Original subtitles

These are the voyages of a humble television presenter.

My mission, to explore strange new worlds,

to seek out new life and new civilizations,

to boldly go where no television presenter has gone before.

I wanna see if I can be the first New Zealander into space.

So, what will it take to get me there?

Okay, cut!

In this week's episode,

I build my own rocket-propelled space vehicle

then I get some advice from actual rocket scientists.

It's very quick, George.

What did you expect?

And make an unconventional bid for space

fraught with all kinds of dangers.

Right, so this is it, moment of truth.

I've always been fascinated with how the world works

and I've got lots of questions about why things happen.

To find out the answers, I'm gonna blow stuff up.

The biggest problem when it comes to getting into space

is this stuff.

(plate shatters)

Gravity.

Gravity isn't particularly strong but it is persistent.

And so, escaping the earth's gravitational pull

(plate shatters)

requires quite a bit of effort.

These plates, for instance,

would need to be traveling at about

30,000 kilometers per hour, as fast as the space shuttle.

(plate shatters)

So if I'm gonna make it into space,

I'm gonna need some form of propulsion.

And one popular solution has been the rocket.

All rockets have one thing in common,

their reaction engines.

They employ Newton's third law of motion

that for every action,

there's an equal and opposite reaction.

A motor pushes mass in one direction

and the rocket takes off in the opposite direction.

This is your common garden-variety bottle rocket.

It won't get me into space

but it will let us demonstrate the fundamentals

of rocket science.

The good news is, this is also rocket science

that you can do at home.

My Christmas tree stand is the perfect launching pad

for the rockets I've developed to demonstrate this.

I call them papa bear, momma bear, and baby bear.

All of them powered by air and water.

(Nigel laughs)

The fundamentals of rocket science are all about

Newton's third law of motion.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The increase in air pressure in the bottle builds

until the cork pops, the water blasts out,

and the sudden movement of mass pushes my rocket

in the opposite direction.

In this case, up.

Baby bear was pretty cool, but this is papa bear.

Two 2-liter bottles welded together

in an uncompromising fusion of power and aerodynamic grace.

We're going to require a lot more thrust

which means greater air pressure,

so rather than a hand pump, I'm going to use a compressor.

So we've decided to ditch mamma bear,

'cause who wants to flat about with the middle ground

when you've got this monster?

Basically we're just gonna pump it up

and then I'm gonna stand well back,

'cause we've never shot this rocket off before

and we don't actually know what will happen.

(classical music)

(electronic whirring)

(Nigel laughs)

So, papa bear it turns out, too heavy,

and a bit weak around the middle,

so we'll ditch that and in the spirit of Goldilocks,

we're going back to mamma bear

because this should be the perfect balance of weight,

thrust, and aerodynamic performance.

(soft classical music)

(rocket fizzes)

(motor whirs)

So that's all very well but, "come on Nigel",

I hear ya saying, "haven't you got a real rocket?

One that might actually explode into a ball of flame?".

Well as it turns out, I do.

I've come up with a plan that's not only within budget

but it's also complete genius.

A deck chair.

It's lightweight, it's summery,

which goes with the whole beach vibe and better still,

you can strap a rocket to it.

I ordered several solid fuel rockets off the internet.

The big question I need to answer,

is how much grunt is it going to take to get me into space?

Right, so a few basic features to take note of,

we've gone for foams to give us some

aerodynamic stability when we're up there.

A rocket motor is fixed directly under

the sort of center of gravity to keep her straight up

and going and it will run up this rail and go straight up.

All I have to do is get the gear on,

a bit of safety in the chair, up we go.

Three, two, one.

(rocket take-off sound)

(thud)

Right, so clearly I'm not stupid enough

to actually strap myself into a seat underneath a rocket.

I'm quite glad I didn't.

I'm also quite glad we didn't invest in GPS tracking

of our rocket chair 'cause it's only traveled

about three meters.

I think fundamentally our problem is too much weight.

What I think we should do is strip this down,

a lot less weight, and I think we should go again.

Three, two, one.

(firework fizzle sound)

(Nigel laughs)

Apollo 11's last-ditch escape plan was a rocket chair

but it hasn't worked for me.

That's basically space.

So here we go, this is rocket chair mark three.

Head, bit of driftwood masking tape, genius.

Three, two, one.

It took Glenn Martin decades to develop

his commercial jet pack

but I've managed to knock one out in an afternoon.

With each successful launch,

I was able to gain greater and great distance

but there was no escape in the fact that

my rocket was fundamentally completely crap.

I think it's time to call the experts.

I'm on a mission to be one of the first New Zealanders

to get into space.

And in order to step up my space program,

I've traveled south.

Out here on the coast,

Canterbury University students

have been launching real rockets for years.

In a nutshell, my plan is to steal any ideas I can

and apply them to my space program.

I'm sure they won't mind.

This the Kaitorete Spit launch site.

It's not quite on the same scale as

NASA's complex at Cape Canaveral

but the University of Canterbury has been using this

as their very own space port.

It's got a bunker, and some wires,

and that's good enough for me.

So George, we're at what, T-minus?

Twenty minutes probably. Twenty minutes.

So there's a lot going on.

Walk me through what you got there.

So this is the business end of the rockets in many ways

and this is what contains almost sort

of scientific instruments.

And the very top here,

we've got an explosive charge and a parachute.

So you pop that and this goes flying off,

keeps the parachute out and descends safely.

You make something what I'm sure is

hideously very complicated sound really easy.

It's easy on the day,

it's the three months preparation which kills you.

Alright, should we journ to the bunker

and start-- Yeah, let's do this.

Alright.

Well this rocket is a little bit more high-tech than mine,

it's still utilizes Newton's third law of motion.

It's powered by a reaction engine,

it's subject to the same laws of thrash aerodynamics

but just quietly between you and me,

it hasn't got a seat.

So this is effectively our mission control,

rocket's going out to the launch pad.

This metal device is a rocket launcher.

The body of the rocket is PVC pipe

which means it's reusable.

Attached to the body, a 3-D printed finge to add stability

much like the ones in my dick chair.

Their engine is bigger than me

therefore uses way more fuel.

So I'm predicting a rather spectacular blast off.

You've clearly have done this a bit because like

rocket scientists go really fast.

Yeah, no time to waste sir.

I got a geek expert from Auckland.

Nice of George to acknowledge

my obvious expertise.

We're about T-minus two and a half.

So I'm now gonna skimpier back to the safety of the bunker

and push the button.

Alright, how many seconds is the traditional

for countdown as a team?

Is it five?

Um, about three from here.

Three, threes good for us here.

We don't micro bend.

Alright so flipping the switch.

We switch forward.

Three.

Two.

One.

(intense music)

Holy moly.

That was fantastic.

It's very quick George.

(George laughs)

What did you expect?

I don't know.

At the highest point of the flight, the parachute deploys

and the rocket floats gently to the ground.

Oh there it is, over there.

Oh I guess I'm wondering over there.

Yeah.

Ironically, we have moved the cast with safe distance

which by virtual one direction is exactly

where the rocket came down.

Hear that beeping?

By counting those beeps,

they'll be able to work out how high the rocket got.

So how high we got?

979.

979 meters.

After the beeping is-- okay.

We got to 979 meters, in how many seconds?

12, 12 seconds.

Which is pretty quick.

But my big problem is still what kind of craft

is going to get me into space.

It's gonna have to be lightweight,

practical, fuel efficient, aerodynamically stable,

and have plenty of leg room.

But what kind of a space vehicle would meet those

precise technical requirements and fit within our budget?

Easy, think children's birthday party

and then up scale it a bit.

The rocket scientists from Canterbury University

have convinced me that there still is a way

I can get into space.

Kind of, on our budget.

But it means ditching Newton's principle

for one of our committees' buoyancy.

The plan is simple,

we're going to send a helium balloon into the air,

with a payload of a camera and a cellphone.

The idea is to be made down into you

from as close to space as we can get.

Space is defined as the point

to which the earth's atmosphere ends

and the vacuum of space begins.

Which is about 100 kilometers.

We're not gonna get as high as that but if we're lucky,

we should be able to get into the stratosphere.

As air balloon rises, decreasing air pressures means

it will expand and eventually burst

and plummet back into the earth.

The air balloon is made of latex

so it's a delicate creature.

Rubber gloves are vital

because even the oils from your hands

can weaken the latex and cause it to rupture.

And even a tiny punch in the latex

can create micro tears that slowly leak helium

what turns into large rips.

Unfortunately, we've chosen what feels like

the windiest place on earth to inflate our fragile balloon.

So out comes the high tech pre-launch equipment,

cardboard pedals.

Adding to all the stress,

is the fact we've only got enough helium

to fill one balloon.

(strong wind blows)

The wind is getting much stronger,

much sooner that we expected.

We've probably about maybe 70 percent of the way there.

And I thought just seeing whether

it would go up would be stressful enough.

The bad news is the wind is howling.

The good news is we're nearly there.

But then, a bit of hitch.

The balloons' got tear in it.

Phillip attempts a last stich repair.

Yeah this is like the worst case.

This can never work.

(wind gusts)

The balloon ruptures.

This is terrible.

It's a complete disaster.

At this point, we're unsure what to do next.

So far, my journey to get into space

hasn't been as successful as expected.

From the promising beginnings of my bottle rockets,

to the solid fuel rockets of

the Canterbury University students,

I had high hopes.

But my balloon based space attempt

was defeated by extreme wind.

Now it's time to gather ourselves up and go again.

We're back with the rocket science students

from Canterbury University.

After our last failure,

the decision has been made to shift our launch site

to Guide Hill Station, Lake Tekapo.

It combines wide open spaces with a very helpful farmer

and best of all for today at least,

a decided lack of wind.

So the wind gives us a much better chance today.

Yeah, yeah. Last time was--

An absolute struggle.

Last time was so stressful.

It's still so stressful but yeah.

Over the last three months,

the guys have got a chance to refine the balloon,

and it's payload.

A GoPro camera has been installed to shoot the cellphone.

It's fully operational from the ground

which means while the balloon is going up and then down,

we'll be able to point the GoPro camera

in pretty much any direction we want.

So we can control the GoPro.

We can control the angle of the GoPro.

Yup.

There's also a second low resolution camera

pointing up in the direction of the balloon.

Both cameras can be monitored

and controlled from the ground.

Ten take two, south rolling.

I'm sending a pre-recorded message of me

on the cellphone into space.

The cellphone will be rigged to the balloon,

facing a GoPro camera recording it.

The GoPro will be hooked up to a video transmitter

to be monitored on the ground.

It's vital that we retrieve the GoPro camera

in order to get back the video of me in space.

Conditions up the air are strong.

It's freezing, something like minus 60 degrees

and the winds are incredibly violent.

At some point because of the steadily decrease

in air pressure, the helium inside the balloon

will expand to about 268 meters cubed.

It will rupture and plummet to the earth.

What could possibly go wrong?

Once again, we start the exacting task

of inflating the balloon.

But without the high winds, it's much easier.

Last time, there was about six of us

trying to rangle this balloon

in winds that felt about 100 miles per hour at the time.

Today, we're in lovely Tekapo,

there's no wind, it's a walk in the park.

Our launch is minutes away.

A few final checks.

So far, everything is going according to planned

but I'm still nervous.

These guys have worked so hard,

I really hope it works this time.

Payload.

The payload which includes

our cellphone and the GoPro camera

is attached to the balloon.

We're almost ready to go.

First, Dr. Chris Hand who's overseeing today's space mission

has to get permission from Airways

to launch and control on the space.

Yup, we're all good to go.

We're basically going to launch so yeah.

Any minute, if you give us the okay, we'll go ahead.

This tiny little carabiner

is the last line of defense.

Okay, we're all good to go.

I'm painfully aware of the fact that

I'm the only one holding the balloon

so it's all come down to me not doing anything stupid

in the next one minute and 50 seconds.

We split into two teams,

a launch team and a chase team.

A chase team takes off a payload retrieval.

It's important they get a head start on the launch,

in order to keep up with the balloon.

Their computer monitoring has shown that the payload

could travel for hundreds of kilometers

before it comes down.

It's vital that we retrieve the GoPro

in order to have high resolution pictures of me in space.

We good?

Yeah, whenever you wanna go.

Right so this is it.

Moment of truth.

(calm music)

There it goes.

Finally, I'm on my way into space.

Perhaps not the matter I first intended but still,

space here we come.

Both teams are monitoring the balloon's progress.

The good news is everything is working perfectly.

(radio mutters)

We're two kilometers up and so far, it's all systems go.

Our balloon hasn't popped, we're still live streaming,

and we're still going up.

But this is the easy bit.

From here on upwards, it gets much much colder

and the winds get much more violent.

Fingers crossed.

(intense music)

Suddenly, there's a problem.

We've stopped receiving GPS stata.

Wait.

It should be there.

(Phillip grunts)

And it's not just us,

the chase team is experiencing the same issue.

The only conclusion to draw is that the GPS system is down

which is going to make retrieving

our payload and our pictures very difficult

if not, impossible.

The only chance we have is

getting the GPS coordinates off the screen.

So we need you guys to try as hard as you can

to keep the video contact and so will we.

The good news is that both cameras

are still operational.

The vital amount, there at only contact with the payload.

Although we don't know what's happened,

our pictures show us everything is in tact,

the balloon is still inflated and rising.

We lost GP stata on where we were but it was really high.

Suddenly, the earth begins to spin.

Yeah, it's spinning.

We think the balloon has just burst.

Everyone's stunned, no one knows what happening.

If the parachute doesn't open,

our camera will plummet to the earth and be destroyed,

that means we loose our footage

and any proof that we made it.

When we look up with the camera,

you can see that the balloon has burst.

But the parachute hasn't deployed yet.

The chase team is desperate to resume to contact

with the balloon in order to release the parachute.

Oh we have altitude and position back.

Have you tried to open the parachute?

Oh it's open, the parachute has opened.

Okay, you can switch down back again,

so we can try to find out where it lands.

That's our payload coming down.

It's landed, now we have to find it.

We have nothing.

So we've sort of lost contact with the payload

but according to the last GP position that we had,

my phone says that it's just out there,

just about one and a half kilometers, something like that.

In the best possible traditions of hopeless searches,

we all ran in different directions.

But it seemed to work because there it was,

just sitting there, the payload.

Defying all expectations,

less than a kilometer from the launch site.

Well, after all the dramas,

things actually worked like we wanted them to.

We've found it using the GPS coordinates,

now all I have to do is check the GoPro footage

to see if my little piece to camera from space

has actually been recorded.

Even after all the drama of the chase,

scrolling through the footage to see if I made it

was still nerveracking.

Well, we made it to space, kind of.

Obviously, it would have been much better

to be up here in person but in some ways

it's almost seems more appropriate for the digital age

because no one goes out anymore, we just Skype each other.

So this is me, signing off

from the outer edge of earth's atmosphere

and remember, this is one small step for man,

one giant leap for television presenters

from estate funded broadcaster.

(eerie music)