Marte ha atraído a la humanidad durante siglos, pero sólo en los últimos 50 años hemos comenzado a arañar su superficie. El último explorador de Marte es el Perseverance, un rover supersofisticado, repleto de instrumentos científicos, incluidas 23 cámaras, un brazo robótico, láseres y espectrómetros, diseñados para analizar el terreno y revelar si alguna vez hubo vida en el Planeta Rojo. Únase a nosotros mientras examinamos el último cohete, rover y helicóptero interplanetarios.
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00:00Inside this rocket is the rover that could find life on Mars if it lands.
00:08We have to go from thousands of miles per hour to zero
00:14and not get a bug in the windscreen.
00:17The new rover is called Perseverance.
00:21Perseverance is the most sophisticated robotic device launched from the Earth's face.
00:28It will look for signs of life on Mars while the Smithsonian scientists
00:33travel the Earth in search of references.
00:35The search for life is one of the greatest questions of humans.
00:39The previous rovers have paved the way.
00:42Now Perseverance could totally change our vision of the universe.
00:47We will only have one chance.
00:50We present you the rocket, the rover and the helicopter
00:54that could change our way of exploring Mars and much more.
00:59It all depends on Perseverance.
01:11February 18, 2021.
01:15The sky is orange.
01:19Under a bright sun, the temperature is minus 62 degrees Celsius.
01:25The eight-year-old Curiosity rover continues its work.
01:30For the rest, Mars is silent like a desert.
01:38But here comes the new neighbor.
01:42After seven months of traveling through space,
01:45the turbulent part of the journey begins.
01:49As the spacecraft encounters the upper atmosphere, it will heat up.
01:55Once it slows down enough, the heat shield will come off
02:01and we will deploy the parachute.
02:05But we're still literally hurling it to the surface,
02:08even if we've been parachuting for some time.
02:14We're talking about an object the size of a car
02:17that weighs almost a ton.
02:20No human is driving it.
02:23But it has seven minutes to try to stop.
02:27Or this Martian explorer will crash and burn.
02:32We present to you Perseverance, our new rover from Mars.
02:44It's a huge beast machine.
02:47And it is full of scientific instruments
02:50that will explore the surface of Mars.
02:53In the NASA's reaction propulsion laboratory in California,
02:57they are assembling the Perseverance in a sterilized room.
03:01If it wants to find life, it can't carry any life in it.
03:06It's really important to make sure that if we do find something from Mars,
03:10we have to make sure that it's something that actually came from Mars
03:14and not that it came from Earth.
03:18They are building the most complex rover in history,
03:22including 23 different cameras.
03:27The Mascam Z imitates human sight by capturing panoramic images.
03:33A chemical camera in the robotic arm will be able to enlarge the smallest fragment.
03:38And for the first time in history,
03:41some video cameras will record the descent and landing of the rover
03:45from four different angles.
03:48With Perseverance, for the first time,
03:51we will have the opportunity to make movies.
03:55Some of these cameras reach 5K resolutions.
04:01That would eliminate all the pixelation of this.
04:09Prior to 1965, the best views of Mars came from telescopes located on Earth.
04:15We didn't know what the surface of Mars was like.
04:19In the absence of data, humans dreamed.
04:24We had centuries to conceive ideas about Mars.
04:28Some scientific, others ridiculous.
04:32The popular view of Mars is that it did have life.
04:35There were Martians.
04:37We have a complete science fiction industry based on that concept.
04:41You're right. I will go.
04:44Nothing described the Martian fantasies like the little green hats.
04:49I know. I don't think you'll cause any more problems.
04:53The creative minds went out of control.
04:57Until July 14, 1965.
05:01California landers eagerly awaited a sign of their last attempt to reach Mars.
05:092819
05:21It was intended to take a few pictures of the surface as it flew by.
05:26After a seven-month trip, the Mariner 4 had less than 30 minutes to get the first images close to Mars.
05:35The idea of being able to see something for the first time, in case everything went well,
05:40not only caused a great excitement, but also a tremendous trepidation.
05:45Will it work?
05:47The images arrived in the form of data.
05:50Each photo took six hours.
05:57Finally, the printer was activated.
06:01But Mars seemed dead.
06:07The initial reaction was, wow, it looks like the Moon.
06:12It was just a dry, desolate surface, full of craters.
06:17And I think that kind of crushed the whole romantic idea that there were Martians.
06:25The Mariner 4 took 22 pictures as it passed through Mars.
06:31But they shook the foundations of our little ring of Mars.
06:36It was a huge surprise.
06:39And the beginning of our understanding that Mars is not the Mars of science fiction.
06:45But as a geologist, it seems to me an even better place, with all these amazing things to study.
06:53With each mission, Mars was becoming more and more defined.
06:58The Mariner 6 took 75 photos.
07:02The Mariner 7 took 126.
07:06Then, the first orbiter, the Mariner 9,
07:09circled Mars for a year and took more than 7,000 photos.
07:16Mars was sort of publicly revealed for the first time in the history of science fiction.
07:22Now we saw a lot more than craters.
07:25We saw canyons and what looked like dry streams of rivers.
07:30There were clearly branching systems, channels that were merging in a downhill direction.
07:36And of course, the most likely and logical origin of those channels
07:41was the running water.
07:44The Mariner 7, the Mariner 9,
07:47did not manage to reveal when or why the water disappeared.
07:51But it threw us to a new theory.
07:54Maybe Mars was not like the Moon.
07:57Maybe it looked a lot more like the Earth.
08:05The scientist of the Smithsonian, Ross Irwin,
08:08was very interested in this theory.
08:12The scientist of the Smithsonian, Ross Irwin,
08:15studies how water can shape a planet and possibly trigger life.
08:21About 3,500 million years ago,
08:24Mars had many rivers more or less this size
08:27and they dug valleys the size of the one behind me.
08:32When the Mariner 9 reached Mars,
08:35it was a surprise to see all those valleys everywhere.
08:40Subsequent missions revealed other features similar to the Earth.
08:45In some cases, we have river valleys
08:48where erosion of a mountainous front deposited its sediments
08:51in the form of a valley across or over the basin.
08:54And then we also have deltas.
08:57And just like river deltas that you see here on the Earth,
09:00these river deltas on Mars represented
09:03the deposit of sediment out into a standing water.
09:09All of these eroded valleys and sedimentary deposits
09:12were early evidence of low water
09:15on the surface of Mars.
09:18But it left a lot of unanswered questions.
09:21How long was the water there?
09:24Were these environments favorable for the origin and the existence of life?
09:28If the ancient Mars had water on its surface for long enough,
09:32maybe it could have housed life
09:35and it could have left evidence, just like on Earth.
09:39This type of rock is very good for preserving evidence of possible habitability.
09:44So it's not just indications that this environment
09:47could have been suitable for housing life,
09:50but it's also very good for preserving evidence behind life itself.
09:54Obviously on Mars, we're not looking for fossils,
09:57but we're looking for indications whether there were bacteria
10:02on the surface during those wetter periods of its ancient history.
10:06The only way to observe it more closely
10:09was by getting to the surface.
10:12The Mariner 4 went by.
10:15The Mariner 9 kept going around it.
10:19But the Viking opened the door.
10:26The anticipation for this was very high.
10:29These modules were soft landing on the surface
10:32and looking for evidence of life on the surface of Mars.
10:37In 1976, the Viking contacted the atmosphere of Mars.
10:43One of two.
10:45It would either make history or it would crash violently.
10:53Building the Perseverance to work successfully on Mars is a challenge.
10:58Bringing it there is another thing.
11:02Every two years, the orbits of Earth and Mars
11:05place these planets in the same environment,
11:08but millions of kilometers apart.
11:12Mars is really far away,
11:14and getting a spacecraft there to a specific point
11:17is something that requires a lot of time and attention
11:20to detail to make sure it's done correctly.
11:24We did it incorrectly many times.
11:28In the very early days,
11:30we had accidents on launch pad.
11:32We had spacecraft fail to reach the orbit.
11:35We had spacecraft crash hard on the surface.
11:39We miscalculated trajectories.
11:44We've had a spacecraft that had areas, hardware problems.
11:49The latest news is that there was something weird
11:51during the recording of the first 10 images.
11:54Getting to Mars is really hard.
11:58The Viking arrives,
12:00the first American attempt to land on Mars.
12:03With Viking, there was very much a feeling
12:05of a mission to the unknown.
12:09NASA launched two Viking modules
12:12hoping that at least one would land safely.
12:16We were playing with it.
12:17If it didn't land safely,
12:19we wouldn't get any scientific data.
12:22On July 20, 1976,
12:25Viking 1 began the landing sequence.
12:29It was too far to be controlled in real time.
12:34The Viking was alone.
12:37The famous astronomer Carl Sagan
12:39joined the mission team during those tense moments.
12:43It was his first contact with the seven minutes of terror.
12:48There's this period of time
12:50that the spacecraft has to go through on its own
12:54to land safely on the surface.
13:02That process takes about seven minutes
13:04from the time it makes contact with the atmosphere of Mars
13:07until it goes down on the surface.
13:09The so-called seven minutes of terror.
13:1220 meters, 22 meters per second.
13:15ACS is close to vertical.
13:18Green to the ground, green to the ground.
13:21Finally, Viking 1 sends a signal from the surface.
13:25Ground, we've touched ground.
13:29Fantastic, landing has been confirmed.
13:36Landing on Mars for the first time
13:39I think was the most thrilling and exciting thing you could imagine.
13:45I mean, landing on another planet
13:47and then having the first images of a place
13:50that no human has ever seen.
13:56July 20th, I turned on the TV
13:58and there was a picture of Mars from the surface
14:01and it didn't look at all like the one I had guessed.
14:07It looked like the desert in the southwest of the United States.
14:10People could recognize what they were seeing
14:13on the surface of Mars for the first time
14:15because it was sort of like they were standing there.
14:20Viking 2 landed a few months later.
14:23None of the two modules found any life or water
14:27but they began a new era in space exploration.
14:31We had landed on another planet
14:33and that image will forever be in the textbooks.
14:37The modules sent us mountains of data
14:40but they couldn't move.
14:42They were fixed in one place on the surface
14:45and we always wondered, what if we could get to that rock over there?
14:49The Vikings were revolutionary but they weren't explorers.
14:55And so I think that this is a natural progression
14:57to want to move good in the form of a rover
15:00for the subsequent missions
15:02that allows us to answer those questions.
15:0520 years after the Viking missions
15:08NASA embarked on a surprising driving test.
15:12Sojourner was a little rover,
15:14basically a microwave on wheels
15:16for size comparison.
15:21It was named after the pioneer of civil rights
15:24and the woman Sojourner Truth
15:26and hoped to find a new way to explore Mars.
15:31It was primarily designed to be a demonstration
15:34that we could send a rover to another planet
15:37and have it work successfully.
15:39They inserted it into a module called Pathfinder
15:42and both took off to try and make history.
15:47Ignition of the main engine.
15:49Zero.
15:50And takeoff of the Delta rocket with the Pathfinder of Mars.
15:56After landing and connecting,
15:58the ship took off the first Martian rover.
16:02We have image data.
16:05Although it never moved more than 12 meters from the module,
16:09the Sojourner left its first footprints on Mars in 1997.
16:15This is a great achievement.
16:17Sojourner was kind of a turning point in Mars exploration
16:20because up to that point
16:22I had personally fully appreciated
16:25what mobility could give you.
16:28Mobility was now the main objective.
16:32The new rover, Perseverance,
16:34practices its movements in what NASA calls
16:37the landscape of Mars.
16:44So we're in the landscape of Mars
16:46where our rovers drive over rocky terrain
16:49to develop greater skill
16:51and to get to the most remote places we can get to.
16:56Each wheel has an independent motor
16:58and sprockets to have traction over the fine Martian sand.
17:03The legs are made of titanium,
17:05the same light metal used in the best bicycles.
17:09Perseverance must be strong and agile
17:11if it wants to reach new territories.
17:14Often the most exciting geological areas
17:16we want to study on Mars
17:18are the most difficult to reach.
17:21But it won't go fast.
17:23The maximum speed is 0.16 kilometers per hour.
17:28Interplanetary travel is dangerous.
17:32We're not talking about velocities
17:34similar to those seen in the Daytona circuit.
17:38But it compensates for its lack of speed
17:40with its fantastic scientific equipment.
17:44Perseverance is the most sophisticated
17:46piece of robotic device ever launched
17:48off the face of the Earth.
17:50It has a two-meter robotic arm
17:52that can be extended to analyze the terrain,
17:55lasers to see different wavelengths,
17:59and spectrometers to identify different compounds.
18:03It's a meteorological station,
18:05a geological station,
18:07and a chemical laboratory,
18:09all designed to finally answer
18:11humanity's greatest doubt.
18:14Are we alone in the universe?
18:17Perseverance is the first rover
18:19that really has the ability
18:21to help you get in and answer
18:23that question of,
18:25has there ever been life on Mars?
18:29The search began with the Viking.
18:33It continued with the Pathfinder and the Sojourner.
18:37But maybe bigger
18:39is synonymous with better.
18:42NASA began working with two twin rovers
18:45that made the Sojourner a dwarf.
18:47The Spirit and the Opportunity
18:49were a bold bet.
18:54The new rover of Mars, Perseverance,
18:56is in its final assembly phase.
18:59Scientists are eager to send it
19:01to the surface of Mars.
19:03My job is to supervise the scientific experiments
19:05that the rover will do
19:07as soon as it reaches the surface of Mars.
19:09To carry them out,
19:11the mission directors trust
19:13that it will take at least two terrestrial years
19:15and travel at least 20 kilometers.
19:19By contrast,
19:21our 20th century Martian explorers
19:23did not go very far.
19:27The Sojourner did not move
19:29more than five meters
19:31from its landing site.
19:33It is as if a spaceship
19:35landed in its garden
19:37and only reached the bay.
19:43But in 2004,
19:45the twin rovers took off.
19:48The exploration rovers on Mars,
19:50Spirit and Opportunity,
19:52became the next step.
19:54We wanted to follow the water
19:56and understand its importance
19:58when shaping the surface of Mars.
20:02Spirit and Opportunity
20:04visited ancient riverbeds
20:06to take a first look
20:08at what the water left behind,
20:10this time with tools on the ground.
20:13These guys are about the size
20:15of a golf cart
20:17and bigger than the previous ones.
20:19They're built as if they were
20:21robotic field geologists
20:23on the surface of Mars.
20:29Both rovers
20:31travel several kilometers
20:33and the strange landscape
20:35begins to appear very familiar.
20:37And we started seeing rocks
20:39that had wavy marks on them
20:41like the ones we can see
20:43in the bed of a river
20:45where the water is flowing
20:47and transporting sand
20:49from the surface.
20:51You can walk out your door
20:53and go to the lower part
20:55and see the same kinds of features.
20:57The mission lasted
20:59much longer than expected
21:01and, it seems,
21:03had a stroke of luck.
21:05After a wheel spun,
21:07Spirit accidentally lifted
21:09the white material.
21:11This bright white material,
21:13which turned out to be
21:15almost pure silica,
21:17tells us that it probably
21:19precipitated from relatively
21:21hot water in a volcanic area.
21:23Then Spirit stumbled
21:25with another wild discovery.
21:27It sent us a series of images
21:29that could perfectly be
21:31from Oklahoma.
21:33Whirlpools, direct proof
21:35of the existence of Martian wind.
21:38Then a Mars orbiter
21:40captured a whirlpool
21:42that rose 800 meters high,
21:44causing a shadow
21:46all over the landscape.
21:48We know that on Earth
21:50the wind can alter the landscape.
21:53The scientist of the Smithsonian,
21:55Mariah Baker,
21:57is an expert recognizing
21:59its consequences.
22:01When you go to a desert
22:03or a beach like that,
22:05the wind that blows over
22:07a sandy surface
22:09creates waves or dunes like these.
22:11On Mars, the wind does exactly the same thing.
22:13In fact, it's been the dominant
22:15force for billions of years
22:17since all the water dried up.
22:19Researchers like me
22:21go to the most large dunes
22:23in Colorado and the Great Sand Dunes
22:25in Colorado and the Atacama Desert
22:27in Chile to understand
22:29how certain features form on Mars.
22:31But at some point,
22:33the mysteries begin.
22:35So in this dune,
22:37we see what are known as impact triples,
22:39which are the smallest impact triples
22:41that we see are formed by the wind.
22:43The smallest impact triples
22:45that we see are formed in the sand,
22:47but larger harsh sand
22:49creates larger waves like a whirlpool.
22:51And when we arrived at Mars
22:53and then we saw that these larger whirlpools
22:55were also forming in just fine material,
22:57we realized that we didn't quite understand
22:59how they formed actually.
23:01On Mars, we've got a third of the gravity
23:03that we have here on Earth,
23:05which makes it a little bit easier
23:07to move the sand.
23:09However, we also have an atmosphere
23:11that's a hundred times less dense
23:13than we have here on Earth,
23:15which means that a wind
23:17of 65 kilometers per hour
23:19would yield just a breeze.
23:21And so we need much higher speeds
23:23to actually move the sand
23:25from the surface.
23:27But somehow, the Martian winds
23:29can still cause chaos
23:31all over the planet.
23:35Every year, Mars creates
23:37some sand storms
23:39that last weeks,
23:41but locally.
23:43Although from time to time,
23:45some rise globally.
23:47When you have these occasional
23:49global sand storms,
23:51basically the sand
23:53dusts into the entire atmosphere,
23:55completely obscures the surface.
23:57In 2018,
23:59the sharp features of Mars
24:01disappeared in a few months,
24:03while a thick red cloud
24:05enveloped the entire planet.
24:07The rover Opportunity
24:09was almost 15 years old
24:11and had traveled more than
24:1345 kilometers.
24:15But a great storm
24:17was approaching.
24:19As it looked down,
24:21it saw sand accumulating
24:23in its solar panels.
24:25As it looked up,
24:27it saw less and less.
24:29And suddenly the sky
24:31literally darkened
24:33for the course of a period
24:35of just a few short days.
24:37And the last image we have
24:39looking towards the sun
24:41from Opportunity
24:43effectively shows
24:45it's in total darkness.
24:47The dust storm
24:49blocked out all sunlight
24:51into its solar panels.
24:53Fourteen. Project Manager.
24:55Fourteen.
24:57For eight months,
24:59the Opportunity mission team
25:01sent signal after signal
25:03to try to wake up
25:05the teenage rover.
25:07Mer 1, ship identity 253.
25:09It never did fire up again
25:11to call home.
25:13Finally,
25:15NASA gave up.
25:17This is station 14
25:19from the entire network.
25:21It's a sad day for all of us.
25:23Project Mer is off the net.
25:27Because Opportunity
25:29was operating for 14 and a half years,
25:31everyone fell in love with the rover.
25:35And I can tell you
25:37that the people
25:39who were on those calls
25:41when we decided to end the mission
25:43were very sad.
25:45Opportunity broke
25:47the mold of longevity
25:49for the rovers.
25:51The Perseverance is designed
25:53to be even stronger.
25:55The rover has to survive
25:57all the tests we do to it.
25:59They make the Perseverance
26:01go through all the situations
26:03that can happen to it on Mars.
26:05Big temperature changes
26:07reaching up to minus 128 degrees Celsius.
26:09Sandstorms
26:11that could destroy gears
26:13and blind cameras,
26:15but at least
26:17it works with nuclear energy.
26:19Sandstorms don't worry us.
26:21It's called
26:23Radioisotope Energy System.
26:25Basically, it's a nuclear battery.
26:27It converts the heat
26:29of plutonium decomposition
26:31into electricity.
26:33It could feed the Perseverance
26:35for years if it survives the trip.
26:37You design a rover
26:39for the worst possible conditions.
26:41The worst kind of shaking,
26:43the worst kind of landing.
26:45Everything has to survive.
26:51If the Perseverance lands safely,
26:53it will see much more
26:55than what's on the surface of Mars.
26:57It will take a look
26:59at the layers of history
27:01underground.
27:05On Earth, we see these layers
27:07in very unusual places.
27:11When we do geology,
27:13we often get lucky
27:15to have a cut like this
27:17as a result of a highway
27:19that allows us to see
27:21the layers that have formed over time.
27:23Now, in a lot of cases on Mars,
27:25we won't be able to get land
27:27with a cut like this.
27:29What we'll have to do
27:31is use a remote-controlled
27:33device called Georadar.
27:35I work with Sharad,
27:37an underground probe radar
27:39on Mars.
27:41Sharad transmits signals
27:43and that pulse travels
27:45down through layers like this.
27:47And each time that signal rebounds,
27:49we build up a cross-section
27:51like you see in this cut
27:53in order to know the geological history
27:55of that area.
27:57There might be differences
27:59between sand layers
28:01and layers of ice
28:03in the polar caps.
28:05There's no substitute
28:07for being able to see
28:09what's called a rimfax,
28:11which measures the subsurface layers
28:13that are underneath the rover
28:15down to a shallow depth
28:17shorter than 10 meters,
28:19but with much finer detail.
28:21Now, some day, astronauts
28:23will walk up to an area like this
28:25on Mars and they'll calculate
28:27the geological history
28:29through the layers.
28:31But for the time being,
28:33things like Sharad
28:35are extremely valuable.
28:37It's underground,
28:39but it also has something
28:41that it can see beyond the horizon.
28:49In the NASA propulsion
28:51reaction laboratory in California,
28:53Perseverance has passed
28:55all the tests.
28:57It's a month away
28:59from going home.
29:01It's been built
29:03on the legacy of the rover
29:05Curiosity.
29:07After the Spirit and Opportunity
29:09exploration rovers,
29:11Curiosity became sort of
29:13the big sister of the work.
29:15In 2012, Curiosity
29:17became the next rover
29:19to go to Mars.
29:21So it's about the size
29:23of a small crossover.
29:25In terms of its complexity
29:27and its size,
29:29it's just far better
29:31than anything we've done before.
29:33For the entire country,
29:35Curiosity triggered the Martian mania.
29:37The day of the landing,
29:39Curiosity created a certain
29:41expectation for New York.
29:43At NASA,
29:45the fuss was much bigger.
29:47We're on the surface of Mars.
29:51The largest rover
29:53had landed safely on Mars.
29:55The last Curiosity will take it.
30:01Gale Crater
30:03is the place on Mars
30:05where you think you are
30:07on Earth.
30:09There's evidence
30:11that Curiosity has collected
30:13and that there was
30:15at least one lake
30:17inside that crater.
30:19If you had stayed there,
30:21you would have been
30:23kneeling in running water,
30:25and it would have been drinkable.
30:27I mean, you could have
30:29picked up a glass
30:31and drink it.
30:33Curiosity dug into
30:35the old lake bed
30:37and found thick layers
30:39of sediment that
30:41took thousands of years
30:43to deposit.
30:45For me, that was a really
30:47revealing moment because
30:49suddenly here I was staring
30:51at the lake where I grew up
30:53in northern New York.
30:57And I was kind of
30:59reactive to that theory,
31:01but it was true.
31:03By the way, there was an
31:05ancient lake on Mars,
31:07and it was there for a very long time.
31:09Now we believe that the water
31:11flowed on the surface of Mars
31:13for a thousand million years,
31:15but it dissipated about
31:173,000 million years ago.
31:19The reason why the water
31:21became less stable on the surface
31:23is because the atmosphere
31:25changed and became very thin.
31:27Eventually, it became very dry
31:29and cold.
31:31Perseverance will examine
31:33what the water left behind,
31:35especially in the craters.
31:37Perseverance will land
31:39in a place called Jezero Crater
31:41where we will see that due
31:43to an inlet and outlet channel,
31:45the water was flowing
31:47through the craters.
31:49Perseverance will evaluate
31:51those sediments and those rocks
31:53in search of signs of life.
31:55The search begins with
31:57the incredible rover's arm.
31:59I would say that the robotic arm
32:01is very important for the mission
32:03because it has everything
32:05on hand. And in fact,
32:07as I'm talking to you,
32:09you see me moving my arm
32:11because it's something
32:13we do intuitively also.
32:15And you can control it
32:17as if you were a geologist
32:19on the surface of Mars.
32:21You can lower your arm,
32:23put it in such a place,
32:25or let it show you something
32:27in particular.
32:29At the end of the arm
32:31there is a new set of instruments
32:33that will look for signs of life.
32:35The robotic arm also has
32:37a drill, which is the unit
32:39that will collect the sample.
32:41A drill in a rover
32:43could be the destination
32:45of the sample.
32:47Perseverance will collect
32:49and keep samples
32:51for a possible return
32:53to Earth in the future.
32:55This rover will begin
32:57the most ambitious
32:59robotic space relay
33:01ever attempted.
33:03Perseverance will drill down
33:05and collect samples
33:07and put them in an area
33:09where a second rover
33:11will be built.
33:15They'll be put inside
33:17a small rocket
33:19that will launch into orbit
33:21where it will be captured
33:23and eventually return to Earth
33:25at some time in the future.
33:27If Perseverance finds
33:29signs of life,
33:31we'll need the samples
33:33on Earth to confirm them.
33:35In less than a decade
33:37we could have the first
33:39kind of hologram of a sample
33:41and Perseverance
33:43will be the first step
33:45on that road.
33:47Inside Perseverance
33:49there's another space novelty.
33:53It looks like a spider
33:55learning to fly.
33:59But it's the first
34:01interplanetary helicopter.
34:05Ingenuity,
34:07which is the helicopter
34:09that we'll send
34:11with the Perseverance rover,
34:13is designed as a technology
34:15that for the first time
34:17will show that we can operate
34:19an air vehicle on the surface
34:21of Mars.
34:23NASA created a room
34:25that simulates the atmosphere
34:27of Mars where the takeoff
34:29would be 100 times harder
34:31than on Earth.
34:33With the atmosphere so thin
34:35that the blades can support
34:37each other. It's very light
34:39and the blades are very big
34:41so they can generate enough
34:43lift and they can take off.
34:45The helicopter passes the test
34:47on Earth. On Mars
34:49it will have to fly on its own
34:51because radio signals
34:53take an average of 15 minutes
34:55to travel between Earth and Mars.
34:59It has to be done
35:01in a completely remote way.
35:03We will not be able to use
35:05any type of control control
35:07in real time to control
35:09the direction of the device.
35:11In case it works,
35:13Ingenuity could go ahead
35:15and explore the terrain
35:17for the Perseverance,
35:19take detailed photos
35:21and transmit them to the rover
35:23so it can see where it's going.
35:27All while it flies to the history books
35:29like the first flying vehicle
35:31on another planet.
35:35But first it will have to
35:37take off from this planet.
35:41The first step to Mars
35:43is a trip around the country
35:45from California to Florida.
35:4716 trucks
35:49carry different pieces of the capsule
35:51that will take the Perseverance to Mars.
35:53Those can all be sent separately
35:55but the rover itself
35:57fully assembled
35:59was sent on a plane
36:01to Cape Kennedy.
36:07In the launch pad in Florida
36:09they put the Perseverance
36:11in the capsule,
36:13place it on top of the rocket
36:15and the nerves start to rise.
36:17You're in a situation
36:19where you bend and bend
36:21years and years of work
36:23almost origami style
36:25and you're on top of a giant bomb.
36:29And this thing
36:31goes bang and flies off
36:33and does so in a really fast way.
36:37And so there's a lot of
36:39fear
36:41that something bad
36:43could happen.
36:45The launch day
36:47is approaching.
36:53Just as the new rover
36:55prepares to take off
36:57from Earth
36:59it suffers a devastating blow.
37:03The rover was nicknamed
37:05Perseverance
37:07because the transfer of that rover
37:09to the launch pad
37:11occurred during a global pandemic.
37:15It's hard enough
37:17to get a rover in time
37:19and without making mistakes
37:21but if you add a global pandemic
37:23it adds an extreme amount of stress
37:26If something delays the launch
37:28Mars won't be aligned
37:30so close to Earth
37:32for another two years.
37:34We'll only have one chance.
37:38Perseverance will land
37:40on a Atlas V rocket.
37:42The propellers
37:44come from Alabama
37:46the payload adapter
37:48comes from Texas
37:50and physics comes from experience.
37:53It's not easy
37:55to hit a mobile target
37:57from a cosmic distance.
37:59The navigation team
38:01is trying to get a hole
38:03of 160 million kilometers
38:05in one hit.
38:07The spacecraft is sent
38:09to where Mars is going to be.
38:11Think about a quarterback
38:13who's throwing a lob out
38:15even though his receiver
38:17is 20 or 30 yards away
38:19from where he's going
38:21to hit the same place
38:23at the same time.
38:30What a beautiful morning
38:32here on the space coast.
38:34Welcome, behind us
38:36is the star of the show.
38:38After years of work
38:40the moments before the launch
38:42are like a void.
38:44Currently working.
38:46No problems in the range
38:48or in the launch vehicle.
38:51They have a lot of their lives
38:53invested in this project.
38:57It's like your child
38:59is leaving home.
39:03That is literally
39:05what is happening.
39:07It's just in this case
39:09that robot is going to another planet.
39:11Go Atlas.
39:13Go Centaur.
39:15Go Mars 2020.
39:17Two, one, zero.
39:20Release.
39:26The perseverance of the human being
39:28who launches the next generation
39:30of robots to the red planet.
39:34Image 1.
39:36Atlas 5 has reached supersonic speed.
39:41And we have indications
39:43of the correct separation
39:45of the four propellers.
39:50And we have indications
39:52of the separation of Atlas Centaur.
39:58To have watched this rover
40:00launch from Mars
40:02was an incredible achievement.
40:08There we go, awesome.
40:16When the spacecraft reaches Mars
40:18it's literally going miles per hour.
40:22And so we've got to go
40:24from thousands of miles an hour
40:28to zero
40:30and not have a bug in the windshield.
40:34The heavier the spacecraft,
40:36the harder it will be to stop.
40:40The Viking was quite light
40:42to land with a parachute
40:44and some rear propellers.
40:46The heaviest Spirit and Opportunity
40:48needed giant balloons
40:50to cushion the impact.
40:52Now the Perseverance
40:54of one ton
40:56will take a more complex path.
40:58As the spacecraft
41:00approaches the upper part
41:02of the atmosphere, it will heat up.
41:08Once the spacecraft has
41:10enough of a parachute
41:12with the parachute,
41:14that's when the engines
41:16of the descent phase
41:18will be activated.
41:20They'll slow it down
41:22to allow it to gently fly
41:24over the surface.
41:26And the rover will gently
41:28descend
41:30thanks to a cable system.
41:32As soon as the wheels
41:34touch the ground,
41:36the cables will cut
41:38and the descent system
41:40will fly away.
41:42It's the landing day.
41:44If something goes wrong,
41:46there's nothing the mission
41:48control can do.
41:50The Perseverance
41:52is on its own.
41:54We have the Perseverance.
41:56Received. Green light.
41:58All systems ready
42:00for approach.
42:02There's confirmation
42:04of entry into the atmosphere.
42:06It's the first rover
42:08to record a video of its descent.
42:12Alpha 7.
42:14Deploying parachute.
42:16Deploying parachute.
42:18Perceiving significant deceleration.
42:20Initiating next phase.
42:22Perseverance has gone
42:24to subsonic speed.
42:26We have activated
42:28the landing engines.
42:30Altitude 7.4 kilometers.
42:32Initiating approach maneuver.
42:38Approach maneuver initiated.
42:4020 meters from the surface.
42:46Tango Delta.
42:48Landing confirmed.
42:50Perseverance has landed
42:52safely on the surface of Mars.
42:54Ready to begin
42:56searching for signs of life.
43:00Two months later,
43:02Ingenuity makes its first flight
43:04to another planet.
43:06Our next step
43:08is to explore the cosmos.
43:10You don't have to be
43:12a planetary scientist
43:14to get excited about exploration.
43:16Humans have always
43:18wanted to explore.
43:20Our legacy is a legacy
43:22of exploration and discovery.
43:24A familiar photo
43:26of the Mars rovers
43:28reveals generations of explorers
43:30with Perseverance at the forefront.
43:34Maybe one day
43:36humans will be able to make
43:38that giant leap
43:40and an astronaut will leave his first footprint.
43:42But when he looks down,
43:44he will see that what has allowed him
43:46to leave his footprint
43:48have been kilometers and kilometers
43:50of surface surrounded by a rover.