UK Reconsiders 1986 Decision To Ban Astronauts

An anonymous reader writes "The British space agency, BNSC, is reconsidering its 1986 decision to reject all human space missions. The decision has dominated British space policy ever since, leaving Britain out of many American and European space projects. The UK is the only nation in the G8 group of leading economies that does not have a human space flight program. But space enthusiast groups like the British Interplanetary Society are trying to persuade the British government to participate in both manned and unmanned space activities."

Comments

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[$RANDOMLUSER]

"Bad teeth in outer space".

human space exploration is a pseudo science

[shadowofwind]

Something like the manned moon mission was cool for its own sake as a demonstration of engineering prowess.

But the idea that any of this has been or can be steps towards a space-faring future is utter BS. From energy considerations, it doesn't work. If you think of planets as barren or far away, like say, a far away, barren continent, then it seems to work metaphorically. But if you calculate how far away they really are, and how hot or cold they really are, it never works, not even close. Not suprisingly, space-travel components always avoid those calculations. For example...people talk of extracting hydrogen from the Martian atmosphere for a return trip. How long would this take, using optimistic, back-of-the-envelope calculations? Serious thinking about space exploration should start with such estimates. But they are always mysteriously vague or absent.

While I'm at it, "private" space flight involving low-cost airplane-like vehicles is also a con. Yes, such craft can get into "space". But to reach a useful orbit requires something like a huge rocket - just calculate the potential energy difference. The press releases never mention that.

NASA scientists must of course make a living. It would be nice to see more earth science and big telescopes. Give the honest scientists more money, and let the rest find something else to do for a living.

The problem is another entirely.

[DaedalusHKX]

In typical British fashion, or Euro-collectivist fashion, they're showing their colors by trying to persuade the government to go into space, rather than putting their "society" into action and getting a man up there WITHOUT the permission of some worthless bureaucratic tax feeders.

But hey, the Brits are part of that mythical "free western societies" in which they need the GOVERNMENT to do stuff, instead of themselves. Pitiful, pathetic, and totally predictable.

Hey, give it another century, maybe they'll figure out that the reason we're not all having summer homes on Venus is because certain bureaucrats are the ones calling the shots, and people are depending on them to provide results, when the ONLY way they get more funding is if the bureaucrats DON'T deliver results. Results means that the perceived need for bureaucrats is no longer there, which means bureaucrats go unemployed, thus bureaucrats can NEVER solve the problem they were employed to solve, or they go without a job.

Surprise surprise.

Re:The UK has never lived down Australia

[freedom_india]

...David Bekham See? Your atrocious spelling proved the GP that his rant about UK was correct.