ROBERT WOODMAN, a Physics teacher from Ysgol Bro Gwaun is part of the National Space Academy’s latest mission, Astro Academy: Principia.
This mission, part of the education remit of ESA’s first British astronaut, Tim Peake, will link school science with experiments conducted on board the International Space Station (ISS).
The Astro Academy: Principia kit of experiments arrived today (Friday 5th September) at the ISS for Tim to use during his 6-month mission in space.
Launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday on board the Soyuz TMA 18-M mission, the kit was funded by the UK Space Agency and designed and built by the National Space Academy. Flight-testing for space launch was carried out by the University of Leicester’s Space Research Centre. The original launch of the kit in June ended in disaster when Space X’s Falcon 9 launcher was destroyed after a catastrophic failure of its upper stage.
‘Astro Academy: Principia‘ is an ambitious science education programme using the unique microgravity facilities on board the ISS to conduct experiments and demonstrations that are impossible on Earth. After his own launch on December 2015, Tim will film himself doing the experiments and these films will form a suite of freely available teaching films and accompanying teacher education guides that will be released in 2016.
Robert Woodman is now tasked with sharing the science of Astro Academy: Principia at a local level, through student masterclasses and teacher training for the region, available through booking with the National Space Academy (nsa@ spacecentre.co.uk)
Jeremy Curtis, Head of Education at the UK Space Agency, said:
“We’re excited that Tim will be able to carry out demonstrations in space to help teachers explain science to their students. His videos and other teaching materials developed by the National Space Academy will be available from summer next year.”
The narrative for each film will also showcase many of the successes of the UK’s own space industry – which employs over 30 000 people and generates more than £11 billion per year for the UK economy.
National Space Academy Director Anu Ojha OBE said: “Our ambitions for Astro-Academy:Principia are bold – to deepen the curriculum understanding of physics and chemistry students, to support teachers in their curriculum programme delivery and to take advantage of the unique microgravity classroom we have aboard ESA’s Columbus module of the International Space Station.”
The University of Leicester’s Space Research Centre (SRC) led the flight qualification testing of the Astro-Academy: Principia payload. The SRC team, led by Professor Mark Sims (SRC Director and also a Director of the National Space Centre), conducted the essential vibration tests that were needed to prove that the payload could survive the launch.