For All Mankind puts its alternate views of the timeline to Mars in the S3 trailer

The fictional battle for space domination between the United States and Russia shifts its focus from the moon to Mars for the third season of For all mankind. Ars officials have dubbed the relatively underrated gem “Moon Show,” and Apple TV + has already released the official trailer for the show’s third release on the streaming platform.

(Some spoilers for the previous two seasons.)

Ars senior technology reporter Andrew Cunningham chose the series for our 2021 TV Technica list, praising its “sophisticated, likable, memorable characters.” The creator of the series Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) tries to keep the show reasonably close to reality, despite the concept of science fiction, often consulting with NASA’s original plans for guidance and including archival footage throughout the season. And as Cunningham wrote last year, “him redirection and falsification of historical cadres is fascinating both as a storytelling device and as a technical achievement. “

In S1, an astronaut named Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinaman) became commander of Apollo 10. His foil was fellow astronaut Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman), a stereotypically drunk and female fighter. Apollo 10 was a “dress rehearsal” for the historic Apollo 11 landing on the moon, when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. But in this alternate timeline, the decision not to land on the moon with Apollo 10 meant that the Soviet Union had defeated America. Soviet astronaut Alexey Leonov instead make history.

In the first season, both countries discovered water on the moon, and America established the first lunar base in 1974, followed shortly after by a Soviet lunar base eight miles away. The first season ended with a complex two-part episode involving the desperate launch of Apollo 25 to carry out an Apollo 24 support and rescue mission. aimed at the American colony of Jamestown on the moon.

The second season took place during the same period in the 1980s during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. In the show’s alternate timeline, the United States and the Soviet Union were now battling over which country could control the moon’s rich resources. As a result, NASA became increasingly militarized, and Baldwin became commander of a new nuclear-powered space shuttle called the Pathfinder.

During the season, the lunar colony in Johnstown battled massive solar flares, sabotage by Russian astronauts and a damaged nuclear reactor, which required a daring repair mission in glued space suits. (RIP the two astronauts who performed the repairs and protected the reactor from melting, but died from exposure to vacuum.) Eventually, the threat of total nuclear war was neutralized and the final scene showed a man in a spacesuit walking on the surface of Mars.

And here begins the third season. In the 1990s, the battle for space turned to Mars, and it’s not just a race between the United States and Russia. The private industry entered the battle in the form of a company called Helios. “Some say that private citizens have no job in space exploration,” we hear Dev Ayesa (Eddie Gategi) say. – I strongly disagree. (He seems to be the CEO of Helios.) But NASA is determined not to be second to no one again.

Scientists hope to find possible signs of life and enough resources (such as water) to sustain large-scale human colonization. But such an ambitious mission rarely goes smoothly. Above all, a massive dust storm on Mars is closing both landing sites, forcing astronauts to make a blind landing. Judging by the loud shouts of control of the mission in the trailer, NASA succeeds. But if past seasons are an indication, this successful landing is just the beginning.

The third season of For all mankind Apple TV + premieres June 10, 2022

Image of the ad from YouTube / Apple TV +