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.
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.
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.
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