£500,000 funding for deep space researchers
SCIENTISTS have won £500,000 towards building a centre dedicated to exploring deep space.
The Wolfson Deep Space Centre will build links between business and universities to study some of the biggest challenges in space exploration, from powering longer missions without solar energy to getting more spacecraft into low orbit.
The funding from the Wolfson Foundation will go to the £100 million Space Park Leicester, being built close to the National Space Centre.
Estimates suggest the space park could contribute £750 million a year to the economy, through lowering the cost of the manufacture and launch of satellites and as an international centre for processing the data they provide.
Led by the University of Leicester, it could eventually lead to 2,500 jobs and attract other hi-tech businesses to the city.
Grant Bourhill, chief executive of science parks at the university, said: “Receiving the award from the Wolfson Foundation is a huge boost and adds to high-profile names associated with the Space Park.
“The Wolfson funds will allow us to increase our reach and foster allimportant collaborations between businesses and universities.
“Crucially, it will further boost our activities in lowering the cost to access space.”
The first stages of Space Park Leicester will open next year. Partners include Leicester City Council and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.
The Deep Space Centre will also work with the National Space Centre and National Space Academy – also partners in Space Park Leicester – to support students and teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects at GCSE and A-level, inspiring the next new generation of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.
Dr Nigel Bannister, associate professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “Missions to explore the planets are expensive, so they don’t happen very often.
“For example, our knowledge of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune is based on just a few hours of data taken as the Voyager-2 spacecraft flew past in the 1980s, carrying technology developed in the 1970s.
“The Wolfson Deep Space Centre will develop new technologies and methods, and adapt existing ones, to enable smaller, lower-cost spacecraft to be used in deep space - to expand our exploration of the solar system, to visit planets more often and in ways not possible before, and provide an opportunity for the UK to become a leader in a new generation of space exploration.”
Professor Richard Ambrosi, professor of space instrumentation and space nuclear power systems, said: “The Wolfson Centre has the potential to transform how we access space for scientific missions.
“It has the potential to open new paths to low earth orbit, the lunar surface and deeper into the solar system.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for its recognition of the world-leading research taking place at the University of Leicester.”
Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation said: “The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that funds buildings and equipment that support the highest quality research.
“This is a particularly impressive and intriguing research centre - a leader both nationally and internationally. We are delighted to be involved.”