The delicate art of lobbing people into space and keeping them alive as they fall around the planet at 17,500mph for months on end will be this year’s theme for Britain’s most prestigious public science lectures.



Kevin Fong, a flying doctor and expert in space medicine, will use the Royal Institution Christmas lectures to explore how an immense controlled explosion propels astronauts into a beautiful and hostile environment where a single mistake can mean death in seconds.

The lecture series, How to Survive in Space, will hopefully include a live two-way video chat with Tim Peake, Britain’s first European Space Agency astronaut, who is set to arrive at the International Space Station for the start of his mission, Principia, days before the lectures begin.

“Space exploration is at the edge of all we are capable of as a species,” said Fong, who has worked with Nasa to develop medical procedures for use aboard a space ambulance. “Whether it’s the Apollo era, astronauts on the space station, or Tim’s own mission, it’s a dramatic story and I don’t think it will ever stop being inspiring.”



Fong has applied to be an astronaut on at least one occasion, but he was one of 8,000 who were beaten by Peake in the race to become the first Briton in more than 20 years to fly in space.

British doctor Kevin Fong in the Mars Yard at Airbus Defense and Space. Photograph: Paul Wilkinson

The lectures, to be broadcast on BBC4 over three evenings in December, will start with a beginner’s guide to rocket science and move on to life support, space walks, and a day in the life of an astronaut, where everything from going to bed to pouring a cup of tea is frustrated by the absence of gravity’s pull.

The Christmas lectures have become a national tradition since Michael Faraday organised the first series, on natural philosophy, in 1825. They have taken place every year since, save for a break during the second world war between 1939 and 1942.

Faraday established the lectures to bring science to a young audience through some of the best minds of the times. The list includes the likes of Carl Sagan, Sir David Attenborough and Richard Dawkins. “To be on the end of that list is hard,” said Fong. “You feel the weight of history. It’s a thing of enormous terror, and at the same time, a huge honour.”



A consultant in anaesthesia at University College London Hospitals NHS foundation trust, and a flying doctor with the Kent, Surrey and Sussex air ambulance trust, Fong developed a lifelong fascination with space after his parents woke him up one night in July 1975 to watch a TV broadcast of a US Apollo module docking with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. He studied astrophysics before going on to medical school and trained at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.



Since the end of the Apollo mission, astronauts have rarely ventured further than the International Space Station. The outpost circles the Earth at an altitude of 250 miles, the distance from Birmingham to Glasgow. But surviving the trip into space ranks among the most dangerous eight minutes in an astronaut’s life. “Everything has to work without flaw or failure or everyone dies,” said Fong. “I want to unpack those eight minutes of terror.”



In low Earth orbit, food, water and oxygen can be resupplied. Returning home is an emergency option should things go badly wrong. But future missions propose to land humans on asteroids and touch down on Mars. For such long-duration missions – to get to Mars can take eight months – these options are all out.

“The moon is 380,000km away, and that’s as far as anyone has ever been. It’s the distance your car will go if you drive it into the ground. The distance to Mars is almost impossible to grasp. In terms of how far you have to travel, it’s hundreds of millions of interplanetary miles.”



Without the constant pull of gravity to fight, muscles weaken, bones become brittle, and the balance-keeping vestibular system goes awry. Astronauts who have recently returned from long missions on the space station are in danger of falling over and breaking their hips. A trip to Mars would take an incredible toll on the human body. Then there is the mind to keep sane, and the intense radiation of deep space from which to shield astronauts.

“When you think about the suite of technologies we’d need for a Mars trip, some are on the edge of realisation, but others are not in view yet. Could we go now? It would hurt. And it’s unclear what condition the crews would arrive in,” said Fong. “You need to start looking at crops in space, and recycling as much atmosphere as you can.”



Tackling those problems will fall largely to the generation the lectures are aimed at. “You’ve got to hold up something that’s painted in primary colours, that says to children, this is what is possible, this is what you can achieve, this is what you can be a part of,” he said.



The Royal Institution runs an online ballot for tickets to watch the lectures being filmed. The ballot is open to RI members and UK registered schools and will run from 3 to 24 September.



This article was modified on Tuesday 1st September to reflect the fact that the live video chat with Tim Peake cannot be guaranteed.