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				Is It a Bird? Bird-watching inspires a glider that soars almost as well as the real thing.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: We're here to do some bird-watching-- once we spot the bird. MAN: It's hanging underneath the fuselage. It's black-- you'll see it when it gets airborne. ALDA: Oh, I see it, yeah. ALDA: The bird is actually a glider, built by this man, Bob Hoey. Watching with me is Paul MacCready who's been encouraging Bob in his quest to design a glider that can soar as well as a real bird. To MacCready's delight, Bob seems to have done it. MacCREADY: That's a real bird. It really does look real. ALDA: Paul MacCready has been watching birds for most of his 75 years. Much of the next hour will be kept in his company as we explore some of the extraordinary accomplishments of a man whose childhood passion for all things that fly has never left him. ALDA: Paul, why do you do this? What do you learn from this? Well, first of all I think everybody is interested in birds. And when you're four years old and ten years old and 12 years old you like to watch birds, wish you could be up there with them. Look, look how close he is! ALDA: In those boyhood days, the closest Paul could come to being up there with the birds was by building model airplanes. His father encouraged him, but never instructed him. Paul experimented with planes of all kinds setting records and winning prizes. Meanwhile his fascination with birds expanded to include other flying creatures. MacCREADY: Nature has shown the great value of flight. For instance, if you're a mouse crawling around through the woods at night you maybe can cover a quarter of an acre and you're crawling up and down through the muck and swamp and risking your life with snakes and scorpions and so on whereas a mouse with wings, the same size, called a bat can cover maybe 2,000 square miles that same night safely up above all the ground. And it makes flight seem pretty appealing. So it kind of shows us that we humans who are docilely walking around on two-dimensional flat ground all the time might do a lot more going up in the air and get some of those benefits that birds get. ALDA: MacCready himself joined the birds as a young man when he became an avid and highly competitive sailplane pilot. He was U.S. national soaring champion three times and in 1956 he became the first American to win the international soaring championship. Today he's invited us to watch Bob Hoey's bird glider with him because it so perfectly captures the philosophy that has guided MacCready for the last half century. MacCREADY: Humans are part of nature and we can learn an awful lot about our technological flying devices by looking at nature, first as a role model and then as something to show how to solve some of the big problems. ALDA: The problem Bob Hoey set out to solve was how to get his glider to turn. The thing that's different about these ailerons and the normal ailerons is that they... ALDA: Watching real soaring birds, he suspected they somehow employ the feathers on the tips of their wings. We've learned if we put those things down like that we will get a... a little bit of forward thrust out of these feathers, actually. What does that enable the bird to do? It enables him to turn. You see, if we put one of them up and one of them down then it's like an aileron. MacCREADY: When he gets lift on this wing he also gets a little thrust. ALDA: The thrust pushes the wing forward so that the bird can turn as it banks with little or no help from the bird's tail. MacCREADY: This works, and it took nature 200 million years to do it. It took Bob about... two years? HOEY: About a year. One year, yeah. ALDA: Inspiration from nature, insight from theory and lots and lots of experimentation to make something fly that's unlike anything that's ever flown before-- that's the MacCready credo. Oh, and one more thing. That bird looked like it was having fun. ALDA: For Paul MacCready, the fun really began in the mid-1970s. A British businessman, Henry Kremer was offering a large cash prize to the builder of the first successful human-powered airplane and MacCready had just taken on a $100,000 debt for a friend. MacCREADY: I had no interest in human-powered flight but I had heard of the Kremer Prize. I knew it was £50,000, and when I noticed in the newspaper that at that moment, a pound was exactly two dollars suddenly this light glowed: "Why, that's the amount of my debt! How exciting human- powered airplanes are. " And so... and seriously if I hadn't had that debt there wouldn't have been a Gossamer Condor project. And when I give talks, I tell people I strongly recommend they acquire a $100,000 debt to get motivated and they say many of them have. ALDA: The debt may have been the motive but it was MacCready's love of watching birds that put the Kremer Prize within his grasp. He was on a vacation trip with his three young sons. MacCREADY: We began really studying different kinds of birds because it turns out if you time how long it takes to do a circle and you estimate the bank angle you can immediately calculate with a simple formula how fast the bird is flying and the size of the turning radius. And how does that compare with a hang glider? How does that compare with a sailplane? It provided some insight about the scaling laws that suddenly made you realize that the human-powered airplane that I was trying to think about became feasible. And if you just simply take a hang glider and make it three times as big wingspan but keep the weight the same it cuts the power down to one third and that's down to what a human can put out. And suddenly that was the idea for the Gossamer Condor which wouldn't have arisen if these birds hadn't been circling around and us making measurements. Did you know when you started watching the birds and measuring their circles that that was going to lead to a human-powered plane? MacCREADY: No, it was just a fun thing to do to keep the kids quiet on a vacation trip. They kept reciting Monty Python skits state after state till you were going out of your mind. And then you started... "Oh, let's measure birds now! " ALDA: "Large and light" was the lesson from the birds. Paul also realized he could even sacrifice strength for lightness knowing that the plane's low speed and altitude meant that even a crash would be relatively harmless. Then in September 1977, just two years after being inspired by the circling birds Paul MacCready and his Gossamer Condor won the Kremer Prize. His debt was paid off and a new kind of flying was born. Dawn in California's Mojave Desert. Almost 20 years after the Gossamer Condor flew into history

				Taking to the Air What good is half a wing? Penn State scientists study the evolution of insect flight.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: One of the world's great students of insect flight is George Ruppel. Among his favorite subjects: dragonflies. RUPPEL: Here we have caught a large dragonfly one of the best fliers we have. ALDA: And dragonflies not only have powerful wings... RUPPEL: Always it will bite me. Ow! ALDA: We met George Ruppel a few years ago in Germany where this marsh is one of his favorite spots for stalking dragonflies. How do you look for them? Do... do you scan with your eyes or do you... Yes, I scan with my eyes and then I detect little... the blue and black bodies. ALDA: Like most scientists who study flying creatures Ruppel employs slow-motion photography. But George shoots his movies on location rather than in the laboratory. So, what's the idea? Why come out to the pond and shoot? Why don't you take the dragonflies into the laboratory where the conditions are controlled? Yes, controlled but the dragonfly don't behave normally. They only show here in natural conditions their full behavior and even their full flight behavior. And, therefore, we have to go out. Please let... have a look. There is a dragonfly sitting on the stem. I can... I hope I can film it. ALDA: What fascinates George Ruppel about dragonflies is how they use their flying skills in their everyday life. For example, male and female dragonflies often fly in tandem pairs after they mate. The female has to dip her tail into the water to lay the eggs the male has fertilized. By riding shotgun like this the male is keeping his rivals at bay. Here, one of those rivals switches from hovering flight to full forward thrust in an attempt to dislodge the first male from his mate. A third male briefly joins the dogfight and in the confusion, the first male gets dunked. The attacker switches to high-power backward flight as he pulls away with the female. The aerobatics continue as the new male flips the female into a somersault apparently expelling the eggs the first male fertilized. Now the newcomer has a chance for fatherhood. Breaking free of both land and water some 350 million years ago flying insects became the most successful life-form on the planet. Flying insects make up 60% of all living species known to science even if their flying skills sometimes fail them. But how insects came to fly is one of the great mysteries of evolution. Where did wings and all the complex muscles and nerves needed to operate them come from? As the woods and rivers of eastern Pennsylvania began waking up from their winter deep freeze we joined biology professor Jim Marden and his student Melissa Kramer in a hunt for clues to the origins of insect flight. One of these clues lies beneath the water where many insects begin life as swimming larvae like this mayfly. MARDEN: Have you seen him before? KRAMER: No. ALDA: Its gills beat in the water like miniature oars and many biologists now see these flapping gills as the forerunners of flapping wings. But that still leaves the thorny question of just how oars became wings. If evolution proceeds in steps with every step being useful for something what use is something halfway between an oar and a wing? It's a question Jim Marden now believes he may have answered thanks to his love of fly-fishing. MARDEN: Well, in fly-fishing you're tying some feathers and string on a hook in order to imitate an insect. But that's only half the battle because then you have to come out here in the stream and present it to the fish in the right way. And so fly-fishing made me a real student of the behavior of insects on water. ALDA: And it was while watching insects on water-- especially a group of winged but flightless insects called stone flies-- that Jim Marden suddenly saw what good a half wing could be. Stone flies often emerge from their larval form in the middle of a river and they need to get to shore quickly in order to find a mate. Stone flies are drab and uninteresting even to most biologists unless you're planning an experiment to find out if wings evolved first not to fly in the air but to skim across the surface of the water. Okay, let's see if we can get one. ALDA: Back in the lab the Pennsylvania State University biologists found their stone flies to be highly cooperative behaving in front of a high-speed video camera just as they do in the river. Okay. MARDEN: Here she is and we've just dropped her in the water. She's struggling to get free of the surface tension. Here she's raising up and trying to get her tip of her abdomen pulled off the water there. The trick to this surface skimming is, we've found they have to really get up on top of the water. It doesn't work if any of them is touching the water except their tips of their legs. There, now she's ready and off she goes. And she's nice and stable and off screen flapping. You still see her flapping into the shadow. There she goes. ALDA: This use of wings to propel an insect across the surface of water is what Jim Marden believes to be the missing link in the evolution of flight. Most of the experiments to test this hypothesis were run by Melissa Kramer. What I'm doing is videotaping these stone flies surface-skimming from above with a centimeter grid underneath so that I can get their velocity. I can measure the time that it takes them to run a certain distance by getting that off of the videotape. ALDA: With the slow-motion replay Melissa can count the number of video frames it takes for the stone fly to skim a certain distance. The insects average about 1½ feet per second. Then she clips the insect's wings with a pair of nail scissors and measures the speed again. The insects are slower, but not by much. Now here's the critical test. When she clips the wings to mere nubs-- less than a quarter of their original length-- the stone flies can still use them to skim around on the surface of the water. So even a nub of a wing-- a wing much too short to allow flight-- can be useful, and completes an evolutionary pathway along which gills could have become oars; oars, flapping sails; and flapping sails, wings. MARDEN: Well, the Darwinian idea of evolution is a gradual, stepwise process. And so, right from the time that Darwin first proposed his ideas he was attacked on many fronts. One front was how do you get highly complex traits that only work in their full- blown and fully integrated form? "What good is a nub of a wing? " is a direct quote from one of Darwin's contemporaries. So one of the things we're out here doing with these stone flies is showing what nubs of wings really are used for. ALDA:

				Flapping Wings Engineers look to nature's flapping wings to design an indoor flying machine.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: Most of the airplanes Paul MacCready has made in his life owe little to insects. But not all. Is this going to flap its wings? It will flap and fly beautifully unless I bust it while assembling it. How many hours did it take to build this? Well, there's... a friend builds these and he lets me have them because he knows I'm going to show them to kids and to people that think like kids. But I need somebody to wind, let's see, 20 turns. ( crank grinding ) It's flying a little too straight now. ( dog barking in background ) ( Alda laughs ) So you might be able to get that to come back to you? Oh, once it's going right, it goes around in circles that are about... only about eight feet in diameter. You can practically fly it in a phone booth. Do you ever expect that a... that a plane that will be used for something will fly this way, by flapping? Or is this... The passengers in the 747 would really be irritated if the wings went like that. ( laughing ) But it's virtually identical to things that I was making in 1939, 1940 and if I hadn't been doing these things then as a hobby that led to other things there wouldn't have been a Gossamer Condor or the 247-foot airplane. So is it practical as a device? No, it's just fun. But as a catalyst for thinking and hands-on work and developments and invention it turned out to be hugely valuable. The ones I made were just about like this but I also made some smaller ones that had much more power and would make noise like ( imitating engine ) and you release one behind your teenage sister without her knowing-- it just sounds like a bat and it would terrify her and little boys like to do things like that. Well, that sounds useful. Yeah, it has its merits. ( Alda laughing ) ALDA: For Paul, flapping wings may once have been more entertaining than practical. Crank it another three or four, what the heck. ALDA: But as we'll see in a moment there are plenty of missions beyond scaring a teenage sibling that a tiny flapping flier could perhaps one day take on. Now, we'll see if this gets a turn. Okay. Yeah, that's a little more like it. Of course, if a thermal comes that's the last this will ever be seen. Of course, if it lands in the bush it may be the last it's ever seen, too. It doesn't get hurt. ALDA: It's pollinating the flowers! MacCREADY: For some reason or other, kids like this CEOs of billion-dollar corporations like it-- they all want one. And cthe fact that they can't have one makes it more appealing to them. ALDA: One multibillion-dollar organization that wants a tiny flapping flier is the Defense Department. For soldiers fighting in house-to-house combat a robot able to scout ahead and peer into rooms could be a lifesaver. Wheeled or tracked robots are already being developed that can carry cameras and other sensors into dangerous environments. But a small flying robot would be faster, more versatile and harder to defeat. The same defense agency sponsoring the Black Widow we saw earlier is also supporting the development of indoor fliers including one at Georgia Tech. MAN: If you're flying in close quarters you've got to be able to fly slow. If we made this same vehicle with a fixed wing it would have to fly very fast and we'd have difficulty landing and taking off again. Open rotors present a problem, because if you touch anything the rotor will literally explode. But a flapping wing is a very robust device. Most people have seen a beetle or a bird that may have gotten into their home and even though they may bounce off the walls they get up again, shake it off and take off. ALDA: This simple windup model has the twin flapping wings of the machine Rob Michelson ultimately hopes to build. That's the kind of leading edge we should make. Yeah. ALDA: But like others tackling the same problem-- including Professor Yu-Chong Tai at Caltech in Pasadena-- designers of flapping-wing fliers face a difficult problem. Making a windup flapper, as Paul MacCready proved almost 70 years ago, is child's play. But toys like this weigh almost nothing. And even the most miniaturized cameras, sensors and computer controls-- not to mention motors and power supplies-- weigh something even if no more than a key. ( wings clicking ) TAI: So we may run into a dead end. That means more weight, you require more power but in order to have more power, you have to put more weight. And there is an engineering boundary where we can achieve. And that's where we're exploring. ( wings clicking ) You have to design more-efficient wings thNat would generate a lift to carry the weight. ALDA: In their search for more efficient wings the Caltech researchers have linked up with scientists at UCLA hoping to learn the heavy lifting secrets of insects. MAN: This is a cicada wing that I'm about to mount. It's one of our larger insect wings. It's also one of the stiffest wings we have. ALDA: The UCLA researchers have been flapping a variety of insect wings in the wind tunnel. Strobe lighting and smoke reveal the way air flows around the wings. The idea is to see how insect wings generate lift and then try to replicate their key features in the lab. Actually making the wings involves the latest in high-tech manufacturing methods. In the sort of super-clean environment usually used to make microchips the wing design is photographically transferred to a thin sheet of titanium. The pattern is then placed in an acid bath to etch out the wings' metal skeleton. Finally, the skeleton is covered with a thin plastic film. When it came to making the wings fly the Caltech-UCLA engineers turned to the experience of Paul MacCready's AeroVironment team-- specifically to Matt Keennon, the builder of the Black Widow. That looks fabulous. What's the projected weight for these wings after they're cut out? Perhaps about a few hundred milligrams. ALDA: We joined the group one day in 1999 when the insect-inspired wing was undergoing flight tests... Why don't we test-fly this? ALDA: And when it was quickly obvious that insects still know a thing or two that aeronautical engineers don't. Okay, ready? Three... two... one... launch. It's trying. We'd really like to fly at the end of the project about one minute. And it should fly maybe a couple hundred meters away. So that's what we think we can do. But we still have about one and a half years to go. And this is a very exciting project. We see it can fly now. ALDA: Almost but not quite flying is another entry in the flapping wing derby built by a team at SRI International at Palo Alto. They, too, know that somehow they've got to find an extra source of lift. MAN: In order to achieve that extra lift we've employed an aerodynamic effect called "clap-fling" which is used by insects and birds of various sizes. ALDA: In the slow-motion effect produced by a strobe light the wings can be seen folding together and peeling apart. MAN: As they come together... they're twisting. And as they come together quite closely, they actually touch and they squish the air out... down which... which helps in... in lift generation. And then as they come apart, they peel and this effect is called "clap-fling" or "clap-peel. " And when they peel apart, you're creating a vacuum in here which forces the air to suck in between the wings and that is very beneficial. You get on the order of 1. 5 to two times the lift. ALDA: The wings' complex motion may be based on biology but the gears and wheels and rods that produce the motion aren't. In nature, muscles both generate and deliver the power to fly with no need for motors or transmissions. So several teams attempting to make microfliers-- including the SRI team-- are trying to develop artificial muscles. Most work by contracting or expanding when an electric current is applied. These experimental artificial muscles are still too slow and weak to power a working flying machine so these flappers are strictly for demonstration only including a butterfly made entirely from artificial muscle. So far, it hasn't left its perch. Meanwhile, over at Paul MacCready's AeroVironment Matt Keennon has replaced the insect-inspired wings that looked so promising 18 months ago in favor of wings that look uncannily like the ones his boss used to make 65 years ago. KEENNON: Three... two... one... ALDA: It may seem unlikely that the MacCready philosophy of testing and tweaking, testing and tweaking 0÷ will ever produce a machine that can fly like a bird but that's what they said about a plane powered by a person.

				Walkalong Glider A model airplane unlike any other, designed by the son of inventor Paul MacCready.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: He's got it! He's got it! It's on his head! ALDA: We're going to end our visit with Paul MacCready's flying circus by meeting his son Tyler who, with his two brothers, helped build the Gossamer Condor 25 years ago. We could chase it like this for hours. ALDA: When they got bored with their father's project they invented an extraordinary little plane of their own. And I can control it by putting the lift on one side of the wing or on the other. ALDA: They called it their "walkalong glider. " I've never seen anything like that. How old were you when you invented that? Oh... ten, 11, 12, something like that. That's amazing. You've got to teach me how to do it. Let me see if I can do it. So, what you need to do is you need to be moving at a walking speed before you let go of it so that basically... you don't throw it. You just let go of it and it's already flying. Excuse me. The launch is the most difficult part. ALDA: Well, it may be the part right after the launch although Tyler is politely encouraging. paú# You're getting it. j Now, a second challenge is... What you did there was get your hands behind it which actually... it puts the lift near the trailing edge and that makes it dive and makes the glider... Get your hands under it? It's like a balancing act. Do you have to get your hands right under it? To keep your hands in the right area so the lift is lifting the wing. Not back here. This way it keeps the air going up into the wings so I want to get them like that. I see-- I couldn't see that's what you were doing. If they're too far forward it'll stall and slow down. Got it... got it! I had it for a few seconds. That was great! The next challenge is to get it flying in front of your face and you can actually take your hands away. That thing with the head must be very hard to get. Did you see how it jumped as soon as your head got under? When my head got under it, it really picked up. Young kids can pick this up pretty quick because it does involve a bit of balancing in it so you have to learn the skill for it. But you did a fantastic job. I was amazed-- especially getting it up over your head. Well, I got a couple of seconds. It's amazing to see you control it with your head. It's... It almost looks magical. And the most amazing thing is that you figured this out when you were ten years old. I think that's incredible. There's all this brainpower other ten-year-olds must have we're not making use of. Absolutely! All we did... We didn't actually set out to invent something. All we did was keep pushing the limits of what we were capable of doing which is very common with any sort of child game. You were just playing and it looks like your dad keeps playing no matter how old he gets. And pushing the limits of what his toys are capable of. ALDA: "Pushing the limits of what his toys are capable of"-- that's what Paul MacCready has been doing with his toys for over 65 years now. And not just pushing the limits-- often going far beyond the limits of conventional airplane design. Lighter... bigger... slower... higher... smaller... quieter... all the time inspired by his boyhood dream of flying with the birds-- a dream that, even at the age of 75, is still very much alive. MacCREADY: I want to make a slow, silent airplane that I can fly around in and look at scenery and have a good time that's as quiet as my car inside and out. And having them fly with birds would be a delight. ALDA: It was in the still air of another early California morning that I came to say good-bye. What are you working on? Well, "playing with" maybe is more of the right word though some of these silly things eventually result in something fairly important. ALDA: And on this morning, what Paul happened to be playing with was a model of the very plane in which someday he hopes to fly with the birds. Come visit us at PBS Online. Scientific American Frontiers can be fnd on the World Wide Web at pbs.

take a look at these related stories from the Frontiers Archive:

				How Do Bees Fly? Biologists build models of moths and subject fruit flies to virtual reality to determine the physics behind insect flight.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: ( bee buzzing ) ISN'T THAT GREAT? WHAT THAT REALLY PROVES, I GUESS IS THAT BEES ARE SMARTER THAN ENGINEERS. BUT IT ALSO LEAVES US WITH ANOTHER OF LIFE'S LITTLE QUESTIONS: HOW DO BEES FLY? THESE PARTICULAR BUMBLEBEES ARE COLLECTING POLLEN IN THE GARDEN OF DOWNING COLLEGE AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY IN ENGLAND. AND CHARLIE ELLINGTON-- A BIOLOGIST RATHER THAN AN ENGINEER-- ALSO ONCE CONFIRMED THEY'RE DOING WHAT'S APPARENTLY IMPOSSIBLE. PORING OVER SLOW-MOTION FILM OF FLYING BUMBLEBEES CHARLIE SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS MEASURING THE EXACT POSITIONS OF THE WINGS AT EVERY BEAT. THE MOST MIND-BOGGLINGLY TEDIOUS THING YOU CAN EVER DO IN YOUR LIFE IS ANALYZE THESE FILMS FRAME BY FRAME. AND WHAT WE WOULD FIND IS TYPICALLY THE BUMBLEBEE WOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO GET OFF THE GROUND, OR IF IT WAS UP IN THE AIR IT WOULD FALL DOWN TO THE GROUND. THEIR WINGS ARE TOO SMALL AND THEY BEAT TOO SLOWLY FOR ENOUGH LIFT TO BE GENERATED CONVENTIONALLY TO KEEP THEM UP IN THE AIR. Alda: AND BUMBLEBEES, IT TURNS OUT, AREN'T ALONE IN DEFYING THE CONVENTIONAL LAWS OF FLIGHT. MOST OTHER INSECTS DO, TOO, FLYING ALONG HAPPILY ON WINGS THAT JUST SHOULDN'T BE UP TO THE JOB. BUT FINDING WHERE THE MISSING LIFT IS COMING FROM WAS IMPOSSIBLE WITH INSECTS AS SMALL AS BEES. SO WE HAD TO CHANGE OVER TO A BIGGER INSECT THAT FLAPS ITS WINGS MORE SLOWLY AND IN FACT WE CHOSE THIS ONE FOR THAT. IT'S A BIG HAWKMOTH, MANDUCA SEXTA. IT HAS A WINGSPAN ABOUT TEN CENTIMETERS. IT BEATS ITS WINGS ABOUT 25 TIMES A SECOND. IT MAKES THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK SO MUCH EASIER. YOU CAN SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND THE WINGS. AND WHAT WE SAW WAS THAT THE AIRFLOW CAME UP AND AS IT HIT THE LEADING EDGE OF THE WING IT SPIRALED AND SWIRLED OFF OF IT JUST LIKE A WHIRLWIND OR A TORNADO. IT'S A LOW-PRESSURE REGION AND THINGS GET SUCKED INTO LOW PRESSURE. IN EFFECT, IT'S SUCKING THE WING UP LIKE THAT AND THIS IS PRODUCING TWO OR THREE TIMES MORE LIFT ON THE WING. Alda: IT TURNS OUT THAT THIS SWIRL OF AIR LIFTING THE WING IS SOMETHING AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERS KNOW ONLY TOO WELL. IN AIRPLANES IT CAUSES SOMETHING CALLED "DELAYED STALL. " THIS IS DELAYED STALL OVER THE MAIN WING OF THE PLANE LIKE THAT. AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT'S HAPPENING OVER THE INSECT WINGS WHERE YOU'RE GETTING A FLOW SWIRLING AROUND THE LEADING EDGE GENERATING LOTS OF LIFT. BUT ON A WING LIKE THIS, THAT LIFT BUILDS UP AND BREAKS AWAY AND THEN IT DROPS OUT OF THE AIR BECAUSE THERE'S NO LIFT ANYMORE. Alda: SO FOR A HUMAN-ENGINEERED WING THIS EXTRA LIFT IS STRICTLY TEMPORARY AND CAN BE DANGEROUS. BUT FOR AN INSECT... THE TRICK THAT THE INSECT HAS IS THIS LARGE LIFT IT HAS BRIEFLY, THE INSECT CAN PROLONG. Alda: FINDING OUT HOW AN INSECT KEEPS THE EXTRA LIFT MEANT TAKING ANOTHER LEAP IN SCALE. Ellington: THIS IS THE FLAPPER. IT'S OUR BIG MECHANICAL MODEL OF AN INSECT BASED ON THE HAWKMOTH. IT'S GOT A ONE-METER WINGSPAN INSTEAD OF JUST TEN CENTIMETERS; FLAPS ITS WINGS ONCE EVERY THREE SECONDS INSTEAD OF 25, 30 TIMES A SECOND. Alda: EXQUISITELY ENGINEERED THE FLAPPER'S COMPUTER- CONTROLLED MOTORS AND GEARS NOT ONLY FLAP EACH WING, BUT BEND AND FLEX IT. Ellington: THE WING IS THEN DESIGNED SO THAT WHEN TWISTED AT THE BASE AND TIP IT CHANGES SHAPE IN BETWEEN IN THE SAME WAY THAT THE REAL INSECT DOES. Alda: USING SMOKE TO SEE THE AIRFLOW CHARLIE CONFIRMED THE MINIATURE TORNADO AROUND THE WING. BUT THE SMOKE ALSO REVEALED SOMETHING ELSE-- THE FACT THAT THE TORNADO IS SUCKED ALONG THE WING FROM BASE TO TIP. BECAUSE IT MOVES OUT TO THE TIP IT DOESN'T GROW SO LARGE HERE THAT IT BREAKS AWAY AND THE WING STALLS. INSTEAD IT GETS SUCKED OUT AND KEPT UNDER CONTROL THAT WAY. Alda: SO THE SWIRL OF AIR STAYS STUCK TO THE WING ALONG WITH THE EXTRA LIFT IT PROVIDES. Ellington: SO THE SMOKE GIVES US A QUALITATIVE PICTURE OF WHAT'S HAPPENING. YOU CAN SEE BROADLY WHERE THE AIR IS FLOWING. BUT WHAT WE NEED TO DO NOW IS MEASURE IT SO WE CAN STUDY IT MORE EXACTLY. ONE WAY TO DO THAT IS TO HAVE LITTLE PARTICLES FLOATING AROUND IN THE AIR THAT YOU CAN TRACK. AND THAT'S WHAT THESE ARE-- LITTLE SOAP BUBBLES FILLED WITH HELIUM TO MAKE THEM NEUTRALLY BUOYANT AND ALSO FILLED WITH SMOKE TO MAKE THEM WHITE OR AT LEAST GRAY. Alda: AND SO NOW, WITH 19th-CENTURY BOOKS ON INSECTS LINING THE WALLS OF ITS HOME THE FLAPPER UNTIRINGLY BEATS ITS WINGS AMID A GENTLE BLIZZARD OF BUBBLES. BECAUSE THE PATH OF EACH BUBBLE CAN BE TRACKED IN THREE DIMENSIONS CHARLIE ELLINGTON HOPES THAT THEY'LL REVEAL EXACTLY HOW MUCH EXTRA LIFT THE SPIRAL OF AIR PROVIDES AND SO FINALLY ALLOW INSECTS TO FLY... OFFICIALLY. ( insect buzzing ) ALSO FLAPPING ITS WINGS FOR SCIENCE IS A REAL INSECT, A FRUIT FLY HOUSED IN THE LABORATORY OF MICHAEL DICKINSON-- A CONFESSED FLY FANATIC. Dickinson: I THINK FLIES CAN PERFORM CERTAIN MANEUVERS THAT ARE JUST SIMPLY UNSURPASSED AND WE TAKE THESE FOR GRANTED BECAUSE THEY'RE SO COMMON. BUT CONSIDER A FLY LANDING ON A CEILING OR A HOVER FLY HOVERING WITH PINPOINT ACCURACY OVER A DAISY. THESE ARE EXTRAORDINARY FEATS OF LOCOMOTION. Alda: TO FIND OUT HOW FLIES PERFORM THEIR EXTRAORDINARY FEATS MICHAEL STARTS BY CHILLING FRUIT FLIES TO ANESTHETIZE THEM THEN TUCKS THEM INTO A LITTLE CHAMBER UNDER HIS MICROSCOPE. I'M GOING TO APPLY A LITTLE GENTLE SUCTION TO HOLD HIM DOWN. THE NEXT STEP IS TO PUT A LITTLE TINY DROP OF THIS LIGHT-ACTIVATED GLUE JUST BEHIND THE HEAD. AND THE SECRET IS TO PUT JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT. Alda: THE GLUE, ACTIVATED BY U. V. LIGHT WAS DEVELOPED FOR DENTISTS BUT WORKS VERY NICELY ON FRUIT FLIES. SO THERE YOU HAVE A FLY ON A STICK. Alda: STICK AND FLY ARE SLID INTO A LITTLE VIDEO THEATER DESIGNED WITH A FLY'S VIEW OF THE WORLD IN MIND. ( fly buzzing ) Dickinson: I'VE JUST ALIGNED THE FLY SO THAT WE CAN PICK UP ITS WINGBEATS WITH A PHOTOSENSOR AND NOW I'M STARTING TO ENGAGE THE FEEDBACK SO IT CAN FLY ITSELF THROUGH A LITTLE VIRTUAL WORLD, IF YOU WILL. Alda: THE FLY'S WINGS CAN'T MOVE THEIR OWNER BUT THEY DO CONTROL THE MOVEMENT OF THE VERTICAL STRIPE. WHEN THE FLY BANKS LEFT THE STRIPE MOVES TO THE RIGHT, AND VICE VERSA. THE V-SHAPED CHEVRONS ARE UNDER MICHAEL'S CONTROL. THE CHEVRONS ARE NOW MOVING DOWN AND SO THE FLY THINKS THAT IT'S MOVING UPWARDS. SO NOW THE CHEVRONS ARE MOVING UP AND THE FLY THINKS IT'S MOVING DOWN. Alda: YOU CAN HEAR THE FLY'S WINGBEAT CHANGE AS IT TRIES TO DIVE OR CLIMB IN RESPONSE TO THINKING IT'S RISING OR FALLING. ( buzzing's pitch varies ) RIGHT NOW THE FLY THINKS IT'S COMING IN FOR A LANDING AS IT'S OFFERED A TINY SQUARE OF PAPER SOAKED IN SUGAR WATER-- AN IN-FLIGHT REFUELING STOP. MICHAEL DICKINSON RUNS THIS FRUIT FLY TEST-PILOT PROGRAM TO DISCOVER HOW THEY RESPOND ALMOST INSTANTLY TO CHANGES IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT... NOT JUST WHAT THEY SEE, BUT WHAT THEY FEEL. HERE THE FLY IS BEING THROWN AROUND AS IT TRIES TO STEER FOR THE STRIPE AND AGAIN YOU CAN HEAR THE WINGBEAT CHANGE AS IT TRIES TO KEEP FLYING STRAIGHT AND LEVEL. ( buzzing's pitch varies ) THE FLY'S EXTRAORDINARY SKILLS DEPEND CRUCIALLY ON WHAT MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO WAS ANOTHER PAIR OF WINGS. CALLED HALTERES, THESE DUMBBELL-LIKE STRUCTURES HAVE EVOLVED FROM REAR WINGS INTO GYROSCOPES ABLE TO SENSE WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE FLY IN THE AIR AND PROVIDING ALMOST INSTANT FEEDBACK TO THE FRONT WINGS SO THEY CAN IMMEDIATELY RESPOND. STUDYING THIS FLIGHT-CONTROL SYSTEM IN DETAIL TAKES A BIGGER FLY, AND THIS BLOWFLY TAKES ITS TEST FLIGHTS RIGGED WITH MINUTE ELECTRODES IN ITS MUSCLES. IT'S ALSO GIVEN A METRONOME TO FLY TOWARD AND A FLOW OF AIR TO FLY THROUGH. THEY DON'T LIKE TO BE TETHERED, AND IT'S A PROBLEM TO GET THE ANIMALS TO FEEL LIKE THEY'RE FLYING. ALL THIS COMPLICATED MACHINERY IS TO TRY TO GET THE ANIMAL TO FEEL LIKE IT'S FREE. ( buzzlike ticking ) Alda: WHAT YOU HEAR NOW ARE THE BLOWFLY'S FLIGHT-CONTROL MUSCLES RESPONDING AS IT TRIES TO STEER TOWARD THE METRONOME AIDED BY ITS HALTERES, WHICH ARE VISIBLE IN SLOW-MOTION VIDEO. THE LAB IS NOW FOCUSING ON HOW THESE GYROSCOPES WORK ENABLING THE FLY TO RESPOND TO HAZARDS LIKE A FLYSWATTER IN MUCH LESS THAN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. I OFTEN GO WITH MEMBERS OF THE LAB TO SEE SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES, ESPECIALLY ABOUT SPACE ALIENS THAT ARE EXTRAORDINARY CREATURES FABRICATED IN HOLLYWOOD. BUT I THINK ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GO POKE IN A GARBAGE CAN AND YOU'RE GOING TO SEE ANIMALS THAT ARE SO MUCH MORE EXTRAORDINARY AND FANTASTIC THAN YOU'RE EVER GOING TO SEE IN A STEVEN SPIELBERG FILM AND I WOULD RANK FLIES BEING RIGHT UP THERE. ( buzzlike ticking ) Alda: BUT FOR THIS FLY, IT'S TIME FOR A REST. WHEN IT'S READY TO LAND, I GIVE IT BACK ITS WORLD. HOME SWEET HOME. Alda: MOST TRAFFIC JAMS COME AS NO SURPRISE. YOU'VE GOT SOME SLOWDOWNS ON ROUTE 24 AND DOWN HERE RIGHT BELOW US ON ROUTE 95... Alda:

				Bird Man A biologist uses a wind tunnel and a special obstacle course to reveal the complexities of bird flight.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: ONLY WHEN WE SWAPPED FLAPPING WINGS FOR FIXED ONES-- AND NOT ALWAYS THEN-- DID WE FINALLY GET OFF THE GROUND. IN THE ALMOST 100 YEARS SINCE THOSE EARLIEST FLYING MACHINES PLANES HAVEN'T CHANGED MUCH IN THEIR BASIC DESIGN. STEVENSVILLE AREA TRAFFIC, SKYLANE 737 LIMA-NOVEMBER. Alda: FIXED WINGS POWERFUL ENGINES, WHEELS-- ALL VERY UNBIRDLIKE. BUT PILOT AND BIOLOGIST KEN DIAL CONTINUES TO LOOK TO BIRDS FOR INSPIRATION. Dial: WHAT TURNS ME ON ABOUT FLIGHT IS THAT I GET TO PRETEND TO BE A BIRD, AT LEAST ONCE IN A WHILE. BUT I REALIZE THAT I DO IT IN A VERY STILTED FASHION-- NOTHING AS BEAUTIFUL AND AS ELABORATE AS A BIRD CAN FLY. Dial: OKAY, FILM ON. Alda: TO UNDERSTAND BETTER HOW A BIRD CAN FLY KEN WATCHES THEM CLOSELY WHILE THEY DO IT HERE IN A WIND TUNNEL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA. THIS IS A MAGPIE FLYING AT CRUISING SPEED ABOUT 12 MILES PER HOUR. A MUSCLE SENSOR REVEALS HOW MUCH ENERGY THE BIRD IS USING. Dial: OKAY, LET'S GIVE IT A LITTLE MORE SPEED. Alda: WHEN THE WIND SPEED IS CRANKED UP THE MAGPIE FLIES FASTER BUT ACCORDING TO THE MUSCLE SENSOR WITH VERY LITTLE EXTRA EFFORT. EVEN APPROACHING 30 MILES AN HOUR, ITS MAXIMUM SPEED THE MAGPIE USES ENERGY WITH GREAT EFFICIENCY. THE BIRD'S SECRET IS THAT IT'S ABLE TO ADAPT ITS WHOLE BODY TO THE FASTER FLIGHT. Dial: WHEN THE BIRD IS FLYING VERY QUICKLY THE TAIL WILL BOTH... PRETTY MUCH TAKE THE FORM OF THE BODY WHICH WILL REDUCE DRAG. WHEN IT WANTS TO MAINTAIN A HIGH SPEED IT'LL BECOME HORIZONTAL WITH THE AIRFLOW. ITS FEET WILL GO AND RETRACT-- BEAUTIFUL RETRACTABLE GEARS UNDERNEATH THE FEATHERS. YOU'LL SEE THAT IT OPENS ITS MOUTH WHEN IT FLIES FASTER. WE BELIEVE THAT IT'S ACTUALLY RAMMING AIR DOWN INTO THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM AND BLOWING UP LIKE A BALLOON. Alda: WHILE BIRDS CAN FLY FAST VERY EFFICIENTLY... LET'S SLOW IT DOWN. Alda: SLOW FLIGHT IS MUCH HARDER WORK, AS THE MUSCLE SENSOR SHOWS. BUT HERE AGAIN, THE BIRD ADJUSTS ITS WHOLE BODY FLARING ITS TAIL FOR EXTRA LIFT DROPPING ITS FEET AND STEEPENING ITS BODY ANGLE TO INCREASE DRAG. AIRPLANE DESIGNERS HAVE ADOPTED A FEW BIRD TRICKS-- FLAPS FOR EXTRA LIFT ON TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS; A RETRACTABLE LANDING GEAR. BUT BY COMPARISON WITH A BIRD'S ABILITY TO USE ITS WHOLE BODY PILOTS HAVE ONLY A FEW MOVING SURFACES TO WORK WITH LIKE AILERONS FOR TURNING. TO STUDY HOW BIRDS TURN KEN DIAL'S STUDENTS ARE SETTING UP A SLALOM COURSE FOR PIGEONS IN A CORRIDOR OF THEIR UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA LABORATORY. OKAY, LOOKS GOOD. WE'RE READY when you are. COMPUTER IS READY. ONE, TWO, THREE! Alda: THE PIGEONS FIRST HAVE TO LEARN THE COURSE. Dial: HIP, HIP FOR THE BIRD! Alda: A COUPLE OF PRACTICE FLIGHTS AND THEY SKILLFULLY WEAVE BETWEEN THE BARRIERS. ONCE AGAIN, THE BIRDS ARE EQUIPPED WITH SENSORS TO SEE HOW THEIR MUSCLES PERFORM AND THEIR FLIGHT IS RECORDED ON SLOW-MOTION VIDEO. Dial: HERE'S THE PIGEON AND IN ONE WINGBEAT, GOES FROM STRAIGHT AND LEVEL TO ABOUT A 120-DEGREE BANK... IN ONE WINGBEAT, WHICH HAPPENS IN ABOUT 100, 120 MILLISECONDS-- TENTH OF A SECOND. IN THE NEXT WINGBEAT, IT RIGHTS HIMSELF. NOW, THAT'S PRETTY... PRETTY IMPRESSIVE FOR A BIRD AS BIG AS A PIGEON TO BE ABLE TO TURN THAT FAST AND RECOVER IN TWO WINGBEATS. Alda: THE INFORMATION HE GETS FROM THE VIDEO AND THE MUSCLE SENSORS INSPIRES KEN TO DON A PAIR OF WINGS HIMSELF. IF A BIRD IS GOING TO MAKE A LEFT TURN IT'S GOING TO SUPINATE, OR INCREASE ITS ANGLE OF ATTACK ON THE OUTSIDE WING AND IT'S GOING TO PRONATE, OR DECREASE THE ANGLE OF ATTACK ON ITS INSIDE WING. AND IT WOULD BE ABLE TO THEN DEVELOP THE PROPER ANGULAR MOMENTUM TO MAKE THIS TURN. WHAT COMPLICATES THIS, UNFORTUNATELY IS THAT IT BEGINS ALL OF THESE TWISTING ACTIONS OF THE ENTIRE WING TO MAKE THIS TURN WHEN THE WINGS ARE FULLY ADDUCTED UP ABOVE THE BIRD'S BACK. AND SO THAT NOW I'M GOING TO MAKE MY RIGHT TURN I'M GOING TO ACTUALLY DECREASE THE ANGLE OF ATTACK ON THIS WING INCREASE THE ANGLE OF ATTACK ON THIS WING AND GO THROUGH MY WINGBEAT TO MAKE MY RIGHT TURN. Alda: RECENTLY, KEN DIAL HAS BEGUN LITERALLY PEERING INSIDE HIS BIRDS AS THEY FLY. WHAT'S INTERESTING ABOUT THIS TAPE IS FIRST OF ALL, YOU'RE LOOKING AT X-RAY. YOU'RE LOOKING THROUGH THE FEATHERS, THE SKIN AND SEEING SOME OF THE OUTLINES OF THE MUSCLES WITH THE RETRACTABLE GEAR OF HIS LEGS REALLY HIDDEN BY FEATHERS AND THEN ITS NECK, WHICH IS ENTIRELY HIDDEN BY FEATHERS AND SKIN. WE THINK IT'S A FABULOUS AREA OF RESEARCH TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND THIS INDEPENDENT SUSPENSION SYSTEM THAT BIRDS HAVE. NOW, WATCH THE HEAD. WATCH HOW IT CAN SIT PRETTY MUCH STILL IN SPACE AS THE BODY OSCILLATES UP AND DOWN PROVIDING THE LIFT AND PROPULSION THAT THIS LOCOMOTOR MACHINERY HAS TO WHILE THE COCKPIT HAS TO KEEP, LITERALLY AN EYE ON WHERE IT'S GOING AND WHAT ITS INTENTIONS ARE. THERE'S A VIEW OF THREE... Alda: KEN'S RESEARCH IS NOW MOVING INTO A THIRD DIMENSION. PIGEONS EQUIPPED WITH TAPE THAT REFLECTS INFRARED LIGHT FLY IN FRONT OF AN ARRAY OF INFRARED CAMERAS. THE SIMPLIFIED, COMPUTER-GENERATED 3-D IMAGES OF THE FLIGHT ALONG WITH THE X-RAY IMAGES OF FLYING BIRDS WILL GIVE AN UNPRECEDENTED INSIGHT INTO HOW BIRDS ACHIEVE SUCH MASTERY OF THE AIR. ONCE WE PUT THE FEATHERS ON THIS IT'LL MOVE RIGHT OFF THE SCREEN. Alda: KEN DIAL'S RESEARCH INTO BIRD FLIGHT LEADS HIM RIGHT BACK TO WHAT SEPARATES BIRDS FROM AIRPLANES. WHEN PLANE DESIGNERS LONG AGO ABANDONED BIRDS AS PRACTICAL MODELS FOR HUMAN FLIGHT THEY DID SO BECAUSE OF ONE HUGE ADVANTAGE RIGID PLANES HAVE OVER FLEXIBLE BIRDS: STABILITY. WE'RE REALLY IN A VERY STABLE AIRPLANE RIGHT NOW. THAT IS, I CAN PULL THE POWER I COULD LET MY HANDS OFF OF THE CONTROLS AND WE WON'T GO SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL. SO HERE GOES THE POWER HERE GO MY HANDS AND WE'RE NOT SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL. WE'RE ABOUT A MILE ABOVE THE GROUND SO I HAVE TIME TO RECOVER, IF I WANT TO. THE POWER IS EFFECTIVELY OFF RIGHT NOW. I'LL PULL IT A LITTLE, EVEN MORE AND I'M NOT TOUCHING THE PLANE. NOW, A BIRD, IF HE DECIDED TO JUST SHUT THE COMPUTER OFF-- THAT IS, THE CONTROLS AND THE THRUST-- IT WOULD TUMBLE AND FALL, AND CRASH AND BURN MUCH LIKE WHEN A HUNTER SHOOTS A BIRD, HITS IT SQUARELY THE COMPUTER IS OUT, AND SO ARE ALL THE FLIGHT SURFACES. BUT NOW I CAN GO AND TAKE CONTROL OF THE PLANE PUT IN SOME POWER CLIMB BACK UP TO ALTITUDE AND YOU CAN SEE THAT WE DIDN'T GO THROUGH ANY GREAT DISCOMFORT OR ANY UNCONTROLLED FLIGHT. Alda: FOR MOST OF AVIATION'S HISTORY THE UNBIRDLIKE BUT STABLE AIRPLANE HAS BEEN THE ONLY WAY TO FLY. BUT TODAY'S NEWEST PLANES ARE VERY DIFFERENT. THE X-29 EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT, FOR INSTANCE, IS SO UNSTABLE THAT IT SIMPLY CANNOT BE FLOWN WITHOUT A COMPUTER. BUT JUST LIKE A BIRD IT'S EXTRAORDINARILY AGILE IN THE AIR. Dial: NOW WE'RE MOVING INTO THIS NEW ARENA WITH FANTASTIC COMPUTERS WITH SENSORY RECEPTORS; WITH AIRCRAFT THAT ARE BEING BUILT INHERENTLY UNSTABLE BUT WITH COMPUTERS TO KEEP THEM UPRIGHT. WELL, THAT'S WHAT A BIRD DOES BUT IT'S GOT A HUNDRED MILLION... 150 MILLION YEARS' HEAD START ON THEM. AND I STILL THINK WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT TO LEARN FROM OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. Alda: IT'S TAKEN ALMOST A CENTURY AND OUR MOST SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGY BUT AT LAST WE'RE LEARNING HOW TO FLY LIKE THE BIRDS. Alda: DAWN, IN ATLANTA AND COMPETITORS-- MANY EXHAUSTED FROM WORKING ALL NIGHT-- ARE GATHERING AT GEORGIA TECH FOR A CONTEST THAT HAS NEVER BEEN WON.

				Roboflyers Students compete to build a flying machine capable of autonomous flight.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: IT'S A CONTEST BETWEEN FLYING ROBOTS. HERE'S THE TASK. WITH NO ONE AT THE CONTROLS, EACH ROBOT MUST TAKE OFF FROM ONE CORNER OF A 60- x 120-FOOT FIELD THEN FIND AND FLY TO A RING CONTAINING SIX METAL DISKS. STILL WITHOUT HUMAN CONTROL IT MUST PICK UP THE DISKS, ONE AT A TIME AND CARRY THEM OVER A THREE-FOOT BARRIER TO A SECOND RING, WHERE THE DISKS ARE DEPOSITED. IN FIVE YEARS OF COMPETITION NO ROBOT HAS EVEN COME CLOSE TO COMPLETING THE MISSION. FIRST ON THE FIELD THIS YEAR IS A BLIMP FROM THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, GERMANY. Alda: HAVE YOU TRIED THIS OUT ON A FIELD BACK HOME? YEAH, BUT INSIDE. YEAH, IT'S WORKING VERY WELL INSIDE. WE STILL HAVE SOME PROBLEMS WITH THE WIND. Alda: LIKE ALL THE ROBOTS HERE, ONCE IT STARTS, IT'S ON ITS OWN. OKAY, NOW WE ARE AUTONOMOUS. WE ARE AUTONOMOUS. Alda: AND AT ONCE THE BERLIN BLIMP DEMONSTRATES WHY THE CONTEST IS SO DIFFICULT-- ESPECIALLY FOR BLIMPS. ITS SIX BATTERY-POWERED PROPELLERS TRY HARD TO STEER IT TOWARD THE RING BUT THE GENTLE DAWN BREEZE WAFTS IT AWAY. Alda: HAS IT LOST CONTROL-- DO YOU THINK IT'S...? NO, NOT COMPLETELY. Alda: AS MARION DASHED OFF TO HELP RESCUE HER BALLOON I SOUGHT OUT THE CONTEST ORGANIZER, ROB MICHELSON. Alda: WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED THERE? THEY HAD THE PROPS GOING AS HARD AS THEY COULD DOWN, AND THEY CAUGHT IT BEFORE IT HIT THE POWER LINES. BUT THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH A BLIMP. Alda: TAKING A RADICALLY DIFFERENT TACK IS THE NEXT ROBOT. THIS IS THE FIFTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON HAS ENTERED WHAT AMOUNTS TO A FLYING PROPELLER. JUST FROM YOUR PREVIOUS YEARS' EXPERIENCE WHAT'S IT LIKE ONCE YOU THROW THE SWITCH AND THE THING STARTS TO GO ON ITS OWN? ALL THE WORK YOU PUT INTO IT MATTERS BUT YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING AT THAT POINT. THIS YEAR, DIFFERENT FROM THE PREVIOUS YEARS I'M REALLY, REALLY NERVOUS BECAUSE THIS IS THE CLOSEST WE'VE EVER BEEN. ( loud buzzing ) Alda: THE FIRST YEAR OF THE CONTEST THE TEXAS TAILSITTER WAS ONE OF THE FEW MACHINES EVEN TO GET OFF THE GROUND-- BRIEFLY. LAST YEAR, AFTER THREE YEARS OF IMPROVING ITS CONTROL SYSTEMS THE TAILSITTER FLEW BEAUTIFULLY. THE PROBLEM WAS STILL THE LANDING. Judge: THE FIRST THING I NEED YOU TO SHOW ME IS HOW YOUR EMERGENCY SHUT-OFF WORKS. Alda: THIS YEAR THE JUDGES ARE TAKING NO CHANCES. HE WANTS TO SEE THE EMERGENCY SETUP FIRST THING. I WANT TO SEE THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES, TOO. I'LL BE OVER HERE. Alda: WHAT HAD CAUGHT MY ATTENTION WAS WHAT LOOKED LIKE A GIANT INFLATABLE PIG. IT TURNED OUT TO BE ANOTHER BLIMP-- FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. ARE YOU ABOUT TO TAKE OFF FOR THE FIRST TIME NOW? WE WERE FLYING EARLIER. WE'RE GOING TO TRY A MANUAL FLIGHT JUST TO SEE THAT OUR SYSTEM IS WORKING WHICH IT ISN'T. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS? NO, WE HAVE... ENGINE TROUBLE. Alda: THE ENGINE GOT FIXED, BUT THE NAVIGATION SYSTEM INVOLVING A VIDEO CAMERA WATCHING THE SIZE AND SHAPE OF THE BLACK SPOTS GOT CONFUSED BY A GLINT OF SUNLIGHT AND THE CANADIAN ROBOT WALTZED OFF THE FIELD. MEANWHILE, LAST YEAR'S BEST PERFORMER-- A HELICOPTER FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-- WAS ALSO HAVING A BAD MORNING. Man: WE CRASHED LAST NIGHT ABOUT 4:00 IN THE MORNING. IT WAS FLYING GREAT, THINGS WERE LOOKING GOOD. WE COULD HAVE REPEATED AS CHAMPS. WE CRASHED, AND SOMETHING MECHANICALLY IS WRONG WITH THE CRAFT-- IT'S NOT FUNCTIONING RIGHT. Alda: DESPITE IMPROVISED REPAIRS AND LAST-MINUTE ADJUSTMENTS THE U.S.C. COPTER SIMPLY COULDN'T GET OFF THE GROUND. AAAAGH! MAN! Man: YOU LOOK AND THINK "GEEZ! " YOU PICK UP A DISK, AND CARRY IT ACROSS THE BARRIER. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? BUT WHAT'S VERY EASY FOR HUMANS IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT FOR ROBOTS. YOU HAVE SENSING PROBLEMS. YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH DISTURBANCES SUCH AS WIND AND IT'S NOT A VERY TRIVIAL PROBLEM AT ALL. IT SHOWS HOW FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTIVE HUMANS ARE. Alda: I REALLY LIKED THIS LITTLE DEVICE DESIGNED TO PICK UP THE DISKS WHEN DANGLING FROM ITS HELICOPTER. Alda: WHOA! ... AND PICK HIM UP. THAT WORKS REALLY SMOOTHLY. Alda: THE PROBLEM WAS, IT WASN'T QUITE SO SMOOTH ONCE ITS HELICOPTER WAS CARRYING IT. BUT NOW THE TEXAS TAILSITTER WAS TAKING OFF GUIDED BY SCANNING LASER BEAMS. ( buzzing loudly ) IT SEEMED TO BE FLYING VERY NICELY BUT IT MADE NO ATTEMPT TO GO PICK UP ANY DISKS. EVERYONE SEEMED VERY PLEASED WHEN IT LANDED WITHOUT TOPPLING OVER. I WAS A BIT PUZZLED BY ALL THE EXCITEMENT. WHAT HAPPENED? THAT WAS... THAT WAS A COMPLETELY AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT AND WE TOOK OFF, HOVERED AND LANDED COMPLETELY AUTONOMOUSLY. Man: THAT'S WORLD HISTORY FOR THIS COMPETITION. THAT'S THE FIRST TIME THAT'S EVER BEEN DONE. WE'RE PUMPED NOW; THE NEXT STEP IS A DISK. Alda: BUT NOW STANFORD UNIVERSITY WAS TAKING THE FIELD. THESE GUYS LOOKED LIKE PROS-- WITH A NAVIGATION SYSTEM TO PROVE IT EMPLOYING THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT'S GLOBAL POSITIONING SATELLITE SYSTEM. WHAT IS THAT THING OVER THERE? THAT IS A G. P.S. ANTENNA. THAT IS OUR GROUND STATION. THAT G. P.S. ANTENNA SEES SATELLITES IN THE SKY AND WE BASICALLY FLY TO THAT REFERENCE STATION. WE HAVE FOUR OF THOSE LITTLE ANTENNA ON BOARD THE HELICOPTER AND WITH THIS NEW G. P.S. TECHNOLOGY WE'RE ABLE TO TELL YOU WHERE EACH ONE OF THESE LITTLE ANTENNA IS TO WITHIN A CENTIMETER. A CENTIMETER! A CENTIMETER. Alda: ONCE THE HELICOPTER LOCKED ONTO THE SATELLITE... THE FLASHING RED LIGHTS MEANS THAT EVERYTHING'S WORKING. Alda: THE STANFORD ROBOT TOOK OFF WITHOUT A HITCH. THIS IS FLYING UNDER COMPLETE COMPUTER CONTROL RIGHT NOW. Alda: UNLIKE THE OTHER TEAMS IT DIDN'T BOTHER WITH PRELIMINARIES. Alda: ARE YOU JUST GOING FOR AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT? NO, WE'RE GOING TO TRY TO PICK UP A DISK. WE'RE FLYING THE WHOLE TRAJECTORY. Alda: TO PICK UP A DISK, THE MACHINE SIMPLY TRAWLS WITH A MAGNET. Men: WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! Man: WE'RE CLOSE-- HE GOES INTO A SEARCH PATTERN SO THERE'D BE RANDOM MOTION HERE WHERE WE'LL TRY TO DRAG IT AROUND HOPING THAT WE'LL BUMP ONTO A DISK. Alda: IT LOOKED TO ME AS IF THE HELICOPTER WAS FLYING TOO LOW TO DRAG THE MAGNET AROUND THE WHOLE CIRCLE. I FOUND MYSELF MAKING AN ACUTE OBSERVATION. THE PROBLEM IS YOU NEED TO SHORTEN THE STRING. HIGH-TECH SOLUTION-- MAKE THE STRING A LITTLE SHORTER. OH, THEY GOT ONE! Alda: THE ROBOT FINALLY GOT A DISK BUT THEN IT PICKED UP ANOTHER ONE AND THAT'S AGAINST THE RULES. BUT THE STANFORD TEAM STILL HAD PLENTY OF TIME. FOR THE TEXAS TEAM, THOUGH, TIME WAS RUNNING OUT. AND THEIR TAILSITTER WAS HEADING THE WRONG WAY. FOUR MINUTES, GUYS. THINK QUICKLY. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO COME UP WITH? WE'RE TRYING TO ADJUST AS THE INSTRUMENTS WARM UP. Alda: BUT THE DRIFT PROBLEM AFFECTING THE TAILSITTER PROVED UNFIXABLE. AT LEAST THIS YEAR THE TEXAS ROBOT DIDN'T SCATTER ITSELF ACROSS THE FIELD. Alda: THE GERMAN TEAM WAS ALSO COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE. YOU GOT UP JUST BARELY. YOU HAVE TO BE UP OFF THE GROUND BEFORE YOU LEAVE THAT SQUARE, HUH? YES. Alda: SAILING SERENELY AND AUTONOMOUSLY THE BLIMP HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION... OH, IT'S CLOSE, IT'S CLOSE! LOOK AT THIS, LOOK AT THIS! Alda: ONLY TO OVERSHOOT. Alda: IF IT JUST GETS A LITTLE CALM AIR IT MIGHT BE ABLE TO SETTLE INTO THAT... OH, NO-- OUTSIDE. OKAY-- SO WE HAVE TO PUT IT AGAIN. Alda: 45 SECONDS LEFT-- WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT! Alda: THE BLIMP HAD BEGUN ITS DAY BATTLING THE BREEZES. Man: 20 SECONDS! 20 SECONDS. Alda: AND IT WAS THE BREEZE THAT FINALLY DEFEATED IT. I THINK ONE COULD SEE THAT WE COULD MANAGE WITH A LITTLE LUCK AND WITH LESS WIND. YEAH-- CONGRATULATIONS. THANK YOU. Man: ALL RIGHT, DAVE-- TRY IT. Alda: ANOTHER BLIMP WAS HAVING SIMILAR PROBLEMS. BUT THIS ONE-- WITH A DISTINCTLY HOMEMADE LOOK-- TURNED OUT TO BE THE WORK NOT OF A COLLEGE TEAM BUT OF STUDENTS FROM THE THOMAS WOOTEN HIGH SCHOOL IN ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND. WHEN YOU HAVE SCHOOL HOW MUCH TIME CAN YOU SPEND ON THIS? WE WOULD SPEND UNTIL MIDNIGHT. WE WOULD SPEND FIVE, SIX HOURS A NIGHT ON IT. AND, I MEAN THAT BAG, EVERYTHING HERE IS HOMEMADE. WE DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING, YOU KNOW, BOUGHT. Man: GO THAT WAY! I'M GOING, I'M GOING. Alda: THE WIND IS TOO STRONG FOR YOU, HUH? YEAH, IT'S TOO STRONG. JUST A SLIGHT WIND THROWS EVERYTHING OFF FOR THE BLIMP, AT LEAST. THAT'S WHY A LOT OF THESE COLLEGES HAVE HELICOPTERS. THE OTHER TWO BLIMPS HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS. Alda: UNDER DIRECT RADIO CONTROL THE HIGH SCHOOL BLIMP WASN'T EVEN TRYING TO FLY AUTONOMOUSLY. AH, YOU'RE IN, YOU'RE IN! NOW, OKAY. CONCENTRATION, PEOPLE. IT'S NOT WORKING, MR. BEST. Alda: BUT JUST BY BEING HERE AND FLYING THE THOMAS WOOTEN STUDENTS HAVE LED THE CONTEST ORGANIZERS TO CONSIDER A HIGH SCHOOL VERSION OF THE CONTEST IN THE FUTURE. MOTOR'S DEAD. Woman: WHAT? MOTOR'S DEAD. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED? THE BIGGEST THING I'VE LEARNED IS THAT EVEN THOUGH WE'RE A HIGH SCHOOL TEAM WE CAN OVERCOME WHATEVER CHALLENGE WE NEED TO OVERCOME. IT'S AMAZING-- I CAME HERE THINKING "WOW, WE'RE OUT OF OUR LEAGUE. " AND COMING TO SEE THAT THEY HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS WE DO IT'S, IT'S... IT'S KIND OF A RELIEF, YOU KNOW? YEAH, YEAH-- GIVES YOU CONFIDENCE. Alda: THE HIGH SCHOOLERS HAD DEVISED FROM A CYLINDER AND A MAGNET A CLEVER DEVICE FOR PICKING UP AND DROPPING THE DISKS-- A SYSTEM THAT MADE STANFORD'S METHOD LOOK PRIMITIVE. HOW MUCH SHOULD WE SHORTEN THE STRING? OH, ABOUT THAT MUCH. Alda: BUT NOW THAT THEY'D TAKEN MY ADVICE AND SHORTENED THEIR STRING, STANFORD TOOK OFF AGAIN. ( loud droning ) Man: HANDS OFF. Alda: OH, YOU GOT IT, YOU GOT IT! YOU'VE GOT IT. ( applause ) Man: OKAY, LET'S NOT GET ANOTHER ONE. Man: WHOA, WHOA! IF WE CAN JUST MOVE IT TO THE CENTER FENCE, WE GET POINTS. Alda: THE HELICOPTER, ALL ON ITS OWN, DID EVERYTHING IT COULD TO COMPLETE ITS MISSION. ALL RIGHT, THAT'S IT! Alda: BUT THE ONE THING ITS DESIGNERS DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO INCLUDE WAS A WAY TO DROP THE DISK ONCE IT HAD REACHED ITS TARGET. IRONICALLY, WHAT THEY'D PLANNED TO USE WAS A DEVICE USING A MAGNET AND A CYLINDER. USING THAT CYLINDER SEEMS TO BE THE WAY THE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM SOLVED THAT PROBLEM, TOO. IT'S ALMOST AN IDENTICAL SOLUTION. THEY'VE GOT A REAL NEAT LITTLE SYSTEM. IS THAT AS WELL AS THAT'S EVER BEEN DONE? THAT'S THE BEST IT'S EVER BEEN DONE IN THE HISTORY OF THE COMPETITION. IF THEY JUST HAD AN INTELLIGENT DEVICE TO LET GO OF THE DOGGONE THING THEY WOULD HAVE TOTALLY COMPLETED THE MISSION. Alda: IN THE FINAL SCORES, THE TEXAS TAILSITTER TOOK THIRD PLACE. THE BERLIN BLIMP WAS SECOND. AND THE STANFORD HELICOPTER-- SO CLOSE TO COMPLETING THE MISSION-- CAME IN FIRST. FIVE YEARS AGO, THE MISSION SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE. NEXT YEAR IT WILL PROBABLY BE ACHIEVED. AND IN THE FUTURE? Alda: DO YOU THINK 20 YEARS FROM NOW THERE WILL BE SOME AERIAL ROBOT THAT WILL BE... WORKING, AND DOING SOMETHING? WHAT DO YOU THINK IT'LL BE DOING? IT WILL PROBABLY BE DOING WHAT WE CALL "D-CUBED" WHICH IS DULL, DIRTY AND DANGEROUS JOBS. THE DULL JOBS ARE JOBS WHERE YOU GO OUT AND INSPECT THINGS FOR HOURS ON END. THEY'RE VERY EXPENSIVE TO PUT A MAN IN A HELICOPTER TO GO LOOK FOR BEETLE DAMAGE IN PINE TREES. BUT YOU CAN SEND ONE OF THESE VEHICLES OUT AND LET IT FLY ALL DAY LONG TAKING DATA, LOOKING FOR DEAD PINE TREES. THE DIRTY PART HAS TO DO WITH GOING INTO PLACES WHERE YOU DON'T WANT TO SEND A MAN-- SAY INTO AN AREA LIKE THREE MILE ISLAND OR CHERNOBYL TO GET AIR SAMPLES. OR TO RESCUE SOMEBODY. OR TO RESCUE SOMEONE. SO "DULL, DIRTY AND DANGEROUS" I THINK EMBODIES THE KIND OF MISSIONS THAT WE'LL SEE UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES DOING IN THE FUTURE. PRESENTATION OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS

				NASA's Way to Mars NASA’s current plan for a Mars mission uses relays of spaceships and innovative inflatable living quarters, en route and on the surface of Mars.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR A ZUBRIN-STYLE MARS PROGRAM-- IT MONOPOLIZES NASA'S HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT DOLLARS. BUT WITHIN NASA, A FEW PEOPLE ARE WORKING ON MARS PLANS. HOUSTON IS THE NASA CENTER THAT HANDLES HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT: APOLLO, SHUTTLE AND NOW SPACE STATION. THESE ARE MOCKUPS OF SOME OF ITS COMPONENTS. ... AND WORK SOLUTIONS. Alda: THERE'S ALSO A SMALL PLANETARY EXPLORATION GROUP RUN BY DOUG COOKE. Man: HELLO. HI, THERE. Alda: RIGHT NOW THEY HAVE A MARS MISSION PLAN WHICH USES THREE SEPARATE FLIGHTS. Man: THE FIRST FLIGHT WILL TAKE AN EARTH-RETURN VEHICLE AND PARK IT IN ORBIT AROUND MARS. THE SECOND MISSION WILL TAKE A CARGO VEHICLE AND THAT'LL DROP TO THE SURFACE OF MARS AND AWAIT THE CREW WHEN THEY COME OUT 26 MONTHS LATER. AND BETWEEN THIS AND THAT YOU HAVE ALL SORTS OF REDUNDANCY TO MAKE MARS-- THE SURFACE OF MARS IN PARTICULAR-- THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM OTHER THAN BEING BACK HERE ON EARTH. THEN AFTER THE END OF 500 DAYS ON THE SURFACE YOU TAKE YOUR CREW PICTURE, YOU LAUNCH BACK TO EARTH AND SIX MONTHS LATER YOU'RE HOME HERE ON THIS PLANET AND THE PARADES START. ( Alda laughing ) SO BETWEEN LIFTING OFF AND THE PARADE HOW LONG DOES THAT TAKE? UH... BETWEEN THE TIME THAT THE CREW LIFTS OFF FROM FLORIDA UNTIL THE TIME THEY LAND, PROBABLY AGAIN IN FLORIDA THE WHOLE TRIP IS TWO AND A HALF YEARS. Alda: OKAY, LET'S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THAT MISSION PLAN. FIRST, IT DEPENDS ONLY ON SHUTTLE-TYPE LAUNCHES FROM EARTH-- NO FANCY NEW TECHNOLOGY NEEDED HERE. EACH OF ITS THREE FLIGHTS REQUIRES TWO PAYLOAD LAUNCHES SO EACH NEEDS JUST A SIMPLE DOCKING IN EARTH ORBIT. NO GIANT SPACESHIPS HAVE TO BE CONSTRUCTED. EACH FLIGHT TAKES ONLY THE FUEL NEEDED TO REACH MARS BUT NOT TO LIFT BACK OFF ITS SURFACE. FLIGHT ONE IS THE EARTH-RETURN VEHICLE. IT PARKS IN MARS ORBIT WITHOUT A CREW. FLIGHT TWO IS THE CARGO VEHICLE, ALSO WITHOUT A CREW. IT HEADS FOR THE SURFACE. TO SAVE ON FUEL, IT USES THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE TO SLOW DOWN. A BRIEF ROCKET BURST IS NEEDED IN THE FINAL SECONDS. FLIGHT TWO LANDS AND BEGINS TO MAKE FUEL. 26 MONTHS AFTER THE FLIGHTS WITHOUT CREWS LEFT WHEN EARTH AND MARS ARE AGAIN LINED UP, THE CREW SETS OUT. THEY TRAVEL FOR SIX MONTHS ACROSS 250 MILLION MILES OF SPACE BUT KNOWING THAT THE CARGO VEHICLE ON MARS HAS ALREADY MADE THEIR RETURN FUEL. WHEN THE CREW LANDS, THEY HEAD OVER TO THE CARGO VEHICLE FOR THEIR EXPLORATION SUPPLIES. AFTER 18 MONTHS ON MARS THEY BLAST OFF FROM THE SURFACE IN A SMALL CAPSULE USING MARS-MADE FUEL THEN JOIN UP WITH THE EARTH-RETURN VEHICLE. IT'S BASICALLY THE BOB ZUBRIN PLAN BUT WITH THE EARTH-RETURN VEHICLE ADDED TO PROVIDE BETTER CREW SPACE. AND THE PRICE TAG IS DOWN TO $40 BILLION-- ONE-TENTH THE ORIGINAL NASA MARS-MISSION COST. BOB ZUBRIN SEEMS TO BE A GUY WHO IS A KIND OF A MAVERICK-- THOUGHT A LITTLE BIT OUTSIDE THE BOX. HE IS VERY HEALTHY FOR US, I THINK. IT'S ALWAYS HEALTHY TO HAVE PEOPLE OUT THERE PUSHING AT YOU MAKING SURE YOU DON'T GO TO SLEEP ON THEM. I THINK AS WE STARTED LOOKING INTO HIS IDEAS WE FOUND THAT MORE AND MORE OF THEM WERE CREDIBLE AND, I MEAN, BOB IS AN IDEA GUY AND YOU CAN'T IGNORE THE IDEAS HE COMES UP WITH. Alda: IN THE QUEST FOR SMALLER, LIGHTER, CHEAPER MISSIONS NASA'S COMING UP WITH SOME IDEAS OF ITS OWN. HERE'S AN INFLATABLE HABITAT THAT COULD BE USED ON MARS OR DURING THE JOURNEY. IN HOUSTON, DONNA FENDER SHOWED ME WHAT THE CORE OF AN INFLATABLE HABITAT MIGHT LOOK LIKE. THIS IS THE SIZE THAT IT WILL ACTUALLY BE? Fender: THIS IS ONLY ONE LITTLE PIECE OF THE WHOLE INFLATABLE STRUCTURE AND THIS IS THE CENTRAL CORE WHERE THE CREW WILL BE SLEEPING. THIS KIND OF GIVES YOU A REPRESENTATIVE SIZE OF HOW BIG A BEDROOM WOULD BE FOR ONE OF THE CREW. I SEE-- THE BED GOES UP THE WALL HERE BECAUSE IT'S NOT A WALL. Fender: RIGHT, BECAUSE YOU'RE IN ZERO GRAVITY. THIS IS A CONCEPTUAL LAYOUT FOR ZERO GRAVITY. IT NEVER WOULD HAVE OCCURRED TO ME YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE EVERYTHING ON THE SAME PLANE. YOU KNOW, THEY'LL HAVE THEIR PILLOWS AND BE ABLE TO VELCRO THEMSELVES IN SO THEY WON'T FLOAT AROUND. VELCRO THEMSELVES IN FOR THE NIGHT. SO THEY WON'T WANDER AROUND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, I GUESS. THEIR CHILDREN WILL GROW UP ON SOME FUTURE SPACE FLIGHT. THEY WON'T SAY "TUCK ME IN," THEY'LL SAY "VELCRO ME IN. " RIGHT-- "VELCRO ME IN," YEAH. Alda: THE INFLATABLE HABITAT IS SMALL ENOUGH TO BE BROUGHT UP TO THE SPACE STATION FOR TESTING IN THE SHUTTLE CARGO BAY. THIS COULD BE HAPPENING IN A FEW YEARS' TIME. THE HABITAT DOCKS-- UNINFLATED-- TO THE STATION. THEN IT'S INFLATED TO PROVIDE A 30-FOOT DIAMETER STRUCTURE-- BIG ENOUGH TO ACCOMMODATE SIX MARS CREW MEMBERS FOR THEIR SIX-MONTH FLIGHTS. INTERPLANETARY SPACE IS FILLED WITH FAST-MOVING AND POTENTIALLY LETHAL BITS AND PIECES OF DUST AND ROCK. THE INFLATABLE HABITAT USES A MULTI-LAYER FABRIC WALL DESIGNED TO BREAK UP ANYTHING THAT HITS. IS THIS THE SAME THICKNESS AS WHAT WILL SHIELD THE HABITAT? THIS IS ONE OF THE POSSIBILITIES. WE'RE GOING TO BE TESTING AT AROUND SEVEN KILOMETERS PER SECOND. WE'RE GOING TO IMPACT THIS TARGET WITH A PARTICLE OF THIS SIZE. IT'S ABOUT MARBLE SIZE AND IT WEIGHS ABOUT 1. 5 GRAMS. IT'S MADE OUT OF ALUMINUM. IT FEELS LIKE HOW MUCH A PEARL MIGHT WEIGH ON A NECKLACE, IT'S VERY LIGHT. Alda: AT THESE KINDS OF SPEEDS EVEN THIS CAN DO TREMENDOUS DAMAGE. Christianson: HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BACK OF THIS? IT BLOWS OFF THE BACK AND HERE'S ALL THE PARTICLES THAT FALL OFF THE BACKSIDE. Alda: ACTUALLY, THE PIECES COME FLYING OFF THE BACK-- NOT GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE INSIDE. THIS IS AROUND ONE AND A HALF INCHES OF ALUMINUM. WE'RE SHOOTING WITH THE SAME SIZE PARTICLE THAT WE'LL SHOOT THE TRANSHAB SHIELD. THE TRANSHAB SHIELD WEIGHS ONE-TENTH OF THIS AND SO YOU SEE THAT WE'RE SAVING A LOT OF WEIGHT WITH THE TRANSHAB SHIELD. THIS IS REALLY HEAVY STUFF. I MEAN, YOU KNOW, I'M SURPRISED. IS THIS HOW THICK... IT WOULD NEED TO BE. IF WE MADE IT OUT OF ALL ALUMINUM THIS IS HOW THICK IT'D HAVE TO BE. Alda: THE CHANCE OF RUNNING INTO A PARTICLE THIS SIZE ON A MARS ROUND TRIP IS ABOUT ONE IN 34,000-- NOT SUCH A REMOTE RISK. HERE'S THE CHARGE FOR THE GUN-- HALF A POUND OF GUNPOWDER. DALE. YES, SIR. GOOD LUCK. IT'S GOING TO WORK. I'VE GOT FAITH. ( warning signal wailing ) FEELS LIKE A MISSILE LAUNCH HERE. Alda: DALE'S THE FIRST TO OPEN THE CHAMBER NOW FILLED WITH THOUSANDS OF TINY FIBERS FROM THE TEST SAMPLE. IT LOOKS LIKE A CLEAN SHOT BUT TO MAKE SURE, THEY CHECK THE HIGH-SPEED X-RAYS. FILMED AT A MILLION FRAMES A SECOND, HERE'S THE RESULT. HERE'S A REPLAY-- THE PELLET PENETRATES THE FIRST LAYER BREAKS UP, AND PENETRATES LAYER TWO. THAT'S WHERE THE FILM STOPS-- IT'S ONLY TO CONFIRM A GOOD HIT. BUT IN THE CHAMBER, HERE'S THE HOLE IN THE TOP LAYER AND HERE'S THE SMALLER HOLE IN THE SECOND. THE GRAY FOAM'S JUST FOR SPACING, BY THE WAY. HERE'S LAYER THREE-- A STILL SMALLER HOLE AND LAYER FOUR WAS INTACT. AS I HEAR BOB ZUBRIN AND THE GUYS AT NASA IT SEEMS TO ME THAT WE MIGHT REALLY BE ON OUR WAY TO MARS. IS IT GOING TO BE A PLACE TO GO FOR THE HOLIDAYS? I MEAN, ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TOURIST EXCURSIONS TO MARS? ARE WE GOING TO HAVE THE "LOVE ROCKET"? ( laughing ) THE ANSWER IS EMPHATICALLY YES BUT THE COROLLARY QUESTION IS WHEN. WHEN IS THE ONLY ISSUE. WE WILL GO TO MARS AND WE WILL EXPLORE MARS AND HUMANITY WILL EXPAND. IT'S THE WHEN QUESTION WHICH IS THE REAL PERPLEXING ONE. Alda: YOU'RE WATCHING THE FIRST INTERPLANETARY HIT MOVIE.