Ellee Seymour

I took an exciting call from my thespian son James’ agent today, he has been invited to audition for a film role, he must speak with an American accent and, wait for it, if successful, will be required for filming in Los Angeles for FOUR months.

I immediate thought of Hollywood, is that what she meant, I wondered? I’m not even thinking about the practicalities of this yet, about his lost schooling and whether he would he be expected to go without me. It is just an audition, along with loads of other hopefuls.

Do look out for James in ITV’s The Whistleblowers which is being shown at the moment, he was filmed in a youth club and wore his favourite green jacket. He also had a speaking part in BBC’s Love Soup.

Back to reality, tomorrow David and I are checking out Hull uni, it comes highly rated, but is so far away from civilisation. We want to find out about its business/economics courses. Then next weekend it is Bristol and the University of the West of England. I’ve really enjoyed these trips, I’ve enjoyed meeting so many young, aspirational people and the choices they have.

With so many pressing demands on our purse strings, is it realistic to expect the UK government to provide more funding for space travel? I suspect Quasar 9 could instantly provide a thousand and one reasons to justify this as it is his specialised subject.

The UK is a member of the European Space Agency, wikipedia lists us as the fourth largest contributor paying 239.3 million euros.

According to this article for Space Travel, the UK has "a vibrant space science and industrial community" and makes a significant contribution in developing innovative space technology to ensure the UK plays a leading role in both European and global space exploration in the future.

The UK is reported to be the second largest European contributor to ESA’s Aurora programme of planetary exploration and is currently involved in developing an ambitious Mars Rover project that will fly onboard Europe’s ExoMars mission to the Red Planet slated for launch in 2013.

Space travel has been very much in the news this week to mark the 50th anniversary of when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made object to orbit the Earth.

Now we learn that a device made specifically for a mission to Mars could help identify the bacterium that causes TB, and The Wellcome Trust has provided a £1.34m grant to see if the technology works.

Maybe we need to launch a few more Brits, like Michael Foale to enthuse our support. I am fascinated to learn more about how space exploration can have an impact on our lives and benefit us, and I do not mean space tourism which will only be for the very rich. I wonder what further discoveries will be made in space over the next 50 years.

Over to you, Q9.…

P.S. Re the pic, James Higham "dressed" me in a spacesuit for one of his previous posts. You never know, it might come in useful one day…