Across much of the world, October is Black History Month. To commemorate this and to help drive better representation within the space industry, we invited two people from industry to speak to our society.

Anushka Sharma joined Space Academic Network in April this year as Liaison Manager, she’s worked at the intersection of space, tech and innovation as part of Naaut, her space tech and innovation agency.  She is also co-founder of the London Space Network, set up 4 years ago to help strengthen the UK space community. Last week, she was announced as one of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech by Computer Weekly.  

Coraline Dalibot is a Senior Spacecraft Thermal Engineer at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) Space department, which is part of the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). In addition to working on space missions with amazing teams contributing to world-class science, technology, and innovations, she is a chartered engineer with about 10 years of experience and the chair of RAL Space Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) working group, who gained some insights on what can drive the successful development of people and disruptive technology.

The panel was hosted by Justin Tabbett, a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Bristol. His work is on a microscintillator radioactivity detector, specifically as a High Altitude Balloon (HAB) borne payload, investigating cosmic rays. With strong industry links and a background in Physics from the university, Justin hopes to bring a finalised detector to market upon the completion of his doctorate.

You can catch the highlights of this talk on our YouTube channel: video link, and of course, below