All language subtitles for Spaces.Deepest.Secrets.S06E10.Asteroid.Apocalypse.720p.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE

Narrator: Asteroids --
colossal lumps of rock and metal

Flying through our solar system
at 40,000 miles per hour.

They could destroy
the human race...

Asteroids
are civilization-killers.

Narrator: ...Or transform
the future

Of human space exploration.

Asteroids are a real opportunity
for humanity

As we begin to venture out away
from planet earth

Into deeper space.

Narrator:
Where do these giants come from?

And are we prepared for the
threat of armageddon from above?

This is really a big deal.
This is planetary defense.

Narrator: To find out,
we will strip these giants,

Tear back their layers,

Dive deep into their cores,

And reveal the secrets

Hidden inside
these devastating goliaths.

♪

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

Planet earth --

The only known inhabitable place
in our solar system.

More than 7 billion people
live here.

Few realize that our home

Is under constant attack
from above.

Over 100 tons of dust
and rock bombards the earth

Every day from space.

Most of it goes unnoticed.

But some space missiles
are bigger.

From the size of an automobile
to the size of a city,

They are asteroids,
and they could be devastating.

Oluseyi: We've seen it
in the geological record.

An asteroid impact wiped out the
dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

One asteroid -- game over.

Narrator: Understanding
the enemy is a key part

Of protecting our own species.

Sykes: Understanding what's
floating out there,

Understanding what could
come and hit the earth --

That's part of the problem.

The other part of the problem
is understanding

What their physical
properties are.

Gates jr.: Knowing about
asteroids is, in my mind,

One of the most important
responsibilities that we,

As a species,
have not stepped up to yet.

Narrator: Asteroids are
mysterious, airless worlds.

Some are just
a few yards across.

These loose clusters
of boulders and dust

Are leftovers from the birth
of the solar system.

♪

Other asteroids are
thousands of times larger,

Reaching hundreds
of miles wide.

Beneath their surfaces,
layers of rock and minerals

Wrap around dense metal
cores like a planet.

These cosmic rocks
hold the secrets

To the history
of our solar system

And have the potential
to end our civilization.

9:00 a.M., February 15, 2013.

Chelyabinsk, russia, a city
of over 1 million people,

All completely unaware
of an incoming object

A few hundred miles
above their heads.

An asteroid 60 feet wide
hurtles toward earth.

Its 10,000-ton body travels

At more than 50 times
the speed of sound.

♪

Entombed in a stone-and-iron
structure,

Glass-like veins streak
through its body.

An asteroid this size
could level a city.

9:20 a.M., the asteroid enters
the earth's atmosphere

And begins to burn up.

Suddenly, there was this
brilliant light in the sky,

Brighter than the sun.

People couldn't look at it,
it was so bright.

It was moving at something like
20 kilometers per second,

12 miles per second,
which is pretty fast.

You know, it's many times faster
than a rifle bullet.

Narrator: As the asteroid
hits the atmosphere,

It compresses the air
in front of it.

The pressure builds,
and the temperature skyrockets.

It burns 30 times
brighter than the sun.

Inside the fireball,

The asteroid is under
extreme pressure.

Its glassy jade veins crack,
weakening the entire structure.

18 miles above earth,

The asteroid explodes,

Releasing more energy
than 30 atomic bombs.

You're detonating a huge bomb
up in the atmosphere

That creates a huge shock wave,
which then reaches the ground.

Narrator: The massive shock wave
rocks the city.

It is the second-largest
meteor explosion

Ever recorded on earth.

It damages more than
7,000 buildings

And injures 1,500 people.

That shows you how bad
an asteroid impact could be

And how vulnerable we are.

And I think that was a reminder

That we are a planet
out in space.

You know, we think we're
protected, but we really aren't.

Narrator: In arizona,
astronomer jess johnson

Works on predicting future
impacts like chelyabinsk.

Johnson:
We have groups of asteroids

That are uncomfortably
close to our planet.

The more we know about
how many of these objects

Are in our neighborhood,
the better off we are towards

Mounting planetary defense
and being able to

Protect ourselves
against possible impacts.

Narrator: The catalina
sky survey telescope

Sits on mount lemmon,
9,200 feet above sea level.

This one right here
is our 60-inch refractor,

And the primary purpose
of this telescope

Is to actually look
for asteroids.

Narrator: As the sun sets,
jess's work begins.

Jess trains his telescope
on a small section of the sky.

The telescope relays the images
straight to a computer

Programmed to spot anything
that might be an asteroid.

This is what a raw image
from the telescope looks like.

You can see here
that the computer system

Has actually marked out

Something moving in an otherwise
stagnant star field.

And if we are fairly sure that
this is going to be an impactor,

All the bells
and whistles go off.

This is really a big deal.
This is planetary defense.

Narrator: Defending the planet
is a lonely job,

But it's worth the sacrifice.

Johnson: You end up living
a rather solitary,

Monkish kind of existence
on the top of a mountain,

But you can always claim that,
in some small way,

You are contributing
to the safety of the planet.

And that's pretty cool.

Narrator: Over the past decade,
jess and the team

Have discovered
thousands of new asteroids.

They add the most dangerous
to an international database

So that the teams
around the world

Can monitor asteroid
trajectories.

Their work helps
predict future impacts.

♪

There will always be
new asteroids to find.

Far beyond mars,
there's a vast expanse.

This is the asteroid belt.

It's over 100 million miles wide

And contains most of the
asteroids in our solar system.

Here, millions of asteroids
of all shapes and sizes

Orbit the sun.

♪

When they collide, they can
hurtle fragments of rock

Out of the belt
and toward earth.

Things will keep
falling down on us,

So this is the universe
we find ourselves in.

This is the reality.

There will be more asteroids
coming in some day.

Plait: There are lots of rocks
bigger than chelyabinsk --

In fact, billions of them out
there -- orbiting the sun.

And as long as they stay
out there, I'm fine with that.

We can study them and go
out there and look at them.

But, sometimes, they do,
in fact,

Get their orbits altered,

And that can drop them
into the inner solar system.

And that's when they can start
to pose a threat to the earth.

Narrator:
The chelyabinsk asteroid ended

In a powerful explosion,

But the damage
could have been much worse.

What would it take
for a single impact

To cause
planet-wide destruction?

Narrator:
The chelyabinsk asteroid strike

Caused millions
of dollars of damage

And reminds the world
about the threat of asteroids.

But chelyabinsk was just
a small object.

Sykes: Chelyabinsk was
an incredibly dramatic event,

And, yet, the object
that caused all that mayhem

Was a fairly small object
in the scope of asteroids

As a whole -- only 20 meters.

The largest asteroid
is 1,000 kilometers in diameter.

Narrator: The largest
asteroids could wipe out

Most life on earth.

It's happened before.

Over 65 million years ago,
an asteroid taller than

Mount everest screams
toward what will become

The small mexican town
of chicxulub.

This 6-mile-wide goliath
smashes into the gulf of mexico

At approximately
40,000 miles per hour.

The impact releases more energy
than a billion hiroshima bombs.

It blasts a wall of fire
and rock miles high.

At the epicenter of the strike,
the heat from the impact

Instantly vaporizes the water.

Beneath the surface,
the rock melts,

Leaving a molten layer
2 miles deep.

♪

The enormous crater is around
112 miles wide

And about 20 miles deep,

More than twice the size
of the big island of hawaii.

Scientists belive this event
wiped out the dinosaurs.

So, how can a single
asteroid impact

Lay waste to an entire planet?

A team at nasa's ames laboratory
in california hunts for clues.

Peter schultz is the authority
on asteroid impacts.

Schultz: Asteroids
have changed the earth.

They've changed the life
on the earth.

The chicxulub impact was not
that rare an event,

So it's critically important to
understand what happened then,

Just to be able to understand
what might happen in the future.

Narrator: Peter uses
a custom-built gun

To simulate asteroid impacts.

He will fire a small ball
of aluminum at over

12,000 miles an hour directly
into his model of the earth

To re-create
an asteroid strike.

You're clear right now.

Okay.
Lock and load.

♪

High voltage is good.

[ alarm buzzing ]

♪

Ooh!

Gorgeous!

There's this big, giant plume
that goes straight up.

And this plume is heading
straight out into outer space.

Narrator: This kind of impact
shoots dust and vapor

Straight up, leaving
a relatively small,

Circular zone of debris.

For a vertical impact, a lot of
the energy occurs locally,

Sending it up and out,
and that disappears.

Most of that got checked in
the land right in that region.

Narrator: But some dinosaurs
lived thousands of miles away,

On the other side of the planet.

How could this impact
affect them?

I don't think this is
what happened in chicxulub.

Narrator: So, what did?

Peter believes the impact site
holds vital clues.

♪

Hidden beneath
the gulf of mexico today

Lies the chicxulub crater.

Most small craters are circular.

But the chicxulub crater
is giant,

And its inner rim
is shaped like an egg.

Under its skin, there is a layer
of lighter-colored debris

And shattered rock.

This is the fallout
from the impact.

It is far deeper on one side
of the crater,

Suggesting the asteroid struck
the earth at an unusual way.

Peter believes this is evidence

That the asteroid
hit not head on,

But at a shallow angle
to the earth.

We wanted to see what happens
when we come in at a low angle.

We're gonna be
coming out of here.

Man: Rolling.

[ alarm buzzing ]

[ rumbling ]

Narrator: The low-angle impact

Produces a different
kind of crater.

It's egg-shaped, just like
the crater in chicxulub.

That's much more serious
than a vertical impact.

For life on earth,
it would have meant

That there was a zone
of death and destruction.

Narrator: The chicxulub asteroid
approaches at 90 times

The speed of a jetliner...

...And crashes into the earth
at a shallow angle.

It unleashes its huge energy
and hurls billions of tons

Of vaporized rock
into the atmosphere.

A cloud of superheated dust
and gas covers the globe.

Particles of soot block the sun

And plunge the world
into darkness for a year.

70% of all species
on earth perish.

We don't know how many
times earth has been hit.

Today, there's little sign
of our planet's turbulent past.

You can't see the crater
from every asteroid

That's ever hit the earth.

The reason why is because
the earth

Has active geology
and weathering.

So most craters have been
wiped away.

Narrator: Volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes,

And flowing water have erased
most of the evidence.

But a record of past
impactors does exist

On our nearest neighbor,
the moon.

Sykes:
The moon has no atmosphere,

Has no running water,
has no weather,

And so it has preserved a record

Of everything that's hit it over
the age of the solar system.

Narrator: Looking at the moon
tells us how many asteroids

Must have hit the earth
in the past.

Nasa's lunar orbiters
have photographed

Over 98% of its surface
in high resolution.

The images reveal
an extraordinary story.

The moon has over
8,000 impact craters.

One of the most unusual ones

Lies south of
the moon's equator.

It's a 4,000-foot-deep hole
known as the messier crater.

In the moon's distant past,

An asteroid slammed into
the moon's surface

At a very low angle and created
a 7-mile-long hole.

Colossal fragments of rock
exploded upwards

And left a second crater
right next door.

Two bright streaks of debris
over 60 miles long

Still scar
the lunar landscape today.

A reminder of the dangers
that threaten our own planet.

Gates jr.: Asteroids
are civilization-killers.

So knowing about asteroids is,
in my mind,

One of the most important
responsibilities that we,

As a species,
have not stepped up to yet.

Narrator: But there's a limit
to what we can learn

About asteroids
from here on earth.

To find out more,
we must send a spacecraft

190,000 miles into the unknown.

♪

Narrator: The chicxulub impact
proves a single asteroid strike

Could wipe out
an entire species.

To protect ourselves, we need
to know more about the threat.

And as we discover more
about asteroids,

We could also unlock
the secrets of our universe.

Asteroids are remnants
from the earliest stages

Of the evolution
of the solar system.

Studying them tells us
about our own world,

The processes
that gave rise to earth.

Gates jr.: If you
go to an asteroid,

You can actually pluck out
a piece of the solar system

Very close to its birth.

So one of the fascinating
explorations

Is to form a mission
to go to an asteroid.

Narrator:
Here in denver, colorado,

A team of scientists prepares
to launch an unmanned probe

To study an asteroid
in more detail than ever before.

Tim linn is the project's
chief systems engineer.

So, we've done a lot of
ground-based measurements

Of asteroids and other bodies
throughout our solar system,

But what we've never
been able to do

Is actually go grab a sample,
bring it back to earth,

And then discover
where we really came from

As a solar system.

Narrator: These samples could
contain pristine minerals

From billions of years ago.

The minerals could help
scientists understand

The conditions that went into
the making of our solar system.

The spacecraft's mission is to
pull up alongside

A spinning asteroid,

Use its articulated arm
to touch the surface,

Collect a sample, and stow it
in a removable capsule,

Which will travel back to earth.

First task --
choose the right asteroid.

Linn: We actually have
500,000 asteroids

In our main asteroid belt,

And of those,
there's a small number of them

That actually made it
close to earth,

Which we call near-earth
asteroids.

And those are the ones that
we really were interested in.

Narrator: The team needs a rock
that is close enough,

Big enough, and slow enough for
their lander to make contact.

The probe's target is
an asteroid 1,600 feet wide.

It's called bennu.

Bennu's orbit will bring it
within 190,000 miles of earth,

Closer than the moon.

It's not just one lump of rock.

Beneath its loose, dusty shell
is a cluster

Of boulders and rubble...

...Held in place by
a gravitational field

10 million times weaker
than earth's.

Bennu's carbon-rich rocks
are perfectly preserved.

And now, for the first time,

Scientists will be able
to take a closer look.

On its mission, the space probe
captures high-resolution images

Of bennu's surface.

A team here at
the university of arizona

Is designing
the on board cameras.

Bashar rizk knows that space

Will push the cameras
to their limits.

Rizk: We're going to a place

That humanity has
never been before.

We think we know what we're
going to expect,

But we don't really know.

Narrator: The team was under
huge pressure to have

Their equipment ready for
the mission's 2016 launch.

The planets wait for nobody.

These deadlines that we're
working to are hard deadlines.

Okay, it's very rare that you're
going to be able to wait a year

And then be able to pick up
where you left off

And go on the mission that
you thought you'd be going on.

Narrator: The spacecraft has
three cameras on board

To photograph the surface
of the asteroid and search

For a suitable landing site.

Okay, let's
take some data.

Rizk: We go to new places hoping
we'll learn something

So compelling that it will
force us to re-examine

The way we think about
any number of fields.

Narrator: The team hopes that
their images of bennu

Will tell us more about
the history of our own planet.

4.6 billion years ago,
as the sun begins to form,

The early solar system
swarms with gas and dust.

Inside this giant spinning disk,

Particles of dust fuse
to become rocks and boulders.

As they collide,

They stick together,
and the boulders get bigger.

Over millions of years,
the collisions in this

Dust cloud will
form the planets.

The rocks left over become
the asteroids like bennu.

This mission isn't just
about photographing bennu.

The team also plans to bring
a piece of it back to earth.

In denver, a second team tests
the probe's mechanical arm.

Linn: This arm is really
the heart of the mission.

It's the one that's actually
gonna go grab the sample,

Capture the sample
inside the mechanism,

Stow the sample
into our sample-return capsule,

And then bring that back.

-All right.
-The team plans to analyze

Over 2 ounces of asteroid dust

To learn more about
the chemical conditions

Of the very early solar system.

Tim hopes this could explain
how planets form

And even how life began.

Linn: This will be the biggest
sample of this kind of asteroid

That we've ever
been able to get,

And so I know we'll be
rewriting the textbooks.

You're really bringing back
billion-year-old information

That is gonna truly change what
we know about our solar system

And about the history
of our solar system.

Narrator: But bennu's
easy-to-reach location

Also makes it one of
the biggest threats to earth.

It's big enough that it would
cause a considerable amount

Of damage of it hits the earth.

And it comes around often enough

That the chances of a collision
are not small.

You know, as these things go,
they're pretty large.

♪

Narrator: Nasa keeps a hit list
of almost 1,500 asteroids

That threaten earth.

Each asteroid is over
300 feet wide

And ranked according
to its size, speed,

And chance of hitting the earth.

Bennu's close orbit
makes it number 2

On the list
of the most dangerous.

None of these asteroids pose
an imminent threat to earth,

But any one of them could cause
the most destructive event

In human history.

Someday, we're gonna look up
into the sky

And have measurements
that will prove

That a large asteroid
will hit the earth.

And then the question is,
what are we gonna do about it?

Narrator: What pushes asteroids
out of their orbit

And on to a collision course
with earth?

And is there anything
we can do to stop them?

Narrator: Thanks to
groundbreaking missions,

Asteroids are beginning
to reveal their secrets.

But to protect ourselves
from an impact,

We need to understand
what sends some of them

Spinning into a collision course
with the earth.

At the heart of our solar system
is the sun.

Its massive gravity holds
the planets

And the asteroids in orbit.

But the sun isn't
the only object

Creating huge
gravitational forces.

At almost 90,000 miles
in diameter,

Jupiter is the biggest planet
in our solar system.

Beneath its violent atmosphere,

Is an ocean of hydrogen.

The pressure is so high
that the gas behaves

Like a soup of liquid metal.

♪

Deep inside,
at the heart of the planet,

Appears to be
a partially dissolved core

Of rock, metal, and ice.

Jupiter's huge mass creates
a giant gravitational force

That pulls on everything,

Especially the asteroids
traveling close to it.

When it comes to the real movers
and shakers in our solar system,

You've got the sun
and you've got jupiter.

Those really are
the major bodies.

And when jupiter formed,

It sort of limited
the formation of other planets.

The asteroid belt is an area
where jupiter pulled apart,

Gravitationally, any planet
that tried to form there.

So the asteroid belt
is where it is

Because of the effect
of jupiter's gravity.

Narrator: Jupiter now holds
its army of asteroids

In orbit around the sun.

But any small disturbance
can send an asteroid

Hurtling out of the belt

And potentially on to
a collision course with earth.

Just one stray space rock

Could destroy life
on our planet.

To protect ourselves,
we need to find a way

To deflect incoming objects.

Orbits of the asteroids
are absolutely gigantic

All the way around the sun,
hundreds of millions of miles.

So if you can change the angle
they're moving at,

Just by a little, tiny hair,
over millions of miles,

That will change
the course of the asteroid

And miss us entirely.

Narrator: A team in scotland
thinks they have a solution.

Massimiliano vasile believes
that the heat of this

Laser light is enough to move
an asteroid in space.

The team places a rock sample
that was once part of

An asteroid into a vacuum
chamber to simulate space.

Let's go.

The laser heats a small spot
up to 5,000 degrees fahrenheit,

Causing vaporized material
to shoot from the rock.

In space, the thrust from this
blast would push the asteroid.

The exact amount of laser power
they will need

Depends on what type of asteroid
they're trying to deflect.

Not all asteroids
are chunks of rock.

Some of the biggest asteroids
in our solar system

Are more like planets.

These goliaths are
hundreds of miles wide.

Beneath their rocky crust
is a layer rich in minerals...

♪

...That wraps around
a metallic core.

The metal makes these objects
far heavier than

A rocky asteroid of the same
size and much harder to deflect.

♪

Massimiliano needs many more
laser-carrying spacecraft

In his swarm to deflect an
asteroid the size of a planet.

But he believes that, one day,

This might be
earth's best option.

♪

Asteroids will continue
to escape jupiter's gravity

And hurtle towards earth
for millennia to come.

But, luckily, most keep
a stable orbit

Millions of miles away
from our planet.

And rather than destroying us,
some of these objects

Contain valuable resources
on a colossal scale.

Asteroids are full of resources
that humans can use.

There are asteroids
that are abundant in water.

There are asteroids that
are abundant in rare metals.

Narrator:
The resources in these asteroids

Could be the key to survival
beyond planet earth,

Allowing humans to travel deeper
into space than ever before.

Narrator: Asteroids are chunks
of rocky debris

That orbit our solar system.

They have the power
to end civilization on earth.

But the more we learn
about these space rocks,

The more surprising
they become.

This is ceres.

It measures 590 miles across,
roughly the size of texas.

Ceres is the largest object
in the asteroid belt.

But it may have more in common
with earth

Than its rocky neighbors.

♪

Beneath its thin, dusty crust,
scientists believe a thick layer

Of ice and water reaches
deep into the asteroid.

This discovery could be the key
to deep-space exploration.

Sykes: If we're going to expand
human activity

Beyond low earth orbit
in a meaningful way,

We can only do that if we
can find the resources out there

And learn to live off the land.

Oluseyi: Asteroids are a real
opportunity for humanity

As we begin to venture
out away from planet earth

Into deeper space.

For example, there are asteroids
that are abundant in water.

That water can be used
for humans to drink,

And it could also
be used to fuel rockets.

Narrator: With the potential
to lift off in a few years,

Nasa's space launch system

Is designed to propel
humans into deep space.

It would be the largest,
most powerful rocket ever built.

At the michoud assembly facility
in new orleans,

Engineers assemble the body
of the spacecraft.

Great civilizations
have always had explorers,

And it's gonna take a big rocket
to go do big things.

Narrator:
Patrick whipps leads a team

On this
multi-billion-dollar project.

Across this 43-acre facility,

Teams construct
the spacecraft's components.

Whipps: Getting off the ground
is the most difficult challenge

For space flight.

Narrator: The rocket is powered
by liquid hydrogen

And liquid oxygen.

It will burn through
most of its fuel

Within 8 1/2 minutes of launch.

To travel beyond earth's orbit,
we will need to refuel.

The ability to take water
and split it into

Its constituent hydrogen
and oxygen is something

We've known for a long time.

If we can find sources of water
in the asteroids,

We potentially can produce
enough liquid hydrogen

And oxygen to become
a rocket fuel in faraway places

So that we wouldn't have
to try to, as it were,

Bring all of our lunch
with us every place we go.

Narrator: In the future,
could an asteroid like ceres

Provide a gas station
for a manned spacecraft?

A discovery made in January 2014
provides new clues.

♪

Erupting from ceres'
dusty surface,

Plumes of water vapor
explode into space.

♪

These plumes suggest
there are vast reserves

Of water deep below.

Scientists now believe
as much as 25% of this asteroid

Could be water.

That's more freshwater
than exists on planet earth,

Enough to refuel nasa's new
rocket nearly 3 billion times.

There could be millions
of asteroids

With water like ceres
all over the solar system.

Sykes: Asteroids
are like gas stations.

It's where we go to get the fuel
to go where we want to go.

Narrator: Some of these
asteroids could even allow us

To refuel on
much longer journeys.

On the edge of the solar system,
over 3 billion miles from earth,

Lies the kuiper belt.

This chilly expanse
almost 200 times bigger

Than the asteroid belt
is home to dozens of massive,

Icy objects similar to ceres.

Numbering in the hundreds
of thousands, icy bodies,

Including comets,
also inhabit this alien world.

Some are over 60 miles wide.

Could these cosmic ice balls
create a chain of gas stations

And one day enable humans to
travel out of our solar system?

Narrator: Asteroids were
once seen as just space junk.

Today, we're learning
much more about them

As a threat to life on earth,

But also their great potential
as platforms into deep space.

Asteroids are a big opportunity
for humanity,

Because, ultimately, we're gonna
have to leave the planet,

And we're gonna probably
do it one step at a time.

And that's going to include
landing on asteroids,

Mining asteroids,

And using them as
stepping-stones to the cosmos.

The realization that near-earth
asteroids contain resources

That we could use
to expand human activity

Beyond low earth orbit
is a game changer.

Narrator: The only way to fully
investigate asteroids

Is for humanity to visit one.

And that was exactly
nasa's plan.

Johnson space center, houston.

Here, astronauts have been
training for their most

Ambitious mission to date,
a manned voyage to an asteroid,

Initially proposed
to launch in the 2020s.

The neutral buoyancy lab

Is the largest indoor pool
in the country.

It provides a unique opportunity
for astronauts

To experience
near-weightlessness

As nasa develops
the space suits and equipment

They need for the mission.

Astronaut rex walheim
was preparing the team

For what to expect
when they got there.

They would be the first
humans to land on

And study an asteroid in space.

This is a neutral buoyancy lab
mock-up of the equipment

We'd have when we do
an asteroid-retrieval mission.

We're gonna be developing
the tools and the suits

And all the equipment
we need to do

The actual human part
of the asteroid mission.

So, a crew of up to four would
rendezvous with the asteroid,

And they'll latch on to it,
and they'll do

A couple of spacewalks to go out
and sample the asteroids.

Narrator: The first challenge
for the astronauts

Would have been exiting
the cramped capsule

And climbing out
on to the asteroid.

Walheim: What's important about
these mock-ups is

Dimensionally, they're perfect.

If there's a handrail
on that mock-up down there,

There's a handrail in space.

And so you can develop what's
called kind of a muscle memory,

Like when you play the piano

And you don't think
about what you're doing.

Narrator: Next, collect samples
from the surface of the asteroid

And make it back safely
into the spacecraft.

This facility will be
a huge part

Of any asteroid-retrieval
mission,

Because we're gonna really have
to practice our spacewalks

And get them down
so we absolutely know

Exactly what
we're gonna be doing.

It's gonna be a challenge,
'cause we're gonna be

Going farther
than we've gone in 40 years.

Narrator: Projects like this
could one day

Be the first step
to colonizing space.

There are still millions
of asteroids to discover.

In the future, could these
giant lumps of rock one day

Provide a home for humans
and a platform for us

To travel through deep space?

One asteroid could provide
a human colony

With building materials,
water, and precious metals.

When you look at the history
of humanity,

The history of science,
ideas that were crazy

At first
become commonplace over time.

We have airplanes in our sky.
We fly to the moon.

We send space probes
to other planets.

Pushing these boundaries is
how we discover these things.

As we continue to study
asteroids, there's no limit

To what we'll be learning
about our early solar system,

About the state
of our solar system today,

About the hazards
that they represent,

About the opportunities
that they offer for our future.

Narrator: Asteroids,
the mysterious beasts

Of our solar system,

Are beginning to reveal
their secrets.

♪

Some of these cosmic rocks
and boulders have the potential

To create hell on earth.

Yet, hidden inside others,

Scientists are discovering
layers of mineral-rich

Rock and ice that could
expand our frontiers

By powering a trip
into deep space.