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

Opportunity for European Students to Attend NASA Academy 2009

ESA is sponsoring two students from ESA Member and Cooperating States to attend the 2009 NASA Academy. In 2007, Kingston Astro student Alison Gibbings was selected for this.

The NASA Academy is a ten-week, intensive summer research programme conducted in four of the NASA centres: Ames Research Centre, Glenn Research Centre, Goddard Space Flight Centre and Marshall Space Flight Centre. Designed for undergraduate and graduate students interested in aerospace engineering and space sciences, it enables them to participate in NASA research projects. See here for more details.

The application deadline is 16 January 2009.

NASA Ames High

I'm just back from a trip to the NASA Ames Research Center for a three day meeting planning the International Space University's SSP09 programme which will be hosted there in the summer (and at which I'll be running one the three team projects) - and I have to say that I'm extremely impressed. The NASA folk there have a real can-do attitude and are even doing building works into to accommodate the SSP's particular needs. I think that this is going to be one of the best SSPs ever (and I'm not just saying that because it's going to be in California). Frankly, if you are eligible to apply for the ISU SSP (basically, you have to be graduating this year) then I think you should seriously be considering applying. It's not cheap, it is true, but it is worth it (and remember, because Kingston is an Affiliate of ISU, you are eligible for a discount).

While I was at Ames, I met up with Will Marshall, a former UKSEDS member and ISU alumnus. He is now working at the NASA Lunar Science Institute at Ames. Have a look here to see some of low-cost lunar landing work he is doing.

Fly your Thesis! Team attend the ESA panel meeting in Cologne

On the 1st-3rd of December, the MEng FYT team (Carlos Munoz Moya, Hana Rabuzin, Adam Lambert and James Arkwright) and myself travelled to Cologne to present the research proposal and experiment design to the ESA panel.

(The team at the ESA EAC - Cologne)

  

The two day event was split into the competition panel on the first day and on the second day a series of presentations from ESA representatives about their facilities, capabilities and future strategies and missions.  The trip ended with a tour around the European Astronaut Centre.  One highlight was an impromptu visit from French Spationaut, Jean-François Clervoy (after completing his medical) and dropped by to see how things were going.  

(Jean-François Clervoy)

The team were competing against 15 other European teams of MSc and PhD students.  The Kingston team gave a compelling presentation and we have high hopes (excuse any pun) for a good outcome.  Even if the road ends here for the team, it has been a great experience for the team to present and defend their idea infront of a ESA scientific panel. 

(The team explaining how taps drip in zero g)

YGT Opportunities at ESA

The new list of Young Graduate Trainee (YGT) positions at ESA has been released.

The application deadline is 14 December.

The YGT programme offers recently graduated men and women, a one-year non-renewable training contract designed to give valuable work experience and to prepare for future employment in the space industry and/or research. See here for more details.

Proposed Australian Space Port

This is not the first time a spaceport has been proposed for the nothern parts of Australia.  Lets hope it leads somewhere!

...

THE Top End could become home to a launching pad for space travel.

Darwin was named in a space industry report by the Senate Standing Committee on Economics as one of three sites -along with Cape York and Christmas Island - that had been considered for a launch pad.

Australian National University astronomer professor Paul Francis - who has previously worked at NASA - told the Northern Territory News yesterday that Darwin would "win hands down''.

He said it was close to the equator, would not kill a lot of people if things went wrong, and - unlike the other two sites - had much-needed infrastructure like roads, rail and power.

"If something goes wrong you don't want your burning space probe crashing on a city and killing people - that's why people put (launch pads) on the coast so it can launch over the sea."

Australia has form in the space stakes - South Australia's Woomera test facility was once the world's second most heavily used launch site.

But its distance from the equator means it is less suitable for launches - the speeds at which the Earth is spinning at the equator gives rockets an extra kick.

The senate's report - entitled Lost In Space? Setting a new direction for Australia's space science and industry sector - concluded it was in Australia's national interest to reduce its reliance on other countries for space technology.

It recommended establishing an Australian Space Agency.

But while it noted Woomera test facility's former popularity, it did not think Australia was likely to regain its role as a launch site.

Prof Francis acknowledged it was difficult for new sites to compete with established launch pads.

But he said there was growing interest in commercialising space travel and making it much cheaper for amateur astronauts.

"At the moment it's $20 million to put a person in space.

"A lot of people are betting you can bring the price of launching way down in the next 10 years - that the price can go down by 10 to 100 times. If that's the case there's going to be launch pads coming up all over the world."

British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Galactica plans to start ferrying private citizens into space next year - tickets start at US$200,000.

NT News

Where are they now? Victoria Lowe

[Kingston University News 21 November 2008]

A Kingston University aerospace graduate’s career has taken off in a spectacular way, since she has been snapped up by the European Space Agency. Victoria Lowe, who completed an MEng in Aerospace Engineering and Astronautics this summer, has secured a one-year young graduate trainee position at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The prestigious posting will see the 24 year old step into laboratories to work on state-of-the-art spacecraft technologies.

Victoria, who dreams of becoming an astronaut one day, said the space agency signing would allow her to hone her skills in astronautics which she had first developed at Kingston. "The area I am working in is known as spacecraft propulsion," she explained. "I’ll be working with a very experienced team, designing the systems that help keep satellites orbiting in space and that reposition spacecrafts if they get knocked-off course." The Kingston graduate hopes to explore different aspects of propulsion and will also look at ways to launch rockets during the course of her placement.

Having become intrigued by space from an early age, Victoria built on her love of astronautics while completing a one-year foundation course in engineering at Kingston and went on to study for her MEng in Aerospace Engineering and Astronautics. "I’d always been fascinated by the solar system and knew I wanted to be involved with space exploration in some way," she said. "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 aeronautics."

Working with external companies as part of her courses further bolstered Victoria’s confidence including a final-year project sponsored by Abingdon-based Reaction Engines, where she worked on a design for an engine to go in a spaceship that may be used to transfer crew between Mars and space. "This craft, known as a martian ferry, would refuel from chemical resources processed on the planet surface, avoiding the need to carry vast quantities of fuel from Earth," she said. As well as a six-month placement studying at the California Polytechnic State University, Victoria also spent a sandwich year placement working on satellites with IT and business services giant, Logica, where she enhanced her project management skills.

Victoria follows in the footsteps of fellow Kingston aerospace graduate Alison Gibbings, who was selected for a special 10-week programme at the prestigious NASA Academy last summer, before moving to work on ExoMars, Europe’s mission to explore the Red Planet. Dr Chris Welch, from Kingston University’s Faculty of Engineering, said it was a coup for yet another Kingston graduate to be selected by the European Space Agency. "It is a testament to the University’s academic excellence in astronautics and space technology," he said.

A posting to the Netherlands was not the only bit of excitement Victoria has had to contend with this year. Since graduating she has married high school sweetheart James Lowe who is also a former Kingston student. After returning from her honeymoon it was straight over to the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow where she delivered a presentation as part of the student paper competition, before jetting off to the Netherlands. And it looks like there could be plenty more excitement ahead. After her year with the Space Agency, Victoria hopes to be taken on full-time with one of the sub-contractors which works with the agency or could pursue further research in astronautics. And if there is a seat on the next rocket launch available, she would always be happy to step in. "I can’t imagine people who work in the space agency not wanting to go there themselves," she said. "I’d definitely like to get there one day, either as an astronaut or as a space tourist."

Where are they now? Emmet Fletcher

Emmet graduated from Kingston in 1993 and soon after went to Cranfield University where he completed an MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering. After relocating to Madrid, in 1997 he became European Managing Director for Analytical Graphics - producers of Satellite Tool Kit, the industry-standard package for space mission design. More recently, Emmet gained and International Executive MBA at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, a city that he loves living in. If you want to know more, check out his website!

KUbeSat

A CubeSat is picosat - a very small cubical satellite 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm with mass of no more than 1 kg. Orginally developed by California Polytechnic State University, they have become quite popular with universities around the world because they are (by comparison with normal satellites) cheap to build and launch. This year, we are starting our own CubeSat programme - called KUbeSat - with aim of designing building and launching the first satellite with 3-5 years. The intial work is being carried out by a team of six final MEng Astro students and it, too, has a blog which you can find here.

CNES Job Opportunities

Through ISU, we hear that the French space agnecy CNES is currently looking for young graduates from any ESA member state, having a degree in mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, chemical engineering, or in operations management, quality, safety, communication or public relations, for permanent positions at the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou.

At least basic knowledge of French is an assset, as French is the official working language at the Spaceport. This website lists currently open positions, but other positions may become available in the short term. You are therefore encouraged to send your application to candidatures.internet@cnes.fr even if your profile does not correspond to these specific vacancies:

ESA Planetary Defense Student Competion

The European Space Agency is holding a competition for the upcoming Planetary Defense Conference in 2009, in order to stimulate some innovative research and encourage European research students to participate. The Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) has come up with a few concepts that young researchers from various fields may wish to research. They have identified the following concepts as potentially interesting:

• Deflecting Binary asteroid systems
• Graveyard orbit deflection
• Deflection strategies using multiple spacecraft
• The Magnetostatic Tractor
• Lorentz Deflection during an Earth fly-by

See here for more details.

KU Students with South Korea's Astronaut

In keeping with the astronaut posts, here is a couple of photos provided by one of our 2nd year students. The first is of KU student, Tejal, and her sister with South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-Yeon.  The second is of the space generations crowd (including KU students Tejal and Jevgeny) with Ms Yi.  These were taken at the IAC 2008.

It's Astronaut Season

Another month, another astronaut! This time it's ESA's Jean-Pierre Haigneré who will be at the Victoria and Albert Museum along with SF author Alistair Reynolds on Friday December 5 for an event called Space Frontiers, part of the V&A's Utopia to Outer Space: Cold War Weekend event (tickets £8).

Haignere flew to the Mir space station twice in the 1990s (hence he is wearing a Russian Sokol spacesuit in the pic). Reynolds is an great guy who writes excellent hard (i.e. technological) SF and who used to work for ESA as an astrophysicist.

ESA astronaut in town

Jean-Francis Clervoy, ESA Astronaut is giving a public talk on Europe's Role in the International Space Station next week at the Royal Aeronautical. Society on Wednesday 12 November. Admission is free and doors open at 6.00 pm. This is an excellent opportunity to see the RAeS HQ, network and hear an astronaut speak. If you get your photo taken with him, we'll put it on the blog!

The physics of snow, northern lights, a visit to the original Ice Hotel and much more........l

Some of you may have met Carol Norberg from Umeå University in Sweden at the IAC last month. Umeå runs a number of extra-curricular courses in space and space-related areas and we just had notification that there are a few places left on their Artic Science course at Kiruna in north Sweden in January.

The key thing from a student point of view is that:

• The course will be given in English
• Tuition will be free, although you must cover your own expenses travel + accommodation) for attending (low-price student accomodation has been reserved for successful applicants)
  

The aim of the course is to give students studying on traditional science and engineering degree programmes insight into the phenomena that one can observe in the arctic environment during the winter months, such as the aurora borealis and mother of pearl clouds.

The course also contains an introduction to snow and ice-related phenomena. The course is a distance course with a gathering 7-10 January in the exotic town of Kiruna, which lies in the north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. The town is home to the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Swedish Space Corporation Esrange, a site for launching rockets and balloons, Spaceport Sweden and the famous Ice Hotel.

Prerequisites are that students should satisfy the general requirements for eligibility for university studies at Umeå University and have a physics major at upper secondary school level or similar qualifications. For more information see www.irf.se/link/winter_course.

It Is Rocket Science!

During the last year I worked with comedienne Helen Keen and her writing partner Miriam Underhill on It Is Rocket Science!, a space-and-rocketry-themed show for the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe. It had great reviews and this week comes to the Dana Centre in London for one night only - Tuesday 4 November. Go see it!

16 Teams Selected for Next Stage of ESA’s ‘Fly your Thesis!’ Programme

In June 2008, ESA’s Education Office launched a new programme called ‘Fly Your Thesis! – An Astronaut Experience’. This exciting programme offered an opportunity for teams of university students to fly their experiments in microgravity by participating in a series of parabolic flights on an Airbus A300 Zero-G aircraft.

 
After the deadline for applications passed on 31 August, the ESA Education Office set up an Evaluation Board composed of experts from ELGRA (European Low Gravity research Association), the ESA Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration Directorate, and ESA Education. Out of the 29 teams that applied for the next phase of the programme, 16 were selected, involving a total of more than 50 students.

Dr. Javier Ventura-Traveset, Head of the Communication and Education Office of the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) and Chairman of the Evaluation Board explained: “We were really impressed by the very high level of the proposals received and the level of endorsement of the universities. Many European nationalities were represented in the teams and some teams even involved several countries.”

The 16 teams selected include students from the following countries: Germany (14), Italy (10), UK (10), Spain (7), Portugal (4), Norway (2), the Netherlands (2), Greece (2), Sweden (1) and Romania (1).  
 
The selected teams
 
This list summarises the names of the selected teams, their university and the title of their proposed experiment:

• Boiling Jets, University of Pisa, Italy, Gravitational and Electric Force Fields Effects on Boiling Jet Heat Transfer;


• MuSpace, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy, Analysis Of Metabolic And Physical Behaviour Of Engineered Muscles In Gravity-Altered Environments;


• Sma, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, Shape Memory Alloys Adaptive Structure For Satellites Solar Panel;


• Complex, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, The Effect Of Microgravity On Flow Birefringence In Samples Of Sodium Fluorohectorite Dispersed In Water;


• 3G20G, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, Effect Of Microgravity And Flight-Related Stress On Radiosensitivity;


• Watervrees, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Determination Of The Water Repellency Mechanism For Soil Particles On The Basis Of Electrostatic Surface Forces;


• Acoubu's Team, Politechnic University of Barcelona, Spain, Multi-Bubble Sonoluminiscence in Microgravity;


• The Dust Side Of The Force, Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster, Germany, The GT-Effect, Planet Formation And Dust Storms On Mars;


• Team Kingston, Kingston University, United Kingdom, Chaotic Dripping In Reduced Gravity;


• MEGraMa, University of Bonn, Germany, MEGraMa (Magnetically Excited Granular Matter);


• Resuscitation Working Group, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation In Microgravity: The Effectiveness Of Different Adjunct Devices;


• Space Composite Busters, ESTACA, France - Linköping University, Sweden - Patras University, Greece, Polymeric Composite Processing and Repair;


• BioLEx, The Open University, United Kingdom, Enzyme assay in support of BioLEx Experiment (ESMO);


• ABCtr MicroG, Polytechnic University of Barcelona, Spain, ABC Transporters In Microgravity;


• AstEx, The Open University, United Kingdom, Simulating Asteroidal Regoliths: Implications for Geology and Sample Return;


• Physics_addicted, University of Porto, Portugal, New PDLC Materials Obtained From Dispersion Of LC Under Microgravity.

 
 

	Students working in Zero-G

The selected teams are now expected to write a scientific proposal before the end of November. Teams will be invited to present their project to the Evaluation Board during a dedicated workshop to be held in December. Three or four teams will be selected to further develop and perform their experiment on an ESA Microgravity Research Campaign that will take place in Bordeaux, France, during the autumn of 2009. Some of the other teams may be offered the opportunity to perform their microgravity research at ESA ground-based facilities.

“We are really glad to see that many young scientists in Europe have a strong interest in microgravity research,” said Dr Ventura-Traveset. “This is already a success to us. We would like to congratulate the selected teams and wish them success in the next stage of selection. We would also like to thank all of the applicants for their participation and wish them good luck in their studies and future careers.”

Source: ESA Education

International Space University

I've mentioned the International Space University (ISU) a couple of times in recent posts. Just what is it? Well, the main purpose of ISU is to offer graduate-level education to the future leaders of world space actvities.

It has two main academic activities:

• A one-year Masters in either Space Studies or Space Management (MSS/M) which runs at its Central Campus in Strasbourg in France
• A two-month Summer Studies Programme (SSP) which runs in a different location around the world each year (In 2009 the SSP will be at the NASA Ames Research Centre in California).
  

In both, ISU provides a unique curriculum which covers all aspects of space programmes and enterprises - space science, space engineering, systems engineering, space policy and law, business and management, and space and society. Both also involve an intense Team Project providing international graduate students and young space professionals the opportunity to solve complex problems together by working in an intercultural environment.

Since it was founded in 1987, ISU has graduated more than 2500 students from 96 countries. Together with the ISU Faculty and lecturers from all around the world, this makes a very powerful and effective network. It's been referred to as the 'space mafia' :)

Kingston has a special relationship with ISU - we are one of its Affiliates (the only one in the UK). Amongst other things, this mean that approved Kingston gradates who apply to ISU programmes get a discount on their fees.

ISU is not cheap, it's true, but it's definitely worth it and they will always try to provide financial aid for good applicants, so don't let lack of money put you off applying if you are interested. Kingston has sent more graduates to ISU than any other UK institution - a fact of which we are quite proud!

If you want to apply for aid, then you must submit your application by one of the rolling deadlines: 15 December 2008 (SSP and MSS/M), 31 January 2009 (SSP and MSS/M) and 15 March 2009 (MSS/M only).

If you don't want/need financial aid (lucky you!) the final application dates are is 30 April 2009 for the SSP and 30 June 2009 for the MSS/M.

ESA's plans for the ATV + Hyperbola space blog

Have a look at this 8-minute report about ESA's plans for the evolution of the Automated Transfer Vehicle. Philippe Berthe, EADS Astrium's Head of Advanced Projects who features in it is another person I know through the International Space University - a great institution, IMHO. Whether ESA's plans will come to fruition, we will have to wait and see. A lot will depend on decisions taken next month at the ESA Ministerial meeting.

Incidentally, I found the link to the report on Hyperbola, a very good space blog by UK journalist Rob Coppinger. Rob has put a number of reports from the IAC on his blog as well. Highly recommended.

The Zero-Gravity Coffee Maker: Space Station Luxury or Necessity?

For a lighter hearted, but still serious, in the news item:

Written by Ian O'Neill

Costa Rican engineering students invent a coffee percolator for use in orbit

The secret design will allow astronauts to enjoy the rich taste and aroma of fresh coffee in space (Telegraph)

Imagine: You've just woken up on board the space station half-way through your six-month mission in zero-gravity. You probably feel a little home sick and you crave a drink that will pick up your mood, preparing you for a tough day of overseeing experiments in Kibo and keeping up with your station schedule for the day. You go to the galley for some coffee. Instant, bad tasting coffee at that. You put the instant coffee container into the microwave and heat up the sour, plastic-tasting brew. Did that make you feel any better? Or did it just make you crave the smell of real, freshly ground coffee beans you're used to on Earth?

Franklin Chang-Diaz, a veteran NASA astronaut who spent a lot of time on the International Space Station (ISS), knows all too well the taste of really bad microwaved space coffee. So, in an effort to make life a little better for the current astronauts in orbit, Chang has asked two engineering students to design a machine that can percolate fresh-ground coffee in space…

It may seem like a trivial problem. After all, astronauts on board the ISS are bound to suffer some inconveniences whilst working on space; they are strong, intelligent individuals who understand the sacrifices they need to make to belong to this exclusive group of space pioneers. However, as we spend more time in space, there is an increasing desire for the creature comforts of home, especially if you have to spend six months on board a cramped and (soon-to-be) crowded orbital outpost.

In an effort to confront a personal grievance with his experiences in space, Franklin Chang-Diaz, a seasoned NASA astronaut who has flown on seven Shuttle missions and helped to build the ISS, has approached two students at the Technological Institute of Costa Rica to design and build a coffee machine. But this isn't any ordinary coffee machine, it is a coffee percolator that works in zero-G, dispensing with the need for instant microwaved coffee.

View the Telegraph news report on the "Coffee Infuser" »

So, Daniel Rozen and Josue Solano came up with a solution. The biggest problems faced when wanting to percolate hot water through ground coffee in space are, a) there's no gravity to draw the water through the coffee, b) liquids will float in globules and stick to instrumentation, and c) hot globules of water will create vapour and will probably be quite dangerous (after all, the last thing the ISS crew will need are scalding blobs of water flying around!). Enter the secretive "Coffee Infuser."

The prototype coffee infuser (Telegraph)

"We turn on the switch. The machine will heat the water to 90 degrees centigrade, the ideal temperature for a cup of coffee," Rozen explains. "Once the water reaches that temperature, we direct the water which is found in the heating chamber towards where the container is found, resulting in a delicious cup of coffee."

In an intense environment where crew well-being is critical to mission success or failure, the idea of a space-age coffee infuser seems like a good idea. However, in space, where mass dictates how much a mission costs, the Costa Rican engineers will have to find a way of either making their prototype a lot smaller or integrate it seamlessly into a new piece of kit. Until a smaller version is available I doubt it will be considered to be a critical appliance for the station… (although it would be nice to wake up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee when the Sun is rising over the limb of the Earth…)

Source: Telegraph Online, Universe Today

Astro alum to give talk at KU

Andy Woodcock graduated from Kingston in 2000. Subsequently he has worked for Vega, at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is currently employed by Orbcomm in the USA. Andy will be giving a talk for KUSEDS at 7 pm on the evening of Thursday 23 October in PRJG0002 (Room 2, Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road.

EADS Astrium visiting RV on 12 November

There is a careers fair running at Roehampton Vale in Room 125 on Wednesday 12 November from 11am to 3 pm. EADS Astrium will be present and one of their recent graduate employees, Nikki Soper, will be there. I know Nikki through ISU and she tells me that they are looking for some bright people so, if you are in your final year, you might want to go along and impress her!

Soft, Strong and Very Long-Lasting: Space Electric Propulsion

Yours truly is giving the 24th IMechE Aerospace Division AGM lecture on Monday 24 October.

The chemical propulsion systems used to launch rockets and propel and control most spacecraft are familiar to most people. Electric propulsion (EP) is much less well known, using electricity to accelerate a propellant. Although the thrust developed by EP systems is much less than that produced by conventional rocket engines, the exhaust velocity is many times higher. This makes EP potentially very attractive for a wide range of missions from precise positioning of satellites to propelling spacecraft to the outer solar system.

The talk will describe the many EP technologies in use and under development and outline some missions that have applied them and will do so in the future and willstart at 6.00pm, with refreshments available from 5:15pm.

The talk is free to attend and open to all. To book your place, contact Robyn Wyncoll on 020 7973 1304 or email r_wyncoll@imeche.org.

UKSEDS/KUSEDS

As a former chair of UK Students for the Development of Space (UKSEDS), I'm very pleased to see it celebrate its twentieth birthday. There is good article by Mark Bentley here. I remember Mark when he was a fresh young undergrad, keen to make his way in space. Now, he is a well known figure on the UK/European space scene, so prepare for opportunity and join SEDS via its Kingston branch, KUSEDS. Contact Robin Moss (k0604938@kingston.ac.uk) for more details.

The annual UKSEDS conference is at the University of Southampton on the week-end of 22-23 November. This is an excellent place to find out what is going on in space and meet other people, so go sign up now!

Kingston Success with ESA's "Fly your Thesis!" Competition

Yesterday Kingston University's MEng Astronautics project team received notification from the ESA that their entry in the "Fly your Thesis!" competition has successfully progressed through the first phase.  The "Fly your Thesis!" competition will eventually allow up to 4 teams of Masters of PhD students to conduct experiments in a parabolic flight campaign next year.  The team (Carlos Munoz Moya, Hana Rabuzin, Adam Lambert and James Arkwright), with their proposal of investigating a chaotic dripping tap in reduced gravity, beat a large number of other international teams with a high quality of proposals to progress through the first phase of the competition.  

Kingston University's team now make up a core of up to 20 teams that have the chance in December to take part in workshop where they will present their scientific proposal to a panel of ESA judges.  Only 3 to 4 of the remaining 20 teams will be eventually selected to fly their experiment.

Congratulations again, and good luck!  

Westfocus Bright Ideas competition

YOUR Bright Ideas COULD WIN YOU A GRAND PRIZE 

7 PRIZES OF £1000!

20 prizes worth £11,000 to be won plus special healthcare prize! 

1 in 3 entrants won a prize last year.

Put your idea on paper, and compete with your peers. 

Do you have an idea for:

§  a new service or product?

§  a social enterprise or project?

§  a product or service improvement?

Come to workshops to learn how to: 

§  explore and develop your ideas

§  make your CV stand out

§  pitch yourself and your ideas for help and support

Open to all students - no business knowledge needed.

Enter on your own or in a team. Entering is simple. 

To get started go to:

www.westfocus.org.uk/entrepreneurship

Closing date 15th December 2008

IAC#10 - BBC Reports

The BBC have been summarising the congress. The web pages are here.

IAC#9 - Opportunities in Public Spaceflight

The IAC is drawing to a close but there are still many people here. The technical sessions finished at lunchtime, but now there is a plenary in the main auditorium on Future Opportunities for Public Spaceflight. As well as George and Loretta (see ppst below), we have four astronauts in on the panel: Sergei Krikalev (Russia), Chiaki Mukai (Japan), Jean-François Clervoy (Canada) and Yi So-Yean

(Korea). There are aome of very interesting perspectives on what it is like to travel in space and what the likelihood of it is for private citizens in the future.

IAC#8 - The Importance of people

Engineering, science and technology are the obvious focus of the Congress. Equally important, though, are the people. As well as allowing us to find out about the latest developments in astronautics, the IAC is a prime opportunity to engage with and talk to all the different people who make things happen in the space world and to generate new ideas. So, here are a few pictures of some of those people.

Last night after the presentation by Daejeon (the Korean city where IAC2009 will take place) a group of 25 or so decided to go out for a meal. In the group were Loretta Whitesides (founder of Yuri's Night), George Whitesides (Executive Director of the US National Space Society), Julia Tizard (Operations Director for Virgin Galactic), Bill Pomerantz (Director of Space Projects for The X Prize Foundation), Denis Stone (President of World Space Week), as well as Alison, Victoria, myself and a whole bunch of UK space people that I've known since they were undergraduates.

Left to right we see Colin Hicks (former Director-General of the British National Space Centre), Anne Brumfitt (space educator from Australia), Professor Richard Brook(Co-chair of the the committtee who organised the whole congress), Professor Lachlan Thompson (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and Sergei the Space Bear (who has flown into space in a rocket launched from Woomera).

Here are Anne Brumfitt (again!) and Professor Roger Malina. Roger is the son of Frank Malina the first Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has a medal for space education named after him. Anne is the winner this year. Incidentally, Roger says he is the first person to fly marijuana into space!

IAC#7 - Team Kingston

Here are Kingston astro alums Alison Gibbings and Victoria Reid who both now work for the European Space Agency at ESTEC.

Below is a picture of Victoria in the student paper competition. Her presentation was on her final year individual project work about the design of propulsion systems for Martian air-breathing single-stage-to orbit vehicles, which was conducted with Reaction Engines.

IAC#6 - Team Kingston

Here's a "team picture" of happy Kingston staff and students at the IAC yesterday. From left to right: Barnaby, Teejal, Nick, me, and Evgeny. Barnaby was looking especially dapper for his presentation on our plans for a microgravity drop tower.

IAC#5 - Moon first then Mars, says NASA head

As well as the attending the many technical sessions (105 of them!) at the IAC, there are highlight lectures and plenary session where the movers and shakers in space can address all the delegates.

Yesterday, Administrator Mike Griffin emphasised NASA's decision to return to the Moon before sending people to Mars saying that those people who were pushing for the red planet first did not fully understand the challenges associated with a six-to-nine month mission without resupply. He added that without being able to carry out missions of this length on the Moon, sending astronauts to Mars posed a real hazard and would result in them "not coming back."

Do we really know what goes on in space?

I was quoted by The Guardian newspaper last week in an article with the above name, in connection with Chinese launch and associated "propaganda". You can find the article here. The amateur satellite trackers I mentioned (who I would say are very talented, not fairly) are part of an informal international network who watch what is going on in space from the ground. If you would like to find out more about this, take a look at the Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page.

IAC#4 - Team Kingston

It's not just Kingston staff and alumni who are here at the IAC, students are too. At the registration desk I found Paul Stevens with Pejman Neghadi (both MEng Astro Year 3) nearby. Paul has joined the congress staff to help with the cost of attending, while Pejman is helping man the UKSEDS stand (he is the UKSEDS Treasurer, so I suppose he is making sure that their funds are spent wisely...).

IAC#3 - Two approaches to space tourism

Both EADS Astrium and Virgin Galactic have models of their proposed vehicles on display in the exhibition hall, demonstrating differernt approaches. Astrium (top) proposes an all-in-one rocketplane while Virgin (bottom) will use a two-stage vehicle - an aircraft carries the smaller rocket to its launch altitude.

Given that Virgin (with Scaled Composites) are actually developing flight hardware and have rolled out the carrier aircraft, I know which I expect to see in space first!

IAC#2 - Team Kingston

There are fair few Kingston people attending the IAC, a well as Barnaby and myself. Here are some of them.

First up is Kingston alum Abdul Ismail. After working in the USA for a NASA subcontractor after graduation and attending the ISU Master's programme in Strasbourg, France Abdul set up his own company and now splits his time between the Europe , the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (just behind him you can see EADS Astrium's rover testbed "Bridget").

Another Kingston alum is Flis Holland (former chair of both KUSEDS and UKSEDS) who, supported by the Arts Catalyst has organised Less Remote at the IAC, a symposium about the future of space exploration from the the arts and humanities perspective which has attracted a wide range of international participants.

IAC#1 - The Space Armadillo

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is the world's biggest astronautics and space engineering conference. Each year it is held in a different location around the world. The 2008 IAC year is being held in the UK (for the first time in 20 year) in Glasgow. More than 2000+ attendees are present to hear of the latest developments in the space world and attend the exhibition. Amongst the 2000 are staff, students and alumni from Kingston.

The most notable feature of the site is the main auditorium, known locally as The Armadillo (top left) where we had the opening ceremony (left) on Monday morning. After that, the exhibition (more later) opened and the technical sessions started. In the evening the Welcome Reception took place just across the river in the Glasgow Science Centre and culminated with fireworks!

Space jobs in Sweden

Kingston Astro alumnus Erik Clacey (Class of 2005) is now working as a Spacecraft Engineer for the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). He writes to say,

"We here at SSC are growing faster than we can find qualified and enthusiastic people to work here so I was wondering if maybe you know of some graduates who have excelled, preferably some experience but not always necessary, are looking for employment and are willing to work at SSC in sweden?

There are some postings online at www.ssc.se but there is also a need for people in similar fields, too, for example mechanical engineer (designing in CAD, FEM analysis, structure), software engineers, as well as system engineers. We are building up our electric propulsion department and may need some more people there. The same goes for our "green" propellant group, ECAPS."

China launches third manned space mission

China launched its third manned space flight today, carrying three astronauts on a 68-hour mission that will include the nation's first ever space walk, state TV reported.

The Shenzhou VII spacecraft lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China in the presence of President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders.

The head of the three-man crew, 41-year-old Zhai Zhigang, is scheduled to carry out a 30-minute space walk either Friday or more likely Saturday, earlier reports said.

Source: www.spacedaily.com

New Astro Students Land

The new academic year has kicked off. This week is Induction Week for all our new undergraduate students. Today I got to meet the new astro students on their own for the first time and started to get to know them. They are a good group with an impressive range of skills and abilities. I look forward to seeing them develop into fully-fledged space engineers over the next few years. The only way is up!

Call for Proposals for Sounding Rocket and Balloon Flights

A BEXUS balloon is inflated prior to flight

10 September 2008
The ESA Education Office has today issued a call for proposals for student experiments to be flown on two REXUS sounding rockets and two BEXUS stratospheric balloons.
 
Selected student teams will have the opportunity to design and build an experiment suitable for a flight on the BEXUS 8 and 9 balloons that will be launched in October 2009, or the REXUS 7 and 8 sounding rockets, to be launched in March 2010. All flights will take place from Kiruna in Northern Sweden. 

Each flight will carry a payload consisting solely of student experiments. Half the payload is available to German students through a DLR Announcement of Opportunity and the other half is made available to students from all other ESA Member States and Co-operating States* by the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) through a collaboration with ESA. 

	A REXUS rocket is launched from Esrange in Kiruna, Sweden

Applications and Selection
 
The deadline for applications is 17 November 2008. More information can be found athttp://www.rexusbexus.net and applications should be submitted at http://joinspace.org. The flight opportunity is open to students aged between 18 and 28 at the time of the application deadline. Applicants must be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate or PhD student in a university located in an ESA Member State or Co-operating State*. They must also be studying or researching a subject in a relevant field of science or engineering. (N.B. German students should apply to the parallel DLR call for proposals.) 

The best 12-15 team proposals will be shortlisted and announced on19 December 2008. The shortlisted teams will then be invited to a workshop at ESTEC during the first week of February 2009 to present their proposals to experts from ESA and Esrange. The final selection will be made by the team of experts, immediately after the workshop. 

The selected teams will be invited to a training week in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany at the end of March 2009. A preliminary design review of each experiment will be carried out during this week by experts from Esrange. Students will be expected to build their experiments during the summer of 2009 (in the case of BEXUS) and up to the end of 2009 (in the case of REXUS). 

ESA will sponsor up to four team members from each team to attend the following:

• the selection workshop at ESTEC;
• the training week in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany;
• the flight campaign.

All costs related to the rockets, balloons and launches are covered under the bilateral Agency Agreement between SNSB and DLR regarding the REXUS and BEXUS programmes. Esrange experts will provide technical support in the integration and testing phase, as well as providing campaign management and operations. Students will be responsible for funding the development of the experiments and their shipment to Esrange, in collaboration with their universities or other sponsors. 

SOURCE: ESA