Have you got a licence for that rocket?

NEWS RAS introduces prizes for student instrumentation MIXS is UK-built and ready for Mercury space The completed UKbuilt Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (MXIS) has left the Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester en route for ESA and, eventually, Mercury. MXIS is one of the main instruments on ESA’s BepiColombo mission and will use fluorescent X-rays excited from Mercury’s surface by high-energy solar X-rays in order to determine the composition of this rocky planet. “The team has worked incredibly hard to design and build such a complex instrument,” said MIXS principal investigator Emma Bunce, professor of planetary plasma physics at the University of Leicester. “The fact that we are delivering our flight model instrument that will go to Mercury to allow us to do such great new science is entirely due to the dedication of our fantastic technical team.” In addition to the UK delivering the MIXS instrument, much of the BepiColombo spacecraft is also being built in the UK at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage and UK companies also A&G • August 2015 • Vol. 56 • www.astrongeo.com Instrumentation research is vital in modern observatories. (ESO) best PhD thesis in the previous 12 months on instrumentation development in scientific hardware and novel software specific to a hardware project. PhD supervisors will be required to submit a written nomination of no longer than two A4 pages outlining the case for an award. Details of how to apply are available on the RAS website. https://bit.ly/1JuaDUG hold contracts for several other components of the mission. http://bit.ly/1L1CFpx RAS elects President and Councillors ras The next President of the RAS will be John Zarnecki, emeritus pprofessor of space science at the Open University. He is known to many for his work with the Huygens lander and the Cassini mission; he received the Gold Medal of the society in 2014. Prof. Zarnecki takes office in 2016; he will first serve a year as President-Elect. Prof. Don Kurtz John Zarnecki. (S Ireland/The Times) meeting The seventh edition of the Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics conference took place on 18–22 May in York, UK, reports Raphael Hirschi, providing an opportunity to review advances in the field ranging from Big Bang nucleosynthesis to explosive scenarios, stellar evolution, nuclear structure and theory, as well as experimental tools, techniques and facilities. There were plenary sessions as well as a poster session with more than 60 contributions, and an industry session to develop closer links between industry and academia. About 40% of participants were PhD students and young postdocs. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for them to meet and interact with leading figures in the field at coffee breaks and lunches around the posters. The social programme included an enjoyable whisky tasting and a tour of Helmsley Castle and Rievaulx Abbey. There were prizes for the best three posters by students. The top prize, kindly offered by the of the University of Central Lancashire and Prof. Christine Peirce of the University of Durham have been elected as Vice-Presidents. Details of other Councillors, old and new, can be found on the RAS website. http://bit.ly/1BThXX3 Have you got a licence for that rocket? space The UK Space Agency has updated advice on how to apply for a licence to launch a rocket, reminding applicants that at least six months notice is needed. The licence is needed for the launch or operation of a space object and for any activity in outer space, in line with the Outer Space Act 1986, and covers issues such as liability for damage, registration of anything launched into space and the principles for Earth observation. There’s an up-front fee of £6500, with the possibility of discounts for constellations of satellites, and the UKSA is keen to discuss your plans before you apply. Note that UK spacecraft operators no longer have to pay Insurance Premium Tax on policies covering launch, orbit, flight and re-entry – a change intended European Physical Society, went to R Garg (University of York). The Institute of Physics Nuclear Physics Group sponsored the prizes for the two runners-up, F Ferraro (University of Genova, Italy) and J Bliss (Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Germany). The conference was organized by the Universities of York and Edinburgh (chairs: Alison Laird and Marialuisa Aliotta), and brought together more than 100 participants from 18 countries. Feedback after the event was extremely positive. The conference was sponsored by Canberra, EDF, EPL, EPS, Hamamatsu, IoP, JINA, Kromek, Mesytech, Micron, NAVI, RAS, STFC and SUPA. The organizers wish to thank Amy Light and Dawn Stewart from the IoP for excellent support, and the other members of the local organizing committee: Charles Burton (York), Raphael Hirschi (Keele) and Alex Murphy (Edinburgh). The next conference of this series will be held in Catania, Italy, in 2017. http://npa7.iopconfs.org/339506 to remove barriers to growth in the space industry. http://bit.ly/1TpGk3p Congratulations to Fellows awards Yvonne Elsworth, professor of helioseismology and Poynting professor of physics at the University of Birmingham has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. “Yvonne Elsworth is one of the UK’s leading solar scientists,” said RAS President Prof. Martin Barstow, “and someone who shows how painstaking analysis can lead to radical changes in our understanding of even apparently familiar bodies like the Sun.” Michel Mayor, emeritus professor of the University of Geneva, has been awarded the 2015 Kyoto Prize for his “outstanding contributions in evolving a new vision of the universe through the discovery of an extrasolar planet”. Prof. Mayor’s work led to the discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, for which he also received the RAS Gold Medal this year. http://royalsociety.org http://www.ras.org.uk 4.7 prizes The RAS now has prizes for undergraduate and postgraduate student involvement in instrumentation in astronomy and geophysics – and the deadline this year is 31 August. With a generous donation from the Patricia Tomkins Foundation, the RAS is instituting prizes and grants to encourage student interest in instrumentation science. While the support is aimed at developing skills in scientific hardware such as electronics, detectors and optics, the development of novel software for a specific hardware project will also be considered. The Patricia Tomkins Undergraduate Prize awards £500 for excellent lab work on instrumentation as part of a course related to astronomy or geophysics. Students may nominate themselves, but need a letter from their supervisor or academic tutor. Postgraduate work will be recognized by the Tomkins Thesis Prize of £1000, awarded to the Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics in York  (...truncated)