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Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Space and iconic scientists from history – Online Zoom series starting Jan 2021

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So 2020 is behind us but we do have some distance to travel down the tunnel before we see the light. I reckon March should do it.  Until then why not join me on a weekly Zoom session about the latest (a) developments in space and (b)  scientific contributions from people in history.

I will be running online sessions via Zoom starting next week. They are organised by the Workers’ Educational Association and are free or £57.60 depending on your personal status for each of the two 9-week “courses” (as the WEA calls them).  Both are online via Zoom. I usually run them as Zoom meetings with lots of discussion and interaction rather than as a webinar. 

C3844979 – Explorers of the Cosmos 
9:30 to 11:30 on Wednesdays from 20/01/2021 to 17/03/2021

Our modern understanding of the universe is the end product of centuries of scientific discoveries by many individuals around the world. Whilst most have been forgotten in history, some stand out like shining stars. What was their profound scientific contribution? Why were they able to make breakthrough when they did?

  1. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)
  2. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) 
  3. Isaac Newton (1643–1727)
  4. Henrietta Swann Leavitt (1868–1921)
  5. Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
  6. Edwin Hubble (1899–1953)
  7. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995)
  8. Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) 
  9. Jocelyn Bell (1943 – )

C3845094 Astronomy -The New Space Age

17:00 to 19:00  on Thursdays from 21/01/2021 to 28/03/2021

What value does space technology and exploration have for us as individuals, communities and countries? The series of talks has been developed and enlarged from the first successful run in 2020. Topics include:

  1. From the Space Race to the New Space Age. How has human space exploration evolved since the launch of Sputnik in 1957?
  2. Services from space. All those satellites in space, what impact do they have on the quality of lives of people on Earth? 
  3. The Private Space sector. It has been emerging for many years. Has it finally arrived?
  4. Managing the Space Environment.  Can the international community apply the lessons of climate change on Earth to the space environment around Earth and beyond?
  5. Rocket Science. A summary of rocket propulsion. How it all started and how it’s done now.
  6. Militarisation of space. Humans on Earth have always fought on land, sea and air. Is war in space inevitable?
  7. Humans in Space.  In this decade, will humans walk on the Moon again? Will this decade finally deliver the promise of space tourism?
  8. Exploration of the Solar System. Spacecraft have now visited all the 8 planets of the solar system, along with comets and asteroids. What have we learnt?
  9. The Search for Life. It’s been going on for more than half a century. How is it going?

Episode 92: Revisiting Panspermia with Prof. Wickramasinghe

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Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe

The idea of Panspermia, that life exists throughout the universe and spreads via asteroids, comets and cosmic dust, has been around for a long time. Two of the strongest advocates were Professor Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe. 

In this episode I spoke at length with Professor Wickramasinghe about his long and distinguished career championing the idea of panspermia the covering the topics:

  • Initial difficulties in establishing Panspermia as a legitimate and respectable topic for scientific study.
  • Professor Wickramasinghe’s journey in 1960 form Cylon (as it was known at the time) to Cambridge as Hoyle’s Phd student.
  • His personal recollections of Fred Hoyle (initially his Phd supervisor and later collaborator) and Arthur C Clarke, who had made Cylon his home in the late 1950s.
  • His views on how the research on Panspermia has developed and where it stands today

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  • Prof. Fred Hoyle 1962
  • Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe 1978
  • Fred Hoyle and Wickramasinghe 1980
  • Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe 2001
  • Home-made telescope late 1950s
Pictures curtesy of Prof. Wickramasinghe

New Book – British Interplanetary Society. The Liverpool Years – 1933-1937

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Working title and Cover

Available in early 2021.

Of the many rocketry societies that emerged around the world in the early 1930s, only the British Interplanetary Society, founded in Liverpool, remains in existence today. This first-hand account from a founding member and first hon. Secretary Leslie Johnson chronicles the days leading up to the establishment of the BIS on 13th October 1933 and its relocation to London in 1937.  

Aircraft, electricity and telephones had transformed the quality of life in the first quarter of the 20th century. This enormous leap in a very short time inspired a generation to unleash its ingenuity. In the shadow of the great depression, talented engineers, scientists and gifted writers awoke to possibilities of new worlds beyond Earth.

Fired by the imagined futures conceived in science fiction magazines including Wonder Stores, Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories and Tales of Wonder, many began to think of space travel as a possibility within reach.

Youth, enthusiasm and a vivid imagination were a constant feature of all Rocketry Societies. Philip Cleator was twenty-five years old when he founded the BIS in 1933 and Leslie Johnson, just Nineteen. In the following year Arthur C Clarke Joined aged sixteen. It was not just Clarke who reveled in writing science fiction, but most who pursued the interplanetary ideals were engrossed in reading or writing science fiction. The formation of the BIS coincided with the advent of science fiction, which also took root initially in northwest England. During these early days, Johnson describes the ease with which members and office holders moved easily between both genres.

The BIS’s persistence is down to the commitment and dedication of its many industrious members during its almost ninety years of existence. But for its formative years in Liverpool, Leslie Johnson bore a significant burden. In this personal account Johnson records those early days and captures the nuances of the time and people who with enormous foresight established and nurtured the BIS through that critical early phase.

Since then, the BIS has helped shape UK’s national space policy and played a critical role as a founder member of the International Astronautical Federation.

Johnson’s book concludes with an epilogue from Gurbir Singh who provides an update on the BIS’s progress. He describes how the BIS has continued to advocate the ideals of interplanetary travel, showcases past and current members who continue promoting the national and international value and ideals of spaceflight.

The book will be available in paperback, hardback and ebook from early 2021.

Review of Book of – India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer

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A review of my book “India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer” in the October 2020 edition of Spaceflight – the monthly journal of the British Interplanetary Society. A copy of the short review below.
Based in London, the BIS is the oldest independent space advocacy organisation in the World. It was founded in Liverpool in 1933. It is entirely a membership based organisation with many events organised annually. Former members include Patrick Moore, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur C Clarke. The Journal is subscription only – learn more and join the BIS here

Not forgotten

A new breed of space historian has emerged in the last decade giving voice to forgotten lives every bit the equal of those fortune determined would become famous and lead the race into orbit and beyond. And the world of astronautics is the better for it. Other lives matter. This book from a leading space historian is a very welcome addition and brings a reminder of how much we have been missing from the chronicle of global achievements in rocketry and space exploration. For too long we have focused on the big names such as Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, Goddard, von Braun and Korolev. This book helps to restore the balance through the story of a minor player, a life worth recording because it tells the story of a man obsessed with future possibilities, and that should resonate well with readers of this magazine. It is the story of Stephen Smith, a big name in the world of philately but not well-known at all for his achievements in astronautics.

Stephen Smith caught the attention of this author during his research into his magnum opus on India’s Space programme, its origins, development and evolution, and inspired Gubir Singh to research more deeply into the life of this Anglo Indian. A man whose work was lost in the chaos that attached itself to India’s independence in the 1940s and the turmoil caused by political upheaval. It is a terribly sad reflection on the shifting winds of fortune that Smith’s work was overwhelmed by those seismic national forces.

For a decade from the mid-1930s, Smith worked alone in Calcutta conducting experiments with rockets and their potential for practical application. Combining his great interests in stamps and the mail service, he developed the idea of using rockets to deliver mail and in this aspiration joined other pioneers in other countries, such as Schmeidl in Austria, Zucker in Germany and Pendray in the United States. As Singh notes in this fascinating account of Smith’s life, the world was changing and the advancement of civil aviation and associated technical capabilities had, by the end of the 1930s, made rocket mail redundant.

Denied the opportunities and the support for his rocketry by the travails of wrenching India from the grip of Empire, Stephen Smith’s life passed into obscurity. This book is all the more rewarding because it puts light to the life of a pioneer whose work was denied the publicity it deserved by politics, war and the exhausting liberation of a continent from foreign ownership. This a must- read book. Available at an exceptionally low price, fully illustrated and with a pleasing, period design, I cannot recommend it too highly.