Role Models 

Q&A with Eve

What is it about space that interests you?

I have always been interested in space and I remember when I was really little, going out to Corbiere to look at the planets and constellations so that was what sparked my interest. Later on, when Curiosity landed on Mars, Tim Peake went to the ISS and when SpaceX started pushing the boundaries of reusable spaceflight, I wanted to understand how all of this was able to happen and the science happening and since then I have been continuously reading around it and getting involved in the science. Probably the most interesting thing about space for me is how our understanding of it is constantly changing and we are always getting more data to learn from about it, yet we still don’t know much at all about it.

How would you describe to those that don’t know about your website, what The Weekly Spaceman is about?

The Weekly Spaceman is really about bringing spaceflight and the frontiers of space science to everyone as well as challenging some of the misconceptions and misinformation about it that gets shared about. We noticed that much of the mainstream coverage of spaceflight was very sparse. The small amount of it was negative and very politicised so we wanted to challenge these pre-conceptions of space. Because we are exceptionally passionate about advancing knowledge in the area, we strive to cover topics such as launches or discoveries as they happen and be as reliable as possible whilst remaining neutral. In essence, we love space and science and want to share our excitement and knowledge with the world.

Your website’s strapline is Accurate, high-quality space news: run by space fans, for space fans! Do you write all the articles on the website, or do you have some help?

I am part of a three-person team of Senior Writers and it is our responsibility to run The Weekly Spaceman, the website itself was founded by Brent Yee who is also in Year 10 and I was the first person that joined the team and so I helped build the website to what it is today and write a large proportion of the articles as well as running my own monthly astronomy guide, but I also have other jobs such as recruiting new writers, advertising new articles on our X account and peer-reviewing other writers articles. Luke Madgett (Year 11) also helps out on the Senior Writers team and helps manage our team of 20+ writers, some of which do Weekly Rocket Reports, special events and launches and in-depth articles.

What are your hopes and aspirations for The Weekly Spaceman?

Of course, we would love to increase our readership and be able to share how amazing space is and the spectacular work being done by everyone in the space industry to explore and understand our cosmos but we are also working on producing laptop stickers and other space-themed items for an online shop so we can continue doing what we love. Hopefully, we will be able to present at the Space Creators Conference later this year or the next too and begin doing interviews with people in the space sector and perhaps venture into doing explainer videos on YouTube. As we are all a team of teenagers, I think we have a huge opportunity to go in many directions and bring The Weekly Spaceman into the forefront of space reporting.

Do you have a role model that inspires you?

I wouldn’t say I have a role model as such, but I do admire the work of the scientists who are actively pushing the boundaries of what we know about our universe because it is not just helping us understand the stars and planets around us, it’s helping us to be able to look after our own planet better. In saying that, much of my excitement around space was helped along by Professor Brian Cox and his shows definitely opened my mind and showcased the beauty of the cosmos.

Where do you see yourself after leaving Beaulieu?

After leaving Beaulieu I would like to study either physics or something in the biological sciences and ideally I would love to study at Oxford or Cambridge, whilst still doing The Weekly Spaceman of course! Ideally, I hope to be able to contribute to the improvement of human space exploration and the knowledge of how the universe works. Science is one of my biggest passions and I really want to be able to continue researching and improving it