Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets Page #4

---

most likely to support life.

Mars.

Hi. Pegasus commander Tom Kirby here.

Halfway to Mars

and time for our regular Q and A.

This week's topic

is our interplanetary home Pegasus.

We've got the email address on the screen,

so keep those questions coming.

OK, first question is. How big is Pegasus?

Well...you could fit in twelve football fields

end to end,

so pretty big.

Why do you have a Frisbee

stuck on the end of your spaceship?

We call that the disk

and that's our main shield against the sun

and the planetary atmospheres we sometimes

have to fly through to slow ourselves down.

It's also where our nuclear engines are

so, all in all, a very important Frisbee.

Some questions about the instrument panels

here in the cockpit. Why don't we take a look?

Looks impressive, huh?

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret.

(WHISPERS) Most of these

are duplicates in case of short-outs,

but don't tell anybody because

we think it makes us look coolI

(LAUGHTER)

- Let's go downstairs and see some sights.

- (MUSIC)

Kill that music, JohnI

OK, here we are in the crew area.

What about those Venus samples, Nina?

Any little green men yet?

No, not yet, but I have found

some interesting chemicals

that might have been left by living organisms.

I'll keep you posted, 0K?

John, we got a lot of questions

about the water. Is everything recycled?

Yes, viewers, I've been drinking his urine

for the last six months!

- Mmm!

- (MUSIC) # All the crazies

# Try to space me and I don't know... #

(T0M) Zero G is a lot of fun,

but too much of it's very bad for your health.

These rotating modules

provide us with some gravity

to help keep us in shape.

This is 0.5G, to be precise,

which is half Earth gravity,

and here we have Zo Lessard making up

for the time she spends in zero G

by exercising three hours a day.

- Let's take a look in Zo's sleeping module.

- No, Tom!

0h, my Lord, someone's broken in!

It's not just a mission to the planets.

We're exploring the human body.

No one knows how it'll respond to six years

in space - physically, psychologically.

It's new territory.

(T0M) Six years is a long time if you consider

time more important than what you do with it.

(NINA) I have spent more time with these guys

than anyone. We're more a family than a crew.

I don't see it as giving up anything. I just

won the lottery. It's you lot I feel sorry for.

(NARRATOR) More probes have been sent here

than any other planet, but Mars has a jinx.

Over half of them failed.

Pegasus Control, you can tell Nina

she has a go for EVA.

(FLIGHT) She should be out on the arm by now.

What was her heart rate when she left Pegasus?

(NARRATOR) Before sending a lander to Mars,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes