Here's the Crew We're Sending to 'Mars'

Ron Howard and National Geographic are plotting on taking viewers to space in a way like never before: Mars is equal parts sci-fi drama and documentary. The six-part miniseries tells the story of a speculative future where mankind sends a spacecraft (named the Daedalus) to Mars in 2033; this dramatic footage is then interspersed with present-day documentary footage detailing the possibility and potential importance of a manned mission to the Red Planet, including interviews with notable scientific figures like SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Andy Weir (author of The Martian) and many, many more.

Casting-wise, the Daedalus’s crew consists of American commander and systems engineer Ben Sawyer (played by Ben Cotton), pilot Hana Seung (Jihae), Spanish scientist Javier Delgado (Alberto Ammann), French physician Amelie Durand (Clementine Poidatz), Russian exobiologist Marta Kamen (Anamaria Marinca) and Nigerian roboticist Robert Foucault (Sammi Rotibi). The crew will liaise with control teams from the Mars Mission Corporation and the International Mars Science Foundation in both London and Vienna during their time in space.

The show will premiere globally in 171 countries and in 45 languages over the course of the entire month of November, as the showrunners and filmmakers felt that the global resonance of the project required a worldwide rollout.

You can find out more about the Daedalus project on its countdown site, www.MakeMarsHome.com.