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NARRATOR: A spacecraft
is closing in on Mars

at 12,000 miles an hour.

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

In a few minutes,

the Perseverance rover
will be on the ground.

It's on a mission
like nothing ever done before.

Searching for traces of life
in an ancient river delta.

And collecting samples
for return to Earth.

To get this far, its creators have endured
gut-wrenching setbacks,

and a global pandemic.

Thousands of people played
a role to make this happen.

But only a few have ever touched
this marvel of human ingenuity.

It takes great minds
to build something like this.

It also takes great hands.

ADAM: A spacecraft.

A NASA spacecraft
of highfalutin, big ideas,

but in the end, it is handmade.

It's put together by technicians.

And so, you have this great contrast
between heady theoretical ideas,

and engineering science,
and craftsmanship, workmanship.

And by the way, it's... that's a big deal.

Because all the heady ideas
don't go anywhere

without it coming together the right way.

We're gonna stick the spacecraft
on a rocket,

light it up, and hurl it off towards Mars.

There will be no intervention
once we're done with this.

We're gonna have what we have.
And if something's not right,

or if there's a little tiny machine screw
rattling around in there...

we're gonna... this...
the whole mission can be lost.

MOOGEGA: As you design
and build a spacecraft,

there are always hurdles that come up,
it's never perfect,

it's never exactly as you plan.

So, engineers obviously are critical
and pivotal to designing and testing.

But the flight techs, they're the people
making sure that what they put together

is going to work on Mars.

It's crucial to have everyone
hand in hand, working together.

-MALE TECH 1: Okay, crane ops.
-MALE TECH 2: Crane ops.

CHRISTIAN: You don't have to have
a college degree to do this,

but all us techs do have a role.

It's not like you can go on Amazon
and order one of these spacecraft.

-MALE TECH 1: Good?
-MALE TECH 2: Yeah, it sure is.

JIM: Flight technicians are
the only group that's allowed

to handle flight hardware.

MALE TECH 1: Okay.
Zack wants to do the first.

JIM: We're unlike any other place
on the planet.

We're not industry,
we're not pushing the techs

to get things done quickly,
it's all about perfection.

(RATTLING)

LACK: We're mechanics,
putting together a spacecraft.

It might be a little bit
more sophisticated than being

a grease mechanic, you know,
on an engine,

but basically, we're, you know,
just space mechanics.

MALE TECH: You just tell me you...

MICHAEL: We're good with our hands,
so we're good with tools, you know.

This is what I do

and if that leads to building
a spacecraft, then that's what I build.

JAMES: My understanding of theoretical
and design elements is limited,

but I'm the caretaker
of many years of scientific effort.

Countless man hours
of mechanical engineers,

the design engineers.

So, behind that one piece
could be hundreds of people.

And we are entrusted with that system.

NARRATOR: Perseverance
has the same basic design

as the curiosity rover
that's been on Mars since 2012.

But the payload is all new.

The centerpiece
is a complex robotic system

to drill and cache samples
of Martian rock

for return to Earth by a future mission.

WILLIFORD: The idea of sending spacecraft
to Mars,

grabbing some samples
and bringing them back,

this is something that scientists
and engineers have wanted to do

for a very long time, many decades,

because they might hold
signs of ancient life.

(RUMBLING)

NARRATOR: A device called MOXIE
will attempt to extract oxygen

from the thin,
carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars,

paving the way
for future human missions, if it works.

MALE TECH: One more above now.

NARRATOR: There will also be
an experimental helicopter.

The first attempt to fly
a rotor-driven aircraft on another planet.

This team could be the Wright Brothers
of Mars.

MIMI: Flying a helicopter on Mars
is a game changer.

Introducing the entire aerial dimension
to exploring a planet.

(BLADES WHIRRING)

I mean, how often do you get
a chance in a lifetime, right?

To go for first-of-a-kind?

NARRATOR:
Dozens of iconic spacecraft

have come together at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

over the past 60 years.

Every one of them, born from the marriage
of visionary engineering,

and elite hands-on skills.

MALE TECH: Uh, we're gonna go east.

NARRATOR: At this level,
some of those hands-on skills

are as unique as the hardware
they're building.

ADAM: You can go to school
to train to fix jet engines,

because there's lots of jets,
and they need jet engine technicians,

but there's no school
for spacecraft technicians that I know of.

NARRATOR: The closest thing
to a school for flight technicians

is JPL's legendary Building 18.

JIM: This is the hub
for the flight technicians.

One of the oldest buildings on the lab.

It's been here about 60 years,
and from here,

we're dispersed all across the whole lab.

NARRATOR: Jim Pearson started
as a flight tech more than 25 years ago.

Now, he's the boss, and head talent scout,

recruiting people with the right stuff
to work on spacecraft.

JIM: I'm looking for an attitude.

Somebody who's willing to dig deep.

Somebody who can understand
the importance

of the work that we're doing.

JAMES: If you can come in
with the right mindset,

then you can be trained
how to work on spacecraft.

I remember very clearly
the first hole I drilled.

Here I am, with a drill, in a clean room,
with four people watching me,

and I'm dealing with hardware
that's worth millions of dollars.

So, if I mess up,
that could be catastrophic.

So... and I was reminded of that
before I did it,

and I was sweating,
I was sweating bullets.

STEVE: Prior to JPL,
I was working in a bike shop.

You know, I'm used to having grease
and dirt under my cuticles.

So, coming into a clean room

is a big eye-opener.
It was a culture shock.

You don't wanna be too fast moving.

You don't wanna bump into anything.

You don't wanna... drop something.

You don't want to...

disturb this zen.

IVAN: I've had nightmares about this.

I do not wanna be the one person
that's going to ruin this for everybody.

ADAM: The technicians
are a bit like... a surgeon.

In that...

a slip of the hand... um, a mistake,

and you really can lose the patient.

So, they have tremendous responsibility.

PATRICIA: Gotta make sure there's room.

NARRATOR: The stakes are high
and everyone knows it.

Even the veterans feel the pressure.

PATRICIA: You have to be able
to really kind of block it out,

and not get nervous,
even though they could say,

"Oh, that's a two million dollar camera,"
you know.

And so, you just say, "Don't tell me."
(LAUGHS)

MICHAEL: I put in six screws in one day,

and come home exhausted
because my level of focus

on those six screws was so intense.

They have to be so perfect,
everything has to be so right

and exact that you come home
and go, "Why am I so tired?

"All I did was six screws."

It comes back to the complexity
of what we're building.

You can't do this and not have problems.

It's not that simple.

ADAM: Look, I'm an engineer.

Up here, on this floor,
in our offices where we engineer

the spacecraft,
it's intellectually collaborative.

"Whoa, what's...
that's an interesting idea you have.

"I like that." Right?

"Let's think about that."
Blah, blah, blah.

Down there, it's actual
touch labor collaboration.

It's arduous. It's amazingly complicated.

When you design a spacecraft,

one of its greatest challenges
is actually being made.

And that's the techs.

NARRATOR: In March 2019,
16 months before launch,

the spacecraft is in its final phase
of construction

in JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

The rover is still a box full of wires.

Three-and-a-half miles of it,
with 22,000 wired contacts.

It won't get its name,
Perseverance, for another year.

For now, it's just "The 2020 Rover,"

still waiting for its wheels, robotic arm,
cameras, and all the rest of its toolkit.

Meanwhile, it's filling up
with the electronics

that will run all the hardware
still being built.

ADAM: We have this phase
of the mission called ATLO,

which means, Assembly, Test,
and Launch Operations.

But along with being
a phase of the mission,

it's this army of people,
it's like a Seal Teams almost,

very carefully chosen,
very select group of people,

that physically build our spacecraft.

JIM: ATLO is where
everything comes together.

The integration
of all the major components.

The ATLO team will eventually
be on the launch pad.

They'll be conducting
launch pad operations.

NARRATOR: The ATLO team is responsible
not only for assembling the spacecraft,

but for making sure that it works

as a system
when all the parts are put together.

The rover doesn't fly to Mars by itself.

The cruise stage manages
the journey from Earth to Mars.

Then separates just before arrival.

Then comes
the "Seven minutes of terror..."

as the spacecraft decelerates
from 12,000 miles an hour

to a gentle touchdown.

Radio commands at the speed
of light will take 11 minutes

from Earth to Mars,
so the spacecraft is on its own.

The aeroshell carries it through
the fiery collision

with the Martian atmosphere.

Then, deploys the parachute
from its mortar.

(PARACHUTE FLUTTERS)

NARRATOR: The heat shield drops off.

And the rocket-powered descent stage
takes it the rest of the way in.

Finally,
there's the acrobatic sky crane maneuver.

And then, the rover is on Mars.

FEMALE TECH:
Let's start pushing north east.

MALE ENGINEER: North east.

Slowly.

NARRATOR: Over the next few weeks,

they'll be temporarily stacking
all those parts together

for a brutal series of tests,
simulating the trip to Mars.

The rover's not ready yet,
so they have a mass model dummy inside

to get the correct weight
and center of gravity.

JIM: It's major work.
It's heavy lifts, critical lifts,

millions of dollars in hardware.

So, the smallest little mistake
can be huge.

-MALE TECH 1: On the crane.
-MALE TECH 2: Crane.

-MALE TECH 1: East, slow.
-MALE TECH 2: East, slow.

(OBJECT CLACKING)

NARRATOR:
Engineers direct the lifts,

but only technicians,

and only the most experienced
can operate the crane.

-TONI: Okay, stop.
-MALE TECH: Stop.

DAVID:
It's a potentially dangerous situation.

And so, doing it safely,
making sure you have

everything hooked up right,

making sure
you haven't missed something is key,

and that's a place
where experience comes into play.

MICHAEL: You're now swinging
a few tons in the air.

And there are hazards there.

By the sheer size of the spacecraft,
you can't see all around it.

You have to trust that that person
on the other side is doing their job.

MALE TECH: Down on, slow.

TONI: Okay.

JAMES: There are certain key moments
that...

it just takes your breath away.

Seeing the spacecraft stacked
for the first time,

you're reminded that this is real,
this is happening,

this massive collaboration.

And I have all of that work in my hands.

At that point, you saw

the complete spacecraft
that's gonna fly to Mars.

NARRATOR: The stacked spacecraft
is now ready

for its first major system test.

Over the next 12 days,
inside a space simulation chamber,

it will have to prove it can function
in the frigid vacuum

of deep space on its seven-month journey
to Mars.

WILLIFORD:
Has life ever existed beyond Earth?

Does it today? Has it ever?

Has life ever emerged
on another planet?

You know, as astrobiologists,
we believe it must have.

But right now, we have no evidence.

So, we're going to Mars,

we're collecting the first samples
from another planet,

with the intention of, one day,
bringing them back

to our most powerful laboratories
on Earth,

and we can analyze them
for signs of ancient life

with instruments
that are way too big to ever fly to Mars.

We're headed to a place
called Jezero Crater.

The big signpost is the delta.

Up in the northwest corner,

we see this beautiful fan-shaped feature,

and a delta really only forms on Earth

where you get a river flowing
into a standing body of water.

That tells us very clearly
that three some billion years ago,

there was a lake in Jezero Crater.

A great place for life to survive
and thrive, if it ever emerged on Mars.

We know exactly where we're going now.
And it's an incredibly exciting time.

NARRATOR: A lot of 2020 scientists,

like Ken Williford,
trained as field geologists,

exploring landscapes
and unraveling stories

rocks can tell about the past.

With a rover on Mars, though,
they'll have to work from home.

They've been practicing
remote geology.

One team out in the desert,
playing the rover on Mars.

And we got all these cables here.

NARRATOR: Pointing cameras
at rock formations,

and streaming the images back to JPL.

Another team at JPL,

practicing how they'll interpret images
from Mars,

and make decisions about what to do next.

Then, they visit the site to see
what it looks like in person.

KATIE: Everyone was looking
at the images on their computer,

looking at the data, you know,
very remotely, just like we do on Mars.

But it's really a different kind
of experience

when you can come out here as a person,

and look at the rocks yourself
with your own eyes,

and point the instrument at the outcrop,
and get that data back real time.

And I think it just gives people

a new perspective on the observations
that come down from a rover.

It reminds you that when you are looking
at the images that are on Mars,

there's a whole field site there.

So, that's why it...

NARRATOR: They have to travel
a bit farther

to see what the jackpot on Mars
might look like.

KEN: The key reason we came
to this locality

in the middle of the outback
is rocks like this.

Rocks like this are extremely rare.

What's very special about them
is they have evidence

of the earliest life on Earth.

And they tell us
what we should be looking for on Mars.

WILLIFORD: When we say with Mars 2020,
we're seeking the signs

of ancient life on Mars,

this is precisely the kinds of signs
of life that we'll be seeking.

These wrinkly layered structures
that we call stromatolites,

which represent, basically,
fossilized pond scum, in a sense.

This is what we would call
a bio-signature.

Sign of life, observable to the naked eye,

and therefore, observable to say,
the mast-mounted cameras on a rover.

If we see something like this
on Mars, it is a very, very good day.

It would be
a very important scientific discovery.

We would characterize it using
the instruments that are on the rover.

And then we would sample it,
and prepare it for return to Earth.

NARRATOR: Now it's up to the engineers
to make it happen,

starting with Jezero Crater.

The most dangerous place
they've ever attempted to land on Mars.

AL: Landing on Mars
is always very difficult.

I mean, the vehicle has to do
everything on its own, right?

We have no ability to joystick
the spacecraft as it's coming in.

But at Jezero Crater,
I see a lot of dangers

that we have to deal with.
There are rock fields to the east.

We need to avoid steep slopes as well.

There's a 60 to 80-meter cliff
that we definitely don't want to land on.

That would definitely be a bad day.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR: To improve the odds,
they're developing a new camera system

to help the lander detect
and avoid hazards on its own.

(BLADES WHIRRING)

AL: We're deep into the second week
of testing.

This critical piece of new technology,
for helping us land safely at Jezero.

This gives the vehicle the ability
to figure out where it is,

using a camera to take pictures
on the way down,

and to compare the pictures to pictures
we've taken from orbiters,

kind of a map of the place
we're trying to go.

And then, we can use our engines
to steer the vehicle

to safe spots that we can reach,

because we know where we are finally.

Everything still has to go right
for us to make it.

You know, it's my job to be nervous
about everything.

But, you know,
what we've been doing this week

has given me a lot of confidence.

NARRATOR: Landing on Mars
is never a sure thing.

But it has been accomplished before
by some of these same JPL engineers.

And apart from the new hazard
avoidance system,

the descent stage is pretty much the same
as it was for curiosity,

built by many of these same techs.

The biggest risks on any mission

are the things
that have never been done before.

We want to bring samples
from Mars back to Earth.

It takes three missions
to make that happen.

One mission,
to core into the rocks of Mars,

take core samples,
seal them in inhumanly clean vessels,

and leave those vessels
on the surface of Mars.

The second mission,
to take those sealed samples,

put them in a small rocket,
and put them in orbit around Mars.

The third mission,
to scoop them out of orbit,

and bring them back to Earth.

And our mission, Mars 2020,
is the first of those missions.

I think that almost everybody
on this project shares my personal anxiety

that it's that sampling system

that is our greatest challenge
on this mission.

I'm the Chief Engineer for the project.

And I try to be able to span the range

of all the different elements
of the spacecraft,

and then find the holes
in our defense against mistakes

and our defense against risk.

Prior to having this job,
I developed the sampling system.

This incredibly challenging
set of mechanisms that we use

to core rocky samples,
and keep them clean,

and move them through,
and process them, and collect them.

We have a sample tube...
that sits inside this drill.

The drill bit's put into a corer,

and the corer goes...
(MIMICS DRILL WHIRRING)

And as it does that,

it shoves that column of rock
into the sample tube.

We then, bring the sample tube out.

We're doing this
with the sample handling arm

on the inside of the spacecraft.

And we move that tube...
to a station that assesses the volume,

to a station that takes images.

We put a seal on it...

and then,
we put that tube back in storage.

I got 43 of these tubes inside
the spacecraft.

We can do that 43 times.

A rocky core...
this is what it's all about.

We want to bring a sample like this.

We want to bring 30 samples like this
back from Mars.

And so, we're putting our system together,

this behemothly complicated thing.

It outstrips the complexity of anything
that's been created by humans,

and put into space, ever.

KELLY:
This equipment is not going to Mars.

This is our engineering model,
so it's built to be

as flight-like as possible,

with the same functionality
as everything in Mars.

So,
we're in a very dirty environment here,

and we're gonna drill rocks with it,
we're going to cover it in dust,

and really run it through its paces,
and wear it out.

That a pretty good-looking core.

NARRATOR: This dirty testing version
of the hardware

will take a beating
over the next few years.

Eventually moving
to a space simulation chamber

to prove it can function in the frigid,
low pressure environment of Mars.

Two flight versions,
one of which will actually go to Mars,

are still being built at this point,
under very different conditions.

WILLIFORD: One of our key concerns
with Mars 2020 is keeping it clean.

So, we're going to Mars,
we're spending a lot of resources

to collect these samples.

We don't wanna be analyzing bits of Earth.

NARRATOR: On a good day,
the air outside JPL,

just north of Los Angeles,
is a soup of hydrocarbons,

and millions of microscopic particles
in every cubic foot of air.

On a bad day, it can be
in the hundreds of millions.

The spacecraft clean room is filtered
to no more

than 10,000 microscopic particles
per cubic foot.

The ultraclean rooms,
where the flight sampling hardware

is built, have no more
than one hundred per cubic foot.

LACK: About two and a half years ago,
they came to me and said,

"We need to set up
some clean rooms that could handle

"this cleanliness level.

"It's something that we've never done
here at JPL before,

"and we don't know how to do it."

Everything inside the clean room
had to be brand new,

which means brand-new flow wrenches,
brand new toolboxes, with brand-new tools.

All the computer systems
are brand new. Everything.

Right out of the box,
and born into the clean room.

It took a year for me
to get them up and running.

No... no joke. It took a year.
(CHUCKLES) It was... it was crazy.

ADAM: The technicians
have been part of the team

from the get-go,
sort of, authored this approach,

and verified that we could
actually pull it off.

NARRATOR: The rules
for the ultraclean rooms go way beyond

what's required in any other cleanrooms
at JPL.

They start with the same gloves, masks,
and bunny suits.

There's the same air shower on the way in.

But in these ultraclean rooms,
that's just the beginning.

BRIANNA: I work with the bits
and corer team,

and these needs to capture
what's coming from Mars,

not what's coming from Earth.

So, we have to take
extraordinary measures.

JIM: I've got technicians
over in the ultraclean rooms

that are wearing
double bunny suits, double gloves.

JENNA: Anything that can produce
a particle

that can cause contamination
is not allowed.

No scented shampoo or conditioner,
no perfume,

no cologne, no makeup,
things like that.

BRIANNA: The rule is,
if we smell you before you go in,

you... you can't come in.

You can't smoke.
Oh, few people needed to quit that.

SETH: Yeah, it kind of became
like JPL urban mythology

double bunny suiting
and all stainless steel tools.

You'd hear these incredible
things they were doing,

kind of on the bleeding edge
of technology.

JAMES: We rarely see them.
They're almost the ghosts of lab.

I honestly don't even know what to expect.

(RATTLING)

THORA: We are working on something
that is the cleanest

we've ever really attempted
to send into space.

So, we've had to rethink,

how do we do this as cleanly as possible,
and keep all those particles off the rest

of the surface of the flight hardware?

NARRATOR: Cleanest of all
are the titanium sample tubes

that will preserve Martian rock cores
from the moment they're drilled

until they return to Earth.

By the time they go to Mars,
they'll be the cleanest things ever made.

That is not hyperbole.

Literally, cleaner than anything
humans have ever made.

NARRATOR: Even gloved hands
can't touch the tubes during cleaning.

In hands-free cages, they'll go through
a barrage of chemical solvents.

They've been through
a complex manufacturing process.

Machining, polishing, special coatings,
often sterilized between steps.

And now, before they go
to the techs for mechanical assembly,

they're cleaned again.

Multiple soaks in solvent tanks agitated
with high frequency sound,

strip away more particles and organics.

THORA: No particle's thicker
than a strand of hair.

A fingerprint can weigh
around 50 micrograms.

We are trying
to hit less than point one micrograms

for organic contaminations.

NARRATOR: Then, they get baked
in a high temperature oven

to burn off whatever is left.

They're building 200 of these tubes.

In the end, 43 of the most pristine
will go to Mars.

In the meantime,
the technicians have to add

mechanical parts
without contaminating them.

That happens in an even cleaner room,

with sterile gloves, sterile smocks,

and sterile goggles on top
of everything else.

They call it Area 151.

-FEMALE ENGINEER: You ready?
-MALE ENGINEER: Yeah.

FEMALE ENGINEER: You can go in now.

ADAM: To put all of these very,
very clean elements together,

is a tremendous amount of handwork.

And you have to do it in these very,
very clean environments

using aseptic assembly protocols.

You're not touching a lot of surfaces,

you want your hands to be sterile,
you want your tools to be sterile.

It's required
all of our flight technicians

to retrain their minds
about how they build the flight hardware.

JENNA: You have to be very,
very conscious of your hands.

You can't rest your hands on the table,
you can't rest them on your gown.

ADAM: It's all about the handwork.

There's a tremendous demand
on the physical control

of the people with touch labor
on the hardware

to make this cleanliness all come to pass.

They can get it right
or they can get it wrong.

NARRATOR: Everything about this
has been more difficult,

and taken longer than expected.

ADAM: One thing that we didn't appreciate

was that there were enough piece parts,
enough special things,

special surface treatments,
special processes...

that we have slipped our schedule.

We really wanted to be in the position
that we're in now about six months ago.

So, the sampling system
is what wakes me up

in the middle of the night
most frequently.

NARRATOR:
"Up the hill," as they say, at JPL,

is a legendary spacecraft torture chamber
called the 25-foot Space Simulator.

This relic from the early 1960s,
declared a National Historic Landmark,

is still the state of the art
for recreating

the punishing environments
of space on Earth.

THEODORE: After the whole spacecraft's
been assembled,

we'll roll it through the high bay here,
and load it into the chamber.

The primary function of this
is to simulate space

as the spacecraft is actually flying.

It simulates the extreme cold of space
and the extreme hot

from the Sun to the shade,

as well as the high vacuum,
the lack of pressure.

We're gonna light up D-5.

MALE VOICE: (OVER RADIO)
Copy that. D-5.

THEODORE: The walls and the floor
of the chamber

are flooded with liquid nitrogen,
which cools it to about negative 180 C.

NARRATOR:
That's 292 below zero Fahrenheit.

THEODORE: We can then use
the solar simulator

to heat up the top of the spacecraft.

The light that you see here
is actually coming

from a Xenon arc lamp
that's two floors down,

shining up through a lens assembly
on the second floor.

Right now, we have one arc lamp running.

We'll run about 18 lamps

during the actual hot case
for the spacecraft.

NARRATOR: The hot case
can reach 212 degrees above zero

on the sunny side of the spacecraft.

(CHAIN RATTLING)

NARRATOR: Exploring this building
is a bit like going back

in time to the beginning of the space age.

The Mariner 2 Venus Probe,
NASA's first spacecraft

to visit another planet,
was tested here in 1962,

followed by just about
every interplanetary traveler since then.

So, this is the end bell of the chamber.

This is the bottom
of the pressure vessel.

This is where the vacuum's held.

Most of the electronics for the spacecraft
are passed through these ports.

(MACHINE WHIRRING)

This is a 32-kilowatt arc lamp.

Right now,
it's running about 20 kilowatts.

This is just one.

We would usually use 18 of them
for our warm case on the spacecraft.

NARRATOR: The 2020 spacecraft,
minus the rover,

is now in the chamber
for its first major system test.

Over the next 12 days, it will experience
most of the extreme deep space conditions

it has to survive on the way to Mars.

The simulator can also replicate
the thin, dry atmosphere

and wide temperature swings
on the surface of Mars.

This is where the ingenuity helicopter
proved it could both fly and control

itself in that environment.

(BLADES WHIRRING)

NARRATOR: It had to be very light,
just under four pounds.

But powerful enough to spin
the rotors at 2,400 RPM

to generate lift
in an atmosphere less than one percent

as dense as Earth.

(BLADES WHIRRING)

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

MIMI: It was an amazing feeling.

We've been working
for four and a half, almost five years.

It's a huge milestone for us.

NARRATOR:
It will travel to Mars

attached to the bottom of the rover
and drop free when it's time to fly.

(BLADES WHIRRING)

NARRATOR: It will only fly a few times.

The goal is to prove itself
as a technology for future missions.

MIMI: We'll be able to get
high definition images

of places that we want to send rovers to.

So, we'll have a scout to inform
before long traverses,

and then we'll be able
to have a totally new way

to get to places
we simply cannot get to, today.

And to be able to sit here and say,
"Yes, it's working,"

is a huge deal. It's a huge deal.

But, there's always gonna be a "but"
until we do it at Mars.

NARRATOR: Of course,
not everything can be tested

in the simulator.

To test the parachute
under Mars conditions,

they had to launch a supersonic rocket

and deploy the chute
one hundred thousand feet up,

where the atmosphere on Earth
is as thin as Mars near the surface.

But even that doesn't tell them
everything they need to know.

IAN: In order to get that parachute
out behind the vehicle,

we have to shoot it out of a cannon,
called a mortar,

at about a hundred miles an hour.

So, we're out here getting ready
to do a test of that cannon.

We've got lots and lots
of high-speed imagery,

recording it up
to 20,000 frames per second

because we're witnessing and monitoring
and watching things

that are occurring in microseconds
or at least milliseconds.

We've got a parachute pack that's loaded
into this canister behind me.

This is the 14th test.

There are a number of small changes
that we've made along the way.

This is hopefully the final test
to see that all those changes worked.

It's a pretty exciting test.

That's about two hundred feet high
that this thing has to travel

in an, you know, a fraction of a second.

And when this goes off it's a...
it's a pretty spectacular boom. (CHUCKLES)

-(GASPS)
-Whoa!

IAN: It's 108 grams of black powder.

You know, we study, we analyze,
we predict,

we model all of these behaviors,

but it's not till we actually do
a test like this

that we get to see if it works
the way that we need it to.

NARRATOR: That's true
of pretty much every element

of the spacecraft.

A near twin of the flight rover,

designed for hard testing,
is spun up to 18 Gs

on a centrifuge to simulate
the crushing gravitational stress

of launch and landing.

That's about six times more
than astronauts experience

on launch from Earth.

The wheels and suspension have to survive
the shock of landing.

(CLANKS)

(RATTLES)

NARRATOR: And then endless hours
of driving in the Mars Yard,

using a stripped-down
rover to approximate its weight

in Mars gravity.

The Perseverance wheels are more rugged
than the ones on the Curiosity rover,

which took an unexpected beating
in the early days after landing.

When the problem first appeared,

they built a test track in the Mars Yard
to get an idea of how much longer

Curiosity's wheels might last.

Helping to build that track
was James Bailey's

introduction to the elite world
of spacecraft development.

I went up to what is known
as the Mars Yard,

and I was handed
a 20-pound sledgehammer

and a bucket of rocks, and they said,
"You're gonna break some rocks."

(CLANKS)

JAMES: My first couple months here
at JPL learning about spacecraft

and the Mars mission.
This is my first dose of it.

And coming from the army,
yeah, it was the easiest money I ever got.

So, this is my beginning at JPL.

NARRATOR: The Mars Yard rock pile
can test the attitude of new flight techs.

Those who pass,
move on to work where the stakes

and the expectations are much higher.

The team building
the rover's mobility system,

wheels and suspension,
has been at it for three and a half years.

In a little over a month,
they'll deliver it to the flight rover.

Today, they're drilling holes
through the titanium suspension, by hand.

PATRICK: They've got about 30 plus

high precision holes
that they're drilling.

It's titanium, so it's very difficult
to drill on its own.

But then, irrespective of the material,

it's still difficult to hit
the kinda size tolerances

that we're after.
We're talking ten thousandths of an inch.

But we don't get to mount our suspension
to a drill press

or to a mill to make these holes.

PASAN: Everything has a feel to it,

whether it's the drill speed,
the temperature of the material.

You're communicating with the hardware.
All the techs have that sense.

PATRICK: I think some of the engineers
at the beginning of this would have said,

"You can't achieve this kinda precision
by hand.

"Starting from a really small hole,
making it a little bigger each time."

But now we can hit hole after hole
to that level of precision.

NARRATOR: A few days later,
they're installing the electric drive

and steering motors
into the suspension struts

where they'll be mounting the wheels.

It's some of the most critical hardware
on the rover

and some of the trickiest to handle.

These actuators have to be rugged enough
to work for years on Mars,

at temperatures that can swing
100 degrees in a single day.

But they're vulnerable in human hands.

The rover has ten of them.

It took years to build and perfect 12,
giving them two spares.

That makes them worth
about one million dollars apiece.

PASAN: It's definitely a moment
where you need to be extremely focused.

There's no room for error.

You kind of have to drown
everything else out

and at the same time, not be afraid.

PATRICK: You know, we're at a phase now
where the stakes are really high,

and it's not so much
about, like, monetary value of something.

It's really about irrecoverable schedule
at this point.

We're looking at years and years
of another team's work,

and now it's our responsibility

to see it safely
on to its next destination.

NARRATOR: The electrical cabling harness,

another system representing
years of work by another team...

powered up for the first time.

Everything works.

PATRICK: That looks pretty good.

NARRATOR: Now, it's ready for wheels.

(MACHINE WHIRS)

NARRATOR: They've been in production
for more than a year.

They have 43 altogether.

Only six will go to Mars.

The rest will stay behind as spares
for the test rovers in the Mars Yard.

-(MACHINE WHIRRING)
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR: Now, just days away
from delivery to the flight rover,

they're in the hands of the mobility team
for the first time.

PATRICK: This stuff looks beautiful

because it's a product
of functional design

kind of being taken to the nth degree.

I find that complex designs
are usually complex

because they haven't had enough time

to cook and distill down
to something elegant.

MALE TECH: Okay.

-MALE TECH 1: Voila!
-MALE TECH 2: Ta-da!

PATRICK: You know, it feels
really high pressure now,

because it's not a few different
piece parts

in different people's hands.

You know, it's one big installation.

So, we feel a great sense
of responsibility, I think,

to really not mess it up
in these final stages.

NARRATOR: A few days later,
the rover mobility system

is leaving its birthplace in Building 18.

It's a venerable tradition at JPL,

the procession of finished flight hardware
down the hill

to the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

This is where the people who built it
say goodbye to hardware

they've been working on
for the past three or four years

and hand it over to ATLO,

the Assembly, Test,
and Launch Operations team.

(CHUCKLES)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ADAM: It's not in the handbooks
of engineering

at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

You run into it when you build
your first piece of spaceflight hardware,

and you...

go to deliver it
to the rest of the spacecraft,

and you watch this group grab it
and carry it away from you, you're like,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second."

"You know, I understand

"this piece of hardware, and how do..."
You know,

"Why do you think you understand?"
As soon as you hand it over to them,

they're like, "Whatever, dude."

MICHAEL: Now, ATLO owns it.
So, it's no longer their responsibility.

Now, we control it,

and we will be the ones
to put it on the spacecraft.

We'll take care of this,
we'll get it inside with QA,

and then we'll section it all off.

-Appreciate it, sir.
-And we'll secure it for ya.

PATRICK: It's like taking
a kid to college, I imagine. (CHUCKLES)

(WHIRRING)

ADAM: You deliver to ATLO...

then it kind of becomes possessed
by this group of people.

They take tremendous ownership

of the elements of the spacecraft
that come into them.

And I think that that's...

the perfect perspective for them to have,

because once they have those pieces
of spaceflight hardware...

it's all in their hands.
Literally in their hands.

If you make mistakes at that point,
they can be very, very, very costly.

They can conceivably cost the mission.

MALE TECH: All right. Move this up.

NARRATOR: The stacked spacecraft
has served its time

in the Space Simulator
with no major problems.

From here it goes back to the clean room

to be taken apart again
and given its final tune-up.

From now on,
it's going to be all about the rover.

First up, the Remote Sensing Mast.

Essentially the rover's head,
with high resolution color cameras,

navigation cameras,
and the SuperCam laser.

Installations are meticulously planned,

closely supervised, and inherently risky.

-ENGINEER 1: Okay. Up, slow.
-ENGINEER 2: Up, slow.

(MACHINE WHIRRING)

ENGINEER 1: Stop. Okay.

South, slow.

NARRATOR: Engineers direct...

ENGIRNEER 2: South, slow.

...and the techs
handle the crane and flight hardware.

ENGINEER 1: East.

SETH: Most other places
I've worked at are just like,

"Shut up and turn the wrench,"
but here it's very different.

Everyone is valued for the insight
that they bring to things.

ENGINEER 1: Slow.

ADAM:
It's more than just having the skills.

There's a mindset to those guys.

-ENGINEER 1: Stop.
-ENGINEER 2: Stop.

ADAM: The work is very demanding.
There's a lot of pressure.

The hours, you know,
we're working two shifts.

There'll be times
when we'll be working three shifts.

You're working over weekends.

SETH: Like in any work site,
when you're in the middle of it,

you're just like, "Oh, why do I do this?"

But everyone comes back. (CHUCKLES)
We're like the mafia.

Everyone comes back.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MALE TECH: I must be nervous,
my sweaty hands

won't go into these gloves.

(MALE TECH 1 LAUGHING)

NARRATOR: A week later,
it's time for the wheels.

MALE TECH: I guess, by the end of the day,
both sides should be on.

-MALE TECH 2: No pressure.
-(MALE TECH 1 LAUGHING)

-MALE TECH: Okay, let's charge on.
-(MALE TECH 1 CHUCKLING)

MALE TECH: It's show time!

NARRATOR:
This will be an all-day operation

with two precision lifts on the crane.

-ENGINEER 1: West, slow.
-ENGINEER 2: West. Slow.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

-ENGINEER 1: Stop.
-ENGINEER 2: Stop.

MALE TECH: Hey, you gotta see this.

NARRATOR: It's a delicate balancing act,

lining it up precisely to mate
to the body of the rover...

matching two pins to corresponding holes
on the chassis.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR: The tolerance of the pinholes
is one one-thousandth of an inch.

ENGINEER 1: Stop.

ENGINEER 2: Okay.

NARRATOR: The lead mobility tech makes
the final connections.

ENGINEER: In line, 340. Correct.

PASAN: Everybody put so much work
and effort into it,

a little bit of their soul
is in the rover.

The hand touching the work
is what creates it.

It's... it's a great experience.

ENGINEER: Slow.

LACK: Pretty cool.
Starting to look like a rover now.

ENGINEER 2: One more, one more.

MALE TECH 1:
I wanna hug it and kiss it, then...

-MALE TECH 2: Whatever.
-(MALE TECH 1 CHUCKLES)

NARRATOR: The robotic arm is next.

A seven-foot long, five-jointed limb

that will carry the drill turret
and two science instruments

to analyze rocks.

It connects to the rover
through a single mounting plate.

And because this mission
is looking for signs of ancient life,

the mating surfaces,
which won't come apart again,

have to be as clean as possible.

MOOGEGA: It's my job
to make sure that as we build this rover

that we do it in a clean way
so that we don't contaminate Mars

with our Earth bacteria.

Because we're bringing samples back,

we also have to make sure
that we don't find any dead bodies

of Earth bacteria that may be mistaken
for ancient fossilized microbial life.

NARRATOR:
They sample for certain microbes

that could potentially survive
both the cleaning

and the lethal environment of space.

MOOGEGA: The spacecraft isn't sterile

but we have a maximum limit
based on this whole journey.

It can still be a certain level of "dirty"

and still be clean enough
so that it doesn't contaminate Mars,

because it goes
through these harsh environments.

-(MACHINE WHIRS)
-ENGINEER: Stop.

-(OBJECT CLACKING)
-ENGINEER 1: Stop.

ENGINEER: Yeah.
Just close to this side.

MALE TECH: Yeah.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR: The turret,
the business end of the robotic arm,

holds the rock-coring drill
and two science instruments.

ADAM: As the spacecraft
goes from an idea to reality,

there are less and less opportunities
to catch mistakes.

And people have got to be willing
to call out when something's not right.

Because it... you can't sort of fake it.

ENGINEER: We need to pop a little.

IVAN: You have to make sure
it's done 100 percent right.

The rhythm, the movement,
that also has to be perfect.

You're holding out the torque wrench.

You're turning it. "Click." Ah, perfect.

Now, that's been torqued.
Now, you have to get the tool out.

Make sure it's coming out straight.
Don't hit anything.

JIM: Trying to cover up or hide a mistake
is totally taboo.

Let's say you dropped a fastener.

"Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink."

If you don't tell anybody,

there is a possibility that
that fastener could

stop something from working properly.

It's just understood, you make a mistake,
you come talk to us.

ADAM: So, hand labor
at the point of the spear

where a mistake can mean
two billion dollars, is very unusual

and very intense
and demands tremendous integrity

of the people doing it.

NARRATOR: Now, the fiendishly complex,
unearthly clean sampling handling system.

They're building
two potential flight versions,

one of which will go to Mars.

Neither is ready yet but one of them
has to go into the rover now

to make sure it fits
and connects properly.

So, this one will be coming back out
eventually.

The bit carousel
is another intricate part

of the sampling system
that delivers bits to the drill.

And another challenge to keep clean.

SETH: It is all about
being a contortionist with this thing.

And you have to be
a sterile contortionist on top of it.

It is a very tight area.

It's definitely
like nothing else we've dealt with.

NARRATOR: Finally,
the Ingenuity helicopter.

It will ride to Mars mounted
on the belly pan underneath the rover

and drop free when it's time to fly.

CHRISTIAN: This is something
that not very many people get to do...

build these spacecraft
with their bare hands.

So being a part of this is pretty amazing.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

WILLIFORD: One of the most incredible
things about being at JPL as a scientist

is putting together this scientific way
of thinking,

that is really trying to understand
how natural systems work,

next to these engineers
who are thinking about,

how can we build something
that allows scientists

to answer these questions?

And then you have these
incredibly talented technicians

who are out there really on the frontlines
putting things together.

And it really is astounding.
I mean, just the artistry.

The level of detail and complexity
is mind-blowing.

We have these wiring systems
that are all bundled together.

And then that whole bundle
is tied together with string.

And that has always just struck me
as just such a beautiful thing that we do.

This incredibly hi-tech enterprise
and operation,

and you see little bits of string,
you know, holding it together just so.

It's really wonderful.

NARRATOR: Perseverance is now ready
for its most demanding test,

the Space Simulator,
where the gloves come off,

and it will have to prove itself
under Mars conditions.

MICHAEL: That is a biggie.
If we get through that,

you can really have a good determination

of, "Are we gonna go or not go?"

NARRATOR: Before it goes
to the Space Simulator,

the rover has to pass another test,
mated to the descent stage.

Mounted together
the way they'll fly to Mars,

they're going to experience
some of the stress of launch.

This is the vibration table,
and its job is to simulate

the experience of sitting upside down
on an Atlas V rocket during lift off.

Just one of the many indignities

they will have to endure
on the way to Mars.

A few days later,
the rover moves on alone

to the 25-foot Space Simulator.

For the first time,
it carries its weight on its own wheels.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR:
Now, comes two weeks of virtual Mars,

a critical test of survival
for the journey ahead,

and at least two Earth years
on the surface.

MICHAEL: That is a major milestone

because that's where we actually
get to run the rover

through all its functions
as if it was sitting on Mars.

You know, so, everyone's excited to get it
in the chamber, start that testing.

We get through that,

now we're on the downhill side
towards launch.

We have the Mars rover in the chamber

right now, doing her system thermal test.

Over in this room, over here,
we have the ATLO team,

the ATLO systems team,
who's controlling the spacecraft right now

as she's powered on.

We're working 24 hours a day,

seven days a week
for 14 days on this test,

and we haven't killed anybody yet.
(CHUCKLES) Not from lack of trying.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER RADIO)

ART: That's our baby in the chamber,
getting ready to go.

To think that in about ten months,
it's actually on her way to Mars. Yeah.

And just over a year, about 15 months,
she'll actually be on Mars.

That's pretty amazing.

Yeah. When you're in the heat of battle,

sometimes you forget
and it gets frustrating,

but you gotta take a step back
periodically and go,

"I'm building something
that's going to Mars, again."

They've been wanting...

-ART: Was it?
-Yeah.

MICHAEL: This is by far
our biggest test, and so far,

everything is working as expected.

We have now hit a point
where the smallest little thing

that you wouldn't even think of
can basically end the mission,

and it could be something
so small as just dropping a screw.

Once we get through this test,
we do not have the time anymore

to react to any kind of large mistake.

Point of no return, I call it.

NARRATOR: The launch deadline is firm.

Earth and Mars line up close enough
to make it happen

just once every 26 months.

Miss that opportunity,

and the next one
is another 26 months away.

The rover has now finished its time
in the chamber.

Everything is working.

From here, it goes back
to the cleanroom for its final tune-up.

In a little over two months,
the entire spacecraft and JPL team

will move to Cape Canaveral, Florida
to prepare for launch in July.

The one thing that's not quite ready yet
is the centerpiece of the mission,

the robotic system to drill
and cache Martian rock samples

for eventual return to Earth.

(WHIRS)

ADAM: It is an amazingly daunting,

complex system that we needed
to assemble to get this job done.

So complicated that it took us longer
to get it together

than we ever dreamed it would.

(WHIRS)

NARRATOR: Now,
only ten months before launch,

this dirty testing version of the hardware
is running a full sampling sequence,

end-to-end, for the first time.

Awesome. Not bad.

NARRATOR: Success.

But now it has to do the same thing
under Mars conditions.

So, as Perseverance finishes up
in the big Space Simulator,

the sampling system is moving
into a smaller chamber next door.

The entire rig, robotic arm, drill turret,

sampling handling system,
and an assortment of rocks to drill,

will be lifted
into the vertical vacuum chamber.

Once sealed inside,
the system will have to prove itself,

repeatedly drilling cores
and handling samples

exactly as it will happen on the frigid,
airless surface of Mars.

And the first attempt does not go well.

ADAM: The very first time
we went up the hill to our vacuum chamber

that allows us to core in the conditions
that we expect to see on Mars.

The very first tube
we put into the coring bit,

we put that bit. We took a corer...
(MIMICS DRILL WHIRRING)

We broke it off. Click.
We brought it back into the rover.

We took our little sample handling arm,
reached up,

and went to pull out the tube...

and the tube was stuck inside the bit.

We're now calling that Excalibur.

The sword is stuck in the stone.
The tube is stuck in the bit.

What's the significance of that?

Well, that means that if we can't get
that tube out of the bit,

this bit is no longer of any use to us.

We have six of these bits all in.

So, we could stick a tube
in a bit six times

before it would be game over
for taking corers.

We start to look in detail
at some of the mechanisms

that could be involved.

There is another set of tubes
that have gone through

our final flight cleaning process.

We're starting to exercise those tubes,

not in the dirty testing,
but in another vacuum chamber.

And there we see things
that don't look that great.

Those mechanisms
are showing us stickiness

that's very close to locking
the mechanism up and making it unusable.

And some of them, if they failed...

essentially the mission is over.

NARRATOR: That stickiness, friction,

turns out to be an unintended consequence
of the extreme cleaning regimen

the tubes and their mechanisms
have gone through

to prevent them from contaminating samples
collected on Mars.

Powerful solvents
and a high temperature bake out

drove off every trace of hydrocarbons...

including a microscopic layer that remains
on conventionally sterilized surfaces.

Interesting thing.

Our engineers... do tests about friction,

understand how to design mechanisms
based entirely on data...

of materials that have that thin layer
of the hydrocarbons on them.

No mechanisms, no devices,
no robots have ever been made

or conceived of to be this clean.

So, all of our understanding
about friction,

about ways metals mate and don't mate,

is all based on metals that have
this very thin coating of hydrocarbons.

This isn't an issue of workmanship.

It is really an issue
of creating mechanisms

that are unearthly in their cleanliness
and their function

is changed by that unearthly cleanliness.

Reasonably, we should have expected that.

But we didn't really have
a finished flight design

to put through those tests four years ago
when we committed to this.

And so now,
it's only now when we're done

that we put it through the tests
and we're like,

"Well, there's some problems here."

NARRATOR: The question now is,

can the hardware be made reliable enough
to launch in July 2020,

just eight months away?

Or should they buy more time

and slip launch the next opportunity
in 2022?

(RATTLING)

What is good enough, right? We...

None of us really know.

My previous experience
has been landing.

Landing's very binary.

Good enough is safely landing the vehicle.

(ALL CHEERING)

Done.

If our sampling system successfully
gets 30 samples

and then fails, well, okay,
that's good enough.

Twenty?

Maybe that's good enough. Ten?

Not good enough.

NARRATOR: To miss the launch deadline,

putting everything on hold for 26 months,

would cost
at least five hundred million dollars

and complicate planning
for the sample return mission.

But launching on schedule
and failing to collect enough samples

would be worse.

ADAM: Because this sampling mission
is the first

in a three-mission program

spanning over a decade,

resulting in samples from Mars
being returned to Earth,

some of our sampling system mechanisms,
if they failed,

could not only kill this mission,

they kill the follow up missions.
The stakes are kind of unbelievably high.

NARRATOR: By mid-February,
six weeks away,

they have to decide
whether to move the spacecraft

to Florida and prepare for launch...

or punt to 2022.

Between now and then,
the project will focus on getting

the evidence they need
to make that decision.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ADAM: We launch in July.

We're December, we won't be done
with this assessment in January.

We won't be done
with this assessment in February.

But you don't wanna pack the thing up
and ship it to the Cape

if you're not gonna then launch it.

NARRATOR: It's not unusual
for Mars missions to flirt with disaster.

In fact, it's almost routine.

Since each new mission
is trying to do something

that hasn't been done before.

ADAM: There is an escalation
there due to the arms race

between exploration technology
and that which demands to be explored.

I mean, this is so much more
incredibly intense than Curiosity,

which slipped because it was
so much more incredibly intense

than Spirit and Opportunity,

which were... I mean, each time, right,
our ambitions,

we step up to a bigger plate.

We take a swing at it
and we come very close to not making it.

I think that that's good in some regards.

I believe that one of the things
that we're doing here

is performance art
in The Art of the Possible.

We're asked... this lab is a place
where we do things

that people don't think can be done.

But that means you're very close
to doing something that can't be done!

NARRATOR: To understand
what they're up against,

they'll need
all the sample system hardware

for new testing.

So, the version installed in the rover
a few months ago is coming out.

The other flight unit,
the one that's been struggling

in the clean vacuum chamber,
is also coming out.

Both are headed back
to the ultraclean room

while the team comes up
with a plan to save the mission.

The rover is ready to go.

It survived the Space Simulator
and passed its first driving test.

FEMALE VOICE: Whoo!

-MALE VOICE: It's moving!
-FEMALE VOICE 1: Oh, my gosh!

NARRATOR: The JPL crew
is preparing to take it to Florida

for the final push to launch.

But with the sampling system in trouble
and the launch deadline in jeopardy,

no one really knows
what's going to happen next.

SETH: At this point,
usually the guts of the rover are set.

Once it's closed up,
this is where everything is gonna live

and it's not like that anymore.

There's always kind of a straggler,
there's always a problem and like,

"Oh, we'll deal with it in Florida,"

but not on this scale.

ADAM: It has not been easy.

I've never felt as much uncertainty.

But we haven't played all the cards yet.

NARRATOR: The Perseverance rover,
the spacecraft that takes it to Mars,

and the team that put it all together,

are supposed to move to Florida
in just about a month

to prepare for launch in July.

The primary mission
is to drill Martian rock cores,

cache them in sterile tubes,

and leave them on Mars
for a future mission

to pick up and return to Earth.

The rover and the rest of the spacecraft
have been tested, proven,

and are ready to go.

But problems with the rover's
crucial sample handling system

have forced a last minute scramble
to meet the launch deadline.

We'd been working on this for a long time
and we followed every protocol.

We did everything
that had been outlined for us to do.

But a lot of people were worried
that when we got to Mars

something would get stuck,
and mission over,

and we wouldn't be able
to take any samples.

So, they decided that we needed
to take a step back

and try to figure out what we're doing.

ADAM: We are in the middle
of a suite of testing.

Both dirty testing up the hill
in a vacuum chamber

where we're simulating
Mars' environments, and dirtiness,

and coring, and looking where dust moves,
and how it gets into trouble or not.

And also very clean hardware.

The hardware that we want to take to Mars,

testing in a very clean vacuum chamber.

Long days, nights and weekends,
some folks are running 24/7.

And we've had... problems.

(WHIRS)

NARRATOR: Two months ago,

the first time they tried to core a rock

in the Space Simulator
under Mars' conditions,

the sample tube got stuck in the bit.

They called it Excalibur.

Since then, they've learned
that's not their biggest problem.

ADAM: So, we have that Excalibur
that got stuck,

and the analysis suggests
we've got a piece of dirt

or debris just in an awkward position.

We've continued to successfully
take cores in dirty testing.

We're now up to core 13.

NARRATOR: That's the good news.

But the investigation into why Excalibur
got stuck

has uncovered other,
more serious problems.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ADAM: The new things
that have happened

is in our thermal vacuum chamber

with the clean hardware
that's going to Mars,

at cold temperatures,

we saw lots of failures to get tubes
just to go into the bits.

A piece that worked every time
in dirty testing,

was working almost zero times

in our cold temperature
thermal vacuum chamber.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ADAM: We now have a war room.

For a vast majority of the hours of day,

there's people in that war room
working those problems.

FEMALE VOICE: Flight stuff is good.

ADAM: As each issue comes up,
we work to knock it down,

to understand it,
to figure out if we can live with it.

(SIGHS)

Every morning... I come in...
ready to kick the butt

of every problem we've got on our list,

and every evening I leave...

feeling a little discouraged that maybe
we're not gonna kick all of the butts.

The good news is the next morning,
I've reset

and I'm ready to kick them.

NARRATOR: Even if all the butts get kicked

and they proceed with plans
to launch in July,

the sample handling system
still won't be ready

to install on the rover

until after the spacecraft
has moved to Florida.

LACK:
I think it's going to be a little hectic

because there's a lot more to do,
but we're gonna figure this out.

So, let's do what we always do,
let's relax,

look at the problem, solve it,
and move forward.

The job that the flight techs do,

a lot of times we're dealing with people
that are under a lot of stress,

and we need to know
how to deal with that person

to really get to what they wanna do.

LACK: Everybody's still doing their thing.

(CHUCKLES) They can't stop.

At this point, everybody is so driven
to take this to its completion

and make a really good product

that nothing's gonna stand in their way.

-ADAM: It's February.
-(DOOR LOCK BEEPS)

ADAM: Three and a half months have passed

all in since things got a little sideways.

Quite literally nights and weekends,

full team working
through a lot of testing.

God, we are beating the bejesus
out of this thing.

We are really working the system
very hard.

The big thing that we've struggled with

over the last three months
has been our sampling tubes.

You know, the sample tubes
go into the bits...

-(CLINKING)
-...inside the be... the beast.

Getting them in the bits,
we really struggled with,

and we really struggled with it
because of friction.

And because when we make these...

items unearthly clean,

the friction that arises
between these metals is much stickier.

So, our strategy has been to change
the way we clean these tubes.

We're only doing the unearthly clean

on the piece of the sample tube
that matters,

where the sample will come in contact.

NARRATOR: The tubes get another barrage
of solvent bath

like they got before.

But now, there's a final rinse
with another solvent called hexane...

carefully applied just to the parts
of the tube that would come in contact

with the sample on Mars.

All this makes it possible to do
the final bake out at a lower temperature,

making things a bit less clean
to reduce the friction

but still clean enough
to protect the samples.

We were driving the cleanliness
of the mechanism piece

to as clean as the sample,
the part that the sample has to go into.

And now we are letting this be, still,
cleanest thing that ever goes into space.

But only the business end
of the sample tube

gets this final set of solvent rinses

which takes it to that unearthly...
level of cleanliness.

That's helped.

Second thing we've done
is done a lot of practice

of getting these... these tubes
into bits

and discovered methods
with our little robot arm

inside the vehicle to be successful
even in the presence

of these higher frictions
than we've hoped for.

Okay.

Sweet.

ADAM: And when we do that, it works.

So, I think we'll be
probably more successful

because of our...

challenges than we would have been
if we hadn't had them.

We've kind of emerged out the other side
with a deeper understanding

of the complexities of this thing
that we created.

Some of which we love,
and some of which we hate...

but all of which we think we can fly.

All of which we think
will be successful at Mars.

LACK: So far,
everything that they came up with

has worked pretty well.

And here we are. We're a little late
but we're still gonna make it.

NARRATOR: The flight bits
have had their final cleaning.

Once installed in the carousel
that transfers bits to the drill,

they won't see daylight again
until the rover is on Mars.

ENGINEER: Okay.

NARRATOR: They have to be kept
as clean as the tubes,

so this is an operation
with sterile gloves, masks,

gowns, and goggles.

Even so, there's no way to eliminate
all hydrocarbons in the air.

Those signatures of life are slowly
but steadily coating the hardware.

So, the action is choreographed
to unfold as quickly,

but carefully, as possible.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR:
It may look like a sacred ceremony,

but it's just contamination control.

THORA: It's a good way to make sure
your fingers don't touch anything else

-besides the hardware.
-MALE TECH: Yeah.

THORA: Everyone's got different methods,
like this. They do this, sometimes...

Sometimes like this.

NARRATOR: This is another one
of those moments

when people say goodbye to their hardware.

MALE TECH: Oh, my gosh.

I was telling them, it's like
giving away all your puppies.

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

MALE TECH: They all find a new home.

NARRATOR: In the room next door,

they're selecting the final 43 tubes
that will go to Mars.

ADAM: There's a lot of inspection steps.

We wanna choose the most pristine,
the cleanest,

the best-looking sample tubes.

A part of our inspection
is baroscopic microscopy down

into the bore to make sure we've looked
at every single speck,

fleck, slight reflection,
then clean 'em again.

We put our sterile flight tubes
in special sheaths,

and then that assembly goes
into a bake out for sterilization,

and it's inserted in the flight vehicle...

just prior to buttoning the vehicle up

inside the aero shell
and on top of the rocket.

This is just the start of the journey,
literally, for these pieces of hardware

which will be the first pieces
of hardware...

in history to go to another planet
and come back.

Their trip is just about to start.

The rover will fly to Florida in a C17.

It'll never come home
unless something terrible goes wrong.

It's essentially starting its way to Mars.

So, we're moving forward.

NARRATOR: The core JPL team
is moving with it,

and they'll spend the next five months
in Florida

getting the spacecraft ready for launch.

-MALE TECH 1: Come on, come on. Let's go.
-MALE TECH 2: Very good.

SETH: We were moving everything out
to the Cape...

and the people that were loading
on the C17's were like,

"How much is this box worth?"

-"Two and a half billion."
-(FORKLIFT BEEPING)

"How much is that box worth?"
"Two and a half billion."

"And how much is that worth?"
"Two and a half billion."

The entire project is worth
two and half billion.

If that falls off a forklift,
that ends it.

So, everything from here on out
is worth two and a half billion.

We know what we're getting into a bit.

We know physically how everything
is supposed to happen.

It's just when you're at the Cape,
you no longer have home field advantage.

You can tell people how it's going to be,

but they don't know
until they get out there.

NARRATOR: In fact,
no one knows what they're getting into

in late February 2020.

Soon after they arrive in Florida,
so does the COVID-19 pandemic.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

NARRATOR: With the mission
and crew at risk,

NASA locks down the spacecraft cleanroom
to essential personnel.

Documentary cameras
are now in the hands of techs.

Until launch, the JPL team is on its own.

A multibillion-dollar
eight-year production

with a cast of thousands
is down to just the handful

of people who know how to assemble
the spacecraft,

test it, and get it to the Launchpad.

ADAM: The crew that went down
to Florida...

that had signed up for, well,
being away from home

and only seeing them maybe once a month,
have found themselves isolated,

cut off from friends and family...

and with the pressure
of the entire project on them. Right?

No real relief in sight
except for launching this thing.

(MACHINE BEEPING)

NARRATOR: Just before the pandemic hit
in Florida,

NASA revealed the winning entry
in the contest

to name the Mars 2020 rover...

Perseverance.

ADAM: You know,
when we got the name Perseverance...

we got that on the 5th of March.

What appeared at the first week
of March like a good name

has ended up being...

prophetic, really.

I mean, I cannot think
of a more perfect name

for this moment in our project,
for this moment in NASA,

and perhaps in this moment for the world.

We're gonna have to persevere.

NARRATOR: Toward the end of May,

the final pieces of the spacecraft
arrive in Florida.

Those unearthly clean sample tubes
that nearly scuttled

the mission a few months before.

The sampling system is so complex,
and so vulnerable to contamination,

the team that built it
traveled with the hardware

from JPL to do the final installation.

LACK: At some point, it becomes personal.
That's my hardware.

My hands have put it all together.
I've built it from nothing.

If something goes wrong,

you feel an emotional attachment
to the hardware.

All the folks that have been building,
all the technicians,

and other folks, they kind of share
that same attitude.

They're really involved in it
and they're really taking ownership

of what they're doing.

NARRATOR: They made hundreds of tubes.

Only 43 are going to Mars.

What happens to the rest?

They have looked at the internals
and they've estimated

that it's just shy of a shot.

So, somebody may fill
one of those and take a shot out of it,

and not a flight one, but we'll see.

-(CHUCKLES)
-(CAMERAMAN CHUCKLING)

NARRATOR: The spacecraft
will soon be on its way to the Launchpad.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

NARRATOR: The rover
has a nuclear power supply

that will charge its batteries on Mars.

The very last job for the techs
is to install it

when the rover is on top of the rocket.

JAMES: We are on top of an Atlas V rocket.
Everything is ready to go.

And this rocket is swaying. (MUMBLES)

And so, we have this nuclear power source

that we have on this fixture
to shove it in the rover

and then bolt it down
before we close it out

and then put the door on the rocket,
and that's it.

It's off to the Launchpad after that.

(HORN BLARING)

SETH: It is a very unique experience.

You start having nightmares
about everything going wrong.

You have trouble sleeping
because once it's taken out to Launchpad,

there's not a lot else you can do.

LACK: You've buttoned everything up,
and it's ready to launch.

So now, you're, like,
"Are we gonna launch?

"Is everything okay? Is the rocket okay?"

JIM: Do you realize how many things
have to go right

for this to actually work?

We've gone through a set of worries,
gotten those behind us.

The vehicle's fueled. It's powered.

It's rolled out on the pad.

We're ready to go.

So hopefully, fingers crossed,
tomorrow morning, we leave Earth.

(BIRDS SQUAWKING)

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
NASA CE.

MALE VOICE 2: (OVER RADIO)
NASA CE is go.

-MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO) SMA.
-MALE VOICE 3: (OVER RADIO) SMA is go.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO) SMD.

CHRISTIAN: As soon as that spacecraft
leaves the planet,

this Earth, I think
that's really when it's gonna set in.

-MALE VOICE 4: (OVER RADIO) Go Atlas.
-MALE VOICE 5: (OVER RADIO) Go Centaur.

MALE VOICE 6: (OVER RADIO) Go Mars 2020.

BRIANNA: That's all I wanna do
is watch it take off

and do exactly what it's been made for.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
Launch Director.

LAUNCH DIRECTOR: (OVER RADIO)
LD is go

and you have permission to launch.

IVAN: Man, mind blowing!
This is to me like a dream.

That I'm part of this team.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
Proceeding with the count.

ALC verified T-0-set for 1150 Zulu.

MICHAEL: Now it's on that rocket,
the countdown is happening,

and you can't do a thing about it.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
Eight, seven, six, five, four.

MICHAEL: Crossing your fingers
going, "Don't blow up!"

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
Engine ignition, two, one, zero.

Release, and liftoff...
as the countdown to Mars continues.

JIM: I can't tell you the feeling
that you get

when you see that rocket light up.

(RUMBLING)

JENNA: That's something that we did,
that's something we created, and it's...

it's like nothing else to be part of that.

SETH: You hear about that Mars rover,
that's something that I built.

PATRICIA: Hey, I worked on that.
You know, I had a hand in that.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
And Atlas TU has gone

to closed loop control.

PASAN: Everybody touches it
and a little bit of their soul

goes into it.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
Coming up on 30 seconds into flight

the RD-180 is throttling down
as expected, engine response...

DELLON: You see it launching...
and then the sound is hitting you.

And you're realizing
that this thing is going.

-MALE VOICE 1: There it is!
-MALE VOICE 2: There it is!

-FEMALE VOICE: Yeah.
-ALL: Whoo!

-MALE VOICE 3: Yeah! Whoo!
-MALE VOICE 4: All right!

-(RUMBLING)
-Wow, listen to that.

It's just incredible that
it was here one day and now,

(LAUGHS) ...now it's gone!

FEMALE VOICE: And now it's gone!
Your baby... your baby is gone!

Jesus.

LACK: You devote your entire life to this,
you know, years of it,

and all of a sudden, it's gone.

MALE VOICE: (OVER RADIO)
Burnout pressure signatures look good.

Standing by for SRV jettison shortly.

LACK: We're trying to branch out
into the universe,

and this is one of those steps.

MALE VOICE 1: (OVER RADIO)
The vehicle is 50 miles

in altitude, 85 miles.

LACK: It's time for it to do
what it's supposed to do.