All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.Mysteries.of.the.Universe.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A future space station

synchronized to planet Earth,

the potential for life
buried under miles of ice

and rogue moons that could
wipe out life as we know it.

We're all familiar with the moon
that hangs in our night sky

and controls the ebb and flow
of life on our planet.

But Earth's moon is only one
of hundreds in the solar system,

each of them a mysterious
and often bizarre world.

Could these alien moons offer
a key to exploring outer space

and perhaps to finding
a new home for humanity?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Apollo 17,
NASA's final voyage to the Moon,

completes its mission
to collect Moon rocks

and perform gravity and
seismic activity experiments.

After spending 75 hours
on the Moon's surface

and exploring more than 22 miles
in the lunar rover,

astronauts Jack Schmitt
and Eugene Cernan

prepare for their journey home.

As Commander Cernan
approaches the lunar module,

he readies himself to take the
last human steps on the Moon.

(high-pitched beep)

SHATNER:
In just over a decade,
NASA's Apollo program

had successfully developed
and executed

a space exploration mission

that allowed 12 people
to walk on Earth's moon.

But how much do we really know

about the giant gray sphere
that hangs in our sky?

What, precisely, is a moon?

And just what makes it
different from our planet

or other planets
in the universe?

PASCAL LEE:
A planet is a large object

that's going independently
around a star.

And so, what a moon is,

is an object that is not going
directly around a star

but around a planet

as the planet itself
goes around the star.

So the Earth, for example,
has a very large moon.

Many of the planets
in our solar system have moons.

Every one of these objects
are little worlds of their own.

(thunder crashes)

VERONICA BRAY:
A lot of people think

of moons as like our moon.

It's kind of black-and-white,

cold, dead,
geologically inactive.

But it's relatively boring

compared to what we know
of some other moons.

For example,
Pan looks like a flying saucer

or a-a ravioli.

Hyperion looks like
a sea sponge,

with all of these strange pits
in its surface.

And then we look
at Jupiter's moon Io,

which is the most volcanically
active body in the solar system,

covered with yellows
and oranges.

We know of something like 300
moons in the solar system today,

and we are always
discovering more.

Each of these objects

has a unique
and distinctive geology,

it's a different color,
it has a different history.

Each one is kind of
a puzzle piece

in understanding
the solar system.

SHATNER:
You could say that many
of the bizarre moons

that circle
our neighboring planets

make the Earth's moon
seem rather dull.

But a closer look reveals
that our gray companion

is the perfect partner

for creating a thriving
environment on our planet.

The size, proximity
and singularity of our moon

make our home world
quite unique.

Earth is the only terrestrial
planet in the solar system

that has a major moon.

Mercury and Venus
don't have moons.

Mars has some
little captured moons.

We are unique in that
we are a terrestrial planet

that has this moon that is huge.

The Moon is very unusual
in that it is

about one quarter the size of
the Earth in terms of diameter.

It's very big,
compared to planet Earth.

Our moon is humungous.

Even the largest moons
of our solar system--

when we look at Ganymede
and Titan,

the large worlds
of Jupiter and Saturn--

they're nothing in comparison to
the size of those giant planets.

And then we look at the Moon,

and it is huge
compared to the Earth.

SHATNER:
It turns out
that this solitary, large moon

has helped make our planet
the livable world that it is.

LEE:
The Moon's motion
around the Earth is so regular

that cultures
have created calendars,

in many cases, reliant
on the cycles of the Moon.

It's a timepiece,
in terms of when is a good time

to grow crop,
to plant, to harvest.

The other thing
is that the Moon has

a physical influence
on the Earth.

BRAY:
If we didn't have
the large moon that we have,

we would have much more wobble
of our spin axis,

which would lead
to more extreme seasons.

We also wouldn't have tides.

So, that has implications

for the development
of life on Earth.

Life wouldn't have
been able to develop

from the seas
to the land so easily

if we didn't have a moon.

REBECCA BOYLE:
we are very lucky
that we have our moon here

to stabilize our spin,

to stabilize the tilt
of our planet on its axis

and stabilize
its own rotation around the sun.

And the Moon
is one of the things

that keeps us safe
from the gravitational bullying

of Jupiter or other planets.

It safeguards the climate
of Earth through this action.

We're very lucky to have
a large moon stabilizing us.

SHATNER:
While the Moon plays
an instrumental role

in the balance of life on Earth,

this may not have always
been the case,

because there is evidence

that our moon
may have once had a twin.

At the University of California,
Santa Cruz,

planetary scientist Erik Asphaug
publishes a study theorizing

that the Earth once had
not one but two moons.

Our planet having a single moon
seems like an eternal constant,

ever since humans
first looked up at the sky.

But could this incredible theory
about a second moon

actually be true?

As familiar as the Moon is,

one of the lingering
big mysteries about the Moon is,

how did it form?

Where does it come from?

The prevailing theory

is that the Moon formed when,

actually, a larger object,
larger than the Moon,

hit the Earth very early
in the Earth's history.

This is known
as the giant-impact theory.

BEN McGEE:
The modern understanding
of how our moon formed

is that giant impact
sprayed out a bunch of debris

that would later coalesce
to form our moon.

But there is a newer idea

that says maybe,
out of that debris,

we formed not one moon but two.

SHATNER:
The idea of two moons orbiting
around the Earth is fascinating,

but if this theory is correct,
where's the evidence?

Whatever happened
to our second moon?

McGEE:
There's an intriguing idea
called the big splat concept,

that the little sister moon,
trailing behind the major one,

it kind of trailed after
our moon in the same orbit,

minding its own business.

But slowly, since the Moon
was so much bigger,

its gravity had taken over,

and it would slowly pull
this smaller moon in.

And in slow-motion, basically,

smashed into the far side
and ends up creating

many of the characteristics
we see today,

where our moon's two sides--

one facing Earth
and one facing away--

are very geologically different.

RENU MALHOTRA:
It's conceivable that the Earth
had two moons in the past.

It's conceivable it had
multiple moons in the past.

And we are at a stage when all
of that evolution has finished,

and having a single
large moon is probably

the most stable outcome.

McGEE:
We take for granted
that Earth has one giant moon,

but we're actually
very lucky that the Earth

has a moon as big as we do.

So, this just goes to show
how unique our moon is,

almost like a twin-planet
system, the Earth and Moon,

which is lucky for us,
because we rely

on the environment that the Moon
helped create here on Earth.

SHATNER:
While the Moon does
an excellent job

of making Earth habitable
for humans,

the lunar face
we gaze at each night

also hides a dark side.

What can 21st-century technology
tell us about the hidden spaces

and possible resources
our moon may hold

that could change the course
of space exploration

as we know it?

SHATNER:
In a historic mission,

China launches
the Chang'e-6 spacecraft

from the island of Hainan.

The purpose of this
unmanned vessel is to bring back

the first ever
rock and soil samples

from the far side of the Moon,

an area we cannot see
from here on Earth.

The lunar farside
has been fascinating to people

for a long time.

Our first look was in 1959
from a Russian spacecraft

that got some very fuzzy
pictures of the back.

Since then, of course,
the flights of Apollo

and other robotic missions,
we've completely mapped

both sides of the Moon.

But there's a lot
of mystery around it

because it faces away from us
all the time.

DE KLEER:
The Moon is what we call

tidally locked to the Earth.

And what that means is that
it's always facing

the same side to the Earth.

And so, of course, when you look
up at the Moon in the sky,

you always see
the same pattern on it,

and that is because you're
always looking at what we call

the near side of the Moon.

And interestingly, the near side
and the far side of the Moon

look very different
from one another.

McGEE: One of the reasons
the Apollo missions went to

the near side of the Moon first
is because you can see it.

And if you can see that side
with your eyes,

it means you can also see it
with a radio antenna.

It means we could talk.

This is one of the reasons why

we didn't send astronauts
to the farside.

There would be no way
to communicate with them.

So it can be very risky
trying to go to the farside

in just figuring out--

how do you get information
to and from

if it's always pointed away
from the Earth?

When Apollo 17 left--
that was 1972--

it was half a century ago,

and humans haven't
been back since.

And when you look at everything

that humans were able to do
during Apollo,

that only amounts to about
two weeks of total stay time.

All in, only 12 people
have ever walked on the Moon.

There's so much
we have yet to explore.

There are so many mysteries
about the Moon

that are yet unanswered.

SHATNER:
While no human has touched

the lunar surface
in over 50 years,

scientists are using new tools
to explore the Moon,

from its dark side to
what lies below its rocky crust.

Could there be resources
deep underground

that could make the Moon
a prime outpost

for future space travel?

At the SETI Institute,

planetary scientist Pascal Lee
and his team

release a stunning discovery.

Near the north pole of the Moon,
Lee notices strange pits

that he believes
could be the entrance

to giant underground caverns.

I went on a manual search,
so to speak,

uh, for caves
near the Moon's polar regions.

I started with the north pole,

spiraled to lower latitudes.

And sure enough,
inside Philolaus Crater,

we found a series
of these little dots

that look like a string
of collapsed lava tube roofs.

It was a eureka moment because
it was like a wish come true.

We were seeing exactly
what we were looking for.

SHATNER:
According to experts,

several hundred such pits
exist on the Moon

and each one could be
the entrance

to massive underground caves
where lava used to flow.

But it's what we might find
inside those caves

that could change the course
of space exploration.

It's so important to explore
a place like Philolaus

or some of these other craters
where we found caves

because there are regions
that are permanently shadowed.

That's why they're so cold.

And lava tubes and caves
could be a place

where ice would accumulate
over time

and be collected

and therefore be a place
where you could harvest them.

There's a lot at stake in
finding water ice on the Moon.

PYLE:
Where you have water ice,

you can make rocket fuel,
you can make breathable oxygen,

you can make drinkable water.

But the big one
really is rocket fuel.

It's very, very expensive
to launch fuel off Earth,

and you have to burn fuel
to carry fuel off our planet.

It's much easier once
you've extracted these fuels

from the water that's there
in the form of ice on the Moon.

And now the solar system
is your backyard.

SHATNER:
Perhaps even more intriguing
is that lava tubes and caves

may also provide humans
a place to live.

The surface of the Moon
is extremely harsh.

You are subject to ionizing
radiation from deep space.

You go underground, it's
an entirely different realm.

You're now shielded
from space radiation.

I'm also curious to see
what else they might offer.

There are other possible
resources that could be found.

Minerals.

Who knows what the underground
world will reveal to us?

SHATNER:
It's exciting to think
that our single moon

could hold resources that could
take us farther into space.

But there are planets
in our solar system

that have dozens of moons.

And scientists have
good reason to believe

that some of them may harbor

the building blocks of life.

SHATNER: A team
of international astronomers

announces a stunning discovery.

They've located
a whopping 62 new moons

around the ringed planet
of Saturn.

This new discovery
raises Saturn's count

to a remarkable 145 moons,

well ahead of Jupiter
and its 95 moons.

Together,
these two giants possess

most of the moons
in the solar system.

In terms of the number
of moons in the solar system,

the vast majority of them are

small objects that are orbiting
either Jupiter or Saturn.

And that's simply because

the gravity of those planets
is so high.

Jupiter and Saturn are
the largest planets

in the solar system, and so
they have the easiest time

capturing small objects that are
flying through the solar system.

SHATNER:
In the grip of Jupiter
and Saturn's orbits

are giant moons
covered completely in ice.

These include Ganymede,
the largest known moon,

and Callisto, which is as large
as the planet Mercury.

But what's really intriguing
about these icy moons

is that scientists believe
some of them could harbor life.

NASA reveals that
its upcoming mission

to Jupiter's icy moon of Europa,
the Europa Clipper orbiter,

will carry a
one-millimeter-thick metal plate

engraved with various messages
about water.

Why water?

Because experts believe
Europa contains

a vast ocean
up to 100 miles deep

under a layer of ice
that is 15 miles thick.

KAKU:
Underneath the ice,

there is a liquid water ocean
for Europa

larger in volume than the size
of the Earth's ocean.

This is amazing.

Who would have thought
that there could be

another ocean
in our solar system

bigger than our own ocean

orbiting around Jupiter?

The spacecraft, in addition
to its scientific payloads,

actually has a plate
that contains

a bunch of engravings,

much like Voyager and Pioneer
had plaques

that were designed
to maybe communicate

to the rest of the universe
things that the scientific team

thought might be important to
send out into the solar system.

One of those is the picture
of the sound waves

of people saying
the word "water"

in more than 100 languages.

Another is a scientific diagram
of what water is

and how it absorbs light.

The search for water is what
connects us and this mission

to the rest of our solar system.

BRAY:
All life as we know it
needs water,

so the search for life

in our solar system or beyond

becomes the quest
to find liquid water.

And the indication that
there's a subsurface ocean

inside Europa, it gave us
this potential location

for life to have formed.

We are hopeful
for bacterial life.

We're looking for the basics.

PYLE:
We think there's
a very good chance

that there's gonna
be life there.

It could be anything
from the earliest microbes

to whales living in there--
we just don't know.

But we may find out
in the next decade or two.

SHATNER:
While discovering water
on Europa is intriguing,

could there be a place
in our solar system

where a liquid other than water
might produce life?

The Cassini spacecraft launches
the Huygens probe towards Titan,

Saturn's largest moon

and the only moon
in the solar system

that has a significant
atmosphere.

Three weeks later,
as the probe descends,

its video camera captures
what is truly another world.

The video is spectacular.

It's like you're
parachuting down on Earth

because you're
coming through the clouds.

You can see
the haze layers part.

And as the Huygens lander
is getting closer to the ground,

we start to be able to
make out these river systems

and lakes.

And the view that we get

from the surface is
extremely Earth-like.

It's pebbles and rocks.

Except these aren't made
of rock, they're made of ice.

SHATNER: While
the Huygens probe reveals

a surprisingly
Earth-like surface

covered with mountains of ice,

there's one feature
that is not of this Earth:

large pools of liquid methane

on Titan's surface.

On Earth, methane is
an abundant greenhouse gas

in the atmosphere.

But on Titan,

could it be a source of life?

BRAY:
The observation of

methane lakes

and river systems on Titan

has some people thinking,

we use water on Earth
for our life,

life as we know it.

Is it possible to have a life

that is based off
a different liquid?

So, liquid methane?

The surface of Titan
is a really dynamic place,

and there's
a lot of questions about

what's going on down there.

SHATNER:
Could there be alien life-forms

in the methane lakes of Titan?

It seems fantastical,

but early observation of
these lakes revealed

something extraordinary.

DE KLEER:
One of the mysteries

when we first landed
on Titan's surface

is that when we took
repeated radar images of

the same lakes on Titan,

there were these features
in the lakes

that changed over time
and kind of came and went,

and they're called
these magic islands.

McGEE:
Scientists started
calling them, informally,

"magic islands" that would
appear and disappear at will.

The most recent
research makes it

look like those islands
aren't islands at all,

but instead they're nitrogen
and ethane and methane

bubbling up from the interior.

It really makes you wonder,

having material bubbling up,

well, that only
invites the question,

what's actually
going on down there?

SHATNER:
Could these strange bubbles

come from some
undiscovered form of life?

Well, the only way to know

may be to dive deep
into Titan's lakes.

Its largest lakes are
just incredible in scale.

Kraken Mare,
which is the largest

body of liquid on Titan,
is enormous.

It's twice the size of all
the Great Lakes put together.

But we haven't really explored
below the surfaces of them.

LAU:
It really begs for exploration.

We could build a submarine

that we could put into one of
these lakes on Titan

and have it go explore
around the lake,

maybe even looking
for possible signs of life

at the bottom of the lake.

Finding life-forms on
faraway moons covered in ice

could change everything
we thought we knew

about our solar system.

But on the other hand,

moons could also wipe out

every trace of life on a planet

when they become unstable

and go rogue.

SHATNER:
At the U.S. Naval Observatory,

using the largest refracting
telescope in the world,

a frustrated astronomer
named Asaph Hall

nearly abandons his search
for the moons of Mars.

Fortunately, his wife,
mathematician Angeline Stickney,

encourages Hall to persist.

LEE:
The moons of Mars

were discovered by American
astronomer Asaph Hall.

His wife really, in my view,
deserves equal credit because

he actually had
all but given up,

and it's only at her insistence

that, in the end,
he was able to discover

moons around Mars by
spotting little dots of light.

SHATNER:
Hall names the two moons
Phobos and Deimos,

meaning "fear" and "terror,"

after the sons of
the Greek god of war.

Little does Hall know

these names will
prove prophetic,

because Phobos is doomed to,

one day, bring destruction
to its home planet.

LEE: Phobos is
drifting towards Mars,

and at this point,
we're catching Phobos

almost at the last minute
of its life.

It's going to,
first of all, break up

and turn into a ring
of debris around Mars.

And then, if it doesn't burn up,

it's gonna crash somewhere
along the equator of Mars.

50 million years from now,

who knows where
humanity will be,

but if we are living on Mars,

we are gonna have
a shower of debris.

BRAY:
So, at some point in the future,

if we have a human
presence there at the time,

Phobos will eventually
rain down onto Mars,

causing significant devastation.

SHATNER:
While it's an extraordinarily
long time from now,

the prospect of Phobos
crashing into the Red Planet

could mean the end
of any human settlement

we've managed to place
on Mars by then.

But this scenario
isn't the only one

that can turn a moon

into a dangerous object.

LAU:
Moons aren't just static worlds
orbiting around planets.

Many of them are very dynamic

in how their orbits
change over time.

We have this concept
that there might even be

rogue moons,
moons that have been

pulled away from their orbit
around the planet

for various reasons.

BRAY:
The idea of a rogue moon is that

an otherwise happy
and stable moon

can be perturbed
by the close proximity

of the star in that star system

or another planetary body,

and it will pull that moon
from its orbit.

SHATNER:
As it turns out, when a moon

leaves its planet
and goes rogue,

it spells disaster.

At UCLA, theoretical
physicist Brad Hansen

publishes a remarkable paper

suggesting that moons
located throughout the galaxy

may be going rogue

and colliding with planets.

BRAD HANSEN:
Some moons

can eventually spiral out
to the point where

they're no longer bound
to their parent planet,

but rather simply become
another asteroid

orbiting the original
parent star.

So they have
very similar orbits

to the original planet,
and so they're gonna

keep coming back again and again

until, eventually, they come
back and impact the planet.

SHATNER:
According to Hansen's study,
rogue moons that have been

ripped from their orbit
can be catastrophic

when they whip around a star

and slam into their home planet.

BRAY:
Usually moons are
significantly smaller

than the planets
that they orbit.

And so, in that case, the impact

of this theoretical rogue moon,

it wouldn't destroy that planet,

but it is big enough
to sterilize it.

A mass extinction event

could be caused by the impact of
a rogue moon into a planet.

SHATNER:
A planet getting
taken out by a collision

with its own rogue moon
is unsettling.

And it begs the question,

could our moon ever lose

its gravitational bond
with Earth

and crash into our planet?

KAKU:
When you think of the Moon,

you think of
something that's eternal,

something that's been
there since time immemorial.

But then you begin to realize
that the orbit of the Moon

is actually not so stable.

It's actually leaving us

at about the rate of
one and a half inches per year.

So this means that it will
eventually reach a point where

it's just about to leave
the planet Earth.

MAHOLTRA:
If it goes too far,

the Moon's orbit
could become unstable

and then become unbound.

It could leave
the orbit around the Earth.

That instability is
very difficult to compute.

Many possibilities are there.

The potential for chaos
is always there.

HANSEN:
We talk about how the dinosaurs

underwent extinction
through an asteroid collision

that was estimated to be
about 10 kilometers in size.

The Moon is

thousands of kilometers in size,

so it would be a genuine
global catastrophe

if something the size of
the Moon hit the Earth.

SHATNER:
While the ultimate
fate of our moon

is something we may not
be able to predict,

what about other moons,

both inside and outside
our solar system?

How concerned should we be

about the possibility of
rogue moons reaching us

from other corners of
the galaxy?

McGEE:
Rogue moons probably happen
more often than we think

out there in the cosmos.

Whether or not we end up
having to worry about

our own moon becoming rogue,

it doesn't mean we don't have to

keep looking for rogue moons

from elsewhere in
the solar system.

And it's something
we're gonna have to deal with,

probably, in our own
solar system's future.

When moons become
dangerous objects

flying through the solar system,

we're pretty much
helpless to stop them.

Perhaps the solution
to protecting Earth,

and even venturing
deeper into space,

is by building our own

man-made moon.

SHATNER:
The Soviet Union launches

a revolutionary
piece of technology

that will change
the course of the 20th century:

a polished aluminum device
named Sputnik.

It is the very first artificial
satellite in history,

and is, by most definitions,
a man-made moon.

NEWSMAN (over radio):
Today a new moon is in the sky.

A 23-inch metal sphere placed in
orbit by a Russian rocket.

The launch of the Sputnik
satellite by the USSR

was a watershed moment for us

in changing the way
we looked at moons.

The Sputnik satellite itself
was characterized

as a new moon, a baby moon,
in newspapers at the time.

It caused panic in
the United States because

this meant that the USSR
was always watching.

PYLE:
Sputnik was really
the first artificial moon.

It was the first thing
orbiting the Earth

besides our natural moon,

and it was a metal ball
about this big around.

A little bigger
than a basketball.

And it beeped
as it went around the Earth

every 90 minutes.

And that's about all it did.

But you would've thought
the world was coming to an end.

The press was rife with
headlines about

"Reds Orbit Artificial Moon."

It was sighted
over San Francisco.

It's the end of the world.

And it really got
the West riled up.

This fairly innocuous
little metal sphere

was really the kickoff
for the whole space race.

And that's what ultimately
took us to the Moon.

SHATNER:
Today, we're surrounded by
thousands of artificial moons

called satellites,
orbiting the Earth.

But shortly after the launch
of Sputnik, one Soviet scientist

suggested an artificial moon
might already exist...

and be orbiting
around the planet Mars.

At the Sternberg
Astronomical Institute,

renowned Ukrainian
astrophysicist

Iosif Shklovsky makes
a shocking proposal.

Shklovsky suggests that Phobos,
one of Mars' two moons,

could be hollow,
and artificially constructed

from a thin sheet of metal.

From the size of Phobos,
and the rate at which Phobos was

migrating towards Mars,
Shklovsky determined that

Phobos could be something
that was almost hollow

and just had a very thin shell.

Close to what we might call
the density

of an empty can of soda.

Shklovsky proposed that
Phobos might actually be

a station or ship built

by an extraterrestrial
civilization on Mars.

It could be the last vestige
of an alien civilization

still in orbit
around the planet.

Now, that, of course,
was an extraordinary claim.

SHATNER:
Nearly 20 years later,
in 1976,

NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft
performed

an up-close flyby of Mars,

and sent back photographic
evidence that Phobos was,

in fact, a dry and dusty
natural moon.

Even though we now know
that Phobos is definitely not

a Martian station or a spaceship
from a Martian civilization,

I think this was sort of
the dawn of the era of

thinking of gigantic stations,

where a civilization

could actually create objects,
mechanisms,

vessels that could be of cosmic
or astronomical proportions,

to the point of being
the size of a little world.

McGee:
It may sound bizarre to consider
building an artificial moon,

but honestly, every single
satellite we've sent up

is an artificial tiny moon.

The Sputnik satellite itself
was small.

It was about two and a half
feet in diameter,

but its implications
were profound.

Now you have larger structures,

like the space station Mir
we had for a while,

or the International Space
Station we currently have.

Those are, like,
a football field in length.

They're getting much bigger.

PYLE:
There can be some practical
uses for artificial moons.

I think one of the most
profound suggestions

has been from Buzz Aldrin
himself,

second man to walk
on the Moon,

who suggested something
called the lunar cycler.

And these are
moon-sized objects

that could be
artificially constructed.

You can use them for
fuel depots,

you can use them
for reprovisioning stops.

They could be facilities
for people on their way

deeper into the solar system.

And so you have this big,

comfortable, well-protected,
enormous facility

moved into a long,
permanent, looping orbit

between the Earth and Mars,
or Earth and the Moon.

CHARLES ADLER:
In 1976, Gerald O'Neill,

a physicist at Princeton
University, speculated about

building what are called now
O'Neill cylinders,

where long cylinders
could be spun around

so that centrifugal force

could approximate the experience

of gravity inside
the structures

to house people living in
these huge space stations

built in orbit around Earth,
or around the other planets.

But if you want something
that is moon-sized,

you're getting into
the realm of billions

or trillions or
quadrillions of dollars.

It's going to be very,
very expensive, and currently

out of the reach
of today's technology.

But it may be that
in the future these things

actually become possibilities.

SHATNER:
While building
a moon-sized space station

might be currently out of reach,
turning the Earth's moon

into a destination for humans
is closer than ever.

The big question is

how will we survive on the Moon?

SHATNER:
The crew of Imagination 1
completes a six-day mission

inside a sealed Moon simulator
known as SAM,

or Space Analog for
the Moon and Mars.

Their mission: to simulate
what life might be like

for humans living on the Moon.

TRENT TRESCH:
SAM is a hermetically-sealed
research habitat

that demonstrates
what it would be like

to live on another
celestial body,

like the Moon or Mars.

You're actually able
to move around

and even bounce around as if you
were on the surface of the Moon.

At this point in time,
with the NASA Artemis missions

and others,
we're looking at going back

to the Moon and establishing
long-term habitation.

It is so exciting that
we are going back to the Moon,

hopefully within this decade.

SHATNER:
While SAM is used
for scientific research

into how we can survive
on the Moon,

another chief goal
of the project

is getting everyday people

involved in space exploration.

Enter... Imagination 1.

JULIE JOHNSON:
In the case of Imagination 1,

our crew was, uh, made up

of four different
professional artists,

and our mission was
to demonstrate

what artists can bring

to a scientific endeavor
like space flight.

When we imagine going
to the Moon and living there

for a more extended
amount of time,

it will be important
that we have people

from all kinds of different
backgrounds, because

the more perspectives
we can have,

the better decisions
I think we can make.

SHATNER:
No matter what
an astronaut's background is,

the experience
in such a lunar simulator

gives just a glimpse

of what a truly alien experience

living on the Moon will be.

When the moment comes
that we actually

pull down on that handle
for that outer door...

...sealing ourselves off
hermetically from the outside,

there's this real sense
of separation,

a sense that you've left
what you know behind.

And there are many things
that feel different

living in a space
that's pressurized.

In the space suit,

you don't have the same kind
of fine motor control

that you would normally.

There's a sense
of separation from the way

you normally would move
through the world.

TRESCH:
There's gonna be
a lot of difficulties

that the first inhabitants
are gonna experience.

A lot of our dreams
and excitement and aspirations

about long-term
habitation in space

come really from
those two weeks that we set foot

on the Moon
in the '60s and '70s.

The Moon as an alien place
is really a foreign place.

There's still a lot to be
discovered and to be understood.

And I think there's
just an excitement

around that discovery.

It's still just a foreign land.

SHATNER:
The prospect of finally living
on the Earth's moon is exciting.

But our moon is just one
of many equally thrilling

and terrifying alien worlds

waiting for us to encounter.

The moons of our solar system
are a key part of exploration,

mostly because,
if we want to go to places,

we can't land on gas giants,
but we can land on their moons.

And so, the moons provide us
with this solid surface

where we can land,

potentially as
a jumping-off point for

further space adventures.

DE KLEER:
The population of moons,

and especially the moons
of the gas giant planets,

but even including the moons

of Earth and Mars, are such a

diverse population of objects.

And this is something
we've only appreciated

in the past few decades,
just how

unique and interesting

each of these objects is.

SHOWALTER:
Every moon has a story to tell.

Every moon,
you can look at it and say,

"How did it get there?
What is it made of?"

Every one tells the history of
how it came to be where it is.

LEE:
All of a sudden, we have this

incredible number of places
we could go explore,

not just the planets themselves,
but their families of moons.

The Earth's moon is a reference

to which we can now also
compare other moons

and see how alien they are
in the solar system.

Today, we're closer than ever
to constructing

a permanent base
on Earth's moon.

Is this an important first step
that will eventually lead us

to reaching alien moons?

And if so, what will we find

when we get to these
strange, new worlds?

It's exciting to think about.

But for now,
these exotic and faraway moons

remain unexplored

and unexplained.

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