0:00:02 > 0:00:03Hello, darling. Slight problem.
0:00:03 > 0:00:05I think this week's shoot is going to go on
0:00:05 > 0:00:07a bit longer than I thought.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11I think I've got on the wrong flight. Yeah.
0:00:11 > 0:00:12No.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14I won't be needing dinner tonight, no.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Get ready for blast-off. This week, Click is heading to space.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37On the way up we'll take in some spectacular views of Earth,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40swing by the moon on a spacecraft you could make at home
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and then head half a billion kilometres into the unknown
0:00:43 > 0:00:48to hook up with a comet that could reveal the secrets of life on Earth.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Welcome to Click. I'm Spencer Kelly and welcome to ESTEC,
0:00:57 > 0:01:02the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06This is where the European Space Agency develops its spacecraft.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10That is a full-size replica of the Columbus module, which is
0:01:10 > 0:01:14currently orbiting Earth as part of the International Space Station,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16and this is my happy face.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Some kids want to drive trains.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24I've always wanted to go into space,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27and here at ESTEC, researchers from 35 countries,
0:01:27 > 0:01:28and with similar dreams,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30work together to explore other worlds
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and progress further out into the void.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39The place is a real mix of replica spacecraft and working prototypes.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41This is the closest I will ever get
0:01:41 > 0:01:44to being on board the International Space Station
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and I have to say, it's awesome enough for me.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Of course, the major difference
0:01:49 > 0:01:53if you're on board the real thing is, first of all, no way is up
0:01:53 > 0:01:57and secondly, if there's a problem, there's no way down.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03The smallest problems on Earth can be fatal in space.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07That's why absolutely everything that goes up is tested to
0:02:07 > 0:02:09breaking point first.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13In these vacuum chambers, the smallest components
0:02:13 > 0:02:16and new materials are being blasted with the extreme heat,
0:02:16 > 0:02:21cold and solar radiation of an orbit around Mercury.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25Entire spacecraft undergo the same kinds of tests in similar,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27if much larger, environments
0:02:27 > 0:02:32because even on unmanned missions equipment failure can mean
0:02:32 > 0:02:36mission failure and a tonne of money lost in the vacuum.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Launching a satellite into orbit is a big, expensive deal,
0:02:43 > 0:02:48but not all satellites are anywhere near that size. Look at this.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50This is a CubeSat.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Each one is a regulation 10 x 10 x 10cm,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and these are packed into the gaps in a launcher.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Because they're made of cheaper, off-the-shelf components,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04it means that smaller institutions like universities can build
0:03:04 > 0:03:07their own and then explore space.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10CubeSats have been used for all sorts of projects so far,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and Richard Taylor has been looking at some of the stunning
0:03:13 > 0:03:15results one of them has produced.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21This modest office in downtown San Francisco is light years
0:03:21 > 0:03:25away from your traditional satellite manufacturing lab.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28But it's from here that the 40-strong team of engineers is
0:03:28 > 0:03:30working on building the biggest
0:03:30 > 0:03:34constellation of satellites the world has ever seen.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Earlier this year, the first few camera-equipped CubeSats were
0:03:38 > 0:03:42ejected out of the International Space Station and into orbit.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47When we saw the satellites come out of the International Space Station,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50it blew my mind because to see the things we have actually
0:03:50 > 0:03:52built here in this lab in orbit,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55with the Earth behind them, was fantastic.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59These CubeSats are now sending back their first images
0:03:59 > 0:04:02as they pass over Earth five miles a second.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Nowadays, we put more capability into these little satellites,
0:04:05 > 0:04:07the few kilograms,
0:04:07 > 0:04:08than you can possibly imagine.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12They're much more capable than a satellite was five years ago
0:04:12 > 0:04:14that was ten tonnes.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17The pictures are detailed enough to pick out individual trees
0:04:17 > 0:04:20which will give an unparalleled insight into activity
0:04:20 > 0:04:22on the planet's surface.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Instead of seeing a hole in the Amazon a few months after
0:04:26 > 0:04:29trees have been taken down there, we can see some loggers
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and provide warning that that's happening.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Right now, the team is working on augmenting the few of these
0:04:36 > 0:04:39so-called doves currently in low-Earth orbit.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42They aim to have 131 by the end of next year,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45giving an almost blanket snapshot of Earth.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49But this revolution in satellite imaging is not confined to
0:04:49 > 0:04:51simply still pictures.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58This is the first high-definition commercial video of planet Earth.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00It was taken from a satellite launched in December
0:05:00 > 0:05:03by another Silicon Valley start-up, Skybox,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07already rumoured to be in acquisition talks with Google.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12Able to pick out moving cars, it means an even more concentrated
0:05:12 > 0:05:16and deeper understanding of activity on the planet.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19If you show somebody a still image of an area,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21they can gain some understanding of what's happening,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25but if you show someone even just a few-second clip of video about
0:05:25 > 0:05:29an area, we intuitively understand a lot about what's happening.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33Skybox satellites are monitored closely from mission control,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35essential to protect its investment.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38Though costing under 20 million each,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41they're far less than the multi-billion-dollar creations
0:05:41 > 0:05:43which characterise older satellite technology.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47And this is where the satellites are physically assembled.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52This one here, a carbon copy of the satellite currently in orbit around Earth.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Now, I'm not actually allowed inside this clean room because
0:05:55 > 0:06:00being inside would be a violation of international arms regulations.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05And it highlights the potential power that satellites can wield,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07offering powerful analysis
0:06:07 > 0:06:09not just for humanitarian
0:06:09 > 0:06:11or benign corporate purposes,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15but for potentially more hostile actions too, radically transforming
0:06:15 > 0:06:20access to information for anyone with deep enough pockets to pay.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Do you worry about the information being used in negative ways?
0:06:23 > 0:06:26What allows me to sleep at night is,
0:06:26 > 0:06:30although any radical change in information will be
0:06:30 > 0:06:34exploited for nefarious purposes, the number of applications
0:06:34 > 0:06:40that are a benefit to humanity far outweigh those sort of misuses.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45Space satellite experts acknowledge this is a watershed moment
0:06:45 > 0:06:47but with it comes a warning.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50We simply don't know where it will lead.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Richard Taylor. Those CubeSats are a bit different from this thing.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58This is an unmanned Russian spy satellite which spent two weeks
0:06:58 > 0:07:01in 1988 photographing the Earth from cameras
0:07:01 > 0:07:04mounted in the windows at the front, before it re-entered
0:07:04 > 0:07:07the atmosphere and plummeted back down to the ground.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09In those days, they had to get the films out of the camera
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and develop them before they could see the pictures.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Anyway, more from space in a second after
0:07:14 > 0:07:17we hear what's been happening back down here on terra firma.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22An EU court has ordered Google to amend its search results
0:07:22 > 0:07:25at the request of ordinary people in a key test
0:07:25 > 0:07:29of the so-called Right To Be Forgotten.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32The European Court of Justice said links to irrelevant or outdated
0:07:32 > 0:07:35data should be erased on request.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38It comes after a Spanish man complained that a search
0:07:38 > 0:07:43of his name brought up an old auction notice of his repossessed home.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Critics, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, warned that
0:07:47 > 0:07:50removing the links, even though the actual data remains,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53amounts to wide, sweeping censorship.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58Electronics giant Samsung has proposed to compensate factory
0:07:58 > 0:08:02workers in South Korea who developed cancer while working for it.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04Following a long-running dispute,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09Samsung apologised for not acting earlier but didn't admit to a direct
0:08:09 > 0:08:13correlation between working at its chip plant and developing leukaemia.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Google's headset, Glass, has gone on general sale in the United States
0:08:19 > 0:08:22for a cool 1,500.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Glass has been in private beta-testing for several years
0:08:25 > 0:08:29and then last month went on sale for just one day.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Now Google says it will sell the headsets to
0:08:32 > 0:08:34anyone in the United States. It's expected that the glasses will
0:08:34 > 0:08:40get an update and high-profile global launch towards the end of this year.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54This isn't your average rocket launch.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57While this SpaceX rocket may be loaded with 2,500 tonnes of
0:08:57 > 0:09:01precious cargo bound for the International Space Station, there
0:09:01 > 0:09:05are a few kilograms in there that could mean the start of something much bigger.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11The culmination of over three years of work hidden away
0:09:11 > 0:09:16in the spare cargo space is a device that means the personal,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19open-source space age has begun.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23So our idea is mass-exploration of space by private individuals.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25So people helping scientists do research,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28but also doing stuff for their own interests.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The first thing we want to see is out, actually, of interest.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34It sounds ridiculous to say you could have your own
0:09:34 > 0:09:36spacecraft in space for a few hundred pounds,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and is that actually possible? Can that be done?
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Michael co-created KickSat,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46a crowd-funded project to send over 100 tiny satellites called
0:09:46 > 0:09:53sprites into space not for millions, but for less than £200 a pop.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58The big idea is to make satellites so tiny that you can send hundreds
0:09:58 > 0:10:01or even thousands up at once. Launching stuff into space
0:10:01 > 0:10:05can cost up to 100,000 a kilogram, but if you split the bill
0:10:05 > 0:10:09a few thousand ways, that suddenly becomes a lot more affordable.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15These Lilliputian computers are packed into CubeSats,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18those 10 x 10 x 10cm cubes that we saw earlier,
0:10:18 > 0:10:23which then hitch a ride to Zero-G in the leftover space on major missions
0:10:23 > 0:10:26by the likes of NASA and SpaceX.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Once the rocket has completed its main mission, the CubeSats
0:10:29 > 0:10:33are jettisoned and they then deploy the sprites.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38But the real value of these tiny satellites is that, like similar
0:10:38 > 0:10:42small computers such as the Raspberry Pi, each one is customisable.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Luke is a sixth form student from York.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49He heard about KickSat while studying astronomy at school
0:10:49 > 0:10:54and since then he's been programming their software. Space software.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I had no idea that I was going to do this,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01and then one week I just decided to send an e-mail,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04not really expecting much to happen from it.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Then, four months later,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09I'm here waiting for the launch of a rocket which has something
0:11:09 > 0:11:11which I helped create on it.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14If you ask these guys,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19KickSat means the start of the age of personal space exploration.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24But Michael's next project, Pocket Spacecraft, has much bigger ambitions.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28We're really interested in interplanetary exploration.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30We want to go out and visit the solar system.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32So at Pocket Spacecraft, we're working on a mission to the moon
0:11:32 > 0:11:35which hopefully will be launched next year.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38What Pocket Spacecraft's mission to the moon aims to do is to
0:11:38 > 0:11:43launch at least 2,000 of our thin-film spacecraft.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Michael and his team of collaborators and volunteers around the world
0:11:46 > 0:11:50are working on an even thinner miniature satellite called a Scout,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53made from a material only five microns thick.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56That's 1/200th of a millimetre.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01It's all about using clever design to keep costs and weight down.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04The tiny wire around the edge simultaneously keeps the Scout
0:12:04 > 0:12:07rigid and acts as the aerial for communications,
0:12:07 > 0:12:12and much of the electronics on the Scout are printed using conductive ink.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16The only actual components are the solar cells and the central chip.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21With funding from the European Space Agency, Pocket Spacecraft is
0:12:21 > 0:12:25also working on a mission control app and website, so you'll be able
0:12:25 > 0:12:29to monitor the data from your spacecraft once it's up there.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Pocket Spacecraft already has over 2,000 backers,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36pledging funds to the 500,000 mission.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41Even though space is so vast, the best way to explore it may be
0:12:41 > 0:12:43with the tiniest of tools.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49What an amazing opportunity to do what these guys did, albeit remotely.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Even if you can't get to the moon, even if you can't get into space,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55there's still plenty of exploration
0:12:55 > 0:12:57to be done inside the Earth's atmosphere.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01We sent the BBC weather presenter Peter Gibbs to Malawi to get
0:13:01 > 0:13:04a view of the Earth even he hasn't seen before.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15Mvuu National Park.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18The scenery's stunning, but myself and my friends Andrew
0:13:18 > 0:13:22and Jerry are hoping to get some far higher sights.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25The culmination of months of hard work is our chance to launch
0:13:25 > 0:13:29a weather balloon into the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32When I saw somebody doing this thing of sending up
0:13:32 > 0:13:37cameras into the stratosphere, I thought I had to get involved.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40It's actually part of the atmosphere that's very hard to get
0:13:40 > 0:13:42any imagery of any other way,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44because it's too high for aircraft but it's too low for spacecraft.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Unless you've got something very specialised, these are the
0:13:47 > 0:13:50only way you're going to get into that region of the atmosphere.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52And I'm not the only one.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55All sorts of people are taking cheap, intelligent electronics
0:13:55 > 0:13:58and putting it together to send fairly sophisticated
0:13:58 > 0:14:01packages to the edge of space and back.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05It's great fun but it also has the potential to provide some very
0:14:05 > 0:14:06useful science.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Our balloon's carrying a couple of HD action cameras,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13temperature sensors, plus radio and satellite trackers
0:14:13 > 0:14:15so we know exactly where it is.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18All this is wrapped inside a home-made polystyrene box to
0:14:18 > 0:14:22deal with temperatures that'll go down to -80 degrees.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24So a standard 600g balloon.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Latex rubber. When you fill it with something like hydrogen,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32it expands as it rises. It gets so big it actually bursts.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36With all that last-minute preparations complete, it's almost
0:14:36 > 0:14:39time for lift-off and the nerves are taking over.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42- ALL:- Three, two, one. Go.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47Success.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Data on position, speed and altitude are being fed back from
0:14:50 > 0:14:54the balloon directly to our radio receiver but also via satellite,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58as long as we have Wi-Fi or mobile signal.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02I'm desperate to get internet access so I can see whether we
0:15:02 > 0:15:05are getting messages, because we really are in the middle of nowhere.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09This balloon also has a little something special in it.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11We are putting in a Geiger counter.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14The professor from Reading University Meteorological Department
0:15:14 > 0:15:17has asked us to fly this. That's the real science of this whole thing.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22The sun sends a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind
0:15:22 > 0:15:26into our atmosphere and it's thought this may influence how clouds form.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29There's very little data available from the tropics
0:15:29 > 0:15:33so we're helping to fill gaps in the science.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35- Andrew, the tracker's working. - God, I'm so happy.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41We're at altitude 15,630 metres.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46- 16km. So, let's go. Let's go and find it.- Not long to burst.- No.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50At 22km altitude, the air is so thin it's only
0:15:50 > 0:15:53a matter of time before the balloon will swell and burst.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55MUFFLED BANG
0:15:59 > 0:16:01While it's in the air, we can track its location
0:16:01 > 0:16:05but once it hits the ground that's not guaranteed.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07The chase is on to retrieve it.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14- BEEPING - Yay!
0:16:16 > 0:16:1817.4km.
0:16:26 > 0:16:27It's at 1km high.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33BEEPING
0:16:33 > 0:16:35About half a mile that way.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43There it is.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45That is totally amazing.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48It's always a relief when you find the package.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50A great sense of achievement.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55It's taken over a year to put this project together, but it's worked.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58That's one project that's come to an end.
0:16:58 > 0:17:04We want to move to a balloon that goes up and just floats at a set altitude.
0:17:04 > 0:17:05With that you can get onto the jet stream.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09You can ride the world's winds. Potentially, we could go
0:17:09 > 0:17:12right around the world and that's a bit of a dream of ours.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17Peter Gibbs.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Now, when you think of space exploration, it's easy to
0:17:19 > 0:17:23focus on the spectacular rocket launches.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26But they're only the briefest part of a mission that can span
0:17:26 > 0:17:31years of planning beforehand and sometimes years of waiting afterwards
0:17:31 > 0:17:36while whatever you've launched gets itself into position.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41And this year, 2014 marks the end of a ten-year wait before
0:17:41 > 0:17:46EASA's most daring mission yet can reach its final stage.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54The Rosetta Project lifted off in 2004.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Its mission - to investigate the origins of life on Earth.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Scientists are hoping to find out whether the water frozen into comets
0:18:02 > 0:18:07contains complex-enough molecules to have created life here on our world.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12To do that, Rosetta is chasing down a comet called 67PCG,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14and that's the easy bit.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18The audacious plan is to orbit the 4km-wide chunk of ice
0:18:18 > 0:18:21and then land a probe on its surface...
0:18:24 > 0:18:27..all while half a billion kilometres from Earth,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32a distance at which any communication will take half an hour to reach it.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37As mission manager Fred Jansen explained,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40that makes it too far away to be controlled manually.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Rosetta will have to fly itself.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45It is working autonomously, isn't it?
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Yes, because everything is preloaded on board in terms of commands.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53We load a few days of commands and it's executed by itself
0:18:53 > 0:18:55and after two days we load another set of commands.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59The universe is the most distant firmware upgrade, I guess.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02It's true. I mean, this makes life easier, in a sense,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05that you have these ten years, although you have to make sure that
0:19:05 > 0:19:08when you launch that all the elements, hardware-wise, are there
0:19:08 > 0:19:11to allow you to do what you need to do.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15One thing that will be decided by humans is the landing site.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Rosetta will take images of the whole comet, and over about a month,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22the candidate sites will be gradually narrowed down
0:19:22 > 0:19:25from five to two to one.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30The reason for that stepping process is, we continuously come
0:19:30 > 0:19:35closer to the comet and our images, the resolution will increase.
0:19:35 > 0:19:36So at the time, we have to pick five.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39We don't have the resolution to pick the final one.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44- Who gets the final say on the final landing point? Is it you?- Yes.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50- How do you feel about that?- Well, it's my job. It's the way it is.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54It's going to be an exciting time and a very nerve-racking one too,
0:19:54 > 0:19:55as you've heard.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58Right, time to break from the Netherlands for a few minutes
0:19:58 > 0:20:00and head back to London or wherever it is that
0:20:00 > 0:20:03she keeps that mysterious underground bunker of hers.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Here comes Kate Russell with Webscape.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15The rest of the team might have got to visit the
0:20:15 > 0:20:17European Space Agency this week
0:20:17 > 0:20:22but I've been enjoying a trip aboard the International Space Station.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Virtually speaking, of course.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Thanks to the ISS HD Earth-viewing experiment,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29we can all see what it's like to orbit Earth,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33which is rather spectacular.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50A picture speaks 1,000 words - so the saying goes -
0:20:50 > 0:20:54which is perhaps why the craze for infographics has
0:20:54 > 0:20:56taken off on the web.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58You don't need to be a designer to make your own as there
0:20:58 > 0:21:02are a swathe of great tools hoping to cash in on this trend.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05We looked at infogr.am a few months ago
0:21:05 > 0:21:08and it is definitely a hot contender.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11The company is also about to launch a video infographic maker,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13which sounds pretty neat.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16You can sign up for launch notification on their website.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25If you follow me on social media, you might have heard me
0:21:25 > 0:21:28talk about how annoying infographics are.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30But don't get me wrong, done well,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34like the example here from Socialnomics, they are a brilliant
0:21:34 > 0:21:39addition to a web page and have been proven to drive more traffic.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42There have been lots of psychological studies too,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46determining that we learn and retain more from images than words.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50But all too often I see them used as a cheap
0:21:50 > 0:21:53and easy way to add eye candy to a website,
0:21:53 > 0:21:59bringing no clarity to the subject, and in some cases just confusing it.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01And that is no help to anyone.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Easel.ly is another neat tool that, as the name would suggest, is
0:22:08 > 0:22:11really easy to pick up and start using.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Just choose a theme, then drop in your data to make your graphic.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24If you're looking for work, visualize.me
0:22:24 > 0:22:27will make an infographic out of your resume,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30using data gleamed from your LinkedIn profile.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32This is one-click simple
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and you'll have an eye-catching introduction to share.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46The key thing to consider when designing an infographic is
0:22:46 > 0:22:50what kind of visualisation will make the data clearer.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53I think this is where lots of makers get it wrong.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57IBM has a neat experimental tool that lets you try out
0:22:57 > 0:23:01lots of different styles, to see which one works.
0:23:01 > 0:23:02It's called Many Eyes.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07Head along to the research page
0:23:07 > 0:23:10and try on a few styles with just a click.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Kate Russell's Webscape.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19And just before we go, I thought I'd show you ESA's Mars Yard.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22This is where they've been testing designs for the
0:23:22 > 0:23:26ExoMars rover which is due to head to the Red Planet in 2018.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30For example, they've been experimenting with different types
0:23:30 > 0:23:33and numbers of wheels, and even the best way to control the thing
0:23:33 > 0:23:35from back here on Earth.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Well, that is it. It's been a fascinating trip. Not just me, is it?
0:23:39 > 0:23:41No, I didn't think so.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Hope you've enjoyed our brief voyage through the future of space travel,
0:23:44 > 0:23:48and if you'd like more from us then visit our website.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51And get in touch.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53Or tweet us at...
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Thank you very much for watching and we'll see you next time.