Rockhampton school students' futures take off into the stars

Crowd gathers for a spot of Saturn watching on the oval

Cassandra Power, Ian Hunt and Jared Brandon at ANU's astrophysics display in Rockhamton November 16. Picture: Jann Houley

WITH rural Queensland a possible site for a rocket launch pad, our high school students can reach for the stars when it comes to their choice of vocation.

"You can remote control a laser which removes space junk or get a job in asteroid mining," Australia National University's Dr Brad Tucker told members of the school and public who gathered on Rockhampton High School's oval for a spot of Saturn watching.

"There's enormous scope for space piracy laws as well as medical research into the impact of space travel on the human body."

Cassandra Power's sister tagged her on the online event.

"I love taking long-exposure photographs of the landscape, using the Milky Way's ambient light, so this is an excellent opportunity for me to see it up close," Ms Power said.

Ian Hunt, who has three children aged 13-16 at the school, came along because he has been passionate about astrophysics since he was a child.

The astrophysicists travelled from Cairns and Mackay to Rockhampton where they met with students in Rockhampton High's advanced (XL) science and Year 10 astronomy classes.

Pam Lourandos, Alex Harris, Adam Rains and Brad Tucker and one of two Donsonian telescopes donated to Rockhampton High School by ANU. Picture: Jann Houley

Heath Henwood, RHS's head of pedagogy, first met Dr Tucker at a Canberra conference and is delighted the team has visited Queensland schools for the first time.

"The students asked our visitors a lot of intelligent questions; some of them stayed back at lunch to pick their brains," Mr Henwood said.

Australia is attracting a lot of interest from overseas agencies as the government increases funding towards space exploration and the first private rocket company has opened on the Gold Coast.

"We've been building satellites in Australia but to date we've sent them overseas to launch," Mr Henwood said.

With its dry air and limited population, Cape Tribulation and inland Queensland are prime spots to take off in the space industry.

As part of its tour program, ANU donated two Dobsonian telescopes to the school to enrich their science curriculum and open students' eyes to the rich future of jobs in the astrophysics industry.

Easy to use and transport - they only weigh about 15kg - the telescopes feature different-sized eyepieces and allow users to study celestial bodies near and far.

"We're delighted with the gift from ANU and excited to think some of our students could end up on Mars or the moon," Mr Henwood said.

Originally published as Rockhampton school students' futures take off into the stars