National Geographic Channel (DStv 181) will bring South African viewers the fictionalised docu-series Mars about man's journey and exploration of the red planet from 13 November as a global event.
The 6-episode Mars that will start in 171 countries including South Africa at the same time, will be both a fictionalised, scripted drama about mankind's quest to colonise Mars from the viewpoint of a fictitious crew set in 2033, as well as scientists and scientific minds like South Africa's Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX fame, talking about it.
Mars will chart the fictitious, futuristic journey of the Daedalus to the fourth planet in our solar system with a dramatic scripted story, intercut with interviews with current scientists and innovators who are leading the research and development of space technology that will make a future Mars mission possible.
The Mexican filmmaker Everardo Gout was the director of the dramatic part of the series that was filmed earlier this year in Budapest and Morocco to stand in for the harsh Martian backdrop.
The Mars production team took painstaking efforts to base the scripted future story of Mars exploration on real-world science and the series' writing team worked with an extensive group of experts.
"We're going to become a multi-planet species and a space-faring civilisation or we're going to be stuck on one planet until some eventual extinction event," says Elon Musk in Mars. "In order for me to be excited and inspired about the future, it's got to be the first option".
National Geographic will support the Mars TV series with a 6-part digital companion, prequel series, Before Mars that will launch prior to the premiere of the TV show as a digital, virtual-reality experience at www.MakeMarsHome.com.
Mars will be the cover story of the National Geographic magazine in November and will also be featured in a standalone book, Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet, that will be on sale from October.
