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In a car park not so very far away…
It could add up to a lot of parking fi nes, but in a Moscow car park six volunteers are taking part in a unique test by being locked up in something resembling a series of small steel tins for 105 days as scientists simulate a space rocket ride to Mars. T e idea is for the 550 cubic-metre ‘ground exploration complex’ (GEC) to recreate as closely as possible the atmosphere of a spacecraft racing through the solar system, bombarded by cosmic radiation. Any return fl ight to Mars – at least 34 million miles from our planet –
would take between 18 months and three years, including landing and exploration. T e volunteers –
four Russians, a French airline pilot and a German army engineer – will be kept under constant camera surveillance to record the physical and psychological impact of their time in the isolation chamber. T ey will eat
packaged rations, wash with damp tissues and spend several hours each day conducting experiments, just as astronauts would on a real space fl ight. T ey will use the same kind of toilet as crew on the international space station, which has fans to propel waste into a ‘sanitary receptacle’. T e capsules have
no windows and the explorers’ only contact with the outside world will be via an internal email system and a delayed radio link. ‘Just like cosmonauts
we will have eight hours’ sleep, eight hours’ work and eight hours for eating, physical exercise and free time,’ said Sergei Ryazansky, 34, a space research expert.
58 JULY 2010 Down memory lane
As the BPA approaches its birthday month of September, Parking News remembers one of the founding members of the organisation, who not only held a number of committee positions in those pioneering days, but also set up an award that was to be his legacy to the parking world
THE IMPORTANCE OF ERNEST
Ernest Davies was both treasurer and secretary during the fi rst three years of the BPA, and was then President from 1977 to 1979.
He was a journalist by profession but also had a signifi cant career as a politician – having entered parliament in 1945, eventually becoming a junior minister. His political awareness and knowledge of planning trends, combined with his contacts in that area, proved invaluable in the early days of the Association. Following a journalistic career that began in New York in the 1920’s and involved a spell with the BBC as its North American Service Organiser, Davies realised the potential for a publication dedicated to traffi c engineering, and in 1960 became the founder publisher of Traffi c, Engineering and Control. He continued as its editor until January 1976, by which time the magazine was recognised internationally. Davies’ political career began in earnest when he was voted in as the representative for the Enfi eld Division of Middlesex. He was immediately invited to be chairman
of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s Transport Group, a position he held from 1945 to 1959. The highlight of his term in offi ce occurred in 1950-51 when Davies served as Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State at the Foreign Offi ce as deputy to Ernest Bevan and
then to Herbert Morrison.
During his time in the government, Davies represented the UK at the Four Power Agenda Talks in Paris in 1951. It was during this time that he struck up a friendship with Yugoslavia’s Marshall Tito – as a result of this alliance he was made chairman of the British Yugoslav Society from 1957-1980, and then vice president from 1980 until his death in 1991.
The Ernest Davies award was set up in 1994 to ‘encourage members to communicate both verbally and in writing on matters relating to any aspect of parking in its broadest sense.’
The BPA is reinstating this award to recognise journalistic talent within parking, and to honour this founding
father of the BPA. ●
See p15 for competition details.
www.britishparking.co.uk
iSTOCK © PGIAM
iSTOCK © PEEPO
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