Simon Quinn from The UK Space Agency

On Friday afternoon the girls were privileged to hear from Simon Quinn from The UK Space Agency.

Mr Quinn spoke to the girls about the proposed plans NASA has to send humans to Mars by 2030. He spoke about getting into space, how a rocket works, how orbits work, about going to Mars and what it’s like in space. He then explained how everyday things like eating, showering or going to the toilet would work. Mr Quinn then spoke about what it would be like on Mars – what they would be looking for there and how the planet might be terraformed to be more like Earth.

The girls heard fascinating ideas about the search for life in outer space and the likelihood of life existing elsewhere in the universe.

To help explain the scale and distances between the planets three of the girls participated in a demonstration. One of them held a football to represent the Sun and the other two held a ‘planet’ each and had to work out how far away the planets are from the Sun at that scale. Mercury is approximately 8 meters away, and Venus is 17 meters, with Earth 24 metres away. At that scale it would have sent one of the girls to the far reaches of the car park!

Suggestions were given as to potential careers in areas that some of our students would never have considered.

Followed by some very intense and intelligent questioning by our girls, this was a presentation they will remember for a long time.