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The Sky at Night - Brits in Space
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00:01Tonight we're asking the question, what does it take to train as an astronaut
00:09and go to space?
00:14Well, on ESA's checklist you either need to be a test pilot or engineer
00:18or have a master's level degree in a STEM subject.
00:22Your height needs to be between 1.5 and 1.9 metres.
00:31And of course you have to be in peak physical condition.
00:35But that's just the beginning.
00:38The European Space Agency received over 22,000 applications in the last call for new astronauts.
00:47Just 17 were selected.
00:50And three are from the UK.
00:54And tonight we're meeting them.
00:57Welcome to the Sky at Night.
01:17The high standards required to become an astronaut mean they don't let just anyone through.
01:35We're going to find out exactly what it takes to go to space.
01:40This has got to be the greatest fight ever.
01:42And witness these new recruits following in the trajectories of the pioneers.
01:49We'll see how flying planes helps to fly a spacecraft.
01:57And how the latest virtual reality technology can help daily life on board the ISS.
02:02There's stuff flying around.
02:04But before we meet the rookies, I've come to the new space gallery at the Science Museum in London
02:11to meet the very first British person to have made that journey into space.
02:18Dr Helen Sharman.
02:21Helen, how nice to see you in front of your own space suit as well.
02:25I know, it's a treat, isn't it?
02:26And it looks like I wore it yesterday.
02:27It looks almost brand new, doesn't it?
02:29Helen was just 27 years old when she was selected to fly to the Soviet space station Mir on a mission that would last eight days.
02:40How does it feel seeing this after, what, 30 years?
02:43You know, I still remember, of course, how it felt.
02:45You know, the stiff pipes around the chest, the bulk of the material behind the knees.
02:49So where did you first hear about the chance to be an astronaut?
02:52And did you think, yes, I'm going to get that?
02:54Well, physically, I was sitting in the seat of my car, right?
02:58I was driving home from work.
02:59So an announcement had been made that this British mission was going to happen.
03:03And the announcement was made on radio.
03:05It was also made in the national newspapers, because this was back in 1989, right?
03:09So we didn't have internet news, we'd have social media and stuff.
03:13So that's how we got our news then.
03:14But no, I heard of the opportunity and immediately, of course, realised what an amazing thing that would be to do.
03:20So what was your selection and what was your training like?
03:23I didn't really think I would get selected.
03:25I almost did not apply.
03:28Right.
03:29And then I thought, well, you know, I've got the basic criteria, STEM degree.
03:31I can speak different languages.
03:33I'm the right age.
03:34I'm physically fit.
03:35You know what?
03:36This is such an opportunity.
03:37I can't miss it.
03:38So, yeah, decided to apply.
03:39So how do you think your training compares to what the astronauts say going to the ISS do today?
03:44So I think the basic training is really very similar.
03:46You need to understand how to be safe, how to operate as part of a team, very importantly,
03:50and how to do the experiments that you need to do.
03:53If you're going, as I was, for a short mission, which was just about doing my experiments,
03:57then, of course, the training could be quite short itself.
03:59But if you're training generally to be a career astronaut, so you don't know what your mission might be,
04:04and also when you're there on longer missions, you're going to be doing more maintenance and repair of the spacecraft,
04:09whichever spacecraft it might be.
04:10Right.
04:11So your training is going to have to incorporate not just the one space station
04:15and the one spacecraft that I flew in, but perhaps others as well.
04:20Guest presenter Jen Gupta is off to meet one of Britain's latest astronauts, doing just that.
04:26I'm at the EPAG-NG flight school in northern France to meet European Space Agency astronaut Rosemary Coogan.
04:32Let's go inside and find her.
04:38Learning to pilot a plane teaches astronauts about everything, from air navigation to meteorology.
04:45But today, Rosemary's instructor Paul has a new challenge for her.
04:50She's going to fly the plane blind.
04:53OK.
04:54How are you doing, Ros?
04:56Morning.
04:57We're hoping to do an IFR flight.
05:01An IFR flight?
05:02Is that right?
05:03What is that?
05:04Rosemary is used to flight with very good visibility.
05:07If we can enter a cloud or simulate that we will enter a cloud,
05:12then we will have to trust our instrument instead of looking outside what will happen.
05:17Yeah.
05:18During what's known as IFR conditions, that's instrument flying rules,
05:24pilots must abandon their sight lines, trusting their instruments alone.
05:30During space travel, an astronaut's vision can be impaired by storms, dust and even plasma.
05:37Very good.
05:38So this is an important exercise.
05:41So you will have to focus on the artificial horizon.
05:44Don't lose it from sight more than one second.
05:4795% of the time you will be on the artificial horizon.
05:52Meaning that 5% of the time you will be on the other instrument,
05:55so it will just be a quick glance of less than one second
05:59and you will analyse what you see looking at your artificial horizon.
06:03Mm-hm.
06:04Yeah? Does that make sense?
06:05Yeah.
06:06As an ESA career astronaut, Rosemary is looking at a long-duration mission to the ISS.
06:12Giving her the opportunity to train these additional advanced skills.
06:17Checks complete.
06:20We climb in and line up on the runway.
06:23Bevel Tower, MPEG 069. Bonjour.
06:2869.
06:29Hello.
06:30Hello.
06:31Hello.
06:32Hello.
06:33Hello.
06:34Now the aircraft is at altitude, Paul can cover Rosemary's view of the horizon.
06:49OK.
06:50Turning left.
06:514,200 feet.
06:56Continuing climb.
06:59Eight degrees as a pitch.
07:04OK?
07:05Yeah.
07:06Right as a pitch.
07:07Very good.
07:08This small plane may not look much like a spacecraft, but they have much more in common
07:14than you would think.
07:17One of the big skills that you get out of piloting an aircraft and something that will really support
07:22us when we're in space is that sense of situational awareness.
07:26When you're flying there's a huge number of parameters that you need to be monitoring
07:30and adjusting simultaneously.
07:32Looking at your altitude, your speed, perhaps your vertical climb speed or descent speed if
07:37you're doing manoeuvres, your bank angle, your air speeds.
07:43The parallel to that is all of the different parameters in the systems on the ISS.
07:47In unexpected situations you need to be able to digest lots of pieces of information
07:52and act upon that really quickly.
07:54In a flash, an hour is up and we've safely touched down.
07:59And slowly flared the aircraft and mundane.
08:02And now I get the chance to ask Rosemary about this experience.
08:06And what's next up for this astronaut born in Northern Ireland and reaching for the stars?
08:13Wow Rosemary, that was absolutely incredible.
08:17How do you feel after that flight?
08:19It was very interesting.
08:20We are so trained on kind of never keeping the outside out of your sight because that
08:25is really what tells you what's going on.
08:27So having to just put all of that to one side and trust your instruments as they say is,
08:32yeah.
08:33And so you've got about a month left of your pilot training and then you're kind of back into other astronaut training
08:40and then being assigned a space mission.
08:43So what are you looking forward to with that regard?
08:46It's going to be a busy end of the year.
08:48We're doing some field medical training.
08:50We're doing a lot of training and mission control to talk to the station.
08:53So really getting that side of it, being the people the astronauts talk to on ground,
08:57which I think would be a really nice kind of full circle.
08:59When the time comes to be assigned for a mission, a lot of what we're doing here will really get put into practice.
09:05You know, we'll be trained very specifically on the capsule, the vehicle that we will be going to the ISS in.
09:11And I'm really looking forward to putting this into practice, seeing what those displays are,
09:16which different pieces of information that we need to monitor there and really learning how to use that system.
09:23Back in London with Helen, we can see just the type of capsule that Rosemary is hoping to fly in in the future.
09:30Of course, since your trip to Mia, we've had several Brits go into space. The best known, of course, is Tim Peake.
09:38And this is his spacecraft, or at least the one, the Soyuz craft that he used to launch and then to return to Earth inside.
09:44So, you know, it's quite phenomenal.
09:46There we go. There's Tim.
09:48So this would have been very similar to the Soyuz you flew in. Which was your seat?
09:52Oh, my seat was on the right hand side of the spacecraft, the same one that Tim would have had.
09:56And the lovely thing about being on one of the sides rather than the commander who sits in the middle.
10:00On the sides, you have a window.
10:02Now, on the launch pad, of course, it's covered, the whole rocket and the spacecraft is covered in a protective fairing.
10:07Stops the atmosphere from damaging the spacecraft as we go through it.
10:10But once you're out of the atmosphere, then that fairing is jettisoned and light streams through that window.
10:17The whole thing is over really quickly in less than nine minutes.
10:22And that's where we need to be in space.
10:24The final engine cut off, jettisoned, and immediately, instead of being pushed back into your seat,
10:30you're then starting to feel weightless.
10:32Still strapped in, but feeling that every time you move, you move your little finger, it feels weightless.
10:38It's just fabulous.
10:39It does sound terrifying, I have to say.
10:42Is it scary?
10:43If you know what's happening and what you need to do and what you might need to do in almost every consequence there could be,
10:51there is no unknown.
10:53And we're scared of the unknown.
10:55So, you know, there is no unknown to be scared of.
10:57So, yeah, no fear.
10:58Sounds very logical.
10:59I think I'd still be terrified, I have to say.
11:04Staying rational in terrifying circumstances is a crucial character trait for an astronaut.
11:11It's tested most when things go wrong.
11:15When things do go wrong in space, you can't just call for help.
11:21There was one, maybe not scary, but dramatic moment during your mission on Mir when the station seemed to lose power.
11:30Can you tell us about that?
11:31One evening, emergency signals go off, the commander of the space station sort of floats off to the control panel,
11:36quickly returns and says, now, we're going to lose power.
11:39The lights are going to go out and the fans are going to stop turning because we haven't got enough electrical energy stored in the battery.
11:46So we think it's a combination of the angle of the solar arrays combined with this battery problem that we had.
11:51The light's not so much of a problem because, you know, you know your way around with your eyes closed, right?
11:55Yeah.
11:56But the fans are more of a concern because the fans keep the air circulating,
12:01which means that the carbon dioxide that you breathe out is taken away from your head, really,
12:06otherwise you'd build up this bubble of carbon dioxide that would get more and more concentrated around your head
12:10and you'd end up suffocating in your own breath.
12:13My knowledge said, OK, I know about convection, therefore I need to keep moving around.
12:18So, yes, we just sort of...
12:19Float around in the dark.
12:20Kept moving around a little bit just to get into a little bit more of the fresher air, let's say.
12:26And when we got back into the light, what panels we did have that were pointing in the right direction
12:31absorbed enough energy so that the lights came back on, the fans came back on,
12:35and eventually new computer fixed the orientation of the solar arrays and later on new batteries as well.
12:41Everything's fixable.
12:42Yeah, yeah, if you've got the right equipment with you.
12:45Even when everything is working properly, living in space is a challenge.
12:50From the moment we're born, we learn to move in one G of gravity.
12:55Take that away and even simple things like brushing your teeth have to be learnt again.
13:02Inside the European Astronaut Centre here in Cologne, cutting-edge facilities are used to train the astronauts
13:13to give them the vital skills that they need.
13:16Dr. Megan Christian is an astronaut reserve in her second phase of basic training.
13:23She's here to learn the tips and tricks of the International Space Station.
13:28One of the really important things is getting familiar with what things might be like when we're in space,
13:34when we're on the International Space Station.
13:36And so a really good way of doing that is using the XR Lab or the Extended Reality Lab.
13:42Extended Reality, that sounds very exciting.
13:44It is exciting because we can really imagine that we're on the International Space Station when we're using this equipment.
13:50We'll learn to kind of float through and use the handrails to move along, translate as we call it.
13:56We'll see some of the different modules, might get to go and spend some time in the cupola,
14:01which is where you can watch the Earth from space.
14:04Hello, good afternoon. Welcome to the XR Lab.
14:08Leonel is the instructor for Extended Reality Training, and he's quickly thrown us in at the deep end.
14:17So practically speaking, you need always to think that you don't have your legs to move around,
14:21so you need to just grab things, push, pull.
14:26Using VR headsets, astronauts get to familiarise themselves
14:29with moving around the ISS in simulated weightlessness.
14:34Oh my!
14:36And this new technology means I'm the closest I have ever been to getting into space.
14:41There's stuff flying around.
14:43Yeah, there's stuff flying around, exactly.
14:45So you see in Columbus Laboratory how complex the environment is,
14:51and the purpose of this software is to represent things that we are unable to simulate on Earth.
14:59So for instance, if you see any of this power supply flying around,
15:03they have a certain weight, like this blue brick here.
15:06And if you grab it and you let go, you can see that they have a certain weight,
15:10a certain inertia, like they would have in space.
15:13So what you experience here is what you'll experience on the ISS?
15:16Exactly, yeah.
15:17And if you carry it on a straight line, you will see the cupola appearing,
15:21which is facing Earth.
15:22I'd like to see the cupola.
15:24Oh, I'm sorry.
15:25I'm sorry.
15:26Don't I just hit you?
15:27Collision.
15:28And it was right when I was about to hit the ceiling as well,
15:31so it felt like...
15:32See, you are improving our simulator capabilities.
15:35Excellent.
15:36Thank you so much.
15:37You should come back more often.
15:38I'll do that.
15:39The XR lab can be used to train astronauts in everything from docking to managing medical emergencies.
15:51And instructors think that time spent in a simulator on Earth
15:55may also reduce the impact of space motion sickness on astronauts once they reach the ISS.
16:01All I can say is, wow, that was mind-boggling.
16:07It was, wasn't it?
16:08It's such an amazing experience and, you know, more real than you would expect.
16:14But getting used to the feel of space isn't just done virtually.
16:19Looks good.
16:20Come on, come on, come on.
16:22Part of McGann's training is conducted in parabolic flight,
16:26where the aircraft's rise and fall gives cycles of 22 seconds of microgravity.
16:34Another method is to be submerged in water.
16:38Here in Cologne we have the Neutral Buoyancy Facility,
16:41which is a big pool.
16:43It's 10 metres deep.
16:44Wow.
16:45You can put mock-ups inside it,
16:47so mock-ups like this, you know, behind us.
16:49So, you know, we've just been on the inside,
16:52but how do you get around on the outside when you're doing an extravehicle activity,
16:55otherwise known as a spacewalk?
16:58The NBF lets astronauts achieve neutral buoyancy,
17:02where they can feel as close to weightless as possible.
17:07McGann is completing the gas diving certification,
17:11testing communication and manoeuvrability.
17:16As an astronaut's skills develop,
17:18they will die for up to six hours in a tethered spacesuit with surface airflow,
17:24mimicking the conditions and the duration of an operation in the hostile environment of space.
17:33NBF trainer Hervé is taking McGann through some of the equipment she might need to master.
17:39So, for example, this hook, you recall how to open it.
17:44Yeah, that's right.
17:45Unlock, press and shoot.
17:48And that's a lot harder when you're wearing big gloves.
17:50Exactly, exactly.
17:51And we have additional equipment like what we call the PGT,
17:54so pistol grip tool.
17:56This is a device to screw, unscrew, screws.
18:00Basically a multi-tool for during EVA.
18:02Yeah, exactly.
18:03A space station approaching 30 years of age requires a lot of maintenance.
18:12The ISS is due to be decommissioned in 2031.
18:17But for McGann's cohort of astronauts currently in training,
18:21several missions are predicted in the upcoming years,
18:25leaving plenty of opportunity for new blood.
18:28And with new technologies raising hopes of travelling further than Earth orbit,
18:35could our rookies one day visit a place that's been calling to us for more than half a century?
18:42For the eyes of the world now look into space,
18:47to the moon and to the planets beyond.
18:54This is one of my favourite things in the exhibition.
18:56A bit of moon rock brought back by Apollo 15.
18:59It's amazing to see it, isn't it?
19:00Quite incredible.
19:01Three billion years old.
19:04And it's come from so many thousands of kilometres away.
19:07But yeah, Apollo 15, you know, all those years ago,
19:10we were on the moon collecting rocks.
19:12We've learnt so much and we're still learning actually from these rocks.
19:15So that's the beauty of humans going and coming back
19:17because we can bring things back with us.
19:19Do you think it will happen?
19:20Do you think in the near future, let's say the next 20 years,
19:23we might see European British astronauts on the moon?
19:27I think we'll definitely see people on the moon.
19:31Will we see Europeans?
19:33Yes, I think probably there will be some Europeans up there.
19:37Britain, well, we have to invest.
19:40What about space tourism?
19:42That's obviously been a development since your time in space.
19:45Tourism, like any sort of investment in a new industry,
19:48is good to a point.
19:50So yes, it's great if we can attract investments in the space programme.
19:54That will help us to develop it further.
19:56So that's all good.
19:57It's also getting people very interested commercially.
19:59And so that investment is not just going for tourists,
20:02but we're thinking about investing in spacecraft and perhaps,
20:05I'll say habitations, but let's say hotels in space.
20:08Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:09My problem with it is all of the, you know, the sustainability angle.
20:13So we must have reusable spacecraft and reusable rockets.
20:17It's that steel, it's the aluminium, the production of that,
20:20which uses up so much energy from the earth.
20:22So let's be careful with tourism, I think.
20:29Whether it's for the controversial potential of space tourism
20:32or just making space travel accessible for all scientists,
20:37space is opening up.
20:40The final astronaut we're meeting is Paralympian Dr John McFall,
20:45an old friend of Sky at Night.
20:48Very interestingly, to date,
20:50we have found that there are no technical showstoppers
20:53to flying someone with a physical disability like mine
20:56to the International Space Station for a long-duration mission.
21:00So this is news, right? Yeah.
21:02Because it could have been that you came in and two months in
21:04discovered that there's a vital bit of training you couldn't do.
21:07Exactly.
21:08So it's really exciting to see what happens in the next six to 12 months
21:11and where we take it from here.
21:13Soon after our visit, a report was published
21:16giving John the official all clear,
21:19should he be assigned to a long-duration trip,
21:22living and working aboard the ISS.
21:25And now it's time to get into the details.
21:29A big thing is the application of prosthetics in space.
21:32So, you know, practically getting ourselves ready
21:35that should I get the opportunity to fly from a prosthetics point of view,
21:38we're ready.
21:39As a space scientist, I sort of build things that go up into space
21:42and they're designed for space.
21:43So this has been designed on Earth.
21:45It's going to be translated up there.
21:47And I guess there's a learning curve to work out how we adapt.
21:52There are some challenges taking my prostheses up into the microgravity environment,
21:56especially one of them, which is a microprocessor knee.
21:59So a bit of a clever fancy knee.
22:01It's got computers in it and it's got lots of different sensors.
22:04And on Earth, those sensors are designed to rely on gravity as an input.
22:09So it has a gyroscope and an accelerometer.
22:12And so we wanted to understand better how those sensors would behave in the microgravity environments.
22:20I thought that in that microgravity environment, it might be easier to move around
22:24because you're not sort of weighed down by gravity.
22:27You float a lot.
22:28From a load-bearing point of view, you don't have to worry about some of the structural integrity
22:33of the prosthesis as much and maybe the demands on the skin of my stump, for example.
22:39But on the flip side of that, astronauts do tasks with their hands.
22:42And so to avoid floating away, they often slide their feet under a rail or under a strap
22:49and then they use the movement in their ankle to feather that
22:53and generate force to lever them backwards and forwards.
22:56Now, on my prosthetic side, on my amputated side, I haven't got that ability in the ankle of my prosthesis.
23:01And what we want to try and understand is can we improve the design of the foot
23:06to overcome that loss of ankle movement that might help me stabilise
23:11whilst I'm living and working in microgravity to free up my hands to do tasks.
23:15It's not just the technicality of anchoring himself to complete his work.
23:20John has been trialling how he'll keep fit in space too.
23:25Back in May this year we did a parabolic flight campaign where we put a treadmill on the plane
23:30and basically simulated the treadmill on the International Space Station
23:34testing the different biomechanical properties of my running prosthesis.
23:38Because exercise I know is a vital component of being on the International Space Station.
23:43If you spend more than 30 days in microgravity you need to do exercise
23:48otherwise your muscles waste away, your bones lose their density and actually your heart gets a little bit lazy.
23:55I think one thing I'm quite interested in understanding more about is what we can learn from that going forward
24:02if we're thinking about more opportunities for people with disabilities to fly in the future.
24:06For all of us that dream of leaving Earth's gravity behind, we can always look up and there's plenty to see.
24:19We're deeper into the darker months now, which is perfect for stargazing.
24:24An October highlight is the Orionid meteor shower.
24:28This occurs when Earth passes through fine dust grains shed by Halley's Comet.
24:34As these grains pass through Earth's atmosphere they vaporise and form meteor trails.
24:40This is the second encounter with these fine dust grains that Earth has throughout the year.
24:46The first occurs in early May which gives rise to the Etta Aquarid meteor shower.
24:52The zenithal hourly rate for the Orionids is around 20m per hour
24:56and this represents how many meteors you'd see under perfect viewing conditions.
25:01This year the Orionids are pretty favourable.
25:05The moon is absent during the Orionids peak night of the 21st into the 22nd of October, leaving the sky good and dark.
25:17The radiant, that's the small area of sky that Orionids appear to come from,
25:22is located near the star Betelgers in the top left corner of Orion.
25:28The best strategy is to watch from around midnight BST for as long as you can.
25:34Locate as dark a place as possible.
25:37Avoid looking at any bright lights, so no phones.
25:41And give yourself at least 20 minutes in darkness for your eyes to properly dark adapt.
25:47Look around two thirds up the sky.
25:50A sun lounger will let you do this in comfort in any direction,
25:54although south is usually best.
25:56And be patient.
25:58We covered how to photograph a meteor shower in our episode called Asteroid Strike.
26:05And this is still available on iPlayer.
26:07But if you don't want to get the camera out, you can just as easily sit back and enjoy the show.
26:13But if you fancy an astrophotography challenge, then Ceres is currently a great target.
26:20This dwarf planet orbits the sun at a distance of around 260 million miles in the main asteroid belt.
26:28And Ceres was at opposition on the 2nd of October, so now is a great time to try and locate it.
26:35During October it's in Cetus the Whale, a large sprawling constellation.
26:41Saturn is nearby too, and this is a good guiding light.
26:46From Saturn look southeast to locate Iota Seti, and head east from this star to locate Ita Seti.
26:53Ceres moves in an arc roughly between these two stars throughout the month.
26:57It should be visible through binoculars and definitely through a small telescope.
27:02Then record the star field over several nights and look for the moving dot.
27:07So here's hoping for some clear skies and some great views.
27:12As ever, if you do manage to get any images, please send them in to our Flickr account.
27:17And you can find details of this at www.bbc.co.uk forward slash sky at night.
27:25Here you can find details of my full star guide, plus some other targets to look out for as well.
27:31In the meantime, here are some of our favourite images you sent in last month.
27:55As an astronomy mad kid, I remember watching in awe, gobsmacked, as astronauts repaired the Hubble Space Telescope.
28:07With the technology that we've got today, I hope that spaceflight can help us explore the solar system,
28:12and understand the planet on which we all live.
28:15And as we've seen, there's some pretty incredible people lined up to do just that.
28:20Good night.
28:50The Honors
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