0:00:02 > 0:00:09minutes, but first it's Click.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Our dreams of exploring the great beyond have always been
0:00:30 > 0:00:40governed by very earthly concerns.
0:00:40 > 0:00:40Things like resources.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41And safety.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43And money.
0:00:43 > 0:00:44I want go there.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46I think it's a dead pixel, actually.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48The problem, of course, with sending stuff into space is
0:00:49 > 0:00:50that it is exceedingly expensive.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Since Nasa was founded back in 1958, they have spent more than $800
0:00:53 > 0:01:02billion on it.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05One of the reasons is that most things space-related get sent up
0:01:05 > 0:01:07and either stay up, or burn up.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11If we ever want to get out here, things are going to have to get
0:01:11 > 0:01:14a lot cheaper, for a start.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16And one way to make things cheaper is to reuse them.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19Nasa gave that a go with the shuttle programme, a reusable spacecraft
0:01:19 > 0:01:27that was meant to get things off world at a fraction of the cost.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30The aim was to get it down to tens of millions per flight,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32but you know how these things go.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Maintenance and stuff.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36The shuttle programme was retired in 2011,
0:01:36 > 0:01:43and now the gauntlet has been passed to the commercial outfit Spacex.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46They have been trying to make their rocket reusable
0:01:46 > 0:01:50for some time now, and it has not been without its challenges.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But in April this year, they finally did it, succeeding in touching
0:01:53 > 0:01:58down on their autonomous drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01That is the name of the ship, by the way.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04I do still love you, though.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07The next step is to actually reuse the thing.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Something that Elon Musk, founder of Spacex, says they plan do
0:02:09 > 0:02:15in the near future, if it passes a battery of tests.
0:02:15 > 0:02:22But what if you didn't care if your spacecraft broke?
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Well, that is the driving force behind an idea recently backed
0:02:25 > 0:02:27by a host of very smart minds, including Mr Mark Zuckerberg
0:02:28 > 0:02:38and Professor Stephen Hawking.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41It is called the Starshop Project, and the plan is to launch thousands
0:02:41 > 0:02:44of tiny spacecraft that are little more than circuit boards.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47If one of them breaks, that is fine, there are plenty of others that can
0:02:47 > 0:02:53still do the job.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Even better, the hope is that because they are each so tiny,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58we can propel them to extraordinary speeds, possibly as fast
0:02:58 > 0:03:00as a quarter of the speed of light.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02That is more than 1,000 times faster than the fastest
0:03:03 > 0:03:11spacecraft there has ever been.
0:03:11 > 0:03:12That we know of.
0:03:12 > 0:03:13The universe is a big place.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17So if we are to have any chance of understanding it, it may be that
0:03:17 > 0:03:20swarms of miniature craft like these are the only realistic way to do it.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25This is Michael Johnson.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28We first met him back in 2014, when we followed his project to send 100
0:03:28 > 0:03:34Kickstarted spacecraft into orbit.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Well, since then, he has been busy working with Imperial College
0:03:36 > 0:03:41London, on the next wave of crowd-funded space exploration.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44I can't ignore the fact I am leaning on an
0:03:44 > 0:03:47incredibly sexy desk at the moment.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Look, there is proper science on this desk.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52Look, we have flashing stuff, we have -
0:03:52 > 0:03:54tell me this is actual Mars soil?
0:03:54 > 0:03:56I wish I could.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59I am afraid it is South Kensington's finest builders' sand, and I threw
0:03:59 > 0:04:02away the genuine fake lunar dust, which was the cement, because I
0:04:02 > 0:04:05thought it was too dangerous.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07What that is, that is our cheapskate Mars yard.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11So we are working on a Mars lander concept.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13So this is a mixture of thin film devices,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16so basically a Mars weather network, so try and drop a few hundred
0:04:16 > 0:04:20weather stations all round Mars.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22By weather stations, you are talking about a variation
0:04:22 > 0:04:26on your pocket spacecraft idea, thin film printable circuits.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Yes, that is right.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30This would be about 20 microns thick, so that is
0:04:30 > 0:04:32one 50th of a millimetre thick.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Onboard, they would have the radio, the computers, temperature sensors,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37humidity sensors, all the bits and pieces you would have
0:04:37 > 0:04:41in a very basic weather station.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Cube sats are relatively cheap to make, but you still have to put them
0:04:44 > 0:04:52on a rocket and get them into space, but you have
0:04:52 > 0:04:55a plan to make them up there, rather than down here, don't you.
0:04:55 > 0:04:56That is right.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59So depending on where you are going, it can take from a couple
0:04:59 > 0:05:02of years to a decade to reach another planet in the solar system
0:05:02 > 0:05:03for something launched from earth.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06What we would like to do is take the spacecraft
0:05:06 > 0:05:09printers that we currently have in the lab, put them in cube sats,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and you can print the spacecraft in orbit around Mars or around
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Europa, or somewhere like that.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18That means if you want to design a new space mission,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21rather than waiting for several years, you can go file, print on
0:05:21 > 0:05:25your laptop, and then a few minutes or a few hours later, out pops a new
0:05:25 > 0:05:26mission in an interesting place.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28You are printing spacecraft in orbit,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30around another planet or a moon?
0:05:30 > 0:05:32That is what we would like to do.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34It will take a while, but we will have our first
0:05:34 > 0:05:37prototypes flying hopefully towards the end of this year.
0:05:37 > 0:05:38I am happy to wait.
0:05:38 > 0:05:39That just sounds insanely brilliant.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Why are we seeing so much activity round small
0:05:42 > 0:05:44spacecraft like cube sats now?
0:05:44 > 0:05:47So, up until ten years ago, when you bought a launch
0:05:47 > 0:05:50for a spacecraft, you actually designed your spacecraft go to be
0:05:50 > 0:05:58a specific rocket.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00And then along came the cube sat standard, which
0:06:00 > 0:06:03suddenly decoupled the shape of your spacecraft from the type of rocket
0:06:03 > 0:06:05it was going to be launched from.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08So you can go shopping to lots of different launch providers and see
0:06:08 > 0:06:11what is offering the best deal, who is going in the right direction.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13OK, thank you for your time.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16I am going to play with your little Mars yard for a bit.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19This week saw the release of a brand-new product by British
0:06:19 > 0:06:31design and engineering firm Dyson.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35I was invited down to its HQ in advance to find out just what it
0:06:35 > 0:06:36might be.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38I had a feeling it might have something to do with air.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Because from innovation in the field of vacuum cleaning -
0:06:41 > 0:06:44sucking, if you will - Dyson has moved on to blowing, with handdryers
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and those fans with the whole load of nothing in the middle.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Something that still weirds me out, if I am honest.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Well, it turns out the next logical frontier to air is hair.
0:06:53 > 0:06:59The new product - a hairdryer.
0:06:59 > 0:07:00Welcome to Dyson's hair laboratories.
0:07:00 > 0:07:01Yes.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03They have spent ?50 million on this set up.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08And they have on site 1,010 miles of hair.
0:07:08 > 0:07:23Not all of it from the same person, I hasten to add.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25The result is something called the Dyson Supersonic.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27So take a few seconds to think about what
0:07:27 > 0:07:29a Dyson hairdryer might look like.
0:07:29 > 0:07:30And I bet you are probably right.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34Five years in development, and after a lot of work with all that
0:07:34 > 0:07:37hair, Dyson believes its offering can overcome what it sees as the
0:07:37 > 0:07:38problems with existing hairdryers.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Ones that I, for one, had not noticed as being problems but then
0:07:42 > 0:07:43again, well, look at my hair!
0:07:43 > 0:07:45The Supersonic's temperatures is regulated 20 times a second,
0:07:45 > 0:07:52which should mean your hair can't be damaged by overheating.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Something that cheaper models are apparently guilty of.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59The device is said to be quieter, lighter, and crucially,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01it claims to offer more powerful and more controlled airflow,
0:08:01 > 0:08:07which should make drying quicker.
0:08:07 > 0:08:13Most of these advantages come from the motor technology at its heart.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15This is a conventional hairdryer motor, so it is big, heavy,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17lots of copper, turns slowly.
0:08:17 > 0:08:25This is the new Dyson supersonic motor.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28So it is as small as a two pence piece.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29Where is it?
0:08:29 > 0:08:32That is so small we have been able to put that inside the handle.
0:08:32 > 0:08:33I see.
0:08:33 > 0:08:33So...
0:08:33 > 0:08:35So it sucks in air there at the bottom.
0:08:35 > 0:08:36Blows it up there.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Because it is small, it can be located in the handle,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43hence the hollow centre.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45That is weird, you can do that with a hairdryer.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47What is happening, how it works, this motor generates
0:08:47 > 0:08:49a large amount of air pressure.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52We are getting that air to blow round that channel there, and that
0:08:52 > 0:08:55causes the air to accelerate.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58When it accelerates, it sucks in a load more air
0:08:58 > 0:09:00from the back, through this hole.
0:09:00 > 0:09:01So in a similar way your fans work.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Absolutely, yes.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05On average, there is about three times more
0:09:05 > 0:09:08airflow coming over the outside of this and through the middle.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11That then, as they say, is the science bit, but what you really
0:09:11 > 0:09:18want to know is does any of this make a blind bit of difference?
0:09:18 > 0:09:30Well, meet Lily, who has kindly volunteered to get her air done, all
0:09:30 > 0:09:33all in the name of science, and George,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37hairdresser to the stars, with a dazzling resume of past clients.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Kirk Douglas, who I was very keen to talk to, about Spartacus, Ulysses,
0:09:40 > 0:09:41various other films.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43He was much more interested in the hairdressing business than
0:09:43 > 0:09:44Hollywood.
0:09:44 > 0:09:45Wonderful, charming man.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47Let me know when you are ready to dry, George.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Ready.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Now George reckons it would normally take about 30 minutes to dry Lily's
0:09:54 > 0:09:56hair with his normal hairdryer, so certainly long enough
0:09:56 > 0:09:59for a bit of a chat.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01What is your first impressions about it?
0:10:01 > 0:10:05It is much lighter than a conventional hairdryer.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Airflow is good for what I am doing now, which is just taking most
0:10:08 > 0:10:14of the moisture out of the hair.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16I like it.
0:10:16 > 0:10:17Lily, how much does this cost?
0:10:17 > 0:10:19?299.
0:10:19 > 0:10:20?299.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23It is a lot more expensive than the most expensive conventional
0:10:23 > 0:10:27hairdryer, I would say.
0:10:27 > 0:10:34Possibly double the price, if not more, but - hey.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37That, then, is the main question.
0:10:37 > 0:10:44Is it worth several times the cost of a salon-quality hairdryer?
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Yes, we all spend, I don't know, 20 or 30 minutes a day doing
0:10:48 > 0:10:49our hair, don't we?
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Every morning, you use it an awful lot.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Beauty is very important, doing your hair so it is glossy
0:10:54 > 0:10:57and smooth and undamaged, and done quickly, because this is
0:10:57 > 0:11:00quicker than those hairdryers.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02That is important.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Yes, I believe people will pay for that.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10Let us have hairdryer wars!
0:11:10 > 0:11:12And we will leave it there for now.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Next week, we will hear more from Sir James Dyson and his lovely hair.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22He got me!
0:11:22 > 0:11:24And that is it from Dyson's HQ.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27If you are wondering what this is, this is what the engineers got
0:11:27 > 0:11:30James Dyson on his 60th birthday.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34I would be rather annoyed if they did this to my car.
0:11:34 > 0:11:35There you go.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38That is from us, @BBCClick on Twitter throughout the week, please.