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Season two of the National Geographic Channel‘s Mars—which is part drama and part documentary—explores what it would take to survive on another planet.

- Chandra Steele

The speculative show comes courtesy of producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, who have already given us a vivid picture of the space race with Apollo 13. At the heart of the fictional Mars is the International Mars Science Foundation (IMSF), an organization formed by the world’s space agencies and private industry.

Season one took place in the year 2033 and depicted the first human mission to Mars, with an Elon Musk–like character leading the effort. Season two tackles how the crew survives.

The real-life challenges that the fictional future faces are handled as flashbacks of our current efforts to send a mission to Mars: SpaceX landing the first reusable rocket, astronaut Scott Kelly living aboard the International Space Station for a year, and scientists in Antarctica developing a blueprint for Mars settlements. This footage is interspersed with talking-head commentary from Elon Musk, Andy Weir, Robert Zubrin, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others who influence our thinking and planning of journeys to Mars.