Ambitious plan to launch Humble telescope

Physics undergraduates at the University of Kent at Canterbury are spearheading an effort to get the Humble Space Telescope into orbit.

The idea, first hatched six years ago, is to give pupils at UK secondary schools the opportunity to study outer space.

Jon Spokes, one of the Kent students, said: "Get the younger age group interested in space science and a lot will be interested in more standard science lessons."

Humble's 15cm mirror, with near infrared and ultraviolet filters, would be able to capture images of solar flares, the moons of Jupiter and stars in distant galaxies - a major advance on standard ground-based telescopes.

School children could send in requests to the British National Space Centre and be sent back images via the internet.

The scheme plans to find its own funding, most of which, it is hoped, will come from the bulk sale of observation time to the Department for Education and Employment.

Two student teams are studying what children want to study, what Humble's capabilities would be and the role the amateur astronomy community could play.