The Royal Aeronautical Engineering Society is hosting a webinar with a panel including Leicester’s Professor John Remedios, discussing the UK as a global space power.
Have you noticed the increasing presence of space in UK news? That’s not just because space is exciting (although it is!), it’s not just because the BBC loves space stories (although it does!) but it’s because the government agrees that space is changing our lives in many different ways. It is has the ambition to build a spaceport in the UK, it wishes to lead new missions to study our stars and our planet and it believes that the UK should consider a “space command” for its military.
Today, Monday November 23rd a panel including John Remedios from the School and director of the National Centre for Earth Observation will be discussing questions such as how the UK plans to become a Space Power in the 2020s and in which specific space domains, the role of academics and industry in this, and the international partnerships to achieve these aims.
What do you think? Is your future in the space world? Can the UK be a global space power? Whatever your answer to these questions, there is little doubt that the future remains inspiring and intriguing for UK scientists. What keeps a country at the forefront in space is arguably the skill of its engineers and scientists, the discoveries that we make and the intelligence with which we use the outputs from space, for example, sophisticated observations of our Earth, new insights on moons and planets, navigation (GPS) etc. For the UK, I would argue that international alliances are a must alongside national endeavours. We need to show we can do it ourselves but the expense of space actions demands we work together across the globe with friends and colleagues. Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence of the demand for our space skills in Universities, when matched to investments through UK government and research councils, and jobs in industry for graduates. Just one example, the UK has just invested heavily in the TRUTHS satellite to set new climate observation and calibration standards in the optical, the intention being to launch this nationally-inspired satellite in 2028 through the European Space Agency EarthWatch programme. New science, new methods of doing business. It will be an interesting decade.
https://www.aerosociety.com/events-calendar/raes-webinar-uk-as-a-global-space-power/
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1522939463119476495
Subscribe to Physics & Astronomy's posts
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.