Follow the four civilians as they launch into space on a three-day trip orbiting Earth and reaching an altitude higher than that of the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon mission, dubbed Inspiration4, is making history as the first all-civilian mission to orbit. In the first episode, preparations begin for the mission. The commander is Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who purchased the flight for all four passengers, and the second crew member is a 29-year-old cancer survivor, Hayley Arceneaux.
Planet Earth has been home to humankind for over 200,000 years, but with a population of 7.3 billion and counting and limited resources, this planet might not support us forever. Professor Stephen Hawking thinks the human species will have to populate a new planet within 100 years if it is to survive. With climate change, pollution, deforestation, pandemics and population growth, our own planet is becoming increasingly precarious. In this landmark film Professor Hawking, alongside engineer and radio astronomy expert Professor Danielle George and a former student, Christophe Galfard, join forces to find out if, and how, humans can reach for the stars and relocate to different planets. Travelling the globe, they meet top scientists, technologists and engineers who are working to answer our biggest questions: is there another planet out there that we could call home? How will we travel across the vast distances of space to get there? How will we survive the journey? And how will we set up a new human civilization on an alien world? Travelling the globe, they meet top scientists, technologists and engineers who are working to answer our biggest questions: is there another planet out there that we could call home? How will we travel across the vast distances of space to get there? How will we survive the journey? And how will we set up a new human civilization on an alien world? Taking in the latest advances in astronomy, biology and rocket technology from the Atacama Desert to the wilds of the Arctic, viewers will discover a whole world of cutting edge research. This programme shows that Professor Hawking’s ambition isn’t as fantastical as it sounds - and that science fiction is closer to science fact than we ever thought.
The final episode of the series ponders the fate of planet Earth. Neil deGrasse Tyson opens with a reflection on science and those who help us understand it: 'We all feel the weight of the shadows on our future, but in another time, every bit as ominous as our own, there were those who could see a way through the darkness to find a star to steer by.' The young Carl Sagan and Neil Tyson first discovered their passion for science at the NY World's Fairs of the past. We visit the dazzling Pavilions of the 2039 NY World's Fair, where problems we currently think intractable have been plausibly solved through public commitment and scientific imagination. And our baby is a woman now, with a baby of her own and a future bright with possibilities.
This series shines a spotlight on the influential builders, dreamers and believers whose feats transformed the United States, a nation decaying from the inside after the Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological superpower the world had ever seen. The Men Who Built America is the story of a nation at the crossroads and of the people who catapulted it to prosperity. In the first episode, Cornelius Vanderbilt grows from a steamboat entrepreneur to the head of a railroad empire, and gets into a heated rivalry with Jim Fisk and Jay Gould; the up and coming John D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil. Many business owners lay their own rail lines which leads to the Panic of 1873. Later, Rockefeller starts to expand his wealth by diverting his business from the railroads to a new innovation, oil pipelines.
The film challenges many of the commonly held assumptions about our water systems and how people think about water. Its goal is to bust the global sense of impending doom by painting an alternative, optimistic water future and mapping out the ways to get there. The filmmakers believe that even one person with enough knowledge can make a difference and inspire a movement. The film tries to provide that knowledge and to envision a day when everybody has access to clean water and sanitation and in our lifetime. Narrated by Liam Neeson, featuring Matt Damon and Jaden Smith, 'Brave Blue World' paints an optimistic picture of how humanity is adopting new technologies and innovations to re-think how water is managed.
We take it for granted, but every time we pick up a pen or type on the keyboard, we are employing the most powerful technology ever invented: the technology of writing. Explore how the invention of writing gave humanity a history. From hieroglyphs to emojis, the series is an exploration of the way in which the technology of writing has shaped the world we live in. The invention of writing about 5,000 years ago made civilization itself possible, and every innovation of the modern world is based on the foundation of the written word. But how and where did writing begin, and who began it? In From Pictures to Words, the first of three films about the history of writing, we uncover the hidden links between all the diverse writing systems in use today and trace the origin of our own alphabet to a turquoise mine in the Sinai Desert and a man riding a donkey whose name was Khebded.
In the first episode, preparations begin for the mission. The commander is Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who purchased the flight for all four passengers, and the second crew member is a 29-year-old cancer survivor, Hayley Arceneaux.