Guest-curated by Andy Sawyer, Science Fiction Collections Librarian at the University of Liverpool, the exhibition will trace the development of the genre from True History by Lucian of Samosata written in the 2nd century AD to the recent writings of Cory Doctorow and China Miéville, showing how science fiction has turned from a niche into a global phenomenon.

Events include appearances by several British comic creators including Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

Here’s a full list of all events.

Out of this world: Why Science Fiction speaks to us all
Friday 20 May 18.30 – 20.00

Throughout history, people have asked ‘what if?’ We have always allowed our imaginations to create other worlds as expressions of our wildest dreams, hopes and fears, and so better to understand our own. ‘Science Fiction’ expresses this human need in potent ways, but so does the work of Swift, Lewis Carroll and George Orwell. The story and present state of our speculations are explored by China Miéville (right), Adam Roberts, Tricia Sullivan and special guests. £7.50 / £5Out of this World: Science and The Future
A short series of discussions exploring the cutting edge thinking and scientific research and ideas that may determine the kind of future we will have on earth. This is the thinking that may seem like science fiction but will be revolutionary in our lifetimes; although it is not without controversy. Leading scientists, theorists and writers share their thoughts.

Who owns the story of the Future?
Tuesday 24 May 18.30 – 20.00

Will the future be better or worse? – and does the story we are telling ourselves help or hinder us? Can we make the right choices, and deal with the grand challenges ahead or will our ambitions and lack of political will get in the way. Jon Turney (The Rough Guide to The Future) chairs a panel including economist Diane Coyle (The Economics of Enough), technology and SF writer Cory Doctorow and Mark Stevenson (An Optimists Tour of the Future). £7.50 / £5 Concessions

Compared to this, the Industrial Revolution was nothing!
Wednesday 25 May 18.30 – 20.00

Is the ‘ultimate reboot’ is coming as the Genetics, Nanotechnology and Robotics/AI revolutions intertwine and pick up speed? Are we heading toward a radically different society where our notions of old age, scarcity and our institutions have to be radically rethought? Or have we heard it all before? Speakers include Richard Jones (University of Sheffield, author of Soft Machines; Nanotechnology and Life) Robin Lovell-Badge (Head of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research) and Anders Sandberg (Future of Humanity Institute). Chair, Jon Turney. £7.50 / £5 Concessions

Fixing the Planet: have we finally got some concrete options?
Friday 27 May 18.30 – 20.00

From carbon scrubbing, to fourth generation bio-fuels, to biochar, to improved grassland management – we have the tools to deal with the climate change crisis in short order. So why don’t more of us know about them – and what can we do to start putting them into action? Speakers include Chris Goodall (Ten Technologies to Save the Planet), Tim Kruger (Oxford Geoengineering Research) and Mark Stevenson. £7.50 / £5 Concessions

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that transform the World
Tuesday 31 May 18.30 – 20.00

David Deutsch, the acclaimed physicist and author of The Fabric of Reality, explores the big issues that inform our understanding of how the physical world works. His much awaited new book, The Beginning of Infinity reaches some startling conclusions about the nature of human choice, scientific explanation and the evolution of culture. Chaired by Graham Lawton, Deputy Editor, New Scientist. £7.50 / £5 Concessions

The Age Of Entanglement: are we too intertwined with technology?
Friday 3 June 18.30 – 20.00

“As technology infiltrates every aspect of our lives it’s become a life support system without which we can’t survive” (James Burke). Are we too dependent on our technologies, or are they the key to a bright future? Are we subjugated or emancipated by them? Speakers include technology writer and broadcaster Aleks Krotoski and Sherry Turkle (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of Alone Together). £7.50 / £5 Concessions

Airborne Dreaming; a prehistory of flight
Friday 3 June 13.00 – 14.30

Flight is one of the defining dreams of magic, myths and fairy tales. In The Arabian Nights above all, early scientific fantasies of flight, imaginary voyages and utopias give us the flying carpet, a vehicle of rapture and ecstasy as well as power over time and space. Prize-winning writer of fiction, criticism and history, Marina Warner, explores these magical and prophetic annunciations of the coming era of powered flight. £6 / £4 concessions

Utopias and Other Worlds
Monday 6 June 18.30 – 20.00

The Culture, a vast anarchic and utopian interstellar society, is one of the most extraordinary settings in modern literature, and it follows a long tradition of imagined worlds, perfect or otherwise. Its creator, acclaimed novelist Iain M Banks, is joined by Gregory Claeys, author of Searching for Utopia, to trace the long history of the idea, and Francis Spufford, whose Red Plenty explores the world of Soviet idealism. £7.50 / £5 Concessions

H G Wells: The Man Who Invented Tomorrow
Wednesday 8 June 18.30 – 20.00

‘Scientific romances’ such as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds, within a prolific career as writer and social thinker made H G Wells the most famous author in the world. Yet his life and ideas were full of contradiction. Wells is the subject of A Man Of Parts, the new novel by David Lodge, who discusses this complex and intriguing figure with Stephen Baxter, whose The Time Ships was an authorised sequel to Wells, and Adam Roberts, SF writer and Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. £7.50 / £5 concessions

The Art and Science of Time Travel
Friday 10 June 18.30 – 20.00

From Madeline D’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time to Doctor Who and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 the concept, appeal and paradoxes of time travel have inspired many mind-boggling flights of the imagination. Join the creators of two superb recent experiments with the idea: Stephen Baxter, whose The Time Ships is a sequel to HG Wells, and Audrey Niffenegger, the author of the best selling The Time Traveler’s Wife. Acclaimed science writer John Gribbin will be the evening’s authority on the theory and logic of time travel. £7.50 / £5 concessions

SPECIAL EVENT: LATE AT THE LIBRARY- OUT OF THIS WORLD Global Communication and The Radio Science Orchestra live with DJs Rob da Bank and Jon Hopkins
Friday 17 June 19.30 – 23.00

Join the Library as they go into interstellar overdrive at a unique music event to celebrate ‘Out Of This World’. A rare chance to catch the theremin led retro-space sound of Bruce Woolley’s Radio Science Orchestra featuring Ken Hollings, in Return To Mars. They are followed by the return of Global Communication, one of the pre-eminent electronic acts of the modern era, performing live for the first time in 15 years. Plus the exceptional DJs Rob da Bank and Jon Hopkins and a special appearance by the Immaculate Extremists. Please dress futuristically! And come to our Illamasqua sci-fi salon on the night for a fabulous makeover. £12.50

Space Children: From Dr.Funkenstein to the ArchAndroid
Saturday 18 June 15.30 – 17.00 (plus film screening at 14.00)

The afrofuturistic imagination reached fantastical heights in the lavish science fiction inspired stage shows, costumes and concept albums of US funk acts Parliament and Labelle. George Clinton, whose P-funk mythology turned his whole band into characters from a wild space opera comes to the British Library to talk about all things galactic in his career. He shares the event with Nona Hendryx from Labelle, whose concerts and extraordinary styling in the mid 1970s had to be seen to be believed. A multimedia journey into this thrilling world, that also features special film of their heiress Janelle Monae, ‘the ArchAndroid’.The event will be preceded by a rare screening of John Akomfrah’s documentary The Last Angel of History at 14.00. £7.50 / £5 concessions

Brian Aldiss, John Clute, Michael Moorcock and Norman Spinrad
Tuesday 21 June 18.30 – 20.00

A rare chance to spend an evening with four of the most extraordinary writers of modern times: Brian Aldiss, John Clute, Michael Moorcock and Norman Spinrad. Each has had a long, diverse writing career encompassing novels, short stories, essays and non fiction; championing originality and freely blending the literary mainstream with fantasy, science fiction and absurdism. Moderated by Roz Kaveney. £7.50 / £5

Mary Shelley and Romantic Science (and that Creature)
Wednesday 22 June 18.30 – 20.00

Mary Shelley was still Mary Godwin, and only 18 years old, when she began the short horror story that eventually became one of the most influential novels of the 19th century: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Acclaimed biographer and historian of science Richard Holmes depicts an era of scientific speculation that enabled Mary to conceive her extraordinary Creature, and his visionary creator, Victor Frankenstein. £6 / £4 concessions

Aliens and The Imagination
Tuesday 28 June 18.30 – 20.00

Are we alone in the universe? While we wait for an answer that may never come, we seem compelled in the meantime to imagine alien encounters, devise extraordinary alien worlds and races and find ‘the other’ much closer to home. Fascinating presentations and discussion from film director Gareth Edwards (Monsters) author Gwyneth Jones, Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor); scientists and writers Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, (What Does a Martian Look Like?: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life) and David Clarke, Sheffield Hallam University and consultant to the National Archives UFO project. Chaired by Bryan Appleyard. £7.50 / £5 concessions

Niall Ferguson: Civilisation and Virtual History
Wednesday 29 June 18.30 – 20.00

What if the Spanish Armada had been victorious? What if Germany had won the Second World War as imagined in Philip K Dick’s The Man In The High Castle? Imaginative writers have often used ‘counterfactualism’ as a device but rarely historians. Niall Ferguson, writer of many acclaimed books and presenter of Civilisation The West and the Rest, outlines some of the intriguing scenarios that could have resulted in a completely different world to the one we know, and explores how this speculation helps us understand history. £7.50 / £5 concessions

The Universes of Alan Moore
Monday 4 July 18.30 – 20.00

Alan Moore’s vast forthcoming novel Jerusalem is set in a four dimensional world of overlapping history, personal life and local geography, working class angels and demons. It builds on a remarkable body of work, including The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta which have made him one of the most influential writers in the history of comic novels. He joins comedian and writer Stewart Lee to discuss many aspects of the real and unreal, time and space, people and places. £7.50 / £5 concessions

Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R) by Karel ?apek
Wednesday 6 July 18.30-21.15 and repeated on Friday 8 July 18.30-20.00

Ninety years ago the great Czech playwright and novelist Karel ?apek first presented his remarkable play R.U.R, from which the word ‘robot’ is derived and which describes the elimination of humanity by robots. A powerful comment on politics and technological progress, it also presages the questions of cloning and nanotechnology of our own time. A staged reading, abridged and directed by Ivor Benjamin. The performance on Wednesday 6 July is followed by a discussion with leading scientists and technologists on the impact of robotics on our lives, past, present and future. £7.50 / £5 concessions

Out of this World classics: selected and dissected
Tuesday 12 July 18.30 – 20.00

The organisers of the Arthur C Clarke Award, the leading British SF honour, invite you to join their crack team of panellists as they chose and discuss personal favourites from the British Library’s Out of this World exhibition – which takes in everyone from Voltaire to Vonnegut, Thomas More to Alan Moore, and Borges to Burgess. Participants include Pat Cadigan and Paul McAuley. £7.50 / £5 Concessions

Afro Futures: Pumzi plus Q+A with Wanuri Kahiu
Tuesday 19 July 18.30 – 20.00

This stunning short film by Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu attracted admirers from all over the world when it premièred at the Sundance festival. Set in a dystopian future after water wars have torn the world apart it is a beautifully crafted film, with special effects provided in part by the team behind futuristic shocker District 9. £6 / £4 concessions

Robin Ince’s School for Gifted Children Summer Science Fiction Module
Wednesday 20 July 18.30 – 20.30

Robin Ince, presenter on Radio 4′s Infinite Monkey Cage and creator of live shows Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People and Uncaged Monkeys with Brian Cox, presents an evening of comedy, inspired ideas and mini SF lectures from Toby Hadoke, Richard Sandling, Helen Arney and other special guests. £7.50 / £5 concessions

Class, Control and Clones
Monday 1 August 18.30 – 20.00

Science Fiction and Social Science both explore dangerous and difficult ideas about the social world around us, about relationships, and about our reactions to change. One creates imaginative worlds, the other uses observation and evidence. What do ‘social science fiction’ works such as Brave New World and The Handmaid’s Tale say about our preoccupations with gender relations, fertility and class? Is it simply a question of science, sex and stereotypes, or do more fundamental ethical, sociological and political issues underpin the fictional worlds created? £6 / £4 concessions

Lemistry – 100 years of Stanislaw Lem
Friday 9 September 18.30 – 20.00

A truly great European writer, Stanislaw Lem (1911-2006) transcends both Polish literature and his chosen genre, science fiction. Best known for his twice-filmed novel Solaris, he was a virtuoso storyteller who packed his writing with philosophy, comedy, and allegory. This evenings rich centenary celebration features contributions by writers John Gray, Toby Litt and Wojciech Orli?ski, and film makers Ari Folman (currently filming Lem’s The Futurological Congress as follow up to Waltz with Bashir) and The Brothers Quay. Chaired by journalist and critic Rosie Goldsmith.
Presented in association with the Polish Cultural Institute. £7.50 / £5 concessions

Plus more ‘Out of this World’ events in September to be announced.

The Library’s exciting season of events continues in the final weeks of the Out Of This World exhibition. In September, the British Library welcomes best selling author Neil Gaiman, alongside other greats of science fiction and beyond. Further events will be devoted to the exceptional writers J G Ballard, Robert Holdstock and others.

• Out of this World: Science Fiction but not as you know it runs from 20 May – 25 September 2011. Tickets for all events are available at http://boxoffice.bl.uk, by calling 01937 546546 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri) or in person at The British Library.

• Please visit the website for latest news: www.bl.uk/sciencefiction

Streams of smoke trail from the main landing gear tires as space shuttle Discovery touches down on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Photo credit: NASA/Linda Perry and Chad Baumer

NASA has just announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the longest-serving orbiter in the space shuttle fleet, will be transferred to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection.

After a period of preparation and delivery, the orbiter will be placed on display in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar of the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Photo: NASA

Discovery has earned a place of honour in the collection of national treasures preserved by the Museum as the champion in the space shuttle fleet, having achieved an especially rich history in its 27-year career.  The longest-serving orbiter, Discovery flew 39 times from 1984 through 2011 – more missions than any of its sister ships – spending altogether 365 days in space. Discovery also flew every type of mission during the space shuttle era and has a record of distinctions. Discovery well represents the full scope of human spaceflight in the period 1981-2011.

Space Shuttle Enterprise, currently on display at the Center, will be transferred to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

• The date Discovery will go on display is not known yet, but for more information and a selection of photos, visit the Museum’s special Discovery website: http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/discovery.cfm

Discovery Landmarks

• Satellite delivery and retrieval, US Department of Defense, scientific, Hubble Space Telescope, Mir, and space station assembly, crew exchange, and resupply missions
• Three Hubble Space Telescope missions: deployment (1990) servicing (1997, 1999)
• Highest crew count: 246
• First non-astronaut to fly on space shuttle, Charles Walker (1984)
• Flown aboard Discovery: US Senator Jake Garn (1985) and Senator John Glenn (1995)
• Served as Return-to-Flight vehicle after Challenger and Columbia tragedies (1988, 2005)
• Flown by first African American commander, Frederick Gregory (1989)
• Piloted by first female spacecraft pilot, Eileen Collins (1995), and by Pamela Melroy on her first flight as pilot (2000)
• Flew 100th shuttle mission (2000)
• Flown by both women commanders, Eileen Collins (2005) and Pamela Melroy (2006)
• Made first visit to Mir, rendezvous without docking (1995)
• Made final docking visit to Mir space station (1998)
• Made first docking with International Space Station (1999)
• Delivered trusses, Harmony node, Kibo laboratory module, Robonaut2, Leonardo module, and tons of supplies to International Space Station (1999-2011)

A very straight forward narrative history of the most storied orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet, the book is written by written by former navy man Robert A Adamcik with a minimum of technical jargon. It put the reader on Discovery‘s flight deck during some of the most important missions of the Space Shuttle era from satellite retrieval to deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, to construction of the International Space Station, and the Return to Flight after two tragic losses.The book also offers general background on the history of the Space Shuttle program and the shuttle Discovery in particular, with information on her various crew members, missions, research and scientific discoveries.

Robert A Adamcik was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy and served for 20 years as a Surface Warfare Officer, serving on six ships during the course of Operations Desert Storm, Southern Watch, Stabilise, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Retiring as a Lieutenant Commander in 2009, Mr Adamcik combined his love for space flight, ships, and history into Voyages of Discovery. He resides in Norfolk, Virginia with his wife Kate and their several dogs and cats.
• Voyages of Discovery – The Missions Of The Space Shuttle Discovery Robert A Adamcik cost £18.95 ISBN 9781926837130

• STS 134: The Final Shuttle Mission

• NASA: The Space Shuttle Era mini site

On February 15th sunspot 1158 exploded blasting a huge coronal mass ejection (CME) in our direction.

This huge cloud of charged particles is due to reach Earth tonight, February 16th and tomorrow, February 17th which will result in increased auroral activity.

This is the largest flare to erupt from the sun in four years and due to its size it may be possible to view spectacular displays of aurora so keep an eye out over the next two days for auroral activity towards the north or the south if you happen to be in the southern hemisphere.

(With thanks to Pascal Desmond)

Colin gained his PhD from the University of Swansea, Wales, in the late 1960s , and became one of the lucky few Britons to work on the lunar samples brought back by the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission. Later, at Cambridge and the Open University, he developed techniques for classifying meteorites according to their chemical composition, and has worked on a NASA mission to collect a sample of the ‘solar wind’, and ESA missions to investigate how meteorites erode in space.

He’s perhaps best known for his work on the European Mars Express project and the the Mars Lander, Beagle 2 and his experiences surrounding its development are a major part of the new book.

Journey in to Space - like Dan Dare, an inspiration

Born in 1943 and growing up in the 1950s, it should come as no surprize to learn that Professor Pillinger was inspired by reading Dan Dare in the Eagle and the BBC’s  Journey into Space radio adventure serial as a child. 

“Like many kids, I used to read Dan Dare comics and listen to Journey into Space on the radio,” he revealed in an interview for the European Space Agency web site. “And I would draw rockets, which, of course, bore no resemblance to how they are now. It was a big surprise when I first saw that spacecraft didn’t have a point at the top and fins at the bottom!

“But I was not an anorak,” he insisted in another interview for the Daily Telegraph. “When I went to class, it was to sit in the back row. School was a place to meet other kids and play football. I didn’t want to be the next Einstein.”

“My Life on Mars is a dual autobiography,” Professor Pillinger says of the book. “Mine interwoven with the untold story (including the bits some people didn’t want anybody to know) of Beagle 2. For seven years the British mission to look for life on the Red Planet captivated the public all over the World.”

Stories about about the mission appeared in the media all over the World, particularly in the United States as the following extract from the book’s dust jacket reveals:

On 12 March 2010 Astronauts Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, Gene Cernan, the last man to do so and Jim Lovell, who piloted the stricken Apollo 13 home, broke a journey back to the United States to attend an event at the Royal Society designed to encourage an audience of young people to follow careers in science and technology. Among the Fellows of the Society present was Colin Pillinger.

As Colin got up to leave at the end of the afternoon, he was grabbed by a US Embassy official who said “The Astronauts would like to meet you.” Of course Colin wanted to meet them but he wasn’t prepared for the greeting he received from Neil Armstrong, perhaps the best known man on Earth, “You analysed some of my samples!” Being recognised by such a trio must make Colin, a man with a passion for telling the public about science, one of the best known scientists in Britain.

Colin owed Armstrong et al. a great deal. He had come from what can only be described as an under-privileged background, via the Apollo programme to lead the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission to Mars. In 1996 he gathered around him an unlikely team consisting of the Rock Band, Blur, the country’s most controversial artist Damien Hirst, combined them with top University scientists and engineers from the satellite Industry, designed a spacecraft on the back of a beer mat, built it in a garage and set off 250 million miles to answer one of life’s ultimate questions: “Are we alone in the Universe?” Colin’s wife, Judith, named the spacecraft Beagle 2; it had the British Nation on the edge of its seat at Christmas 2003.

This then is Colin Pillinger’s story and the full, previously undisclosed, account of the Beagle 2 mission.

Published by the British Interplanetary Society, this 369 page book features over 100 illustartions and a foreword by Sir Patrick Moore. It  costs £16.50 (plus £2.50 P&P in UK, overseas please enquire) when purchased from British Interplanetary Society’s website at www.bis-spaceflight.com and is also available from all good bookshops (ISBN 978-0-9506597-3-2).

• For signed and dedicated copies contact the author at www.barnstormpr.co.uk


• More famous Dan Dare fans listed here on our main site


• Inside Out – 2004 BBC interview with Professor Pillinger 


• The Guardian, 16th January 2009: Britain needs a real-life Dan Dare to inspire the young

An artist's rendition of Ares I being stacked in the vehicle assembly building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image: NASA

Aerospace engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center are conducting a series of wind tunnel tests to develop technology for future human space exploration – the kind of technology I like to keep my eye on as background information when writing Ex Astris (when I get the chance to write Ex Astris!)

Orion, for those of you who don’t already know, is NASA’s next generation human spacecraft, which the agency and its contractor teams are in the process of designing, building and testing.

Using a six per cent scale Orion model, featuring complex moving parts, the latest stage in development sees engineers simulating various launch abort conditions the spacecraft might encounter during ascent to characterize the effects of launch abort and control motor plumes on the aerodynamics of the spacecraft.

One of the critical aspects of human space flight is the ability to protect astronauts in case of a failure on the launch pad and during the climb to orbit. (Launching – and landing – a spacecraft in Earth atmosphere is always no easy task and there has been more than one disaster, and not just for the US space program, either).  In case of such an emergency, NASA engineers have designed a Launch Abort System, or LAS, to safely deliver astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft away from the failure and return them to Earth.

There are extremely complex interactions between the launch abort system’s control effectors, or motors, and the aerodynamic environment that the spacecraft encounters. Wind tunnel testing, using scaled models, is one of the means for NASA engineers to better understand and explain this dynamic interaction. (NASA also successfully tested a Launch Pad abort system back in May)

“Simulating launch aborts will help us explain the complex interaction between the plumes from the smaller attitude control motor and the larger abort motor,” said Jim Ross, an aerospace engineer who is leading the team at Ames supporting NASA’s efforts to develop Orion and its systems.

“This is the most intricate wind tunnel model the Orion team has developed and the data we obtain will go a long way toward defining the aerodynamics of the Orion spacecraft during ascent,” he added.

The abort system is a tower atop a cover that fits over Orion during launch and ascent through Earth’s atmosphere. It features a powerful, four-nozzle solid rocket, called the abort motor, which, when engaged, will quickly shepherd Orion and its precious human cargo away from the launch vehicle in an emergency.

It’s also equipped with a smaller, eight-nozzle motor at the top of the tower, called the attitude control motor, which is designed to steer and stabilize Orion towards safety. In the wind tunnel, plumes from both of these motors are simulated using high-pressure air.

“Our team at Ames Research Center conducts simulations that help us develop assured launch abort technology and resolve complex aerodynamic interactions,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Project Office manager at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston. “The team¹s work greatly contributes to ensuring the safety of the astronaut crew throughout the entire mission. The launch abort system wind tunnel tests were a major factor in the development of the LAS and the recent successful Pad Abort 1 flight test.”

The wind tunnel tests at NASA Ames are part of a larger effort to facilitate the development of Orion, NASA’s new Orion spacecraft. Engineers across the agency, including NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston and NASA’s Langley
Research Center, Hampton in Virginia., are involved in successfully completing these tests in wind tunnels across the US.

• For more information about Orion, visit: www.nasa.gov/orion

60 Years of Dan Dare

A panel on 60 years of the lantern jawed space pilot. Alex Fitch will be talking to: Garry Leach, who drew Dan’s return to print in 2000AD, ten years after the end of the original Eagle, in the late 1970s and more recently covers for Virgin comics’ revival of the ‘Pilot of the future’ in 2008.
Rian Hughes, who drew the Eagle-inspired comic The Science Service in 1989 and then the Mekon’s final revenge in the Thatcherite satire Dare in the adult comics Revolver and Crisis a year later; Gary Erskine, who drew Dan Dare’s most recent official comic book adventures in the Virgin Comics periodical of the same name; Titan Books Dan Dare collections editor John Freeman, who previously wrote The Science Service and now writes the strip Ex Astris in the Dan Dare magazine Spaceship Away; and Rod Barzilay, the editor and one of the writers of Spaceship Away.

• 60 Years of Dan Dare runs from 10.30am on Saturday 1st May

30 years of Marvel UK

Alex Fitch hosts a panel on the British arm of the American Superhero publisher, featuring: Dez Skinn, a pioneering Marvel UK editor who launched titles such as Hulk Comic and Doctor Who Magazine , which featured early licensed work by Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons; Dan Abnett, who gave Captain Britain a new, darker spin in the 1990s by adding him to an Arthurian team of heroes with Gary Erskine, co-creator of the Knights of Pendragon; John Freeman, who edited many of Marvel UK’s early 1990s titles such as Death’s Head II, Warheads, Killpower and Motormouth, contributing strips to several issues as well, and also edited Doctor Who Magazine; and Simon Furman, primary writer for Marvel’s Transformers, and a dozen issues of Doctor Who Magazine. He created some of Marvel UK’s most memorable SF titles including Dragon Claws and Death’s Head.

• 30 years of Marvel UK runs from 11.45 am, Saturday 1st May

All the events – there are plenty more comic-related events – take place at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, 19 Lower Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4LR. More info at www.sci-fi-london.com

Mike Nicoll – my colleague and co-creator of the Ex Astris strip – has too much work on his plate at the moment and he’s looking for a reliable UK-based inker to work with him.

“There just aren’t enough hours in the day!” says Mike. “I’m currently working on three CGI strips (Ex Astris and two others for a US company) as well as pencils and inks on a new project written by a rather famous UK creator for the European market – but John (Freeman) and I have two more projects which we’re keen to get off the ground.

“Whilst I’m quite fast at pencilling, I’m criminally slow when it comes to inking — so we need to recruit another member for our team who can take care of the inking.”

Mike has sent us pencil samples of his art from one of the new projects (click the image above for full size). Anyone interested in applying should send samples to mikenicoll@hotmail.co.uk.

“Unfortunately there are no contracts up for grabs at the moment and therefore no guarantees of untold riches etc – yet!,” Mike points out. “The new projects have not been approved for publication yet and so we can offer no money up front. But John and I have a pretty good record for getting our projects published so you’ll just have to look at the art and decide if you feel we’re worth taking a chance on.”

One of the background elements of Ex Astris is the growing environmental problems facing Earth, right now. So it was interesting to read this a statement from US Rare Earths, Inc. (www.usrareearths.com), a privately owned company, which commended the US Government Accountability Office on its report documenting that China, supplier of 97% of the world’s rare earths, dominates the supply of rare earth materials crucial to the US defence, computer and renewable energy sectors.

Seems to me that the battle for resources (and their exploiatation) is rich territory for Ex Astris “back story” tales.The report, commissioned by Congress, resulted from concerns that China could reduce the rare earth materials supply, curbing US production of guided missiles and other defence weapons as well as commercial products such as computer hard drives, cell phones, MRI machines, hybrid autos and wind turbines, among other sophisticated technologies that employ rare earth materials.

“The GAO report is a timely warning that the US needs to ramp up its domestic production of both light and heavy rare earths immediately,” argues US Rare Earths, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Edward Cowle.

We can bet that will go down well with environmental groups in the US, as the extraction of ‘rare earths’ must, I’m sure have some environmental cost, just like oil, for example, does.

“Idaho, Montana and Colorado were mentioned in the GAO report as states where there was an availability of rare earths,” notes Cowle. Quite by coincidence: “These are the states where US Rare Earths, Inc. owns the mineral rights to the light and heavy rare earths referenced in the latest U.S.G.S. reports.”

The report notes that less-abundant, and more valuable, heavy rare earth ore deposits are currently found in southern China, but such deposits have also been identified in Australia, Greenland, Canada, and the United States. Sounds like a recipe for some

“Perhaps the likeliest source of heavy rare earth elements in the US comes from the deposit at Diamond Creek, Idaho, owned by US Rare Earths, Inc.” notes Cowle. “The US Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) also lists some heavy rare earth elements at the company’s Lemhi Pass deposits on the Idaho-Montana border.

As you can imagine, US Rare Earths stock is considered a hot commodity as investors realize the potential for this company to make a killing, with some scientists predicting a rare earths shortage will hit in about 10 years.

“Rare earths are essential raw materials used in nearly all sustainable energy technologies and a wide spectrum of defence applications,” argues Cowle. “Our rare earth deposits could help supply the projected demand of the United States military and civilian green industries and would assist in eliminating the dependence the United States currently has on Chinese sources.”

US Rare Earths’ founders started the company 15 years ago with its Lehmi Pass deposits. At the time, reports moneyblog, they were only interested in the concentration of thorium, which provides an alternative to nuclear fuel. After 15 years and countless technological innovations, US Rare Earths now finds itself in the position of owning the only known rare earth deposits in the country and for the time being, is concentrating on mining the Diamond Creek land in Idaho because it is closer to civilization and thus more “mining friendly.” But the costs involved in exploiting even these are, apparently, daunting (see this MSNBC report).