Space Lates - April

Why is space so hard?

• Zaria Serfontein
• Product Strategy Engineer, Astroscale UK
• 18:15 and 20:15

Space has some incredible benefits, from letting us monitor Earth and respond to environmental disasters to helping us navigate day-to-day life (literally!). We’re sending more and more satellites to space, especially to a narrow band surrounding Earth called low-Earth orbit (LEO), to do things straight out of a sci-fi novel. Astroscale’s ‘space sweepers’ are trying to keep increasingly congested orbits usable and safe. This talk will take you through why space is so hard, all the challenges that come with keeping a satellite in space, and the reason why it’s so important to keep sustainability at the core of all our future missions so we can keep viewing our world from space.

Eye in the Sky: How Satellite Imagery can help Disaster Monitoring

• Dr Matt Payne and Dr David Moore
• Post-Doctoral Research Associate and NCEO Research Scientist, University of Leicester / National Centre for Earth Observation
• 19:15 and 20:15

Join Matt and David for an enlightening talk that will take you on a fascinating journey through the satellite technology that can be utilised to monitor and respond to environmental disasters. With vivid examples, they'll explore how this technology offers a bird's-eye view of our planet's health and how it can be a game-changer in safeguarding communities and ecosystems. Whether you're a space enthusiast, concerned about the environment, or simply curious about the wonders of satellite technology, this talk will provide valuable insights into the power of space-based observation in our fight against global challenges.

TRUTHS: A UK led ESA mission to support climate action

• Professor Nigel Fox
• Chief Scientist Earth observation and Climate, National Physical Laboratory
• 18:15 and 19:15

Join Nigel to see how satellite observations are helping us understand and respond to the challenges of climate change. TRUTHS, is a climate-focused satellite mission led by the UK Space Agency with international partners and delivered by the European Space Agency. Set to launch in 2023, this mission will make a ten-fold improvement in how we can observe and quantify climate change through its own direct measurements of the sun’s energy and provide a ‘gold standard’ reference data set that can be used to calibrate other satellites.

Satellite Altimetry

• 18:00-21:00 (drop-in)
• National Space Centre

Join our space communications to find out how satellites map the height of the Earth's surface and become a satellite detective.

Tracking climate change

• 18:00-21:00 (drop in)
• ESA / National Space Centre

Explore how satellites are helping to understand and track changes on the planet using ESA’s touchscreen interactive. Discover time lapses of Greenland glaciers, analyse deforestation across the amazon, and see coastal phytoplankton blooms and satellite imagery of wildfires from the UK.

Penguin Poo: Finding Colonies

• 18:00-21:00 (drop-in)
• National Space Centre

Help find the penguin colonies by analysing the Antarctica landmass for their poo, just like satellites do from space.