They will be responsible for setting up and operating a solar sail model, built and designed in the Deployable Structures Lab, which will be lowered from the roof of the Faraday Lecture theatre at the Royal Institution during Lecture 4 this year, and will then open and close automatically.

Professor Sergio Pellegrino is the inventor of several new concepts for deployable structures, both for space and civil engineering applications. This is not the first time that the sail has been in demand for public view, this model of a concept deployable structure having featured in 1997 at "Les Ingenieurs du Siecle", Centre Pompidou, Paris.

The 2003 Christmas Lecture series will be presented by Dr Monica Grady. The series is called 'Voyage in space and time'. The lecture featuring the solar sail is being recorded on Saturday 20th December, and will be shown on Channel 4 after Christmas.