Professor Gary Jones is the Head of Manufacturing Innovation in the nuclear division at Rolls Royce. He is leading innovation & technology programmes to advance the capability of manufacturing to support new & novel Rolls-Royce power products in exciting new domains, such as Space.

Rolls-Royce is a pioneer of power, having over 100 years of engineering pedigree & heritage. Space has a very demanding set of environmental demands that nuclear power products can deliver. The development of novel nuclear products can transform the activities that can be performed in Space. 

In his video, Professor Gary Jones discusses the 'space race' currently ongoing accross the globe. As the head of Manucfacturing Innovation, Gary talks about the nuclear super power house that is Rolls Royce and how their research is going to be instrumental in our future and further explorations of space.

In the talk, Gary considers the recent history, the current research and the future possibilities this type of engineering will open up.

These videos can be used in many different ways to suit your students.

Below we have posed a number of questions that you could ask your students to consider. We have also suggested a whole classroom style activity. 

Activity:

Play this video for your students and then pose the question: Are we better trying to save our planet, or create a new life in space?

Split students up into two groups; one arguing for saving our planet and one arguing for creating a new life in space.

Get students to perform a debate in the classroom.

This activity could be supplimented with additional research tasks.

Questions:

• Why is the space race important to the developement of the engineering industry?
• Can you think of other ways our lives as we know them, might change if we do create life in space? 
• What route could you take to get into this type of engineering? What kind of qualifications would you need to do a role like this?