All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S16E08.720p.WEB.h264-BAE

Mission control:
Ignition sequence start.

Narrator: It is humankind's

most profound achievement.

Mission control: Three,
two, one, liftoff.

We have a liftoff.

Narrator: Blasting
off from planet earth

to journey to the stars.

Jerry linenger: Going
to space... it's incredible,

and it blows your mind
to think that people can

figure out how to
make that happen.

Narrator: But could our
voyages into the cosmos

be even more
extraordinary than we know?

Buzz aldrin: I'm looking
out the window and I said,

"what's that?"

narrator: Ancient astronaut
theorist giorgio tsoukalos

is joined by author
david childress

and aerospace
engineer dr. Travis taylor

in an attempt to
answer the question:

Is our space program
being monitored

by extraterrestrials?

And if so,
are they waiting for the human race

to fulfill its destiny

as space travelers?

Travis taylor: We have
to leave this solar system

if we want humanity to survive.

Giorgio tsoukalos: I
think it is wired within

all of us that we
instinctively know

that we come from the stars,

and this is why we
would like to go back.

Narrator: There is a
doorway in the universe.

Beyond it is the
promise of truth.

It demands we
question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is right
before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

I'm excited to be here
with you guys to talk

about everything that's going
on with space exploration.

I think it's a natural
part of evolution

to actually go
back to the stars.

I deliberately say
"go back to the stars"

or "return to the stars"

because,
according to the ancient astronaut theory,

that is where we came from.

David childress: Spacex
now has sent astronauts

to the international
space station,

and so we've now
entered a whole new era

of space exploration...
One that's privatized.

Yeah, well,
we're at a point right now that, uh,

if you have $20 million,

the russians will send
you on a trip in space.

You can go to the
international space station.

Think about this:
There are a lot

of people on this
planet that $20 million

means nothing to,
and, before long,

it'll be even cheaper than that.

Like elon musk and bob bigelow,

the next big commercial
space guy isn't gonna care.

If they want to go to mars,
who's to stop them?

- They're gonna go to mars.
- Childress: And they don't have to go

with some protocols or
government... I mean, they can

- just do what they want. Is that what you're saying?
- Taylor: That's exactly right.

Long as they're
not violating some,

you know, uh,
commerce law or whatever,

but what we know right
now... the treaties say

that space is the wild frontier.

It is like international
waters in the ocean.

You're at maritime law once you

get out of low earth orbit.

Yeah, I... to me,
it's very exciting.

And now with more launches,
the probability of seeing

extraterrestrials will increase.

I really think that we
are destined to explore

our own solar system
and then go beyond

because this is
part of who we are.

- I agree.
- Tsoukalos: And this type of curiosity

is hardwired within us.

- It's in our, in our dna. That's what you're saying.
- Tsoukalos: In our dna

that we have to explore.

Childress: I think
the one thing that's...

That's interesting here, too,

is that the whole idea
that there is extraterrestrials

and, um, ufos

coming here... that was all part
of the russian space program.

It's actually part of their...
I wouldn't call it religion,

but their metaphysics.

The soviet union
promoted cosmism.

Cosmism, right. Cosmism,
uh, taught that...

- yeah, we're... life on planet earth came from space...
- Came from...

...And-and it was our
destiny to go back into space.

Narrator: At the end
of the 19th century,

russian philosophers
envisioned a radical new theory

about the origins of
humanity called "cosmism."

you can think of cosmism

almost as a russian version
of ancient astronaut theory.

It takes as its start point

the fact that perhaps
we come from the stars

and its endpoint to we
need to go back to the stars.

This is considered to be
the-the motivating factor

behind the russian
space program.

The russian
cosmist point of view

proposed that
russia's ultimate future

was to colonize space,

and that, in fact,
it was a-a spiritual prerogative

to get out into space.

Narrator: In may 1903,
konstantin tsiolkovsky,

a cosmist and mathematician from kaluga,
russia,

published a landmark paper
on rocket science entitled

"exploration of outer space
by means of rocket devices."

at a time when most of the world

did not have automobiles
or even electricity,

tsiolkovsky was trying
to figure out how to travel

to the stars.

One hypothesis he proposed,

called "the ideal
rocket equation,"

calculated the amount
of velocity needed to lift

an aircraft into outer space.

Amazingly,
that 1903 equation was used directly

in the launch of sputnik 1.

So it was hugely influential,
and it worked.

Narrator: What led
tsiolkovsky and other cosmists

to subscribe to such
extraordinary beliefs?

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe

the answer can be found
in tsiolkovsky's own writings,

in which he described receiving

an extraterrestrial
message from the stars.

Narrator: Tsiolkovsky's
work ushered in a new era

of human exploration,

motivating the russian
government to send cosmonaut

yuri gagarin to space in 1961.

Could it be that the goal of
the soviet cosmonaut program

was not only to demonstrate
technological superiority

but to connect with
extraterrestrial beings?

So do we know of any stories

that could relate some
type of a ufo encounter?

- The russian cosmonauts have quite a few stories.
- Okay.

And a famous one happened in 1984,
when three cosmonauts

were on the salyut
7 space station.

Narrator: Orbiting 172 miles
above the earth, the salyut 7

was russia's scientific
research space station.

On July 12, 1984,

cosmonauts oleg atkov,
leonid kizim

and vladimir solovyov

were on board the spacecraft

when they witnessed
an extraordinary event.

During the salyut 7 mission,

soviet cosmonauts
had a bizarre encounter.

The spacecraft was
surrounded by a strange glow,

and all of a sudden,
they saw immense figures

outside in space.

The three cosmonauts saw
something at one of the windows

that looked like...

They-they described it as,
like, an orange glow

that looked like human faces,
but they were huge,

like, the size of a jet plane,

and they couldn't
explain what it was.

Narrator: What makes this event
even more compelling to researchers

is that the cosmonauts

not only described
the same bizarre vision,

but they also reported
being overcome

with a strange feeling.

Nick pope: The
salyut 7 encounter...

The cosmonauts felt

a sort of sense of well-being,

and that's interesting
because it's counterintuitive.

You would think that,

in that difficult and dangerous
environment of space,

when something unusual happens,

the natural instinct
would be to panic,

and yet quite the opposite
seems to have happened.

Linenger: I was on a russian
space station for five months...

Myself, two russian cosmonauts,
spoke russian the whole time.

And, you know, they'll tell
you stories about old salyut 7,

uh, where they had a couple
cosmonauts that said they felt

sort of the presence of angels.

And it gave them kind of a good,
comfortable feeling.

Narrator: Could the
sense of well-being

experienced by the
salyut 7 cosmonauts

indicate they were in
the presence of beings

from another world?

Is it possible that they
encountered similar entities

to the ones reported
by famous cosmist

konstantin tsiolkovsky?

Might they actually be the same
as what the cosmonauts saw

from salyut 7?

And that's interesting
because this is the russian idea

that when we do go to the stars,

we will encounter
extraterrestrials

is thus inextricably bound up

with cosmism and the
whole russian view of space.

The russian cosmonauts were
more open to the whole idea

that the aliens are coming here,
and there are

many curious episodes
that have happened in space,

and we're also curious

about what astronauts
see while they're up there...

On the moon or in these space stations,
on spacewalks.

Tsoukalos: But, you know,
one of the best people

to ask these questions
would be an astronaut,

and so I have dr. Leroy chiao,

an actual astronaut,
waiting with a video call.

I can't wait to see that.

We actually have
dr. Leroy chiao,

an astronaut,
waiting for us on a zoom call.

So let's see what he
has to say about this.

- Childress: Hi, leroy.
- Taylor: Hello, dr. Chiao.

- How are you doing? Pleasure to meet you.
- Chiao: Hey, guys.

- Excellent. How are you guys?
- Childress: Good. -Tsoukalos: Good. Thank you.

Nice saturn v model you
have in the background.

Thanks. Thank you. (laughs)

so tell us, I mean,

not many people have
been to outer space,

and I think one of the
most basic question is:

How does it feel?

Sure. I mean, it's really a special,
uh, experience,

as you can imagine,
especially the very first time

you get actually into the
vehicle and launched into space.

More emotional than I expected.

Of course, I looked back at
the earth once we got into orbit,

saw how beautiful our
earth is with the colors

being so bright and... Quite
an emotional experience.

How many missions did you have?

I flew four missions into space.

My first three missions
were aboard space shuttles,

and my fourth flight,
I trained with the russians,

and we launched the
international space station,

where I served as the
commander and nasa science officer

during expedition 10,
which was a six-and-a-half-month flight.

I'm very interested in any
unexplainable events that

you might have
seen or experienced.

Have you ever seen something
that you couldn't explain?

Yes. Actually, yeah, I did.

You know, on my last spacewalk
during my space station mission,

we were in that twilight,
you know, time between

going from darkness into light.

And I saw what looked
like four or five lights

flying by in formation,
and it was like, "whoa, what is that?"

and I called out in russian
to my russian crewmate,

and he was also outside with me.

I said, "hey,
did you see those lights fly by?"

and he was facing the other way,
so he didn't see them.

Childress: So when
you see the lights

- going by you...
- Yeah. Mm-hmm.

...You thought they
were perhaps ufos?

You know, at the time,
I didn't know what they were.

It wasn't until later,

after we landed,
somebody had figured out

that we were off the
coast of south america.

Said that I had seen
a line of fishing boats

using very bright
lights to attract squid.

But wouldn't you see
the lights of buenos aires

or montevideo at the same
time? Because that's where

- those squid boats are.
- Normally you would. Normally you would.

But, you know,
who knows? I wasn't sure which

direction I was facing
because we were in that twilight,

and I couldn't tell which
direction was the earth

and which direction
was deep space.

Taylor: So, uh,
it's really interesting.

A lot of people
don't realize this...

Other astronauts throughout
history have claimed

to have seen things
that were not explained.

Yeah.

Taylor: Gordon cooper
claims he saw one.

John glenn saw the fireflies
around his spacecraft.

Buzz aldrin claimed to
have seen things near earth

that we can't explain.

Narrator: According
to ufo researchers,

an extraordinary sighting

was reported during
nasa's most famous mission.

In July of 1969, while apollo 11
was traveling towards the moon,

buzz aldrin noticed
that there was something

kind of trailing them
outside one of the windows.

And he and neil armstrong
tried to figure out what could it be.

Aldrin: I'm looking out the window,
and I say,

"what's that"?

There's an object that's moving
with respect to everything else.

Geez,
it's not supposed to be doing that.

I wonder how far away it is.

If it's a long ways away,
it's going mighty fast.

If it's not too far away,

it, uh,
maybe isn't going very fast.

Wonder what it is.

"hey, neil, look at this."

we look at it.

"god, what is that?"

"probably the, uh,
upper stage rocket."

"yeah, but didn't we just
watch that thing carefully...

"out in front of us,
out the window,

light its engine and
go..." (imitates whooshing)

well, I guess that's not what
we're looking at, (chuckles)

'cause that's a long ways away.

What's the odds that it's...

Some alien or russian
or something else?

But we were not about to cancel

the moon mission
and putt-putt over there

to find out which one it was.

(chuckles)

pope: Few ufo
sightings by astronauts

are as controversial than
the ones involving buzz aldrin.

Effectively, the believers say

that ufos followed
him to the moon.

Some even say that
when they got to the moon,

they were there
already waiting for them.

Childress: Leroy, when you were

up in space with
your fellow astronauts,

including the russians,

did you ever talk about
extraterrestrials or ufos?

Was that ever a subject?

Yeah, I think there's no doubt
a lot of us astronauts have seen

some weird things,
and we don't know for sure what they are.

Narrator: One astronaut who
experienced something he could not explain

is jerry linenger,
a man who logged an incredible

50 million miles in
space travel in the 1990s

and survived the most
severe fire ever experienced

aboard an orbiting spacecraft.

So I had the privilege of
flying on a shuttle flight,

which was incredible.

And living on the
space station mir...

A russian space station.

So people ask me,
"have you seen a ufo?"

and, you know,
I-I don't want to take this out of context,

but unidentified
flying objects? Yes.

I think we've all seen something
that we're not exactly sure

what that is up there.

When I was on the russian space station,
there was one time

I saw sort of a white
globular looking thing.

Kind of looked like a
misshaped snowball,

kind of off in the distance,

and I actually called one of
my cosmonaut crewmates over.

I said, you know,
"what the heck is that?"

and he says, you know,
"I don't know."

and then we kind of
scratched our heads.

Said, well,
"maybe an ice chunk off the external tank

and it's crossing
our path again."

you know,
who knows? But it was definitely something

that neither of
us could identify.

It's not uncommon
to see these things.

I certainly, uh,
wasn't shy about talking about

the-the strange lights I
thought were flying by.

You know,
I kind of didn't really

formally report it per se,

but I-I said it in the clear
in a radio transmission

to my partner to see if he could see them,
too.

The probability of, you know,

an intelligent vehicle
coming to visit us...

Uh, I think that's unlikely,
but the probability's not zero.

Taylor: But do you
think that maybe

they saw something
like you did that...

- That we just didn't figure out what the actual thing was...
- Mm-hmm.

...Or maybe there were things
that-that we can't explain?

Well, you know, never say never.

I mean, uh,
I-I for one would never say

that I know everything,
you know,

and I can explain everything.

I firmly believe
there's intelligent life

all over the universe.

In fact, I think it's the height
of arrogance, uh, for us

here on earth to think
that we are the only ones

in the universe
that-that are intelligent.

- Taylor: Well, thank you.
- Childress: Great talking to you.

Yeah. Nice talking
to you guys. Thanks.

- True pleasure. Thank you.
- Take care. Bye.

Tsoukalos: Wow.

I think it's great that,
you know, leroy has

had these interesting
experiences.

He's seen things that
he couldn't explain,

although they've been
explained to him now.

But lots of astronauts
have seen unusual things...

If... If you subscribe to that,

but let's agree
with him and say,

"okay. There is a
natural explanation

- for this particular example."
- sure.

But there are countless
other encounters

that I always found fascinating.

Childress: People within space
programs keep things secret.

Within the, I think, nasa,
an american space program,

there was more of

an effort to not have
those discussions

of-of possible ufos,
of possible extraterrestrials.

The reason the american
astronauts didn't do that

is because of the
stupid brookings report.

When the brookings
report came out in 1960

after the beginning of
the mercury program,

the final conclusion was that

the general public would
go nuts if they were told

of any evidence of
extraterrestrial life.

Yeah, they warn... they
warned against that. Yeah.

And so,
and so the astronaut program,

all up through the shuttle era,
was given that...

The-the philosophy,
if not orders,

if you see something like that,
we don't talk about it.

- You call it...
- And you call it a... you call it a bogey.

Narrator: According
to ufo researchers,

one of the first incidents

involving the cover-up of an
unidentified sighting in space

took place on December 4, 1965,

shortly after the
gemini 7 blasted off

from cape canaveral, florida,

as the 12th
american spaceflight.

On board were astronauts
frank borman and jim lovell.

Just hours into their mission,

they reported an
unusual sighting from orbit.

They radio down to nasa
that they had a bogey

outside the window.

They did actually see something
that was strange in orbit,

and they didn't immediately
know what it was.

Bill birnes: Nasa control
is furious about this.

"don't report this.
What are you doing?

Oh, it's-it's just debris,
booster rocket debris."

but no. The astronauts
fully maintained...

And this is multiple witness...

These are craft flying
with the gemini capsules.

And the whole thing is
hushed up when they land.

They watched it
and were stunned.

I mean,
they-they didn't have an explanation.

They hadn't expected it at all,

and still don't know
what they saw.

What you have is a bona
fide unexplained phenomena,

uh,
looking out the window of your spacecraft.

Edgar mitchell is
another astronaut.

- I mean, he spent his whole post-astronaut life...
- Yes.

- ...Promoting, you know, extraterrestrial contact...
- Absolutely.

...And the belief
in extraterrestrials.

So here's a nasa
astronaut who's...

You know,
is totally on board with this,

that, you know,
we are being visited.

Narrator: Astronaut edgar mitchell
served as the lunar module pilot

on apollo 14.

On February 5, 1971,

he made history when he
completed the third moon landing

and became the sixth person
to ever walk on the moon.

Apollo 14 was the first,
uh, mission to the moon

to begin the
science exploration.

We landed in the
fra mauro highlands,

and our-our purpose there

was to set up science,
uh, instruments there,

to make a geology trek
up to the top of cone crater

and bring back samples,
which we did.

Narrator: Four over nine hours,

mitchell and mission
commander alan shepard

explored the lunar surface.

But according to mitchell,

for him,
the most significant part of their voyage

occurred as they
were returning to earth.

After I had done all my work,
and we were on the way home,

I suddenly had an experience,
uh,

which I will describe as
ecstasy and exhilaration.

And I realized everything
is part of the same thing.

And I realized that, perhaps,

that with this experience,

maybe the story of ourselves,
as told by our science,

was incomplete
and perhaps flawed

and that maybe what
we should be doing now

is look very seriously again at:

What is our origin? What
is our place in the universe?

And that was kind
of the epiphany,

the experience I had in space.

Narrator: Years later,
mitchell's life-changing experience

inspired him to
start investigating

the ufo phenomenon.

I have-have not had
any personal experience.

However, I do know virtually
all of the research people

in both europe and
the united states

that have spent decades
working on this problem,

and I listened and investigated

all the sightings
for dozens of years,

and I'm pretty
sure it's all true.

And I've been involved in
the disclosure project, uh,

tr-trying to get this opened up

and reveal what
we really do know.

I still feel that, yeah, nasa,

they have secrets.

A lot of people have said,
"well, look,

everybody in nasa would have
to be keeping some secret."

and that's wrong, too.

Uh, within these space programs,

you have compartmentalized programs,
need to know.

- Well...
- People within the space program don't need to know everything.

I mean, they've got to keep
things secret. They have to.

You know,
as far as I'm concerned,

I think that the exploration

and perhaps even the
colonization of space

is what we are destined to do.

I think it is wired
within all of us

that we inherently

need to explore where we came from,
right?

I find it fascinating that there
are these stories out there

about astronauts
and alien encounters.

We have in possession today

- photographic evidence. - Yep.

Sure,
we've all seen some odd-looking photos

from nasa astronauts,

uh, that are actually these
unidentified aerial phenomena

that we have no
idea what they are.

Childress: There are some
photos of possible ufos,

of possible extraterrestrials.

Tsoukalos: Have you seen

the skylab photo of the
two or three red lights?

I've seen the photo
you're talking about.

Well, right,
and that's what I was just gonna say.

We have very good photos of that,
and that is an anomaly.

Narrator: Launched on may 25,
1973,

the skylab was america's
first space station,

an orbital scientific
research vessel.

After roughly four
months in orbit,

an astronaut aboard
skylab named owen garriott

took a photograph
of a mysterious object

outside the space station.

The crew of skylab 3
saw something strange

at one of their windows,

and it was kind of an
oscillating red-orange

lights off in the distance.

The crew couldn't discern
exactly what it was...

Just the certainty that
it was tracking them

or they were tracking it,
rather, for quite a long time.

The most logical explanation
was that it was a satellite

or some kind of debris,

but the crew did
note at the time

that they had seen
other satellites in orbit,

and the satellites looked
like they do on earth,

and this phenomenon they'd seen,
these lights,

didn't look like that at all.

Ultimately,
the public explanation was

that it was just a reflection

of the panel in the
background of the space st...

- On the window?
- In the window.

Exactly. But there are

training modules of
these things where

you can actually go inside
and replicate the conditions

of how this would be,

and so,
as far as the red lights are concerned,

the panel does not have
two or three red lights.

It only has one.

So it dismisses the idea

that it was a reflection
of the instrument panel.

I find that very interesting.

Would I be correct in assuming

that these space stations are,
uh,

equipped with cameras?

Taylor: Well, so there is
some video from the shuttle era.

We have seen some bona
fide unexplained phenomena.

Narrator: As far as ufo
researchers are concerned,

some of the most compelling
video taken in outer space

was recorded during nasa
mission sts-80 in December 1996.

During the space
shuttle columbia mission,

astronaut story musgrave

captured a number of
strange events on camera,

including slow-moving
circular objects.

It really seems like the
footage that we're looking at,

the video footage of sts-80
clearly show what appear to be

powered vehicles
operating in low earth orbit,

clearly performing the way
ufos or extraterrestrial spacecraft

are supposedly able to perform.

Narrator: While nasa scientists
dismiss these objects as ice particles,

the incredible images
have fascinated researchers,

including aerospace engineer
and digital imaging expert

dr. Mark carlotto.

After spending countless
hours studying the footage,

he has come to the conclusion
that the object in these images

were intelligently controlled.

A number of objects are
seen just after sunrise.

The conjecture by nasa,

the explanation is that these
are the result of particles

that move from
shadow into sunlight

and suddenly become illuminated

so they appear to the camera,
and then they move,

and then if there's a thruster
firing or some other action,

they change direction.

However,
nasa spokespersons do not comment

on what's seen
earlier in the video.

Here, we're looking at the
earth about a minute or so

before the discs and
the streaks appear,

and we're looking at,

as the camera zooms,
we're looking at puerto rico.

That's that bright blob that

we see in the
middle of the screen.

As the camera zoom...

The camera operator
is moving around

as if they're looking
for something,

and in a moment,
we'll see something suddenly appear,

almost literally out of nowhere.

If we look at this
event more closely,

it leaves a trail or
a wake behind it.

It happens very quickly.

It's very unusual.

In this particular map,
we see puerto rico

and the virgin islands,

and I will now overlay one
of the frames of the video.

See the object appearing
and moving left to right?

In one half second,
this object moves 340 miles,

which is a speed of
680 miles per second.

This object moves as
fast as a bolt of lightning.

There are no
thunderstorms in the area.

It is unlike any natural
phenomenon that's known,

and this object has never
been mentioned by nasa

or anyone that's
talked about this video.

Narrator: Is it possible that
nasa has already captured footage

of an extraterrestrial
presence in outer space

only to dismiss it as
natural phenomena?

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe that

as humankind continues
to venture further out

into the cosmos,
it is only a matter of time

before we record
an alien encounter

that is impossible to deny.

So what's the next step,
then? Going to mars, I suppose.

Do you think we'll
find some answers

to a lot of our questions there?

Well, I'll tell you one
answer that I can't wait to find.

We had a race to the moon,
uh, and now it's a race to mars.

- But now there's a lot more players in this game, right?
- Taylor: Yes. Yes.

- I mean, we've got...
- Right now,

you-you've got the three governments,
you know,

the russians,
the chinese and the americans, are gonna

get to the moon and mars
from a government standpoint.

But I'm telling you,
some of these rich billionaires

are gonna get there whether
we want them to or not.

Childress: And they
can probably do it

a lot more cost effective
than these governments.

Well,
now that we're getting close to mars,

do you think we'll
find some answers

to a lot of our questions there?

Well, I'll tell you one
answer that I can't wait to find.

Uh, there's a-a photograph
that you can still find it

in, uh, the database from the
mars reconnaissance orbiter.

And it shows, like,
a little pool of water

and an iceberg and a cloud,
uh, all in the same picture.

So I think we're
certainly gonna find water,

and if we're gonna find water
and we know it gets 67 degrees

- in the summer...
- We find life.

- Absolutely, that's what we're gonna find.
- Tsoukalos: See,

but here's the thing that,
you know, to me...

- The life I am looking for...
- Yeah.

...Looks like you and me.

It is humanoid in-in form.

Uh, if we find bacteria life,
okay.

And, in my opinion,
I'm gonna say it:

- Big whoop.
- Taylor: That's what most people, I think,

will say, giorgio. I-I agree.

Let me tell you this,
though. It's possible that mars

was the blue-green planet here,
you know,

a billion years ago
instead of earth,

and when,
whatever happened to mars,

they migrated
from there to here.

Narrator: Migration
from mars to earth?

Some ancient astronaut
theorists have proposed

the incredible notion that
the human race did, in fact,

originate on earth's
closest neighboring planet,

and it is their belief that
all of humankind's journeys

into space have been
leading towards a return

to this ancestral homeland.

While it may sound like
the premise of a sci-fi movie,

some scientists
have proposed that,

based on what we've
learned about the red planet,

this is not such a
far-fetched notion after all.

Mars at one time in its past
looked more like the earth.

It was a blue ocean world

with a significant
amount of water.

We know for a fact
that billions of years ago,

when we were first getting
started here on earth,

mars was a much
more clement place,

a more clement world in its own.

We know that it
had thick atmosphere

to shield and
blanket the planet,

and it would have
had organic molecules,

the building blocks
of all life as we know it.

So it stands to reason

that maybe mars had its own genesis,
its own origin of life.

Narrator: If mars was
once an earth-like planet,

could it have
supported human life?

Curiously,
researchers have found a remarkable link

between human physiology
and conditions on mars.

When astronauts
actually go into space,

their circadian rhythms,
their body clocks,

change from 24-hour
days to a 24.9-hour day,

and that happens to be
the exact rotational period

of a single day
on the planet mars.

Given the fact that our
body clocks are tuned

to the planet mars,
not to the planet earth,

that indicates to me that we
actually came here from there.

Narrator: Could we,
in fact, be martians?

And might this be

why we are so compelled
to explore beyond earth?

In April 2020,

nasa announced that
three private companies...

Blue origin,
dynetics and spacex,

will compete to design america's
new human landing system,

or hls.

Its ultimate purpose:
To send astronauts

to mars.

Pope: I think the next few years

are going to be
absolutely pivotal

in mars research.

We are seeing mission
after mission after mission

going to mars, and, again,
one might wonder why.

Is it because,
when humanity expands out

into the cosmos,
we are going to have to have

a planetary base and mars
is a good place for that?

Or is it because
scientists know or suspect

that there's something there?

We don't know what's on mars right now,
but we can speculate.

There are some photos.

There are books that speculate
there are structures on mars.

I like to think that there are
structures on mars and there was

an ancient civilization there
that-that perhaps is dead.

And you have also
this curious monolith

- on the martian moon phobos.
- Tsoukalos: Phobos. -Oh, phobos. Yeah.

Tsoukalos: What's interesting,
too,

for example, the cydonia region.

That is where allegedly
the pyramids are.

- Absolutely.
- Childress: What is that doing there?

Is that a natural formation?

I mean,
this seems like a very artificial thing.

Narrator: Researchers
studying nasa photographs

of the martian surface

have identified
what appear to be

a number of
artificial structures.

Mark carlotto: There's a number of
pyramidal structures called the "city."

there's a famous face on mars.

It could be evidence of,
perhaps,

of a prehistoric
civilization on mars.

Pope: It's only a matter
of time before we find

absolutely definitive
evidence of microbes on mars.

Maybe, and this would be the
absolute holy grail, of course,

maybe we will
find the fingerprints

of an ancient civilization.

Narrator: When the first
astronauts reach mars,

will they discover evidence

that the red planet
has been visited before

or perhaps something
even more profound?

You know, for decades,
we've had these questions about mars.

And now that we are at
the beginning of actually

soon being able to go there,

we will have these
answers and possibly

within our own lifetimes.

And we live in
such exciting times.

Taylor: Nasa plans to

make their first
manned mars mission

within the 2030s.

So that means we're
only ten-ish years

away from that,
and so we should get to see that.

If there was a
civilization there,

it's likely that they're
gonna land close

to where it might have been.

- Yeah. - And, eventually,

- somebody's gonna stumble across it.
- Childress: Maybe when

we go to mars,
we'll be returning to mars,

having actually come
there originally ourselves.

- And you have to have an open mind to the possibility.
- Yeah.

Taylor: But there's
more to it in our evolution.

We can't just stay
here. Sooner or later,

something will happen that
would be an extinction-level event

to the earth.

We have to leave earth

if we want humanity to survive.

Right.

This is,
uh... has been such an incredible

and fascinating conversation that,
you know,

we live in the most
exciting of times right now

because with the
privatization of space travel,

we are destined to
go back into space

and explore our own solar system

and then go beyond,

because this is
part of who we are.

Taylor: I think,
in less than a hundred years,

we're going to advance
physics knowledge enough

that we will be able
to travel at speeds

that are arbitrarily fast,

meaning like warp
speeds and things like that.

We have an understanding

within our theoretical
physics to do it.

- It's the engineering pieces that's next.
- Right.

- Childress: Right, okay.
- So, and here's the thing.

- We're a fairly young species.
- Right.

Taylor: Sooner or later,
something will happen

that would be an
extinction-level event

to the earth.

It may be a billion
years from now,

maybe a million years,
maybe next week.

We have to go to the
moon and put people there.

We have to go to mars
and make it livable.

And so we have
to leave this earth

if we want humanity to survive.

And who's to say that that's
not what has happened already...

- Of course.
- ...And that we are part of that survival process?

There's so many stars out there,

and there had to be other
civilizations that occurred.

They had to go and explore,

and they had to
spread themselves

across the universe.

The russian cosmists believe
that we-we came from the stars

and that we're destined
to go back to the stars.

And, uh, that's pretty much
what we're doing now, aren't we?

Uh, returning to the stars,
in many ways, as explorers.

I think you're
absolutely right there.

You know, this makes me think of,
uh, edgar rice burroughs.

Even before the golden era

of-of what we would call
science fiction in the '30s,

john carter of mars...

Chessmen of mars,
yeah, princess of mars.

- The barsoomian adventures...
- Yeah.

...Was that somebody,
john carter,

left earth some way,
ends up on mars,

and there's a whole
civilization there.

Science fiction drives
that sort of imagination.

It's dr-driven me since I was a kid,
watching star trek

and reading robert heinlein
and asimov and arthur c. Clarke,

and all these things,
right? They're telling us

- what the future might be.
- Tsoukalos: Science fiction

has become,
in many cases, science fact.

And technology has
accelerated exponentially.

Can you imagine where
we'll be 20 years from now?

Taylor: You know, I want to know

all of these ancient
astronaut theories.

I want to go out there
and find thor and zeus

and these guys, and I want to,

I want to ask,
"where did y'all go?" right?

- Maybe they're waiting for us right now to get there, right?
- Yeah.

- You know, "we've been waiting. What-what took you so long?"
- right?

I really think that we are
destined to explore space

and perhaps also colonize space,

and if we do that,
sooner or later,

we will come across our
actual alien ancestors.

And I'm really excited
to see what the future holds.

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