TWO students and a teacher who spent two weeks at a space school in the USA have described their time there as electric.
Ben Farnworth, media studies teacher at Ballakermeen High School and students Daniel Stevens (Ballakermeen) and Liam Carter-Hawkins (St Ninians), won scholarships to the NASA United Space School in Houston, Texas.
The scholarships were awarded by Island based space company, Mansat Ltd.
Ian Jaritt, Director and Chief Financial Officer of Mansat said: "We invite students who are interested to submit essays which are then submitted to NASA.
"This is the fourth time now that we have sent two students, but it’s the first time that we’ve been able to provide a teacher, who went along in the role of mentor."
The two students became the 13th and 14th winners of the scholarship. Mr Farnworth, 28, was selected from a number of secondary school teachers who applied for the opportunity.
He said: "I think I speak for all three of us when I say the experience was just amazing. It was electric."
The trio joined 34 other students from around the world on the programme, which was based at the University of Houston Clear Lake Extension. The university is situated next to NASA’s Johnson Space Centre.
The student’s main project was to plan a manned mission to Mars. In order to help them do this they had a packed programme which included guest speakers, group work, trips to the Johnson and Houston space centres, laboratories and research facilities.
Mr Farnworth acted as a mentor to one of the groups. He said: "The whole experience was incredible. You can’t just book a trip to America and go to the places where we’ve been.
"We were going to places where tourists weren’t allowed and we got to see things that the general public don’t get to see."
Sadly the group didn’t get to talk directly to space due to a pump module failure.
Although this was disappointing they had plenty of other once in a lifetime experiences, including a chance to go in the actual simulators that the astronauts train in.
Daniel Stevens, 17, who hopes to take a degree in Maths and Physics, said: "My personal highlight was sitting in the Apollo Mission Control, whilst in the viewing gallery behind tourists started taking pictures of us.
"It was a once in a lifetime opportunity which hardly anyone else gets the chance to do and I now have friends all around the world."
Liam Carter-Hawkins, also 17, plans to study industrial design and technology at university after his A-levels. He said: "We had incredible lecturers and very inspirational visits to places such as the Johnson Space Centre and University of Texas Medical Branch."
All the students who attended the space school were offered scholarships from the University of Houston Clearlake with guaranteed acceptance should they choose to study there.
Mr Jarritt said the experiences that the students have will be important for the future of the space industry on the Isle of Man.
He said: "We have a great interest in the development of the space industry within the Isle of Man and clearly if we are going to have a space industry of any sort of note, we do need people to work in it.
"The experiences such as the students are having here are ideal and I think with the possibility of one or two exceptions, all the people who have been on this programme, have gone on to university in the UK, to study associated programmes.
"We’re really getting quite a good Manx grounding of people who could work in this industry and who will hopefully come back to the Isle of Man to do that."
