Battle for Ideas 2009 - Space Events

The annual Battle of Ideas has two space events this year:

• Friday 23 October - Space: From Infinite Ideas to Recurring Nightmares - 8 pm, Royal Observatory, Greenwich. More details here.

• Sunday 1 November - A Space Age Future: SciFi clips and Discussion - 1.15 pm, Royal College of Art, London. More details here.

Team Kingston at IAC2009

The 2009 International Astronautical Congress is taking place in Korea and Team Kingston is in attendance. On the left is James Arkwright who has just graduated from the MEng in Aerospace Engineering and Astronautics. On Monday afternoon James represented the UK in the intenational student paper competition talking about the hybrid rocket motor that he designed and built as his individual project. We'll find out later in the week if he has won a medal.

On the right is third year astro student Tejal Thakore who has been here since last week taking part in the Space Generation Congress and in connection with her role as co-ordinator of the Space Generation Advisory Council's 'Move an Asteroid' competition.

Cosmic Science and Cosmic Disco

Shoreditch Monday 19 October

Subject: Cosmos
Guests: Cosmologist Marcus Chown and DJ Piers Martin
Assignment: Bring a question you've always wanted to ask about the Universe
Tickets: £10 (includes nibbles, a glass of wine and a mix CD)

Organised by super/collider, this event has New Scientist cosmology consultant Marcus Chown talking about some of the ideas and theories he has described in his books. DJ Piers Martin will also present a brief history of Cosmic Disco and play classics from the depths of the musical Universe.

More info and tickets here.

Can the United Kingdom be the Vanguard of a New Space Age?

Can the United Kingdom be the Vanguard of a New Space Age?

Thursday 19th November 2009
Alan Bond, Managing Director
Reaction Engines Ltd

This free lecture will take place at No.4 Hamilton Place, London. Commencing at 18:00 hrs, refreshments will be served from 17:30 hrs. RSVP conference@aerosociety.com.

The current ‘Space Age’ arguably began in the immediate postwar ‘40s when V2s began to carry instruments above the atmosphere to determine Earth’s environment at high altitudes. A decade later orbital spaceflight began and yet another decade or so led to the first human presence on the moon. Since then there has been a more or less permanent, if small, human population in orbit around our planet.

Our knowledge of the Solar System is now incomparably great compared to 50 years ago. All of this has been possible because of the technology of the expendable rocket having its origins with those first V2s. But now we want to do so much more. We need to extend the utility of space for the human race and we want to get people onto the surface of other worlds to see what they are about. The faithful expendable rocket, which has served us so well, is simply not up to the job. New technology is needed; cheaper, more reliable and more frequent. The UK is well placed to lead this new Space Age technologically; it just needs some visionary leadership.

Alan Bond began his career with Rolls-Royce (Derby) in 1963. He worked on the Spey gas turbine for the Phantom and RZ2 rocket engine for Blue Streak as well as the RZ20 Liquid O2/H2 rocket engine for the ELDO launcher upper stage. Alan moved to BAC (Stevenage) in 1972 working on classified weapon propulsion. He moved to UKAEA (Culham) in 1976 working on nuclear fusion and later advanced space propulsion.

Alan has been Managing Director of Reaction Engines from 1989 to present, working on spaceplane propulsion. He was also a consultant to the HOTOL project 1983-1989. His career has embraced chemical, electric and nuclear rocket propulsion, gas turbine and high speed air breathing propulsion, and nuclear fusion power generation. Alan’s interests include astronomy and astrophysics.

LCROSS Impacts the Moon Today

The Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission is hoping to find if there is ice at the poles of the Moon. To do this, the Centaur upperstage of its Atlas V launch vehicle will be impacted into a crater to throw up a debris plume which will be evaluated by the LCROSS spacecraft when it flies through it four minutes later before impacting the Moon itself throwing up a second plume. The NASA feed is here and the SLOOH Space Camera feed is here.

Astrobiology Rap

A rap video by Jon Chase about astrobiology - The search for life in space, particularly on other worlds called exoplanets. You can see Jon at "Life the Universe and... Physics" in Brick Lane on the evening of Monday 19 October. It's free!