20250917 MPAS meeting with Ayden McCann & ICRAR UWA

Society monthly meeting recorded on 20250917 at The Briars Mount Martha Observatory.

Meeting introduction was by the President, Dr. Peter Skilton.

Vice President, Chris Kostokanellis then presented the Astrophotographic challenge for the month, followed by Committee member, Dr. Guido Tack, presenting the Sky for the Month. This was followed by a presentation by past-President, David Rolfe, Secretary, Nerida Langcake, and Guido Tack, about the Australian Space Summit that they attended in Sydney in late May.

The main topic was via live Zoom connection with Perth, Western Australia, about "TeraNet-3 and Laser Space Communications", presented by PhD candidate, Ayden McCann, from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the Astrophotonics group at the University of Western Australia.

Educational science videos then followed:

*"What is a photon", presented by Dr. Mithuna Yoganathan, courtesy of her Looking Glass Universe YouTube channel.

*"Kessler Syndrome: The Space Debris Problem", presented by Asher Isbrucker, courtesy of the Asher Kaye YouTube channel.

*"Apollo's Forgotten Computer: The LVDC", presented by Paul Shillito, courtesy of his Curious Droid YouTube channel.

*"The Four Computers That Flew Humans To The Moon", presented by Scott Manley, courtesy of his Scott Manley YouTube channel.

A musical closure followed, showing "The Sounds and Visions of Silence" video, including footage captured by International Space Station astronauts Sergey Ryazanskiy, Paolo Nespoli & Randy Bresnik between August and October 2017. The video is courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Centre. It is set to the audio of "Little Planet" by Ben Tissot, bensound.com, courtesy of the [No Copyright Music] channel.