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NASA astronaut, alumnus Nicholas Patrick, visits the Department

23 May 2007

Nicholas talking about the mission

Nicholas chats with the students

The commemorative plaque with pictures of the
mission and a Union Jack that went into space

Cambridge engineering graduate Nicholas Patrick (Trinity, 1982) visited the Department last month and gave an enthralling talk to staff and students about his mission on the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. He took the audience through the eight year preparation for the trip which featured:

A test for claustrophobia that consisted of being zipped into a large 'beach ball' while wearing heart rate monitors.
Living on the ocean floor in an undersea base, with other potential crew members.
A team building two week trek into the desert.
A zero gravity flight which astronauts call the "vomit comet", in which an aeroplane flies in such a way that people inside are temporarily weightless.
Continual intensive technical training throughout the eight year period.

Nicholas returned to the Department the medal, which he took into space strapped to his flight check list. The medal designed and made by Ali Khan and Alastair Ross, was specially etched in the Department on surgical grade stainless steel using high power laser. Nicholas signed the medal and also gave the Department a commemorative plaque with pictures of the mission and a Union Jack flag that went into space. These were presented to Keith Glover, Head of Department, and will be displayed in the entrance area within a few weeks.

Nicholas spoke about the future of space travel explaining how America will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. Making its first flights early in the next decade, Orion is part of the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.

For more information on Nicholas' training and the mission please visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts116/main/index.html

For more information on future plans for NASA's Orion please visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/index.html

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