Forging the Future: Life Off Earth

SYNOPSIS

If you thought The Space Race peaked with the Apollo missions, wait 'til permanent research bases on the Moon and Mars start cropping up. The New Space Race in getting humans to Mars is heating up, and this episode presents the visionaries who are making this future possible. Once exclusively financed by governments, private companies are now developing the means of living in outer space. On the cutting edge of this Copernican Revolution is the Dream Chaser-a new, high-flying space shuttle that will ferry researchers to inflatable research habitats in outer space. But creating permanent habitats in the toxic environments on the Moon and Mars is a serious undertaking. Scientists and engineers take these threats to human life very seriously. One engineer is creating advanced, reusable spacesuits that makes mobility and dexterity less "bulky," and more feasible in gravity-free environments. Some engineers featured in the show are helping in these efforts by developing high-tech drills and pressurization chambers that allow for the excavation of the most crucial resource for the survival of humanity: Liquid Water. These are just parts of the complex efforts needed to establish habitats on alien planets. One firm is developing habitats that are 3D printed with Martian soil, and will be pre-built before astronauts arrive. But one of the boldest endeavors lies in creating a living, breathing ecosystem that, through plant growth, generates oxygen and food for the first permanent settlers on the Moon and Mars. One ambitious research project-30 years in the making-is providing the "ground-truth" of how to create an Earth-like Biosphere in outer space - providing a road map for how humanity will survive and even thrive in the life-threatening conditions of other planets.