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Britain to the Moon!!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6246513.stm
not sure if this has been talked about on here before, but i think its about time we sorted our own space program, what u think?
not sure if this has been talked about on here before, but i think its about time we sorted our own space program, what u think?
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ok, can we keep to the topic and not turn this into a anti-gov type debate?
This would be a complete waste of time and money. Hasn't Britain got better things to spend its money on? The NHS has got massive deficits, nurses and doctors are being sacked, wards are being closed, hospitals are dirtier than ever. Our education system is a national disgrace, as is the transport system. Our soldiers are treated appallingly, given accommodation so unfit that not even a student would accept it. We have far better things to spend our money on than travelling in outer bloody space, frankly.
I'd love to go into space aswell.
I'd have nothing against a british space programme. We have to share with the shitty european space programme unfortunately. The yanks and the russians are miles ahead. We'd be hard pressed to catch up but I'd like to see it happen.
They can't even sort out the roads, what makes you think they can go to the moon.
Plus by the Time Tony Blair adds his carbon tax on the rocket fuel it will be too expensive. :thumb:
It always makes me laugh when the argument of 'but look how many hospitals and schools could be built with the money' is used. Imagine how many more hospitals still could be built if were were to cut our ridiculously high and highly pointless military budget.
If we can find 31 billion Pounds a year to buy silly planes, boats and missiles, we sure as hell can afford £300m for space exploration.
Britain is the only nation in history to have had a successful (and at the time very advanced) space industry and then let it dissapear. Big mistake at many different levels.
i do agree that space expolration is good for britain, i really dont think your comment on the miilitary budget is right, surely defending this country is the most importent thing to be spending money on?
but anyways back on target, i was thinking how many jobs this could make for the british public?
and more importently, how nice is it going to look with the British Flag flying on new soil?
There would be many new jobs and many new technologies acquired in the mid and long term. The benefits of having your own space industry and development programmes are immense.
I don't think the Union Jack will be flying on the Moon very soon though. The missions proposed are unmanned and involve shooting probes into the surface
yeah but the second mission has the sole goal of finding where we could land a man mission, and you know what they say, you dont put on a condom unless your going to fuck
I think now it isn't thought of, but it's like if people in the victorian ages had thought of claiming the oil fields in Iraq, it was a goldmine waiting to open.
Unless you want to defend yourself against anything other than a couple of kids with peashooters.
Something like this isn't within the capabilities of a single country anymore. It's a shame that it is still seen as a patriotic cruscade by *some* nations. If it wasn't for that ideology we'd be a shitload further on.
If you want to play imperialistic war games in exotic places and use funky bombs with TV cameras so you can show folks at home how they approach the target though, then you might actually need some of those billions.
Not necessarily. There was more progress made during the Cold War (for the wrong reasons, I'll admit) than during the subsequent age of international co-operation. At the rate the International Space Station is being built, my grandchildren might just see it open for business.
There is no damage done by Britain resucitating its space programme. In any case those concerned with Britain's defence needs should be pleased, seeing as much of any new technology developed for space research is also used to find new ways to keep home safe and blow Johnny Foreigners up.
as long as its that way around then im happy
i think you will find its more then one little island
In fact, doesn't blowing foreigners up makes the job of defending home rather more difficult? Because sure as fuck we're not blowing them up to make home safer.
For the same reason, difficult to defend.
At what cost though? It cost the USSR their nation.
Which kind of supports my point.
TBH I think that the kind of coperation required to take my thinking further would do more for international relations than anything else.
It's naive thinkin I know...
Well it doesn't need to go nearly as far. At the end of the day Britain is not trying or has the need to acquire 10,000 intercontinental missiles, a network of satellites and thousands of warplanes amongst other things. But a little know-how acquired through building new generations of propulsion and guidance systems etc for space exploration would be a lot cheaper than Cold War expenditure, and very useful for military applications if the need arised.
But the two are not mutually exclusive. Cooperation is great and I'm all for it. But there is nothing wrong with developing your own technology as well. It'd actually be good for the economy in the long run. Britain needs to be at the forefront of advanced and new technologies.
Obviously there is a limit and if Britain said they're going to launch their own space station at a cost of many billions I'd say that's rather silly. But having the capability of building your own launchers and craft it's not nearly as expensive. France makes a mint thanks to its Ariane rockets. Putting satellites in orbit is a lucrative business.
We can benefit from thier vast and more succesful experience in this area, and we don't have to finance building all this shit, and we help out the Russians with thier immense need of financing at the minute.
It makes sense. It's certainly better than co-opperating with the shite US space program.
*cough* world war 2 *cough*
It's easy to say it's not a lot of money but it's got to come from somewhere. If it wasn't for the money, we'd be doing it already, so therefore it is solely a financial difficulty. So as a financial venture, can we justify it? Is there any reasonable 'investment' in exploring the moon?
Perhaps in the future, but the future is a long way off, and sure as hell providing bigger pensions and bigger family tax credits earns the votes much better. Which is the problem with a political system like ours, there can never be 'very long term' plans, because the next party might just say 'to hell with this! we've suffered 4 years from [party]'s attempts to get to the moon at the cost of £300 million, which could have gone to save the lives of 750 premature babies' or some other overly dramatic and emotive drivel.
You know when I was 10. I thought by the time I was 30 I'd be trying to get a place on a scientific outpost on the moon.
But by the time I'm 30, the world will just have stagnated further in all seriousness. I think China is the way to go with regards to space, they're willing to do it and can do it because the way their political system works (however immoral it is), and this just starts a willy waving contest so of course America is going to try to get to mars. :chin:
I think the UK is well out of it, really. We don't have enough pride to compete, although it would be lovely, politicians are far too tied up keeping their constituents happy to push forward a space expedition of any kind without financial rewards.
Prooves MoK's point though doesn't it. They were only defended after thousands of British soldiers died on the continent, hundreds of RAF fighter pilots died over the English Channel (and hundreds more bomber crew went down in flames over European ports) and even when the direct threat of invasion went away thousands more British merchant seaman and naval ratings died trying to ensure that supplies got through...
Going to history there's plenty of invasions post 1066, for example the French successfully invaded to support the Baron's against John (and the only reason we disn't gain a French King was the death of John and some quick diplomacy brought the majority of Baron's back onto the side of the King), Good King Billy was also able to invade successfully, Bonnie Prince Charlie less successfully.
And the successful defences weren't easy - defending against the Armada crippled the British finacially for several years. Trafalagar led to the death of the commanding Admiral (and is a justification for forward defence - it was fought off the Spanish coast)
:rolleyes: Yeah, I mean they sure are safe and efficient at running public transport aren't they? And I mean, they are caring people who want nothing more than customer satisfaction and safety. Just look at Ryanair!
Bearing in mind that we only finished paying our War debts this year, I'd say that you just confirmed my point.
NB We only survived because of German errors really...