BACK TO THE MOON | SPACETIME - SCIENCE SHOW

mankind has always looked to the Stars since time immemorial the universe has been a source of fascination and fundamental questions what else is out there how was all this created where do we come from humankind is once again looking to fly to the moon our fascination with the nearest heavenly body to earth has been rekindled among the nations planning new unmanned and manned missions are the major space powers America Russia and China but also Europe Japan and India the history of the Moon is also the history of Earth and it may become humankind's first home away from home in space welcome to space time with all of us Valtor astronaut and scientist he knows in space incredible things are in store for us a new era of lunar research has dawned it's no longer politically motivated as it was during the Cold War but serves largely scientific purposes probes can measure explore and map the moon with greater precision than ever before and traces of ice have been found the existence of a water resource means rocket fuel could be generated on the moon allowing for a first ever man mission deep into the solar system [Music] vasin InDesign what do you mean you might ask we flew to the moon in the late 60s and early 70s why are we going again in fact we've been there the whole time with unmanned missions for example Clementine a probe mapping the lunar surface will cross manned missions don't count so now the Americans are saying we're pioneers we want to head back into space to the moon map and then on to Mars when will we fly a manned mission to the moon the Americans say 2023 2024 we won't be landing there instead like Apollo 8 will be orbiting it making sure that technology works then coming straight back the same situation as in the late 60s the first manned spacecraft to reach the moon Apollo 8 was a symbol of Western superiority on board were three US astronauts Frank Borman James Lovell and William Anders they became the first humans to orbit the moon and see its far side a celestial mission but one dogged by somewhat down to earth problems one of my colleagues got quite sick I won't go into detail but was enough to put on a oxygen mask so I wouldn't notice the smell and it was getting it got quite messy so we spent a long time cleaning up on the way to the moon [Music] the astronauts had set out to discover space in the process they saw Planet Earth as it had never been seen before [Music] and here came the earth up out of the lunar horizon and there was no plan whatsoever in our and all of our mission to photograph the earth it was all footed photography of the moon I didn't even have a light meter and so I decided to go against the flight plan and Frank Borman jokingly said hey Bill you can't take a picture of the earth it's not in the flight plan [Music] so I grabbed a camera the Hasselblad 70 millimeter with color film and a long lens a 250 millimeter lens and started taking pictures and I just machine gun them and one of those pictures became the iconic Earthrise picture the iconic Earthrise photograph has gone down in history the world followed the Apollo 8 mission with bated breath on Christmas Eve 1968 a year marked by violence revolution and protests against the Vietnam War astronaut Bill Anders addressed the American nation in a live television broadcast from lunar orbit [Music] the view of Earth from space made not only the astronauts but mankind aware of its place in the universe and its fragility almost half a century after that mission we are once again looking beyond our own planet and rekindling our fascination with the moon the moon is of great cultural significance to us the night is forbidding and the moon is light in the darkness it belongs to Earth it's like a familiar neighbor it protects us it stands between us and outer space the moon is the nearest celestial body a mere three-day space flight away when I see the moon in the sky I always imagined that to be humans oh that that could be humans they're sort of a habitat it could be one day there might be someone there in a spacesuit in this habitat and looking up at earth it's an incredible thought the moon appeals to our imaginations stirs within us a desire to leave our own planet and conquer space as early as 1865 French writers rouvaun described an attempted moon landing in his novel from the earth to the moon and in 1902 French filmmaker Georges méliès made a trip to the moon in which a group of astronomers traveled to the moon and glimpsed the most spectacular view of the modern age captured decades later by Bill Anders the earth rising over the lunar horizon it was the moon that first prompted humankind to wonder if we are alone in the universe a question that has long intrigued astronomers and artists but in fact we still know relatively little about the moon the more despite gentlemen has never been extensively researched it's extraordinary really it's given how near it is and it's been somewhat eclipsed by research of the planets in our solar system then once the moon is actually very exciting most probably formed when the earth collided with another astronomical body unlike earth it has no flora and fauna it's a bit of an archive of early history and that makes it very interesting they're spotted the moon is the result of a cosmic catastrophe the giant impact hypothesis is the most widely accepted theory on the moons origins approximately 4.5 billion years ago a proto planet roughly the size of Mars slammed into the red-hot earth the energy released by this giant impact melted vast amounts of Earth's solid rock which ricocheted into space the force of gravity pulled these fragments into a cloud of dust and gas which within several thousand years condensed into the moon this theory explains the moon's size it also fits with the moon's age and its trajectory around the earth according to another theory the Earth's gravity captured the moon into its orbit but scientists are skeptical could the earth have captured the moon in its orbit in terms of celestial mechanics does this make sense if you apply the laws of physics is it possible I'm fine we know that largest celestial objects can capture smaller ones but can the earth the capture theory is fairly unlikely and that doesn't leave many alternatives it's more likely that the moon was formed by a planetary collision from Earth we only see one side of the Moon but even the far side of the Moon often referred to as the dark side experiences two weeks of sunlight followed by two weeks of night have you ever wondered why we only see one side of the Moon this is Earth and this is the moon traveling around the earth not only is it rotating around the earth it must also be rotating on its own axis so that the same side is always visible to earth so a devised can this is a coincidence no it's not a coincidence it's what we call astrodynamics the gravitational force of the earth is not parallel but rather disperses at the edges and that means the moon is stretched it's elongated in this direction and that means that it can no longer rotate on its axis as freely and what that means is that over billions of years it lost rotational energy and what's called Lockean happened the moon's own rotation is synchronized with its rotation around the Earth reaching that point took billions of years and that's the reason why we always see the same side of the moon people have always wondered what the first side of the moon looks like does it look like this with light and dark shading thousands of years passed before finally relatively recently we had our answer for being in yonder and what Capernaum the far side of the moon was photographed for the first time by the Soviet probe Luna 3 nowadays orbiters can deliver high-resolution images that show the far side of the moon is a very different place from the side visible to earth there is far less of the dark shading we see on the near side in the past astronomers mistook these patches for seas and called them mafia Latin for seize the Mafia are roughly three billion years old and will most probably formed by the collision of giant meteoroids with a lunar surface these collisions punched holes in the moon's crust which later filled with vast lakes of lava that formed the dark areas but this theory has never been confirmed another theory posits that these dark planes are not ancient impact basins but rather the result of volcanic and seismic activity recent measurements of lunar gravity appear to show that the largest dark spot on the moon known as the ocean of storms is the result of a geological process in either case the fact that the moon is tidally locked to earth could explain why there are more Marya on the near Side of the Moon the Earth's gravitational force might once have acted on lunar lava just as the moon's gravitational force acts on Earth's oceans what we do know for sure is that the moon was bombarded with large and small rocks these explained the differently sized craters that define its appearance from Earth we can make out over 300,000 craters with the diameter of more than a kilometer via zulan Zamunda high noon was formed when an astronomical body collided with earth this threw a huge amount of debris into orbit which is why we have a relatively large moon look at this the diameter of the moon is roughly a quarter of the Earth's this one to four ratio is unique in the solar system and has very important consequences first of all the rise and fall of ocean tides the moon's gravity acts on the Earth's oceans causing a bulge where ocean waters face the moon and low tide on the sides give the second important reason why the moon is good for Earth has to do with the fact that our planet is not really round it's actually flattened because it's spinning as we can see here it's won by about 40 kilometers more at the equator than at its poles picture it as a sphere with a bulge around the equator mikata the moon's gravitational force acts on the Bulge and keeps earth in this rotational axis this means that over billions of years the Earth's rotational axis has remained more or less unchanged that ensured our survival because it guaranteed that the climate remained constant for millennia this was not the case on Mars only on earth and without the moon there would be no mankind how do we know all this well 50 years ago we went to the moon and that taught us a lot about the Moon and Earth jool I 16th 1969 a Saturn 5 rocket launched the Apollo 11 mission on board were astronauts Neil Armstrong Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins the goal was to land on the moon and actually step onto the lunar surface it was the most spectacular mission in the history of mankind I stayed up all night following it on television mines hot my father had laid the groundwork much earlier in 1957 when the Sputnik was launched I support Nika Florence he said listen son there is this book named after that I always followed every space flight and of course that particular one that night not to the shaft is enough and I couldn't go to bed I was so excited I stayed up all night if you don't ice to cancer not off complain Apollo 11 travelled for four days before landing on the moon on July 20th 1969 at 2017 UTC the landing site was the mar'ied tranquilly Tartus tranquility base the first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong followed 15 minutes later by Buzz Aldrin they planted a US flag installed a laser reflector and collected samples the astronauts took away with them 21.6 kilos of moon rock but the missions purpose wasn't really to further science the Apollo program was not a program of science or exploration the Apollo program was one to beat the the Russian or Soviet communists to show not only the United States but also the rest of the world that our system democracy capitalism was better five other Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the moon the last man to leave his footprint in moon dust was Eugene Cernan in December 1972 after that it seemed that interest and the moon began to wane there has been a renewed interest in the moon in recent years as a launching pad for further space flights such as to Mars going to the moon is like taking a first step out of your front door the point of the Apollo missions which were of course American was a demonstration of technological expertise but if you want to go to Mars you need to do a bit more you can't just fly to the moon and say look we did it you have to be able to create a bridge effectively between Earth and the moon for example by setting up a base there where people could live for several weeks or even months science demands that mankind once again go to the moon a lunar base would be ideal for testing new technologies moreover the moon is rich in resources in 2009 a lunar probe found water ice on the moon two years earlier the XPrize foundation challenge private investors to land a rover on the lunar surface the prize money was funded by Google but none of the contestants were able to meet the target the XPrize was cancelled at some point and that was incredible but Google still succeeded in galvanizing smaller companies including part-time scientists from Germany to work towards landing a mission on the moon thoughts in Mojave today's world is very different we no longer have two superpowers the Soviet Union and the United States dominating spaceflight the way they did during the Cold War now over 70 nations have space programs in bus industry and science what we have is a new world a wonderful new world that opens up all sorts of new opportunities the challenge was not only to land a rover on the moon but also to transmit back high-definition images and video the organisers wanted to drive development in new technologies and business in the private space industry was Google hoping to achieve with the X Prize in 2007 Google said the first team to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon and travel 500 meters would be awarded 20 million dollars but is 20 million enough no it's not more than 20 teams applied but they ended up having to invest a lot more a rocket alone one that can fly from the earth to the moon requires an investment of a hundred million so the prize money wasn't enough and that's the reason why the competition was cancelled but that doesn't mean the money invested was wasted not at all they were young engineers highly motivated experts who helped advanced technology not only was their participation of valuable experience these young people will go on to develop more affordable technologies that will boost spaceflight to the moon and maybe later even to Mars German teams also joined the competition the most promising candidates came from Berlin a new generation with dreams of going to the moon and us from getting hazel and glory the idea is just so extraordinary it's the idea of developing something to send to the moon with private investment that was the original incentive for me to start discussing with friends associates and just about anyone I could find doable don't you have to be NASA is it even viable to try this as a private endeavor what a common provocative hopes of us attend his startup went on to win one of the competition's coveted milestone prizes worth seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars the money was funneled into the company working under market conditions the young private space company is forging ahead with its mission to the moon the team is developing a lunar rover and a spacecraft to transport it one ski to star home our aim is to bring down the cost of space exploration but I know for example a university that has developed an instrument can come to us and say we'd like to experiment on the surface of the Moon so for a fee we could get them there and allow them to conduct their experiment for now the space industry is government-funded and therefore very bureaucratic and political we want to provide a service that gives countries and universities that couldn't do this before the opportunity to go to the surface of the Moon as long as country thanks to the Apollo missions and technological progress unmanned missions to the moon are now realistic options for privately funded companies but not prohibitively so a new era in space travel is dawning how hard is it to fly to the moon it's about four hundred thousand kilometres away they sense quite a bit further than the International Space Station which orbits just four hundred kilometers above Earth's surface you can get there in no time at all whereas it takes two to three days to get to the moon and then you need to land you need a lunar landing craft then you have to get back it takes several days to get supplies there it's a massive undertaking you need a rocket twice the size of a Soyuz and once you're on the moon we have a whole different set of problems from the challenges here on earth or on the ISS and the temperatures completely different in daytime it's about 100 degrees Celsius and at night about - 100 - a shove 200 degrees you need a spacesuit that can withstand that and then there's all the solar radiation I don't mean light but the solar wind the protons that rain down on your spacesuit could penetrate it and damage your DNA astronauts who have been to the moon generally have a reduced life expectancy then there's the pressure inside the spacesuit outside there's a vacuum the spacesuit is very heavy and hard to move in these are the sort of problems you face on the moon the European Space Agency would like to construct an entire village on the moon it's still just an idea conceived as a cooperation between different parties and Nations this international scientific research outpost will be called moon village space travel has a scientific aspect it's also about exploration and there's also a geopolitical aspect I was keen to take into account how we could boost this geopolitical aspect and that's how we came up with the idea for a movie legend signed off after villages of community it's a place where people come together because they think it's interesting and build something up I think mineshaft power if you transfer that idea to space then that place is the moon in arts of hidden that's the stem moon the construction of an international base on the moon would be a logical next step in space research from Doozers conceptus the concept of a moon village is very inspiring I think it's a good way bringing together various international institutions that can work together to get people on the moon getting people on the moon isn't something that any individual nation could or should do by itself it has to be a major international effort Internet's and elitism abide a research village on the moon would be a huge boost for the space travel industry a permanent base would lend itself to the testing of new technologies and would also spur new developments technologies could be developed on the moon that would allow for further exploration of the solar system scientists could research ways for humans to live away from earth for extended periods and an international research station on the moon would also intensify cooperation between nations someone can be anyone can fly to the moon obviously it's a technical challenge but it can be done there's no security system like at the International Space Station anyone can fly to the moon that's one aspect the other is that a number of parties are active in the space industry worldwide if they join forces to reach their destination this international community can bring about a whole new level of international cooperation scientists and engineers are hard at work researching colonization of distant planets above all they need to find ways of ensuring human survival be it on the moon or on Mars humans will need homes a habitat transporting construction materials from Earth is far too complicated and expensive special 3d printers could be the solution this concept is the idea is that all we need on the moon is sand and Sun there's no atmosphere there so for example the Sun could be harnessed on Mars and it's raised bundled and the sand sintered meaning melted this is a very viable method for deploying the materials at our disposal there - I'm so sure we can create structures that are statically and constructively robust with a pressure tied in a shell and so that base would allow us to spend several years on the moon conducting research Maruyama endorser for some of them on the outpost will be built by robots with raw materials and energy extracted on-site it may look like a sci-fi vision cooked up by a screenwriter but in fact it's a scenario that researchers are already working on a plan to use the regolith the lunar soil to provide protection against radiation that's a realistic one even in a worst-case scenario if processing regolith somehow doesn't work it can still be used you can build a habitat and then pile up several meters of regular well that's the dirty option clean option would be to compress it into bricks long term sustainable life on distant planetary bodies a major challenge for scientists descriptor Filas our finger there are many practical constraints the harsh environment the reduced space available in spacecraft is the advantage of a self deployable habitat for extreme environments is that it has components its volume could be doubled with inflatable modules but is a shower and transform you bomb in future humans exploring space won't be spending just a few hours on distant planetary bodies but weeks months maybe even years [Music] Vanessa I'm often warned : once I've landed on the moon I have to find a way of positioning the individual modules so that they are actually linked it's not as if I can just unload the modules and send people there to assemble them first not it's too big a job and secondly the habitat needs to be in place before people even arrive it all has to be in working order we need to know it works before we put people in rocket and send them off into space so it all needs to be conceived so that robots can build the habitat or bottle of vodka meanwhile NASA is also planning to return to the moon the Americans are hoping to send astronauts into space in a new heavy-lift launch vehicle now say is also developing what he calls the lunar orbital platform gateway a lunar orbit Space Station what's the point of a space station orbiting the moon nor the first question is what sort of orbit will it be soon it will bring the station within relatively close range of the lunar surface at closest approach and then far away again and from that orbit will take almost a week what purpose does it serve picture the Orion spacecraft carrying astronauts it wants to land on the moon it will dock at the space station they'll check out in order to head onto the moon and on the return journey they'll dock at the space station again before traveling back to earth that's one aspect it's also a space station where science can be furthered everything we've done orbiting Earth we now need to do orbiting the moon now for that we need a platform and from there we can remotely control Rovers and robots on the moon and what's really important is we want to go to Mars so the space station could also serve as a stopover ma Safina so far the International Space Station has been our scientific outpost in space however it's scheduled to be deorbited fairly soon a lunar orbit Space Station is the next logical step for NASA but for now it's still only a plan and many plans proposed by NASA never make the leap from theory to practice nASA has so many plans and NASA is actually being run by the members of Congress or Bundestag likes Todd around each Center and all they care about is keeping their people employed they don't care what they do build a station on the moon on Mars on the Sun as long as NASA's spending the money to keep their people employed that's what is guiding our space program today that's sad since the end of the space shuttle program nASA has no longer been able to send astronauts into space by itself the Americans now cooperate with the Russian space agency Roscosmos which can launch astronauts to the ISS with its Soyuz rocket but the Americans don't like being dependent on the Russians and Ross cosmos charges NASA some 60 million euros per passenger the moon attracts not only scientists and researchers but also gold diggers it promises vast deposits of raw materials the prospect of gold platinum and iridium mining on the moon and nearby asteroids has captured the imagination of investors and entrepreneurs [Music] unexpectedly tiny Luxembourg is aiming to become a global leader in the race to mine resources in outer space versus in mine flung what are the opportunities what is possible within the parameters of international law we've collaborated with several universities and experts in simple terms we concluded that the law of the sea could also apply in outer space no one country can claim it but it can fish in it and commercially exploited from it water extracted on the moon or on asteroids could be separated into hydrogen and oxygen and used to make rocket fuel manned missions deep into the far reaches of the solar system would of course need vast amounts of rocket fuel so a refuelling station in space is a lucrative prospect a number of companies are now busy raising funds to mine for precious metals on the moon or making rocket propellant out of water on the moon Mining raw materials on the moon is a realistic scenario of course the question is what you want to do with those materials one option is to bring them back to earth to compensate for dwindling resources here but that's bound to be very expensive the other possibility is using the moon's resources to penetrate further into space mining for water on the moon and using that water to embark on a longer journey to Mars Mining natural resources in space with high dividends on earth what sounds futuristic may become reality in just a few years space mining space mining as it's called extracting resources in space still science fiction but like so many things that science fiction envisaged it will very likely happen I can't say if the moon is the best place for it to start or nearby asteroids but the fact is there are a number of serious companies with a serious space mining agenda horse trots a bone government space agencies have a similar agenda if humankind plans to explore the galaxy it needs to exploit the resources that space has to offer you mean kind has never coped well with limits though so why should we assume that humans will one day say okay we're done exploring earth we know it inside out and we're staying put and it's all good no I think there will undoubtedly be an urge to explore and discover not just for economic reasons if humans will want to explore space and that's what they'll do we'll commercial exploitation of celestial bodies prove profitable heaven knows film and that's the end but I don't think I would invest in a company that's doing this in 200 years perhaps right now it's too soon it's not worth it the costs are too high I wouldn't invest in moon exploration doesn't make economic sense right now but if humans want to colonize space be it the Moon or Mars then in the long run we need to tap into the resources it harbours [Music] the sooner Noons resources are perfect because they're ones that we couldn't live without such as water yes I think there's water in the moon's deepest darkest craters there's also regolith lunar soil that looks like what I have here this is actually from my garden but lunar soil looks exactly the same but it's made of quartz silicon dioxide oxygen can be extracted from it using solar energy so humans can breathe another way of exploiting the moon is to sell it an American entrepreneur Dennis hope is even selling extraterrestrial real estate he's made 40 million dollars meanwhile US companies space adventures has teamed up with Russian space agency Roscosmos to fly paying customers around the moon the spacecraft is a converted Russian Soyuz capsule a ticket costs around 150 million dollars crazy as it sounds a number of customers have already dug deep into their pockets for the opportunity to fly to the ISS more clearly there's a renewed interest in the moon it's very sensible that a global effort is made to realize this amazing project on behalf of humankind inside u.s. entrepreneur Elon Musk also wants in on the action his private company SpaceX is also planning to offer passenger flights to the moon these tourists will be flown once around the moon before returning to Earth actually landing on the lunar surface isn't part of the package the trip will be made in the SpaceX Design Dragon a free-flying spacecraft designed to deliver both cargo and people to orbiting destinations it was originally developed to transport NASA astronauts to the ISS the first passenger flight is already fully booked and wealthy customers are lining up for the privilege of enjoying an exclusive view China is also pursuing an ambitious space program it's long-term goal is a manned lunar landing they say they're going to do it and my guess is they have the resources and they right now certainly are first-rate space power and so I think they'd like to demonstrate to the rest of the world that they have the capability to do it my guess is they will the Chinese have already successfully launched an unmanned probe into lunar orbit in December 2013 China's spacecraft Chang e3 landed on the moon with the lunar rover you too Chinese for Jade rabbit China became the third nation after the US and the former Soviet Union to have achieved a soft landing on the moon now it seems a new space race is on let's summarize we need a space station to dark out before landing on the moon we will have habitats on the moon we will endeavor to mine for resources extract oxygen from regolith and use lunar water mombasa this moon is so needin if you will show that it's possible for humans to live on the moon and not just for months but for years you might ask it's what's called the proving ground proving we need to prove that we can survive on the moon and we need to prove that in order to show that we could survive for several years on Mars that's what this is all about Lincoln that is there Antigone bomba - yeah a manned mission to Mars could take place in the foreseeable future the red planet has been mapped and surveyed scientists know the density of the Martian atmosphere and its chemical composition the temperatures there and the frequency of sandstorms water has been found there and also traces of methane factors that are crucial to figuring out the viability of long-term colonization efforts [Music] the Space Launch System is NASA's Space Shuttle derived super heavy lift expendable launch vehicle but it still doesn't have the capacity to transport both equipment and passengers to the moon a mission would therefore have to be carried out in phases first equipment and material would be flown there and then the astronauts but it's only a question of time until the first human sets foot on Mars the fogger one question is where will we get the fuel we need for Mars if we fly to Mars you want to be able to return taking what we need with us obviously is not a solution after more for example making fuel from water that's something we can test on the moon because there's water at its poles next question so how do we extract death how do we turn it into hydrogen and oxygen or fire the long-term ambition of Elon Musk's company SpaceX is to colonize Mars plans to develop spacecraft able to fly several hundred passengers there as we show that this is possible that this dream is real not just a dream it can be something that we made real I think the support will snowball over time and I should say also the the main reason I'm personally accumulating assets is in order to fund this so I really don't have any other motivation for personally accumulating assets except to be able to make the biggest contribution I can to making life multiplanetary there is no doubt that one day humans will colonize Mars within two or three generations a million people could be living there for now it's still a vision of the future but private space companies are driving the market and in the process spurring technological development manned missions to the moon and mars grow more likely everyday that's what will happen in the next decades men will wheel and amanda missions on the moon course we will if we fly to the moon we'll also set foot on it it is will there be a moon village well if we're landing on the moon we will also need habitats obviously whether they'll be an entire village who knows it depends on how many nations are involved even the more there are the bigger the village will we be using the moon's raw materials of course we will if we're going to live there we're going to need water we'll extract oxygen from the regolith so we can breathe and make rocket fuel so we can come back to earth what about the space station in lunar orbit I can't guarantee that will happen if there's sufficient funding it makes sense and I do think there'll be one one day we can't be sure but there's one thing we do know for sure Arnold barely could an engineer who worked in the 1950s once said if God wanted man to become a spacefaring species he would have given man a moon the moon is indeed our springboard into space and remember the moon stabilizes the Earth's axis and our climate we wouldn't exist without the moon the moon keep cynthia al-fatah a new space race to the moon is underway private and government space agencies are planning manned missions to the lunar surface the aim to use the moon as a stepping stone into the solar system [Music]

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Keywords: full documentary, hd documentary, free documentary, full length documentaries, documentary film, top documentaries, spacetime, galaxy, universe, space station, astronaut, Documentaries, documentary (tv genre), documentry - topic, space documentary, space science, science documentary, facts about the Universe, living in space, space discoveries, ISS documentary, space travel, planets documentary, new worlds, moon, planet moon, factual, documentary, bbc documentary

Id: 33V93T3cSKQ

Length: 48min 26sec (2906 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 01 2019