All language subtitles for Alien Deep with Bob Ballard 5of5 Inner vs Outer Space NG 720p_ENG_Subtitles01

ROBERT BALLARD: I've dedicated
my life to exploring the unknown.

I've been places no one else
has ever gone.

I've seen life no human eye
has ever seen.

It's my passion.

I found the Titanic.

God damn!

I've survived crushing depths

and a rogue wave.

But even after 50 years at sea,

I'm as fascinated with the deep

as I was on my very first expedition.

You want to know
my most important discovery?

Well, it's the one
I'm about to make.

I'm Dr. Robert Ballard.

Come with me
into the alien deep.

NARRATOR: Earth may be
racing toward a crisis

of epic proportions.

Some say our planet is
being stretched thin.

Oil costs are on the rise.

Climate change could turn
fertile cropland into dust.

And rising sea levels may
flood our shorelines,

destroying millions of homes.

We need solutions,

and some believe
the only place left to look

is outer space.

BUZZ ALDRIN: The world leader
that announces to his nation

that he is making a commitment
to permanence on another planet,

he's going down in history
better than Moses,

Alexander the Great,
Julius Caesar.

Man, this is the biggest thing

that inhabitants of the earth
have ever done.

NARRATOR:
But not everyone agrees.

BALLARD: We're not going
to live in outer space.

That's a complete
bunch of baloney.

We're running out
of room on land.

We have no other option but
to move out onto the ocean.

NARRATOR: Dr. Robert Ballard
has spent his career

exploring the ocean depths.

BALLARD:
Watch your water depth right now.

NARRATOR: He's seen our oceans
radically changed

in his own lifetime.

And he's very concerned.

BALLARD: I'm not really worried
about the planet.

Earth will survive us.

The question is whether
we as a species survive.

The odds are not in our favor.

NARRATOR: Ballard thinks
the human race

is heading toward catastrophe.

And he's not alone in his belief

that the time to do something
about it is now.

BILL NYE: If you don't
keep looking out,

if you don't keep looking up,

if you don't look beyond
what you see at first,

I'll tell you, from
an evolutionary standpoint,

you're going to run out
of resources.

Humans that don't look out,
that don't want to explore,

don't last.

NARRATOR: The question is,

do we follow the sci-fi dream
of escaping a dying Earth

and building a colony elsewhere?

Or do we search for solutions
right here at home?

ALDRIN: Stephen Hawking,
he made a statement,

the earth has 200 years to establish
an off-planet species

or we will be destroyed.

Either from terrorism,
A-bombs, the plague,

all these kinds of things
can wipe out humanity.

NARRATOR:
Hawking poses a challenge

that many space advocates-

Buzz Aldrin among them-

would love to answer.

ALDRIN: This cookie
wants to go to Mars.

NARRATOR: But Ballard isn't ready
to give up on planet Earth just yet.

Not surprisingly,

he sees the oceans as
the key to our survival.

BALLARD: I believe
in the concept of KISS.

Keep it simple, stupid.

Imagine the resources
we would discover-

living resources,
mineral resources,

oil and gas,
new pharmaceuticals,

and equally important,
a place to live.

NARRATOR: For decades, Ballard
and his oceanographer colleagues

have been fighting to pull
people's attention

away from the heavens.

BALLARD: We've been conditioned-

God is up there,
heaven is up there,

the devil's down there.

NARRATOR: The luster of space
has cast the oceans into shadow.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: Houston,
the Eagle has landed.

That's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

MAN: And liftoff of
space shuttle Discovery!

NARRATOR: Since the birth
of the space program,

multi-million-dollar missions
have headed into orbit,

while oceanographers have
struggled for funding.

BALLARD: The oceans are
getting lost in the shuffle.

We have the technology
needed to explore them,

but there's just not enough
people paying attention.

NARRATOR: The result is
a vast portion of our world

that's virtually unknown.

The oceans cover
71% of our planet,

yet only 5% of it
has been explored.

BALLARD: We know very little
about what's down there.

It's amazing, you come
to the water's edge,

and you're-
and there it stops,

'cause you can't see into
this murky water right now.

What's right out here?

Is there an Indian canoe
right out here?

What's just beyond our reach?

And most people just
stop at the shoreline

and they never question
what's just feet away.

They'd rather go to outer space

than to go just in their
own backyard and explore.

Do you really think
we are going to move

the entire Earth's population
to Mars?

We may explore it,

but the future of the human race
is right here on planet Earth.

I can guarantee you this-

that once we map
the ocean floor,

we are going to find
a lot of new resources

important to our future.

NARRATOR: But mapping the ocean
and searching for resources

is not as simple as it seems.

Above water, and even on Mars,
it's a straightforward process.

Radar, which travels easily
through the atmosphere,

measures the position and height
of objects in the landscape.

Not so beneath our oceans.

Here, satellite imaging
can only approximate

what is under the waves.

BALLARD: Mapping the planet
from outer space

shows us where the main
mountain ranges are.

But it certainly is nothing
to drive by or to work by.

İt's like laying a wet blanket

over a very complex
dinner table,

and then trying to figure out
what's on the dinner table.

That's not the way to go.

It's dark down there,
the pressure is extreme,

so that means
we have to be clever

and dream up new and
more creative ways of doing it.

Do you copy, over?

NARRATOR: Ballard thinks we can,
and should,

make the bottom of what
is now an alien deep

as familiar as the Grand Canyon.

Some of his colleagues
are working hard to do just that.

Up in the rapidly thawing Arctic,

American oceanographer
Larry Mayer and his team

are collaborating
with Canadian crews

to map the continental shelf and
uncover the hidden landscape.

The mission amounts to
a multinational land grab-

with vast underwater resources
at stake.

Oceanographer Larry Mayer
is on the forefront

of ocean exploration.

It's expeditions like his
that may help us find

submerged resources
we might desperately need.

LARRY MAYER: We look out at the beach
and think that's where the country ends,

but we have a 200-nautical-mile
extension of that.

NARRATOR: In many places,

that extension is
virtually unexplored,

yet it's territory
America controls.

BALLARD: Half of
the United States of America

is under the ocean.

And we have better maps of Mars

than half of
the United States of America.

Little odd, don't you think?

NARRATOR: It's a situation
Larry and his team

are trying to remedy.

Clearly laying out
underwater borders now

means less chance
of conflict later.

If oil, gas and minerals
are found,

who actually controls the land,
and hence the resources,

will be critical.

But what they're attempting
is no easy feat.

45 days in the frigid Arctic,

where shifting ice, dense fog,
and too much daylight

keep everyone on edge.

MAYER: The vessel's
very isolated.

We are quite alone up there.

And if something
very serious happened,

it's a long way back.

NARRATOR: Exploration goes
hand-in-hand with risk.

İt's why so few people
actually do it.

But the cost of doing nothing
can also be risky.

NYE: You have to have
somebody in your tribe

who is willing to go out and
see what's over the next hill,

or beyond the next ridge.

[radio chatter]

MAN ON RADIO:
Roger, we copy.

NARRATOR: That's hard enough
on Earth,

but if that next ridge
is on Mars,

the stakes get even higher.

ALDRIN:
The first astronauts know

from the day they were selected

that their purpose is to live
the rest of their life

on the surface of Mars.

So that's a qualification
for application.

You must commit to living
your life out on Mars.

That's shocking to people.

"Gee, you're not bringing
people back?"

Well, now, wait a minute,
the pilgrims on the Mayflower,

did they wait around Plymouth Rock
for the return trip?

BALLARD: The pilgrims, well,
they had a pretty good idea

of how they were gonna survive.

But that was on planet Earth.

Now how are we going
to survive on Mars?

Turn it into another Earth?

It took our planet
billions of years

before we could live here.

NARRATOR: These students of
the Civil Air Patrol

aren't planning
to wait that long.

They're taking part
in a unique experiment

to test what life on Mars might be like
for early explorers.

It may look a bit half-baked,

but this habitat
in the Utah desert

gives the recruits
a pretty good feel

for the challenges they'll face.

With resources limited by the high cost
of getting payloads into orbit,

they'll need to explore,
find water,

and prospect for minerals
in the barren wasteland.

BALLARD: I just can't
justify in my mind

spending the unimaginable
amount of money it's going to take

to send a few people to Mars,

when the same amount of money
could have a real impact

on the rest of us here on Earth.

NARRATOR: But some would argue
Ballard is thinking too narrowly,

that space exploration is about
more than just resources.

NYE: You cannot help but wonder

if there were once
living things there.

Suppose you found microbes
that are still alive on Mars.

It would change the world.

It would change your view
of your place in space.

So we want to explore,
to discover where we came from,

and then ultimately to ask new questions about are we
alone?

BALLARD: Exploration
of outer space

is absolutely
an important thing to do,

but when it comes to
feeding our families,

the oceans are where
we need to turn.

NARRATOR: Far up in
the northern hemisphere,

Larry Mayer and his team
are already having success

discovering new territory
and potential new resources.

MAYER: We know so little
about the Arctic.

Every time we've gone out,
each year we go out,

we find things
totally unexpected.

NARRATOR: In 2003,
Mayer made a huge discovery

while mapping north of Alaska.

Where satellite maps had shown
only a vague shadow,

their imaging techniques revealed
a 10,000-foot seamount

on what is considered
the extended continental shelf

of the United States.

It's new territory
we didn't even know we had!

MAYER: We're going out with a very,
very special kind of mapping system,

a multi-beam echo sounder,

and instead of putting one
big, large cone of sound out,

it puts out a number of small, little,
very, very focused beams of sound

across this wide swath,

each one that measures
very precisely

and very accurately
the depth in that small area.

They provide much, much higher resolution images of
what's going on.

We see all kinds of detail
we couldn't see before.

NARRATOR: Mayer's maps turn
a flat, blurry image

into a 3-D landscape of slopes
and underwater formations.

These are underwater resources
that can be explored

and exploited to provide
for our growing population.

And that's where
the true challenges

of working in the deep
come into play.

Challenges of pressure
and darkness

Ballard knows all too well.

BALLARD: My first dive in
a deep submersible was in 1969.

I did it for a number of years,

but I'm glad I'm not
doing it anymore.

The bad stuff is like fires.

Those are not nice.

So we had one at 9,000 feet
once in a bathyscaphe.

And they forgot to turn on
my emergency oxygen supply.

So that was fun.

You want to go down?

This is for three people.

And this doesn't have
all the equipment in it!

And here we are.

My home away from home
for a quarter century.

It's crazy.

It's two and a half hours
down to 12,000 feet

in one of these things.

Two and a half hours back up.

Five hours a day,
you're just commuting.

You're not doing
anything but commuting.

Freezing cold.

Potentially getting killed.

NARRATOR: That's been the nature
of ocean exploration.

And it looks a lot like
its deep-space equivalent,

with one exception.

Traditionally,
space organizations

start with unmanned probes,

and work their way up
to manned missions

for specially trained astronauts.

But in the ocean,

Ballard is trying to do
just the reverse.

BALLARD: I've had a lot of close calls
in deep diving submarines

to know that there's definitely
a better way of doing it

that's a lot safer
and less expensive.

MAN ON RADIO: Control van,
we are good to go onto the bridge, over.

NARRATOR: This is Dr. Robert Ballard's futuristic vision

of deep-sea exploration-

his Inner Space Center.

It's a model he believes
will soon allow us

to know the oceans,
the way we already know the land.

BALLARD: If I can sneak in here
and see what's going on...

NARRATOR: With live
satellite feeds

from research vessels
around the world,

Ballard can monitor
multiple expeditions at once.

BALLARD:
Yeah, can they zoom down?

WOMAN: We are all around...

and we have found some
new hydrothermal vents.

And the height of some of them
is four meters tall.

BALLARD: Okay, so it looks like

you're moving away
from that target.

WOMAN: Yeah, we are going
to mark this area

in order to see
how many they are.

NARRATOR:
By tapping into on-call scientists

all over the world,

he can have an expert
looking at a new discovery

within a half an hour
of hearing about it.

WOMAN: So you have
everything that you want.

MAN: Yeah, that would be great.

BALLARD: The world's
going to be wired.

And there will be no place
on our planet

less than a fraction
of a second away.

WOMAN: We are going
to do the sub link,

and you will be there to...

BALLARD: And so we will be able
to move our spirit out of our body.

I mean, that's what this room
is all about.

That's what our technology
is all about.

It's about decoupling
your spirit from your body.

It's avatar.

You literally beam yourself
somewhere else.

It's Star Trek,
"Beam me down, Scotty.”

NARRATOR: It's a novel idea,

and it works both in the ocean
and in space.

But if we're going to explore
a place like Mars

in a truly meaningful way,

will robots be enough?

Planetary scientist
Dr. Pascal Lee is not so sure.

He's convinced that on Mars,
success lies in human hands,

and he's committed
to putting them there.

If we are to send
manned missions to Mars,

current technology will need to make
some great leaps forward.

PASCAL LEE: For rockets,
we need new materials.

We'll have students
in universities

working on the problem.

It will take a big effort

that will be really a big investment
in our society,

in ourselves.

NARRATOR: Lee is working
on the next generation of spacesuits

that will allow astronauts
to survive and work

on the red planet.

His designs are a far cry
from the heavy suits

used by Buzz Aldrin
and Neil Armstrong.

ARMSTRONG: Are you getting
the TV picture now, Houston?

HOUSTON: Neil, yes,
we are getting a TV picture.

You're in our field of view now.

NARRATOR: When they landed
on the moon,

Neil and Buzz were outfitted
for the worst case scenario.

ALDRIN: What a desolate,
godforsaken place this is.

No atmosphere.

No sound.

What we're looking at
hasn't changed

in hundreds of thousands
of years.

NARRATOR:
The Apollo astronauts' spacesuits

protected them from these extremes
during moonwalks,

but the men had to put on
and take off the suits

inside the spacecraft.

This posed a problem,

because lunar dust on the suits

permeated every surface
of the lander.

They'll need a better solution

if they hope to set up
an outpost on Mars.

LEE: The Martian dust,
for all we know,

is potentially very toxic
for humans.

And so we really do not want
the astronauts

to be inhaling or ingesting
any Martian dusts.

NARRATOR: Lee has designed
a protective suit

with a unique entry system.

MAN: Okay, you're going to
grab this handle,

and you're going to swing it
out to the outside.

You're going to reach up
and grab this thing

and push it up hard.

LEE: This way you can just
climb into the spacesuit

in shirt sleeves,
close the doors behind you,

you unlatch, and off you go.

You're walking on Mars.

MAN: Okay, now grab this handle
and pull down.

Right here.

Okay, give it a good pull down.

NARRATOR: The suit and
the dust from the surface

stay outside the vehicle,

keeping the inside
clean and safe.

LEE: This is a tangible step,
it's a small step,

but it's a tangible step
that we're taking

towards getting humans to Mars.

You can't go to Mars unless
you go through this step,

and we're taking it.

Do you feel comfortable?
Can you do work?

Does it feel heavy to you?

MAN: Not really.

LEE: Not really?
Can you see around well?

Got good visibility?

MAN: Is it too high
in your crotch? Little tight?

MAN: Little bit, yeah.

MAN: Well, actually,
there's no adjustment there.

You're stuck.

NARRATOR: After some
initial indoor testing,

Lee's team heads out
to the simulated surface

of the red planet.

They'll be trying out
the new entry system,

as well as the astronauts' ability
to move around

in the new suits.

BALLARD: It's the same struggle

whether you're in space
or underwater.

If you're putting people there,

you need all kinds of bulky
life support systems.

We're tough and we're smart,

but we're just not made to live
in those kinds of environments.

NARRATOR: Lee thinks the most
astronauts could carry on Mars

is 150 pounds,
which would feel like 60.

LEE: The weight of the suit is
really the biggest challenge.

Right now,
the spacesuits that we use

weigh 300 pounds on the earth.

If you are to walk around
on Mars in that suit,

it would still have a felt weight
of about 125 pounds.

And 125 pounds would not
allow you to be effective

as an explorer.

All right? We all set?

WOMAN: Yeah, we got it.

LEE: Ready to go,
sounds good.

MAN: What do you read?

MAN: 51, yeah.

NARRATOR: After many hours
of walking, drilling,

and getting into
and out of the suits,

Lee is pleased with the results.

But he knows
this is just the beginning

of a long, arduous
journey to Mars.

LEE: The 21st century will see
humans reach another planet.

But the truth is, we still have
a lot of things to work out technically

before we're ready to go to Mars.

NARRATOR: And that,
says Ballard, is the problem.

With the triple threat
of food, energy,

and living space shortages looming,

we don't have time to overcome
$0 many basic hurdles.

BALLARD: The challenges of getting
the first people on Mars

might be doable in my lifetime.

And don't get me wrong,

it will be an incredible feat
of human accomplishment.

But in terms of practical
value to mankind,

I think investing
in the exploration

and eventual colonization
of the world's oceans

makes a lot more sense.

NARRATOR: Ballard believes the oceans
are our best-kept secret.

And the foundations
for our success there

have already been laid.

Not like in space,
where almost everything we do,

we'll be doing
for the very first time.

BALLARD: I have to go
and feed the chickens.

That's one of my duties
and responsibilities.

Hi. How are you guys, huh?

Chow time.

Here's a peach,
you'll love that.

NARRATOR:
Ballard's chickens eat better

than millions of humans.

Food costs have almost doubled
in the last decade,

and we're running out of room
to grow more crops.

BALLARD: I'm looking at
my children,

my grandchildren
and their children.

I'm looking out
four or five generations.

The resources aren't there.

If you think of the earth
as a baseball field-

we grow most of our food
not on the entire field,

not even on the infield,
but on the pitcher's mound.

NARRATOR: It's because much of Earth
isn't fit for farming,

and the rest of the planet
is ocean,

which is why Ballard believes
we need to figure out

how to grow crops in the water.

In China, they've been doing it
for centuries.

With 1.3 billion mouths to feed,

it's become a matter
of necessity.

BALLARD: It's only logical that

you would turn more and more
to the sea

to feed the growing
population of the planet.

NARRATOR: These aren't fishermen-
they're farmers.

Bobbing in the Yellow Sea
just off China's northern coast

are some of the world's
largest aqua farms.

On the bottom,
they harvest shellfish.

It's hardly high-tech.

This diver's grandfather
may have worn this same suit.

A lifeline of air tethers him

as he plunges some 20 feet
below the surface.

While he works below
on the bottom,

other farmers are harvesting
at the surface.

They're gathering
forests of kelp,

which can be processed
into food,

animal feed or medicine.

It's not science fiction,

it doesn't require
sleek, fancy equipment,

but it's making a difference.

BALLARD: Primitive as it is,

it's covering a lot
of real estate,

and it's producing
a lot of food.

One criticism is that you do it
close to land in shallow water,

and you really are polluting
the coastal zone with it.

Another criticism is that
it's an eyesore.

You see it.
It doesn't look pretty.

But if ancient Chinese practices
can point the way,

it's only a matter of time

before modern technology
catches up.

Especially when you're motivated
by a looming food crisis.

NARRATOR: 5,000 miles away,
a high-tech experiment

is attempting to take sea farms
to the next level.

Biologist Neil Sims is hoping
to change the way we fish.

NEIL SIMS: We have to move towards
where we're culturing our seafood.

BALLARD: We have to move
from a hunter-gatherer society

to a farming and
herding society.

SIMS: Right, and we did this
on land 10,000 years ago.

Why is it so hard for us
to do it on water?

NARRATOR: Four months ago,

Sims and his team
took on that challenge,

off the Big Island of Hawaii.

They're helping sea farms
break free from the shore.

SIMS: The goal of the project

is to be able to grow fish
in the ocean

without any measurable footprint.

And we need to be doing it
out in the open ocean

where there is
a complete disconnect

in terms of this pen
and the coastal ecosystems.

NARRATOR: By raising his fish
inside a cage

that drifts far offshore,

Sims keeps them in
pristine water all the time.

BALLARD: Barbed wire transformed
farming on land,

and this is
the ocean equivalent.

SIMS: Get in the water here,
take this line from Gavin,

sport it around onto
the port side of the cage,

keeping the hose in there

and keeping the fish
away from the door.

Okay?

We're just getting set
to pump the fish.

We've got the cage raised,

we've got the fingerling delivery boat,

the Kona Kampachi is backed up
onto the cage,

the Machias is still holding us
into the current.

This is where things
could go horribly wrong.

They're very vulnerable
at that very high density,

so the focus all this morning
has been fish first.

We've now successfully
stocked the aqua pod

with 2,000 Seriola rivoliana,

which is the Latin name
for the Kona Kampachi.

It's a native fish here,
to these waters,

it's usually found
on the deep reef.

Pull the hose out
and close the gate, okay?

So now the challenge
for us here,

for the next 10 months
of grow-out,

is to keep these fish fed,
keep them healthy,

and keep them here,
in the eddies,

in the back of the Big Island.

NARRATOR: Sims is taking
an entrepreneurial gamble.

Ballard wants to see if
the risk is paying off.

BALLARD:
Oh, that feels very good.

We're going to raise it now,
take a look,

and then put it back down
and then feed them, right?

Are they pretty conditioned on
knowing when that's going to be?

SIMS: Oh, yeah, that's why
I'm a bit worried now.

They're sitting there sort of
strumming their fingers

saying, "Come on, it's breakfast time.
Where's breakfast?"

NARRATOR: On this scale,
the fish ball is losing money.

But if these Kampachi thrive,

Sims hopes to create hundreds
of bigger enclosures

to make the project viable.

BALLARD: That was fun.

I love your fish.

I want to eat one,
is that all right?

SIMS: Oh, yeah,
they're meant for eating.

BALLARD: I like the fact that

you haven't been playing
with their genetics at all,

you're not feeding them hormones,

and you're not doing
a lot of things

that are actually done on land.

So, the fact that they're
in a natural habitat,

and also the fact
that it's mobile.

You're moving it around.

We're in 12,000 feet of water,

we've got the whole ocean
flushing through here,

and so I like everything I see.

NARRATOR:
By moving the fish pen out to sea,

Sims hopes to turn the ocean
into a more natural farm,

one that minimizes the impact
on shoreline ecosystems.

BALLARD: Clearly,
it's a great start.

But we still have a ways to go.

We need to scale it up
to commercial levels

if we want to feed
a lot of people

in a sustainable, healthy way.

But that's possible
in the ocean.

You're not gonna get that
in outer space.

NARRATOR: That's not to say
the space advocates

aren't going to try.

MAN: Five, four,
three, two, one.

We have ignition and liftoff!

ALDRIN: Sooner or later,

a mature, wise society
ensures their survival

by establishing a foothold
on another location.

I believe that this nation
should commit itself

to permanence on the planet Mars
within two to three decades.

Let's build the place so that
when people first get there,

it's a hotel,
it's a five-star hotel.

NARRATOR:
Even a more primitive settlement

would be a daunting goal.

A permanent base on Mars
in 20 to 30 years,

when all we have there
at the moment

is a handful of rovers
covered in space dust.

Experts estimate it could cost
as much as $450 billion

just to put the first humans
on Mars.

LEE: You have to carry
everything you will need

all the way to Mars,

and so the lighter
your spacecraft

and everything you carry
with you, the better.

BALLARD:
That means food, shelter,

building, farming,
and mining supplies.

At $10,000 a pound
to get it into outer space,

I'm not seeing a very good return
on our investment.

NARRATOR: Just feeding
four astronauts

for the three years
it should take to get to Mars

would cost many
millions of dollars.

That's a lot of Big Macs
back home.

And growing food locally on Mars
could be an iffy proposition.

LEE: One obstacle that
we are concerned about

regarding the growth of plants
on Mars and food

is that the Martian soil
seems to be super-oxidizing.

It's very corrosive.

NARRATOR:
Not a farming paradise,

but on the other hand,

the red planet may offer
some unique opportunities.

ALDRIN: It rotates,
a little slower than the Earth.

It rotates once
in 24 and 1/2 hours.

It's pretty much like the earth.

And there's ice at the poles.

We can see that.

One pole has carbon dioxide,
the other has water ice.

Gee, that's a pretty good place.

NARRATOR: Mars also has about
a third of Earth's gravity-

meaning water might linger
longer near plant roots

to help them grow.

But there's still the atmosphere
to worry about,

and despite
our science fiction visions

of glass and steel habitats,
and biodomes of gardens and farms,

the reality is likely to be
a lot less exciting.

Mars-food resources, zero.

Population, zero.

Earth-population, seven billion,
and growing fast.

Here again,
Ballard sees little in space

to compete with the oceans.

BALLARD: I am convinced
the greatest living space

that's underutilized
on our planet

is the surface of the sea.

I think the human race will move out
onto the ocean and live.

NARRATOR: We may have to.

The polar ice caps are melting,

and the speed of the oceans' rise
has doubled.

Every year, there's more water
and less dry land.

BALLARD: Will everyone want
to move out on the ocean? No.

Does everyone want to be
a farmer out in the Midwest? No.

But a very significant number of people
will want that option.

NARRATOR: In fact,
a large number of people

are already living on the ocean,
and have been for generations.

Off a small island in Vietnam,

hundreds of families live as pioneers
on this new frontier.

It's the ocean equivalent
of a village on Mars,

but a lot less expensive.

3,000 limestone formations
shield Cat Ba Island

from violent storms
that often hit the bay.

BALLARD: There's areas where
people have never stood on land.

They've spent their whole life on boats.

NARRATOR: Vo and his wife,
their children and grandchildren,

all grew up in the village
of Cong Dong.

They're here because
the ocean feeds them.

BALLARD: They're taking
their scraps

and they're feeding them to the fish
that live in their house.

Look at all these kids-
off to school.

Being picked up by the maritime equivalent
of the school bus.

This is very logical,
very natural,

and they look like
pretty happy kids to me.

NARRATOR:
It's a lifestyle choice

that may soon grow more popular,
and more comfortable.

Like the Chinese aqua farms,
these boathouses may foreshadow

a practical,
higher-tech solution

to future crises.

In Galveston, Texas,
on the Gulf of Mexico,

a team of visionaries thinks
they've already figured out

how to live on the ocean.

They're hoping to bring
the boat villages of Vietnam

into the 21st century...

...turning an old oil rig
into a city at sea.

BALLARD: The technology
of living out on the ocean

has been perfected
by the oil industries.

We know how to move people
out onto the ocean,

we know actually how to live
in relative comfort.

You don't get seasick
on these rigs.

They're huge, vertical
columns of steel,

and the ocean can't move them.

The first people that
will really move out

in any significant numbers
will be the farmers.

Just like homesteaders,
these are seasteaders.

NARRATOR: Engineers from
the Seasteading Institute

are imagining
an extreme makeover.

BALLARD: Howdy.

Well, let's dream.
What do we have here?

This is a futuristic conversion
of this platform.

Now, when it was operational,
how many people lived out here?

GREG CASTLEMAN:
About 80 people.

BALLARD:
Now in this final concept,

how many people
are you thinking would be...

GEORGE PETRIE:
About 300 people.

BALLARD: About 300 people.

Well, let's take a look.
Show me around.

PETRIE: This is the main deck
of the rig.

All of these yellow columns

and the structure on the deck
is going to go,

and it will be replaced by
just open deck area

with sun lounges and tables
and chairs and a coffee shop

and topped by
a magnificent glass pyramid.

BALLARD: The interesting thing
that people don't realize

is how many people already
live out on the gulf.

What would you say the total
population out on the gulf is?

It's got to be many thousands.

CASTLEMAN:
Probably about 20,000 people.

BALLARD: 20,000 people
are already out there,

so it's not a stretch,
I mean, that's the point.

How many people are
living on the moon?

CASTLEMAN: About zero
last time I checked.

BALLARD: Right. How many people
are living on Mars?

We already have thousands
and thousands of people

living in the future already.

PETRIE: Technically,
it's a solved problem.

BALLARD: Exactly.

PETRIE:
The idea is to transition

from an industrial
workplace environment

where people go to live
a month at a time,

to a lifestyle.

BALLARD: So this is not something
that's a great stretch.

I actually see this happening
within my own lifetime.

We have the energy, we have the food,
we have the nutrients,

all the things that you need
to sustain life,

of course are in the ocean.

That's where most of life lives.

Wow, this is quite different, Graham.

NARRATOR: Ballard's even seeing
advances in the vehicles

that might get us around.

BALLARD: This is an airplane!

NARRATOR:
Though he still believes

the future of deep ocean exploration
will be unmanned,

he jumps at the invitation

to try out the latest
manned prototype

from sub designer Graham Hawkes.

Unlike most submarines,
which wallow like blimps,

Hawkes' Super Falcon flies
through the water like an F-16.

GRAHAM HAWKES:
We'll follow a contour around

and I'll give you a time.

It'll be 10 minutes down.

NARRATOR: They'll be sticking
close to the surface,

which is fine by Ballard.

He's had more than his share
of near-disasters down deep.

BALLARD:
Crashing is always nasty.

Did that at 20,000 feet
in a bathyscaphe.

That wasn't very nice.

Almost didn't make that one.

But we're not going to do
any of that today.

MAN: Do you want me to put this on for you?
BALLARD: Yeah.

MAN: Checklist is complete.
Ready to seal hatches?

BALLARD: Absolutely.

MAN: So what was that like?

BALLARD: Very different,
very different.

Yeah, I've made lots of dives,

but that was not a dive,
that was a flight.

It was pretty cool.

Very, very different.

NARRATOR: Though the Super Falcon
is still experimental,

it's easy to see how useful
it could one day be.

BALLARD: If we are ever
going to master the oceans

the way we've mastered
the skies,

it's vehicles like this
that are gonna play a part.

I can see future generations
of this vehicle

being used to move researchers,
workers, even families

through the underwater world.

It will definitely change the way
we get around in the future.

NARRATOR: Just one more tool
to help us navigate

what Ballard hopes will be
our home turf of the future.

And one more reason

he thinks Earth will always be
our very best option.

BALLARD: Think of how bad
things really have to get

here on Earth before a move to Mars
really makes any sense.

Even the worst spot on Earth
has a lot more going for it

than the best spot on Mars.

So a lot would really, really
have to go wrong here

before that becomes
even a viable option.

NARRATOR: Ultimately, time may
make our choices for us.

Fuel supplies are limited.

The population is exploding.

Temperatures are rising,

and so is the ocean.

BALLARD: We need to manage it

just like we manage
our own country.

Some of it we farm and herd,

others we set aside for sanctuaries,
others are parks.

There's so many different ways

we could be better utilizing
the ocean than we are right now.

NARRATOR: What we can't do,
says Ballard,

is give up on our planet.

'Cause if we screw this one up,

what makes us think
we'll do better somewhere else?

BALLARD: We're setting up our kids
for a great disappointment

to think that they're going
to live on Mars.

I think that's dishonest.

They're not going
to live on Mars.

ALDRIN: I like him.
I love the guy.

But nobody elected Bob Ballard
president of the oceans.

NARRATOR: At the top of
a dormant volcano in Hawaii,

Dr. Robert Ballard is as close to Mars
as he ever wants to get.

BALLARD: We're not going to
leave this planet.

We're not going to do
the Superman deal

of messing up Krypton.

And, by the way, he went to
a pretty nice planet.

[laughs]

No, we're not going to transform
Mars into Earth.

We're going to live on Earth.

We're going to try to live
in harmony with Earth.

We're going to move out onto
the surface of the oceans.

No.

Clear as a bell to me.

Should be as clear as a bell to you.