Women in Space

I was the first. My first bore no comparison. I made my way through the vast open space. I headed up into the eerie purple light, before emerging into another vast open space.

It was a strange experience to make my way - on my own - through London's Science Museum. I had just visited the new Cosmonauts Exhibition after normal opening hours.

First woman cosmonaut

A vast photo of the first woman in space looked down on the IMAX auditorium. I had just seen the unbelievably tiny "pod" in which Valentina Tereshkova had bravely ventured into space in 1963.

Even Valentina's mother hadn't known about her space mission. She had believed that her daughter was just on parachute training. Can you imagine finding out that your daughter was the first woman in space from the TV? She was present when Valentina collected a bravery medal afterwards.

Science Museum Talk

Broadcaster Helen Keen hosted a talk at the Science Museum on "Women in Space" on 23rd October. Her guests were the French cosmonaut, Claudie Haigneré and British Flight Director, Libby Jackson. Both women have had extraordinarily inspirational careers. As Valentina Tereshova said:

"A Bird cannot fly with one wing only. 

Human space flight cannot develop any further

 without the active participation of women".

Claudie Haigneré

When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Claudie Haigneré was 12 years' old. She was camping on her summer holiday. She marvelled at the moon in the sky. The inaccessible dream had become a reality. In the absence of any European space opportunities, Claudie embarked on a career in medicine.

In 1985, Claudie saw an advertisement for cosmonauts with a scientific background. She jumped at the chance. Only 10 women applied. Only 7 candidates were selected from 1,000 applicants: 3 pilots, 4 scientists.

Claudie became the only female cosmonaut training at Star City. She paved her own way. She didn't dwell on being the only woman in a male-dominated field. The more appreciable difference is between a military and civilian role.

Cosmonauts' Exhibition at the Science Museum

Libby Jackson

Libby Jackson showed a similar go-getting attitude. She had always been interested in space. Her earliest memory was of the Challenger Disaster. At 17, she had the nerve to ask to shadow a NASA flight director in Huston, Texas. If you don't ask, you don't get! She saw NASA's moon rocks and thought "this is me".

There were no Brits employed at NASA back then. She had to forget the idea.

Libby studied Physics at university. She headed for Munich when she first became aware of the space industry there. She always made people aware of what she wanted to do. She is now delighted with her role as Flight Director at the UK's Space Agency in Swindon.

Libby is very excited about her involvement in Tim Peake's Principia mission in the International Space Station (ISS). The launch date is not far away on 15 December 2015.

Left to right: Libby Jackson, Helen Keen and Claudie Haigneré

Women in STEM

The two women debated how there has not generally been enough progress.  Women are not putting themselves forward. There are still not enough women studying STEM subjects.

It is important for women like Claudie and Libby to share both the technical and human adventure of their stories. Claudie found living in a multicultural environment incredibly enriching for her life and career. Libby similarly spreads the message by visiting schools.

There is no need to act like a man. NASA achieves its best results in mixed teams. Libby stressed that the UK Space Agency employs 44 women and 34 men.

Future missions

Only 500 astronauts have ever travelled into space. Yet, there are countless ground support roles. A Mars mission is a very distant prospect with the journey taking 6-9 months. Revisiting the moon is more likely. A mission's success is the focus of the whole team whether male or female.

Claudie would welcome a mission to the moon. Mars is for the next generation of astronauts. Her funniest story was of a phone call from space. Her daughter claimed she was too busy to take the call, as if her mother was just around the corner.

Impatience

A member of the audience asked about fear. Claudie replied that impatience was the greatest emotion after 5 years for her PhD and 10 years of training.

Libby confirmed that the British astronaut, Tim Peake feels the same way. He is more nervous about missing out after all the training and build-up. 

Britons in space

He won't be the first Briton in space. That honour went to a British woman, Helen Sharman in 1991. Six male British citizens followed her.

Inspiring a new generation

You can see the Principia mission's countdown ticking away on the European Space Agency's website. Maybe the mission will inspire a whole new generation of female astronauts and flight directors?

For further information about Anglicity's content writing services, email karen@anglicity.com.
 

On Thinking in 3D

In a momentous and heart-wrenching European news week, it was back to the usual school routine in our household. As explained in an earlier blog, school has never been my younger son's favourite place. I was delighted to see his smiley, confident return on Friday afternoon. What a difference a change in perspective can make.


James returned from school with a small drawing. A familiar scene in many homes no doubt. He showed me the drawing with pride. After explaining, he pinned it with a magnet to our fridge as so many times before in his primary school days.

The new Physics teacher had asked the class to draw a picture of a house. Then he awarded points for different characteristics in the drawings. James got high marks. Why? Because he drew a house in 3D, while many classmates drew conventional, 2-dimensional houses.

He regretted missing out on a few marks, because he didn't put the door off-centre. Good point. Doors, opportunities and solutions in life aren't generally to be found dead in the centre. Project plan and project experience often run slightly off course.

The house drawing also boasts lots of windows to look out of or to let in lots of light, depending on your perspective.

There is even a skylight to look up at the sky and stars.

Smokes rises from the chimney. This is a warm house with a fireside to huddle around in the cold depths of winter.

There is a large garden with a low fence. (Well, honestly, what would you expect from the son of a keen gardener?) The grass is depicted with meticulous strokes of green. Details matter.

That little drawing can stay on our fridge all year. I am very proud of my son. I am grateful to the inspirational Physics teacher who asked for something a little different. He showed James that his different perspective has value.

Our little family tale seems particularly relevant this week. We have seen ordinary people show warm, out-of-the box thinking towards refugees, in contrast to rigid, flat 2-dimensional thinking from wealthy, highly educated politicians.

People aren't numbers or quotas. Every individual has value.

Towards a Silent Aircraft

The annual Athena Lecture at Imperial College London celebrates the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM). Women's scientific contributions and achievements have been neglected by history. Imperial College is active in encouraging more women to study science. Each year, a world-renowned woman scientist is invited to give a lecture and act as an inspirational role model to the next generation.

Professor Dame Ann Dowling CBE
On 17th June I returned to Imperial College to hear Professor Dame Ann Dowling CBE give the 2015 Athena Lecture. She is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Her CV boasts an impressive list of achievements, recognitions and awards. Yet, perhaps somewhat typically for a high-achieving woman, there was barely a hint of boastfulness as she spoke.

The lecture was entitled Towards a Silent Aircraft. I have a direct interest in the subject. Planes landing at RAF Northolt fly low directly over my roof. Heathrow's expansion is also a hotly debated subject in the UK and very topical where I live in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

Professor Dowling described her career chronologically interweaving technical details with her personal journey. She described a research career that began with aircraft noise, expanded into other fields and then returned to the subject of her original fascination.

Concorde
The journey began by studying Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. As a student, Ann Dowling's main interest was in Applied Mathematics - particularly in Fluid and Solid Mechanics. I was fascinated to hear that a summer holiday job with Concorde started her fascination with aircraft noise (just as my own early interest in French has a Concorde connection). At that time, Concorde's noise was a major issue. The supersonic jet faced the threat of a ban in the United States. The higher speed changed the character as well as the level of noise. Three years of funding lead to work on jet noise and its modelling.

Submarines
Once Concorde had gained its approval to fly into the US, research into aircraft noise was no longer considered a commercial priority. With a PhD under her belt, Ann Dowling was approached by the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD).  The ministry asked her to apply her techniques to solve their issue with noisy submarines. Submarines need to listen passively for other vessels in their vicinity. Just as turbulence is generated in a high speed jet, so unsteady flow creates noise in submarines. The ultimate solution applied flexible and compliant coatings for low noise and low drag.

Internal aircraft noise
Ann Dowling moved back to aircraft acoustics, but this time her research focused on noise inside aircraft. An aircraft's structure is ribbed, leading to a noise scattering effect throughout an airplane. A passenger's level of noise-related discomfort varies according to seating position. As with submarines, the solution was to apply a coating to the aircraft.

Road noise
Responding to commercial needs at Dunlop, Rover and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), her next research project centred on road noise. She focused on the interaction between tyre tread blocks and road surfaces. At that time, tyre treads were a matter of aesthetics rather than effective mechanical design. Tyre designers knew how to deal wet road conditions, but not how to reduce noise.

Combustion and acoustics
Ann Dowling enjoyed 3 months in Rolls Royce's Combustion Department. She sampled results from their jet engine and analysed the interaction between combustion and acoustics. She likened combustion instabilities to the initial roar of a gas boiler starting up in the morning. The research tested adding fuel at an unsteady rate and out of phase with the engine. The aim was to stabilise the noise. Different operating conditions were also taken into account. She used models and adaptive control.

Silent aircraft initiative
She maintained her interest in aircraft, enjoying her hobby as a private pilot with a shared aircraft. A sabbatical at MIT saw further advancement in the engineering world. The Silent Aircraft Initiative brought her career full circle with a return to aircraft noise. Further improvements were getting difficult. In the past, noise was created by the jet and its speed. Reducing noise on a conventional aircraft requires analysis and incremental improvements throughout the aircraft. The project's aim is to be inaudible outside the airport perimeter. There were many partners in the project with the University of Cambridge and MIT.

The collaboration resulted in the conceptual design of a blended wing body. Ann Dowling discussed how the design achieved the best lift distribution. She smiled as she spoke about the somewhat ugly design if viewed from the side. The Americans were amazed by the results and reviewed the figures until they had confirmed the lift properties. Boeing has since asked NASA to develop the design's geometry.

The airframe is an important factor in reducing noise. Conventional engines are placed underneath the aircraft. This reflects the noise downwards. The new design places the engines on top of the aircraft, changing the direction of the noise. There was a brief mention that the new position was "riskier", but no elaboration as to how or to what extent.

The proposal is to approach the airport more slowly and use a displaced threshold for landing. The YouTube video below shows an example of such a landing.

 

The approach reduces noise on landing for surrounding residents. I would suppose that commercial airlines would also have to balance this with considerations for their passengers too.

Q&A
Professor Dowling answered a few questions from the assembled audience at the end of her talk. In response to one question, she expressed her concern as a pilot about unregulated drones and their potential to cause accidents. She confirmed that she had no involvement in active noise cancellation or anti-sound research.

Women in STEM
Returning to the main theme of women in STEM, Professor Dowling was asked how she felt during her career as the only woman among so many men. The consideration seemed to be alien to her - something that preoccupied others rather than her. Her main motivations seemed to be a love of engineering and finding researched solutions to recognised problems with a team of collaborators.

Both before and after the talk, I discussed the subject of women in STEM with a member of Imperial's Physics Department. Imperial College receives 1,700 applications for Physics. They select just 200 A* students. Despite open days, there remains concern that the subject does not attract enough women students. Three main areas of concern were mentioned:

1. Failure to create enough early enthusiasm for the subject, as primary school teachers there have very little knowledge and understanding of Physics
2. Level of Mathematics on arrival at university
3. Convincing the mothers of potential women students that Physics can offer a rewarding career for their daughters

Celebrating role models like Professor Dowling should help convince potential women students and their mothers(!) that STEM subjects can indeed offer a rewarding career.

Karen Andrews runs
Anglicity Ltd. She is
an entrepreneurial
French to English
translator, editor,
content writer and
marketing consultant. 

Contact: karen@anglicity.com 
for further information 
on Anglicity's services.




Further viewing on aircraft noise and other considerations:
Interesting YouTube videos on Hong Kong airport's approach :
Aircraft noise mitigation
Building a green airport