Space

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft has just completed one of the most intricate procedures in space exploration. The first mission to deliver rovers onto an asteroid has now descended to its surface for a sample, before returning back to Earth in 2020.

Professor Brian Cox concludes his exploration of our place in the universe by asking what next for the ape that went to space. Our future is far from certain. In Florida, Brian joins the latest efforts to protect Earth from potential catastrophic events. He joins a team of Nasa astronauts who are training for a future mission to an asteroid - should we ever discover one coming our way - under 30 feet of water in a submerged laboratory that simulates space. It is just one example of how, for our long-term survival, space exploration may well be vital. It is a view shared by Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who tells Brian what it was like to escape the confines of the planet. It is a dream that both Nasa and now commercial companies share as they race to get humans back into deep space.
But space travel, like every leap our civilisation has ever made, requires energy. Here too, scientists are hard at work attempting to safeguard our future. At the National Ignition Facility in California, Brian witnesses the world's most successful fusion experiment in action. He believes that if their mission succeeds, our civilisation will have unlocked a way to the stars that will not destroy the planet in the process. Brian concludes by returning to the top of the world in Svalbard, where he gains access to our civilisation's greatest treasure, locked away in a vault buried deep in the permafrost.

Minerva B is a small rocky planet just like earth, where spacecraft Artemis has found water, organic molecules, and complex creatures. Is there something more to find?
'I am the mind of the spaceship, alone among the stars. 50 years ago, from a planet far away, the planet you call home, I launched. A journey of 28 trillion miles across the yawning time of space to the exoplanet, Minerva B: a small, rocky planet, much like Earth, but orbiting another sun. Here, I have found water, organic molecules, and microorganisms. When the news of my discovery reaches Earth years from now, some of you will be amazed. But others will remain unsatisfied, and you will ask, have I not found animals or birds? Have I not met intelligent life like us? And so, my search continues. I will find life of marvellous complexity, and the traces of a devastating loss.'

A look at the probes which explored our Solar System, laying the groundwork for a future spacecraft to search for life on a second Earth. That space craft must communicate, it must navigate, it must have power, it must have propulsion. We will have to give it all the intelligence necessary to make its own decisions. In 'The Explorers' the spacecraft Artemis initiates launch sequence and begins its 4.7 light year journey to Minerva B - an Earth-like exoplanet.

The next great voyage of human exploration has already begun: the search for life on planets orbiting distant stars. With extraordinary CGI, the world's most inspiring scientists, via extreme environments on Earth and around the solar system, the film takes viewers aboard the next generation of space ships, across the cosmos and beneath the clouds of the exo-planets to discover The Living Universe.
Part 1: 'The Planet Hunters' For as long as we’ve had eyes to see and minds to wonder we’ve marveled at the stars. Since the discovery of the first so-called exoplanet in 1994, the Planet Hunters have transformed the way we see the universe. It is the year 2157, and spacecraft Artemis enters the final phase of construction.

This history of NASA includes a look at a group of youths attending a space camp, whose enthusiasm could be the key to launching an expedition to Mars. 'Ever since we first began exploring space, every generation has had a craft to transport their dreams into space. We have seen the Apollo Era, the Shuttle Era, and now we are ready to see the Orion Era. My generation, the Mars Generation, will make it happen. It's our time, we are ready.' - Astronaut Abby.