Doc/Fest - Sheffield

Welcome to astrophysics, Indiana Jones style. “I can’t think of anything that really went wrong so far,” says Dr Mark Devlin, just prior to launching an ambitious, multi-million dollar telescope into space, with the help of an enormous balloon. Unfortunately, he forgot to knock wood. Luckily for us, his film maker brother Paul Devlin was along for the ride, resulting in this front row seat to an extraordinary escapade in space exploration. Dr Devlin is leading a team of scientists on the adventure of a life time – building a sophisticated telescope which, if it works correctly, will provide answers to how stars and galaxies are formed. But the entire project is high risk, as they construct the telescope, transport it from Sweden to Canada to Antarctica and need everything to be perfect for the launch. There’s also the small matter of having to reclaim the hardware back again from somewhere in the Antarctic. Separated from families for months on end, these scientists have staked their professional careers and years of their lives on this venture. Will it pay off?