History Archives - AstrotalkUK

Episode 87 – Apollo Era recollections of a Brit working in NASA

Dr David Baker has been involved with the USA since childhood. First attending a US school in England and then studying in the US under a scholarship program sponsored by Senator Clinton P Anderson. He returned to the USA and worked for NASA on various programs from Gemini to the SpaceShuttle. After leaving NASA, he set up one of the earliest private space sector companies in London.

Today he is the editor of the British Interplanetary Society’s monthly journal – Spaceflight and a prolific author of space books. Some of the topics we spoke about include

Early interest in space and astronomy stimulated by milestones such as breaking of the sound barrier, Sputnik and Gagarin’s flight.
Completed his PhD in Earth and Planetary physics.
Worked for Nasa between 1965 and 1984. Mainly in the mission
Setup a consultancy in 1984 to bring US launch and satellites services to the wider international community.
Setup a consultancy in 1984 to bring US launch and satellites services to the wider international community
Delayed the launch of STS-41B in February 1984 carrying payloads for Indonesia and Western Union but problems with the payload Assist Modules did not meet the insurance certification requirements.
Was involved in the purchase by India its 4 INSAT satellites (INSAT 1A-1D) from Ford Aerospace in the USA.
Published over 110 books and more in the pipeline to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

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Episode 86 – Moon: Art, Science, Culture

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The 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was a momentous event and expected to be marked by numerous publications. Most books cover the technologies, events, personal recollections and politics of the first human voyage to another world. One book jointly authored by an art historian and an astronomer has a fresh perspective.

The guests in this episode are the authors of the book Moon: Art, Science, Culture – Dr Alexandra Loske Associate Tutor in Art History, University of Sussex and Dr Robert Massey Deputy Executive Director Royal Astronomical Society.

The book is attracting an interesting eclectic mix of readers with an interest in science and art. Some of the topics we spoke about include

Fritz Lang’s 1929 sci-fi movie (watch full-length movie on Youtube here) Frau im Mond.
The book has a chapter about the Nebra Sky Disk and we also discussed the Antikythera Mechanism.
One of the earliest books with a picture of the Moon, called The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite (link offers free download) written in 1874 by James Nasmyth and James Carpenter. Here is an interesting review of it from Dr Stephanie O’Rourke from the University of St Andrews.
The Bluedot Festival at Jodrell bank starts on Friday 19th July

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Episode 85 – Russia’s Space programme with Brian Harvey

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Brian Harvey is a Dublin based writer who has authored more than 14 books on space. His books have covered the space programmes of USSR/Russia, USA, India, Japan and China. He has a deep understanding of the motivations and politics as well as the space technology that has emerged since the space age. In this episode, we speak about Russia/USSR’s space programme what it was at the outset and its status today.

Some of the topics we discuss include

Russian rocket engines still the best in the world.
The first factory to build rocket engines for spacecraft was established in Leningrad in 1927.
Age profile in Russian space programme – not enough younger people. Compared to the programme in China which is largely less than 40.
In 1935 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky invited as a guest of honour at the mayday speech “I believe the first person in space is alive today”. This was in 1935 when Yuri Gagarin was one year old.
There were several reasons for the failure for the USSR not get a crewed mission to the Moon. The main one was the lack of programme management.
With 39 launches in 2018, China was the leader. Until a few years ago Russia was the world leader of launches. Russia’s planned 45 launches in 2019 is not realistic.
China, India and Japan were on par about a decade ago but China has now emerged with a “superpower” status. India has made progress in the number of annual launches, science missions and recently announced its plans to initiate a human space program.
We discussed the movie Salyut 7 the movie. This is the space station that Rakesh Sharma had visited in 1984.
Russia space programme, minimal new investment, an ageing workforce, reliability and quality control on a decline.

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Episode 78: ISRO’s early Earth Observation Cameras with former chairman Mr Kiran Kumar

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Mr Kiran Kumar studied physics, physical engineering and electronics in educational institutions in India including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. He specialised in electro-optical imaging systems and in 1975 was recruited by Dr Yash Pal (one of a few key individuals who played a pivotal role in the early days of India’s space programme) to ISRO’s Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad.

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During the 1970’s, state of the art imaging sensor consisted of photodiodes, vidicon tubes and photomultipliers. It was these analogue devices that he started working with before moving on to modern solid state devices such as Charged Couple Devices (CCDs). He contributed to imaging systems in India’s first remote sensing satellite (Bhaskara-1) and deep space missions to the Moon (Chandrayaan-1) and Mars (Mars Orbiter Mission).

A few highlights from the interview recorded on 22 September 2018

Had considered medicine as a career but a combination of not meeting the age criteria by 22 days and National College in Bangalore initiating a new Physics Honours course in 1968, he chose Physics.
Strongly influenced by physicist and ardent rationalist Dr.H.Narasimhaiah who later became the vice-chancellor of Bangalore University
Has a clear memory of Gagarin’s spaceflight in 1961 and Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969.
Graduated in 1971, the same year that Vikram Sarabhai died. He never saw or met him.
In 1975, he was working on his Mtec at the IISc when India’s first satellite, Aryabhata was launched. He worked on Bhaskara – initially known as Satellite for Earth Observation
In the mid-1970s only four metropolitan areas in India had television reception. The SITE programme illustrated the benefits of satellite communication in delivering education to small rural communities across India.
During 1995-1999 – ISRO had the highest spatial resolution imaging capability from space in the civilian domain.
Using Commercial Off the Shelf products (or parts from COTS product) is not unusual for experimental space missions.
Moving into the Chairman’s role was not onerous. Previous experience as director of an ISRO centre provided the required experience.

Although Kiran Kumar stood down from the chairman’s role in January 2018, he remains active within ISRO.

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