The Sky at Night - 2075: Our Place in Space
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00:00Liftoff.
00:02Last century, humanity dared to dream about exploring space.
00:07We choose to go to the moon.
00:10And over the next 50 years, we might dare to go further.
00:14Where will we be in space in 2075?
00:18Space can be explored and mastered.
00:21I want to see space continue to be the way that John F Kennedy hoped it would be.
00:26This new ocean will be a sea of peace.
00:29I hope we do explore other worlds,
00:31but I hope that's not prioritised over conserving what's here at home already.
00:36I hope that in 50 years from now, we have established a permanent presence on the moon.
00:41The Eagle has landed.
00:42And had the first humans landing on Mars.
00:46I hope that international norms are established
00:49for the safe and sustainable development of space for future generations.
00:53We set sail on this new sea
00:56because there is new knowledge to be gained.
00:59I want to see all the diversity we have here on Earth represented in space.
01:04I hope that we'll have worked out a cheap way to get to the outer solar system.
01:08Now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond.
01:13I hope we know if there's life somewhere in our solar system.
01:16I hope our expansion into space will give us a new perspective on Earth.
01:20Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man.
01:25And what about you? Where do you hope we'll be in 2075?
01:29Welcome.
01:30Welcome.
01:31Welcome to the Sky at Night.
01:56This autumn, the Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy,
02:01is publishing a new groundbreaking report called Space 2075.
02:07We've been given exclusive access to find out all about it.
02:13The report transports us into the future,
02:16painting a mind-boggling picture of the year 2075.
02:20Space elevators and reusable rockets taking us into orbit.
02:25Giant space-based solar panels beaming energy down to Earth
02:29and a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.
02:33The development of new technology
02:35and the growth of the commercial space sector
02:37could make these extraordinary ideas a reality.
02:41This rapid expansion of science and technology
02:45could make these extraordinary ideas a reality.
02:49This rapid increase in space technologies
02:52has been compared to the Industrial Revolution,
02:55which changed our lives from rural farming communities
02:59to urban mechanised ones.
03:04That shift came with huge social and political reforms.
03:08And we may need similar transformative changes over the next 50 years
03:13to become a more space-faring civilisation.
03:17The Royal Society is calling upon decision-makers
03:20to anticipate this dramatic change.
03:23If humanity is to become interplanetary,
03:26then we need to work together
03:28and find out how we make it for the benefit of everyone.
03:34Thankfully, there are already people around the world
03:37who are working to tackle the big questions
03:40and challenges of our future in space.
03:43So, while I'm at the Royal Society,
03:45Chris is headed to Cologne
03:47to learn about a new European Space Agency project.
03:51This is the European Astronaut Centre,
03:53where astronauts from around the world undergo extensive training
03:56to prepare them for the trials and tribulations of space travel.
04:04To be selected to train as an astronaut,
04:06you have to meet a set of strict requirements
04:09about your physical and mental health,
04:11fitness and personality.
04:13So, how do we make space a place that's welcoming to all people
04:17and not just a select few?
04:20I'm meeting John McFall,
04:22one of the newest members of ESA's astronaut reserve,
04:25and the face of their pioneering new study, FLY.
04:29He's taking me on a tour of the European Astronaut Centre's
04:32state-of-the-art training facilities.
04:35Well, this looks impressive.
04:37So, Chris, this is the control room
04:39for the neutral buoyancy facility at the European Astronaut Centre,
04:42and this is where the controller sits
04:44during the training that we do in this awesome pool that we have.
04:47A pool with a mock-up of... Is that the Columbus module?
04:50It is, yeah. It's a life-size replica
04:53of the European Space Agency's module
04:55that's attached to the International Space Station.
04:57We'll come back to that in a bit, but how did you get here?
05:01What brings you to the EAC?
05:03Back in early 2021, the European Space Agency
05:06put out a call for a new class of astronauts,
05:09but uniquely within that vacancy notice,
05:12they were also recruiting for an astronaut with a physical disability
05:16to do a very bold study to look at,
05:19would it be feasible to get an astronaut with a physical disability
05:23to fly on a long-duration mission to the International Space Station?
05:30John is already a medal-winning Paralympian and orthopaedic surgeon,
05:34and he can now add astronaut to that impressive list.
05:38But going to space wasn't necessarily on his radar as a young man.
05:43I've always had a bit of an adventurous spirit
05:45and, as a kid, always wanted to join the army.
05:48And then, in 2000, I was travelling around the world
05:51and, unfortunately, had a motorcycle accident when in Thailand
05:54and ended up resulting in an amputation of my right leg.
05:59And I couldn't fulfil my ambition of joining the army.
06:03There were things about this opportunity to do this feasibility study
06:07and potentially fly to space that ticked a lot of the boxes
06:10that I had wanted to tick as my 16, 17-year-old self
06:13wanting to join the army, but couldn't because of my physical disability.
06:19The FLY study aimed to assess the unique challenges involved
06:22in getting John to the International Space Station,
06:25from launch to orbit to landing.
06:29Some of the exciting things that I've done,
06:31obviously, everybody knows about the Vomit Comet or the parabolic flight,
06:34so we looked at this in the context of,
06:38would I be able to do CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation
06:42in an emergency in microgravity?
06:44And so we demonstrated that that was possible on a parabolic flight.
06:47While being flown like this? Yeah, exactly, yeah.
06:51John and his team used a combination of centrifuges, parabolic flights
06:55and low-gravity treadmills to recreate weightlessness
06:58and test how John and his body responded.
07:01And this was just one small part of an extensive study.
07:07Hello, John. Hello.
07:09Welcome back to Earth. Thank you very much.
07:12And how's it gone?
07:14Very interestingly, to date,
07:16we have found that there are no technical showstoppers
07:19to flying someone with a physical disability like mine
07:22to the International Space Station for a long-duration mission.
07:26So this is news, right? Yeah.
07:28Because it could have been that you came in and two months in
07:31discovered there's a vital bit of training you couldn't do. Exactly.
07:34So it's really exciting to see what happens in the next six to 12 months
07:37and where we take it from here.
07:41But there's one part of astronaut training that John hasn't tackled yet.
07:45The initial fly feasibility study didn't consider spacewalking,
07:50so what we call EVA, extravehicular activity.
07:53And lots of astronauts go to the space station and never spacewalk.
07:56Exactly, yeah. So you've got the point, well, could we consider EVA?
08:01And so a legacy of the study,
08:04we're hoping, could be looking into the potential of EVA.
08:11While spacewalks are not yet part of the fly study,
08:14today John and his team are starting to think about the impact
08:18that training in the European Astronaut Centre's
08:21Aerospatial Buoyancy Facility might have on his body.
08:26The facility makes use of buoyancy, essentially floating,
08:30to recreate the feeling of weightlessness for long periods of time,
08:35so that astronauts can practise spacewalks underwater.
08:39So, how was that? Yeah, it was good, thanks, Chris.
08:42Prosthesis was comfortable in the water, wet suit fine,
08:45get the fins on the feet OK.
08:47Let me take you this way and show you what else we have. Sure.
08:50The European Astronaut Centre is also home to one-to-one replicas
08:54of the modules on the International Space Station.
08:58And today, I'm excited to get inside their replica
09:01of ESA's Columbus Laboratory.
09:04So, where are we in the station?
09:06So, we're here, we're right at the front of the International Space Station.
09:09So, this is Node 2, and the space station is hurtling that way
09:13at, well, 27,500 kilometres an hour.
09:16I like the speed limit sign. Shall we go through? For sure, yeah.
09:19I'm questioning I'm floating at this point. Yeah, yeah.
09:22The Columbus module houses some of the most important experiments
09:26for understanding how humans can live and work in space.
09:30You know, when you look at the complexity of this space,
09:32you can see why those questions in your study about manoeuvring
09:35and stabilising yourself really come into play.
09:38There's not a lot of space to play with in here.
09:40There isn't, and there is a lot more equipment
09:42that encroaches onto the free space.
09:44Well, I'm pleased to have finally made it into the European Columbus module,
09:47so thanks for the tour. Shall we go back down to Earth? Absolutely.
09:54John looks right at home in the Columbus module,
09:57and it's got me thinking about what comes next for him and the FLY study.
10:02As we come towards the end of this study,
10:04do you think one day you'll be floating around the real ISS?
10:07I'd love to go to space, and I do hope I get the opportunity to fly one day,
10:13but what I've realised by doing this is that this is not about me.
10:17This is about the future of space exploration.
10:19Maybe we'll look back in 300 years from now and say,
10:22the first time someone tried to look at getting someone with a physical disability
10:26to be an astronaut was here, you know, in the 2020s.
10:30Really, if we are going to be an interplanetary species,
10:34we have to start somewhere.
10:36I've got one final question, which is that I'm sure that somehow,
10:39sometime soon, you're going to find yourself on a rocket heading to space.
10:43Will you come and tell us about it when you've been?
10:45Absolutely, I'd love to. Good, then that's a deal.
10:47Thank you very much. Pleasure.
10:53Talking to John about his work has been truly inspirational.
10:57Just the fact that major space agencies like ESA
11:00are thinking about accessibility sends a powerful signal.
11:03Maybe we really will have a future in which anyone can go to space.
11:08The prospect of getting more people to space is exciting.
11:12There's a lot more to consider
11:14if we want to keep them there for long periods of time.
11:18NASA's Artemis mission is planning to build a space station
11:21in orbit around the moon
11:23and a permanent base on the moon's surface by around 2030.
11:32And with the recent discoveries of caves on the moon,
11:35that courthouse the lunar base, and liquid water reservoirs on Mars,
11:39humans living on other bodies in our solar system by 2075
11:43feels like a very real possibility.
11:47But the conditions these people will be living in
11:50will be very different to anything we're used to here on Earth.
11:53So keeping them healthy will not be simple.
11:59I'm meeting doctor and space medicine expert Kevin Fox
12:03and space medicine expert Kevin Fong to find out more.
12:08We're here at the Royal Society
12:10and they have a fantastic background in medical research.
12:13But can you tell me more about space medicine today?
12:16We've got people on the International Space Station,
12:19people flying around in rockets. What support do they need?
12:22There's lots of minor things they need to deal with,
12:24so sickness, a lot of them feel sick.
12:26Sleep, they have a lot of sleep medications up there.
12:29They have a few bits for serious emergencies
12:31like fires and the emergency decompressions.
12:33And all of that is packed into very small space.
12:36And then the job of people like me on the ground
12:39who work with the space medicine teams is to design that kit
12:42so that it's basically idiot-proof.
12:44So even under pressure?
12:46Even under pressure, and you can talk them through it
12:48on the phone or over a video link.
12:50And for me it was such a great sort of thought experiment
12:53of how do you take everything you know about medicine,
12:56take it apart, remove gravity,
13:00and remove your access to a hospital
13:02and then make sure it still works in the worst situation.
13:05So that's why I loved doing it.
13:07Yes, yeah, deconstructing medicine.
13:11Astronauts are guided through medical procedures
13:13by doctors like Kevin on the ground
13:16and trained in how to treat their crewmates' minor medical issues.
13:20In the worst-case scenario,
13:22ISS astronauts can come home for medical care.
13:26But they're only 250 miles away from us.
13:30People living on a lunar base
13:32would be hundreds of thousands of miles away from home.
13:35And for Martian folk, it would be hundreds of millions.
13:40Mars' shortest time is about six months to Mars,
13:43can be as much as nine, and the same on the way back.
13:46And then you're on the surface for either 30 days or a year or two.
13:51Yes.
13:52There's no in-between, is there?
13:54The buses are very infrequent.
13:56And so then you've got a whole different set of issues
13:59because you're out there,
14:01microgravity is chiselling away at your physiology, your biology,
14:05and radiation is one of the big, big problems
14:07because, as you know, we're outside the magnetosphere,
14:10which gives us such substantial protection
14:12from the high-energy particles.
14:14And then goodness knows what you'd do if something went wrong medically
14:18because your closest hospital
14:20might be as much as three-and-a-half years away.
14:22You need a lot of self-reliance, but you're restricted by weight and volume
14:25and there's not much space for the medical kit.
14:27So one of the sort of evolving possibilities
14:30is that you might be able to 3-D print your equipment,
14:33which means that if you've just got a bag of some sort of substrate
14:36and a 3-D printer, and you can say,
14:38you need this bit of kit... A scalpel!
14:40Exactly, yeah, dental drill, and all the rest of it.
14:48Protecting our bodies from the trials and tribulations of space
14:51in the short term is one thing.
14:54But we're starting to think about staying in space for longer,
14:57maybe even settling there.
14:59And that brings whole new questions about health.
15:04Physiology of people born in space,
15:07what impact will that have on their...?
15:09They have done some very interesting experiments
15:11where they've taken fish eggs up
15:13and put them through an entire cycle of fertilisation
15:17and then the birth of the fish,
15:19the fish swim around in weightlessness in these tanks.
15:21Of course, the fish don't develop with any sense of up, down, left, right,
15:25because there is no up, down.
15:27So they kind of swim in very bizarre directions.
15:30So if you are exposed to this space environment,
15:32your body says, hey, this is what I've got, I don't need to do that,
15:35I don't need to have all this muscle, I don't need to have all this bone.
15:38So people who are born in space one day will look very different
15:42and be different physiologically.
15:44The shape of their bodies, the way their bodies work,
15:47will be different from that which we have on Earth.
15:51A child which grows up in space might learn to float instead of crawl.
15:55Their muscles will develop differently
15:57and an altered distribution of fluids in their body
16:00would lead to a puffier face.
16:02It's possible that they would be so adapted to space
16:05that they could never live unaided on Earth.
16:08Kevin, as always, it's been fantastic talking to you.
16:11Great talking to you as well.
16:13Look forward to seeing you again soon.
16:15See you later, Maggie, lovely to see you.
16:19Human settlements in space
16:21are an incredible, exciting goal for our future.
16:24But we have to be able to get out of Earth's orbit first.
16:28There are already millions of pieces of space debris
16:31in orbit around our planet,
16:32made up mostly of defunct satellites
16:34and pieces of rockets that we've launched over the years.
16:39As Earth's orbit gets more crowded,
16:41the chance of a collision between two pieces of space debris increases.
16:45A single collision could start a chain reaction of collisions,
16:49filling Earth's orbit with debris
16:51and making it harder and harder to launch a rocket into space.
16:55Thankfully, companies and space agencies around the world
16:59are starting to come up with clever solutions
17:01for dealing with our crowded orbit.
17:04I'm meeting Mekhi Desi from Astroscale to learn more.
17:08I know that you guys work on space junk
17:10and we hear this term a lot right now.
17:12Why is it a problem?
17:13If you measure all the pieces of debris in orbit,
17:17there is 130 million pieces of space debris up in orbit right now.
17:21And everything in low Earth orbit is travelling super, super fast.
17:25It travels 20 times faster than a bullet.
17:28So even the tiniest piece of debris can cause a serious impact,
17:32so it's potentially harmful to astronauts up in space.
17:35Only last year, a Russian satellite broke up.
17:38They had to warn the astronauts on the ISS to take shelter
17:41and potentially then go to their vehicles for a safe exit of the ISS
17:45if it had collided with it.
17:46And this also impacts potentially future space exploration
17:50because if there's so much junk hurtling around,
17:53a spacecraft carrying astronauts up through orbit
17:56might not be able to get past safely.
17:58So we need to find a way to tackle the space debris that's already up there,
18:01but we also need to future-proof satellites that are yet to launch
18:05to ensure the sustainable use of future space for generations to come.
18:11In 2021, Astroscale launched their first spacecraft, Elsa-D,
18:16a test of their new magnetic docking system.
18:19The aim was for a dummy piece of space debris,
18:22pre-equipped with a magnetic disc,
18:24to be captured by the Elsa-D spacecraft.
18:27And the proof of concept worked.
18:30Now, what's next? What's the future of this project?
18:33So what's next is the commercialisation of Elsa-D,
18:37and we call this Elsa-M,
18:39which stands for End-of-Life Services by Astroscale Multiple.
18:42So this really is the commercialisation of the Elsa-D demonstration.
18:47So in 2026, we'll launch our satellite, Elsa-M, up into orbit,
18:51and it will then remove a failed satellite
18:54that has already been pre-equipped for the docking plate.
18:58The aim is that Elsa-M will tow space debris out of orbit
19:03and release it in the upper stages of Earth's atmosphere,
19:06where the pressure and heat will cause it to disintegrate.
19:10Elsa-M will then return to pick up another piece of debris.
19:16Today, I'm lucky enough to be shown around my very first clean room,
19:20where the Elsa-M spacecraft is being built.
19:25I can't believe we've been allowed in a clean room.
19:27So I know this is where you guys are actually building Elsa-M?
19:30That's right, but a lot of what we have in here at the moment
19:33is commercially sensitive, as you can imagine.
19:35But there is something we can talk about right here.
19:38One of the magnetic docking plates that we were talking about earlier.
19:41So it has these legs here that you can see,
19:43and it attaches on to the side of a spacecraft.
19:46Elsa-M is designed for use on satellites
19:49that have been equipped with this magnetic docking system in advance.
19:53But we know there is so much debris already out there
19:57with no magnets for Elsa-M to dock to.
19:59But Astroscale hope their upcoming mission, COSMIC,
20:02could solve this problem using similar technology to Elsa-M,
20:06but replacing the magnetic docking system
20:09with a robotic arm that can grab on to debris.
20:12However, both Elsa-M and COSMIC have a limitation.
20:17So the Elsa-M and the COSMIC missions,
20:20they're designed for grabbing on to debris
20:22that's about the size of a washing machine.
20:25But there are also really, really large pieces of debris out there.
20:29For example, sometimes upper stages of rocket bodies
20:32are then left in orbit,
20:34and these can be about the size and the weight of a London bus.
20:38So there is a mission called ADDRESS-J,
20:41which stands for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale Japan,
20:44launched February 2024.
20:47And it's going to inspect one of these really large pieces of debris,
20:51an upper-stage rocket body.
20:53And so ADDRESS-J has now reached just 50 metres separation
20:57and is managing to produce amazingly high-resolution images.
21:01And in the future, then, this will inform a second-stage mission
21:04where we can then go up and also safely remove it.
21:08That's incredible. It's like you say, 50 metres in space time.
21:11There's just nothing. They may as well just be about to kiss.
21:14That's so close together.
21:18These images captured by ADDRESS-J of an old rocket park
21:22hurtling through space are sort of enchanting,
21:25but they're also a reminder of the impact we've already had on space
21:29and how we need to change the way we treat it in the future.
21:33Thank you so much for allowing me in my very first clean room.
21:36Thank you so much for coming by. No worries.
21:38See you soon, hopefully. Bye. Bye.
21:41More satellites in orbit doesn't just mean more space debris.
21:45It also changes our night sky here on Earth.
21:49It can be a lot of fun tracking down a satellite
21:52or spotting the International Space Station flying overhead.
21:56I find it truly magical seeing the ISS,
22:01a moving star with people living on it.
22:04But an increasing number of objects in orbit
22:07can also be a nuisance for amateur astronomers down here on Earth.
22:10Deep-sky imaging is currently the worst affected
22:13and that's because the individual exposures tend to be many seconds
22:17or perhaps even minutes in length.
22:19But satellites can also affect things like meteor photography,
22:22where the trails mimic the appearance of meteors.
22:27If you're heading out to watch the Draconid or Rhinid meteor showers
22:31coming up in October, you'll want to keep an eye out for satellites.
22:36You can see in these images how similar they look,
22:40but you can distinguish between them in several ways,
22:43by the satellite's lack of colour and by their straight-line appearance,
22:48as meteor trails tend to have a definite shape to them.
22:51And if you're taking continuous multi-second exposures,
22:55a meteor trail will tend to appear on one frame,
22:59whereas a satellite trail will tend to be visible moving over several frames.
23:04As we make technological advances in space,
23:08amateur astrophotography has also been evolving,
23:11providing solutions to help astrophotographers
23:14remove satellite trails from their images.
23:19With standard telescopes, removing satellite trails
23:22requires you to take several different exposures
23:26and then stack them in a way that removes the satellite trail.
23:30You can see an example of the process in these images of the star cluster M53.
23:37And now, with new smart telescope technology like this,
23:41a user can select a target and set the telescope off.
23:46The telescope will find the object, take all the necessary exposures,
23:51stack the images and automatically remove the satellite trails.
23:57Smart telescope or not, if you're looking for a good target this month,
24:02there is a small partial lunar eclipse taking place on the 18th of September.
24:07And this is a special one, as it falls on 2024's harvest moon.
24:13The best time to catch the eclipse is around 0300 to 0415 BST,
24:19when the moon will be moving through the darkest part of the Earth's shadow,
24:23called the umbral shadow.
24:25The darkest shading will appear at the moon's northeast limb.
24:29So if you don't have a fancy smart telescope yet, don't fret.
24:33There's still plenty to see.
24:35I love the fact that technology is making astronomy more accessible.
24:40But often the joy is in the searching,
24:43looking for these objects in a sea of bright stars and then finding them.
24:48There's no finer feeling.
24:51The prospect of our species reaching further into that beautiful night sky
24:56is wondrous and inspiring.
24:59But as we have seen tonight, not without its challenges.
25:05Back at the Royal Society, Maggie is meeting Professor Susie Imber,
25:09co-chair of the Space 2075 Report, to discuss the Society's findings
25:14on how humanity should tackle this next chapter in space exploration.
25:21But my first question is, why are you doing this report now?
25:24And why 50 years?
25:26Well, I think now is a really good time for this report to come out
25:29because we're experiencing this big acceleration in the space industry,
25:33not just space agencies exploring space,
25:36but also a lot of commercial companies too.
25:38That's kind of a good time for us to just pause and take stock
25:41and think about where we'd like the future of space to be.
25:45And in a way, that links back to why we're doing 50 years.
25:48It's much easier for us to look forward and try to design from the outset
25:52laws and legislation that leads us in the direction we want to go in,
25:56rather than responding to incidents as they happen
25:59and trying to make up laws and legislation as we go.
26:05The space economy is expected to be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035.
26:11And space agencies like NASA and ESA are relying more and more
26:15on private companies for parts of their missions.
26:19Commercialisation, especially when we talk about it in space,
26:22it can be seen as a double-edged sword.
26:24And I think an example would be space debris.
26:26It seems some companies are putting a lot up there
26:29and some companies are trying to work out how to get rid of space debris.
26:33Is there a way of doing it effectively, of doing it well?
26:37I think space debris is a really good example, isn't it,
26:39of thinking about commercialisation.
26:41And in a way, yes, there are some companies
26:43sending lots of things into space,
26:45but that's needed for the business that they're running
26:48and it's going to be of benefit to humanity.
26:50And so there's a plus side there,
26:52but only if we have the regulation in place
26:55to make sure that this is done ethically and sustainably.
27:00It's not just satellites placed in space
27:02that we need to carefully consider.
27:04We also need to look at how we get people into space
27:07in a way that is safe and beneficial to all of us.
27:11So, I'm going to punt it out there.
27:13The next 50 years, do you think we'll have people on Mars?
27:15Yeah, I do, actually. I do.
27:17And I realise that people on Mars, it's always 30 years away, right?
27:20I think 30 years ago we said we'll have them there in 30 years
27:23and we haven't, for good reason, I think, actually.
27:25Before we send people anywhere,
27:27we must understand the environment that we will be sending them into.
27:30And so now we're finally reaching the phase, I think,
27:32where we've sent orbiters, now we've sent landers and rovers
27:35and really understanding the environment.
27:37So, given how far we've come in the last 70 years,
27:40in the next 50 years we may well have the first boots on Mars.
27:43I'm hoping they're mine, but we'll see.
27:45I'll vote for you, Maggie.
27:47So, having been one of the participators in generating this report,
27:51what would you like people to take away from it?
27:53I think I'd really like people to take away a sense of excitement
27:56about what the future holds.
27:58Because if you read the report,
28:00there's so many amazing things that we're talking about
28:03that 20 years ago would have been impossible.
28:05And many of these concepts come from science fiction.
28:08They come from things that we would have read as young people.
28:11And now, in the next 50 years, they're going to be a reality.
28:15To find out more about the Royal Society's report,
28:18you can sign up for information on their website.
28:21You can also find great videos
28:23on other mind-bending future space stuff on BBC Ideas.
28:28The boundaries of humanity's ambitions in space
28:31seem to grow wider year on year,
28:33from near the surface of our little globe
28:35to the moon, to Mars, and way beyond.
28:38But the people we've met in today's episode
28:40have given us a lot to think about
28:42if we're to meet this future in a way that benefits us all.
28:45Whatever happens between now and 2075,
28:48you can keep up with space on the sky at night.
28:50Good night.
29:03Subtitling made possible by Acorn Media