Background

The University of Sussex Space Science Centre is headed by Prof M.P.Gough. and located within the School of Science & Technology at Sussex. From its beginning the University of Sussex has been involved in Space Science. The Space Plasma Physics Group included Prof. Giuseppe Martelli, Dr. Peter Christiansen, Dr. Sandra Chapman, and Dr. Pamela Rothwell. Prof. Martelli had an asteroid named after him in recognition of his work in the field of hyper-velocity impacts. Present space activities at Sussex are centred in the Departments of Informatics, Engineering and Design, and Physics. Research is being carried out by Dr Natasha Beloff and Dr Andy Buckley.

Space Science research at Sussex is proceeding by a combination of general research and mission orientated research driven by flight opportunities with hard deadlines. These activities are supported by the UK Research Councils (PPARC and EPSRC) via the British National Space Centre (BNSC). The Centre designs and constructs instruments and continues to monitor their operation once launched into space with subsequent science data analysis and interpretation.

Over the last 5 years the Centre has attracted over £2.5M in research funds. Prof. M.P. Gough has been awarded the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Group Achievement Award, and the Federal Republic of Germany BMFT/DFVLR award. The Centre consisting of a Professor, two lecturers, two research fellows, a computer systems programmer, and typically five D.Phil. research students, is taking part in projects that will be operational to beyond the year 2006. These international space projects involve close collaboration with other space research institutes in Europe, the USA, and the former USSR.

Postgraduate students in The Space Science Centre conduct research for D.Phil and M.Phil degrees on a variety of topics in the areas of Space Engineering and Space Science. Examples include: Fault-Tolerant Space Instruments, Data Compression, Artificial Neural Network data analysis, Intelligent Space Instrumentation, Autonomous Instruments, Evolutionary Instruments, Wave-Particle Correlators, Embedded Processors, Parallel Processors, Magnetospheric Science.

Undergraduate students can take a 3rd year course 'Space Systems' and can select for their 3rd year project a space related topic, e.g design and construction of small rocket instrumentation with subsequent data analysis (see Project).