Mission to Mars

Four, three, two, one, zero.

Ignition.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!

- Blast off! - Guys, guys, please, wait! Please!

This is very risky stuff here, and I'm a highly trained professional astronaut.

- Here you go. - Now, Uncle Phil will launch another rocket...

just as soon as he completes his fuel intake.

Thanks, darlin'.

Now, you know, it takes six months just to reach Mars.

Then a year on the surface, six months back. It's, like, two years, you know?

Anyway, guess what I'm tryin' to say here is that, um...

you know, this bein' my last night on Earth and everything...

this could be a very, uh, precious memory for me.

Nice try.

- William, get that thing out of your nose. - But I like it.

- Don't you talk back to Mommy. - There you are.

- Hey, Woody. - Yeah?

Our Mars One crew won't be heading back to Earth...

till ten days after you guys land at our base camp with Mars Two.

- Uh-huh. - Oh, thank you, Reneé.

That's a pretty good long rendezvous, don't you think?

- What are you suggesting, Sergei? - I think maybe you should bring a baseball bat.

- Yes, we will play American baseball on Mars, our two crews. - Oh, please.

- We could have ourselves a little solar system series. - Half you guys are foreigners.

- We'd crush you. - No, no, no, because we have equal crews.

We have three men, one woman. Same handicap.

Easy now. That's my wife you're talking about...

and Terri just happens to be one hell of a shortstop.

Fast pitch, no steals, batter calls his own strikes.

- Thousand bucks make it interesting? - Oh, winner take all.

Good. You bring the balls.

You know the best thing about our mission?

On Mars Two, technically, I outrank her, so for the first time in our marriage...

she's gonna have to do everything I say, right, honey?

- Yes, honey. - Yes, honey, sir...

with a little salute helps.

- Yes, honey, sir. - Yeah, I like it. It's good.

- Take that corn up there, all right? - Yes, sir.

I'm not sure how I feel about NASA allowing couples...

to go on this type of mission together.

Well, nothin' personal, Terri. I mean...

It... It's just that it's, uh... It's a funny feelin' for those of us stayin' behind.

Yes, but you know that all the research shows that marriage will provide...

stability on these long duration trips.

Then they haven't studied some of the couples I've known.

Luke. Come on, baby. He's not comin'.

This isn't right. I mean, Jim deserves this too.

- All of his friends are here. - I know.

- It's my last night here. - Hey!

It's your last night with us too.

- I know. I'm sorry, baby. - Mm-hmm.

- I love you, Deb. - I love you too.

Maybe you should spend some time with Bobby.

- Yeah, where is he? - Up in his fort.

- Oh. Okay. - Millions of miles away.

Deep space.

So lonesome, so cold.

So lame, Nick.

Knock, knock.

Bobby?

Your friends are out there playin'. What are you doin' up here?

Who's gonna read to me now at bedtime?

Your mother will.

But I like when you do it.

- Now we're never gonna finish our book. - Bobby.

Listen, I've been thinkin' about that too, okay?

And what I figured out was...

How about if I bring along my own copy?

And then every night wherever I am I'll read a little bit more of it.

And you and Mommy, you can read a little bit more of it wherever you are.

And it'll be kind of like we're reading it together.

'Cause, hey, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of anxious...

to find out how old Ben Gunn got marooned on that island.

- You think that's a good idea? - Yeah.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

Okay.

Well, we were afraid you wouldn't come.

- I caught a whiff of your barbecue. - Oh.

- After that... - Yeah?

I was, uh, helpless.

All the way out in Galveston?

- Somethin' like that. - Mmm!

It's his night, Deb. I didn't want to spoil it.

Spoil it? He has been going crazy lookin' for you.

Don't ever do that to me again.

- How ya doin'? - Hey. I'm doin' good.

- Here. - Thanks, man.

A lot of people are gonna be mighty glad to see ya, you know that?

- Yeah. - Come on. Let's go in.

You remember him?

- Come on. - Why don't you just let that go?

- As soon as you admit that it was a no-go situation. - It was a go situation.

Three months, no data stream, you're gonna land the ship anyway?

Just because you keep bringing it up doesn't make you right.

Just because you get loud doesn't make... Jim, settle it.

- No, no, don't... Don't look at me. - Settle it.

- It's a go situation. - Well, th... this is exactly what I'm talkin' about.

- It's hard to admit. I know that. - Come on. Three commanders. One ship.

I don't think that's gonna work.

There's not enough rocket fuel in the world to get those egos off the ground.

- Come on. - Ah, we would have made a great crew.

- Maybe. If this man was left seat. - Yep.

Guys, come on. I'm a... I'm a pretty good stick jockey.

- You call me if you need a flight test. - What is a... What is a stick jockey?

- ""I'm a pretty good stick jockey."" - Come on, Mr Cover of Time Magazine.

The guy who landed a crippled Block II shuttle.

- Yeah. That's the stick jockey. - The stick jockey did that?

- Yeah, yeah, Mr Stick Jockey. - Okay, all right.

I made a little noise, but putting the first footprints on Mars?

That's for guys who wrote their Ph.D. thesis on how to colonize the place...

and for guys who read too much science fiction as a kid...

- and still wear these little Flash Gordon rocket ships around their necks. - Yeah.

- Very, very mature. - Yeah, you read every damn science fiction book I did.

And you're just not man enough to wear jewellery. That's all there is to that.

- Give me it. - No, no, no. - Yeah. Take it. Get it.

You know you want Flash here. You ain't gettin' him! Oh, no!

Yeah, Maggie would have loved to see you two clowns just one more time.

I'm gonna go and get a beer.

I don't know, Woodrow. I think it's about time you donated this baby to the museum.

Internal combustion, boys. Accept no substitutes.

Jim, listen.

If there's, um...

- If there's anything that Terri and I can do, you call us, all right? - I'm okay. I'm okay. Really.

- All right. - Thanks.

- Luke. - Yep.

I'll see you when I get to Mars. Listen. Don't solve all the mysteries of the universe, all right?

- Leave a little somethin' for the next guys. - I'm not promisin' anything.

- You just bring some expensive beer. - All right.

- Will do. Godspeed. - Thanks, buddy.

It should have been your mission, Jim.

Yours and Maggie's.

Nobody ever wanted Mars the way you two did, not even Woody.

You two were 12 years training for this thing, hoping for this assignment.

- It's... - Well, that's... That's all over now.

If Maggie hadn't gotten sick, if you hadn't pulled yourself...

out of the rotation to take care of her, I mean, you...

- Luke. Come on. - No, Jim. Wait a minute.

I want to say this.

Look, I wanted this assignment, all right?

But not like this, Jim.

I would give all of this up in a second if it would bring Maggie back to us.

I know that.

Look, all the years of training and planning for this mission have been a privilege.

Mars is yours now.

Go get it.

I will.

You take care of yourself, Jim.

You too, buddy.

Okay.

I'll see you when I get back.

Hey, Luke.

Have a great ride.

Always do.

- Luke, do you read me? - Yeah, Reneé.

Luke, I just got ARES-8 on-line, and...

Well, we... we think you're gonna want to see this for yourself.

Okay, copy that.

- Now, is this a cinder cone? - No, it's too smooth.

It's, uh, too angular. Volcanic upwelling maybe.

- No, no fissure, no caldera. - No, it's an upwelling for sure, but maybe not volcanic.

I mean, look at the colour and how shiny it is. That almost looks like...

- It looks like ice. - This far south?

Impossible. You can't have ice at this latitude.

I mean, not unless there's like a...

- Okay, how far away is that? - Sixteen kilometres, northeast.

Take us 20 minutes to get there, Chief.

Okay, we're gonna send a packet to Micker. We're going out there.

- Keep working. - Okay.

- Careful. Watch your step. - Yes, sir.

- Is it possible to take picture? - Oh, picture.

- Come, please. - Let's have a picture.

Say cheese.

This is a truly anomalous formation.

It's unlike anything ever seen so far.

The structure appears to be crystalline...

at least from the angle that's displayed by ARES-8.

Now, we're trying not to go too nuts up here, but we think there's a good chance...

that this could be an extrusion from some subsurface geothermal column of water.

And, of course, if that's correct...

then we may have found the key to permanent human colonization.

- We think it wise to suspend judgment here until we take our samples... - Let geology and hydrology know...

- and do a thorough investigation of the area. - We need to scramble on this, full-court press.

So we're gonna head out there ASAP and take a look at this thing...

try and get an idea of its composition.

By the time you receive this, we should just about be on site.

Anybody else hearing that?

Yeah. What is it?

I don't know. It sounds like, uh, interference from the rover.

- Can you fix it? - Hey, Skip, I can fix anything.

Love that modesty.

Break out the radar. Let's see what this thing's made of.

Oh, yes, there's one more thing.

Now, this is a very important, very special day for a good friend of ours back home.

We know he's there right now.

Now he hates it when anybody makes any kind of a fuss about him, so I'm not gonna mention his name.

'Cause the last thing I would want to do would be to embarrass someone like Jim McConnell!

Was that loud? Oh, well, it's done now.

I mean, it can't be right. It says there's metal under there. Solid metal.

No, that doesn't make any sense. You're reading a vein of ore, Reneé.