European Space Solutions

The European Space Solutions conference at Central Hall Westminster, was introduced by the UK Space Agency, and then handed over to Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship. He was followed by the Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science.

David Willetts, MP, and Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the EC

Post-Alpbach, Graz

I was extremely pleased to be selected as one of fifteen students from the original sixty at the Alpbach Summer School, to attend the Post-Alpbach follow up workshop in Graz.

We had all been on different teams previously in July, so we came together to work on one mission, expanding our research in more detail in establishing a viable Uranus mission proposal.

We are continuing to work on finalising a paper for publication and the team will be presenting this work as a poster at the Lunar & Planetary Science Conference, Houston in March and at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna in April.

Post-Alpbach Team, Photo credit Ingo Gerth

Elon Musk at the Royal Aeronautical Society

Elon Musk gave a great talk at the Royal Aeronautical Society, shortly after the October successful launch of his Falcon rocket and flight of the Dragon capsule on the first official resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Me with Elon Musk

Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, House of Lords

The Sir Arthur Clarke annual awards were made at a lunchtime ceremony arranged by the British Interplanetary Society at the House of Lords, for significant contributions to the space community. Jon Culshaw was a brilliant compere, and the full list of winners can be seen here.

I joined the UKSEDS committee member for a photo with Jon Culshaw.

Jeremy Nickless, Zoe Versey, Jon Culshaw, Richard Painter, me, Ryan Laird
Photo credit: Jerry Stone

EPSC - European Planetary Science Congress

The European Planetary Science Congress took place in Madrid, Spain from 23-28 September 2012. We were invited to present our work carried out at the Alpbach Summer School both as posters and as 15 minute presentations in a special lunchtime session that had been added at short notice.

We were questioned by a Mission Specialist from NASA's JPL who was very interested in the summer school and kind enough to send positive comments back to the organisers afterwards.

Our Team Orange poster

We went on an excursion to the Centro De Astrobiologia, who gave us a fascinating tour round their modern facilities and gave us a demonstration of their machines to investigate crater formation. It was a great week and a wonderful opportuity to experience Europe's top Planetary Science conference, just before starting my MSc.

SpaceUp EU - a space un-conference!

The first SpaceUp EU unconference took place at the Cosmodrome in Genk, Belgium on 22-23 September 2012. The organisers, dedicated experienced space tweeps Remco Timmermans (Netherlands), Eico Newmann (Germany), Angie Kanellopoulou (Greece), Marco Frissen (Netherlands), Joachim Baptist (Belgium) and Alex von Eckartsberg (Germany) did a spectacular job of running a top event. The 100 spots sold out to people from 15 different countries and sadly last minute enquiries for tickets had to be turned away.

Our hosts: Marco, Remco, Eico, Alex, Angie, Joachim

ESERO-UK Space Education Conference

I'm very grateful to the UK Space agency for publishing my report on their blog.

Also to the Space Generation Advisory Council for publishing me in their September newsletter. 

Popular Astronomy magazine - published!

The September-October edition of Popular Astronomy magazine contains two feature articles I co-wrote with Nick Howes, about our trip to SpaceFest and other space attractions in Arizona such as Meteor Crater and Kitts Peak Observatory. The front cover features Nick's amazing images of the transit of Venus.
It can be obtained from the SPA here.
Many thanks to Nick Howes and to Peter Grego for publishing these.

SGAC Newsletter - published!

As UK SGAC representatives, Ryan Laird and I co-wrote a report on our time spent at the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2012. This can be read on pages 14-16 of this SGAC August newsletter.

Mars Society UK AGM & Conference

The Mars Society UK AGM and conference took place on 25^th August 2012, at the National Space Centre in Leicester.  The Mars Society was originally formed in Colorado in 1988, and has had a UK branch since that time. In recent years the society has been restructured, and the new committee look forward to re-establishing the society and extending its membership across the UK.

National Space Centre, Leicester

The AGM re-elected Graham Dale as president, and then noted grateful thanks to Andy Nimmo who was retiring from his many years work as secretary. Paul Clark was elected in his place, and Robert Astbury volunteered to be the new press officer.  Jerry Stone has also joined the committee.

Flying a Cessna Skyhawk

Today, I flew a Cessna Skyhawk, during a 30 minute flight experience, courtesy of Tesco clubcard vouchers!

I didn't really know what to expect. When needing to spend some vouchers, this seemed to be the most fun option and I recently realised I had two weeks left before it expired. Thus, I arrived at the Goodwood Flying School, somewhat late, after underestimating the time to get there, being stuck behind a tractor, and finding their aerodrome somewhat difficult to navigate!

MSL “Curiosity” Landing event at the Natural History Museum, London

I joined a tense gathering at the Natural History Museum, just before 6am on Monday 6^th August, waiting to find out if the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) “Curiosity” would make it safely onto the surface of Mars.

Experts Dr Peter Grindrod from UCL, Dr Joe Michalski from the NHM annd Dr Matt Balme from the Open University were on hand as our panel for the morning, to guide and educate us through the landing as it happened.

Dr Peter Grindrod, Dr Joe Michalski, Dr Matt Balme

Alpbach Summer School 2012

The 36th annual Alpbach Summer School took place from 24th July - 2nd Aug, in Austria's "most beautiful village". 60 students from across Europe were divided into teams of 15 to design missions to the outer planets. I was one of four UK students awarded a UK Space Agency scholarship to attend, where I was placed in the Orange team and we came up with the iTOUR Investigative Tour of URanus mission in 8 days.

Our team reports and presentations can be found here.

Credit: Summer School Alpbach 2012/M.A. Jakob

A summary of Alpbach tweets can be found here.

Sir Patrick Moore's picnic

The British Interplanetary Society were again invited by Sir Patrick Moore to have a picnic at his home in Selsey, after the success of a similar event held in previous years. After weeks of rain, we were extremely lucky with glorious sunshine for the afternoon.

People set up their picnics in groups around the garden, while talks were held in the main marquee, and stands with a raffle, BIS information and models were there to browse. Halfway through the afternoon, they opened up the telescopes for people to admire. My friend Amjad, who I met in Florida at the launch of STS-135, was excited to see these:

Amjad

FIA Spacezone: Careers Day - Astronaut Tim Peake

ESA's astronaut, Tim Peake, delivered the following keynote address to start the Careers Day organised by the UK Space Agency, in the space zone of the Farnborough International Airshow.

ESA's astronaut, Tim Peake

"It’s great to be here in Farnborough and actually it’s great to be in the UK as I’ve spent much of my year outside of the UK.  My dream is to go into space and it always has been, but it’s been my passion for aviation that’s got me where I am today, so I am delighted to be surrounded by aircraft and aviation enthusiasts.

I recently had a trip to a new dentist; he asked me my profession, so I said I work with the European Space Agency. He jokingly said “Ahh, so you’re an astronaut then?   So I said “well actually yes, I suppose that is my title”, and there was this awkward silence where he thought is this guy for real, just pulling my leg or is he just mad?

Richard Branson arriving at Farnborough International Airshow

SpaceShipTwo!

FIA Spacezone: Space Day - Space Conference

I was excited to be invited by ESA to attend the Space Conference at the Farnborough International Airshow, on Tuesday 10^th July, to help publicise the event via twitter and social media. Several top figures from ESA, Roscosmos and other space agencies gave presentations.

J J Dordain (ESA), F Profumo (Italy), D Willets (UK), V Popovkin (Roscosmos)

Lecture by British astronaut, Helen Sharman, and former Soviet Cosmonaut, Anatoly Artsebarsky

Rocket Science! UK & Russia in orbit 

Helen Sharman & Anatoly Artsebarsky

This event was held as part of the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition, on Sunday 8th July. Helen Sharman became the first British astronaut on 18 May 1991, when the Soyuz TM-12 mission, with Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev, flew to the Mir Space Station. I had been lucky enough to meet Sergei Krikalev at the ISS Symposium in Berlin in May earlier this year, so it was a lovely opportunity to meet his crew mates. Dr Helen Sharman OBE talked first, after introductions from the British ambassador in Moscow and the Royal Society.

Yuri Gagarin's statue, The Mall, London

On my way to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, I took the opportunity to see Yuri Gagarin's statue, which was unveiled as part of the 50 year celebrations of his first space flight, in the UK-Russia Year of Space 2011.

Parliamentary Space Committee Summer Reception

Members Dining Room, House of Commons

The Parliamentary Space Committee (PSC) is a cross-party group of MPs and Peers who aim to raise awareness and understanding of the great benefits of Britain’s important role in space, while promoting dialogue between politicians and the space community. Around 120 representatives of industry, government and academia attended the reception. I was very grateful to have received an invitation to this event, held on 4^th July.

Excalibur Almaz Capsule in Westminster

The Space Tourism Conference took place at the Royal Aeronautical Society on Tuesday 19th June. I was unable to attend, but several friends went and reported that it was a very uplifting event, with so many companies making progress towards the first flights of their first commercial space vehicles.

Excalibur Almaz capsule
Photo credit: Amjad Zaidi

I met one of the attendees the next day, to visit the Excalibur Almaz capsule which was on display near Westminster. Some large posters were on display, to tell us full details of the long history of this vehicle:

Tour of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL)

I arranged to visit the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) after meeting a postdoc student back at the UKSEDS conference in March.  As I will be starting an MSc in Planetary Science at UCL in September, I was curious to find out what goes on at MSSL, which is part of UCL, 30 miles south of London, near Dorking.

Published!

I was delighted to wake up one morning in the USA to an email from a friend, Richard Painter, who was on my Arctic Science course back in February and is currently the projects officer for UKSEDS. He had received his copy of Spaceflight magazine (July 2012) from the British Interplanetary Society, and sent me a scan of my freshly published article about the UKSEDS conference.
You can buy a copy of the magazine here, or join the BIS here.

SpaceFest, Kitt Peak, Lowell Observatory, Meteor Crater

Gene Cernan & myself

I attended SpaceFest IV, in Tucson, Arizona, which took place 1-3rd June 2012. Guests included many of the Apollo astronauts, some shuttle astronauts, mission specialists and principal investigators of space missions, along with other space media personalities. There were three tracks of talks and meals with the astronauts.

ISS Symposium: Charles Bolden

Future use of the ISS for Human Exploration: Charles Bolden (NASA Administrator)

“Throughout history, nations have always explored in order to develop humankind. Exploration drives technological breakthroughs that benefit all of society. The ISS is there to advance us further…but if we are not tangentially relevant, not improving life on Earth, then we are missing the boat, and we need to help remind everyone that we are trying to make life better for people here on Earth. In doing so, we improve our ability to explore.”

Charles Bolden
Photo credit: Remco Timmermans

These were Charles Bolden’s opening words, at the International Space Station (ISS) Symposium in Berlin on Friday 4, May.

ISS Symposium: Long-term Space Monitoring & Exposure

The International Space Station (ISS) Symposium titled “Research in Space for the Benefit of Humankind” was held in Berlin, Germany from 2-4 May, 2012. Over 250 delegates were invited to attend, representing all of the ISS partners and more. This session looked at past and future science carried out on the ISS concerned with long-term space monitoring.

Waleed Abdalati, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Julie Robinson,
Masaru Matsuoka Gerhard Schmidtke, Boris Zagreev, Torsten Neubert

Waleed Abdalati, NASA’s Chief Scientist, introduced the round table discussion by saying the international space station (ISS) is a great platform and opportunity, which we need to take advantage of in order to understand Earth, the universe, and our place in the universe. The science we can do from space spans earth science, heliophysics and astrophysics.

ISS Symposium: “The ISS has changed the world forever”

“In building the ISS partnership we have made an impossible step, we have changed the world forever.  The ISS is a model for the future of humanity. We have to manage the ISS as one part of a wider exploration program for the benefit of humanity”

Jean-Jacques Dordain

With these remarks, Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA Director General, opened the International Space Station (ISS) Symposium: “Research in Space for the Benefit of Humankind in Berlin” on Wed 2, May. Over 250 delegates were invited to attend, representing the ISS partner nations.

ISS Symposium: Berlin

I successfully applied for an invitation to the International Space Station Symposium which took place in Berlin, 2-4 May, 2012, and enjoyed an amazing two days learning about the science being conducted on the ISS.

Top respresentatives from all five ISS partners were in attendance, including Charles Bolden and John-Jacques Dordain. Over 250 delegates attended, a diverse range of stakeholders including astronauts, scientists, engineers and politicians.

Paolo Nespoli (ESA astronaut) very kindly spent a couple of hours talking with a small group of us after the gala dinner.

Photo credit: Brigitte Bailleul

Brigitte Bailleul, Paolo Nespoli, myself

“In Orbit” lecture by ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli

“When you leave the ISS, you close all the hatches, check your suit and don’t touch anything anymore. You make sure the seals are effectively sealed, else you’re stuck, you might not have enough oxygen.”

 

ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli (Italian), addressed the question of the amazing photographs he took when last leaving the ISS, given the unique opportunity to provide images of ISS with space shuttle Endeavour and ATV-2 both docked. The talk was part of the Mission X initiative and took place at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on Saturday 28^th April. Due to transport issues he started with an impromptu questions and answers session.

Conference celebrating 50 years of the UK in space

There was a great program of events for this two day conference at the Science Museum.

My contribution to their official blog can be found here.

I was excited to meet and talk with John Zarnecki, who spent over 15 years of his life working on the science surface package for the Huygens probe, which successfully landed on Titan on 14th January 2005, and continued to send back data for over 90 minutes. I look forward to seeing him again this summer as he is a tutor at the Alpbach summer school.

NPoC for the Space Generation Advisory Council

I am pleased to announce that I have been appointed as one of the two UK National Points of Contact for the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC).
Their vision is to employ the creativity and vigour of youth in advancing humanity through the peaceful uses of outer space and to represent students and young professionals in the creation of international space policy; supporting the UN Programme on Space Applications.

Alpbach Summer School

"Dear Ms MacArthur
We are pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted and that we can offer you a place in the Summer School Alpbach 2012. You will be granted a scholarship by the UK Space Agency."

Best email I have received this year! Very excited and mildly terrified at the prospect of designing a mission to the outer planets, in a diverse international team of 15, in six days plus three days of lectures.  Having spoken with some Alpbach tutors since, the common advice seems to be "Make sure you come well rested and don't expect to sleep, it will involve 20 hour working days".

UKSEDS Annual Conference

 “Everything starts as someone’s daydream” (Larry Niven)

The UKSEDS (UK Students for Exploration and Development of Space) conference took place on Sat 31^st March and Sun 1^st April at the University of Kent, bringing together space students and enthusiasts from universities across the UK, to enjoy two days of talks, discussions and exhibitions. 

 

Professor Mark Burchell

After a welcome from Nancy Hine, the UKSEDS outgoing chair, Jeremy Curtis from the UK Space Agency brought us up to date with the latest statistics.  The UK space sector employs 24,900 people directly in an industry worth £7.5bn, which is currently growing at over 9% a year, contrary to the rest of the economy. By 2020 this is projected to account for £14bn with 115,000 jobs. With 57% of workers currently having a degree, this is one of the most highly skilled industries which will continue its growing need for strong science and engineering graduates.

Gyroscope at the Cité de l'Espace

They persuaded me to try the gyroscope...

ATV Tweetup in Toulouse

The space tweeps with astronaut Paolo Nespoli (photo credit ESA)

Witnessed the docking of the ATV-3 to the International Space Station, 
live in Toulouse, after this tour of the control room.

Highlights video (credit ESA)

APEX lecture at UCL

Dr Nick Achilleos - The Warping of Saturn's Plasma Sheet

APEX lecture at UCL

Camilla Danielski, Marcell Tessenyi and Morgan Hollis - Atmospheric Characterization of Exoplanets, The EChO Space Mission and A Bayesian Catalogue of Exoplanets

RAS lecture

Dr Ian Crawford - The Far Future of the Sun, Earth and Life in the Solar System

APEX lecture at UCL

Dr Lewis Dartnell - Breakdown of Organic Biosignatures on the Martian Surface

Ice Hotel

               

EISCAT antenna & Abisko

             

Aurora borealis

Arctic Science course in Kiruna, Sweden

Stepped off the plane into -32 degrees C at nearly midnight. The first picture below is the view from my window, pink sunrise.
Here is the Arctic Science course schedule for the week.