Cassini: The Grand Finale • 2017 • episode "1" • Science Breakthroughs

59:02

Brian Cox considers the nature of time. He explores the cycles of time that define the lives of humans on Earth, and compares them to the cycles of time on a cosmic scale.

S1E1 • Wonders of the Universe • Astronomy

44:20

Our first steps into space were leaps into the unknown. Outer space is still the most hostile environment ever encountered, but someday, we may be forced to leave earth in order to save our species. The question now is whether human ingenuity can overcome the human body’s limitations.

S1E4 • Space Voyages • 2013 • Astronomy

57:02

Harvard professor and best-selling author, Dr. Lisa Randall, simplifies and expounds upon some of modern physics' most basic questions. What is dark matter and dark energy? What is the fundamental nature of space and time? What do we not know yet about the universe and its fundamental properties?

7/10 • Curiosity Retreats: 2014 Lectures • 2014 • Astronomy

10:27

Will resources on the Moon be the determining factor in whether the next human destination in outer space is Mars or the Moon? Google Lunar, Space X and other private industry efforts may lead the way.

S1E5 • Destination: Moon • 2016 • Astronomy

89:09

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, America went down in popular history as the winner of the space race. But that history is bunk. The real pioneers of space exploration were the Soviet cosmonauts. This documentary combines rare and unseen archive footage with interviews with the surviving cosmonauts to tell the fascinating and at times terrifying story of how the Russians led us into the space age. A particular highlight is Alexei Leonov, the man who performed the first spacewalk, explaining how he found himself trapped outside his spacecraft 500 miles above the Earth.

2014 • Astronomy

58:57

A new age of space exploration, and exploitation, is dawning. But surprisingly, some of the boldest efforts at putting humans into space are now those of private companies started by a handful of maverick billionaire businessmen. Brian Cox gains exclusive access behind the scenes at Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Spaceport America, exploring what is really happening in privately financed space flight right now. From space tourism to asteroid mining, and even dreams of colonies on Mars, these new masters of the universe refuse to limit their imaginations. But are private companies led by Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk really going to be able to pull this off? How will they overcome the technical challenges to achieve it? And is it really a good idea, or just a fool's errand? Cox meets key players in the story - Bezos, founder of Blue Origin as well as Amazon, and Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. He wants to find out how entrepreneurs - and engineers - really plan to overcome the daunting challenges of human space travel. It certainly hasn't been easy so far. Jeff Bezos has sold a further billion dollars of Amazon stock this year to fund Blue Origin. Branson has been working on Galactic for more than a decade. Lives have been lost. And some companies have already all but given up. But real progress has been made too. The origins of the new space boom, the X-prize in 2004, proved that reusable space craft could be built by private enterprise. Now the challenge is to work out how to run reliable, safe, affordable services that will show a return on the massive financial investments. Sixteen years since Dennis Tito became the first civilian in space, Cox explores the hardware and companies that are aiming to make daily tourist flights to space. Beyond mass space travel, and even space mining and manufacturing, the dream of Elon Musk and others is true space exploration. His company, SpaceX, already delivers supplies to the International Space Station, and their next step is delivering astronauts too. But their true ambition is to ensure the survival of the human race by crossing our solar system and colonizing Mars in the next decade. Could commercial spaceflight companies eventually make us a space-faring civilization?

2017 • Astronomy