Sports Editor Abyan Memon reflects on his experience as a volunteer at this year’s National Student Space Conference (NSSC).
On 14 March 2026, I had the honour of helping bring the 38th National Student Space Conference (NSSC) to life as a volunteer for the UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS) and a student at King’s College London (KCL). The NSSC is organised by UKSEDS and was hosted this year by KCL’s Space Society.
Preparations for NSSC begin during the summer, when applications are opened for universities to be considered as the next hosts of NSSC. Every team within UKSEDS, from ‘membership’ and ‘marketing’ to ‘competitions’ and ‘events & outreach’, plays a role in the execution of the conference.
The location reveal in the fall months kicks off the months-long marketing campaign for the ‘marketing’ team, whose job it is to not only advertise the conference but also communicate details with attendees.
The cross-functional collaboration behind the conference enables a jam-packed weekend, featuring branch exhibitions, poster showcases, UKSEDS awards and speaker sessions that span every aspect of the space industry.
The backbone of the conference, the ‘executive’ team, oversees every aspect of the conference and ensures everything runs smoothly, which, as I have found out through roles such as this, is never about having the perfect plan but the skills to make a great plan work perfectly. It is their efforts that encourage the rest of us volunteers to show up with our greatest enthusiasm and commitment.
My day started at the Strand campus at 6am. Having arrived early, the campus was serenely empty. Eventually, I found my way to the volunteers’ room and collected my UKSEDS t-shirt, reading “ASK ME ABOUT SPACE” on the back. After final setup preparations were carried out by the team, we met in the room for a volunteers’ briefing, before heading to our stations. I was working at the registration desk.
I spent most of the day networking at the registration desk. After the first three hours of the day had whizzed by, the delegates arrived in small waves, giving me time to engage in space conversations.
I got to put faces to names of fellow UKSEDS volunteers and share stories that led us to the same passion, catch up with a committee member from KCL Electronics, and be recognised by a delegate who couldn’t quite remember where they knew me from.
Amidst all the earlier chaos, I also met an unexpected friend. Just weeks prior, I had the great opportunity of participating in a Mars Yard simulation organised by the Space Universities Network (SUN) and hosted by The Open University (OU) and I was more than delighted to see one of my team members on the day.
Five hours into my shift, I swapped out with another volunteer to go attend a session I had on my radar and converse with more familiar faces.
As the day wrapped up, I reflected on every fellow UKSEDS volunteer, previously only a name on a channel or a webcam image, I had met in the Bush House building, a building I only associated with my peers at King’s, and it felt surreal, truly as if two worlds had collided.
Having both attended and volunteered at the NSSC, I can say it is genuinely a yearly highlight every time. Run entirely by volunteers, NSSC is a conference by space enthusiasts for space enthusiasts, worth every minute.
For more of Roar’s coverage of NSSC 2026, click here.
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