Year 2 Astro Visit to Astrium

Today, the Year 2 Astro class (and a handful of Year 3s) visited the EADS Astrium facility in Stevenage, which is responsible for the structure and subsystem design and build for all Eurostar communications satellites and is prime contractor for science missions such as Beagle 2 Mars lander, Rosetta and Lisa Pathfinder and Earth observation satellites such as Aeolus.

After a welcome from Alistair Scott, we were given an introduction to the company by Nick Gregory (who graduated from the MEng Astro last year) and then presentations on Cubesats by Ronan Wall, Mission Systems by Nic Leveque, Future Missions by Elie Allouis (the latter two also Kingston alumni) and Propulsion Systems by Bob Baldwin. Thank you to all of these. After lunch we were taken on a tour of the site where we saw a wide variety of spacecrtaft being built and also Bridget, Astrium prototype Mars Rover. Unfortunately, we couldn't take photographs inside the site :(

International Space Station Visible over UK

With the Space Shuttle Discovery installing a final set of solar panels on the International Space Station (ISS) at the moment (making it the brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon) and the fine weather we are having, the scope for seeing the ISS is very good at the moment.

In general, low-Earth orbiting satellites are visible for about an hour or so after sunlight and before dawn, when it is dark on the ground but the satellites are still illuminated by the Sun. The inclination of the ISS orbit is such that at the latitude of the UK the station will usually be seen in the south and will and be visible for only a few minutes. To get predictions, go to this NASA website or register (free) at Heavens Above for even more accuracy.

Enjoy!

Sir Arthur Clarke Award Nomination

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just been told that I have been shortlisted for the 2009 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Achievement in Space Education. Awarded annually since 2005, the ‘Arthurs’, are intended as a ‘space version of the Oscars’ to provide recognition and pay tribute to those who have worked for the advancement of space exploration. It goes without saying that I am very honoured to be shortlisted and hope that I can follow on from Alison Gibbing’s Arthur for Student Achievement in 2008. The Arthurs awards ceremony will be held on the evening of 4 April during the 2009 UK Space Conference at Charterhouse School. I’ll try not to be too tearful, whichever way it goes :)

The Future Through The Past, Today and Tomorrow

Those nice people at WebUrbanist have been looking at imaginings of the future from before the space age. Click your mouse button for 15 visions of retrofuturistic spaceflight and the dreams of what could be, then check out 15 cool space projects for today and tomorrow.