we may never know what drove a man in sydney, australia, to take 17 people hostage. what we do know is the standoff lasted 16 hours, made international headlines in large part because of this. a black banner, the gunmen forced his captives to display. it appears the man acted alone, and had no connection to isil. still, it was a clear attempt to provoke fear. >> reporter: hostages pick their moments and run for their lives. moments later police storm this central sydney cafe. one officer appears to throw a stun grenade, then crack of what was likely either gunfire or flash explosions. from different sides of the building, the scene plays out. paramedics were there waiting and quickly ran towards the building. one woman would be seen being carried out. her foot injured. the siege began during monday morn's rush hour. >> a woman was phoning police. three police on motorcycles arrived and some others on foot very quickly. and she was telling them she had gone to go inside the cafe, and the automatic glass siding doors had been disabled and shut. she thought perhaps the cafe was closed and then she realized something was going on inside. she told police she saw a man with a blue bag containing what she thought was a shotgun. the held up a flag that read there is only one god and mohammed is the maker. this man was known to authorities for writing unpleasant letters to family's of soldier killed in afghanistan. he was born in iran, and was facing charges that included sexual assault, and being an ak -- accessory to the murder of his wife. bomb disposal units moved in to check the cafe, and a 16-hour hostage drama drew to a close. many australians no doubt shaken by the attack, and images of terror on their doorstep. >> i understand there were a number of gunshots heard, which caused officers to move straight to what we call an emergency access plan and that caused them to enter. >> reporter: police said throughout that they were determined that this siege would be brought to a peaceful resolution. it wasn't. what is not clear is why they suddenly felt the need to end this in such a dramatic way. >> it appears the suspect did work alone. he has been identified as a 50-year-old man, who called himself chief heron. he was already facing charges on his ex-wife's murder. authorities say the suspect is this man. >> this pen is my gun. >> reporter: he is a self proclaimed cleric, well-known to australian police, and out on bail on a string of violent charges. >> these words are my bullets. >> reporter: four years ago he made headlines, accused of writing abusive letters to familiar list of soldiers who had fallen in afghanistan. he eventually pleaded guilty and was put on probation, but his campaign continued. he was born in iran and came to australia as a refugee in 1996. over the years he would declare himself sheik. although he had hung a black banner in the cafe's window, he had no known links to isil. >> he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the isil death [ inaudible ]. tragically there are people ready to engage in politically motivated violence. >> reporter: he was charged an ak accessory in his ex-wife's murder. then he was charged with sexual assault. in both cases he was free on bail. his former attorney reportedly said his mowning legal problems may have pushed him over the edge. for years he fought the charges related to his letters, claiming they were purely political and his right. his appeal was thrown out on friday. just three days before the siege began. it is still unclear what precisely motivated this attack. his former attorney said he was isolated and his ideology was so strong, it clauded his judgment. john? >> jonathan thank you very much. sunday marked two years since the massacre at sandy hook elementary school. some of the families of the victims are suing the gun maker. they say the rifle the gunmen used should never have been sold to the public. >> reporter: two years later, families of nine of the victims are filing an unusual alcohol engineer, claiming adam wouldn't have killed so many people if he didn't have this kind of rifle. the complaint names three defeintants, the gun manufacturer, the distribute, and the gun store. the lawsuit says the ar 15 was designed as a military weapon. the suit aledges in order to continue profitting, defendants chose to disregard the unreasonable risks the rifle posed outside of specialized highly regulated institutions like the armed forces and law enforcement. some of the families appeared at this news conference on monday morning to support laws to curb gun violence. >> this is going to take time, but it's worth it, because every day we proceed is hopefully another life saved. and that's the goal to keep focused on. >> if you don't have one of these, your home is not safe. >> reporter: public opinion is increasingly turning against stronger controls on guns. for the first time in more than two decades, the pugh research center show that more americans support gun rights over gun control. still the families say without more controls on guns like this, they'll keep landing in the hands of criminals and people who are mentally unstable. >> they want all manufacturers to sit up and take notice that we are filing suit, and if they were to win, that would be a huge warning for all future mass shootings, but it's a big if, because i think they have a very high bar. >> reporter: the families are seeking unspecified monetary damages, but also they say they want accountability. i reached out to the three companies named in the lawsuit, none of them responded. protests continued in california today. the cases are far from isolated incidents. sebastian walker reports from ferguson. >> reporter: we began hearing stories about other police shootings in the area. shooting where the case never went before a grand jury, and where the officers were exonerated. shootings that had barely even made the news. who wrote that letter? >> probably one of carey's friends. >> reporter: in april 2013, st. louis police tried to pull over 25-year-old carey for a traffic violation. carey who was carrying an illegal weapon fled on foot. two officers chased him in pursuit. the police say he was pointing at them -- >> that's what they say. >> and the witnesses have darren story. >> reporter: the witnesses say that the gun was on the ground, and carey -- >> he dropped the gun and he turned around -- >> it wasn't like how the police try to explain it. points the gun and bang bang bang bang. it wasn't a bang bang thing. it was just stop, put your hands up, then he was stopped. >> reporter: carey never fired a shot, and none of the ten witnesses questioned say carey pointed a gun at the officers. carey was struck at least 21 times. the family's lawyers say ballistic evidence suggest the police kept shooting as they stood over him. >> see that spot right there? >> reporter: yeah. >> just come on back. >> reporter: this one as well. >> yeah. and you need that one there. >> this is where the officer's weapons were pointing -- >> straight down. >> reporter: so that went through his body. >> yes. >> reporter: an fbi review agreed with the police department's findings. we requested comments from the police, but received no response. in the wake of mike brown, carlos and his family are hoping for an independent investigation. john that was a clip from our special fault lines premiering this evening. it's a one-hour extended episode looking deeper into some of the systemic cases. one of the most eye opening aspects is during the course of making that film, the more than three months we kept visiting the area, the more we kept hearing stories about other shootings and deaths in police custody. i was surprised at the number of people we met who either new somebody or who's relative was killed at the hands of police. and even while we were there just ten days after the michael brown shooting another man was shot dead by the police, and then another 18-year-old male, african american that was shot and killed by the police. >> i know you spent some time there during the protests before and after. what you give us a sense of what you heard? >> reporter: the community in the early days that we were there was extremely angry about the death of michael brown, but they waited for the legal process to run its course. but the grand jury proceedings just inflamed them even further. there are nearly 50 shootings in st. louis county alone, and not one of them resulted in a police officer being indicted. and the grand jury system is really the best way to investigate whether there is a prosecution. >> thank you. ferguson and other recent police shootings have sparked more than just rallies. police departments across the country are now changing their policies. richard is the president of the citizens crime commission of new york city. welcome back. >> thank you. >> is the problem here racial bias? there is probably a sub conscious racial violence. i think we'll all a victim of our experiences in life, and we need to be very conscious of that. >> when did racism stop? >> i think if you look at the polling data, we'll see that racial relations are getting better. so i think there are two separate questions. >> but even when there was -- some would say when there was racism in police departments, there has been continued scepticism about whether or not the police are acting fairly, and how do you wipe that away? >> and it continues to this day. we have to understand there is something really big going on in the united states. there is some real legitimacy. >> what do you hear from police officers? >> they are concerned about this. they are out there every day. they strap on a gun, and protect the communities. tensions are at extraordinary highs, so we do have to cop front -- confront it. there has to be an enormous amount of training not just with recruits, but for officers in their career. >> i hear police officers say we spending millions on training and it doesn't make any difference. >> not in this topic. training is the backbone of many professions, but it is really the backbone of the police profession. but it's training the officers out there and bringing them in once a year or once every other year. >> i had a couple of gentlemen on the other night who teach in a new york city college. and they were talking about being arrested. >> one was white and one was black. and they were stopped together as they broke the law. and the black demonstrator was arrested and the white demonstrator was let go. they say that is a perfect example of this racial violence. >> i'm not shocked. these sorts of things happen a lot. and both sides need to come together and start talking about this. every single cop is not acting in a bad way. they are protecting us every single day, they are putting their lives on the line, but that is not to say there aren't tensions. so we have to come to grips with this, and we have to do it now. >> as you describe it there are some police officers who are not happy, because they don't feel like they are doing their job. >> sure. >> and they don't feel it's fair to get a brood brush. >> right. and they are right. they are out there doing their job in the right way. that's why we have to remove those that are over racist, they must go. and train train train the other ones. >> richard it's always good to see you have. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> coming up next, walking a diplomatic tight robe. john kerry's discussion with benjamin netenyahu about a palestinian state. palestinians are expected to submit a u.n. resolution this week that would submit a two-year deadline for israel to stop occupation. >> reporter: they are trying to come to quote, compromised language. but in reality that means to find language that washington can accept. the palestinians are hoping for a vote by the end of the week or year. any israelis are adamantly opposed to that. we heard from benjamin netenyahu afterwards. >> i highly appreciate the efforts of the u.s. secretary to immediate. but forces conditions on israeli will only deteriorate the situation. >> there is no love lost between the u.s. and netenyahu right now, but they still agree on what they call unilateral action at the u.n. but they can't avoid this kind of talk anymore. the palestinians are circulating a draft resolution that would call for then of the occupation within two years. and there are other resolutions including the french that call for a peace treaty within those two years. what the u.s. is trying to avoid is a votto. the u.s. does not want to be seen vetoing a resolution during the israeli campaign, also does not want to be seen vetoing a resolution by arab governments who's support they need to fight isil. but the u.s. has to deal with this right now. there's more momentum discussing palestine as a state than ever before. dick cheney is speaking out in defense of the interrogation of suspects at the cia. >> with respect to trying to define that as torture, torture was what the al-qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 americans on 9/11. there is no comparison between the two. and the law as interpreted by the justice department was very clear, and the techniques that we did in fact use, that the president authorized that produced results that gave us the information we needed to be able to safeguard the nation against further attacked and to be able to track those guilty for 9/11. >> according to the summary, those techniques did not produce information of value. dean obediallah joins us your reaction. >> it continues. it's a drum beat of misinformation by chenny is. i cannot believe he is still on television talking about this. but i guess it's a opportunity for him to get his name back out there. >> you wrote a piece for "the daily beast." tell us your point. >> my point was right before my report came out, we heard the president's spokesperson say there might be riots and problems. there could be a backlash in the muslim world. none of that happened. you heard a few condemnations but that was it. >> and you said they should speak out? >> i'm not saying there should be riots. but you could have seen violent protest after the video of the burning of the quran, if you are invoking islam, that would have hit them differently. a lot of these people are really bad. they kill more muslims than people in the u.s. so there is not a lot of sympathy for people who are actual terrorists. >> so you are saying muslims should say something about this -- or why don't they? >> i think there's the practical factor. the muslim world has a history of a great deal of use of torture. it's not shocking people living in the muslim world to hear other countries have committed torture. in egypt about 140 people were killed -- tortured during mubar mubarak's reign. it's something they are used to. and i think that's unfortunate. my point was even though the must imworld has not freaked out -- >> isn't that why a lot of these people november the united states. >> which ones? >> muslims who left countries where there was torture. >> sure. >> why didn't united states muslims speak out about this? >> on social media i saw a swift reaction. i saw keith ellison call for a criminal investigation on sunday. we have seen so much. a lot of the torture came out -- we saw pictures of hideous things going on to muslim men, but it's not like everyone in the muslim world is corrected. there is a bond though to islam. it was torture of human beings, which was terrible, but it was not something that affected people personally. it wasn't something where you burned the quran -- there were rioted. the u.s. soldiers burned a quran, and 30 people died -- >> but there were muslims who were innocent who were taken into cust di. there were muslims who were tortured. >> absolutely. and it's absolutely wrong. but if you live in the muslim world you have seen it. in egypt, syria, to them it is not something shocking. it is almost expected. for us to be in the same boat morally almost as those leaders that was the problem. that was the point of my article. what john mccain said, it's not what nay are doing, it's what we are doing? how does america want to be on the world stage? >> thank you. >> thank you. >> up next, thousands of veterans overdosing on prescribed bills. and bill cosby and his wife break their silence in the wake of rape allegations. hi, everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. mexico murders in two years, tens of thousands killed. >> what you see here is just one of nine clandestine graves found recently. >> the human cost, cosby acquisitions, an historically black women's college moves away from the comedian. 50% of the veterans have chronic crane. >> what the government is doing to stop the epidemic. and how to save the white rhino. ♪ tonight a new voice in the scandal surrounding bill cosby. it's not from one of the women accusing the comedian, it's the vice of his wife. >> that's right. now more than 20 people say bill cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them. >> there's no response. >> reporter: the last time bill cosby spoke publicly about the sex assault allegations was more than month ago, and while he spoke, you almost couldn't take your eyes of his wife who's smile never broke. now she has released a statement, saying, quote: mrs. cosby compares the story with the rape charge on rolling stone. cosby told a reporter: cosby did not directly address the sex assault allegations. he did address how his wife of more than 50 years was handling the controversy, siding her, quote, love and strength of woman hood. but last week, beverly johnson said that cosby drugged her back in the '80s, and it was her respect for camille that kept her quiet for so long. >> i walked up to her and she new me and she embraced my. >> reporter: meanwhile institutions all across the country continue to distance themselves to comeby. they gave $20 million to an historically black women's college. but they said they are suspending that relationship. >> the los angeles police department says it will investigate any wrongdoing even if the legal date for prosecution has passed. >> thank you. amanda welcome. it's good to have you here. >> good to be here. >> when you hear that bill cosby asked black media to stay neutral, what was your reaction? >> well, first i rolled my eyes, and then -- you know, i was offended. because, you know, i feel like it is really him displacing once more, like the onus, the accountability that people are looking for him to take leadership on. we saw him do it with the ap reporter, and now as he is targeting black media, it's like why do you feel like we should protect you. and aside from beverly johnson it has been all white women who have accused you. >> you are laughing about that. but you are serious? >> there is definitely a seriousness in the fact that bill cosby has picked and chosen how he wants to address the black community, black media, et cetera, all of these things. and most of the time it's in an accuse forry way. and this is the same person who says black boys need to pull their pants up, when right now he is being accused of pulling women's pants down. so now we look at you, like, bro, we're not sure we want to be down for this. >> is he bringing race into a story that shouldn't have race into it in >> yes. yes. >> you brought up the point that he had asked young black men to pull up their plants. >> uh-huh. >> and that became a racial issue in many ways, right? >> that was specifically a racial issue in that he was directly speaking to the black community saying you guys need to do what you need to do. and now that he's doing what he should don't, he is looking at us and saying help me now y'all. and i'm saying i'm not getting any of it as a person, a fan, and a part of the media? >> right. as he says be neutral. >> i feel like we would not be upholding standards in excellence in journalism if we were to continue to give him pass based on who he is as a creator. >> he hasn't been charged as a crime. there is no actual evidence he committed a crime. he denies the charges -- >> he doesn't deny the charges. >> his lawyers denies the charges -- >> he has not. >> his lawyer has denied them. in this country everyone is presumed innocent before they are found guilty or innocent. >> so the onus comes on the fact that one i am a woman. two i'm also in the entertainment business, and so are you -- >> we wouldn't call it that, but go ahead -- >> well, it is what it is. but we all know what there are a lot of times unfortunately different rules in this world, and unfortunately for -- for these women, i -- i do not find it surprising that they would feel like that cannot come out against bill cosby until now. i'm a comic, and when you are on stage and there's a hackler, you are always like, dude, i'm going to win this, i have the loudest mic. we are only recently in anner are now where a regular person or even a victim can get heard in the same way as the person they are accusing. >> african-americans shouldn't criticize him, is that it? >> there is a lot of tragedy that comes along with this story. first and foremost the women. and this has been an african american icon for years -- i mean for decades this has been somebody that we have looked to as a genius, et cetera, et cetera. so the fact that he now may perhaps be completely falling from grace. that is a tragedy in the african american community. where we had somebody who broke through the ceiling and now we see them plummeting to hell. so the levels of tragedies are very great amongst many. and they do affect the black come community, but i feel like he is not respecting the fact that he does have an affect on how we are looking at him. like he is just saying yo protect me because i'm me -- >> or because i'm black. >> well, that's part of him being him. but the problem is, is that nobody community should protect somebody who has behaved in an erroneous manner. >> so you are saying this has nothing to do with race? >> i do not believe i should be protecting a person who is a possible racist just because they are black. i believe we need more information, but when 20 women are saying this, and you also have a bit on spanish fly, you know, like -- and you are not here screaming to the heavens like this ain't me, there's definitely a reason to question this behavior, and when beverly johnson came out it only further solidified that we cannot just protect bill because he is a brother. >> amanda, it's great to see you. thanks for being on the program. the president said he will sign the spending bill passed by congress. the bill keeps the government running, but are also loaded with provisions that have nothing to do with that. >> this bill runs more than 1600 pages. you probably heard about some of the more con tro ver shall parts of the bill. it allows deep pocket donors to give even more money to political figures. and does away with a key financial regulation that would have reigned in the big banks, but there are tons of proaccusations. here are a few. congress of the government cannot move forward on endangered species designation for the sage grouse. this is a win for the oil and gas industry. they want to explore in the birds's habit. and on the school lunch fram, schools will not have to meet a lower salt standard for their food, and they also may be able to opt out of whole grain requirements for pasta and tortillas. farmers and ranchers won't have to worry about greenhouse gas regulations on manure or clean water rules for their farm ponds or irrigation ditches. second amendment defenders are celebrating. the bill prohibits regulation of led in ammunition. and a win also for the trucking industry, it blocks new rules on truck driver fatigue. and thank you to congress. you will still be able to get your mail on saturday. any government official who wants an official portrait of him or herself to hang in his office, they will have to pay for it themselves, and the vice president will not be getting a raise. the head of the approachations committee said this bill roots out waste and abuse, and reigns in bureaucratic overreach. robert wiseman says the bill are exactly the kind of cronyism and inside deal making that has the public so disgusted with washington. what the lawmakers wanted to do was pass a bill, get out of up to and prevent a government shutdown, and they did that. the president says the military is at a turning point. he spoke today in new jersey to mark the end of combat operations in afghanistan. the president said those who died did not die in vein. >> i want you and every american who have served in afghanistan to be proud of what you accomplished there. because the 9/11 generation has met every mission that has been given to you. you helped decimate the core al-qaeda leadership and deliver justice to osama bin laden. >> about 15,000 troops will remain in afghanistan to help train afghan security officers. the veteran's health administration, the largest prescriber of opiate painkillers, the fatal overdose rate among av patients is double the rate for the nation at large. now the va is looking to change that. >> reporter: the veteran's administration is an enormous institution, so when they take this radical step, you know the problem is out of control, and nowhere is that more apparent than when you talk to veterans themselves. this veteran who asked that we call him by his nickname says he has been addicted for mo of his adult lives. >> shooting heroin for me is like putting a band aid on shaving cut in the morning. >> reporter: the veteran's administration has a massive problem. 50% of patients seek help for chronic pain. and that has helped make the vathe nation's largest prescriber of painkillers. they are the world's largest prescriber of medication connected to addiction. now a group is developing a program that would give any veteran at risk of abusing opiates and perhaps all veterans prescribed painkillers another drug as well. nor-can. it can temporarily reverse an overdose. >> one problem is that the painkillers were invented to treat acute pain. but since the 1990s, painkillers like this have been prescribed as a standard means of treating long-term pain. and the alternative therapies available at pain clinics like physical therapy, massage and acupuncture are harder to come by. >> 50% of the people who come to the va have chronic pain. if every one of them went to a multi-disciplinary pain clinic, that's a lot of treatment. >> reporter: because the va has not been able to cut the number of overdoses, nar-can is a last-ditch crisis management tool. >> people think of it in terms of an epi-pen. >> the come mrin indication rate is the drug that comes from the va can sometimes lead people into heroin. >> yes, but that certainly doesn't reduce our -- you know, our need to protect people. >> reporter: for boston, a nationwide nar-can program can't arrive fast enough. >> i lost a lot of friends to overdose. some from were the biggest addicts i ever met. but they were also fathers, brothers, sons, best friends, hard workers, and to lose somebody like that because -- because the government hasn't come around yet, it's -- it's ridiculous. >> john, i had the opportunity to ask the va doesn't it somehow damage the goals of this program if thenar-can ends up in the hands of people using heroin, and their response was this problem is so out of control, and they don't care who gets it as long as it's in as many hands as possible. >> that's jake ward reporting. now to the hacking story -- the big hacking story. sony trying to stop the spread of data that has been stolen. so far about 200 gigabytes of data have been leaked. today the company asked the media to destroy all leaked documents. an attorney for sony called the information stolen. hackers warn that even more damaging information will be released on christmas. now to mexico where the disappearance of 43 students in september touched off an unprecedented anti-government movement. a new report that says 40,000 people have been murdered since mexico's president took office just two years ago. >> reporter: formers husk their corn in silence in guerrero. vultures signal overhead. >> on the road they found a large bag and a young man opened it. it was the head and body of a boy about 12 or 13 chopped up into pieces. >> reporter: in the town here, people live in terror. today it happened to us, tomorrow it could happen to you. written by the people in this house. three days after they disappeared five decapitated and partially charred bodies were found lying on this road. a few days before that 11 other bodies in exactly the same condition were found a few kilometers from here. the families gave the gps coordinates of their brother's vehicle to the army soon after the kidnapping. information they say authorities ignored. >> translator: we are sure that there was negligence, complicity or both. we know the power of the local criminal gang who's leaders are the brothers of our state congressmen. >> reporter: at this church people donate food and diapers to the young widow of a man who police say was still alive when his face was skinned and eyes removed. soldiers at an army barracks just blocks away say they heard and saw nothing. in scope and style, the tens of thousands of gruesome murders occurring in mexico are reminiscent of latin americas dictatorships of decades past. what you see here is one of nine clandestine graves found recently. a total of 38 bodies were found, but the locals tell us it's just a fraction of the amount of people that have been disposed of in the surrounding hills. one of the reasons why it's impossible to say how many people are being killed in mexico on an almost daily basis. what there is little doubt is that mexicans feel under attacked, and abandoned by the very institutions that are suppose to protect them. coming up next, just five left, the fight to save the northern white rhino. good evening, we are looking at the next round of very heavy rain across parts of california now. here is the one re -- we're currently dealing with. you can see the heavy rain affecting most of central california all the way up towards oregon. san francisco you are getting out of the heaviest rain right now, but on the eastern side of the valley, that's where the heaviest rain is now. snow is going to be a big problem. we do have winter weather advisories in that area. tomorrow, we expect to see even snow down here in the mountains. that is going to be light, but still going to head all the way towards the south, and on wednesday move out here towards the east. thursday we have another round coming into play there, and that's going to bring more flooding especially to the northern part of california. san francisco seeing rain tuesday and wednesday, but conditions get better as we go towards the weekend. i want to take you towards parts of japan,est speshgly towards western side of japan. very sef i have snow in this area. this is not uncommon for this particular area of japan. by the time we get to the springtime, this is normally what we could see, snow banks of over 20 feet. that is a look at your weather more news after this. the northern white rhino is on the verge of extinction. a male died this weekend, leaving only five left in the world tonight. matthew lewis tells us the story behind the desperate effort to try to save the breed. >> reporter: the northern white rhino story is one of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. it was found in parts of uganda, and it was stranded where it was. and that region has been the center of a lot of human civil war, civil disturbance over the past 50 or so years, which is very unfortunate, because the white rhino suffered. you can imagine sudan's long-running civil war. the northern white rhino was really at the epicenter of the conflict, and was targeted very heavily for its horn, which was traded first to the middle east, primarily the yemen for use in traditional dagger handles, and also to china and hong kong, and parts of southeast asia, where the rhino horn has been used for melin ums for traditional medicine. we know poaching is going to be one of the major threats to them. so the strategy is to try to maximize the birthrate. and rhinos birth very well in the wild. but they don't breed well in captivity. and conservationists have realized that the situation for the northern white rhino is really pretty much hopeless. we lost all in the world several years ago now, at least seven to ten years ago, and once you lose all individuals remaining in the wild, there is not a great deal of hope for recovering the sub species. the only individuals remaining were in zoos, and we knew that they are all getting up there in age, and the chances of them reproducing naturally are pretty low. so really, a lot of us have been aware for quite a long time, they it is basically a hopeless situation. >> the world wildlife fund has been more successful in saving the southern white rhino, there are about 20,000 of them living in the wild. coming up a vote in the u.k. that could make pay disparity between men and women a crime. it's been more than 40 years since man last walked on the moon. since then there has been talk about building a moon base, but no serious plans. now european scientists say they can make it work. ter rick bahs basely reports. >> reporter: the idea of a manned base on the moon has been around for decades, and not just in the realms of science fiction. nasa's apollo missions gave the science community huge amounts of information. but the vast cost of the program, and waning public interest saw it x-ed in the 1960s. >> once you leave earth orbit, and you have committed yourself to an asteroid or on to mars, you have cut off your support and soup ply line from earth. so you have to be resourceful. >> reporter: this honey comb-like structure was built by a robotic 3-d printer. they used dust like found on the moon, added water, and salt which created a concrete. say they this could create the building blocks of a future moon base. they say it would be faster, cheaper, and safer than using astronauts to do the job. >> there is the moon base with normal technologies, you would have to bring all of the materials and tooling and astronauts to build the base. with this technology, you send the printer to the moon, and use the dust that you find already on the moon to build the moon base around the machine itself. >> reporter: the shield would protect the mission from meteor impacts. >> reporter: on certain parts of the moon, water does exist, and that really makes resupply a lot easier for future astronauts. just take along the technology to extract. >> reporter: when we set up on the moon, new and innovative modes will be essential to turn signs fiction into fact. and here is our picture of the day. it's james dean, of course. the picture taken in 1955 by phil stern. the photographer who was no stranger to stars. he captured celebrities, musicians, and politicians. phil stern died on saturday. he was 95 years old. that's our program. thank you for watching. "faultlines" coming up next. >> august 25, 2014. michael brown is laid to rest by his family and friends