Mars: Season Two

[Rocket Science]

It's Back ! Check your local listings...

[RonM]

I checked the schedule on Comcast and there will be a behind the scenes look at SpaceX before episode 1.

Monday November 12
8:00 pm EST: Mars - Inside SpaceX
9:00 pm EST: Mars ep1 - We Are Not Alone

[AndyE]

Interview with Ron Howard about the new series and his views on the colonisation of Mars:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46101233

[Rocket Science]

Bump: Returns tonight!

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Elon Musk and Mars take the spotlight in National Geographic TV doubleheader

By Alan Boyle on November 12, 2018 at 2:32 pm

Science fiction blends with fact in tonight’s double dose of Mars from National Geographic’s TV channel.

Truth to tell, there’s more fact than fiction: The first show in the double feature is “Mars: Inside SpaceX,” which wraps a tale of past and future space exploration around an inside look at SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch in February.

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/elon-musk-mars-take-spotlight-national-geographic-tv-doubleheader

[Rocket Science]

Inside SpaceX part with FH was awesome!

[JazzFan]

Only got to see the beginning of the SpaceX hour as was busy with family putting up Christmas tree and agree that it was very good.  Can't see another showing on Comcast.  Will they repeat that, as the first Mars episode should be available on demand tomorrow or in a few days?

[ncb1397]

Only got to see the beginning of the SpaceX hour as was busy with family putting up Christmas tree and agree that it was very good.  Can't see another showing on Comcast.  Will they repeat that, as the first Mars episode should be available on demand tomorrow or in a few days?

SpaceX segment:
https://www.fox.com/watch/12e413e68c538ba79a298f709efc1607/

Season 2 Episode 1
https://www.fox.com/watch/ac98123482f0f40d0e99f7e237832699/

They give you a free hour preview pass. Be sure to link your provider on that pass through the timer that comes up as I am not sure how to do it otherwise.

[Rocket Science]

Check National Geographic website schedule at your location. It shows a repeat this afternoon for me on TV. Differs by country... You may be able to stream as well...

[Cheapchips]

If you're a UK Sky customer they're both available on Sky Go.  Have to admit, I fast forwarded all the drama bits of the first series and just watched the talking heads parts. 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

SpaceX programme also available to purchase on YouTube for $1.99 depending on country:

[mlindner]

I haven't watched it yet but the trailers appear to be saying that Capitalism is the evil boogeyman yet again, despite it having given us almost everything that we currently take for granted in the world. We aren't living as serfs in medieval Europe. We're living in advanced world with information and technology whenever and almost wherever we want it. If this is the attitude that is taken then we'll never make it to Mars in the first place. It's scary that Mars TV series puts out these negative messaging.

[Zed_Noir]

I haven't watched it yet but the trailers appear to be saying that Capitalism is the evil boogeyman yet again, despite it having given us almost everything that we currently take for granted in the world. We aren't living as serfs in medieval Europe. We're living in advanced world with information and technology whenever and almost wherever we want it. If this is the attitude that is taken then we'll never make it to Mars in the first place. It's scary that Mars TV series puts out these negative messaging.

Monsanto as example of both good & bad. More on the bad ledger side overall IMO.

A bad Monsanto like entity on Mars is scary.

The NatGeo Mars series is really a disasters of the week show that need some sort of villain to offset the continuing series of bad storylines events. The writers of the series is too fond of Murphy and calamities.

[Oersted]

I struggled through Season 1 with all the defeatism, sorrow, deppressiveness, stale human interaction and total lack of humour it had.

Not going to put myself through that again. Not even tempted to watch Season 2.

Such a chance wasted for a great series about going to Mars. I guess I'll have to wait for the real thing.

[mlindner]

I haven't watched it yet but the trailers appear to be saying that Capitalism is the evil boogeyman yet again, despite it having given us almost everything that we currently take for granted in the world. We aren't living as serfs in medieval Europe. We're living in advanced world with information and technology whenever and almost wherever we want it. If this is the attitude that is taken then we'll never make it to Mars in the first place. It's scary that Mars TV series puts out these negative messaging.

Monsanto as example of both good & bad. More on the bad ledger side overall IMO.

A bad Monsanto like entity on Mars is scary.

The NatGeo Mars series is really a disasters of the week show that need some sort of villain to offset the continuing series of bad storylines events. The writers of the series is too fond of Murphy and calamities.

Monsanto largely is not different than any other company. It was also made into a boogeyman that despite doing legitimate pioneering technology instead has to divert all its profits to defending repeated frivolous lawsuits that claim impossible things. Including even losing one recently to a poor court ruling that blocked scientific evidence to be given as court evidence.

But this is off topic.

[Rocket Science]

I've said this years ago and I'll say it again... "Mars is not Utopia and when we go there we will take all of humanity's ills with us..."

[Dalhousie]

Had hoped that the writers would have done a better job this time round.  But after reading Blackstar's review clearly they haven't.

Looks as if series two is as much drivel as the first.  Which is really sad as the idea has so much potential.

[Rocket Science]

I'll still watch it, at least for the visuals...

[Rocket Science]

They'll probably pick up Prozac as the official Mars sponsor and requirement for all colonists...

[Dalhousie]

Episode 2 had some better drama. But everybody's still pretty miserable and grim. Some characters are even more miserable than before.

But I can already detect the story arc: EvilCorp(tm) has found liquid water on Mars and they're going to drill for it. Then they're going to get sick, and it will probably turn out that they're ingesting some Martian microorganism. Mayhem ensues.

I have read that Greenpeace got interviewed for Er. 2.  Is this correct?

[Dalhousie]

I have read that Greenpeace got interviewed for Er. 2.  Is this correct?

Yes, and it's actually pretty good. No matter what your opinion of them, or their position on this issue, you come away understanding them. And you understand that there are people in that organization that have the courage of their convictions. I actually thought that the focus on Greenpeace in ep 2 was better than the focus on the company guy (an oil worker) in ep 1. His story was mainly about being separated from his family and feeling isolated. The Greenpeace story was more about having a cause and sacrificing for that cause.

Thanks.  It's not so much having courage on one's convictions that matter, but what those convictions are.

[Blackstar]

Thanks.  It's not so much having courage on one's convictions that matter, but what those convictions are.

I like whales.

[su27k]

The analogy to Mars is a good one too--mess up on Mars, do something to wreck the environment, and nobody will fix it, the damage will be permanent.

Mars' environment is already messed up, I don't see how we can make it worse.

There was also a good comment by one of the talking heads when referring to terraforming: we're having a hard enough time keeping Earth livable, so it's incredibly hubristic to think that we can go to another planet and make that one livable.

There're fairly cheap (in the billion dollars range) geo-engineering methods on the table that can change the climate, but everyone is (justifiably) worried about the negative effects they may have on our daily lives. Fortunately this is not a concern on Mars.

It's also arrogant to assume that we trashed Earth and can simply walk away from it.

Nobody is assuming this.

[Blackstar]

Meanwhile, back on Mars...

Episode 3 was pretty good. Probably the best of the season so far. But it also has some of the same problems that all of them have, which I attribute both to casting and tone. I'll deal with the drama segments in this post, and the documentary segments in the next post. This is all filled with spoilers, so if that bothers you, don't read it.

Hanna Seung (the science base commander) is still depressed about her sister's death.
Amelie (the doctor) is still depressed that she's pregnant and her relationship with Javier has fallen apart.
Javier is actually rather happy about the pregnancy.
Marta (the scientist) is mad and brooding and obsessed with the corporate drilling team.

The drama segments had two main themes, both of which were pretty good. Marta is very concerned that the Lukrum Corp. people are drilling into an aquifer that could harbor undiscovered life forms and that could destroy them. She's become a real jerk about it, picking fights with her coworkers and her commander. She steals a rover and heads out to their drill site. When the drillers leave, she takes some water samples. As she's heading back, there's a massive solar flare that knocks out power at both the science base and the corporate base and affects her navigation system. I was not totally clear how that latter part worked, because I thought they referred to terrain relative navigation. She didn't really need a GPS system, because at least for awhile she could follow her own tracks in the dirt, and you would think that in the future they would do a lot of navigation by scene matching--having a camera on the rover spot terrain points and figure out where they are. But eventually it gets dark and she is lost. She shuts down systems on her rover, then more systems and more systems. It's getting colder and colder and soon she's suffering hypothermia. As she's dying, Marta has flashbacks that help to explain her better. She left a boyfriend/husband back on Earth, deciding to go to Mars for scientific research, which she told him "is bigger than both of us." We start to see that her scientific pursuits are all she has left. She gave up life and love on Earth. And she's been on Mars for almost a decade studying the same boring microbes. There's a hint in an earlier scene where she's talking with Amelie and reveals that she's not a total automaton, and it pays off well here.

Eventually the science base gets partial power restored which allows them to locate the rover's navigation beacon. It turns out Marta has been heading in a completely wrong direction and is very far from the base. They call the corporate base and tell them, and the corporate guys show up and rescue Marta. The corporate commander (Kurt) actually comes across as a decent guy in this episode (he's been a dick in the previous episodes) and he lets Marta have her samples, saying that they could have just asked for samples in the first place. As Marta is being taken into sick bay, still being a jerk herself, he shouts "You're welcome!" in one of the few bits of humor in the entire series. (Seriously, you can count the number of laughs in all of the episodes shown so far on one hand.)

The other dramatic story arc involves Amelie and Javier and her pregnancy, and it's just straight soap opera stuff and I just don't really give a fig. Amelie is insufferably French, and Javier seems to be the only person on the whole freaking planet who is happy.

As an aside, I rather liked the confrontation between Marta and base commander Hanna. Marta was clearly over the line and being rude and disrespectful. Hanna was also way too disengaged from her job due to her duties. But Hanna's blowup at Marta was also unprofessional and a bit over the top and awkward. And it reminded me of something that I've seen in my career, that often people in leadership positions have not had any training in leadership. The military provides it, but civilian life often just promotes somebody based upon various attributes without training them how to lead people. Hanna is suffering from depression, but it is likely that she didn't receive any training on how to handle people in such situations. So what might seem like sloppy writing and acting to some viewers struck me as rather realistic.

(Next week: it looks like something in the water is making everybody sick. Obviously the Lukrum people did not bring Brita water filters with them.)

[Blackstar]

Now on to the documentary segments of episode 3:

These were really pretty good. One thing that I wonder about this show is how they write it. The documentary segments are very well integrated into the dramatic segments. The two mirror each other, and I wonder how they do that. Do they gather the documentary material and figure out what their theme is and then write the drama segments to match it? I think it would be a lot harder to write the drama segments first and then try to assemble the documentary segments--which are mostly interviews--based upon that.

As a reminder, episode 1's documentary segments were about a guy living on an oil drilling rig. It was mostly about his isolation and the long hours and separation from family. It didn't match well with the drama segments, where the Mars corporate commander (Kurt) was mostly portrayed as a rather reckless jerk. Episode 2's documentary segments dealt with Greenpeace activists protesting oil drilling in the arctic. What was interesting about those segments is that even if you disagree with their protests (and I do, somewhat), it's clear that they are committed and willing to make sacrifices for their beliefs. Those segments, while good, were a bit of an awkward mesh with the drama segments, which were mostly about the Lukrum people being rather reckless and Kurt continuing to be a jerk. Oh, and everybody was still pretty miserable.

The episode 3 documentary segments meshed very well with the drama segments. We saw several scientists who do work in the arctic, and we got a sense of their inner drive and personality. One of them commented about how his family seemed to think that his science is "work" that keeps him away from his family, but he pointed out that his scientific work is his life. It's not a separate part of his life. One of the talking heads commented that many scientists are more at ease with nature than they are with people.

An aside: I think they failed to make a distinction here. Most scientists work in labs and universities and don't do field work. Their jobs don't isolate them from society or families. Their jobs are often 9-5, five days a week. And while they are not comprehensible to many non-scientists, they are still comprehensible as jobs and not a lifestyle. I thought that the episode showed that the scientists they were referring to are the ones who go out into the field, but it's still an important distinction.

Something else that the documentary segments showed was that these field scientists are willing to accept isolation and risk in the pursuit of their work. That's obviously a theme of all the episodes so far (the oil worker, the Greenpeace activist, and now the scientists all are taking physical risks). The early segment of the scientists being dropped off by the helicopter in Greenland made a great case. To paraphrase the scientist: climate change is real, they need data to understand it, and that requires taking risks to gather the data; they could die out there on the ice sheet. (Cut to a few blathering nabobs who say that it's all a myth to emphasize the point.) There was also the guy who was trying to drop the sensor into the water chute and talked about the dangers, and then a talking head who mentioned that scientists can often get tunnel vision when pursuing a goal and become unaware of the risks they are taking. Then some shots of scientists doing some really risky things like going to the edge of a volcano or climbing very high trees.

These segments did a great job of providing context for Marta's actions on Mars. As the show has established, she found life on Mars nearly a decade earlier. But they spent all their money on a high-tech laboratory and not on sample collection or drilling equipment. And for ten years they've only discovered those initial samples, which are now rather boring to them. Marta wants more data, and she's willing to break the rules to go and get it. It was a pretty good story arc, because we understand her motivations and we also understand more of her personality. She has nothing else besides her work. That's it.

When this show premiered a couple of years ago I wrote in a TSR article that they could cut out all the drama segments and simply go with the documentary segments and they'd have a great show. That remains true for this season, although I thought the oil drilling segments were rather weak.

[GWH]

It does bother me somewhat that all the documentary's focus this season has been around fossil fuels and climate change. I can understand the parallels to the exploitation of the frontier with the oil rigs, but there are certainly OTHER cases of frontier living to extract other resources in remote areas (mining for example).

The issue I have with focusing on fossil fuels and climate change is that this is something we can ween our way off of, but face considerable opposition in doing so, where as mining is something that is (mostly) needed to grow the economy. Of course recycling can reduce that need, and in the case of Mars reuse of resources would be critical.

The focus on fossil fuels and climate change just strikes me as being heavy handed, its a dirty habit of humanity, although maybe it does parallel the space based economy in that water is essential for creating propellant and enabling transportation in that economy.

[Blackstar]

but there are certainly OTHER cases of frontier living to extract other resources in remote areas (mining for example).

Come up with a plausible material to mine on Mars that could provide storytelling and drama opportunities. I cannot think of any.

In fact, I have a hard time with the concept that Lukrum is there to drill water. Why? Who are they going to sell it to? This is the classic space resources dilemma/conundrum that everybody likes to skip past. The first episode featured various people saying things like "If there is money to be made, companies will show up to try and make it." But nobody has an answer to the "if" part of that equation. What is the commodity? I see this every day in the space field. Two weeks ago I was at a lunar workshop and people were talking about all the amazing water to be found at the lunar south pole and how we just need to go there and get it. And capitalism/free enterprise/public-private partnerships will enable this to happen. And sell it to whom? Nobody ever answers that, and so it's not surprising that this show falls into that same conundrum.

[GWH]

but there are certainly OTHER cases of frontier living to extract other resources in remote areas (mining for example).

Come up with a plausible material to mine on Mars that could provide storytelling and drama opportunities. I cannot think of any.

Not where I was going with that, I am merely pointing out the focus on OIL and nothing but OIL is a bit much.

In fact, I have a hard time with the concept that Lukrum is there to drill water. Why?

Terraforming plans in the show clearly involve building giant mirror arrays in orbit, requiring mirrors built ISRU and launch services. Obviously someone is paying for this work to be performed, lets assume the space agency or more succinctly "government". This means lots of propellant and local mining of resources.

If Lukrum can drill for water and mine/build mirrors at a lower cost than whatever the space agency is doing there exists opportunity for profit.

What is the commodity? I see this every day in the space field. Two weeks ago I was at a lunar workshop and people were talking about all the amazing water to be found at the lunar south pole and how we just need to go there and get it. And capitalism/free enterprise/public-private partnerships will enable this to happen. And sell it to whom?

The commodity in that case is deltaV. "Government" wants their moon missions and they want to do it as cheaply as possible. Mine the water, make the propellant, provide the transportation service. If one can provide that transportation service cheaper than say, SLS, there is profit to be made. If transport to GEO, or Europa, or anywhere else can be made less expensive there is potential profit.

But yes, the concept of "showing up to make profit" is a fallacy unless there is some potential anchor customer that one is providing for is silly. In this case Lukrum couldn't just show up and make profit without that space agency already being there and requiring services.

[mlindner]

I'll watch the season if the capitalist guy turns out to be anything other than "evil boogeyman" and is shown to have actual merit. So far it sounds like that's all he is.

[TripleSeven]

but there are certainly OTHER cases of frontier living to extract other resources in remote areas (mining for example).

Come up with a plausible material to mine on Mars that could provide storytelling and drama opportunities. I cannot think of any.

In fact, I have a hard time with the concept that Lukrum is there to drill water. Why? Who are they going to sell it to? This is the classic space resources dilemma/conundrum that everybody likes to skip past. The first episode featured various people saying things like "If there is money to be made, companies will show up to try and make it." But nobody has an answer to the "if" part of that equation. What is the commodity? I see this every day in the space field. Two weeks ago I was at a lunar workshop and people were talking about all the amazing water to be found at the lunar south pole and how we just need to go there and get it. And capitalism/free enterprise/public-private partnerships will enable this to happen. And sell it to whom? Nobody ever answers that, and so it's not surprising that this show falls into that same conundrum.

Good comments.  Of course these people (the original group) are going "now now" (off the deep end).  Its unclear any of them have been "off Mars" since the story started.  They dont have any "vacations" ("Hello I am going to Demios for two weeks and get drunk or swim on the beach or whatever") and its unclear that they have any real "get away" oppurtunities...to well blow off steam and get away from the operation.

The American west was hard but it was not without parties, booze, saloons, or "get aways".  When my relatives settles in the 1840's where we live now...they went to Galveston sometimes and "Hung out"...the oldest bar in the city was once a saloon...and the relatives are known to have gone there.  I have friends in the South Pole who "get away" from it all...and when they are there...there is "booze" ...when I was on the CVN the skipper would every so often declare "the flight deck ashore" and the parties started.

The knife gets dull if all you do is the same thing over and over again and have the same pressures, even if you love what you are doing.  This is why after X time on the oil rig, most companies have manadatory time off...

Mars might be great scenery when you first get there but after a bit its going to look the same everywhere you go and you are going to nkow every little space "on the base" from sheer boredom.  unless you find a holodeck or something to try and give you some perspective from what is every day life...well before long you are going to start day dreaming about what real life was.

Or you had none   and these people are dangerous.

[Blackstar]

The commodity in that case is deltaV. "Government" wants their moon missions and they want to do it as cheaply as possible. Mine the water, make the propellant, provide the transportation service. If one can provide that transportation

Nope. That's tautological and it falls apart. If the government is the customer, then there's no market and it's not commercial, it's contracting. And what private company would advance significant capital to mine a resource that the government might want 10-30 years from now? Nobody would bank on the government's human spaceflight policy being consistent for more than a decade. Governments can be fickle.

And it doesn't work for "Mars" either: Lukrum shows up, nearly wrecks the IMSF base with reentry debris, demands water and power, and decides to take a shortcut through IMSF off-limits territory. Why? So they can mine water to sell to the IMSF? For starters, IMSF doesn't need the water (they're giving it to Lukrum). Also, it's best not to punch your customer in the nose before offering to sell them something. The best strategy for IMSF would be to refuse to buy, let Lukrum go bankrupt and leave, and then just take over their camp.

The show has not answered who Lukrum is going to sell anything to. Maybe there is a wave of space tourists who are eager to visit Mars and Lukrum is going to set up the resort. But as of episode 3, we haven't gotten any indication about what they're going to sell to whom.

[RonM]

but there are certainly OTHER cases of frontier living to extract other resources in remote areas (mining for example).

Come up with a plausible material to mine on Mars that could provide storytelling and drama opportunities. I cannot think of any.

In fact, I have a hard time with the concept that Lukrum is there to drill water. Why? Who are they going to sell it to? This is the classic space resources dilemma/conundrum that everybody likes to skip past. The first episode featured various people saying things like "If there is money to be made, companies will show up to try and make it." But nobody has an answer to the "if" part of that equation. What is the commodity? I see this every day in the space field. Two weeks ago I was at a lunar workshop and people were talking about all the amazing water to be found at the lunar south pole and how we just need to go there and get it. And capitalism/free enterprise/public-private partnerships will enable this to happen. And sell it to whom? Nobody ever answers that, and so it's not surprising that this show falls into that same conundrum.

Good comments.  Of course these people (the original group) are going "now now" (off the deep end).  Its unclear any of them have been "off Mars" since the story started.  They dont have any "vacations" ("Hello I am going to Demios for two weeks and get drunk or swim on the beach or whatever") and its unclear that they have any real "get away" oppurtunities...to well blow off steam and get away from the operation.

The American west was hard but it was not without parties, booze, saloons, or "get aways".  When my relatives settles in the 1840's where we live now...they went to Galveston sometimes and "Hung out"...the oldest bar in the city was once a saloon...and the relatives are known to have gone there.  I have friends in the South Pole who "get away" from it all...and when they are there...there is "booze" ...when I was on the CVN the skipper would every so often declare "the flight deck ashore" and the parties started.

The knife gets dull if all you do is the same thing over and over again and have the same pressures, even if you love what you are doing.  This is why after X time on the oil rig, most companies have manadatory time off...

Mars might be great scenery when you first get there but after a bit its going to look the same everywhere you go and you are going to nkow every little space "on the base" from sheer boredom.  unless you find a holodeck or something to try and give you some perspective from what is every day life...well before long you are going to start day dreaming about what real life was.

Or you had none   and these people are dangerous.

They do have a bar in the second season.

[Blackstar]

They do have a bar in the second season.

And a bar fight!

Hopefully, some Klingons will show up.

[Blackstar]

Spoilers here, so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read.



Episode 4 dealt with the outbreak of a disease at the Lukrum base, spreading to at least half a dozen people. Severe respiratory illness. Back at the IMSF base, the researcher who was scientist Marta's assistant also catches the disease. He is found by Javier and is in very bad condition. Marta is still in sick bay, recovering from severe hypothermia.

Soon the scientist dies and Javier is sick. Marta goes into the lab in a protective suit to try and figure out what happened. They now realize that the contagion came from Marta's samples--so it started with her, not back at Lukrum. What Marta discovers is that although her samples contain what appears to be the same organism that they found on Mars years earlier, it is a different strain and became activated in a warmer temperature, thus multiplying rapidly and becoming lethal. (Sidenote: although this happened with Marta's samples, one would expect that eventually it would have happened at the Lukrum facility anyway, because they were the ones drawing all the water.)

Meanwhile, they have tried pumping everybody full of antibiotics and it does not work. After frantic effort, Marta determines that a simple antibiotic--penicillin--may work. The problem is that they don't have any. But the Chinese station does and they call back to IMSF asking permission to request it be dropped down from the Chinese station. IMSF, which is now in partnership with Lukrum, hesitates. The Lukrum boss is a pretty heartless bastard and he says that if they make the request to the Chinese, the situation will become public and that will tank their stock value. He says no to the request, adding that the families of the dead will be well-compensated.

Back at the IMSF base Hana finally shows some real backbone, ignores the order to wait, and puts in the request to the Chinese, who send down the penicillin. They apply it to the sick crewmembers and they recover. The final scene is Hana's #2 calling back to IMSF and saying that he believes that Hana is depressed and no longer fit for command.

This was a really strong episode for the dramatic segments, the best of the season so far (better than last week). A couple of things marred it a bit. The Lukrum CEO was a little too cutthroat. He was perfectly willing to let a bunch of people die. The show did a good job of illustrating that this is the reality for many companies on Earth, where companies will cover up deaths or allow them to happen in order to keep making money. But it was just a little too much with this guy. Plus, you would think that losing a big chunk of the Lukrum crew, and possibly even having the contagion spread to the rest of the base might wreck Lukrum's operations.

The other thing that bugged me a little bit was Hana's subordinate calling for her removal. We will see how that plays out in future episodes, but Hana was the on-site commander and she made a tough call and SHE SAVED PEOPLES' LIVES. You'd think that by this point Hana would be a hero to her people, not to mention the Lukrum people. Maybe that's how it plays out--with an effort to remove Hana protested by both the IMSF and Lukrum crewmembers.

(the documentary segments in the next post)

[KelvinZero]

Not fully on topic.. but how high could a whale leap in mars gravity anyway? That would be quite a sight.. and the slow fall would probably actually make it look larger.

[Blackstar]

Not fully on topic.. but how high could a whale leap in mars gravity anyway? That would be quite a sight.. and the slow fall would probably actually make it look larger.

That is the kind of question best answered either by a combination of whale biologists and mathematicians, or a group of stoner dudes.

[Johnnyhinbos]

Not fully on topic.. but how high could a whale leap in mars gravity anyway? That would be quite a sight.. and the slow fall would probably actually make it look larger.

That is the kind of question best answered either by a combination of whale biologists and mathematicians, or a group of stoner dudes.

(is there a difference?)

[MickQ]

Only in the name.

[Blackstar]

Spoilers here, so if you don't want to be spoiled, skip along.



I know I was going to summarize the docu parts of episode 4, but I got lazy. So I'm only doing that now. They focused on a Russian Greenpeace activist who has been reporting on an anthrax outbreak in Siberia that killed a bunch of people as well as thousands of reindeer. The government came in and tried to cover it all up, destroying most photos and videos and burning everybody's cellphones. As the episode makes clear, the oil companies are developing Siberia, and the Russian government is a major shareholder in these companies, so if the companies want the information destroyed, the government complies. There was also some discussion about how disease outbreaks are often covered up by governments for economic purposes, and this can result in the disease spreading even farther and faster. They mentioned the example of the SARS outbreak in China, where the government refused to reveal that it was happening and by the time they admitted it, SARS had spread beyond China's borders. The theme of these segments--echoed in the dramatic segments--is that there's a very blurry line between corporate and government interests, and the corporations will quickly cover up deaths and environmental destruction in the name of money.

I thought that these segments were really pretty good, in part because they're so surprising: you think that governments would want to stop the spread of deadly diseases as quickly as possible, but the reality is that other interests, primarily economic, prevent that from happening. The first instinct is to cover it up, which only allows the disease to spread further.

[Blackstar]

Spoilers for episode 5 here, so if you don't want to be spoiled, I suggest watching an episode of Gilligan's Island instead, where once again they fail to get off the island...


The dramatic segments for episodes 3 and 4 were pretty good. I thought that episode 5 was almost as good, but dropped a little bit.

The episode starts with Mike, who is Hana's #2 at the IMSF base, being told by IMSF on Earth that they reject his concerns about Hana's stability. They're going to keep Hana in charge. He doesn't like this, and so we know that he's going to cause trouble.

Lukrum is now drilling for water, but keeps running into problems--they get down a ways and then run into a hard layer that they cannot get through. So they call up the IMSF base and ask for more power. It's not quite clear what is going on, but the implication is that the Lukrum base is sending all their power to the drilling site, and is running off of the power that they get from the IMSF base. There's a bit of dialogue about how the Lukrum guys are fulfilling their part of the deal to manufacture mirrors to be sent into Mars orbit to help with the terraforming. (As a sidenote: this show cuts corners a bit by telling us things instead of showing us. So for several episodes it has been unclear if Lukrum is actually upholding their deal, and then it's passed off casually in a single line of dialogue that they are. This should have been explained several episodes ago, because otherwise it made it look like IMSF was being taken for a ride.)

There is some remote sensing data that indicates that a portion of Mars may be getting wet from the terraforming efforts. Hana then heads out to that area with Robert. They look around and find nothing. It's not happening. Hana then screams in frustration, fed up with not accomplishing anything on Mars. (I had a brief flashback to the movie Red Planet, which has an amusing scene where Val Kilmer's character fails once again and collapses to the ground in exhaustion and say's "Well, that's about it. I hate this planet...")

Meanwhile, back at the IMSF base, Mike has decided to make his power play. He's keeping a close eye on the Lukrum power usage, and as soon as they go over the agreed amount, he orders his people to cut the power to Lukrum. He informs Lukrum that they had a deal, Lukrum broke it (not for the first time), so screw you guys, we're cutting you off.

This causes chaos back on the Lukrum base. They were sending all their power over to their drill site, and now they've overtaxed their systems and stuff is burning out and sparks are flying and alarms are going off and it's just all higgledy-piggledy. They have to evacuate to their medical bay where they should be safe.

And this is just, well stupid. If their power goes out, the oxygen doesn't simply evaporate from the air. The air quality may go bad, but that's not going to happen in just a few minutes, it's going to take longer than that. And as soon as all of this started happening I kept thinking to myself I bet this is going to involve the dog...

And then of course somebody says "Where's Marvin?"

What then happens is the IMSF base commander woman (Kurt's #2 person) seals everybody in the med bay and then goes off in search of Marvin the dog. This requires her to walk about 100 feet, where she finds Marvin sleeping in a corner. She picks up Marvin and then struggles to make it back to the med bay as the oxygen runs out. Will she make it? Will she save Marvin, the only decent human being--well, dog--on the entire Lukrum base?

CUT TO COMMERCIAL

[Blackstar]

More spoilers here. Do you care? Did you watch that episode of Gilligan's Island? You know, the one with the Harlem Globetrotters and the robot? Was it good? Did they get off the island?



Marvin the Dog is saved!

Hana and Robert have made it back to the IMSF base. Oh, and Javier went outside at the IMSF base and jammed a paper clip into the fuse box and restarted the power to the Lukrum base, which allowed them to turn their oxygen back on at the last moment and save Marvin the Dog. Marvin is next seen on the phone with his agent, complaining about how he's being treated and demanding that they get him off this stinking planet.

Hana relieves Mike of command, and he's a little surprised to learn that Lukrum has been in full meltdown since he cut the power and turned off his phone. For a guy leading a mutiny, he didn't plan things very well.

Meanwhile, there has been some political intrigue on Earth that's rather boring and hard to figure out. Apparently Russia, which was a member of IMSF, has signed an exclusive deal with Lukrum to gain access to Lukrum's mining rights for Mars. This has everybody upset and the head of IMSF decides that they need to impose sanctions on Lukrum. It would have helped if the show had bothered to explain what Lukrum is earlier in the season, because apparently Lukrum is like the biggest oil company on planet Earth, and they have a lot of influence on governments around the world. The head of IMSF thinks that this is a terrible situation because Lukrum is going to control Mars. And she wants the other IMSF member countries to sanction Lukrum. There's a boring vote and she loses. Lukrum is just too powerful.

And this is where the black hole in the plot shows up again. Who is going to buy the resources? Right now the only thing that Lukrum may get on Mars is water. Who are they going to sell that to? The only other people on Mars are at the IMSF base and they have their own water. Maybe there's this expectation that lots of other people will head to Mars once there is water, but that's not an existing market now, it's a possibly maybe market at some point in the future. The show Mars really mirrors the space activist/enthusiast community in not answering the "and then a miracle occurs" part of the equation--people talk about mining water on the Moon to supply a thriving space-based economy that does not exist. The show is repeating this same fallacy. (I really need to come up with a clever name for this fallacy, don't I?) Question for all you space enthusiasts who sent money to Planetary Resources a few years ago so they could mine asteroids: when do you expect to start seeing returns on that investment?

There's also some other soap opera-type drama. Amelie experiences contractions two months early and they have to perform a Cesarean to remove the baby, who is not crying (and might be dead?). How they are going to deal with a premature baby I have no idea, because they require tremendous resources. (And in fact, this could have been a really interesting story for them to address: what do you do with a severely injured crewmember who requires more resources than you can provide? Triage in such circumstances can get really icky.)

Also, back at the IMSF base, Robert has indicated that he's going to go work for Lukrum, which actually wants to build stuff, as opposed to IMSF, which is just sitting in their hole. He announces to Hana that this is great because they can now start having a relationship. They have a very unenthusiastic kiss and Hana tells him that there's no chance of a relationship, because she's committed to the mission and

                     KJWEQRNMASFDMN
                        LKJWEJKWE
                     SADLSKJ23AA

Oh, sorry. I was so bored that I fell asleep and my forehead hit my keyboard. There is zero chemistry between these actors, and we know nothing about Robert other than he wants to build stuff and very little about Hana other than she's depressed about her sister's death. So who really cares?

Next week: apparently the Lukrum base collapses and IMSF has to pick up the pieces.

[YesRushGen]

<de-lurk>
Just a short note of thanks to Blackstar for writing these recaps. My wife and I are really enjoying the show, and I look forward to reading your posts after we've watched the current episode!


Thanks again,
Kelly
</de-lurk>

[Blackstar]

<de-lurk>
Just a short note of thanks to Blackstar for writing these recaps. My wife and I are really enjoying the show, and I look forward to reading your posts after we've watched the current episode!


Thanks again,
Kelly
</de-lurk>

I want to like the show. Just to repeat myself (which I tend to do, repeat myself, that is): I think the documentary segments are excellent. The dramatic segments are limited by a bunch of things, starting with poor choice of actors. And so far, nearing the end of the second season, Kurt is the only one who seems to be having fun.

It's hard not to compare this to The Expanse, which has done a far better job with dramatic storytelling, and has some incredible acting.

Two other observations:

They actually do a pretty good job of linking the documentary segments and the drama segments, and it would be interesting (to me at least) to know how they actually do that. Do they go film the documentary stuff and figure out the story they are telling with them, and only then write the drama stuff? As somebody who spends a lot of time writing stuff, I know that this can be a difficult thing to work out.

One limitation for the dramatic segments is that they are only half of a 42-minute show. A typical hour-long drama, which is really only 42 minutes when you take away the commercials, gives writers some flexibility. It's still very limiting, because you have to hit commercial breaks and follow a three-act structure and all that. But 42 minutes is a lot more than the 21+ minutes that these drama parts have. I think that part of that explains why the characters are generally so superficial. What do we know about Robert after 11 episodes? He's from Africa. He's an engineer. He likes challenging projects. And he likes the beach. That's about it. Nothing about his family, his hobbies, his annoying personal habits. And so if he gets blown out an airlock next episode, nobody is going to care.

[su27k]

This latest episode really jumped the shark. So the Mars mining company (Lukrum) signed a deal to sell Mars resources to Russia, and suddenly the leader of the international Mars whatever organization (IMSF) flips out and want to sanction them. The reason? No idea. Maybe she think her organization needs to control Mars and has veto on all Mars related matters, which is ludicrous since nobody owns Mars. Seems to me she should be glad someone wants to buy stuff from Mars, since this means more money for Mars, but no, despite the fact she agreed to form a partnership with the mining company a while ago. How else does she expect the mining company to justify its expenses on Mars? Duh.

The whole situation is crazy, an analogy would be Nanorack signed a deal with Russia to sell ISS rack space, then the NASA administrator flips out and wants to put sanction on Nanorack for selling stuff on ISS. And the whole ISS crew becomes upset, because we can't have companies selling stuff willynilly on the station, no, it must be about science. Of course this analogy is imperfect because NASA at least has partial ownership of ISS, while the international Mars organization has no ownership of Mars.

In our reality NASA would be glad to have companies selling services on ISS, that's what it is supposed to do. And NASA is dying to have commercial companies picking up some of the tabs on ISS maintenance. This show's premise is so completely opposite of the reality that it's not even funny anymore.

The documentary part is not much better, lack any resemblance of balance. Also disturbing is some senior NASA scientist basically says human are too greedy and we shouldn't be allowed to go to Mars unless we are less greedy. No wonder NASA is nowhere near sending humans to Mars.

[Rocket Science]

Finale tonight!

[Blackstar]

I thought it ended strong. Not brilliantly strong, but still pretty strong.

[Dalhousie]

The documentary part is not much better, lack any resemblance of balance. Also disturbing is some senior NASA scientist basically says human are too greedy and we shouldn't be allowed to go to Mars unless we are less greedy. No wonder NASA is nowhere near sending humans to Mars.

What "senior NASA scientist"?

[Blackstar]

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3643/1

Mars: Bringer of ennui (part 1)

by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, January 21, 2019


Two years ago, the National Geographic Channel debuted its first scripted television show. Mars had an unusual structure for TV, alternating between documentary segments, expert talking heads, and dramatic segments set during the first human mission to Mars in 2033. (See: “Red Planet blues: popular entertainment and the settlement of Mars, part 2,” The Space Review, December 5, 2016, and “Red zeitgeist: popular entertainment and the settlement of Mars, part 3,” The Space Review, January 16, 2017.) The first season, consisting of six episodes, featured some excellent and insightful documentary segments and commentary, but the drama segments, which were closely tied to the documentary stories, were grim and depressing. Now, two years later, season two has aired. Unfortunately, that same dynamic was repeated: often stunning documentary segments and intelligent commentary interspersed with tedious and uninspiring drama. If National Geographic has a message about the human exploration of Mars, it is that nobody will have any fun.

[Blackstar]

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3650/1

Mars: Bringer of ennui (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, January 28, 2019

Note: Part 1 was published last week.

"One of the problems inherent in depicting humans on Mars is that all of our reference points are here on Earth. Certainly, humans will bring many of their same traits and foibles with them to the Red Planet. But Mars is a different place. The reasons people go, the type of people who go, and the challenges they will encounter there, will be unusual and unique. Other dramas about relatively near-term space exploration, like The Expanse, skip over the early years and jump to more fully-developed societies and economies. But in the early years of human missions to Mars, humans will go in small numbers and will not bring their entire society, culture, or economy to Mars.

That was certainly an obstacle that the creators of National Geographic Channel’s Mars had to face. But the struggle that the show had with imagining humans on Mars reflects the struggle that many space advocates and enthusiasts have in doing the same today. If entrepreneurs, engineers, and activists cannot figure out how people will live on other planets, let alone make money there, why would we expect a TV show to figure it out?"

[Lar]

If entrepreneurs, engineers, and activists cannot figure out how people will live on other planets, let alone make money there, why would we expect a TV show to figure it out?"

Maybe the  entrepreneurs, engineers, and activists have figured it out but it doesn't make good TV.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/human_mars/status/1141013847303774208

Russian 3D artist Dmitry Azarov has made some concept renders of human colony on #Mars for @NatGeoChannel's "MARS" TV series.
All of his concept images HERE: https://www.humanmars.net/2019/06/mars-colony-concept-by-dmitry-azarov.html