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Spacecraft: the facts

All the spacecraft in the series were designed in a collaboration between the production's art department, specialist consultant Dr David Baker and engineers at EADS Astrium, a world-class spacecraft manufacturer.

Commenting on the authenticity of the technology used, series consultant Dr David Baker explains: "The spacecraft and landing vehicles depicted throughout the series adhere to strict principles of spacecraft engineering.

"They are based on genuine designs and technologies currently being researched and developed at Nasa's field centre studies on advanced missions."

Adrian Russell, Head of Future Concepts at EADS Astrium, adds: "We were extremely pleased to be invited to participate in this exciting programme.

"The spacecraft were an exhilarating and challenging design task for us - ensuring they were based on credible materials and engineering concepts, whilst still being capable of completing the mission that the story demanded."

One of the more innovative technologies featured in the series is the magnetic shield Pegasus generates to protect the crew from intense radiation environments around the Sun and Jupiter.

Magnetic fields like this are already being used to conduct experiments, for example, in areas where electrical forces are deflected for scientific and safety purposes.

The generation of artificial magnetospheres for use on spacecraft is something that is being further researched at the University of Washington in Seattle, who were also consulted by the programme-makers.

Their use on Pegasus, therefore, is an extension of existing scientific practices, but on a grander scale.

Pegasus: the mothership

Length: 1.3 km

Weight: just over 400 tonnes

Aeroshield is constructed from steel, carbon fibre and beryllium

Powered by a mighty nuclear fusion reactor with a core temperature of 100 million degrees that explosively vaporises the chilled liquid hydrogen propellant

Can withstand temperatures of over 5,000 degrees centigrade

The main engine can generate over 158 million horse power of acceleration

Top engine speed of 288,000 kmph, although Pegasus is designed to withstand speeds of a million kmph which it's hurled to as it passes the Sun

Has the same internal space as 10 jumbo jets

Carries 57 tonnes of food, 80 tonnes of oxygen

During the 2,246 days of the mission, it will travel 8.3 billion miles

Pegasus is named after the winged horse from Greek mythology and the constellation where extra-solar planets were first discovered

Orpheus: Venus lander

Height: 12 metres

Weight: 35 tonnes

Constructed from toughened titanium alloy to withstand high-speed entry through sulphuric acid clouds

Designed to withstand 900 tonnes of air pressure per square metre of its surface and temperatures of 500 degrees centigrade (hot enough to melt lead and zinc)

Launch engine - a toroidal aerospike - capable of reaching the Venus escape velocity of over 10km/second in just under eight minutes

Only one window cut from a single diamond to withstand the strongly acidic upper atmosphere

Drag Chute made of acid-resistant zirconium alloy

Glide Chute made of 30-metre wide zirconium and carbon-fibre canopy

Orpheus is named after the poet and musician of Greek myth who visited the underworld to try to rescue his wife

Ares: the Mars lander

Height: 25 metres

Weight: 45 tonnes

Capable of sustaining a crew of three on the surface of Mars for up to a month

Launch Engine - toroidal aerospike - capable of reaching the Mars escape velocity of five km/second within five minutes

Three windows made of toughened high-strength polycarbonate

Carries electrically powered Martian Rover vehicle for surface exploration

Radiation shielding - inner core storm shelter formed from multi-laminate polythene

Glide Chute is rip-resistant triple laminate nylon and is larger than a football pitch to enable it to glide in the low air pressure

Named after Ares, the Greek god of war and the equivalent of the Roman God Mars

Hermes: the Io (Jupiter's most volcanic moon) lander

Height: 10 metres

Mass: 15 tonnes (2.7 tonnes on Io)

Carries enough air and water supplies to sustain an astronaut for 36 hours

Designed entirely to shield occupant from the harshest effects of Jupiter's radiation belts

Special properties: radiation-hardened electronics with physical and active radiation shielding guaranteed to protect up to levels of 2000 RADs

Two triangular windows made of aluminised 12-layer glass-polythene laminate with 10cm thick hydrogen-rich radiation shield shutters

Five legs which are only strong enough to support it on the 1/6th gravity environment on surface of Io

Powerful flood lights to illuminate the landing site during an Ionian night

Named after Hermes, the Greek messenger God

Clyde: the Pluto lander

Height: 15 metres

Weight: 28 tonnes (1.87 tonnes on Pluto)

Special properties: ultra-thin titanium skin with thick aerogel on the interior to insulate against numbing chill of the planet

Powerful floodlights to illuminate the telescope construction site during the 26-hour Plutonian nights

Capable of sustaining a crew of two for up to three weeks

Powered by a hatbox-sized nuclear reactor set up on the surface and powered up remotely. This also supplies the power to the telescopes once the mission has left

Named after the American astronomer who discovered Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh

Messier: the comet lander

Height: 12 metres

Mass: 29 tonnes

Rocket Engine: multiple motors positioned above and below the spacecraft to push it towards the ultra-low gravity environment of the comet's surface

Rocket-propelled harpoon tethers to capture the landing site on the comet with heated tips to penetrate the deeply frozen comet floor

Chilled landing pads to stop the legs melting the surface and then refreezing and getting stuck to it

Bulletproof 'Whipple-shield', a multi-laminated impact shield nose canopy to protect the spacecraft from the high-speed debris cloud impacts, which could be encountered around a comet

Multi-laminate self-repairing fuselage to offer extra protection against cometary debris

Ultra-maneuverable lander capable of the delicate rendezvous it needs to make with the comet

Named after the French astronomer who surveyed many comets during the 18th century