Roving Mars

00:00:25 Space exploration began with dreaming. Thousands of years of humans staring

00:02:17 of scientists and engineers whose mission was to discover if Mars ever had

00:03:27 where some of the most innovative engineers in the country work.

00:04:47 We can only launch when the two planets are properly aligned

00:06:04 We've had to fold everything into these complicated shapes to get this system

00:07:26 The two rovers are named Spirit and Opportunity.

00:08:35 From the very beginning on this mission, it seemed like nothing was going right.

00:09:47 We were running out of money, we were running out of time.

00:11:25 The rover's arm has the same dimensions as a human arm with a shoulder

00:12:36 Watch! Watch the wheels. Watch the wheels. Watch the wheels. Now watch.

00:13:47 we're never gonna see them again with our own eyes.

00:18:08 and-and get to this very, very tiny, uh, spot on Mars that we're aiming for.

00:19:37 If it deploys it too high, when the parachute opens the wind forces

00:20:50 Current velocity: twelve thousand eighty-four miles per hour.

00:22:27 Signal strength is currently intermittent.

00:25:46 We could not have imaged returns as early as this, as clear as this

00:27:31 look like and what they're made of. Then, if we see a rock that has a texture or

00:28:45 When it's exposed to sunlight or humidity or wind, the surface of the rock

00:29:59 we decided we had to go some place else. A mile and a half away

00:31:48 When we got to the outcrop and looked at it up close, we realized

00:32:59 Don't think an ocean, think of salt flats.

00:34:25 We were getting to the point where Spirit was simply gonna die.

00:35:43 But they're not gonna last forever. And as the dust keeps falling

00:37:02 Some day, there'll be humans on the surface of Mars and boot prints in our wheel tracks.