Nat Geo’s ‘Mars’ Miniseries Puts Humans on Mars to Point the Way

You can call it television pointing the way for reality, but the upcoming Nat Geo miniseries Mars moves its characters out to colonize the Red Planet – while presenting real life arguments that we need to get there as soon as possible. While telling a science-supported, but cinematic story of humankind’s first steps onto a new planet, the experts behind it clearly see a human settlement on Mars as the best way to ensure the prolonged existence of our species.

Premiering November 14th on the National Geographic Channel, Mars is a six-part miniseries exploring a fictitious, but heavily researched journey to Earth’s closest neighbor with extensive input from real world scientists, engineers and space enthusiasts such as billionaire and Space-X Funder Elon Musk and Dr. Mae Jamison, NASA astronaut.

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According to Stephen Petranek, author of How We’ll Live on Mars, it should be a deadly serious priority to move some percentage of the human population off Earth. He’s sure a species ending event on our current home is an absolute certainty. From super bugs to famine to solar flares, sooner or later, Petranek is sure we’re doomed if we just stick around here.

“The number one biggest danger to life as we know it is a big asteroid heads for Earth,” Petranek says. “This is not a question of ‘if.’ This is a question of ‘when’ and ‘how big.’ In 1908, a 200-foot-wide asteroid exploded over Siberia with the effect of about 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. Astronomers say asteroids like that come close to Earth about every 100 years.”

According to Petranek, to make the long trip off world and to build a human settlement there, whatever organization stands behind the trip will look to assemble a mix of the best and brightest people.

“Mars is 249 million miles from Earth, and the trip from Earth would last as long as eight months. On such a long , confined trip, every resource would be at a premium. You ultimately select your team based on their mixture of personalities and skills, and the way you want your crew to represent the project.”

During a visit to the Mars set in Budapest earlier this year, we got a behind the scenes look at the impressive production and its reliance on real world space designs and theoretical science. You can take a virtual tour yourself in the gallery below.