From planetary instrumentation to geological repositories
The GeoRepNet 2/RATE meeting will take place at the British Geological Survey headquarters near Nottingham on October 23rd and 24th this year. The meeting is looking at high technology transfer to geological repositories, including the use of planetary instrumentation, to advance the study of geological repositories for radiation waste storage and carbon capture and storage. The preliminary programme is up here and you can register here.
Read MoreNew BoingBoing feature on the Boulby subsurface laboratory
Get the low-down (sorry) on the dark matter and astrobiology lab hidden from view deep under the Yorkshire coast from the ASB’s very own Lewis Dartnell. I’m standing apprehensively in the gloomy dark, my entire body vibrating with the shuddering metal cage I’m in, and surrounded by an overwhelming roar of air that’s not so much heard as felt. I turn my head to peer out through a gap in the cladding and see the enveloping cliff of rock rushing past. This is the lift serving the Boulby Mine on the north-east British coast, one of the deepest in Europe. The gale of air...
Read MoreNational Strategy for Space Environments and Human Spaceflight
This from the Royal Astronomical Society’s Deputy Executive Secretary Dr Robert Massey: The UK Space Agency is carrying out a consultation on its draft National Strategy for Space Environments and Human Spaceflight – see here for the related documents. The Strategy sets out goals in science and technology, covering research disciplines including astrobiology, astrochemistry and space medicine. The draft also considers how to utilise commercial space operators, bilateral projects and ESA, and the way in which the relationship between the Agency and research councils should...
Read MoreNew articles from Dr Jonti Horner
ASB Committee member Dr Jonti Horner, an astronomer and astrobiologist based at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, has written several articles for the news and analysis website The Conversation. Here are some of the most recent: From dust clouds to wobbly orbits for new planets, A night’s tale: will a new meteor shower light up northern skies?, Bright Saturn will blink out across Australia – for an hour, anyway, A different spin – exoplanet’s ‘day’ is measured for the first time. You can find the full list of Jonti’s articles for The Conversation here. You can also...
Read MoreSETI lecture at Birkbeck
On the evening of Thursday the 11th September Dr Andrew Siemion of the University of California at Berkeley and ASTRON (the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) will be giving a public lecture at Birkbeck in London entitled The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: The Quest to Find Ourselves Among the Stars. Find out more information here. Attendance is free but booking is required. Head to the link and click on the word ‘booking’ in the last but one line of the talk description. And remember to take your ticket!
Read More