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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.
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.
I think that is our proposed launch technology.
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.
Tax monies aren't social "contributions"; rather, they are the spoils of theft; they are tributes to your overlord paid under duress.
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.
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.
You mind as well have just left a link to a Google blog or a Facebook page.
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
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!
Neither do politicians.
Nonetheless, all space exploration is a difficult enterprise, so congratulation to Australia to pursue its upward goals and god speed to them!
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.
Be on the alert! This is what is eventually going to turn into the big brother organization called Globecorp.
rocket scientist edition.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
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'.
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.
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.