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This one-hour program, Is There Life on Mars?, is divided into six chapters. Choose any chapter below and select QuickTime or Windows Media Player to begin viewing the video. If you experience difficulty viewing, it may be due to high demand. We regret this and suggest you try back at another time.
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watch chapter 1 in
QuickTime
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Looking For Life
In the wake of several failed missions to Mars, NASA dispatches the aptly named Phoenix to see if soil conditions on the Red Planet might have allowed for the development of life—the holy grail of Mars exploration.
running time 8:02
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watch chapter 2 in
QuickTime
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Water World?
NASA sends two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to Mars to search for signs of water, in the distant past or currently. Why water? Because life as we know it could not exist without it.
running time 7:30
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watch chapter 3 in
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A Broiling Early Mars
A rover's broken wheel makes an accidental discovery of great import: The soil beneath it is 90 percent silica. The glass-like silica could only have formed in enormous heat. Did Mars once have hot springs like those on Earth?
running time 7:49
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watch chapter 4 in
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End of an Atmosphere
Evidence builds that Mars suffered a cataclysmic early collision by an asteroid that destroyed its atmosphere. But could life still have formed? Some experts have grown doubtful; others remain doggedly optimistic.
running time 10:09
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watch chapter 5 in
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The Rise of Phoenix
Landing successfully in the planet's arctic north in May 2008, Phoenix takes up the hunt for evidence of water. Before the frigid martian winter shuts it down, the robot geologist makes a stunning discovery.
running time 7:19
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watch chapter 6 in
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The Hunt Goes On
Phoenix shows that at least the region where it landed once had conditions suitable for life. But did organisms of any sort ever live there? Experts are putting their hopes in the next NASA robot, the car-sized Mars Science Laboratory.
running time 8:13
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Created November 2008
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