Battle of the X-Planes
Season 1, Episode 1 TV-G
CC
SD
NOVA goes behind the doors of Boeing’s Phantom Works and Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Works to record classified meetings, fly the most revolutionary planes, and examine the high-stakes battle to build the most capable and versatile fighter ever created—the Joint Strike Fighter. Battle of the X-Planes reveals the breakthrough designs, heartbreaking setbacks, adrenaline-fueled test flights, and one final nail-biting decision—the winner of the most lucrative contract in military history.
Hunt for the Supertwister
Season 1, Episode 2 TV-PG
CC
SD
In seconds, a supertwister can leave immense swaths of death and destruction. But what if technology could help us tame nature’s most violent tornadoes? Join fearless storm chasers as they untwist mysteries that may explain how these killer storms spawn and where they are likely to strike. And venture into America’s “Tornado Alley” to witness some of the most shockingly intense tornado footage ever filmed.
Lost Treasures of Tibet
Season 1, Episode 3 TV-G
CC
SD
Mustang (moo-stahn), one of the last outposts of Tibetan culture, is so isolated and protected that no Westerner set foot inside its borders for centuries. But in the early 1990s, this untouched society set high in the Himalayas opened its borders for the first time, exposing an ancient world’s dazzling sacred relics long damaged by the elements and neglect. Art and restoration experts mix history, science and politics in a daunting mission to preserve these religious works of art.
Wright Brothers' Flying Machine
Season 1, Episode 4 TV-G
CC
SD
Orville and Wilbur Wright were remarkable inventors, mechanics, risk-takers, and visionaries. They designed and built their own wings, steering devices, engines, and wind tunnel. But just how did they construct such an impressive flying machine? It takes a team of modern pilots, builders, aviation experts, and historians joined together to retrace, rebuild and re-fly planes built to the specifications developed by the Wright Brothers a century ago.
Life and Death in the War Zone
Season 1, Episode 5 TV-PG
CC
SD
Treating patients with life-threatening injuries is always a challenge. Now imagine handling a medical emergency at the height of the Iraq War, beset by heat, sand, and frequent enemy attacks. NOVA heads into battle with the medics, nurses, doctors, and military staff of the 10th and 21st CaSH units, following them from their intense prewar preparations to their deployments in Kuwait and the desert north of Baghdad. Shortly after their doors open, the medical and ethical dramas begin.
Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land
Season 1, Episode 6 TV-G
CC
SD
Armed with high-tech equipment and ingeniously improvised devices, NOVA and archaeologist Richard Freund embark on a fascinating detective story that may rewrite Holy Land history. Travel back 2,000 years to a dark, inhospitable cave and unearth treasure that may be a long-lost relic of the Great Temple in Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans. The pursuit of ancient artifacts reveals tantalizing clues to turbulent times of messianic fervor, oppression and revolt.
MARS Dead or Alive
Season 1, Episode 7 TV-G
CC
SD
Go inside NASA’s risky field trip to the red planet in this tense and dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle of the $820 million Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project. Beginning a year before launch, NOVA's cameras follow MER scientists and engineers through a gauntlet of potentially fatal problems. Then, seven months later, experience the final nail-biting minutes of the journey, as Spirit successfully lands on Mars and begins sending back its first spectacular images of the Martian landscape.
Welcome to Mars
Season 1, Episode 8 TV-G
CC
SD
Take an astounding look at the red planet in this interplanetary adventure that picks up where the acclaimed film MARS Dead or Alive left off. Mission Control and its two robotic explorers face a daunting task–find proof that liquid water, the essential ingredient of life, once existed on Mars. Through unprecedented access, Welcome to Mars presents a compelling inside story of triumph, technical ingenuity, and emotional drama packed with stunning images from an alien world.
The Great Robot Race
Season 1, Episode 9 TV-PG
CC
SD
Twenty-three bizarre looking vehicles line up at the gate of the DARPA Grand Challenge with one thing in common: there’s nobody behind the wheel. With names like Terramax, Ghostrider, and Stanley, these vehicles are armed with cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, laser-guided vision, GPS navigation, and 3-D mapping systems. Sponsored by the Pentagon’s research agency, this 130-mile robotics race through Nevada’s scorching desert has a $2 million prize, though its ultimate goal is to gather new ideas for the future of unmanned warfare. But can these advanced robots overcome the grueling terrain and technical challenges?
Lost King of the Maya
Season 1, Episode 10 TV-G
CC
SD
In an ancient Mayan arena, enemies of notorious King Yax K’uk Mo square off in a ball game that appears much like modern soccer. But in this fateful contest, winners live—and losers lose their heads. From 200 to 900 A.D., Yax K’uk Mo’s dynasty of Blood Lords presided over the Maya city of Copan, conducting hallucinogenic vision quests, ritual warfare and human sacrifice. Join a team of archaeologists and historians who are piecing together the fascinating rise and fall of this ancient city.
Secrets of Lost Empires II: Pharaoh's Obelisk
Season 1, Episode 11 TV-PG
SD
Brawn or brains? How did the ancient Egyptians raise the massive spires created to glorify and honor the ancient Egyptian gods? Rising up to 100 feet and weighing up to 500 tons, these solid granite monuments reach heavenward, adorned with messages of praise, love and devotion. Discover how the ancient Egyptians’ nautical experience, ingenuity and unwavering faith enabled them to raise these incredibly heavy monoliths with little more than sand, rope, wood, brawn and brainpower.
Secrets of Lost Empires II: Easter Island
Season 1, Episode 12 TV-PG
CC
SD
The mute sentinels of Easter Island are mysteries locked in stone. Nearly 1000 haunting human sculptures are the only remaining citizens of a vanished culture that existed a millennium ago, 1500 miles from the nearest inhabited island. Weighing up to 80 tons each, the moai say nothing; but, with some investigation, they speak volumes. Take a look behind the stone faces and discover how such a remote society achieved monolithic greatness—and then disappeared.
Secrets of Lost Empires II: Roman Bath
Season 1, Episode 13 TV-PG
CC
SD
The walls finally talk! While some Roman baths were palatial and luxurious, the bathhouses weren’t the exclusive haven of the privileged. Surrounded by sophisticated vaulted ceilings and revolutionary heating systems, men and women from all classes and backgrounds bathed, drank, shouted and sang in a daily ritual that defined what it meant to be Roman. But after the fall of the Roman Empire, this state-of-the-art community center became a mystery.
Secrets of Lost Empires II: China Bridge
Season 1, Episode 14 TV-PG
CC
SD
The center of a famed 12th-century Song Dynasty scroll painting features woven wooden beams in the graceful arc of a rainbow—the Rainbow Bridge—an archaeological form as well-known in China as the Eiffel Tower is in the West. Ingeniously designed bridges typify China’s inventive past—a society that created paper money, gunpowder and the compass. While not a single Song Dynasty Rainbow bridge remains, the mystery of their construction endures.
Portions of content provided by Tivo Corporation - © 2024 Tivo Corporation