Known Universe (2009) s03e06 Episode Script
Construction Zone
NARRATOR: IF YOU'RE PLANNING TO BUILD SOMETHING IN OUTER SPACE, PREPARE FOR THE UNEXPECTED.
MIKE: Is the astronaut's job at stake here? NARRATOR: WE'RE CONSTRUCTING OUR FUTURE SKYLINE OUT THERE, AND IT'S NOTHING LIKE WE'VE SEEN BEFORE.
OUR TOOLS TURN BIZARRE DAVID: Wow, I'm freaked out by this.
NARRATOR: ENGINEERING GETS WEIRD GLEN: All of our water starts off from the astronaut.
MIKE: That's a nice way of saying drinking pee.
NARRATOR: AND ALSO DANGEROUS ANDY: Man, this is a big gun.
NARRATOR: AND STRUCTURES SEEM TO MOVE ON THEIR OWN.
DAVID: That's cool.
NARRATOR: DON'T TAKE ANY DETOURS.
THERE'S AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD.
MIKE: See you later.
NARRATOR: AEROSPACE ENGINEER SIGRID CLOSE IS FAMILIAR WITH DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ON EARTH, BUT BUILDING STUFF IN SPACE IS A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME, AND SHE'S SETTING OFF ON A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME TRIP OUT THERE TO SEE WHY.
SIGRID: I am so excited.
We're fulfilling a lifelong dream here of mine, to be able to do this, so thank you.
MIKE: I don't think you're gonna be disappointed.
This is pretty cool stuff.
NARRATOR: THIS IS ONE OF NASA'S HIGHLY ADVANCED VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATORS, SIGRID: I, I This is so neat.
NARRATOR: WHICH WILL LET HER TAKE AN AMAZINGLY REALISTIC SPACE WALK AROUND THE UNIVERSE'S MOST COMPLICATED CONSTRUCTION SITE.
SIGRID: I'm gonna look like a superhero, aren't I? MAN: Keep telling yourself.
NARRATOR: BUT SHE'S ABOUT TO FIND OUT FIRSTHAND HOW DANGEROUS IT REALLY IS.
ANDY: Space is just a hard place do any kind of construction.
You have to strap yourself down, you have to have the special tools, you gotta have these big puffy gloves on.
I have a hard enough time constructing things in my garage.
I can't imagine building something in space.
That's just crazy.
DAVID: Trying to build something in space is sort of like trying to build an ocean liner in the middle of the sea.
There's nothing to stand on, there's nothing to push against.
You have no leverage.
Now, the rules are different in space, but a lot of the engineering that has gone on here can be brought into space.
NARRATOR: WE'RE ABOUT TO BREAK GROUND ON THE MOST INTIMIDATING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS EVER CONCEIVED, WHETHER IT'S IN ORBIT, ON PLANETS, OR IN DEEP SPACE - NOWHERE IS OFF LIMITS.
BUT THE FIRST STEP TO BUILDING BEYOND EARTH IS LEARNING HOW TO TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP.
SIGRID CLOSE HAS NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO LEAVE EARTH, BUT AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER IN HOUSTON, TEXAS, MECHANICAL ENGINEER AND ASTRONAUT MIKE MASSIMINO IS GOING TO GIVE HER THAT OPPORTUNITY, TAKING HER FOR A SPACE WALK VIA NASA'S VIRTUAL REALITY LAB.
MIKE: We're gonna play astronaut and we're gonna space walk.
SIGRID: This is so neat.
MIKE: We're gonna get inside of a helmet that's gonna give us a high fidelity 3D graphical display of what it's like to space walk.
NARRATOR: USING NASA'S HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED 3D VIRTUAL REALITY SOFTWARE, SIGRID AND MIKE ARE ABOUT TO STEP FROM EARTH INTO SPACE AND PRACTICE WALKING OUTSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
MIKE: And this is a great way to get you prepared to do your space walk.
See you later.
When you're working, you want to go very, very slowly.
SIGRID: Okay.
MIKE: You want to go slow.
SIGRID: That might be hard for me.
MIKE: If you do let go, you'll always have a safety tether on, and if that doesn't work we can deploy a jetpack that we're always wearing.
It's a little tricky and probably very nerve wracking if you had to do it for real.
So why don't we just, uh, walk around a little bit? You're able to, uh, go to your left, my right.
SIGRID: So you're upside down? MIKE: That's correct.
SIGRID: Because there is no upside down in space.
MIKE: I think you're upside down.
SIGRID: It's very disorienting.
You want to say up down and there is no up down.
MIKE: You wanna try to move around a little bit? SIGRID: Yeah.
MIKE: Okay, if you can just just grab on with your hands.
SIGRID: Okay.
MIKE: And try to go hand over hand and see which direction you're going.
Let's do that.
SIGRID: So, Mike, I am finding that it is so hard to maneuver around.
I can't even imagine building something up here or fixing something.
MIKE: Remember, you're in space now, so it's not like driving a car.
So you really have to be very careful.
SIGRID: Oops, now I'm tumbling, so I'm gonna turn on the jetpack MIKE: Yeah, get yourself stable.
Tumbling's not a good thing to be doing in space.
SIGRID: Okay, I turned it on.
I'm still tumbling.
MIKE: Right now, you're in the worst case scenario.
Alright, Sigrid, this is serious.
You're in danger of becoming a human satellite.
Sigrid, come home.
SIGRID: I'm trying.
MIKE: Stop playing around out there.
SIGRID: You're so far away.
Okay Mike, I think I'm officially lost in space.
It was harder than it looks.
MIKE: Luckily, it was only a simulation.
NARRATOR: SPACE WALKING IS HARD ENOUGH IN A SIMULATOR, BUT ASTRONAUTS DON'T TAKE STROLLS IN SPACE.
THEY'VE GOT WORK TO DO.
FOR THEM, THIS IS A CONSTRUCTION ZONE.
AND THEY AREN'T USING ORDINARY TOOLS.
MIKE: This is the NASA space walking tool lab, and it's got lots of tools.
For example, this tool is only used in the event of a problem where you couldn't close the payload bay doors.
You would use this special tool to bring the two doors together.
This is our tether department.
This tether would be one we would use to keep a tool close to us and allows you to hook onto your tools so you won't lose them.
Needle nose pliers are very useful things to have around.
They have really big openings because your gloves are big and bulky.
Here's a hammer that we use in space.
It's got some Velcro to allow you to stick it to a tool board, big handles, tether points.
That's what we have to adapt regular tools for, so we can use them in space.
I'm here with my friend Cody McNeil.
You're like the keeper of the tools.
CODY: That's correct.
MIKE: There's lots of specialty tools you have here, but most of what we do during our space walk is work with bolts.
CODY: Correct.
The first thing that you need to do is get some kind of leverage.
NARRATOR: WITH BASICALLY NO GRAVITY IN SPACE, IF YOU TRIED TO TURN A TOOL WITHOUT ANCHORING YOURSELF, THE TOOL MIGHT TURN YOU.
LUCKILY, NASA HAS SOMETHING TO PREVENT THAT.
CODY: So what we have here is the scoop.
You're gonna lock onto the micronical fitting, lock the scoop in place, and now you have something to grab onto.
MIKE: If you're doing a lot of bolts, you go to the astronaut's best friend, our pistol grip tool.
CODY: PGT, that's our go-to tool.
MIKE: This is the tool that has serviced the Hubble space telescope and built the space station.
It's programmable, so I can select the right torque setting.
Let's try her out.
It gives me that little kick.
CODY: You feel that working against you.
MIKE: So it looks easy here, but it's really not that way in space.
CODY: It's quite difficult.
You're gonna be using one hand to get leverage, your feet are gonna be in a foot restraint, and you're trying to use the other hand to tighten the bolt.
MIKE: And you're also working with these big gloves.
One of my colleagues once described doing the space walk is like trying to hang shelves in your house with boxing gloves and roller skates on.
CODY: I think that would be a fair analogy there.
NARRATOR: HAVING CUSTOMIZED TOOLS IS A GOOD START, BUT TO BE A BUILDER IN SPACE, YOU NEED A LOT MORE THAN A TOOLBELT AND A HARD HAT.
YOU NEED A SPACE SUIT.
AND ASTRONOMER ANDY HOWELL IS ABOUT TO SEE THAT SUITING UP HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE CHALLENGES.
ANDY: Wow, there's a lot of stuff here.
MIKE: There's a lot of stuff to get dressed to do a space walk.
This like, you know, the Men's Warehouse for space walk.
You're looking at about 300 pounds of gear between the suit and the tools.
It's quite heavy.
ANDY: I can't even imagine that.
What does that feel like? MIKE: It's tough to move around in there on the ground, but would you like to try? We'll get you inside of one.
What do you think? ANDY: Sure.
NARRATOR: THE FIRST STEP IS EASY - PUTTING ON A THERMAL GARMENT THAT REMOVES ASTRONAUT'S EXCESS BODY HEAT BY CIRCULATING WATER FROM NECK TO TOE.
MIKE: Now you look like an astronaut.
ANDY: It's like a superhero outfit or something like that.
MIKE: There you go NARRATOR: BUT THEN IT GETS COMPLICATED.
MIKE: This is your lower torso assembly.
It's what we call the LTA, a fancy way of saying your space pants.
My friends here are gonna help you get your feet through the legs.
ANDY: Okay there you go.
That's it.
MIKE: That's it.
ANDY: It's hard enough to find pants in the store.
MIKE: That's right.
We only have one color.
NARRATOR: MODERN SPACE SUITS HAVE TO BE THIS BULKY, WITH 14 LAYERS TO PROTECT AGAINST THE DANGEROUS THREATS OF PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE IN SPACE.
MIKE: Once you get your undergarments on and you get your pants on, this thing is mounted on the stand inside of the airlock and you kind of jam yourself up inside of it.
Your arms are held up and you go inside of this thing and pop your head through.
ANDY: Damn, that's hard.
MIKE: And then your pants get mated to the bottom of the hood.
ANDY: Feels like Darth Vader or something like that.
MIKE: Alright, Andy, you've got your space suit on.
You feeling good? ANDY: Yeah, it's great.
MIKE: You've added the communications cap.
What we call the Snoopy cap because it makes you look like Snoopy a little bit.
Any last itches? Blow your nose, cough, spit? Because once we put this on, that's it.
ANDY: Alright.
MIKE: Okay, you're locked in.
You okay? You feel good? Alright, because it's lunch time and we're gonna go eat.
We'll see you later.
NARRATOR: PUTTING ON A SPACE SUIT IS NO PICNIC, BUT TRYING TO WORK IN ONE IS EVEN MORE OF A STRUGGLE, AS ASTRONAUT HEIDIMARIE STEFANYSHYN-PIPER FOUND OUT IN SIGRID: Heidimarie, who is this amazing astronaut - has trained for years - was trying to get some oil off of one of her tools and she looked away for just a moment, and in that moment the tool bag actually got away from her.
She tried to grab it, but it was too far away.
NARRATOR: ALL SHE COULD DO WAS WATCH $100,000 WORTH OF TOOLS FLOAT AWAY.
Heidimarie: We have a lost tool.
Person on Radio: Yeah we see 'em.
NARRATOR: ACCIDENTS HAPPEN, SO WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU LOSE A TOOL IN SPACE? WHAT IF YOU COULD CREATE A PERFECT REPLICA OF THAT SAME TOOL RIGHT ON THE SPOT? IT MIGHT SOUND FUTURISTIC, BUT THIS TECHNOLOGY EXISTS TODAY, AND IT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY WE BUILD IN SPACE FOREVER.
MAN: It's in there.
DAVID: Holy cow.
NARRATOR: TO BUILD IN SPACE, WE NEED EXTREMELY SPECIALIZED TOOLS.
BUT WITH HIGH-TECH COMES HIGHER RISKS.
LOSING ANY OF THIS UNCONVENTIONAL GEAR COULD BE A DISASTER, SO WE'RE GOING TO NEED EVEN MORE EXTRAORDINARY TECHNOLOGY - A WAY TO MAKE UNLIMITED REPLACEMENTS.
MIKE: If we had a science fiction replicator to replicate tools - a tool on Earth, all of a sudden it appears in space - that would be pretty cool.
But we don't have that yet.
NARRATOR: OR DO WE? THEORETICAL PHYSICIST DAVID KAPLAN HAS FOUND A COMPANY THAT REPLICATES TOOLS AND PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN IMAGINE WITH A 3D COPY MACHINE.
DAVID: I'm in Burlington, Massachusetts, at the Z Corporation, where they've developed a new technology that's similar to those replicators you see in sci-fi movies.
It's called 3D printing.
I'm here to find out if they can 3D print my crescent wrench.
JOE TITLOW: We're one of the world's leading manufacturers of three-dimensional printers.
Everything on the table in front of us has been printed in one of the machines behind us.
DAVID: Printed? JOE: Yes.
DAVID: Okay.
JOE: Most printers will print things in two dimensions.
A three-dimensional printer will then take that to the third dimension and make it something you hold in your hand.
DAVID: Okay, I don't get it.
And this? JOE: That's just an example of the complexity of the things that you can make.
DAVID: This moves.
JOE: It moves and it was printed all as one piece.
DAVID: This came out of a printer, just like this? JOE: Came out of a printer, just like that.
DAVID: What is the material that makes this thing? JOE: It's a specially engineered composite material that starts out as a powder and then we add to it a binder material that solidifies those powder particles together.
NARRATOR: THESE MATERIALS ARE THE COMPANY'S OWN SECRET RECIPE - A UNIQUE CONCOCTION NOT USED ANYWHERE ELSE.
JOE: This is one of our three-dimensional printers.
There's a print head inside this machine that ejects specific fluids for coloring different parts, but we also have a print head for printing our binder material to solidify the particles.
DAVID: The powder's the paper and this binding stuff is the ink? JOE: And then this tray here that it prints on will actually drop into the machine to give it that third dimension.
DAVID: Okay, I would like to see that.
Could you reproduce this wrench? JOE: Absolutely.
DAVID: It has moving parts here.
JOE: Not a problem.
The first thing need to do is scan it.
You want go take a look? DAVID: Yeah.
NARRATOR: THE SCANNER INPUTS EVERY FACET OF THE WRENCH INTO THIS COMPUTER, CREATING AN IMAGE THAT WILL BE SENT TO THE PRINTER.
DAVID: Oh, that is cool.
How accurately can you measure the shape? JOE B: The accuracy is within 40 microns.
DAVID: That's, like, a human hair width.
JOE B: Uh, actually a little less.
DAVID: That's incredible.
Alright so it's arranged to the scan.
JOE: Here's the wrench that you did.
DAVID: Okay, can you make that ring red? JOE: Sure.
I'm gonna select it and paint, so now that piece is red.
DAVID: I see.
JOE: Just that simple.
When we're ready, we just go down and hit print.
Alright, David, printing's done.
Let's take a look at your wrench.
DAVID: Okay, uh, I don't see anything.
JOE: It's in there.
Just reach into the powder and pull out your wrench.
DAVID: Okay.
Oh, holy cow.
Wow.
JOE: Yup, there's a real wrench right there.
DAVID: Oh, my God, you printed this.
JOE: Yup, came right out of the powder.
DAVID: That's amazing.
JOE: All that's left to do is blow off the rest of that powder DAVID: That is cool.
A color 3D printer.
I'm freaked out by this.
It doesn't make sense.
I'm holding this thing that has moving parts and it just came out of a printer.
Wow.
JOE: It's just that easy.
DAVID: This changes everything.
So how strong can this thing get? JOE: You get strength just by infusing this with a little extra resin.
DAVID: We could actually use it as a tool? JOE: Absolutely.
DAVID: Okay, let's see if this really works.
Can I really pull it hard? JOE: Go for it, just as you would a real wrench.
What do you think? DAVID: Wow, that's a real tool.
JOE: Yeah.
DAVID: Holy cow.
We just printed this.
JOE: Right, an hour and a half ago, that was nothing but a bunch of powder and binders.
DAVID: It was a box of powder.
That is incredible.
JOE: Now you've got a real tool that you can use for functional tasks.
DAVID: So going into sp ace, you take a printer and you can just print whatever you want? JOE: That's right, anything from the tools that you need or the actual objects you're working on.
DAVID: And, uh, I can keep the tool? JOE: Absolutely.
We'll print another one.
DAVID: Okay, good.
So if you lose your tool in space, you can print out another one.
ANDY While we're ordering that up, yeah, make me a cheeseburger.
NARRATOR: AS THE TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE REFINED, ASTRONAUTS MAY HAVE ACCESS TO EVERY TOOL IMAGINABLE.
BUT YOU STILL NEED THE MUSCLE TO GET THE JOB DONE, AND MIKE MASSIMINO KNOWS WHERE TO FIND IT.
MIKE: Behind these doors is the ultimate astronaut helper - the Robonaut.
We're gonna go see what he can do.
RON DIFTLER: Let me introduce you to Robonaut 2.
NARRATOR: THIS TWO AND A HALF MILLION DOLLAR ROBOT IS 3 FEET, 4 INCHES TALL AND WEIGHS 330 POUNDS.
HE HAS AN 8-FOOT ARMSPAN, BUT NO LEGS.
RON A very important thing about the robot is the crew should be comfortable around it all the time.
NARRATOR: HE'S GOT DUAL CONTROLS, AN ONBOARD COMPUTER THAT CAN BE PROGRAMMED FOR SPECIFIC TASKS, OR HE CAN BE CONTROLLED REMOTELY BY AN ACTUAL PERSON.
RON: If it has inadvertent contact with you, it's a very comfortable situation.
For example, the robots are out to perform a task, I'm not paying attention, and the robot just bumps into me.
Come over and feel it.
MIKE: Yeah? RON: It is the kind of force that is not too different from a person just bumping into you.
And it actually has a very soft skin, so you're not feeling any metal contact.
MIKE: It is very soft.
RON: It's like working around another person.
Also, you feel it's kind of warm blooded.
MIKE: Yeah, it is.
Alright Ron, so what is the first thing we're gonna have Robonaut do for us today? RON: We're gonna show how Robonaut can manipulate 20 pounds in any direction.
You're stronger in a peak sense than Robonaut, but Robonaut has more endurance.
MIKE: I believe that.
RON: So why don't you see if you can perform the same task the robot does.
MIKE: Okay.
He's gonna be a lot stronger in the shoulder.
RON: Let's bring this weight back down.
We're gonna pause it for dramatic effect.
You tell us when to stop.
MIKE: That's not fair.
I'm trying as hard as I can.
We could stay here for a long time, but we're running out of tape.
RON: That's alright.
I want you to be comfortable.
MIKE: So why don't we stop it soon, before we have a problem.
RON: One thing about the robot, you can have him hold something for as long as you want.
The robot will never complain.
MIKE: When we were fixing the Hubble, it was 117 screws that had to be removed.
That would be good for Robonaut to do.
RON: An excellent job for Robonaut.
Let's show you can example of that.
Here, we're gonna work with one of the panels that we have on a space station task board and we're gonna demonstrate flipping up the switch cover.
I'm actually gonna give it some repetitive work and I'm gonna keep closing this so the robot will keep going back until it has confirmation the switch cover's open.
And I can do this all day.
MIKE: You're teasing Robonaut.
RON: Sort of like you doing 117 fasteners, the robot, it never gets tired and it will never complain.
MIKE: It's like the little Robonaut that could.
MAN: So let's move onto our next test.
Let me show you an example of the robot acquiring a tool and then handing it to you, as if you're performing a space walk task right now.
And here it is coming around.
It'd like to show you how it controls the different speed on the drill.
MIKE: That's pretty good.
MAN: And now, it's just about ready to hand it off to you.
MIKE: Okay.
I'll take it now.
Thank you, Robonaut.
It seems like Robonaut can do just about anything.
I'm starting to worry, is the astronaut job at stake here? MAN: The whole idea here is human/robot teams.
Robonaut's most important job is assisting the crew.
MIKE: So really, it's human and machine working together to explore space, not against each other.
MAN: And the human has intelligence.
Obviously, he'll be the leader of the team.
The robot is there to be the Assistant.
MIKE: Very well said.
NARRATOR: ROBONAUT 2 WAS DELIVERED TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IN FEBRUARY OF 2011, AND HE'S GOING TO BE A HUGE ADVANTAGE.
BUT SPACE IS A DEADLY CONSTRUCTION ZONE.
OUR NEXT STEP HAS TO BE FIGURING OUT HOW TO PROTECT OUR STRUCTURES FROM COUNTLESS HIGH VELOCITY OBJECTS IN THE VOID, AND THIS MAY PROVE TO BE THE MOST CRITICAL STAGE OF OUR CONSTRUCTION YET.
THE KNOWN UNIVERSE - THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
EVEN WITH ALL OUR SPECIALIZED TOOLS, SPACE SUITS, AND ENGINEERING KNOW-HOW, WE STILL HAVE TO BUILD IT WHILE FLYING THROUGH SPACE AT 18,000 MILES AN HOUR, 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH.
TO BUILD THIS INCREDIBLE STRUCTURE, NASA PRACTICES WITH AN EXACT REPLICA OF THE SPACE STATION HERE ON EARTH.
MIKE: We're at the Johnson Space Center and right now you're looking at the modules that make up the International Space Station.
These are not tourist attractions.
These are actually real working mockups.
Inside of there, it looks exactly like the real space station.
NARRATOR: GLENN JOHNSON IS AN ISS TRAINING ENGINEER AND HE KNOWS EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF THE SPACE STATION.
MIKE: Alright, Glenn, here we are, the space station.
This is gigantic, compared to, like, the space shuttle.
It's seems kinda puny GLENN: This is like the inside of a 747.
MIKE: That's big, there's a lot of room in a 747.
GLENN: It is huge.
MIKE: The International Space Station is the biggest thing ever built in space.
GLENN: By far.
Here we are in Node One.
This is kind of like the basic building block of what all of our space station is made out of.
Each one of these is one big round cylinder and this one has several ports on it so that we can dock other things to it.
MIKE: A gigantic Tinker Toy set in space.
GLENN: Exactly.
MIKE: I feel like I'm working in a space snack bar.
Can I get you some space food? This is the cupola.
GLENN: That's right.
Over here, we've got a mockup of our robotic workstation and you can control the arm that can move any one of these modules from one place to another.
As you're looking out these seven windows, you'll be able to watch what it is that you're doing with that robotic arm.
NARRATOR: BUT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THIS PIECE OF SPACE ARCHITECTURE IS THE PLUMBING, AND THE WAY IT USES AND REUSES WATER IS NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD CALL APPEALING.
MIKE: It's really kind of unreasonable to think that you could take all the water you need with you.
You're going on a huge trip, you're gonna explore the stars, get out of the solar system.
You really couldn't bring enough water to last the trip.
GLENN: All of our water starts off from the astronaut.
MIKE: Starts off with the astronaut? GLENN:Starts from the astronauts So we start with the urine.
MIKE: Urine? GLENN: It goes through the space toilet, okay, and then it comes into two water reclamation racks.
MIKE: Water reclamation? That's a nice way of saying drinking pee.
GLENN: So the water flows into here and they boil off the water, then they send it through a whole bunch of of filters to clean it up.
So this is one rack that cleans it and then it comes over here and it gets cleaned again so that it's ultra pure.
MIKE: Ultra pure? So you clean the urine not once, but twice? Can you really get urine clean enough? I'm a little skeptical.
GLENN: The last crewmembers that came back said that they preferred the water on the station to the water at home.
ANDY: The space station is really cool because it is huge.
It's a habitat for humans in space.
It's like truly being in a movie set.
NARRATOR: BUT WHILE THIS SPACE STATION MIGHT LOOK LIKE IT BELONGS IN A SCI-FI MOVIE, WITHOUT THE RIGHT PROTECTION, IT COULD END UP AS A CASUALTY IN A DISASTER FLICK.
DAVID: The ISS is really big, but it also has to be very strong.
We gotta construct things that can withstand the rigours of space.
There's all kinds of things that could disrupt the construction.
NARRATOR: WE HAVE TO FIGURE OU WHAT IT WOULD IT TAKE TO WIPE OUT OUR BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE SPACE STRUCTUES.
AND AS IT TURNS OUT, IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH.
ANDY: This little steel ball may look harmless, but in space it's a killer.
Here at the NASA White Sands testing facility, engineers are taking target practice on a variety of space materials to see which ones hold up against space debris and micrometeorites no larger than this.
What does this represent? DENNIS: This represents space debris that can possibly hit the space station, shuttle, or satellites.
ANDY: So something that small could really do some damage? DENNIS: It can, but it's the velocity that does all the damage.
Once we get this projectile going, it's gonna do quite a bit of damage.
NARRATOR: THIS TEST IS GOING TO BE DAMAGING THE MATERIALS USED TO PROTECT VULNERABLE AREAS OF OUR SPACE STRUCTURES.
THE OUTSIDE LAYER IS A STAINLESS STEEL PLATE.
BEHIND THAT IS A KEVLAR LINER, WHICH DISPURSES THE ENERGY OF ANYTHING THAT HITS IT.
THE THIRD LAYER REPRESENTS THE PROTECTIVE HULL OF THE STRUCTURE.
BEHIND THAT IS A WITNESS PLATE, WHICH IS JUST THERE TO SEE IF THE PROJECTILE WENT THROUGH ALL THE LAYERS.
ANDY: If stuff gets through here, it is a bad day.
DARIN: A very bad day.
NARRATOR: TO AVOID THIS BAD DAY, ENGINEERS FIRE SHOTS AT THESE LAYERS, AND SPEED IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.
ANDY: Wow, it's like such a small little bullet.
How fast are we gonna shoot this thing? DARIN: We're gonna be shooting at 4 kilometers per second, but in miles per hour, that's over 8,000 miles per hour.
ANDY: 8,000 miles an hour? That's just crazy.
DARIN: That's what we do.
NARRATOR: AND THEY DO ALL THIS IN THE IMPACT CHAMBER OF A HYPER-VELOCITY GUN.
DENNIS: What I want to make sure is this crosshair on the scope is lined up with the crosshair on the target.
ANDY: I feel like crazy sniper or something.
Man, this is a big gun.
How big is this thing? DENNIS: Around 60 feet.
Down at this end, a powder charge is gonna go off, sending a piston downrange, compressing hydrogen air, and that in turn is gonna launch the projectile.
ANDY: This can be fun, to shoot a super special 8,000 mile per hour gun.
DENNIS: That's right.
NARRATOR: ALL THESE MECHANICS MAKE THE GUN SO POWERFUL THAT NOBODY IS ALLOWED IN THE ROOM WHEN IT'S FIRED, IN CASE IT EXPLODES.
ANDY: So we're in a bunker? DENNIS: We're in a bunker.
ANDY: It's like the Death Star laser control system in here.
DENNIS: If something does go wrong, we have the doors closed, so we're protected from explosion.
And we also have breathing air for a couple hours until they come and rescue us.
ANDY: Anything wrong ever happen so far? DENNIS: Uh, no, knock on wood.
MAN #2: Attention all personnel, 272 area is now in red status.
ANDY: So we're moments away from firing this awesome gun, so I'm really excited.
DENNIS Everything's stable.
Armed, standing by.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 NARRATOR: IF WE HOPE TO BUILD BIGGER AND BIGGER STRUCTURES IN SPACE, WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED FOR ANY DIRECT HITS FROM SPACE DEBRIS, NO MATTER WHAT THE SIZE, WHICH IS WHY ANDY HOWELL IS PREPPING A HYPER-VELOCITY GUN TO FIRE A TINY PROJECTILE INTO THE MATERIALS WE USE IN TODAY'S SPACE CONSTRUCTION.
ANDY: I'm really excited.
MAN: Okay, John, ready to shoot.
Stand by.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
NARRATOR: A HIGH SPEED CAMERA, SHOOTING AT 2 MILLION FRAMES PER SECOND, CAPTURES THE OVER 8,000 MILE PER HOUR SHOT.
ANDY: Let's take a look at this footage and see what we've got.
Wow, look at this thing.
Boom.
What is that white stuff right there? You get this huge debris cloud.
It's amazing.
DARIN: Absolutely.
That debris cloud is the ejecta.
I try to minimize that as much as possible because every time there's ejecta from the impact, that stuff they're going to have to worry about the next orbit.
NARRATOR: THIS MEANS MORE SPACE DEBRIS TO WATCH OUT FOR, ASSUMING THE SPACE STRUCTURE HAS SURVIVED THE HIT.
ANDY: Alright, let's see what we've got.
Wow, man, that thing did some damage.
You can really see this thing came up at an angle here.
NARRATOR: THE PROJECTILE BLEW THROUGH THE STEEL PLATE, PIERCED THE KEVLAR, AND THEN DIMPLED THE THIRD LAYER.
DARIN: The pressure wall didn't have a through hole, a crack, or a spall off the back that could cause damage.
So it maintained pressure, our occupants were safe but it was a narrow pass.
ANDY: Wow, so it seems like a dent almost broke through.
It was kinda dangerous, DARIN: Almost ANDY: but, uh, they just barely made it but, uh, they just barely made it.
NARRATOR: THE KEY TO SURVIVING A SPACE HIT MAY BE SIZE - BIGGER STRUCTURES WITH ADDED LAYERS OF PROTECTION.
SO WHAT ABOUT MOVING FROM A SPACE STATION TO SOMETHING MORE ROBUST, LIKE A SKYSCRAPER? MIKE: Yes I think a Manhattan skyline on the moon would be very nice, but I don't know if that's really feasible or practical.
NARRATOR: AT FIRST GLANCE, IT LOOKS VERY PROMISING.
IN SPACE, WE COULD USE IRON TO BUILD STRONG SUPPORT BEAMS, BECAUSE WITHOUT ANY OXYGEN, THEY WOULD NEVER RUST.
LOW LUNAR GRAVITY WOULD ALSO REDUCE THE STRESS ON THE BUILDING, SO IN THEORY WE COULD BUILD SKYSCRAPERS HIGHER THAN ANY BUILT ON EARTH.
BUT THAT'S WHERE THE ADVANTAGES END AND PROBLEMS LIKE SOLAR RADIATION BEGIN.
IT COULD DESTROY THE BUILDING AND ANYONE INSIDE WITH ITS POWERFUL BLASTS OF ENERGY.
TO BLOCK THE RADIATION, YOU'D NEED TO COVER THE BUILDING WITH AROUND 10 FEET OF MOON DIRT ON EVERY SIDE.
MIKE: Building all these fancy structures on the moon, like we do on Earth, wouldn't be the greatest thing because it wouldn't protect us from the radiation.
I think that a base or structure on Mars would be the next logical place to explore.
NARRATOR: THE BAD NEWS IS MARS IS JUST LIKE THE MOON THERE'S NO PROTECTION FROM SOLAR RADIATION, MAKING ANY BUILDING A DEATH TRAP.
ANDY: On Mars, there's 1,000 times more radiation than what you experience on Earth, and that's because the Earth has a magnetic field that protects us from these charged particles from the sun.
But on Mars, you don't have that protective magnetic field, so you get hit with all these charged particles.
That's bad for humans.
NARRATOR: BAD MIGHT NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE IT.
THE RADIATION ON MARS WOULD BE SO STRONG, IT WOULD BE LIKE BULLETS RIPPING THROUGH OUR CELLS.
ANDY: There's so much radiation on Mars, you don't want to be out in the open.
MIKE: So you'd have all this fancy technology to get you to Mars, and where are you gonna be staying? In a cave.
NARRATOR: THAT'S RIGHT.
IRONICALLY, WE MAY GO FROM LIVING IN THE SPACE AGE TO TRYING TO SURVIVE IN THE STONE AGE, BECAUSE ON MARS, TO BUILD THE BEST STRUCTURES FOR OUR SURVIVAL AWAY FROM RADIATION, WE'LL HAVE TO GO UNDERGROUND.
MIKE: Scientists have located the potential barrier to that radiation for early settlers, and those are lava tubes.
A lava tube is kind of a hard crust that forms above the lava so that the lava can flow underneath the surface.
After the lava is gone, that structure remains and can provide a protection from radiation.
NARRATOR: VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND LAVA FLOWS ONCE COVERED THE SURFACE OF MARS.
THE FLOWS CREATED VAST UNDERGROUND CAVERNS.
THESE CAVES CAN BE MILES LONG AND HUNDREDS OF FEET IN DIAMETER.
AND BEST OF ALL, THEY'RE COMPLETELY PROTECTED FROM SOLAR RADIATION.
THERE COULD BE A VAST NETWORK OF ROOMS AND HALLWAYS WHERE A HUMAN COLONY COULD EXPAND, LIKE AN ANT FARM.
LIVING IN CAVES MAY HELP US ON MARS, BUT IF WE EVER HOPE TO MAKE IT DEEPER INTO SPACE, WE'RE GOING TO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO BUILD ON THE GO, SO IT'S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE THE TOOLBOX.
AND SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH, THE MOST CAPABLE UNTAPPED TOOL YET MAY BE MAGNETISM.
IN OUR ATTEMPTS TO BUILD IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, WE'VE FACED NUMEROUS OBSTACLES, BOTH IN SPACE AND ON EXTRATERRESTRIAL SOIL.
YET ALL THESE PROBLEMS MAY BE MOOT ONCE WE HIRE WHAT COULD BE OUR BEST SPACE CONTRACTOR, AND IT'S NOT ANY ASTRONAUT OR ROBOT.
IT'S MAGNETISM.
MIKE: Magnetism is something that is very useful and works very well on Earth and it can also work in space.
NARRATOR: AN IDEA CALLED FLUX PINNING USES MAGNETISM TO BUILD STRUCTURES IN SPACE, AND IT'S A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT THAT COULD LEAD TO THE BIGGEST COSMIC ENGINEERING PROJECTS EVER ATTEMPTED.
BUT WILL IT REALLY WORK? DAVID: I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
All cool science happens underground.
NARRATOR: HIDDEN AWAY IN THE BASEMENT AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY, SPACE DESIGN IS GETTING A MAKEOVER USING FLUX PINNING.
HERE, LIQUID NITROGEN AND OBJECTS CALLED SUPERCONDUCTORS ARE COMBINED TO GENERATE STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS.
DAVID: We're gonna be working with superconducting material today, right? JOSEPH: That's right.
DAVID: So what does it take to make this material superconducting? JOSEPH: You have to cool it below a certain critical temperature.
We use liquid nitrogen.
DAVID: How cold is liquid nitrogen? JOSEPH: It's about -320 degrees Fahrenheit.
DAVID: Wow.
And nitrogen is basically air, right? JOSEPH: Yeah, it's basically condensed, liquefied air.
DAVID: Sure.
What is this object right here? JOSEPH: It's called yttrium barium copper oxide.
We call it YBCO for short.
DAVID: And then you use this liquid air to cool this material and you get a superconductor? JOSEPH: That's right.
DAVID: What are you interested in once this thing becomes superconducting? JOSEPH: What we're interested in is how it interacts with magnetic fields.
DAVID: What do we use for a magnetic field? JOSEPH: We're going to use this guy right here.
This is a rare Earth magnet.
It's a very powerful permanent magnet.
If you stuck this on your refrigerator, it might take hundreds of pounds of force to pull it off.
DAVID: Is it superconducting right now? JOSEPH: Not right now.
At room temperature, the superconductor is basically like a ceramic.
The magnet doesn't really interact with it.
I can wave it around here and nothing happens.
But if I position the magnet near the superconductor and then cool the superconductor down, interesting things start to happen.
DAVID: And you're not gonna tell me? JOSEPH: Well, it would spoil the surprise a little.
DAVID: Okay, fine.
Alright, so let's do it.
JOSEPH: I'm gonna place these plastic standoffs on the superconductor so that I can put the magnet on them and I'm going to cool down the superconductor with the magnet nearby.
DAVID: Is it cold enough yet? JOSEPH: Well, I want the boiling to settle down.
That's gonna be a good indicator that the superconductor is close to the same temperature as the nitrogen.
DAVID: I see.
So basically, when the superconductor and the liquid nitrogen are roughly the same temperature, then you know it's definitely superconducting? JOSEPH: Yes.
DAVID: Okay.
Is it superconducting now? JOSEPH: Yeah, the boiling has settled down.
DAVID: Are you sure? I need some drama here.
What's gonna happen? Whoa.
Holy cow.
Oh, wow.
JOSEPH: So that magnet levitates there.
It floats.
DAVID: They're stuck together in this exact position.
JOSEPH: And it's just a magnetic field.
We're not running any power through this, we're not controlling it.
DAVID: There's no power running this thing.
JOSEPH: And, in fact, I bet this is strong enough that if you tried to pick up that magnet, the superconductor would come with it.
DAVID: Really? JOSEPH: Yup.
DAVID:Oh, holy cow.
What happens if I try to pull those apart? JOSEPH: This is really interesting.
As long as the superconductor stays cold, it'll get pulled back to this equilibrium position.
So you'll have to exert force on both sides to pull it apart.
DAVID: Okay, that is cool.
JOSEPH: They attract back together, but they don't collide DAVID: Wow.
JOSEPH: So we want to build spacecraft that have matching pairs of magnets and superconductors and we imprint the magnetic fields onto the superconductors so that they attract one another.
And it's stiff enough that we're thinking about this as a way to make a sort of virtual structure.
So spacecraft could stick together, held together by these magnetic fields.
DAVID: So there's no more docking.
They hold together like this.
JOSEPH: Right, we're taking advantage of the physics of flux pinning to have physics do the docking for you.
NARRATOR: BUT MAGNETIC DOCKING IS JUST THE FIRST PHASE FOR THIS TECHNOLOGY.
DAVID: Oh, and they turn into place.
Wow! NARRATOR: WHAT IF YOU CONSTRUC LARGE SHIPS THAT COULD TAKE ANY SHAPE YOU NEEDED? ARE THESE BIG DREAMS OR STAGGERING REALITIES? A MAGNET AND A SUPERCONDUCTOR CAN BE LOCKED TOGETHER BY A MAGNETIC FIELD BETWEEN THEM.
DAVID: Oh, wow.
NARRATOR: BUT THIS TECHNIQUE HAS MUCH BIGGER IMPLICATIONS DAVID: Holy cow.
NARRATOR: ONE THAT COULD LEAD TO BUILDING THE MOST VERSATILE SPACE STRUCTURE IMAGINABLE.
DAVID KAPLAN IS TESTING THE THEORY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
DAVID: So we're gonna do a demonstration with four boxes filled with liquid nitrogen to convert the material inside to superconducting.
We're gonna train the superconductors next to magnets so that the four boxes will attach using flux pinning.
JOSEPH: Okay, so they're starting in a line.
DAVID: Then we release.
On, and they turn into place.
Wow.
Hey, it worked.
That's cool.
Wow.
NARRATOR: TO SIMULATE THE THRUSTERS THAT WOULD BE ON A SHIP LIKE THIS IN SPACE, JOE IS USING AIR CARTRIDGES ON THE BOTTOM THAT CAN MOVE EACH INDIVIDUAL MODULE.
DAVID: So now we're gonna turn on the thrusters.
Yes! Woo! It works.
JOSEPH: Yes.
DAVID: Fantastic.
So you take your magnet and your superconducting material, which has trained itself with the magnet.
Now you have a way to construct things without touching.
JOSEPH: Right, the modules attract one another through flux pinning into their proper positions.
DAVID: So you could take, say, a rocket and convert it into a space station with a different configuration once you get there.
JOSEPH: In fact, you could have a space vehicle that transforms into several different configurations to meet different mission goals.
DAVID: Imagining those things in space sounds very science fiction like, but seeing it here, I get a taste that it's actually very possible.
JOSEPH: That's what we think.
DAVID: Fantastic.
NARRATOR: WHAT WOULD A FLUX PINNING STRUCTURE THAT COULD BUILD AND REBUILD ITSELF LOOK LIKE FULLY REALIZED IN SPACE? START WITH A ROCKET SHIP, CONFIGURED LIKE THIS, WITH FOUR PARALLEL MODULAR TUBES ALL CONNECTED WITH FLUX PINNING.
THE SHIP, ASSEMBLED ABOVE THE EARTH, COULD THEN GO ON A VOYAGE TO ANOTHER PLANET.
WHEN IT GETS THERE, THE ROCKET RECONFIGURES.
THE MODULES MOVE INTO A CIRCULAR SHAPE USING MAGNETIC FLUX PINNING.
WHEN IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON, WE SIMPLY REVERSE THE PROCESS AND TRANSFORM THE SPACE STATION BACK INTO A ROCKET SHIP, AND OFF WE GO.
SPACE STATIONS, LAVA TUBES, AND FLUX PINNING COULD ALL LEAD TO ENORMOUS SPACE STRUCTURES.
BUT THE MOTHER OF THEM ALL IS A SELF-SUSTAINING COLONY A VIRTUAL FLOATING CITY.
IN 1969, PHYSICIST GERALD O'NEIL CAME UP WITH AN IDEA THE O'NEIL COLONY.
ANDY: An O'Neil Colony is kind of like a continent in space.
SIGRID It has basically all the comforts that you would have here at home.
The idea is that it would be quite big.
NARRATOR: IT BEGINS WITH TWO MASSIVE COUNTER ROTATING CYLINDRICAL TUBES 2O MILES LONG.
THIS SUPER STRUCTURE WOULD HAVE A LIVING SPACE OF ABOUT 500 SQUARE MILES LARGER THAN LOS ANGELES.
THE ROTATION OF THE CYLINDERS CREATES GRAVITY.
THE COLONY WOULD HAVE ITS OWN INTERNAL ATMOSPHERE, INCLUDING CLOUD FORMATIONS.
AT ONE END, THERE WOULD BE ROLLING COUNTRYSIDE.
AT THE OTHER END, A CENTRAL CITYSCAPE COMPLETE WITH A SKYLINE RIVALING MANHATTAN.
THE ENTIRE COLONY COULD HOUSE SEVERAL MILLION PEOPLE, ALL PERMANENT RESIDENTS OF OUTER SPACE.
ANDY: I think it'd be a real cool place to live because, you know, I've always wanted to live on a space station or something.
Can you imagine living in a gigantic cylinder? It's just too cool.
MIKE: It is our destiny to leave the planet.
We've been doing that for over 50 years now.
ANDY: We went to the moon and that made it seem easy, but that's really hard.
The next step is to build the technology to really adapt to life in space and spend a long period of time there.
MIKE: As we continue to go out further, that's gonna involve e building these big structures in really cool places.
MIKE: Is the astronaut's job at stake here? NARRATOR: WE'RE CONSTRUCTING OUR FUTURE SKYLINE OUT THERE, AND IT'S NOTHING LIKE WE'VE SEEN BEFORE.
OUR TOOLS TURN BIZARRE DAVID: Wow, I'm freaked out by this.
NARRATOR: ENGINEERING GETS WEIRD GLEN: All of our water starts off from the astronaut.
MIKE: That's a nice way of saying drinking pee.
NARRATOR: AND ALSO DANGEROUS ANDY: Man, this is a big gun.
NARRATOR: AND STRUCTURES SEEM TO MOVE ON THEIR OWN.
DAVID: That's cool.
NARRATOR: DON'T TAKE ANY DETOURS.
THERE'S AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD.
MIKE: See you later.
NARRATOR: AEROSPACE ENGINEER SIGRID CLOSE IS FAMILIAR WITH DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ON EARTH, BUT BUILDING STUFF IN SPACE IS A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME, AND SHE'S SETTING OFF ON A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME TRIP OUT THERE TO SEE WHY.
SIGRID: I am so excited.
We're fulfilling a lifelong dream here of mine, to be able to do this, so thank you.
MIKE: I don't think you're gonna be disappointed.
This is pretty cool stuff.
NARRATOR: THIS IS ONE OF NASA'S HIGHLY ADVANCED VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATORS, SIGRID: I, I This is so neat.
NARRATOR: WHICH WILL LET HER TAKE AN AMAZINGLY REALISTIC SPACE WALK AROUND THE UNIVERSE'S MOST COMPLICATED CONSTRUCTION SITE.
SIGRID: I'm gonna look like a superhero, aren't I? MAN: Keep telling yourself.
NARRATOR: BUT SHE'S ABOUT TO FIND OUT FIRSTHAND HOW DANGEROUS IT REALLY IS.
ANDY: Space is just a hard place do any kind of construction.
You have to strap yourself down, you have to have the special tools, you gotta have these big puffy gloves on.
I have a hard enough time constructing things in my garage.
I can't imagine building something in space.
That's just crazy.
DAVID: Trying to build something in space is sort of like trying to build an ocean liner in the middle of the sea.
There's nothing to stand on, there's nothing to push against.
You have no leverage.
Now, the rules are different in space, but a lot of the engineering that has gone on here can be brought into space.
NARRATOR: WE'RE ABOUT TO BREAK GROUND ON THE MOST INTIMIDATING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS EVER CONCEIVED, WHETHER IT'S IN ORBIT, ON PLANETS, OR IN DEEP SPACE - NOWHERE IS OFF LIMITS.
BUT THE FIRST STEP TO BUILDING BEYOND EARTH IS LEARNING HOW TO TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP.
SIGRID CLOSE HAS NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO LEAVE EARTH, BUT AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER IN HOUSTON, TEXAS, MECHANICAL ENGINEER AND ASTRONAUT MIKE MASSIMINO IS GOING TO GIVE HER THAT OPPORTUNITY, TAKING HER FOR A SPACE WALK VIA NASA'S VIRTUAL REALITY LAB.
MIKE: We're gonna play astronaut and we're gonna space walk.
SIGRID: This is so neat.
MIKE: We're gonna get inside of a helmet that's gonna give us a high fidelity 3D graphical display of what it's like to space walk.
NARRATOR: USING NASA'S HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED 3D VIRTUAL REALITY SOFTWARE, SIGRID AND MIKE ARE ABOUT TO STEP FROM EARTH INTO SPACE AND PRACTICE WALKING OUTSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
MIKE: And this is a great way to get you prepared to do your space walk.
See you later.
When you're working, you want to go very, very slowly.
SIGRID: Okay.
MIKE: You want to go slow.
SIGRID: That might be hard for me.
MIKE: If you do let go, you'll always have a safety tether on, and if that doesn't work we can deploy a jetpack that we're always wearing.
It's a little tricky and probably very nerve wracking if you had to do it for real.
So why don't we just, uh, walk around a little bit? You're able to, uh, go to your left, my right.
SIGRID: So you're upside down? MIKE: That's correct.
SIGRID: Because there is no upside down in space.
MIKE: I think you're upside down.
SIGRID: It's very disorienting.
You want to say up down and there is no up down.
MIKE: You wanna try to move around a little bit? SIGRID: Yeah.
MIKE: Okay, if you can just just grab on with your hands.
SIGRID: Okay.
MIKE: And try to go hand over hand and see which direction you're going.
Let's do that.
SIGRID: So, Mike, I am finding that it is so hard to maneuver around.
I can't even imagine building something up here or fixing something.
MIKE: Remember, you're in space now, so it's not like driving a car.
So you really have to be very careful.
SIGRID: Oops, now I'm tumbling, so I'm gonna turn on the jetpack MIKE: Yeah, get yourself stable.
Tumbling's not a good thing to be doing in space.
SIGRID: Okay, I turned it on.
I'm still tumbling.
MIKE: Right now, you're in the worst case scenario.
Alright, Sigrid, this is serious.
You're in danger of becoming a human satellite.
Sigrid, come home.
SIGRID: I'm trying.
MIKE: Stop playing around out there.
SIGRID: You're so far away.
Okay Mike, I think I'm officially lost in space.
It was harder than it looks.
MIKE: Luckily, it was only a simulation.
NARRATOR: SPACE WALKING IS HARD ENOUGH IN A SIMULATOR, BUT ASTRONAUTS DON'T TAKE STROLLS IN SPACE.
THEY'VE GOT WORK TO DO.
FOR THEM, THIS IS A CONSTRUCTION ZONE.
AND THEY AREN'T USING ORDINARY TOOLS.
MIKE: This is the NASA space walking tool lab, and it's got lots of tools.
For example, this tool is only used in the event of a problem where you couldn't close the payload bay doors.
You would use this special tool to bring the two doors together.
This is our tether department.
This tether would be one we would use to keep a tool close to us and allows you to hook onto your tools so you won't lose them.
Needle nose pliers are very useful things to have around.
They have really big openings because your gloves are big and bulky.
Here's a hammer that we use in space.
It's got some Velcro to allow you to stick it to a tool board, big handles, tether points.
That's what we have to adapt regular tools for, so we can use them in space.
I'm here with my friend Cody McNeil.
You're like the keeper of the tools.
CODY: That's correct.
MIKE: There's lots of specialty tools you have here, but most of what we do during our space walk is work with bolts.
CODY: Correct.
The first thing that you need to do is get some kind of leverage.
NARRATOR: WITH BASICALLY NO GRAVITY IN SPACE, IF YOU TRIED TO TURN A TOOL WITHOUT ANCHORING YOURSELF, THE TOOL MIGHT TURN YOU.
LUCKILY, NASA HAS SOMETHING TO PREVENT THAT.
CODY: So what we have here is the scoop.
You're gonna lock onto the micronical fitting, lock the scoop in place, and now you have something to grab onto.
MIKE: If you're doing a lot of bolts, you go to the astronaut's best friend, our pistol grip tool.
CODY: PGT, that's our go-to tool.
MIKE: This is the tool that has serviced the Hubble space telescope and built the space station.
It's programmable, so I can select the right torque setting.
Let's try her out.
It gives me that little kick.
CODY: You feel that working against you.
MIKE: So it looks easy here, but it's really not that way in space.
CODY: It's quite difficult.
You're gonna be using one hand to get leverage, your feet are gonna be in a foot restraint, and you're trying to use the other hand to tighten the bolt.
MIKE: And you're also working with these big gloves.
One of my colleagues once described doing the space walk is like trying to hang shelves in your house with boxing gloves and roller skates on.
CODY: I think that would be a fair analogy there.
NARRATOR: HAVING CUSTOMIZED TOOLS IS A GOOD START, BUT TO BE A BUILDER IN SPACE, YOU NEED A LOT MORE THAN A TOOLBELT AND A HARD HAT.
YOU NEED A SPACE SUIT.
AND ASTRONOMER ANDY HOWELL IS ABOUT TO SEE THAT SUITING UP HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE CHALLENGES.
ANDY: Wow, there's a lot of stuff here.
MIKE: There's a lot of stuff to get dressed to do a space walk.
This like, you know, the Men's Warehouse for space walk.
You're looking at about 300 pounds of gear between the suit and the tools.
It's quite heavy.
ANDY: I can't even imagine that.
What does that feel like? MIKE: It's tough to move around in there on the ground, but would you like to try? We'll get you inside of one.
What do you think? ANDY: Sure.
NARRATOR: THE FIRST STEP IS EASY - PUTTING ON A THERMAL GARMENT THAT REMOVES ASTRONAUT'S EXCESS BODY HEAT BY CIRCULATING WATER FROM NECK TO TOE.
MIKE: Now you look like an astronaut.
ANDY: It's like a superhero outfit or something like that.
MIKE: There you go NARRATOR: BUT THEN IT GETS COMPLICATED.
MIKE: This is your lower torso assembly.
It's what we call the LTA, a fancy way of saying your space pants.
My friends here are gonna help you get your feet through the legs.
ANDY: Okay there you go.
That's it.
MIKE: That's it.
ANDY: It's hard enough to find pants in the store.
MIKE: That's right.
We only have one color.
NARRATOR: MODERN SPACE SUITS HAVE TO BE THIS BULKY, WITH 14 LAYERS TO PROTECT AGAINST THE DANGEROUS THREATS OF PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE IN SPACE.
MIKE: Once you get your undergarments on and you get your pants on, this thing is mounted on the stand inside of the airlock and you kind of jam yourself up inside of it.
Your arms are held up and you go inside of this thing and pop your head through.
ANDY: Damn, that's hard.
MIKE: And then your pants get mated to the bottom of the hood.
ANDY: Feels like Darth Vader or something like that.
MIKE: Alright, Andy, you've got your space suit on.
You feeling good? ANDY: Yeah, it's great.
MIKE: You've added the communications cap.
What we call the Snoopy cap because it makes you look like Snoopy a little bit.
Any last itches? Blow your nose, cough, spit? Because once we put this on, that's it.
ANDY: Alright.
MIKE: Okay, you're locked in.
You okay? You feel good? Alright, because it's lunch time and we're gonna go eat.
We'll see you later.
NARRATOR: PUTTING ON A SPACE SUIT IS NO PICNIC, BUT TRYING TO WORK IN ONE IS EVEN MORE OF A STRUGGLE, AS ASTRONAUT HEIDIMARIE STEFANYSHYN-PIPER FOUND OUT IN SIGRID: Heidimarie, who is this amazing astronaut - has trained for years - was trying to get some oil off of one of her tools and she looked away for just a moment, and in that moment the tool bag actually got away from her.
She tried to grab it, but it was too far away.
NARRATOR: ALL SHE COULD DO WAS WATCH $100,000 WORTH OF TOOLS FLOAT AWAY.
Heidimarie: We have a lost tool.
Person on Radio: Yeah we see 'em.
NARRATOR: ACCIDENTS HAPPEN, SO WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU LOSE A TOOL IN SPACE? WHAT IF YOU COULD CREATE A PERFECT REPLICA OF THAT SAME TOOL RIGHT ON THE SPOT? IT MIGHT SOUND FUTURISTIC, BUT THIS TECHNOLOGY EXISTS TODAY, AND IT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY WE BUILD IN SPACE FOREVER.
MAN: It's in there.
DAVID: Holy cow.
NARRATOR: TO BUILD IN SPACE, WE NEED EXTREMELY SPECIALIZED TOOLS.
BUT WITH HIGH-TECH COMES HIGHER RISKS.
LOSING ANY OF THIS UNCONVENTIONAL GEAR COULD BE A DISASTER, SO WE'RE GOING TO NEED EVEN MORE EXTRAORDINARY TECHNOLOGY - A WAY TO MAKE UNLIMITED REPLACEMENTS.
MIKE: If we had a science fiction replicator to replicate tools - a tool on Earth, all of a sudden it appears in space - that would be pretty cool.
But we don't have that yet.
NARRATOR: OR DO WE? THEORETICAL PHYSICIST DAVID KAPLAN HAS FOUND A COMPANY THAT REPLICATES TOOLS AND PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN IMAGINE WITH A 3D COPY MACHINE.
DAVID: I'm in Burlington, Massachusetts, at the Z Corporation, where they've developed a new technology that's similar to those replicators you see in sci-fi movies.
It's called 3D printing.
I'm here to find out if they can 3D print my crescent wrench.
JOE TITLOW: We're one of the world's leading manufacturers of three-dimensional printers.
Everything on the table in front of us has been printed in one of the machines behind us.
DAVID: Printed? JOE: Yes.
DAVID: Okay.
JOE: Most printers will print things in two dimensions.
A three-dimensional printer will then take that to the third dimension and make it something you hold in your hand.
DAVID: Okay, I don't get it.
And this? JOE: That's just an example of the complexity of the things that you can make.
DAVID: This moves.
JOE: It moves and it was printed all as one piece.
DAVID: This came out of a printer, just like this? JOE: Came out of a printer, just like that.
DAVID: What is the material that makes this thing? JOE: It's a specially engineered composite material that starts out as a powder and then we add to it a binder material that solidifies those powder particles together.
NARRATOR: THESE MATERIALS ARE THE COMPANY'S OWN SECRET RECIPE - A UNIQUE CONCOCTION NOT USED ANYWHERE ELSE.
JOE: This is one of our three-dimensional printers.
There's a print head inside this machine that ejects specific fluids for coloring different parts, but we also have a print head for printing our binder material to solidify the particles.
DAVID: The powder's the paper and this binding stuff is the ink? JOE: And then this tray here that it prints on will actually drop into the machine to give it that third dimension.
DAVID: Okay, I would like to see that.
Could you reproduce this wrench? JOE: Absolutely.
DAVID: It has moving parts here.
JOE: Not a problem.
The first thing need to do is scan it.
You want go take a look? DAVID: Yeah.
NARRATOR: THE SCANNER INPUTS EVERY FACET OF THE WRENCH INTO THIS COMPUTER, CREATING AN IMAGE THAT WILL BE SENT TO THE PRINTER.
DAVID: Oh, that is cool.
How accurately can you measure the shape? JOE B: The accuracy is within 40 microns.
DAVID: That's, like, a human hair width.
JOE B: Uh, actually a little less.
DAVID: That's incredible.
Alright so it's arranged to the scan.
JOE: Here's the wrench that you did.
DAVID: Okay, can you make that ring red? JOE: Sure.
I'm gonna select it and paint, so now that piece is red.
DAVID: I see.
JOE: Just that simple.
When we're ready, we just go down and hit print.
Alright, David, printing's done.
Let's take a look at your wrench.
DAVID: Okay, uh, I don't see anything.
JOE: It's in there.
Just reach into the powder and pull out your wrench.
DAVID: Okay.
Oh, holy cow.
Wow.
JOE: Yup, there's a real wrench right there.
DAVID: Oh, my God, you printed this.
JOE: Yup, came right out of the powder.
DAVID: That's amazing.
JOE: All that's left to do is blow off the rest of that powder DAVID: That is cool.
A color 3D printer.
I'm freaked out by this.
It doesn't make sense.
I'm holding this thing that has moving parts and it just came out of a printer.
Wow.
JOE: It's just that easy.
DAVID: This changes everything.
So how strong can this thing get? JOE: You get strength just by infusing this with a little extra resin.
DAVID: We could actually use it as a tool? JOE: Absolutely.
DAVID: Okay, let's see if this really works.
Can I really pull it hard? JOE: Go for it, just as you would a real wrench.
What do you think? DAVID: Wow, that's a real tool.
JOE: Yeah.
DAVID: Holy cow.
We just printed this.
JOE: Right, an hour and a half ago, that was nothing but a bunch of powder and binders.
DAVID: It was a box of powder.
That is incredible.
JOE: Now you've got a real tool that you can use for functional tasks.
DAVID: So going into sp ace, you take a printer and you can just print whatever you want? JOE: That's right, anything from the tools that you need or the actual objects you're working on.
DAVID: And, uh, I can keep the tool? JOE: Absolutely.
We'll print another one.
DAVID: Okay, good.
So if you lose your tool in space, you can print out another one.
ANDY While we're ordering that up, yeah, make me a cheeseburger.
NARRATOR: AS THE TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE REFINED, ASTRONAUTS MAY HAVE ACCESS TO EVERY TOOL IMAGINABLE.
BUT YOU STILL NEED THE MUSCLE TO GET THE JOB DONE, AND MIKE MASSIMINO KNOWS WHERE TO FIND IT.
MIKE: Behind these doors is the ultimate astronaut helper - the Robonaut.
We're gonna go see what he can do.
RON DIFTLER: Let me introduce you to Robonaut 2.
NARRATOR: THIS TWO AND A HALF MILLION DOLLAR ROBOT IS 3 FEET, 4 INCHES TALL AND WEIGHS 330 POUNDS.
HE HAS AN 8-FOOT ARMSPAN, BUT NO LEGS.
RON A very important thing about the robot is the crew should be comfortable around it all the time.
NARRATOR: HE'S GOT DUAL CONTROLS, AN ONBOARD COMPUTER THAT CAN BE PROGRAMMED FOR SPECIFIC TASKS, OR HE CAN BE CONTROLLED REMOTELY BY AN ACTUAL PERSON.
RON: If it has inadvertent contact with you, it's a very comfortable situation.
For example, the robots are out to perform a task, I'm not paying attention, and the robot just bumps into me.
Come over and feel it.
MIKE: Yeah? RON: It is the kind of force that is not too different from a person just bumping into you.
And it actually has a very soft skin, so you're not feeling any metal contact.
MIKE: It is very soft.
RON: It's like working around another person.
Also, you feel it's kind of warm blooded.
MIKE: Yeah, it is.
Alright Ron, so what is the first thing we're gonna have Robonaut do for us today? RON: We're gonna show how Robonaut can manipulate 20 pounds in any direction.
You're stronger in a peak sense than Robonaut, but Robonaut has more endurance.
MIKE: I believe that.
RON: So why don't you see if you can perform the same task the robot does.
MIKE: Okay.
He's gonna be a lot stronger in the shoulder.
RON: Let's bring this weight back down.
We're gonna pause it for dramatic effect.
You tell us when to stop.
MIKE: That's not fair.
I'm trying as hard as I can.
We could stay here for a long time, but we're running out of tape.
RON: That's alright.
I want you to be comfortable.
MIKE: So why don't we stop it soon, before we have a problem.
RON: One thing about the robot, you can have him hold something for as long as you want.
The robot will never complain.
MIKE: When we were fixing the Hubble, it was 117 screws that had to be removed.
That would be good for Robonaut to do.
RON: An excellent job for Robonaut.
Let's show you can example of that.
Here, we're gonna work with one of the panels that we have on a space station task board and we're gonna demonstrate flipping up the switch cover.
I'm actually gonna give it some repetitive work and I'm gonna keep closing this so the robot will keep going back until it has confirmation the switch cover's open.
And I can do this all day.
MIKE: You're teasing Robonaut.
RON: Sort of like you doing 117 fasteners, the robot, it never gets tired and it will never complain.
MIKE: It's like the little Robonaut that could.
MAN: So let's move onto our next test.
Let me show you an example of the robot acquiring a tool and then handing it to you, as if you're performing a space walk task right now.
And here it is coming around.
It'd like to show you how it controls the different speed on the drill.
MIKE: That's pretty good.
MAN: And now, it's just about ready to hand it off to you.
MIKE: Okay.
I'll take it now.
Thank you, Robonaut.
It seems like Robonaut can do just about anything.
I'm starting to worry, is the astronaut job at stake here? MAN: The whole idea here is human/robot teams.
Robonaut's most important job is assisting the crew.
MIKE: So really, it's human and machine working together to explore space, not against each other.
MAN: And the human has intelligence.
Obviously, he'll be the leader of the team.
The robot is there to be the Assistant.
MIKE: Very well said.
NARRATOR: ROBONAUT 2 WAS DELIVERED TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IN FEBRUARY OF 2011, AND HE'S GOING TO BE A HUGE ADVANTAGE.
BUT SPACE IS A DEADLY CONSTRUCTION ZONE.
OUR NEXT STEP HAS TO BE FIGURING OUT HOW TO PROTECT OUR STRUCTURES FROM COUNTLESS HIGH VELOCITY OBJECTS IN THE VOID, AND THIS MAY PROVE TO BE THE MOST CRITICAL STAGE OF OUR CONSTRUCTION YET.
THE KNOWN UNIVERSE - THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
EVEN WITH ALL OUR SPECIALIZED TOOLS, SPACE SUITS, AND ENGINEERING KNOW-HOW, WE STILL HAVE TO BUILD IT WHILE FLYING THROUGH SPACE AT 18,000 MILES AN HOUR, 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH.
TO BUILD THIS INCREDIBLE STRUCTURE, NASA PRACTICES WITH AN EXACT REPLICA OF THE SPACE STATION HERE ON EARTH.
MIKE: We're at the Johnson Space Center and right now you're looking at the modules that make up the International Space Station.
These are not tourist attractions.
These are actually real working mockups.
Inside of there, it looks exactly like the real space station.
NARRATOR: GLENN JOHNSON IS AN ISS TRAINING ENGINEER AND HE KNOWS EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF THE SPACE STATION.
MIKE: Alright, Glenn, here we are, the space station.
This is gigantic, compared to, like, the space shuttle.
It's seems kinda puny GLENN: This is like the inside of a 747.
MIKE: That's big, there's a lot of room in a 747.
GLENN: It is huge.
MIKE: The International Space Station is the biggest thing ever built in space.
GLENN: By far.
Here we are in Node One.
This is kind of like the basic building block of what all of our space station is made out of.
Each one of these is one big round cylinder and this one has several ports on it so that we can dock other things to it.
MIKE: A gigantic Tinker Toy set in space.
GLENN: Exactly.
MIKE: I feel like I'm working in a space snack bar.
Can I get you some space food? This is the cupola.
GLENN: That's right.
Over here, we've got a mockup of our robotic workstation and you can control the arm that can move any one of these modules from one place to another.
As you're looking out these seven windows, you'll be able to watch what it is that you're doing with that robotic arm.
NARRATOR: BUT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THIS PIECE OF SPACE ARCHITECTURE IS THE PLUMBING, AND THE WAY IT USES AND REUSES WATER IS NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD CALL APPEALING.
MIKE: It's really kind of unreasonable to think that you could take all the water you need with you.
You're going on a huge trip, you're gonna explore the stars, get out of the solar system.
You really couldn't bring enough water to last the trip.
GLENN: All of our water starts off from the astronaut.
MIKE: Starts off with the astronaut? GLENN:Starts from the astronauts So we start with the urine.
MIKE: Urine? GLENN: It goes through the space toilet, okay, and then it comes into two water reclamation racks.
MIKE: Water reclamation? That's a nice way of saying drinking pee.
GLENN: So the water flows into here and they boil off the water, then they send it through a whole bunch of of filters to clean it up.
So this is one rack that cleans it and then it comes over here and it gets cleaned again so that it's ultra pure.
MIKE: Ultra pure? So you clean the urine not once, but twice? Can you really get urine clean enough? I'm a little skeptical.
GLENN: The last crewmembers that came back said that they preferred the water on the station to the water at home.
ANDY: The space station is really cool because it is huge.
It's a habitat for humans in space.
It's like truly being in a movie set.
NARRATOR: BUT WHILE THIS SPACE STATION MIGHT LOOK LIKE IT BELONGS IN A SCI-FI MOVIE, WITHOUT THE RIGHT PROTECTION, IT COULD END UP AS A CASUALTY IN A DISASTER FLICK.
DAVID: The ISS is really big, but it also has to be very strong.
We gotta construct things that can withstand the rigours of space.
There's all kinds of things that could disrupt the construction.
NARRATOR: WE HAVE TO FIGURE OU WHAT IT WOULD IT TAKE TO WIPE OUT OUR BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE SPACE STRUCTUES.
AND AS IT TURNS OUT, IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH.
ANDY: This little steel ball may look harmless, but in space it's a killer.
Here at the NASA White Sands testing facility, engineers are taking target practice on a variety of space materials to see which ones hold up against space debris and micrometeorites no larger than this.
What does this represent? DENNIS: This represents space debris that can possibly hit the space station, shuttle, or satellites.
ANDY: So something that small could really do some damage? DENNIS: It can, but it's the velocity that does all the damage.
Once we get this projectile going, it's gonna do quite a bit of damage.
NARRATOR: THIS TEST IS GOING TO BE DAMAGING THE MATERIALS USED TO PROTECT VULNERABLE AREAS OF OUR SPACE STRUCTURES.
THE OUTSIDE LAYER IS A STAINLESS STEEL PLATE.
BEHIND THAT IS A KEVLAR LINER, WHICH DISPURSES THE ENERGY OF ANYTHING THAT HITS IT.
THE THIRD LAYER REPRESENTS THE PROTECTIVE HULL OF THE STRUCTURE.
BEHIND THAT IS A WITNESS PLATE, WHICH IS JUST THERE TO SEE IF THE PROJECTILE WENT THROUGH ALL THE LAYERS.
ANDY: If stuff gets through here, it is a bad day.
DARIN: A very bad day.
NARRATOR: TO AVOID THIS BAD DAY, ENGINEERS FIRE SHOTS AT THESE LAYERS, AND SPEED IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.
ANDY: Wow, it's like such a small little bullet.
How fast are we gonna shoot this thing? DARIN: We're gonna be shooting at 4 kilometers per second, but in miles per hour, that's over 8,000 miles per hour.
ANDY: 8,000 miles an hour? That's just crazy.
DARIN: That's what we do.
NARRATOR: AND THEY DO ALL THIS IN THE IMPACT CHAMBER OF A HYPER-VELOCITY GUN.
DENNIS: What I want to make sure is this crosshair on the scope is lined up with the crosshair on the target.
ANDY: I feel like crazy sniper or something.
Man, this is a big gun.
How big is this thing? DENNIS: Around 60 feet.
Down at this end, a powder charge is gonna go off, sending a piston downrange, compressing hydrogen air, and that in turn is gonna launch the projectile.
ANDY: This can be fun, to shoot a super special 8,000 mile per hour gun.
DENNIS: That's right.
NARRATOR: ALL THESE MECHANICS MAKE THE GUN SO POWERFUL THAT NOBODY IS ALLOWED IN THE ROOM WHEN IT'S FIRED, IN CASE IT EXPLODES.
ANDY: So we're in a bunker? DENNIS: We're in a bunker.
ANDY: It's like the Death Star laser control system in here.
DENNIS: If something does go wrong, we have the doors closed, so we're protected from explosion.
And we also have breathing air for a couple hours until they come and rescue us.
ANDY: Anything wrong ever happen so far? DENNIS: Uh, no, knock on wood.
MAN #2: Attention all personnel, 272 area is now in red status.
ANDY: So we're moments away from firing this awesome gun, so I'm really excited.
DENNIS Everything's stable.
Armed, standing by.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 NARRATOR: IF WE HOPE TO BUILD BIGGER AND BIGGER STRUCTURES IN SPACE, WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED FOR ANY DIRECT HITS FROM SPACE DEBRIS, NO MATTER WHAT THE SIZE, WHICH IS WHY ANDY HOWELL IS PREPPING A HYPER-VELOCITY GUN TO FIRE A TINY PROJECTILE INTO THE MATERIALS WE USE IN TODAY'S SPACE CONSTRUCTION.
ANDY: I'm really excited.
MAN: Okay, John, ready to shoot.
Stand by.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
NARRATOR: A HIGH SPEED CAMERA, SHOOTING AT 2 MILLION FRAMES PER SECOND, CAPTURES THE OVER 8,000 MILE PER HOUR SHOT.
ANDY: Let's take a look at this footage and see what we've got.
Wow, look at this thing.
Boom.
What is that white stuff right there? You get this huge debris cloud.
It's amazing.
DARIN: Absolutely.
That debris cloud is the ejecta.
I try to minimize that as much as possible because every time there's ejecta from the impact, that stuff they're going to have to worry about the next orbit.
NARRATOR: THIS MEANS MORE SPACE DEBRIS TO WATCH OUT FOR, ASSUMING THE SPACE STRUCTURE HAS SURVIVED THE HIT.
ANDY: Alright, let's see what we've got.
Wow, man, that thing did some damage.
You can really see this thing came up at an angle here.
NARRATOR: THE PROJECTILE BLEW THROUGH THE STEEL PLATE, PIERCED THE KEVLAR, AND THEN DIMPLED THE THIRD LAYER.
DARIN: The pressure wall didn't have a through hole, a crack, or a spall off the back that could cause damage.
So it maintained pressure, our occupants were safe but it was a narrow pass.
ANDY: Wow, so it seems like a dent almost broke through.
It was kinda dangerous, DARIN: Almost ANDY: but, uh, they just barely made it but, uh, they just barely made it.
NARRATOR: THE KEY TO SURVIVING A SPACE HIT MAY BE SIZE - BIGGER STRUCTURES WITH ADDED LAYERS OF PROTECTION.
SO WHAT ABOUT MOVING FROM A SPACE STATION TO SOMETHING MORE ROBUST, LIKE A SKYSCRAPER? MIKE: Yes I think a Manhattan skyline on the moon would be very nice, but I don't know if that's really feasible or practical.
NARRATOR: AT FIRST GLANCE, IT LOOKS VERY PROMISING.
IN SPACE, WE COULD USE IRON TO BUILD STRONG SUPPORT BEAMS, BECAUSE WITHOUT ANY OXYGEN, THEY WOULD NEVER RUST.
LOW LUNAR GRAVITY WOULD ALSO REDUCE THE STRESS ON THE BUILDING, SO IN THEORY WE COULD BUILD SKYSCRAPERS HIGHER THAN ANY BUILT ON EARTH.
BUT THAT'S WHERE THE ADVANTAGES END AND PROBLEMS LIKE SOLAR RADIATION BEGIN.
IT COULD DESTROY THE BUILDING AND ANYONE INSIDE WITH ITS POWERFUL BLASTS OF ENERGY.
TO BLOCK THE RADIATION, YOU'D NEED TO COVER THE BUILDING WITH AROUND 10 FEET OF MOON DIRT ON EVERY SIDE.
MIKE: Building all these fancy structures on the moon, like we do on Earth, wouldn't be the greatest thing because it wouldn't protect us from the radiation.
I think that a base or structure on Mars would be the next logical place to explore.
NARRATOR: THE BAD NEWS IS MARS IS JUST LIKE THE MOON THERE'S NO PROTECTION FROM SOLAR RADIATION, MAKING ANY BUILDING A DEATH TRAP.
ANDY: On Mars, there's 1,000 times more radiation than what you experience on Earth, and that's because the Earth has a magnetic field that protects us from these charged particles from the sun.
But on Mars, you don't have that protective magnetic field, so you get hit with all these charged particles.
That's bad for humans.
NARRATOR: BAD MIGHT NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE IT.
THE RADIATION ON MARS WOULD BE SO STRONG, IT WOULD BE LIKE BULLETS RIPPING THROUGH OUR CELLS.
ANDY: There's so much radiation on Mars, you don't want to be out in the open.
MIKE: So you'd have all this fancy technology to get you to Mars, and where are you gonna be staying? In a cave.
NARRATOR: THAT'S RIGHT.
IRONICALLY, WE MAY GO FROM LIVING IN THE SPACE AGE TO TRYING TO SURVIVE IN THE STONE AGE, BECAUSE ON MARS, TO BUILD THE BEST STRUCTURES FOR OUR SURVIVAL AWAY FROM RADIATION, WE'LL HAVE TO GO UNDERGROUND.
MIKE: Scientists have located the potential barrier to that radiation for early settlers, and those are lava tubes.
A lava tube is kind of a hard crust that forms above the lava so that the lava can flow underneath the surface.
After the lava is gone, that structure remains and can provide a protection from radiation.
NARRATOR: VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND LAVA FLOWS ONCE COVERED THE SURFACE OF MARS.
THE FLOWS CREATED VAST UNDERGROUND CAVERNS.
THESE CAVES CAN BE MILES LONG AND HUNDREDS OF FEET IN DIAMETER.
AND BEST OF ALL, THEY'RE COMPLETELY PROTECTED FROM SOLAR RADIATION.
THERE COULD BE A VAST NETWORK OF ROOMS AND HALLWAYS WHERE A HUMAN COLONY COULD EXPAND, LIKE AN ANT FARM.
LIVING IN CAVES MAY HELP US ON MARS, BUT IF WE EVER HOPE TO MAKE IT DEEPER INTO SPACE, WE'RE GOING TO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO BUILD ON THE GO, SO IT'S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE THE TOOLBOX.
AND SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH, THE MOST CAPABLE UNTAPPED TOOL YET MAY BE MAGNETISM.
IN OUR ATTEMPTS TO BUILD IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, WE'VE FACED NUMEROUS OBSTACLES, BOTH IN SPACE AND ON EXTRATERRESTRIAL SOIL.
YET ALL THESE PROBLEMS MAY BE MOOT ONCE WE HIRE WHAT COULD BE OUR BEST SPACE CONTRACTOR, AND IT'S NOT ANY ASTRONAUT OR ROBOT.
IT'S MAGNETISM.
MIKE: Magnetism is something that is very useful and works very well on Earth and it can also work in space.
NARRATOR: AN IDEA CALLED FLUX PINNING USES MAGNETISM TO BUILD STRUCTURES IN SPACE, AND IT'S A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT THAT COULD LEAD TO THE BIGGEST COSMIC ENGINEERING PROJECTS EVER ATTEMPTED.
BUT WILL IT REALLY WORK? DAVID: I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
All cool science happens underground.
NARRATOR: HIDDEN AWAY IN THE BASEMENT AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY, SPACE DESIGN IS GETTING A MAKEOVER USING FLUX PINNING.
HERE, LIQUID NITROGEN AND OBJECTS CALLED SUPERCONDUCTORS ARE COMBINED TO GENERATE STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS.
DAVID: We're gonna be working with superconducting material today, right? JOSEPH: That's right.
DAVID: So what does it take to make this material superconducting? JOSEPH: You have to cool it below a certain critical temperature.
We use liquid nitrogen.
DAVID: How cold is liquid nitrogen? JOSEPH: It's about -320 degrees Fahrenheit.
DAVID: Wow.
And nitrogen is basically air, right? JOSEPH: Yeah, it's basically condensed, liquefied air.
DAVID: Sure.
What is this object right here? JOSEPH: It's called yttrium barium copper oxide.
We call it YBCO for short.
DAVID: And then you use this liquid air to cool this material and you get a superconductor? JOSEPH: That's right.
DAVID: What are you interested in once this thing becomes superconducting? JOSEPH: What we're interested in is how it interacts with magnetic fields.
DAVID: What do we use for a magnetic field? JOSEPH: We're going to use this guy right here.
This is a rare Earth magnet.
It's a very powerful permanent magnet.
If you stuck this on your refrigerator, it might take hundreds of pounds of force to pull it off.
DAVID: Is it superconducting right now? JOSEPH: Not right now.
At room temperature, the superconductor is basically like a ceramic.
The magnet doesn't really interact with it.
I can wave it around here and nothing happens.
But if I position the magnet near the superconductor and then cool the superconductor down, interesting things start to happen.
DAVID: And you're not gonna tell me? JOSEPH: Well, it would spoil the surprise a little.
DAVID: Okay, fine.
Alright, so let's do it.
JOSEPH: I'm gonna place these plastic standoffs on the superconductor so that I can put the magnet on them and I'm going to cool down the superconductor with the magnet nearby.
DAVID: Is it cold enough yet? JOSEPH: Well, I want the boiling to settle down.
That's gonna be a good indicator that the superconductor is close to the same temperature as the nitrogen.
DAVID: I see.
So basically, when the superconductor and the liquid nitrogen are roughly the same temperature, then you know it's definitely superconducting? JOSEPH: Yes.
DAVID: Okay.
Is it superconducting now? JOSEPH: Yeah, the boiling has settled down.
DAVID: Are you sure? I need some drama here.
What's gonna happen? Whoa.
Holy cow.
Oh, wow.
JOSEPH: So that magnet levitates there.
It floats.
DAVID: They're stuck together in this exact position.
JOSEPH: And it's just a magnetic field.
We're not running any power through this, we're not controlling it.
DAVID: There's no power running this thing.
JOSEPH: And, in fact, I bet this is strong enough that if you tried to pick up that magnet, the superconductor would come with it.
DAVID: Really? JOSEPH: Yup.
DAVID:Oh, holy cow.
What happens if I try to pull those apart? JOSEPH: This is really interesting.
As long as the superconductor stays cold, it'll get pulled back to this equilibrium position.
So you'll have to exert force on both sides to pull it apart.
DAVID: Okay, that is cool.
JOSEPH: They attract back together, but they don't collide DAVID: Wow.
JOSEPH: So we want to build spacecraft that have matching pairs of magnets and superconductors and we imprint the magnetic fields onto the superconductors so that they attract one another.
And it's stiff enough that we're thinking about this as a way to make a sort of virtual structure.
So spacecraft could stick together, held together by these magnetic fields.
DAVID: So there's no more docking.
They hold together like this.
JOSEPH: Right, we're taking advantage of the physics of flux pinning to have physics do the docking for you.
NARRATOR: BUT MAGNETIC DOCKING IS JUST THE FIRST PHASE FOR THIS TECHNOLOGY.
DAVID: Oh, and they turn into place.
Wow! NARRATOR: WHAT IF YOU CONSTRUC LARGE SHIPS THAT COULD TAKE ANY SHAPE YOU NEEDED? ARE THESE BIG DREAMS OR STAGGERING REALITIES? A MAGNET AND A SUPERCONDUCTOR CAN BE LOCKED TOGETHER BY A MAGNETIC FIELD BETWEEN THEM.
DAVID: Oh, wow.
NARRATOR: BUT THIS TECHNIQUE HAS MUCH BIGGER IMPLICATIONS DAVID: Holy cow.
NARRATOR: ONE THAT COULD LEAD TO BUILDING THE MOST VERSATILE SPACE STRUCTURE IMAGINABLE.
DAVID KAPLAN IS TESTING THE THEORY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
DAVID: So we're gonna do a demonstration with four boxes filled with liquid nitrogen to convert the material inside to superconducting.
We're gonna train the superconductors next to magnets so that the four boxes will attach using flux pinning.
JOSEPH: Okay, so they're starting in a line.
DAVID: Then we release.
On, and they turn into place.
Wow.
Hey, it worked.
That's cool.
Wow.
NARRATOR: TO SIMULATE THE THRUSTERS THAT WOULD BE ON A SHIP LIKE THIS IN SPACE, JOE IS USING AIR CARTRIDGES ON THE BOTTOM THAT CAN MOVE EACH INDIVIDUAL MODULE.
DAVID: So now we're gonna turn on the thrusters.
Yes! Woo! It works.
JOSEPH: Yes.
DAVID: Fantastic.
So you take your magnet and your superconducting material, which has trained itself with the magnet.
Now you have a way to construct things without touching.
JOSEPH: Right, the modules attract one another through flux pinning into their proper positions.
DAVID: So you could take, say, a rocket and convert it into a space station with a different configuration once you get there.
JOSEPH: In fact, you could have a space vehicle that transforms into several different configurations to meet different mission goals.
DAVID: Imagining those things in space sounds very science fiction like, but seeing it here, I get a taste that it's actually very possible.
JOSEPH: That's what we think.
DAVID: Fantastic.
NARRATOR: WHAT WOULD A FLUX PINNING STRUCTURE THAT COULD BUILD AND REBUILD ITSELF LOOK LIKE FULLY REALIZED IN SPACE? START WITH A ROCKET SHIP, CONFIGURED LIKE THIS, WITH FOUR PARALLEL MODULAR TUBES ALL CONNECTED WITH FLUX PINNING.
THE SHIP, ASSEMBLED ABOVE THE EARTH, COULD THEN GO ON A VOYAGE TO ANOTHER PLANET.
WHEN IT GETS THERE, THE ROCKET RECONFIGURES.
THE MODULES MOVE INTO A CIRCULAR SHAPE USING MAGNETIC FLUX PINNING.
WHEN IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON, WE SIMPLY REVERSE THE PROCESS AND TRANSFORM THE SPACE STATION BACK INTO A ROCKET SHIP, AND OFF WE GO.
SPACE STATIONS, LAVA TUBES, AND FLUX PINNING COULD ALL LEAD TO ENORMOUS SPACE STRUCTURES.
BUT THE MOTHER OF THEM ALL IS A SELF-SUSTAINING COLONY A VIRTUAL FLOATING CITY.
IN 1969, PHYSICIST GERALD O'NEIL CAME UP WITH AN IDEA THE O'NEIL COLONY.
ANDY: An O'Neil Colony is kind of like a continent in space.
SIGRID It has basically all the comforts that you would have here at home.
The idea is that it would be quite big.
NARRATOR: IT BEGINS WITH TWO MASSIVE COUNTER ROTATING CYLINDRICAL TUBES 2O MILES LONG.
THIS SUPER STRUCTURE WOULD HAVE A LIVING SPACE OF ABOUT 500 SQUARE MILES LARGER THAN LOS ANGELES.
THE ROTATION OF THE CYLINDERS CREATES GRAVITY.
THE COLONY WOULD HAVE ITS OWN INTERNAL ATMOSPHERE, INCLUDING CLOUD FORMATIONS.
AT ONE END, THERE WOULD BE ROLLING COUNTRYSIDE.
AT THE OTHER END, A CENTRAL CITYSCAPE COMPLETE WITH A SKYLINE RIVALING MANHATTAN.
THE ENTIRE COLONY COULD HOUSE SEVERAL MILLION PEOPLE, ALL PERMANENT RESIDENTS OF OUTER SPACE.
ANDY: I think it'd be a real cool place to live because, you know, I've always wanted to live on a space station or something.
Can you imagine living in a gigantic cylinder? It's just too cool.
MIKE: It is our destiny to leave the planet.
We've been doing that for over 50 years now.
ANDY: We went to the moon and that made it seem easy, but that's really hard.
The next step is to build the technology to really adapt to life in space and spend a long period of time there.
MIKE: As we continue to go out further, that's gonna involve e building these big structures in really cool places.