OMG- its Friday! 

Favourite lecture today, Jim Dator on Space Futures. I learn't today that there is an organisation called the Hawaii centre for future studies as well as the association of futurists.  There is the World Futures Studies Federation http://www.wfsf.org/  , you can even study this topic at University!  Great topic for a Friday.

An interesting lecture on space debris really provided some food for thought.  There are more than 10,000 pieces of space debris orbiting our planet.  http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Debris/index.html  gives some great information about the type of debris and the impact it is having on future telecommunications activities.  Nasa has a similar site http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/   Jaxa  http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/engineering/research/index_e.html  
 
We discussed some of the possible impacts of earth return of debris.  Some tests were previously done with a small sphere, around 1cm and this was shot at the same velocity that a piece of debris would collide with other objects in orbit, to see the impact. Judge for yourself below;


The crater in the steel is from the impact of a ball similar to the one in the foreground. Don't worry though, a piece of debris that small would burn up in the atmosphere!

The afternoon was spent encouraging our robotics competition entrants.  The entrants were required to build a robot which sensed an outer boundary and any 'rocks' placed in the area.  Also required was the collection of gems and each team was scored.  This was a public event which attracted many children and people from the local area. 



The competition area hosted by one of Robotics Greats!
One of the entries, Prochaine Station Mars (Next station Mars)