Another Excellent IAA Lecture

Last Wednesday I went to the Irish Astronomical Association meeting at Queen's University Belfast to see Dr John Mason talk about "The Next Giant Leap For Mankind".

This was a superb talk which briefly covered the last 50 years of space exploration from Sputnik, through Vostock and Soyuz by the Russians, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle by the US, then went on to cover where we go next. Dr Mason, a Past President of the BAA and regular on the BBC's "Sky at Night" amongst his many credentials, took the view that the involvement of private enterprise will move space exploration forward at an advanced rate.

He highlighted those such as Richard Branson whose "Virgin Galactic" promises to put tourists into space within three years and then looked at other possibilities such as mining the Moon and asteroids.

The US Orion/Ares programme was also outlined - this being a continuation from where Project Apollo left off in 1972 - indeed much of the technology for this program is derived from the mighty Saturn V rocket with additions from the subsequent Shuttle and Delta rockets.




All in all a fabulous lecture, thought provoking, entertaining and informative.