[FPSPACE] US-UK Space Venture Posed

[Alex Michael Bonnici]

  NASA urges Britain to join it in space

  from The Guardian (UK):

  Alok Jha, science correspondent
  Saturday January 27, 2007

  The head of NASA has called on Britain to recapture its spirit of
  adventure and join its ambitious plans to explore space with missions
  to the moon and Mars.

  "The voyages of Sir Francis Drake, Captain Cook and many others built
  Britain into the greatest maritime power the world saw," Michael
  Griffin said. "That was then the frontier. This era is fully as worth
  supporting as was the maritime era."

  Mr Griffin was speaking before a speech at the World Economic Forum in
  Davos, Switzerland, today in which he will outline Nasa's plans to
  explore the solar system and meet the challenge laid down by President
  Bush in 2004 to get humans back to the moon and then on to Mars. By
  2020, four-person crews will make trips to a permanent base on the
  moon which will allow astronauts to stay for up to six months to
  prepare for journeys to Mars. By 2030, pressurised roving vehicles
  could take people on exploratory trips across the lunar surface.

  While leaving NASA scientists to fill in the details of the
  exploration strategy, Mr Griffin has been on a charm offensive. He met
  the UK science minister, Malcolm Wicks, in an attempt to gather
  support from British scientists. "The British space agency should join
  with NASA. It is one of the marks of a great nation."

  Martin Barstow, head of physics and astronomy at Leicester University,
  urged caution on any collaboration and contrasted NASA's plans with
  the European Space Agency's Aurora programme, which will also send
  people to the moon and Mars. "It has had a long gestation period and
  has been planned very carefully."

  But he welcomed Mr Griffin's resolve in getting the point of space
  exploration out to new and influential audiences. "You can't just look
  at the science. There are broader benefits and the rest of the
  operation - the economists, the educationalists, the other potential
  beneficiaries of this - also need to be engaged."

  He said that most of the money spent on space exploration was not
  spent in space, but on the ground. "It's spent employing people in
  hi-tech industries; those spin out into other commercial operations,
  partly because of the skills base that's built up. It's more to do
  with the overall upskilling of your entire economy. The real benefits
  are much more hidden - it's in the way your industry expands."