The Venus Transit Expedition Project is designed to bring back the days of scientific endeavour. We’re looking to emulate Captain Cook’s maiden voyage, for the Royal Society, to witness and record the path of Venus across the Sun which happens twice every hundred and twenty years or so.

In 2012 there will be the second in a pair of transits of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun. The last one was in 2004 and the next is in 2117. Huw James is looking to lead a team of scientists and adventurers across the globe to view this phenomenal event.

In 1769, the Royal Society commissioned Captain James Cook to sail around the world to Tahiti to view the Venus Transit and take the measurements needed to calculate the orbital radius of the planet. Captain Cook successfully sailed from Britain, down the coast of Africa, around Cape Horn in South America, and across the Pacific to French Polynesia. He took all the measurements from the transit with his team and sent them back to the Royal Society to do their calculations.
The 2012 transit is only viewable in its entirety from around the same place as Captain Cook sailed to in the 1700’s. Next year, the transit is viewable at its best from in and around the Pacific Ocean.

It will be viewed best this time though from the North Pacific rather than the South.
Modern day adventurer Huw James is assembling a team of people to travel to the North Pacific in the new age boats of the highway! He will lead the team from Britain, across Europe in a convoy of 4x4’s, across the Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia and China to Japan where the entire transit will be visible. Here, the team will take the measurements needed to calculate the distance to Venus and show that scientific exploration is very much still alive today.

We will drive from Britain to the West Pacific to show that Science is not only interesting but the Scientific Process can be a journey of a lifetime, and the reason that Darwin, Cook, Scott went on their epic voyages were to discover more about the world and to bring home scientific facts about the world around them.

With a drop in interest of current popular science coupled with the dwindling numbers of people heading outdoors to discover the natural world, an adventure that marries the two is a must. We will be sending home Blogs, Pictures, Facts, Tutorials, Information to use in Classrooms as well as creating resources for schools and the wider public. All of this leading up to a live event on June 5th/6th in 2012 where we will see Venus cross the face of the Sun and send back live data and pictures for Schools and Families to see and use.

Following the expedition, we will look at using everything we’ve gathered on the trip and use it in innovative ways to engage peers, public and school students alike. The Venus Transit Expedition for 2012 is definitely an expedition with a purpose