We had a race to the moon.
And now it's a race to Mars.
But now there's a lot more players in this game, right?
I mean, we've got the Chinese and--
TRAVIS TAYLOR: Right now you've got the three governments.
You know, the Russians, the Chinese,
and the Americans are going to get to the moon and Mars
from a government standpoint.
But I'm telling you, some of these rich billionaires
are going to get there whether we want them to or not.
DAVID CHILDRESS: And they can probably
do it a lot more cost effective than these governments.
Well, now that we're getting close to Mars,
do you think we'll find some answers to a lot
of our questions there?
TRAVIS TAYLOR: Well, I'll tell you one answer
that I can't wait to find.
There's a photograph that you can
still find it in the database from the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter.
And it shows like a little pool of water
and an iceberg and a cloud all in the same picture.
So I think we're certainly going to find water.
And if we're going to find water,
and we know it gets 67 degrees in the summer--
We find life.
Absolutely that's what we're going to find.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: See, but here's the thing that,
you know, to me, the life I'm looking
for looks like you and me.
It is humanoid in form.
If we find bacterial life, OK.
And in my opinion, I'm going to say it.
Big whoop.
TRAVIS TAYLOR: That's what most people, I think, will say,
Giorgio.
I agree.
Let me tell you this, though.
It's possible that Mars was the blue-green planet here,
you know, a billion years ago, instead of Earth.
And when whatever happened to Mars,
they migrated from there to here.
NARRATOR: Migration from Mars to Earth?
Some ancient astronaut theorists have proposed
the incredible notion that the human race
did, in fact, originate on Earth's
closest neighboring planet.
And it is their belief that all of humankind's journeys
into space have been leading towards a return
to this ancestral homeland.
While it may sound like the premise of a sci-fi movie,
some scientists have proposed that based on what we've
learned about the red planet, this is not such
a far-fetched notion after all.
Mars, at one time in its past, looked more like the Earth.
It was a blue ocean world with a significant amount of water.
We know for a fact that billions of years ago, when we
were first getting started here on Earth, Mars
was a much more clement place, a more clement world in its own.
We know that it had thick atmosphere to shield
and blanket the planet.
And it would have had organic molecules, the building blocks
of all life as we know it.
So it stands to reason that maybe Mars had its own genesis,
its own origin of life.
NARRATOR: If Mars was once an Earth-like planet,
could it have supported human life?
Curiously, researchers have found
a remarkable link between human physiology and conditions
on Mars.
When astronauts actually go into space,
their circadian rhythms, their body clocks change from 24-hour
days to a 24.9-hour day.
And that happens to be the exact rotational period
of a single day on the planet Mars.
Given the fact that our body clocks are tuned to the planet
Mars, not to the planet Earth, that indicates to me that we
actually came here from there.
NARRATOR: Could we, in fact, be Martians?
And might this be why we are so compelled
to explore beyond Earth?
In April 2020, NASA announced that three private companies--
Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX--
will compete to design America's new human landing
system, or HLS.
Its ultimate purpose-- to send astronauts to Mars.
NICK POPE: I think the next few years
are going to be absolutely pivotal in Mars research.
We are seeing mission after mission
after mission going to Mars.
And again, one might wonder why.
Is it because when humanity expands out into the cosmos,
we are going to have to have a planetary base
and Mars is a good place for that?
Or is it because scientists know or suspect
that there's something there?