Leicester Graduates in the News: Gail Iles
Well, not quite. Because although their latest production Mission to Mars implies vistas of the red planet, it is the journey to Mars that it actually takes as its subject.
Running from 1 to 5 February, this educational play for families uses the premise of a Mars mission to explore subjects like gravity, but under the guise of a thrilling story. For this, they had help from several real space experts including former PhD student Gail Iles who now trains real astronauts for the European Space Agency. She spoke to the Leicester Mercury about her role earlier this week.
Gail completed her PhD in nanotechnology studies in 2007, helping to set up the CubeSat Project while she was here. In 2008 she was one of two people with links to the University who applied to become the ESA’s next astronauts. The writers of Mission to Mars based their character of Gail on her.
