Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Weekly Recap From the Expedition Lead Scientist via photopin (license)

World Space Week takes place every year – encouraging everyone to “celebrate, educate and inspire” people about space, science and technology. There is always a theme to help focus on something specific – this year’s theme was “Remote sensing: Enabling our future”. If you missed World Space Week you don’t need to worry – you can read about the events that took place on the World Space Week website.

Drawing from this year’s theme, one of the highlights was “remote-sensing: enabling our future” which reflects Inmarsat’s focus on developing satellite-enabled applications to power the “internet of all things”. Phil Myers – head of Innovation at Inmarsat published a blog about how it’s shaping our future – farmers can track their cows with this latest technology. If you’re interested in seeing how it can help, check out their blog.

Another highlight was when former NASA Astronaut – Dr. Leroy Chiao visited the Discovery Centre where he met with the next generation of space explorers (now called the Mars generation) to inspire them to become Astronauts.

What qualifications do I need for a career in the space industry?

The space industry is a fast growing one, with more and more careers emerging all of the time. From an Astrobiologist to a Space Engineer, a career in this industry could be fascinating and hugely rewarding. But what do you need to start your career?

There are some qualifications that can help including; A level Physics and A level Maths. You will undoubtedly be expected to use mathematics, and a good grounding in physics will serve you well and be essential for most careers in this field. If you’re not quite ready for an A level yet, why not think about a GCSE or IGCSE course? NEC offer IGCSE’s in both physics and maths. If you’d like to learn more about the range of jobs available in the space industry, you can find out what jobs are on offer by visiting the Space Careers Website.

NEC’s A level Physics course is one of our new Gold Star A levels which features many benefits for students. Designed to help you fit study in around your lifestyle and giving you the best possible chance of success. These courses are delivered online through learn@nec where you have access to all of your course materials. Our range of resources such as; videos, a free e-book and online quizzes make the course interactive for you to enjoy and benefit from your studying. Once you’ve enrolled you’ll be assigned a personal tutor who will provide you with support and mark your assignments for you.

The course also has a section about space which includes the following topics:

• How far is it to the stars
• The life cycle of stars
• Stellar fusion
• The Big Bang theory and the expanding Universe
• How will it all end?

So if this World Space Week has inspired you, why not start here?

For full information about our courses please browse our website, or contact us and speak to our friendly Course Advice Team.