Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (dramatic contemplative music)

  • - The only thing I've ever known

  • for sure in my life is that I wanna be

  • on the first mission to Mars.

  • - [Narrator] Is this a lie?

  • While Hilary Swank plays an astronaut in the series "Away,"

  • did you know that Swank's childhood dream

  • at five years old, even before wanting to become an actor,

  • was actually to be an astronaut in real life?

  • That was the first of 21 facts and one lie based

  • on the series "Away."

  • Share this video and give us a thumbs up

  • to make sure you never miss any mind-blowing facts.

  • (rocket roaring)

  • To make this fictional space mission

  • as realistic as possible, a former NASA astronaut,

  • Mike Massimino, helped with production

  • to nail all the space details.

  • - [Female Reporter] A recent predicts a 50-50 chance you

  • won't survive this mission.

  • - [Narrator] Mars is a tricky planet to reach.

  • From Earth, there have been a total

  • of 56 non-manned missions to Mars.

  • Only 26 were successful.

  • - [Male Reporter] How about your family?

  • How do they feel about you leaving them for three years?

  • - [Narrator] Because Mars has a longer orbit around the sun,

  • its years are twice as long as years on Earth.

  • Currently, NASA's Perseverance rover is on its way to Mars

  • with a landing date of February 2021.

  • Its goal is to find signs of ancient life

  • and collect rock and soil samples.

  • Swank's character was inspired

  • by real-life astronaut Peggy Whitson,

  • who happens to be from the same hometown as Swank's parents.

  • Mars is home to the tallest mountain

  • in the entire solar system,

  • a volcano called Olympus Mons that stands three times

  • as tall as Mount Everest.

  • - I asked him to help.

  • - I've only been in that sweaty simulator.

  • I wanna get to taste the real thing.

  • - [Misha] I assume you can patch a leak.

  • - Apparently, better than you.

  • - [Narrator] A key part of any space mission wardrobe

  • are the mission patches.

  • Each space mission has an intricate patch

  • that the real-life astronauts help design.

  • Mars may have the potential to support human life

  • because of the presence of water.

  • NASA discovered ice on Mars in 2008.

  • "Away's" costume designer is no stranger to astronaut chic.

  • She also designed space suits

  • for the show "Stranger Things."

  • - Commander, welcome to one-six gravity.

  • - [Narrator] The cast did an astronaut training boot camp

  • to practice wire work and emulate how bodies move

  • in low-gravity environments.

  • Mark Invanir, who plays Russian astronaut Misha Popov,

  • had a secret advantage as a former circus performer.

  • He was already doing back flips

  • when the cast practiced wire work.

  • - This is Commander Emma Green here on the moon.

  • - [Narrator] Swank said the most challenging part

  • of simulating space was slowly moving your body

  • to simulate low gravity while talking at a normal speed.

  • Moving in slow mo makes you want

  • to slow down your words, too.

  • - [Unison] To Mars.

  • - A mission to Mars takes three years,

  • so astronauts have to pack a lot of food,

  • like 24,000 pounds of food.

  • Designing the spaceship set for "Away"

  • included adding a lot of food storage space

  • to make it realistic.

  • (door clanking and hissing)

  • To make the "Away" spaceship feel true to life,

  • the set design team researched real plans

  • for future space modules

  • from NASA's Orion spacecraft to SpaceX.

  • Any Mars mission requires preparing

  • for temperatures that differ from Earth.

  • A summer day on Mars can get up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

  • If you think that you can handle the heat,

  • don't forget to stick around until the end

  • to find out which fact is actually a lie.

  • (crickets chirping) (piano playing out of tune)

  • Josh Charles's character, Matt,

  • is both an astronaut and a composer.

  • While Charles knows how to play guitar in real life,

  • he had to learn piano for the role.

  • While Mars is the most accessible planet from Earth,

  • it's still 140 million miles away.

  • According to NASA, a trip to Mars

  • would take about three years.

  • (Lu speaks in foreign language)

  • (boy speaks in foreign language)

  • - [Narrator] The astronauts of "Away"

  • bring multiple languages to the table.

  • Vivian Wu, who plays Chinese astronaut Lu Wang,

  • speaks English, Chinese, and Russian throughout the series.

  • - [Misha] Say cheese, astronauts.

  • - [Narrator] If you wish you were taller,

  • you should leave Earth.

  • Astronauts can grow up to two inches taller in space

  • from the lack of gravity compressing their vertebrae.

  • "Away" visits some of the more unpleasant aspects

  • of space travel, like losing part of your foot.

  • After being in space for weeks,

  • astronauts begin shedding large pieces

  • of skin from the soles of their feet.

  • - [Emma] A hell of a privilege to be up here.

  • - [Narrator] "Away" is loosely based

  • on an article written for "Esquire Magazine" in 2014.

  • The author joined the writing staff for the show.

  • Could you spot the lie?

  • (atmospheric futuristic music)

  • While the weather on Mars is different from Earth,

  • the highest recorded temperature on Mars

  • is only 86 degrees Fahrenheit

  • with its lower temperature at an icy negative 220 degrees.

  • See you next time.

(dramatic contemplative music)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it