Memorandum 64
Submission from John Carroll, University
College London
THE VALUE OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT TO TEACHING
AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
I write in my capacity as Professor of Physiology
and Head of the Physiology Department at University College London
in submission to your Select Committee investigation into UK Space
Policy.
The physiology department at University College
London hosts the UK's only course in Space Medicine. This undergraduate
module is now in its sixth year, is amongst the most popular courses
in the final year of undergraduate physiology and is regularly
oversubscribed.
The course is organised by Dr Kevin Fong and
Dr Mike Grocott, a pair of clinicians specialising in critical
care medicine who have a special interest in extreme environment
physiology. Dr Fong and Dr Grocott annually assemble a world-class
faculty of speakers from across the globe, including lecturers
from NASA and the European Space Agency, providing unique educational
opportunities for our undergraduates. Each year we have a number
of students who transfer from other universities specifically
to have the opportunity to study this module.
Through this course Fong and Grocott have demonstrated
the effectiveness of human space flight as an aid to science teaching
at undergraduate level. Regrettably and, despite the success of
this course, there appear to be no formal sources of funding available
to support the ongoing efforts of this group. This I understand
is due in part to the existing Government policy which excludes
this country from further participation in the human exploration
of space. Given the success of these efforts against a background
of limited resources I would like to suggest that it would be
worth re-examining the position on human space flight for fear
that excellent educational opportunities such as this may be lost
in the future.
October 2006
| 
