Call for 2010 'Fly your thesis' propsals

The time has come for the next call for the ESA 'Fly your thesis' competition proposals.  'Fly your thesis' is an ESA run competition for Masters/PhD students to propose a microgravity experiment that could be run in the upcoming microgravity parabolic flight campaign.  The winning teams and their experiments will end up on board an A300 specially fitted out to fly in a large parabolic flightpath.  During the parabola the aircraft, the occupants and all of the experiments on board are placed into free fall and experience weightlessness.  This lasts for about 25seconds and is repeated 30 times a day.  A typical flight campaign will go for 3 days, giving 90 parabolas of microgravity.
Last year a team of four of our final year MEng Astro stu

dents entered the competition.  They did very well, making it all the way to the final selection committee.  Unfortunately they were not selected to fly.  This year we want to get all the way!

If you would like to submit a proposal for this competition then come see either me or Dr Welchwith your ideas!

Racing to the Moon - Monday 11 May

If you are looking for a break from exams next month or need a bit of inspiration, how about this?

"Four decades after the first Moon landings, the original space-racers have been joined by China, India, South Korea, even Nigeria. Why do we still need manned missions? Does space exploration need countries to cooperate, or does it benefit from the oxygen of international conflict and mistrust? Join a lively debate on colonizing the Moon between scientists, historians and commentators. This is the first of two King's Place summer events organized by the weekly science journal Nature."

See here for more info.

Future Flying

There are many more aircraft than spacecraft in this, but I couldn't resist the lastest offering from WebUrbanist. Tear yourself away from the end-of-term blues for a few minutes and indulge in some Futuristic Flying: Brilliant Prototype & Concept Airplanes.

Where are they now? - Daniel Martins

Not all our alumni end working in the space sector - some pursue other dreams. Daniel Martins graduated in 2003 after doing an industrial placement with EADS Astrium (who also supplied his final year project) and a group project looking at the thermal protection for an inflatable re-entry capsule for ESA's Young Engineer's Satellite -2 project (which eventually flew in 2007). After graduation, Daniel's dream of flying became stronger than his dream of engineering and he returned to Portugal to learn to fly. After a period as a flight instructor he obtained his type rating with TAP and later moved to Macau where he is a pilot for Air Macau flying A319/320/321s.

Summer Internship At NASA Ames

If you have excellent computer skills then this might be the job for you - help NASA put scientific papers on the map of Mars. NASA Ames, are working with Google, Inc., and the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System to get scientific papers geo-located on Mars. They need a summer intern to help with the following:

• create an initial seed of test data
• develop the supervised parsing strategies for extracting geospatial data from scientific plain text
• develop the information architecture for doing all of this
• create the presentation of the geographic data for Google Mars 3D

See here for more information.

Holiday on Mars this summer!

I missed this earlier in the month, but Expedia ran an April Fool's Day ad campaign for holidays on Mars. So, if you fancy dust-surfing, a Mars historical tour or climbing Olympus Mons (the biggest mountain the solar system), follow the link :).

Go Barnaby!

I'm very pleased to report that, recognising his research in precision optics, Barnaby has been awarded a Business Fellowhip Scheme award with the National Physical Laboratory for the development of Mirrorlite - a carbon fibre reinforced polymer telescope mirror. No wonder he looks happy!

UKSEDS 2009 Student Space Conference

A date for your diary. This year's annual UKSEDS conference will take place on the weekend of 7/8 November at the University of Surrey in Guildford. This location will make going to the conference much easier and cheaper than usual - except for the times when it's been at Kingston (2002 and 2005, for those who are interested). More details will be announced in due course (probably after the summer).

Space Development; Theory and Practice Workshop - Russia

For the last ten years, the Youth Space Centre of Bauman Moscow State Technical University runs this workshop, which gives an opportunity to discuss the results of the past year in space, see and touch real space hardware and meet people working on the front line of space science and technology. This year, the workshop is running July 4-10 in Korolev with an optional trip to Baikonur in Khazakstan. UK participation is organised through UKSEDS. See here for more information.

Be an Integral Astronomer - ESA Competition

To mark the International Year of Astronomy, ESA has launched a competition for students. Participants will use data taken by the Integral space observatory to investigate objects in one of the most active regions of our galaxy.

See the competition pages for details of what the competition entails, prizes and how to enter. The deadline is 14 August 2009. Good luck!

Rocket Club - Flight Readiness Review

As launch day approaches, it's time to assess the flight readiness of the rockets that club members have been building. Only those rockets passing the review can be considered for launch. If you didn't get your rocket inspected yesterday, you will need to make arrangements to do so in the next ten days. Like Nick's Fantom 438 (see left), rockets don't need to have been painted yet, but they do need to be fully and correctly assembled and have a working recovery system.

Where Are They Now? - Dave Wade

Dave graduated with a first class honours degree from Kingston in 1991. After graduation he went to Cranfield University and gained an MSc in Astronautics and Space Systems, before working for small satellite company Space Innovations Limited for several years. In 1994 he returned to Kingston, this time to work as a lecturer in Astronautics. In 2000 he left Kingston again, this time for a highly-sucessful career as a space underwriter. You can see more about his work here.

Entering the Workforce and Strengthening the Global Community

From IAF: Calling on students and young professionals -- you are the future of the global space program! As such, it is time to share your vision, ambitions and challenges as current and prospective members of the 21st century space workforce with space leaders in government, industry and academia at the International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, South Korea, 12-16 October 2009!

Looking for an incredible opportunity to address the international space community? For the first time, the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) is organizing a plenary event to hear perspectives from 21-33 year olds on 12 October 2009 in Daejeon, South Korea, at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (www.iafastro.org). Highlight how you are impacting the space world right now, share your vision and aspirations for future space endeavors, and underscore your desired role in them. Plenary event participants will deliver a ten minute presentation, engage in a panel discussion, and interact with the audience. You don’t want to miss this!

This sounds amazing! What do I need to do to participate?

ROUND ONE: 12 Seconds of Fame

By April 24, 2009, create a 12 second video telling us why you should be chosen to address the IAC and post it on http://12seconds.tv/. Then complete the application here. The IAF will select a subset of candidates from these entries and notify all entrants by May 6, 2009.

ROUND TWO: Just YouTube it!

If selected, create and post a three minute video on http://www.youtube.com by May 20, 2009. From your video, we should get a snapshot of your ten minute plenary presentation (think of it as a verbal abstract!). Send an email to youthplenary@iafastro.org with the link to your video.

IAF will select the finalists from these entries based on their creativity, efficacy of messages and relevance to the plenary topics. All entrants will be notified of IAF’s decision on their applications by June 3, 2009.

Plenary participants will be responsible for finding a sponsor or sponsors for their travel to and accommodations at the IAC. Candidates may also apply to the IAF Youth Grants Programme (see blog entry below).

IAC 2009 Youth Grants Programme

The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) has begun a new programme to provide grants that enable students and young space professionals to participate in IAF activities, in particular the International Astronautical Congress.

The first step in this initiative involves the selection of up to ten young people whose participation in the 2009 International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Republic of Korea from 12 to 16 October(IAC) will be supported by the IAF.

The IAC 2009 Youth Grants Programme is open to individuals between the ages of 21 and 33 on 1 January 2009. Candidates may apply regardless of their home country or current residence. While all applications will be considered the IAF through this programme seeks to encourage applications from candidates in nations with emerging space capabilities and interests who would otherwise not be able to attend an International Astronautical Congress. The deadline for applications is 1 June 2009.

New Frontiers Questionnaire

In order to help prepare the future of space transportation up to 2030 and beyond, ESA and the French space agency CNES are holding a seminar in May 2009 co-organized by the 3AF (the French Association for Aeronautics and Astronautics) and the futurologist group Prospective 2100.

In order to stimulate discussion on advanced space exploration, ESA's Advanced Concept Team (ACT) have produced two on-line questionnaires aimed at young adults interested in space. With the input from these, they will assess the different opinions and try to establish the vision of the younger generation. The first questionnaire is aimed at non-experts, while second questionnaire is for those who are interested in the technical and scientific details. The most interesting points will be used as a basis for further discussion, managed with a mailing list.

Arthur Success!

I'm very pleased and gratified to say that on Saturday night I was awarded the 2009 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Achievement in Space Education. Here you can see me with the award (modelled on the black monolith from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Sir Arthur and director Stanely Kubrick) and alumni of the International Space University who were present at the awards dinner (including Kingston alumnus Abdul Ismail). There's more info here.