All In

I'm sorry.

I'm glad we were finally able to find time for a drink.

Yes, me too.

Although, God, my panel starts at 7:00 a.m.

"Gravity-assist maneuvers for multiple planetary flybys."

It's just...

I'm-- I'm looking forward to it.

- It should be interesting. - Yeah.

Though Dr. Alper does have a tendency to--

Never shut up.

Yes!

Be lucky to get three words in.

See you then.

Without "law and order,"

as your sainted Ronald Reagan might put it,

the inner solar system will be in chaos in less than a decade.

We need a template like the Law of the Sea.

No. Margo, no. Not enough teeth.

We need something-- something compulsory.

Like when Russian tanks rolled on Prague?

Not funny.

It wasn't meant to be.

Nevertheless, point taken.

To be continued.

Yes, yes. Definitely to be continued.

It's true. You could die.

How so?

If the knife scrapes one of its organs, the chef could kill his customer.

Wow. Death by puffer fish.

Are there many sushi restaurants in Houston?

Nippon. Always packed, mostly Japanese people.

That's how you know it's top quality.

An expert in the field of raw fish.

So, you did like it?

I enjoyed the eel.

I don't like it. Too rough. Scaly, sharp edges.

I'm sorry. Sounds like Leonov.

This is-- This is my floor.

Yes, it is.

Well...

See you tomorrow.

Good night.

Good evening, Dr. Nikulov, Miss Madison.

Good night.

- Good night. - Night.

Unless you've been living under a rock,

you've read the news.

Helios has announced

they're going to launch a mission to Mars in '94.

Please don't say it. Please don't say it.

- Plea-- - And so are we.

She said it.

- Yeah. - President Hart is determined

we're not gonna come in second place again,

to Helios, to the Soviets, to anyone.

How are we going to do this in two years? We were barely on track to launch in '96.

Sojourner 1 can be ready.

And the crew?

I've already got my number one.

We could get the rest of the crew selected ASAP.

We have some candidates lined up already.

Not to worry. No turncoats this time around.

And training?

Not ideal. We'd have to compress the schedule,

eliminate all nonessential activities, but--

- It's possible. - Yeah.

Sorry to point out the obvious here,

but what are they supposed to do when they get there?

The habs, the fuel generators, the life support systems,

they're all part of the pre-supply mission that's slated to launch in the '94 window

so that they'd be there when the astronauts arrive.

The Mars habs won't even be fabricated for another year.

So we figure out how to get them built sooner. Work the problem.

You're asking us to build the Parthenon in a day.

Well, thankfully we have more resources than the Greeks did.

Didn't we repurpose Skylab to build the first Jamestown module?

That's right. We could turn the new Jamestown modules into the Mars habs.

Those habs are already fabricated.

They're being shipped to the moon on Sea Dragon next month.

We'd have to adjust the specs, but it could work.

It's only half a solution.

Even if it works, we still have to get it there.

Need I remind you, the launch window to Mars is once every 26 months.

And we just missed the last one.

Our whole mission plan is based on

this stuff getting there well before the astronauts.

What if we threw out the mission plan?

And send our crew to Mars without the supplies to survive?

Not to mention the fuel they need to get back home?

We can launch the pre-supply outside the window next year...

but towards Venus.

We slingshot it to Mars.

MIT just had a paper on this.

It'll take longer,

but it'll still get to Mars a few months before the crew does.

It's not the worst idea.

It's a great idea.

And it's what we're gonna do.

We cannot allow Mars to be exploited by capitalism

but preserved for all the workers of the world.

This is why the Soviet Union will be launching in 1994.

That was just yesterday in Moscow

as the Soviet Union joins what is now a three-way race to Mars.

As you can imagine,

our two presidential candidates had a lot to say about this

in last night's debate.

If Governor Clinton has forgotten what it felt like to lose the race to the moon

and would rather just hand Mars over to the Soviet Union--

You're putting words in my mouth, Senator.

I'm all for a US presence on Mars.

I just question the wisdom of spending billions of extra dollars

to launch two years earlier

when that money could be used to put food in the mouths of hungry families.

NASA puts more money into the government than it takes out.

Governor, you know this has no impact on food programs.

We have to press forward. I assure you the Russians and Helios are.

Phoenix 4. EV three has swapped tethers

and reached the lox tank 4 alpha attach point.

Copy that, EV three.

Proceed with foot restraint installment with 764 delta.

I see good clearance between engine two and welding site 7.

Copy that, EV five.

We're going to continue closure and berth truss element 37

at welding site 7.

EV seven ready for you to power on DCSU 68.

We've learned a lot from what happened.

Installed triple redundancies in the thruster systems.

The hotel rooms, they've been converted to work spaces, crew quarters, storage.

We're replacing two of the large modules on either side of the ring

with our mobile habs.

- Mobile? - Oh, yeah.

Once you fly those beasts down to the surface of Mars,

you'll be able to go to wherever the best liquid water deposits are.

I gotta say, that's pretty badass.

I haven't even shown you the best part.

Now we're talking.

You know, we're gonna take great care of you and your crew, Ed.

Treat you like real human beings.

The days of three people crammed into a tin can eating cat food,

they're over.

The Phoenix will have gourmet MREs. We're talking Wolfgang Puck.

All I need to know now is what do you need from us?

Anybody that you want, Karen can get.

Even if they're at NASA?

You were at NASA.

Oh, that feels good. That feels real good.

Well, judging by the way you got this flight deck laid out,

I'ma need three pilots,

at least two mechanical engineers, a navigator.

I need guys that's got some experience under their belt,

who aren't afraid to take chances.

You know, the truth is, you're only gonna need one pilot.

You.

The flight control systems are fully automated,

which leaves more of the 15 crew slots for scientists, engineers, artists.

- Artists? - Artists?

It's just an idea.

But imagine a poet being able to capture the majesty,

the wonder of being on another planet firsthand.

Hold up.

I'm not putting any poets on my crew, all right?

And what do you mean, the systems are fully automated?

In an effort to minimize risk as much as possible,

the computers will be directing majority of the ship's operations.

I need to be able to take control of this ship if necessary.

I'm gonna be 30 million miles away from Earth

with an eight-minute communications lag.

If a system fails,

I need to be able to improvise solutions and work-arounds.

I mean, the survival of my crew depends on it.

He's right.

Hold the work.

I said hold the work!

We made a mistake.

I made a mistake.

We need to rework the flight control systems

per the commander of this ship...

immediately.

We're coming in hot. Descent rates are up to ten meters per second.

Continuing descent on manual.

- We should abort. - I got this.

No, you don't.

- Watch your glide slope. Pull up! - I-- I am.

I got it.

Throttle up!

Fuck.

UFIT, Sojourner . You're a smoking hole.

Hold for sim reboot.

You okay?

Sorry. I just-- I got a lot going on.

Like what?

Amber and I just closed on a house.

Look at you.

House, wife. You know what comes next, don't you?

Yeah. Yeah, she wants one of those too.

Oh, Danny boy The pipes, the pipes are calling

Very funny.

Tell you what, let's cancel these sims for the rest of the day.

No. No, I'm good.

No, we've been pushing it real hard. Go on home.