Astrotalkuk » Podcast Feed

Mars curiosity entry, decent and descent from http://www.extremetech.com/ Mars Curiosity landing in a nutshell (less than 3 minutes audio below)  by Dr Anita Sengupta  from the Entry Decent & Landing and Advanced Technologies group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Full interview in Episode 55 - tomorrow.              

Stanley Davis The August 2012 edition of Spaceflight, the monthly magazine from the British Interplanetary Society carried an article where I discuss the Northwest of England’s contribution in Rocketry during the 1930s. An extended version of that article is available for free download on Astrotalkuk.org - here. So on to today’ episode. In 1937, two teenagers Harry and Stanley with an outrageous ambition to design and build rockets for space travel joined a newly formed group with a name to match – the Manchester Interplanetary Society. Soon each met a girl, fell in love, exchanged wedding rings and got married. They went off on their separate ways but pledged to stay stay in touch. In addition to his interest in rockets he had a strong interest in science. In the late 1930's he went by train to London to hear a talk from H.G. Wells. Had he not died prematurely, he like Harry would have immersed himself in the sci-fi fandom movement that blossoming in Britain from the early 1930s. Wooden Statue of Abraham

Brian Harvey is a Dublin based writer, author, broadcaster and probably the most informed specialist on Chinese and Soviet/Russian space program in Ireland today. This conversation recorded during the Shenzhou-9 / Tiangong-1 mission orbiting the Earth with the three crew including the first Chinese female astronaut on-board. At the end of the interview Brian Harvey talks about the Space Cooperation Memorandum signed last week.

Historian Michael Wood's documentary, The Great British Story - A People's History, is currently being screened in the UK. Michael is from Manchester and was visiting Liverpool last weekend where he made time for this recording.

You know what it is like, you buy a book on a subject of interest and enjoy it. Later you see a book on a similar subject that you probably were not going to buy but do so because it is from that same author. Gradually, you end up with several books from that author in your collection. David Shayler is one such author for me. During the Space Day event in Droitwich earlier this year organised by British Interplanetary Society West Midlands branch, I finally got to meet David. This is a short recording of our conversation I recorded then.

The last hour of so of the transit of Venus on 6th June 2012 will be visible during sunrise from northwest of England. The following links should answer most if not all your queries. Listen to a short interview above on Radio Merseyside with Roger Phillips today. For details of the Yuri Gagarin talk download this flyer. Liverpool Astronomical Society Venus transit event see bottom of page and details about the Great British Story event at Liverpool Museum where Roger Phillips and Michael Wood will be present. I hope to attend too. Details about the transit of Venus from Royal Astronomical Society This animation illustrates how the transit would look if you you could see it from your location. Want to see it from the comfort of your armchair - NASA will carry a live coverage here. Carl Barry and Lillian Fletcher from Salford talk about their research in episode 9 on William Crabtree's observation in 1639  of the transit of Venus from.. Salford. If you are wondering what the Transit of Venus looks like

27th March 1937 - Foreground (left to right): Eric Burgess, Bill Heeley, Trevor Cusack, Harry Turner (Picture – Philip Turner) Robert Goddard in America , Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union and Herman Oberth in Germany are three names credit with the development of rocket propulsion during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Each led a very small group with more dedication then resources working on a shoestring budget usually in their own time after work. Their collective work eventually lead to Sputnik, the space race and one of mankind’s greatest technological achievement - Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. During the inter war years, the northwest of England gave rise to organisations that nurtured the science of rockets and space travel. In 1933, Philip Cleater in Liverpool founded the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) to promote spaceflight, an institution which continues to exist to this day. A little known group established in 1936, called the Manchester Interplanetary Society (MIS) shared the lo

This episode has no specific astronomical topic but draws attention to a very special astronomy meeting later this month. The Royal Astronomical Society’s annual National Astronomy Meeting last year was held in Wales, next year it will be in Scotland but this year it is in Manchester. National Astronomy Meeting 2012 or NAM2012 will be hosted by the University of Manchester in partnership with Germany’s equivalent to the RAS, the Astronomische Gesellschaft in the last week of March 2012.

The same year that the first woman made it in to space in 1963, a quaint children’s sci-fi series called Dr Who started on BBC television in the UK.  Eventually it became popular around the world and has enjoyed success once more since it restarted again in 2005. Mat Irvine worked in the special effects department of the BBC and made the original model of K9 for Dr Who but he also worked on other programs including the Sky at Night. One of the memorable characters from Dr Who was Davros. The horribly scarred, evil looking megalomaniac creator of the Daleks and arch enemy of the doctor. Listen out for my faux pas when I refer to Davros as StavrosJ In this episode, Mat talks about the special effects department in those early days at the BBC and about the recently resurfaced 1963 episode of Sky at Night featuring Arthur C Clark. A clip from the missing episode was shown in the November 2011 edition of sky at night. You can see the full episode here.

It appears that the public support for the statue to come to Manchester is not an issue once people get to know about the campaign. Half way target of 500 was met on Thursday last week. My thanks to all of you. Another name, Professor Carl Murray  a scientist working on the Cassini probe currently orbiting Saturn, was added to the open letter this weekend. The campaign has sufficient public support what it now requires is a sponsor to make it happen. It was clear from the beginning that public funds would not be appropriate in the current economic climate. Despite this, Manchester City Council continues with its essential engagement even though it cannot assist financially. In his comment, Barrie D. Eckford  says “I too would wish to sign the appeal & should a public subscription be declared, then I would gladly add a small monitory amount.” This is very welcome Barrie and it may come to that.. but not yet.  As one of the now 500+ strong supporters, what do you think? Scroll down and read Barrie’s comment

Links to audio and video below. The 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s UK visit was marked by the unveiling of an aluminium statue of Gagarin, an exact copy of the one outside Lyubertsy Technical School number 10 where Gagarin started his training as a foundryman. The statue, a gift from the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos to the British Council, is located outside the British Council Offices in London but only for one year. This episode is a collection of some of the speeches and my short interviews during the three events on 14th July. They were the unveiling of the statue in the morning, the lunchtime reception at the Russian Embassy and the evening reception back at the British council.  So, in order of appearance here is a list of all the contributors in this episode Unveiling of the statue ceremony was opened by Martin Davidson, Chief Executive of the British Council Vladimir Popovkin Head of Roscosmos (speaking in Russian but with a translator) Yuri Gagarin’s oldest daughter - Elena G

On his first visit outside the eastern bloc, Yuri Gagarin arrived in London for a 5 day visit on Tuesday July 11th 1961. He was greeted with a tumultuous and sincere warm welcome everywhere he went including his meetings with the Prime minister and the Queen. The British government juggled with acknowledging Gagarin personal courage and the Soviet Union’s historic technological achievement whilst assuring its allies, USA, France and West Germany that the visit would not be exploited exclusively as a communist propaganda opportunity. When the Manchester based Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers discovered that Gagarin had trained as a foundry worker, they invited him to join their union as a honorary member.  He came to Manchester on 12th July and visited the union office, the Metrovicks plant in Trafford Park and the city’s town hall before flying back to London six hours later. During the late seventies I had lived near this union office and only discovered in 2010 that Gagarin had actually been there. I l

Probably the most scientifically demanding Apollo mission, Apollo 15 was launched on 26th July 1971 on a two week mission. Al Worden in the command module orbited the Moon for 75 orbits whilst Dave Scott and James Irwin explored the south eastern edge of Mare Imbrium on the Moon’s surface.  Apollo 15 launched with the heaviest payload of all Apollo missions and included the first moon rover, a sub-satellite launched from Apollo 15 in to lunar orbit and a collection of science instruments including a high resolution camera to map the lunar surface. To coincide with the 40th anniversary, on July 26th 2011, writing with Francis French Al Worden is publishing his autobiography.  In this interview recorded in London on 22nd May, Al talks about his test pilot career before joining NASA, the Apollo 15 mission, the “Covers incident” (these were stamped postal covers franked on the day of launch and again the day of ret urn for subsequent public sale) his post NASA career and his autobiography Falling to Earth. In a

Another Yuri Gagarin episode, I know the anniversary of the world’s first spaceflight is over but there is still lots going on over the next few months. There are two contributors in this episode, Chris Riley and Richard Evans. One of the most successful projects to mark the anniversary is the film First Orbit. The only camera aboard Vostok 1 was on the inside, transmitting live pictures of Gagarin’s face to the nervous engineers who anxiously monitored mankind’s first experience of spaceflight. First Orbit is a remarkably accurate recreation of what Gagarin would have seen compiled from high definition video shot from the space station. Astonishingly, this undertaking of international proportions, was put together by numerous unpaid volunteers and almost three million who have seen it, saw it for free.  It is still available for viewing online and for download – still free. If you want to make a contribution and have a smart phone (Android or Iphone) the First Orbit app will set you back about 70 pence. Fi

Scroll down for the audio and video. 1969 is remembered for the unique event in history, Apollo 11 and the first men, Neil and Buzz on the surface of the Moon. Before the year was out, another three men headed the same way. On November 19th, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean precision landed Apollo 12 in the Ocean of Storms with in walking distance of Surveyor 3 which had arrived to years earlier. The command module pilot Richard Gordon waited in lunar orbit while Conrad and Bean made two lunar EVAs during the thirty one hours they were on the lunar surface. In April, Capt. Dick Gordon came to Pontefract in England. Gordon is one of several astronauts who have made that particular journey under the auspices of Ken Willoughby. This episode is a video recording starting with my short interview and then the Q&A at the end of his public presentation hence the ambient noise. Ken MacTaggart from the newspaper, the Scotsman was also present in Pontefract  just off the screen. His article is available here. ____________

Scroll down for the audio and video. On a cold bright Wednesday morning fifty years ago in the Soviet town of  Turatam, a rocket launched a man into space. A critical initial step for any civilisation that eventually travels to the stars. Any first is both special and trivial. Special because by definition it only happens once and arises from a complex set of circumstances that happen to come together at that point in time.  It is trivial in the sense that there is nothing necessarily unique about the individuals that are involved. They too are chosen by circumstance largely beyond their control. Driven perhaps by a desire for personal glory, an overwhelming sense of duty or an innate curiosity to explore, the early space travellers and those who facilitated it overcame personal challenges, exhaustive training and exposure to unrivalled grave danger to bring a new experience to mankind. Less than a month after his 27th birthday, Yuri Gagarin was launched into space aboard Vostok 1. Fifty years on, there ar

Scroll down for the audio and video. Reg Turnill joined the BBC in 1956 with the remit to cover aviation and defence. The launch of Sputnik 1 in the following year expanded his remit to include space. He is particularly well known for his coverage of the American Apollo program. In the UK, his name and face, along with that of Patrick Moore and James Burke, is associated with the commentators who covered live the Apollo Moon landings on the BBC. In April 1961, Reg was sent to Moscow for Gagarin's first post flight international news conference. It turned out to be a fascinating story of cold war politics as well as leading edge space technology. In his own words Reg describes this as “ a phony press conference, an entirely choreographed event designed to humiliate the west” and he summarised the whole press conference as “good humoured evasion”. Interacting through an interpreter and restricted to pre submitted written questions, he had to put aside his usual analytical approach. However he recognises that

Scroll down for the options to play audio and video. On the third of Gagarin’s five days in Britain, immediately following his meeting with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, on Thursday 13th July 1961,  he had the only private meeting of his visit with Captain Eric Brown where the press was not invited, no photographs were taken and no official record was kept.  During this “test pilot” to “test pilot” meeting, Gagarin clearly told Brown that he had ejected from his spacecraft. Although not in the same league as Brown, Brown considered Gagarin to be a test pilot. The Soviets consistently maintained that he had not but eventually, a decade later they conceded officially that Gagarin had bailed out and landed by parachute. When I asked Captain Brown why he had never published the details of his private meeting before, “no one asked me before” replied. At the time Captain Brown was the deputy director of Naval Air Warfare and the meeting took place between him, his deputy and colleague from the Admiralty who cou

Scroll to the bottom for the audio and video. Since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, thousands of unmanned spacecraft have been launched, mostly to Earth orbit, but many have gone to the inner and outer planets, and four of them have pretty much left the Solar System altogether. European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft arrived at Mars in 2003 and is still operating almost a decade later. It is operated by people in a profession initiated by the space age itself. Spacecraft Operations Engineers are the individuals who quietly take over the responsibility of spacecraft after the nerve wrenching excitement of the launch is over. Thomas Ormston, a Spacecraft Operations Engineer for VEGA Space GmbH, working at the European Space Operations Centre on the European Space agency's Mars Express mission describes in this episode the steps involved in controlling Mars Express from over one hundred million miles from Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope is the single instrument that has pro

Scroll to the bottom of this post to play the audio or watch the video. Going in to space was nothing more than a dream for many of us for such a long time. But things are changing profoundly and fast. Once human spaceflight was only possible as part of a national government project. Then a decade ago Denis Tito (on 28th April 2001) became the first self funding astronaut by signing a cheque for $20 million. Now in 2011, Spaceflight has never been easier or cheaper. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has now brought the price down to $200,000 for a brief suborbital flight. Imagine spaceflight for the price less than that of a small house in London. In the year that marks the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight, it is about time isn’t it? A familiar name in the astronomical community, Nigel Henbest a writer, broadcaster and television producer took a not too deep breath and signed on the dotted line and is now on the road to his space experience in the next year or two. As the private sector develops  per