NOVA

Looking for Life on Mars

NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a car-sized rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.

Looking for Life on Mars Preview

30s

Follow along as NASA launches the Mars 2020 Mission, perhaps the most ambitious hunt yet for signs of ancient life on Mars. In February 2021, the spacecraft will blaze into the Martian atmosphere at some 12,000 miles per hour and attempt to lower the Perseverance Rover into the rocky Jezero Crater, home to a dried-up river delta scientists think could have harbored life.

Previews + Extras

  • Why NASA is Back on Mars: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why NASA is Back on Mars

    S48 E2 - 5m 10s

    This NASA rover landed on Mars, more than 130 million miles from Earth. It’s task? To continue the search for past life on the red planet.

  • This NASA Scientist Helps Prevent Mars from Contamination: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    This NASA Scientist Helps Prevent Mars from Contamination

    S48 E2 - 4m 58s

    The spacecraft has to be extremely clean. The entire spacecraft—that includes the rover, the heat shield, the descent stage, and back shell—must contain less than 500,000 bacterial endospores, or spores. Just to give you an idea, a teaspoon of seawater has ten times more bacteria.

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