[Music]
I
[Music]
for
[Music]
we are celebrating our 100th episode of
Sputnik here at the science museum in
London where they have a special
exhibition on cosmonauts and we are
going to enjoy a private viewing with
the initiator and Creator dog Milad Mr
Milad I understand that we're standing
in front of the Russian Crown Jewel
could you tell us more about it
absolutely this is the actual spacecraft
that took the first woman away from this
planet this is Valentina terish K's VTO
6 so one of the most important
spacecraft on the planet at the moment
terish kova spent three days in space
she was strapped down to her ejector
seat her couch and uh she got a terrible
cramp cuz she couldn't move her
spacecraft was orientated the wrong way
around so she had to ask Mission Control
to write it the uh the correct way
otherwise she would have uh died in
space so it was a it was a difficult
Mission but very successful I understand
it's even came to the launch of this
exhibition how was it for her to be to
see this she did indeed yes and uh she
sees this occasionally in Moscow and
every time she passes it she says she
she Strokes it she says it's her
favorite man and so where in Moscow is
uh is this would this otherwise be well
this is normally displayed uh it's a
private collection in the aneria company
so this is not open to the general
public another reason why we're so
fortunate and privileged to be able to
show this to the public of UK and also
all of our International visitors the
response has been magnificent uh it's
everything that we hoped it would be
people realize that uh we are showing
something that is very special it's all
about Humanity's relationship with space
it's something what transcends
everything that goes on here on Earth
it's it's very very popular so
especially in the current political
climate there is no you managed to
overcome this cold war feeling toward
Russia basically and the Soviet Union
then sovet Union well we've been working
on this for four years flat out and from
the word go both governments have been
extremely enthusiastic we couldn't have
done it without the support that we
received so this was something that we
knew was going to be done it was written
in the stars I
[Music]
suspect
[Music]
well this actually never made it but
it's incredibly striking magnificent
actually for someone of my age this is
what the Space Age looked like this is
what picture this landing on the lunar
surface Maybe Lexi laying off coming
down the steps history could have been
different one giant step he might have
said but in Russia I wouldn't have
understood it at the
time it is uh magnificent so one man
would have been in there uh Why didn't
it go what what happened what went wrong
well they tested it in space and it was
okay but the rocket that would have
launched it to the Moon that had lots of
problems so it was never launched to the
Moon that was the main reason must have
been a crushing disappointment how uh
narrowly ahead were the Russians in the
race at that time well in a way they
were they were not managing to keep up
uh because Apollo had so much money so
the resources were directed and clear
wasn't the case in the Soviet Union so
you had all this amazing technology but
it wasn't all knitted together and
directed in a powerful Direction like
Apollo was so in fact after Gagarin
first man in space after the first woman
in space first dogs in space uh so
around 1962 63 did the Russians start
falling behind the US what they were
emphasizing were more headlines more
first as you've just described meanwhile
Kennedy had said we're going to go to
the moon and the by the end of the
decade by the end of the decade and they
were quietly going about doing that so
gradually they overtook the Soviets
indeed so what's the public reaction I
mean when I came in there I literally
went wow it literally uh hit me in the
face and not many things nowadays do is
that the Normal public reaction
absolutely and I remember the first time
I saw this my reaction was exactly the
same this was secret until glasnost
under mik gorbachov 1989 we knew they
were trying to get to the moon all those
years earlier but we didn't know exactly
how and then suddenly at the end of the
' 80s we we started to see the
technology we know that gagaran returned
safely to Earth as did
Valentina many people will be wondering
what happened to the
dogs well the first dog Leica didn't
return but she never was going to return
but many of the other dogs particularly
those launched uh to trial UA garin's
type of spacecraft they did come back
successfully belker and strelka uh their
successful return from orbit that
signaled the um the goahead for the
gagaran mission because then it was
clear that biological life could ABS go
there and come back that's
[Music]
right only the only a non-scientist like
me would ask the first question that
occurred to me as a kid how do they have
a ah Walk This Way really oh my
goodness this is actually the the full
facilities for the near space station so
that's the um fairly self-explanatory
toilet the solid waste goes into that
container there the urine goes via the
hose into these canisters there's a pump
towards the end which is driven it's
electrical pump should that fail then
you have a hand pump there to make sure
you get everything from there into the
right places the urine is then moved
into another filtration unit recycled
into to drinking water oh wow water W so
it didn't get spread into space it's not
orbiting around no they used to do that
but no longer no longer well I can't
believe you actually asked him that I
mean he's the creator of uh the
exhibition but I'm glad you did because
I thought I was the only one who
wondered that well it could have been
worse I I could have asked him how
Valentina managed for three days in that
giant beach ball in which she was
circling the earth but enough to humor
there's a few laughs here I'm sorry to
say gri took the camera and the famous
red gloves onto the street outside and
ask the people who was the first man in
space in space yeah oh I know it's a as
American I guess uh I don't know the
name in space yeah who will it be yeah I
know who was it who was it the president
in
space no idea oh my God I don't know I
have no idea yeah uh NE Armstrong what
about you the same I think the same the
same answer yeah the first person in
space Oh this is one of those trick
questions no it's not well I I have to
say I'm pretty rubbish with this stuff I
know that Armstrong was one of the first
he's probably not the first oh Buzz alen
was it Buzz alen well I don't know maybe
was it a
Russian I'm guessing you got me spoiled
it for you yes the Russian who is it y
Yuri Garin yeah from Russia yes uh Yuri
Garin was that uh Y no what a striking
difference between the generations in
Consciousness about the space
exploration business one young man who
knows everything there is to know is Anu
oja OB Director of Education and space
Communications at the National Space
Center in Leicester what a job to have
and how lucky are we that he's on board
the Sputnik for Edition number 100 Anu
thanks very much for joining us were you
as struck as me by the fact that all the
older people knew uh who the first man
in space was and none of the younger
people knew sounds like you've still got
a bit of a job to do well first of all
George thank you for inviting me it's a
a real privilege to be here um I mean
I'm I'm not as young you you did me a
great service there you know I remember
I'm part of that generation that
remember remembered the final Landings
on the moon in in in 1972 And although
there is a bit of a generational split
in in terms of maybe understanding the
background of of the Space Age and where
it was born from and what drove it um
the fact remains that across the
generations you know space is a unique
Trope that seizes the imagination you
know what human being has not looked up
at the night sky at some stage and
wondered you know who am I where am I
why am I here and I think what space
Sciences it's done and everything we've
learned and benefited from from space
resonates with everybody so I'm not
surprised to see the footage that you
you you you had with the various
interviews but it also tells us what a
powerful level of Interest we can
solicit if we if we're informing them
more about the background and about the
significance of those those wonderful
years in the 1960s and 1970s that really
were The Crucible of the Space Age
indeed uh a very great man long before
that Oscar wild said we are all of us in
the gutter but some of us are looking up
at the
stars indeed um the
60s cuz I'm even older than you uh was a
truly magical period if you think about
it 59 you have the Sputnik you have
Gagarin you have Valentina all of which
is captured in this wonderful uh
Exhibition at the science museum you
have the Americans their pride slightly
injured President Kennedy God Rest his
soul uh promising that the Americans
will reach the Moon by the end of the
decade and indeed it happened most
people think though that it's kind of
stilled since then has
it certainly in terms of Exploration
with human beings you know the Pinnacle
of what we've achieved as a species were
were those wonderful missions between
1968 and 1972 when 24 human beings
became the only members of humanity to
to reach another world and 12 of them
walked on its surface because that's
what the moon is an alien world on our
doorstep but in terms of what we've done
since then we've had space stations in
space where human beings are living for
months at a time including the
International Space Station we've had
satellites sent into space that have
revolutionized our lives here on Earth
you know I was the last of the
generation that still had to wait for
live media coverage from Special Events
all over the world we now take the fact
that we live in a global village for
granted and it's only been possible by
Earth's ring system of telecommunication
satellites that have enabled the idea of
almost I think what's really important
is by having satellites in space looking
back at Earth we're getting a better
understanding of our Earth its
atmosphere the oceans and the potential
effects of of human activity on the
environment so space science is
ingrained in all of our Lives space
Services you know this data that we're
getting are essential to the way we live
our 21st century way of life and I
suppose part of our major challenge is
to make sure more people are aware of it
and to make sure that we can keep
pushing forwards in our desire to
explore but also our desire to better
understand our home planet hold those
thoughts we'll be right back after
this welcome back to Sputnik orbiting
the world for the 100th time with me
George Galloway and gatri otherwise
known as Mrs Gallow a 100 times we've
orbited the world but we have never done
so more interestingly than the
conversation I'm having now with Anu OA
OB the Director of Education and space
Communications at the National Space
Center in Leicester how's that for a
title how's that for a job there's
nothing this man doesn't know about
space and the rest of us are fascinated
still by it and the uh big question for
me uh suppose it almost crosses the
frontier into a philosophical question
rather than a purely scientific one but
I I know that you feel that this is a
very special Planet indeed my question
is is it unique has there ever been a
planet like us before if so what might
have happened to it and will our planet
always be as it is now what's your take
on that a major Challenge and I I will
try to to really keep my answers focused
in tightly um the more we learn about
other planets in in our own solar system
George the more we realize how special a
place Earth is you know if I was an
alien visitor coming from another solar
system I would see Earth and be
absolutely astonished here is a world
teaming with life you know life on Earth
for billions of years has changed the
geology of our planet it's changed the
atmosphere of our planet it's it's led
to this astonishing diversity that's
ultimately led to to human civilization
here are we unique we
don't the way Earth is now has not
always been the case if we go back in
time 4 billion years we would see that
the planet Mars was much more earthlike
then it was warmer it was wetter it had
a thicker atmosphere it had lakes rivers
it had an ocean covering half of its
hemisphere half of a the planet
absolutely three so you know did life
ever exist on Mars in the past we don't
know but it's one of the major
Challengers that we're trying to to to
Really address because at the moment
although we are looking for life
elsewhere in the universe the only place
where we know with absolute certainty it
has ever started is here on planet Earth
and I I firmly believe that the
discovery o of either evidence of past
life somewhere else or evidence of
current life will completely change not
only the field of science but also
perhaps our own perspectives on on human
society and human culture religion
everything everything would be affected
uh by that as a matter I'm an
undereducated man but it seems to me
that as a matter of logic out of all the
planets in our solar system and all the
solar systems that they there are that
we know there are it just seems
illogical that one tiny little planet
would be the only one in which life had
ever flourished what do you say to that
well we we are looking elsewhere George
and again within our solar system and in
my lifetime we have discovered worlds
where when I was a child if you had have
told me that this is a potential Target
for us looking for life I would have
said no way this is the way that science
has changed our understanding of the
universe in my lifetime so if I take one
of Jupiter's moons Europa it's it's an
it ball about the size of our own moon
but we we're pretty confident now that
underneath this icy outer crust there is
a salty ocean and in that salty ocean we
may have the conditions for Life barely
10 years ago similar circumstances were
found in an even smaller Moon of Saturns
a world called Enceladus that that's
about the size of Wales you know when a
mission called the Cassini Mission it's
a European NASA Mission flew by we saw
these astonishing eruptions of of liquid
water coming from from from out of its
icy crust and so we are looking for life
elsewhere in our own solar system we're
not probably going to find complex
organisms I could be wrong we're looking
for microbial life but when we look
further out you know even in our own
galaxy The Milky Way we see a 100,000
million other stars we've had missions
like the Kepler space telescope that's
discovered thousands of other planets we
call them exoplanets orbiting other
stars again those discoveries hadn't
been made five years ago so if I was to
say Earth is unique um at the moment it
is but I'm confident we are going to
find unique only in our uh understanding
exactly ditto the point you made uh
about uh um conditions for life there
are conditions for Life as We Know It
And we know those conditions and we know
what life looks like uh but of course
there may be other forms of life that
flourish in entirely different uh
conditions but can I run a startat just
past you that you just used I think you
said there are thousands of millions of
planets in our galaxy did you say so
thousands of millions there are 100,000
million stars in our galaxy uh we know
just amongst the local ones well I say
local I mean a few thousand light years
away there are thousands of planets
we've discovered now I talked about the
stars in our galaxy there are a 100,000
million other galaxies in the universe
at least
I've got so many questions I've got so
many question to ask but I just want to
tap on that light the Lightyear that you
mentioned because this makes the whole
exploration even more challenging
because when you say light here the way
I understand it is when we look up at
the stars we are actually looking at the
future because at the past the past see
there you go but it's it's difference
it's difference in time I mean that's
quite a challenge as well I mean I it's
just too much to grasp yeah it's if we
used the numbers in miles or kilometers
we'd run out of zero
if I could get a beam of to the and half
in a so what we do is we use how long it
takes light to travel certain distances
to give us a measure of distance so if I
look at the Moon I'm seeing it as it was
1 and a/4 seconds ago the sun 8 minutes
Pluto 5 hours the next nearest star 4
years so if I compare 8 minutes to four
years I've got the distance to the sun
to the next nearest star and this is
where the concept of the light year
comes in unbelievable as you gaze up at
all of this literally and metaphorically
as you do in your daily life is it your
view that it's all an accident that it
all just happened that all this came
from
nothing to to be honest George I don't
know um what I find incredibly powerful
is that as human beings we can create an
intellectual framework which can try to
model not only what we see but try to
predict what will happen so science
Works in this way you can have a
wonderful Theory but it remains a theory
until you get some evidence that either
dis disproves you or supports your case
um what I find astonishing is when I
look up at the night sky the number of
other stars that are there you know
there's a a fundamental calculation we
can do with with with high school
students that that that show with the
some of the images we have from the
Hubble Space Telescope that there are
more stars in the universe than grains
of sand on all the beaches of planet
Earth now that is mindblowing definitely
so one part of me says when I look out
there surely there must be life then I
ask myself well where did that life come
from there are two ends of the spectrum
there are some chemists who can talk
about the possibility of how through
random and um you know it'll probably
sound like I'm dodging the question but
I honestly don't have enough data to to
go one way or the other but from my
perspective I'm just astonished at at
the diversity that we see in the
universe and I suppose what myself and
and and and other people are trying to
do is is trying to understand why but
also it's significance for us now in the
way we live our lives here on
Earth of course we could discuss for
another day or five uh all of this um
Mars and my right in saying is the is
the next big prize it's the next big
planet that is as like us as we're going
to find and therefore on which life may
have once uh or even now uh be present
in terms of human space flight this is
our long-term goal so in 3 weeks time
and I think it's a wonderful example of
international cooperation we we have a
British astronaut Tim Peak flying for
the European Space Agency he's la
launching with a Russian Commander Yuri
malenchenko uh and a NASA astronaut
Timothy copra launching from Kazakhstan
on a Russian spacecraft to the
International Space Station and they're
going to spend five months in orbit so
why do we do this because if we are to
go further in the solar system if we're
ultimately to go to the planet Mars
we're going to have a journey time away
from Earth not of months but of years
and if we want to learn about how to
keep human beings alive in space for
such a long period of Time how to have
the culture where human beings can deal
with any inflight emergencies that may
arise something like the International
Space Station is absolutely key and and
I'm confident that you know if we look
ahead to the next 20 years you know
right now in primary and secondary
schools around the world there are a
number of students including perhaps in
the United Kingdom who have no idea that
in 2025 years they're going to be part
of an international mission that will be
the first human Mission to Mars and
they'll be taking Humanity's next giant
leaps um what they will find when they
get there who knows perhaps we will
answer ultimately by getting humans on
Mars whether or not the planet ever had
life and whether or not primitive life
still exists below the surface so it's
it's it's a
noble aspiration to go it is harnessing
International cooperation But ultimately
what I think it it's an expression of
the human spirit because when we look
back in in history George you know ever
since humans left Africa 200,000 years
ago we've had this urge to look over the
horizon so I see human space exploration
as the ultimate expression of that drive
that's led to us as a species colonizing
the world Anu you should be on the
television inspiring future Generations
uh to take up this uh issue truly
inspiring and and Brilliant thanks very
much for joining
us well it's been a 100 shows we've had
everybody orbiting the world on Sputnik
with us conservatives labor liberal
Democrats members of the House of Lords
House of Commons obes MBE past
presidents even one serving president
but we asked on the social media who was
your favorite guest what was rattling
gri well we've got lots of response on
that big question of course they have 99
shows so lots and lots of guests David
Thomas says mentions Patrick Coburn very
fair and Le Jasper but your guests on
the whole in my opinion contribute
illumination and learning Ricardo picoso
says never a forgetful episode but
Sheamus Mill is always a good guest the
right-wing media are busily digging up
his appearances on here see if they got
anything they can use against Jeremy
Corbin yeah I know and Joe says David
Norris he was superb and that's all that
we've got time for this week which alas
means that's the end of the 100th show
stay in touch with us for the next 100
shows on Twitter at rtor Sputnik or on
Facebook Sputnik on Russia today it's
goodbye this time for me gri and from me
George Galloway it's really been
marvelous