Mostly Random Technology Bytes

As retold in A Vertical Empire, Britain is the only country that developed a space launch capability and abandoned it. The Black Arrow rocket placed Britain’s first satellite in orbit in 1971 - but the program was then abandoned just before the satellite telecommunications boom.

The years since have not been much kinder, with the promising HOTOL spaceplane project killed by the government (they refused to contribute any more money, and also stopped anybody else contributing money by making the project Top Secret), and the failure of the Beagle 2 Mars probe.

Maybe, at last, things are starting to look up? In 2005, a Royal Astronomical Society Commission recommended increasing space spending, there’s been talk of becoming involved in the US program to return to the moon, and now it seems there’s serious talk of a British Lunar mission. I hope it happens!

However, even if this particular mission does happen, it’s still small scale (just 1 mission in several years time), and it doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of the British space program: the government doesn’t want to fund it.

The fact is that British governments, of whatever political hue, don’t like funding long-term investments. Depending on the government of the day, there’s always a more popular spending option in the short-run - schools, hospitals, and social services when it’s Labour government - or tax cuts when there’s a Tory government. That’s one of the reasons why much of our country’s infrastructure is often in such a bad state. And, in the long-run, if you don’t invest - and that includes investing in risky opportunities (like space) - then the country falls behind technologically and economically - which makes funding all the goodies even harder in future.

So what’s the answer?

One answer is to ask the politicians to talk honestly to the people about why we need to invest in the future. Maybe even inspire the country towards a goal. I have enough faith in the people to think that such arguments could win support among the electorate. But will the politicians even try? I’ll have to wait and see on that one - but I’m not getting my hopes up.

I have another idea though: If the government doesn’t want to fund space - get the money for space from somewhere else. Instead of subsiding opera tickets and building pointless expensive monuments like this, we could use the National Lottery to fund the space program.

• You could give people buying lottery tickets a choice over whether 50% of their ticket price goes, as at present, to "good causes" (monuments, sports and social programs), or to the British space program.
• You could also give space-related prizes as lottery prizes. For example, one lottery winner each year gets a fully-paid-up ticket as a Soyuz space tourist (this costs $20 million - about £10 million - which is small potatoes in lottery terms). Smaller prizes are also possible, like a paid-for trip to Kennedy Space Center, or a ride in the European version of the Vomit Comet.

And, I think that I know who needs to run it: Richard Branson. I don’t know if he would like my plan or if he would agree to do the job - but he does seem ideally qualified:-

• Popular with the public
• Articulate
• A space enthusiast
• Has put in serious (but unsuccessful) bids to run the National Lottery in the past

A tribute to the late, great, TV presenter and author, Magnus Magnusson:

Farewell Magnus Magnusson
A master mind you were
Farewell Magnus Magnusson
Mastermind, you started
Sadly now you’re finished

Here is the BBC’s Obituary.