BBC Orders Brian Cox Mars Science Show & More
BBC Factual has ordered three new science shows including a Mars special fronted by Brian Cox (the “ooh isn’t space big” one not the sweary ‘Succession’ one), a Horizon special on the James Webb Telescope, and a series which looks at the different scales of things in the universe.
‘Seven Days On Mars’ is a unique television event that follows Professor Brian Cox as he fulfils a childhood dream by going behind the scenes at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), mission control Mars.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is on the verge of changing humanity’s future. Just over a year after touching down on the red planet, Perseverance is embarking on the most demanding part of its mission to date – striking out at top speed for the sites most likely to house signs of life. To succeed, the team must overcome epic challenges and take Perseverance into uncharted territory: going further than any other rover and traversing jagged terrain – all on a hostile planet 300 million kilometres away from the Earth.
“The nature of the origin of life is one of the great unanswered scientific questions,” comments Brian. “Here on Earth, life was present around 3.8 billion years ago, but the evidence for how it arose has been weathered away and erased by the geological activity of our planet. Mars, however, is a different story. It was decidedly Earth-like at the same time, with rain, rivers and lakes, but it soon entered a geological deep freeze from which it never emerged. If there were Martians, the evidence for their emergence from the geology and chemistry of a young, active world may be far better preserved. The Perseverance Rover, and the Mars Sample Return missions to follow, may therefore answer a deeper question even than ‘Is there life on Mars?’ They may reveal how life begins across the Universe, including here on Earth, and give us unique insight into our own origins.”
Over the course of a week, he joins the team as they follow the rover’s every move across the floor of Jezero crater towards the remains of an ancient river delta – that may contain the evidence of ancient life on Mars. In the process, Brian will reveal how the mission could potentially transform our understanding of life, not just on Mars, but Earth as well. This is the inside story of a pioneering quest into the unknown.
‘Seven Days on Mars’, is a 90min special made by Arrow Media. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Science and Natural History. It is Executive Produced by Ash Potterton and Tom Brisley for Arrow Media. The director is Michael Lachmann and the Commissioning Editor is Tom Coveney. The documentary is being distributed globally by Fremantle.
As NASA prepares to release the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope this summer, ‘James Webb Telescope: A Horizon Special (w/t)’ tells the story of the telescope’s construction, and the extraordinary new view of our universe astronomers hope it will unveil. The successor to Hubble, and 100 times more powerful, the James Webb is the most technically advanced telescope ever built. It will look up to 300 million years further back in time than Hubble, to an era about 100 million to 250 million years after the Big Bang. Its primary mission is to see the first stars and galaxies to form in the universe, but its instruments are so sensitive it could also be the first telescope to detect signs of life on a distant planet.
However, the James Webb is a £7.6 billion gamble on the skill of its engineering team. It’s the first telescope designed to unfold in space – a complicated two-week operation in which 178 release devices must all work. If just one fails, the telescope could become a giant piece of space junk. This film tells the inside story of the James Webb Space Telescope in the words of the engineers who built it, and the astronomers who will use it.
The 60min speical is made by Windfall Films. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Science and Natural History. The?Executive Producer is Carlo Massarella, the Producer / Director is Martin Gorst?and?the Commissioning Editor is Tom Coveney.
‘Secrets of Size: Atoms To Supergalaxies’ consists of 2 x 60min episodes, and focuses on the biggest and smallest things in the universe for BBC Four and iPlayer. What would the universe look like if you were a billion times smaller or a billion times bigger? Professor Jim Al-Khalili will see the universe at different scales, from the tiniest objects just a few atoms in size, to vast structures consisting of hundreds of thousands of interconnected galaxies. Investigating these astonishing objects?will reveal fundamental truths about our universe. At the end of each film, the audience will see the largest structure ever discovered by scientists in the universe, and the smallest thing in existence that science has managed to photograph.
The series is made by Furnace TV, co-produced by The Kavli Prize. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Science and Natural History. The Executive Producer is Paul Sen and the Commissioning Editor is Tom Coveney.
‘Seven Days On Mars’ and ‘James Webb Telescope: A Horizon Special (w/t)’ will air on BBC Two, whilst ‘Secrets of Size: Atoms To Supergalaxies’ will air on BBC Four. All three will be available on iPlayer.
