January 17th, 2008
And the wishful thinking award goes to…
Posted by
chrislintott in
spaceflight
According to Universe Today, a group of scientists are proposing two British modules for the International Space Station. The total cost is apparently $1 billion, and few details are given as to what we’d gain.
So British astronomy is in complete crisis (see Save Astronomy for details) because of a lack of £80 million ($160 million ish) and we’re supposed to take seriously the idea that the government will fund manned spaceflight for the first time in a couple of generations for ‘only’ six times more than that. Dream on.
(Apparently the BBC had the non-story more than a week ago, and go on to take it to pieces further down the page.)
on January 17th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
The space activities of British astronomers and space physicists are funded on a GDP basis the same as in all other European countries (enforced by the ESA treaty). Britain has a very large GDP so they get a lot of money. There is no doubt they do an excellent job with this money and I for one would not begrudge them a little more. However the campaign for UK Human Spaceflight addresses the needs of all the other UK scientist and engineers who also need access to space for their research and who have, no facilities, no government money whatsoever, and no body to look after their interests. The Habitation Extension Module is the most ambitious of a range of options the campaign has put forward highlighting this iniquity, and if this were the one selected, it, and a corresponding science programme, would need annual expenditure at a similar level to that currently enjoyed by the UK’s astronomers and still leave the UK the lowest spending by GDP nation in ESA by a very considerable margin.
on January 21st, 2008 at 9:19 am
[…] In a bad mood last week (post conference blues seems as good an excuse as any) I was rather scathing about a proposal for the UK to build two new habitat modules for the International Space Station. It’s something of an embarrassment that the British flag is on the side of the station, although we haven’t contributing a single penny to its cost. The modules would look something like this : […]
on January 25th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Carnival of Space, Week 38 — The Adventures of Shorty Barlow, Private Eye…
An “SOS Playhouse” production……