by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2016 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved
After that the screening included the first episode, “Novo
Mundo,” of the National Geographic Channel’s much-hyped series, scheduled to premiere Monday, November 14,
called Mars. The show is an
uncomfortable mixture of documentary and dramatic film that cuts back and forth
between real-life interviewees from 2016 about the feasibility of Mars missions
sponsored and financed by the private sector and the actual first mission to
Mars in 2033, made possible by an international consortium including both
government space agencies and private companies. What makes the format even
more confusing is that the actors playing the first astronauts going to Mars
are interviewed in the same format as the genuine interviews in the 2016 portions, and though the
version we were watching was commercial-free the show was clearly structured to
accommodate commercials, and the structure of the show was the same throughout:
commercial break—2016 interview sequence—2033 “interview” sequence—2033
dramatic scene. The idea behind episode one is that the Mars astronauts were
supposed to spend the first two years on Mars living inside their spaceship,
which would be hooked up to an installation previously built on Mars by robots
that would include mechanisms to provide them breathable air and drinkable
water from the available resources on Mars — only the astronauts screwed up the
landing and ended up 72 kilometers (about 45 miles) from their base camp they
were supposed to hook up to for life support. So they have to take their
space-probe vehicle and drive, not the full 45 miles, but a shorter distance to
a smaller installation built and left on Mars by the Russians — but not all the
astronauts will fit in the vehicle and the question becomes whom to leave
behind and thereby risk their life and safety. It’s an O.K. science-fiction
show but a bit of a letdown after all the hype around it, and the contemptible
Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX rockets is heavily featured, talking about
how the key to economical space travel is making the booster rockets reusable.
This might inspire more confidence if his company didn’t have such a rotten
track record launching supposedly “reusable” rockets: his attempts so far have
either blown up on the launch pad or crumbled to fiery bits on re-entry — and
the film is full of actual documentary sequences showing just how badly Musk’s
rockets have performed, which isn’t exactly going to have people lining up to
contribute money and resources to the putative Mars expedition the fictional
parts of the film depict.
