Professor Ken Pounds CBE FRS, University of Leicester
09:30 |
Ken Pounds is currently Emeritus Professor of Space Physics at the University of Leicester. A long association with space research, starting out as a PhD student in the new Rocket Research Group at UCL in the late 1950s, has been based in Leicester where he led pioneering studies in the new field of X-ray Astronomy, involving a series of successful missions in the early UK national programme, and subsequently working with NASA, ESA and space agencies in Japan and Germany. Professor Pounds was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1981 and President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1990. A long term champion of UK space science, Professor Pounds served on the SERC (1980-4), represented science on the initial BNSC Management Board and was appointed as the first Chief Executive of PPARC (1994-98), the new research council responsible for astronomy, particle physics and space science in the UK. While continuing his research on active galaxies, Professor Pounds has recently been an active advocate for the UK reversing its opposition to human spaceflight, a view partly inspired by his experience as a founder Trustee of the National Space Centre. |
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Dr Kevin J Fong BSc (Hons) MBBS MRCP (UK) FRCA, Co-Director Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine, University College London
09:35 |
Kevin Fong holds degrees in Astrophysics (UCL 1993) and Medicine (UCL 1998). He is a hospital doctor with postgraduate qualifications in internal medicine, anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. He has spent the last decade working closely with NASA life science research groups, completing training rotations at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral and Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston. He is currently collaborating in medical research projects at both of these NASA field centres and has recently returned from a 9 month sabbatical period with the Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Division at JSC.
Dr. Fong was responsible for creating the UK Space Biomedical Advisory Committee in 1999 which brought together representatives from ESA, NASA and BNSC and proposed a new strategy for renewed UK involvement in programmes of space life and medical science. He runs the UK’s only course in space medicine and extreme environment physiology at University College London, launched in 2000, and helps to co-ordinate the efforts of the existing UK space life science community. He is actively involved in outreach and education programmes and in 2003 he was awarded a NESTA Fellowship grant to allow him to further investigate the wider benefits of human space flight to the UK.
Dr. Fong was a member of this year's UK Space Exploration Working Group panel, commissioned by British National Space Centre to review exploration strategy and recommend future direction. |
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Presentation: The UK Astronaut
The importance of the UK's growing role in space exploration, including science in education, and the prospect of UK manned spaceflight.
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Professor Richard Holdaway FREng, Director Space Science & Technology, STFC
09:55 |
Prof Holdaway obtained his B.Sc & Ph.D in Aeronautics & Astrodynamics at the University of Southampton. Following a period working on the design of the Harrier VTOL aircraft at Hawker Siddeley, he joined the Appleton Lab in 1974 and RAL in 1980. He was appointed Director of Space Science & Technology at RAL in 1998. He has 35 years of experience in Space Programmes, having worked on numerous missions in Space Science and Earth Observation.
He is a Fellow (and member of Council) of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, a Visiting Professor (and member of Council) at the University of Southampton and also a visiting Professor at both the University of Kent and University of Aeronautics & Astronautics in Beijing. He is a member of numerous National and International Committees, Boards and Councils including Chairman of the BNSC Space Advisory Council.
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Presentation: UK Space Strategy - Why Space matters
What is so important about space? Why is it important to science & technology? How can space exploration help us tackle climate change, and what can it do for Britain's Government and the general public?
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Steve Bennett, CEO, Starchaser Industries
10:15 |
 NASA’s Apollo moon landings first inspired Steve Bennett as a boy. By the age of 13, he had an account with an industrial chemical supply firm and had transformed his home chemistry set into a model rocket testing laboratory. He would put together small rockets and launch them for friends and relatives.
Steve was employed as a laboratory technician before joining the Army in 1983, which included postings in West Germany and the Falkland Islands. After a three year tour of duty, Lance Corporal Bennett left the Army and went back to work as a lab technician. He met his wife Adrienne in 1986 and they were married the following year; their honeymoon was at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Steve continued to pursue his passion for rocketry and by the early 90s, his rockets had grown into devices measuring several feet in length. His rockets were also becoming increasingly complex and very expensive.
After winning sponsorship from sugar giants Tate & Lyle, Steve built a six metre (21 foot) tall rocket called Starchaser 2, which, in 1996, qualified as the largest privately built rocket ever flown in Europe. The project also gradually became a team effort due to the sheer size of the rockets. Further sponsorship enabled Steve to give up his day job so that he could focus more on building rockets full-time. Soon after this, he was invited to relocate to the Physics Department of Salford University, where he still lectures in space science.
Starchaser was incorporated as a limited company in 1998 and the rocket manufacturing side of the business was located to its first factory in January 2001. The company currently employs 10 members of staff and enjoys the support of dozens of part-time volunteers.
On 22nd November 2001, Starchaser Industries successfully launched Nova, the first privately built rocket in the world that is capable of carrying people into space. Current R&D projects include the development of a series of liquid propellant rocket engines, a re-usable sounding rocket, and a re-usable sub-orbital spaceship for space tourism applications.
Under Steve’s leadership, the company created the Starchaser Rocket Roadshow, an educational outreach initiative that is taking the excitement of space exploration to hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
In 2006 Starchaser won a £100,000 study contract from the European Space Agency and in 2008 the Company landed a RDA grant for Research and Development valued at more than £130,000. To date Starchaser has raised more than £4 million in support of its research activities and is on track to make its first people carrying space launch in 2013. |
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Presentation:
Over the last 6 years Starchaser has developed a unique Educational Outreach initiative that annually engages with over 150,000 school children nationwide. Linked to the National Curriculum, Starchaser leverages examples from its own rocket R&D programme to enthuse and inspire future generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts. An innovative range of workshops, presentations and interactive mobile exhibits are used to deliver key points while schools are also invited to the 2009 launch of Starchaser’s Nova 2, which will qualify as the UK’s biggest ever rocket.
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Professor Ken Pounds CBE FRS, University of Leicester
14:45 |
Ken Pounds is currently Emeritus Professor of Space Physics at the University of Leicester. A long association with space research, starting out as a PhD student in the new Rocket Research Group at UCL in the late 1950s, has been based in Leicester where he led pioneering studies in the new field of X-ray Astronomy, involving a series of successful missions in the early UK national programme, and subsequently working with NASA, ESA and space agencies in Japan and Germany. Professor Pounds was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1981 and President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1990. A long term champion of UK space science, Professor Pounds served on the SERC (1980-4), represented science on the initial BNSC Management Board and was appointed as the first Chief Executive of PPARC (1994-98), the new research council responsible for astronomy, particle physics and space science in the UK. While continuing his research on active galaxies, Professor Pounds has recently been an active advocate for the UK reversing its opposition to human spaceflight, a view partly inspired by his experience as a founder Trustee of the National Space Centre. |
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Professor Richard Crowther, Rutherford Appleton Lab
14:45 |
Prof. Richard Crowther of the Science and Technology Facilities Council was until April 2008 Head of Space Technology at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. His primary research interests are man-made orbital debris, planetary protection, and near Earth objects (asteroids and comets that pass close to the Earth). He is a consultant to the European Space Agency on the subjects of orbital debris and planetary protection (biological contamination) and Associate Editor of the Aerospace Journal. He is co-chair of the COSPAR Panel on environmentally damaging acivities in space and Head of the UK delegations to the Inter-Agency Debris Committee and the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, acting as Chair of the UN Working Group on Near Earth Objects within the Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. He is a delegate to the European Space Agency's International Relations Committee.
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Anu Ojha, Director of Education and Space Communications, National Space Centre
14:45 |
Anu Ojha is Director of Education and Space Communication at the National Space Centre, Leicester. Formerly Director of Science and Mathematics at the largest Specialist Science College in the UK, he was awarded Advanced Skills Teacher status by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 2003 and is Director of the Space Academy partnership between the National Space Centre, the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester, the Science Learning Centre network and STEMNET.
For the last five years he has had extensive involvement with Johnson and Kennedy Space Center education programmes, leading UK groups of educators on US placements and presenting at NASA’s Space Exploration Educators Conferences in Houston in 2007 and 2008. He is the Institute of Physics Education Representative for the Midlands, a member of STFC’s Science in Society Advisory Panel and is a UK representative to the European Union’s Network of European Regions using Space Technologies (NEREUS)
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Dr Marcello Coradini, Coordinator of Solar System Missons, ESA
14:45 |
I started my academic career in Italy during the golden age of planetary exploration in the 70s and I contributed to the establishment of this discipline both in Italy and Europe, together with a small group of enthusiastic colleagues.
I joined the European Space Agency on April 1987 with the specific task to initiate a programme of exploration of the solar system. Today, as Coordinator of the Solar System Missions, I am in charge of planning and overseeing the solar system missions implementation at ESA, a programme second only to that of NASA. More recently, I also got involved with the Exploration Programme by maintaining an active interface with the Science Programme and by stimulating synergetic activities.
I maintain my academic commitments by giving courses of planetary sciences and space system engineering, and I am also deeply engaged in an effort of communication with the public.
In 1991, the International Astronomical Union has named asteroid 4598 after him for his contributions to asteroidal science and exploration.
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, member of the European Geophysical Union, where I contributed to the foundation of the planetary section, former Editorial Director of the scientific journal 'Planetary and Space Science', member of the Italian Physical Society and academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, I am also author and/or co-author of more than 120 scientific and engineering papers, and 4 books.
Present position: Coordinator, Solar System Missions Science Programme
Born: in Naples on 19th August 1952; married and father of two daughters
Hobbies: jogging, swimming and photography |
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