[FPSPACE] Five Years on Mars and Calling All Aliens on National Geographic Channel on Nov2

[LARRY KLAES]

*NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL TAKES YOU ON REAL-LIFE ADVENTURES TO THE
RED PLANET AND THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE! *

*Like Pixar's /Wall-E/, Join the Adventures of Spirit & Opportunity*

*Two Robotic Rovers Making History While Exploring the Surface of Mars, *

*And Then Join the Out-of-This-World Quest to Make Contact with ET*

* *

*/Five Years on Mars/** Premieres Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 8 PM ET/PT*

*/Calling All Aliens/** Premieres Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 10 PM ET/PT***

(*WASHINGTON, D.C. – OCTOBER 22, 2008*) This November, let the National
Geographic Channel take you on two real Space Age adventures — to the
Red Planet and beyond!

It could be the basis for a sequel to the Pixar sci-fi movie /Wall-E,
/except this is the real-life odyssey of two robots. On Sunday, November
2, 2008, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, NGC brings the adventures of solar-powered
robotic rovers /Spirit/ and /Opportunity/ to the screen in *Five Years
on Mars*, a vivid high-definition visualization of their parallel
missions on either side of the Red Planet. Using photo-realistic
animation based on the actual landscape as captured by the rovers'
cameras, the one-hour special dramatizes the trials and tribulations of
these intrepid explorers while highlighting new scientific information
on the planet's geology and water history.

Launched in 2003, /Spirit/ and /Opportunity/ were originally expected to
collect data over 90 Martian days, called "sols." What began as a
short-term science mission looking for evidence of ancient water has
turned into one of the greatest adventures of the Space Age. After
almost five years in operation, they have astonishingly survived,
proving more resilient and luckier than anyone could have predicted.
They've trekked miles across hostile plains, climbed mountains, ventured
in and out of deep craters, gotten stuck in sand dunes, survived dust
storms and mechanical failures, and cheated death so often no one will
venture a guess as to how much longer they might last.

*Five Years on Mars* captures the emotional highs and lows experienced
by the scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in
Pasadena, Calif., who spend their days seeing through the rovers' eyes
and now think of /Spirit/ and /Opportunity/ in almost human terms.
/Spirit/ is the hard luck rover who trekked for months across a barren
desert, scaled a mountain and lost a wheel before finding anything of
scientific interest. /Opportunity/ is the lucky one for whom everything
has gone right from the moment it landed right on top of abundant
evidence of early Martian water.

"It was like being inside this bizarre Martian mystery novel," says
Steve Squyres, lead scientist, JPL. "Every sol or two you'd get a new
clue handed to you, and it really improved our understanding of what we
were dealing with here."

Later that same night, on November 2, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, venture even
further into space and see the remarkable ways scientists are searching
for extraterrestrial life in *Calling All Aliens*. From building the
most sensitive "ear" of all time — the massive Allen Telescope Array —
to sending interstellar CD and text messages, there are myriad ways to
try to make contact.

The one-hour special takes viewers to the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, Calif., where scientists
have activated 42 out of the planned 350 giant radio dishes that make up
the Allen Telescope Array. SETI never had a dedicated instrument like
this to use in the search for ET 24/7 — until now. Funded in part by
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the dishes collect datastreams from
outer space that are then analyzed to determine if they carry any
unusual frequencies. Monitoring computers alert the scientific team when
a particularly strong signal comes through … but so far nothing has led
them to believe that ET is trying to phone Earth.

Jodie Foster's character in the movie /Contact/ was based on Jill
Tarter, director of the Allen Telescope Array project and considered the
"Grande Dame" of SETI research. SETI lost funding from NASA and Congress
back in 1993, and they are now a nonprofit organization counting on
donations like Paul Allen's … and anyone who wants to buy a telescope in
the array.

"You can buy a telescope and have your name on it," says Tarter. "The
price tag is $100,000. That's a big number in some sense, but a very
small number for a radio telescope!"

SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, who hosts a weekly radio show called "Are
We Alone?," is very optimistic about his colleagues' ingenuity in
undertaking the search and about the advancements in technology.

"Our galaxy has a few hundred billion star systems, so it doesn't
surprise that me we haven't found other intelligent life yet," says
Shostak. "But the search is speeding up, and I think everybody deep down
inside wishes that the experiment would succeed while they're still
around to see that happen."

In Florida, one company claims it can make that happen for just $299.
For that price, anyone can send a CD, text or music message out into
space using a radio transmission device. Across the globe in Moscow,
radio engineer Alexander Zaitsev, in conjunction with METI (Messaging to
Extraterrestrial Intelligence), has sent several messages into space on
a directive from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Also in Russia, they
are planning to take it a step further by sending samples of human DNA
into space to show what we're made of to any highly intelligent life
forms out there.

But not everyone is eager to make contact. Author David Brin thinks it
is dangerous to try to communicate to a life form that we have no real
knowledge of. He fears ET will come to annihilate the human race.

"I'm not claiming that there are a million deadly horrible probes out
there," says Brin. "But there is no proof that there are not."

Also on November 2, in between *Five Years on Mars* and *Calling All
Aliens*, catch an encore presentation of *Naked Science: Life on Mars
*at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Join NASA's Phoenix Mission to determine if life could
have existed — or can exist — on our closest planetary neighbor.

*Five Years on Mars* is produced by Mark Davis Productions for the
National Geographic Channel. For Mark Davis Productions, producer,
writer and director is Mark Davis. For the National Geographic Channel
executive producer is Howard Swartz, senior vice president of special
programming is Michael Cascio and executive vice president of content is
Steve Burns.

*Calling All **Aliens* is produced by VIDICOM in association with
ARTE/ZDF, Channel 5 Russia, SBS TV Australia and co-produced with
SPIEGEL TV and Corona Films St. Petersburg. Executive producer is Peter
Bardehle and director is Christian Schidlowski. For the National
Geographic Channel, producer is Lauren Cardillo, senior vice president
of special programming is Michael Cascio and executive vice president of
content is Steve Burns.

# # #


Based at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington,
D.C., the National Geographic Channel (NGC) is a joint venture between
National Geographic Ventures (NGV) and Fox Cable Networks (FCN). Since
launching in January 2001, NGC initially earned some of the fastest
distribution growth in the history of cable and more recently the
fastest ratings growth in television. The network celebrated its fifth
anniversary in January 2006 with the launch of NGC HD, which provides
the spectacular imagery that National Geographic is known for in
stunning high-definition. NGC has carriage with all of the nation's
major cable and satellite television providers, making it currently
available to more than 68 million homes. For more information, please
visit www.natgeotv.com <http://www.natgeotv.com/>.


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