Mars

_

Retro rockets are about to fire in.

1, 2, 3, breathe. 1, 2, 3, breathe.

We dream.

It's who we are.

Down to our bones, our cells.

That instinct to build.

That drive to seek beyond what we know.

It's in our DNA.

We crossed the oceans,

we conquered the skies.

And when there were no more frontiers on Earth

we launched ourselves among the stars.

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade

and do the other things,

not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

The heavens beckoned a new generation

of innovators and explorers,

seeking to take human kind even further.

We can push out into the solar system.

Not just to visit but to stay.

That was when Mars became real for all of us.

And for those of us who were around

to see the first days, it was...

electrifying.

The world's leading space agencies

united as the International Mars Science Foundation.

And joined with private industry to accomplish one shared goal.

To build a home for humankind on Mars.

People weren't just talking about the red planet,

they were making plans to go there.

And after years of training in the Astronaut Corps

I was chosen to command the first human mission to Mars.

Wonder,

- wonder. - _

For as long as we've looked up at the night sky

that is what we felt.

We named the planets that hang among the stars

after our gods.

And gave them the same power to control our fate.

With the support of the space-going nations of the IMSF

the Mars Mission Corporation

has overcome the most daunting engineering challenges

our species has ever faced.

This allows the brave pioneers

standing before you today,

to bring humanity

into a new era.

We will no longer stare and wonder at those planets

we named for our gods.

But take our place among them.

Ed Grann could sell anything,

but he was more than a salesman.

He was brilliant.

_

She's 14 stories base to nose.

That's a fancy jacket you got today Ed.

_

_

_

And as much as any of us,

he was a believer.

He promised the world he would give us the technology

we needed to leave our home,

and build a new one.

And he delivered.

This is it.

Daedalus.

Take good care of her,

she'll take good care of you.

She's your ship now.

Drives better than a Cadillac.

But that shine isn't gonna last.

Over the next 7 months your bodies are gonna be exposed

to nearly 200 times the dose of a normal year's

worth of radiation exposure on Earth.

Calcium will leach from your bones

which will lose nearly 10% of their mass

before you even get to Mars.

There is no test that can tell you whether or not

the notion of being 60 million kilometers away

from the planet on which you were born

can shatter your mind in so many pieces.

Some of us if not all of us

will almost certainly die on this mission.

Might be in takeoff, might be in landing,

might be in the new world itself.

Now you all are the bravest group

of women and men I have ever met.

I'm damn proud to be here with you.

But right now I want you to stop and ask yourself

what really is important to you about this mission.

And if the answer to that question is not

the most important thing in your life

then I'm gonna invite you to walk out that door

and go pursue whatever that thing is.

And don't ever look back, because no one

will ever have the right to hold it against you.

Daedalus, you're a go for launch

in T-minus 17 seconds and counting.

Mission analytic executor,

you have primary control of all the critical functions.

Mae, the ship is yours.

I am in control.

The launch of Daedalus

was the beginning of our historic 7-month journey to Mars.

But it wasn't easy to reach the red planet.

We needed visionaries to guide the way.

Mars and Earth are sister planets.

The young Mars had rivers and lakes,

it even had an ocean.

If there was water on Mars,

couldn't there possibly be life?

Is it habitable?

If you really want to understand,

we want to, need to, go to Mars.

We need to go to Mars

because it protects us from extinction.

There's all sorts of things that could happen on Earth

that can kill all the humans on the planet.

But once humans are on two different planets

the odds of extinction drop to nearly zero.

Getting to Mars will be risky,

dangerous,

uncomfortable.

But it will be the greatest adventure ever.

Ever in human history.

This is hallowed ground,

it's called Launchpad 39A,

and it's the place that the first humans left Earth,

then went to another heavenly body.

So this is um, I think, probably,

I think it's the greatest launchsite on Earth.

Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, Neil Armstrong

get into the transfer van to Pad 39A.

Pad 39A was used for the Apollo 11 mission,

and then with the space shuttle.

So it's a place with incredible historical significance.

Now NASA has given Launchpad 39A

to SpaceX to use.

The long term goal of SpaceX is to develop the technology

necessary to establish a self-sustaining city on Mars.

SpaceX's primary mission is absolutely

to make life interplanetary.

We can explore the universe,

we can put a colony on Mars.

People can be interplanetary

and it's just an engineering problem like any other.

It just takes a group of people who care a lot,

and are happy to work really hard to make that happen.

When Elon Musk decided

"I'm gonna go off and build my own rocket company",

everyone thought he was crazy.

Everyone laughed at him.

Now SpaceX has a better record launching things

than practically any rocket company in the world.

They have a contract from NASA to deliver

very essential supplies to the space station.

Dragon spacecraft now the first-ever

commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.

They have investors, they have to have revenues,

they want the business of launching billion dollar satellites.

At the same time, they're focused on launching

a new civilization on Mars.

So the stakes for every rocket launch are huge.

I think it's important for us to try to get

to a self-sustaining situation on Mars as soon as possible.

SpaceX, Falcon9 and Dragon are go for launch.

T-minus 30 seconds.

Because either we're gonna become

a multi-planet species and a space-faring civilization,

or we're gonna be stuck on one planet

until some eventual extinction event.

T-minus 20.

In order for me to be

excited and inspired about the future,

it's gotta be the first option.

It's gotta be: We're gonna be a space-faring civilization.

T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6,

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.

What am I ready for?

I'm ready to be one of the first human beings

to go to Mars. I mean,

could you imagine that?

That's like a dream.

I think Amelia Earhart once said that "adventure

is worthwhile in itself."

Uh, it could be that.

If we don't succeed

we still paved the path for people after us to come,

and follow our lead.

Becoming an interplanetary species is,

it's our best chance to guarantee

humankind's long-term survival.

And, getting to be part of that it's just.

I mean it's...

It's everything.

Yeah it is.

We've got the opportunity to

ensure that humankind continues.