BBC World Service Click Radio Show Audience – Credit Kate Arkless Gray

Radio amateur Dennis Wingo KD4ETA along with freelance science writer and broadcast journalist journalist Kate Arkless Gray were on the BBC World Service Click radio show.

The show – Space and Citizen Science – was broadcast live from the BBC Radio Theatre, London on Tuesday, March 31, 2015.

Prior to the broadcast Kate Arkless Gray, who hopes to become an astronaut, tweeted:
“Goodness. Didn’t realise #BBCClickRadio was actually going out live. No pressure, says @billt [Bill Thompson], it’s only going to a third of the world. Ah”

Dennis KD4ETA described how in 2014 radio amateurs and other volunteers gained control of of the NASA-abandoned ISEE-3/ICE spacecraft. They even succeeded in firing the spacecraft thrusters. During the show Dennis managed to squeeze in a mention of amateur radio satellites and CubeSats.

The BBC description reads:

Our excitement over space has taken on new dimensions with nations such as India showing they too have the technical expertise and energy to mount a mission to Mars. Citizen Science has also shown how ordinary people can make important contributions to the space adventure.

Myriad groups of volunteers have launched their own ambitious projects: such as the team who decided to awaken a spacecraft, more or less forgotten by NASA; and another team who plan to build the first crowd-funded moon lander. In a special edition of Click, Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson are joined by a panel of experts to explore our fascination with Space, and to discuss how our knowledge of life beyond earth benefits from the input of volunteers and Citizen Science.

Listen to a recording of the show at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02mnn3c

Podcast http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/digitalp/digitalp_20150331-2005a.mp3

Telegraph newspaper – Meet the British woman fighting to go into space
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9937173/Meet-the-British-woman-fighting-to-go-into-space.html

ISEE-3/ICE Thrusters Fired
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/07/09/isee-3ice-spacecraft-fires-thrusters-for-a-return-to-earth/

Watch the presentation on ISEE-3/ICE given to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in July 2014 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2014/presentation-videos/