Live from Mars 360° | National Geographic

You [Music]

Welcome to the second season of Mars! I am Samuel, TV, I play Rubber for Car, and this is a beautiful Clementine for that Sand. I play Dr. Emily Johan, and we are in our beautiful studio in Hungary at Court. Last video, which is like one of the biggest studios in Europe, I think. Yes, it is! And also, Quarter is named after one of the young Guerin directors from back in the 1920s, I believe. Our big stage? Yeah, that's amazing!

This season is even bigger than the last season. Last season was kind of compacted; now we have a big stage, more space, and we're going to show you some stuff. Yeah, from Olympus Town, which is now home on Mars. And as you can see, we have a Martian! Not a Marshal, he's a Martian. He's working, and oh, this looks like a basalt rock. Yeah, Martian rock.

And also, we got some new friends here on Mars this season. And are we really friends? I mean, I've never been invited; I don't really know them. Well, I would say this is a perfect time to meet the crew from Lutron Colony. Let's go! Welcome from Olympus Town, you are now entering the Lutron Colony!

What's that? Nothing, it's our colony. Absolutely! Hi guys, my name is Roxy Steinbeck, and I'm playing Jen Carson in Season 2 of Mars. My name is Jeff Hebner, and I'm playing Commander Kurt Hurrell in Season 2 of Mars. We represent, like we said, the Lutron Colony and projecting forward what's gonna happen on Mars when we get there. At some point, we're gonna have to turn a profit; we're gonna have to mine it for its resources, and we represent that part of the story.

Yep, we're the new guys, and this is our bus. So this is where we basically dictate to the miners out there what we'd like them to do. This is where you and Shep Spanish meet. This is where you come, and that is a green screen out there; that is where the wonderful Mars will be on my surface! It's lovely, isn't it? Lovely, darling! Love those green dots!

Moving on, shall we? Yes! Oh, to a room in which we've never shot. No, we've never shot in here, but I'm excited to see what it's gonna be. What do you think it's gonna be? I think it's gonna be... what do I think it's gonna be? Or what do I want it to be? What do you want? I want it to be the party break!

I know! So the airlock, the airlock rooms, the loudest room on set. Have you had it? Yeah, I was out there in Palau! So, between leaving my surface and entering the Airbus, these little silver things will blow out carbon dioxide, and that will basically clean us so that we don't contaminate the Airbus. When we really actually are on Mars, probably not you and me, but real miners, this has a practical function. You know, when you're out there stirring up different compounds and dirts and things that we have no idea really what's in them yet until we get there, they're gonna have to wash it off. You spray it off so you don't bring it into the colony because it could infect, could make people sick, it could screw up the computers—a bunch of stuff, I don't know anything about!

Yeah, it's a great room; it's just... look! And so doors open, please? Pretty please with a cherry on top! Oh, look at that! You had it! Pretty please! Oh gosh, so there's no gravity in this bit! So this is where we... No, just me, just you!

Ah, the control room! Yes! Mhm! This is where we control things and command them, 'cause that's what I do; I'm a commander. Yes! Are you coming in with that stuff again? You think it's funny, don't you? No! Oh, it's not? No, seriously though, on it has a practical function. This as a set for actors is kind of stunning—a dream!

It's the whole set! We're off to working in half rooms where the walls are ripped off and cameras poked through, and when you're trying to find an emotional mindset working on Mars, it really helps to have a set like this that's complete with heft. Yeah, feels like we have something to work with! Absolutely! Go pretend I'm our detail—it really is!

Oh, and then here's the canteen! Yes! Couple people sleeping, as you would. This is all like food chill out area. Mhm! This is the one place on purpose has this beat because they have an actual bar! Yeah, but we've got proper chairs! That's right! You'll put it back there! Bar's like garbage cans tipped over where we eat moss food, right? Sure, yeah! Yeah, sure, it's delicious!

Can you speak Mars yet, by the way? I can, but I don't want to show up!

[Music]

Now, but really, from an actor's point of view, coming to a set like this where there are four walls, and you can actually feel like you're in a control room, it's really special. What is Steven Patrick—the man who literally wrote the book on how we live on Mars—stepped in here and was just like, "This is how it's gonna look; this is what it'll be." And that also informs, you know, how you're gonna do your job, you're gonna be like, "Well, this gives it a sense of realism."

Mhm! And more realism, we're in the medical bay! Yeah, and again, as a practical function, when people are mining and doing heavy industrial work on Mars, it's dangerous—just like it would be here! And even more so, because there are so many unknowns, so there'll be a medical bay that will be equipped with doctors and you, and obviously, and the advanced equipment you would need to take care of somebody when there's no real hospital nearby.

I mean, it's amazing! Am I comfortable in memory foam? Guys, I hope you've enjoyed our tour of the Luke Chram Colony, and you can now go back to Olympus Town—not quite as fun! And feel free to enjoy a virtual tour, but we're not gonna be here anymore.

Yeah, I'm done! But, um, yeah, I hope you've enjoyed our tour here at Calder Studios in Budapest, Hungary. Hungry? How long are you? Hungry? Okay, let's go have lunch! See ya!

See ya! Bye! Such an easy job! I think I've done it, like, twice! It's not funny! It's—oh, get off!

Doors open, please! Pretty please with a cherry on top!

And now we're in the control room in Olympus and with special guests! Yes, we have one of the creative genius behind this wonderful set, Mr. Adrian Smith. How are you, sir? Pleasure to have you with us.

Do you want to introduce us to your cohorts, your friends here? Yes! Yes! On my right here, I have Thomas Lodin, who is one of our art directors in charge of the La Creme set and all things scientific—been a great resource and designer of the whole sets here.

And on my left is James Morrell, who is in charge of all the special props and has been doing some sterling work—some fantastic work! That's great! Now, if you guys have any questions that you want to find out about the guide, this link post our command center or any of the other places you've seen, you should please write in, and we'll be able to answer your questions to the best of our abilities.

I have a question for you specifically. Is it possible that you guys decided to create a look from Colony cooler than our Colony? Well, we've been here on this planet for nine years.

Oh my god! I don't want to be in your shoes, buddy! Come on! I mean, you guys work for, you know, government agencies, so yeah, there's this, there's a bit of kind of taxpayer money involved. You can't be looking to be too comfortable here, but you know the money's gone in where it counts! You know the money's gone into things like the lab, and Lutron is a private-owned company, exactly! You know, so we—

You know, this is the control center, as you guys can see! We've got little screens that they've added this season! It's a lot bigger than last season! By—it's small, you know! It's more beautiful! You guys have done a great job! I would love for you guys, I also want to share with our fans out there, if you could tell us some of this stuff on the screen if you want to, you know, elaborate.

Well, basically, we've designed this as the control center for all the operations! Yes, Olympus Town! This is where Commander Hannes Song—this is our desk, and that's mine, by the way, because I'm only a doctor!

Well, no, you're not only a doctor; you have your own medical bay, which we're gonna go to later! But yes, and around you, you see the various functions of the control center! We've got our nuclear power plant monitoring system over there, the water generation system over there, communications system there, and also the sort of fuel processing system in the background there, and this is all kind of coordination controlled by the character Hannes's character!

Yes! So we've got our question from our audience! What kind of experts did you consult to come up with all these futuristic equipment? Well, good question! The first thing is, you basically—we lead that kind of search, so we look into a lot of papers from NASA, a lot of papers from all sorts of sources as well. And then one of the main things we then do is we run it past our specific tech experts who, Steven, who you know, as I say, wrote the book. And then also on Bobby Brown, who's one of our specific experts as well!

And I really like this question. It says, did you take any influence from pop culture sci-fi for your set designs? No, not specific because this is a very unusual project in terms of design! Because we are actually designing for real science or projected real science! So rather than, usually, where it's just your imagination—it's just unlimited—here we’re actually turning projected real science but trying to make it look interesting and exciting visually.

Alright, we'll take one more question. And I would like to ask you this: What is it like acting on a set that completely surrounds you?

Well, you feel like you dive in! I mean, it's so much easier for us to have, like, specific things on the screens, and like everything is so detailed, and we're surrounded! It's very round. There's something very homey! I feel that it is! It is! It's quite—it's not like my house, but I feel comfortable, and everything is so detailed; everything is so precise! The corridors are like endless, so it's easy to get lost!

I mean, thank you for that, guys, because it's very helping us because in between action and cut, I really do believe them that I'm an astronaut on Mars, and that, you know, I'm so—it's great! Thank you for that!

I know! Why don't we, since you guys have asked questions, you see some of these faces, why don't we take you to show you the video of the design process of what these guys came up with?

And let's check it out! These are some of the common spaces that we've designed for Olympus Town. This is the Bassthroat Garden area that's designed as a recreation area for the people living in Olympus Town! Interestingly, the bar and all its contents from elements that have been recycled! Things like the bar itself is actually an element—a fairing from the original ship that came and delivered the stuff to Mars! Plants planted with a very minimal watering system because obviously in water, it's very precious on Mars!

And the pathways you see, they're all created from regolith, which is reconstituted Martian terrain! So the idea is that everything has been recycled and reused, and the whole thing is covered over with a very large dome that actually gives you the sort of sense of being enclosed!

Now the corridors—these are used or reused! We've recycled them ourselves from the first series! They've been updated! They've had new lighting system, new graphics, additional pipework! It's very much been—and that, you know, we try to actually give the sense that there has been life here in this corridor system for the last sort of nine years! So there's a lot of detail there—ageing and giving it a sense that it has actually been lived in rather than a brand-new environment!

Welcome to Martyr's Lab! This is one of the other spaces here on Mars, on our set! This is actually one of the biggest labs, this is one of the biggest spaces actually on this set. I think a new build! It's not guilty! I did! I mean, his character building—not handling! Thing—not him!

I'm looking at Marta's samples from Mars! I mean, I shouldn't do it too much! Now, like this are some of the findings of some of the stuff that she found while on the Mars surface trying to find possibilities of life on Mars! And you know, as you can see in this Petri dish—I don't know what that is—blue cheese from France! Blue cheese from France? No, no, I wouldn't know! I don't think so! I mean, this is some like scary-looking thing! I don't know what this is, but I'm gonna put it down because Marta is very particular about her stuff.

Also, this is called a DNA sequencer! Wow! Wow, we've got it! And I think James can tell us what it's for—what he actually does!

I'm gonna actually take you guys over here and show you this DNA sequencer! And can you help us out, kind of—I hope the fans, and tell us what this is! What it does!

But obviously, at the end of the first season, they had discovered microbial life on Mars! And one of the major things that you'd need to do in that situation is begin to understand exactly how that creature came to be on that planet and what it's made of, and finding its genome and beginning to find whether or not it has any similarities with life on Earth—it would be incredibly important!

Yeah, and I have another question for you because over there, I see a weird blue silver machine—recreation electron microscope—which is one of the most sensitive devices we have to look at the atomic structure of something, to actually get down and look at, you know, how its molecules made and to find out, you know, exactly how these creatures are constructed, what they're made of at a complete, you know, subatomic level! It's really beautiful!

Hey, Julia! It's a rebirth of Mars! Now, this is just to show you how big this place is! I mean, it's—this is the second level of this lab, and it's built by Tom! What about creative geniuses will design this lab and also build the Lutron Colony! Could you tell us a little bit about this, the stage, this lab?

Well, the main thing actually that you've sort of stumbled on by walking up there when you've got a dome like that—a dome is a very, very strong structure! The idea is that it's made of big segments of regolith accrete on the outside! So it's actually 3D printed using regolith from the surface! But you have this big geodesic dome, and a problem with the geodesic dome is you've got this huge amount of space at the top which is completely wasted!

And when you're on Mars, and air is precious, you don't want to be filling a huge dome with air and not using it! So the second story, actually, gives you—kind of makes it a bit more efficient in that you're using all the pressurized space in that dome rather than just everyone being down on the ground level! I'm needing them twice as many domes!

Now we have a question for one of our audience members! What kind of science is supposed to be happening in this lab?

I'll field that one! Basically, they are sequencing the genome of the bacteria that they found at the beginning of the first season! They're finding out exactly what it's made from! Is it a carbon-based life-form, like us? Is it based on silicon? Can it interact with our biochemistry? Does it pose a threat? Is it toxic? Can they even make it breed? When they find it, it's been in hibernation for who knows how long, and they're attempting to discover exactly what circumstances led to it being below the surface of Mars!

And we've got another question here! What are some of the actors' favorite props? You can answer that.

Well, my favorite props will be my favorite bar, which we're gonna get to later on! Prop? It's probably the EBS! Ooh, I love that! The helmet! Oh yeah, that'd be a suit! The season is amazing; it's totally different from last season! And a helmet, by the way, which is all designed by a wonderful Katherine Harris! Caroline Harris, excuse me!

On that note, I think that we should probably have a look at the personal spaces now! Yes! These are some of the personal spaces in Olympus Town!

This is Javier's workshop next to the Hydra room, and as you can see, there's a lot of dressing—very kind of complicated equipment that Xavier, as an engineer, has, and we've researched that quite thoroughly! A lot of very specialist tools that have been—we've created to actually kind of use on Mars!

And just through the door there, you can see the equipment that we've designed that it's based on a recreation of a water plant that will actually be used in space on Mars! It's a very interesting kind of use of the dome; both the two domes actually join, merge together!

Really, this is Xavier and Amelia's habitation joint habitation! Again, what we've done is joined two of the smaller domes together, and as you can see, there is quite a lot of built-in furniture that's been designed to actually fill, fill and fit into the dome shape! And there are a certain element of personal things for the various kind of characters. We are very limited to how much we can actually, you know, how much you can actually take to Mars!

So each of these items is very precious, and they are very kind of carefully chosen as part of the decoration of the sets! And welcome to my kingdom! My medical lab! Yeah, I'm a doctor and the therapist here!

So we've got some— a doctor I think is doing me wrong! Doctor! Okay, I did a good check! Okay, so we show you we have a super futuristic scanner! I can see pretty much whatever Sammy has been doing for the last 24 to 48 hours! Sorry!

So can you help us, guys, like talking about this multifunctional scanner? Looking at what current medical technology is doing and that engineers and doctors are trying to incorporate all the different diagnostic equipment that we currently have into one machine. So we started off looking at ways that you could have a CT scanner, an x-ray machine, a cat scan, an ultrasound, and general diagnostic sort of, you know, machine in a reasonably compact sort of piece of equipment that you could conceivably ship to Mars!

Because at the moment, you know, the size of a real entire room is just for one of these machines! But in 20 or 30 years time, you know, you'd better put it in a shipping crate and send it halfway across the solar system! Now, what I want to know is what does this machine into? What is this? What is he used for?

This, I believe, is drafting! Could you explain to the audience what this—what it does? Yeah, you've got back there is a medical 3D printer that can either print things like casts and sprints for broken bones, or be reconfigured to print, you know, a biological scaffold for growing skin grafts or, you know, even some, you know, soft tissues, you know, for any kind of injury, burns, whatever you could possibly face!

If you listen here, they could print it out here. Absolutely! Yeah, they could print in 3D and ear or, like, some tissue! What you do is—the idea is that you print scaffold, which you'd then seed with stem cells from, you know, the patient's own body, and then you would, you know, culture new tissue, new skin on it, and then you could actually transplant it onto that patient!

Now, we've got a question from our audience! What elements of a real lab are represented here? Quarantine? Think decontamination order? Pretend safety features?

Well, we have a quarantine room over there! And also, like all the medical stuff that we actually need, and I think it looks quite good, and the lab works pretty well!

I'm saving lives! That's you, saving lives! She's saving lives! Oh no, no! Why don't we good to be? Why don't we show you guys the design process for this?

Okay, the design process generally starts with the script, reading the script and meeting with the director and producer, and from that, as a production designer, you start to produce very loose mood boards and conceptual designs. And part of the process then is actually refining these! They then get passed on down into the art department to the various—kind of our directors who then start to refine your designs!

Part of the process then is to start creating some of the specific props on the show like this! A lot of the items in it are based on real science and have to be accurate in terms of not only the science, but the way they look! And in this, you can see James is trying on a 3D printed arm cast that has been created and the by the 3D printers! You can see them there; we've got three of them that just been working 24/7 right the way through the production producing some amazing 3D parts!

And we're in the workshop here—the prop workshop—and you can see there one of the specialized props we created! It's a very interesting and future-bound prop that works well within the whole story!

Well, welcome! This is actually my favorite place because I designed it, he built it, and with my colleague, Ivo Delgado, and I would say we did an amazing job! This is—

Yeah, and that Lutron Colony, they don't have that! They don't have a bar! No, you don't have a bar!

Oh, now, no! We're gonna take some questions! Yeah, I think which is a very good question that says, do they manufacture all the equipment on Mars, or do they get it from Earth?

I think it would be expensive to bring the equipment from or items from Earth, so we have to manufacture all these stuff that you see around here. And also to give you a good example of that is—if you look at some of this—come with me, if you look at some of these trays, they actually recycle trays, use as a tabletop!

Also, this is like dustbins, and we just got creative, and everything that you see here is recycled and stuff that we found from here! So we actually told the green up here! And what about what we drink?

Well, the drinks are also made from, like, for example, one of my favorite drink is a potato vodka, which I made, and basically everything at the bar you—

I did it! I mean, you know! And also we have refined a little distillery back there, and we also make our own beer!

Yeah, Mars beers! Mars beer! Sorry, the way I have a question for Adrian and the boys! Do you think that it would be possible to make wine here? To have a vineyard here on Mars?

Well, we're going to look at the local videos next week, see if we can find, you know, why no Mars?

Let's take a couple of questions! One of them, someone says, how often do your characters come to the bar?

Well, as often as possible! I don't! I don't! I'm very serious!

Yeah, right! You know, we've got to take time off from doing research and doing the work, and I think what a perfect place to come and relax! As you can see, it's big, and we've got a dome, and also Adrian, I believe there's a way that we can turn it into daylight and also bring the nighttime to it as well!

Yes, the Olympus Town is actually at the bottom of a lava tube underground, and the idea is that the dome actually has an integrated lighting system which gives an artificial daylight and then can be turned off in the evening and at night!

Alright, that's right! I think we should plan some karaoke nights! I think that'd be really nice! And someone asked, are the plants on Mars real?

Yeah! Well, basically, that's what we try to do! We're trying to tell from this planet to make it habitable! We want to be able to plant vegetables and grow our own vegetables and plants and to be able to make our own food and recycle used recycled items, and that's basically what we're doing—building this colony!

And it's got another question! What's the most? And I think it's for you, Adrian and the boys! What's the most fanciful or sci-fi part of your designs?

Hmm, probably the bit you're in! Well, I really love my hab! We have yet—I mean, we've got a great hab with king-size bed!

Well, I haven't seen it, so I can't say— I wasn't invited!

Oh, let's see! One more question! We've answered that!

Let's see the pen! Yes, we just answer that! Let's see what else! Oh, you know! What does our character have a favorite drink?

Yeah, you just said that! My favorite? My favorite drink is the potato vodka! You know, and I make everything back there!

So if you ever ventured to Mars, please come to my bar! Drinks! All kinds of concussion out here! You know, I've basically been the brain of the Olympus Town, to be honest with you! You want to come on?

He's not! Is not! We're all together! We are trying to be one brain! And that's on that! No!

We want to thank you guys for joining us on this wonderful tour! Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did! And see you in 2018!

2018! Spring of 2018! Season 2 of Mars is gonna be even greater than the first season because there's so much more to see! There's so much more to experience, and it's cinematic—it's amazing! We have a great new cast that just joined the show, and it's a thrilling ride!

And we want to invite you to join us! So thank you very much for being a part of this, and we hope to see you in 2018 in this spring!

[Music]