[Dan narrating]
[dramatic music]
- What if I told you there was a madman
who set off for space
in a homemade rocket?
[rocket engine roaring]
- Mike immediately attempts to release his parachute,
but the rocket is traveling too fast
and the chute shreds in midair.
- And now what goes up must come down.
And it comes down violently. [people screaming]
- Or that there was an alien invasion in Congress?
- [Paul] This must be the greatest evidence
of alien visitation ever found.
- Even NASA gets involved.
- He's had their DNA tested and the results are
that they're not human.
- How about going to war with a celestial body?
[dramatic music]
- Ever since we learned that a giant asteroid
was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs,
we have all been a little scared.
- So, NASA creates an entire network of space lasers.
[rocket engines roaring]
- These are the stories so out of this world,
they can only be described as
"Unbelievable."
[dramatic music]
Centuries before rockets and space programs,
a Ming Dynasty official dared to dream beyond the stars.
This is the legend of Wan Hu,
a man whose bold ambition launched him
right into the history books.
[dramatic music]
- Wan Hu is a 16th century Ming Dynasty government official
with an obsession for science and rocketry
and a preoccupation with the moon.
He's very interested in it and very interested
in trying to figure out a way to go to it.
- At this time in China, rockets were actually used
for fireworks and occasionally for warfare.
- But Wan Hu sees a whole new use for rockets,
and that is propelling people up into the Earth's atmosphere
and beyond, all the way to the moon.
- [Dan] With a sky full of dreams
and a chair full of rockets, Wan Hu decides
there's no better pilot than himself.
- As the story goes,
Wan Hu goes out into a field with some of his servants.
He straps himself into the chair,
clutching a kite in each hand.
- The idea, each kite will serve as a steering device
while in flight,
and then allow him to make a soft descent
to the surface of the moon.
[dramatic music]
- He orders the servants to light the rockets
with the flame from a candle.
- But one of his servants is like,
"Wan Hu, please do not.
I fear you're going to die."
And Wan Hu, you know, he's done his calculations.
He's like, "Don't worry about me, light the rockets."
- [Dan] Against all odds and sensible advice,
it's all systems go.
- After ignition, there's a massive roar
and a flash of fire from the back of the chair.
[rocket engine exploding]
There's a huge plume of smoke
and Wan Hu and his ship are hidden.
No one knows what's happened.
[dramatic music]
- When the smoke clears, there's nothing,
no chair, no rockets and no Wan Hu.
The servants, they probably think, "He's done it.
Our Lord is gone, he has accomplished his mission
and is the first man to land on the moon."
- But in reality, it's much more likely
that he just blew himself to smithereens.
[dramatic music]
- While we can't confirm if Wan Hu actually makes it,
we can confirm that another space traveler
achieves this goal, five centuries later,
all while wearing diapers.
[upbeat music]
- In October of 1957, the space race
between the United States and the Soviet Union kicks off,
with the launch of Sputnik 1,
the first artificial object sent into orbit.
- And only a month later, Russia does it again.
But this time they launch a stray dog
from the streets of Moscow, with the name Laika into space,
making Laika the first living creature to orbit the Earth.
[upbeat music] [rocket roaring]
- But sadly, she does not return to Earth.
- So, now the question is,
which nation is gonna be the first
to launch a human into space
and safely return them to Earth?
- [Dan] Before risking a human life,
NASA needs proof the mission can work,
so they look for the next best thing.
- NASA figures, sending a chimp into space
is a much better choice over a dog,
not simply because of their intelligence,
but because they share more DNA with humans
than any other animal on the planet.
- They're not going to just throw these chimps
out into space.
They actually go through astronaut training.
- They prepare these chimps by simulating
the space flight experience.
High G forces, enormous vibrations and incredible sounds
to make sure the chimps can tolerate it
before they go in the rocket.
- A NASA veterinarian is actually tasked with the job
of choosing an appropriate chimpanzee,
just moments before the launch.
- [Dan] Out of six finalists,
a chimp named Ham is chosen to venture into the unknown.
- Wearing a diaper and a pint-sized spacesuit,
fearless Ham is loaded into a pressurized capsule
and loaded onto the rocket.
- Ham's not just a passenger, he has certain jobs to do.
He'll have to pull levers during launch,
weightlessness and reentry.
- Ham is launched 157 miles above the Earth
at almost 6,000 miles per hour.
At first, everything's going pretty well.
- But then two minutes, 18 seconds into the flight,
there's a loss of cabin pressure.
But luckily for Ham, he's inside of his own capsule,
so Ham is still able to breathe
and a major catastrophe is avoided right out of the gate.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] Now the real test begins.
As Ham floats weightless for over six minutes,
the NASA team holds their breath.
- Ham pulls the right lever, a light goes off,
and the control room erupts in cheers.
[upbeat music] [applause]
- After 16 minutes, the capsule falls back to Earth
crashing in the Atlantic Ocean as planned.
[water splashing]
- With the clock ticking, the rescue copter arrives,
and when they open the capsule,
inside, they find Ham still alive,
a bit dehydrated, but calm, healthy
and ready to take another flight, should he be asked.
- Ham's flight proved you don't need a uniform
or a PhD to reach space,
just ambition, nerve, and for one man, a homemade rocket.
- 58-year-old Mad Mike Hughes
is what you would call a self-proclaimed daredevil.
In 2002, he sets a Guinness World Record
for longest jump in a limousine.
- But jumping a limousine 103 feet
is not all that Mike's got on his mind.
He has loftier goals.
- Outside of setting world records,
Mike has been tinkering with building rockets,
in his backyard, for years.
- Mike is desperately trying to reach the Karman Line,
which is a line that's about 62 miles above the Earth
and it represents the beginning of space.
- He decides that he's actually going to follow
the NASA protocol,
start small and then work your way up.
- His first order of business is building a homemade rocket
that can deliver him to 1,800 feet and get back down safely.
[dramatic music]
- Mike's a baller on a budget.
He's gonna get as many things together as he can
to make this for the least amount of money possible.
- Mike cobbles together, discarded parts, scrap metal,
and most importantly, a steam engine
that is used to power the rocket.
- Mike's really trying to think of everything,
so he knows that he's gonna need a parachute system
to help slow his descent down,
but he is also trying to figure out,
"Well, I wanna make sure that it goes straight up."
So, he basically uses this old ladder
to sort of launch it upwards.
- [Dan] In 2014, Mike's homemade rocket
is finally ready for its first test flight.
- All systems are go,
and from the floor of the Arizona desert,
Mike ignites his rocket.
[rocket engine roaring]
- What goes up must come down,
and it comes down violently.
[rocket crashing]
But, miraculously, Mike lives.
- [Dan] One crash isn't enough to ground mad Mike.
If anything, it only fuels his obsession
to go farther, faster and higher.
- So, on February 22nd of 2020,
64-year-old Mike suits up once again to make history.
- His goal this time is to make it to about 5,000 feet,
which equates roughly to a mile.
- He invites 50 spectators out.
He figures he can use this as a publicity stunt
so that he could build the next rocket
that would get him to his goal of 40,000 feet.
- [Dan] Mike's team counts down from 10,
and in a flash, he's off,
hurtling to the sky at an incredible speed.
- After just a few seconds, a failure appears.
The safety parachute actually gets launched,
and unfortunately, just as quickly
as Mike is thrust into the air,
it seems that he is coming right back down
towards the ground, at about 400 miles an hour.
[rocket smashing] [people screaming]
- The rocket descends and erupts a parched cloud of red dust
to the crowd's stunned disbelief.
And unfortunately this attempt Mike does not survive.
[dramatic music]
- While Mad Mike's journey to space ends in tragedy,
his attempts were nothing short of incredible.
- In 2022, the United States holds
the first congressional hearings
on unexplained aerial phenomena in 56 years.
Not to be outdone by their neighbors to the north,
Mexico has their own.
And the guests of honor are truly unbelievable.
[suspenseful music[]
- It's September 2023 and it's a big day for Mexico City
because the Mexican Congress has assembled to hear testimony
about the possible existence of aliens visiting the Earth.
- It's a specific journalist and ufologist,
a man named Jose Jaime Maussan,
who really steals the limelight.
Dramatically, Maussan takes the microphone
and hails two of his assistants to bring in
two large coffin-like boxes into the room.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] When he unveils
the controversial contents,
a hush falls over the crowd.
- Maussan claims what they have in front of them
are the bodies of two dead aliens.
[dramatic music]
- They look milky white like paper mache,
and Maussan has named them Clara y Maurizio.
And he claims that one is a male
and the other is a female alien.
- Maussan claims that these bodies were found
deep underground in the Nasca desert of Peru
in September of 2017.
- And before any of the lawmakers in the room
could call BS,
Maussan alleges that he's had these corpses carbon dated
by Mexico's National Autonomous University.
And according to the doctor,
the bodies were buried over a millennia ago.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] The timeline is shocking,
but it's the biology that Maussan says defies explanation.
- He claims to have had their DNA tested
and the results are that they're not human.
And according to him, since there's nothing on Earth
that currently looks like them
or has ever been found in history that resembles them,
this must be the greatest evidence
of alien visitation ever found.
- Even NASA gets involved and asks for samples
of these so-called alien bodies.
But to this day, Maussan refuses to share the bodies.
He won't give anyone any samples
and the debate about the authenticity
rages on across the internet,
but also behind closed doors in the offices
of these Mexican officials.
[dramatic music]
- Long before these strange bodies were discovered,
another unexplained encounter left behind
a baffling piece of evidence.
- It's 1964 in England,
a rare sunny day.
Fireman Jim Templeton decides why not take his wife Annie
and five-year-old daughter Elizabeth
out on a little sightseeing trip.
So, they go to a place called Burgh Marsh,
which is a stretch of greenery overlooking the Solway Firth.
They're really enjoying themselves.
- And so Jim decides this is the perfect time
to get pictures so we can always remember
how much fun this day is.
And he gets out his
camera and he takes
three snapshots in succession.
[camera shutter clicking]
- When he's done with the roll,
he drops off the film at a pharmacy,
like we used to do in the olden days,
and he thinks no more about it.
- Jim returns to pick up his developed photos,
and one of the techies points out that it's too bad
that one of the shots got ruined
by this strange figure
standing behind his little girl.
One of the photos shows a humanoid figure
standing in the background behind Elizabeth,
wearing what looks like a spacesuit,
complete with a visor and helmet.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] At this point, Jim is not just curious,
he's downright concerned.
- Jim really starts to go over his memories of that day.
And the only other people he remembers seeing
was an elderly couple that was sitting on a bench
at quite a remove
from where they were having their little picnic.
- Jim's kind of freaked out at this whole thing.
And he decides to take this photo to the police station.
The police take a look and they kind of shrug it off.
I mean, there's no crime being committed.
To them, it doesn't really seem all that strange.
- Next, Jim goes to his local newspaper.
The reaction there is quite different.
They're so excited they put the story and the picture
on the front page.
Now, it really takes off.
The image becomes known as
the Solway Firth Spaceman.
And the story goes viral
or whatever they called that in the '60s.
- [Holly] Everyone seems to have a theory
about what has caused this image to be displayed this way.
- Some of the theories are mundane.
The image might have resulted from a lens flare
or a camera artifact.
Others are more far out, not only claiming
that it's an extraterrestrial,
but others saying that the daughter
has some psychical ability
and the figure is her thought form.
- Even Kodak, the company that made the film
and the paper that the photos were printed on, get involved.
They look at this and they can't find
any evidence of forgery or trickery of any kind.
[dramatic music]
- They even go so far as to advertise a reward.
If anyone can prove that this photo
was manipulated in some way, they will get the prize money.
But no one ever comes forward for that cash.
- The photo remains unexplained to this day.
[dramatic music]
- And as for Jim Templeton,
he stood by his story to the very end,
never backing down or changing a word
until his death in 2011.
- Not all otherworldly events involve aliens or astronauts.
Some start a lot closer to home,
like a doomed flight over England
that left more than wreckage behind.
[dramatic music]
- It's 1930 in Bedfordshire in England,
and the Air Ministry is rushing to complete
a top secret project it's been working on, the R101.
- The R101 is a lighter- than-air zeppelin,
which is intended to carry some passengers
and also the Royal Mail.
[dramatic music]
- The engineers take an existing airship
and they add a full 50 feet to the passenger area.
[bold music]
- When it's completed, it's going to be
the largest flying craft in the world.
- Piloting the R101 is an experienced Air Force officer,
Lieutenant Carmichael Irwin.
[dramatic music]
- On October 4th, the R101 sets out
on the first leg of its maiden voyage from London to Paris.
- [Dan] Eight hours later at 2:05 a.m.
the R101 is steering through a driving rainstorm
over the hills of Beauvais, France,
when something goes horribly wrong.
- The zeppelin begins to sway back and forth,
and then a terrible ripping noise is heard.
[dramatic music]
[thunder rumbling]
- The R101 splits in two and crashes down,
killing 48 out of 57 aboard,
including Lieutenant Carmichael Irwin.
[dramatic music]
- Now, when you have a tragedy of this caliber,
everyone begins to point fingers
about who ultimately is to blame.
[contemplative music]
- With few survivors and almost nothing left of the craft,
there's very little to draw upon to get answers.
- [Dan] Then days later,
a newspaper publishes a break in the case,
from an otherworldly source, medium Eileen Garrett.
- A Major Oliver Villiers,
who works for the Ministry of Civil Aviation,
reads the article and is shocked,
stunned by the information that's in it,
because it's information that shouldn't be known
to the general public.
- Villiers wonders where Garrett is getting
all of her information from, so he pays her a visit.
[dramatic music]
In her London flat, Garrett swears to the Major
that she has never met anyone involved
with the building of the R101,
at least not when they were alive.
- [Dan] While conducting a seance
to reach writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Eileen says a different presence
made himself known instead.
- Eileen began telling a story
that the voice that comes through
is this young voice that's speaking very quickly
in a very clipped British accent.
- The voice says things like, "Engine's all wrong,
too heavy, can't rise."
- [Dan] Then the spirit introduces himself
as Lieutenant Carmichael Irwin.
- Villiers wants to speak with Lieutenant Irwin himself,
so he asks her to conduct another seance
with him in the room.
- She agrees, and she arranges another seance,
in fact, seven more.
And during that time, other crew members also come through.
- The big revelation brought forth
by the voices of these six dead crewmen
indicate that the building of the middle section
was all wrong.
And he says that the first explosion
was caused by an engine backfire,
which ignited the rest of the hydrogen
and caused it to explode.
[dramatic music]
- About six months later in March of 1933,
a court of inquiry issues its findings on the air disaster.
And as it happens, the voices that came through,
Eileen Garrett's seance,
match up to the details in the court's inquiry.
[dramatic music]
- It's one thing to be haunted by the past,
but imagine being transported right into it.
[dramatic music]
- It's August 10th, 1901.
Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Francis Jourdain
are walking the grounds
of the iconic Versailles Palace in France.
[gentle music]
- These two women are just there for a vacation,
they're not really big history buffs.
And they're actually a little concerned
that their plan for the day
is gonna turn out to be a pretty dull expedition.
- [Dan] As they walk by a section
called the Petit Trianon,
instead of being filled with wonder,
they start to feel a sense of dread washing over them.
- [Nick] Feeling bewildered,
they approach two men and ask for directions.
- They notice something quite strange about these men.
They're wearing tri-corner hats
and long grayish-green coats,
which was not really in fashion in the 1900s.
- The men seem kind of icked out
that two women are even talking to them.
- And they're kind of rude to the women,
telling them where they need to go.
And this behavior is quite strange for the 1900s.
- Next, they see what looks like a little Chinese kiosk,
and there's a man there selling trinkets,
and he too doesn't exactly exude a friendly demeanor.
- He looks at them menacingly
and speaks in a strange language.
He ushers them to travel over a small nearby bridge.
[mysterious music]
- [Dan] As they continue on their tour,
the strange sightings keep getting weirder.
- Ahead, over the bridge,
they see a woman sitting and sketching.
When she turns and notices them,
Eleanor and Charlotte see that she too
is dressed pretty strangely.
- She's wearing a long white silk dress
with a plunging neckline,
a powdered wig with a picture hat
and a painted mole on her cheek.
- So, the women start comparing notes
and realize this all seemed very strange
and they're bewildered by it,
so they decide to go back and retrace their steps.
- [Dan] But when they return to Versailles,
they realize that what they had seen earlier
has all vanished.
[dramatic music]
- Entire buildings have changed.
The bridge they walked over has disappeared.
And all of this has happened in just a few hours.
- After some research, they decide
that they experienced Versailles
during the time of Queen Marie Antoinette,
during the 18th century.
And the woman that they saw sketching on the bridge,
well, that was the queen herself.
- This is what's termed a time slip.
It's a snag in the fabric of time
that enables someone to momentarily
experience the past in the same location.
- Remarkably, in 1903,
an old map of the Petit Trianon gardens is found
and according to that map,
that bridge that the women crossed,
well, it was there at the time.
- And then a couple years after that,
another map is unEarthed and it reveals
that there was, in fact, a Chinese kiosk there in 1774,
at the time when
Marie Antoinette had just become queen.
- Although some people still doubt their account,
the women are compelled to write a book
about this experience.
They call the book, "An Adventure,
a True Story in Time Travel."
- Perhaps the biggest testament to the power of their story
is how popular their book becomes.
They sell 11,000 copies in the first two years
and have six reprints after that.
Not bad for a trip you thought was gonna bore you silly.
- When you own a home,
there are certain things you can do to prevent disaster,
like locking your door or turning the stove off.
But what if the threat comes from beyond this world?
[dramatic music]
- It's March 8th, 2024
in the middle of the afternoon
and 19-year-old Daniel Otero calls his father Alejandro
because he just heard a terrible crash in his home
and he's not exactly sure what's going on.
- So his dad, Alejandro rushes home,
having no idea what he's coming home to.
Was there an earthquake?
Was there a gas explosion?
All he knows is when he comes in the house,
he sees a hole in his roof.
[dramatic music]
- [Hakeem] The family calls 911
and the sheriff's department shows up.
Their first theory is that a meteorite
has fallen through the family's home.
- [Alejandro] Wow.
Feel that thing.
- But they start pulling stuff out the floorboard
and it's a piece of manmade metal.
[dramatic music]
After some investigation, the leading theory
is that it's part
of an International Space Station cargo pallet.
- Sure enough, there's a 5,800-pound cargo pallet
that was released from the International Space Station
almost exactly three years earlier in March of 2021.
- This pallet was filled with used batteries,
which were supposed to burn up
upon reentry into the atmosphere.
It turns out this is space trash
that has fallen to the Earth.
- There's an enormous number of objects orbiting the Earth,
and for decades, space agencies and companies just assumed,
"Eh, it's fine, it will eventually burn up.
It's no big deal."
But it's becoming a big deal.
- The reality is that as we send more and more things
into lower Earth orbit or LEO,
there's more chances that space junk or debris
is gonna come down.
[otherworldy music]
- As this problem grows, we have to decide
on common rules about disposing of useless,
defunct satellites in a safe way.
[dramatic music]
- Thanks to NASA, Alejandro Otero has
a perfectly reasonable answer for what happened to his home.
But not all those who encounter unknown objects from above
are so lucky.
[dramatic music]
- In August of 1976, 27-year-old twin brothers,
Jack and Jim Weiner decide
to go on a camping trip to Allagash, Maine.
Along with them come their childhood friends,
Charlie Foltz and Chuck Rak.
- The boys spend the first day hiking, setting up camp,
just enjoying nature.
But on the second night, something weird happens.
[dramatic music]
They notice a bright white light in the sky.
[dramatic music]
- It's not high enough to be a star,
and it's not low enough to be a flashlight.
And there's no electricity in the middle of the forest,
so clearly it's not some sort of streetlight.
It's just hovering there.
And maybe it could be a helicopter,
but the weird thing is it's not making any noise.
- Jim grabs his binoculars.
It's blindingly bright, and after a few moments
it just blinks out.
- [Dan] Despite the mystery of the bright lights,
the boys move on to their next campsite,
not giving it another thought.
- On the fourth night of their trip,
the men decide to go night fishing on the lake.
In order to be able to find their way back to camp,
in the dark, they set a big bonfire.
- So, as the night goes on,
they're out on their canoes fishing,
Chuck gets this weird feeling,
an eerie one as if they're being watched.
[dramatic music]
- And as he turns around, he sees
this bright orb of light again.
[dramatic music]
The light is acting very strange, it's pulsating.
It looks like a miniature sun.
And so Charlie suggests, "Why don't we, you know,
SOS it with our flashlights?"
And as they do, it actually looks
like the ball of light messages back.
[dramatic music]
- For a moment, the men are all very excited,
but soon their excitement changes.
The orb is closing in on them and they realize
they are not going to be able to out-row it.
They do make it to shore, and then suddenly
everything goes pitch black.
[dramatic music]
- When they come to, they're resting on the shore
and this strange orb is hovering over them,
and it's so close that they feel like
they could throw a stone and actually hit it.
And then this ball of light just takes off.
At this point, all the men travel back to their campsite
and they realize that their campfire is actually put out.
[dramatic music]
- The campfire that they built was huge,
and the amount of wood they put on it,
it should have burned for hours.
But they think that they've only been away
for a few moments.
This shows that they lost a lot of time.
But they don't exactly know how much
or what happened during this missing time moment.
[mysterious music]
- When they get home, they disclose the episode
to some close friends and family members,
and as they feared, they're met with shrugs or strange looks.
Nobody takes seriously their account.
[dramatic music]
- The general consensus is that
they just probably stayed up too late camping
and they just imagined it all.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] 12 years later, still haunted
by their experience in Allagash,
the boys decide to undergo hypnosis
to uncover what happened to them that night.
- Incredibly, in private sessions,
each of the four men recounts
the same bizarre incident that occurred.
- They all recount samples being taken from their body,
blood, skin cells, hair, semen.
- The men all remember the faces of the aliens they saw.
They had large dark eyes and bulbous heads.
The men claim that these aliens
spoke to them telepathically,
telling them to remain calm and to do what they're told.
- [Dan] After the session,
the friends are given a polygraph test
and all four pass.
[dramatic music]
- Some will continue to call this a hoax or a delusion,
but the four men are committed
that they are absolutely telling the truth.
- As renowned UFO researcher John Mack famously said,
"This is not a club anyone wants to belong to."
- On October 30th, 1938,
as families across America prepped for Halloween,
their evening radio show is suddenly interrupted
by an emergency broadcast
that is truly out of this world.
[mysterious music]
- Over six million people hear an incredible report
that Martians have invaded Grover Mills, New Jersey.
- News reporters all say the same thing,
that the planet of Mars is dying
and its inhabitants are now to take ours by force.
- The sounds of death and destruction
emanating from their radios are so realistic
that many listeners panic.
And so they're left to flee from their homes,
warning their neighbors that the Martians are coming
and they should flee as well.
[dramatic music]
- But the invasion is not real.
It's the fictional creation of actor, writer
and visionary director, 23-year-old Orson Welles.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] A decade later,
South American radio producer Leo Paez sees a chance
to recreate the chaos
and make a name for himself in the process.
- He wants to make an even more intense version
of what Welles had accomplished.
- Where Orson Welles used actors and theatrical sounds,
Paez is gonna use real reporters that people know,
as well as real Ecuadorian cities and military leaders.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] On February 12th, 1949,
Paez takes to the airwaves with a report so real,
listeners aren't sure if it's news or the end of the world.
- The listeners hear
that the aliens have destroyed villages.
And to add to their horror, they're ultimately told
that the aliens have assassinated
the national minister.
- Real-life local reporters give their accounts
of the destruction and the terror,
and some are said to even die during the broadcast.
- In the US, Welles had told local police departments
that the broadcast was fake.
Paez does not warn the police,
and so pretty soon police and fire brigades
flood the streets, adding to the sense of chaos.
- The public is panicked.
They arm themselves with rifles
and they take to the streets to fight back
against the alien horde.
- [Dan] Except no aliens show up,
and it's soon apparent that this is all some sort of joke.
- When people find out that the broadcast is fake,
their fear turns to rage.
The mob turns from trying to fend off fake aliens
to targeting the radio station.
At first, they throw stones
and then eventually they set the building on fire.
- Unfortunately, not everyone
can escape the building in time.
Some hurl themselves out of windows
while others remain trapped.
Producer Paez, who is the architect of the chaos,
is barely able to escape with his life.
[dramatic music]
- While Orson Welles was catapulted to an extraordinary
and legendary career,
producer Leonardo Paez has to flee his nation
and spend the remainder of his life in exile.
[dramatic music]
- Thankfully, Martian attacks
remain in the realm of Hollywood.
But a growing number of scientists
suspect something stranger, that aliens may already be here
lurking in the depths of the Earth's oceans.
[dramatic music]
- In August 2018, 33 scientists publish a paper
that sends their scientific community into a tailspin.
- The theory is is that the cephalopods, squids,
cuttlefish, octopus, they all came from a different planet.
[dramatic music]
- [Dan] Sound crazy?
It may not be as far fetched as you think.
- Consider this, octopuses have 33,000 genes.
That's 50% more than what we humans have.
So, this means an exponential increase in genetic diversity.
- They can actually also rewrite their genetic code
to withstand heat and cold
so they can live in many different environments.
These things are free thinking, can change color,
they're very intelligent.
- The octopus's brain
is somewhat human-like in its operation.
They can solve puzzles, they can use tools,
but our brain is on our skull.
Their neurons are distributed all over their bodies.
What that means is that each octopus tentacle
can think for itself.
- The scientists theorized that since many of these genes
are not found in any other life forms on the planet,
maybe they are of extraterrestrial origin.
- [Dan] Even if our cephalopods
came from one of these habitable planets,
just how did they get here?
- There's actually a theory of how life
could go from one world to the next,
and that theory is known as panspermia.
- This theory speculates that meteorites or asteroids
could have brought frozen eggs
of extraterrestrial organisms down here to Earth.
[dramatic music]
- These eggs could then thaw, hatch
and then become Earth creatures.
[mysterious music]
- Hitchhikers from space are one thing,
but what do we do when the next visitors
aren't just riding along, but coming straight for us?
- You used to need a spaceship and a special effects budget
to see a laser weapon in action.
Not anymore.
Now they're showing up in real life arsenals,
no warp drive required.
[dramatic music]
- Over the past several decades,
US Armed Services have invested heavily
in what are known as Directed Energy Weapons.
These are basically giant lasers
for both offensive and defensive purposes.
[dramatic music]
- Lasers have been shown to be capable
of taking down cruise missiles, mortars
and unmanned aerial vehicles, large and small.
- Lasers are far superior to traditional artillery.
They don't have to follow an arc,
they're not affected by the wind,
and they have pinpoint precision.
- [Dan] Sure, lasers can handle manmade threats,
but what about something much bigger like an asteroid?
- Ever since we learned that a giant asteroid
was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs,
we have all been a little scared.
Like, what happens if another one comes?
[dramatic music]
- If this were to happen now,
it would take tens of thousands of years
for our ecosystem to even begin to recover.
- To safeguard against this scenario,
NASA is trying to create an entire network of space lasers
as the last line of defense
against an extinction- level event.
[dramatic music]
- But to destroy an asteroid,
that's a tall order, that's a big ask.
So, it's easier to start small.
And instead of targeting giant asteroids,
we can target tiny pieces of space junk.
- Manmade space debris can be traveling
up to 20,000 miles per hour.
This is dangerous.
This turns everything effectively into a bullet.
Right now, NASA and other space research companies
are still in the development process.
- By incorporating AI into these defensive weapons,
we could sleep soundly knowing that the system
is effectively running itself,
keeping guard over planet Earth,
ready to take immediate action
if an inbound threat is detected.
[dramatic music]
- While most people have a healthy fear of asteroids,
others see them as an opportunity to make money.
[dramatic music]
- Since 1990, we have detected over 30,000
near-Earth asteroids.
And some tech investors believe that these are
more than just random rocks floating around in space.
These are floating gold mines.
[dramatic music] [rocket roaring]
- NASA has already sent a spacecraft out
to investigate an asteroid known as 16 Psyche.
- 16 Psyche contains large, enormous quantities
of iron, nickel and other heavy metals,
which are worth over $10 quintillion.
That's 10, followed by 18 zeros.
[dramatic music]
- With other asteroids adjacent in this belt,
the total value could be as much as $26 quintillion.
- Just one of these asteroids is worth more than
all the mines in the history of the Earth combined.
- [Dan] In order to pirate this cosmic plunder,
a handful of tech entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists
are trying to perfect the art of asteroid mining.
- The idea is to send a robotic spacecraft
to intercept one of these near-Earth asteroids
as they come close to the Earth.
Then you have to sort through the asteroids
so that they only get what they want,
those precious, heavy metals.
- One of the major challenges
is building the mining equipment
that's so robust and durable that it can survive
in the cold, radioactive, harsh environments of space.
- And a bigger issue than even mining the asteroid
is figuring out a way to get
all of that precious material back to Earth.
- [Dan] Despite these challenges,
two space entrepreneurs, Matt Gialich and Jose Acain
have successfully launched AstroForge,
the first asteroid mining company approved by the FCC
for commercial deep space operations.
[dramatic music]
- Very soon, our demand for metals like platinum
may outstrip our ability to mine them from the Earth.
And so space-based mining may be the solution
so that we can provide those kinds of metals
for applications in industry and medicine
and everything in between.
[dramatic music]
- From ancient dreams of sailing the stars
to modern day hunts for aliens in our oceans,
these are the stories so out of this world,
they can only be considered "Unbelievable."