The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC.
The show had the same permanent presenter, Patrick Moore, from its first broadcast on 24 April 1957 until 7 January 2013. The latter date was a posthumous broadcast, which followed Moore’s death on 9 December 2012. This made it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history. Many early episodes are missing, either because the tapes were wiped, thrown out, or because the episode was broadcast live and never recorded in the first place.
Beginning with the 3 February 2013 edition, the show was co-presented by Lucie Green and Chris Lintott. Since December 2013 Maggie Aderin-Pocock has been a presenter. The programme’s opening and closing theme music is “At the Castle Gate”, from the incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande, written in 1905 by Jean Sibelius, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.
This episode:
The Sky at Night is embarking on a journey into the future, as we explore how space will revolutionise life on Earth over the next 50 years. As humanity’s reach extends into the cosmos, we face unprecedented challenges, from redefining what it means to be an astronaut, to confronting our own space junk, to dealing with the impact of life in space on our earth-adapted bodies. With privileged early access to a groundbreaking new report from the Royal Society on humanity’s future in space, the Sky at Night team are on a mission to find our destiny among the stars – our place in space.
The criteria for becoming an astronaut are famously tough. But if we want more people to go to space, maybe it’s time to start challenging that. That’s what the European Space Agency are doing with their pioneering study Fly!, which aims to figure out if someone with a physical disability can live and work in space. At the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, presenter Chris Lintott meets one of the newest members of ESA’s astronaut reserve: John McFall. John is already a medal-winning Paralympian and orthopaedic surgeon and – as if that wasn’t enough – he is now the first recruit to the Fly! study. Chris discovers what’s involved in John’s extensive and gruelling training, and finds out what his hopes are for improving access to space.
Training for space travel is one thing, but living on the moon or Mars is a whole new level for humanity. Our bodies are used to gravity, and being in environments with less gravity than Earth can make them go a bit haywire. At the Royal Society in London, Maggie Aderin-Pocock meets up with space medicine expert Professor Kevin Fong to find out all about the challenges of keeping humans healthy in space. What would an astronaut on Mars do in a medical emergency? What happens to our bones, muscles and organs if we are without Earth’s gravity for a long time? And could a baby be born in space?
While Maggie and Kevin unpack those mind-bending questions, George Dransfield heads to Astroscale in Oxfordshire, a company who are coming up with clever ways to take out space trash. There are already 130 million pieces of space debris in orbit around our planet, and that number is ticking up. George meets up with Dr Mekhi Dhesi to learn about Astroscale’s clever missions to clean up space junk – including ELSA-M, a spacecraft which uses magnets to tow defunct satellites out of orbit, and Cosmic, a spacecraft with a robot arm to grab onto debris.
Our increasing dependence on satellites isn’t just producing a lot of space junk though, it’s also becoming a nuisance for amateur astronomers around the world. Thankfully, our resident astronomer Pete Lawrence has some clever tips and tricks for telling satellites and meteors apart, and using smart telescopes to remove satellite trails from deep sky images.
Finally, back at the Royal Society, Maggie sits down with Professor Suzie Imber, planetary scientist and co-chair of the groundbreaking Space: 2075 report. Together, they unpack some of the biggest questions about our journey into the cosmos over the next 50 years. How do we make sure space benefits us all, including those of us still down here on Earth? Should we be concerned about the commercialisation of space travel? And will there really be people on Mars by 2075?
Links:
The Sky at Night
