Special thanks to Ray Price for arranging Dr Sheridans visit last night, the talk on the Rosetta and Philae mission was excellent and being able to see and touch the replica pieces to Ptolemy (Philae Lander) and Beagle 2 and also hold a piece of Mars was fantastic.

Dr Sheridan was really nice guy and his willingness to stay and chat for so long after the talk was an unexpected bonus.

Dr Simon Sheridan’s key activities include:

• Development of the gas handling and processing system on the Ptolemy instrument (Rosetta Lander)
• The development of miniature mass spectrometers for sub-surface deployment by either low-speed mole or high-speed penetrator devices
• The development of Carbon Nano Tube devices for use as low power mass spectrometer ionisation sources

Put simply this guy designed the major parts of Ptolemy which will analyse samples from the comet to help us understand what it is and more about the beginnings of our solar system.

You can follow the ESA team on twitter:-
Ptolemy team:  https://twitter.com/Philae_Ptolemy
and the whole ESA Rosetta Team here https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta

Once again a massive thank you to Ray, who unfortunately had to leave early, get well soon.

Clear skies to all.