Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) Council Elections

Jane MacArthur BSc (Hons) FCA FRAS

Standing for election as Councillor (G)

Nominated by: Professor Ian Crawford, Birkbeck, University of London

Seconded by: Dr Stuart Eves, Airbus Defence and Space

UK National Point of Contact for Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC)

Member of: Society for Popular Astronomy, British Interplanetary Society (BIS), UK Students for Exploration & Development of Space (UKSEDS), Austrian Space Forum (OeWF)

Special interests: Meteoritics, Impact craters, Comets, Astrobiology

"Voice of the Future 2014", Parliament

Tweets from the "Voice of the Future" session which I attended at Parliament on Wednesday 19th March 2014, many thanks to the Royal Astronomical Society for the invitation. The full video broadcast can be watched here. [Organised by the Society of Biology.]

#LPSC: Martian meteorites

Tweets from the Martian meteorite sessions at LPSC 2014 and the abstracts. Mon 17th March afternoon: NWA7034 & Pairings Tue 18th March morning: Mars Petrology and Petrogenesis

GeoVUsie Planetary Science Symposium

Here is a collection of tweets from the GeoVUsie Planetary Science Symposium, held VU, Amsterdam, on Thursday 13th February 2014. Details of the speakers can be found here.

Swedish Institute of Space Physics

Our fascinating tour of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) informed us about several of their projects. As a research institute they have nearly 100 staff based at Kiruna, with further groups at Uppsala, Umea and Lund.

IRF have been involved in many past, current and future space missions. Their latest success is having two instruments accepted for JUICE, Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, due to orbit Ganymede from 2030. They have two instruments on Rosetta, a dual Langmuir Probe from IRF, Uppsala, and Ion Composition Analyser (ICA) at IRF, Kiruna. These instruments will be tested towards the end of March 2014 to check they are working properly following the extended two year hibernation period of the mission.

Mission involvement

Two instruments on JUICE

Future missions

Early Career Planetary Scientists' Meeting, UKPF

Here is a collection of tweets from the Early Career Planetary Scientists' Meeting, held at the Open University on Friday 17th January 2014. Details of the conference programme can be found here.

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.
.

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."