Well, if they are planning to go out to the moon, maybe they better change the lyrics to "Brittania rules space"
Britain to go on mission to the Moon by 2010
- Thread starter Blackleaf
- Start date
Well, if they are planning to go out to the moon, maybe they better change the lyrics to "Brittania rules space"
To answer mr Levesque...who strangely has the same name as triple H in the wrasslin world, nope, the FRENCH are prolifically the most arrogant race in the world.......
closely followed by the US and the UK, I'll admit, but FRENCH people are the worse.
closely followed by the US and the UK, I'll admit, but FRENCH people are the worse.
The monarchy is ludicrous.
I don't mind it from a historical perspective, but it is silly.
People are annointed a legal place in society because they are born?
Pretty silly.
I don't mind it from a historical perspective, but it is silly.
People are annointed a legal place in society because they are born?
Pretty silly.
What a terribly unkind thing to write about any woman, or person for that matter. Even if she is ugly, it is very unkind for the press and people to keep mentioning this, as if somehow her looks were all that mattered to her character as a person.
ah, but who was it that said:
"History is a foreign country, they do things differently there".
I think some kind of reciprical Anglo organisation should be created
"History is a foreign country, they do things differently there".
I think some kind of reciprical Anglo organisation should be created
I am sorry, but in my mind, anyone who cheats on their husband with a married man, and even in the same house as her husband and children are in at the time, is UGLY on the inside. And I think that THIS is what the press is referring to. If Camilla were a lovely, kind, MORAL individual, it wouldn't matter whether she looked like a baboon's bottom, but as she has shown herself to be a selfless society climbing witch, then she has to accept the public's response to this.
You are implying that the monarchy should be off limits to public criticism. These are ordinary people who just happen to have been born in a certain household. These people were not instigated by God, or any other divine intervention. They just happen to have had ancestors who were more victorious in wars of ascension.
Enjoy them as celebrities if you will. But do not place them above the common man.
The poor poor Brits...
Sending a mission to the moon. Won't they be disappointed when they find a Presbyterian chuch, a Guiness outlet and a Mosque on the dark-side...
Canada doesn't need to send a mission to the moon Blackleaf....
All Canadians care about is thumbing our collective noses at the Yanks and watching the Toronto Make Me Laffs lose another season.
Sending a mission to the moon. Won't they be disappointed when they find a Presbyterian chuch, a Guiness outlet and a Mosque on the dark-side...
Canada doesn't need to send a mission to the moon Blackleaf....
All Canadians care about is thumbing our collective noses at the Yanks and watching the Toronto Make Me Laffs lose another season.
Brits in space
By Sean Blair
As plans were announced last week for a new British civil space strategy, a firm unveiled ideas for what could be the UK's first mission to the Moon. At last, Britain's space race seems to be hitting its stride.
It brings an annual £4.8bn turnover to British industry. Science Minister Malcolm Wicks calls it "the great adventure of the coming millennium", and it starts 100km from wherever you read this - straight up.
Space, it turns out, is an unheralded "national success story".
The minister has announced a new government consultation on future space strategy, emphasising it as a way to arouse schoolchildren's enthusiasm for science. Meanwhile, one leading space company is pitching to shoot for the Moon, having unveiled concepts for UK-built lunar missions.
Moonraker would attempt to land on the Moon
While the UK has traditionally shrunk from the spotlight when it comes to the flashier aspects of the final frontier - hardly helped by the loss of British-made Mars probe Beagle 2 in December 2003 - this modesty tends to conceal the fact that it is a key player in space sectors (Britain is the second largest contributor to the European Space Agency's "Aurora", an ambitious long term undertaking of manned and unmanned exploration of the Solar system, and particularly Mars, with the Moon being a possible intermediate step).
From a business park near Guildford, ground controllers keep watch on the changing face of our planet with a flotilla of five satellites called the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).
In true Thunderbirds style, their images have guided emergency responses to disasters such as the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. They also deliver continually updated environmental information to governments and customers.
The US and European space agencies have comparable monitoring programmes, but they use satellites typically as large as double-decker buses, whereas Britain's DMC are the size of washing machines (which is an advantage).
It's almost like buying a hi-fi; you can either get it as one expensive unit or as separates
Satellite maker Philip Davies
The world's leading small satellite manufacturer, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), constructed each micro-satellite for a different government - the UK, Algeria, China, Nigeria and Turkey (with Spain in line to purchase its own).
However, by working together they provide 24-hour coverage of the entire Earth's surface - something no single large satellite can match.
"It's almost like buying a hi-fi; you can either get it as one expensive unit or as separates," says Philip Davies of SSTL. "Our satellites carry only one or two instruments compared to the 10 to 20 on larger satellites, but because they are smaller they are quicker and cheaper to build.
"And our working speed means we can use the latest electronic components available, so our satellites benefit from the ongoing increase in their efficiency."
To the Moon
Britain's SSTL has built and flown 26 satellites for a wide variety of purposes, with eight more in development.
Originally a spin-off from the University of Surrey, the 200-strong company's most high-profile customers include the US Air Force and Esa, for whom it built the initial test satellite for Galileo, Europe's answer to the US's GPS navigation system.
The British-made manual for Columbus will be used in the control centre...
Now SSTL has begun to look beyond Earth's orbit, as UK astronomy funding body PPARC wanted to see what use could be made of small spacecraft in deep space. The result, announced last week, is Moonlite and Moonraker.
"The first mission involves hitting the Moon at high speed with penetrators while its follow-up is a lunar lander," explains Mr Davies.
The plan would be to study differing conditions from the equator to the shadowy - and possibly ice-bearing - lunar poles.
Comparisons with the doomed Beagle 2 leave him undaunted: "It's a shame it didn't work, but it was always a very ambitious goal to land on Mars: it has an atmosphere you need to get through with a heat shield, and is so distant from Earth that remote control is impossible.
"In a lot of ways, the Moon is a much easier target."
A 2010 launch of a lunar mission might cost £60m - the price of a medium-budget Hollywood blockbuster - which is cheap enough for the UK to fund by itself, or at least lead within the European Space Agency (Esa).
Where's the money?
The Mullard Space Science Lab is the UK's largest university space research group. Part of University College London, it worked with SSTL on developing the penetrator mission.
The lab's Dr Andrew Coates says they would like to work with nearby SSTL on the follow-up lunar lander.
Mullard contributes instrumentation for space missions, including international probes to Venus, Mars and Saturn - activity that keeps the UK punching above its financial weight in the space science field.
"We and the other universities do well in terms of proposing new ideas for instruments and missions," Dr Coates adds. "However, national funds are needed to support these concepts - and they are not always there."
...and by astronauts working in the space lab
In terms of self-supporting activities, the UK space industry's dominant sector is actually satellite communications, especially direct-to-home satellite broadcasting.
The UK is also home to one of the world's leading satellite phone companies - Inmarsat, based in London's fashionable Old Street.
It has become the satellite communications brand of choice for everyone from round-the-world yachtsmen to Air Force One - Osama Bin Laden was also a devotee until the mid-1990s.
A new generation of satellites built in the south of England now provides broadband services across much of the planet, enabling videophone reports seen from remote trouble-spots on TV news.
Underscoring the importance of government strategy, the technology was developed through UK investment in an Esa research programme, estimated to have paid itself back to the Treasury 40-fold.
When it comes to putting people rather than satellites into space, the British National Space Centre (BNSC) has always declined to invest funds into this area, so industrial activity is correspondingly slight.
Writing the book
There are exceptions however: two British firms have got to write the book on Europe's most ambitious ever manned spaceflight project - the instruction book, that is.
Due to be attached to the International Space Station in 2007 is the Columbus Orbital Facility, a two-decades-in-the-making lab crammed with scientific equipment, environmental control and life support systems.
A Letchworth-based project management company was one of those given the task of converting Columbus engineering information into an operations manual.
It can be used on the ground and by the astronauts and comes in an electronic version.
But Ian Schofield, of Time Is Ltd, sees a problem with the system in the UK, compared with its international counterparts: "When you compare it to the way France, Germany or America works with their space industry, the support just isn't there. "You can't imagine contracts for a French government space project, for instance, getting outsourced to the cheapest foreign bidder, as it is here."
READERS' COMMENTS
It's been well known for a long time that Britain is world class when it comes to engineering and technology, but as mentioned, we need the support. We need to be able to prove our ability by producing the work here. The more exposure we have, the greater our successes will be. It would be nice to advertise to the rest of the world that we are actually good at something.
Heather, Wolverhampton
--------------------------
NOT investing in space is the best thing the government could have done! On it's own the UK space industry has developed into a lean, agile, and above all profitable enterprise. Public sector involvement is the kiss of death. Go Britain!
Robert GB Jones, Bridgwater, Somerset
--------------------------------
I own a small engineering consultancy that designs hardware for satellites and is also working on the development of technology for a spaceplane. I am so impressed with the UK government's support for the UK space industry that I am off to France to scout out somewhere to relocate to. Be under no illusion, Napoleon was right - we are a nation of shopkeepers.
John Parker, Portsmouth
-----------------------------
The private space sector are true unsung heroes. They receive very little support, bearing in mind that ours is the only government to abandon its ability to reach orbit. Our rocket was called the Black Arrow and was abandoned because the government 'could not see a future in satellites'. We have a plethora of companies, from SSTL offering satellite design and construction, to Starchaser Industries, who are working on manned space flight. In fact, only nine years after founding the company, they launched the most powerful rocket in UK history!
Alan Cross, Liverpool
-----------------------------
news.bbc.co.uk
By Sean Blair
As plans were announced last week for a new British civil space strategy, a firm unveiled ideas for what could be the UK's first mission to the Moon. At last, Britain's space race seems to be hitting its stride.
It brings an annual £4.8bn turnover to British industry. Science Minister Malcolm Wicks calls it "the great adventure of the coming millennium", and it starts 100km from wherever you read this - straight up.
Space, it turns out, is an unheralded "national success story".
The minister has announced a new government consultation on future space strategy, emphasising it as a way to arouse schoolchildren's enthusiasm for science. Meanwhile, one leading space company is pitching to shoot for the Moon, having unveiled concepts for UK-built lunar missions.
Moonraker would attempt to land on the Moon
While the UK has traditionally shrunk from the spotlight when it comes to the flashier aspects of the final frontier - hardly helped by the loss of British-made Mars probe Beagle 2 in December 2003 - this modesty tends to conceal the fact that it is a key player in space sectors (Britain is the second largest contributor to the European Space Agency's "Aurora", an ambitious long term undertaking of manned and unmanned exploration of the Solar system, and particularly Mars, with the Moon being a possible intermediate step).
From a business park near Guildford, ground controllers keep watch on the changing face of our planet with a flotilla of five satellites called the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).
In true Thunderbirds style, their images have guided emergency responses to disasters such as the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. They also deliver continually updated environmental information to governments and customers.
The US and European space agencies have comparable monitoring programmes, but they use satellites typically as large as double-decker buses, whereas Britain's DMC are the size of washing machines (which is an advantage).
Satellite maker Philip Davies
The world's leading small satellite manufacturer, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), constructed each micro-satellite for a different government - the UK, Algeria, China, Nigeria and Turkey (with Spain in line to purchase its own).
However, by working together they provide 24-hour coverage of the entire Earth's surface - something no single large satellite can match.
"It's almost like buying a hi-fi; you can either get it as one expensive unit or as separates," says Philip Davies of SSTL. "Our satellites carry only one or two instruments compared to the 10 to 20 on larger satellites, but because they are smaller they are quicker and cheaper to build.
"And our working speed means we can use the latest electronic components available, so our satellites benefit from the ongoing increase in their efficiency."
To the Moon
Britain's SSTL has built and flown 26 satellites for a wide variety of purposes, with eight more in development.
Originally a spin-off from the University of Surrey, the 200-strong company's most high-profile customers include the US Air Force and Esa, for whom it built the initial test satellite for Galileo, Europe's answer to the US's GPS navigation system.
The British-made manual for Columbus will be used in the control centre...
Now SSTL has begun to look beyond Earth's orbit, as UK astronomy funding body PPARC wanted to see what use could be made of small spacecraft in deep space. The result, announced last week, is Moonlite and Moonraker.
"The first mission involves hitting the Moon at high speed with penetrators while its follow-up is a lunar lander," explains Mr Davies.
The plan would be to study differing conditions from the equator to the shadowy - and possibly ice-bearing - lunar poles.
Comparisons with the doomed Beagle 2 leave him undaunted: "It's a shame it didn't work, but it was always a very ambitious goal to land on Mars: it has an atmosphere you need to get through with a heat shield, and is so distant from Earth that remote control is impossible.
"In a lot of ways, the Moon is a much easier target."
A 2010 launch of a lunar mission might cost £60m - the price of a medium-budget Hollywood blockbuster - which is cheap enough for the UK to fund by itself, or at least lead within the European Space Agency (Esa).
Where's the money?
The Mullard Space Science Lab is the UK's largest university space research group. Part of University College London, it worked with SSTL on developing the penetrator mission.
The lab's Dr Andrew Coates says they would like to work with nearby SSTL on the follow-up lunar lander.
Mullard contributes instrumentation for space missions, including international probes to Venus, Mars and Saturn - activity that keeps the UK punching above its financial weight in the space science field.
"We and the other universities do well in terms of proposing new ideas for instruments and missions," Dr Coates adds. "However, national funds are needed to support these concepts - and they are not always there."
...and by astronauts working in the space lab
In terms of self-supporting activities, the UK space industry's dominant sector is actually satellite communications, especially direct-to-home satellite broadcasting.
The UK is also home to one of the world's leading satellite phone companies - Inmarsat, based in London's fashionable Old Street.
It has become the satellite communications brand of choice for everyone from round-the-world yachtsmen to Air Force One - Osama Bin Laden was also a devotee until the mid-1990s.
A new generation of satellites built in the south of England now provides broadband services across much of the planet, enabling videophone reports seen from remote trouble-spots on TV news.
Underscoring the importance of government strategy, the technology was developed through UK investment in an Esa research programme, estimated to have paid itself back to the Treasury 40-fold.
When it comes to putting people rather than satellites into space, the British National Space Centre (BNSC) has always declined to invest funds into this area, so industrial activity is correspondingly slight.
Writing the book
There are exceptions however: two British firms have got to write the book on Europe's most ambitious ever manned spaceflight project - the instruction book, that is.
Due to be attached to the International Space Station in 2007 is the Columbus Orbital Facility, a two-decades-in-the-making lab crammed with scientific equipment, environmental control and life support systems.
A Letchworth-based project management company was one of those given the task of converting Columbus engineering information into an operations manual.
It can be used on the ground and by the astronauts and comes in an electronic version.
But Ian Schofield, of Time Is Ltd, sees a problem with the system in the UK, compared with its international counterparts: "When you compare it to the way France, Germany or America works with their space industry, the support just isn't there. "You can't imagine contracts for a French government space project, for instance, getting outsourced to the cheapest foreign bidder, as it is here."
READERS' COMMENTS
It's been well known for a long time that Britain is world class when it comes to engineering and technology, but as mentioned, we need the support. We need to be able to prove our ability by producing the work here. The more exposure we have, the greater our successes will be. It would be nice to advertise to the rest of the world that we are actually good at something.
Heather, Wolverhampton
--------------------------
NOT investing in space is the best thing the government could have done! On it's own the UK space industry has developed into a lean, agile, and above all profitable enterprise. Public sector involvement is the kiss of death. Go Britain!
Robert GB Jones, Bridgwater, Somerset
--------------------------------
I own a small engineering consultancy that designs hardware for satellites and is also working on the development of technology for a spaceplane. I am so impressed with the UK government's support for the UK space industry that I am off to France to scout out somewhere to relocate to. Be under no illusion, Napoleon was right - we are a nation of shopkeepers.
John Parker, Portsmouth
-----------------------------
The private space sector are true unsung heroes. They receive very little support, bearing in mind that ours is the only government to abandon its ability to reach orbit. Our rocket was called the Black Arrow and was abandoned because the government 'could not see a future in satellites'. We have a plethora of companies, from SSTL offering satellite design and construction, to Starchaser Industries, who are working on manned space flight. In fact, only nine years after founding the company, they launched the most powerful rocket in UK history!
Alan Cross, Liverpool
-----------------------------
news.bbc.co.uk
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No, because then it would probably mean that the British were the first people to the Moon.
And, in any case, the mosque would probably, though, be Canadian bearing in mind your large and rapidly growing Muslim population.