when it hit me, i said dude we are the same i'm antonio mora thank you for joining us. live coverage. louisiana theatre shooting first thing tomorrow morning. "inside story" is next. when asked why he wanted to be the first to summit george everest, george mallery famously said because it's there. in the same spirit n.a.s.a. reached pluto, spending $650 million, to send a spacecraft billions of miles to get there. is it reason enough in an age of skyrocketed death and increasing space exploration.

to pluto and beyond. it's "inside story". . >> welcome to "inside story". i'm leonardo mayer sitting in for luis suarez. it has been a huge month for n.a.s.a. for the first time history, a spacecraft got close to blewetto sending us the first -- pluto, sending us the first images. scientists believe it has icy mountains 2.5 miles wide. frigid temperatures 300 degrees below zero and word of a new discovery from a deep splayed telescope. a planet kepler 454 degrees. the first earth-side planet found orbiting around a sun a

lot like ours. each mission has a cost of $650 billion. no one questions the wow factor but some question whether it's worth that money. there's space exploration moving forward whether it would be better handled by the private sector. erica pitzi has more. >> a deep space discovery announced thursday has n.a.s.a. scientists excited. >> as far as we can tell it's a good close cousin to the earth and our son. >> astronomers using the ken telescope. just days ago the new horizon spacecraft revealed the first detailed picture of pluto, raising questions about its unique surface. >> what you make in the laboratory is colorless or white. pluto has colour. it's a mix of yellow brown or

reddish. n.a.s.a.'s dominance of human space travelnded years ago. currently the space agency works with russia and other countries. sined the end of the space shuttle pro-am. n.a.s.a. relied on others. >> protection, paying russia. the latest mission lunched on wednesday. government is not the only one whose business is space. a growing numbers of business - some ambitious like this one. a programme to colonize mars. >> it's inspiration. humans going to march is the greatest story. we need to share it with the world. experts say with the next few years several businesses will put it into orbit. faced with shrinking budget and costs, n.a.s.a. is returning to

the skies. >> this is something n.a.s.a. is more comfortable with new companies are faced with a learning curve. last october, a rocket exploded during lift-off in virgin. n.a.s.a. contracted its builder to deliver 5,000 pounds of equipment to the international space station. another company n.a.s.a. plays is spacex. it had several successful deliveries it had failures and a flight that exploded last august. accidents have many asking if the private sector is ready to take on complex missions. it raises questions, who is responsible if a mission kills people n.a.s.a. or the company that contracts. >> we want to make sure that as these moves into space are happening, that our politics are keeping pace with them. those questions are not stopping

companies bidding for contract with n.a.s.a. worth billions of dollars. >> elon musk, the jeff basos, paul allens myself, all of us in this cause right now, i believe come from a place of hope and possibility. while it may seem like a new context. it's not. n.a.s.a. hired companies. boeing was the lead contractor. so will more and more companies see dollar signs in the stars? >> the universe holds the answer. joining me now, n.a.s.a.'s john jenkins, the co-investigator for the mission. thanks so much for joining us. how big is the discovery of kepler 452b. >> well thank you, i'm pleased to be here. it's a big discovery. and really big news.

this planet is orbiting the star in an orbit that is the same size as earth, receiving the same amount of energy a little more than earth, and is orbiting a star similar to the sun. in fact, this is the first discovery of a small planet that could be rocky. that's big news to all of us. is there any idea if there's life forms on the planet. indications of water or anything like that. will we be able to figure it out? >> the answer is no. we know the size the energy that it's refusing. we know some things, but beyond that we have to predict what might be there, based on what we know about other planets in the solar system. we can estimate the planet. we estimate based on other small planets found that it has a better than even chance of being

rocky. determining whether it is inhabiteded by plants or animals. that will not happen. >> that's a long way. want to take a stap at it what do you think is there. purely hypothetical. no one would no better. >> i think what we need to do is use this discovery as a springboard for future emissions. i'm on the team that is building the mission, which is a different launch in 2017. that is an all-sky survey looking for earth's close neighbours. targetting stars that are 10 times closer and for this planet we are unable to measure the maths. it's too far away. they'll find planets that are 10 times closer. many of these planets follow up

with the telescope. characterising the atmospheres, learning what they are made of. further down the road we are looking to other submissions 10 years, 20 years down the road capable of seeking signs of life in the atmosphere. albeit ones closer to us than 452. it is not your area of expertise, you must follow the news much when you couple of discovery and you look at kepler, this is a big month from n.a.s.a. what do you take away. >> nothing brings news home like seeing pictures from a planet like pluto. before it was a small hazy dot. maybe a desk and it's hard to get an idea of what such a planet is like before you visit

it. could you imagine having those kinds of images an exoplanet. it would be stunning amazing. some people have asked questions about is all of this worth the money, why is it worth hundreds of billions in order to get new pictures of pluto, why is it words it? >> well, i'd say that human experience is one infuse said. and there's universe alt i to find out what is over the next -- universality to find out what is over the ocean, and we have been asking are we alone for thousands of years and asking are there other worlds around other stars. that's a question that until recently we have not had any idea about. >> yes i talked to an astronaut a couple of weeks ago with the same questions, are we alone.

he brought up the point do i want to know that answers and invite anyone to come to our planet. how long have you worked at n.a.s.a.? >> well, i have worked at n.a.s.a. research center for 23 years. and your father was an n.a.s.a. scientist f i understand correctly. when did he start to work with the agency? >> my father was an engineer, a computer scientist and he joined the programme. he worked on the mercury and gemini and apollo. >> over the course of your family working at apollo, the agency saw cutbacks. if you look at the number, the percentage of the budget. n.a.s.a. accounts for 0.5%. back in the day when your father started to work for n.a.s.a. it was 2, 3, 4% of the federal budget. is n.a.s.a. appropriately funded

and impacting on the ability to conduct experiments? >> i think we are pushing the boundaries in the frontieres of science as hard as we can, given the resources that exist. there are many serious issues that we have to deal with, and the government has to balance competing interests. i'm thrilled and find it exhilarating that we make such discoveries as we are announcing today, and that we had last week with pluto. i think what is happening is that people are making the most of what we have. of course wd like to have the big budget. but we have to balance competing interests. >> making the most and giving bang for the buck when you look at the pictures and discovery of the planet. >> thank you so much. john jenkins, thank you for joining us. >> when we return beyond the debate of whether or not to explore space, we look at how we should do it. pros and cons of privatizing space. to pluto and beyond. it's "inside story".

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alex gibney. a hard hitting look at the real issues facing american teens. the incredible journey continues. "on the edge of eighteen". welcome back to "inside story", i'm adam may in for ray suez. tonight's show - to pluto and beyond. the trend towards private money, pushing exploration to another lair. yuri milnersnt, russian

billionaire and steven hawking announced a $100 million project called break through listen. listen to this - the goal is to search for radio signals signs of intelligent life out there. the executive director of the space frontier foundation the director of the advocacy of the planetary society, thank you for joining us. i would like to start with you. is the private industry really driving us forward when it comes to immigration. >> i think that the private industry is able to take risks that n.a.s.a. is not able to tyke. n.a.s.a. is funded by taxpayer dollars, and is decided by congress. the private industry, being funded by private investment and their project decided by economic value. they are able to mo faster take

risks and do things that ultimately results in innovative products where n.a.s.a. has not been able to do so. >> would you agree with that. especially as we have seen n.a.s.a.'s budget slashed so much over the last few years, is private industry able to pick up loose ends. >> yes, to some extent. the crucial point to remember is n.a.s.a. acts as a customer to a lot of these industries. and also n.a.s.a. had a long history of washing with a lot of private history for areas cracking methods in the past. and it's a new relationship of buying services from new space industries that are kind of unexplored country we are going into. fundamentally at the moment it needs a healthy private space industry. what about the fact that we

don't have a shuttle. our astronauts are having to rely on russia to get the international space station. how long until we see the private industry stepped in and supply a transportation mode for the astronauts. you are seeing it right now, they are funding this process call the troop programme and has been asking for dollars from the congress. congress has not been providing that money. and private industry is not able to take on the money, the risk. you have seen the programme delayed from 2015 to 2017, and depending what happened this year, pushed out. >> when you look at the new discovery, the month has been astronomical when it comes to pictures of pluto, and you talk about an earth-like planet light years away. will the private industry have incentive to look for these

things on their own. when you think about for profit. you can have space tourism. what about scientific exploration like this? >> yes. i think, you know n.a.s.a. is on a different in addition. the mission is science, and to answer the question of are we alone. what is great about the industry is if there are people willing to fund it customers willing to accept that product. you can do anything you want. now more than ever before private industry is coming out with you know, new technologies to do all sorts of exploration. scientific exploration, and also earth product that they... >> let me have you pick up on what she is saying there.

i have a follow up question. can the private industry do this in a state manner? >> sure. let me follow up on the previous question. what this brings out is that there's a real roll for n.a.s.a. to play. this is why we have public services, why government exists. it's to fill in the gaps that private industry cannes address untilled. untilled. what we are seeing now, private industry - what we emphasise is n.a.s.a. buys services from spacex. to get stuff up into space. what is exciting to me is that the prime minister is able to take on the risk there and provide that service while n.a.s.a. can be freed up to go exciting exploratory missions into deep space and build hardware to push astronauts further out while private industry takes care of low earth

orbit. and we can have missions like new horizons to pluto. this is a role for a public and private partnership. for the safety issue, there can be a safe. what you are having here is a close working relationship between n.a.s.a. and the core. and the private industry ourselves. we'll see if play out in an exciting way. >> there is time. and it's a look into the future. if you could reel briefly, and i start with casey. where do you see the future of private space exploration and tourism heading in the next couple of decades. >> i think the ideal case is that you have private industry really taking over what is lower orbit. orbiting the earth, you are able to free up n.a.s.a. to go to so many exciting places and behind.

>> europa, jupiter, will be a trial destination, n.a.s.a. getting humans to mars and probes out to sat urn and neptune. the key thing here is getting n.a.s.a. out of the business of shuttling things, industry that can build a business out of that. ideally lower the cost. get tourist stuff into space. n.a.s.a. should be exploratory. do you think we'll sleep in a space hotel some time in our lifetime. do you think it will happen. >> absolutely. we did a study at the new space conference for 50% of attendees. answering that they think there'll be private space stations.

it's crazy travel. can you imagine that in space. hannah executive director of the space granted ear and casey from advocacy at the planetary society. thank you for joining us. john f kennedy described going to the moon as a challenge we are willing to accept one we are unwilling to postpone. when we return - why many americans have lost interest in space. what will it take to get them excited again. >> pluto, beyond - it's "inside story".

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. >> three. two. one. [ cheering ] . >> mission control was all fired up when the first images of ploout j from the spacecraft "new horizons" beamed back to mother earth. it's a level of enthusiasm that does not appear to be shared with the majority of americans. in february, a poll to commemorate the first manned orball space flight was released. 42% of the poll favoured the spending billions to send astronauts to the moon, mars and asteroids. 50% were opposed. 51% thought that increased spending on the programme was a good idea. >> joining us now is a former n.a.s.a. astronaut and international space station commander on the show. thank you so much. what do you make of the polling

data. why are americans losing interest in space. n.a.s.a. has been a victim of their own success. people are used to seeing the space shuttles. and by and large having operations go smoothly except for when we had the big mishaps. in a way people got a little complacent. they heard the arguments against going back to the moon saying we have done that. never mind it was 46 years ago to the day. you know people are used to the idea of going into space. we take it for granted. and that simply is not necessarily true. >> does a week like this help. we have amazing images. we are talking about a planet that could be a lot like earth. >> i think the new horizon are stunning injury. the existence of water ice on

methane. they are significant fines and a lot more data coming back. that's very exciting in the goldie locks zone. orbiting a star. it orbits the sun every 385 days. there's reason to believe that there's a possibility of life existing on the planet. it definitely helps to capture the imagination of young people n.a.s.a. funding slashed half of 1% of the federal budget. we don't have a shuttle programme. was that a mistake. >> in my opinion it was, in 2009 i was part of a committee to review the plans. we put forward an option to keep the shuttle flying 2015 at a low rate. we anticipated there would be delays. that option was chosen and here

we are. we have kind of taken it for granted. we have been the leader in human space. we have taken it for granted that we are going to be. the way we continued to be is the partnership. go on and explore together, by adding countries in space, that have moonambitions and beyond. >> will we see partnerships in the future is that what we'll have to do considering a mode of transportation for the space station. it seems awfully far in the distance. right, well as you mentioned earlier, we have the commercial crew programme, spacex and boeing. they'll be able to take astronauts to and from the i.s.c. they are on contact to deliver the flight. i'm hopeful that we'll see that happen. as far as the exploration beyond, i think that we should plan to do that internationally,

not only for the aspect of exploration, but the relationship with the russians it's not at its best. i would argue that it would be worse if it was not working together on the space project, civil project, the international space station. >> a lot of people made the point. it creates camaraderie with the russians having the space station. let's talk about the future as we have seen move towards privatitionation and industry. who will make it first and get up there. where do you think it is heading in our lifetime. putting the commercial crew praim together was the right thing to do. that was an option put together. i'm glad to see it was adopted and going forward so well. it's a balance. we have the considerably industry creating that transportation to and from low-earth orbit.

burning up n.a.s.a.'s resources to go further. to add a spin i think there's possibility and potential for commercial government collaboration on exploration. exploration on its own, if you have people involved, is so expensive. you will not get investors, and they don't know how you'll make your money back and when putting up the billions. a partnership could work. elon musk is wanting to go to mars. >> and maybe will vacation there some day. former astronaut and international space station commander, lee rue chow. that's it -- lee roy chow. that's it for this show of "inside story". tomorrow we look at the jury and how it may need to be modernized. goodnight.

turkey pulled into the fight against i.s.i.l. in the first direct combat across the syrian border. >> hello, you are watching al jazeera live from doha. on the programme - u.s. secretary of state john kerry puts up a defense of the iran nuclear deal to u.s. legislators. and i'm in