It's Not Only Rocket Science!

Dr. David Lumb is an expert on space science instrumentation. He has worked for 30 years on developments of X-ray and gamma-ray image sensors and optics. He has been involved in several successful astronomy projects, including NASA Chandra, and ESA XMM-Newton, for which he was the Instrument Team Leader. In this talk the retired ESA Space Scientist will discuss how and why we go into space, why we take measurements, what makes it difficult, and why it is so expensive!

Enceladus has captured the imagination ever since it was found to have a liquid ocean under the surface. From New Scientist and Scientific American, to Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000AD, writers of fact and fiction have imagined what might lurk under the ice. Terrifying aliens? Little green fish? Probably not, but there could be an abundance of bacteria and bugs – or nothing at all. Martin Howe will talk about the facts we know so far, the plans for space probe visits, and that an incredible sea far from the Sun might harbor life.