Zenith: Advances in Space Exploration

The development of reliable, high-powered boosters has enabled researchers to send probes to distant planets.

The ringed planet is of immense interest to researchers who believe that Saturn’s ring system will share similarities with the protoplanetary disc from which the solar system evolved.

Currently the only destination for Astronauts and Cosmonauts is the orbiting research platform known as the International Space Station.

The solar system’s largest planet has been visited by automated probes since the 1970s. This episode examines the work of the Galileo orbiter and the Juno probe that went into orbit around Jupiter last year.

Before spaceflight aviators began wearing pressure suits to allow them to function at higher ceilings. These aviation suits were adapted for the early Cosmonauts and Astronauts but as requirements became more demanding spacesuit design became more elaborate.

For most of human history our neighbouring planets were little more that dots of light in the sky with comets and asteroids being a complete mystery.