Talk Series: New Limitless Space Institute Course
Date: 15th June 2021
Time: 8pm UTC (London time)
Presenter: Rob Swinney
Livestream recording and slides
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Summary
The Initiative for Interstellar Studies are creating a new Limitless Space Institute 1-week course called 'Human Exploration of the Far Solar System and on to the Stars'. The course will be delivered online from 26th July 2021 to 30th July 2021. In this session we have an overview of the course and a discussion.
About the speaker
In the 1980s Rob Swinney completed his BSc in Astrophysics at the University of Newcastle and his MSc in Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester. After several years teaching Craft, Design and Technology at Sherborne School for Boys he returned to his studies and graduated from Cranfield University with a further MSc in Avionics and then undertook a rewarding career in the RAF as an aerosystems engineering officer. He completed his commission in 2006 having attained the rank of squadron leader.
Rob is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. His early student research was published in Nature and The Astrophysical Journal and later work in the Journal of the BIS. He was one of the first to join the BIS design study for an interstellar probe, Project Icarus and he is the current Project Leader. His interstellar work often features as an elective part of the masters course at the International Space University in Strasbourg and also the occasional ‘Starship Engineer’ courses, sometimes held at the British Interplanetary Society Headquarters. He is co-founder and currently Director Academy of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies and is a lifetime member and former director of the US non-profit organisation, Icarus Interstellar.
As a youngster Rob followed closely the Apollo adventure and the Grand Tours of the Voyager spacecraft. Today, he believes the ‘planets are aligning’ again, and organisations like the Initiative for Interstellar Studies, Breakthrough Initiatives and, of course, the British Interplanetary Society and will prove that although extraordinarily difficult, real steps to interstellar travel are being taken.
About the series
For more information on this series please visit our Talk Series page.