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Online Course – The New Space Age

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A new online introductory (yes – for beginners) course from the Workers’ Educational Association supported by the Royal Astronomical Society. Enrolment requirements include:

  • You have been resident in the UK, EU or EEA for the last 3 years
  • You are aged 19 years or older on 1st September 2019
  • Starts at 19:00 on Tuesday 10th March 2020. Cost is £20 or free if eligible
International Space Station
Credit ESA

Over six weekly ninety-minute sessions online, the course will look at space programmes and missions being conducted by many countries and companies right now.  Starting 10th March 2020. The six sessions will cover

  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. Environmental control in space.  Can the international community apply the lessons of climate change on Earth to the space environment around Earth and beyond?
  5. Militarisation of space. Humans on Earth have always fought on the land, sea and the air. Is war in space inevitable?
  6. Humans in Space.  In this decade, will humans walk on the Moon again? Will this decade deliver, finally the promise of space tourism?
More info and Signup Here
























Episode 91 – ISRO and the Spy  who was not


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Nambi Narayan





One of the most fascinating and colourful characters associated with the Indian Space Programme is Narayan Nambi.    





In 1994, Nambi Narayanan an ISRO aerospace engineer was falsely arrested by the Investigation Beuro on charges of espionage. He was accused of passing on confidential launch vehicle flight test data to foreign nationals. In 1996 he was cleared by the Central Investigations Bureau and India’s Supreme Court found him not guilty in 1998. In 2019 he was presented with India’s third-highest civilian award,  the Padma Bhushan. 





In 1966 he joined ISRO or INCOSPAR as it was known at that time. With the guidance and support of Vikram Sarabhai, he went to study liquid and cryogenic engine technology at Princeton in 1969. He worked on the early stages of the development of the Vikas liquid engine which now powers two of the four stages of the PSLV.





 Some of the topics we discussed include: 





  • During the 1960s he visited the Spadadam site near Carlisle. Today it is a Royal Airforce Station but in the 1960s it was the site used by the British Government test rocket engines and to develop Blue Streak – an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile. 
  • In 1974 ISRO concluded a barter arrangement – no money changed hands. India would provide 100 man-years trained engineers. 75% of this time would towards supporting France developing their (then new)  Ariane 1 launcher and 25% would be used by India to develop the Vikas Engine with the technology transfer from France. Indian engineers would also build, test and qualify 100,000 pressure transducers for France.
  • He claims to be the architect of this unique barter arrangement.  In addition to being the father and architect of the PSLV.
  • He suspects that the intelligence Beuro picked on him to slow down the Cryogenic engine development and remove him as project director. 
  • Speculating on the why the Vikram lander failed to make a soft landing he thinks it may have been related to the automatic landing sequence (software) or an issue with the braking thrusters.
    He is an advocate of an Asian Space Agency lead by India. 
    He believes China space programme is not ahead of India’s because India has succeeded with the Mars Orbiter Mission.
    He would like India and China to increase collaboration in space.
    In 2017, he published a book on his experiences and a film based on the book will be released in late 2019.





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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 87 – Apollo Era recollections of a Brit working in NASA


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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.





(Note – following questions on the veracity of his Phd, David Baker resigned from the BIS as the editor of Spaceflight on 25th March 2021.)





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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