John Zarnecki
Encyclopedia
John C. Zarnecki is an English
Sir Arthur Clarke Award
winning professor and researcher in space science
. Currently working at the Open University
since 2000, he was previously a professor and researcher at the University of Kent
. He has taken part in several high profile space probe missions and is an expert on space debris
, space dust and impacts.
, Middlesex
, he was educated at Highgate School
. John was interested in space exploration from an early age. This was partly inspired by a 1961 visit of first man in space Yuri Gagarin
to Highgate cemetery. Gagarin had come to see the tomb of Karl Marx
, and John's nearby school gave all the children a day off to go and see the famous cosmonaut.
John graduated from Cambridge University with a physics degree, and went on to study for his PhD
at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory
in Surrey
.
for the Hubble Space Telescope
. In 1981 he moved to the University of Kent and became the project manager on the Dust Impact Detection System which was part of the Giotto mission
to Halley's Comet.
In 1988 Zarnecki was involved in plans to provide instrumentation for a proposed asteroid mission called Vesta, but when this was dropped in favour of the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn
and its moons, Zarnecki and his team from Canterbury
decided to use their expertise from the Vesta proposal to design the Surface-Science Package for the Huygens probe
, which would aim to descend to the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan
. The proposal was successful, and in 1990 he was appointed as Principal Investigator for the instrument.
The next seven years were spent assembling and testing the instrument. With only 70% of necessary funds available, Zarnecki had to be creative with his resources, and managed to persuade a group of scientists in Poland
to provide part of the instrument for free.
One major setback came during the final stages of testing. On January 14, 1996 the instrument was put through its final vibration test, and the structure cracked resulting in extensive redesign. Finally the instrument was delivered to ESA, and on October 15, 1997 Cassini Huygens was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral.
In 2000 Zarnecki moved to the Open University
in Milton Keynes
, along with his Surface Science Package team. There he became involved in the ill fated Beagle 2
mission to Mars, which was lost on landing in December 2003.
On December 25, 2004, the Huygens probe successfully separated from its Cassini mothership and 22 days later on January 14, 2005 it successfully landed on the surface of Titan. John's 'Surface Science Package' collected over 3.5 hours of data from the distant moon, which nevertheless all fitted on a single floppy disk. For his work on the Huygens probe as a whole, in 2005 John Zarnecki won the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for individual achievement.
He is currently working as the team leader on the ExoMars
mission, Europe's first Mars
rover mission, and is co-investigator on the PTOLEMY instrument for the Rosetta (spacecraft)
mission to comet 46P/Wirtanen
.
Rosetta has also been re-targeted to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
In 2007 John Zarnecki gave the Open University
lecture: Fingers Crossed – Fifty Years of Space Exploration.
He is the main contributor featured in the television documentary Destination Titan, focusing on the Huygens mission from the perspective of the mission scientists. The programme was first broadcast on BBC FOUR on April 10, 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/apr/08/destination-titan-saturn-moon.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Sir Arthur Clarke Award
Sir Arthur Clarke Award
The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given in recognition of notable contributions to space exploration, particularly British achievements. It is owned by the Space Education Trust and is independent of and separate from . Founded in 2005, the awards are an annual event. They take place...
winning professor and researcher in space science
Space science
The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....
. Currently working at the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
since 2000, he was previously a professor and researcher at the University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
. He has taken part in several high profile space probe missions and is an expert on space debris
Space debris
Space debris, also known as orbital debris, space junk, and space waste, is the collection of objects in orbit around Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful purpose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion...
, space dust and impacts.
Early life
Born and raised in FinchleyFinchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, he was educated at Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
. John was interested in space exploration from an early age. This was partly inspired by a 1961 visit of first man in space Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
to Highgate cemetery. Gagarin had come to see the tomb of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, and John's nearby school gave all the children a day off to go and see the famous cosmonaut.
John graduated from Cambridge University with a physics degree, and went on to study for his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory
Mullard Space Science Laboratory
The UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory is the United Kingdom's largest university space research group. MSSL is the Department of Space and Climate Physics of the University College London. UCL was one of the first universities in the world to conduct space research...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
Space science
In the course of his career John Zarnecki has worked on hardware for many space missions. Originally working for British Aerospace, he was part of the team that developed the Faint Object CameraFaint Object Camera
The Faint Object Camera was a camera installed on the Hubble Space Telescope from launch in 1990 until 2002. It was replaced by the Advanced Camera for Surveys.The camera was built by Dornier GmbH and was funded by the European Space Agency...
for the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
. In 1981 he moved to the University of Kent and became the project manager on the Dust Impact Detection System which was part of the Giotto mission
Giotto mission
Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers....
to Halley's Comet.
In 1988 Zarnecki was involved in plans to provide instrumentation for a proposed asteroid mission called Vesta, but when this was dropped in favour of the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
and its moons, Zarnecki and his team from Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
decided to use their expertise from the Vesta proposal to design the Surface-Science Package for the Huygens probe
Huygens probe
The Huygens probe was an atmospheric entry probe carried to Saturn's moon Titan as part of the Cassini–Huygens mission. The probe was supplied by the European Space Agency and named after the Dutch 17th century astronomer Christiaan Huygens....
, which would aim to descend to the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan
Titan (moon)
Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
. The proposal was successful, and in 1990 he was appointed as Principal Investigator for the instrument.
The next seven years were spent assembling and testing the instrument. With only 70% of necessary funds available, Zarnecki had to be creative with his resources, and managed to persuade a group of scientists in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
to provide part of the instrument for free.
One major setback came during the final stages of testing. On January 14, 1996 the instrument was put through its final vibration test, and the structure cracked resulting in extensive redesign. Finally the instrument was delivered to ESA, and on October 15, 1997 Cassini Huygens was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral.
In 2000 Zarnecki moved to the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, along with his Surface Science Package team. There he became involved in the ill fated Beagle 2
Beagle 2
Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere...
mission to Mars, which was lost on landing in December 2003.
On December 25, 2004, the Huygens probe successfully separated from its Cassini mothership and 22 days later on January 14, 2005 it successfully landed on the surface of Titan. John's 'Surface Science Package' collected over 3.5 hours of data from the distant moon, which nevertheless all fitted on a single floppy disk. For his work on the Huygens probe as a whole, in 2005 John Zarnecki won the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for individual achievement.
He is currently working as the team leader on the ExoMars
ExoMars
ExoMars is a European-led robotic mission to Mars currently under development by the European Space Agency with collaboration by NASA...
mission, Europe's first Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
rover mission, and is co-investigator on the PTOLEMY instrument for the Rosetta (spacecraft)
Rosetta (spacecraft)
Rosetta is a robotic spacecraft of the European Space Agency on a mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta consists of two main elements: the Rosetta space probe and the Philae lander. The spacecraft was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket and will reach the comet by...
mission to comet 46P/Wirtanen
46P/Wirtanen
46P/Wirtanen is a small short-periodic comet with a current orbital period of 5.4 years. It was the original target for close investigation by the Rosetta spacecraft, planned by the European Space Agency. It belongs to the Jupiter family of comets, all of which have aphelia between 5 and 6 AU. Its...
.
Rosetta has also been re-targeted to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
In 2007 John Zarnecki gave the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
lecture: Fingers Crossed – Fifty Years of Space Exploration.
He is the main contributor featured in the television documentary Destination Titan, focusing on the Huygens mission from the perspective of the mission scientists. The programme was first broadcast on BBC FOUR on April 10, 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/apr/08/destination-titan-saturn-moon.