News Story

Moon Night is back 7-9th December 2020

Saturday 4 Dec 2021

Monday 7 December marks the 48^th anniversary of the Apollo 17 launch. The Open University STEM Faculty is hosting a series of events as part of its Moon Night with several Moon experts plus external speakers.

Fly me to the Moon – 7 December 16:30 – 18:45 pm

Hosted by Dr Natalie Starkey, four amazing lunar researchers from the School of Physical Sciences Ben Rider-Stokes, Lucy Gradwell, Hannah Sargeant and Tara Hayden will give a tour of the Moon’s surface, explain what the Moon is made from, how the Moon was made and how the Moon has changed over millions of years. We’ll also be taking you into the future by explaining how OU research into water on the Moon is helping to shape future missions. This event is aimed at secondary school children and families. More information can be found here.

Institute of Physics Lecture – 8 December 19.30-20.30 pm

Dr Jessica Barnes from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona will present “The Moon’s water: past, current, and future perspectives”. Addressing how lunar samples are a touchstone to understanding how our nearest neighbor formed and evolved. In preparation for future lunar missions and beyond NASA’s Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) program aims to use cutting-edge analytical techniques to investigate special, never-before-studied Apollo samples. She will also discuss the discovery of lunar water and its implications, and how the ANGSA program can help address unanswered questions about the Moon.

Watch on live stream on stadium here.

6^th Annual Colin Pillinger Memorial Lecture – 9 December 18.00 –19.00 pm

Dr Andy Spry, Senior Scientist at SETI Institute is an expert on planetary protection. His presentation Mars, and Other Places we Care About; Planetary Protection in the Commercial Spaceflight Era will reflect on his work into prevention of interplanetary biological contamination.

Dr Spry worked with Professor Pillinger on the Beagle 2 Mars spacecraft. He was responsible for the lander being built to meet all the rules for ensuring that it did not contaminate Mars with Earthly microbes and that any positive results indicating signs of life on Mars were due solely to Martian material.

To attend this exceptional event register here.