Date/Time
Date(s) - Tuesday 03 July 12
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location
Howard of Effingham School
Category(ies)
‘Exploring the Solar System with Robots’
Tuesday 3 July 2012 – 7pm
We are delighted to confirm Chris Arridge has been engaged to speak at our next Science Community presentation on Tuesday 3 July 2012 at 7pm.
Chris Arridge, a planetary scientist, is studying magnetic fields and particles in space around various bodies in the solar system, from Venus to Jupiter to comets.
He studied Physics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, applied mathematics at University of Cambridge and obtained a PhD in Physics from Imperial College London where he studied some of the first data to be returned from the NASA Cassini spacecraft at Saturn. He is not only involved in NASA’s Cassini mission, but also the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission to Jupiter and its moons. He also led an international group of scientists trying to get a new mission sent to Uranus.
On 14 December 1962, NASA’s Mariner 2 spacecraft became the first of many human-built spacecraft to fly past another planet in our solar system, launching the exploration of our solar system. These unmanned spacecraft are essentially robots and have to manage on their own, billions of km from Earth, without being fed instructions from Earth.
In this talk Chris will describe how these spacecraft work, what the challenges are, and how they can go wrong. He will talk about missions to Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus and will show images from the acid-rain soaked surface of Venus, the barren rocky landscape of Mars, the aurora of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter.
We do hope you will be able to join Chris Arridge and take a mind expanding journey exploring the solar system with robots, a journey from the familiar to the far out.
Please note that although entrance is free, it is by ticket only. Tickets may be obtained by telephoning the school on 01372 453694Â or emailing howard@thehoward.org.