Interactive documentary

Journey to Mars

An expedition to the red planet — and the robots who went first.

A cinematic, narrated expedition in 6 acts — it flies the 3D universe, embeds real mission replays and Academy lessons, and lets you walk the surface. Every act is a place you can also explore in full.

The expedition

Act 1
Leaving Home
Why we go
- Journey to MarsTonight, humanity leaves Earth.
- The wandering emberFor as long as we have looked up, one red light has wandered against the fixed stars. We named it for a god of war — and then we set out to touch it.
- A world we dreamed of firstBefore any spacecraft, there were canals imagined through telescopes, and cities imagined in fiction. Mars lived in our minds long before it lived in our data.
Act 2
Crossing Space
The long fall to another world
- Act IICrossing Space
- The long fall→The spacecraft slips Earth's gravity and begins to fall toward the Sun's other child. Home shrinks to a blue point. Every word we send takes longer to arrive.
Act 3
The First Visitors
The machines that went ahead
- Act IIIThe First Visitors
- First glimpse — 1965Mariner 4 flew past and sent home twenty-two grainy photographs. They showed craters, and a thin, cold atmosphere. The Mars of fiction died that night; the real one began.
- First to stay — 1976Then Viking 1 and 2 set down and stayed. For the first time, we stood — through our machines — on the surface of Mars, and asked the oldest question: is anything alive here?
- Then we began to roamSojourner rolled a few metres. Spirit and Opportunity drove for years. Curiosity climbed a mountain of time. Each rover carried the last one's lessons — and our curiosity — a little further.
- Ride Curiosity down→Take the seat. Land Curiosity in Gale Crater.
Act 4
Landing
Seven minutes of terror
- Act IVSeven Minutes of Terror
- Perseverance lands→February 18th, 2021. Jezero Crater.
Act 5
Walk on Mars
Stand where the rovers stand
- Act VWalk on Mars
- The surface of Mars→Stand on the red plain. The sky is butterscotch, the horizon impossibly far. Walk toward a rover — and open its story.
Act 6
The Future
What comes next
- Act VIThe Future
- Bringing Mars homeRight now, Perseverance is sealing tubes of Martian rock and leaving them on the ground — the first samples of another planet, waiting for a ride back to Earth.
- The next footprintsNew rockets are being built to carry people across that long fall. One day, a human will look up from this red plain and see Earth as a single blue star — and know they came from there.

Journey to Mars

An expedition to the red planet — and the robots who went first.

The expedition

Act 1

Leaving Home

Why we go

Journey to MarsTonight, humanity leaves Earth.
The wandering emberFor as long as we have looked up, one red light has wandered against the fixed stars. We named it for a god of war — and then we set out to touch it.
A world we dreamed of firstBefore any spacecraft, there were canals imagined through telescopes, and cities imagined in fiction. Mars lived in our minds long before it lived in our data.

Act 2

Crossing Space

The long fall to another world

Act IICrossing Space
The long fall→The spacecraft slips Earth's gravity and begins to fall toward the Sun's other child. Home shrinks to a blue point. Every word we send takes longer to arrive.

Act 3

The First Visitors

The machines that went ahead

Act IIIThe First Visitors
First glimpse — 1965Mariner 4 flew past and sent home twenty-two grainy photographs. They showed craters, and a thin, cold atmosphere. The Mars of fiction died that night; the real one began.
First to stay — 1976Then Viking 1 and 2 set down and stayed. For the first time, we stood — through our machines — on the surface of Mars, and asked the oldest question: is anything alive here?
Then we began to roamSojourner rolled a few metres. Spirit and Opportunity drove for years. Curiosity climbed a mountain of time. Each rover carried the last one's lessons — and our curiosity — a little further.
Ride Curiosity down→Take the seat. Land Curiosity in Gale Crater.

Act 4

Landing

Seven minutes of terror

Act IVSeven Minutes of Terror
Perseverance lands→February 18th, 2021. Jezero Crater.

Act 5

Walk on Mars

Stand where the rovers stand

Act VWalk on Mars
The surface of Mars→Stand on the red plain. The sky is butterscotch, the horizon impossibly far. Walk toward a rover — and open its story.

Act 6

The Future

What comes next

Act VIThe Future
Bringing Mars homeRight now, Perseverance is sealing tubes of Martian rock and leaving them on the ground — the first samples of another planet, waiting for a ride back to Earth.
The next footprintsNew rockets are being built to carry people across that long fall. One day, a human will look up from this red plain and see Earth as a single blue star — and know they came from there.