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.