A short interview with Jim Revis recorded in London on 24th April during InfoSec 2013. In this interview Jim talks about the evolving definition of of Cloud Computing, the CSA’s Star Registry, CSA’s Cloud Computing Security Knowledge certification and his take on how cloud Computing has been and is evolving. During the interview, Jim refers [...]
Book Review – The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin
Title: The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press (May 15, 2012) Author: Andrew L. Jenks Hardback: 315 pages ISBN: 9780875804477 Disclosure. I contacted the author in mid 2011 just as I was finishing my book Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester. We exchanged some chapters prior [...]
Mars Beckons India – Mangalyaan set for November launch
The dramatic announcement by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in August 2012 to launch a mission to Mars surprised everyone. It went further. In order to catch the next Mars launch window ISRO committed to a launch in November 2013. Miss that and they will have to wait for at least two years for the next one. This is an extra-ordinarily bold undertaking for a space agency with the experience of only a single mission beyond Earth orbit under its belt.
Episode 60: Square Kilometre Array
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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 ten nations the building of the SKA will start in 2016 and be fully operational in 2024. It will tackle some of the profoundest questions of cosmology associated with [...]
Episode 59: Astrophotograpy
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. [...]
Episode 58: Astronauts Joe Engle and Ron Garan
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 [...]
Episode 57: 15 October 2012 – Cassini Huygens Mission
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. 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 [...]
Gagarin Statue – Update
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Unfortunately, it is not coming to Manchester but going to the Royal Observatory in London instead. More Details in the fifth and final newsletter #5 – which I have duplicated below. * * * Bring Gagarin statue to Manchester. Campaign update #5: 6th October 2012 Sadly, I have to report that the Gagarin statue will [...]
Episode 56: 7th October 2012 – SpaceguardUK
As the dinosaurs on the Earth 64 million years ago discovered, comets and asteroids have the potential for unexpected arrival with devastating consequences. 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 governments across the planet. Since then, the [...]
The Red Rockets’ Glare – Book Review
Title: The Red Rockets’ Glare : Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857–1957 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Author: Asif A. Siddiqi ISBN: 9780521897600 Price: £58.00 [414 pages hardcover] This is probably the most meticulous analysis of the culture of an insecure, troubled and courageous people: the Soviets and those that preceded them, who collectively pulled off [...]
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