The attempt to send and land astronauts on Mars risks billions of dollars and the lives of those brave enough to attempt it. Is the possible benefit really worth the risk? And is it really achievable?

Professor Brian Cox takes a look through nearly 50 years of BBC archive at the story of man's relationship with the Moon.

Professor Brian Cox explores the dramatic lives of the eight majestic planets/worlds that make up our solar system.

Updated documentary series using computer animations, archive footage and interviews to examine our current knowledge and contact with the bodies of our solar system.

The rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars were born at the same time from the same material - yet have lived radically different lives. What immense forces are at play?

Documentary series tracing our exploration of the solar system. This programme investigates geological activity, looking at the discovery of frozen lava plains on Venus, and a volcano on Mars that would dwarf Mount Everest. Scientists postulated that despite these intriguing surface features, the planets were effectively dead. However, pictures from the moons of Jupiter and Neptune would soon contradict this theory.

Documentary series tracing our exploration of the solar system. This programme looks at Voyager's expedition to the vast gas planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Documentary series tracing the exploration of our solar system. This programme investigates our growing understanding of the origins of the moon.

Documentary series tracing the exploration of our solar system. A look at the quest to understand the sun, from the simple etchings of the astronomer Galileo to the discoveries of the latest solar probes. The latest scientific images reveal that the sun is a gigantic nuclear generator, a swirling mass of superheated gases that travel along powerful magnetic field lines.

This programme describes the investigation of weather systems found throughout the solar system. Scientists have discovered sulphuric acid rain and metallic snow on Venus, while space probes have revealed the arid surface and frozen seas of Mars and the mysteries of the gas giant, Saturn.

The documentary series about the solar system examines how our understanding of the evolution of life on earth has changed, and explores the evidence for life on other planets. In 1976, two robotic probes suggested that the surface of Mars was dead. But the latest research reveals that this may not be the case and that it is possible that life on earth may have evolved from Mars.

Documentary series tracing the exploration of our solar system. This programme looks at the fate of the solar system and explores the new planetary systems that are being found around nearby stars.

In the final episode, Professor Brian Cox journeys to the remotest part of the solar system, a place that the most mysterious planets call home.

Professor Brian Cox reveals the history of Saturn. Saturn began life as a strange planet of rock and ice and in time transformed into a gas giant, ring-less and similar looking to its rival, Jupiter.

Brian Cox continues his exploration of the solar system with a visit to a planet that dwarfs all the others: Jupiter. Its size gives it a great power that it has used to manipulate the other planets.

Professor Brian Cox continues his tour of the solar system revealing that it was once home to not one, but two blue planets.

In this landmark film Professor Hawking, alongside engineer and radio astronomy expert Professor Danielle George and a former student, Christophe Galfard, join forces to find out if, and how, humans can reach for the stars and relocate to different planets.

90 million miles away from us is the power that shapes our world - the sun. We see it shine in the sky above us, but beyond our sight something dramatic is happening - the sun is going into overdrive.

It's the start of a new solar cycle, and the spacecraft Ulysses faces retirement, but solar missions Stereo and SOHO are still revealing our nearest star in a new light

Michael Mosley embarks on an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.

Michael Mosley embarks on an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.

This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus.

The universe is almost entirely devoid of life. Earth, the planet we call home, seems to defy the laws of physics. It is teeming with life in all colours, shapes and sizes. No-one knows for sure how many different species are alive right now, our best guess is close to 8.7 million

As far as we know, there is only one place in the universe on which life has taken hold - Earth - but for how much longer will this distinction remain? Astronomers are on the brink of finding other worlds the same size as Earth and the same distance from their star.

In this spellbinding series Professor Brian Cox visits the most extreme locations on Earth to explain how the laws of physics carved natural wonders across the solar system.

Professor Brian Cox explores the sun - the powerhouse of our solar system.

Professor Brian Cox looks at the rings of Saturn, formed from a chaotic cloud of gas.

How an envelope of gas can create some of the most wondrous sights in the solar system.

Brian Cox shows how a planet's size can make the difference between life and death.

Brian Cox explores how the search for aliens has followed the search for water.