Original subtitles

Previously on Mars.

We knew Mars wouldn't welcome us

with open arms.

Warning, systems offline.

Permission to switch from primary to backup.

Do it.

Prepare for retropropulsion.

We were ready to give everything to get there.

Mission Control, this is Daedalus,

we're looking at a red planet.

And we knew we'd have to fight even harder

if we wanted to stay.

How far did we overshoot?

75.3 kilometers.

Mission Control confirmed the rover

is 2,000 kilos over maximum payload.

The odds are we won't make it.

But no matter what happened,

we'd do everything we could to make the workshop module

our new basecamp.

Because the thing that kept us pushing,

it wasn't just inside us.

Our species has always been driven to build beyond

what we know.

We migrated across all of earth.

Created settlements, constructed cities,

and when we finally left our home planet,

we knew the risks involved.

As we set sail,

we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and

dangerous and greatest adventure on which

man has ever embarked.

However will is a double edged sword.

Again, and again it's taken us farther than we ever

thought we could go.

But this time we had seized on an object so vast,

so difficult to attain.

I couldn't help but wonder if we might have

finally pushed too far.

A.I. guidance is good.

We keep this pace,

we'll be there in a little under 15 hours.

It's a lot of work this space thing.

Is it worth it?

Did you?

Ben, are you okay?

Yeah, I'm fine.

We're gonna have a lot of work to do when we get

to base camp.

I packed the blanket substrate from

the secondary panels...

Ben!

No, no no, no, no,

you're having difficulty breathing.

I'm OK.

You are not OK.

Your blood oxygen is dropping and

your heart rate is too high.

You knew.

You knew, and you wouldn't let Amelie examine you.

We didn't have enough time.

I think you've got blood in your lungs.

You need aspiration to get it out and I can't treat you

without the equipment at basecamp.

We've gotta drive faster.

The rover isn't designed to do more than

ten kilometers per hour.

If I adjust the software protocols

I can push that to twenty, but with the terrain between

us and base camp, it's gonna be a rocky ride.

Ben...

I don't want this vehicle going over fifteen,

do you understand me?

Got that, captain.

Someone modified the rover's speed protocols.

I've got them pushing 12 kilometers per hour

and climbing.

What the hell are they doing?

It's Ben, play it.

Cueing rover audio feed now.

Bringing satellite up.

Sawyer's biometrics coming online.

Your blood oxygen is dropping and your

heart rate is too high.

I think you've got blood in your lungs.

I can't treat you without the equipment at basecamp.

We've gotta drive faster.

There were people who asked us why we wanted to

go to this place that would almost surely kill us.

And whether anything we did to prepare ourselves

would be enough.

Humanity has never undertaken anything

like sending humans to another planet.

So how do humans get ready to go to Mars?

Or how do they survive for this mission?

Now last month we launched a new

spacecraft as part of a reenergized space program that

will send American astronauts to Mars and in two months,

to prepare us for those missions,

Scott Kelly will begin a year long stay in space.

So good luck, captain, we're proud of you.

An American astronaut is hours away from

beginning his one year mission on board the

International Space Station...

While Scott is in space, his twin brother,

former shuttle commander Mark Kelly will stay on earth,

the brothers, perfect subjects to study...

The trip to Mars is a long trip, seven months,

and so we have to understand, what does it mean for an

astronaut to be in orbit for that amount of time.

Pretty much any system in the body you can think of is affected from space flight.

The cardiovascular system is affected.

The muscular system is affected.

The immune system is affected.

Lots of things can go wrong the longer you'll spend in space.

Frankly we don't have very much data about

exactly what twelve months is gonna do to Scott's body.

It's an unknown, and you're basically allowing

yourself to be an experiment.

It could cost him his life.

This mission could cost him his life.

Ready for the launch,

we are ready for the launch.

I'm a test pilot, so,

I think it's important to push the envelope.

We're waving goodbye one last time,

before they're loaded in.

The risk factor of this, which is high,

makes it even more interesting.

The engines igniting,

ramping up...

and liftoff.

The year in space starts now, Kelly, Kornienko, Padlanka

on their way towards the International Space Station.

Going to Mars, not only will people become

invested in the safety and well-being of the explorers,

but also there is that drama, that sense of suspense,

as to whether or not they can survive on a world

that they were not made for.

Who is Ben Sawyer?

Ben Sawyer is our commander.

Ben is probably the most reliable

person I've ever met.

Ben is the eye of the storm.

He is a rock.

Ben Sawyer is a great commander and

I'm blessed and privileged to be one of his team.

Ask him.

Who is Ben Sawyer?

Uh, he is a member of the team.

How far?

21 down, 43 miles left.

Ben, hey, are you with us?

Yeah, always.

Hang in there.

Wheels five and six just locked.

Suspension system compromised.

Recommend visual assessment.

The problem is in the rear.

I'll get out there.

OK, I'm here.

We snapped a load supporting strut above the

third wheel-set.

Can we weld it?

No chance.

Alpha-one-alpha is split, the whole rocker is blown.

Repercussion report on damage

to load supporting strut alpha-one-alpha.

Replacement component required for

restoration of mobility...

necessary 3D printer is at the new base camp.

We're still 16.2 kilometers away.

I really need to treat Ben with the

equipment at the workshop.

We have to walk.

It's minus-35 degrees.

It will be minus-70 by nightfall.

We run out of battery, we freeze to death out there.

If we walk at a decent pace then

we can make it to base camp in four hours.

Loading the rover took time,

our batteries are already down to

four-and-a-half hours charging.

No, it's too tight a margin.

I'm not risking that exposure to my crew.

We charge the suits and we leave when

they're at capacity.

If you don't get to base camp,

then you'll suffocate before those batteries are charged...

I said we charge the...

We don't have a choice.

If you think ordering us to stay in this

rover to watch you die is the right thing to do,

you shouldn't be giving orders.

Send a status update to Mission Control.

Tell them we'll be out of contact until we

reach the base camp.

The funny thing about Mars,

you know, it rotates once in about 24 hours.

It has seasons, it has polar ice caps.

So on the informational surface it feels like earth.

But you dig a little deeper and you realize it's

very cold there, it's very dry there;

you can't breathe the air.

It is more hostile to life than any place on earth.

The hottest it gets on Mars is about

0 degrees Celsius.

And that's like high noon in the summer time

on the Equator.

But at night it will get as low as minus 100 Celsius.

There is a fundamental problem that we're

going to have to deal with in terms of a Mars mission

that was never the case with the Apollo program,

and that is the human body and how do we

protect it for long,

long periods in space and on the planet's surface.

We are exceptionally fragile creatures.

We are very well evolved to survive at sea level,

on this planet and nowhere else.

In the absence of gravity lots of

things can go wrong.

Your heart doesn't have to work as hard and so it

becomes less effective. Your brain has challenges,

controls your movements. The body seems to be

demineralizing your bones. These are all very important

to study, not just because academically we wanna know,

but because we wanna make sure that they're good to go when

they hit the surface of Mars.

So the physical challenges of

getting to Mars is gonna be fun, right,

you've been in a zero gravity environment for some

eight months which is like being in bed for eight months,

and then you reach the surface of Mars.

Your coordination, your cardiovascular system,

your respiratory system, all of that is all of a sudden

under a gravitational load that was never there and

so the question is will you be able to survive during

this crucial time of arrival?

If we don't succeed,

then we will have tried.

For the last seven months,

Daedalus had been our armor,

shielding us from the harms of our journey,

now we had nothing but our E.V.A. suits to

insulate us on the trip ahead.

We're still 16.2 kilometers away.

We have to walk.

It's minus-35 degrees.

It will be minus-70 by nightfall.

We run out of battery, we freeze to death out there.

Jesus.

Easy, easy.

We're not moving fast enough.

We can't stop.

We're averaging 3 kilometers per hour.

Ben, we can slow it down,

let you catch your breath.

No we can't.

We have to move faster.

We wanna make it by nightfall,

we're gonna have to reroute across the dunes.

He's right.

OK, OK, alright, come on.

Ben?

One, two, three!

Battery report.

21% power remaining, advise return to climate

controlled environment.

Oh my god, Ben, Ben!

Ben, Ben!

He's the type of guy that you'll

really never know until you're close to him.

He has a sense of humor.

You know, going a day without him cracking a joke

it's kind of like you haven't said something that

made me laugh today. What's up?

I think some people are genetically

programmed to want to go somewhere to leave

their home and explore.

You know you have to be very comfortable,

losing that connection to those you've left behind.

The type of person that you select to go

to Mars has to have a family that understands the risk.

My wife stayed home,

hoping that I would not fall into some tragedy that

I couldn't get out of,

you have to have mental attitude of being prepared

that something is going to happen.

When I think about space explorers I think of

their willingness to be so heart wrenchingly torn from

the earth and everyone they love and everyone they know,

to go and do impossible things.

I wonder if you could tell me a

little bit about your father?

When I was a child my father and I would,

would uh, build little models of the solar system and he

taught me all about the stars and taught me how to

find my way by the stars.

I don't know, right from then

I always wanted to be up there, you know?

Entering auxiliary mode thermoregulation deprioritized,

please return to a climate controlled environment

and charge suit immediately.

I don't want matrix, I want position.

How much longer before we hear something?

Including the delay and if they'd kept

their projected pace.

They should have arrived at base camp

over an hour ago.

Their suits would have shut down thermal

regulation to prioritize oxygen and CO2 scrubbing.

The electrigel will have some residual heat.

They're in full night.

Without power, they're gonna freeze out there.

Ben, Ben?

Stop.

Ben, Ben?

He can't hear me, Hana, you're in command now.

We've gotta keep moving.

It's gotta be close.

We're moving, let's go.

How long till visual?

Satellites are still out of range. Audio and

visual contact with crew is not possible until they

reach the workshop module.

We should see a beacon by now.

Horizon's closer here, we're in a valley.

I can't remember any songs...

It's gotta be here.

Can anyone remember a song?

We can't stop guys,

we can't afford to stop.

Stay with me Ben.

Warning, your battery power is at 2%.

CO2 scrubbing is now compromised.

The air is going toxic.

My vision is fading.

One more hill, hurry.

You're doing great Ben, you're doing great.

We're not very far.

We're gonna make it Ben, we're gonna make it.

We're not very far.

If you try to draw the solar system

on a piece of paper, the planets will be microscopic.

The only way you can get a sense of the scale

is to build a model.

It's a lot of work this space thing.

Was it worth it?

He can't breathe!

Where is the workshop?

It's there!

Ah, come on.

We need to work fast.

Come on!

Fast, get him in!

Pressurization complete.

Javier, pull his helmet and back pad

very gently.

Plug in his biometrics.

We'll worry about the infection later.

Get me the monitor and two large pour IVs.

I'm cutting the Kevlar to expose his torso.

I can see his heart rate climbing.

Dammit Ben there is blood in his

left lung and pleural space!

Get me a chest tube; we need to drain this now!

Prepping the chest tube.

Get him 100 mikes of fentanyl,

he's going to feel this!

Gloves.

His blood pressure is too low.

Scalpel.

His heart is constricted by fluid.

Oxygen saturation is at 88%.

Clamp...

Ben...

Chest tube.

I'm inserting the tube now.

We should see relief with symptoms.

Start suction.

Show me his vitals.

Stay with me!

His blood pressure is still dropping,

something else is wrong!

I can't feel anything through his suit,

I need to do another cut.

Scalpel.

His whole abdomen is full of blood,

he has ruptured his spleen.

Ben, stay with me!

Prep for a laparotomy.

I need to clamp up the blood supply and remove

the spleen, hurry!

We're not finished here Ben!

Stay with me, come on!

We're losing him, we're losing him.

Javier prep one millileter of...

I've got them.

I'm so tired Joon, we're all so tired.

He knew what he was doing.

He did it because he knew it was the best chance

any of us had...

I can barely believe he's still hanging on.

Blood was obliterating the lung and pleural space

in the left, diminishing lung capacity and preventing him

from properly oxygenating.

After evacuation of a large volume of blood and clot,

his spleen was noted to be extensively damaged.

I was able to safely remove it but his vital signs remain

unstable and he's still in guarded condition.

He lost so much blood, Joon,

it's impossible to say now if he lives, or...

the only thing is to wait....

I think sending humans to space

is our latest expression of the ancient human practice

called human sacrifice,

but really in the service of something much greater.

The early astronauts were risk-takers.

They were brave people.

They had been test pilots and flown in the early age

of the jet engines, and more than a few of them died.

Challenger now heading downrange.

Obviously a major malfunction, we have no downlink.

Sometimes painful things like this happen,

it's all part of the process of exploration and discovery.

The future doesn't belong to the faint hearted,

it belongs to the brave.

Having been up here for a year,

I now realize that a year is longer than I thought it was,

cause I feel like I've lived my whole life up here.

In space I never feel completely normal.

There's always something that is a little bit not right.

These astronauts when they put

themselves at risk they're not just putting themselves

at risk for the things that we know.

These people are putting their bodies at risk in ways

that we might not ever understand.

For us, and for the human race.

We won't really know what the mission

has done to him for years.

As we continue to monitor him through time,

and as we continue to see how the remainder of

his aging process works out.

We may not know for a long time exactly

what he sacrificed.

I have small worries,

you know I'm at school and someone calls me to the

front desk it's like, is dad okay?

But I have a lot of faith in the space program and

I know they're safe, but there's always that um,

idea that you had false hope and that there

is a possibility.

Okay.

Here, I'll put this headset on, hold on.

How you doing?

Good, how are you doing?

You don't look very excited.

Of course I miss him.

I miss him.

I just don't know how to show that I miss him.

Watching movies with him and just kind of hanging out.

It's like the things that don't seem important at the

time, but when it comes down to them being gone

you realize they're the most important.

I saw your report card.

Yeah.

It was pretty good.

You've gotta do better in Spanish, though.

Yeah, I know.

I don't like other languages, and it's just hard.

Languages are just hard to learn,

cause I've been studying Russian for like, I don't know,

18 years and there's no secret, it's just hard work.

For the last year of my life,

he has missed me growing about four inches taller,

me going into a new school, new friends.

A lot.

You know, he's sacrificing time on earth and life,

in a sense.

Next time I see you Charlotte,

you'll be at the bottom of the steps when I get

off the airplane.

Yep, the first thing I'm gonna do when

I see him is I'm gonna give him a giant bear hug

because that's what he wants me to do.

I don't want the one-armed half hug.

I want, I want the big bear hug...

both arms.

Two arms all the way around

and squeeze him.

Yeah, just like that.

He's like planned it out

for me, everything.

Mikhail Korniyenko, Scott Kelly,

Sergei Volkov on their way home.

What is a good life that we

should aspire to?

Is a good life one that is enjoyed

with pleasure and without risk or is a

good life one that has a chance to achieve great deeds?

There's the immediate risk of the

rocket blowing up.

It's kinda like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel,

while you're on fire.

As soon as you realize you're not gonna die it's

the most fun you've ever had.

We have to go to Mars.

It'll require more sacrifice, more radiation,

more risk, more time away.

I'd still do it, though.

I will miss my sister,

and I'll be worried that she's worried about me.

I'm sorry, sir.

I didn't hire you because I was convinced

you could keep your feelings separate from this mission.

I hired you because I knew you couldn't.

Cause I needed someone who understands what I understand.

For something like this to work, it has to be personal.

We dream.

It's who we are.

Down to our bones, our cells.

We'd come tens of millions of kilometers

through the darkness.

All of us prepared to sacrifice everything.

Because we knew that making a home in this place

was the only chance humanity had to go on dreaming.

I thought I'd find you up here.

Farewell.

He was gone.

I was in command now.

With Ben's strength to guide us,

we had made the longest journey in the

history of humankind.

And I knew we had even further to go without him.