UK Space Conference part 6
Part 1: http://cesy.livejournal.com/173972.html
The eighth talk I went to was the Open University session.
Andrew Ball told us about Rosetta and Ptolemy comet missions. The OU is involved in Huygens, Beagle 2, ExoMars and MoonLITE. There is more info on http://cepsar.open.ac.uk
Vic Pearson told us about sample return, classifying meteorites, and mass spectrometry - they're good at oxygen analysis. She discussed the possibility of microbes surviving in space.
Andy Morse told us about medical applications of tiny mass spectrometers. Tandem is a mission going to Saturn, Titan and Enceladus, where it will send a balloon down. He then talked about caving on Mars. The most common type of cave on Earth is limestone, which is unlikely on Mars, given that it requires certain types of life. The most likely type of cave on Mars is a lava tube. These are fairly rare on Earth. They form when lava cools to form the outside of a tube but the lava inside carries on flowing away. Caving requires stamina more than brute strength, so not necessarily the same people as might be chosen for other types of missions. Good cavers can still look fat. On Earth, you'd need a 1cm diameter rope. On Mars, the lower gravity means you'd only need 5mm. He showed us a plan for a trip taking 200 days to travel from Earth to Mars, 480 days there and then return. 1.5 years in space means radiation problems. There's also the possible "free return trajectory" - 160 days to get there, with a free return if you need to abort landing (2 years to return).
Steve Bartlett told us about the European Student Moon Orbiter. It is organised by SSETI (different from SETI) who sent Express into LEO in 2005. They also plan the European Student Earth Orbiter in 2011. There are 4 UK teams - OU (Payload), Glasgow (Analysis), Southampton (Structure) and Warwick (Electronics, I think). They discuss stuff over IRC every week, and use newsgroups. COTS stands for commercial off-the-shelf [Thanks, I'd been wondering about that for a while]. 96 day transfer, 10 month mission. Launch sometime 2011-2013. There also exists ASMO, supported by NASA.
Steve Otter told us that the deadline to sign up for ESMO has passed, so it's too late to get involved unless you're from one of those unis. He also told us that the RAS sponsored it. I expect he said some other stuff, too, but I don't appear to have written it down.
Next part: http://cesy.livejournal.com/175754.html
The eighth talk I went to was the Open University session.
Andrew Ball told us about Rosetta and Ptolemy comet missions. The OU is involved in Huygens, Beagle 2, ExoMars and MoonLITE. There is more info on http://cepsar.open.ac.uk
Vic Pearson told us about sample return, classifying meteorites, and mass spectrometry - they're good at oxygen analysis. She discussed the possibility of microbes surviving in space.
Andy Morse told us about medical applications of tiny mass spectrometers. Tandem is a mission going to Saturn, Titan and Enceladus, where it will send a balloon down. He then talked about caving on Mars. The most common type of cave on Earth is limestone, which is unlikely on Mars, given that it requires certain types of life. The most likely type of cave on Mars is a lava tube. These are fairly rare on Earth. They form when lava cools to form the outside of a tube but the lava inside carries on flowing away. Caving requires stamina more than brute strength, so not necessarily the same people as might be chosen for other types of missions. Good cavers can still look fat. On Earth, you'd need a 1cm diameter rope. On Mars, the lower gravity means you'd only need 5mm. He showed us a plan for a trip taking 200 days to travel from Earth to Mars, 480 days there and then return. 1.5 years in space means radiation problems. There's also the possible "free return trajectory" - 160 days to get there, with a free return if you need to abort landing (2 years to return).
Steve Bartlett told us about the European Student Moon Orbiter. It is organised by SSETI (different from SETI) who sent Express into LEO in 2005. They also plan the European Student Earth Orbiter in 2011. There are 4 UK teams - OU (Payload), Glasgow (Analysis), Southampton (Structure) and Warwick (Electronics, I think). They discuss stuff over IRC every week, and use newsgroups. COTS stands for commercial off-the-shelf [Thanks, I'd been wondering about that for a while]. 96 day transfer, 10 month mission. Launch sometime 2011-2013. There also exists ASMO, supported by NASA.
Steve Otter told us that the deadline to sign up for ESMO has passed, so it's too late to get involved unless you're from one of those unis. He also told us that the RAS sponsored it. I expect he said some other stuff, too, but I don't appear to have written it down.
Next part: http://cesy.livejournal.com/175754.html