Award-winner's prize was out of this world

Sam Frampton from Fareham was invited along to the three-day event in Manchester after winning a £5,000 award from the UK Space Agency earlier this year.

The 22-year-old said: ‘I went along to the conference as part of the competition I won and it was a really good experience. I was there for all three days and I got to see everybody’s ideas and meet some really interesting people.

‘On the Thursday I gave my presentation about my submission which went really well and it was also nice to hear from the other entries too, especially from some of the younger winners.’

Sam won the award for his innovative ideas on using satellite data to track pollutants that cause health problems. The theme of this years conference was ‘Inspire, Enable, Connect’ which aimed to continue growth within the UK space sector.

More than 150 guest speakers attended – including astronaut Tim Peake from Chichester – bringing together the space community.

Sam said he was able to talk to Tim Peake about his presentation.

‘I had a chat with him about my ideas which was really nice.

‘It was only a quick meet and greet because he was very busy the whole time but the whole conference was impressive and getting to meet everyone was invigorating.’

Other influential speakers included David Parker, from the European space agency, Sir Martin Sweeting from the Surrey Satellite Technology Limited and Andy Green from the Space Leadership Council.

A new feature to the conference this year was the Space 101 Programme which was a series of sessions held for newcomers to attend before the conference started.

This was the fourth edition of the UK space conference which is held every two years.

This year’s conference aimed to build on the successful turnout from 2015 which attracted a large gathering.