Paxi - Do Martians exist? — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:12Hello there. I'm Paxi, an adventurous
3. 0:15space explorer. Are you ready to learn
4. 0:17about life on Mars?
5. 0:20Your planet's Earth is certainly
6. 0:22special. It's the only world in the
7. 0:25solar system known to have life. Earth
8. 0:27has a huge variety of life. It has
9. 0:30plants, animals, and humans. But what
10. 0:33makes something alive?
11. 0:35Let's think about you humans. You
12. 0:38breathe oxygen,
13. 0:40drink water, and eat food.
14. 0:45You move about and grow over time.
15. 0:49You make new tiny humans. And you
16. 0:53produce waste.
17. 0:57Animals and plants do similar things,
18. 0:59but in different ways. Your role are
19. 1:01definitely alive.
20. 1:05What about my spaceship? It needs fuel
21. 1:08just like you need food, and it
22. 1:10definitely moves really fast. It even
23. 1:13produces some waste, but it doesn't grow
24. 1:16or make new baby spaceships.
25. 1:19[Music]
26. 1:21Inside my spaceship are cogs, gears, and
27. 1:24lots of wires. It's not alive. It's a
28. 1:27machine.
29. 1:28[Music]
30. 1:32Some life can be really hard to find,
31. 1:35especially if it's tiny. Some creatures
32. 1:38that live on your planet are so small
33. 1:41you need a microscope to see them, but
34. 1:43they're still alive.
35. 1:48So, is there life in the solar system
36. 1:50anywhere other than Earth? Let's fly to
37. 1:53Mars and investigate.
38. 1:58The last time I visited Mars, I saw dry
39. 2:01river beds. There must have been lots of
40. 2:03water here in the past. Living creatures
41. 2:06love water, so could there ever have
42. 2:08been some there? Let's take a closer
43. 2:10look.
44. 2:13I don't think there's been any water
45. 2:14here for a long time. And the surface
46. 2:17isn't too friendly for life.
47. 2:22It's really cold and my senses tell me
48. 2:25that there's lots of dangerous radiation
49. 2:27from the sun. I wouldn't want to take my
50. 2:29space helmet off.
51. 2:32But could there be small microscopic
52. 2:34life under the surface where it's safer?
53. 2:38Oh no, I don't have anything to explore
54. 2:40beneath the surface. But don't worry,
55. 2:43because my human friends from the
56. 2:45European Space Agency are on the case
57. 2:47with their ExoMars missions.
58. 2:50ExoMars will send not one but two
59. 2:53missions to Mars. The first will be
60. 2:55launched in 2016.
61. 2:58[Music]
62. 2:59This mission is made up of an orbiter
63. 3:02and a lander called Skapareli.
64. 3:06The lander will be sent to the surface
65. 3:09to show how spacecraft land on Mars and
66. 3:11help prepare for bigger missions in the
67. 3:13future.
68. 3:15The orbiter will orbit around Mars and
69. 3:18explore its thin atmosphere to try and
70. 3:20seek out any signs of waste gases given
71. 3:22out by tiny life forms or if any gases
72. 3:26are coming from chemical reactions of
73. 3:28warm wet rocks under the surface. It's a
74. 3:32clever way of trying to find out if Mars
75. 3:34is still alive today. On the surface,
76. 3:38Skip Fareelli will check the weather at
77. 3:40the landing site, including measuring
78. 3:43how strong the winds are.
79. 3:45[Music]
80. 3:48A few years later, the second ExoMars
81. 3:51mission will be launched to Mars. This
82. 3:53will land a rover that will be the first
83. 3:55explorer to drill under the rocky
84. 3:57Martian surface. It will search for life
85. 4:00that's either there now or was there in
86. 4:03the past.
87. 4:05So, if Martians exist, they must be
88. 4:08very, very small. And maybe we'll get to
89. 4:11see them soon.
90. 4:13We found out what makes something alive,
91. 4:18and that Mars could be a good place to
92. 4:19look for tiny life forms.
93. 4:25Beneath the surface is the best place to
94. 4:27look, which is exactly what the Exomar
95. 4:30missions will do.
96. 4:34[Music]
97. 4:52What?