Lets hope that David Willets gets his way and there is a drive forward in the UK space industry. (See BBC article here) While the UK has done moderately well out producing satellites, the lack of foresight over the years has left the UK trailing a long way behind in many critical space technologies. This has cost us dear in jobs, wealth and technical innovation.
For example countries as diverse as France, the Ukraine and the USA make great profits from the their satellite launcher programs.
There are now new entrants as well. For example India now has a highly advanced launcher design and development programme. The Indian Space industry is pre-eminent in the Indian technological advance. The Indians know exactly how important this technology is to their progress.
We could have been in a lot better a position than we are now but for crass inane and short sighted decisions over the last 40 years. But, that was then. This is now. And bitching about the past is not going to achieve anything.
While the large monolithic companies dominate what there is of the UK space industry, there are, surprisingly, a whole raft of small to middling companies. Even humble enthusiasts have played a great part in keeping the UK space industry alive. What separates these new small companies from the monolithic monsters is the level of enthusiasm and ingenuity that they put into their work. Today they produce a startling array of sub-systems and some even have embryonic launch systems in development..
Companies like
Sounding Rocket Services Ltd
Surrey University Space Centre
Starchaser Industries
Then there are the larger mavericks like the on-going development of Virgin Galactics Launcher One
Don't forget the enthusiasts like Rob Harrison (See Earlier Post Here)
But all of these companies need support ( and I don't just mean money). They need acknowledgement, encouragement and a fair slice of the cake. In the past too much of the slender budget has been gobbled up by the big defence based companies that squander the money and have little to show for it at the end of the day.
If we are to progress and make this industry pay and produce jobs and wealth we need to nurture and support the smaller companies that are untainted be the dead thinking and bloated corporate cynicism that infects the large aerospace industries in this country.
We need to invest in and support the small dynamic companies that are driven by enthusiasm.
Even at this late stage we could, as a nation take a niche slice of the lucrative world launcher budget and we could create long term high value jobs and wealth.
To do this we need to think small and support the hard working can-do companies.
There should be no place blinkered politicians or bloated corporate monsters who have dismally failed to achieve anything worthwhile since the short sighted cancellation of Black Arrow in 1971.
Showing posts with label satellite launchers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label satellite launchers. Show all posts
Foreign Aid and Political Conceit
All our political parties are highly enthusiastic about dishing out foreign aid. Even David Cameron has declared it is to be ring fenced.
We donate 6-8 billion every year in International Aid. (see Spectator article here). Usually these donations have no strings attached. It is a gracious gift from one ruling elite to another.
A great deal of this this money goes to India. While India is perhaps the shining (and singular) glory of third world democracy, it is hardly in a state of economic ruin.
India has a foreign currency surplus of £300 billion per year. It has an active and growing nuclear weapons program that puts ours in the shade. There is a Space program that rivals ESA and NASA. The final icing of the cake is that India has its own foreign aid budget (no sign of any money coming to Rotherham though).
This is great. I celebrate that India is a dynamic and thrusting democracy and I hope they maintain their progress. But, above all, they are an independent and sovereign nation. They make their choices with their budget as they wish.
Our Great, Good and extremely well fed, do not view it quite like this. They love the kudos for dishing out our money because it allows them to grandstand to their audience and show us all how generous and compassionate they are. We feel embarrassed about poverty in India, but really as India has enough for a large financial surplus, nuclear weapons, a large defence budget and a space programme it should not be for us to support the areas they ignore. It smacks of crass colonialism and political conceit to start dishing out money to areas that the legitimate government in a thriving democracy chooses to not to prioritise.
Take a parallel. Several years ago New Orleans was devastated by a hurricane. The USA administration abjectly failed the poor people of New Orleans and many ended up destitute and abandoned. But this did not mean we started funding them. The USA has more then enough of its own resources to deal with this problem. The same reasoning should also now apply to India. Especially now,as we are in such deep financial difficulties ourselves.
We donate 6-8 billion every year in International Aid. (see Spectator article here). Usually these donations have no strings attached. It is a gracious gift from one ruling elite to another.
A great deal of this this money goes to India. While India is perhaps the shining (and singular) glory of third world democracy, it is hardly in a state of economic ruin.
India has a foreign currency surplus of £300 billion per year. It has an active and growing nuclear weapons program that puts ours in the shade. There is a Space program that rivals ESA and NASA. The final icing of the cake is that India has its own foreign aid budget (no sign of any money coming to Rotherham though).
This is great. I celebrate that India is a dynamic and thrusting democracy and I hope they maintain their progress. But, above all, they are an independent and sovereign nation. They make their choices with their budget as they wish.
Our Great, Good and extremely well fed, do not view it quite like this. They love the kudos for dishing out our money because it allows them to grandstand to their audience and show us all how generous and compassionate they are. We feel embarrassed about poverty in India, but really as India has enough for a large financial surplus, nuclear weapons, a large defence budget and a space programme it should not be for us to support the areas they ignore. It smacks of crass colonialism and political conceit to start dishing out money to areas that the legitimate government in a thriving democracy chooses to not to prioritise.
Take a parallel. Several years ago New Orleans was devastated by a hurricane. The USA administration abjectly failed the poor people of New Orleans and many ended up destitute and abandoned. But this did not mean we started funding them. The USA has more then enough of its own resources to deal with this problem. The same reasoning should also now apply to India. Especially now,as we are in such deep financial difficulties ourselves.
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