AstrotalkUK

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

Episode 104 – William Leitch. The forgotten Scottish Rocket Pioneer

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When it comes to the pioneers of rocketry, tradition has it that it was Tsilokosky, Goddard and Oberth. in this episode, author Rob Godwin talks about William Leitch from Scotland. Leitch was writing about the principles of rocket propulsion and space travel in 1861. Decades before Tsiolkovsy. Over the last few years, Rob has been researching Leitch’s story and published a book – William Leitch Presbyterian Scientist & The Concept of Rocket Space Flight 1854-1864

In this interview recorded via Zoom, Rob Godwin recalls how he came across Leitch’s work and the research activity that eventually led him to uncover this remarkable story.

The following 19th-century publications, that Rob refers to are now available online, and pdf versions can be downloaded. Links are available on the episode page

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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

Episode 89 – Carbon Nanotubes

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Gadhadar Reddy

In his 1979 novel, Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C Clarke imagines a cable stretching from the Earth’s equator to Geosynchronous orbit. He called it a “space elevator” and imagined it would be constructed from continuous pseudo-one-dimensional diamond crystals. Bangalore based NoPo Technologies is now commercially producing Carbon Nanotubes. Could this material, one day be used to construct Clarke’s space elevator?

Materials that offer high strength alongside low mass are highly sought after by the aerospace industry. In the past, it was aluminium, titanium and Carbon fibre. The new wave of materials consists of Graphene and Carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes like diamonds, soot and graphene are allotropes of Carbon. Same atomic structure but differ in physical construction.

NoPo Technologies was established in 2011 by the CEO Gadhadar Reddy and is already commercially supply Carbon Nanotubes to Japan and elsewhere.

Some of the themes we discussed include:

  • NoPo Technologies was incorporated in 2011 and is probably the only producer of Carbon Nanotubes in India at the present.
  • Carbon Nanotubes have desirable attributes of high thermal and electrical conductivity, tensile strength, resilience to radiation and are extremely lightweight.
  • Nopo Technologies commercially produce single-walled Carbon Nanotubes of about 8 nm diameter and 2000 nm long.
  • Use cases currently include lightning conductors on aircraft, insulators for cryogenic fuel tanks, black surfaces for star trackers on spacecraft and molecular scale filters that can be used for producing biological membranes or even water filters for desalination plants.

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  • NOPO Offices in Bangalore
  • Electron Microscope
  • Carbon Nanotubes
  • Anto assessing a new batch of Carbon Nanotubes
  • Manufacturing vessel
  • Raman Specrometer

Episode 54: 23 July 2012 – Manchester Interplanetary Society and Stanley Davis

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Stanley Davis

The August 2012 edition of Spaceflight, the monthly magazine from the British Interplanetary Society carried an article where I discuss the Northwest of England’s contribution in Rocketry during the 1930s. An extended version of that article is available for free download on Astrotalkuk.org – here.

So on to today’ episode.

In 1937, two teenagers Harry and Stanley with an outrageous ambition to design and build rockets for space travel joined a newly formed group with a name to match – the Manchester Interplanetary Society. Soon each met a girl, fell in love, exchanged wedding rings and got married. They went off on their separate ways but pledged to stay stay in touch. In addition to his interest in rockets he had a strong interest in science. In the late 1930’s he went by train to London to hear a talk from H.G. Wells. Had he not died prematurely, he like Harry would have immersed himself in the sci-fi fandom movement that blossoming in Britain from the early 1930s.

Wooden Statue of Abraham Lincoln. Carved by Stanley Davis

Members of the Manchester Interplanetary Society. Harry Turner is 1st on the left

Two years later began the ferocious and violent events of World War Two that would shatter  their dreams and lives along with millions of others around the world. Harry Turner spent much of the War in India and following his return enjoyed a successful career as an artist. Stanley Davies died in August 1941 from injuries he endured at Dunkirk.

Recently this shared story brought together Harry’s son Philip and Stanley’s daughter Ann.  In episode 50 Philip recalled the memories of his father and in this episode Ann Sutcliffe remembers her father Stanley Davies.

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