The UnXplained Mysteries of the Universe s01e02 Alien Earthlings.eng Subtitles

00:00:02,042 --> 00:00:03,WILLIAM SHATNER:
Genetically-modified astronauts,

00:00:04,125 --> 00:00:08,massive underground bases
on Mars

00:00:08,208 --> 00:00:12,and futuristic rockets
that will send humanity

00:00:12,958 --> 00:00:15,across the universe.

00:00:16,667 --> 00:00:18,Humans have been traveling
through space

00:00:18,458 --> 00:00:21,for more than 60 years,
and during that time,

00:00:21,208 --> 00:00:24,we've put men on the Moon
and robots on Mars.

00:00:25,083 --> 00:00:28,But how much further can we go?

00:00:28,208 --> 00:00:30,Will we be able
to send astronauts

00:00:30,917 --> 00:00:32,to the far reaches
of the universe?

00:00:32,792 --> 00:00:36,And when we arrive
on these strange new worlds

00:00:36,208 --> 00:00:38,will that make us...

00:00:38,625 --> 00:00:40,alien earthlings?

00:00:40,333 --> 00:00:43,Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

00:00:43,542 --> 00:00:45,♪ ♪

00:00:56,833 --> 00:00:59,SHATNER:
Since the dawn of humanity,

00:00:59,708 --> 00:01:04,Earth has been the only home
we've ever known.

00:01:04,500 --> 00:01:08,Mankind has explored, settled

00:01:08,208 --> 00:01:12,and conquered nearly every nook
and cranny of our planet.

00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,Now, tens of thousands of years
into the age of modern man,

00:01:17,792 --> 00:01:21,it seems that the only place
left for us to go

00:01:21,458 --> 00:01:23,is up.

00:01:25,583 --> 00:01:28,GRAHAM LAU:
For all that we know from our history,

00:01:28,542 --> 00:01:31,we humans are explorers
in our very nature.

00:01:31,292 --> 00:01:33,And so, it seems to make sense
that we would want to go out

00:01:33,375 --> 00:01:37,and explore the other worlds
of our solar system and beyond,

00:01:37,125 --> 00:01:40,and maybe even settle there

00:01:40,333 --> 00:01:44,to send people
to live, perhaps permanently,

00:01:44,708 --> 00:01:47,in the other worlds
that exist out there.

00:01:47,708 --> 00:01:51,MICHIO KAKU:
It is a law of physics, practically,

00:01:51,375 --> 00:01:54,that one day, we will have
to leave the planet Earth.

00:01:54,458 --> 00:01:56,We have to have an escape clause

00:01:56,208 --> 00:01:58,in case
something devastating happens

00:01:58,625 --> 00:02:01,to threaten the very existence
of human life.

00:02:01,500 --> 00:02:05,In fact, one of the goals
of NASA is

00:02:05,583 --> 00:02:09,to create a Martian colony
with human inhabitants.

00:02:09,875 --> 00:02:14,And so, why not this be
the destiny for humanity

00:02:14,208 --> 00:02:17,to become
a multi-planet species?

00:02:18,042 --> 00:02:19,But then,
the bigger question is

00:02:20,042 --> 00:02:21,is it possible?

00:02:22,917 --> 00:02:26,SHATNER:
Could humans really become a multi-planet species?

00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:28,For over a century,

00:02:28,792 --> 00:02:31,science fiction and fantasy
have explored the concept,

00:02:31,875 --> 00:02:35,but what would it actually take

00:02:36,083 --> 00:02:39,for us to become
alien earthlings?

00:02:40,208 --> 00:02:41,BEN McGEE:
One of the greatest challenges

00:02:41,917 --> 00:02:46,in sending humans off-world
is that frontier explorers

00:02:46,208 --> 00:02:48,in outer space
are gonna face hazards,

00:02:48,417 --> 00:02:50,the likes of which
no humans have had to face.

00:02:50,500 --> 00:02:52,It's barren and inhospitable,

00:02:52,792 --> 00:02:56,there's a lack of oxygen

00:02:56,375 --> 00:02:59,and lack of resources in space,

00:02:59,125 --> 00:03:01,so, it's treacherous.

00:03:01,625 --> 00:03:04,Self-sufficiency
is going to have to be key,

00:03:04,500 --> 00:03:06,and it's gonna be a struggle.

00:03:06,125 --> 00:03:09,SHATNER:
The Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia.

00:03:09,750 --> 00:03:13,April 12, 1961.

00:03:15,125 --> 00:03:18,A Vostok 1 rocket launches
into the sky,

00:03:18,542 --> 00:03:21,carrying only one passenger--

00:03:21,500 --> 00:03:24,Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

00:03:24,833 --> 00:03:27,For 108 minutes
of a single orbit around Earth,

00:03:27,667 --> 00:03:29,Gagarin becomes
the first human being

00:03:30,083 --> 00:03:34,to leave our planet
and journey into space.

00:03:35,500 --> 00:03:37,McGEE:
Yuri Gagarin is

00:03:37,542 --> 00:03:39,literally the first
alien earthling.

00:03:39,500 --> 00:03:41,He was up there
for only about an hour,

00:03:41,167 --> 00:03:43,on a Vostok rocket,

00:03:43,125 --> 00:03:45,and this is only
a little bit more generous

00:03:45,708 --> 00:03:49,than a cannonball
with a human being inside,

00:03:49,542 --> 00:03:52,fired all the way up into space
and then falling back.

00:03:52,750 --> 00:03:55,So, truly,
these first cosmonauts

00:03:55,875 --> 00:03:58,were pioneers
putting themselves at risk.

00:03:59,042 --> 00:04:01,Yuri was regarded
almost universally as a hero.

00:04:01,792 --> 00:04:03,(cheering)

00:04:03,625 --> 00:04:05,He was celebrated the world over

00:04:05,542 --> 00:04:07,as the first human being
in space.

00:04:08,042 --> 00:04:12,AMY TEITEL:
Gagarin's flight took all of America by surprise,

00:04:13,042 --> 00:04:15,and everybody suddenly
kind of stops what they're doing

00:04:15,458 --> 00:04:17,to learn about this,
to watch the newsreels.

00:04:17,792 --> 00:04:20,And in the 1960s,

00:04:20,125 --> 00:04:24,everything about space flight
was unknown at the time.

00:04:24,542 --> 00:04:27,They didn't know if astronauts
were gonna lose their minds

00:04:27,375 --> 00:04:30,and space madness
would kick in.

00:04:30,417 --> 00:04:32,Also, there were questions
like, "Will your eyes distort

00:04:32,750 --> 00:04:35,"without gravity,
and you can't see?

00:04:35,208 --> 00:04:37,Can you swallow
without gravity?"

00:04:37,500 --> 00:04:39,No one knew anything,

00:04:39,542 --> 00:04:43,and then Yuri Gagarin
goes into orbit.

00:04:44,833 --> 00:04:48,And the reality of humans going
into space is suddenly here.

00:04:54,500 --> 00:04:57,SHATNER:
In a speech at Rice University,

00:04:57,708 --> 00:05:02,President John F. Kennedy
announces an audacious plan.

00:05:02,625 --> 00:05:05,Just 17 months after
the first manned orbit of Earth,

00:05:06,125 --> 00:05:08,America is planning
to put a man...

00:05:08,333 --> 00:05:10,on the Moon.

00:05:10,625 --> 00:05:13,We choose to go to the Moon
in this decade

00:05:13,875 --> 00:05:15,and do the other things,

00:05:15,792 --> 00:05:19,not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.

00:05:19,542 --> 00:05:22,SUSAN KARLIN:
JFK announcing

00:05:22,208 --> 00:05:23,that we were gonna
go to the Moon

00:05:23,625 --> 00:05:25,ignited imaginations.

00:05:25,708 --> 00:05:29,It was tremendously exciting
for the American public.

00:05:29,750 --> 00:05:32,However, the engineers
that actually had

00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,to make it happen
were a little unnerved

00:05:36,375 --> 00:05:40,because America was still
at the infancy

00:05:40,292 --> 00:05:42,of getting into space.

00:05:43,917 --> 00:05:47,At that point, we really didn't
even know what we didn't know.

00:05:47,583 --> 00:05:50,Now, this was
a very dangerous thing to do,

00:05:50,375 --> 00:05:52,because the Apollo
lunar missions were flown

00:05:53,042 --> 00:05:54,right on the edge

00:05:54,708 --> 00:05:56,of what are called
"single points of failure."

00:05:56,542 --> 00:05:58,If a certain rocket engine
didn't ignite,

00:05:58,750 --> 00:06:00,they couldn't leave the surface
of the Moon.

00:06:00,917 --> 00:06:04,So, it puts astronauts
in significant danger.

00:06:06,333 --> 00:06:07,But this was the nature
of spaceflight then.

00:06:07,750 --> 00:06:09,We were taking a lot of chances.

00:06:20,333 --> 00:06:22,SHATNER:
In less than seven years

00:06:22,583 --> 00:06:24,from JFK's bold proclamation,

00:06:24,625 --> 00:06:28,and with the help
of over 400,000 scientists,

00:06:28,333 --> 00:06:30,engineers and NASA personnel,

00:06:30,667 --> 00:06:35,Apollo 11 launches
into outer space.

00:06:37,667 --> 00:06:39,SHATNER:
After a journey

00:06:39,542 --> 00:06:42,that lasts four days,
six hours, and 45 minutes,

00:06:42,917 --> 00:06:45,the lunar module lands
on the Moon.

00:06:51,375 --> 00:06:53,TEITEL:
When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon,

00:06:53,542 --> 00:06:55,everyone kind of
stopped to watch,

00:06:55,458 --> 00:06:56,because I think
there was probably

00:06:56,917 --> 00:06:58,this almost morbid curiosity
of like,

00:06:58,958 --> 00:07:00,"If this works, this is amazing,
and if this doesn't work,

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