Prize-giving speech at Claremont Fan Court School

Claremont Fan Court School prize givingIn July I spoke at the Annual Prize Giving at the beautiful Claremont Fan Court School in Esher, Surrey where I also had the pleasure of judging the Rocket and Space Station building competition for the pre-prep and prep schools. The main requirement was that the designs had to float on water and they were all launched into the swimming pool for judging. The children really enjoyed it (and the parents too!) and none of the 25 designs sank (that I saw anyway!), some even contained teddy bear astronauts!

Space station designI also took along the outreach meteorites and spoke to GCSE and A-level students (and lots of their parents) about meteorites and space missions. A really fun and sunny day out, lots of fun.

Natalie speaking at the prize giving
Natalie speaking at the prize giving

Rosetta book chapter for Yearbook of Astronomy

I just finalised a book chapter for ‘Patrick Moore’s Yearbook of Astronomy 2016’ which will be published by Pan Macmillan. I focussed on the Rosetta story so far. But how do you summarise 20 years of a space mission in 5000 words?!…obviously there was so much to cover so I hope I did it justice. It’s gone to print now so I can’t wait to see a copy. The book is still edited Dr John Mason as it always has been, despite Sir Patrick Moore no longer being with us. It’s a lovely legacy for him though so I hope it continues for years to come – and I’m interested to see who else has written chapters for it.