[music playing] NARRATOR: Imagine a place
where a satellite can circle the Earth in 90 minutes. Where a tourist on
vacation wakes up and takes in their view from a
hotel room in space. Or where a speck of paint
becomes a lethal weapon able to blow a hole in
the side of a spacecraft. These are the realities of
Earth orbit, the gateway to the solar system. And it's the turf of
astronauts, space junk, and the ultimate thrill seeker. Journey out with us,
to the edge of space. In the not so distant future,
a human will board a rocket, sit on an open platform, and
launch 120 miles straight up into Earth orbit. Dressed in a high
tech spacesuit, he'll peer through a
quartz-coated visor and take in an
unparalleled view. Being in low Earth
orbit is spectacular. When you look up, you
see the inky blackness of outer space and the stars. The stars shining
even in daytime. Looking down, you see
the hazy blue glow of this gigantic ocean
right underneath your feet. NARRATOR: This observer
is a space diver. A new breed of
ultimate thrill junkie. And as he unhooks
from his safety harness and stands
at the edge of space, he takes one last look
out to the universe and leaps, speeding
towards Earth below. Space diving is one of many
futuristic ideas planned for Earth orbit. The zone of space that
surrounds Earth and begins 120 miles above sea level. It's the home to satellites
and the Space Station. And if orbital outfitters
have their way, the ultimate extreme sport-- skydiving from space. Earth orbit is a
window to the universe and perhaps will become
an extension of Earth itself for industry,
exploration, and fun. But the environment
in Earth orbit is very different from home. Oxygen ceases to exist here. And the atmosphere that
provides a protective shield around Earth disappears. Cosmic threats lurk for
those who dare explore here. We forget that outer
space is dangerous. We forget that in outer space,
we have cosmic radiation. We have solar flares. We have meteors. We have space debris. It's an obstacle course being
out there in outer space. NARRATOR: Like freefall
skydiving junkies who leap out of planes and speed
towards Earth, space diving might seem
like the ultimate thrill. But its idea is based on
very serious intentions. Dr. Jonathan Clark, a Navy
flight surgeon and former Navy high altitude parachutist, is
one person behind the space diver concept. But for very personal reasons. I was assigned to NASA to
work on space operations. And then, my wife
was an astronaut. NASA OPERATOR: Columbia
Houston, UHF comm check. JONATHAN CLARK: She died on
the Columbia mission in 2003. NARRATOR: While military
pilots routinely eject safely from the imperiled
aircraft, currently, there is no evacuation
procedure for astronauts to eject from a spacecraft
during a catastrophic event. About 1% of the time, we have
a major booster rocket failure or a catastrophe in outer space. NARRATOR: Perhaps the
sky diver space suit will become a new safety
device for astronauts to use on missions. And its first test is
a 160,000 foot jump. To survive reentry, the
skydiver's space suit has many critical features. A protective one-piece
jumpsuit that insulates from the negative
40 degree Fahrenheit space environment to the 464 degree
heat generated from reentry. Small gas jets on each glove
to orient and direct the body during weightlessness. A full closed loop
oxygen system that will recirculate and
remove carbon dioxide for the 10-minute trip home. A drogue parachute to
stabilize the space diver as they come
closer to Earth. And a traditional parachute
that will deploy at 3,000 feet for a safe landing. And the journey
will be spectacular. In the first two
minutes of the jump, the space diver will reach
speeds of 2,500 miles per hour while in freefall. Atmospheric drag will heat
the spacesuit to 474 degrees Fahrenheit. And slow the space diver to
terminal velocity 120 miles per hour. As his drogue parachute
breaks free at seven minutes, he will begin to slow down. Finally, at 3,000 feet, a
regular parachute deploys. And the space diver lands
safely on the ground. It will be cinematic. Chris Gilman is a Hollywood
costume designer and chief designer for Orbital Outfitters. He has an array of spacesuits
he's designing for the company. His passion for
accuracy in his costumes eventually landed him a
real commission with NASA to design a woman's
upper torso space suit. While looking at real
suits very close up, you start to understand
that they're not just a white jumpsuit with plastic
fittings and a bubble helmet. Think of a spacesuit as
a personal spacecraft. NARRATOR: To protect
the body, space suits are designed in layers. Imagine the kind
of clothes that you'd have to wear if you were
walking through the Sahara on twice its worst day ever. And then make one more step
and you're into the Arctic. That's the kind of
clothes you have to wear. NARRATOR: And when considering
the form and function of his Orbital Outfitter suits,
Gilman looks back in time to medieval armor to help
create future designs. Here is our 14th century
hourglass gauntlet. That knuckle, though, is almost
identical to the one that is under the fabric cover in
a shuttle spacesuit glove. An interestingly enough, it's
almost the exact same shape, as well. And it performs
the same function. NARRATOR: While space
diving might be years away from becoming a reality,
thrill seekers are already making their way to
the edge of space-- the realm of Earth orbit. Up until 2001, the
privilege of orbiting Earth was reserved for the elite few. Astronauts chosen
to work in space. But that's before space
tourism became a reality. One of the dreams of most
of the people associated with the space flight is
to actually fly themselves. And so space tourism has
been an important component in people's thinking about space
flight from the very beginning. NARRATOR: Right now,
Space Adventures Limited is the only company
delivering that dream. We are the world's only
private space travel company. NARRATOR: Space Adventures
started 10 years ago. When its first client
took a very high altitude ride on a Russian jet. When he came back and talked
about what it was like to see the curve of the Earth
and the black sky above, I knew that we would
have a great business. And there would be
literally, millions of people out there in the world who
wanted to participate in Space Adventures experiences. NARRATOR: Then in 2001,
American investment netted and multimillionaire Dennis
Tito approached Space Adventures about arranging a trip
into Earth's orbit. And the era of private
space tourism was born. The flight of Dennis Tito to
the International Space Station was an enormously
significant accomplishment. And many people watching in
the space community cheered. They thought this was great. It's a new age that has begun. I love space. NARRATOR: Space Adventures
Limited now offers trips to the International Space
Station for $33 million. You learn about the rocket. You learn about the spaceship
that you're going to fly. You learn about
the Space Station. You learn about what it's
like to live and eat and work and even go to the
bathroom in space. NARRATOR: To get to
the Space Station, space tourists must hitch
a ride with the Russians in a Soyuz capsule. It's flown successfully
for 35 years. This great feat of
human engineering will deliver you from
the ground to orbit in less than eight minutes. NARRATOR: Once delivered
to the Space Station, space tourists live
like real astronauts. Comfortable is
a relative term. So if you're comfortable
on a camping trip, then you'll be fine
on the Space Station. And if you're at all used to
being in the outdoors where you don't have all the
comforts of home, then you'll be quite comfortable
living in a spaceship. The food is great, but you're
not going there for the food. The real enjoyment of space is
being able to float weightless, and see the Earth, and be really
part of the future of space exploration. And being able to see what it's
like to step off the planet and go somewhere that very
few people have been before. You'll be seeing the Earth in
all its glory and splendor. You'll be watching 16 sunsets
and sunrises every day. Because you travel so
fast around the Earth. NARRATOR: Right now,
taking a trip to space is too expensive for
most private citizens. If you were to just go in low
Earth orbit around the Earth that would cost about
$10,000 a pound. That's your weight in gold. NARRATOR: There are many
companies currently designing new spacecraft to make
space travel affordable. I can't tell you
when it will be $4,000, but I can tell you
it'll never be $4,000 if it doesn't start
off at $40 million. NARRATOR: Regardless,
Space Adventures Limited has big plans to expand
their offerings in space. One of our future clients
will be undertaking a spacewalk for the first time. Additionally, we're very excited
about our circumlunar flight program. And doing a flight
around the moon. They will come literally within
100 kilometers of the lunar surface. NARRATOR: Sending private
citizens into space has changed the paradigm
for space exploration. We've really, I'd say,
banged down the door for the rest of the industry. There are many people now who
are interested in opening up this frontier and
doing it privately. And we hope to be seen in
history as the catalyst which really motivated that
entire industry to begin. NARRATOR: Perhaps the most
exhilarating part of a space adventure is getting
to the edge of space. But space is a big domain. And there are threats here
that are unlike anything we have on Earth. [music playing] Earth orbit, our edge
of space, is generally divided into three parts. Low Earth orbit is an
1,100 mile wide belt that is closest to
Earth's atmosphere. And begins only 120
miles above sea level. There are tremendous
advantages to low Earth orbit. First of all, most of
the manned space program takes place in that radius. NASA OPERATOR: Start,
one, zero, and liftoff of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Also, spy satellites,
communication satellites, weather satellites occupy
that low Earth orbit. NARRATOR: Low Earth orbit
is like a busy city. Lots of activity. The Hubble Space Telescope and
the International Space Station call low Earth orbit home. Soyuz and the Space Shuttle
complete missions here. Objects and people
in low Earth orbit can travel around Earth in
an astounding 90 minutes. 45 minutes on a sunny
side of Earth, 45 minutes on the dark side of Earth. NASA OPERATOR: Houston,
you are go for landing. Over. NARRATOR: Except for a
few trips to the moon, all of humankind's
visits to space have been to low Earth orbit. The bottom line in low Earth
orbit is if you can't reach it, you can't go anywhere else. And human space
flight ultimately is about going somewhere else. Low Earth orbit is kind of the
entry point for that effort. NARRATOR: Above low Earth orbit
is a region called medium Earth orbit. This wide stretch
of space is 1,200 to 14,000 miles above Earth. Many communication satellites
are launched into orbit here, including global
positioning satellites. GPS satellites
roughly orbit the Earth at about 12,000 miles. What we call a
semi-synchronous orbit. So basically, they orbit
the Earth twice per day, once every 12 hours. GPS is set up into
six orbital planes. So if you can imagine a globe,
there are six orbits positioned in equal spacing
around the Earth, with roughly four or five
satellites per orbital plane. And basically that gives us
coverage around the world. NARRATOR: GPS satellites
sit at this altitude so that multiple satellites
are in view from one location on Earth at any time of day. It takes four satellites to
get you your exact location. The first will give
you a roundabout area. The second will refine
it, as well as the third. And finally, the fourth
says you are exactly here. NARRATOR: Medium
Earth orbit is also home to the treacherous
Van Allen radiation belts. These belts of
high energy charged particles can send
a $300 million satellite spiraling
out of control. Or give a human being a
fatal dose of radiation. These belts stretch out from
Earth like elongated rings. Satellites are carefully
placed in specific altitudes to avoid these destructive
belts of particles from the sun. Even farther out lies high Earth
orbit or geosynchronous orbit. If low Earth orbit
is a busy city, high Earth orbit
is rural farmland. 22,000 to 35,000 miles
above sea level, satellites hover above Earth. Taking in an unparalleled view
from a distant vantage point. Here, over 2,000 satellites
call high Earth orbit home. These satellites
appear to be stationary. They make a circuit around
the Earth every 24 hours. But so do we. So we have the optical illusion
that these satellites are sitting there in outer space. NARRATOR: But in order
to reach Earth orbit, an object must first
leave the ground and be delivered into space. To do this, a
rocket or spacecraft needs to achieve the
appropriate speed and hit a target
direction and altitude. Go even a few miles
per hour too slow and the forces of gravity
and drag of the atmosphere will pull a spacecraft down. Crashing it to the ground. So the idea is to get out
of the drag of the lower atmosphere, beyond all that
turbulence and friction, and then start racing
for the right direction and speed after you get up
above the sensible atmosphere. NARRATOR: And there's a very
good reason why spacecraft launch straight up, rather than
in an angle like an airplane. So what typical
space launches do is go straight up
through the atmosphere to get through the
thickest part, initially. And then they begin to
arc over a few miles up, and then start to increase
their velocity in the desired direction. NARRATOR: To reach
a target orbit, a spacecraft must travel
17,500 miles per hour and follow a specific
trajectory from the ground to desired altitude. Even 1 degree off
and a spacecraft will end up in the wrong orbit. After an eight minute
ride and millions of gallons of fuel burned, a
spacecraft is now in orbit. An orbit is a reoccurring
path around another object. Like Earth revolving
around the sun, a satellite or spacecraft
is held in orbit by gravity. Earth's mass creates
a gravitational force that deflects an object's
path from a straight line. It might be assumed that Earth's
gravitational pull loses much of its influence
this high in the sky. But in low Earth
orbit, Earth's gravity is only 2% less
powerful than it is on the surface of the planet. The way you stay in orbit is
to go at a high enough speed or velocity that you are
falling back to the Earth, but you're going so fast that
your curved path actually never strikes the curved
surface of the Earth. You just keep falling around
the world over and over, again. So you're not leaving
the gravity behind, but you're being spun around
the planet by gravity. It's what's holding you
in this circular path around the planet. And it's making you
fall back to Earth. NARRATOR: In theory, objects can
stay in orbit forever as long as they have enough speed to
resist the pull of Earth's gravity. There are two types of orbits-- circular and elliptical. Circular orbits are for
satellites or spacecraft that need to maintain a
consistent altitude and travel in a regular
circle around Earth. Mapping satellites, GPS,
and weather satellites all use circular orbits. Elliptical orbits
are oval in shape. They're used when a high
altitude is needed for part of the orbit, without having to
go all the way to high altitude circular orbit. Spacecraft delivering
satellites into high orbits use elliptical orbits to
deliver their payloads. Whether traveling in a
circle or an elliptical path, there are many things in Earth's
orbit that are dangerous. In October 2007, the
US Navy shot down an out of service satellite
with a cruise missile before it re-entered
the atmosphere. The reason? The satellite carried
hazardous material on board. And had it crashed
to the ground, could have poisoned thousands. That hazardous material was
1,000 pounds of hydrazine, which is a standard propellant. NARRATOR: The operation
was called Burnt Frost. And it was the most
elaborate effort, thus far, to protect the world from a
serious, yet growing, problem called space debris
or space junk. Space junk is anything
that's man-made that was put into space and is no
longer functioning. Oh, we've got junk that's
been up there for as long as we've been in space. NARRATOR: Like a junkyard slowly
becoming cluttered with debris, from the first launch
of Sputnik in 1957, debris has steadily been
accumulating around planet Earth. 50 years into the space race,
we have littered the heavens with our garbage. NARRATOR: And now about
20,000 pieces later, Earth orbit has turned into a
deadly debris-filled junkyard. It looks like the Earth
surrounded by a hive of bees. NARRATOR: Most of
the space debris includes shards of rockets,
satellites that no longer function, or pieces of an
object that have broken up after a launch. Caught in Earth's
gravitational pull, these pieces are
traveling upwards of 22,000 miles per hour. Say, more than 10 times
faster than a bullet. NARRATOR: A collision
between functioning objects, such as satellites or inhabited
spacecraft, and space junk could be catastrophic. The Joint Space Operations
Center, or JSPOC, is a top secret Air
Force surveillance unit that makes it their business to
track every object that orbits around Earth,
including space debris. We use a number
of different sensors around the world, known as the
Space Surveillance Network. It's a network of 29 stations
all around the globe, radars, as well as optical telescopes
that track over 18,000 man-made objects in space. And that includes active
satellites, as well as dead satellites. And then, rocket bodies
that were associated with those launches,
as well as debris. Things that have just shed off. If they were to run
into each other, really would be a
catastrophic conjunction. NARRATOR: To be
tracked by JSPOC, debris must be at
least 2 inches wide. There are much smaller objects
that cannot be tracked. On most of my shuttle
flights, we always saw small pits in the windows
about the size of a pencil point. The highest population of
debris are in low Earth orbit. NARRATOR: And in 2008,
an intentional collision between two satellites created
an international outrage and a cloud of debris that
threatened low Earth orbit like never before. [music playing] Our edge of space
is Earth orbit. A new frontier for space
tourism and exploration. But danger lurks here-- space debris. And it threatens our spacecraft
and satellites like never before. In 2007, the total estimated
amount of space debris was 20,000 pieces. 14,000 of which were trackable. Then in 2008, China's
space program intentionally crashed two satellites together
as an anti-satellite test. The international space
community was outraged. Well, the 10th of January
of 2007, the number of objects we were tracking was
less than 14,000. Here we are 16 months later
and we've increased that number of over 30%, to over 18,000. NARRATOR: The problem of space
debris continues to grow. And collisions have already
occurred between space junk and functioning objects. One of them was
a piece of debris that struck a gravitation
boom on a spacecraft. Severed the boom. NARRATOR: To avoid
future collisions, JSPOC is in constant
contact with NASA and other international
Space entities to inform them when a
spacecraft or satellite might be threatened. So that the spacecraft could
be maneuvered around the space debris. Much like a boat maneuvers
around hazards in a waterway. Beneath the surface of the
water here, what you can't see is what's going to actually give
you the most damage, if we run into a log or a snag
beneath the surface. And in orbit, that's the
same problem that we face. We don't track all the debris
that could actually cripple or kill your spacecraft. And we rely on the fact that
you're just statistically unlikely to hit a piece
of debris to protect you. And that insurance policy
is going to run out someday. NARRATOR: Fortunately,
there haven't been any catastrophic collisions
between inhabited spacecraft and space debris, yet. We've never seen a
human-piloted spacecraft run into orbital debris
and been damaged, but we've had some close calls. NARRATOR: Objects, no matter
what their size, are always in danger of being pulled out of
their orbits by orbital decay. Orbital decay occurs when
an object loses speed caused by friction and begins to
be pulled towards Earth by gravity. Atmospheric drag is the
major cause of orbital decay. Like a bicyclist on the road. When you're peddling
along at a constant speed, you're balancing
your muscle power against the drag on
the tires from the road and the resistance of the air
that you're moving through. And you overcome that
resistance on the bicycle with your muscles. Or in space, by firing
your rocket engines to add a little speed to
overcome that air resistance. That's what has
to happen in space to keep the Space Station
from falling back to Earth and burning up. And if you stop adding
thrust, that air resistance will eventually slow you down
to the point where you'll stop or fall back into the
atmosphere and re-enter. NARRATOR: Some pieces
survive re-entry. And the size of these pieces
that have fallen to Earth is terrifying. In the last 40 years, 17,000
pieces of space debris have survived reentry. Back in 1997, we had a 570
pound stainless steel tank that landed about 50 yards
from a farmer's house in Texas. He was not particularly
pleased by that. NARRATOR: If a piece of
debris does survive reentry, it travels at subsonic
speeds of 120 miles per hour. Until it hits the ground. There was a re-entry that came
in to Cape Town, South Africa. It was during the day. There were people out
working in fields. They heard a sonic boom. And they looked up
and they basically saw this material coming down. NARRATOR: The Aerospace
Corporation in El Segundo, California is a facility
that collects and studies space junk for the military
and private companies. This is a piece of what was
once a piece of space junk. This was a part
of a rocket stage that was used to put a
GPS satellite in orbit. And here, you can see the
brackets that were actually melted off as this came down. We actually have cut samples
here to try to understand what happened in this area. How hot did it get? And we use that information
to improve our models. NARRATOR: Understanding how
these pieces survive re-entry is important for future
spacecraft and satellite construction. Recovering and reusing
critical spacecraft parts could save millions in
manufacturing costs. However, collecting space
debris remains tricky. 3/4 of the Earth's
surface is water so a lot of it lands in the water. So when you find a piece on
the ground, it's actually, a very rare event. NARRATOR: It's estimated
the amount of space debris will double by 2050. But that hasn't
deterred entrepreneurs, who continue to explore Earth
orbit as a business location. For a mere $2,500,
Memorial Space Flights, which began service in 2008,
will launch ashes of a loved one into low Earth orbit. It's a fitting end to anyone
who dreamed of one day visiting outer space. This is just one of the
many ideas entrepreneurs are developing for Earth orbit. But to run a business
in space, there needs to be a way to
obtain permanent occupancy. Here we are in the early
years of the 21st century. And I foresee space
becoming an industrial park. NARRATOR: Skylab, MIR, and now
the International Space Station have all provided an arena
for long-term habitation and experiments in space. What if private companies could
also have spacecraft orbiting the Earth? I think we were and are the
first company to have deployed that kind of structure. NARRATOR: Just off
the Las Vegas strip, Bob Bigelow and his team
at Bigelow Aerospace are hunkered down in a high
security facility creating a new generation of spacecraft. I'm living out a childhood
fantasy, is what it is. And I think that we are involved
in something really important. [music playing] NARRATOR: Private industry is
exploring the opportunities of our edge of space. Bigelow Aerospace is developing
inflating workspaces called Genesis to launch
into Earth orbit. The technology was
inspired by NASA. I came across an
article about a technology that NASA had been working on. And I thought, oh, my god. This is great. NASA developed an
inflatable module. A room called the Trans Hab. It was going to be joined
to the Space Station to provide more living space. NASA was never able to
afford executing that plan. Eventually, after
a number of years, we acquired the licenses
from NASA for their patents. NARRATOR: The
concept is ingenious. Bigelow spacecraft
are inflatable pods that tuck in through the
nose of an unmanned rocket during launch. Then expand to three times their
travel size to full capacity once released into orbit. In a rocket ferry, you
only have so much volume, so much room. Like this bottle. That's as big as it gets. That's it. But if you launch something
in that volume that can later expand to three times its
size, you have a lot more room to do something with. We use compressed gas to
expand it into its form. NARRATOR: The
inflatable spacecraft could be adapted to whatever
a client might need. Research laboratory,
manufacturing facility, hotel space-- all emerging industries
for Earth orbit. We can host a variety of
different kinds of clients. And they only have to pay
for the specific [inaudible] that they're interested in. NARRATOR: The spacecraft is
assembled from very durable, but bendable materials
called soft good systems. You've driven all
your life on soft goods. You've driven on tires. The inflatable systems can be
extremely reliable and very strong. NARRATOR: Bigelow's not
worried about the reliability of his launch system. The [inaudible] 18
rockets he's using are the same ones the Russians
trust with some of their most precious payloads. They have about
11,000 of those rockets, with nuclear missiles
on them right now. We're not going to fail
because the rocket failed. NARRATOR: Once in orbit,
instrumentation is powered by four solar panels. Just like the International
Space Station. The Genesis spacecraft is a
new generation of space station And it might be a vast
improvement from the government issue brand. What we're working on-- if we're successful--
is a much safer vessel for humans to be in than
the aluminum cans are. Our inflatable
hull structure is adequate to protect against
any type of thermal effects, micrometeoroid protection,
radiation effects. NARRATOR: Bigelow Aerospace now
has two private spacecraft-- Genesis One and Two-- orbiting 340 miles above Earth. The only privately owned
spacecraft of their kind orbiting in the edge of space. Launching spacecraft into Earth
orbit is only one challenge. Picking an appropriate
inclination for its orbits is another. The orientation
of an orbit really is just, a measure of the
degree of tilt from the line running through the equator. You can have anything from 0
degree inclination to 90 degree inclination. 0 degree inclination is
absolutely no tilt whatsoever from the equator. And that is called
an equatorial orbit. Whereas if you have a 90
degree tilt from the equator, that is the polar orbit. NARRATOR: Satellites
and spacecraft are launched into
different inclinations depending on their mission. Because different inclinations
pass over different parts of Earth. If you're going around the
Earth around the equator, what do you get to see? It's just what's below you. Which is going to be what? The equator. So an inclination of the
orbit at, say, 56 degrees covers almost all of the
population of the Earth. NARRATOR: A polar
orbit satellite has the ability to
view the entire Earth in a few orbital rotations. As the Earth slowly
rotates below, the satellite keeps
sweeping overhead. Allowing the entire
Earth to be observed in a short period of time. If the mission is for
espionage or observation, sun synchronous orbits allow
satellites to pass over the same point on Earth at
the same time every day. They shift 1 degree
each Earth day to stay in sync with the
sun at a given location. If constant communication
is necessary, geosynchronous satellites are
positioned far away from Earth so that entire continents
are within their view. It matches the
rotation of the Earth and appears to hover in the sky. It's a very useful
trait of that orbit. Because you can
then stay constantly in radio or television touch
with the spot on the ground below. NARRATOR: Earth orbit
is the natural extension of Earth's occupation in space. And if future plans pan
out, the industrialization of the edge of space will
happen in the near future. [music playing] It was only 40 years ago John
Glenn entered Earth orbit. What the next 50 or 100 years
holds for the future of Earth orbit is as exciting as
perhaps, a walk on the moon once was to an older generation. Bigelow Aerospace has already
reached a major milestone by launching their Genesis
One and Two pods into orbit. But future spacecraft will be
ready for private citizens. Nobody's done this before. I mean, people
have gone to space, but what we're trying to
do is make it available. NARRATOR: It's called Sundancer. A 300 cubic meter
inhabitable space that will have the capacity to
support up to three human lives indefinitely. We have to add a lot
of life support equipment to make sure that
the environment is sustainable for a crew of three. That goes into anything from the
air concentration system, where oxygen has to be delivered,
CO2 has to get removed. All the way through more
rigorous thermal control and humidity control. NARRATOR: One Sundancer
spacecraft offers more space than is currently available on
the entire International Space Station. Eventually, multiple pods
will be connected together. Like tinker toys for
larger facilities. What kind of shape
you're choosing depends on the purpose, the
mission for the spacecraft. NARRATOR: But like
pioneers setting off across the open sea
in search of new land, this is uncharted territory. [music playing] We have an opportunity to
turn that vision into a reality. And so far, that's
exactly what we're doing. NARRATOR: They are one
group of many that dream of permanent occupancy
at the edge of space. One thing remains clear. Earth needs an easy way to
deliver spacecraft, cargo, and people into space to take
advantage of Earth orbit. And the ideas are spectacular. There have been all
kinds of concepts. Like space elevators. NARRATOR: How about
a space fountain? A highly energized wave of
particles that lifts cargo up into Earth orbit. The key is finding a cheap
way to get those materials up to space. NARRATOR: Or perhaps,
the resources of space can be mined in a
facility orbiting Earth. Using the resources that are
on the moon and the asteroids nearby to build things
in space themselves. Not have to spend the money to
haul them up from the ground. For example, Lewis
and Clark, when they went across
the continental US, they didn't haul all their
drinking water and firewood with them from St.
Louis on the way West. They used what they
found along the way. NARRATOR: Earth orbits greatest
gift might be sustainable power. Imagine an array of solar panels
that generates enough power to light up a continent. That's probably, one of
the most promising avenues to pursue in the next
50 years in space. Is to find a way to make
cheap solar collectors and then build the collecting
antennas on the ground. So that we can use inexhaustible
solar power to reduce our reliance on the finite
supplies of fuel and energy we have here on Earth. NARRATOR: One thing is certain. The edge of space is the entry
way to future exploration. A stopping point
to the destinations across the universe. I'm very excited about
a future decades from now. Where the Earth really is the
Garden of Eden of humanity. Where we've taken
care of our planet. Our parks, our
enjoyment, and the things that we love about the
Earth are taken care of. And all the things that we
do in terms of manufacturing and resource extraction and
energy and mining, those things take place in space. And, of course, low Earth orbit
is the gateway to the rest of the solar system.
