The laws of physics are a death warrant for the solar system: when our sun burns out everything will be destroyed. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e4: A New Solar System
It must have the right conditions to sustain life … It must be stable for billions of years … It must be sufficiently impressive to signal that we’ve become a galactic civilisation. ibid.
If we’re invaded by a hostile alien invasion we’re doomed unless we can defeat them … This is going to be one huge challenge … We need the weapons and a strategy for a counter-attack. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e5: Alien Invasion
Making contact with an alien species will be the most mind-blowing event in the history of civilisation. Michio Kaku, Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e6: First Contact
I’m going to build a star-fighter that can blow up the death star. The death star is the most monstrous weapon to appear in science fiction. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e7: Destroy the Death Star
The deadliest most destructive force in the entire universe: I’ll probe the heart of our galaxy. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e8: Black Hole Odyssey
Some now believe that at heart of a black-hole lies a tunnel through space/time: a wormhole. ibid.
Big Black Holes are safer than small ones. ibid.
I’m about to fuse together flesh and blood with machines and computers. Prepare for a white knuckle ride as I build the ultimate cyborg army … Cyborgs are the perfect fusion of man and machine. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e9: Cyborg Army
Imagine a world ruled by machines where humanity takes second place. Or worse still, has been wiped out. This is more than just sci-fi fantasy: the rise of the machines is coming. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e10: AI Uprising
I’m going head to head with an evil invading force … I’m going to design a real transformer, a shape-shifting robot to save our planet from destruction. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e12: Shapeshifting Transformer
Compelling reasons to colonise space are to see if we can expand the range of our activity beyond the Earth, or are we really confined to the Earth? I think that’s an important question we need to know the answer to. The second one is, what is the role of life? We have on this Earth a phenomenon called life. Is it destined to spread beyond the Earth? Chris McKay
The volume of evidence is that the space programme that appears on the television news and has done these last few decades is actually only there as a movie to hide the real programme, which is actually exploring things that these guys already know are there. David Icke
It is contrary to reason to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing. Rene Descartes
The Shuttle is symbolic of the American story. America: The Story of the US: Millennium, History 2010
The Shuttle is seen as an easy safe route to the final frontier. But on January 28th 1986, just seventy-three seconds after take-off, Challenger explodes live on national television. ibid.
The Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionised the way we look and think about the universe and our place in it. Hubble: The Ultimate Telescope, 2010
A giant telescope in orbit will capture the light fresh from the stars themselves. It will also test the limits of Earth-bound engineering. ibid.
Hubble is one of the twentieth century’s great feats of engineering. ibid.
It takes engineers four million man-hours to design and build the mirrors. ibid.
Discovery blasts off and carries Hubble six hundred kilometres up. ibid.
Short-sighted: the vast primary concave mirror is too flat. ibid.
One humble washer in the wrong place has wrecked Hubble’s accuracy. ibid.
NASA must fix Hubble ... They need to fit a series of lenses or mirrors that will cancel out the flaw in the main mirror. ibid.
Hubble begins unveiling celestial objects in breathtaking detail. ibid.
Subsequent deep-field surveys probe even further back. ibid.
Hubble reveals where Dark Matter exists. ibid.
Kennedy Space Centre: on a newly refurbished pad 39B Space Shuttle Challenger is in the final stages for launch. Days that Shook the World s2e1: Disaster in the Sky, BBC 2004
The Space Shuttle program has been beset by a catalogue of technical faults. ibid.
The story of an ordinary wife and mother going into space has captured the nation’s imagination. ibid.
Both O-Rings failed. ibid.
April 12th 1633 ... In Rome 70-year-old Galileo Galilei is on trial for heresy. Days that Shook the World s2e6: Reach for the Stars
There can be no ultimate proof of God’s design. ibid. Pope to Galileo
The Dialogue is being printed, not in Rome but in Florence. ibid.
The Inquisition makes its intentions unmistakably clear. ibid.
The Dialogue is banned by the Catholic Church, and will remain so for the next two hundred years. ibid.
April 12th 1961 ... In the USSR a human being prepares to leave the planet. ibid.
Just six months ago 190 engineers perished when a rocket misfired. Rocket design is still in its infancy. ibid.
The flight is designed to be fully automatic. ibid.
At twenty times the speed of sound Gagarin slips silently into darkness. ibid.
The Space Race has begun. ibid.
American astronomers say they have made the discovery of the century. They’ve found evidence to confirm how the universe developed. Data from a NASA satellite has revealed immense faint ripples in the level background radiation on the edge of space. BBC News 23rd April 1992
Bush staged a grand photo opportunity at NASA, using the American Space Program as a grand charade, making a speech from NASA headquarters about the future exploration of space. But the speech by George W Bush is not about the exploration of space, it is more about the exploitation of space. The US government has weaponised space. Chris Everard, Secret Space II
Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. George W Bush
The fastest man-made object ever to be rocketed into space: the new Horizons probe, which is speeding towards Pluto at 52,000 miles per hour. Extreme Universe, National Geographic 2010
If the Speed of Light never changes, then Time and Space have to. ibid.
When a star a hundred times heavier than our Sun switches off it goes with a bang. While we see the outward explosion as a supernova, this masks the inward implosion. The core is collapsing into the most dangerous object in the universe; the density becomes so great in the centre that Gravity sucks in Time and Space itself. Universe: Stars
At the centre of a black hole is a point called the singularity. Everything that has ever fallen into a black hole is destroyed. Crushed into a pin-point of infinite density and infinite smallness. Even Space and Time are squelched out of existence. ibid.
Space travel: It will test the limits of human capacity and human ingenuity. The Universe s2e8: Space Travel, History 2008
‘There’s a dirty little four-letter word and that is cost.’ ibid. Kaku
With eyes closed the particles spark flashes. ibid.
The human race has constantly endeavoured to extend its reach, and now it’s heading for the final frontier. From an outpost on the moon to a fully fledged colony on Mars. We’re building the rockets that will transport us there. And the machines we’ll need to survive. The Universe s2e13: Colonising Space
A black hole is a region of space where the pull of gravity is so immense that nothing can escape it, not even light. There are billions upon billions of these black monsters prowling the universe. They come in two sizes: most of them are the stellar mass black holes, which are about five to about hundred times the mass of our sun. And then there are supermassive black holes that are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. The Universe s2e16: Biggest Things in the Universe