To Antarctica and Beyond

05/11/21 • 34 min

Alok Jha goes to Antarctica and far beyond with space plasma physicist Dr Suzie Imber.

Suzie is Associate Professor in Space Physics at the University of Leicester. She’s currently involved in the BepiColombo mission to Mercury, which launched in 2018, and will go into orbit around Mercury in December 2025.

She’s also a high altitude mountaineer: Since 2014 she’s teamed up with highly-acclaimed mountaineer Maximo Kausch, firstly to discover and then to climb dozens of the most remote mountains on the planet.

And, in 2017, Suzie was the winner of BBC2’s Astronauts: Do You Have What it Takes? After being put through her paces by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, she now has his backing for her application to the European Space Agency’s call for new astronauts.

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Alok Jha goes to Antarctica and far beyond with space plasma physicist Dr Suzie Imber.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Epic Endurance

Alok Jha talks to legendary explorer Felicity Aston about what endurance means to her.

In 2012, Felicity became the first woman to ski solo across the Antarctic landmass, a journey of over 1000 miles that took her 59 days and earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Felicity has gone on to organise and lead numerous expeditions to remote places around the world, but particularly to the Polar Regions. Her expeditions have included the first British Women’s crossing of Greenland, a 6000km drive to the South Pole and leading international teams of women on ski expeditions to both the North and South Poles.

She has been appointed MBE for services to polar exploration and awarded the Polar Medal for services to the Arctic and Antarctic.

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Next Episode

The White Continent? - Part Two

In part 2 of The White Continent? Alok Jha delves further into Antarctica’s colonial history with historian Dr Ben Maddison, to discover some untold stories of the continent.

Ben’s book Class and Colonialism in Antarctic Exploration looks at the the discovery of Antarctica ‘from below’, focusing on the sailors, sealers, whalers, cooks and engineers, who were all essential in bringing the upper-class ‘hero explorers’ to the continent and supporting their expeditions. He is currently writing A History of the Southern Ocean, gazing out on his subject matter from Bruny Island, Tasmania, where he lives.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.