The Digital Human

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Digital Human: Series 29: The Orbital Human

The Orbital Human

Series 29

BBC Radio 4 - The Digital Human, Series 29, The Orbital Human

Aleks Krotoski looks up from the screen to the heavens and the tech orbiting the planet.

Aleks Krotoski looks from the screen to the heavens and asks if we're entering a democratisation of space technology akin to the one that brought us today's digital world.

Now the fanfare of billionaires space adventures has died down we're left with the question of are we witnessing a new democratisation of space not unlike the revolution that brought us the modern digital world?

Aleks Krotoski asks if the legions of amateurs and innovators working out of bedrooms and garages are about to fundamentally change our relationship with space. And will that be a continuation of the idealism of early pioneers or a repeat of the unregulated, disruptive free-for-all that the internet has largely become.

From the NASA retirees who reactivated a space probe from an abandoned MacDonalds to the kids building operational satellites in their after school clubs the face of space is about to change forever. 

Producer: Peter McManus
Researcher: Anna Miles
Sound Engineer: Gav Murchie

The Digital Human: Series 29

BBC Radio 4

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The Orbital Human

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