All language subtitles for National11111.Geographic.A.Travelers.Guide.To.The.Planets.S01E01.Venus.and.Mercury.720p.HDTV.x264-DHD.Eng

NARRATOR: Everyone Iikes a
vacation in a warm cIimate,

but how about a trip to two
pIanets that are as hot as HeII?

DAVID 7AIGE: If you were waIking
on the surface of Mercury you

wouId need one heck
of a spacesuit.

NARRATOR: Mysterious Mercury
appears IifeIess and desoIate.

But hidden deep inside is
a cIue to a different past.

SEAN SOLOMON: The smaIIest
pIanet made out of densest

stuff, with the most Iunar-Iike
Iandscape at its surface.

And yet generating
a magnetic fieId.

NARRATOR: But it's nearby
Venus, goddess of Iove,

who wiII reaIIy meIt your heart
and crush your defenses at the

same time.

MIKHAIL MAROV:So this is a HeII.
A reaI HeII!

NARRATOR: Once
the twin of Earth,

something went wrong
here, terribIy wrong.

ELLEN STOFAN: At some point
Venus had an ocean's worth of

water that is now gone.

NARRATOR: What turned Venus from
paradise to pressure cooker?

CouId this reaIIy be our future?

DAVID GRINS7OON: The uItimate
fate of the Earth is to Iook

Iike Venus Iooks today.

NARRATOR: And here,
on our own doorstep,

there is possibIy the greatest
survivaI story of aII.

KEVIN BAINES: There is some
specuIation that Venus might

actuaIIy stiII harbor
Iife, even though it is such

a hostiIe pIace.

NARRATOR: There has never been
a better time to boIdIy go where

no human has gone before.

To foIIow in the footsteps of
our robot pioneers and visit the

pIanets of the SoIar System.

NARRATOR: Ever wanted
to be an astronaut?

Imagine it was you who was
heading to the Hot Zone

of the two inner pIanets.

Where wouId you go?
What wouId you see?

And how wouId you survive?

The Iatest robotic missions have
reveaIed more about these worIds

than ever before.

Armed with this new knowIedge,
think of this as your personaI

traveI guide to
our near neighbors.

NARRATOR: As the pIanet
cIosest to the Sun,

Mercury is the uItimate
summer vacation.

Step out of your spacecraft
and sizzIing temperatures

are guaranteed...

for a day that
Iasts three months.

And when the Sun
finaIIy does set,

the nightIife begins - with
a unique cosmic Iight show.

This is one pockmarked pIanet
worth taking a cIoser Iook at.

Like our Moon, Mercury
is covered in craters.

BRETT DENEVI: You can't Iook
at the Moon or Mercury without

seeing impact craters.

NARRATOR: It's a good thing
Brett Denevi Ioves a big impact.

As a member of the imaging team
on the current Messenger Mission

to Mercury, she
sees a Iot of them.

BRETT DENEVI: What's exciting
for me is I get to be one of the

first peopIe to see these images
of pIaces on the pIanet that

we've never seen before.

NARRATOR: Most peopIe come here
to Meteor Crater in Arizona to

see a big hoIe in the ground.
Brett's desires run deeper.

BRETT DENEVI:If you want to
study impact craters on Mercury

this is the best pIace to come.

I mean, this is the most
weII preserved impact

crater on Earth.

It's the cIosest
you're going to get.

NARRATOR: Wonder what it
wouId be Iike to take

a stroII on Mercury?

You can waIk around Meteor
Crater in about an hour.

But on Mercury you
wouIdn't know when to stop.

Craters here stretch as
far as the eye can see.

AIthough no human has
ever set foot on Mercury,

we have a pretty good idea
of what you wouId see.

MISSION CONTROL: We
copy you down, EagIe.

SEAN SOLOMON: If you were
waIking around on the surface of

Mercury it wouId Iook,
outwardIy, a Iot Iike the Moon.

NARRATOR: When you
step onto Mercury,

you step into a worId
with no reaI atmosphere;

where the sky is as bIack as
night and abIaze in sunshine.

And where a drive is an off-road
trek through at Ieast a three

biIIion year-oId battIefieId.

BRETT DENEVI: Big craters, smaII
craters, craters everywhere.

So that's your first
impression Iooking at it.

NARRATOR: Like the Moon,
Mercury took most of its

battering earIy on.

A siIent witness to
the dawn of time,

it's been undisturbed by
a singIe drop of rain or

breath of wind ever since.

DAVID 7AIGE: For the most part
the surface of Mercury has been

frozen in time for periods
of biIIions of years.

And you may say, 'That's
boring', but not necessariIy.

It's a good thing because these
pIanets such as Mercury and the

Moon preserve a record of
what was going on during this

criticaI earIy period of the
SoIar System's formation.

And so we can basicaIIy
study it there,

because it's Iaying
right on the surface.

NARRATOR: Every stone and crater
of this pockmarked worId has the

potentiaI to gaze back
four-and-a-haIf biIIion years

But counting these craters is
just the first chaIIenge when it

comes to reveaIing a
pIanet Iike Mercury.

BRETT DENEVI: It's aIways Iow
on the horizon so it's hard to

point a teIescope
at it from Earth.

It's hard to get into orbit
around Mercury because it's so

cIose to the Sun.

NARRATOR: For that reason,
Mercury remains one of the most

under expIored pIanets
in our SoIar System.

Many aspects, Iike its
geoIogicaI past, are a mystery.

But some things we do know:
this IoneIy pIanet has a strange

sense of keeping time.

NARRATOR: Once you arrive,
you'II have to reset your watch

for a time zone Iike no other.

BRETT DENEVI: It has such an
unusuaI orbit and rotation

period, the days and
nights are very strange.

NARRATOR: A Mercurian year
is just 88 Earth days Iong,

thanks to its quick
sprint around the Sun.

But it rotates so sIowIy, a
singIe day takes much Ionger.

BRETT DENEVI: The day on Mercury
is more Iike haIf-a-year

on Earth's terms.

NARRATOR: AIthough known
to us since ancient times,

for thousands of years we had
IittIe idea of what the pIanet

reaIIy Iooked Iike.

NARRATOR: Then in 1 e74, NASA's
Mariner 1 e sends back the first

ever gIimpses of its surface.

NEWSREEL NARRATION: 7ictures
can be transmitted to tracking

stations and onto the Jet
PropuIsion Laboratory in

CaIifornia.

MARK ROBINSON: But due to
Mercury's sIow rotation and its

eIIipticaI orbit around the Sun,
when it fIew by three times it

saw the same haIf of the pIanet.

So we've reaIIy onIy seen
something Iike 47 percent of the

pIanet at reIativeIy
Iow resoIution.

NARRATOR: Hidden in these fuzzy
bIack and white postcards for

over 30 years, are cIues that
point to one of Mercury's

biggest puzzIes:
it's been shrinking.

MARK ROBINSON: Mercury
doesn't have pIate tectonics

Iike the Earth does.

So we know that Mercury's crust
is under a Iot of compression.

And the onIy way you can reaIIy
do that is if the pIanet shrank.

And so you can think
of it as the 'IncredibIe

Shrinking PIanet'.

NARRATOR: As Mariner 1 0 fIies
past, the mystery deepens.

The spacecraft detects a vast
iron core, hidden inside.

BRETT DENEVI: Mercury's core
makes up about 60 percent of the

pIanet by mass. It's about
twice as big as Earth's.

Why wouId it have such a huge
core for such a smaII pIanet?

Some peopIe think there was a
huge impact that happened that

kind of stripped off
a Iot of the pIanet.

And now what we're seeing is
just the remnant of a

once bigger pIanet.

NARRATOR: Many questions about
Mercury remain unanswered,

questions a new mission
wiII hopefuIIy soIve.

MISSION CONTROL: Five, four,
three, main engine start, two,

one and zero and Iift off of
Messenger on NASA's mission to

Mercury.

NARRATOR: NASA's Messenger
spacecraft wiII become the first

probe to orbit Mercury.

SEAN SOLOMON: Getting a
spacecraft into orbit around

Mercury is difficuIt for two
reasons: the Sun and the Sun.

The Sun as a source of heat and
the Sun as a source of gravity.

NARRATOR: To sneak past the Sun,
Messenger is taking a convoIuted

route, fIying past
the Earth once,

Venus twice and Mercury
itseIf three times,

to arrive in fuIItime
orbit by e01 1 .

MARK ROBINSON: When you go into
orbit you can end up mapping the

whoIe pIanet at fairIy
high resoIution.

So we wiII start having a mature
and fundamentaI understanding of

Mercury, not onIy its surface,
but its whoIe chemistry

throughout the whoIe pIanet.

From that we can unraveI, to
some degree, how it formed.

NARRATOR: What other secrets are
etched into Mercury's

ancient surface?

AIready, Messenger has sent
back some curious cIues.

Arriving at Mercury?

There's a Iist of
naturaI wonders to see.

And even a dazzIing Iight show.

After Messenger's three fIybys,
we've now mapped more than e0

percent of the pIanet.

Taken from around 1e4 miIes,
these images are the cIearest to

date of Mercury.

And it's not hard to spot a
crater of epic proportions - the

resuIt of yet another
titanic coIIision.

BRETT DENEVI: That's the CaIoris
Basin, this impact basin.

It covers aImost three
miIIion square kiIometers.

It's one of the biggest
in the SoIar System.

NARRATOR: The size of AIaska
and CaIifornia combined,

whatever created CaIoris
aImost destroyed the pIanet.

MARK ROBINSON: It was something
in the order of a hundred

kiIometers in size.

It couId have been a huge comet
or it couId have been a very

Iarge asteroid.

It had a catastrophic
effect on the surface.

NARRATOR: Shockwaves
rippIed around the crust,

buckIing it on
the opposite side.

SPIDER IMAGES.

NARRATOR: And near the
center of the crater,

is another spectacuIar
geoIogicaI puzzIe -- that has

the experts scratching
their heads.

BRETT DENEVI: The Spider is this
reaIIy strange feature that's in

aImost the center of
the CaIoris Basin.

MARK ROBINSON: Oh, The Spider.

That reaIIy annoys me when I
hear peopIe caII it that 'cause

it doesn't Iook Iike a spider.

How many Iegs does a
spider have? Eight, right?

BRETT DENEVI: It Iooks kind
of Iike a 1 00-Iegged spider.

But it has aII of
these radiating cracks

coming out of it.

NARRATOR: Whether The Spider is
the resuIt of pIanetary stretch

marks, or some obscure
cratering process, no one knows.

MARK ROBINSON: It's a
fascinating feature.

We don't know how it formed.
It's very tantaIizing.

NARRATOR: So, for a pIanet
that appears inactive,

more has been going on deep
inside Mercury than we ever gave

it credit for.

There's even more occurring
above the surface that can't be

seen. And it invoIves the
reIentIess force of the Sun.

NARRATOR: Like Mercury, the
Earth takes a beating from the

Sun's vioIent temper.

NARRATOR: FIares, sun storms and
other soIar hissy fits can cause

eIectronic mayhem for the
sateIIites that roam above

our heads.

NARRATOR: FortunateIy, the Earth
is protected from this radiation

by a magnetic shieId, a kind
of force fieId generated by

our moIten iron core.

JAMES SLAVIN: PIanetary
magnetic fieIds shieId pIanets,

their surfaces and their
atmospheres from charged

particIes that are aIways
coming off the Sun.

NARRATOR: The auroras that Iight
up our poIar skies are evidence

of our protective
shieId at work.

Without it, Iife
wouId not exist here.

Visit Mercury and you'II be
visiting the onIy other pIanet

in the inner SoIar System
with a magnetic fieId.

But its very existence
defies expIanation.

JAMES SLAVIN: Now the mystery
there is that in order to have a

magnetic fieId, you need to have
an interior to the pIanet that

is at Ieast partiaIIy moIten.

Mercury, one of the
smaIIest of the pIanets,

wouId have been expected to
reaIIy have frozen aII the way

through.

And yet we have a
reIativeIy strong,

very weII defined magnetic fieId
that appears to have a source

that's Iocated
deep in the pIanet.

NARRATOR: Whatever mechanism
is driving Mercury's magnetic

fieId, its too weak to protect
it from the fuII force

of the Sun.

The SoIar Wind buffets
Mercury's thin atmosphere.

And in the process, it
puts on a Iight show.

RON VERVACK: The reason you'd
want to go to Mercury as a

traveI destination wouId
be this night-side view,

because it's going to be highIy
unique in the SoIar System.

You have sodium atoms that are
streaming off and giving off

this yeIIow Iight.

And so you can aImost Iook as if
you're standing in a doughnut of

sodium emission.

NARRATOR:With the sunrise
three months away,

you'II have pIenty of time to
sit back and take in the view,

framed in a haIo of amber Iight.

RON VERVACK: In some sense you
can get a very nice Iight show.

And I know peopIe go to Canada
to Iook at the Northern Lights

aII the time.

And so that wouId be a
reason to go to Mercury.

NARRATOR: Not a night owI?
Then head into the Iight.

But when you're this cIose
to a steIIar rotisserie,

make sure you pack
pIenty of sunscreen.

NARRATOR: If you want a suntan,
you can't beat the dusty

sands of Mercury.

Stretch out on the ground here
and the Sun crackIes and fizzes

right above you, appearing
aImost three times bigger in the

sky and seven times as hot.

DAVID PAIGE: If you were waIking
on the surface of Mercury you

wouId need one heck
of a space suit.

Because if you were in the
Sun it wouId be extremeIy hot.

You wouId see an enormous Sun in
the sky that wouId just burn you

to death if you spent any
time in it whatsoever.

NARRATOR: The mercury reaIIy
cIimbs on Mercury - to a toasty

840 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's about twice as hot as
your kitchen oven on fuII heat.

JAMES SLAVIN: At such high
temperatures you have a

Iiquid metaIs.

NARRATOR: You'II need a bit
more than SPF 30 sunscreen here.

NARRATOR: To escape the heat,
you can aIways head to

the dark side. But dress warmIy.

With virtuaIIy no atmosphere
to keep the heat in,

the temperature pIummets to
minus e77 degrees Fahrenheit.

And it's here in the freezer
that Messenger wiII encounter

another puzzIe: Can ice exist
on a pIanet so cIose to the Sun?

DAVID PAIGE: It was onIy when
the first radar observations of

the surface of Mercury were
obtained back in the 'nineties

that it was discovered that
Mercury in fact had what

appeared to be poIar caps
in these first radar images.

NARRATOR: Some corners of
Mercury's poIar craters are in

permanent shadow.

Here, on the most
Sun-baked pIanet of aII,

water seems to survive
frozen in eternaI darkness.

DAVID PAIGE: The ice is
contained in pIaces where

IiteraIIy the Sun never shines.

And so the ice is sequestered in
these dark interiors of craters

at the high Iatitude regions.

NARRATOR: We found the
same thing on our Moon.

In Iate e00e, the LCROSS mission
crashed a probe into a deepIy

shadowed crater, confirming
ice hidden near the Iunar

south poIe.

Where did it come from? A comet?

DAVID PAIGE: It's very
interesting because we beIieve

that the water in the
Earth, in its atmosphere,

in the oceans and even beIow
the surface probabIy came from a

simiIar source.

And so part of the mystery of
Mercury is to try to find out

where the water came from and
maybe that might heIp us find

out where the water
on Earth came from.

Mercury. But
how about a robot ...

In e01 1 , when Messenger
arrives in orbit,

imagine this tough IittIe
spacecraft circIing a IoneIy

pIanet, a very
Iong way from home.

NARRATOR: Move away from the Sun
and you'd expect things to cooI

down a IittIe.

NARRATOR: Venus: the picture
of cooIness and caIm.

AII paIe, beguiIing
and cIoaked by cIouds.

But the pIanet of Iove
is shrouded in mystery.

Drop beneath her treacherous
veiI at your own risk.

NARRATOR: PIanning
a vacation to Venus?

Nothing is as it shouId be here,
on our twisted, aIien twin.

NARRATOR: Beneath the cIouds
is the onIy pIanet in the SoIar

System to rotate backwards.
And it does so very sIowIy.

NARRATOR: The Sun,
if you couId see it,

rises in the west
and sets in the east.

An entire day here Iasts
for eight Earth months,

which is Ionger than
the Venusian year.

KEVIN BAINES: On Venus you can
waIk around the pIanet faster

than the pIanet rotates.

NARRATOR: The sky above is as
heavy as it Iooks --

Ioaded with C0e.

ELLEN STOFAN: Venus' cIoud
cover is mostIy made

of carbon dioxide.

And on the Earth we
have the same amount,

but it's tied up in
rocks Iike Iimestones,

it's tied up in reefs.

On Venus, aII that carbon
dioxide is in the air.

CGI: BIRTH OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

NARRATOR: It's the differences
between these worIds that

are so intriguing.

That's because four-and-a-haIf
biIIion years ago,

Venus and Earth started
out as pIanetary twins.

MARK BULLOCK: They were formed
right next to each other,

they are very cIose to each
other in the SoIar System,

they have simiIar sizes.

DAVID GRINSPOON: Not onIy that,
we now know the pIanets were

exchanging materiaI earIy on.

Bits of Earth were
faIIing on Venus,

and bits of Venus
were faIIing on Earth.

So if Iife started on
any of these worIds,

it may weII have spread among
them through these IittIe chips

getting knocked off from aII
the impacts that were happening

then, aII the big coIIisions.

SCI-FI NARRATOR: You are there!

The most exciting, nerve
shattering journey in

the history of man!

NARRATOR: Fifty years ago,
it was easy for us to imagine

Venus, cIoser to the Sun
and wrapped in cIouds,

to be our scorched, tropicaI
sister, swarming with Iife.

DAVID GRINSPOON: There was this
picture of Venus as a primitive

steamy Earth, compIete with
giant tree ferns and dinosaurs.

MIKHAIL MAROV: AItogether, it
seemed to us that it shouId be,

just possibIy, even
a popuIated worId.

NARRATOR: In the Iate 1 e70s,
the Space Race begins.

WhiIe America aims for the
Moon, Russia sets its sights on

meeting the neighbors.

MIKHAIL MAROV: Venus and Mars
stiII was in the human dreams to

meet the species which
couId be very simiIar to us.

Venus was even easier
than Mars to reach.

NARRATOR: But Ianding on Venus
proves surprisingIy difficuIt.

One-by-one, the Soviet Venera
probes disappear within the

thick Venusian atmosphere, their
Iast transmissions warning of a

worId of inconceivabIy high
temperatures and pressure.

NARRATOR: Persistence and
tough Russian engineering

eventuaIIy pay off.

In 1 e77, the camera on the
redesigned Venera Nine finaIIy

penetrates the Venusian veiI.

NARRATOR: But what it sees
is nothing Iike the tropicaI

paradise imagined.

NARRATOR: This is the first ever
picture taken from the surface

of another pIanet.

MIKHAIL MAROV: And for the first
time it was returned bIack and

white panoramas of
the Venus surface.

These images were so
extremeIy important.

Because for the first
time we, human beings,

had a chance to see with our
naked eyes compIeteIy different

other worId.

We were very much proud of that.

NARRATOR: Seven years Iater,
Veneras 1 3 and 14 send back the

first coIor postcards
taken under Venusian skies.

MIKHAIL MAROV: It means that
standing on the surface of Venus

you wiII meet absoIuteIy
incredibIe situation.

First of aII, you wiII
see not the bIue skies.

You wiII see red
skies, orange in coIor.

MIKHAIL MAROV: This is a HeII. A
reaI HeII!

NARRATOR: 'HeII' is
a good description.

This is what it's Iike to
enter the Venusian underworId;

a voIcanic Iandscape ruIed by
crushing pressure and searing

heat.

No probe survives here for
much more than a few hours.

And none have ever returned.

NARRATOR: What happened
to our twin worId?

Was Venus aIways as barren and
hostiIe as it appears to be?

ELLEN STOFAN: One of the most
intriguing things about Venus is

that we know that at one
point in Venus' history,

it had an ocean Iike the
one we have here on Earth.

There have been chemicaIs
measured in the atmosphere that

teII you that at some point
Venus had an ocean's worth of

water that is now gone.

MISSION CONTROL:
AtIantis, Houston.

Everything down here
Iooks reaI good to us.

NARRATOR: Where did aII
the water on Venus go?

And what eIse Iies
hidden under her veiI?

MISSION CONTROL: Five,
four, three, two, one.

We have ignition and
Iift-off of AtIantis.

NARRATOR: In 1 e8e, the space
shuttIe AtIantis Iaunches the

MageIIan probe toward Venus.

MISSION CONTROL VOICE
#1 : Roger, roII AtIantis.

NARRATOR: After a
journey of 1 7 months,

MageIIan uses radar eyes to peer
through the cIouds from orbit.

NARRATOR: Watching from
Earth is EIIen Stofan.

ELLEN STOFAN: When you have that
abiIity to pick up an image and

say, 'I am one of the
first three peopIe,

I am one of the first five
peopIe to ever Iook at this

piece of ground on
another pIanet.'

It's such a sense of awe
and a sense of discovery.

NARRATOR: MageIIan's radar
strips away the thick cIouds.

For the first time ever, we
see aII of Venus Iaid bare.

NARRATOR: WeIcome to IavaIand!

ELLEN STOFAN: There are
voIcanoes of aII sizes.

From a kiIometer across to
hundreds of kiIometers across.

And in that sense it's not aII
that different from some areas

on the Earth.

But on the other hand, it's of
course this dry worId with no

vegetation at aII.

NARRATOR: It's the sheer number
of voIcanoes that sets Venus

apart.

This is a worId that has
been tortured by fire.

Over 1600 giant voIcanoes
puncture its surface.

It's possibIe some
are stiII active.

MARK BULLOCK: If we couId just
hover Iike this over Venus it

wouId probabIy Iook
a Iot Iike this.

NARRATOR: Mark BuIIock enjoys
spending time on Venus,

at Ieast the version
he finds here on Earth.

MARK BULLOCK: Hawaii has some
of the most spectacuIar shieId

voIcanoes that are very simiIar
to the voIcanoes that we see on

Venus.

NARRATOR: The huge,
gentIy-sIoped voIcanoes of

Hawaii may be impressive.

On Venus there are at Ieast 1 70
ranging from this size to ten

times Iarger.

NARRATOR: But the observant
visitor may notice that Venus is

missing something.

ELLEN STOFAN: The whoIe impact
crater situation on Venus is

reaIIy very puzzIing.

CGI: MORE EXPLORATION.

MARK BULLOCK: With
the MageIIan images,

we see reaIIy a smaII
number of impact craters.

And it's such a smaII number,
it's about a thousand.

Because we know the rate
of which impactors come in,

we can actuaIIy date the surface
to somewhere between 300 miIIion

and one biIIion years oId.

NARRATOR: Sometime in the
recent geoIogicaI past,

it seems the entire surface
of Venus was remodeIIed - and

suddenIy.

KEVIN BAINES: The surface
geoIogy of Venus is different

than the Earth, basicaIIy
because a Iack of water.

Water is not
Iubricating that crust.

So you don't get
pIate tectonics.

Instead what seems to happen is
that forces inside the pIanet

are trying to move
things around.

But it can't, it's Iocked.

And then it expIodes,
very massive,

gIobaIIy expIosive episodes
that happen about every

haIf-a-biIIion to
a biIIion years.

KEVIN BAINES: So you wouId not
want to be on Venus when

that happens.

Because once something gives
way the whoIe pIanet might just

basicaIIy expIode in a sense and
turn itseIf over in a very short

amount of time in
geoIogicaI terms.

HAWAII - MARK BULLOCK
FLYING OVER RIVER OF FIRE.

MARK BULLOCK: Oh
Man, Iook at this!

We can see a river of
Iava beneath the surface.

Imagine that this
Iava is on Venus.

ProbabIy something very much
Iike this occurs either today or

in the recent past.

NARRATOR: No one can say for
sure if we'II ever see an

eruption Iike this on Venus.

No one has been abIe
to get this cIose!

MARK BULLOCK: One of the
reaIIy exciting and high-IeveI

scientific interest, is whether
Venus is geoIogicaIIy

active today.

Because there are reasons to
think that the cIouds on Venus

onIy exist because there is
on going geoIogic activity.

So this is one of the
big secrets of Venus,

it's something that
we want to find out.

NARRATOR: In recent years,
finding the source of Venus'

thick atmosphere has become
surprisingIy reIevant for aII of

us down here on Earth.

MARK BULLOCK: HaIf a miIIion
tonnes of suIphur dioxide spewed

into the atmosphere every year.

KEVIN BAINES: The whoIe
Greenhouse Effect was not reaIIy

recognised as a significant
effect to infIuence pIanetary

cIimates untiI we went to Venus
and found that instead of being

e0 degrees Fahrenheit it
was e00 degrees Fahrenheit.

And we said, 'Whoa,
what's wrong with this?

Let's Iearn about this.'

And it taught us about
the Greenhouse Effect.

NARRATOR: Ever wondered how
aIien a pIanet couId be?

How bad a cIimate can get?

Try the pIanet next door.

NARRATOR: The best way to
experience Venus is to hitch an

imaginary ride on a
Soviet Venera probe.

MARK BULLOCK: WeII, it
wouId be a wiId ride.

NARRATOR:The cIouds
start about 40 miIes up,

some five times higher
than the Earth's.

KEVIN BAINES: What are
those cIouds made out of?

They're not made out of water,
they're made out of a compIeteIy

difference substance.

They are made out
of suIphuric acid.

Everywhere you go the atmosphere
is going to try to eat you away.

NARRATOR: As you get
deeper, things heat up.

The thickening atmosphere aIIows
the Sun's heat in, but not out.

It's aIso getting dense.

So dense, your probe drops
Iike a coin in water.

MARK BULLOCK: And as we
descended we wouId graduaIIy,

the surface wouId graduaIIy
appear to us as if,

as if you were approaching
the bottom of the ocean.

NARRATOR: CongratuIations,
you've arrived on the hottest

surface in the SoIar System!

Here the officiaI temperature
is 870 degrees Fahrenheit.

Day or night, equator or poIe,
the searing heat never varies

more than a few degrees.

And it's why we have so few
snapshots from the Venusian

surface.

DAVID GRINSPOON: So why is it
so hard to bring scientific

instruments to the
surface of Venus?

What about an ordinary camera?

There's pIenty of Iight there.

Why not just send a
camera and take pictures?

I've got my NASA-issued
spacesuit here,

my speciaI Venus suit.

And Iet's take this camera and
send it to Venus and see what

happens.

MARK BULLOCK: PrimariIy,
you don't want to meIt.

It's such a hot environment
that aII the eIectronics,

aII the power, aII the
communications have to be

very rugged.

DAVID GRINSPOON: Oh,
that's cooI, though!

MARK BULLOCK:
Anything mechanicaI,

anything eIectronic is just an
enormous chaIIenge to have it

function on the surface.

NARRATOR: And it's not just
the heat that you have to bear.

AII that sky above
is reaIIy heavy,

pressing in at around e0
times the pressure on Earth.

ELLEN STOFAN: When I was a
graduate student we use to aII

get in a conversations about
what wouId get you first,

the temperature or the pressure?

It wouId be pretty
simuItaneous, I think.

NARRATOR: To descend to the
surface of Venus is the same as

diving over haIf
a miIe underwater.

PHIL NUYTTEN: It's an
enormous pressure, enormous,

crushing pressure.

How do you make things
that can withstand,

how do things turn and move
under those huge outside

pressures?

WeII, that's what the armour
of technoIogy is aII about.

PHIL NUYTTEN: The Exosuit,
using composite fibre,

strong aIuminium aIIoys and
stainIess and titanium and aII

these things.

It Iooks Iike something out of
'Transformers' or out of a comic

book.

That's the same kind of suit
that you'd need on the surface

of Venus.

NARRATOR: You'd never guess
the dangers on the

ground from orbit.

NARRATOR: Except maybe for this:
massive doubIe-barreIIed storms

hovering above the poIes.

KEVIN BAINES: These, what
we caII 'dipoIe features',

twirIing around.

We don't know reaIIy
what they are.

But the whoIe feature itseIf
is onIy a thousand or two

kiIometers across,
it's not very big.

But it does have a figure-eight
type of Iook to it.

LATEST ESA ANIMATIONS
OF VENUS ATMOSPHERE.

NARRATOR: BeIieved to be created
by winds that roar around the

equator at speeds up
to e30 miIes per hour,

these hurricanes can spIit
into three and even four.

And the wiId weather
doesn't end there.

Because the hottest pIanet
in the SoIar System even has

snow...

but not as we know it.

ELLEN STOFAN: AII of a
sudden in the radar images,

aII the mountains go white.

Now that's because there is
some kind of highIy refIective

coating.

It wouIdn't Iook white to your
eyes if you couId actuaIIy Iand

on the surface of Venus,
it might Iook shiny.

Because we actuaIIy think it
might be some sort of metaIIic

coating, aImost Iike a
pirate or a fooI's goId.

So something sparkIy, which to
me is even better than Iooking

at snow.

NARRATOR: These are just some
of the puzzIes that the European

Space Agency's, Venus
Express, now in orbit,

is hoping to soIve.

NARRATOR: As we begin to
understand how carbon dioxide

controIs our cIimate, there's
never been a better time to

Iearn Iessons from our neighbor.

HAKAN SVEDHEM: What we're trying
to soIve now with this very,

very dense atmosphere, very
compIex weather patterns,

with the new data from Venus
Express we are reaIIy Iearning

by mapping out in three
dimensions how the atmosphere

behaves.

NARRATOR: Unprotected
by a magnetic shieId,

Venus is stiII being
robbed of precious water.

NARRATOR: Venus Express has seen
how the SoIar Wind eats away at

the atmosphere.

HAKAN SVEDHEM: And we can see
that even today that actuaIIy

water is stiII escaping in the
form of oxygen and hydrogen.

And that's an indication that
there has been water on Venus in

the past.

NARRATOR: Despite aII
this scientific effort,

we stiII don't know what
triggered Venus' diaboIicaI

transformation.

ELLEN STOFAN: PeopIe debate over
whether Venus ever had a moon.

If Venus had a
sateIIite at one point,

couId that sateIIite eventuaIIy
have impacted onto the surface

and caused some
catastrophe to happen?

We don't know.

It couId have been
possibIy a factor.

NARRATOR: Perhaps such an
impact expIains both the strange

caIendar and cIimate on Venus.

Was it hit hard enough
to fIip upside down?

And for its day to
be sIowed to a crawI?

Was this the moment Venus'
cIimate was thrown into chaos?

Whatever the cause of
Venus' cIimate caIamity,

couId Iife have ever
survived such an ordeaI?

DAVID GRINSPOON: If I had
to guess, or I had to bet,

I wouId say, 'Yeah,
Venus did havea Iife'.

And I say that because what
we do understand about Iife on

Earth is that it started
earIy and doesn't seem to have

required any
extraordinary conditions.

DAVID GRINSPOON: If there
was Iife of our kind,

the organic kind, on the surface
of Venus a Iong time ago,

then what happened to that Iife?

WeII one possibiIity is
that it just died out.

But there's another possibiIity
that's a IittIe more exotic,

which is that it may have
migrated up into the cIouds.

KEVIN BAINES: There is some
specuIation that Venus might

actuaIIy stiII harbor Iife even
though it is such a hostiIe

pIace.

And the reasoning
is that, 'WeII gee,

at one time Venus was Iike the
Earth in the first two biIIion

years or so of its history'.

So if Iife were to grab a hoId,
maybe Iife was abIe to stay

ahead of the environmentaI
disaster that befeII Venus as

the water basicaIIy
Ieft the pIanet.

NARRATOR: CouId Iife reaIIy
exist in the cIouds of Venus?

NARRATOR: The best way to know
for sure is to fIoat into the

atmosphere and find out.

KEVIN BAINES: Right behind us
is the VaIor baIIoon which we

intend to fIy in the skies of
Venus in a coupIe of

years from now.

BALLOONS. NARRATOR: VaIor wiII
be tackIing
the acid cIouds of Venus with a

IittIe heIp from
frying pan technoIogy.

KEVIN BAINES: There's
been two other baIIoons,

aIready Iaunched to
Venus in the mid-1 e80s.

These were the Vega missions.

There were two separate baIIoons
that the Russians put into the

atmosphere.

And one thing they knew to do
is put TefIon on that whoIe

baIIoon, and the baIIoons worked
perfectIy for two days just as

designed. And so we know
that TefIon works.

NARRATOR: BattIing vioIent
updrafts and acid cIouds,

these non-stick pioneers were
swept nearIy haIfway round the

pIanet.

Kevin expects VaIor
to go further.

KEVIN BAINES: We wiII
circumnavigate the pIanet,

that is fIy around
the worId of Venus,

not just once but
up to five times.

And if we do that, if
we accompIish that,

we wiII by far have
the worId's record,

actuaIIy it's the
universaI record,

for fIight in the skies
of any pIanet, anywhere.

NARRATOR: Under-expIored
and unbeIievabIy aIien,

the Hot Zone pIanets are finaIIy
being recognized as prime space

traveI destinations.

NARRATOR: Mercury: a pIanet
that's both freezer and furnace.

BRETT DENEVI: As a geoIogist,
if I couId just bring back one

rock, one sampIe.

I mean, that wouId increase our
knowIedge of Mercury by tenfoId

or something.

MARK ROBINSON: I'd Iike to go to
these poIar craters and figure

out what is it.

NARRATOR: And Venus, our
unfortunate twin sister.

MARK BULLOCK: What we'd Iike to
do is expIore the regions that

haven't been expIored before.

And so I wouId pick
AIpha Regio here.

That's probabIy the
first pIace I wouId go.

KEVIN BAINES: I wouId Iove to
go and see those snow-fiIIed

mountain peaks with metaIIic
snow and see if we can figure

out what's going on there.

Maybe some new sports
that can be created,

sIiding down those
metaIIic snows?

DAVID GRINSPOON: And then of
course there's the future story

and what's going to happen to
Earth in the distant future.

And that's another reason we
are reaIIy interested in Venus.

Because the uItimate fate of
the Earth is to Iook Iike

Venus Iooks today.

NARRATOR: Venus and Mercury: two
pIanets of wonder but trapped in

their own aIien heIIs.

Perhaps not obvious destinations
to discover more about our home

pIanet, but that's the beauty
of traveIing the SoIar System;

it's just fuII of surprises.

AtZLIT