BBC Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets

What makes us human? What gives us that edge over other animals? What draws the line between intelligence and basic survival? The heart of an explorer! (besides self awareness.) If nine hours of driving per day for nine straight days is bad enough, wait until you see our next possible space-step, we'll visit the planets.

Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets by BBC





Program 1

The interplanetary spacecraft Pegasus and her five-strong crew are launched into Earth orbit. Their epic six-year mission has begun.

Their first encounter with Venus lies just 41 days away from Earth.

Although it's Earth's nearest neighbour, Venus could not be a more different world. With clouds of sulphuric acid, surface temperatures pushing 500°C, snows of metal that encrust mountain peaks and atmospheric pressures that could destroy a submarine, this is a hell-hole of a planet.

Astronauts Zoe Lessard and Yvan Grigorev make the nail-biting descent in a landing craft called Orpheus.

Program 2

Just over 200 days of travel from the Sun, Pegasus reaches the largest planet of the Solar System, Jupiter.

Danger lies in a menace lurking at Jupiter's core - a churning mass of liquid metallic hydrogen that inflates a magnetic bubble around the planet, producing levels of radiation 500 times the dose that would kill a human.

comment: I was skeptical at first since I've always been more interested in outter galaxies. I like the cosmos in a grader scale. The solar system fails to fulfill that need. But these two programs made me a believer. I know we must take one step at a time. So let that step begin with a great concept that takes the shape of a docu-drama. The acting is very good, but no Oscar material. Each of the astronauts has unique characters which later on carry a more important role during the six-year voyage. There are scientifically proven facts and there are dramatizations, with elements of educated guesses. I've watched them twice while sleeplessly staring into the night sky of Hokkaido. Brilliant!

graphics: Absolutely top-notch.






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