For those who were not able to attend the Space Experiment Competition award ceremony during the IAC in Glasgow last week, the International Astronatical Federation (IAF) has posted a video recording on their IAC 2008 web page.

Altenatively, use the video player below to tune in to Rex Hall (BIS), Ian Gibson (BNSC), Soyeon Yi (Korean Astronaut), Sir Martin Sweeting (SSTL), Stuart Eves (SSTL), Dr June Scobee Rodgers (writer and educator) and last but not least the students who took part below!



Sir Martin discusses his personal support and commitment to getting youngsters interested in space, having sparked his interest in space through amateur radio activities.

Dr. Ian Gibson, BNSC highlights the importance of space to the UK in 3 words: economy, challenge, understanding.

See Shrewsbury school's moment of triumph around 33 minutes in.

Congratulations to the team from Shrewsbury School who have won the Space Experiment Competition with their proposal for an ionospheric scintillation experiment called POISE. The team beat off competition from 5 other teams of schoolchildren in the UK to develop their experiment with SSTL and fly their entry a small satellite that will be launched by SSTL in 2010.

Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire, beat five other groups from around the UK in the final stage of the competition which was announced at an awards ceremony at the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow (IAC) today (Friday 3 October).

The competition, launched earlier this year, challenged teams of 14 – 19 year olds to design and build a small, compact satellite instrument. The POISE experiment is expected to measure variations in the ionosphere, which can affect the accuracy and safety of satellite navigation systems, and might also help to provide indications of impending earthquakes.

The POISE team had to overcome significant challenges to design their experiment within the tight constraints of the competition. Their instrument could be no larger than the size of a lunch box, weigh no more than one kilogram and operate on less than one Watt of power.

Ian Pearson, the Minister for Science and Innovation was impressed with the results.

We have some fantastically creative and talented young people in the country. It’s staggering to see the effort and imagination that has been generated by this competition.

The competition has been sponsored by the British National Space Centre (BNSC), a cross-Government organisation that co-ordinates civil space activities in the UK.

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, founder of SSTL, emphasised the educational potential of the mission:

SSTL was founded by the University of Surrey and we have always had very strong links with academia, so we’re delighted to extend this opportunity to UK schools. I hope that the experiment will encourage more of our young people to take up careers in science and engineering.

Dr David Williams, Director General of BNSC

The UK has a fantastic capability in the space arena and ambitious plans for exciting programmes such as the lunar exploration mission, MoonLITE. We hope this competition will help to inspire the next generation of space scientists who will make those plans a reality.

The judging panel included Professor Colin Pillinger and Keith Mans, the Chief Executive of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

The winning team was announced at IAC by South Korea's first astronaut, Soyeon Yi. She recently returned from a trip to the International Space Station, having been chosen from about 36,000 applicants for the mission.

BNSC and SSTL are offering UK schools the chance to fly an experiment on one of the small satellites built by SSTL. Any UK students, either individuals or teams, aged between 14 and 18 can enter their experimental package. Speaking about the Space Experiment on the BBC news website today Brainchild Dr Stuart Eves (SSTL) :

Satellites affect everyone on the planet. They deliver telephone communications and TV programmes across the globe, enable the safe navigation of ships and aircraft and provide the timing signals that are used to coordinate the national power grid and mobile phone calls.

The BNSC's Dr Ian Gibson also commented in the BBC report, expressing the essence of the Space Experiment.

This hands-on competition should be fun as well as educational

To hear more you can also tune in to the Today Programme on Radio 4. Use the "Listen Again" function for this morning (Thursday 13th December) and search around 6:55 am.

The winning experiment can weigh up to 1kg and will have a development budget of up to £100,000. The deadline for receiving initial proposals is 28th February 2008, so get your skates on!

BNSC and SSTL hope that the competition will stimulate interest in Space, with many entrants. Out of the hopefuls, six finalists will be announced at the UK Space Conference at Charterhouse in March 2008 and invited to submit more detailed proposals for consideration.

The winners will be announced at the IAF Congress in Glasgow in October 2008 and the winning experiment will be integrated onto an SSTL mission due to fly in the 2010 timeframe.

The experiment could aim to measure some aspect of the space environment, investigate some aspect of the Earth, or test a new satellite technology in Low Earth Orbit What to include in an initial proposal (of up to 5 pages):

• The purpose of the experiment you would like to fly.
  
• What data you would expect to collect.
  
• How you would use the data collected.
  
• How your experiment would advance space science or technology.
  

For full details visit the Space Experiment website: www.spaceexperiment.info