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Australia Finally Creates Its Own National Space Agency (yahoo.com)
50 years after Australia became the third country to launch a satellite into space, they had another big announcement. An anonymous reader quotes AFP:
Australia on Monday committed to creating a national space agency as it looks to cash in on the lucrative and fast-evolving astronautical sector. The announcement came at a week-long Adelaide space conference attended by the world's top scientists and experts including SpaceX chief Elon Musk. It brings Canberra -- which already has significant involvement in national and international space activities -- into line with most other developed nations, which already have dedicated agencies to help coordinate the industry and shape development. "The global space industry is growing rapidly and it's crucial that Australia is part of this growth," acting science minister Michaelia Cash said in statement.
The Australian government estimates that the global space sector now drives $323 billion in revenue each year.
The Australian government estimates that the global space sector now drives $323 billion in revenue each year.
So, in the future, anyone going to the moon will need to watch their step so they don't trip over all those oversized Fosters cans that'll be laying around everywhere.
#DeleteChrome
These are the voyages of the AUS Boganprize, its continuing mission, to seek out and explore strange new sources of potable water, to boldly deforest where no cane toad has gone before...
Train them like the 9/11 hijackers, they only need to know how to take-off, not how to land. Save budget money, half-price.
Do you feel the same way about the interstate highway system? How about waiting for individuals to create their own justice system? Oh wait, that IS what libertarians want.
There are a whole lot of things that are too big for individuals to do. It's why we need government.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I think that is our proposed launch technology.
If it is valuable to allocate resources to activities in space, then individuals can choose to invest their own damn resources in those activities; it is not the purpose of government to make such investments for people, especially against individuals' will.
The government can and will make an investment on the part of the individual and their community to benefit a nation as a whole. ...No, no not me, my mummy and daddy built the roads to everywhere I need to go, the schools I attended and the police to enforce the law.
NASA wasn't a kick-starter campaign you twat.
Most of the private enterprise now looking to space is still using government money.
Fucking libertards, you all drive on roads made by social contributions and for the most part, live in safe societies built by communities where governance gave them strength and collective resourcing.
Screw it I've already lost interest
The CSIRO was a world leading space agency. See AUSSAT and FedSat, and the technology that is now mainstream throughout the world.
But since CSIRO fails to deny climate change it is being disbanded.
Hence our 'new' agencies; except for the climate change one.
According to a Holden (car manufacturer) advert, Australia has been on Mars for years already even without a space agency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UWjSWPkJv8
If you want to live in a civilized society, then it's incumbent upon you to always ask the question "How can we do this or that without coercion?" A member of civilized society should delight in thinking about that question, not scoff at it.
The Government today is like the Church of yore; eventually, there will be a Separation of Economy and State.
This is likely just a cover for the United States establishing in Australia the manufacturing supply chains that it needs for rapidly constructing nuclear weapons, now that the Korean peninsula is getting hot.
It's like Japan and its "peaceful" plutonium research; the North Koreans pointed out that Japan has enough material to manufacture 6000 nuclear bombs, a point which the Japanese do not dispute. Well, I'm sure it is peaceful, it's just that Americans can, if necessary, use that material to rapidly construct new bombs in the region, should it be deemed necessary.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was an example of Slavic bluntness; the Ruskies stupidly transported and set up complete missile systems right outside their target, the United States. Well, Americans aren't so stupid; they just sprinkle the globe with the manufacturing inputs, so that they can rapidly build such missile systems in place with the flick of a presidential pinky.
Or water, sewers, fire brigade, police, defence force... Even the telephone system in Australia was originally established by a government company. So maybe you should give your Geek Card back and retire to Tasmania to become a real swagman at a billabong...
Don't be a selfish prick. If you don't want to be taxed, go live by yourself and derive nothing from other people or society. Otherwise you pay your dues.
Astronauts Cosmonauts Taikonauts Aussienauts?
Figuring out which way the toilet flows.
Besides the fact that government officials are still just as human as everyone else, I would suggest that the power of government attracts those very "assholes" you're so worried about.
Stockholm Syndrome, much?
We have lots of space.
Until you mention the word "immigrant".
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
We aren't America mate. Keep your own political ideologies to yourselves.
We're quite happy to have the government step in. Private companies have seen Australia have the worst internet infrastructure and outrageous bank fees.
We're only too happy for the government to step in and provide services such as the armed forces, medical care and education.
Of course, if you think the government has no place in the space industry you might want to tend to your own backyard first before decreeing how the rest of the world works.
The very fact that you worry about it being "every wolf for himself" shows that people will band together to prevent that from happening; that's your contradiction.
We already have a very powerful cultural philosophy or "technology" that can supplant the ancient ideas of authoritarian government: Capitalism; that is, voluntary exchange; that is, property rights; that is, contracts (the enforcement of which is itself specified in the contracts).
Government is an old, parasitical idea that even now humanity doesn't really need anymore; it will take 500 years for people to realize that they had the tools to get rid of it 500 years before.
50 years after Australia became the third country to launch a satellite into space,
While it's true that a satellite was launched from Australian soil, this was part of the British space program, with Australian involvement not extending much beyond allowing the British to build their launch site. The launcher and satellite were developed and built in Britain.
More wasted money and effort trying to reinvent the wheel.
If the nations of the world pooled their resources, funding and expertise into a single space program Humanity could have a self sustaining colony on both the moon and Mars within 15 years.
But no.
Instead Australia is going to spend how much money trying to get a "home grown" launch vehicle working? And how much more again to get an Australian into space on a rocket built in Australia by Australians?
I wish Australia luck, seriously. Maybe they will figure out how to do something better than anyone else has yet and everyone else will also benefit from it. But things could be so much better if the Nations of Earth worked together on developing space.
As it is I don't expect a human to walk on Mars within my lifetime, about 23 years if the actuarial table are right. Hells, even getting a back to the moon might be too much to ask. Never mind something awesome like an actual permanently maned base on the moon within that time. I mean really, when was the last time any Human went beyond LEO?
Strewth! Chuck another abo on the barbie and get me a tinnie out the eski, mate.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
50 years after Australia became the third country to launch a satellite into space, they had another big announcement.
Australia's 1st satellite was launched November 29,1967. Canada's Alouette satellite made us Canucks the 3rd country behind the Soviet Union and the USA when it was launched September 29, 1962.
Yeah, cause that worked so well with our electricity generators, power grid, gas, public transport... except it didn't. Prices up, reliability down, service inconsistent, assets run down. Yeah, huge success, thanks Jeff!
You mind as well have just left a link to a Google blog or a Facebook page.
Here it is again: "BACK OFF, AMERICA!"
America backs off
"Jesus Christ you're abandoning us, get back here! Isolationist!"
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
If they launch from the Grossglockner they are already out of the thickest part of the atmosphere.
What a load of balls. Oz government wont even finance a decent, not great, just decent, internet standard for the whole of Australia. Because that would instantly invalidate several 'broadband' licences currently enjoying lucrative profits.
As if they going to stump up a few billions to get it working, they cannot tax the population that much, it would mean 57% taxation across the board. And as we all know, that just means those who can pay, wont. Oz is a nice place, but it just cannot afford to play space race.
Train them like the 9/11 hijackers, they only need to know how to take-off, not how to land. Save budget money, half-price.
Hijackers generally don't do the taking off either.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Yeah. Of course. We dont want you political bullshit, we dont want your clandestine wars, but because we have this stupid treaty that says we will support you no matter what, we get pulled into all you shit. / Nice one ally.
Now they just have to dig a big tunnel through the earth, so they can launch from down under.
Current government having a bad run in the poll??? Look over there !!! A shiny new distraction (insert pie in the sky distraction here, ie. Space Agency), polls?, what polls??? Call my cynical, yep, I am....
I think a good name for it would be National Australian Space Agency.
That's one advantage of a country that does not have the laws of mathematics apply to them - it makes rocket science much easier!
What a shallow, transparent troll: You should be grateful you weren't blocked from Slashdot permanently.
It is the purpose of government to provide services that benefit its people. If you want to disparage the need or ROI of an Aussie space program, go ahead but quit the 'eevil gubbermint' rhetoric: Aussies think their government, although distracted by far-right stupidity, is better than your corporations.
Neither do politicians.
#fukkin_told
Nonetheless, all space exploration is a difficult enterprise, so congratulation to Australia to pursue its upward goals and god speed to them!
Are you saying you prefer the Australian government to spend your money on a space program rather than to -- say -- finish rolling out your NBN?
It's all about trade-offs. Regardless of your political leaning, I don't think you would want your government to spend *too much* on one thing over another. Governments are limited by the incomes of their people. It wouldn't be responsible for Venezuela to have a space program right now, for example, when they are having trouble with their food chain.
I'm bearish on Australia already. Its wealth is in its houses and resource prices are cooling. Building a new skyscraper is often the sign of a peak.
Is there any reason why people would flock to Australia for launch services? Their location isn't terrible (a little closer to the equator than US, surrounded by water, etc) but it's not great either (not on the equator, lots of islands to north, not known for their technology/industry). It sounds a little like trying to start a new trucking company in a region that already has plenty of good trucking companies. I wish them luck, more competition (SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, etc) is helping bring the launch industry out of the dark ages but they've got a bigger uphill climb than most.
You've got it backwards. Individuals first chose to travel paths, eventually wearing footpaths along common routes. Individuals first sought justice when perceived crimes were committed.
Only after lots of individuals had done and were doing these things, and proven that these things worked and were worthwhile, did they collectively agree that these things needed to be formalized, standardized, and centralized. Only then did they task their government to build highways and implement a criminal justice system. Government's role should mostly be focused on eliminating redundancies, inefficiencies, and inconsistencies which arise from lots of individuals trying to do the same thing in different ways. Those different ways are initially needed to quickly determine which way is the best way. But after a while all that individual trial and error makes clear which way is the best way, and people can collectively agree on how best to build something together.
Implementing something that no individual has done, like a space program, is a whole different matter. I won't say government shouldn't be investing in these things. But you have to be extremely careful that the government doesn't wind up pouring billions into a boondoggle. Having individuals travel the path first is a great way to weed out the bad paths, the things that sound good on paper but just don't work in real life, and the things whose costs simply don't justify doing them.
e.g. Rockets are ridiculously expensive. Prior to Sputnik, the U.S. correctly recognized that they weren't cost-effective, and was working on gradually working up to space by flying there. But because the U.S. and Soviet Union were in a cold war, after Sputnik was launched, it became a matter of pride to equal or better that feat before the other side. And the U.S. poured billions of dollars into rockets because it determined that that was the fastest way to obtain space launch capability..
Now that the cold war is over and countries are collaborating on space exploration and nobody cares about firsts anymore, the latest research is focusing on... flying into space because it's more cost-effective. Exactly what the U.S. was doing before it got sidetracked by hubris and bragging rights. If we hadn't shifted our spending into rockets, who knows, maybe we might have already had hypersonic transports today. That's the kind of misstep you want to avoid but is very easy to make when government strikes out on its own direction, without individuals first having tried the different possible solutions so we have empirical evidence of what works best.
Or a more modern example: GSM was developed by the EU government and mandated as a cellular standard. The U.S. refused to require it, and allowed individuals and companies in the U.S. to try different cellular standards. One of these was CDMA, which turned out to absolutely destroy GSM's TDMA when it came to cellular data. It was so obvious which was superior that within a year the GSM standard was amended to incorporate wideband CDMA for 3G data (that's why GSM phones could talk and use data at the same time - GSM phones had a TDMA radio for voice, a CDMA radio for data; CDMA phones onl
Be on the alert! This is what is eventually going to turn into the big brother organization called Globecorp.
Australia has the worst internet infrastructure because it's one of the most geographically isolated countries. Getting Internet to the continent is more expensive, which raises the price floor, resulting in an overall lower level of service for a given population density at a given price.
Bank fees are outrageous because the country's economy is small (its population and GDP are less than Texas), so there are fewer transactions to/from the AUD resulting in higher exchange costs. And the currency has been relatively unstable the last 20 years, fluctuating in value by more than 100% against the Euro and USD relative to its low in 2001. This volatility represents a lot of risk for multi-national banks and companies doing currency exchanges to/from AUD, and that risk is reflected as higher bank fees "just in case" the currency's value plummets.
Canada has a similar problem with bank fees (its population and GDP are only about 50% bigger than Australia). This is one of the reasons the EU wanted so desperately to create a single currency for all its member countries. (You'll also notice that Canada ranks much higher than Australia in Internet speeds, despite similar population, population density, and population distribution. The difference being Canada doesn't need trans-oceanic cables for Internet.)
rocket scientist edition.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Are you really trying to equate individuals wearing footpaths along common routes with the building of the interstate highway system?
No, individuals didn't "seek" justice. They took it if they were strong enough. Before governments, most people just had to suck up whatever "justice" the warlord wanted to impose. "Justice" was only for the biggest bully.
You are welcome on my lawn.
In fact it is possible to both systems co-exist. Government should step in where private companies are incapable or unwilling to make investments. Private enterprise should optimize their gains taking advantage of scale [and in an ideal world private enterprise would pool to make big things possible]. Call it the 'Third Way'.
Do you feel the same way about the interstate highway system? How about waiting for individuals to create their own justice system? Oh wait, that IS what libertarians want.
There are a whole lot of things that are too big for individuals to do. It's why we need government.
Libertarian is really just another word for anarchist, it's just that they don't all realize that.
It's always Rhonda's fault.
What was actually announced was that the Government had received a committee report that recommended a space agency, and the Government have chosen to allow that committee to report again in March 2018. There is no plan, no scope, no leadership and, above all, no money. This is being managed to put any anouncement of actual funding etc. into the next electoral run-up. Promising a high tech, inspirational space agency always looks good for the self-proclaimed innovation Government... And election promises are notoriously unenforceable. This is, of course, a typical pattern for Government of all stripes.
We last had something like a "space agency" in the 1980s. Established by the Hawke Government (Labor, left-leaning for the benefit of the US readers) it remained so desperately underfunded that the Howard Government (Liberal, right-leaning) canned it a few years later, probably for not achieving a profit for the sole "shareholder." Call me cynical, but I will only believe it when I see the money allocated, the organisation actually formed, and it all survive two changes of government without disappearing.
Well, it does very much depend on how the government steps in and what the next government decides to do about it, qv, the NBN, the ETS, the ABC, Medicare, negative gearing...
So they came up with a name for the bit of air on the top of a can or bottle of beer - "space". And of course, being Aussie, they have to appoint a bureaucratic agency to look into this.
I know! It's almost like countries of millions of people don't speak with one sole voice, but instead have diverse opinions.