of chains, and a lot of different measurements to prove out. 816 00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:06,240 Luther is in charge of an instrument called Sherlock. 817 00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:09,920 Located at the end of the rover's arm, 818 00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:13,240 it's a laser scanner designed to detect 819 00:55:13,240 --> 00:55:16,200 the faintest chemical traces that life leaves behind. 820 00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:20,400 And we can demonstrate its abilities 821 00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:23,800 with some of the most ancient evidence of life on Earth. 822 00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:29,680 Life always leaves its imprint on its environments. 823 00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:32,040 I can show you in this particular sample here, 824 00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:35,320 this is a stromatolite from the Strelley pool formation 825 00:55:35,320 --> 00:55:38,360 in Australia. It's about 3.5 billion years old. 826 00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,240 I love the way you throw that away, by the way. 827 00:55:41,240 --> 00:55:43,280 Three and a half billion years old. 828 00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:45,920 Yeah. I mean, it just looks like a rock to me. 829 00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:47,040 So what... What... 830 00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:50,960 How would you convince me or anyone else that was biological? 831 00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:53,240 Well, if I wet this rock, you can kind of see 832 00:55:53,240 --> 00:55:55,800 the lines a little bit better. And so... 833 00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:01,920 So here you can really see, they really come out a little bit better. 834 00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:04,400 Oh, yeah. So you can see the white layer and the black layer, 835 00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:06,840 back and forth. Yeah, I can see those really clearly. Yeah. 836 00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:08,960 So why does that indicate biological activity? 837 00:56:08,960 --> 00:56:11,320 These particular stromatolites are curved, 838 00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:12,800 have different formations, 839 00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:15,800 that could only have been created through biological processes. 840 00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:19,240 So are you looking for patterns like this on Mars? 841 00:56:19,240 --> 00:56:21,480 We are looking for patterns like this on Mars 842 00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:25,000 as a first indication that this is either a sedimentary rock, 843 00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:26,440 or a stromatolite. 844 00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:29,600 And then we have to do the next layer of analysis on those rocks. 845 00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:34,480 And this is where Sherlock comes in. 846 00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:38,280 After scraping away the surface of the rock, it zooms in 847 00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:40,360 to examine it in microscopic detail. 848 00:56:42,240 --> 00:56:45,360 Using the reflected light from lasers to detect 849 00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:48,440 the tiny variations in chemical composition 850 00:56:48,440 --> 00:56:51,280 that are left behind by living organisms. 851 00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:57,160 So here you can see what a Sherlock scan, where we went in and looked 852 00:56:57,160 --> 00:57:00,040 at where the organic molecules on this particular rock was. 853 00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:03,480 The purple material here is the ancient organic material. 854 00:57:03,480 --> 00:57:06,400 You can see that there are lines associated with this, 855 00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:09,360 where the basic biology then grew and died, 856 00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:12,280 and grew and died, and moved up the rock like this. 857 00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:17,200 So these are literally the remains of organisms that lived potentially 858 00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:20,160 billions of years ago. Potentially billions of years ago. 859 00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:26,640 The great hope is that Perseverance will find similar signs of life 860 00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:28,040 when it reaches the delta. 861 00:57:32,320 --> 00:57:33,440 You must be waiting... 862 00:57:33,440 --> 00:57:36,120 I know the Perseverance landed, and there's a lot 863 00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:37,960 of geology being done. You must be saying, 864 00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:40,120 "Can you just get round to the delta, please?" 865 00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:41,960 We do. "Can we go? Can we go? Can we go? 866 00:57:41,960 --> 00:57:44,160 "I want to go to the delta. I want to go to the delta." 867 00:57:44,160 --> 00:57:45,560 But we understand the geology. 868 00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:48,040 You know, we're a big giant 400-person team, so you kind 869 00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:49,240 of want to work together. 870 00:57:49,240 --> 00:57:51,240 But at the same time, "Can we can get to the delta? 871 00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:52,480 "Can we get to the delta? 872 00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:54,720 "Can we stay at the delta for a while?" Yeah. 873 00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:58,920 So images like this, you know, potentially, in a golden scenario, 874 00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:02,760 we could expect results like this in a few months? 875 00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:05,640 Yeah, in months rather than years, 876 00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:08,120 which is nice to see the finish line. 877 00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:16,360 It is a tantalising thought that we may soon get our first hints, 878 00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:18,520 our first pieces of evidence 879 00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:21,880 that life may once have filled this crater. 880 00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:40,480 Day five. 881 00:58:40,480 --> 00:58:44,600 After 24 hours of radio silence, contact is re-established 882 00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:46,480 with Perseverance on Mars... 883 00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:51,240 ..and we get our first update on the two-day drive. 884 00:58:55,240 --> 00:58:58,640 Photos and telemetry show the first part of the drive 885 00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:00,600 has gone according to plan. 886 00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:05,960 The rover covering another 259 metres and 37 centimetres 887 00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:08,920 around the edge of the Seitah sand dunes. 888 00:59:10,040 --> 00:59:14,040 But it seems that this is as far as the rover will be going for now. 889 00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:25,160 News filters through that the instructions 890 00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:27,880 for the second day's drive had a bug in them 891 00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:30,200 and were never received by the rover. 892 00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:36,520 To find out what went wrong, 893 00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:40,840 I'm off to find deputy mission scientist Katie Stack Morgan. 894 00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:45,280 So do you know what happened overnight when the data came down? 895 00:59:45,280 --> 00:59:48,400 Yes. So we had planned two days' worth of driving. 896 00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:52,200 And that's a brand-new capability for Mars rovers, being able to plan 897 00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:54,560 drives in a row like that. 898 00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:58,320 But we encountered an issue that prevented us from uplinking 899 00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:01,520 both of those drives, and sending both of those drives to the rover. 900 01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:04,720 It's interesting to me that the problem was not with... on Mars. 901 01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:06,280 No issue on Mars at all. 902 01:00:06,280 --> 01:00:09,560 But it's the computer software, basically. That's right. 903 01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:11,480 You know, and these things happen all the time. 904 01:00:11,480 --> 01:00:14,080 And we deal with them. In a way this is helpful to us, 905 01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:17,040 because by giving the rover a whole day to recharge, 906 01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:19,640 we then fill up our batteries all the way to the top, 907 01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:22,240 and we can get ready to do long drives in the weekend plan. 908 01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:24,640 So - silver lining to that, to not being able 909 01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:25,960 to get that other drive up. 910 01:00:29,160 --> 01:00:32,560 Having fallen another day behind schedule, the rover now 911 01:00:32,560 --> 01:00:35,680 has to travel 750 metres in just two days 912 01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:37,720 to reach La Orotava crater 913 01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:39,400 by the end of the week. 914 01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:46,720 But Perseverance isn't the only vehicle that the team has on Mars. 915 01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:51,000 And this week, I've also come to learn about its companion. 916 01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:58,000 Ingenuity, the first-ever extraterrestrial helicopter. 917 01:00:59,800 --> 01:01:03,840 I'm fascinated by this machine because it was designed to do 918 01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:09,920 the seemingly impossible - to fly in Mars's almost vanishingly thin 919 01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:13,440 atmosphere, just 1% as thick as the Earth's. 920 01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:26,000 To find out how Ingenuity achieves such a feat, 921 01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:30,600 I'm meeting Havard Grip, the helicopter's chief pilot, who's 922 01:01:30,600 --> 01:01:34,720 taking me to see the engineering model of the helicopter. 923 01:01:37,600 --> 01:01:40,600 So this is our helicopter lab. 924 01:01:40,600 --> 01:01:45,560 It's probably the most important space that we have as a project. 925 01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:49,480 So here you want to stay away from the model in the middle, 926 01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:51,000 and the hardware along the edges. 927 01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:52,920 I'm really... I'm really excited to see this. 928 01:01:52,920 --> 01:01:56,040 It's smaller than I imagined. 929 01:01:56,040 --> 01:02:01,080 Although the blades look, to me, much bigger than I'd imagined. 930 01:02:01,080 --> 01:02:02,760 Much thicker. That's right. 931 01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:05,880 So the main thing you notice is just the size of the rotor. 932 01:02:05,880 --> 01:02:07,720 1.2 metres, tip to tip. 933 01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:09,400 It's just huge, you know, 934 01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:13,280 And if that was on Earth with this same kind of rotor, 935 01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:15,720 it could lift a huge amount of mass. 936 01:02:15,720 --> 01:02:20,520 But on Mars, you need that just to lift this tiny little helicopter 937 01:02:20,520 --> 01:02:24,520 off the ground. How much does it weigh? 1.8kg. 938 01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:26,560 Is that all? That's it, yeah. 939 01:02:30,640 --> 01:02:35,320 Even at 1.8 kilos, it wasn't clear that Ingenuity would be able to fly 940 01:02:35,320 --> 01:02:36,720 in Mars's atmosphere. 941 01:02:39,560 --> 01:02:44,400 On April 19, 2021, Perseverance pointed its cameras 942 01:02:44,400 --> 01:02:48,280 at the helicopter, as it prepared for its first flight. 943 01:02:51,800 --> 01:02:55,760 And millions of miles away at JPL, its engineering team 944 01:02:55,760 --> 01:02:57,800 waited for news... 945 01:02:57,800 --> 01:02:59,880 ..of success or failure. 946 01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:51,840 I see you brought your logbook, which has got 947 01:03:51,840 --> 01:03:53,960 to be the coolest logbook. 948 01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:58,440 It's pretty neat. It's called the pilot's logbook 949 01:03:58,440 --> 01:04:00,000 for planets and moons. 950 01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:03,800 Yeah. So it's you and the Apollo astronauts. 951 01:04:03,800 --> 01:04:06,240 That's basically... That's pretty much it. 952 01:04:06,240 --> 01:04:08,600 I love this. So the remarks are fantastic. 953 01:04:08,600 --> 01:04:11,920 "First powered flight by an aircraft on another world." 954 01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:14,280 That's right. That's fantastic. 955 01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:16,600 It was fun to write that, yeah. 956 01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:21,680 "Climb to three metres, turns 96 degrees to the right." 957 01:04:22,920 --> 01:04:25,480 That's just wonderful. That will go down in history, won't it? 958 01:04:25,480 --> 01:04:27,840 That's going to be one of those things that has a picture. 959 01:04:27,840 --> 01:04:32,040 It is aviation history, you know, so it's pretty special 960 01:04:32,040 --> 01:04:33,360 to be part of it. 961 01:04:38,640 --> 01:04:42,280 Ingenuity's place in history is assured. 962 01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:46,080 Initially, it was only designed to survive for three months and make 963 01:04:46,080 --> 01:04:47,400 just five flights. 964 01:04:48,720 --> 01:04:54,400 But over a year later, it was still going strong, making 20 flights, 965 01:04:54,400 --> 01:04:58,320 clocking up over 36 minutes' total flight time, 966 01:04:58,320 --> 01:05:00,240 and covering over 4km. 967 01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:06,000 But its real contribution to the mission may still be to come. 968 01:05:07,880 --> 01:05:12,240 If the helicopter can make it to the delta, this ability to fly 969 01:05:12,240 --> 01:05:14,280 over the steep slopes and cliffs 970 01:05:14,280 --> 01:05:17,640 that the rover can't access will prove invaluable. 971 01:05:20,000 --> 01:05:24,200 But even reaching the delta will be an enormous challenge. 972 01:05:25,840 --> 01:05:30,560 And just before our seven-day rover mission began, Ingenuity attempted 973 01:05:30,560 --> 01:05:32,880 the next flight on that journey. 974 01:05:34,920 --> 01:05:40,280 It's very exciting, actually, because yesterday, Earth time, 975 01:05:40,280 --> 01:05:43,840 the helicopter flew and we don't know what happened to it. 976 01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:46,800 Actually, the data came down last night, and this is the meeting 977 01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:48,120 where the engineering teams 978 01:05:48,120 --> 01:05:50,760 look at the data from the helicopter, and see what it did. 979 01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:53,800 And they've allowed us... It wasn't clear they were going to do this, 980 01:05:53,800 --> 01:05:56,960 but they've allowed us to go into the meeting and watch 981 01:05:56,960 --> 01:06:01,520 as they review the engineering data from the flight. 982 01:06:08,760 --> 01:06:12,040 This is a make or break flight for Ingenuity. 983 01:06:14,680 --> 01:06:18,000 Rather than taking the long way round to the delta, 984 01:06:18,000 --> 01:06:20,280 it's going to attempt to take a short cut 985 01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:22,800 across the treacherous Seitah sand dunes. 986 01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:27,080 But the helicopter relies on Perseverance 987 01:06:27,080 --> 01:06:29,480 for its communication with Earth. 988 01:06:29,480 --> 01:06:32,360 And this journey will take the vehicles further apart 989 01:06:32,360 --> 01:06:33,720 than ever before. 990 01:06:33,720 --> 01:06:37,920 So a safe landing in a spot where it can maintain radio contact 991 01:06:37,920 --> 01:06:40,160 with the rover will be crucial. 992 01:06:56,920 --> 01:06:59,560 As the team go through the flight data, 993 01:06:59,560 --> 01:07:02,200 there's a nervous wait. 994 01:07:24,040 --> 01:07:28,080 These are the pictures Ingenuity took during the flight. 995 01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:30,560 As it looks down at its shadow, 996 01:07:30,560 --> 01:07:34,440 we can track its path as it rises ten metres into the air, 997 01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:38,320 then traverses the 370 metres to its new landing spot... 998 01:07:41,000 --> 01:07:43,960 ..from where it should be able to stay in communication 999 01:07:43,960 --> 01:07:46,920 with Perseverance as it drives to the delta. 1000 01:07:59,840 --> 01:08:02,280 That's really interesting, 1001 01:08:02,280 --> 01:08:06,080 and what really strikes me is that 1002 01:08:06,080 --> 01:08:10,520 this helicopter was not really designed to last this long. 1003 01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:13,200 They thought it would maybe fly four or five times. 1004 01:08:13,200 --> 01:08:15,960 It's now had its 21st flight, and it's all working 1005 01:08:15,960 --> 01:08:17,840 and it's recharging properly. 1006 01:08:17,840 --> 01:08:21,080 So it's a, you know, it's a tremendous engineering achievement. 1007 01:08:22,160 --> 01:08:25,320 Remember you're flying a little helicopter autonomously 1008 01:08:25,320 --> 01:08:27,640 on the surface of another planet. 1009 01:08:27,640 --> 01:08:30,360 Nobody's flying it, it's flying itself. 1010 01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:40,480 If you told the 12-year-old me 1011 01:08:40,480 --> 01:08:42,320 who first wrote to JPL 1012 01:08:42,320 --> 01:08:44,120 that one day I'd be here 1013 01:08:44,120 --> 01:08:48,960 seeing a helicopter fly on Mars, I wouldn't have believed it. 1014 01:08:50,480 --> 01:08:54,960 But Ingenuity is just one of many reminders of how far our 1015 01:08:54,960 --> 01:08:56,720 technology has advanced. 1016 01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:05,120 This is a piece of history because this is the first picture 1017 01:09:05,120 --> 01:09:08,400 ever returned of the surface of Mars by spacecraft. 1018 01:09:08,400 --> 01:09:10,880 It's Mariner 4, 1965. 1019 01:09:10,880 --> 01:09:14,600 And you might see actually, it's kind of a fuzzy picture. 1020 01:09:14,600 --> 01:09:16,680 It's actually hand-drawn. 1021 01:09:16,680 --> 01:09:21,000 These are strips of tape that came out of the printer with numbers 1022 01:09:21,000 --> 01:09:24,320 printed on, which are the data from the cameras on Mariner 4, 1023 01:09:24,320 --> 01:09:26,360 and they correspond to colours. 1024 01:09:26,360 --> 01:09:28,040 And the data link was so slow 1025 01:09:28,040 --> 01:09:30,480 that the engineers and, in particular, 1026 01:09:30,480 --> 01:09:32,720 one engineer called Richard Grumm, 1027 01:09:32,720 --> 01:09:34,360 got so bored with waiting 1028 01:09:34,360 --> 01:09:37,000 that he went to an art shop in Pasadena, 1029 01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:38,640 bought these crayons, 1030 01:09:38,640 --> 01:09:42,720 these are the real ones, in this box, and then sat there colouring 1031 01:09:42,720 --> 01:09:45,960 it in so he could see the image from Mariner. 1032 01:09:51,760 --> 01:09:54,720 Compare that to the high resolution images that we're getting 1033 01:09:54,720 --> 01:09:56,400 back from Perseverance. 1034 01:09:57,600 --> 01:09:58,640 Yeah. 1035 01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:00,880 There's technology marching on. 1036 01:10:31,000 --> 01:10:32,120 Day six begins. 1037 01:10:34,720 --> 01:10:39,440 And once again, we're waiting to hear from Perseverance. 1038 01:10:39,440 --> 01:10:43,240 Overnight, it should have received the instructions for the delayed 1039 01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:46,000 second half of its two-day drive. 1040 01:10:50,240 --> 01:10:53,680 And the incoming data reveals an astonishing day 1041 01:10:53,680 --> 01:10:55,120 of auto nav driving. 1042 01:10:57,160 --> 01:11:02,040 Perseverance has recorded the second furthest distance any Martian rover 1043 01:11:02,040 --> 01:11:04,720 has ever travelled in a single day. 1044 01:11:04,720 --> 01:11:08,720 297 metres and 60 centimetres. 1045 01:11:11,120 --> 01:11:15,160 So far this week, the rover has covered over 760 metres. 1046 01:11:16,200 --> 01:11:21,120 But with only one day to go in our time at JPL, La Orotava crater 1047 01:11:21,120 --> 01:11:23,840 is still nearly half a kilometre away. 1048 01:11:27,640 --> 01:11:31,960 It will take a Herculean effort to reach there tomorrow. 1049 01:11:31,960 --> 01:11:34,720 And while Vandi and the rover driving team build the plan 1050 01:11:34,720 --> 01:11:35,840 for that drive... 1051 01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:43,320 ..I have another appointment with Optimism in the Mars yard. 1052 01:11:50,000 --> 01:11:52,720 Today, the engineering team are running tests on what may 1053 01:11:52,720 --> 01:11:56,440 be the most important and ambitious system on the rover. 1054 01:11:58,800 --> 01:12:00,880 Starting move to contact. 1055 01:12:02,640 --> 01:12:06,120 All right, Greta, you can kick off coring. 1056 01:12:06,120 --> 01:12:08,080 All right. Yep. 1057 01:12:08,080 --> 01:12:10,000 Sending coring in three, two, one. 1058 01:12:20,520 --> 01:12:23,200 Perseverance, as you can see and hear, 1059 01:12:23,200 --> 01:12:25,160 is equipped with a drill. 1060 01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:26,600 And drills are always noisy. 1061 01:12:26,600 --> 01:12:29,440 Be less noisy on Mars, by the way, because of the much 1062 01:12:29,440 --> 01:12:31,040 less dense atmosphere. 1063 01:12:34,240 --> 01:12:36,440 We're at a depth of 3.9mm 1064 01:12:36,440 --> 01:12:38,960 out of our target five millimetres. Thanks, Greta. 1065 01:12:43,040 --> 01:12:47,640 On Mars, Perseverance uses exactly the same system to collect cylinders 1066 01:12:47,640 --> 01:12:52,240 of rock that may contain key evidence for the existence of life. 1067 01:12:53,960 --> 01:12:58,240 So far, it's collected and stored eight samples, with room for 30 1068 01:12:58,240 --> 01:12:59,920 more when it reaches the delta. 1069 01:13:02,960 --> 01:13:07,160 And the reason that this process is so important is that, one day, 1070 01:13:07,160 --> 01:13:10,760 these samples will hopefully be brought back to Earth. 1071 01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:18,560 Mini Wadhwa is the science lead for the mission that will return 1072 01:13:18,560 --> 01:13:20,960 the Martian rocks to this planet. 1073 01:13:22,280 --> 01:13:25,520 Why is it so important to bring the samples back to Earth? 1074 01:13:25,520 --> 01:13:28,080 Because I suppose, naively, "We've got 1075 01:13:28,080 --> 01:13:29,920 "this tremendously sophisticated robot. 1076 01:13:29,920 --> 01:13:31,200 "It's got the samples. 1077 01:13:31,200 --> 01:13:34,600 "Why doesn't it just look for signs of life itself?" 1078 01:13:34,600 --> 01:13:36,680 This is an incredible machine. 1079 01:13:36,680 --> 01:13:40,920 But the kinds of analyses that we want to be able to do 1080 01:13:40,920 --> 01:13:44,480 with the samples is going to require really the best and most 1081 01:13:44,480 --> 01:13:45,920 sophisticated instrumentation 1082 01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:47,560 that you have available on the Earth. 1083 01:13:47,560 --> 01:13:51,440 And it's just not possible on a small rover like that. 1084 01:13:51,440 --> 01:13:56,120 The other factor is that we want to be able to reproduce results. 1085 01:13:56,120 --> 01:13:58,360 I mean, can you imagine what it would be like if somebody 1086 01:13:58,360 --> 01:14:02,760 actually found evidence of past life in these samples? 1087 01:14:02,760 --> 01:14:04,760 We'd want to verify those results, 1088 01:14:04,760 --> 01:14:06,360 and we'd want to verify them 1089 01:14:06,360 --> 01:14:07,920 in independent laboratories. 1090 01:14:07,920 --> 01:14:11,880 That's not something you can do with a remote laboratory on Mars. 1091 01:14:11,880 --> 01:14:15,480 You've got to bring them back here, so that the best scientists 1092 01:14:15,480 --> 01:14:18,680 and the best labs can really have at it. 1093 01:14:18,680 --> 01:14:21,880 Yeah, I suppose it is an example of extraordinary claims 1094 01:14:21,880 --> 01:14:25,120 require extraordinary evidence, isn't? Exactly. 1095 01:14:27,800 --> 01:14:32,280 Bringing the samples back to Earth will not be a trivial task. 1096 01:14:35,320 --> 01:14:38,320 To do it, engineers have designed a mission 1097 01:14:38,320 --> 01:14:40,640 unlike anything I've ever seen. 1098 01:14:40,640 --> 01:14:42,880 It's called Mars Sample Return. 1099 01:14:46,480 --> 01:14:49,400 The Mars Sample Return mission sounds really simple 1100 01:14:49,400 --> 01:14:50,560 as a concept, right? 1101 01:14:50,560 --> 01:14:54,040 All you've got to do is get some samples from the surface of Mars 1102 01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:55,480 and bring them back to Earth. 1103 01:14:55,480 --> 01:14:59,720 But actually, when you hear the engineering solution, 1104 01:14:59,720 --> 01:15:02,440 how to do that, it sounds fantastical. 1105 01:15:04,200 --> 01:15:06,440 So there are two missions that fly to Mars. 1106 01:15:06,440 --> 01:15:09,880 One is the so-called fetch rover, which is a little rover, 1107 01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:12,160 which is going to land on the surface of Mars, 1108 01:15:12,160 --> 01:15:14,880 and it's going to drive around and it's going to pick 1109 01:15:14,880 --> 01:15:18,200 up the samples, bring them back to an ascent vehicle, 1110 01:15:18,200 --> 01:15:20,960 which is the thing that's going to launch those samples into orbit. 1111 01:15:23,800 --> 01:15:26,520 And then the sample thing itself detaches away. 1112 01:15:26,520 --> 01:15:29,560 And it's only about a basketball size, maybe a bit bigger. 1113 01:15:29,560 --> 01:15:33,160 And then another mission comes from Earth, and it has to locate 1114 01:15:33,160 --> 01:15:36,960 this thing that's in orbit somewhere around Mars, and then it has to kind 1115 01:15:36,960 --> 01:15:39,280 of go and grab it in space. 1116 01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:42,200 And then when it gets to Earth, it'll detach, 1117 01:15:42,200 --> 01:15:45,440 with this precious cargo in it, will enter the Earth's atmosphere. 1118 01:15:45,440 --> 01:15:47,320 No rockets, no parachutes. 1119 01:15:48,400 --> 01:15:52,400 It will just impact into the sand somewhere in Utah. 1120 01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:56,000 And then they'll go and find it and bring it back into laboratories. 1121 01:15:56,000 --> 01:16:00,200 And that, believe it or not, is the simplest and safest 1122 01:16:00,200 --> 01:16:04,840 engineering solution to bringing something about that big, filled 1123 01:16:04,840 --> 01:16:07,520 with samples from Mars, back to Earth. 1124 01:16:16,680 --> 01:16:19,200 Now, all that might sound like science fiction, but actually 1125 01:16:19,200 --> 01:16:23,400 it's going to have to become science fact pretty soon, because the first 1126 01:16:23,400 --> 01:16:27,240 bits of the sample return mission is supposed to launch in 2026, 1127 01:16:27,240 --> 01:16:30,200 which is only, what, about four years away. 1128 01:16:30,200 --> 01:16:31,760 They're preparing for it now. 1129 01:16:31,760 --> 01:16:35,200 In fact, up there - see that tower? 1130 01:16:35,200 --> 01:16:36,720 That's the test-bed 1131 01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:41,520 for the dropping the capsule that returns those samples to Earth, 1132 01:16:41,520 --> 01:16:44,360 to see, when it hits the ground, if it survives. 1133 01:16:44,360 --> 01:16:47,160 So it is not an exaggeration to say, 1134 01:16:47,160 --> 01:16:49,880 as I'm going to say it, that I think 1135 01:16:49,880 --> 01:16:53,680 the best engineers in the world are working on this project. 1136 01:16:57,400 --> 01:17:00,520 Here at JPL, development is well under way. 1137 01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:04,560 They're already testing the systems that will launch the rocket 1138 01:17:04,560 --> 01:17:06,360 from the surface of Mars. 1139 01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:13,480 And the capsule that will crash into the Utah desert. 1140 01:17:14,680 --> 01:17:18,000 If all goes to plan, the samples collected on Mars could be returned 1141 01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:21,520 to Earth by as early as 2031. 1142 01:17:25,560 --> 01:17:27,920 It's undoubtedly a risky mission. 1143 01:17:30,600 --> 01:17:34,240 But there may also be risks when the Martian rocks are safely 1144 01:17:34,240 --> 01:17:35,280 back on Earth. 1145 01:17:37,040 --> 01:17:41,360 And that's what I want to investigate on my last day at JPL. 1146 01:17:59,720 --> 01:18:03,240 Bringing Martian samples back to Earth is going to be vital 1147 01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:07,000 if we're ever going to prove that there was life on Mars. 1148 01:18:09,640 --> 01:18:14,160 But there is an outside possibility that those samples could also cause 1149 01:18:14,160 --> 01:18:16,200 a problem for life on Earth. 1150 01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:19,320 Welcome. 1151 01:18:19,320 --> 01:18:23,600 Oh, I mean, I've got to say, there are badges of every mission 1152 01:18:23,600 --> 01:18:25,200 that I grew up with here. 1153 01:18:25,200 --> 01:18:26,720 So what's this room? 1154 01:18:26,720 --> 01:18:28,960 This is the spacecraft assembly facility. 1155 01:18:28,960 --> 01:18:31,080 It's where all of the magic happens. 1156 01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:35,720 Every single spacecraft built at JPL was assembled in this room. 1157 01:18:36,680 --> 01:18:40,440 Moogega Cooper is one of the people whose job it is to make sure 1158 01:18:40,440 --> 01:18:42,400 that our planet stays safe. 1159 01:18:43,440 --> 01:18:45,680 So you have one of the best job titles, I think, 1160 01:18:45,680 --> 01:18:49,480 which is Planetary Protection Lead for Mars 2020. 1161 01:18:49,480 --> 01:18:51,840 So what is planetary protection? 1162 01:18:51,840 --> 01:18:53,960 Planetary protection is two-fold. 1163 01:18:53,960 --> 01:18:56,800 We have to make sure that, as we send spacecraft 1164 01:18:56,800 --> 01:18:58,840 out into the solar system, 1165 01:18:58,840 --> 01:19:03,000 whether to planets, moons or asteroids, we have to make sure 1166 01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:06,560 that we don't spread our contaminants to those places 1167 01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:08,880 of interest, especially if it could harbour life. 1168 01:19:08,880 --> 01:19:12,360 And the flip side, if we were to bring samples back 1169 01:19:12,360 --> 01:19:15,040 to our own planet, we have to make sure our planet is protected 1170 01:19:15,040 --> 01:19:18,080 from anything that might be harmful out there. 1171 01:19:18,080 --> 01:19:21,720 So are we worried about microbes from Mars? Yeah. 1172 01:19:21,720 --> 01:19:25,040 In fact, the assumption is to handle it as if it's hazardous 1173 01:19:25,040 --> 01:19:26,560 until proven otherwise. 1174 01:19:26,560 --> 01:19:28,960 The level of precaution that is going to be taken 1175 01:19:28,960 --> 01:19:32,400 with these samples is that of a hazardous material. 1176 01:19:32,400 --> 01:19:34,840 So when we bring the samples back, 1177 01:19:34,840 --> 01:19:37,520 so we've heard this audacious idea - 1178 01:19:37,520 --> 01:19:40,200 I mean, Mars sample return is terrifying, from an engineering 1179 01:19:40,200 --> 01:19:43,520 perspective - but essentially you're going to crash it into Utah. 1180 01:19:43,520 --> 01:19:44,880 Right. A controlled crash. 1181 01:19:44,880 --> 01:19:46,520 I know that's not the language. 1182 01:19:46,520 --> 01:19:49,560 There's going to be a controlled descent... There we go. 1183 01:19:49,560 --> 01:19:52,240 ..without parachutes, into Utah. 1184 01:19:52,240 --> 01:19:54,680 So what is the procedure from then on? 1185 01:19:54,680 --> 01:19:56,760 So you have this capsule, sealed capsule... 1186 01:19:56,760 --> 01:19:59,000 Yeah. ..in the desert. What happens to it? 1187 01:19:59,000 --> 01:20:03,240 The goal in general is to take that capsule, bring it to a facility 1188 01:20:03,240 --> 01:20:07,040 that is unlike any facility that exists today on our planet, 1189 01:20:07,040 --> 01:20:10,680 to safely contain anything that might be in that sample 1190 01:20:10,680 --> 01:20:12,960 while we open it up, extract the samples 1191 01:20:12,960 --> 01:20:15,240 and interrogate it scientifically. 1192 01:20:15,240 --> 01:20:17,240 So it will be a... It will be... 1193 01:20:17,240 --> 01:20:20,040 We will build a bio lab like no other. 1194 01:20:20,040 --> 01:20:22,000 Exactly. Essentially. Yeah. 1195 01:20:25,160 --> 01:20:28,920 For the Martian samples, Nasa is planning on creating the most 1196 01:20:28,920 --> 01:20:31,240 biosecure laboratory ever built. 1197 01:20:32,920 --> 01:20:36,480 More secure than the labs like these that handle lethal 1198 01:20:36,480 --> 01:20:38,880 diseases like Ebola and smallpox. 1199 01:20:41,520 --> 01:20:44,600 But while taking all possible precautions is definitely the right 1200 01:20:44,600 --> 01:20:45,840 thing to do... 1201 01:20:47,800 --> 01:20:50,080 ..it's probably too late to protect us 1202 01:20:50,080 --> 01:20:51,720 from Martian contamination. 1203 01:20:53,120 --> 01:20:55,840 When we speak about planetary protection, that sort of gives 1204 01:20:55,840 --> 01:20:59,040 the sense that Mars and Earth are completely isolated 1205 01:20:59,040 --> 01:21:00,280 from each other. 1206 01:21:00,280 --> 01:21:04,080 But that's certainly not the case because this 1207 01:21:04,080 --> 01:21:05,480 is a piece of Mars. 1208 01:21:06,480 --> 01:21:11,960 It's from a Martian meteorite that fell in Nigeria in 1962. 1209 01:21:11,960 --> 01:21:16,120 Now, that raises an interesting possibility, because if rocks 1210 01:21:16,120 --> 01:21:18,360 can be transferred from Mars to Earth, 1211 01:21:18,360 --> 01:21:21,160 and actually about 500kg of Mars 1212 01:21:21,160 --> 01:21:24,320 floats down onto the Earth every year, 1213 01:21:24,320 --> 01:21:27,080 then maybe so can life. 1214 01:21:29,800 --> 01:21:33,560 The idea that life could migrate between the planets 1215 01:21:33,560 --> 01:21:35,920 may sound incredible. 1216 01:21:35,920 --> 01:21:39,520 But there are scientists who believe it's possible that life 1217 01:21:39,520 --> 01:21:42,560 could have arisen on Earth and been carried to Mars 1218 01:21:42,560 --> 01:21:43,680 on a meteorite. 1219 01:21:47,520 --> 01:21:52,720 And it's also possible that life began on Mars and was transported 1220 01:21:52,720 --> 01:21:53,760 to the Earth. 1221 01:21:57,040 --> 01:21:59,480 Now, we don't know if that happened. 1222 01:22:01,080 --> 01:22:04,000 But a key step towards finding out 1223 01:22:04,000 --> 01:22:06,680 would be to find traces of life on Mars. 1224 01:22:08,760 --> 01:22:13,600 And it certainly adds an extra dimension to Perseverance's mission. 1225 01:22:21,400 --> 01:22:25,200 As our week at JPL comes to a close, we get a final 1226 01:22:25,200 --> 01:22:27,000 update from Perseverance. 1227 01:22:30,360 --> 01:22:33,240 It's still trundling towards La Orotava. 1228 01:22:34,600 --> 01:22:37,880 The telemetry showing it's completed another 1229 01:22:37,880 --> 01:22:41,440 240 metres and 70 centimetres of auto nav driving. 1230 01:22:43,680 --> 01:22:47,440 It's 200 metres short of the crater. 1231 01:22:47,440 --> 01:22:51,040 But it's still been a remarkable week. 1232 01:22:51,040 --> 01:22:53,680 So are you happy with the way the rover's performed? 1233 01:22:53,680 --> 01:22:57,120 Because I know that this was a big week for you, making this transition 1234 01:22:57,120 --> 01:23:00,720 from the first scientific campaign to the long drive 1235 01:23:00,720 --> 01:23:01,840 around to the delta. 1236 01:23:01,840 --> 01:23:03,680 Yes, this was a big week for the mission 1237 01:23:03,680 --> 01:23:04,800 and a major turning point. 1238 01:23:04,800 --> 01:23:07,320 We've been moving our way slowly through the crater floor. 1239 01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:10,240 But now with this goal of getting to the delta as quickly as possible, 1240 01:23:10,240 --> 01:23:14,160 we're really flexing the rover's legs, so to speak, and trying 1241 01:23:14,160 --> 01:23:15,360 out a new mode of operation. 1242 01:23:15,360 --> 01:23:18,200 And that led to some unexpected surprises for us. 1243 01:23:18,200 --> 01:23:20,240 Yeah, that's what I find really interesting. 1244 01:23:20,240 --> 01:23:22,800 What I've learned is that, even though you know this rover 1245 01:23:22,800 --> 01:23:27,240 well, now, the moment you ask it to do something slightly 1246 01:23:27,240 --> 01:23:30,240 different, then you learn a lot more about the rover. 1247 01:23:30,240 --> 01:23:33,080 But the way it behaves on Mars and that terrain 1248 01:23:33,080 --> 01:23:34,760 can always surprise us. 1249 01:23:38,680 --> 01:23:43,160 This is the rover's eye view of the journey it's made this week. 1250 01:23:43,160 --> 01:23:47,040 Even with the hiccups, the drill stuck in a rock, and the day lost 1251 01:23:47,040 --> 01:23:48,600 to a software error, 1252 01:23:48,600 --> 01:23:52,600 Perseverance has still covered over a kilometre. 1253 01:23:52,600 --> 01:23:58,000 At 1003 metres, it's the furthest any planetary rover has ever 1254 01:23:58,000 --> 01:24:00,880 travelled in such a short space of time. 1255 01:24:10,040 --> 01:24:12,800 JPL's motto is Dare Mighty Things. 1256 01:24:14,520 --> 01:24:18,600 And after spending a week watching Perseverance drive over the surface 1257 01:24:18,600 --> 01:24:20,880 of Mars in search of alien life, 1258 01:24:20,880 --> 01:24:24,680 my overriding impression is that that is entirely appropriate. 1259 01:24:24,680 --> 01:24:28,120 The sheer engineering excellence, 1260 01:24:28,120 --> 01:24:29,920 the attention to detail, 1261 01:24:29,920 --> 01:24:35,000 the teamwork required to do that is nothing short of astounding. 1262 01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:40,320 It turns out that, if we try to answer the most profound questions, 1263 01:24:40,320 --> 01:24:43,320 to acquire new knowledge about the universe, not 1264 01:24:43,320 --> 01:24:48,000 because it's useful in some sense, but just because we want to know, 1265 01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:49,880 brings out the best in us. 1266 01:25:00,120 --> 01:25:02,520 But the end of our week at JPL 1267 01:25:02,520 --> 01:25:04,560 is not the end of the story. 1268 01:25:06,720 --> 01:25:10,120 Several weeks later, Ingenuity is still flying. 1269 01:25:11,600 --> 01:25:14,440 It's now clocked up almost an hour of flight time, 1270 01:25:14,440 --> 01:25:18,360 and is still sending back remarkable aerial photographs, 1271 01:25:18,360 --> 01:25:20,320 including these images 1272 01:25:20,320 --> 01:25:22,200 of the mission's parachute 1273 01:25:22,200 --> 01:25:23,920 and protective back shell, 1274 01:25:23,920 --> 01:25:27,120 that were last seen as they were jettisoned on the descent 1275 01:25:27,120 --> 01:25:28,920 on to the Martian surface. 1276 01:25:30,760 --> 01:25:34,480 Ingenuity made it to the delta in another seven hops 1277 01:25:34,480 --> 01:25:36,360 across the Seitah sand dunes. 1278 01:25:39,320 --> 01:25:41,640 And the rover kept on driving. 1279 01:25:44,040 --> 01:25:48,880 Covering the remaining 4km in just 31 days, 1280 01:25:48,880 --> 01:25:53,200 capturing some truly wonderful pictures, as it approached the steep 1281 01:25:53,200 --> 01:25:54,680 scarps of the Delta. 1282 01:25:56,800 --> 01:25:59,920 The rover and helicopter are already investigating 1283 01:25:59,920 --> 01:26:01,960 the delta sedimentary rocks. 1284 01:26:04,000 --> 01:26:08,720 And have begun searching them for the faint signs of ancient life. 1285 01:26:09,880 --> 01:26:12,000 Whatever Perseverance finds, 1286 01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:16,760 it will tell us something important about ourselves. 1287 01:26:23,920 --> 01:26:26,520 I think there are three possibilities for what Perseverance 1288 01:26:26,520 --> 01:26:28,800 might find on Mars. 1289 01:26:28,800 --> 01:26:32,760 One, which sounds like the most disappointing possibility, 1290 01:26:32,760 --> 01:26:34,840 is it sees no sign of life at all. 1291 01:26:34,840 --> 01:26:38,800 If we establish that there was water in Jezero Crater, 1292 01:26:38,800 --> 01:26:41,680 all the conditions were right - geological activity, 1293 01:26:41,680 --> 01:26:43,240 all the right ingredients, 1294 01:26:43,240 --> 01:26:46,120 and yet, life did not begin. 1295 01:26:46,120 --> 01:26:49,880 Then that may be telling us that we're alone, certainly 1296 01:26:49,880 --> 01:26:51,280 in our neighbourhood. 1297 01:26:51,280 --> 01:26:54,520 The second possibility is that we find life. 1298 01:26:54,520 --> 01:26:58,480 But the life is very similar to life here on Earth. 1299 01:26:58,480 --> 01:27:00,320 That would be... It would be wonderful. 1300 01:27:00,320 --> 01:27:02,880 We'd know that there are two planets in our solar system 1301 01:27:02,880 --> 01:27:04,280 that are living worlds. 1302 01:27:04,280 --> 01:27:07,440 But it might suggest that there was only one genesis 1303 01:27:07,440 --> 01:27:08,840 in our solar system. 1304 01:27:08,840 --> 01:27:12,520 But we know that material moves from Mars to Earth. 1305 01:27:12,520 --> 01:27:15,640 We have Martian meteorites here, and from Earth to Mars. 1306 01:27:15,640 --> 01:27:20,320 And so, then, I suppose, the story becomes, "Where did life begin?" 1307 01:27:20,320 --> 01:27:23,840 It is certainly possible that life began on Mars, 1308 01:27:23,840 --> 01:27:27,160 and was transferred here to Earth. 1309 01:27:27,160 --> 01:27:29,920 I suppose, in that sense, we're Martians. 1310 01:27:29,920 --> 01:27:31,800 What a discovery that would be. 1311 01:27:33,560 --> 01:27:37,560 The third possibility is that we find signs that life existed 1312 01:27:37,560 --> 01:27:40,560 on Mars, and that life is very different to the life we see 1313 01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:42,920 here on Earth - has a different biochemistry. 1314 01:27:42,920 --> 01:27:45,160 There was a different genesis. 1315 01:27:45,160 --> 01:27:47,440 That would mean that life began 1316 01:27:47,440 --> 01:27:51,120 separately in two places in our solar system, 1317 01:27:51,120 --> 01:27:54,080 and that will tell us a tremendous amount, because it will tell us 1318 01:27:54,080 --> 01:27:57,120 that we can assume that wherever the conditions 1319 01:27:57,120 --> 01:27:59,840 are right, life begins. 1320 01:27:59,840 --> 01:28:02,560 That will be a profound discovery, 1321 01:28:02,560 --> 01:28:04,480 will change the way we think 1322 01:28:04,480 --> 01:28:05,800 of our universe, 1323 01:28:05,800 --> 01:28:10,160 because it will mean that we are in a living universe. 1324 01:28:10,160 --> 01:28:12,520 It should change the way you look at those points of light 1325 01:28:12,520 --> 01:28:13,720 in the sky. 1326 01:28:13,720 --> 01:28:16,360 Many of them, most of them have planets around them. 1327 01:28:16,360 --> 01:28:19,880 And I think we'll be able to assume that a good number of them 1328 01:28:19,880 --> 01:28:21,200 are living worlds.