:00:11. > :00:14.Tim Peake is on board the International Space Station getting
:00:15. > :00:19.ready to make history on Friday as he becomes the first British
:00:20. > :00:23.astronaut to complete a spacewalk. He has taken time out to tell us all
:00:24. > :00:28.about it and have a bit of fun showing us how to drink in space.
:00:29. > :00:31.Plenty of that coming up, I am Brian Cox, he is Dara O Briain, this is
:00:32. > :01:04.Stargazing Live. Well, I think this is one of the
:01:05. > :01:08.most exciting Stargazing Lives we have ever had, because not only are
:01:09. > :01:12.we going to speak to Tim directly from the space station, but we will
:01:13. > :01:19.be covering the spacewalk on Friday, when we will be joined by Chris
:01:20. > :01:22.Hadfield. Always a joy to talk to, and we will try to explain how the
:01:23. > :01:29.space station does not spin out of control, by making this very shed
:01:30. > :01:33.appeared to defy gravity. It is defined gravity because there is a
:01:34. > :01:38.cable attached, but you will see what we mean! We want you to enjoy
:01:39. > :01:41.the stars, but unfortunately the weather tonight has different ideas,
:01:42. > :01:47.we are in a very wet Cheshire, and at Jodrell Bank, which this year
:01:48. > :01:52.marks up its 70th anniversary of astronomy. This is our home for four
:01:53. > :01:56.nights, and we will be hoping the clouds clear so we can see some
:01:57. > :02:01.stars, and Lucie Green is here to show us the way, what can we hope to
:02:02. > :02:06.see if we get lucky? It is cloudy at the moment, and it has just started
:02:07. > :02:10.to rain, but when the weather clears, now is a great time to look
:02:11. > :02:17.for the planet Mars. That is because it is making its closest approach to
:02:18. > :02:20.us in its orbit around the son. Head out in the early hours of the
:02:21. > :02:23.morning, look towards the south of the constellation Virgo to see the
:02:24. > :02:28.red planet. You might even be able to make out its polar ice caps with
:02:29. > :02:32.a telescope. We are all about the planets at the moment, and if you
:02:33. > :02:37.are out before dawn, you might catch a glimpse of venous and Saturn, very
:02:38. > :02:40.close together in the sky. Towards the end of the month, all five
:02:41. > :02:45.planets that are visible to the naked eye will be lined up along the
:02:46. > :02:53.horizon, and that has not happened in over a decade. As ever, we are
:02:54. > :02:58.going to be asking for your help in a nationwide bit of astronomical
:02:59. > :03:03.research, how would you like to find a previously undetected pulsar, a
:03:04. > :03:07.spinning neutron star? And on top of this, we will be finding out what it
:03:08. > :03:11.takes to become an astronaut, Liz Bonnin will be joining us from the
:03:12. > :03:16.European astronaut training centre, and a guinea pig will be comedian
:03:17. > :03:20.and amateur astronomer John Bishop. He will be undergoing a series of
:03:21. > :03:24.demanding physical tests which all astronaut, including Tim Peake, at
:03:25. > :03:32.to go through. Tim is the first British astronaut on the ISS, many
:03:33. > :03:35.of you will remember the moment when he launched into space just before
:03:36. > :03:38.Christmas, let's take a quick look at what he has been up to since
:03:39. > :03:43.then. It has been four weeks since he said his final farewells to his
:03:44. > :03:54.family and took a seat on top of 300 tonnes of rocket fuel. He hurtled at
:03:55. > :04:01.17,000 mph towards his new home. After a tense manual docking...
:04:02. > :04:08.Capture! He could stretches legs and take a tour of his new digs. Since
:04:09. > :04:13.then, he has been clocking up the miles, 11.7 million of them, to be
:04:14. > :04:18.precise, orbiting the planet 16 times a day. And it has been a busy
:04:19. > :04:28.month up there, he has had to master like in microgravity. -- life. Not
:04:29. > :04:33.quite there yet. Practice makes perfect! He has helped his
:04:34. > :04:36.colleagues make a spacewalk to repair the robotic arm, and thanks
:04:37. > :04:41.to social media he has shown everyone back home his day-to-day
:04:42. > :04:46.life in space, his dodgy space haircut, his apology when he
:04:47. > :04:52.accidentally made a prank call from orbit, and he sent Christmas cheers
:04:53. > :04:58.from 250 miles up. I would like to wish everybody on planet earth a
:04:59. > :05:06.very happy New Year and a fantastic 2016. Since the launch, he has
:05:07. > :05:12.orbited at 450 times, just another 2300 to go! Let's see where he is on
:05:13. > :05:16.the map. He is near Hawaii. At the end of the programme, he will be
:05:17. > :05:20.another two thirds around the planet. He has been sending
:05:21. > :05:26.messages, this is the first, which he sent at Christmas. Hello, I am
:05:27. > :05:30.Tim Peake, welcome on board the International Space Station. I have
:05:31. > :05:32.been here about ten days, and I feel like my body has finally
:05:33. > :05:37.acclimatised to living and working in space, but that was not the case
:05:38. > :05:41.for the first 24 hours. I felt really quite dizzy, a couple of
:05:42. > :05:46.times quite nauseous as well. On the second morning, when I woke up, it
:05:47. > :05:50.was as if my brain had sorted out what was going on, and now I do not
:05:51. > :05:55.feel up or down, so it doesn't matter what orientation I talk to
:05:56. > :05:59.you in, my body can work it out. Something else my body has had to
:06:00. > :06:02.get used to is fluid shift. All of the body fluids that normally pool
:06:03. > :06:05.in our legs as shifted up and centralised around the chest and
:06:06. > :06:11.hard area, and that causes an increased pressure in the head. It
:06:12. > :06:15.also causes this puffy faced look. I suspect, in about a month, all of
:06:16. > :06:19.these symptoms will be completely resolved. The best bit about being
:06:20. > :06:22.in space is not really the view, it is the fact that you are allowed to
:06:23. > :06:30.be five years old again and play with your food answering.
:06:31. > :06:39.-- your food and drink. You can see we are excited about this, and it is
:06:40. > :06:43.a huge week for Tim, he is doing his first spacewalk on Friday, and since
:06:44. > :06:47.the announcement, his schedule has been changed, so he is not allowed
:06:48. > :06:51.to stay up past eight o'clock, and they use Greenwich Mean Time on the
:06:52. > :06:56.ISS. We did catch up with him earlier and asked what he had been
:06:57. > :07:01.doing. The primary purpose of the spacewalk is to actually fix a box
:07:02. > :07:05.which transfers all the power from one of the solar panels downstream,
:07:06. > :07:10.and the three and a half hours that I will have after replacing this box
:07:11. > :07:14.will actually be laying lots of electrical cables for future
:07:15. > :07:19.capability of the space station. Do you have time to look down a little
:07:20. > :07:23.bit? It is a great question, and for every first-time spacewalk, there is
:07:24. > :07:27.a bit of time built into the schedule for adaptation. I will have
:07:28. > :07:34.a few moments when I will be hanging beneath the airlock, when I can have
:07:35. > :07:36.a look around, becoming bit more familiar with life outside the space
:07:37. > :07:40.station, and of course to look down on planet earth and see how that
:07:41. > :07:45.appeals from outside the space station in a space suit. -- how that
:07:46. > :07:50.deals. How are you preparing and getting ready for the moment when
:07:51. > :07:54.you step out for seven hours? Really, the preparation and training
:07:55. > :07:58.is done back in Houston in the neutral buoyancy laboratory, and for
:07:59. > :08:01.me it was the most enjoyable and rewarding and challenging and
:08:02. > :08:08.demanding aspect, so in terms of preparing for what we have to do on
:08:09. > :08:11.Friday, we have enormous support teams who have helped us to get the
:08:12. > :08:13.procedure is ready and choreographed the spacewalk, the whole six and a
:08:14. > :08:17.half hours have been planned in meticulous detail. Myself and Tim
:08:18. > :08:20.Kopra have run through the procedures, we have used computer
:08:21. > :08:24.simulations to see where we are going to be going and what we are
:08:25. > :08:28.going to be doing. We have had our hands on the equipment and tested
:08:29. > :08:33.everything, including the suits, and so we are really ready to go. We
:08:34. > :08:37.have heard you will be out for six and a half hours, we know the suits
:08:38. > :08:44.are inflated, only 20% of your normal movement, tell us how arduous
:08:45. > :08:48.this job will be. That is right, Dara, inside the pressurised suit,
:08:49. > :08:52.every motion you make you are fighting against the suit,
:08:53. > :08:56.constantly moving your fingers, and doing wire ties, connecting
:08:57. > :09:00.electrical connectors, and I can show you an example of one of the
:09:01. > :09:05.bags, and one of the electrical coils that I will have to lay down.
:09:06. > :09:10.In addition to this, I have another bag with three more electrical coils
:09:11. > :09:14.at least as big as this, and you can imagine working with this kind of
:09:15. > :09:19.thing in weightlessness is brought with peril, not only in terms of,
:09:20. > :09:24.you know, getting tangled up, but also lots of hard work in terms of
:09:25. > :09:28.metal wire ties to undo and having to attach this cable to the space
:09:29. > :09:34.station, and all of these electrical connectors as well. I know you must
:09:35. > :09:38.have been thinking about this, that moment, since you wanted to be an
:09:39. > :09:43.astronaut, following in the footsteps of great names - how will
:09:44. > :09:48.it feel, how does it feel to become one of those people? I think it is
:09:49. > :09:53.going to be the most exhilarating feeling imaginable. Obviously, it is
:09:54. > :09:57.going to be tremendously exciting, there is also going to be moments of
:09:58. > :10:02.apprehension, I am sure. Everybody I have spoken to says it is not a very
:10:03. > :10:07.natural thing for the mind of the body to take account of. You are on
:10:08. > :10:11.the edge there in terms of performance of equipment, in terms
:10:12. > :10:15.of what we are capable of. It is extremely physically demanding and
:10:16. > :10:19.very mentally demanding too, but it is what I have trained for, it is
:10:20. > :10:24.something I am really excited about doing. More from Tim later, and we
:10:25. > :10:29.will be showing you the spacewalk on Friday. We have come out because you
:10:30. > :10:33.might imagine that the space station orbits so really, but it takes
:10:34. > :10:40.ingenious technology just to keep it stable. We are going to show you how
:10:41. > :10:44.it works by making this shed appear to defy gravity. This is what we
:10:45. > :10:49.lifted it by one cable, you can see that it tipped over, it is not
:10:50. > :10:53.particularly stable. But in this case, there is a gyroscope in it, so
:10:54. > :11:03.let's see what happens. Are you ready? Let's lift the shed! It is
:11:04. > :11:09.only being held on one side, so you would expect it to tip over, but it
:11:10. > :11:14.remains standing, but spinning. What we are seeing is the strange
:11:15. > :11:20.property, the strange property of spin. Essentially, the gyroscope,
:11:21. > :11:25.the shed was trying to fall over, as it was earlier, but because of the
:11:26. > :11:31.spinning drum inside, you can trade off that tendency to fall over into
:11:32. > :11:37.that motion, which is a stable motion, as you can see. Now, that is
:11:38. > :11:40.essentially the main way that the space station remains stable. The
:11:41. > :11:46.spinning drum does not want to get out of the angle that it is spinning
:11:47. > :11:51.done. The space station has four gyroscopes, faster than that,
:11:52. > :11:57.spinning at 6600 rpm, and they wait 100 kilograms each, so it is a lot
:11:58. > :12:01.of spin. So if the space station starts to tumble, and it can happen
:12:02. > :12:06.for many reasons, if the astronauts are moving around, a spacecraft
:12:07. > :12:15.docks, or even the pressure of sunlight on the solar panels can
:12:16. > :12:20.spin the space station. The gyros keep it stable, Tim will demonstrate
:12:21. > :12:25.that, actually, but you can move them and potentially trade the spin
:12:26. > :12:29.of the space station for the spin of the gyroscopes. That whole control
:12:30. > :12:33.mechanism, which is based on the physics of the spinning things,
:12:34. > :12:38.allows the space station to remain stable and orientated correctly. And
:12:39. > :12:42.saves it having thrusters and needing fuel to be delivered to the
:12:43. > :12:47.space station. You have to do and sometimes, it is not a perpetual
:12:48. > :12:53.motion machine, and the Russian station BLEEP part of the station
:12:54. > :12:57.has thrust is to reset the system. This is very different when you are
:12:58. > :13:02.in space, if you want to see what a gyroscope looks like in space, Tim
:13:03. > :13:07.showed as one earlier on. Once the gyroscope is spinning, you can see
:13:08. > :13:12.how stable it becomes. And however I knock it, it is not going to change
:13:13. > :13:16.its plane, it is going to remain in the same plane. I can put it
:13:17. > :13:22.physically into a different plane, but it will still hold that same
:13:23. > :13:27.plane, and it is much more stable, it gives you an idea of how we use
:13:28. > :13:31.spin stabilisation and gyro stabilisation for control on board
:13:32. > :13:37.the International Space Station. This is amateur astronomy, isn't it,
:13:38. > :13:41.standing in the rain? With a shed! The great tradition of astronomy!
:13:42. > :13:45.The ISS is nothing without the astronauts on board, and Tim has
:13:46. > :13:48.been through six years of intensive training. Liz Bonnin has travelled
:13:49. > :13:52.to Cologne to go behind the scenes at the astronaut training centre.
:13:53. > :13:57.Joining her for the next three days is a human guinea pig, one of the
:13:58. > :14:02.astronaut John Bishop, I am loving what we are putting him through! He
:14:03. > :14:07.is a keen astronomer and a friend of the show, and he is pretty fit and
:14:08. > :14:09.intrepid as well. With a bit of luck, Liz will be ready to chuck him
:14:10. > :14:20.in at the deep end. We are here, Dara, welcome to the
:14:21. > :14:24.European astronaut Centre, we are here to show you some of what it
:14:25. > :14:29.takes to get to the ISS but we are also here to put John Bishop to the
:14:30. > :14:33.astronaut test. This is the Neutral Buoyancy Facility, very specialist
:14:34. > :14:37.pool that is kitted out with all sorts of good things, including a
:14:38. > :14:43.replica of Columbus module. This is the European space lab on the ISS
:14:44. > :14:47.and there is also a full fully operational airlock, submersible
:14:48. > :14:53.platforms with handrails and work stations. This is where astronauts
:14:54. > :14:58.begin to train for spacewalks or extravehicular activity is, EVA, as
:14:59. > :15:02.it is known. Tim Peake is doing his first spacewalk on Friday and it all
:15:03. > :15:08.began here. He embarked on 150 hours of the training it takes to make it
:15:09. > :15:12.up there, what has to be the most challenging and difficult thing you
:15:13. > :15:15.can do on the ISS. John Bishop is embarking on the first hour of that
:15:16. > :15:20.training. How are you feeling? What made you sign up in the first place?
:15:21. > :15:27.To be honest, it was Stargazing Live. The show got me into astronomy
:15:28. > :15:31.and I have got to thank Tim O'Brien are Jodrell bank, he informed my
:15:32. > :15:36.wife about what telescope to get for my birthday, and I have just had it
:15:37. > :15:42.calibrated because we haven't had a clear night. And if you have
:15:43. > :15:45.interested in astronomy -- an interest in astronomy and someone
:15:46. > :15:49.says do you want to come and be a spaceman pro weekend, who will say
:15:50. > :15:53.no? You have had a little deeper and you are going to do the training
:15:54. > :15:56.session. Tim proved he had the right stuff, but I was looking at other
:15:57. > :16:01.criteria you might need should you like to take it further and some of
:16:02. > :16:05.it, aside from having superb physical fitness, as you obviously
:16:06. > :16:12.have, a scientific or technical qualification as well, you have to
:16:13. > :16:14.have the right personality. Live and work with people in a very close,
:16:15. > :16:19.confined space for months on end without going mad, are you a people
:16:20. > :16:24.person? I have been on a caravan holiday and I have shared a dressing
:16:25. > :16:29.room at Dara O'Briain, so that takes some doing. You must be a good
:16:30. > :16:37.multitasker, mechanic, scientist, plumber, guinea pig... So you mean
:16:38. > :16:41.being a dad, I can do it. John is going to put many of these criteria
:16:42. > :16:44.to the test all at the same time very shortly. But he only arrived
:16:45. > :16:48.this morning so we thought it was only right to show him around the
:16:49. > :16:53.place. So I am here, I have made it, I am
:16:54. > :17:03.at the European astronaut Centre. That is Yuri Gate Caryn's head. Not
:17:04. > :17:07.his real head, a copy -- Gagarin. These are actual live shots coming
:17:08. > :17:10.from the Space Station. You can see Tim in the top right-hand corner. It
:17:11. > :17:18.looks like a couple of fellows who have come to fix a washing machine.
:17:19. > :17:25.So this is a centrifuge, which basically spins around. Now... I
:17:26. > :17:30.have been in many rooms that have been spinning but normally that has
:17:31. > :17:34.been after I have had a drink. This is a space bed. It is exactly what
:17:35. > :17:40.Tim Peake and everyone else in the group will be sleeping in. It is
:17:41. > :17:46.like going on the most stressful, most involved, longest caravan
:17:47. > :17:53.holiday ever. Would be great, though, wouldn't it?
:17:54. > :17:57.So you have had a good look around, anything surprising, anything making
:17:58. > :18:01.you feel a little bit petrified or you good to go? I don't like the
:18:02. > :18:03.centrifuge, which I have to do in a couple of days, I am not looking
:18:04. > :18:07.forward to that but the main impression you get from here is
:18:08. > :18:11.everybody is working towards one goal, working at peak performance.
:18:12. > :18:17.You get a real sense of it here, don't you? And you meet real-life
:18:18. > :18:22.astronauts, Andreas Mogensen, he qualified in Tim Peake's class,
:18:23. > :18:29.Denmark's first astronaut, he is your mentors for the next few days
:18:30. > :18:33.-- mentor. What is the most challenging part of this class? Just
:18:34. > :18:37.getting used to working under water, especially with your safety tethers,
:18:38. > :18:41.because obviously there is a lot of focus on safety. You don't want to
:18:42. > :18:46.let go of the Space Station but in case that happens, we are reattached
:18:47. > :18:50.with safety tether. If you're not careful, you quickly get tangled in
:18:51. > :18:55.it. Any other invaluable advice for John before he gets in the pool?
:18:56. > :19:00.Slow and steady wins the race. Don't rush it, if you do, that is when
:19:01. > :19:05.things go wrong. Wise words, are you ready? I am, this is
:19:06. > :19:09.things go wrong. Wise words, are you activity that Tim and Andreas have
:19:10. > :19:13.done. I am nearly there. And you have do really imagine you are in
:19:14. > :19:18.space, one foot or one hand wrong, you are cosmic dust. Is that
:19:19. > :19:27.helpful? Yes, it does help, thanks for that. Good luck, see you on the
:19:28. > :19:31.other side. And with us is Herve, he will be the instructor and will
:19:32. > :19:35.supervise the entire procedure. John basically has to practice what
:19:36. > :19:38.astronauts do when they are translating, moving along the ISS
:19:39. > :19:43.with handrails. He will have to move one tool from one place to another.
:19:44. > :19:49.It seems pretty straightforward, but how complex can it get? It is very
:19:50. > :19:54.complex. Imagine I am a space walker and I see part of the Space Station,
:19:55. > :20:00.and I am carrying all of these tools. I don't want to be lost in
:20:01. > :20:04.space like in the Gravity movie, so for safety reasons, I have to be in
:20:05. > :20:08.contact with the station at two different points, always two. The
:20:09. > :20:13.first point is the safety tether. It is a real with a safety line
:20:14. > :20:17.attached to the airlock. So this is really important, it get you home.
:20:18. > :20:26.My second attachment point is my arm. What will happen if I run out
:20:27. > :20:30.of cable, out of this stuff, I know I need to proceed further. For that,
:20:31. > :20:34.I have to do what we call a safety tether swipe. That is the reason I
:20:35. > :20:40.am carrying a spare safety tether with me, to extend. I will show you
:20:41. > :20:45.the process, how to do it. So first of all, I have do secure myself with
:20:46. > :20:50.one tether to be able to work with both hands. Second point, I attached
:20:51. > :20:55.the cable of this one to the station here. Then I have do remove this one
:20:56. > :20:59.in order to attach it here, but if I do it that way and I let it go, it
:21:00. > :21:06.is a giant snake floating away and I am lost. So before I do that, I take
:21:07. > :21:13.this tether, attach it to the real, then remove this one and attach it
:21:14. > :21:19.to the other real. -- reel. Then this one back to this. You make it
:21:20. > :21:22.look simple but I lost you halfway through that procedure, far more
:21:23. > :21:32.complicated than I thought I'd you also have to do it... You have to do
:21:33. > :21:37.the work with these gloves. John Still has a few safety text to do
:21:38. > :21:43.before the water, come back to us for his first training session.
:21:44. > :21:47.Yes, we are dunking him in the water soon. It is difficult enough without
:21:48. > :21:51.a space it. If you want to ask anything about Tim Peake's mission
:21:52. > :21:56.on the Space Station, if you have any photos, send them to us by
:21:57. > :22:01.e-mail, Twitter or Flickr, details are on the screen. We have online
:22:02. > :22:03.coverage of all of the scenes tonight in stargazing and for those
:22:04. > :22:09.of you who like to watch two screens, go to the website. Now, the
:22:10. > :22:14.last year has been a tremendously exciting one for missions across our
:22:15. > :22:23.solar system. We all remember the Rosetta's successful rendezvous with
:22:24. > :22:27.comment 17 months ago. We are sending more information back from
:22:28. > :22:32.the probe. Tomorrow night, we will be catching up with the project.
:22:33. > :22:38.That is a very good model. We will find out more tomorrow from Matt
:22:39. > :22:42.Taylor. Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn for over a decade,
:22:43. > :22:48.arguably the most successful space mission of all time. At the moment,
:22:49. > :22:52.it is investigating Enceladus, probably my favourite moon in the
:22:53. > :22:57.solar system, I think. It is about the size of Wales. And before we got
:22:58. > :23:00.there, before Cassini arrived at Saturn, we thought it would be a
:23:01. > :23:05.dead world but is absolute as you see from the image, it is anything
:23:06. > :23:10.but. It has jets of water ice from the surface, so there may be water
:23:11. > :23:14.below the surface. What Cassini has been doing is making very close
:23:15. > :23:22.flyby is over Enceladus, because we want to know what is happening --
:23:23. > :23:26.fly bys. One of the things Cassini is looking for in the Jets is
:23:27. > :23:30.molecular hydrogen, one of the components of water. The reason is
:23:31. > :23:35.that on Earth, there are systems called hydrothermal vents and this
:23:36. > :23:41.is a video of the event system. They produce molecular hydrogen,
:23:42. > :23:46.chemically heated sea water seeping up into the ocean, but any
:23:47. > :23:49.biologists think that these are the places on earth, 4 billion years
:23:50. > :23:53.ago, which essentially functioned as the cradle of life, so the chemistry
:23:54. > :23:58.of where life began on Earth could be there. So if we find that there
:23:59. > :24:03.is evidence that those kinds of structures in the ocean or in the
:24:04. > :24:08.liquid water below Enceladus, it makes that little moon possibly the
:24:09. > :24:10.prime candidate for life in the solar system beyond Earth. It is a
:24:11. > :24:17.fascinating place. In March last year, the don't grid Dawn probe
:24:18. > :24:23.reached Ceres -- the Dawn probe. It was thought to have a large icy
:24:24. > :24:28.ocean and we were excited about some of the blackspots, lots of theories
:24:29. > :24:34.about the bright spots and why they were transmitting light. People were
:24:35. > :24:39.saying is a delight, is it an alien city? It obviously isn't but what is
:24:40. > :24:45.it Mr Mark the probe flew just 240 miles above the surface and these
:24:46. > :24:54.incredible pictures have found out that they are a type of salt, like
:24:55. > :24:59.Epsom salts. And it is not boring. It means Ceres might form somewhere
:25:00. > :25:02.in the distant solar system. Perhaps the biggest story of the year was
:25:03. > :25:12.from the most famous Dwarf Planet, Pluto. After nine years flying at
:25:13. > :25:16.36,000 mph, this thing, the new Nasa Horizon probe, about the size of a
:25:17. > :25:20.car, arrived. We were excited about it back in March when it was a long
:25:21. > :25:26.way off and we are revealing the first tantalising glimpses of Pluto.
:25:27. > :25:31.Here to discuss the latest data is Dr Carly Howett. Welcome. For a long
:25:32. > :25:35.time, the best image we had Pluto was from the Hubble telescope, which
:25:36. > :25:42.is very exciting image, but not particularly detailed. No, it is
:25:43. > :25:47.very blurry, but you can see that there are some differences. Pluto
:25:48. > :25:52.isn't uniform, light and dark regions. And then this image gets
:25:53. > :25:56.delivered to us. Yes, so much more, again, light and dark, so it is
:25:57. > :26:03.great but so much more geology in this. And varied geology as well.
:26:04. > :26:08.Yes, we didn't realise how active Pluto was and how varied the geology
:26:09. > :26:14.would be, it has been phenomenal. It has become very famous, this heart
:26:15. > :26:20.shaped structure. What is that? It is the smoothness of the region that
:26:21. > :26:24.is interesting. Everywhere is bombarded by meteorites so where the
:26:25. > :26:28.region is smooth, it tells us the surface has been re-coated, so
:26:29. > :26:33.something has happened and on Earth, it is erosion, wind and water and on
:26:34. > :26:36.Pluto, it can't be the reason, so it is geologically active, which is
:26:37. > :26:45.very exciting. So where is it coming from? That is one of the big
:26:46. > :26:48.questions, the radioactive iso- times in the rock, but whatever is
:26:49. > :26:52.there is warm enough to create this large-scale circular patterns that
:26:53. > :26:59.are eradicating the craters on the surface for some how old are we
:27:00. > :27:03.think the service is? Less than 10,000 years, so incredibly new. It
:27:04. > :27:07.may even be active today. And it is rising up like a lava lamp, the heat
:27:08. > :27:11.at the bottom creates a flat surface. If you zoom in on the
:27:12. > :27:16.image, there are little cells and we think they are individual
:27:17. > :27:19.circulation cells. That must have been a great shock. I don't think
:27:20. > :27:24.you could have found a planetary geologist or astrologer who would
:27:25. > :27:31.have said this world would be active now. Absolutely not, it is so far
:27:32. > :27:37.from a big gas giant or back of the right and they are usually closed to
:27:38. > :27:41.other big planets that can steal the energy, but Pluto is out on its own.
:27:42. > :27:46.And this is a tantalising picture on Enceladus. We think this might be an
:27:47. > :27:50.extinct cryovolcano and we think that because it is mounted with a
:27:51. > :27:53.hole in the middle and in terms of geology, it is difficult to explain
:27:54. > :28:00.if it is not a volcano, but we don't think it is active, we think it is
:28:01. > :28:06.probably extinct. So not volcano that spews lava, it throws out...
:28:07. > :28:10.Ice. There is not a lot of rock, on Pluto, so we think this erupted ice
:28:11. > :28:13.in the past, so different to the volcanoes we are used to. This is
:28:14. > :28:19.one of the most beautiful pictures I have seen in the history of space
:28:20. > :28:24.exploration. This is the tiny Dwarf Planet, 3.5 billion miles from the
:28:25. > :28:29.sun, but look at that. There is so much, you can see the mountains, the
:28:30. > :28:32.flat parts, and the atmosphere, we didn't know there would be an
:28:33. > :28:35.atmosphere when we got to Pluto, we thought it would be collapsed on the
:28:36. > :28:39.surface, but you can see there is clearly an atmosphere and a very
:28:40. > :28:46.complicated one. So we are looking at mountains of ice. Water ice that
:28:47. > :28:52.forms because Pluto temperatures are very strong, but it is not very
:28:53. > :28:56.dense, so other ice would float on top, so you are seeing water ice
:28:57. > :29:02.mountains floating on a sea of other ice. Methane, carbon monoxide, that
:29:03. > :29:07.sort of thing. We even have a shot of an eclipse. This was an image we
:29:08. > :29:12.took up the New Horizons had passed by Pluto, looking back, so the sun
:29:13. > :29:16.is behind, just to the top right, so it is brighter to the top right, but
:29:17. > :29:21.we can tell the colour of Pluto's sunrise and sunset. It would be
:29:22. > :29:27.blue. So many mysteries with Pluto, we have a lot of data to come back,
:29:28. > :29:31.so if there is one question you could answer about Pluto, what would
:29:32. > :29:38.it be? If there is still activity going on, that is a key one. How old
:29:39. > :29:41.are the ice volcanoes? Whether this resurfacing is continuing to this
:29:42. > :29:47.day, that is the key thing, it helps us page and date these regions. June
:29:48. > :29:49.into Back to Earth later immediately to find out what is next for New
:29:50. > :29:59.Horizons and send questions. One of the big questions we hope
:30:00. > :30:03.that New Horizons will answer is where Pluto came from, did the
:30:04. > :30:09.planets in our solar system formed in the order we see them today, or
:30:10. > :30:12.did they start in different orbits? One recent discovery might shed some
:30:13. > :30:17.light on that. It is not hard to see why Hawaii is
:30:18. > :30:24.viewed as a paradise, golden beaches, tropical climate, what is
:30:25. > :30:29.not to like? But for astronomers like Michael, it is a paradise for
:30:30. > :30:34.entirely different reasons. Astronomers like it because, at
:30:35. > :30:40.night, Hawaii is really, really dark. There are not that many people
:30:41. > :30:44.who live in Hawaii, so we have extremely Dark Sky Reserve, clear,
:30:45. > :30:52.the night is still. Every night, people are using this telescope to
:30:53. > :31:00.study the edge of the universe. Most of the time he uses Hawaii's ink
:31:01. > :31:04.black skies to search for failed stars called brown dwarves, but his
:31:05. > :31:12.greatest discovery was a total surprise. In 2011, he saw a faint
:31:13. > :31:17.red dot. It stood out very sharply in our images as something very
:31:18. > :31:21.strange, we did not know what it was, if it was faint because it was
:31:22. > :31:28.not releasing much energy or because it was very far away. At the two
:31:29. > :31:33.years of observation, he reached a surprising conclusion - the dot was
:31:34. > :31:37.just eight light-years away, our backyard in galactic terms. We did
:31:38. > :31:41.some calculations and found it was only seven times the mass of
:31:42. > :31:47.Jupiter, it was not a star, it was not a brown door, in fact it was a
:31:48. > :31:51.planet floating all by itself. -- brown dwarf. Michael had found
:31:52. > :31:57.something never seen before, something almost mythical in
:31:58. > :32:02.astronomy. This world was not orbiting a star but was alone in the
:32:03. > :32:07.blackness of space, a rogue planet. This was the first confirmed
:32:08. > :32:10.free-floating planet found today, we are very excited that we know this
:32:11. > :32:15.exists, we are eagerly looking for more. We think there are many more
:32:16. > :32:20.out there, possibly billions, but how did they end up drifting alone
:32:21. > :32:26.in space? One theory is that these planets were not always without a
:32:27. > :32:28.star to call their own. If this is true, it might shed light on a
:32:29. > :32:38.mystery in our own planetary system. 2500 miles from Hawaii, two
:32:39. > :32:46.scientists are grappling with a problem. How did our earth survive
:32:47. > :32:51.the chaotic early solar system? You can think of the solar system today
:32:52. > :32:55.as a pool game in progress, and at some point there was a giant break,
:32:56. > :33:01.everything went flying all over the place, and you come in and look at
:33:02. > :33:06.it and try to understand, how did it all start out? Here is the issue -
:33:07. > :33:13.we note the planets did not start life in a current positions. Their
:33:14. > :33:23.orbits have moved over time. But the team cannot just run time backwards
:33:24. > :33:25.to find out where they started. Instead, they create computer
:33:26. > :33:34.simulations, modelling different positions. Then they run time
:33:35. > :33:38.forwards to see what happens. Within the context of the computer
:33:39. > :33:44.simulation, we try to programme in all the laws of physics that are
:33:45. > :33:48.relevant, that we understand well, and using these laws of physics, we
:33:49. > :33:55.try to recreate the history of the solar system. But no matter how they
:33:56. > :34:00.set up the planets to begin with, and no matter how many times they
:34:01. > :34:07.ran their models, they were struggling to create the solar
:34:08. > :34:12.system we see today. The big problem that we have is that the terrestrial
:34:13. > :34:15.planets, Mercury, Venus, earth and Mars, were often injected from the
:34:16. > :34:21.solar system and destroyed, and that is kind of a bad thing when you are
:34:22. > :34:26.trying to reproduce the solar system. The mass of Jupiter is the
:34:27. > :34:32.problem. Time and again, it's huge gravity violently disrupt the
:34:33. > :34:36.growing solar system, with the earth often being thrown into space. But
:34:37. > :34:42.when that rogue planet was discovered, it offered a bad goal
:34:43. > :34:47.solution to the Jupiter problem. -- a radical solution. We thought, what
:34:48. > :34:52.if we introduce an extra planet into the solecism and dejected such that
:34:53. > :34:56.it is no longer there, could we then save the earth and the other
:34:57. > :35:01.terrestrial planets? -- into the solar system. With another giant
:35:02. > :35:10.planets between Saturn and Uranus, they ran the computers again. In
:35:11. > :35:16.most of the simulations we ran, that extra giant planet was rejected to
:35:17. > :35:21.be Gameiro planet out in the galaxy. -- was objected to become a rogue
:35:22. > :35:25.planet. Strangely enough, that is what saves the terrestrial planets
:35:26. > :35:30.from being injected themselves. They cannot be certain, but this is the
:35:31. > :35:35.most convincing explanation yet, suggesting that out in the blackness
:35:36. > :35:40.of space there roams an orphan planet that was once part of our own
:35:41. > :35:46.family, a planet which we may have to thank for the survival of the
:35:47. > :35:55.earth. Where is it now, I wish I could do a
:35:56. > :36:04.Serb Patrick imp! After 4.5 billion years. -- Sir Patrick imp.
:36:05. > :36:08.Astronomers have been studying that rogue planet in more detail than
:36:09. > :36:13.ever before, and this is what they think it might look like, we know it
:36:14. > :36:19.is cloudy, we know it is hard, and we know there are dust storms and a
:36:20. > :36:23.chance of showers of molten iron, this is six times the mass of
:36:24. > :36:28.Jupiter, it is a bizarre world. Earlier we spoke to Tim Peake, and
:36:29. > :36:33.in the 30 minute since then, he has travelled a third of the way around
:36:34. > :36:41.the planet. Let's find him, we have lost him, he could be anywhere!
:36:42. > :36:51.Literally anywhere around the globe. He is down here, there he is! He has
:36:52. > :36:57.gone again! On this scale... How far above the surface is he? About 1.9
:36:58. > :37:00.centimetres on this scale, so the altitude is not that high relative
:37:01. > :37:07.to the size of the earth. The space station is angled at about 52
:37:08. > :37:12.degrees to the equator. And it just goes around and around and around,
:37:13. > :37:18.it does not make many orbital corrections, but it goes around 16
:37:19. > :37:23.times a day, so in 90 minutes, the earth will have moved a bit. So that
:37:24. > :37:28.means the space station sees most of the earth's surface, it goes
:37:29. > :37:34.directly overhead of a very large fraction of the surface. And even if
:37:35. > :37:39.it does not go above, they can see it. Just low on the horizon, you can
:37:40. > :37:43.essentially see the space station from most places, but it goes
:37:44. > :37:48.directly over most of southern Britain. Lucie Green can tell you
:37:49. > :37:52.how you can see it for yourself. Thank you, yes, the International
:37:53. > :37:56.Space Station is surprisingly easy to spot, and to help you to do that
:37:57. > :38:00.there are several websites, where if you enter your location, it will
:38:01. > :38:05.return to you exactly the right time to go out and have a look, and
:38:06. > :38:12.whereabouts in BSkyB space station will be seen. It helps that it is
:38:13. > :38:16.incredibly bright. -- where about in the sky the space station will be
:38:17. > :38:20.seen. It is still in sunlight when we are in darkness, and it's a vast
:38:21. > :38:27.solar panels reflect sunlight back towards us. I went out and so it
:38:28. > :38:30.going over, it looks like a bright star streaking across the sky, and
:38:31. > :38:34.it takes around five minutes to get from one horizon to the other. That
:38:35. > :38:39.gives you plenty of time to try to take a photo of it, and all you need
:38:40. > :38:44.for that is a camera that allows you to take a long exposure and a tripod
:38:45. > :38:49.to put your camera on. Using that kid, I managed to get a great photo
:38:50. > :38:54.of the space station streaking across the sky, and I even got three
:38:55. > :38:58.planets in there. For those of you who are more adventurous, try taking
:38:59. > :39:02.a photo where you can capture the details of the space station, see
:39:03. > :39:07.the solar panels and the modules that Tim Peake is working and living
:39:08. > :39:14.in at the moment. In fact, there is even a video guide on the website to
:39:15. > :39:18.help you see that. I am joined by members from the Macclesfield
:39:19. > :39:22.Astronomical Society, who were hoping to catch a glimpse of the
:39:23. > :39:27.Crab Nebula and the Crab Pulsar, and we are interested in pulsars because
:39:28. > :39:31.we need your help to find more of them, and Dara and Brian are going
:39:32. > :39:35.to come back to that later. I have been told that the clouds might
:39:36. > :39:39.clear later, I remain optimistic, but here to tell you what your
:39:40. > :39:41.chances are of spotting the space station and other objects is the
:39:42. > :39:51.weather with Arbilla Vereen. -- with Phil Avery. I bring good
:39:52. > :39:56.news of improving weather conditions, but it may well be that
:39:57. > :40:00.part of Northern Ireland and the south-west of England will have good
:40:01. > :40:04.conditions, and then towards midnight the south-west of Wales may
:40:05. > :40:09.begin to clear up. We have a planetary conjunction between Saddam
:40:10. > :40:14.and Venus, and later in the night it may well be that the cloud clears so
:40:15. > :40:19.you can get a view of Tim Peake as he hurtles overhead. As we move
:40:20. > :40:23.forwards towards tomorrow night, no disguising the fact that we have
:40:24. > :40:27.another area of low pressure throwing weather fronts across many
:40:28. > :40:33.parts of the British Isles with cloud, wind and some snow. Only the
:40:34. > :40:36.northern parts of Scotland have any chance of half decent viewing
:40:37. > :40:40.conditions. Tonight make the most of it as it clears, tomorrow night
:40:41. > :40:44.little chance, I am afraid. As you know, it is traditional that
:40:45. > :40:49.every year we ask for your help in some astronomical research, and what
:40:50. > :40:53.you have found has been genuinely important, even published in
:40:54. > :41:02.astronomical journals. This is from two years ago, very catchily titled!
:41:03. > :41:06.You did that! Our names are on it! That is my entire academic career
:41:07. > :41:11.right there! You have helped us map the surface of Mars, find a new
:41:12. > :41:19.planet, distant galaxies and super navy, and this year it is pulsars.
:41:20. > :41:24.-- supernovae. Tim O'Brien, what is a pulsar? About the name means a
:41:25. > :41:30.pulse, it comes from something that flashes, it flashes in the radio
:41:31. > :41:35.sky, the remnant of an exploded star. The central part of the DRS
:41:36. > :41:39.collapses on itself, you have something about the size of a city
:41:40. > :41:49.but weighing about 1.5 times more than the sun. -- the central part of
:41:50. > :41:55.the star collapses. It is like a lighthouse as it goes around. We
:41:56. > :41:58.should step through some of that again, classic astronomer's
:41:59. > :42:02.understatement! We have an audio recording so you can get a feel of
:42:03. > :42:09.what it sounds like, you are seeing a star the size of a city more
:42:10. > :42:15.massive than the sun spinning around, 11 times a second. It is
:42:16. > :42:18.incredibly regular. They are very massive, very stable, like the
:42:19. > :42:24.flywheel you had a spinning, it is very hard to dislodge them, so that
:42:25. > :42:29.is very regular. That was a supernova remnant in the southern
:42:30. > :42:34.sky. Why are we interested in them and finding more of them? Two
:42:35. > :42:40.reasons, they are test of our physical theories, so extreme
:42:41. > :42:43.places, and when you have that much mass in such a small volume moving
:42:44. > :42:47.quickly, unusual things happen, so if you want to test general
:42:48. > :42:53.relativity - and I can see that you do - we can use them. And the
:42:54. > :42:58.Voyager spacecraft, the one with the cold disc telling aliens where to
:42:59. > :43:03.find us, the navigation we give them is through pulsars, and the map of
:43:04. > :43:07.the galaxy is useful for physics as well as spaceship navigation. These
:43:08. > :43:11.are radio phenomena, so we have data from a radio telescope in Effelsberg
:43:12. > :43:20.in Germany, and we have put that data online. It is on the Stargazing
:43:21. > :43:24.website. That will work, it takes about a minute and a half to learn
:43:25. > :43:28.how to recognise a pulsar, you are looking for repeated blips, which we
:43:29. > :43:34.have shown on the site. If you find one, click a button, it will go
:43:35. > :43:38.through, and we hope to follow up the discoveries using a nearby radio
:43:39. > :43:45.telescope. Have only we had a massive radio telescope(!) Hopefully
:43:46. > :43:51.there will be people, we are looking for about 1 million classifications
:43:52. > :43:58.in the next couple of hours! What would be the Holy Grail? What would
:43:59. > :44:03.be the discovery that would merit... Any pulsar is good, adding to the
:44:04. > :44:10.catalogue. We are looking for the most extreme, the rarest, the ones
:44:11. > :44:15.that push physics to the limits. A pulsar in a black hole would be very
:44:16. > :44:22.handy. There are only three people who can win the Nobel Prize, though!
:44:23. > :44:31.I can tell you whether website is, that is my job. You will find a
:44:32. > :44:34.tutorial telling you where to help, we need your help because human
:44:35. > :44:38.pattern recognition works so much better than computers in finding the
:44:39. > :44:44.shapes and on Thursday, we will be joined by the person who made the
:44:45. > :44:47.very first pulsar discovery. Now, let's rejoin Tim Peake on the
:44:48. > :44:50.International Space Station. When we chatted earlier, he told us
:44:51. > :44:57.first-hand how his first month had been. Really, the first 24 hours was
:44:58. > :45:00.the only difficult period in adapting and even then, it wasn't
:45:01. > :45:04.too bad, I was able to work but I felt uncomfortable, quite busy at
:45:05. > :45:10.times and quite disorientated, but after the first 24 hours, I felt
:45:11. > :45:13.quite good and have felt fine ever since. I feel incredibly comfortable
:45:14. > :45:16.living and working here in space after just one month, exercising, a
:45:17. > :45:22.normal after just one month, exercising, a
:45:23. > :45:26.the running machine, living as a normal person. I would have no
:45:27. > :45:30.problem living on an International Space Station for 18 months on a
:45:31. > :45:34.transit to Mars. Is there anything about this experience that the
:45:35. > :45:39.training didn't experience you for and as a supplementary question, was
:45:40. > :45:46.it worth it? I will answer the second part first, a resounding yes.
:45:47. > :45:49.It has far exceeded my expectations, this whole experience. And I think
:45:50. > :45:54.really, that is what the training can't give you. The training can
:45:55. > :45:57.prepare you for all of the practical elements, all of the things that
:45:58. > :46:02.you'd need to do, your job as an astronaut, being a good crew member
:46:03. > :46:06.on board the Space Station, but the actual experience of launching into
:46:07. > :46:11.space on a rocket, the noise, the feeling of acceleration
:46:12. > :46:13.space on a rocket, the noise, the rocket is climbing skyward, the
:46:14. > :46:18.changing colour of the sky as it goes from blue to black, all of
:46:19. > :46:24.these kinds of experiences and then that first view of planet Earth from
:46:25. > :46:28.space, docking to the Space Station, again, that was another exciting
:46:29. > :46:32.moment. But seeing how large the Space Station looked outside my
:46:33. > :46:35.window as we approached it was just remarkable and these are the kind of
:46:36. > :46:42.experiences that you don't really get from training and that has been
:46:43. > :46:45.absolutely wonderful. Tim, have you had any opportunity for start
:46:46. > :46:50.gazing? It must be exciting to look down on earth but have you looked
:46:51. > :46:58.out to the universe -- stargazing? The first couple of days on board, I
:46:59. > :47:01.was going to the Kubla window and the earth looks magnificent during
:47:02. > :47:05.the daytime but more recently, I have been going on the night passes
:47:06. > :47:09.and at night time, you see the city lights, you see the thunderstorms
:47:10. > :47:14.and you realise just the scale of thunderstorms over the planet and,
:47:15. > :47:17.of course, you see the stars and it is incredible. I almost found it
:47:18. > :47:21.hard to pick out familiar constellation is because there were
:47:22. > :47:26.so many stars and they are so much brighter than I am used to seeing,
:47:27. > :47:30.it was hard for me to orient myself. And also, the planets rising.
:47:31. > :47:34.Jupiter is incredibly bright, so much brighter appear on the Space
:47:35. > :47:38.Station than from planet Earth. Tim, we are nearly out of time, but to
:47:39. > :47:44.finish, do you have any message you would like to give to the stargazing
:47:45. > :47:48.audience from the Space Station? My message is just to say a huge thank
:47:49. > :47:54.you to everybody. I have been so overwhelmed by the support I have
:47:55. > :47:58.had from everybody from the UK and Stargazing Live has always been a
:47:59. > :48:02.real favourite show of mine, I have always enjoyed it. I have always
:48:03. > :48:06.enjoyed looking up to the stars, wondering about the universe and our
:48:07. > :48:09.place in the universe and obviously I am sure everybody who watches the
:48:10. > :48:14.show has the same thoughts and feelings, such as the large thank
:48:15. > :48:18.you to everybody back home. Tim, it has been an absolute pleasure and a
:48:19. > :48:23.privilege to talk to you as you go on your journey. We will be watching
:48:24. > :48:26.you on Friday as you perform your first spacewalk, the best of luck
:48:27. > :48:28.with that from everybody here on earth. Many thanks, it has been
:48:29. > :48:33.great talking to you. I felt I have the right to speak for
:48:34. > :48:37.everyone on earth when I said that. Our behalf of everyone here... OK,
:48:38. > :48:41.the difficulties of moving and working in the vacuum of space will
:48:42. > :48:45.make Tim's work particularly challenging and that is why the
:48:46. > :48:49.training John Bishop is about to do was so vital. Liz is with John at
:48:50. > :49:01.the centre in Cologne, how are you doing over there? John, can you hear
:49:02. > :49:08.me OK? I can. OK, you are clear about your task? You can begin your
:49:09. > :49:13.task now, good luck. Herve is at the helm and Andreas is with us and John
:49:14. > :49:17.Bishop is starting his first training session, and extravehicular
:49:18. > :49:23.training session. He has the move that white chew into a tool box and
:49:24. > :49:27.then he has to do the safety tether swap that Herve showed us earlier
:49:28. > :49:31.on. Andreas, there are so many things to think about and so many
:49:32. > :49:34.obstructions. He is carrying a little trash bag that is in his way
:49:35. > :49:41.every time he tries to get a tether to work somewhere. It is very
:49:42. > :49:44.difficult to work because of the limited visibility, he has a very
:49:45. > :49:49.limited view out of the helmet. He has the tools on his tool belt
:49:50. > :49:53.blocking his vision. He can't really see his tool belt, he has two feel
:49:54. > :50:00.with his hands and know where everything is situated. I have to
:50:01. > :50:05.say, he is moving fast, he is moving confidently and it is really good to
:50:06. > :50:11.see for his first exercise. Is he doing everything quite perfectly?
:50:12. > :50:15.Yes, he is doing everything he should. Before we are moving any
:50:16. > :50:18.tool from the structure, you need to secure it with the tether, so if you
:50:19. > :50:23.lose your grip, it doesn't drift away and that is what he is doing. I
:50:24. > :50:27.will speak to John and see how he is getting on. I don't want to distract
:50:28. > :50:31.him but this can be part of the training as well. John, how are you
:50:32. > :50:36.getting on? Just asking you to describe how it is all going. Well I
:50:37. > :50:42.made a mistake to begin with but I have corrected it. Nothing floated
:50:43. > :50:50.off into space. What did you forget to do? Everything has got to be
:50:51. > :50:57.tethered twice before you move it. The next thing that I want to do is
:50:58. > :51:04.to change my position to this one, which is the docking thing. But as
:51:05. > :51:11.you see, I am in two places where I am locked on and I remove that, I
:51:12. > :51:16.will reduce one of my places. I have to find the other option, which is
:51:17. > :51:21.difficult because all of your visibility goes. My range of vision
:51:22. > :51:32.is just here and everything I need to work on is below me. So you have
:51:33. > :51:37.to feel where all of your tools are, with hands that have no feeling. Are
:51:38. > :51:42.you finding it frustrating? Do you see how important it is to stay calm
:51:43. > :51:49.through the whole procedure? Oh, yes. The main thing is I can see
:51:50. > :51:56.why, everything I have seen with Tim Peake or anybody else who is an
:51:57. > :52:00.astronaut, they are so calm and steady people and you understand
:52:01. > :52:08.why. There is no consequence if I get this wrong. If they get it
:52:09. > :52:16.wrong... So they have to keep a clear mind. Come back to us later to
:52:17. > :52:19.find out if he does complete the task but, most importantly, what it
:52:20. > :52:24.felt like, once he is out of the water. See you soon. It is not a
:52:25. > :52:29.trivial task we are setting him, is it? It isn't, it took me about six
:52:30. > :52:35.months to recover when I did that will stop by bruised my ribs. It is
:52:36. > :52:39.a difficult thing, the spacewalk. The only thing keeping you safe is
:52:40. > :52:44.the spacesuit, fantastically complicated piece of equipment and
:52:45. > :52:48.definitely not designed for comfort, a problem that has proved a tough
:52:49. > :52:51.nut to crack since the earliest days of space exploration.
:52:52. > :52:56.The spacesuit, much more than just a natty piece of sci-fi fancy dress.
:52:57. > :53:03.Each outfit is a complex machine with over 18,000 parts. And this is
:53:04. > :53:06.where they are made. Originally a division of the Playtex company,
:53:07. > :53:15.better known for making bras and girdles. These people know a thing
:53:16. > :53:19.or two about rubber clothing. They turned their hand to spacesuit for
:53:20. > :53:23.the Apollo programme and never looked back. We have been involved
:53:24. > :53:27.in building suits since the 1960s, so we built the suit for Apollo and
:53:28. > :53:32.the space shuttle missions and now the Space Station. This is the suit
:53:33. > :53:37.used by Nasa, cunningly designed to fit astronaut of all shapes and
:53:38. > :53:41.sizes. This suit is a modular suit, so we can't say we cited for anyone
:53:42. > :53:46.in particular, we just build parts, upper arms, lower arms, upper and
:53:47. > :53:50.lower legs and boots and all parts can be connected together to make a
:53:51. > :53:56.suit. It is known as the extravehicular mobility unit. Worn
:53:57. > :54:00.during spacewalks, this suit is fully pressurised and designed to
:54:01. > :54:04.cope with even the most pressing emergencies. So now you are in the
:54:05. > :54:09.suit, you will be in there for six or seven hours and the problem is,
:54:10. > :54:14.how do you go for the bathroom -- to the bathroom? We have come up with a
:54:15. > :54:18.maximum absorbency garment. Essentially, an adult nappy. As well
:54:19. > :54:24.as staying hygienically dry, the secret to safety in space is
:54:25. > :54:28.layering. This seat has 14 -- this suit has 14. These layers of the
:54:29. > :54:33.best solution yet to one of the main challenges in spacesuit design.
:54:34. > :54:37.Because in the bed the vacuum of space, the air pressure and
:54:38. > :54:45.astronaut needs to survive turns their spacesuit into an awkward and
:54:46. > :54:49.clumsy balloon suit. Early ideas to overcome this problem left a lot to
:54:50. > :54:55.be desired and even the best designs were a nightmare to move in. Today's
:54:56. > :55:04.suits are still very cumbersome, even painful, to wear. There
:55:05. > :55:06.actually have been a significant number of injuries that astronauts
:55:07. > :55:11.have suffered from working in spacesuit. People have had injuries
:55:12. > :55:19.to their fingers, their fingernails have gone black and fallen off.
:55:20. > :55:25.There has been abrasions to various parts of the body that rubber
:55:26. > :55:31.against the suit. Former astronaut Jeff Hoffman runs a lab that aims to
:55:32. > :55:34.make space much more comfortable. The challenge is designing a
:55:35. > :55:40.pressure suit that is easy to move in and light enough to wear, even in
:55:41. > :55:49.Martian gravity. This is it. The bio suit. Our model is dressed in, I
:55:50. > :55:53.would call this a conceptual version of what the bio suit would look
:55:54. > :55:59.like. You can obviously see it is skintight. Yes, the first human to
:56:00. > :56:07.visit Mars could be dressed head to toe in spandex. So this suit is
:56:08. > :56:10.essentially made of an elastic material that is squeezing her arms,
:56:11. > :56:16.her abdomen, her legs, all of her body, and essentially at the same
:56:17. > :56:20.pressure as the oxygen she is breathing. That is a lot of
:56:21. > :56:27.pressure, which means a really tight fit. So he has had to think of how
:56:28. > :56:34.on earth, or on Mars, you would ever get it on or off. We have these load
:56:35. > :56:39.coils of shaped memory alloy wire. When it is heated, it will remember
:56:40. > :56:43.its shape when it was much tighter and it will actually contract,
:56:44. > :56:47.pulling the elastic material around to squeeze on my arm. Think of this
:56:48. > :56:54.as electric shoelaces, just to tighten the whole thing up. Jeff
:56:55. > :56:59.hopes that his suit will become the height of space couture. It is still
:57:00. > :57:05.in the lab at Tory stage of research but what we would like to do is make
:57:06. > :57:11.prototypes and maybe then we can send one of the suit into one-day --
:57:12. > :57:13.laboratory stage of research. Until then, astronaut after the Lycra luck
:57:14. > :57:19.we'll have to wait. Maybe next season. OK, C John Bishop
:57:20. > :57:28.has completed his task. Lives, how is he doing? -- lives. He is out of
:57:29. > :57:34.the water, he has a microphone in his hand, he is a hero, we are so
:57:35. > :57:35.proud of you, how are you doing? It was amazing, I just didn't want to
:57:36. > :57:43.come up. Those guys working on the module at
:57:44. > :57:48.their... It just gives you a little smidgen of what it must be like in
:57:49. > :57:52.real life to be up there. I am so proud of you. Tomorrow, we put you
:57:53. > :57:57.through your paces with a reduced oxygen supply and giving you tiny
:57:58. > :58:02.electric shocks. Are you still willing to continue? I would rather
:58:03. > :58:08.do this everyday! Join us tomorrow, more things to come from John
:58:09. > :58:13.Bishop. Commander John Bishop! You didn't think he would survive. What
:58:14. > :58:17.did we say? 20 quid. Tomorrow, we will be taking oxygen from his
:58:18. > :58:20.brain, see how he copes with that and we will talk more about Tim
:58:21. > :58:25.Peake's spacewalk and crushing a giant tank with nothing more than
:58:26. > :58:30.air pressure. And send us your questions now. We will be back right
:58:31. > :58:34.here on BBC Two, looking at pulsars and some of the biggest things in
:58:35. > :58:46.the universe. That is next. See you in a couple of minutes.
:58:47. > :59:07.So, no-one pays tax here? No-one pays taxes.