Stranded

It's 298 days since the first manned

mission to Mars left the space station.

The space ship Ares and her crew

of seven men and women-

-are now going into orbit

around the red planet.

To make the journey with

the minimum energy requirement-

-after overcoming the Earth's

gravitational velocity-

-the ship entered an orbit around the

sun known as Hohmann's trajectory.

The enigmatic red planet

is home to many mysteries.

In 1999, Mars Global Surveyor failed

to detect a global gravitational field-

-but did find dozens of local fields,

and strange gravitational anomalies.

We have some comments from Andre

Vishniac, captain of the mission-

-received just a few seconds ago

and broadcast to Earth.

This is a historic moment.

Captain...

How do you feel at a time like this?

You're flying over Mars. One of ancient

humanity's dreams has come true.

It was a difficult dream to achieve.

This is our job,

and we've been trained to do it.

We can't worry about other factors.

Man landed on the Moon

more than 50 years ago.

The next and obvious step was Mars.

But it took longer than expected.

Why Mars?

What do you expect to find there?

There is no easy answer to that.

Why does man explore at all?

To learn and to know more.

To prove that we can achieve goals-

-that seemed impossible to reach.

-Susana, are you ready?

-Yes, I am.

-Herb?

-Yeah, I'm ready.

Ares...

Commander voice check.

Ares, this is the pilot.

Voice check, over.

Ares, this is Herbert.

Voice check, over.

Start countdown.

-...four, three, two, one, zero.

-Ignition.

It was like coming back from the

dead. Confusion and darkness reigned.

Do you read me, Belos?

Belos, do you read me?

Someone answer. Do you read me?

We hear you, Lowell. We've crashed.

-Is everyone okay?

-I don't know. I'm okay.

It's pretty crazy here.

The crash was awful.

Are you all right? Are you okay?

Get some rest. Don't worry.

Get some rest, okay?

We're alive. Jesus...

It's amazing. We're alive. We did it.

Come on, Johnson.

We did it. We're alive.

Hey, guys...

Is everybody okay down there?

-I'm all right.

-Are you sure, Johnson?

Come on, buddy. We did it.

Vishniac, are you okay?

Vishniac?

Vishniac, answer me. Are you okay?

Vishniac...

Jenny!

I don't know...

His neck is broken.

God bless his soul.

If anyone finds this tape, I want them

to record the facts as they occurred.

The crash was terrible, but the

Belos's cockpit miraculously survived.

Our captain, Andre Vishniac,

died on impact.

They five survivors were soon forced

to confront the harsh reality.

What lay ahead

wasn't going to be easy.

I can't see anything.

Christ, what a disaster...

We'll never be able

to restore pressure in the hangar...

...and the Rover's a wreck.

We discovered the failure. For a few

seconds, all systems were shut down.

It was enough

to fool the flight computer.

-What caused it?

-You'll have to look in your database.

I wish there was something I could do.

Everyone's looking for a way out.

Thanks, Lowell. We'll talk later on.

We need more room.

This is too suffocating.

Sanchez, you're second in command.

With Vishniac dead, you're in charge.

What do you suggest?

All I wanted was to be somewhere

else - a million miles away.

First order from your new captain:

You can all lie down and wait.

-Wait? Wait for what?

-You don't want to know, Fidel.

-I refuse to accept that possibility.

-You'd better get used to it, Herb.

There's a ship above our heads,

and it cannot enter our atmosphere.

-There are no more landing modules.

-We expected that, Luca.

They'll send a rescue mission.

We only have to stay alive until then.

Rescue mission?

Do you hear what you're saying?

It takes 26 months to send a ship

from Earth. How will they rescue us?

If there's one problem with orbit,

it'll delay that another year.

I don't understand. A rescue mission?

The purpose would be to recover our

bodies. We'll be dead within a year.

That's where you're wrong, Jenny.

We're going to survive.

This descent module wasn't designed

to keep us alive for three years.

We're 191 million kilometers

from Earth, and we're alone.

-There's always a way to survive.

-Any specific ideas?

We must get to work. All of us.

Our mission now is to survive.

Just as others have survived before.

Our situation is not as desperate

as it might seem at first glance.

Really? Not as desperate?

I love this guy.

I knew a geologist once.

He went on a trip for one day to

Switzerland, and he saw a black cow.

When he came back, he wrote that all

the cows in Switzerland were black.

I'm a geologist, that's true-

-and that's why I know

how to keep my feet on the ground.

We are on Mars, Herb. We're not

going to find palm trees out there.

I don't know what we should do, but

I know that we have to find answers.

-Or die trying.

-What shall we do about water?

Mars's atmosphere contains traces

of water. It's only a matter of time.

Sure, we just have to get used to

not drinking much or breathing much.

Won't you consider the idea that we

may just have a chance of surviving?

All right. I'm listening.

What's your plan? Where do we start?

Precisely as we're doing now.

Assessing our situation.

-We'll need a list of our resources.

-I can give you a general idea.

Go ahead.

First of all we need two kilos

of oxygen per person per day.

We need approximately two kilos of

water and about 1,5 kilos of solid food.

With the supplies we have on board,

for six people... Maybe one year.

Since the captain's dead - if we're

very careful, we can probably go...

-...fifteen months. That's optimistic.

-Please, go on.

All right...

Thanks to the recycling units, we have

enough water for a couple of years.

But if we use the recycler, we're

going to deplete our energy source...

...in about a year.

The problem with oxygen is similar.

In this situation, we'd be too miserable

to be worrying about breathing.

We're surrounded by oxygen. The

planet is rusted. That's why it's red.

I got it. But in this atmosphere,

it's in the form of carbon dioxide.

We can separate the oxygen

using dry electrolysis-

-but we'd use too much energy.

The thermoelectric generators

would be depleted in a year.

We could reduce heating, wear our

thermal suits, turn all the lights off...

Do you think we can last several years

inside our space suits in the dark?

We'd all go crazy.

We're no longer on a mission to Mars.

We're shipwrecked.

We'll have to accept a great deal

of suffering and discomfort.

Don't worry.

I'm used to facing extreme situations.

-Do I have to call you "sir"?

-No, Jenny. You don't have to.

But now I'm captain of this mission.

Or of the gang of castaways.

-I think we should...

-Excuse me, but it's my turn now.

Luca, I want a detailed inventory

of all our supplies-

-and your estimates as to how we can

make them last as long as possible.

There's another very important thing.

We have to find out what happened.

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