Dr Robert Wicks is a space physicist and specialist in natural and man-made hazards in our solar system. He is part of the team behind the ESA Solar Orbiter mission which aims to gather data about our sun's solar wind and polar regions, to better understand its magnetic fluctuations or 'seasons.'  

We talked about space weather, the newest attempts to predict it (like Solar Orbiter), and the risks posed by the solar storms & coronal mass ejections that we currently can't well predict. 

We then spoke about hot satellite real estate and the growing commercialisation of the space industry.    

0:00 How has your teaching been affected by lockdown? 

6:47 How has your research been affected? 

11:00 International cooperation in space industry 

17:20 Creating a space weather forecast 

28:35 Historical geomagnetic storms 

37:07 Effect of storms on satellites 

43:44 The Kessler Syndrome & space junk 

49:04 How do you feel about privatisation of industry? 

01:02:33 What new mission would you start with unlimited funding?

This is a series of in-depth conversations with fascinating people, with loads to say about the current state of the world, everything that came before us, and everything that could be still to come.    

We hope you enjoy.   

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Refs & Links: 

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter 

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe 

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk 

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/w/robert-wicks/ 

http://interstellarprobe.jhuapl.edu https://ambasat.com 

https://www.aac-clyde.space 

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mssl/ 

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/space-weather  

Robert's Links:  

https://twitter.com/RobTWicks 

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/w/robert-wicks/ 

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