:00:00. > :00:16.This week, big space on a small budget. Small hairdryers on a big
:00:17. > :00:18.budget, and the big camera on no budget at all, because it is not for
:00:19. > :00:47.sale. Our dreams of exploring the great
:00:48. > :00:57.beyond have always been governed by very earthly concerns. Things like
:00:58. > :01:03.resources and safety. I want to go there, actually I think that is a
:01:04. > :01:07.dead pixel. The problem of course with sending stuff into space is
:01:08. > :01:10.that it is exceedingly expensive. Since Nasser was founded in 1958,
:01:11. > :01:17.they have spent more than 800 dollars on it. One of the reasons is
:01:18. > :01:23.that most things space related get sent up, then either stay up or burn
:01:24. > :01:30.up. If we ever want to get out here, things are going to have to get a
:01:31. > :01:40.lot cheaper, for a start. One way to make things cheaper is to reuse
:01:41. > :01:43.them. NASA had a go at this with the shuttle programme. The idea was to
:01:44. > :01:50.get it down to tens of millions per flight, but you know how these
:01:51. > :01:58.things go. The shuttle programme was retired in 2011, and now the
:01:59. > :02:01.gauntlet has been passed to the commercial act, Spacek. They have
:02:02. > :02:06.been trying to make their rocket reusable for some time, but it has
:02:07. > :02:10.not been without its challenges. In April this year, they finally did
:02:11. > :02:20.it, succeeding in touching down on their autonomous drone ship, of
:02:21. > :02:24.course, I still love you. That is the name of the ship, by the way.
:02:25. > :02:28.But I do still love you. The challenge was to reuse the ship,
:02:29. > :02:33.something Elon musk said they plan to do in the future, if it passes a
:02:34. > :02:39.battery of tests. But what if you didn't care if your spacecraft
:02:40. > :02:44.broke? Well, that is the driving force behind an idea recently backed
:02:45. > :02:48.by a host of very smart mines, including Mr Mark Zuckerberg and
:02:49. > :02:55.Professor Stephen Hawking. It is called the Star shop project, and
:02:56. > :02:59.the plan is to launch thousands of tiny spacecraft that are little more
:03:00. > :03:02.than circuit boards. If one of them breaks, that is fine, there are
:03:03. > :03:07.plenty of others that can still do the job. Even better, the hope is
:03:08. > :03:11.that because they are each so tiny, we can propel them to extraordinary
:03:12. > :03:15.speeds, possibly as fast as a quarter of the speed of light. That
:03:16. > :03:21.is more than a thousand times faster than the fastest spacecraft there
:03:22. > :03:27.has ever been, that we know of. The universe is a big place, so if we
:03:28. > :03:31.are to have any chance of understanding it it may be that
:03:32. > :03:36.swarms of miniature craft like these are the only realistic way to do
:03:37. > :03:43.it. But before the swarm can set sail there is still plenty of
:03:44. > :03:48.research to be done. One sort of diminutive spacecraft we have talked
:03:49. > :03:53.about before our each as big as a feast. LJ Rich has been to is Urich
:03:54. > :03:59.to find out how research could make them even cheaper.
:04:00. > :04:05.The recent manufacture of cheap electronic components has made
:04:06. > :04:15.high-speed travel much more viable. ETH Zurich is building a system to
:04:16. > :04:20.observe the ocean's surface, using cheap mobile phone chips. The first
:04:21. > :04:27.will be launched in 2017, and eventually a whole grid of these
:04:28. > :04:29.cubes will circle the earth. One doesn't
:04:30. > :04:31.But one doesn't simply fire cheapo components up into space
:04:32. > :04:35.This lab tests all kinds of equipment for space worthiness.
:04:36. > :04:37.There are tanks and dials and bargain components everywhere.
:04:38. > :04:41.This is how you can tell it is a working lab, and not just
:04:42. > :04:48.The equipment is literally tied to the area where you most need it,
:04:49. > :04:50.in case somebody walks off with the screwdriver.
:04:51. > :04:53.Each of these containers contain a little bit of space.
:04:54. > :05:01.OK, here on earth we can't get rid of the gravity.
:05:02. > :05:06.But we can make vacuum chambers by sucking most of the air out
:05:07. > :05:19.We can make things very hot, then very cold inside a container.
:05:20. > :05:21.Unsurprisingly, electronics really hate that sort of thing,
:05:22. > :05:24.so this is why lab techs try to break them before they launch them.
:05:25. > :05:29.We chose these ones because they have a really, really
:05:30. > :05:33.low power consumption, so it is, like, less than two watts we have
:05:34. > :05:36.for the whole satellite, and for this we can only use 200 milliwatts,
:05:37. > :05:46.When one component fails, the next one simply takes over.
:05:47. > :05:49.This is a one-to-one model of the cube sat that will eventually
:05:50. > :05:53.It has ten GPS chips on there, diagnostics, equipment,
:05:54. > :05:57.The outsides will be mainly covered in solar panels,
:05:58. > :06:02.and there will be antennas that will spring out once it is launched.
:06:03. > :06:04.And of course, once this thing is launched, that is
:06:05. > :06:14.This model of a Galileo global positioning satellite is what
:06:15. > :06:19.Ten of these are operational right now but it takes a lot
:06:20. > :06:27.This small satellite cannot fly on the rocket on its own.
:06:28. > :06:38.These are some 80 million euros or so.
:06:39. > :06:42.The professor's made a model cube sat on the same scale at the Galileo
:06:43. > :06:44.satellite model to help us get our heads round the size difference.
:06:45. > :06:48.I bet he's glad he didn't have to carry the big one!
:06:49. > :06:49.Observation satellites, or navigation satellites, also need
:06:50. > :06:53.a precise position and orbit, so we try to show that on the smallest
:06:54. > :06:56.satellite available we can really get a position on the level of one
:06:57. > :06:59.to two metres, with equipment that is low cost, very cheap, not using
:07:00. > :07:12.Most tech trends show components getting cheaper or more
:07:13. > :07:18.user-friendly, followed by more people accessing the technology.
:07:19. > :07:21.It will be interesting watching legislation catch up with our
:07:22. > :07:23.increasing ability to put things into orbit ourselves, and if the
:07:24. > :07:26.democratisation of space travel, like much tech before it, is
:07:27. > :07:28.inevitable, perhaps we might all get to send our
:07:29. > :07:37.own project into space one day, even if we can't boldly go ourselves.
:07:38. > :07:40.That was LJ, and here is one man that really
:07:41. > :07:54.We first met him back in 2014, when we followed his project to send 100
:07:55. > :08:12.Well, since then, he has been busy working with Imperial College
:08:13. > :08:14.London, on the next wave of crowd-funded space exploration.
:08:15. > :08:16.I can't ignore the fact I am leaning on an
:08:17. > :08:23.Look, there is proper science on this desk.
:08:24. > :08:25.Look, we have flashing stuff, we have -
:08:26. > :08:31.I am afraid it is South Kensington's finest builders' sand, and I threw
:08:32. > :08:34.away the genuine fake lunar dust, which was the cement, because I
:08:35. > :08:37.What that is, that is our cheapskate Mars yard.
:08:38. > :08:39.So we are working on a Mars lander concept.
:08:40. > :08:42.So this is a mixture of thin film devices,
:08:43. > :08:45.so basically a Mars weather network, so try and drop a few hundred
:08:46. > :08:48.By weather stations, you are talking about a variation
:08:49. > :08:51.on your pocket spacecraft idea, thin film printable circuits.
:08:52. > :08:55.This would be about 20 microns thick, so that is
:08:56. > :09:01.Onboard, they would have the radio, the computers, temperature sensors,
:09:02. > :09:04.humidity sensors, all the bits and pieces you would have
:09:05. > :09:13.Cube sats are relatively cheap to make, but you still have to put them
:09:14. > :09:15.on a rocket and get them into space, but you have
:09:16. > :09:19.a plan to make them up there, rather than down here, don't you.
:09:20. > :09:23.So depending on where you are going, it can take from a couple
:09:24. > :09:26.of years to a decade to reach another planet in the solar system
:09:27. > :09:30.What we would like to do is take the spacecraft
:09:31. > :09:33.printers that we currently have in the lab, put them in cube sats,
:09:34. > :09:36.and you can print the spacecraft in orbit around Mars or around
:09:37. > :09:40.That means if you want to design a new space mission,
:09:41. > :09:43.rather than waiting for several years you can go file, print on your
:09:44. > :09:47.laptop, and then a few minutes or a few hours later, out pops a new
:09:48. > :09:50.You are printing spacecraft in orbit,
:09:51. > :09:58.It will take a while, but we will have our first
:09:59. > :10:01.prototypes flying hopefully towards the end of this year.
:10:02. > :10:06.Why are we seeing so much activity round small
:10:07. > :10:12.So, up until ten years ago, when you bought a launch
:10:13. > :10:15.for a spacecraft, you actually designed your spacecraft go to be
:10:16. > :10:21.And then along came the cube sat standard, which
:10:22. > :10:24.suddenly decoupled the shape of your spacecraft from the type of rocket
:10:25. > :10:29.So you can go shopping to lots of different launch providers and see
:10:30. > :10:32.what is offering the best deal, who is going in the right direction.
:10:33. > :10:40.I am going to play with your little Mars yard for a bit.
:10:41. > :10:42.Sticking with galactic fancies, Spacex announced
:10:43. > :10:46.its partnered with Nasa in a mission to Mars, which boss Elon Musk says
:10:47. > :10:54.If all goes to plan, it will be the first ever interplanetary mission
:10:55. > :11:01.And it was a week full of bad news for Apple and Twitter, as they
:11:02. > :11:06.announced their financial results for the first quarter of this year.
:11:07. > :11:09.On the other hand, it was a triumphant week
:11:10. > :11:12.for Facebook as the social network tripled its profits, compared to
:11:13. > :11:21.It was the week that Stanford University's Ocean One robot
:11:22. > :11:25.explored a 17th century shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean.
:11:26. > :11:29.The humanoid sub-bot is powered by artificial intelligence and haptic
:11:30. > :11:32.feedback systems, and its creators hope it will eventually be able to
:11:33. > :11:39.And not to be outdone in the robot stakes, China unveiled one that
:11:40. > :11:45.The self-charging anbot is a human-hunting, pain-inducing
:11:46. > :11:51.droid, designed by the military's National defence University.
:11:52. > :11:54.Capable of speeds of up to 11 mph, the fearsome beast intends to zap
:11:55. > :12:00.citizens partaking in any lewd behaviour.
:12:01. > :12:14.This week saw the release of a brand-new product by British
:12:15. > :12:21.I was invited down to its HQ in advance to find out just what it
:12:22. > :12:26.I had a feeling it might have something to do with air.
:12:27. > :12:29.Because from innovation in the field of vacuum cleaning -
:12:30. > :12:32.sucking, if you will - Dyson has moved on to blowing, with hand
:12:33. > :12:38.driers and those fans with the whole load of nothing in the middle.
:12:39. > :12:43.Something that still weirds me out, if I am honest.
:12:44. > :12:47.Well, it turns out the next logical frontier to air is hair.
:12:48. > :12:54.Welcome to Dyson's hair laboratories.
:12:55. > :13:00.They have spent ?50 million on this set up.
:13:01. > :13:05.And they have on site 1,010 miles of hair.
:13:06. > :13:08.Not all of it from the same person, I hasten to add.
:13:09. > :13:11.The result is something called the Dyson Supersonic.
:13:12. > :13:13.So take a few seconds to think about what
:13:14. > :13:26.Five years in development, and after a lot of work with all that
:13:27. > :13:29.hair, Dyson believes its offering can overcome what it sees as the
:13:30. > :13:38.Ones that I, for one, had not noticed as being problems but then
:13:39. > :13:45.The Supersonic's temperatures is regulated 20 times a second,
:13:46. > :13:48.which should mean your hair can't be damaged by overheating.
:13:49. > :13:52.Something that cheaper models are apparently guilty of.
:13:53. > :13:55.The device is said to be quieter, lighter, and crucially,
:13:56. > :14:00.it claims to offer more powerful and more controlled airflow,
:14:01. > :14:08.Most of these advantages come from the motor technology at its heart.
:14:09. > :14:11.This is a conventional hairdryer motor, so it is big, heavy,
:14:12. > :14:16.This is the new Dyson supersonic motor.
:14:17. > :14:18.So it is as small as a two pence piece.
:14:19. > :14:23.That is so small we have been able to put that inside the handle.
:14:24. > :14:26.So it sucks in air there at the bottom.
:14:27. > :14:32.Because it is small, it can be located in the handle,
:14:33. > :14:46.Because it is small, it can be located in the handle,
:14:47. > :14:50.That is weird, you can do that with a hairdryer.
:14:51. > :14:52.What is happening, how it works, this motor generates
:14:53. > :14:57.We are getting that air to blow round that channel there, and that
:14:58. > :15:01.When it accelerates, it sucks in a load more air
:15:02. > :15:07.On average, there is about three times more
:15:08. > :15:09.airflow coming over the outside of this and through the middle.
:15:10. > :15:13.That then, as they say, is the science bit, but what you really
:15:14. > :15:16.want to know is does any of this make a blind bit of difference?
:15:17. > :15:19.Well, meet Lily, who has kindly volunteered to get her air done, all
:15:20. > :15:22.in the name of science, and George, hairdresser to the stars, with
:15:23. > :15:30.Kirk Douglas, who I was very keen to talk to, about Spartacus, Ulysses,
:15:31. > :15:35.He was much more interested in the hairdressing business than
:15:36. > :15:45.Let me know when you are ready to dry, George.
:15:46. > :15:52.Now George reckons it would normally take about 30 minutes to dry Lily's
:15:53. > :15:55.hair with his normal hairdryer, so certainly long enough
:15:56. > :15:58.What is your first impressions about it?
:15:59. > :16:00.It is much lighter than a conventional hairdryer.
:16:01. > :16:04.Airflow is good for what I am doing now, which is just taking most
:16:05. > :16:19.It is a lot more expensive than the most expensive conventional
:16:20. > :16:30.Possibly double the price, if not more, but - hey.
:16:31. > :16:38.Is it worth several times the cost of a salon-quality hairdryer?
:16:39. > :16:42.Yes, we all spend, I don't know, 20 or 30 minutes a day doing
:16:43. > :16:49.Every morning, you use it an awful lot.
:16:50. > :16:52.Beauty is very important, doing your hair so it is glossy
:16:53. > :16:54.and smooth and undamaged, and done quickly, because this is
:16:55. > :17:00.Yes, I believe people will pay for that.
:17:01. > :17:19.Next week, we will hear more from Sir James Dyson and his lovely hair.
:17:20. > :17:22.Last week, the broadcast industry gathered in Las Vegas for NAB
:17:23. > :17:40.On show there were loads of 4k cameras, loads of VR cameras,
:17:41. > :17:42.loads of high dynamic range cameras, as you would expect,
:17:43. > :17:46.but there was one piece of kit there that really did stand out.
:17:47. > :17:49.We think it could change the way that films are made in the future.
:17:50. > :17:56.A camera from a start up called LightO, which housed some quite
:17:57. > :17:59.Instead of taking a flat 2-D image, it captured a scene
:18:00. > :18:10.You could change the focus after you had taken the shot or
:18:11. > :18:14.It did this by taking in so-called light rays on the sensor
:18:15. > :18:17.Clever as it was, LightO's consumer camera and subsequent
:18:18. > :18:23.Proving too pricey to tempt shutter bugs away
:18:24. > :18:38.Well, now from the ashes a new Phoenix has arisen.
:18:39. > :18:41.A beast of a camera, giving movie makers a new palette
:18:42. > :18:45.LightO Cinema, capturing a staggering amount of information
:18:46. > :18:48.It has millions of tiny lenses inside, sucking in
:18:49. > :18:52.The end result is in fact more like a 4k image,
:18:53. > :18:55.using the same core light field technology as the still cameras.
:18:56. > :18:58.Knowing the distance of objects or people in front of the lens means
:18:59. > :19:02.they can be isolated and replaced more easily than with today's blue
:19:03. > :19:05.Of course, as with the original cameras you can decide
:19:06. > :19:10.where to focus the shot in the footage after you have captured it.
:19:11. > :19:12.Or change the perspective on a scene.
:19:13. > :19:16.But doesn't this new-found creative palette mean the director's vision
:19:17. > :19:21.In fact what we do is record as meta data what the decision was
:19:22. > :19:24.made on set, and that is the first thing that we render out.
:19:25. > :19:26.We also record a whole lot of other aperture views,
:19:27. > :19:29.which means different perspectives, and we offer up that array
:19:30. > :19:31.of different perspectives in a whole range of refocus range,
:19:32. > :19:40.to make your shot different from when you originally controlled it.
:19:41. > :19:42.It should enable creativity in film making, rather than remove it.
:19:43. > :19:46.Saying we can lock it, this is one thing, and achieving it
:19:47. > :19:49.Somebody, anywhere in the path, an editor - editors do
:19:50. > :19:52.fantastically important things for movies, but they are not the people
:19:53. > :20:12.LightO has one eye on the next generation
:20:13. > :20:14.of film-makers - those producing content in virtual reality.
:20:15. > :20:16.It has developed a light field VR rig called the Merge.
:20:17. > :20:20.Content made with this camera would let you move around live action VR
:20:21. > :20:22.environments, something impossible today, where you are rooted to
:20:23. > :20:24.This kind of so-called computational imaging
:20:25. > :20:27.technology might be compelling, but of course, it is not cheap.
:20:28. > :20:29.Renting the cinema rig starts at $125,000.
:20:30. > :20:31.Right now, it is aimed at the pros, but who knows,
:20:32. > :20:35.a few years down the road we may see it re-emerge as a creative tool
:20:36. > :20:47.Now, summer is on the way, and that means
:20:48. > :20:51.if you a biker it is time to dust off the leathers and hit the road.
:20:52. > :20:53.It can be exhilarating if you are of that persuasion,
:20:54. > :20:57.but it can also be a long and lonely road if you have an accident.
:20:58. > :21:00.It could take a while before the emergency services are
:21:01. > :21:05.Well, Kate Russell has been for a spin with a piece of tech that
:21:06. > :21:07.could speed up the response time and potentially save lives.
:21:08. > :21:22.Just you, the road and 1200cc of pure power.
:21:23. > :21:25.A motorbike isn't just a vehicle to move you from place to place.
:21:26. > :21:28.It is an adventure every time you ride it, and wide-open spaces,
:21:29. > :21:31.with sweeping curves and corners like this, bring body and bike
:21:32. > :21:44.It is hard to beat once you have experienced it.
:21:45. > :21:48.70% of all accidents on bikes happen on rural roads.
:21:49. > :21:54.If you are on your own, that could be a real problem.
:21:55. > :21:58.If you are out by yourself - I mean we ride together quite a lot, if you
:21:59. > :22:01.are out by yourself, if you fall off, we have technology that tells
:22:02. > :22:07.the emergency services where you are and sends medical information.
:22:08. > :22:09.It is about keeping riders safe but still having fun.
:22:10. > :22:11.To ensure pinpoint accuracy during a crash,
:22:12. > :22:15.the app using downstream satellite data to locate a fallen rider.
:22:16. > :22:19.If you are in an open space, where there is no blockages to the
:22:20. > :22:22.signal, then you can be located down to a metre accuracy very reliably.
:22:23. > :22:25.The really good news is there are more satellites going up every day,
:22:26. > :22:26.including the European Galileo system,
:22:27. > :22:29.which means the more satellites, the better quality signals, and that
:22:30. > :22:37.accuracy is coming down to sub-metre level in the years to come.
:22:38. > :22:40.We are protecting against the worst case scenario, when you
:22:41. > :22:46.If you hit something, you are carrying a lot of speed.
:22:47. > :22:53.They knew roughly the route he was taking, but not exactly.
:22:54. > :22:56.And it was 12 hours before they found him.
:22:57. > :23:06.But the bike could also be, you know, over a hedgerow or
:23:07. > :23:10.You might not be visible from the road.
:23:11. > :23:12.The alert is triggered by the smartphone app,
:23:13. > :23:15.which is then connected through to BT, like any other 999 call.
:23:16. > :23:18.That is presented to our 999 call handlers, with some enhanced data.
:23:19. > :23:20.Call handlers continues with triage, by attempting to call
:23:21. > :23:25.If they are unable to get in contact with the patient, then
:23:26. > :23:29.It is the first app in the UK to gain DCMS certification, allowing
:23:30. > :23:31.it to route activation directly through the emergency services.
:23:32. > :23:34.Giving riders peace of mind that, should the worst case scenario come
:23:35. > :23:47.to pass, they have the best possible chance of surviving.
:23:48. > :23:51.That was Kate, and that is it from Dyson's HQ.
:23:52. > :23:57.If you are wondering what this is, this is what the engineers got
:23:58. > :24:04.I would be rather annoyed if they did this to my car.
:24:05. > :24:08.That is from us, @BBCClick on Twitter throughout the week, please.