NARRATOR: Was Mars a fertile planet
teeming with life thousands or perhaps millions of years ago?
And if so, could the planet be modified in such a way
that it could sustain human life?
It is NASA's stated goal to send astronauts
to Mars in the 2030s.
But while humanity's efforts to colonize space
are well underway, there is still a tremendous amount
of planning and scientific groundwork
to be done before we can truly begin to populate alien planets
with large numbers of humans.
Right now, we're basically just tourists in space.
We take everything we need with us.
And in order to make the next giant leap,
you're going to actually have to start using the materials
that you find in space to help you explore, OK?
As soon as you make that step to use the materials that
are available to you on the surface, now
you're truly a pioneer.
There's a number of resources that
are already available to us.
And then, of course, we're going to want
to start planting things.
We're going to have to grow food.
We're going to have to live off the land the best we can.
NARRATOR: Live off the land on Mars?
According to NASA, innovations in technology
will be able to make the Martian landscape
more hospitable to humans than was previously believed.
But could this same adjustment to a planet's environment
be similar to what extraterrestrials
could have accomplished here on Earth centuries ago?
Ancient-astronaut theorists say yes
and suggest that stories from nearly every ancient culture
prove this audacious notion to be true.
One of the strangest traditions in South America is
with the Kayapo people in Brazil,
and they have this legend of the Bep-Kororoti,
who came down from the sky in a lot of noise
and wind and landed his craft.
He then taught the people knowledge of civilization,
of herbs and medicine, of building
and agriculture and crops.
And today the Kayapo people celebrate him every year,
and a priest dresses up in this outlandish outfit
that looks like a space suit.
So you have to wonder, where are they getting these ideas
of people in space suits if not from some extraterrestrials who
landed there in the distant past?
Today, we are on the verge of going to other planets
and seeding them with life, and it makes complete sense
that something like that happened on our planet
in the very distant past.