AstrotalkUK

Artist’s impression of the SKA-Mid dishes and MeerKAT dishes in South Africa. Credit: SKAO The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a global science and engineering project to build a revolutionary new radio telescope with extraordinary scientific ambitions. With funding from 10 nations, construction of the SKA will begin in 2016 and be fully operational in 2024. It will tackle some of the profoundest...

Nik Szymanek presenting at the National Astronomy Meeting 2012 If you have ever been to London and used the underground Tube service, it may well have been driven by the speaker in this episode. That is his day job, but Nik Szymanek  is one of Britain’s best-known astrophotographers. This interview was recorded during National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Manchester in 2012. Nik collabor...

The first  interview in this episode is with astronaut Joe Engle was recorded during his visit to the UK in 2008.   Joe Engle was at the front of the queue  to go to the Moon when NASA cut its Apollo program. His place was taken by the geologist Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17 – the last manned mission to the Moon. In this interview Joe talk about his work before and after Apollo - on the X-15 and S...

Launched 15 years ago today, the Cassini-Huygens mission has been one of the outstanding successes of solar system exploration and a model of NASA-ESA collaboration. Professor Carl Murray. Credit QMC London In episode 14 Professor John Zarnecki spoke about the science conducted from the surface of Titan by the Huygens lander in January 2005. The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe had hitched a...

As the dinosaurs on the Earth 64 million years ago discovered, comets and asteroids have the potential for unexpected arrival with devastating consequences. SpaceguardUK. Credit SpaceguardUK The spectacular collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in July 1994 dramatically raised awareness and, no doubt, a little concern amongst the heads of government across the planet. Since then, the Br...

Ben Kepes When I speak to anyone in a time zone with a 12 hours difference and in opposite hemispheres it implies we are about as far as two people on the planet can be. You can play or download the recording at the bottom of this page. Ben is known for, amongst other things, being the curator of CloudU. He has been speaking about Cloud Computing from a business perspective long before it became t...

Since the mid 1970s six spacecraft (Viking 1 & 2, Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit and Phoenix)  have successfully landed on the surface of Mars. In probably the most audacious, breathtaking and risky space missions, in less than two days, another  Mars Curiosity Rover will arrive on Mars. Using a technique never used before, NASA has described the Entry Decent Landing as the seven minutes of terror...

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. https://youtu.be/Ki_Af_o9Q9s?si=UjIKy2ZfpPEflZOJ

Stanley Davis The August 2012 edition of Spaceflight, the monthly magazine of the British Interplanetary Society, carried an article in which I discuss the Northwest of England’s contribution to Rocketry during the 1930s. An extended version of that article is available for free download on Astrotalkuk.org - here. So on to today’s episode. In 1937, two teenagers, Harry and Stanley, with an outrage...

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 Cooperatio...

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 B...

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 deta...

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...

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 Germ...

Matt Irvine. Credit Mattirvine.com The same year that the first woman made it into space in 1963, a quaint children’s sci-fi series called Dr Who started on BBC television in the UK.  Eventually, it became popular worldwide and has enjoyed success once more since it restarted in 2005. Mat Irvine worked in the special effects department of the BBC and made the original model of K9 for Dr Who, but h...

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. Halfway 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...

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 y...

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's personal courage and the Soviet Union’s historic technological achievement whil...

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...

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 Gagari...

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 within walking distance of Surveyor 3, which had arrived two years earlier. The command module pilot Richard Gordon wai...

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 come together...

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...

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...