Hi everyone,

An update on what’s happening Wednesday evening..

On Wednesday evening there will be a special “out of programme” meeting of the Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal, for a presentation by Thomas Ormston from the European Space Agency. The meeting will be held at Kendal Museum, as usual, and will start at 7pm sharp. There will be a £2 per head charge to go towards room hire costs.

Some info about the talk:

“Tales from a spacecraft cockpit: behind the scenes at the European Space Agency”. – Thomas Ormston, ESA

“We’re used to the most amazing images and data from spacecraft that orbit our planet and travel beyond to the furthest reaches of our solar system. In this talk you will find out what goes on behind the scenes at the European Space Agency and all the work that goes on to keep the machines flying and the data flowing. How do we get a picture from Mars? Do we use a joystick? Is it really like Apollo 13? You’ll find all this out and more, along with a summary of the latest news and results from ESA’s missions including the upcoming end of Rosetta’s mission and the arrival of ExoMars at the Red Planet.”

This is a VERY rare treat for us, a fantastic opportunity to hear a real expert talk, someone on the front line of space exploration by ESA, and it has taken a lot of organising, so it would be good to have a REALLY good turn-out for this event. If you can make it, please do.

I should also add that Thomas has arranged for a big – and I mean big – package of ESA material (booklets posters etc) to be sent to us, so if you come along you will go home with lots of fascinating info from the European Space Agency.

Look forward to seeing lots of you at the Museum on Wednesday night!

StuA