Culture
WOUB-TV Features ‘Summer of Space’ Programming
By: Emily Votaw
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This summer, PBS is exploring the cosmos with programming that dissects everything from the mysteries of our solar system to the large scale processes that go on in the skies over the course of a timeline much more vast than a single human lifetime. WOUB’s Emily Votaw spoke to Ohio University’s Professor Gabriela Popa, Ph.D. and Professor Ryan Chornock, Ph.D. about the importance of studying the cosmos on an elementary level, why humankind has always looked to the skies, and how what we see in the skies reflects back at us, attempting to answer some of the most profound questions each person must straddle as they make they make their way through their lifetime, in the interview embedded above.
Check out the current schedule for Summer of Space programming on WOUB-TV, below.
TUESDAY, JULY 30 – 8 p.m.: Chasing the Moon: American Experience Part Three (encore)
This is the third part of Robert Stone’s Chasing the Moon film, which dives deep into contemporary efforts to get to the moon and dispels misconceptions about the effort. The series dissects both the political and scientific implications of the Space Age with a wide array of archival footage that largely has been previously unseen by the public. Some key players in the events that unfold throughout the series include Sergei Khrushchev; Buzz Aldrin; Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Ed Dwight, America’s first black astronaut; and Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year-old math prodigy who was the first woman to serve in NASA’s Mission Control.
TUESDAY, JULY 30 – 10 p.m.: Beyond a Year in Space
Beyond a Year in Space follows the fascinating and often harrowing tale of Mark and Scott Kelly, identical twins who served as NASA’s subjects for their most in-depth test of what space travel does to the human body and mind. For one year, Scott was aboard the International Space Station, while his brother, Mark, remained on Earth. The program follows Scott’s journey, from his initial training to the sometimes confusing and often poignant aftermath of his return to Earth, examining what changes occur in him as compared to his brother, and what that means about the future of human interplanetary space travel.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 – 9 p.m.: NOVA ‘The Planets: Jupiter’
This program explores Jupiter and how it has reflected on life as we know it on planet Earth.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 – 10 p.m.: Farthest-Voyager in Space (encore)
This Emmy-award winning documentary returns to PBS to chronicle the unforgettable 1977 launch of two twin space probes sent to take pictures of remote portions of space and contain messages from planet Earth.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2 – 10 p.m.: Hawking (encore)
Hawking is the first ever autobiographical documentary that documents one of the greatest human minds, his many discoveries, and his rise to international acclaim.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 – 9pm: NOVA ‘The Planets: Saturn’ (NEW)
This episode of NOVA follows NASA’s Cassini, which studies Saturn for 13 years, making it’s way by the planet’s multiple moons and rings. Cassini even finds the crucial ingredients for life on Saturn’s Enceladus moon.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 – 10 p.m.: To Catch a Comet
Five years ago and billions of miles from Earth, spacecraft orbiter Rosetta and lander Philae tried to land on a comet as it hurdled around the sun at about 67,000 km/hr. The European Space Agency crafted this mission because it hopes that it may partially explain the mystery of human existence.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14 – 8 p.m.: NOVA ‘Pluto and Beyond’
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14 – 9pm: NOVA ‘The Planets: Ice Worlds’ (NEW)
In this feature, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft explores the farthest reaches of our solar system, passing by Uranus and Neptune, as well as taking a close up of Pluto before heading into the Kuiper Belt.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14 – 10 p.m.: Breakthrough: the Ideas that Changed the World: the Telescope
This episode of Breakthrough examines the fascinating history of the telescope, and how it has changed how mankind sees the skies and themselves.