this week... like this? that's it? yeah. yeah, that's it. pat your head. pat your head, rub your stomach. 0k. 1-9-8-7. ..tim's taking me to task... ..tom's tackling table football... 0h! ..and anyone for a dance? this is tim peake, only the uk's second astronaut. he spent six months aboard the iss in 2016, living, this is tim peake, only the uk's second astronaut. he spent six months aboard the iss in 2016, living, working and walking in space. coming out. 0k.

he's one of only 628 humans to have left our planet. and in his latest book, he's written the story of some of the other 627. all of them are special, a rare breed. and i met tim at imperial college london's data observatory to talk about a few that mean something extra special to him. yes, so this is bruce mccandless. 1984, out of the space shuttle challenger. and it's an iconic photograph. it's the first untethered spacewalk. we do lots of spacewalks today. they're never without risk, but they have become more commonplace. but we're always tethered to something in case we fall off. but to go outside on a spacewalk with no tethers whatsoever, just floating away from the shuttle, is incredible. why did he do it? well, he's been working on this manned manoeuvring unit, as it was called, which was a developmental piece of equipment, looking at how

you could manoeuvre around out in space. you know, we actually need a small version of this, which is our last—ditch attempt, if you like, of how to get back to the space station. so, in order to test it, hejust went, take the tethers off... yeah. ..put my money where my mouth is. absolutely. and go for it. for the upcoming artemis missions, nasa has pledged to put the first woman and the first person of colour onto the moon. most astronauts so far have been men, although there was at least one early attempt to address that imbalance. valentina tereshkova, this is 1963, the first woman in space, and this is fairly early on in the space programme. i mean, �*61 was when yuri gagarin went as the first human. so, only two years later, we've got the first woman in space. but actually, having kind of broken the mould and got a woman into space very soon in the programme, the soviets then didn't fly another woman for 20 years — svetla na savitskaya. right now, we are...

we're about a1% of the global astronaut corps are women astronauts, so we're getting there. but it's taken an awful long time. it's taken far longer than it should have done. why do you think that is? i just think it's attitudes have taken a long time to change. i think when you had that early selection process, both by nasa and the soviets, it was fast—jet test pilots, which instantly said, well, let's go for military, because that's an easier, smaller pool to pick from. that meant male because there were no female test pilots on either side. and that kind of then cemented people's attitudes that this is the kind of the right stuff. and now we come right up to date. yes. this is my good friend, vic glover. vic is the pilot for artemis ii. this is the return to the moon. now, not landing on the surface, artemis ii is going to be a bit like apollo 8. it's going to go into lunar orbit. do you think it's slightly frustrating to be the crew that goes round but doesn't go down? i'm sure there'll be an element of that, but any mission is a good mission and there's

certainly going to be... it's a very challenging mission. it's notjust a case of going to the moon and going around it, but we're testing out a brand—new spacecraft, the orion spacecraft, on top of sls, and a brand—new orbit as well. because when we landed on the moon before, they were all kind of in that equatorial region, which is the easiest region to get to when you launch from the cape or around the equator of earth. but we want to launch and land at the south pole of the moon. if there's one place in the solar system that tim would choose to visit, it would be here — the red planet. although the astronauts that end up on mars might need to be made of even sturdier stuff. and when we think about living on mars, i think what's fascinating is pick any one of those stars out there, well, that could actually be earth from mars. that's what earth will look like. so, that level of isolation as well... that's going to take a certain type of person, isn't it? it is. i know you've written about the fact that even in the iss, you knew that if you needed to get out, there was a lifeboat

essentially right there, the soyuz capsule, and the earth was big in your window. yeah. but here, you're... there's no getting away from trouble. yeah. and the earth is as you say, just a point of light. it's eight months away, so you have to be self—sufficient. you're operating as an autonomous crew, so that is going to be difficult to get used to. should it be robots that are exploring space rather than humans? i think robots have their place, absolutely. they help to de—risk human missions that come along, and in some cases, they can be cheaper and more efficient in terms of cost and time. but ultimately, what a human could do on the surface of mars in one day would take our best rovers right now three or four years to achieve, in terms of our ingenuity, our decision making, the fidelity of our movement. and so we are still... we need to give ourselves a pat on the back. we're pretty smart and we're pretty efficient and we're still the most intelligent thing right now that we know of in the universe, so i think

that's a reason why humans should be exploring, but it's more than that. i think it's that emotive storytelling, if you like. i want to hear... if people have travelled and experienced things, i want to hear it from a human. i want to hear the emotion. i want to hear their thoughts and their interpretation. the smells, the sights, the sounds. you won't get that from a robot. you'll get raw data. and so i think it's that kind of innate human desire to explore that will keep us going out into the universe. space is opening up for more people, but astronauts will still need to be made of the right stuff. and later in the programme, tim's going to see if i've got what it takes. meanwhile, paul carter's been to germany to find out how to make the space race cheaper and more achievable for all of us. paul: what does it feel like making something that's going into space? it's like a boy's dream, right? here at exploration company,

we're building a capsule to go to space and return safely back to earth. so, at the moment, space is felt as for the lucky few. we want to develop technologies so that other people can get closer to space, so we're looking already with the capsule that we're currently launching to launch a payload that has been built by students to give them a feeling of what it means to go to space, to develop something for space, so to bring it closer to the people. they've called it nyx, after the greek goddess of the night. it's currently in development with the mission into earth's orbit planned for 202a. hey. wow, this is where the magic happens. exactly. welcome to our facilities. and this must be nyx? but should i say... this is a model, right? exactly. this is a 1:4 scale model of our capsule. so, 1:11. so, it's actually quite big then. yeah, exactly. so, this is about 1m and will be km for the full capsule. this type of craft is important for space travel as it allows

for goods, cargo and experiments to be transported into space and potentially, in the future, provide human flight from europe. it kind of looks quite cute. is that intentional? the shape... cute was not one of the design parameters, but it is lucky that they came out. so, we're looking here at a typical apollo shape, which gives a balance between the thermal loads on the vehicle during re—entry and the stability that we're going to see while re—entering the atmosphere. and presumably, re—entry is one of the most difficult things that you have to deal with? yeah, re—entry is definitely one of the tough parts because we're going ultra—fast, 7km per second, and we have to bring that down to 5m per second in a phase of ten minutes. the atmosphere, at this point, we need to break and that's going to heat up a lot of the capsule, so we need to thermally protect the capsule to survive it and to not burn up. and how do you do that? so, this is the bottom of the capsule. you see the spherical heat shield and you would have the cone at the bottom, so, actually, we're upside down. just to be clear, this is an actual part of the craft that's going to space.

exactly. this is real space hardware, going to space end of next year. that's amazing. i won't touch it because i'm sure it's very expensive, but that is phenomenal. but protecting this multimillion dollar component is something much more down to earth. so, here you see it, we have a cork—like material that we're going to bond on the spacecraft. so, we're going to do that next week, which will protect the vehicle from these extreme heats. as the capsule re—enters through the atmosphere, the cork slowly burns down while releasing a gas, which creates another layer of protection from the heat. you say cork, and this isjust, you know, similar to what you would have when you imagine cork like in a wine bottle, for example. it's a similar kind of material. it's similar, right. a cork in the wine bottle is really, really raw cork. we take that and then we mix it with a resin, we let it cure, and then we have a base style which we shape into the shape you see here, so that it fits on the heat shield. what kind of temperatures will this be able to withstand? so, this will get up to temperatures of 2,000 degrees

celsius. so, that's one you don't want to touch! no, absolutely not. who'd have thought? a humble cork tree getting us into space. well, getting us back from space. getting us back, exactly. but flying to space is not cheap. so far, the exploration company has raised over $50 million. but compared to giants like spacex, who have raised over $9 billion, it's a tiny amount. for this startup, the answer is lots and lots of small steps to make a giant leap. we're not trying to solve everything with the first capsule. we say, ok, it's good enough for this one but let's remember, for the next capsule, that system we don't really need, we can do without, to simplify it, because the simpler it is, the less likely to fail it is. it took about nine months. now the next capsule a bit bigger, 2.5m, and that will be ready for launch 0ctober next year. if you look about the 4m capsule, there we're looking at the development cycle

for three to four years. from those first apollo space missions, technologies were invented which are now part of everyday life, from the foam sole in trainers to solar panels, and even cordless drills. so while this and many other private space projects may have aspirations that are out of this world, the hope is that even before they crack space, there may be benefits down here too. uses of the threads and can now get rid of their profile without letting instagram account. the news is released on the account, after users expressed frustration with the current defaults. google deep mind has introduced a new ai tool that can predict extreme weather events in under one minute. it was able to predict

the weather conditions more accurately and faster then the gold standard system called high—resolution forecast. the high-resolution forecast. the computer _ high-resolution forecast. the computer is _ high—resolution forecast. tue: computer is looking high—resolution forecast. tte: computer is looking for patterns so when you look at the conditions today it thinks i've seen this before and uses historic data to predict what will happen in the future. amazon has announced more layoffs by cutting 180 jobs in the games department. in a letter to staff, they said the move would allow the company to refocus on the work it does with the frame games offered through prime gaming. china have developed a ai chemist robot that may be able to create rocket fuel from water on mars. it made up its own chemicals from materials found on the red planet and tested them to find the best one that could break water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. football manager is one of the best—selling video game

franchises in the world. to mark the game's 20th anniversary, they've given us exclusive access into their studios here in london to see how the game's made. the way that i see it is i'm actually making the game for me. and itjust so happens there are a few million other people like me out there. games aren't cheap, so we're determined to make the best value for money game each year, so that people are really getting a lot of playtime out of their £40, £50 that they've worked so hard to try and get. the game's changed dramatically since 2000, and what was once little circles bouncing around on a green rectangle is now a fully—fledged 3d simulation, with as many differences off the pitch as on it. so there's something new that's being added in this year's game that's going to make all the difference. in a much—requested feature in the community, for the first time ever, and a rarity in video games, you're going to be able to pick up

right where you left off in last year's game, transfer your saved game and start right again in this year's. i'm going to tell you a secret. great. we kind of had it working with fm23 and fm22 saves, but we weren't fully confident that it was going to work when it was out there. whistle blows so let's see how the new game looks. 0k, fairenough. this isn't the new game. but when he isn't trashing me at table football, nic madden is the man in charge of everything that happens on the pitch. we partnered with this amazing football data partner and they have given us data from actual matches. they're recording a general match. there's no motion capture sort of dots on a player. 0h, nice. and then we've developed technology where we can mix all that animations at one time. really, really cool.

it's like... it's a new technique in the industry. it's called motion matching. a lot of big games use it. motion matching is the hot new thing in video games. the team here use it to take action captured from actual football matches and apply that into the game itself. and nic showed mejust what that looks like under the hood of football manager 2024. well, that was a nice little run that player made there where he started making a run, curving his body a bit, coming through. yeah. like with the sort of the new player rotations that we've added in this year, it's about a player recognising the space that's maybe void. we've improved every player's movement... and there — he's lost his defender, come off the line. but a great, great save. now, english football fans were recently celebrating history when the lionesses won

euro 2022 at wembley. but football manager doesn't feature women, despite being based in the same city as the stadium where england won its first major tournament since 1966. when's women's football going to be in football manager? next year. next year? and we should have done it already. if we want women's football to be as successful as the men's game, it needs people like us, like the media, to actually be putting the investment in. but football manager doesn't do things by halves and getting all the stats right for every woman in the game is taking some time. i think we probably underestimated how much needed to be done. so, obviously, you know, from research, from my point of view, i came in, there was absolutely nothing. what are you hoping the legacy of this will be? well, firstly, ithink, yeah, legacy of the women's game is really important. i think we should remember where we've come from and those

players that have really driven for the game and all that fighting that has gone on for equality in the game. finally bringing it out will, you know, people will look back and go, yes, this was great. to be part of that growth and, you know, seeing where we can fit in, it is really exciting. and, also, ijust want my daughters to go and go, "yeah, my mummy done that, my mummy done that." and getting women into football manager is all part of one big mission — getting the game as close to reality as it can be so people can escape theirs. it goes back to giving people an escape from the real world that they don't enjoy as much, to be able to escape into a job that they want to do but haven't had the opportunity to do, as being a football manager. so... it's getting very philosophical. we are quite philosophical about the way that we make games. i think everyone in life should try to strive to be the best that they can be because you're only on this planet once, so you may as well try your hardest at whatever you choose to do.

that was miles jacobson talking to tom gerken. and sticking with gaming, alex humphreys has been to france to find out how developers are making one dancing game more inclusive for disabled players. alex: now, ubisoft is one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. this paris studio is where they make the hit gamejust dance. but for a dance game, just how accessible is it? well, i've come here to meet somebody who can find out. hey, seth. hi, how are you? i'm good. you all right? yes. are you going to go and give me some dance lessons? i will give you some dance lessons. let's do it. as a member of the welsh youth parliament, 14—year—old seth is a big advocate for accessibility rights. he has duchenne muscular dystrophy, and his hospice on the outskirts of cardiff is supported by children in need. that's where i first met him last year. video games are just really important to me because in some things i can't alwaysjoin

in but in video games, i can alwaysjoin in with everyone. so i've come with seth to learn more about accessibility in games. ubisoft�*s motion based game just dance does exactly what it says on the tin. players dance along to routines using a controller or mobile phone. the 2023 edition introduced its first wheelchair routine with choreographer florent devlesaver and won an award for best representation at the game accessibility awards this year. he yawns i'm y a w ning n o w ! after a whistle—stop tour of their costume department, rehearsal space, and all the top—secret stuff we couldn't show you, who better to quiz the team's accessibility design specialist than seth? what's the process on adapting games? so, every single game is very different. at ubisoft, we know that we try to ship games with at least what i call the big four, so we want to make sure they have remappable controls, we want to make sure that the text is a good size that people can read by default, we want to make sure that everyone has good—quality subtitles, and then we also want to make sure that we release games that are accessible for colour— blind people too.

previously, a lot of game accessibility was sold through options and settings, which would often mean that players would be endlessly scrolling to try and find the right settings for them. and that can be really difficult — knowing how to make the game accessible for yourself. so when we make things accessible by design, when we build them into the game, it means that we're getting players out of the menus and into the game and hopefully including them in that core experience. people think with songs in a wheelchair, they think it's only the lower body, but it's like other things too, so it could be their upper body. but, like, when i was dancing, holding my phone was a bit heavy. i totally understand. i sometimes have trouble with my grip strength. so, yeah, holding a heavy phone can be quite difficult for me. but, yeah, we're still working on things and we're very open to hearing about how we can improve.

despite clear strides forward, some would argue that full inclusivity in games is a long way off. according to the charity scope, 40% of disabled players have bought a game that they simply can't play because of poor accessibility. i don't think there's such thing as having a 100% accessible game because everybody has such different needs. games are a little bit different to other areas of tech because they are such sort of complex systems, highly interactive, there are hundreds of thousands of different interactions that someone can make at any point in the game so it can be a really tricky thing to untangle. there are things going on behind the scenes that might not be public for a few years. so it can be... ..it can be difficult to see the progress, but it's definitely being made and i think it's a really exciting time to be in the industry.

thank you for talking to me about gaming. of course. in a studio full of dance costumes, there was only one thing left for seth and i. fancy dress photo with the team. earlier on, i caught up with spaceman tim peake to talk about what it takes to become an astronaut. and now we've asked him to see if i'm made of the right stuff. tim peake is an astronaut. i am not. this is a completely scientific astronaut test... it's not! ..that will totally decide whether i qualify to be an astronaut. it won't. so this is this is a memory test like you would have taken when you were in training. yeah. during the selection process, we need to assess your working memory. one of those tests is to listen to some numbers and then repeat those numbers in reverse order. in reverse order? in reverse order, yes, yeah.

0k. ready to start? well... yeah. can i close my eyes? you can close your eyes. you do what you want. so let's start with... 0981. 1890. excellent. great. so we're going to add a few digits here. so, 98705. 50789. well done. fantastic. why do they want you to recite numbers in reverse order? i have no idea, it's a skill set we never had to use. brilliant. ok, so now we're going to go back to the easy ones... right. ..but you're going to do this whilst you're patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. like this? that's it, yeah, yeah. that's it. pat your head. rub your stomach. 981543. he mouths 345189. fantastic. aaah! blast me into space! i tell you, it's always brilliant talking to tim, because like a lot of astronauts, he just turns out to be a fantastic

ambassadorfor space. that's it from us for this week, though. this is future astronaut kelly reporting for duty. i will see you at space camp. hello there. we've seen two different sides to autumn over the last couple of days. friday, i'm sure you remember, we had lots of sunshine across the country and temperatures generally near average, although it was a bit cold in scotland. contrast that with the weather we had on saturday, where there was a lot of cloud around but it was a lot milder. temperatures in yeovilton up to 17 degrees celsius. it was also quite windy for some — for example, here in west scotland. now, saturday's weather was all due to this area of low pressure. sunday's weather will all be due to this area of low pressure, too.

it's not really going anywhere very fast at all. so, the south—westerly winds that we've got at the moment will continue to feed in some fairly thick layers of cloud — thick enough to bring outbreaks of mostly light rain and drizzle, although there could be a few heavier bursts mixed in for west scotland and northern ireland at times — so, we are looking at a mild start to the day on sunday. near the centre of this low pressure in scotland, it won't be too windy but in contrast to that, the winds picking up across the south coast of england and into southern wales as well. i think towards the south—west coasts, we could see gusts picking up to about 40—odd mph, so it will be a noticeably blowy kind of day. some further damp weather working from west to east but you do have a chance of seeing a few glimmers of sunshine pushing through the cloud at times. here's our low pressure still with us for monday, slowly slipping away into the north sea and weakening. still, though, bringing cloud and patches of rain but, again, there should be a few more brighter spells intermingled, particularly across more inland areas. and although still mild, those temperatures are just starting to edge down a little bit as we head through the course of monday. heading into tuesday,

we start to see a ridge of high pressure moving in off the atlantic and that should give us better breaks in the cloud, particularly across scotland and northern ireland, although there could be a few mist and fog patches to start the day here. maybe one or two showers draped around coastal regions of england and wales but otherwise, probably largely dry. temperatures coming down, closer to average for the time of year — about 9—12 degrees celsius for most. now, with that mild weather lasting for much of the week, it's often going to be quite windy. towards the end of the week and next weekend, though, there is a question mark as to how far south we start to see some cooler air moving its way in. what i think we will see is a drop in temperatures and across some of the mountains of northern scotland, it could get cold enough to see some of the showers start to turn a bit wintry.

live from london, this is bbc news. gaza's al—shifa hospital is described as a "death zone" by a world health organisation team making a brief humanitarian visit. hundreds flee the hospital,

including the sick and injured, as israel's military maintains a hamas command centre lies beneath the building. argentinians go to the polls in a presidential runoff vote between two candidates with vastly different visions for latin america's third largest economy. and a 20—kilometre queue of lorries at poland's border with ukraine — the result of a blockade by polish truckers. hello and welcome. i'm catherine byaruhanga. we start in gaza, where the world health organisation has described the al shifa hospital as a "death zone" following a brief visit to the complex by a un team. the israeli military has surrounded and occupied the hospital for days, claiming a hamas command centre lies beneath it.

that's been denied by hamas, which is designated a terrorist