9th Appleton Space Conference - RAL Space

Here is a collection of tweets from the 9th Appleton Space Conference, held at RAL Space on Thursday 5th December 2013. Details of the conference programme and attendees can be found here.

9th Appleton Space Conference - HRH Prince Andrew Duke of York

"We need students to get involved in science and engineering, we have a problem with growth in space industry and needing to bring more people into this. Its important to communicate the excitement of science and technology.
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Where are you going to get the next generation of young people from? Unless you encourage some forms of outreach programmes, I know all of you do it, but there seems to be a missing link somewhere – that’s really the point I’d like to make today.

I’ve been inspired from the point that I was actually prevented from doing Physics at school. I was forced into general science when I wanted to go and od Physics. I then went to the Navy, had a certain amount of “your” technology delivered to me either in my aircraft or in my ship, but it’s the growth of the applications in the 21^st century that means we need to encourage more and more young people to make use of these applications and get the word out there.

I go round schools, support a number of different schools, universities, technology colleges, academies, private schools, as a matter of course. But its how to get some of the applications into their programme.

CaSE Science & Engineering Cross Party Debate

Here is a collection of tweets from this debate.

Alan Bean, Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot

Thanks to an amazing effort by all involved with Space Lectures, Alan Bean was in Pontefract on Saturday 12th October 2013 to give a talk about his experiences as a Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 12, which made him the fourth man to walk on the Moon.

Alan Bean and myself, SpaceFest IV

On this 4 day trip to the UK, Space Lectures arranged for Alan Bean to captivate 600 school children at Birkdale School, and he also visited two other schools.

Alan Bean at Birkdale School, Sheffield (credit: @Space_Lectures)

Many people gathered for dinner with Alan Bean on Friday night, and were able to have a couple of minutes with him as he graciously signed autographs.

The Saturday talk started with a 5 minute video highlighting key Apollo moments.

"Space Lectures is proud to introduce the fourth man on the Moon, Captain Alan Bean!"

Alan: "Thank you very much for coming today. Nice to be with you here in the UK. I love this weather, I come from Houston Texas, where its hot. I don't even think of this as rain, this is just a little sprinkle. Nice to be with you in paradise and in the garden of Eden, but I'll say more about that later."

Royal Astronomical Society: EChO Meeting

Here is a collection of tweets from this meeting, focussing on the ESA M3 candidate mission EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory).

Sudbury Field School 2013

Here is a collection of tweets from this NASA/CLRN Field School at the 1.8 billion year old Sudbury basin site.

NewSpace Entrepreneurs at EPSC 2013

[DRAFT - PHOTOS & FURTHER INFO TO COME]

This briefing brought together Planetary Scientists with NewSpace Entrepreneurs to examine timescales, opportunities for different stakeholders and commercial reward from private space companies and the opportunities that exist for planetary scientists in looking at the feasibility of these ventures to open up a new frontier.

James Carpenter from the European Space Agency, chaired the session, citing the benefits this could bring to planetary science and how exciting it is to see new ventures emerge over the last few years.

“There have been initiatives from various quarters, building on work done by governmental agencies in the last decades to try to make space an economical place to go and explore. If this can be realised, this can yield some real benefits, for economics, for science, really open up space as a frontier, which personally as an enthusiast I find very exciting.”

Ice Worlds! Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

I spent two days volunteering on the "Ice Worlds" stand, masterminded by Geraint Jones of MSSL (Mullard Space Science Laboratory) in collaboration with scientists from UCL (University College London), University of Kent and Imperial College London.

"The plumes of Enceladus"
(Photo credit: Todd Howard)

"Moon, Mars and the Search for Life in the Universe", Prof Ian Crawford

Here is a collection of tweets from this event.

SpaceFest V! The Apollo Panel

This morning, live from Tucson, we are about to enjoy the Apollo panel, a highlight of the annual SpaceFest event.

On the panel, we have:

Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7) (WC)

Jim McDivitt (Gemini 4, Apollo 9) (JM)

Richard Gordon (Gemini 11, Apollo 12) (RG)

Fred Haise (Apollo 13) (FH)

Ed Mitchell (Apollo 14) (EM)
Prof Brian Cox (moderator) (BC)
Bruce McCandless (Capcom during Apollo, first untethered space walk) (BM)

WC: Want to thank you all for being here and giving us the opportunity to meet up as old friends. Perhaps we can take you back to the reality of space exploration this morning. When you look back at Apollo, Apollo was truly man’s greatest adventure.