[Ted in voiceover] October, 1987, 2 PM, space.
Space Shuttle commander Lawrence Yeti performs routine maintenance
on the hull of the Shuttle Enterprise.
Suddenly he feels a cough coming on.
He coughs.
A moment later his feet fall asleep.
The readings on his body-ometer confirm the worst.
Space fever.
Yeti needs to get back into his space craft immediately.
He reaches for the shuttle door, but beforehe can get there, he loses his hearing.
Now disoriented, he goes colorblind.
Then regular blind.
Just meters away, the commander's crew mates, oblivious to his predicament
enjoy a playful afternoon space snack.
Yeti's body temperature plummets.
He vomits. Suddenly he is filled with nostalgia.
- [ singing Happy Birthday ] - Then his ears start ringing
which he cannot hear, because of going deaf earlier.
He vomits again, and now starts the explosive diarrhea.
In the next minute, his entire body will pop.
As the Shuttle Commander drifts helplessly awayfrom the Enterprise we are left to wonder,
will man ever truly conquer space?
The answer...
is fascinating.
[ theme music ]
[Ted] Space, a vast expanse stretching tens ofhundreds of miles in almost every direction,
tantalizing us with it's celestial prowess, and dark impracticality.
The universe is a place filled with overwhelming beauty, and bothersome danger.
[ explosion ]
Throughout history, starry eyed cosmetologists have
gazed into the cosmos in hopes of finding answers tothe fundamental questions of our existence.
For centuries we have struggled with profound questions like,
what is our place in the universe?
What lies beyond space?
Is there life on other planets?
And if so, how do we kill it before it kills us?
Questions like these have led us to so many amazing discoveries.
We now know that most stars are not actually star shaped.
We've learned that Pluto is not actually a planet, but merely a planette.
We know that comet powder can cure herpes.
And we know that the moon is growing, while the earth is dripping.
And most recently, we've discovered that Mars has robots living on it.
But despite our advances, we still only know a fraction of the known universe.
And an even smaller portion of the unknown universe.
When we look to space for answers, she simply responds,
much like a drunken fortune teller, with more questions.
This perhaps more than anything is what makes the cosmos
so mysterious, even today.
But how did it all begin?
Well, it all started thousands of years ago with a big bang,
which we call the Big Boom.
It is believed that in the pre-universe some tiny spark occurred,
either by accident or by God,
or perhaps by God by accident.
This sent millions of tiny stars, planets, and galaxies into the awaiting emptiness of space.
Then these tiny space bodies, most of them no bigger than pebbles or grapes,
slowly began to grow.
And over centuries, they steadily grew feeding offthe nutrients of the space particles around them,
and eventually
matured into the majestic, interstellar giants of today.
But what did this Big Boom sound like?
[ footsteps ]
[ ♪ ♪ ]
If you can imagine a sound 605 billion, trillion,thousand, million times louder than that,
then you would be hearing something that is aboutone quarter the volume of the Big Boom.
And it wasn't just-- [♪ ♪] You know, it was, we believe something more like...
[ ♪ ♪ ]
Think about that.
[Gore] Our quest began long ago when ancient man first noticed space,
initially by accident, then later by purpose when curious elders stayed up
at night in search of the missing sun...
in the dark sky.
They believed stars were oil lamps of gods.
[Ted] The first people to have answers about space
where known as astronomers, from the Greek,
[accented] astro-nomer,
meaning he who nomes astros.
The heavens were first given true critical study by one of the earliest and
brilliantest of these homers. Ptolemy in 170 AD.
Ptolemy, known for the silent "P" at the beginning of his name
believed in a geocentric universe in which earth was at the very center.
Centuries later Rudolf Copernicus hypothesized a heliocentric universe
in which the universe, which contained the earth
revolved around the sun.
Shortly after, DeAndre Kepler theorized that notonly did the sun revolve around the earth,
but there were two suns revolving around the earth,
in what was known as a duo, helio geocentric universe.
Not be out done, Copernicus then argued back that there were actually
thousands of suns, revolving around hundreds of earths,
each of those revolving around it's own sun earth hybrid
in a milli helio geocentric universe.
Enraged, Kepler responded, "Fine. How about there's no space?"
And using the latest mathematical techniques of the time
he proved that there was no space at all.
This led to a period that we now call the Dark Ages.
The church declared there was no space, and doctrine prohibited anyone from
practicing the heretical art of astronomy,
a time still described by astronomers today as...
So, so dark.
[Ted] Now illegal,
the practice of astronomy was relegated to hidden basements and secret clubs.
Those who were caught practicing astronomy during these dark ages
were often accused of practicing witchcraft, or worse spacecraft,
and many of them, like renowned astro-nomer Joan of Arc,
paid for their illegal space studies by being burned at the stake
in the notorious Salem witch trials.
Still, there were those like Albert Galileo
who would not give up on the dream of space travel.
For centuries man had flirted with space,
but now it was time to enter her.
[NASA official] 5-4-3-2-1.
This is where the story gets fascinating.
[Ted in voiceover] Next time on Our Fascinating Planet.
[male 1] Being wrong actually sometimes is a great thing,
and this is the thing we don't discuss a lot, but um,
when you see them land a...
[stammers] a mission to Mars, you see the NASA control room
clapping and applauding.
They clap just as hard when there's a catastrophe,
because we ruled out something.