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First British Astronaut

Liverpoolphil said:
In times of austerity it's a very valid question in regards if the benefits outweigh the cost especially when it creeps into billions - even more so when it's hard to see such a benefit and it's publically funded



Don't think it's right or fair to judge the countries youth based on minority

Expect there is a damn sight more looking to get educate themselves and become professionals as opposed to being a "celebrity" ?!

And you would have to clarify "proper profession"



Even if "lots being put off" - not sure what that has to do with the current government ?
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Really? OK then - everything is fine and hunky dory at the moment with these professions and the Health Secretary is loved by all. Fair enough.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Really? OK then - everything is fine and hunky dory at the moment with these professions and the Health Secretary is loved by all. Fair enough.
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It's always the same isn't it - digs towards the current government who are attempting to clean up the mess left by the previous government but then none of that nor the Health Secretary has anything to do with the ESA
 
Liverpoolphil said:
It's always the same isn't it - digs towards the current government who are attempting to clean up the mess left by the previous government but then none of that nor the Health Secretary has anything to do with the ESA
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No - but I'm saying that this is an opportunity to encourage youngsters into science and engineering, and it so happens that other professions for a variety of reasons, might be looking less attractive at the moment.

Given the relatively insignificant amount the UK spends on space programmes, and the huge enthusiasm I saw earlier on the BBC from hundreds of school kids in the Science museum I think our space science funding is clearly money very well spent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35101643
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Myself personally I would like to see the billions used by creating ESA possibly poured into searching for cures for cancer or dementia - illnesses that effect people every day of the year right now as opposed to theories about the future
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Personally I'd like to see the billions we spend on basically ways of killing fellow members of the human race pumped into cancer research or cures for dementia. But you know, you can't win them all. As it does not make much sense trying to find more ingenuous ways of killing people and also more ingenious ways of trying to keep them alive at he same time.

Budgets do not work like that, you do not have one big pot that if it is not spent on space research is spent on the NHS. If it is not spent on aid to countries is spent on binmen.

My daughters school watched the launch today as did many many others, and that's all she can talk about. She now wants to learn more about space, about rockets which possibly may lead to a life long interest in engineering or science. And I am sure that this is being repeated many times over in the UK. Hey, you can aspire to do something more than a nail technician. So what value do you want to put on inspiring youngsters? Or can't you as it does not fit nicely into a profit and loss spreadsheet? What is the saying, the price of everything and the value of nothing. And if in doubt blame the previous labour government?
 
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I also thought Chris Hadfield was excellent in explaining it all. He's literally been there, seen it, done it. But unlike the vast majority of football pundits who think that is the only qualification to be able to offer an opinion, he gave great insight into what was happening and can express this in an engaging and simple way. Top chap and a proper expert.

But on the other hand why do the BBC and other broadcasters seem to think we want to see peoples reactions to something, instead of actually seeing what is happening ourselves? They kept cutting away to the crowd at very interesting moments to show their reactions. Stop it, just show the bleeding action to us. OK, show us their reaction afterwards if you want to, but not when the live event is happening. I blame Soccer Saturday.
 
Hacker Khan said:
I also thought Chris Hadfield was excellent in explaining it all. He's literally been there, seen it, done it. But unlike the vast majority of football pundits who think that is the only qualification to be able to offer an opinion, he gave great insight into what was happening and can express this in an engaging and simple way. Top chap and a proper expert.

But on the other hand why do the BBC and other broadcasters seem to think we want to see peoples reactions to something, instead of actually seeing what is happening ourselves? They kept cutting away to the crowd at very interesting moments to show their reactions. Stop it, just show the bleeding action to us. OK, show us their reaction afterwards if you want to, but not when the live event is happening. I blame Soccer Saturday.
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Yes - Chris Hadfield was excellent - an engaging guy.

And yes - about the cut-over to 'audience reaction' - one time they cut away to the audience and missed the moment the dangling indicator floated up and out of the shot and showing they were weightless - after talking about it from before launch.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Yes - Chris Hadfield was excellent - an engaging guy.

And yes - about the cut-over to 'audience reaction' - one time they cut away to the audience and missed the moment the dangling indicator floated up and out of the shot and showing they were weightless - after talking about it from before launch.
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I still think this is the best music video ever. As the bit where he says' here am I sitting in a tin can, far above the world, planet earth is blue...' and he literally is doing that and you see the blue earth out of the window is just genius. And no matter how much anyone ever spends on special effects in a music video, you just won't be able to better that moment.

[video=youtube_share;KaOC9danxNo]https://youtu.be/KaOC9danxNo[/video]
 
Because there are planets even further away it doesn't remove the fact that the closest possible habitable planets are still very far away.

If reaching this other planet is a 9under course record, I'm not even sure we have duffed it off the first. Getting to the moon is like a practice stroke. That's unfortunately the reality of how far away we are.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Myself personally I would like to see the billions used by creating ESA possibly poured into searching for cures for cancer or dementia - illnesses that effect people every day of the year right now as opposed to theories about the future
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The sentiment is great, but not viable at all really, unless we want 'today' to grind to a halt. Is it because we see a vast amount of money being spent on a seemingly 'less important' cause? I'd argue that ESA and the many components it is responsible for, perform just-as-critical functions that shape our world today. For example, the whole arm of Earth Observation. ESA is heavily involved in this through its base in Frascati, Italy, responsible for managing satellites that give us real-time, slow-time and vital data about our planet, such as weather modelling, climate change, disaster response data, etc. Extremely critical information in today's world. It helps us plan, react and develop our future.

I've worked in the space domain since I left university some 23 years ago, specialising in GPS, GLONASS and ESA-related work. We have been always fighting as the 'underdog', try to justify our existence. It's only in the last 5 or so years that UK Space has become established as opposed to something 'niche' and 'cool'. Social media and real-time comms has greatly helped, largely underpinned by space-related development; oh, the irony...! ;). The launch the other day is great publicity and if it helps promote space and space-related interest, then excellent. Our long term future really does depend heavily (not exclusively though) on these activities.

At the end of the day, space-related work should never be shelved to fund other activities. To me, they can exist in parallel.
 
The UK spends £0.3bn on contributions to the ESA annually.
UK Cancer Research income in 2014 was £0.5bn

And to put that in perspective, the UK spends about £44.5bn on defence. I'd say there's something wrong here and it's not that the space agency is getting too much money.
 
Hacker Khan said:
I still think this is the best music video ever. As the bit where he says' here am I sitting in a tin can, far above the world, planet earth is blue...' and he literally is doing that and you see the blue earth out of the window is just genius. And no matter how much anyone ever spends on special effects in a music video, you just won't be able to better that moment.

[video=youtube_share;KaOC9danxNo]https://youtu.be/KaOC9danxNo[/video]
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Thanks for the link.
FIrst time I have watched this .
Quite touching and very well done.
Dewsweeper
 
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