The Hubble space telescope has made more than 1.3 million observations and enabled over 15,000 scientific papers to be written. It’s an invention that opened up the universe in unimaginable ways. Executive producer Steve Crabtree digs deeper and shares secrets. By Team Viva
The dream of a space telescope took 20 years to realise. Now, 30 years on, comes the incredible story of one of the most complex machines ever made. The Hubble space telescope has made more than 1.3 million observations and enabled over 15,000 scientific papers to be written. Its history has been dramatic. A triumphant launch that turned into disaster. Astronauts risking their lives to fix it. But ultimately, it’s an invention that opened up the universe in unimaginable ways. This anniversary film, Hubble: Wonders of Space Revealed, tells the whole story and meets the scientists and astronomers who use Hubble on a daily basis as well as astronauts from each of the missions that have serviced and updated it. We talk to Steve Crabtree, the executive producer of the film, to know more. Excerpts:
What prompted you to bring up a film like Hubble: Wonders of Space Revealed?
The film was to celebrate Hubble’s 30th birthday, really. It coincided to mark the 30 years since the telescope was launched into space. So that was the simple reason. We thought to make a special shot, telling the whole story of Hubble, what is often referred to as the one of the most productive scientific instruments that has ever been invented.
The film includes real astronauts who work on Hubble daily. How was the experience of filming with them?
I’m the executive producer of the film. So this time round unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet the astronauts, the director David Briggs met them. They were super friendly and helpful. I have interviewed astronauts before and what I love about them is their training means that they’re very precise and very accurate with anything you ask them. They’re almost like sorts of space journalists in a way. They’re always amazing and way friendly. And, you know, it’s a real feeling, a real privilege to work with them, but there’s not many of them out there.
How did you go about curating the stories and choosing the people set to feature in this film?
We sat down for a long time along with the director and we tried to work out how to structure a programme such as this. And what we settled on was to tell the story through each of the service missions. There were five service missions in total. Each service mission then led to a new discovery because each mission was basically an upgrade which led to a new discovery. So we knew that we wanted to structure the film in that way. The first job was to make sure that we had astronauts from each service mission. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to tell that whole story. Luckily, they were very kind to give us their time. Then, once we knew we had astronauts, we just focussed on one of the discoveries that each service mission had led to. That helped us decide which sciences to pick, I mean, obviously, in real life, there were hundreds of discoveries but in an hour long programme, you can only pick one. So we just picked some that we thought was great. If you watch the first one, what actually happens is as the film plays, each discovery is further and further out into the universe until the last one, which is basically the farthest Hubble can see. So there’s quite a little narrative there as well.
What were the challenges involved during the making of the film?
The big challenge for us in the UK was that we wanted the programme to tie in with the actual 30th anniversary of Hubble. And on every birthday what NASA does is that they release a very special picture that Hubble has taken and we sort of tried to get hold of that picture earlier because we were making a TV programme. We got that finally and we got to see Hubble’s 30th anniversary photograph exactly the same time as everybody else did, which was about six or eight hours before our film was going to be broadcast by the BBC. So me, the director and the editor were in an edit suite together, just waiting for this photograph to be given to us. Once we got the photograph, we then cut the picture and re-finish the entire film, and then gave it to BBC to go on the television. It also means that there is a sort of another version of the film without the picture in it that’s never been seen by the audience because we managed to use the proper picture at the end. So that was quite a challenge, really. I haven’t had to do that very often in my television career. I feel live television is very different. But I don’t generally work in live television. So this time was quite interesting.
You have also been a core part of the show 250 Million Pound Cancer Cure, can you provide some insights into the show?
That show was really close to me. I was the editor for horizon when we started making it. But then I’d left by the time we finished it because it took about two years to put the show together. Initially, I was involved in the making and the engineering part of the technology and then left it midway for the team to finish the show. In 2014, five-year-old Ashya King’s parents were arrested. Unwilling to accept that their son’s brain tumour was incurable. They took him to Europe against the doctors’ advice for Proton Beam Therapy. In this treatment, high-energy protons travel at two-thirds the speed of light through a patient’s body. It can transform treatment for children with inoperable cancers. But bringing it to the UK needs a £250 million investment, and one of the world’s best facilities. A nuclear bunker with six-metre-thick walls. Nearly 2,000 tonnes of kit squeezed under the streets of London and Manchester. Horizon goes behind the scenes of a super-sized engineering challenge. It’s an amazing piece of technology and all of the engineering that goes into it is just awe inspiring.
What is the future of Proton Beam Therapy in India?
In India? I don’t know. All I know is that it seems to be very successful in the UK. They’re doing many treatments now. So, you know, it just seems like it’s a really good piece of technology. But I don’t know the future of it in India.
Any message for the Indian audience?
I would just say that both of these programmes, in very different ways, go down to show that not only how important science, technology and engineering is, but also how they can sort of bring people together. For the Hubble film in particular, those amazing images that we see of the universe and the cosmos are inspiring for young people, especially who may want to have a career in science, technology or engineering. I mean, if you were to boil both films down to their core ingredients, what we’re talking about is amazing scientists and engineers, building incredible machines that help humanity. I think that’s something that we can all aspire to. They spread a positive message to say, look, what we can do together when we invent amazing things.
(The film premieres today at 9 pm on Sony BBC Earth.)