0:00:03 > 0:00:08This week we're heading to space for a spot of sun, shade and...
0:00:08 > 0:00:13a freaky transforming monkey spider bot.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38We've long fantasised about the possibility
0:00:38 > 0:00:41of life on other planets.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44But it was only in 1995 that we found the first planet
0:00:44 > 0:00:49outside our solar system.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51These exoplanets are hard to find.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Of course they are, they're relatively tiny.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57And so far they've mainly been detected indirectly,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00either by the incredibly slight dimming of a star's light
0:01:00 > 0:01:04as a planet moves in front of it, or by the wobble of the star
0:01:04 > 0:01:09caused by something orbiting it.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13In the last 20 years we've detected about 2000 exoplanets,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17but we haven't actually seen many at all.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19This is why.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Well, the planets are very, very faint compared to a star
0:01:23 > 0:01:30and they're very close to a star.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33The kind of planets where we might find life, an Earth-like planet
0:01:33 > 0:01:35orbiting a star would be 10 billion times
0:01:35 > 0:01:36fainter than a star.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40But if you can see the planets, you can start to look for evidence
0:01:40 > 0:01:41of life on their surfaces.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45What you need is something to block out the light of a star.
0:01:45 > 0:01:51What you need is a star shade.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Due to go into space in the middle of the next decade,
0:01:55 > 0:02:00it is a crazy-sounding thing that can be flown in between a space
0:02:00 > 0:02:04telescope and the star to precisely block out the star's light
0:02:04 > 0:02:08and reveal any planets.
0:02:08 > 0:02:14It'll be a few tens of metres in diameter, and in order to block
0:02:14 > 0:02:17out just the light from that distant star, it'll need to be
0:02:17 > 0:02:22about 40,000 kilometres away from the telescope.
0:02:22 > 0:02:27So you managed to block out the starlight, you see this tiny
0:02:27 > 0:02:31dot which is a planet, what actually will we get from that image?
0:02:31 > 0:02:33What resolution will it be?
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Will it be a few pixels or will we see it in great detail?
0:02:37 > 0:02:40What we'll see is a dot of light completely unresolved.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41Essentially a single pixel.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44So that doesn't sound so interesting, but we'll be able
0:02:44 > 0:02:48first of all to see how far it is from the star,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51and by revisiting it, we'll be able to see what its orbit
0:02:51 > 0:02:55is, so we'll know if it might be a planet that can support life,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58we'll know its separation from the star.
0:02:58 > 0:03:05But more importantly, we'll be able to take that light
0:03:05 > 0:03:08and put a spectrometer on it, disperse it, and look for signatures
0:03:08 > 0:03:09of chemicals on the planet.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13We'll be able to see water, oxygen and carbon dioxide,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15perhaps methane, so signs of life.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Indications that this might be a planet that supports life.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21And this is not even the maddest part of the scheme.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24See, there's a problem.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26The star shade won't fit in a rocket.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29And that's why a big part of the work being done here
0:03:29 > 0:03:32at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the beautiful
0:03:32 > 0:03:36solution that they've come up with, is all about fitting the thing
0:03:36 > 0:03:41into a tight space and then unfurling it once in space.
0:03:41 > 0:03:57And the inspiration comes from origami.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Wow!
0:04:05 > 0:04:07It's really quite impressive.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11At the end you can see how large an area you can fill with such
0:04:11 > 0:04:13a small volume of material.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17But this is only the half of it because you have petals
0:04:17 > 0:04:19which come out here as well?
0:04:19 > 0:04:19Yes, exactly.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Oh, my goodness.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25This cardboard model is the latest test to make sure the shade
0:04:25 > 0:04:27can unfurl perfectly when it is all alone
0:04:27 > 0:04:29up there in the black.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32The flower shape blocks out the light better than a circle,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and those outer petals need to be made to an accuracy
0:04:36 > 0:04:39of 50 to 100 microns.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42You're going to point a telescope at a star and then you're
0:04:42 > 0:04:45going to fly this into position to block the light from the star?
0:04:46 > 0:04:46Correct.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49What if you then want to look at another star?
0:04:49 > 0:04:52The telescope moves by a little bit but this thing has got
0:04:52 > 0:04:53to go across the galaxy?
0:04:53 > 0:04:54That's right.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58There are two ways we can do it.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00We could move the entire shade so the star is over
0:05:01 > 0:05:02there and we have the star shade,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06and we have the telescope
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and we can move the star shade to the next target,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11or you can move the telescope to reposition.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13And how long would it take to move?
0:05:13 > 0:05:16It could take from several days to a week or more,
0:05:16 > 0:05:17depending on the next target.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19If I may say, this sounds crazy!
0:05:19 > 0:05:22This sounds like we want to spot some planets,
0:05:22 > 0:05:23what are we going to do?
0:05:23 > 0:05:31We'll put a shade in space and we're going to fire
0:05:31 > 0:05:34We'll put a shade in space and we're going to fly it 40,000 kms
0:05:34 > 0:05:35from the telescope.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39That sounds insane.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Well, what's really cool about that is there is this insane
0:05:42 > 0:05:44concept of how you're going to fly this
0:05:44 > 0:05:47massive shade so far away, 40,000 kilometres away from the telescope,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49but once you start breaking it down
0:05:49 > 0:05:52into little problems, you start testing and build a petal,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54you build the truss, you build the shield,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56you realise piece by piece what engineering needs to go
0:05:57 > 0:05:58in to that problem to solve it.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02So we just break it down into little problems that we can solve
0:06:02 > 0:06:03in a piecewise fashion.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05And isn't that a great motto for life?
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Take an impossible problem and break it down into more possible chunks.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13I love the fact that at JPL you can just wander into a random room
0:06:13 > 0:06:15and it is called something like the Extreme Terrain Mobility lab.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17That's what they're doing here.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19They're making robots to cope with extreme terrain.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23This is Axel which is a robot with a pair of wheels that can be
0:06:23 > 0:06:24lowered down cliffs.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26And this is Fido and Athena.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28These are the prototype is for the Mars rovers
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Spirit and Opportunity.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Of course the point about robots is they can do things that humans
0:06:35 > 0:06:38might want to do but in places that humans can't go.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40All of these have fairly familiar designs, wheels here,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43some robots have legs.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45But Kate Russell has found one that looks like nothing
0:06:45 > 0:06:48I have ever seen before.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53In 2012 the world watched with baited breath as Nasa deployed
0:06:53 > 0:06:59a rover on the surface of Mars using a sky crane.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04This kind of science is incredibly expensive.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09The rover weighed 900 kilograms, as much as a full grown giraffe.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13With the equipment required to land it gently, it had to be able to take
0:07:13 > 0:07:17the weight of 32 giraffes.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22Total cost, $2.5 billion.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25It would have been much cheaper if Curiosity was lightweight,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27came flat-packed and was sturdy enough just to be dropped
0:07:27 > 0:07:37on the red planet's surface.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Meet Super Ball, a tensgrity robot in development in Nasa Ames.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43This lightweight sphere-like matrix can be packed down flat,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48taking up minimal space in a rocket and vastly reducing launch costs.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Because of the unique structure of this robot and the fact
0:07:52 > 0:07:56that it can deform and reform itself and take massive impacts,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59eventually Nasa will be able to literally throw it at the surface
0:07:59 > 0:08:02of a planet and its scientific payload in the middle
0:08:02 > 0:08:04will be protected.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06It's bouncy.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Once deployed, Super Ball can handle much rougher terrains then a rover,
0:08:10 > 0:08:16riding over obstacles and up and down hills.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Tendon wires connecting the struts spool in and out creating momentum,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24in much the same way as flexing your muscles
0:08:24 > 0:08:25moves your limbs.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28If it bumps into anything solid, it will just bounce back.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32It should even be able to survive falling off a cliff.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35The next step for Super Ball is to redesign the robot such
0:08:35 > 0:08:38that it can actually survive at least a one-storey drop.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42You can expect to see a system like this on an actual Nasa mission
0:08:42 > 0:08:46probably in 15 or 20 years' time.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51Over at JPL, they are working on limbed robots.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Its research spawned from the DARPA Robotics Challenge where teams
0:08:54 > 0:08:58competed to create highly mobile and dextrous robots that can move,
0:08:58 > 0:09:04explore and build things without human intervention.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08One of the great things about the simian body plan is that
0:09:08 > 0:09:11all of our limbs can be used for either mobility or manipulation.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14And so, if we are putting things together, you could certainly
0:09:14 > 0:09:18imagine hanging on with a couple of them and doing the manipulation
0:09:18 > 0:09:21to assemble things together with others, and that makes
0:09:21 > 0:09:23for a very robust way of putting things together,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27in an environment like zero G where you don't want to float off.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31The plan for King Louis is to be sent into space to build stuff
0:09:31 > 0:09:34with visual codes a bit like QR codes to guide it.
0:09:34 > 0:09:35We have a structured environment.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39We know what we are putting together so we put signposts
0:09:39 > 0:09:44onto all the bits and pieces of the structure we are putting
0:09:44 > 0:09:46together that tell the robot a few things.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Most importantly, it tells the robot where those things
0:09:49 > 0:09:51it is manipulating are in space, literally and figuratively,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56so it can align itself better.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58The codes will also include construction information
0:09:59 > 0:10:03like which bits go together and how much torque to apply to a bolt.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06This will allow robots to work autonomously in teams,
0:10:06 > 0:10:10building space stations or planetary habitats faster
0:10:10 > 0:10:14and more economically than previously possible.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19But Nasa hasn't completely given up on our four-wheeled space helpers.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22Here we've tried to develop new kinds of robots
0:10:22 > 0:10:24for future space exploration.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27This robot, for example, is called K-Rex.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30It's one of our main research robots that we develop and test here
0:10:30 > 0:10:36in the robotscape at Nasa Ames.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39This is a large play area for robots, a proving ground
0:10:39 > 0:10:42that we use to really try to develop things like navigation
0:10:42 > 0:10:45or do the mission simulations.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48One of the biggest problems with space travel is getting
0:10:48 > 0:10:51stuff of our planet.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54It requires an incredible amount of fuel to break
0:10:54 > 0:10:55through the atmosphere.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59So K-Rex's current job is to look at ways to collect useful resources
0:10:59 > 0:11:01once we are already out in space.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Can we go to the moon, find water and use it for oxygen
0:11:04 > 0:11:08and hydrogen to make fuel and go other places beyond the moon?
0:11:08 > 0:11:11For you, what is the most exciting sort of new development
0:11:12 > 0:11:13that is on the horizon?
0:11:13 > 0:11:15For a long time now we had robots do exploration.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18We have rovers on Mars, they are still functioning today.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21We have humans in space on the International Space Station,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25and in the future I think what we're going to see more of is
0:11:25 > 0:11:26really human-robot teams.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Robots might be working ahead of humans, they might be working
0:11:29 > 0:11:32following up after humans, they might be side-by-side or
0:11:32 > 0:11:33perhaps just in support of humans.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37In any case, what we're going to have is a future of robots
0:11:37 > 0:11:38and humans working together.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41So, the biggest question perhaps of the day for me,
0:11:41 > 0:11:42can I drive K-Rex?
0:11:42 > 0:11:42Definitely.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44Let's have you do that.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Yes!
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Now lots of you think we Click reporters have the best jobs
0:11:50 > 0:11:53in the world, but after spending a day at the roverscape testing
0:11:53 > 0:11:59ground, I think there is another contender for that title.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Hello and welcome to the Week in Tech.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09It was the week that in the US, after much speculation,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerberg denied he wants to run for president
0:12:12 > 0:12:15of the United States.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Not everyone wants to run the world, it seems, just the bits
0:12:18 > 0:12:22related to social media.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27Plus, help could be at hand for forgetful Apple Airpod owners.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32Apple has created a find Airpods feature for its wireless earbuds.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35It works in the same way as the Find My Phone feature.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38No word yet though on how much rummaging down the back
0:12:38 > 0:12:40of the sofa it will lead to.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Plus, authorities in Dubai showed off a new way of fighting fires.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46All with the help of a jet-ski for traffic avoiding rapid
0:12:46 > 0:12:51response and a jet pack for some elevated extinguishing.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Water pressure kicks the firefighter airborne allowing them to target
0:12:54 > 0:12:58difficult to reach fires near waterways
0:12:58 > 0:13:00and then hose them down.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Next, never get off the boat.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Legendary movie director Francis Ford Coppola has
0:13:06 > 0:13:09thrown his support behind a video game version of his Vietnam war
0:13:09 > 0:13:11epic Apocalypse Now.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15It is going to be survival horror and it is going to be
0:13:15 > 0:13:19financed via crowdfunding.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24And finally, fashion conscious astronauts have had to make do
0:13:25 > 0:13:30with any colour space suit they like as long as it is in white.
0:13:30 > 0:13:31Not any more.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Nasa and Boeing have revealed details of the new
0:13:34 > 0:13:35upgraded blue space suit.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37These are lighter and easier to move in.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43Personally, I'd prefer pinstriped.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50Up on the International Space Station, resources are pretty tight.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54But while food and water do need to be delivered as take-out,
0:13:54 > 0:13:59you might think that power at least might be plentiful.
0:13:59 > 0:14:14But over their lifetime, the International Space Station's
0:14:14 > 0:14:15solar arrays degrade and produce less power.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19And as our space aspirations grow, we could do with more and more
0:14:19 > 0:14:21power anyway from bigger and bigger panels.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23That's a bit of a problem.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26To give you an idea of how much power the ISS needs,
0:14:26 > 0:14:27it has eight solar arrays.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Each one is as long and as tall...
0:14:29 > 0:14:35As this room.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39To fit something this huge into a rocket's payload,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43as we discovered with the star shade, you have to fold it up.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48The problem is each part of the solar array
0:14:48 > 0:14:51is mounted on a thick protective aluminium backing.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56The more you fold it to reduce the length,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58the more you increase the thickness.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00Bit here at Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, Wahid Azizpor
0:15:00 > 0:15:03is working on a solution.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05I am constantly surprised by anything that goes into space,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07about how light it is.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09It looks quite thick but it's so light.
0:15:09 > 0:15:10It has to be.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14It costs a lot of money to launch one of these in space
0:15:14 > 0:15:15so it has to be light.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Why did you need that?
0:15:17 > 0:15:20To make sure the cells did not crack when you're launching in space.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24It's really violent when it goes in space and on a rocket itself.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27So it's not when it's in space, it's actually the launching
0:15:27 > 0:15:29and I guess the unfurling that can damage these things?
0:15:29 > 0:15:31That can damage the cells.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33But this is not good enough for you!
0:15:33 > 0:15:36This is the thickness of a normal solar array and you are now
0:15:36 > 0:15:38making them that thick.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40It's a substance called kapton and it will replace that
0:15:40 > 0:15:46thick aluminium support.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48It feels like a bit of plastic.
0:15:48 > 0:15:55So what does this mean for stuff that goes into space now,
0:15:55 > 0:16:00whether it is space travel or satellites?
0:16:00 > 0:16:05What does this mean?
0:16:05 > 0:16:08You can put a lot more power, a lot more stuff in space
0:16:08 > 0:16:12in a small area itself, so you don't need all these things.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15All you can put is the kapton so if you want double the power,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19all you need to do is double the amount of that material, kapton,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22which adds another inch to it and it doubles the amount
0:16:22 > 0:16:23of power you need.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Only a few of us will, of course, ever get into space,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29but for the next best thing, why not try it in VR?
0:16:29 > 0:16:30Here's Lara Lewington.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37I've had some really engaging virtual reality experiences.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41One of them simply set in an office, but it seems if you are entering
0:16:41 > 0:16:44at VR world, you might as well go somewhere really
0:16:44 > 0:16:45exciting, like space.
0:16:45 > 0:16:54That's where Home: A VR Spacewalk takes you.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Inspired by Nasa's training programme, it aims to bring
0:16:56 > 0:16:59a mission in space to the masses.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02After getting used to your new surroundings, you undertake
0:17:02 > 0:17:10an emergency mission.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Whilst enjoying views of Earth from afar, a friendly hand
0:17:13 > 0:17:16from a fellow astronaut helps to get you on your way.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18Ah, I can hold a hand.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21I feel a strange sense of safety there is another astronaut here.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24The BBC commissioned the experience last year,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28as its first steps into the world of virtual reality content.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32We've taken all the storytelling power of the BBC and applied that
0:17:32 > 0:17:35behind it, so there's a great script, a great narrative and then
0:17:35 > 0:17:38we've looked at all the cutting edge explorations people are doing around
0:17:38 > 0:17:41VR, in terms of bio-monitoring, haptic feedback etc etc and trying
0:17:41 > 0:17:49to bring that into it as a massive piece of learning really.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54My preview here on the HTC Vive saw it set up with a chair providing
0:17:54 > 0:18:01haptic feedback and a heart rate monitor which resulted
0:18:01 > 0:18:04in my being sent back to base if readings went too high.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06But apparently I'm very calm in space.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10In March it will be released for Vive on Steam as well as Oculus.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Wow, this is incredible.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16I'm now looking at Vancouver apparently.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19Some artistic license was of course needed like making tasks shorter
0:18:19 > 0:18:22so they wouldn't get boring, but aside from creating the pictures
0:18:22 > 0:18:27and story telling a project as bold as this needs,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32there were the usual challenges faced by those producing VR content.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34In 360 video and virtual reality, locomotion is one
0:18:34 > 0:18:36of the biggest problems.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39If you move someone without them having made a conscious
0:18:39 > 0:18:41decision to be moved, it can be very disorientating.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44To get around those problems in this particular environment of zero
0:18:44 > 0:18:47gravity on the outside of the space station, we built a system
0:18:47 > 0:18:49where you move yourself by grabbing handles,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53so every single movement of yourself in the environment is always user
0:18:53 > 0:18:55initiated and as granular, slow or as fast as you
0:18:55 > 0:19:01are comfortable with.
0:19:01 > 0:19:08Oh, goodness!
0:19:08 > 0:19:11I feel most disorientated!
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Wow, the depth of it I think was the thing
0:19:15 > 0:19:17that was most surprising.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20You really got a sense of being up high, seeing things
0:19:20 > 0:19:21really, really far away.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25It took awhile to get grips with what I was meant to be doing,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28but just the fact that I was moving around within space
0:19:28 > 0:19:30was quite incredible.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Whilst it wasn't possible to create a sense of weightlessness,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37the pictures were amazing, but obviously, I can't vouch for how
0:19:38 > 0:19:45true to life they are.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51It is essential to life on Earth, but the sun is a fearsome beast
0:19:51 > 0:19:57and cares is not one jot for the way that we've chosen to live.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Seen up close, this seemingly uniform sphere of light reveals
0:20:01 > 0:20:09itself as a churning, raging ball of fire.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Every so often, the surface erupts, flinging huge amounts
0:20:11 > 0:20:13of particles into space, in a phenomenon known
0:20:13 > 0:20:18as a coronal mass ejection.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21So this is a coronal mass ejection in close-up?
0:20:21 > 0:20:22This is what astrophysics does.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26This is how we figure out what gases are in there,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29how fast they move, how hot they are, how dense they are.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Have we ever been hit by one of those?
0:20:32 > 0:20:35The Earth has been hit by one of those, yes, many times.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37Many times?
0:20:37 > 0:20:40That's not game over when we are hit by something because it
0:20:40 > 0:20:41looks quite final to me!
0:20:41 > 0:20:42It is huge.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45The Earth is about this size.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51No, we get hit very readily, every 11 years the sun goes
0:20:51 > 0:20:54through a cycle where the sun's domestic field gets very active
0:20:54 > 0:20:56and then we get a lot of these.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58This is what we call space winter.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Which I guess makes Bart De Pontieu a space weatherman.
0:21:02 > 0:21:11He is in charge of Iris, a satellite launched three years ago
0:21:11 > 0:21:16which looks at small parts of the sun in great detail.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19His job is to use what he sees to create solar computer
0:21:19 > 0:21:21simulations, which may unlock its mysteries,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24and may help us to understand where the particular coronal mass
0:21:24 > 0:21:26ejections will affect us on Earth.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28You can see in this movie when that eruption happens.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31You see all that snow on the image.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Those are the energetic particles of the sun that hit our detectors,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36our CCDs and they leave charges in there.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41These energetic particles in fact, not just the CCDs, but they can
0:21:41 > 0:21:44impact the computers on-board satellites, and that means
0:21:45 > 0:21:48the satellites can flip a bit essentially and screw up the whole
0:21:48 > 0:21:51operation of the satellite.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Satellites have gotten lost as a result.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57And so when these things happen, you can go in safe mode.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01If you can predict them properly, you can go in safe mode.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Many of these storms can be geo-affective and changing
0:22:03 > 0:22:06the environment around Earth, they can lead to power
0:22:06 > 0:22:12grids getting overloaded and transformers blowing up.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16And so you could actually cycle down usage on your power grid if you knew
0:22:16 > 0:22:19that something like this was happening, or you could tell
0:22:19 > 0:22:21your troops that your satellite communications might be disturbed
0:22:21 > 0:22:23because the atmosphere is disturbed that day.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27Iris isn't the only space telescope to come out of Lockheed Martin
0:22:27 > 0:22:31here in California.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35A new one was launched in 2016, and before the launch we got a sneak
0:22:35 > 0:22:37preview of how they were testing it.
0:22:37 > 0:22:38Using this.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Welcome to the Heliostat.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44The point of this thing is to bring what's up
0:22:45 > 0:22:48there down to the labs below, so if I lean down this
0:22:48 > 0:22:49tube, you can see me.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Hello, there.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Of course, you don't really want to see me or just the blue sky.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57What you actually want to see is...
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Down here, the sun's image is bounced around and fired
0:23:00 > 0:23:02into the clean room containing the new satellites,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05which are so small, they can fit four of them
0:23:05 > 0:23:07into a relatively tiny space.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09The next generation of solar monitoring telescope
0:23:09 > 0:23:10is happening there.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13The solar ultraviolet image will watch the sun
0:23:13 > 0:23:20in extreme ultraviolet.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25It should be able to provide early warnings of heavy space weather
0:23:25 > 0:23:28caused by solar flares and coronal mass injections, and will ultimately
0:23:28 > 0:23:35help us to unlock the secrets of our nearest star.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Something that is no longer just for scientific interest,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40but will protect a society that is increasingly dependent
0:23:40 > 0:23:43on technology as well.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46This is the example of one of the simulations from
0:23:46 > 0:23:49the University of Oslo in Norway.
0:23:49 > 0:23:49Isn't that sexy?!
0:23:50 > 0:23:52We really need these models to understand what we're seeing
0:23:52 > 0:23:55and how we could possibly predict things like this.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Tell me you've got that as your desktop wallpaper
0:23:58 > 0:23:59because I want a copy of that!
0:23:59 > 0:24:01I do!
0:24:01 > 0:24:04LAUGHTER
0:24:27 > 0:24:28Hello there.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The weather is on the change as we head through the course
0:24:32 > 0:24:33of the weekend.