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Episode 92: Revisiting Panspermia with Prof. Wickramasinghe

By Gurbir Dated: January 1, 2021 Leave a Comment

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

By Gurbir Dated: October 12, 2020 Leave a Comment

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 20^th 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

By Gurbir Dated: October 5, 2020 Leave a Comment

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.

Declassified Files. Luna 16 Mission. USSR’s first robotic lunar sample return mission 24 Sep 1970

By Gurbir Dated: September 25, 2020 Leave a Comment

On 24 September 1970, the USSR’s robotic sample return mission, Luna 16 returning 101g of Lunar Soil to Kazakstan from where it had departed for the Moon almost two weeks earlier. Following Apollo 11 in July and Apollo 12 in November 1969, Luna 16 was the third mission to return lunar sample to Earth.

On the 50th anniversary of Luna 16 parachuting down to Earth, documents, (in Russian but Google Translate does a pretty good job) videos, illustrations and photos were made public on 24th September 2020. Direct link to archive here. This was brought to my attention by the USSR/Russia and China space specialist and author Brian Harvey.

In total, the USA brought back 380kg of lunar soil and rocks in 6 crewed Apollo (11-12, 14-17) missions and the USSR, 301g in three robotic missions. Another 2kg is expected to be added to this tally. China’s Change’5 lunar sample return mission is due to launch in late November.

A summary of all the lunar sample return missions below.