Shooting for the moon with u3a Radio Podcast
Siân cleaver
Siân Cleaver has no doubt that humans will return to the Moon. And she should know because, as a spacecraft engineer, she is working on the infrastructure to take us there.
In a fascinating interview on the latest u3a Radio Podcast, Siân describes what life is like for a woman in the male-dominated world of the space industry.
Hers is just one of the many exciting features on the monthly podcast, which is produced by members of u3a – the charity for people with time to spare who want to pursue new or existing hobbies and interests.
Siân is the industrial manager for Orion’s European Service Module and in a wide-ranging discussion with Peter Clift, one of the hosts of the podcast, she reveals why Moon exploration is still so important.
Siân explains: “I think we’re on the precipice of something really exciting. With this whole new chapter that we’re starting now with Luna Exploration… I think we’ll make big advancements in technology, prove a lot of things to ourselves and it will really open the doors to all sorts of things that were science fiction before.”
She adds: “It’s this thirst for knowledge. We want to understand more about ourselves, we want to understand more about the solar system, where we’ve come from, what makes a planet, the history [and] the evolution of the solar system.
“There are so many big questions we want to answer from a science perspective. But for me as well, the space industry is all about developing, growing, learning.”
Previous high-profile guests on the u3a Radio Podcast include scientist, BBC presenter and author Jim Al-Khalili, Alysoun Owen, editor of the best selling Writers’ and Artists’ yearbook, and u3a members with compelling real-life stories to tell.
The u3a radio podcast, set up in 2020, showcases the amazing things happening across the movement.
Listen to the October episode now on the u3a YouTube channel with captions, and on Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.
Our network of local u3as are run by our 400,000 members who volunteer their time to offer a wide range of activities from Walking to Talking, Geology to Genealogy, and Climate Change to Crafting, to name just a few.
