The Alleynian 704 2016

AN EVENING OF STAR TURNS

Simon Parsons reports on an evening of space and satellites that culminated in a live link-up with Houston itself NASA night

I f Dulwich Inventive was about inspiring students with the latest developments in science, ‘NASA Night’ didn’t disappoint, bringing two of the most qualified experts to the College to discuss space, an area where we are quite literally pushing boundaries. We are lucky to be living through a golden age of space exploration: the New Horizons probe has given us mind- blowing, beautiful pictures of Pluto; the Dawn probe has investigated the dwarf planet Ceres, with its mysterious bright spots; and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission has landed a probe on a comet travelling 135,000km per hour. Yet nothing these probes send back captures the imagination quite as much as the idea of being there yourself, like Tim Peake on the ISS, or an astronaut on the planned missions to the moon and Mars. We had two main speakers, one from each side of the pond, and in between them we had two Dulwich students eager to share their thoughts on missions that have inspired them. Our first speaker, Dr Alice Bunn, Director of Policy at the UK Space Agency and an advisor to the government on civil space activities, drew attention to our increasing dependency on satellite technology

Former astronaut Dr Shannon Walker makes contact from Houston

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