To mark World Space Week (4 to 10 October), on Thursday, 9 October a group of Year 9 pupils from Springfield attended the Schools Space Expo at the Guildhall. Generously organised and funded by the University of Portsmouth, this event brought young people into contact with professionals working in the space industry.

 

After lunch in glorious autumn sunshine in Victoria Park, we started in a 'Space Shorts' presentation session, led by Associate Professor Jen Gupta. Jen's talk, 'How I got a sticker onto a rocket' explained the work of JUPITER (Join Universities Programme for In-orbit Training and Research, https://www.spacesouthcentral.com/jupiter) - an initiative to involve university students with the space industry. After a general discussion about satellites, we then heard from Dr Esan Khalefa, who works for the Earth Sciences Department. Students may not have thought about Geography as a subject linked to space but Dr Khalefa took us through the many ways those working in Geography-related fields are also part of the space industry. Career avenues such as mapping wildfires, tracking storms, protecting coasts, studying air quality and coding maps all depend on satellite data. Lastly, Dr Chris Pattison (whose Youtube channel can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/c/chrispattisoncosmo/videos) spoke about the next generation of space telescopes.

 

Springfield students then took part in a challenge organised by Airbus - they had to build a rocket using dried spaghetti, tape and a large marshmallow. Their rockets had to be aerodynamic, strong in all directions and capable of keeping the payload if it tipped over. Throughout the building process, apprentices working at Airbus circulated to support and were great role models. Four Springfield girls won the challenge!

 

Before leaving, one group took part in a quiz organised by South Space Central and another in an activity run by the RAF.  Pupils conducted themselves brilliantly throughout and the event gave them a chance to see how well the local labour market in Portsmouth is connected with national and international companies in the space industry.