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I am delighted to be at the British Festival of
Space here in Birmingham. This city has a great history of innovation
and engineering, so it is a very appropriate place to showcase the UK’s
space activities. In fact, in April this year, the Thinktank - where we
are today – was the venue for a reception of Europe’s Mars-science
community as part of ESA’s Aurora Science Workshop. That event was
organised by PPARC and it helped define what could be Europe’s next
mission to the Red Planet – a rover focussed on the science of
exobiology.
This is a special occasion, as just a year ago,
but 600 million miles away, the Cassini spacecraft slipped into orbit
around Saturn and began its detailed exploration of that most beautiful
of planets and its many attendant Moons. Scientific data soon started to
flood back from the battery of cameras and sensors aboard.
Then, on Christmas Day, the European Huygens
probe was released by Cassini into its dive towards the largest Moon of
Saturn. It is exactly 450 years since the Dutchman Christiaan Huygens
discovered the moon we now call Titan. But only this year – on January
the 14th - did mankind reach beneath its cloudy atmosphere to glimpse
another world thanks to our robot emissary. The spirit of the great
European explorers has been re-born with this mission, coming so soon
after the success of Mars Express and SMART-1 at the Moon.
I’m looking forward to hearing about the latest
results from both Cassini and Huygens. But perhaps the greatest wonder
in the whole enterprise occurred on the morning of the descent to Titan,
when all the great radio-telescopes of the world listened out for the
tiny ‘carrier’ signal from Huygens. A signal with no more power than a
mobile ‘phone, and yet heard across a billion kilometres of space. A
signal that said that the probe was alive and well, and suspended on its
parachutes (designed in Britain) as it slowly descended to the surface.
This kind of global partnership between the
World’s scientists is about to be repeated with the spectacular plunge
of Deep Impact’s penetrator into the comet Tempel-1 on July 4th. As you
have heard, UK scientists will be watching Deep Impact’s progress
through telescopes all over the World.
Even though Deep Impact is a NASA mission, some
of ESA’s scientific satellites will be keeping a sharp look out to see
what happens. Appropriately, among these will be Europe’s own
comet-chaser, Rosetta. This spacecraft is already fourteen months into
its eight-year odyssey to rendezvous with a distant comet and then
attempt to place a probe onto its icy surface.
ESA now has 15 scientific spacecraft in
operation – a record of outstanding achievement that Europe can justly
be proud of. It is the consequence of long-term planning and steady
investment. Everywhere in these missions, the role of UK scientists and
engineers has been crucial. This human creativity is that what I most
want to celebrate today.
When NASA’s SWIFT spacecraft turns to look at
Tempel-1, it will be looking through instrumentation designed in British
universities. ESA’s XMM – Newton observatory will be using its precision
guidance system built in British industry to point its instruments at
the comet. Mars Express relied on its British-built propulsion system to
become the first European spacecraft to enter the orbit of another
planet.
In designing sensors and software, crewing
ground stations or analysing satellite imagery, there are thousands of
British men and women now working in the space industry to explore the
universe, understand our changing planet and deliver commercial services
to business worldwide.
On the last point, I especially urge you to stay
to this afternoon and hear about the success story that is ‘Inmarsat’ –
This is one of the World’s most successful satellite communications
services, based in London and using British technology at the heart of
its business.
We are all waiting to hear about Cassini-Huygens,
but before we do so I want to express my personal congratulations to the
UK organisations involved in the mission. The scientists and engineers
working in this country have played an integral role, making it one of
the biggest British success stories in space.
The Government demonstrated its strong support
for Cassini-Huygens. PPARC, a key partner in the British National Space
Centre, contributed £13.5 million towards its instruments and
operations.
This mission is a solid base to build on for the
future, and the UK’s involvement in Aurora, the European Space Agency’s
Mars exploration programme, gives us the chance to be a key contributor
in robotic exploration where we have world-class skills.
Now let me name the organisations involved in
Cassini-Huygens before they tell their own story. First the universities
involved in building and using the scientific instruments aboard Cassini:
· Queen Mary, University of London, involved in
the imaging team;
· Imperial College, responsible for the magnetometer, an instrument
originally led by Professor David Southwood, now the Director of Science
at ESA, and supported in the analysis of data by Leicester University;
· The University of Oxford, looking at the atmospheres of the Saturn
system;
· The Mullard Space Science Laboratory, studying the interaction of the
electrons in the solar wind with the magnetic field of Saturn;
· The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, involved in designing and using
several of the instruments;
· And last but not least, the Open University, whose ‘Surface Science
Package’ made the actual ‘first contact’ with the land of Titan.
To deliver the science of Huygens, incredible
engineering skills were essential. The Huygens probe comprised a Descent
Module cocooned within a front shield and a back-cover. Weighing 320 kg,
the probe was protected by the shield and cover from the harsh
temperature and radiation extremes of space during its seven-year
journey to Saturn, and from the heat of entry into Titan’s atmosphere
(about 12,000°C) as it decelerated from a speed of more than 22,000 km
per hour.
Three minutes after reaching the top of Titan’s
atmosphere the probe had decelerated to 1,400 km/hr at an altitude of
160 km above the surface. Here accelerometers alerted the flight
software that it was time for Huygens to start work and the descent
control sub-system took over. Mortars fired, covers were ejected and
parachutes were released. Soon the probe was gently falling through the
atmosphere, its multiple instruments gathering data on winds, chemical
content, surface features and even the sounds of the new world.
Throughout the descent of Huygens to Titan’s
surface – where one error could have brought failure - UK industry
played its part, and did it extremely well:
· Logica CMG Ltd. designed the software that
controlled the complex sequence of entry systems and parachutes, some
seven years after launch.
· And talking of reliability, the work of IGG Ltd in procuring the
thousands of electronic components to guarantee reliable operation was
also vital.
· SciSys Ltd. built the Mission Operations Centre at ‘mission control’
in Germany and provided key operations staff on the big day.
· Irvin GQ Ltd and staff now at Vorticity Ltd. designed the descent
control system including the parachutes, mechanisms and pyrotechnic
systems that slowed the probe during its descent.
· Meanwhile, staff of Vega plc were supporting the planning and
operating of the Huygens probe, both at JPL in the USA and at mission
control in Germany.
Everyone involved has contributed to one of the
great voyages of the space age: a success story that was repeated by TV
news and newspapers all over the world, and was undoubtedly the space
highlight of the past year.
Therefore, I want to express my warmest
congratulations for what you have achieved. Finally, I would like to
wish all those involved good luck and success in the challenging
missions of tomorrow. Most of them will require great skill and
determination but few will be as difficult and challenging, I think, as
Cassini-Huygens.
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