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For over 50 years,

we have bombarded Mars with
our probes and landers,

spying from orbit to map the terrain,

finding her strengths and weaknesses.

On the surface, probing for her resources

and learning of her defenses.

The next generation of
robots are readying to

establish the beachhead.

The time is approaching for the

full scale invasion of the planet when

humans walk on Mars and
claim it for their own.

The conquest of this
enigmatic planet so far away,

has been both challenging and rewarding.

ESA has delivered the latest conspirator,

the Exomars trace gas orbiter,

to search out the source of
Methane in the atmosphere.

Its landing craft, the Scaparelli Lander,

failed and crashed, yet another
victim of Mar's defenses.

The Exomars orbiter, now
captured by Mar's gravity,

has begun the challenging
process of adjusting

to a circular orbit without fuel.

This involved using the
shifting Martian atmosphere

to gradually slow the satellite

in a process known as aero-braking.

With Exomars, ESA is going
to use for the first time

a method called aero-braking
for a spacecraft

in orbit around Mars,
to decrease the orbit by

letting it fly through the atmosphere

and using the atmospheric
density to slow it down

instead of using fuel for the engines.

- We have to take a lot
of margin to be sure that

even if we go for a moment
where the atmosphere is

more dense at the altitude
where we are flying,

we are still safe with the spacecraft.

That aero-braking process

took more than a year to complete.

It was complicated by
the changing nature of

the Marian atmosphere.

- The transgas orbiter is really
looking at active processes

ongoing on Mars today
and life, present life,

is one of the possible explanations.

So it will be really a
Sherlock Holmes work to try to

put together a case for
whether it's geological

or biological activity that is
responsible for the methane.

Meanwhile,
plans are well advanced

for the Exomars 2020 mission
with the final design

of the rover nearing completion.

And scientists have
short-listed two possible

landing sites to put it to use,

Oxyar Planum and Mawrth Vallis.

Both are short-listed
because they have had

an abundance of water in
the plant's early history,

the main building block for life.

- First of all, we want a landing site

that is ancient because
the hypothesis is that

conditions on the surface of Mars,

4.3 to 3.9 billion years ago
were similar to those on Earth

when life started here.

So the site has to be old.

The second condition is we want a site

where we had liquid water present

over hundreds of millions of years and

we want this liquid
water to be what we call

low energy or slow flowing water,

like on the canals in Amsterdam.

The rover
then scouts around for

the ideal locations and
with its driller apparatus,

digs deep into the earth
to extract soil samples

which will be placed into its on board

chemical analysis equipment,

hoping to find ancient signs of life.

Beginning this year, the
next wave of spacecraft

begin their sorjun to the red planet.

NASA's inside mission, the
first to be launched from

Vandenberg Air Force base in California,

for another planet, is
preparing for lift off.

The vehicle had already been
through its pre-flight tests

and had been shipped
to the launch facility.

It is crucial that all
aspects of the lander

are in perfect operational readiness.

The probe is destined for
the equatorial region of Mars

and will look deep into
the heart of the planet.

- The inside mission is a
geo-physical mission to Mars.

It's going to go to Mars
and take its vital signs.

It's going to take its heartbeat,

the seismic activity of the planet.

So we're going to be doing
that using a seismometer,

a very high precision seismometer,

using techniques that
have been well developed

on Earth to get the understanding
of the crust, mantle,

and core and sort of the
relationship between those.

It's going to take its
temperature by measuring

the thermal gradient of the surface

which tells how much heat is coming out.

- We also have a heat
flow probe called HPQ

and what that does is gonna basically

take the temperature of Mars and from that

it will be able to understand what the

thermal flux is over the
course of a full Martian year.

- And it's going to sort of measure its

reflexes by looking at
how the rotation wobbles

with the tiled effects of the sun.

- Our final experiment is called rise and

that's going to be looking at the,

basically the wobble of
Mars to help understand

what the core size may be and composition.

Insight isn't just a Mars mission,

it's really a mission to the
terrestrial planet interior.

So Mars is kind of the Goldilocks planet.

It's not too big, it's not
too small, it's just right.

If it was too big, it would have retained

a lot of activity and
erased all the evidence

that we're looking for.

If it was too small, it never would have

undergone the same processes
that formed the Earth

and so it's really just right.

Mars will give
us this insight into early

planet formation and
early planetary processes.

Understanding the
details of the structure

of the interior of Mars
will allow us to address

questions of planetary
formation that we've only

been able to guess at before.

- We are missing cold
hard data and this is what

this mission will provide.

Meanwhile,
NASA, ESA, and the Russians

are continuing their programs.

Soon, new missions from
China, Japan, India,

and the United Arab Emirates will begin.

Getting humans to Mars
is the pressing goal

of NASA and other adventurous parties.

Many big aerospace
corporations contractors

have all been at the drawing board,

working out the immense engineering

and the logistical challenges.

They all concur that to get to Mars

you need more than a big rocket.

NASA's SLS and Orion spacecraft are only

two of many components
that will be needed.

With some more political emphasis,

NASA, in concert with other agencies

including ESA, Canada, and
the Russian space agencies,

are able to push ahead with
a gateway facility concept.

Effectively building a space station

in SIS lunar orbit between
the moon and Earth,

it would be a staging post
for a return to the moon,

the gathering of resources
from the lunar surface

and an assembly point for
a Mars flight and beyond.

Orbital ATK is one of
six companies selected

for NASA's Next Step Two program,

a public, private partnership
for commercial development

of deep space exploration.

Not the first to suggest
the moon be a staging post,

Orbital ATK recommends a
parking orbit in SIS lunar space

built from its successful
Signas cargo craft.

First they will launch
an initial habitat module

aboard NASA's heavy-lift SLS rocket

with a crude Orion capsule.

Placed in a parking orbit,
it will act as a platform

for experiments and serve
as a destination for

future crude missions.

By 2025, additional modules
would be added to the habitat

allowing deliveries of crew
supplies and experiments

and serve as a waste disposal vehicle

at the end of their missions.

The modularity of the
system also allows for

multiple visiting vehicles,

providing a base for lunar sorties.

Mining for resources, in particular water,

would allow for more cost-effective

and longer duration missions to Mars.

From water, you gain hydrogen for fuel,

oxygen as the oxidizer and for breathing

and of course, drinking water.

- We have places on moon which are,

at least, especially at the south pole

which has permanent darkness
where we can find water

and we know from some
missions that there is water.

Water is a good source to
produce hydrogen and oxygen

and also to go into
the shadow of the moon,

we will have places where we don't have

the radiation coming from the Earth.

So building a telescope over there,

by using the material we find on the moon,

so not bringing all
the stuff on the Earth,

that could also open new possibilities

to look deep into our universe.

These crude
missions would also help

with man's understanding
of how we can best survive

long duration space exploration.

By 2030, with additional modules,

the habitat could be expanded

to provide a Mars transit capability

for demonstration expeditions
lasting 1000 days or more.

Boeing, the primary contractor
for the SLS rocket system

believe their plan will require
five or six SLS launches

to be able to get to Mars.

- So we want to make sure that
we've checked everything out

and that we know that
it's good to go before

we actually leave for Mars
because once we leave,

we can't come back for over two years.

And the reason for this is because of the

alignment of the planets.

The way the planets
revolved around the sun,

it allows a window of opportunity to go

from Earth to Mars
basically every two years.

Just to get to Mars, before
you even land or anything,

it's going to take seven or eight months.

The reality is, you're
going to be there for a year

waiting until that window
opens and we come back.

And then it's going to take

seven or eight months to come home.

- Having a SIS outpost enables
international partnerships

and commercial opportunities such as

exploration of the lunar surface,

and scientific and technological research.

After SIS lunar space,

we'll start the actual missions to Mars.

The first mission will be to Mars orbit.

This mission will teach
us about the space systems

that will take us to Mars and back.

The next mission will send
humans to the surface of Mars.

The crews will undertake
detailed scientific research

and investigation.

They will start to unlock
the secrets of Mars.

The initial
concept, now under development,

consists of a power and propulsion bus

to provide electric power and propulsion

to habitat modules, an airlock module

and a logistic work
module then supplied by

cargo and crude modules
from the U.S. and Russia.

And finally, it could
be used as the vehicle

and habitat for long term
exploration of space.

Lockheed Martin's concept
for transporting to Mars

has resulted in a holistic
view of the mission.

They too will assemble a space
gateway in SIS lunar orbit.

This will provide the platform to build

the Mars space base camp and

get it ready for flights to Mars.

They see that Orion is
part of a larger system

that provides the supplies and the

scientific equipment
needed for the journey.

This resulted in what they
are calling Mar's base camp.

Mar's base camp is an orbiting mission

with four main sections and

two of almost everything for backup.

Four large commercial solar
arrays to generate electricity

to power the spacecraft.

For propulsion, we have
two cryogenic stages,

one on either end, and two tank farms

to store the fuel and oxidizer.

Within those stacks lie
two habitat modules and

a large central living space
to eat, sleep, and exercise.

Most importantly, we have Orion.

It is the command deck
with all the avionics,

navigation and communications.

Orion makes the spacecraft more reliable

and gives the astronauts a safe ride home.

The orbiting crew could also investigate

the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos,

deploying landers or robots for sampling,

even astronauts to explore
the surfaces of these moons.

The main mission, however,
will after careful examination

confirm a landing site
for the next mission

and the first human landing.

From orbit, the astronaut
scientists will have

access to the entire planet's surface for

rovers and drones to be able to make

real-time decisions about where
to go and what to examine,

retrieving samples from
the surface for study.

Lockheed Martin's concept,
the almost retro rocket ship,

the MEDV Lander, is their design for a

reusable launch and landing vehicle

and is based on the current technology

including the Orion and shuttle systems

and not as far fetched as first thought.

Re usability and innovation
will conquer Mars,

keeping costs down will make it viable,

and making it doable is innovation.

That's something that
SpaceX is founded on.

Their BFR is the direct
Mars transport system.

From liftoff on a reusable booster,

a short time parked in low
Earth orbit for a fuel topper,

then direct to Mars and
a three month cruise.

Then, landing directly on the
surface of the red planet,

ready to be refueled from local resources

for return journey, landing back on Earth

in the one reusable spacecraft.

In the meantime, SpaceX is
testing its Falcon Heavy

rocket system in preparation
for its maiden voyage.

One of the issues of flights to Mars,

which is addressed in part by
the BFR, is the cruise time.

In theory, SpaceX has
it down to three months.

The other NASA led systems will
take seven to eight months,

a long time to house, feed,

and power a crew with little to do.

Getting there much faster
would be a game changer.

One possible way to achieve
this is nuclear power.

Nuclear thermal propulsion or NTP,

could enable faster transit
time, both to Mars and beyond.

NTP is powered by nuclear fission.

How it works is conceptually simple.

Energy from fission is used to heat a

hydrogen propellant to
about 2,420 degrees Celsius.

This hydrogen is then accelerated through

an exhaust nozzle resulting
in a propellant efficiency

of roughly twice that of the
best chemical rocket engines.

For example, it may be possible
to fuel modern NTP systems

with low enriched uranium
instead of highly enriched.

The physical size of an NTP engine

is largely determined by the rate at which

efficient energy can be transferred

to the hydrogen propellant,

but the equivalent volume
of the uranium that would be

split is actually quite small,
roughly that of a toy marble.

Getting travelers to Mars faster,

NTP can take months off the trip

compared to using
traditional chemical systems.

This would reduce the need for payload,

food and power for the crew,

minimizing the risks associated with

exposure to galactic cosmic radiation,

micro-gravity and other
hazards of deep space travel.

The maturation of nuclear
thermal propulsion

will also promote the
successful development

of the kilo power
fishing power systems for

use on the moon, Mars,
and other destinations.

As a main source insitu for life support,

communication, industrial and
other diverse applications.

Harnessing first generation NTP systems

is a first step towards advanced nuclear

propulsion systems capable of travel

throughout the solar system.