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Mars Season 1

Novo Mundo

Mars2033: Daedalus, a multi-national, partially privately funded interplanetary vehicle, is about to land the first human expedition on the surface of Mars. After a year traveling from Earth to the red planet, a fault develops in one of the braking thrusters used to slow Daedaleus for a soft landing. Mission Commander Ben Sawyer personally takes on the task of replacing the circuit that will allow the thruster to fire, but this means he’s out of his seat when Daedalus enters the Martian atmosphere, subjecting him to a sudden return of gravitational G forces without the benefit of his seat in the crew cabin. Daedalus also lands off-course, away from a habitat/lab module already delivered to Mars via an unmanned rocket, but a closer workshop module may offer shelter in the meantime.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Karen Janszen
story by Karen Janszen and Paul Solet
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Laurent Winkler (Flight Director, Mission Control), Sara Martins (Louise Varda)

MarsNotes: Interspersing dramatic re-enactments of a potential Mars landing scenario with modern-day interviews with such figures as Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Andy Weir (author of The Martian), Mars is produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (producers, through Imagine Entertainment, of such past space exploration fare as Apollo 13 and From The Earth To The Moon).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Grounded

Mars2033: Injured in Daedalus’ landing, mission commander Ben Sawyer is in worse shape than he’s letting on to his crew. Internal injuries are slowly killing him. He authorizes a modification to the crew’s rover, allowing it to exceed its maximum safe speed of 10kph, but the time saved by speeding up the 75-kilometer drive is sacrificed when the rover hits an obstacle that destroys its suspension system. Left with nothing but an equipment and sample cart that they must push, the Daedalus crew must set out on foot, fully aware that failing to reach the workshop module will subject them to cold from which their EVA suits can’t protect them. And even if they reach shelter, it may not be in time to save Ben’s life.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Andre Bormanis and Paul Solet
story by Andre Bormanis
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Stephen Saracco (Ben’s Father)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Pressure Drop

Mars2033: Ben Sawyer has died from his injuries, leaving Hana Seung in charge. As the mission’s ground controllers scramble to devise alternatives and solutions for the astronauts on Mars, they also find themselves struggling to justify continuing the mission to the international consortium funding the exploration of Mars. The workshop dome providing the crew’s shelter is not meant to serve as a long-term habitat, and its overworked electrical system catches on fire, leaving it partially uninhabitable. The only chance the mission has to succeed – and the only chance humanity has to colonize another planet – is to find an underground chamber with abundant ice.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Mickey Fisher and Paul Solet
story by Mickey Fisher
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Mimi Tyler (young Hana), Mila Tyler (young Joon), Karen Gagnon (ORB Solutions Senior Board Member), Miklos Banyai (ORB Solutions Board Member), Mate Haumann (IMSF Member USA),

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 1

Power

Mars2037: Four years after the discovery of a suitable place to build the first human settlement on Mars, the base has expanded rapidly, and a second spacecraft with its own crew has joined Hana Seung’s expedition there. Medical, lab, and hydroponic facilities have been set up, though it’s the latter that proves the most worrisome – plants, the key to a sustainable food supply that doesn’t rely on resupply from Earth, are not growing at the expected rates. A third ship arrives with an even larger crew of new Mars colonists, including a supervisor to spearhead even further expansion. Her husband, a hydroponic expert, takes some of Javier’s workload off of him, but seems distant and obsessed with his work. But these new settlers have arrived just in time for trouble.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ben Young Mason and Paul Solet
story by Ben Young Mason
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), John Light (Dr. Paul Richardson), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Paul Solet (Cygnus Pilot), Karen Gagnon (ORB Solutions Senior Board Member), Rebecca Emekandoko (Joon’s Assistant)

Notes: This isn’t Cosima Shaw’s first struggle to survive on Mars – she was one of the crew members of Bowie Base One in the 2009 Doctor Who episode The Waters Of Mars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Darkest Days

Mars2037: A massive dust storm plunges the only human settlement on Mars into darkness for months. EVAs on the surface are out of the question for obvious safety reasons, and due to the interrupted work on power upgrades, it’s not long before power has to be carefully rationed for everyone to survive. One casualty of the power cuts is the greenhouse, leaving Paul Richardson nothing to do but worry over his dying crops. Base lighting and heat are next, and cabin fever begins setting in. Someone will have to venture outside to reconnect the base to power…while someone else will venture outside just to end it all.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Paul Solet
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), John Light (Dr. Paul Richardson), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Karen Gagnon (ORB Solutions Senior Board Member)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Crossroads

Mars2037: Paul Richardson’s suicidal step out onto the Martian surface has resulted in the decompression of other nearby parts of the base, and the instant deaths of six others in the sections adjacent to the greenhouse. His wife is wracked with guilt for not having seen the signs of his mental state earlier, while Hana Seung bears the burden for the entire mission, which is now likely to be cancelled by the IMSF. Hana and Foucalt visit the Daedalus, the vehicle that brought them to Mars, and begin reactiviating it in anticipation of being recalled to Earth. Attempting to salvage usable hardware to continue powering the base, Javier and Marta visit the abandoned workshop module that was their crew’s makeshift first shelter on Mars, where Marta makes an unusual discovery that could forever change science…and change humankind’s destiny on Mars.

Download this episode via Amazontelelplay by Andre Bormanis and Paul Solet
story by Andre Bormanis
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Jake Jackson, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), John Light (Dr. Paul Richardson), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Eva Magyar (IMSF Member Russia), Mirjam Novak (IMSF Member USA), Mate Haumann (IMSF Member USA)

Notes: Early in 2017, it was announced that National Geographic Channel would produce a second season of Mars, but that season would be produced under the auspices of a new showrunner, Dee Johnson (formerly of Nashville, Rizzoli & Isles, Army Wives, Commander In Chief, and ER).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 2

We Are Not Alone

Mars2042: Mars has been occupied by human scientists and engineers for nine years, working toward the dual goals of finding out more about past microbial life native to the planet and making Mars habitable for human colonists. The original Mars colony has blossomed into a city-like outpost called Olympus Town, another ship from the International Mars Science Foundation is en route, and China has put a crewed space station in orbit of the red planet. But company is coming: Lukrum, a mining corporation from Earth with enough money to go interplanetary, is sending the crew and equipment for its own colony on Mars, devoted not to scientific research but to strip-mining for profit. Their ship’s arrival is explosive, to say the least, with its jettisoned heat shield raining debris down on Olympus Town. Worse yet, Lukrum’s workers arrive on Mars with a demand to connect to Olympus Town’s water supply, citing international treaties requiring the IMSF outpost to assist astronauts in distress. But Hana Seung, still in command of Olympus Town, is skeptical since Lukrum’s “distress” is by design, not by accident. A pipeline is approved by the IMSF, but what isn’t approved is the breakneck pace of construction – putting Lukrum’s employees and the IMSF colonists at risk – or the shortcut that Lukrum Base commander Kurt Hurrelle decides to take through an area that the IMSF has set aside for research.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dee Johnson
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Stephen Cragg
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Martin Angerbauer (Danny), Naomi Christie (Zhen Zhen Yow), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen), Shea Hephner (Chelsea Hurelle), Timea Kasa (Clerk), David Miller (Assistant), Nicholas Wittman (Oliver Lee)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 2

Worlds Apart

MarsMay 2042: Commander Seung is annoyed when the Lukrum mining colony begins drawing more water from Olympus Town’s supply than previously agreed, and she is even more annoyed when it appears that the IMSF’s Secretary General, former Mars expedition member Leslie Richardson, is caving in to Lukrum’s every demand and considers Seung’s complaints to be “petty”. Seung’s sister, the former Secretary General of the IMSF, is en route to Mars on the next IMSF spacecraft, a reunion anticipated by both. Amelie Durand, one of the original Mars landing party, is shocked to discover from her own preflight physical that she is pregnant, opening up a vast number of questions: should she return to Earth as she had already planned to, or remain on Mars to have her baby? Marta Kamen, who has yet to discover further evidence of microbial life on Mars, is enraged to discover that Lukrum has apparently found liquid subsurface water and plans to tap into it, contaminating any samples that could be gained from it, sparking a brawl between the IMSF and Lukrum colonists. Commander Seung is devastated when she learns that her sister, who had been concealing a malignant tumor during the screening process from both the IMSF and her family, will never reach Mars alive.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dee Johnson
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Akbar Kurtha (Dr. Jay Johar), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Attila Arpa (Volkov), Caroline Boulton (Nurse), Naomi Christie (Zhen Zhen Yow), Emily Corcoran (Ms. Wilson), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen), Sonia Kaur (Anika Chandra), Laurence Poidatz (Amelie’s Mother), Alexandria Szucs (Abby), Nick Waring (E.U. Rep Davies), Nicholas Wittman (Oliver Lee)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 2

Darkness Falls

MarsAugust 2042: After the death of her sister Joon, Commander Hana Seung withdraws into her duties in Olympus Town, but even then she seems distracted and distanced from the colony’s day-to-day problems. Still fuming over the discovery that Lukrum Industries is actively drilling into liquid water that may contain samples of active microbial life, Marta Kamen takes it upon herself to “borrow” one of the colony’s rovers to trespass on Lukrum’s land claim and collect water samples herself. A powerful solar flare disrupts power and communications planetwide, plunging both Olympus Town and Lukrum, as well as the Chinese orbital station, into darkness. With satellites and other systems silenced, Marta has no contact with Olympus Town, as well as no navigational aid to keep her headed in the right direction. Unless she can be located, she won’t last the night on the Martian plains.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by David Gould
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Akbar Kurtha (Dr. Jay Johar), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Naomi Christie (Zhen Zhen Yow), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen), Adam Lannon (Man), Nicholas Wittman (Oliver Lee)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 2

Contagion

MarsAugust 2042: Hours after Marta is returned to Olympus Town by a Lukrum crew, workers at the Lukrum mining colony begin falling violently ill, and an emergency call is made to Olympus Town. Javier reports for his routine shift in Olympus’ xenobiology lab, only to find that the lab technician charged with examining Marta’s water samples is deathly ill; Javier is ordered to seal the lab’s airlock from the inside, as he too has now been exposed. At the Lukrum facility, the sickness has spread much more rapidly. Still recovering from frostbite, Marta suits up to go into the xenobiology lab to isolate the biological cause of the mystery illness, discovering that Martian microbes rendered inert by cold have been reactivated by the warm environs of the human habitats at Olympus and Lukrum. Penicillin would eradicate the disease, but having fallen out of use in western medicine, it’s not part of Olympus’ stockpile of medical supplies. Commander Seung could request a supply from the Chinese space station, but since that station broadcasts live to Chinese television 24 hours a day, the whole Earth would know of the epidemic taking shape on Mars in very short order – and that’s something Lukrum CEO Roland St. John does not want. Seung has to weigh the safety of every human being on Mars against the potential political fallout of revealing the outbreak to the public on Earth.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Julie Hebert
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Stephen Cragg
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Josh Cowdery (Chris Owens), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 2

Power Play

MarsNovember 2042: As second-in-command of Olympus Town, Lt. Michael Glenn has privately expressed doubts in Commander Seung’s ability to lead to the IMSF, but Secretary-General Richardson shares none of the same concerns and informs Glenn that no planned changes in Olympus Town’s leadership are forthcoming. The Secretary-General has a crisis of her own on her hands as Lukrum’s Earthbound management strikes a deal with Russia to exploit the mineral wealth of Mars, and she threatens Lukrum with sanctions, though she may be overplaying her hand in speaking for all the member nations of the IMSF. A satellite orbiting Mars spots what may be an indication of liquid water on the surface, perhaps proof that the terraforming efforts are working; Seung and Foucalt leave in a rover for the lengthy drive to see for themselves, leaving Glenn in command; during their trip, Foucalt tells Seung that he has decided to leave Olympus Town to accept a job offered to him by Lukrum boss Hurrelle. When Lukrum’s mining operation hits a particularly thick layer of basalt beneath the Martian surface, Hurrelle orders a power increase to the drill site, putting Lukrum over-budget for the electrical power it should be receiving from Olympus Town. Without consulting Seung or the IMSF, Glenn orders a total shutdown of the power feed to Lukrum, unaware that he’s cutting the power to their living quarters, medical facilities, and not just the drill site, putting the lives of the entire Lukrum colony in danger. Worse yet, when Javier tries to restore Lukrum’s power without orders to do so, he finds that Glenn has locked him out of the ability to do so – short of walking out onto the surface in a spacesuit and taking the risk of manually rerouting the electrical feed. While Javier is busy with this crisis, he is unaware when Amelie goes into premature labor.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Paul Keables
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Ashley Way
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Martin Angerbauer (Danny), Attila Arpa (Volkov), Caroline Boulton (Nurse), Emily Corcoran (Ms. Wilson), Khash-Erdene Ganbold (South Korean Rep. Kim), Amelia Hoy (Anchor), Sonia Kaur (Anika Chandra), Timea Kasa (Clerk), Sorel Kembe (Nigerian Rep. Odogwu), David Miller (Assistant), Nicholas Wittman (Oliver Lee)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 2

The Shakeup

MarsDecember 2042: With Roland St. John breathing down his neck and Lukrum shareholders on Earth demanding results for the costly expedition to Mars, Hurrelle decides to start using explosives to fast-track the discovery of water, and even invites Olympus Town to send Marta to gather water samples. But moments after the charges are blown, a massive quake rocks the Valles Marineris drill site, and does massive damage to the nearby Lukrum colony. Olympus Town is also severely shaken, but largely undamaged, but Amelie is forced to choose between leaving her prematurely-born baby in an incubator that may be failing, or removing her. Commander Seung leads a rescue expedition to the Lukrum colony, finding a number of survivors, but also several people who died when life support failed, including Hurrelle, who barged into the colony to try to save as many of his people as he could. The Lukrum survivors are taken to Olympus Town and given shelter. On Earth, Roland St. John, CEO of Lukrum, expects the IMSF to provide “political cover” in exchange for a healthy infusion of funding for the IMSF’s Martian science activities…but, perhaps at the risk of her career, Secretary-General Richardson has grown tired of doing Lukrum’s bidding, and decides to let Seung and the rest of the Olympus Town and Lukrum colonists, as well as the first human child born on Mars, reveal the truth to the people of Earth about the difficulty of life on Mars, and whether or not the cost in lives has been worth it.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dee Johnson
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Ashley Way
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Martin Angerbauer (Danny), Jennifer Armour (American Reporter), Attila Arpa (Volkov), Helen Austin (British Reporter), Naomi Christie (Zhen Zhen Yow), Toby Cisneros (American Reporter), Emily Corcoran (Ms. Wilson), Khash-Erdene Ganbold (South Korean Rep. Kim), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen), Shea Hephner (Chelsea Hurelle), Fen Fen Huang (Chinese Reporter), Sonia Kaur (Anika Chandra), Sorel Kembe (Nigerian Rep. Odogwu), Anna Sophie Marie (IMSF Crew Member), David Miller (Assistant), Joan Carles Suau (Argentinian Reporter), Alexandria Szucs (Abby), Nick Waring (E.U. Rep Davies)

LogBook entry by Earl Green