National-Geographic - ExoMars: The Impossible Mission - February 8 at 9pm on the National Geographic Channel

By Mulder, 19 december 2022

"Exomars, l'impossible mission" directed by François Pomès is a look back at this extraordinary space program whose goal is to send a robot to Mars to determine whether extraterrestrial life exists.

The documentary will be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on February 8 at 9pm and available for replay the next day, from February 9 to March 10, on My Canal. 

Launched in the early 2000s, the European Mars rover project is a huge gamble. And a project that quickly proved to be much more complex than expected. In 2022, the ExoMars mission received a fatal blow. In 20 years, this ambitious project has been plagued by technological difficulties, as well as economic, health and political crises. Through exclusive access to the mission, in which thousands of men and women from 20 different countries took part, "ExoMars, the Impossible Mission" tells the story of how the dream of finding life on Mars has been a long-term technical and scientific challenge that has still not been achieved.

The documentary reveals the unpublished and moving testimonies of experts and directors who followed and helped the realization of the mission, from the beginning to the end, such as Thomas Pesquet, French astronaut with the European Space Agency; Frances Westall, geologist and exobiologist, research director of the National Center for Space Research; François Spoto, the head of the ExoMars project and many others... All of them have dedicated years of their lives to ExoMars and tell how this fantasy became a trying nightmare.   

"ExoMars, the impossible mission" is a documentary produced by Label News for National Geographic France. It is directed and produced by François Pomès (Label News), Pauline Dauvin and Kevin Deysson for National Geographic France. Maya Lussier Seguin, Bénédicte Renou and Ivan Bouso are the executive producers for National Geographic France. 

The documentary will be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on February 8 at 9pm.

The National Geographic channel is available on Canal + (Canal + channel 115, Free (TV by Canal) channel 60).

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and Disney, is committed to presenting quality, challenging science content across multiple channels. NGP includes National Geographic's television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Nat Geo People), media assets, National Geographic magazines, National Geographic Studios, digital media platforms and social networks; books, maps, children's media, travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce activities. Since its inception in 1888, the National Geographic Society (a nonprofit organization) has been dedicated to furthering knowledge and understanding of the world. Each month, National Geographic is consumed by more than 730 million people in 172 countries and 43 languages. National Geographic Partners donates 27 percent of its revenues to the National Geographic Society to fund work in science, discovery, conservation and education. For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.fr

(Source: press release)