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Space Policy 23 (2007) 180–181

www.elsevier.com/locate/spacepol

Report

Space really matters: The annual BROHP conference

Dave Wright�

BROHP, 17 Elsmere Avenue, Aigburth, Liverpool L17 4LB, UK

Available online 9 August 2007

Abstract

The conference began with The Charles Martin Lecture, given this year by George Abbey, formerly Director of the NASA Johnson

Spaceflight Center. George spoke of the significant contribution of British scientists and engineers to the early days of NASA. He was

followed by an ebullient tour d’horizon from the admirable Dr David Southwood, Head of Science at ESA. Lucie Green from Mullard

Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), who is leading the outreach component of the International Heliophysical Year, then brought the

first session to a close. The conference then split into three parallels.

r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The annual conference of the British Rocket OralHistory Programme (BROHP) took place at CharterhouseSchool on April 12–14 2007, with something for allconstituents of the often fragmented British space commu-nity. This report describes the highlights of what was a veryvaried programme.

On first arrival this appears to be a conference with anidentity problem! Is it a conference about UK spacehistory, for industry to talk about present day achieve-ments, for students seeking their first job, or is it to inspireschoolchildren? Yes, appears to be the answer, all of thisand quite a lot more. Almost by accident this has becomethe UK space conference. The UK Space community isdifficult to define—an aggregation of smaller, often insularcommunities. The BROHP conference takes a gloriouslyunconfined definition of the UK Space community andmixes generations and backgrounds together with apparentabandon. But when you have a quartet of high schoolchildren earnestly discussing wind shear and the challengeit poses to their model rocket with a gentleman who ran theSpace Shuttle programme it becomes clear that enthusiasmcan bridge generations and backgrounds.

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ess: BROHP2@aol.com

2. Challenging children

UKAYRoC is an aerospace challenge aimed at highschool children. Ten schools qualified for the final atCharterhouse and they competed to take a payload of anegg to a precise height and to land the egg safely after aflight of exactly 45 s. The event, organised by Tripolus,UKRA and Space Connections, was a great success andthe winning team won a trip to take part in a competitionin the USA, where they met Buzz Aldrin. We hope to havemore than 100 children at the conference in 2008. TheSpace Education Council organised an excellent session. Itstarted off an entire day on UK space education. MartynChesters and Helen Barraclough spoke about the work ofSpace Connections and the new European Space AgencyESER0 initiative.Picking highlights of the conference is difficult when so

much was happening simultaneously and there are over 60presentations to choose from. There was former ForeignSecretary Lord Owen talking about UK policy. GeorgeAbbey and Reg Turnill talking about their memories of theUS space programme. Two excellent sessions organised bythe British Interplanetary Society on interplanetary ex-ploration missions, propulsion systems and SMART 1.Eric Brown, probably the greatest test pilot of all time,gave an entrancing presentation about the Spitfire in theaviation session, where he was ably supported by ChrisOrlebar and John Thatcher. The excellent Mullard sessionwas opened by Andrew Coates talking about the history of

ARTICLE IN PRESSD. Wright / Space Policy 23 (2007) 180–181 181

what is now the UK’s largest space science group. Itcontinued with a series of wonderful short presentations oncurrent research at MSSL.

In terms of history the 50th anniversary of Jodrell Bankwas marked by a session organised by ManchesterUniversity which included two presentations from AlistairGunn and Tim O’Brien, who covered both the history andalso the present day research. Tom Patrick helped mark the50th anniversary of the first launch of the Skylark soundingrocket. Skylark was an important vehicle that played asignificant role in establishing a vibrant European spacescience research community. A resurgence of interest inmanned spaceflight in the UK was reflected in two sessionsand in addition David Ashford and Duncan Law-Greenboth spoke about space tourism and its impact.

3. Stimulating students

UKSEDS Student Opportunity Event gave students achance to listen to presentations but also to talk informallyabout opportunities in the UK space industry. Stuart Evesfrom Surrey Satellite Technology spoke about the DisasterMonitoring Constellation and the future of Earth observa-tion. Alistair Scott and Liz Seward spoke about the variedprojects and opportunities available at Astrium. For thosestudents interested in postgraduate research opportunitiesthere were presentations by Professor Louise Harra fromMSSL and David Boyce from Leicester University.Rosalind Azouzi from the Royal Aeronautical Societyand Ian Gibson from BNSC were also available to discusscareer opportunities.

Professor Alan Smith, Director of the MSSL, chaired adistinguished panel including Prof. George Fraser,

Prof. Mark Cropper, Ian Gibson (BNSC), Pat Norris(LogicaCMG), Stuart Eves (SSTL) and John Thatcher(Astrium). The discussion tackled the interface betweenacademia and industry and brought the conference toan end.

4. The Arthurs

The Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, the UK space commu-nity’s equivalent of the Hollywood Oscars, took place onthe evening of 14 April as the finale of the BROHPconference. There was a large number of excellentnominees in all the categories whose efforts were recog-nised. Steve Squyres won the individual award andaccepted the team award for the Mars Rover team. Intheir 50th anniversary year Sir Patrick Moore and the Sky

at Night team were very popular winners of the inspirationand Best TV Programme prize. Chris Barber and theInternational Space School Education Trust were worthywinners of the Education award and Robin Scagellreceived the award for the best space reporting. For thefirst time a website, Solaris, run by Terry Broderick andNorman Lawrence, was short listed in the space reportingcategory. Charles Cockell won the award for the ‘writtenword’ for Space on Earth. The Life Time Achievementaward was presented to Eric Brown by last year’s winnerReg Turnill. For the special award Sir Arthur chose RayBradbury. The first politician to be recognised at theawards was Lord Sainsbury. Recently retired but describedas ‘The Best Space Minister we’ve ever had’, he won theOutreach award. Nominations are already open for the2008 awards.