Space researcher ready to take off for NASA

Rowan Gollan, considers himself fortunate to be the first person to go to NASA under the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between The University of Queensland and NASA. UQ postdoctoral researcher and imminent PhD graduate Mr Gollan, 27, will visit NASA Langley for a year starting in August 2008 as part of a two-year experimental and numerical hypersonics study. He is part of a new breed of Australian space researchers being trained in UQ's Centre for Hypersonics. Hypersonics is the study of velocities of Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) or more. According to Mr Gollan, it is important for Australia to be doing space research because Australia has the potential to have commercial launch services, for example from Christmas Island, because its proximity to the equator makes it an ideal satellite launch site.... [read full story]