Michael West’s Blog

That’s right! The ESA spacecraft, Mars Express, currently in orbit around Mars will be doing a series of close fly-bys of Mars’ moon Phobos. On July 23rd it will make its closest approach at an altitude above Phobos’ surface of only 97km. I can’t wait to see the close up shots with the High Resolution Stereo Camera and the results from the other instruments aboard Mars Express - these should give some insight into the mass, surface composition and geochemistry of this unusual solar system object.

The full press release from ESA’s website is below…

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That’s right! The Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, just south of Canberra at Tidbinbilla, was the first of the three NASA Deep Space Network tracking stations to receive the first images from the Mars Phoenix Lander that arrived at Mars North Pole earlier today. You can read about it here on the ABC’s news site and hear an interview with Glen Nagle, a friend of mine, who is also the Public Relations manager at CDSCC here. Well done to everyone out at Tidbinbilla on another great job! If it wasn’t a working day I would have been out there watching it live in the Visitor’s Centre as I did a few years ago when the second of the Mars Exploration Rovers landed.

The Mars Phoenix Lander arrived safely at Mars’ North Pole earlier this morning and here are some of the first images it just sent back. WOW!! I can’t wait for the colour ones

Christina and I have now returned from our honeymoon, are settling into married life and have returned to work. We had a fantastic and relaxing time away and I will put some photos up here soon. We have also recieved a few photos from our families that were taken at the wedding and I’ll put them up as well. If anyone took photos at the ceremony or reception, we’d be most grateful if you could email them to me. It will be a month or two till we get the photos from the official photographer and we’d love to see different people’s perspective of the day as well.

Also, in other news, I have yielded to the pressure and joined Facebook! The main reason is because my brother Andrew is travelling the world for the next 10 months and is putting all his photos up there. It’s also been good to reconnect with people I haven’t been in touch with for ages as well. My profile is here if you wish to add me as a friend (I think you need to have signed up to Facebook to see my profile).

That’s right, the big day is fast approaching! Christina and I will be married this Saturday 19th April at St John’s Anglican Church in Ashfield, Sydney at 2pm. If you happen to be nearby, feel free to come along. All are welcome!

It seems like only yesterday that I asked Christina to marry me and she said yes but so much has happen since then. I moved out of my apartment to a share house to save money, Christina got a job in Canberra and we then eventually found somewhere for her to live, we held engagement parties in 3 states, I travelled to the US and have been beavering away at my PhD. In there somewhere I moved church and Christina and I started to attend LVAC, where we are involved in their new Night Church, which kicks off soon too. We have much to be thankful for and have been blessed immensely in the past year. We are pretty tired as well and are looking forward to all the wedding planning coming to an end, enjoying a relaxing holiday and settling into married life.

We hope to see you on Saturday! I promise to put some photos up when we return from our honeymoon, for those who can’t make to the wedding ceremony.

A friend in the public service here in Canberra has informed me, and to quote the relevant announcement, that…

“On 19 March 2008, the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics for report no later than October 2008 with an interim report by 23 June 2008:

The current state of Australia’s space science and industry sector, examining options to strengthen and expand Australia’s position in fields that strongly align with space science and industry, giving consideration to any national strategic coordination requirements and taking into account findings and policy options of the National Innovation System Review, with particular reference to:

1. Australia’s capabilities in space science, industry and education, including:
   
   1. existing Australian activity of world-class standard, and
   2. areas in which there is currently little or no activity but that are within the technical and intellectual capacity of the country;
2. arguments for and against expanded Australian activity in space science and industry, including:
   
   1. an assessment of the risks to Australia’s national interest of Australia’s dependence on foreign-owned and operated satellites,
   2. the potential benefits that could accrue to Australia through further development of our space capability,
   3. economic, social, environmental, national security and other needs that are not being met or are in danger of not being met by Australia’s existing space resources or access to foreign resources,
   4. impediments to strengthening and expanding space science and industry in Australia, including limiting factors relating to spatial information and global positioning systems, including but not limited to ground infrastructures, intergovernmental arrangements, legislative arrangements and government/industry coordination, and
   5. the goals of any strengthening and expansion of Australia’s space capability both in the private sector and across government; and
3. realistic policy options that facilitate effective solutions to cross-sector technological and organisational challenges, opportunity capture and development imperatives that align with national need and in consideration of existing world-class capability.”

Although the new Federal Labor government is going a little review/inquiry crazy, this is a welcome development. Kudos to Democrat Senator Natasha Stott Despoja for initiating this inquiry and for Liberal Senator Grant Chapman and others for co-sponsoring it. It is also good to read here in The Australian that the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, is supportive as well, which is more than can be said about his predecessor. Hopefully those conducting the inquiry will have a keen sense of history and become familiar with the Madigan Report (1985), the ‘An Integrated National Space Program’ report (1992) and Space: ‘A Priority for Australia’ (2005) and other similar inquiries of the past. This inquiry will also complement the soon to be released Decadal Plan for Space Science by the Australia Academy of Sciences’ National Committee on Space Science. I’ve contributed a little bit to its preparation, mainly in the education and public outreach arena, but not much.

Details about how to make a submission can be found on the relevant Senate Economics Committee website.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for quite a while, but life is busy (as usual) so here it is now…

One of the real privileges that I have is to be an Australia Day Ambassador. This came about because back in 2006 I was a New South Wales Finalist in the Young Australian of the Year Awards - an enormous honour indeed. It was a privilege just to be nominated! There is a little more information about this here and you can find a list of the other finalists here.

Following this I was invited by the NSW Australia Day Council to participate in the Australia Day Ambassador Program. Thanks to the sponsorship of Woolworths, the Australia Day Ambassador Program sends about 400 high achieving Australians to community Australia Day celebrations all over NSW and Australia. Ambassadors are invited as guests of honour at celebrations around the country and are often part of the activities and events on the day. As part of the celebrations, Ambassadors are asked to deliver the keynote address which captures the true spirit of being Australian.

Its quite a big deal and something that I thoroughly enjoy as it has given me the opportunity to visit some fantastic places and meet some really interesting people. In 2006 I visited Tumut Shire Council and the towns of Tumut, Talbingo and Adelong and in 2007 I visited the Kyogle Shire Council in northern NSW and participated in Australia Day celebrations at a small town called Tabulam, west of the Border Ranges National Park. You can read a little more about my visit to Tabulam in an article that appeared in the ANU College of Science’s ScienceWise magazine by David Salt. See page 10 of the PDF or you can find the website for it here.

Each time I have had the opportunity to give an Australia Day Address and given my profession and my passion, I’ve spoken about Australia’s involvement in space exploration, past, present and future; and how Australian’s benefit from space derived services everyday. My speeches have usually been very well received - I guess mainly because its not the usual thing people would hear on Australia Day (most Ambassadors are sports people or media personalities - you can find a list here) - and has always resulted in some interesting conversations with people afterwards.

This past Australia Day I was the Ambassador to the Snowy River Shire Council and attended celebrations in Jindabyne, Berridale, Adaminaby and Dalgetty as well as a visit to the local elderly persons hostel. It was a jam packed day but one that I really enjoyed. The weather was divine and the region that we got to drive through were just stunning. In the lead up to and following Australia Day I got a little bit of publicity about my visit to the Snowy River region, including an interview on ABC Canberra Radio and a few other regional radio stations. I also got mentioned in Engineers Australia’s magazine and E-News and on Mars Society Australia’s website.

Being an Ambassador has been fantastic in the past. I hope I have the opportunity to participate again in the future.

One of the greatest science fiction writers and a true visionary for space exploration and utilisation, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, passed away today in Sri Lanka aged 90. A master populariser of science and prolific writer - he wrote over 100 books on space, science and the future - his insights, influence and vision will be greatly missed. Tributes are popping up already all over the web including at the New York Times, SMH, SpaceRef.com and at Crikey - this one quite clever tribute claims that the Space Age is now dead, or at least the first one! To my shame I haven’t read enough of his work, but I have always been inspired by his ideas and amazed at how much of his science fiction has become science fact. Clarke was a man well before his time and then again at exactly the right time too. His influence was immense. The Mars Institute, of which I am on the Board of Advisors, even named the automated Mars greenhouse it has in the Canadian Arctic after him!