TREES ON MARS: DMP

PART ONE

Rocket launches.

NARRATOR:
BRITAIN AND AMERICA ARE IN A RACE TO FIND LIFE ON MARS. ROBOT LANDERS HAVE BEEN SENT TO DIG FOR MICROBES ON ANOTHER WORLD.

Cross in sky Mars zooms in.

NARRATOR:
BUT MEET THE MARTIAN HERETICS…

Exterior church.

Svathmary:
He showed me the images.

"Trees on Mars" photographs.

NARRATOR:
WHO SAY THEY ALREADY HAVE FOUND GIANT PLANTS ON A DEAD PLANET…

Close up of images.

NARRATOR:
AND ARE BREEDING BACTERIA FROM OUTER SPACE IN THEIR LABORATORY.

Milton Wainwright:
This is probably one of the most important findings, certainly of this century, probably of all time.

Big Music.

Title:
TREES ON MARS

Mars Society:
Over the next 20 or 30 years, humans will be sent to Mars. Whether it is by the Europeans, the Americans or the Chinese, will we actually have a colony there some day. I believe that will actually happen as well.

NARRATOR:
THE HERESY OF THE TREES ON MARS BEGAN WITH A ROCKET LAUNCH.

Archive NASA promo.

NARRATOR:
ON NOVEMBER 7 1996, NASA LAUNCHED THE FIRST MISSION IN THE MARS SURVEYOR PROGRAMME.

Music - Blue Danube.

NARRATOR:
WHEN THE SATELLITE GOT TO MARS, IT RADIOED HOME THOUSANDS OF THE MOST DETAILED IMAGES EVER TAKEN OF ANOTHER PLANET.

Series Of Surveyor Mars Shots.

NARRATOR:
IN THE YEAR 2001, AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE WERE LECTURED BY ARTHUR C. CLARK. THE WORLD'S LEADING SPACE VISIONARY HAD SNATCHED A PREVIEW OF THE SURVEYOR PHOTOS.

Arthur C Clarke:
I've seen images on Mars which convince me Mars is teeming with life. I'm quite serious when I say have had a pretty good look at these new Mars images. Some of them are actually moving and changing with the seasons, which does suggest at least vegetation. Some of these images show what seem to be unmistakable large areas of vegetation, like Banyan trees, hundreds of feet across.

NARRATOR:
THE SMITHSONIAN WAS SHOWN THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PHOTOS EVER TAKEN OF THE RED PLANET. THEY SHOW CLUSTERS OF BRANCHED SHAPES UP TO 800 FEET ACROSS AND 80 FEET HIGH, RISING FROM THE SUMMER MELT ZONE OF THE MARTIAN SOUTH POLE.

Chandra Wrickramasinge:
Arthur has shown me those pictures of pink trees for a long time.

Charles Cockell, BAS:
Trees would have a very hard time on the surface of Mars, very high ultraviolet radiation, very little liquid water, very very cold.

Chandra Wrickramasinge:
Arthur himself is absolutely convinced, and who knows. Arthur's predictions in the past have turned out to be correct.

NARRATOR:
THE FORMS, NICKNAMED CLARKE TREES, HAVE BEEN SPOTTED IN AT LEAST FOUR POLAR VALLEYS. THEY PROVIDE ONE OF THE ENIGMAS THROWN UP BY THE IMAGES FROM MARS. MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR PHOTOS SHOWED TRANSLUCENT STRUCTURES RESEMBLING GIANT WORMS 40 FEET ACROSS. BUT MOSTLY, THE PLANET THOUGHT TO BE DRY SHOWED SIGNS OF WATER. AND PLENTY OF IT.

Rosemary Grymes, NASA:
Mars global surveyor demonstrated that there is a very good chance that there is water on Mars, in the form of ice on both poles, and in substantial concentrations within three metres of the surface in other areas.

NARRATOR:
NASA WENT TO MARS EXPECTING A DESERT. THEIR SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHED RIVER BEDS, WATER FLOWS DOWN CRATER WALLS, AND EVEN WHAT LOOKED LIKE LAKES. THE IMPLICATIONS WERE ASTOUNDING. WHERE YOU FIND WATER YOU FIND LIFE.

Rosemary Grymes, NASA:
Follow the water. Following the water on various planetary bodies is both a way of looking at the evolution of those planets, and it is also a way of focusing on the search for life. So follow the water became an excellent mantra for solar system exploration.

Music - future sound of London.

Waterfalls.

Oceans From Space.

Echo of Rose line mantra.

Follow The Water.

Ship Sailing Helicopter.

Pillinger looks through telescope.

STRAPLINE
Professor Collin Pillinger, Creator of Beagle 2

Collin Pillinger:
We want to know the answer to a fundamental question. Is there or isn't there life out there?

Animation of satellite around Mars.

Music - Frankie Knuckles: Your Love.

NARRATOR:
AFTER MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR BEGAN ITS SWEEPS AROUND THE PLANET IN 1999, ITS CAMERAS BEAMED BACK THOUSANDS OF PICTURES. NASA PUT THEM ON A WEB SITE. AMONG THOSE DRAWN TO THE NEW MARS IMAGES WERE BUDAPEST PLANETARIUM ASTRONOMERS STANISLAW BRCI AND ANDREAS HOVARTH.

Visual - Budapest City.

Dateline - Hungary 2001.

Location - Budapest Planetarium.

Telescope.

NARRATOR:
THEY WERE DRAWN TO PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MARTIAN SOUTH POLE, WHERE DARK SPOTS BROKE THROUGH DESERT ICE FIELDS.

Andreas Hovarth:
The reason no one has observed these spots before is that the space satellite's pictures were not accurate enough. These spots are only about ten meters wide at the beginning of their cycle, and so they were invisible. Now, with the better pictures of the Mars Global Surveyor, these areas became visible.

NARRATOR:
THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF SPOTS GROWING UP TO 200 METRES ACROSS. NASA SAID THEY WERE DEFROSTING DUNES. BUT THE HUNGARIANS NOTICED THE PATCHES GREW IN STRANGE WAYS.

Stanislaw Brci:
We observed the sequence of the events, so there are the phenomena, and if you used the principles of planetary science, especially the stratography, you can solve the problem.

Andreas Hovarth:
When I discovered the interesting nature of these spots, hundreds and thousands of them, I was shocked because on the flat territories they have a round shape, and this round shape is growing radically, and I had an idea of a biological explanation.

NARRATOR:
THESE IDEAS WERE REVOLUTIONARY. NOT ONLY WERE THE HUNGARIAN ASTRONOMERS OUT TO OVERTHROW THE DOCTRINE THAT MARS WAS DEAD, BUT INSTALL A NEW ORDER WHERE THE PLANET WAS COVERED WITH COLONIES OF PLANT LIFE. THEY HAD SURVIVED COMMUNISM. NOW THEY WERE TAKING ON THE MIGHT OF NASA. THEIR CRUSADE TO OVERTURN EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY NEEDED INTELLECTUAL FIREPOWER.

THEY SET OUT TO FIND TIBOR GANTI IN THE MOUNTAINS OUTSIDE BUDAPEST. THE ASTRONOMERS HOPED GANTI COULD HELP THEM BE THE FIRST TO FIND PROOF OF LIFE ON MARS. BUT THE LEADER OF BRITAIN'S FIRST INTERPLANETARY MISSION WAS OUT TO BEAT THEM.

Ganti long shot in garden.

Pillinger on ship pulls ropes.

Sail Billow.

END PART ONE