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US Space Station Cuts Hurts Canada's Space Science
Darwin O'Connor writes: "This article from The Toronto Star says that cutbacks in US Space Station budget reduces the amount of science that can be done on the Space Station to the point that the international partners, like Canada, Japan and the EU will not be given the science time they agreed to in exchange for thier contrabutions to the project."
Okay
Did the US leave the key under the mat?
Mmmmmmm
...which would be odd, considering I live in Luxembourg...I have the distinct impression everyone kind of expects the US to pay for everything. (For example, everyone's pissed that the US isn't paying what it's supposed to for the UN. That sounds bad, until you realize that the US was supposed to pay 25% of the operating costs by itself, with the other 200 some-odd members paying much, much less.)
The European Union is, if taken as a whole, the largest economy in the world. The European Space Agency could pony up some money for this. I don't see why the US should get suck with an unfair portion of the bills...
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
The point is that the USA did not pay for everything. However when they cut back their budgets they also denied other parties access to the station that was jointly paid for by the USA and other nations. Canada paid $1.4 Billion for their part of the stations and now they don't get to use it. The changes that USA is proposing are in direct violation of an agreement they had signed.
It sounds like it's time for some more rich businessmen to brush up on their lab-skills. Didn't the last guy wind up doing some grunt-work? I suppose these experiments take lots of training and practice to perform in 0g, but hey, a warm body is a warm body, as they used to say in the boom.
As important of an issue as this is to /.'ers this should be a main page story!
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
The problem is that major new projects like the ISS often run over-budget, even if managed properly. There wouldn't be much of a point in building the thing if NASA refused to develop any new technology and take some risks. Ask the State Department to kick in a few dollars, since the ISS is being used as a diplomatic and anti-proliferation tool in U.S. foreign policy.
I believe your trying to argue that since the USA paid it's contractors a larger sum of money than other countries that they should have sole ownership of the station. This seems unreasonable as the USA signed agreements to provide its partners with access to the station with prior knowledge of how much each country was contributing.
The USA would no doubt not care that it is paying more because the $25 billion it budgeted was going to US contractors, and many of the partner countries also paid substantial amount to US contractors. A boost for the US economy all the way around. Pay $25 and get $30 out of the deal!
Now the dollar figures I don't think can be compared directly without in depth analysis. The USA has a history of overpaying, sometimes in the extreme, aerospace contractors and have had many failures in space recently. I think many suspect ineffeciency and ineffectiveness on the part of the USA in this endevour. What would the European nations or Canada delivered for US$25 billion? Would it have taken as long? Would they have been more effecient? It would certainly be in metric! ;-) Perhaps the USA did do a good job, however no one here can determine that. It's not possible to reasonable compare each nations contribution.
Each nation did contribute, and they had an agreement as to how the station would be used. The USA economy got an economic boast from the construction of the station. It got countless billions from it's own government, and more from other governments as well. The US economy has benefited, and now it's government refuses to provide the partners what they agreed to. Their breaking their word.
Why we (Canada) need our own shuttle.
Or may be we could split 1/2 with Japan or something.
But if the Govt. will not relpace Sea King's, I guess a shuttle si out of the question. So we are stuck hitching rides.
Anybody know the price tag on a shuttle ? (used will do)
D.A.K.D.A.E.---- Deny all Knowledge, Destroy All Evidence
I don't see what gives the US the right to unilaterally abrogate international treaties because their space agency made some bad estimates. It was the US that persuaded the Russians and Europeans to come on board to spread the cost in the first place.
Oh, wait, this is the US where abrogating or sabotaging international treaties is a way of life...
This is only going to confirm the European impression that the Americans cannot be trusted as partners and that it is more necessary than ever to build up their own independent space program (with Russia and China?).
This isn't the first time; remember how the ESA Ulysses probe was to be accompanied by a US equivalent so we could get data on both poles of the Sun at the same time? That was unilaterally scrapped by the Reagan government.
The European view is that international agreements are the *last* things you scrap if you're running into problems. The US view seems to be that they are the first things you scrap; after all, they only involve foreigners...
And yes, the continuing position of the US on UN funding is a disgrace. I'm sick of the USA acting like a spoilt brat who goes off and sulks and refuses to play with the other kids when he doesn't get his way.
Is the typical /.'er American and are they concerned about this? I'm Canadian, so I care about it, but Canadian stories don't get front-page /. billing very often. I'd like to see a poll of /. nationalities. I wonder how many people live in Cowboy Neal.
and installing Kofi Annan was one of the best things the US ever did for world politics.
Well, it's a good thing for the US that you're not runninng the world, then, isn't it?
Quit yer whining!
(What are you anyway - French?)