the headlines: the british foreign secretary has warned there will be "serious consequences" if iran does not release a british—flagged tanker seized in the gulf. in the last few minutes, the uk government has warned its ships to stay out of the region. tehran says the vessel was flouting maritime rules. the stena impero‘s owners say they have been unable to contact their vessel. extremely hot weather has started to hit the united states, with temperatures of around 100 degrees fahrenheit expected at the weekend. the heatwave could affect about 200 million people in major cities like new york, washington and boston. aid agencies are calling on the world to speed up its response to the ebola emergency in the democratic republic of the congo. more than 1600 people have already died there.

now on bbc news, click. this week it is the race back to space. we will hit the road, build a house, and... lock up some astronauts. jump on in. jump on in. thank you. so you are

not using the steering wheel at all, you are using... laughter. which way welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: are we going? i am at nasa in the british government warns of "serious consequences" after an oil tanker in the gulf is seized by iran. the vessel was tracked moving off course, to the north — no longer in contact houston where i am being taken for a with its owners. spin. using both a steering wheel aid agencies call for a faster international response to the ebola and ajoy spin. using both a steering wheel and a joy stick, you can point to outbreak in the democratic republic of the congo. and america lights up the washington this vehicle in one direction and monument to mark the 50th driving it in the other. you can anniversary of the apollo moon landings. feel the false is in your tailbone. if that feels confusing, it is. this is drive by wire technology which means the on—board computer works out which way you want to go and then calculate what to do with the wheels. we willjust go this way. hello and this is just wheels. we willjust go this way. this isjust one wheels. we willjust go this way. this is just one of many experiments to how we might live, work and drive on the moon or mars. although this

vehicle may also pave the way for smarter cars in smarter cities back down here on earth, where i have to say parking may be one of the coolest things you get to do. no way! no way! come on, man. but, before we start driving around celestial bodies, we need to get there first. in the days of the moon landings, only two competing countries were locked in battle, driving space exploration forward. now, in the race back to space, the power is shifting. earlier this year, china was like probe was the first aircraft to land on the far side of the moon and europe, india andjapan are side of the moon and europe, india and japan are all pushing forward

with their space programmes. back in the us, nasa plans to get back to the us, nasa plans to get back to the moon by 2024 now it has competition from private individuals. an idea that would be laughable 50 years ago. rival billionaires, elon musk and jeff bezos are racing to populate the moon and mars. what kind of person would be on these spacecrafts?m would be on these spacecrafts?m would be on these spacecrafts?m would be risk—taking adventurers. small chance of return. they would be financed or sponsored by one of these private companies. at nasa, we discovered a little—known department where these risk—taking adventurers live. right now, there are four astronauts inside a spacecraft on a mission to one of mars's two moons.

but they are actually in there. yes, in this tiny habitat, volunteers are locked away for 45 days on a simulated mission with cameras and scientists monitoring their every move. this is nasa's human exploration research analogue. hera for short. this is so cool. inside the module, the crew is poked and prodded in different psychological experiments, from sleep deprivation to diminish privacy, all to fine tune a critical

component that could make or break any future mission to mars that the humans inside the spacecraft. the primary purpose of hera is to learn about the effects of isolation and confinement on people so a lot of the studies we do up behavioural or psychological in nature. looking at the type of isolation from people so you are the type of isolation from people so you a re really the type of isolation from people so you are really only talking or in contact with the other crew members into the vehicle or mission control thatis into the vehicle or mission control that is supporting you. astronauts on future mission to mars have more to worry about them at the toxic soil, the deadly atmosphere and high levels of radiation, they also have to worry about each other and it is ha rd to to worry about each other and it is hard to say which of these will be more likely to result in someone's death. consistent low level stress over time, little things start to

great on you because the stress heightens how you react to things you so the sound of somebody chewing the serial next year might be fine at first but 45 days later you really, really do not like that sound. the psychological demands would be extraordinary. the spacecraft would only be the size of a small flight and the round—trip would take almost three years, and infour would take almost three years, and in four different personalities and you may run into some problems. and with a range of characters needed it, you never know who you will end up it, you never know who you will end up with.

the habitat and workload are designed to mimic a real mission as closely as possible. showing lots of elements to try and assure the use forget they are actually part of an experiment. they asked a question. it takes five minutes to get to the crew and then the answer, it takes five minutes to get back. a ten minute round—trip for a question and answer. the whole idea of creating a mission scenario, you're going to do an epa, pilot omission, it keeps them excited. —— a mission.

an epa, pilot omission, it keeps them excited. -- a mission. the gulf is also to put together the perfect tea m is also to put together the perfect team for extreme space travel. —— the goal. we are looking for the right mix, or given that particular mix of people, one strong personality and free not so strong, what plays out. what roles do need to have a successful team for a space mission and they were looking not just at the functional roles, a commander, a medic, an engineer but also social roles and they found they were just as if not more important for those long duration missions, having somebody providing humourand missions, having somebody providing humour and entertainment. that is way more important. it will notjust be down to humans to decide what the right social mix would be. masses of

data is generated, making successful social interactions quantifiable. 0ne social interactions quantifiable. one of the research studies that is actually going on is looking at away to get a little bit ahead of the personality problem by developing an algorithm where you can take the background information on an individual personality test, plug it into the system, and, based on the characteristics of all the people you're putting on that team, figure out how they are going to work together, whether it is the right mix of people. unlike these potential martian voyages, we may think that three years in isolation isa think that three years in isolation is a bit bonkers. however, many are dreaming of trips to and even living on the red planet. but lord martin rees, doesn't actually think that most of us are suited to space. nowhere in the solar system anyway

is as comfortable as the top of everest or the south pole. the idea of migration is a bit crazy. space not a place for human beings except for adventurers, the kind of people who do go to the south pole and the everest. what do the crew think about the experiment? we got up with them, unsurprisingly out in the fresh air, shortly after they left the habitat. if we had one very extroverted person, with a strong personality, that might have negatively impacted the outcome. personality, that might have negatively impacted the outcomem you put for extroverts ever together they would drive each other crazy eventually. introvert would not be able to come together as a team. you wa nt able to come together as a team. you want to get people who are adaptable to not only situation but to each

other's personality. you are extremely motivated by a mission to mars. ican extremely motivated by a mission to mars. i can barely imagine being in such a situation. but you can ove i’co [ti e such a situation. but you can overcome anything. hello, and welcome to the weekend tech. it was a week that facebook came under attack in the us senate over its plans for cryptic currency. the us air force have one people not to go near area 51 after more than a million people rsvp to an event created on facebook. an computer paneer and codebreaker alan turing was revealed as a new face on the british £50 note. elon musk announced more details of work carried out on his newer technology

company. it plans to insert threads into people's brains. the technology has enabled a monkey to use a computer. the new migs including wheelchair and guide dog uses work showed off. galileo, europe's gps satellite has been off—line for almost a week, with no word as yet of whent it might be switched on again. an mit developed a way to make drains seem even more minister. researchers have created a new type of craft with the benefits of hovering and glide and travel

vertically. this is how the apollo astronauts got about on the moon. it seems pretty racy, even by today's standards but the next time you go to the moon and mars, our vehicles will look a bit more like this. with six wheels, all of which can turn independently, this is the latest nasa prototype of the vehicle that could be crawling over the lunar surface very soon. we are designing the next vehicle and the next vehicle goes up in group. we love it. to make the drive as safe as possible, the active suspicion

keeps equal pressure on each wheel at all times. that means you can cover some pretty extreme terrain. 0h oh my word! are we about to go down that? we can if you like. it's not worth it though. it's not worth the enjoyment. i have children at home. 0h enjoyment. i have children at home. oh my goodness. this vehicle is orally being used to test the practicalities of future moon missions. four arsenals take two vehicles are for two weeks at a time, living and working on board, to work out the amount of food they'll need and the kind of living conditions they can expect. by the way... conditions they can expect. by the by conditions they can expect. by the way... by the way, we are on a slight incline right now. laughter. so what they can do is i can actually put my head in this little bottle here and i can investigate the rock, which is a great design

feature. all right. i'm examining lunar rocks. it's like a glass bottomed boat. progress across the terrain it will be slow and steady, because this will be a really harsh environment. and moon dust is pretty rough, sharp. it is really shop. those are things that we definitely know from apollo. think of taking a glass and just slamming it down and then crossing it with your feet, and those shards, that is kind of how it is on the moon since there is no erosion or wind to tumble those little pieces. and that's one of the reasons we are pushing to have suit ports with the spacesuits on the outside of the vehicle. so on the back of, at the end of these beds back of, at the end of these beds back here, there's a door to the vehicle. so you open the door to the vehicle. so you open the door to the vehicle and you are now staring at the back of your suit and you claim into the back. so now your suit and

yourcabin are into the back. so now your suit and your cabin are pressurised. you seal it up and then you close the cabin door, so you can go claim in a spacesuit while a stay in here and we don't have to deal pressurised the cabin or anything. and that means all of the moon dust that collect on the spacesuit never gets into our atmosphere. the whole suit stays on the outside of the vehicle. that's ingenious. mind you, moon dust may have its uses — as a building material. and that's something that lara lewington has been investigating at the european space agency in the netherlands. this structure has been freely printed using a combination of elements that could be found on earth that replicates the qualities of moon dust and that means that things can be tried here before actually being attempted on the surface of the moon and the hope is that one day creating something like

this, inhabitable by humans, could be possible. this moon regolith, or simulant, is hope to be able to create an inhabitable structure that is temperate and can block radiation. we have actually the powder and then you spray with the nozzle and find the material. to bind the material here was an inorganic salt and water. and then it comes to a reaction like concrete. and then you build a solid structure. this substance isn't quite perfect, though. so at some point testing on the real precious moon dust needs to happen. but 3—d printing on the moon could go beyond putting a roof over astronauts' heads. we can print polymers, metals, ceramic materials. and you can print food, you can print stem

cells, you have many applications, there is almost no limit of what you cannot print. even more important, is that you can recycle. so you could actually then have a very sustainable operation by reusing stuff we have used other purposes before. so a robotic version of this 3-d before. so a robotic version of this 3—d printer could make use not only of su bsta nces 3—d printer could make use not only of substances found on the lunar surface, but also raw materials transported there in as low a volume as possible. exploration in the past has always been about taking everything you can with you wherever you go. now this is possible, but it's very expensive, is very difficult to do. so what we're looking at now was in the longer term we want to make exploration sustainable and permanent. 0xygen, for example, is something we need for propulsion, for rockville, and for breathing, we can get that out of ice at the lunar poles and lunar rocks which are

about 40% oxygen. we also left with metal. in those metals can be used to make equipment, make materials, the moon is also the only place we can go, it's only three days away, to start to understand what it means to start to understand what it means to live and work away from the earth. so if we want to learn to use resources locally in a responsible and clever way to prepare us for going onto mars and elsewhere, the moon is where we have to do it. of course this won't happen tomorrow. but technological advancement is starting to push forward the possibilities of learning more about the moon, followed by mars and beyond. that was lara at the european space agency. i have been meeting this robot back at nasa. this is valkyrie. the robot is currently there. the robot is

currently there. the robot is currently there. the robot is currently there. that is where you wa nted currently there. that is where you wanted to go there. then you just up the robot to plan a path to get there. and using information about its environment it plans its footsteps uniquely, figures out where to step safely to get across this debris field. controlling robots at a distance means that the operator needs the robot to handle the fine detail of its environment. after being told where to go and what to do, valkyrie analyses the terrain and works out for itself where to step in which to put its hands. also there are a variety of applications here on earth for putting a robot in a place that really needs the human hands, the human shape. getting in the pickup truck on the moon. david masten, chief technology officer. the reason they started

this company was so that i could go walk on the moon. we rewired those. we did, yeah. masten is delivering payloads to the surface of the moon. by payloads to the surface of the moon. bya payloads to the surface of the moon. by a big rocket launch we will then have our vehicle, navigate the rest of the way to the moon, put it on the surface, and then that a soft landing that has your payload right there on the surface. i started this company for a there on the surface. i started this company fora numberof there on the surface. i started this company for a number of reasons. the major reason was the idea that i think we could do better than we had been doing in aerospace, working at the automotive industry, bringing the automotive industry, bringing the methodologies that we started developing in silicon valley. we have spare cryogenic container sitting over there. masten right now

is about 15 people full—time, the majority of them engineers that are both designing and installing ranches and flying. the majority of team is based here. the smack of the team. throw away everything that's. .. we are one of the few companies that was awarded a master contract by nasa for delivery of payloads to the surface of the moon. this is all—inclusive. it's lab to surface. the biggest thing for competition with spacex, blue origin, other billionaires is to find other niche is in the marketplace. stay away from the big, huge launch vehicles, stay away from human landing vehicles for the time being, so we can get into a much better situation

where we could possibly stand toe to toe with a billionaire who doesn't ca re toe with a billionaire who doesn't care how many billions he throws at the project. the answer of why go now is that we have reached the inflection point where the ecosystem is able to offer us access to the moon at a price point that is reasonable to unlock the potential that exists on the moon. when are we looking to land on the moon? as early as 2022. and i'm afraid that's it for our many exploration of space. at least

they have a few more days to go yet. my they have a few more days to go yet. my hope you enjoy the journey for stopping has been fascinating, isn't it? if you have any comments get in touch on social media @bbcclick. thanks for watching. and we will see you soon. it felt as if summer had taken a break on friday, it will return though, as i will show you later in this forecast. but over the last 24 hours we have seen some heavy downpours, that picture came from a weather watcher in staffordshire late on friday afternoon. the radar shows the way in which these pulses of heavy rain flung themselves across the british isles, with some lightning, rumbles of thunder and the last vestiges of this wet weather still with us as we start off saturday morning, some heavy rain across the far south—east, patches of rain elsewhere as well.

all tied in with this frontal system which is clearing away, so that will allow things to improve a little through the day ahead, but low pressure still in charge, so while there will be some spells of sunshine there will also be some showers, some of which could be heavy and thundery. it is quite a soggy start across the south—east of england, that rain should clear away fairly smartly through the morning, rain hanging back across shetland for a good part of the day. for the majority it is that regime of sunny spells and heavy, thundery downpours, although for northern ireland, a much drier day in prospect with patchy cloud and sunny spells, 20 in belfast, 22 in plymouth, 24 in london. those showers should quickly fade away during saturday evening, into the early hours of sunday we will be left with clear, starry skies, maybe the odd mist patch and it will be a little cooler and fresher with temperatures getting down to 11—14. sunday starts off on a fine, dry and in many places sunny note — the further south and east you are the better the chances of holding on to that fine weather, but for northern ireland, western scotland, far north—west

of england, maybe north—west wales will see outbreaks of rain and strengthening them through the day. still some wet weather around the northern half of the uk on monday, that rain tending to retreat northwards, further south some spells of sunshine, and things start to warm up. temperatures could get to 29, possibly 30, but that is not the end of it — because across iberia and france, a significant heat wave will be developing through early next week and some of that heat will waft its way northwards, some is likely to get around 34 degrees. the north—west of the uk, likely to see some outbreaks of rain at times, but even in edinburgh we are looking at highs of 25—26, some areas of cloud flirting with western coast at times, further south and east is where we will have the highest temperatures, 33—34, with the chance of some 00:27:36,625 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 thunderstorms later in the week.