TREES ON MARS

TREES ON MARS
Copyrights HTV-West 2003
Produced and written by David Monaghan
Directed by Andrew Zikking
Executive Producer: James Garrett

PART TWO

Sailing ship with Pillinger on board.

NARRATOR:
COLLIN PILLINGER IS HEAD OF A MISSION THAT WILL START A NEW SPACE RACE BETWEEN EUROPE AND AMERICA. A RUSSIAN ROCKET HAS BLASTED BRITAIN'S FIRST INTERPLANETARY MISSION INTO SPACE. THE BEAGLE 2 WILL PIGGYBACK ON A EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY SATELLITE BOUND FOR ORBIT AROUND MARS.

Animation of rocket reaching space.



NARRATOR:
IT WILL TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE FOR SIX MONTHS TO BE UNLEASHED ABOVE THE MARTIAN EQUATOR AND HURTLE TO A FROZEN PLANET AT 20,000 MILES PER HOUR.

Entry Burn.

Plummets And Parachutes.

Bounces Like A Beach Ball.

Animation Opens Panels.

NARRATOR:
BEAGLE 2 MUST IMMEDIATELY OPEN IT'S SOLAR PANELS, OR FREEZE TO DEATH IN AN ALIEN WORLD.



Beagle Open On Planet.

Music Sounds Of 70s.

Mark Simms:
Beagle is the smallest lander ever designed to go to Mars.

Collin Pillinger:
Beagle will be considered a success if it lands on the surface and sends a signal back.

Mark Simms:
It all has to work, you know, you have to win the lottery on every occasion, you have to survive launch, you have to survive landing.

Collin Pillinger:
It is a very very comprehensive experiment.

Mark Simms:
And when you get to the surface, you have got to survive long enough to do the science.

Collin Pillinger:
It remains to be seen whether we'll succeed.

Mars surface animation.

Music: Kings signers: Is there life on Mars?

NARRATOR:
THE MISSION WAS BORN IN THE WEST COUNTRY.

Collin Pillinger:
It started in Bristol. So there were a number of people from the Bristol region.

Zoom into to NASA building.

NARRATOR:
AND THE WEST COUNTRY WILL TAKE ON AMERICA.

Inside NASA Building With Flag.

Building Rover.

NARRATOR:
BRITAIN'S BEAGLE WILL BE CHASED THROUGH SPACE BY TWO AMERICAN ROVERS.



Rosemary Grimes, NASA:
Well, the upcoming NASA missions that are on the Mars mission architecture line are going to be Mars Exploration rovers, MER, Mir 1 and 2. And both of those will land on Mars within a small amount of time of each other, a couple of weeks perhaps, and that is December of this year or January of next year, which will be a little bit after Beagle 2 on Mars Express.

Charles Cockel:
Searching for life on other planets is certainly part of a new space race

Music:
Everybody gets to go the Moon.

Kennedy:
We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

Rosemary Grimes, NASA:
We feel that there is a race for the knowledge.

Rocket launch.

Two Three, We Have Lift Off.

Moon Surface.

Moon Walk.

Lyrics:
Everybody gets to go to the moon.
Isn't it a miracle that we're the generation
That will touch that shiny bauble
With our own two hands.

Ticker tape parade.

Lyrics:
It has to make you glad to be alive.

Motor Bikes In Parade.

People Running In Parade.

Lyrics:
To be a man, to be a man, to be a man.

Pillinger steering ship.



Collin Pillinger:
There is not a scientist on this planet that doesn't want to discover something before somebody else does.

Rosemary Grimes, NASA:
To be first to the knowledge but not at the expense of any other team, just a race to know. We are all very anxious to know.

Lyrics:
Everybody gets to go to the Moon
Up up and away
By the light, of the silvery moon

Split Screen Pictures.



British Beagle Bounces On Mars.

December 26, 2003.

Britain's Beagle 2 Lands.

First NASA Rover Bounces On Mars.

STRAPLINES:
January 4, 2004, NASA Rover A Lands Meridiani Planum.

January 26, 2004, NASA Rover B Lands Gusev crater.

Second rover runs around Mars.

NARRATOR:
BUT THERE'S PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE THAT THE SPACE CRAFT SENT TO FIND LIFE ON MARS, MAY BE SEARCHING IN THE WRONG PLACE.

NARRATOR:
THE HUNGARIAN ASTRONOMERS WOULD FIND THEIR SOLUTION ON A ROCK MUCH CLOSER TO HOME. AFTER DISCOVERING THE MARTIAN SPOTS THEY SUSPECTED WERE PLANT LIFE, BRCI AND HOVARTH HAD SOUGHT OUT HUNGARY'S WORLD FAMOUS EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST. TIBOR GANTI HAD COME UP WITH A MATHEMATICAL FORMULA FOR HOW LIFE IS CREATED. WHEN THEY MET THE GREAT THINKER, HE TOLD THEM THE SECRET OF LIFE ON MARS COULD BE FOUND IN HIS BACKYARD.

Tibro Ganti:
Here in my gardens there are stones, and on the surface of the stones there exist very small energy spots. They desiccate everyday and the desiccated form, it doesn't live, but they live in this case when some water comes there, therefore, they for instance, in the early morning, when the dew comes, they become wet and photosynthesize when the sun rise up, they desiccate and remain capable of life during the next morning.

NARRATOR:
DESICCATION, A PLANT LIFE TRICK OF DRYING OUT TO BEAT DRY SPELLS, MIGHT EXPLAIN THE MARS SPOTS. ARMED WITH THE INSIGHTS FROM TIBOR GANTI'S GARDEN, THE ASTRONOMERS TOOK THE MARS PHOTOS TO THE SEAT OF HUNGARY'S LEARNING, THE BUDAPEST COLLEGIUM.



Svathmary:
Andre Hovarth showed these images to Tibor Ganti, who was fellow at the collegium at that time, and then he had the courage to come over to me, I say that he had the courage because I used to be extremely skeptical I was somehow put off by research for life on Mars.

Svathmary Walks Upstairs.

Painting.

Svathmary:
But shortly after that. maybe on the same day, Andreas popped into this office where we are talking now, and he showed me images, like this one. I mean this is really striking. It looks extremely weird. You wouldn't expect something like this from a barren planet, and it also has some aesthetic appeal, now these are cute, aren't they? No? Some people would say like they are like a concentration of bacteria in a Petri dish, and other people would say they are like a fur of an animal, and so on. And I said to Andreas, these are the most mind-boggling scientific images I have seen in the last two years.

NARRATOR:
BUT TO BELIEVE IN LIFE ON MARS, SVATHMARY WANTED TO GATHER MORE THAN MOSS FROM GANTI'S GARDEN.

Svathmary:
I started to think about it, and I said, if there is a biological life cycle as conceived by Tibor Ganti, then you should be able to find a biological analogue, at least, to that life cycle on earth, and very soon I was able to locate in the literature certain articles.

NARRATOR:
SVATHMARY FOUND WHAT HE WAS LOOKING FOR AT THE SOUTH POLE. BUT THE SECRET THAT WOULD LAUNCH BRITAIN INTO THE SPACE RACE HAD ALREADY BEEN DISCOVERED UNDER THE ICE.

South Pole Ice Pack.

Plane On Ice With Sunset.

END PART TWO

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