The Deep Space Network
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian Cox and Robin Ince visit Canberra for the first of 4 special episodes recorded in Australia. This week they visit the amazing Canberra Deep Space Communication Centre where scientists communicate with, and track the 200 or so spacecraft that are currently exploring our vast solar system and even beyond. They are joined by Astrophysicists Mark Cheung and Alan Duffy, Nobel prize winner Brian Schmidt and comedian Alice Fraser as they track legendary space craft like Voyager, still sending back messages from deep in space some 40 plus years after it first launched. They discover how despite these incredible missions we still don't know what 97% of our universe is made of, and how so many of these explorations are vital to our understanding of one very important planet - our own.
Producer: Caroline Steel Executiver Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | I'm Robin Inc. |
| 0:06.1 | And I'm Brian Cox. Welcome to the Infinite Monkey Cage. |
| 0:08.3 | And for the first time ever, we are recording our show in Australia. |
| 0:11.8 | And not only is this the first time ever that we're recording in Australia, |
| 0:14.8 | but this is the first time ever that we are recording somewhere |
| 0:17.6 | that is electromagnetically sheltered, |
| 0:21.1 | which actually does increase the chances that you can't hear this episode |
| 0:25.3 | and that we weren't able to record it. |
| 0:26.9 | So if you're listening to the episode that goes out on Saturdays, |
| 0:30.2 | this will be 43 minutes of silence. |
| 0:32.3 | If you're listening to the repeat, it's only 28 minutes of silence. |
| 0:35.6 | Today we're at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex. |
| 0:38.8 | Managed by CSIRO and NASA's Jet Fullsion Laboratory, |
| 0:42.2 | that we visit earlier in the series, |
| 0:44.0 | CDSC is one of the three sites around the world, |
| 0:47.0 | the others being Madrid and Goldstone in the Mahalvi Desert, |
| 0:49.9 | which provide 24-hour access to our deep space probes. |
| 0:53.4 | We'll be exploring the technology that enables communication |
| 0:56.0 | with spacecraft far beyond the end of discoveries |
| 0:58.6 | that radio signals have enabled. |
| 1:00.4 | The last transmissions of Cassini as it plunged into Saturn, |
... |
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