The Apple TV+ series For All Mankind has always been known for getting the small details right. But with Season 5, the creators have built something so detailed that it goes beyond normal TV magic.
The show’s Mars mission control set is so accurate and complete that co-creator Matt Wolpert recently made a surprising statement. He told reporters that the production team is pretty sure they could use the set to control a real rocket launch.
Season 5 of the alternate history sci-fi drama is currently streaming. It jumps forward to the year 2012. The story picks up after the dramatic events of the Goldilocks asteroid heist. The Mars colony, named Happy Valley, has grown from a small base into a large town with thousands of people living there.
The Mars Set That Works Like Real NASA Equipment
The production team went to great lengths to make the new Mars sets feel lived-in and functional. Ben Nedivi, who co-created the show with Wolpert and Ronald D. Moore, explained that they did not just build walls and fake buttons.
“There’s not a button here that wasn’t thought through,” Nedivi said during a tour of the set. He added that everything on these sets has a reason for being there. The team looked at every item and decided what purpose it serves for the story and the characters.
This level of care applies to almost every set on the show. Matt Wolpert joked about the quality of the work, stating, “We are pretty sure we can actually launch a spaceship from this room.”
The set includes a full 360-degree view of mission control. It feels less like a movie studio and more like a tour of the Johnson Space Center. This is intentional. The show has a former NASA astronaut, Garrett Reisman, working as a technical advisor to make sure the science holds up.
A Growing Home With an Apple Tree
One of the most symbolic props on the set is a simple apple tree. The tree sits in the main hub of Happy Valley. In Season 4, it was very small. By Season 5, it has grown much larger and now has apples on it.
Wolpert pointed to the tree as a perfect example of the show’s storytelling. He explained that the tree represents the “cool evolution” of the series. The colony is no longer just a workplace. It is a home where time passes and things grow.
The set designers also built a marketplace where characters can shop. You can find familiar Earth brands like Domino’s and Starbucks there, but they exist alongside Martian culture. There is even a bar called Ilya’s, which is filled with objects from past seasons, including a signed photo from the first Thanksgiving on Mars.
The Science of Iridium and Radiation Shields
Because the show is set in the 2010s of an alternate timeline, the technology had to evolve. The writers and technical advisors created a 100-slide presentation just to figure out the economy of iridium.
In the show’s universe, the Goldilocks asteroid made iridium as common and cheap as aluminum on Mars. The team had to figure out how that would change construction and daily life. Garrett Reisman, the technical advisor, explained that they do not use fake science like “dilithium crystals” from Star Trek to solve problems. If something breaks the laws of physics, they have to find another way to write the scene.
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Viewers might also notice large towers outside the windows of the base. These are not just random buildings. They are electric dipole generators. They create a magnetic field to protect the colony from deadly space radiation. Reisman confirmed that the science behind these shields is sound, even if it looks futuristic.
Balancing Real History With Science Fiction
As the show moves closer to the present day, keeping the technology believable has become harder. The show is set in the 2010s, but because the space race never ended, their technology is much more advanced than ours.
Ben Nedivi admitted that it is getting more difficult to keep the show grounded. “It’s getting harder as the show becomes more science fiction,” he said. However, he noted that Season 5 is very exciting because it focuses on the identity of the people. It asks the question: What does it mean to call Mars home?
The show also looks to the future. Even though Season 5 is currently airing, the creators are already thinking about the end. The series has been renewed for a sixth and final season. Nedivi mentioned that Mars is just the “launch pad” for the story. The ultimate goal is to explore the solar system further, including the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
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