AstrotalkUK

Not for profit podcast. Astronomy, Deep Space Exploration and International Collaboration

Episode 36: October 11th 2010 – UK Space Policy and Yuri Gagarin’s visit to Manchester and London in July 1961

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Next year, April 12th  2011, marks the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s,  mankind’s,  first steps into space. It was a product of the accumulated technology of many countries over many years, but particularly driven by the political landscape resulting from the 2nd world War. Since then, successful robotic missions have visited the planets, asteroids and comets. 24 men have gone to the moon and a dozen have even walked on its surface.

Subsequent achievements have fallen short of the expectations raised by Gagarin’s flight. Gagarin himself openly spoke of his desire to go to the moon and Mars. That sounds like a pipe dream now but back in 1961, he was absolutely serious and realistic.

So what happened? Had the space race been won when Neil and Buzz landed on the Moon? Had the motivation borne out of political rivalries of the Cold War finally been exhausted? Perhaps, the problems closer at home of poverty, population growth, and environmental concerns raced to the top of the political agenda and forced governments into a pragmatic reconsideration of how they spent their cash?

Big questions. Too big for this episode, where Dr Chris Welch from Kingston University provides a brief outline of the current status of the Space policy here in the UK.   Dr Welch  also happens to be the chair of the of recently launched YuriGagarin50 group which has amongst its aims:

Stimulate celebration and recognition of the global significance of Gagarin and his flight – ‘the first person in space, the first person to see the Earth as a planet’.

After his flight, Yuri Gagarin embarked on a world tour that included a 4-day visit to the UK, during which he surprisingly visited Manchester on 12th July 1961. By chance, Gagarin’s first job was as a moulder in a foundry in Moscow.   He came to the UK and Manchester at the invitation of the Manchester-based Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers. I will be producing another episode focusing on Gagarin’s UK visit next year. Did you see Gagarin in July 1961? Do you know someone who did? Share your memories. Drop me a note at info@astrotalkuk.org.

With many months to go to next year’s 50th anniversary, there are several events already being planned  to celebrate mankind’s first steps into space. Keep an eye on the events calendar at  www.yurigagarin50.org

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The quote for this episode is from the Soviet government in 1961 following Gagarin’s success in Vostok 1. Perhaps they were deliberately winding up the Americans but there is something warm and reassuring to see a couple of familiar words in the quote  “all mankind” that are on the plaque left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts. A 1961 official Soviet Government and Communist Party announcement said.

“We regard these victories in the conquest of outer space not only as the achievement of our people but as an achievement of all mankind”

A video version of this podcast is available on Vimeo here.

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Episode 35: 22nd July 2010: Dr Edgar Mitchell – Apollo 14

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A man playing golf on the moon is one of the images permanently etched into the collective memory of humanity’s first exploration of the moon. The so called “golf player” was Alan Shepard the guy with him was Dr Edgar Mitchell whilst Stuart Roosa orbited the moon in the command module. Today, Ed Mitchell, two months away from his 80th birthday is the only remaining member of the Apollo 14 crew.

On a recent visit to Pontefract, organised once again by Ken Willoughby, he describes his personal journey to the moon. Amongst other things he highlights his javelin throw which, by a narrow margin, beat the golf ball, as a picture in his presentation illustrates. He spent nine hours on the surface of the moon during two EVAs on February 5th and 6th 1971. Apollo 14 was his only space flight and he left NASA in the following year.

Ed Mitchell is perhaps best known for his epiphany moment on the return journey to Earth when he experienced a unique spiritual sensation which has dominated his professional and personal life ever since. To help understand it, he left NASA and establish the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Over the last few years he has frequently spoken publicly about his interest in the paranormal, ESP and UFOs. He asserts that the Roswell incident was real, aliens have landed on the Earth and the US military is responsible for a cover-up.

It is strange that someone (a navy pilot and an Apollo astronaut) with a professional life dominated by leading edge science and technology can hold such an unscientific position. He appears oblivious to the contradiction in referring to himself as an astrophysicist and yet accepting Fred Hoyle’s Steady State explanation of cosmology, for which there is little evidence, over the Big Bang. I wonder how he explains Hubble’s law and the expansion of space, Cosmic microwave background radiation and the relative abundance of primordial elements.

I really should have asked him. I did not in part out of deference. Despite his age and unusual views, he remains a member of a unique group of individuals with a special contribution to human history. Who knows, he may well turn out to be right. In the meantime, the main road of science, directed by the sign posts of  observational evidence, is probably still the  best path to a more accurate understanding of the cosmos.

Dr Mitchell was kind enough to share his power point slides which I have incorporated into the hour long video presentation. Links to that presentation and a video version of this episode below.

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An increasingly familiar quote from someone else who made a huge contribution to how we should go about understanding the cosmos. Carl Sagan.

“I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” .

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Episode 35 – Video (10 minutes)

Dr Edgar Mitchell 2nd July 2010 from AstrotalkUK on Vimeo.

Episode 34: May 31st 2010 Effelsberg Radio Telescope

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Effelsberg Nestling in a valley amongst the rolling green hills of the Eifel region of western Germany is the 100m Effelsberg steerable radio telescope. Similar to the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank which is on the plains of Cheshire in northwest England which can be seen from miles away. The  Effelsberg telescope  is situated in a valley so it easy to pass close by and not see it.

It is an international facility. Participating in Very Long Base Interferometry (VLBI) where physical links are necessary with other countries it also hosts astronomers from many other countries  and participates in global research projects. Although its website may appear a littel dated, Effelsberg has a surprisingly rich online presence including the current schedule and of course the now mandatory webcam.

Effelsberg is a leading player in a new international project called LOw Frequency ARray or LOFAR.  Lofar targets the low frequency range between 10MHZ and 250MHZ. However, for many years commercial FM radio stations, the local emergency services and the aviation industry have been using frequencies between 90MHZ and 108MHZ so Lofar range is split in to two bands. Low (10-90MHZ) and high (108 – 250MHZ). Thus there are in fact three telescopes at Effelsberg.

On a recent visit, Dr Norbert Junkes talked about the previous, current and new activities taking place at Effelsberg.

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Episode 33: January 27th 2010 : Ptolemy’s Almagest

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If you had the task of gathering all of humanity’s knowledge of cosmology in one place, how would you do it? Answers to questions such as, How big is the Earth? At what date and time will the Moon be full again? What makes the Sun shine? How old is the Universe? Today a good place to start the project would be to scour the sources online. In about 150AD Claudius Ptolemaeus, better known as Ptolemy, a Greek national with Roman citizenship living in Egypt, attempted to do just that. He is best known for his encyclopaedic work written in ancient Greek “Syntaxis Mathematica”, perhaps better known as the Almagest from the Arabic Al magisti “the greatest”. He was an industrious author of many scientific and mathematical treaties but he also collected works going back hundreds of years.

The Almagest was the premier source of knowledge for describing the cosmos for almost two thousand years. Nothing of the original survives, only hand written copies of hand written copies.

Today’s episode is partially about one such copy, A seven hundred year old manuscript identified recently in the special collections of the Brotherton Library in the University of Leeds. Only parts of it is the Almagest. The manuscript was kept by Anthony Askew,   Joseph windham and then  lord Brotherton who donated it to the University of Leeds.

This episode is also about how information is transmitted through history. The value that successive individuals, societies and civilisations put on them. The inevitable errors in the mishmash of translations over hundreds of years from one language (Ancient Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Latin and English) to another or the periodic attempts by one scribe to diligently copy the work of another. In early 2009 Dr Regine May and Professor Malcolm Heath came across a 14th century manuscript catalogued as a work of Astrology and discovered it contained elements of Ptolemy’s Almagest. The manuscript in three volumes has yet to receive detailed  scholarly scrutiny.

In today’s episode there are 4 contributors.  Dr Regine May outlines how the almost accidental discovery of this manuscript came about and Dr Oliver Pickering, the keeper of the special collections describes how the library acquired the manuscript. A live recording of Professor Malcolm Heath, Dr Allan Chapman and Dr Oliver Pickering inspecting the manuscript in the Brotherton Library.

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Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who read and wrote about the ancient Greek culture. Perhaps it was the writings from the ancient Greek civilisation which lead him to conclude The future influences the present just as much as the past.

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