Friday 7th September 2018. Luke Lucas, “The Herschel Space Observatory – an Engineer’s Story”

Luke Lucas will talk about her career in conversation with Charles Draper of the William Herschel Society.  Inspired by Caroline Herschel’s discoveries of comets and nebulae, Luke Lucas’ career has been involved with the Herschel Space Observatory prior to launch, through launch, commissioning, and then finally routine operations. Herschel, the largest infrared telescope ever launched, was investigating previously unseen cold regions of Space, where stars are born.  Her responsibilities included mission planning and the SPIRE instrument.  The conversation will continue about her present work with the Mars Express, which has been orbiting Mars since 2003.  She is responsible for mission planning, defining batteries and the thermal subsystem.