Solar System
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2015
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Jo Brand, planetary scientist Professor Monica Grady and NASA scientist Dr Carolyn Porco as they discuss some of the most exciting and technically ambitious explorations of our solar system. They'll be looking at the Rosetta mission that has, for the first time, landed a probe on a comet, and the Cassini-Huygens mission which is bringing us extraordinary information about Saturn and its moons, and what these explorations of the far reaches of our solar system might tell us about our own planet.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Robert Enz. |
| 0:01.4 | And I'm Brian Cox. |
| 0:02.4 | And welcome to the podcast version of the Infinite Monkey Cage, |
| 0:05.3 | which contains extra material that wasn't considered good enough for the radio. |
| 0:09.1 | Enjoy it. |
| 0:10.1 | Hello, I'm Brian Cox. |
| 0:11.4 | And I'm Robert Enz, and this is the Infinite Monkey Cage. |
| 0:14.0 | We're going to start with some history today, and these are key historical dates. |
| 0:18.6 | 1987, introduction of nuclear-powered engines, ion and plasma systems. |
| 0:23.4 | 1990 Foundation of the World Community Research Council. |
| 0:26.6 | 1998, WCRC North African Space Research Center's now operational. |
| 0:31.4 | 2004, the first space freighter, colonial one, enters service. |
| 0:36.1 | 2005, Brian, work starts on lunar stations. |
| 0:39.1 | Right, this is true. |
| 0:40.1 | Let me finish. We're not even up to 2014 yet. |
| 0:42.8 | And this goes all the way up to 2006, because it's proper history. |
| 0:45.8 | Robert, this is fiction, isn't it? |
| 0:48.7 | Well, this is the 2015 Martian Queen makes first commercial passenger flight to Mars. |
| 0:54.4 | We might do it! |
| 0:56.9 | This is a proper book, it must be, because it was on that show, Human Universe, whatever that is. |
| 1:02.7 | And this... |
| 1:06.6 | This is Spacecraft, 2000 to 2100 AD, which came out in 1978 with its predictions of where we would be, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.