Astro Alum quoted in Daily Express

Astronautics alumna Victoria Lowe was quoted in an article in the Daily Express about steps being take to promote engineering in the UK. In it Victoria talks about her job at the European Space Agency and says, "I’d always been fascinated by the solar system and knew I wanted to be involved with space exploration in some way. I opted for the foundation engineering course at Kingston because it provided a thorough grounding in engineering, applied maths and physics. It really opened the door for me to pursue my space interests further and after that I was able to specialise in astronautics.”   

UK Premier of Selene HDTV moon footage

super/collider is proud to announce their first live event on Wednesday 28 January – the UK public premiere of the Japanese space agency’s high-definition Moon footage, shot by the SELENE lunar space probe. this free screening will take place on the big screen as part of the Science Museum’s new Lates programme, and will be followed by a Q&A with JAXA mission planner Dr. Shin-ichi Sobue, live from Japan. don’t miss your chance to see this amazing footage – the closest you can get to flying over the Moon!

Fifteen Ridiculous Rocket and Jet-Powered Vehicles

WebUrbanist has an article featuring photos and videos of an amazing collection of rocket and jet-powered vehicles - cars, trains, shopping trolleys, wheelchairs, bicycles, skydivers.... Go check it out here.

Applications Available for 2009 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, or SURF, project introduces undergraduate students to research under the guidance of seasoned mentors at Caltech or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Students experience the process of research as a creative intellectual activity and gain a more realistic view of the opportunities and demands of a professional research career.

SURF is modeled on the grant-seeking process. Students collaborate with potential mentors to define and develop a project, and to write research proposals. Caltech faculty or JPL staff review the proposals and recommend awards. Students work over a 10-week period in the summer, mid-June to late August. At the conclusion of the project, they submit a technical paper and give a SURF Seminar Day oral presentation.

All application materials must be received no later than Feb. 22, 2009. For more information, visit http://www.surf.caltech.edu/.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas! I hope that you are all having a good time wherever you are spending the festive season and getting some R&R in. If you find you need a space fix at some point, though, why not combine it with the Christmas spirit and try watching Santa Claus Conquers The Martians - ranked by IMDB as the 65th worst movie of all time and described by badmovies.org as "the worst darn Christmas movie ever." Enjoy! :)

Dr Chris Welch receives UKSEDS honours

At the 2008/9 UKSEDS change over meeting, Dr Chris Welch was presented with a plaque honouring his long term involvement with the society.  The meeting was held at the British Interplanetary Society headquarters in Vauxhall.  

(Past UKSEDS vice chair, Alison Gibbings presenting the award of appreciation.) 

  

Rocket Club Launches!

This year we are launching Rocket Club in the Faculty of Engineering, a club for building, testing and flying High Power Rockets! If you would like to be a part of this club, then read on:

Introduction:

This year we are starting up a faculty club for students to introduce, design, build and eventually fly high powered rockets (HPRs). As a bit of a background, Amateur rocketry is broadly split into two categories, model rocketry (low and medium powered fly-in-the-park type rockets) and high powered (serious rockets, regulated and only flown by certified people). We will be setting up this club to work with the latter - high power rockets. This year we have only one goal with Rocket Club, which is to get as many of the members a UKRA (United Kingdom Rocketry Association) Level 1 certification. This certification is a license that allows you to fly high power rockets (up to a certain size limit).

However to get this certification, it is not just a matter of filling out some paperwork and handing over some money - UKRA requires you to pass a rocket flight test. This involves you building your own HPR, testing it to ensure it will perform correctly and on a test day later this year, flying it. Upon a successful flight (everything working well, rocket going in the right direction, parachutes deploying, recovery successful, etc), you will be awarded your UKRA Level 1 license.

Thanks to funding from the Faculty, we will be running an subsidy scheme, to offset the costs associated with building and flying your rocket. The exact amount of the subsidy will depend on how many people join Rocket Club. The Faculty funding will also pay for motor casing, motor reloads, transport to the launch day, Rocket Club t-shirts, etc.

Rocket Club Rules:

To qualify for the subsidy you will need to do the following:

1. On January 9th at 11 am turn up at RV111 with your rocket kit and receipt (details below of approved kits).
2. Build your rocket during the Spring Term
3. Join UKRA.
4. Fly your rocket on the test day and achieve UKRA Level 1 certification

Upon certification you will receive the full subsidy. If you make it to the flight day and launch your rocket but do not, for any reason, achieve Level 1 certification, then you will receive half of the subsidy amount.

Important Dates:

• 09/01/09 – Meet in RV111 at 1100 for the first Rocket Club meeting
• 01/04/09 – Rocket build and paint complete
• 2 or 3/05/09 – Test day (date tbc)
• Wednesday afternoons – Rocket building sessions

Approved Kits (NB: Ideal Christmas present!):

To qualify for the subsidy, you will need to turn up to the first rocket club meeting (05/01/09) with an appropriate rocket kit to start building. There are many types of rocket kits of different levels of complexity and performance. To help get started we have made a list of approved kits to buy. We will be providing rocket motors and reloads for one size of rocket. These will be a 38mm Cesaroni motor size. If you want to use the motors that Kingston University will provide, it is important that you make sure your rocket will take these motors. The approved rocket kits are all by Public Missiles Ltd and the preferred supplier is RocketStore.

• Io (PML-IO38) - £44.95
• Callisto (PML-CALLISTO38) - £47.95
• Explorer (PML-EXPLORER38) - £54.95
• MR1 (PML-MR1) - £54.95
• Bullpup (PML-BULLPUP) - £74.95

Please be aware that these rocket kits are sometimes out of stock and you may have to wait up to 3 weeks for them to be delivered.

** IMPORTANT!!** There are two standard motor sizes for HPR – 29 mm and 38 mm. Rocket Club is standardizing on 38 mm, so it is **essential** that whatever kit you buy is for this size motor.

Further reading:

High power rocketry is a technical and fun hobby, and like most technical areas, there are many things to learn. Below are some recommended websites to read through to get a good introduction into HPR.

• United Kingdom Rocketry Association
  
• Rocketstore
• UKRocketman
  

Don't forget, HPR can incorporate many areas of your studies (Propulsion, Aerodynamics, Introduction to Astronautics, Dynamics,..), so your own lecture notes will also be a valuable resource.

If you have any questions any questions, drop us a line. In the meantime Happy Christmas!

Barnaby and Chris