Rough Science: Series 4 (2004)
3h 0min
- General info
- Available formats
- All series
- Synopsis:
This special promotion "Rough Science 4 Pack" includes the 6 full programmes from the series. The first challenges in this series are heavily focused on the exploration theme. Jonathan's challenge is to make a rover; a remote-controlled vehicle that could explore strange new worlds. For Jonathan's ultimate test, we subject his rover to a NASA style experiment in the desert. Iain and Ellen then have to use their geological and botanical skills to search for water in the desert. Once this is done, Kathy and Mike are going to have to find a way of purifying it to make it safe for drinking, an essential component for any mission into deep space. Watch the team in action pitting their improvisational science skills against these space related challenges. No space mission can succeed without communication, so our second set of Rough Science space challenges are all based around making contact. Jonathan and Kathy have to come up with a way of communicating that doesn't use sound waves because in the vacuum of space, there's nothing for them to move through. They come up with a truly extraordinary way to carry a voice on a sunbeam.Ellen and Mike have no money and just three days to come up with their own version of a zero-gravity pen. Iain has to find a way to communicate with aliens and has to come up with a plaque that would communicate information about the Rough Science team to them. Although everyone thinks of space as very cold, in fact, if you stood on the sunny side of the moon, the temperature would be hot enough to boil the blood in your body. Spacesuits are designed to protect astronauts from these extreme temperatures. The challenge is for the Rough Scientists to collectively design a cooling system for their very own space suit.This programme is all about meteorites and asteroids. Not too far from the Rough Science base on the edge of Death Valley is Meteor Crater. Iain, Kathy and Mike have to work out how big the meteor that caused this huge crater must have been. Jonathan and Ellen have to pick a crater on the moon and measure how big it is. Because they will be doing their measurements at night, Ellen will have to come up with some lights. In this programme, Kathy and Jonathan have to go one better than the Mars Rover in programme one and design an aerial surveyor that can explore much greater areas by floating above land. They have been given a tiny camera which will record whatever the aerial surveyor sees. They make a solar balloon, heated by the power of the sun.Mike has a very different challenge. In 1970 the crew of Apollo XIII faced certain death when an accident damaged their oxygen tanks. To survive they had to build a carbon dioxide filter and Mike has to do the same. Ellen and Iain have to work out the magnitude and where the epicentre of the 1872 Californian earthquake was. The final set of "Rough Science" space challenges are all about rockets. Mike, Jonathan and Kathy have to make three different rockets, using water as fuel. They also have to design their rockets to carry a raw egg as a passenger. Mike takes a chemical approach, using electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases then recombining them to form an explosive mixture. Jonathan, with his physics background builds a steam powered rocket and Kathy, also a physicist decides to use pressurised water.The scientists compete to see who can get to the launch pad first, and whose rocket will be the most effective. Meanwhile Ellen and Iain have to find a way of putting an egg into each rocket and returning them safely back to earth. - Actors:
- Kate Humble, Kathy Sykes, Iain Stewart, Ellen McCallie, Mike Bullivant, Jonathan Hare
- Studio:
- Open University Worldwide
- Genres:
- British TV, TV Documentaries, TV Reality Programming