Dates: 24 & 26 February 2026
Times: 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM (50 minutes each)
Format: Live, online, and classroom-ready – all you need is paper!
Space Weather affects us here on earth: vital information from the sun is being collected in space to protect our way of life on earth.
Join us in February 2026 for a journey into deep space with Helen O’Brien – the engineer working a million miles from earth.
Helen’s new monitor launched in September on NASA’s IMAP spacecraft and is currently travelling into position a million miles from earth. When these workshops take place, Helen and her team will be receiving their first new data from deep space.
Students will have the opportunity to hear first-hand about what it is like working on this extraordinary project and ask Helen their questions during this exceptional interactive workshop.
Each 50 minute workshop will be hosted on Zoom. Don’t miss out – sign up now using the buttons below.
Tuesday 24 February
Thursday 26 February
Meet the Expert
Imperial engineer Helen O’Brien leads a team of engineers and scientists at the Space Magnetometer Lab.
Helen and her team build and operate magnetometers (magnetic field instruments) for space science satellites, including for NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
One of the most exciting projects she works on is the Solar Orbiter mission which launched in 2020. Helen and her team built the Solar Orbiter’s magnetometer which has sent back billions of measurements of the magnetic field of the Sun and Venus. She is currently working with NASA’s IMAP team to monitor space weather from deep space.
Any questions? Email STEM@big-ideas.org
STEM with Wings is free to schools thanks to RAF Youth STEM.