Space Week

SPACE WEEK

May 6–12, 2007, 8–11 PM (ET/PT)

The Science Channel’s first annual SPACE WEEK brings viewers on an exploration of one of the last mysterious, awe-inspiring places (un)known to man – outer space. With The Science Channel as your guide, journey through the Milky Way galaxy for knowledge about future space technology, space travel, the planets, the stars, plans to colonize the moon and Mars, and much more.

Sunday, May 6:

THE PLANETS: GIANTS: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; In 1977, NASA launched an epic and evolutionary mission to the outer planets, called Voyager. Until then, humans had never seen Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune clearly, but Voyager revealed new, spectacular findings that defied imagination. Scientists discovered the moons of Jupiter, skimmed the rings of Saturn and explored Uranus and Neptune. Subsequent missions such as the Galileo and the Cassini unlocked new knowledge of other planets. Explore the inspiring, revealing stories behind the missions that changed our perception of Earth and ourselves forever.
SPACE STATION AND BEYOND: *Network Premiere; 9 PM; Get closer than ever to the space station experience and to the cutting edge of entertainment. Showcasing the International Space Station through excerpts from the exclusive live special on November 15, 2006, as well as interviews and all-new material, this special program highlights advances in technology and the continuing human space exploration story.
THE SUN: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; THE SUN explores the past, present and future of the star’s unique importance to Earth. The SOHO and TRACE satellites, as well as the Swedish solar telescope on Las Palmas, provide viewers with some of the best images of the sun ever seen, and the special program provides knowledge of the many scientific discoveries being made about the sun.

Monday, May 7:

THE PLANETS: MOON: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; Four decades ago, the United States and the Soviet Union produced the greatest human race to discover ever – manned missions to the moon. Today, there is a new interest in returning to the lunar surface after the discovery of water ice and precious minerals and metals. This race to the moon will be less about national pride than about the valuable materials found there. In fact, the moon may soon host bases, produce materials for construction in space and serve as the stepping-off point for exploration of Mars and the rest of the solar system.
BASE CAMP MOON: *World Premiere; 9 PM; The fruits of the previous moon expeditions have provided scientists with astounding information and insights. Over the years, this information has helped shape technological advancements in fields as diverse as biology, geology, astrophysics and chemistry. In 2018, astronauts will once again set foot on the lunar surface, with the goal being to ultimately establish a presence on Mars and beyond. Astronauts, scientists and engineers will use the moon as a training ground to develop and refine the technologies that such an ambitious vision demands.
IF WE HAD NO MOON: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; Without the moon, humans wouldn’t exist. Life, if it had started at all, would be in the earliest stages of evolution. Days would last four hours, winds would blow at hurricane force and there would be a dense and toxic atmosphere resembling that of Venus. Luckily, 50 million years after the formation of the solar system, our proto-planet was hit by a celestial body more than twice the size of Mars, which formed the moon. In this one-hour special, viewers will learn what Earth was like before the moon and what Earth would be like if the moon disappeared.

Tuesday, May 8:

THE PLANETS: SUN: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; Since the beginning, human beings have been aware, instinctively and intuitively, of the sun’s godlike power and central importance to life. THE PLANETS: SUN brings viewers knowledge about the other side of the sun’s awesome power – dangerous radiation and streams of highly charged particles. How do these solar winds affect satellites and ultimately life on Earth? Today, the weather report may forecast a sunny day – tomorrow, it will include a solar weather report so satellite operators can prepare their spacecraft to ride out a solar storm. We’re getting to know our star intimately well, and it may be a matter of our own survival to be able to predict its behavior.
STARSHIP ORION: THE FUTURE OF SPACE TRAVEL: *World Premiere; 9 PM; NASA has taken the lead in designing the new space exploration vehicle, ORION, with which man will go back to the moon, to Mars and beyond. To compress the development process, experts combined old and proven technology with the most current insights to make ORION the spaceship for the 21st century. Information from the Apollo program, space shuttle missions, personal experience and scientific data were combined to create ORION, the heart of “Project Constellation,” NASA’s new space program.
MOST OF OUR UNIVERSE IS MISSING: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; Scientists can account for only four percent of our universe. Using the world’s most powerful telescopes, MOST OF OUR UNIVERSE IS MISSING immerses viewers inside the deepest parts of outer space, exploring the other 96 percent of what makes the universe home.

Wednesday, May 9:

THE PLANETS: TERRA FIRMA: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; Are other planets as geologically active as Earth? The answer is both “yes” and “no” – Venus is highly volcanic, and was catastrophically resurfaced just a few million years ago. Mars has some of the largest dormant volcanoes in the solar system. The outer planets are gaseous, icy and geologically uninteresting, but their moons are astonishing and have redefined our notion of what volcanism is. This program examines the geology of our solar system.
MARS UNDERGROUND: *U.S. Premiere; 9 PM; MARS UNDERGROUND details aerospace visionary Dr. Robert Zubrin and his theory of the establishment of permanent human settlements, and the greening of Mars into a second Earth for humans to live on.
REVEALING MARS: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will make a more comprehensive inspection of Mars than any previous mission, examining landscape details as small as a coffee table with the most powerful telescopic camera ever sent to orbit another planet. REVEALING MARS walks viewers through the orbiter’s scientific payload and illustrates how each instrument works. The program gives viewers a sense of the high-quality images and data these tools will produce by comparing them to instruments used to investigate the atmosphere and geology of Earth.

Thursday, May 10:

THE PLANETS: DIFFERENT WORLDS: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; The eight known planets of our solar system are each so different from each other that they give no easy answers to how the universe was formed. Clues to the birth and evolution of the solar system lie scattered throughout the solar system, on the faces, in the orbits and rotations of the planets and their moons and among the great belts of asteroids, comets, and lost worlds left over from the beginning. Distance, time and technology handicap us as we collect pieces of the story – but we’re getting there. Slowly but surely, we are beginning to understand.
ROVING MARS: *Network Premiere; 9 PM; This is the IMAX film documenting the journeys of Spirit and Opportunity, two rovers that explored the red planet on remote, unmanned NASA missions. The documentary uses the rovers’ treks across the rugged Martian terrain to address the question of whether life exists on Mars.
RENDEZVOUS WITH SATURN’S MOONS: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; As the Huygens probe prepares to land on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, viewers meet the scientists leading the mission, learn how the probe will land and get a behind-the-scenes tour of the advanced technology inside the craft.

Friday, May 11:

THE PLANETS: LIFE: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; We’re obsessed with getting the answer to the questions: Is there life somewhere in the solar system? And, are we alone? They are the questions of our time, and much of planetary exploration is aimed, either directly or indirectly, at the answers. Scientists have found life in the sunless depths of the sea, in boiling environments, living in rocks and salt. In short, we rediscovered life on Earth, and it was far more hardy and enduring than we ever imagined. Many of the organisms we found were tough enough to have lived on planets elsewhere, places we once thought too extreme for life – like Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s Titan. But the best possibility remains Mars.
SPACE STATION AND BEYOND: Encore Presentation; 9 PM; Get closer than ever to the space station experience and to the cutting edge of entertainment. Showcasing the International Space Station through excerpts from the exclusive live special on November 15, 2006, as well as interviews and all-new material, this special program highlights advances in technology and the continuing human space exploration story.
SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; Like the stuff of science fiction, black holes have the power to destroy space-time itself. Even light cannot escape the pure gravitational force from the heart of a black hole, where all known laws of physics crumble. First conceived by Einstein, the destructive force of black holes has inspired physicists like Stephen Hawking and science fiction writers alike. Remarkably, just three years ago scientists discovered something even more powerful – supermassive black holes that lie at the heart of every galaxy. This special provides viewers with information about these supermassive black holes, which are several million times heavier than the sun.

Saturday, May 12:

THE PLANETS: DESTINY: Encore Presentation; 8 PM; All stars have a finite amount of fuel to burn before they expand into red giants and then collapse into darkness. In three billion years, the sun will expand into a red giant and may consume Earth. Scientists are already searching for a planet in nearby solar systems with Earthlike qualities that humans can one day inhabit. They have found nearly 150 planets around other stars, in other solar systems, but none resemble Earth. In the next two decades, more missions will launch to look for Earthlike planets, take their pictures, analyze their atmospheres and answer the questions, Are there other inhabitable planets? Are we alone in the universe? Or is there life everywhere?
MARS UNDERGROUND: Encore Presentation; 9 PM; MARS UNDERGROUND details aerospace visionary Dr. Robert Zubrin and his theory of the establishment of permanent human settlements, and the greening of Mars into a second Earth for humans to live on.
STARSHIP ORION: THE FUTURE OF SPACE TRAVEL: Encore Presentation; 10 PM; NASA has taken the lead in designing the new space exploration vehicle, ORION, with which man will go back to the moon, to Mars and beyond. To compress the development process, experts combined old and proven technology with the most current insights to make ORION the spaceship for the 21st century. Pulling from the past, information from the Apollo program, space shuttle missions, personal experience and scientific data were combined to create ORION, the heart of “Project Constellation,” NASA’s new space program.