(Multicom jingle)
- [Announcer] Ares V is go for launch.
- [Man] Ares V is go for launch.
- [Narrator] The quest for Mars.
An odyssey like no other.
Six lives depend on the most advanced
engineering ever imagined.
- Copy, AP, safety, mission assurance.
- [Man] AFC estimate is go.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Two and a half years
and hundreds of millions of kilometers
across the last and most hostile frontier.
- Range weather. - Rover has no--
- There's no forgiveness in space.
You get it wrong, you kill people, brave explorers,
and sometimes they don't give you a second chance.
- [Announcer] Standing by for retraction
of the crew access arm.
- [Announcer] Main engine is now in start position.
T-minus 10 seconds, go for main engine start.
(engine chugging)
We have main engine start.
(rocket booming) Three, two, one,
and liftoff, liftoff.
Mankind's first journey to Mars is on the way.
- [Announcer] Vehicle has cleared the tower.
- [Narrator] It may sound like science fiction,
but it's not fantasy.
The multi-nation expedition is going to Mars.
It could happen in our lifetime.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] We are practically ready
to start the production of the ships
for the Martian expedition.
- [Narrator] Mars is at least 1,500 times farther
than the moon.
It would take more than two years
to make the round trip.
A perilous voyage into deep space
past a threshold we have never crossed,
the point of no return.
- [Announcer] Mars 1 you are go
for the trans-Mars injection.
- [Man] Roger, we are go for the dealign burn.
(rocket booming)
- We're talking about a dangerous undertaking
that really is going to require a lot of skill
and a lot of effort to get back safely.
- Their reliance on their hardware will go
to an order of magnitude beyond anything
that's been done previously.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Narrator] To make the voyage,
we'll need to design a whole new fleet of spacecraft.
Starting with bigger, more powerful launcher vehicles.
They must lift hundreds of tons of equipment
and accelerate to 11 kilometers a second
just to escape the pull of Earth's gravity.
Then the ship that takes us to Mars
will be assembled in space.
But even with new powerful rockets and new spaceships,
to cover millions of kilometers,
new methods of propulsion will have to be used.
Once engines are fired, a crew of six
will be hurtled into the black of deep space.
- Everyone ready?
- [Narrator] Conquest of Mars is the ultimate
engineering challenge.
To get there now will we resurrect
radical technology from the past?
Or will scientists have to push the laws of physics
to their breaking point?
- It's a very, very daunting engineering challenge,
but that's what makes it exciting.
(dramatic music)
- [Announcer] Engines start, and liftoff
of the Delta II rocket carrying the Spirit
from Earth to planet Mars.
- [Narrator] Spirit and Opportunity,
those heroic little rovers almost managed
to make Mars look like an easy reach.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Between them, the US and Russia
have sent 38 probes and satellites to the red planet.
22 of those failed.
Now, putting humans in the mix
adds both complexity and danger.
- Yeah, Mars is really a bit of a cursed target.
As a consequence, you begin to worry about
what is the real chances of success first time round?
- It would be like asking an ant to build a skyscraper.
And ants are very good at building.
- These people are gonna be spending an awful lot of time
out there, without any hope of resupply,
without any hope of rescue.
- [Narrator] Rocketships of all sizes and shapes
have been designed, but most of them rely--
- [Narrator] In the 1950s, Wernher von Braun
and colleague Ernst Stuhlinger
designed several manned missions for Mars.
Von Braun would go on to help America get to the moon,
but he always saw Mars as the ultimate prize.
- [Narrator] Our spaceship moves ponderously
toward the firing site.
(dramatic music)
- [Announcer] Three, two, one.
(rockets booming)
- [Narrator] In 1957, this is how the von Braun team
thought we'd get to Mars.
Hundreds of tons of parts and equipment
would be transported into orbit above Earth.
There, in the weightlessness of space,
a flotilla of ships would be put together.
It would take dozens of Earth launches
to put all the components into orbit.
A crew of 120 would pilot
the six finished spacecraft to Mars.
- The basic architecture of what he was suggesting
50 years ago is exactly what NASA is thinking about today
in going to Mars.
- [Man] Mars I, all solutions look good to us.
- [Narrator] But the big ideas of the von Braun era
have been scaled down.
- [Announcer] Roger, that's what we expect.
- [Narrator] Scientists now think it can be done
with fewer than 10 launches,
with half the number of spaceships,
and a crew of no more than six.
- We've broken things in space.
We've lost brave women and men,
so we don't wanna go that way.
We don't wanna go at the hairy edge of survival.
(intense music)
- [Narrator] But von Braun was right about some things.
As he predicted, the spacecraft that's going to Mars
will be assembled in Earth's orbit
from parts delivered by huge cargo launchers.
The crew arrives, only at the end
of a short hop flight from Earth.
They'll dock with the Mars transfer vehicle,
and then start the six month journey.
Once they're in Mars' orbit,
the crew transfers to a lander
which takes them to the surface
while their spacecraft stays in orbit above.
When it's time to leave, the capsule blasts off
to dock with the waiting mothership.
Six months later, back in Earth's orbit,
the crew will transfer to a vehicle for the short trip home.
- Anyway you want to put it, going to Mars
is going to require a lot of equipment
working almost perfectly
for anything up to three years.
It will be a challenge.
- [Narrator] Every journey begins with a first step.
For Mars, it will be the blast furnace of flames
lifting a heavy launch vehicle off the ground.
(rockets booming) (intense music)
But, it will take much more
than rocket power to get us there.
(eerie music)
Even at its closest,
Mars is still 56 million kilometers away.
What will take us there and back?
At universities and space agencies around the world,
big thinkers are wrestling with the question.
There are dozens of competing theories and opinions
about how to get to the red planet and back alive.
But sometimes the best answers
come from the most surprising sources.
- It's a very very daunting
technical and engineering challenge,
but that's what makes it exciting.
- [Narrator] Canadian filmmaker James Cameron
is on NASA's advisory council.
Cameron's underwater explorations are legendary,
and now his fascination with Mars
has inspired a radical design for a manned mission.
Cameron looks at problems with a different eye
than the scientists and engineers.
- Colleagues like Jim Cameron are extremely creative,
because they thought about exotic, hostile environments,
bringing a new perspective to the idea
of sending machines and people to places like Mars.
- [Narrator] Cameron consulted with NASA specialists
on every phase of the design,
and all agree that job one for Mars
is getting the huge mission, literally, off the ground.
- The launch vehicle is the key
to being able to go do a Mars mission
because we need much more mass if we're gonna go to Mars.
So if nothing else, just the launch vehicles alone
are the key thing that we're gonna have in the near term
that will enable us to go to Mars.
(intense music)
- [Narrator] In the Apollo days, a single chemical rocket,
the Saturn V, carried the entire mission.
The crew capsule, the moon lander,
and ascent vehicle all in one load.
Mars requires bigger Earth launchers, and more of them.
- You've gotta have a way
of throwing big heavy payloads up into orbit from Earth.
Our biggest payloads go up with the space shuttle,
and they're 20 metric tons, something like that.
You need something on the order
of 80 to 100 metric ton capability to orbit.
- The amount of stuff you need to go and come back to Mars
is heavier than the International Space Station.
We have yet to move anything that big ever in space.
The analogy is going from a rowboat to an aircraft carrier.
- [Narrator] To visualize the mass of the space station,
picture 40 transit buses lashed together, floating in space.
The approximate weight, 450 tons.
(dramatic music)
To get that much material into space,
NASA is developing two specialized launchers.
The Ares I carries a crew into orbit,
but the real workhorse is Ares V.
It's the space equivalent of an 18 wheeler,
one that can generate an earth-shaking
9.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff,
enough to launch 175 Boeing 747s off the runway.
Within minutes of liftoff, the Ares V accelerates
to 11 kilometers a second,
when it breaks free of Earth's gravity.
(dramatic music)
- It's the big commitment from the US in getting to Mars.
If Ares doesn't work well,
then we're just not going to Mars.
- [Narrator] In the Cameron mission,
the components for three Mars spacecraft,
a crew vehicle, and two cargo containers,
would be carried from Earth to orbit on multiple launches.
Once assembled in space, the unmanned cargo vehicles
would be sent to Mars.
The crew vehicle follows two years later.
- The idea is to deploy as much mass out to Mars
ahead of time as you can,
so that your humans can go out there really quickly.
You don't wanna take any more mass than you have to
on that human transfer mission.
- [Narrator] Faster means the crew spends less time
exposed to the hazards of deep space.
Mass is the crew's enemy.
- In the case for Mars, a lot of that mass
will be the fuel to get you there,
the consumables to keep you alive.
- [Narrator] James Cameron has a controversial plan
to reduce mass.
Cameron intends to take only enough fuel to fly one way.
The fuel for the return trip will be manufactured on Mars.
A bold idea.
Too risky for most mission designers.
It's never been tried before, but Cameron is convinced
Mars has the raw materials to make it work.
- But what do you know you have there?
Plenty of carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide has got oxygen in it,
and it's got carbon in it.
Carbon is the basis of your rocket fuel,
and oxygen is the basis of the way
you burn the carbon in the rocket fuel.
That's your ticket home.
That's your fuel to come back.
(rockets roaring)
- [Narrator] Cameron is more cautious
with other parts of the mission.
Unlike other planners, he proposes
that the landing vehicle travel with the crew.
Sending it to Mars in advance is inviting trouble.
- [Man] Eagle is undocked.
- When you get into your landing craft,
which no human being has touched for a couple of years now,
has been sitting out there
freezing in orbit,
and you're gonna fire that puppy up
and then you're gonna try to land on Mars.
That strikes me as fraught with risk
as opposed to a spacecraft
that you can keep online and healthy
while you're transiting out there.
- [Narrator] Cameron's lander concept
is built around the rover,
the vehicle for exploring the Martian surface.
The rover will be critical for locating the Mars habitat
and supplies already sitting out there on the surface.
- The second you say that you're gonna put stuff
on Mars ahead of time,
you have no choice but to land near that stuff.
If you don't land near that stuff,
you're not coming home.
If you're 200 miles off course,
and you have no vehicle with you
that can travel 200 miles over the surface of Mars,
you're gonna die.
- There is no limit to the number of places
where danger, deadly danger,
could actually transpire.
- [Narrator] In spite of the risks,
space agencies around the world are taking on the challenge
of designing the spaceships for a manned mission to Mars.
The results are surprising.
Russia's version of the vehicle that will take the crew
on the first step of the journey has wings,
while the US goes back to a capsule design.
Two radically different approaches,
as former enemies get set to rekindle an old rivalry.
(rockets roaring)
The Russians cherish their glory days in space exploration.
Sputnik, the first satellite.
Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit Earth.
Past these gates where few westerners have been is Energia,
the aerospace company
behind many of Russia's success stories.
During the moon race, it built Soyuz,
which still carries crew members from Earth
to the International Space Station.
- Soyuz has been an amazingly resilient vehicle.
It's really worked on the philosophy,
if it's not broken, don't fix it.
That all said, it can't get beyond Earth orbit
and if the Russians want to be a serious player
with the rest of the international space community
in going beyond low Earth orbit, going to the moon,
going to Mars, and they wanna have
a significant contribution, they've gotta go beyond Soyuz.
- [Narrator] Soyuz is now four decades old.
It seats only three, and cannot be reused.
If Russia wants to take on Mars,
it has to come up with a bigger,
more versatile crew carrier for its cosmonauts.
This is the future.
The Russians call it Clipper, a six passenger space vehicle.
Clipper will shuttle cosmonauts into orbit,
and dock with the spacecraft that takes them to Mars.
For all its sophistication, Clipper relies
on the same simple aviation principles
that guided the Wright brothers.
(engine roaring)
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Translator] Clipper has basic flight characteristics.
It's just like a glider.
Because it has wings, the landing will be similar
to that of an ultralight.
(intense music)
- [Narrator] His own flying experience
convinced Clipper designer Sergey Stokyo
that wings are the surest way
of bringing the spacecraft back safely.
Clipper will pick up cosmonauts returning from Mars
and then, like the US Space Shuttle,
glide home through Earth's atmosphere
to a pre-determined landing site.
(engine roars)
(suspenseful music)
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Translator] Right now, Clipper is designed
to carry crew members to and from orbit,
but we are optimistic about adapting some of its technology
to a spacecraft that will one day go to Mars.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Over the next few years,
the look of this full scale Clipper mockup may change.
Energia is hoping to lure investment from Europe
to finance continuing development.
The goal is to have it ready for a first mission in 2014.
If all goes well, Clipper will get the big job
of ferrying cosmonauts from Earth
on the first stage of the trip to Mars.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Translator] We've taken the best elements from Soyuz
and incorporated them in Clipper.
Reliability and redundancy of key mission functions,
which will allow Clipper to stay in flight
despite minor equipment failures.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Narrator] And that's not all.
Energia is already training crews
for the first Mars mission.
A simulator prepares them for the delicate dance
required to dock with the International Space Station.
Those space station visits will serve as rehearsals
for the day Clipper carries cosmonauts
to a spacecraft headed for Mars.
In the United States, NASA is taking a different road
to the same destination.
In August 2006, it unveiled its version
of a new crew vehicle, one piece of a master plan
to get to the red planet.
(crowd applauding)
This is America's answer to the Russian Clipper.
The CEV, or crew exploration vehicle called Orion.
Just like Clipper's role in the Russian program,
Orion will be NASA's new link
with the International Space Station.
And one day, it will carry a crew
to a vehicle headed for Mars.
But NASA's also planning to road test its crew vehicle,
taking astronauts back to the moon,
an important training ground
for sending humans to the red planet.
NASA plans on landing astronauts
on the lunar surface by 2020.
Then, constructing a permanent base five years later.
- In order to be able to go to Mars,
we have to learn a lot of lessons on the moon,
because while you can get to the moon and back
in a few days, Mars will be several years.
- [Narrator] Orion will be doing double duty.
It will carry crews to the moon,
and it will make a quick trip to Earth orbit
to transfer astronauts to a Mars spacecraft.
It's because of that dual role
that Orion does not have wings.
- When you wanna go to places like the moon,
when you come home, you're going significantly faster
than when you come home from lower Earth orbit.
You can be going 25,000 plus miles an hour,
and when you enter the atmosphere at those speeds,
if you had a winged vehicle,
it wouldn't stay winged very long.
- We now can see a way to go forward to the moon
and beyond to Mars.
Without the CEV, without Ares,
without putting those two elements together,
we don't go out of Earth orbit,
so in that regard it's a very very significant announcement
that the United States has given us.
- [Narrator] Orion borrowed the blunt teardrop look
from the '60s era Apollo capsules,
but it's more robust, and a lot bigger.
There's space for six passengers,
and 25 tons of supplies.
Even better, it's built from a new aluminum lithium alloy,
so Orion will be lighter
than either Apollo or the space shuttle.
But, like the earliest space missions,
it'll return to Earth by parachute.
- So going back to the future
with a crew exploration vehicle,
the crew launch vehicle series is the right answer
at the right time to get us back in the saddle.
- [Narrator] With Clipper and Orion,
the old space race rivals have devised new ways
of getting their explorers into orbit.
The first step in the big push to put humans on Mars.
The next hurdle is much bigger.
Design a propulsion system with enough power
to drive a huge spacecraft to Mars and back.
The lives of the crew will be riding on it.
(ominous music)
Just a few weeks into the journey,
the crew will approach the point of no return.
If a crew member was seriously ill,
or they detected a problem
with the life support supplies waiting on Mars,
now is the time to turn back to Earth.
Past the point of no return, there is no turning back.
Earth is already moved too far away.
No rescue missions can be launched.
They must continue millions of kilometers to Mars,
and circle the planet in order to come home.
(intense music)
Engine failure is a death sentence.
(intense music)
There's unanimous agreement
that the easiest part of getting to Mars
is building the launch vehicles
to get the mission off the ground and into orbit.
The real challenge is what comes next.
Designing a propulsion system powerful enough
to drive a huge spacecraft from there to Mars
across millions of kilometers of space.
- The Mars exploration vehicle that goes from Earth to Mars,
and most of it of course will come back
is gonna be very, very large.
We're talking about potentially hundreds of tons.
We're talking about a vehicle
that is probably comparable in size
to the International Space Station
if you think about how bit that object is
flying to Mars and back.
To be able to push that vehicle
successfully out of Earth orbit
is gonna require some pretty heavy duty propulsion.
- [Narrator] Some propulsion systems exist only in the minds
or on the blackboards of physics professors.
(engine roaring)
At the University of Washington,
the electrical buzz coming out of this science building
could one day shrink the travel time between Earth and Mars.
(electricity buzzing)
- To go to Mars presently requires
a 2.5 year return mission.
Our concept is to go there and back in 90 days.
Everyone ready?
- [Narrator] Professor Robert Winglee's fast lane to Mars
is powered by a laser-like beam
of superheated charged particles.
Particles of plasma cross the vacuum chamber
in thousandths of a second.
Winglee wants to generate a plasma beam powerful enough
to propel a spacecraft to Mars.
- You can beam the energy to your spacecraft,
and remove the need to carry large amounts of fuel,
large power systems.
It makes it cheaper, it makes it faster,
and it's also a reusable system.
Okay firing.
- [Narrator] It's futuristic physics
that's narrowing the gap
between science fiction and science fact.
Here's how it works.
A space station using its solar panels to generate plasma
fires a beam at a passing spacecraft.
The superheated beam propels the spacecraft to Mars
without ever touching it.
It's like the north poles of two magnets
repelling each other.
- Be going at very high speeds.
When it gets to Mars,
be going nearly 30 kilometers per second.
That's again four times faster than the shuttle.
- [Narrator] Stopping a ship traveling at that speed
requires extraordinary precision.
An unmanned satellite parked in Mars' orbit
must fire another plasma beam
at the approaching space vehicle to slow it down.
- We have over the last year made excellent progress
in demonstrating it both experimentally and computationally
and we're totally confident that we can do it in the future.
- [Narrator] It will be years before Winglee
can perfect the plasma beam
and get it in space.
Mission designers who can't wait
for this futuristic technology
have two practical choices
for propulsion through deep space.
Chemical propulsion is created by mixing oxidizers and fuel.
When the two react, flame and heat
are squeezed through exhaust pipes,
and out the engine nozzle, creating thrust.
A nuclear thermal rocket
is a simpler, more efficient solution.
Super cooled cryogenic liquid hydrogen
is heated by the nuclear core,
and comes out the engine nozzle as hydrogen gas.
- Nuclear rocket technology
is actually not particularly new.
We were investigating the notion
of using nuclear propulsion back in the 1960s.
- We're on our way now to the Nevada test site
where it's been proved that the nuclear sort of propulsion
was the only way that we were going to be able
to get men to Mars and return them back home safely.
- [Narrator] Stan Gunn was one of a team
of scientists and technicians
commuting to the test site in the mid '60s.
Gunn developed the fuel mixtures.
The tests were successful,
but America's interest in space exploration was waning,
and nuclear was a dirty word.
- It got to the point where we had proven out
the capability of a nuclear rocket,
and were ready to go with the practical engineered system
for a Mars mission, and yet nothing was done after that,
and we got totally stuck.
- [Narrator] Now, space exploration is back on NASA's agenda
and there's a strong case for nuclear propulsion
as the best ticket to Mars.
- It does offer some very significant advantages,
primary among the, the fact that there is a greater thrust
that can be delivered by nuclear technology.
- [Narrator] Another critical comparison.
Two equal sized spacecraft, half a kilo of fuel apiece.
The chemical rocket burns full throttle for 450 seconds.
The nuclear fuel lasts twice as long.
That means the nuclear powered spacecraft
is twice as efficient, and can go
the same distance on half the fuel.
Jackass Flats, Nevada.
Sacred ground in the history of nuclear rockets.
The stand where engines were anchored for testing,
and the nearby hangar where rockets were torn down.
Relics of the past that Stan Gunn believes
still have a role in building propulsion systems for Mars.
(choral music)
It's all still waiting here,
like a museum exhibit.
The diesel locomotive that hauled the rockets.
Radiation counts here were so high
that Geiger counters kicked wildly off the scale.
All safety features survive,
like the six foot thick radiation proof windows,
and the robotic arms that handled the rockets,
and Gunn believes a few upgrades would make it safer,
and more acceptable to the public.
- The problem with this rocket stand
was when it was previously used,
it exhausted its exhaust gases
completely out into the atmosphere.
However with modern engineering approaches,
we can have a complete containment system
engineered to receive all of these gases.
- [Narrator] The longest open air test performed here
took a nuclear engine to full power
for just over an hour.
Too brief it seems, when you consider
the six month journey time to Mars,
but the numbers are misleading.
The crew of a Mars transfer vehicle
could need as little as one hour of full throttle burn time
to get there and back.
Because space is a vacuum, no atmosphere
means no friction to slow things down.
Once it's built up a head of speed,
the spacecraft can literally coast to Mars.
On the final approach, the spacecraft turns
and the engines are fired to put the brakes on.
Gunn says full throttle testing was done once,
and it can't be done again.
- This test had to be turned to operation
for future NASA development of nuclear rocket engines.
So the future is very golden.
- [Narrator] One day, the Nevada desert
may hear again the roar of nuclear rockets.
The push is on, and there's now a detailed plan
to harness nuclear power to get to Mars.
(rockets roar)
NASA rocket scientist Stan Borowski
carries the torch passed by Stan Gunn.
Borowski believes the advantages of nuclear propulsion
are just too good to ignore.
- The benefits of nuclear are its higher gas mileage,
which is twice that of the best chemical rockets.
That means we need less propellant,
and fewer numbers of heavy lift launch vehicles.
- [Narrator] Propellant is weight.
The less of that you have to haul in space,
the fewer Earth launches you'll need.
- So for a typical mission to Mars with nuclear propulsion,
we need about seven 80 ton launch vehicles.
With chemical, we need at least 11 missions.
- [Narrator] The fuel efficiency will be critical
to saving the crew if something goes wrong.
Beyond the point of no return,
they can't simply make a U-turn and head back.
Earth is too far, and moving away too fast.
The only option, continue to Mars,
circle the planet, and head back to Earth.
With efficient nuclear thermal engines,
they'll have more chance to get back home safely.
During those long months aboard the spacecraft,
the crew of a Borowski nuclear powered vehicle
will enjoy one comfort no manned mission
has ever had before, artificial gravity.
The crew will not be floating about
on the way to Mars and back.
- Our vehicles are long and linear,
and can be rotated like the propeller on an airplane
to be able to generate artificial gravity for the crew,
and this will prevent the debilitating effects on the body
of prolonged exposure to zero gravity.
- [Narrator] Wherever Borowski pitches the bold idea
of harnessing nuclear propulsion for Mars,
he faces some fearful people.
Will his nuclear rocket become a nuclear bomb
if somehow it blows up in Earth's atmosphere?
The possibility of that happening is very remote.
During launch to orbit, the nuclear engine is just cargo.
It becomes radioactive only when fully extended and firing.
Out in deep space, any malfunction
triggers an immediate shutdown.
- Do we absolutely need nuclear propulsion
to take people to Mars?
Maybe not.
But if we wanna go for good,
for a sustainable exploration story,
the engineering solution that gives us nuclear propulsion,
fission based nuclear electric, or nuclear thermal,
will be a more efficient solution in the long run
to opening up the solar system for people.
- [Narrator] The propulsion choice
is linked to another crucial decision.
The trajectory, or route to Mars.
Not only is it at least 56 million kilometers away,
it's a moving target.
Plotting the right trajectory
is life or death mathematics.
(speaks in foreign language)
Engineers and scientists are making
thousands of important decisions
about the spacecraft that will take us to Mars.
But the planets dictate when the journey begins.
Earth and Mars are millions of kilometers apart,
moving around the sun at different speeds.
Because their positions are always changing,
the ideal moment to launch a manned mission for Mars
only comes about once every 26 months.
- It's unimaginably precise.
It's probably the best analogy
would be like threading a needle
in the West Coast from the East Coast.
- [Narrator] There are two ways of going to Mars.
The choice depends on how long
you want to stay on the planet.
A long stay mission gives you
about a year and a half on Mars.
On the outbound leg, the crew leaves Earth orbit
when the two planets are relatively close.
It's the same coming home,
but the timing has to be perfect.
Miss the window, and there won't be enough fuel to make it.
- If the astronauts on Mars
don't hit the launch into that window
at just the right time,
then they can't get back to Earth.
They have to wait for the celestial mechanics to quote,
"Come back into alignment."
You're talking about Earth and Mars
being in the right places at the right time
to allow the vehicle coming back safely to Earth.
- [Narrator] The other option is a short stay on Mars,
30 to 60 days on and around the planet,
and the route home is different.
The flight path will take the ship past Venus,
using its gravity like a slingshot to pick up speed
for the trip home to Earth.
But, as before, timing is everything.
- There's no tide to carry you back to Earth.
The planets move too quickly.
We don't have rockets big enough.
So you're stuck.
(waves crashing)
- [Narrator] A few hundred meters
from where the North Sea meets the Netherlands,
the European Space Agency has been working
on the critical decision
concerning the two options for going to Mars.
They've decided they'll learn more
on the Martian surface in 500 days than a short stay.
- We have a launch window for that every 25 months.
To go to Mars takes six to nine months,
then we'll be spending about 18 months on and around Mars,
and it's gonna take nine months to come back
and that gives us, all in all, a 1,000 day mission
which is a very good value for a Mars mission.
- [Narrator] Italian aerospace engineer Loredana Bessone
oversees the team designing a spacecraft
that can stand up to 1,000 day return mission to Mars.
- All right, so we are gonna
talk about the transfer habitation module,
which is where our six astronauts are gonna spend
months and months of their time
during the journey to Mars and back.
- [Narrator] The Europeans are thinking big.
The total length of the Mars spacecraft they envision
is 100 meters, the size of a football field.
Attached at the front of the transfer vehicle
is the excursion module.
It's a combination lander, temporary shelter,
and ascent vehicle.
The back half of the spacecraft
is the multi-stage propulsion system
that will carry the crew to and from Mars orbit.
For the many months of the journey,
this module will be the whole world to the six crew members.
- We need to start talking
about the requirements of this module,
and Sylvia and Jean-Francois,
can you start giving us some requirements
about the transfer habitation module?
- [Sylvia] Okay for the volume requirement,
this number comes up to be around 75 cubic meters per person
of which 1/3 is for storage of consumables and equipment
and the other 2/3 are for the astronauts to live in.
- [Narrator] It will be a tight squeeze.
The total living space for six adults is 300 cubic meters,
about the size of an average apartment.
The rest of the space is packed
with food, water, and equipment.
- It's not just the nuts and bolts
that's associated with the engineering.
It's the humans interacting with that environment.
You're talking about people
who have to be a part of this colossal undertaking,
and they've gotta be comfortable with it.
- [Narrator] Bessone and her team
are still learning the basics
of manned space exploration.
They've never launched their own manned mission,
and they've yet to decide on a propulsion system,
but no one wants to be left behind in the race for Mars.
- ESA wanted to know how we could actually start planning
European technology development
based on what we need when we go there.
I hope ESA will go there,
and I hope it goes there in my career time,
but ESA won't go there alone.
- [Narrator] Unlike the Europeans, Russian space engineers
have years of manned spaceflight behind them.
They've had great success with long duration orbiters
like Mir and the International Space Station.
Now, they're applying the same technology to a vehicle
that will carry cosmonauts
on the next step of the journey to the red planet.
- [Translator] We can say with confidence
that we have a prototype of a spacecraft
for a manned flight to Mars.
- [Narrator] Right now, that prototype
sits under construction scaffolding.
Energia's Leonid Gorshkov
will convert this space station module
into the new Mars ship that will carry up to six cosmonauts.
It will be called MEK, the Mars Expeditionary Complex.
Gorshkov is confident about his MEK module.
It's proven technology orbiting Earth right now.
His Zvedza is the service module
for the International Space Station,
housing propulsion, communications,
and life support systems.
MEK is reviving an old dream.
Russia actually started planning
for an assault on Mars more than 40 years ago.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Translator] Back in the '60s when that project started,
I was very young, and I had
a junior role in its development.
- [Narrator] Sergei Korolev, a star of Soviet rocketry,
ran the top secret project.
Korolev's gone, but his accomplishments are honored.
His technology still studied.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Translator] The work on the Mars Project under Korolev
began on June 23, 1960.
- [Narrator] Working under Korolev's direction,
Vladimir Bugrov was a senior member of the design team.
The designers went back to von Braun's Mars mission model
of multiple Earth launches and orbital assembly.
These calculations and drawings
are all that's left from four years of work.
40 years before NASA even floated the idea
of artificial gravity,
the Russians knew it was necessary for Mars.
Their crew vehicle would rotate on its axis,
creating Earth-like gravity for the crew.
Another design breakthrough was an onboard greenhouse
for growing fresh vegetables.
In 1964, the Kremlin shifted focus to the moon race,
and plans for a Mars spacecraft disappeared.
But the legacy of Korolev's technology lives on.
It can be seen in Mir,
and the International Space Station,
and now in a new Russian manned vehicle for Mars.
(somber music)
Gorshkov is not reinventing, he's adapting.
He's expanding this module to six meters in diameter,
and close to 30 meters in length,
and the Russians have decided to play it safe.
At least on their first manned trip to Mars,
there will be no landing.
The cosmonauts will stay safely in orbit
above the red planet.
- From an engineering perspective,
you've saved yourself a lot of work.
The most technically demanding part,
you could certainly argue,
in any mission to Mars by humans
is going from Mars orbit down to the ground, and back again.
If you elect not to incorporate that step,
then you save yourself a lot of time, a lot of effort,
and a lot of money.
- [Narrator] Russia's caution
with landing on Mars is well-founded.
In four years of sending up
unmanned Martian probes and satellites,
Russia's record is 16 failures, and only two successes.
- [Translator] You know we've had very bad luck with Mars.
With the moon and Venus, everything went well,
but it seems that Mars never wants to surrender.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Narrator] The United States is also exercising caution.
By returning to the moon before attempting Mars,
NASA will work out the kinks
of a manned space exploration program
that hasn't seen action in more than 30 years.
No one wants to fail the first time out
in a manned mission to Mars.
- There's no forgiveness in space.
You get it wrong, you kill people,
great explorers, and sometimes
they don't give you a second chance.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] The distance between Earth and Mars
is slowly closing.
People are dedicating their careers
to the cause of a manned mission.
From desert testing grounds in Nevada
to a NASA rocket test bunker in Cleveland, Ohio,
the right propulsion system will emerge.
In Moscow, an aerospace giant will manage
the huge cost of Mars
by converting proven space station technology
for the hundreds of millions of kilometers
to the red planet.
The engineering challenges of Mars are enormous.
Will the technology hurdle best be cleared
by nations joining together?
- I don't think it's in the budget,
or even in the wishes of any nation to go alone.
This is a big cooperation.
This is for humanity to go there.
(emotional music)
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Translator] Sure it would be nice
to see Russians on Mars, but I'm strongly convinced
that no matter who will develop the complex,
the crew will be international.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Announcer] We've had a go for our two point start.
T-minus 10, nine, eight, seven
six, we have main engine start.
Four, three, two, one.
And liftoff.
(dramatic music)
- Now we have a globalized world, global economies,
linkages in many new ways.
I believe the way to go to Mars is to go together.
- [Announcer] Mars I you are go for staging.
- Inboard cutoff. - We confirm inboard cutoff.
(rocket roaring)
- You're going to see every single
spacefaring nation of this planet contribute.
You're gonna see Chinese architecture,
you're gonna see Japanese know-how,
you're gonna see Canadian activity.
On board principally a Russian American vehicle,
but nonetheless, Russia and the United States
cannot get to Mars by themselves.
It will have to be a joint undertaking.
- [Man] Initiate auto docking sequence.
- [Narrator] When the multinational crew
reaches low Earth orbit,
they will get ready to dock with the spacecraft
that will carry them to Mars.
(dramatic music)
(comms crackle)
- [Astronaut] Five meters, four meters, looking good.
- [Narrator] In the odyssey of Mars,
the weakest link may be human.
The breaking point of hardware can be measured,
but what about the mental and physical limits of the crew?
As the longest, most dangerous
voyage of discovery gets underway,
the human factor is the great unknown.
(dramatic music)
(Multicom jingle)