Original subtitles

Previously on Mars.

We at MMC feel that we're ready to go faster.

Phase two expansion was underway and

the Cyngus crew had arrived with experts to

oversee our upgrades.

Base commander Hana Seung.

We had hoped to have the second facility up by now,

but we've been running into trouble every step of the way.

Within two months we'll have enough power

to double the size and capacity of your facilities.

Hana approved this?

I informed her yes.

It's a little too ambitious right now.

You don't go to Mars without ambition.

No matter how hard Ed Grann's team worked to

expand Olympus town's infrastructure,

Mars worked even harder to tear it down.

Oliver!

And I was caught in the middle,

trying to keep us alive.

Our dream is now a reality.

They don't know Mars.

I don't think we're going to get a

chance to get that reactor back online.

_

Pressurization complete, perprolate deposits detected.

Please sanitize before entry.

Seung Hana, mission entry phase 2.

We've been in full storm protocol for the last two months,

trying to budget the power and resources we have.

The way current satellite forecasts are looking it could

be anywhere between 5 to 8, 9 weeks before the storm passes.

There's no sign of relief.

Experiments have been put on hold.

All EVA's suspended.

The days seem like they go on forever,

filled with innane tasks and darkness.

My grandfather used to read me this book on

long blizzard nights.

I hope this storm ends before I have the whole thing memorized.

We never had a chance to bring the nuclear

reactor back online after Oliver's accident.

The redundancies are gone and we're on backup power.

I don't like running like this,

it means we're just one complication away from a complete outage.

Dr. Leslie Richardson may be overseeing Olympus town's

infrastructure now,

but I'm still responsible for the safety of everyone in it.

Two brothers.

Nick.

Twins.

That grow light can you just take it out.

And their father king.

Doctor.

This is not a good time, sorry.

We have to start rationing power.

These lamps were inadequate to begin with

and now we're only utilizing fifty percent of

their potential output.

We barely have the power to keep the feed systems running.

I'm struggling to keep the crop yield as it was 2 months ago.

I know.

The solar arrays are useless in the storm.

We have to reserve power for critical systems.

If we hadn't taken the nuclear reactor offline before the storm,

I've instructed Robert to dial the greenhouse power

down to one-quarter output.

Please.

They're only babies.

I'm sorry.

There's nothing I can do.

Would you leave me alone, please?

Of course.

I'm sorry...

Truly sorry.

With Robert squeezing every last bit of energy

out of our reserves, we were all just hanging on,

as we tried to weather the storm.

We've been studying the dust storms on Mars for quite some time,

and there's a particular season

where some of the dust storms can actually go global.

Not just regional, but global.

Dust storms on Mars can be absolutely enormous.

They can be 20 to 30 kilometers high,

and in fact the dust can get charged

and in the case of these really tall dust storms,

lightning can strike.

These dust storms are huge.

They can cover the entire planet,

and they can last for months.

They're visible from space.

Mars just kind of turns into a hazy, red ball,

and we can't see surface features anymore

with our satellites.

The dust, it's not like sand.

It's like talcum powder.

It's very, very microscopicly small nasty dust particles.

And if they get into your lungs,

it's a human safety issue.

So you would want to try to keep it out

as much as possible.

There's a lot of dust on Mars.

You know we've learned from our rovers

on Mars that they're constantly getting covered in dust.

And one of the problems with solar panels is that

dust would cover them almost instantly,

or they would simply block out the Sun so much

that they don't work.

If you've got a dust storm that lasted for a month on Mars,

and you were relying on solar power you'd be in big trouble.

We have no energy and

I can't keep my plants alive.

This storm has been raging for months.

They call it a season.

I can't do my job.

You told us that we were sending the best minds on earth,

doubling the power, expanding the infrastructure,

these people have been trapped in a dust storm for two months

with a third of the power they had before you had your

prodigy shut it down.

This storm is just a bump in the road.

We have the world's leading agronomist working

around the clock.

He's getting hybrids producing,

and that will make Olympus town self-sustaining.

That means Mars will have the resources to feed

thousands of people,

and those people are going to need rockets

to get there.

We own the hybrids, and we build the rockets.

We just have to play the long game.

She left, she left, but not you.

It's gonna be ok.

These are the times that try men's souls.

Paul Richardson please report to the medlab.

Paul Richardson please report to the medlab.

But this storm.

I know.

Dr. Richardson, please come in.

Look, if this is a bad time, I've got a lot of work to do.

No, no, no.

We'll talk more at next week's session,

and I'm here in the meantime whenever you need me, okay?

Come in.

Just a quick examination and you'll be on your way.

This storm, it's getting to everyone.

How are you holding up?

I'm fine.

You prepare for everything you can,

but there are some things you just cannot train for.

Are you missing home?

No.

That would be okay, you know.

To miss home.

It would be normal, even.

I'm okay.

And your wife,

how are things with you and her?

We're working mostly.

Look, I could really.

And how is the work?

The hybrids, how are they coming along?

They're trying.

They're really trying.

Hey.

I know it's hard especially now,

but maybe the best thing is to take a little time

away from the work and refill the well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I couldn't save them.

They weren't strong enough.

They died so that you could live.

It's all on you.

It's all on you.

We're going to be strong.

Just remember, we have it in our power

to start the world over again.

We have the power.

God bless Mars.

Mars sounds like a terrifically

romantic idea, what could be a greater adventure?

The realities of this adventure are almost depressing,

and they're significant.

There are a lot of challenges involved in surviving

in a very small spacecraft with a few other human beings

for eight months at a time and then being able to

deal with the idea that you're not going back to earth

for possibly decades.

So that you're leaving everything behind,

and maintaining a psychological balance in what

is really a vast desert and unfriendly environment

is not going to be easy for people.

It's always wise to test

what you're about to do, in advance.

You wanna live on Mars isolated?

Create some kind of hab module on earth,

test that in advance.

We've been here just over

seven months and we've got just under five to go

so it's like 140 something days left, um,

it's been a long time.

Hi-Seas is a NASA-funded research analog

and simulation.

It's located at about 8,000 feet on the slopes of

Mauna Loa here on Hawaii so the crews we put there

are very isolated.

The goal of Hi-Seas is to be as close as possible

to a Mars mission, so that means we put

a lot of constraints on the crew.

Groups of people living together is

what civilization is, we're very good at it.

Interestingly the biggest problem is when you have

a small group of people.

So you'll notice there are only four crew members here,

and well here are the other,

here are the other two.

You have a small number of people, the,

the biggest risk to the mission's success is those

people not getting along.

And even if they're very, very professional about it,

if they're not getting along and they're not communicating enough,

there's going to be problems.

Talk to people that have been in prison,

the lack of control over your environment and your life is stressful,

to not be able to just do what you want to do when

you want to do it is a, a stressor.

This is what it will be like to be on a Mars mission.

I know that we face far less danger

than a Mars mission, and that's ok.

This is a simulation just like any other simulation

but these aren't just simulated effects, these are real.

You really are isolated, you really do feel separated

from planet earth and this is the part of the simulation

that NASA is interested in.

What we're concerned with is how resilient are the crew,

if you think about it,

the human part of a Mars mission is just as critical

as the technological part.

If the human part breaks,

it's just as disastrous as if the rocket blows up.

How's it going Emmanuel?

I, I know that I haven't been around a lot.

I've been working really hard.

Systems are all experiencing losses and moving slowly.

We are trying to work together as a team, some days are good,

some days are rough and it's ok, you know,

I never realized how hard it was trying to

hold it together.

Just be tough.

Just be tough.

I can't keep the plants alive at this level.

I know. What do you want me to say?

We should have been at twice the power now at least.

So I don't know what else to say.

And no one anticipated a storm of this magnitude?

Of course not.

That storm was moving faster than anything we've

ever monitored this early in the season.

How could we?

The plan was there.

There's nothing else we can do at this point.

Let's face it.

Ugh, god, really?

Do you even try to tidy up before you come home?

I mean, I did my job.

The team's training was impeccable,

the plan was bulletproof, it should have worked!

We should have had nuclear fully up and running by now.

Before we even got here.

Do you think I don't feel awful that Oliver got hurt?

It's constantly on my mind.

Did you know sometimes I feel as if people are not

really looking at me as I pass them in the hall?

Paul,

darling?

Also showing emotional strain is

Dr. Richardson, Paul J.

While Richardson reports no psychological issues,

his affect and behavior with the crew is,

I request psychiatric consultation and review of

prior and current mental health testing.

Please send all records via private med link.

Thanks.

The lightning strike must have blown a junction box

between Olympus and the reserve power station.

Every second that passes

we're draining batteries just keeping air breathable and heat running.

I've got Mae back online in the main terminal.

Mae, what's the status on critical systems?

Climate recycling rate decreased to 75% nominal.

Current rate of temperature decline three degrees

celsius per hour.

I have to make repairs.

There's no way I'm sending anyone out there,

it's way too dangerous.

There's no visibility,

you'll be completely blind.

We'll take the Rover, get as close as we can.

It'll be slow going, but

it's the only shot we have.

It is.

All right, good luck.

Hey, I've been calling.

I'm sorry, I've had my hands full,

two and a half months in a dust storm means clean-up

down here too.

Walk with me.

I want to talk to you about increasing freighter launches,

our assembly line can handle it.

I'm still doing damage control after

losing power in the middle of a dust storm,

and you want to talk to me about freighters?

The nations are getting cold feet, Ed.

This is a public relations exercise,

and the public sentiment is as low as it's ever been.

China is talking about pulling out.

Don't worry about that.

As long as the U.S. and E.U. stay on board,

no way China risks missing out on the glory down the road.

Olympus town was ready for this storm;

the nuclear reactor was operational before you gambled

on an accelerated schedule.

Your expansion plan was science fiction.

The money doesn't come without expansion.

No money, no MMC; No MMC, no mission.

It was the right play.

This isn't some lush frontier land.

They are fighting for every step of the way.

If we push too hard too fast, something's going to break.

Interference detected in all navigational systems.

The electrostatics are whacking guidance to hell.

I can't see anything.

We can triangulate that down to

a seven and a half meter-discrepancy.

Good thing I came to help.

When I was a child,

the Harmattan wind would blow into Lagos from the Sahara.

Sand storms would cover the whole city,

sometimes all the way to the ocean.

People would lose their way, turn up kilometers out,

skin raw from sand burn, lungs filled with dust.

You'll have plenty to do when we find that junction box

just making sure I don't get lost out there.

Believe me,

I am grateful for the company.

Do you still think about it,

the ocean?

Every day.

Trouble is, every time it's like the

waves are getting a little quieter.

Like someone's turning down the volume.

Yeah, last week I realized I

couldn't even remember what the ocean sounded like.

Yeah.

We're going to be okay.

You sure about that?

Well, I hope so.

Let's talk of groves of warmth,

look at you, look at you.

You are so strong.

Oh, well done, you clever, clever thing.

How about I introduce you to your brothers?

For god's sake let us sit upon the ground

and tell sad stories of the death of kings.

How some have been deposed, some slain in war,

some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed.

Some poisoned by their wives and...

You are gonna love this.

This is going to be a treat just for you.

Botanist, my ass.

Leslie!

Oh, look, I'm up to date on weekly

so if this is supplemental, I can save you the trouble:

I miss home, but I'm not homesick;

I don't ever think of hurting myself or anyone else;

I'm not experiencing any more stress than anyone

would under the circumstances,

and the only voices in my head are the ones telling me

to get back to work.

I'm not worried about you.

I spoke to Paul and he seemed, distant.

He's just focused.

I checked his ration allotment and

he's hardly eating.

He forgets sometimes.

Look, he lives for his work and he can't do it.

What do you expect?

Can I go now?

Yeah, sure.

We don't think it's a trivial thing to send

people off to Mars and just assume that intelligence and

motivation and getting along before they go

is going to be enough.

We actually have to understand who is going to have a real problem

with prolonged exploration in an extreme environment.

Not everyone can tolerate the isolation,

the loneliness, the risk.

To life and limb.

Some people disintegrate psychologically and

behaviorally and you look back at many of the explorations

where humans moved where humans moved across thousands of miles

you typically will see dysfunction

occur in crews.

It happened on shackleton's mission to the south pole.

He puts his men off at elephant island and tries to

get to South Georgia island, 800 miles in heavy seas.

But he's got a very dysfunctional carpenter,

psychologically sick, so he has to take him along

cause he can't leave him with the crew because it's going

to create chaos.

On Mars, just like the nineteenth century explorers,

you might see fragmenting of the crews

and you find these dynamics in these historical records and you see how

problematic they are for the success of the mission.

Someone wrote this at the end of the fourth century,

St. Augustine.

My memory contains my feelings.

Not in the same way as they are present in the mind

when it experiences them, but in a quite different way.

That is in keeping with the special powers of the memory.

For even when I am unhappy

I can remember times when I was cheerful.

And when I'm cheerful I can remember past unhappiness.

I can recall past fears, and yet not feel afraid

and when I remember that once I wanted something,

I can do so without wishing to have it now.

Marty? Look at me in the eyes.

Sometimes memory can induce the opposite feeling.

Jake, are you still taking your antibiotics?

For I can be glad to remember sorrow

that is over and done with.

Alex, feeling better?

Yes, yes thank you.

And sorry to remember happiness

that has come to an end.

Anything?

Okay, just a second.

Okay, I got your signal.

Junction box should be less than five meters out,

six degrees north-east.

Anything?

Negative.

You should be seeing the cable now.

I have no visual.

Robert it's...

You're breaking up, Javier.

I can't hear you.

What?

Storm's interfering with the signal.

Javier, Javier?

Robert, do you copy?

Hello, Javier?

I said it's dead ahead, dead ahead.

Copy that.

Damn it.

You okay?

Robert, you okay?

Robert?

I'm out of room on my tether.

Okay, Robert.

You need to come back to the Rover.

I can't move the Rover any farther forward because

of the terrain.

It's too dangerous out there with this storm.

So we can't risk it.

Come back.

Robert, you need to come back.

I'm going to unclip.

No, no, no, no, Robert, do not unclip.

Do not unclip, Robert.

Come back.

Robert, Robert, do you copy?

Do not unclip Robert!

Robert, answer me.

Robert, do not unclip.

Can you hear me Robert?

Where are you?

Robert, come on.

Robert!

Come on, Robert.

Robert, I need you, come back here.

Robert, Robert!

The challenge people face when they do

exploration is that they're used to handling conflict or

disagreement or dislike with each other by separating,

and being apart for awhile.

With spaceflight, or any exploration that involves

intense confinement, where you can't get away from the

other people, and you're all in a very tiny space.

The whole idea of individual territoriality

becomes a problem.

This sounds astonishing.

Billion dollar explorations and yet it comes down to the

little things that will often determine what happens.

These things definitely occur, they occur in the antarctic,

and they occur in other analogs.

The Russians created something called a Mars 500 Mission

which was a 520 day full simulation

of a crew of 6 to Mars and back.

They will live as if they were in an

interplanetary spaceship.

They will eat, sleep, and train as if they

were real astronauts.

They sealed the crew in the chamber and

isolated them so you couldn't have social contact,

and then they held the crew to not only the time delays,

but to a full simulated mission to Mars so there was a

landing on the martian surface simulated, and it was

many, many months, and to go to the bottom line,

out of 6 crew members, 2 managed to maintain stable

activity levels and were psychologically healthy.

Four other crew members experienced problems with mood,

emotion, impulsivity, insomnia.

These were people who were astronaut trainers

and physicians so they knew about space life.

Even with that kind of a skilled and analog crew that

is close to astronauts, you find the crew is suffering.

We don't understand why people equally trained and

equally intelligent, equally capable as astronauts

will have different rates of vulnerability.

We actually have to understand who is going to have

a real problem in space flight because ultimately

there are some people who are going to have

a really hard time.

Robert, come on Robert, talk to me.

Where are you?

Come back here.

Robert do you copy?

Robert, please, talk to me Robert, do you copy?

Robert, do you copy?

Robert, Robert!

Found it.

What, you found it?

I found the cable.

Jesus, yeah, man.

You scared the hell out of me.

I'm here.

How bad is it?

Looks like my ex-wife's cooking.

The chef?

The lawyer.

Yeah, I can imagine, man.

Can you fix it?

The junction box is gonna take some work.

But I can do it, I can fix it.

Hana, you doing ok?

We spend all this time looking for something greater than us,

something that'll bring us all together,

but what if it's not even there?

I used to think the struggle was enough.

But lately, I'm having a hell of a time

imagining sisyphus happy.

Hana, I'm "running out";

I miss you so much.

I want you to come home.

Okay?

I want you to come home.

Finally,

when we thought it could only get darker,

there was light.

Power restored.

Solar power back online.

Eastern section systems fully online.

Environmental systems restored.

Thermal control restored.

Recycling systems restored.

Central section systems fully online.

Western section systems fully online.

Greenhouse systems fully online.

Commander Seung,

please come to the facility monitors immediately.

Commander Seung, please come to the facility monitors now.

Oliver, what's going on?

It's Paul Richardson.

What is he doing?

Paul!

Greenhouse airlock compromised.

Imminent danger.

Sam, get to the pressure door immediately!

Evacuate the west section now!

Imminent danger, imminent danger.

Sam, seal the door.

Imminent danger.

There are people in there!

Move!

Sam you have to seal the door.

- Imminent danger. - Seal the door!

Shut the door!

West section jeopardized.

Imminent danger.

East wing pressure stabilized.