Episode 2 Stargazing Live

Good evening from rainy Cheshire. Last time we had a television fist

with this live view of the northern lights in Norway. But we're not

settling for that - tonight we're sending our cameras up to 30,000

feet to get away from the clouds, the light pollution, and any

possible moisture in the air to get the clearest possible view. And

there is a lot of moisture in the air. Unless, that is, you've flown

throught them as one of our guests tonight has. We've got the commander

of the International Space Station and one of the first crew ever to

fly in an Apollo spacecraft. I'm Brian Cox. I'm Dara O Briain. And

this is Stargazing Live. Tonight's show is ah about space

eggs mroeration. -- exploration. Two of my heroes are in the building.

From the first crew to fly an Apollo space craft 46 years, ago, Walter

Cunningham is here. And commander Chris Hadfield. There they are,

relaxing as only astronauts can. That is thousand relax. -- that is

how to relax. If you have any questions send them to us. The

addresses are on the screen. I have been distracted horribly by that. By

the fabulous view. What is that? It is glorious. The Hubble telescope is

usually in that beautiful position, because it looks nice. But it will

move and do some observing, that is because of some of the lenses you

found last night. One is so interesting that the Hubble will

image it during the show. Real science going on. Stuff you have

done is making that turn. Photographs you have sent in of the

aurora. This is a photograph from last night. We saw the aurora in

Norway. This is from Caithness in Scotland. Another one from Scotland,

Gordon took that one last night. We expect more. There is something

interesting that happened before we came on air to do with this sunspot

group. AR1944 and AR1966. You could fit seven earths in this. If you

look at this video, last night about 6pm, the earth is about here. This

is one of space craft at right angles to the sun. We are looking on

to the sun and the earth is here. About 6. 30 last night, that

happened. That is a big coronal mass ejection. That is a big flux of

solar wind on its way us to. When will it get to us? Just after

midnight. It delayed the launch of a supply space craft to the

International Space Station today. So that could have a big effect. We

knowed you last night -- showed you last night... Your place is gone.

This is our globe. There is Africa and Europe and there we are. Now,

normally the aurora would be the golden circle here, we believe

because of the amount of stuff thrown up, it could extend as far as

the blue area. That extends over the British Isles and Ireland and we

could get good aurora photographs from you 12. 38 tonight. It will be

worth your while if it is clear in Scotland. As far north as

Manchester. Even as far south possibly down to London. It is

unlikely, but if it is clear, we will show you how to take the

photographs. This is a powerful CME on its way. It is like we planned

it. Perfectly timed. Now we're on an aurora hunt. We have set the task of

taking our cameras to a better vantage point. Liz where are you?

Tonight we're trying something that has never been done. We are going

aurora hunting from this aircraft live on television. We are going to

eliminate the risk of having our view obscured by clouds and light.

We will be at 30,000 feet above Norway on the hunt for the aurora

borealis. See you soon. Look at the ball. We will catch up with her in a

while. Now back to earth after a gloriously clear night in noer to

being -- Norfolk, Mark joins us in the rain. I seem to have brought the

rain. But I shall show you how you can spot satellites in space with

the naked eye and even the International Space Station.

Astronomy is a social activity and that has been true this week with

star parties across the country. And this is the scene of a massive one

in Portsmouth with over 5,000 people there. They had telescopes and

demonstrations, stage acts and a solar system. There are more star

part yirs to come. So check the web-site for details. If you're

going for one tomorrow, look out for me and the crew. Use that same

address to get your aurora photographs in. In a moment we will

meet our special guest. First let's see how far we have gone into space

over the last few decades. You're hearing the signals transmitted by

the satellite. One of the great scientific feats of the age. When it

comes to pin pointing the moment we first made to it space, a small

sphere called Sputnik often gets the credit. But it was the first item

into orbit. We had reached space over a decade earlier. Our first

trip wasn't one to be celebrated. A Nazi V2 rocket hurtled out above the

earth's surface. And started the space age with a deadly bang. It was

1961 before we could cheer our first real live space man from Russia. As

he looked down at earth. He made it 203 miles from the earth's surface

and returned a hero. When you think our planet's 8,000 miles across,

this was a tiny step for mankind. The giant leap came eight years

later. We choose to go to the moon, because that goal will serve to

organise and measure the best of our energies and skills. On July 16th

1969 Apollo 11 blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre. Four days

later, Neil Armstrong made history. It's one small step for man. One

giant leap for mankind. But Neil, Buzz and Michael don't hold the

distance record. Three astronauts just fwhaement. But not exactly on

purpose. -- just beat them. The We have a problem here. When Apollo 13

aborted its lunar landing its trajectory took it further from the

earth than anyone has been before or since. But we will forgive the crew

for having other things on their mind at the time. Impressive stuff

from our spacemen. But they only managed local trips, compared to our

robots in space. We have landed re-Botts on two planets. -- robots

on two planets. Venus and the red planet, Mars. Which even at its

closest point is 34 million miles from earth. Russia got there first

with the Mars 3 probe. But NASA's Opportunity Rover landed in 2004 and

drove around the surface for 22 miles, making it our top planetary

explorer. But some never end their journeys. We have sent dozens of

probes, some spend their lives orbiting the sun. Others go on to

roam the planetary season. Cassini is almost a billion miles from

earth. For the real long haul trophy there can be only one winner. In

1977 the probe Voyager 1 blasted off. But it was a little probe that

wouldn't stop. After diligently visiting Jupiter and Saturn, it has

kept going for almost four decades. In August last year it passed

another milestone for mankind and became the first man-made object to

enter inter-Stellar space. We have Chris Hadfield with us now. A space

veteran. Welcome to the show. You, as many of us did, grew up with that

history. What was it that made you decide to become a part of it and be

an astronaut. It was wonderful to see those images it was on a black

and white television watching Neil and Buzz, the reality of that and

the science fiction of the 2001 space odd essy and Star Trek, all

that was very enabling for nine-year-old boy to see that

fantasy can come true. I consciously decided when on July 20th they

walked on the moon. Did you think that was going to happen. You went

into the air force. Was that all the plan? It seems to be a plan now.

Canada had no astronaut programme. But I recognised you have to turn

yourself into an astronaut if you want to become one. I go to

university and learned to fly through the cadets and joined the

air force and became a test pilot and in my 30s, Canada had an

astronaut selection and I was an astronaut for 21 years. You have

done two shuttle mission and one ISS mission, that lasted for six months.

We have a lot of questions that boil down to, what is life in space like?

It is two main differences. One is you're weightless all the time.

Which is magic to be able to fly. Something as mundane as clipping

your names is different in weightlessness. The other more

magnificent part is every time you go by the window, you're orbiting

around the world and the world is turning and you see the whole planet

over and over again. That combination of the mundane and the

beauty of the world it was better than I dreamed it would be when I

was nine. I hear many astronauts speak of the experience of being in

space and they all say it changes them, it changes their view of the

earth and themselves, how did it change you? You spent 240 days in

space? About six months in total. I didn't have a sudden epiphany or

huge change in direction, I think it is because of the experience of the

people that had gone before. But I think what it did fully was broaden

my own horizons of the world. What I would view growing up is us and

them. The line where them is recedes, until the whole thing

becomes us. You get a sense of oneness that we are all in this

together. That perspective I did my best to share through the

photographs and social media and it sure had a profound effect on my

views. When you have spent a six months tour, is it possible to have

a normal day? Are your days 24 hours long? You wake up that watch that is

floating there woke me at 6am and we would clean with a sponge bath and

work through the day and get ready for bed at night. You pull up the

sleeping back and you stay warm and float next to the warm. Shut off the

light and it is the most relaxing sleep you can imagine. You can relax

every muscle in your body and hover in the sleeping bag until the alarm

goes off. Is it possible to get a good night's sleep. It is a

dangerous environment to work isn't it? You're up there. Once in a while

you here a merior iet ricochet over outside and it is a reminder of

where you are. In a building, you think your bullet proof, when you

hear one of those hit, you recognise you're in a metal bubble, but you

get used to where you are and focus on the reality and if things go

badly, they will go badly in a hurry. We practice fire alarms,

things, all the time. You cannot let fear dominate. You have to focus on

the reality. We have got a number of questions about the aurora, what

would happen if you were to physically fly through it, you have

done that? I was outside on my first spacewalk.

We moved some thermal covers, I was carrying a big bubble of laundry.

The arm was moving around, I had a long time to wait. I shut off the

weight and let my eyes adjust, I saw the southern lights and we went

through them. They were rippling for as far as the eye could see. Colours

early visible in an image, the Reds, purple colours, so much more

visible and powerful to the human eye and the movement, almost as if

it was pouring and flowing I do think it is going on all the time on

our planet and only once in awhile can we see it. I told the crew, you

have got to see them, they shut off all the lights and took pictures

until we drove into the dawn over New Zealand. An incredible

existence. What has always intrigued me is what it is like to float

weightlessness in space and I went on a mission to find out why

astronauts are weightless. We have all seen the footage,

obviously astronauts flow but it is an easy estate to presume the reason

they float is because of where they are but if you travel 600, just

great up gravity will recede and will have less than appalled when it

does on earth. We can demonstrate that here. The flight we are going

on to day, it is a research flight, filled with scientists and

experiments, but none of us are going into space. Over the next hour

or two this specially modified plane will fly 30,000 feet and plummet

towards Earth 25 times. Each time we will all briefly experienced

weightlessness. I can pretend this is about the science, but I feel

like an eight-year-old child. As excited as I am, this overgrown

roller-coaster ride isn't just for fun. It is also one of the ways

astronauts train to cope with life in space. We were talking about how

disorientating parts of this flight company. That happened when I got

in, I have never been in plain as down as this. It is just rows of

seats in a giant padded room will stop -- will stop after take-off

time for the scientists to set up their experiments. And for me to get

my head round what really makes astronauts weightless. Even if you

go up to where the ISS is, gravity is still about 90% of here, if you

walk up the ladder and stepped up you would fall down again. The key

to weightlessness is in falling which is what we are about to

demonstrate. At 30,000 feet the pilot throttles

back. Plunging us towards Earth in a series of steep arcs. Each time the

plane does this we get a few moments of weightlessness. And the sensation

is incredible. The trouble is, even the most basic

tasks like facing the camera become impossible. Just as suddenly, it is

over. But not for long. So what is making us feel weightless? It is

astonishing. It is like all the weight leads your body and you float

off and all we are doing is freefalling towards Earth, along

with the aeroplane. How are you? It is just the same for astronauts in

orbit. What is happening in the ISS is they are basically falling

towards Earth all the time. And so it feels to them like weightlessness

stop and we are down. The only difference between us is that I am

falling recently towards Earth, while astronauts are falling

constantly around the Earth. Let me explain. Imagine an astronaut

falling to earth like me. Give him a push sideways and he will keep

moving sideways as he falls. Pushing too hard and he will head off

towards the moon. Pushing just right and he will never get any closer or

further away, he will stay in orbit. In constant freefall he will feel

weightless all the time. Whereas for me, the pleasure is painfully short

lived. I am OK, I'm grand. It is incredibly counterintuitive, I have

done a lot of scuba-diving, you naturally kick, you are just a large

man in space kicking anything around him. I went careering off, and

luckily a scientist broke my full. -- fall. Whether you are an

astronaut in space or just a man in a jumpsuit it is not a lack of

gravity that makes you float. After plummeting to earth 25 times I was

quite relieved to land. Thank you, very much. Two things I am allowed

to do, I can take my name tag and put it the right way up because I am

an experienced flier. The most important souvenir I took is an

empty sick bag. Nearly got me, didn't get me. Very proud, I am, of

not being ill on that flight. There is a British scientist called Dan

who was on it too had a big stain of being ill. They wrapped him in a

ball and picked him up and pushed him down the plane and he bowled

down to the back of the plane and stabbed him into a chair. Is that

anything like it was to mark -- is it anything like it?

The people who are sick in a plain don't always get sick in space. The

difference may be tween diving into the water and staying floating

scuba-diving. One is a transition, one is permanent. I will just

enjoying playing with a spate see ash spacesuit. If you want to see

the ISS itself it passes overhead regularly.

It is really easy to see, this is an image we have got and you can see it

moving down the screen. If you want to see it really clearly you need a

powerful lens and we are lucky enough to get this fantastic view

with a super zoom lens. You can see the solar panels wonderfully. You

can have a go at spotting it yourself, all you need is your

smartphone . The ISS orbit at an altitude of 240 miles and travels

17,000 mph, a colossal speed, and the speed is one of the ways you can

tell you are looking at satellite and not a shooting star or an

aeroplane. This is what a shooting star looks like. You can see the

image as it goes across the screen, very quick and fast and that is how

you can tell it is a shooting star, not a space station. They are not

man made. A few miles up, they just whizz across the sky. Planes are on

the other hand, have flashing lights. You can just detect the

flashing lights. They move a bit more steady and can be mistaken for

satellites. Satellites move at the Miller speeds to aircraft and you

can see one at the bottom of this image, but they don't flash and that

is the key way of telling whether it is an aircraft or a satellite. Based

-- they can sometimes disappear over the horizon, you sometimes see them

vanish. They flow into the shadow of the Earth. Back to the aurora, your

photos are coming in thick and fast. We have seen this image from the

North of Iceland. You can see the wonderful green and the folds in the

display. Another image taken in Tromso with vivid green colours.

There is a chance of an aurora over the UK tomorrow night so if you want

to try and photograph it you will need a DSL are camera on a tripod

much like this, set the focus to infinity, the ISA to 800, the

aperture as wide as possible and try exposures of 15 seconds but don't be

afraid to experiment with the settings because it can vary in

brightness. Try and get some landscape in as well for top played

your photos to the website so we can take a look. -- upload your photos.

Let's see how Liz is doing. How is it going?

Hello. How are you doing? We are transmitting live on our aurora

Hunt, 32,000 feet above more than Norway. Our plane is jam-packed full

of people and equipment, our specialist lowlight cameras, one

trained on the night sky, specialist live transmission gear allowing us

to transmit the footage live, and can I just show you what we are

looking at outside our window? What do you make of this?

Lovely, very impressive. Difficult to find the words without saying,

that is very readable. It is a completely different view --

beautiful. It looks different. Because it is high, I want to ask if

it is clearer. Is it different to what you saw yesterday?

That is the thing. We are getting a different vantage point. It has been

snowing non-stop today. You can see the cloud cover, the clear sky,

beautiful starry night. Up here we don't have the problem of light

pollution and certainly cloud cover. As and when this changes we will be

there to look at it and get you the footage. With me on this flight is

Pete Lawrence, becoming my best friend and he will be our expert.

What you make of this? It is really dark outside, the stars are shining

brightly, the aurora is the star of the show. It has been changing quite

a lot. You have taken part in 200 searches for Aurora, can change into

something more colourful, bigger, brighter, faster, better? It is

pretty weak but it is very pretty, it could build up or go away. Thank

you so much for joining us, keep your eyes peeled. He will be our

expert eyes for the next two nights. This vantage point, getting closer,

not only allows us to admire it but allows scientists to understand them

better. It is possible to get inside one, would you believe it and it is

something scientists are doing. This is the island of and/or your on

the West Coast of Norway on the Arctic Circle. -- Andoya. Scientists

are try to find out what goes on inside the aurora borealis. They are

employing a number of methods including firing out lasers to

analyse the lower lobe -- lower layers of the atmosphere. These can

reach a height of 110 kilometres, pretty impressive, but still not

quite high enough to reach the aurora, to be able to study them

properly for stop you need some serious space technology to do that.

Rockets. Packed with scientific instruments and launched directly

into the heart of the aurora. Rockets like these can only go in

one direction, straight up, so an aurora has to pass directly overhead

before the team can launch. It is predefined by the launcher, we

are waiting for it to move in a manner we know, we are waiting for

the right conditions. You waiting for it to come to the

rocket. Recent missions have helped them discover the shifting patterns

of light are caused by charged particles falling in vertical bands

just a few metres across. They're next mission is to work out why and

so unlock more of the secrets of this stunning phenomenon. Their next

rocket is almost ready for launch. So this is it? This is the

scientific payload and will do all the measurements. Yes, it is a

scientific payload. How long does it have to take its measurements in the

centre of the aurora. A minute. A few minutes. That is all. Once

airborne it is critical that the rocket gathers as much information

as possible as quickly as possible. Once it reaches 75 kilometres, the

nose cone will open and the instruments will begin to take

measurements. On each of these four tips we have these needle probes and

those these look like what is it called acupuncture. That will

measure how they work. The needles will detect and temperature and

electrical charge of particles creating the light. This information

will then be transmitted back to the control centre to be analysed by the

team. But in the end, the success of the mission will depend on the

perfect launch. There are a lot of things happening around the

scientists. The scientists can't do anything any more. He can just say

yes go and he can say stop until the last second. At that moment,

everyone crosses their fingers. Have you ever missed the aurora? No, I

cannot remember. We are not quite as close as those

rockets to the aurora borealis, but at 32,000 feet we are not doing

badly and it is still shining there in its beautiful green hue. We were

talking about how the electrons in an aurora travel in narrow bands,

but then this aurora is part of a bigger picture, part of a bigger

area that is a circular shape over the poles? Yes it is down to the

shape of theeth's magnetic -- the earth's magnetic field. As they go

through atmosphere, they form a ring of glowing light. Basically a

circular shape where the aurora can appear. Is it a perfect circle? No

the earth's magnetic field, the solar winds squashes the magnetic

field towards the surface of the earth on the day side and elongates

it on the night side. That affects the shape of the ring and pushes it

towards the magnetic pole on the day side and elongates it away on the

night side. So it is an oval. It is the auroral oval. Is this part of

the oval circling, you can almost see the shape over the globe. Yes

like a crown around the top of the earth. It is very beautiful. The

aurora from last night inspired some viewers to write in some questions.

Can I pose them to you? Yes of course. Eilie asked howled the

aurora be used as an energy -- asked could the aurora be used as an

energy source. Well one could power the UK. But the problem is getting

up there to get at the energy. The aurora is enormous. We haven't got

the Tegg nothing to do that -- technology do that. Might that

happen in the future. I hope so. What about Stefan who asked what is

the rarest colour of aurorae and why? The most common colour is green

and then a ready brown and then a Pinkie band. The Holy Grail are the

blues and purples in these huge structures. You need a very

energetic display to see those. We are seeing green and no red on the

top. But anything can happen at any point. That is the beauty of auroral

hunting. Come back to us soon. Thank you. We can show you how the aurora

forms with this contrapion. We will create an aurora in the jar, this

was created by the scientist Kristian Birkland. The big ball

represents the sun, the small one the earth. Both are electricically

charged the earth ball has a magnetic field in it similar to the

earth's. They run in a shape from one pole to the other. What you're

seeing is because there is an trek charge -- electric charge, there are

electrons streaming off on to the pole. This is, you can hear a hum.

That is a vacuum pump. Some of the air has been pumped out to athrough

electrons to make it across. But not all. There is nitrogen here. That is

what Pete was talking about and that is this purple glow. That is what we

are seeing. This is not a simulation, it is the same physics,

electrons travelling down and hitting the nitrogen poll Cuells and

-- molecules and emitting this glow. We have a question from Timothy he

said how do they differ on different planets. Well the atmosphere is

different. But the physics is the same. So the process is the same. If

you have a nitrogen atmosphere you will get this purple glow. So the

aurora is the same whether on Venus or here or in this jar, the physics

is the same. Yes. This was first done in 1895, before the discovery

of the electron. It was difficult to understand what was happening and

these the models that allowed scientists to tease out the

processes. We believe there is a good chance that we will see an

aurora across the lot of the UK and Ireland tonight that will come down

that far south. To give you an idea of whether it is possible, here is

the weather. Very exciting news that that we have had more solar activity

that will give us an enhanced chance of seeing the aurora borealis.

Because it was more potent than last night, there is a chance in the UK.

But we need the weather to play ball. Tonight more unwelcome rain

for many. But for your star gaysters -- star-gazers, as the rain clears

in the south we could have some clear skies. But watch out for fog

in the north. Tomorrow, there is a better chance of seeing the aurora

borealis. The weather will play ball and the skies will clear as we have

high pressure. The only down side is it will be colder if you're heading

out. But the cloud will melt away and there is a good chance in many

parts. A better chance the further north you are of seeing the aurora

borealis. But for other star gazing,ivity is a good night -- it

is a good night. In 1961, president Kennedy pledged to land men on the

moon by the end of the decade. This rocket took off seven years later.

The first Apollo craft to carry a crew into space. Here they are.

Possible and one of them here. It is colonel Walter Cunningham. Thank you

for joining us. My pleasure. What inspired you to become an astronaut?

You must have made a decision before the space race began? I don't know

about the astronaut part, when I grew up, the only thing I can

remember wanting to be when I was a kid was a fighter pilot. Out of

school I became a Marine Corps fighter pilot and going back college

and I was in cleng and -- college and they had the Mercury astronauts

and I remember following them and envying them. But I will never

forget May 5th 1961. It was early in the morning, I was driving to work

and working while I was at college. I had to stop. It was before 7, to

get to work early. Before 7 in California. Before 10 out in

Florida. I was listening to the count down for the first Mercury

flight, Alan Shepherd. It got down to the last couple of minutes and I

pulled over to the side of the road and listened. When I got down, I

remember five, four, three, two, one... Lift off! And I I heard a

voice screaming around me and said you lucky son of a bitch! And I

looked around, because I realised it was me screaming! At the time I was

terribly impressed. Later I realised that was when I decided, boy, this

is the way I'm going to do it - higher, fart, faster. -- high er

fart, er further, faster. We had lost one crew and we were busy

trying to test the space craft. . Everything we had been working with,

we had to test all the systems. Some of most important ones is to have.

This is your launch? Yes. We were enjoying it. We were enjoying the

ride. What does it feel like being sat there at this point? The first

test flight of this vehicle. Yes, it was. It was, the vibration was

something you felt. But you we couldn't hear anything. We were

faster than the speed of sound quickly and well ahead of it and the

Gs, were more than they are today. A lot of things have changed from the

programme then. Our job was to test everything in the craft, because if

we had a good flight, then we were going to let Apollo 8 go around the

moon. If we had had a problem, Apollo 8 would not have gone. How

long were you in orbit. 11 days. How did it perform, the first flight of

a new vehicle? Following the first attempt, that was Apollo 1, the

vehicle was not all that good. We knew it but thought we could

compensate for it with our skills. When they fixed everything that

could have caused the fire and things we wanted installed. When we

flew it, it was amazing. It was the longest, most ambitious, most

successful test flight of any machine, it was almost perfect. When

you look at the timeline, it is astonishing from a modern

perspective, you flew October 1968, a month and a half later Apollo 8

and then you go and land on the moon in 69. What was it like being

involved in such a programme? This national goal, we are going to go

there by 1970? We had a mission scheduled every two months. If

everything wept perfect -- went perfect that is the way it went. We

didn't expect it to be perfect. Everyone was committed. It wasn't

just the crew. We got the attention, but it was the really the commitment

from the engineering, from the Mission Control people and

management's decisions. We had an attitude that said the job has got

to be done. Everybody followed through. What kind of people are

you? If you look at the Apollo programme and Apollo 13, Apollo 11

lands on the moon. Apollo 13 had problems. What does it take to be an

astronaut? Well, it is interesting, because it is the public what has

changed the most. The guys were all committed by Apollo 13, they were

not even covering the flight live. And I was at home at the time and I

can remember when they announced that Apollo 13 had a problem. I

lived across the street from the Mission Control. I remember going

over there, listening and I was in Mission Control and I was right

behind and I was listening to what was going on. And Jack McConnell

Swaggart, who had been on our crew, we had developed the malfunction

procedures. I listened and I could tell listening to it, , Jack had

done everything you could. I went to bed. I knew they had done everything

they could do. We have a lot of questions coming in. Andy asks what

stresses did you feel on your body on take off. We got to over 5Gs, but

it is the first two minutes where you have the minute stage and you

get up to two and a half minutes and you're separated, then it is an easy

ride up there. And what did you experience emotionally in space?

Well, mostly it was just pleased and satisfaction that we are here now.

And we were still committed and determined that if this mission

fails, it is not going to fail because of me. We all that had same

attitude. The moon has its own difficulties looking through a

telescope. Here is a quick guide. We have still got rain here, but

look at this glorious view of the moon yesterday from Norfolk.

You can see some of the lunar detailed beautifully. It is a really

helpful subject if you are starting out because even with a normal

telescope you get a great view like this one we got yesterday. We see it

because it reflects sunlight, it is by -- sometimes too bright to seek

custody but in order to pick up small details you might need one of

these, and moon filter, and it cuts down the brightness of the moon so

you can see it in more comfort. Last month the Chinese Monday, January

three -- the Chinese lander, Chang E three became the first lander to

reach the moon in years. You can see it there. There is also a wonderful

image of the Jade Rabbit which is the Rover trundling around the

surface, you can see the solar panels. Back to the studio.

Walt will be with us for Back to Earth after the show. Let's go back

to Liz. Thank you. Can I just say, every

time we are off air the pilots are doing so well to get us back into

the trajectory that can give you the images. Look at that green glow, it

is such a treat to be up here are above the cloud cover. Pete and I

were discussing how it is ethical to predict aurorae -- difficult. We

have got a few tools at our disposal to catch these when they appear. For

example, is it possible to know, geographically, where is it going to

appear next? Yes, it is, there is a value, the KP index which goes from

zero up till nine and gives you an idea how far south the auroral oval

will stretch stop for Tromso, this one here, it is probably about KP

one. Right over the top of us. You work

saying that from the plane. If the numbers go up, eight, nine, because

it runs up until nine, that would be an aurora that may be visible from

the south of England. And they are rarer. The sun has been really

active, I know my KP is perfect for where I am standing, is that it is,

I guaranteed an aurora? There are other things that come into play,

the magnetic polarity coming from the sun. The earth has magnetic

polarity, is the stuff coming from the sun is the Northpoint infield it

doesn't connect and not much goes on. But if it has a south pointing

field it connects with the Earth and the magic occurs. We have been

treated to this beautiful light show, I don't want the plane to

land. Hopefully we can feel our boots with this wonderful site. As

they have been mentioning any wrong, something very exciting has been

happening with our son, an event that has created this coronal mass

ejection, potentially tomorrow. What does it mean for us, how can it

change our view from this plane tomorrow when we fly? It can

completely change it, it is heading to us as a speed

which could trigger a really good aurora. It could go the other way,

no guarantees. It is still not an exact science, the colours may

change from green to red to purple, we will not know until very close to

when we take off, but if the stars are aligned, if all of those factors

are right we may give you the best light show on earth. We will leave

you with these images and we will say good night.

You can see dynamically the system changing, different structures

appearing. They will get some great pictures as the flight develops.

Don't forget, we need your help again this year in our search for

distant, hidden galaxies. We have already had 4 million hits. Make

sure you visit our website and follow the link. Tomorrow night we

will bring you the results. The telescope has turned, it is away

from the control room. It has gone to look at the very interesting

candidate that somebody out there pointed out and discovered, it do so

more physics, to try to characterise it. We are getting real science out

of this. The website has changed to get some of the prime candidates, to

get a second look. We are asking you to discover distant galaxies but is

there any realistic chance we could one day journey to the stars? To

reach the speeds needed for interstellar travel we need a

starship within engine fit for the job. An almighty rocket engine.

Everything you need to know about rockets is contained in one very

simple equation. It is known as the rocket equation. It says that the

velocity, the speed you want to get it flying, depends on only two

things, one is something called the mass ratio, and then the risk this

term. The exhaust velocity. The speed you throw the stuff out of the

back. That depends, essentially, on one thing, the kind of fuel you use.

Today's most advanced rocket powered chemical fuels. The stuff that got

us to the moon. This one is being tested for a future mission to Mars.

It's exhaust can reach 4.5 thousand mph. That could never get us to the

stars. Scientists have long searched for an alternative. In 1945 the

power within the atom was unleashed. And soon afterwards a group of

scientists joined forces in complete secrecy to work on project Orion, a

mission to see if atomic bombs could be used to propel rockets into

space. These are some of the unclassified

designs from the project, and you see they are really ambitious. The

famous physicist Freeman Dyson worked on this project for a while

and he published some estimates as to what it would take to launch a

100,000 on spacecraft -- torn to 3% the speed of light, the kind speed

you would need to send a spacecraft out to the nearby stars. Despite

some impressive test launches this starship would need 300,000 atomic

bombs to reach that speed. This was never going to be a solution. But

there is another substance that has the potential to be an even more

powerful rocket fuel. Everything we can see in the universe, every star,

every planet, every galaxy you me, this rock, is made of matter, a

collection of subatomic particles. We now know all those particles have

partners, the same mass, opposite electric charge which are called

antiparticles or antimatter. Antimatter has a property that if

you bring it into contact with matter they can annihilate into pure

energy, although mass is carried away ultimately by a stream of

Britain's carrying at the speed of light -- photons. Antimatter

provides the ideal rocket fuel. The hard bit is building a fuel tank

that can store it. But at one of the largest antimatter factories in the

world they are doing just that. Matter and antimatter can exist

together, they annihilate. The trick is to keep the antimatter away from

the matter. After making antimatter in particle accelerators tanks have

been made that can hold the antimatter without it annihilating.

We have a vacuum, the gas removed, we make a electromagnetic bottles,

forcefield that hold the antimatter away from the matter. In 2010 they

succeeded in bottling atoms of antimatter in this type for the

first time. -- tank. The concept of antimatter as a rocket fuel is

spot-on. It has the highest energy to mass ratio of anything you could

imagine. So far they have only managed to hold it for 16 minutes

but it means the idea of an antimatter starship is one step

closer to reality. Perhaps one day we could be using it to power our

way to the stars. Commander Chris Hadfield is with us again. There is

a future there, a disappointing view of the future we haven't built

starships yet, but we have built the International space Station which

you commanded. Are you content, happy, disappointed with where we

are in terms of manned or human space exploration? As we have

explored the surface of the world it is at that pace, we make some

inventions, get as far as we can, test the new area. It is testing

what you make the whole alt of and what you make the systems, we have

had troubles with the cooling system, it is like sailing ship our

brand down within sight of land before you head across the ocean. A

lot of it cannot be tested at the surface. It is not a race, we are

not in a gigantic curry and we want to make sure we make the inventions

as time goes on -- we are not in a gigantic hurry. We will

incrementally continue to move as far as the technology can take this.

Would it help if we were in a race? As soon as you cross the finish line

it is over. The stage we are at right now is incremental expansion.

We have taken that first permanent step away from the Earth, the space

station is our first permanent international outpost away from the

world and we need to learn from that. It is a big structure, not to

minimise that achievement. You said it is bigger than I thought it was.

You can work all day and not see other crew members. An amazing

viewport for the world, a place to look at the universe and with the

Alpha magnetic spectrometer to collect the subatomic particles of

the universe, a huge test-bed allowing us to go further. I am so

glad you got some particle physics in there. Chris and Walt will be

joining us in a couple of minutes. Tomorrow night we have got news of

brand-new mission to map the Milky Way. If there is anything you want

to ask about the Milky Way or galactic travel send in your

questions now. Walt and Chris will be answering more questions right

after the show when we are Back to Earth on BBC Two.