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Brian Blessed to commence BIS Prestige Lecture series

Adam Elkins — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:20:07 +0000

The British Interplanetary Society has announced the launch of a series of Prestige Lectures, commencing with a talk by actor Brian Blessed. In addition to his acting career Blessed is a long time supporter of space exploration, having supported the BIS’ Campaign for Human Spaceflight and voiced promotional material for Reaction Engines. He has also recently completed astronaut training and will be speaking about this and his interest in space travel.

Tickets are already selling fast and can now only be ordered by calling the BIS directly on 020 7735 3160. Doors open at 5.30 pm, with the talk commencing at 6.30 pm. Tickets are priced at £10.00 for BIS members and £20.00 for non-members, including refreshments.

Source: British Interplanetary Society

Deadline for International Astronautical Congress Grant Programme approaches

Adam Elkins — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:24:45 +0000

The International Astronautical Federation 2012 Emerging Space Leaders Grant Programme provides opportunities for students and young professionals to participate in the annual International Astronautical Congresses. Applications opened on 1st January 2012 and the IAF is accepting applications until 1st February.

The young people selected to participate in the 2012 Emerging Space Leaders Grant Programme will participate in the 63rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) scheduled to take place in Naples, Italy from 1 to 5 October 2012. The individuals selected will also be given the opportunity to participate in other activities held the week prior and during the Congress such as the UN/IAF Workshop and the Space Generation Congress (SGC).

Students and Young Professionals between the ages of 21 and 35 with space-related career interests 2012 are encouraged to apply for the programme from the 1 January to the 1 February 2012. Up to twelve students and young professionals will be selected by the IAF to participate in the 2012 programme.

For more information and application forms, please visit www.iafastro.org/eslgrants or email eslgrants@iafastro.org.

Source: IAF Secretariat

BBC Stargazing Live

Nancy Hine — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:18:09 +0000

The BBC in association with the Open University is presenting another Stargazing Live, starting tonight (16 January at 8.30pm) and lasting for three nights. Along side the TV show there are 100′s of events taking place around the country involving amateur astronomers as well as academics and the general public. To find an even near you visit the BBC Website. Plus there is more information on the Open University Website and follow #bbcstargazing on Twitter.

SEDSIC: SEDS International Conference 2012

Adam Elkins — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:20:51 +0000

SEDSIC is the international conference of SEDS: an annual get-together of SEDS members around the world. This year the conference is being held at VIT University in Vellore, India on 2nd – 4th March; the theme will be “Students vision for global space sciences and technology”.

SEDS organises the International Conference (SEDSIC) each year as an annual get-together of SEDS members worldwide to share their knowledge with regard to the current development in the field of aerospace and astronomy. VIT University, Vellore was chosen as the venue for 2007. The event will host a series of lectures and workshops, including something playful!

Registration is due to open soon; submission of paper and poster abstracts is open until 20th January. For more information please go to http://www.sedsic12.com/.

ESA Young Graduate Trainee opportunities open

Adam Elkins — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:22:38 +0000

ESA has posted its Young Graduate Trainee vacancies for 2012, with applications open until 18th December. These one-year positions are an excellent opportunity to gain experience in the development and operation of space missions. You also get to live and work for a year in another country.

The YGT offers some generous terms and conditions, including:

monthly remuneration (the basic net salary, or ‘take-home pay’, for a single expatriate YGT is about €2200 per month depending on the location of the ESA Establishment)
an expatriation allowance, plus an installation allowance on arrival, for those not resident in the country to which they are assigned
travel expenses at the beginning and end of the contract (including travel expenses for spouse and children if they reside with the trainee during the contract)
2.5 days paid leave per month
health cover under ESA’s Social Security scheme

Applicants are usually at Masters degree level from a university or an equivalent institute. Please note, you can only apply for one YGT opportunity, and should only send in one application form. You must also be a citizen of an ESA member state or a European Co-operating State.

To apply, go to http://www.esa.int/hr/ygt.htm. For more information on the Young Graduate Trainee programme, go to http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Careers_at_ESA/SEMYHEITPQG_0.html.

Writing opportunity for online student magazine

Adam Elkins — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:59:39 +0000

Do you fancy writing popular science articles for one of the largest student newspapers in the country? Experimentation is a new student-led online science magazine and they are looking for additional writers for their physical sciences section. Experimentation’s sister publications, Erudition and Intuition have already built up tens of thousands of readers from across Europe and Experimentation is expected to do just as well.

No prior experience is necessary. This is an opportunity to write about any area of science that interests you, for a large international audience. For more information please contact Alistair Jacklin at alistair.jacklin@gmail.com or go to www.experimentation-online.co.uk.

UKSEDS November Workshop – Live Blog

Graeme Taylor [Chair] — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:53:22 +0000

18:30 – Workshop close, to the Pub. Good times to be had by all.

18:00 – The MBed award for the most engious circiut goes to Laurence Stant for liking his device to his phone’s Blue Tooth! Impressive.

16:45 - Dan Kent from Vega has arrived to deliever his workshop on Satalite operations. People on this workshop will be trying to locate the Death Star from thier earth orbit satalite.

15:45 – MBed workshop well under way now with lots of electronic gizmos making an appearance!

15:40 – Err… big gap here as my laptop broke … again… but we did get the branch summit done. Successful hour of finding out how our enthusiastic branches are getting on and brainstorming lots of projects ideas.

12:10 – Apparently the moon has the biggest impact crater in the solar system on it! it’s 12km deep

12:07 – Dr. Ian Crawford his currently doing his presentation on “The Scientific Case for renewed Robotic
and Human Exploration of the Moon”. Talking about the evolution of life during the bombardment of the early solar system.

11:51 – Just finished registering everyone – attendance is at 50 but I’ve almost certainly missed some people

11:00 – High altitude ballooning is looking good with a helium balloon floating in the workshop and teams of people hectically drawing plans for asteroid excavation on to big sheets of paper. Even My laptop, which had died has decided to come back to life! Things are looking good at the moment, if we could just find a kettle!

Everyone is here, the kinks have ironed out, and the first workshops are in progress! The UKSEDS November workshop is underway!

One of the teams from the Systems Engineering workshop getting down to designing an asteroid sample return mission.

Lunar and Planetary Institute 2012 Summer Intern Program

Adam Elkins — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:52:49 +0000

Applications are now being accepted for the 2012 LPI Summer Intern Program in Planetary Science.

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) invites undergraduates with at least 50 semester hours of credit to experience research in the planetary sciences. As a summer intern, you will work one-on-one with a scientist either at the LPI or NASA Johnson Space Center on a research project of current interest in planetary science. Furthermore, you will participate in peer-reviewed research, learn from top-notch planetary scientists, and preview various careers in science.

The 10-week program begins June 4, 2012, and ends on August 10, 2012. Selected students will receive a $5000.00 stipend; foreign nationals (non-US students) will receive a $1500.00 foreign travel reimbursement.

Applications are only accepted via the electronic application form found at the LPI’s Summer Intern Program website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpiintern

The application deadline is 20th January 2012. For enquiries email internprogram@lpi.usra.edu

(source: LPI Press Release)

Kicksat.org – Your Personal Spacecraft in Space!

nadeem — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:05:49 +0000

KickSat.org – your personal spacecraft in space!

Zac Manchester, an aerospace student at Cornell University and President of Cornell SEDS, is
leading a project called KickSat to kicksat.org to allow anyone to have a spacecraft in space they can call their own.

Having raised the necessary minimum funding via the community fund raising web site KickStarter,
he will build a CubeSat called KickSat which will contain hundreds or thousands of tiny spacecraft
called Sprites. The Sprites will be deployed from KickSat into a sub-ISS LEO and transmit data
to a network of amateur ground stations.

Anyone can contribute to the KickSat.org fund raising process until the
2nd December 2011 and either sponsor a Sprite that will transmit their initials or call sign,
or sponsor a development kit which will allow them to fly their own code on their own spacecraft in space.

It is also possible for groups to get together to form fleets of Sprites which might, for example,
communicate with each other in orbit or perform scientific experiments written using the development kit.

Anyone wishing to start a fleet should sponsor one or more Sprites via KickSat.org

and then email fleet@kicksat.org to confirm that they wish to join or create a KickSat fleet.

Full details at: http://KickSat.org

Auroral and Polar Atmospheric Physics Course

Graeme Taylor [Chair] — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:36:40 +0000

Fancy something slightly different?

We have been informed that there are still some places available on the Winter Arctic Science course run by Umea University in Sweden. It covers the physics of the Aurora among other polar phenomena, all set in the beautiful surrounds of Kiruna, Northern Sweden. Importantly, the course is FREE to EU citizens, you just need to pay for travel and accommodation. See below the picture for more details.

If it looks a little cold for you, check out the sister course run in the summer in Human Spaceflight and Exploration over in our events section.

: The Swedish Institue of Space Physics, Kiruna. Picture: Gerrit Holl

Arctic Science (4.5 ECTS-credits)

Umeå University in Kiruna, northern Sweden, 8-11 February 2012.

The physics of snow, northern lights, a visit to the original Ice Hotel and much more……..

The aim of the course is to give participants insight into the phenomena that one can observe in the arctic environment during the winter months, such as the aurora borealis. The course also contains an introduction to snow and ice-related phenomena. The course is a distance course running over 6 weeks with a gathering 8-11 February in the exotic town of Kiruna, which lies in the north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. The town is home to the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Swedish Space Corporation Esrange, a site for launching rockets and balloons, Spaceport Sweden and the famous Ice Hotel.

The course is suitable for students studying on traditional science and engineering degree programmes at universities in Sweden and abroad, teachers and anyone else who is interested and qualified. Prerequisites are that students should satisfy the general requirements for eligibility for university studies at Umeå University and have a physics major at upper secondary school level or similar qualifications. The course will be given in English. We have reserved low-price student accommodation in Kiruna for successful applicants.

For more information see our web site www.irf.se/link/winter_course. For international students the web site to use to apply for the course is www.universityadmissions.se Note that the official application deadline for international students was 15 August, but there are still many places available and places are offered to eligible students submitting late applications on a first come-first served basis. The course is given by the Department of Physics of Umeå University, Sweden in collaboration with the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna.