UK Forum

Hi there!

As the new NPoC for the UK, I thought that I would start a new forum topic which focusses on UK involvement in space activities.

Since being so kindly appointed this position, I have been initially focussing on researching and introducing myself to space outreach and interest organisations across the UK. I will try and post individual posts for each separate organisation or event, so things remain relatively clear.

I welcome any suggestion and input from any fellow British 'space cadets', or indeed anyone!

I believe that the UK has a lot to offer the space industry- we house many world-class research institutions, academics and technology centres that offer key benefits to space science. Unfortunately there has been a disproportionately low amount of British astronauts (most astronauts of British Nationality have assumed American citizenship before entering the programme)

Any thoughts on this topic?

Kind regards!

Angela

The British Interplanetary Society serves both space flight professionals and those with a general interest in space flight and astronautics. The Society has a worldwide membership, and is actively devoted to supporting forward looking policies and visionary thinking towards the advancement of space flight through its publications, symposia, meetings and other events. It is the world’s longest established organization devoted to the promotion of astronautics both nationally and internationally.

The Society publishes a monthly, full-colour magazine (Spaceflight) providing news, digests of space flight programmes and other wide-ranging information about astronautics. In addition its technical journal (JBIS) publishes refereed papers in astronautics on a monthly basis, and a twice-yearly Space Chronicle on past space flight programmes.

The Society also holds one and two-day Symposia on specialist space flight topics and has a regular programme of evening lectures on topics in astronautics.

For more information, please visit the website at www.bis-spaceflight.com

Information kindly provided by the British Interplanetary webpage

This looks a really worthwhile event- I unfortunately won't be able to attend due to academic commitments, but will try and receive an update after the event.

After the success of the inaugural event held in
Brighton 2004, the British Interplanetary Society
is organising another weekend to review UK space
activities.

The aim of the conference is to celebrate the UK
space capability (both scientific and industrial),
linking well with the current promotion of space
as a National 'asset' worthy of increased support
by the UK Government; To encourage greater
collaboration and cooperation, foster networking
opportunities and to facilitate productive
discussions on all aspects of present and future
UK space activities.

One of the main benefits to the community will be
to generate interaction between academic and
industrial communities. There are many conferences
that support one or the other, but rarely are they
brought together.

A potential benefit to industry would be to use
the meeting as a recruitment platform as there are
a large number of students expected to attend (as
was the case for the Brighton event).

The conference and exhibition is for all those
actively involved in space from the commercial,
academic and research sectors, or with a general
interest in space.

Form more information, visit the event website at
http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/sitesia.aspx/page/196/id/1454/l/en-gb/l/e....

The provisional programme is available at
http://www.uk.seds.org/downloads/events/2007-11/bis_uk_space_activities.....

The award winning National Space Centre is the UK's largest attraction dedicated to space. From the minute you catch sight of the Space Centre's futuristic Rocket Tower, you 'll be treated to hours of breathtaking discovery and interactive fun!

The 'Space Now' team host regular presentations and events in the centre, often with guest speakers from the space community.

There are also programmed special weekend events throughout the year for all the family to enjoy.

For more information, please visit www.spacecentre.co.uk!

Hi CHRIS, thank you for your kind comment.

I hope to report back from this weekends upcoming UKSEDS conference with some interesting info!

As for a national page- sounds great! May have a bit better structure that me just posting multiple messages in this section (we could have different subcategories perhaps, such as 'National Space Events', 'National Space Societies', 'National Space websites', 'National Space Exhibitions', etc).

Maybe even articles concerning famous astronomers or astronauts from each specific country? Or TV documentaries of interest?

This is just me 'brainstorming'- there is huge scope for such a page, dependant of course on the contributers from each country, and what they wish to add!

Kind Regards!

I have been working flat out for the last 15 months and on and off for the last six years trying to lobby the government to be spending some money on the ESA human spaceflight program. I am sure some people have been trying to do the same things even harder in the UK. I see that Ireland has similar hurdles to overcome with getting public funds since the Irish and UK governments are both very very careful and responsible about how they spend thier money. I am about 100% sure now that Ireland will be putting some funding up to the European Astronaut Corps once they are 110% sure that there will be an astronaut selection happening and while thier telling me thier keen on the idea now they are officially adopting a wait-and-see position on the funding. But they are very aware now that with the European Astronaut Corps there is no such thing as a free ride, but there is such a thing as an affordable one.

Mind if I tag along?

Greetings fellow Brits and Irish neighbours!

I have to apologise for my infrequency on this forum- I have been posting elsewhere and also, due to the new UK forum page, I have been communicating via different media. But I think it best to keep this forum open for longer topics more specifically relivent to those of us in the UK.

I recently signed a petition objecting the proposed governmental budget cuts in the UK for Particle Physics and Astronomy- thought you may all be interested in the Prime Minister's response:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to reverse the decision to cut vital UK contributions to Particle Physics and Astronomy."

"Due to cost overruns the UK's funding agency for particle physics and astronomy, STFC, is recouping £80M with deep cuts to UK physics operations in these areas. These include ending the UK's involvement in the International Linear Collider - the next generation of particle physics experiment. This risks relegating the UK to second tier involvement in future research and critically damaging the country's standing within the community. Furthermore UK Astronomy will be seriously hit with up to a 25% cut in grants. This is incompatible with the government's stated aim of making Britain a world leader in science. A review of this decision has recently been announced and we urge the Prime Minister to press for another solution to this problem before UK physics is set back by decades."

The government's response:

In October 2007, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) received an overall budget of £1.9 billion for the CSR period, an additional £185 million over the CSR period compared to the 2007/08 baseline. This represents an overall increase in funding of 13.6%. There has been no cut in the STFC's budget, and the funding provided was consistent with the guidance given to all Research Councils.

Claimed reductions in STFC's budget appear to have been derived from STFC's aspirations for the three-year Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period (2008/9 - 2010/11). These aspirations never constituted an agreed set of activities or funding for them, and the suggestion that £80m has been cut from its budget is wrong.

Like all Research Councils, the STFC's Science Board, and its advisory peer review committees, has undertaken a programmatic review and prioritisation exercise, the results of which have been made available for public consultation. On 7 February 2008, the STFC Council announced that the underlying funding for physics exploitation grants would remain broadly level in the next financial year (2008-09). This follows large increases in funding in recent years and means that there would be no major reductions in physics funding before the outcome of the Wakeham Review is known. (Professor Bill Wakeham, Vice Chancellor of Southampton University, has been asked to lead an independent review of the health of physics overall and we, and the Research Councils UK (RCUK), will pay close attention to his conclusions, which are expected in the Autumn.)

It is worth noting that even in the plans published by STFC in December 2008, the funding of each of the main disciplines will still be substantially above 2005 levels. Investments in key areas raised by the petition have grown considerably since 2005/06, taking into account the widely supported move towards paying the full economic costs (FEC) of research in universities. Since that time there has been:

* A 43% increase in funding for Particle Physics grants (2005/06 c.f. 2008/09)
* A 78% increase in Nuclear Physics grants (2005/06 c.f. 2008/09)
* A 67% increase in overall funding for Astronomy grants (2005/06 c.f. 2008/09)

This will ensure that the number of Astronomy post-doctoral research assistants funded in 2008, remains roughly level.

Some existing programme areas, including the International Linear Collider (ILC), will not be funded by STFC. The US Congress seems to share this sceptical view of the prospects for the ILC, and has cut US investment in it by 75% this year. The STFC's decision ensures that the UK's substantial investment in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is exploited before embarking on a further facility of such scale. These decisions have been taken on the basis of peer-review evidence.

The UK research community will continue to be able to carry out international research, through access to a range of world-class facilities, including CERN, as well as the European Southern Observatory, ESRF and ILL, and programmes of the European Space Agency. Major new facilities in the UK such as Diamond and the ISIS Second Target Station will also provide opportunities for world-leading scientific research.

There have been concerns about UK access to the Gemini telescopes. Contrary to statements made by the Gemini Board, STFC has never issued formal notice to withdraw from the project and continues to negotiate the terms under which UK researchers have access to Gemini telescopes in future, whilst seeking to reduce its financial contribution. In the meantime STFC intends to pay the UK's 2008 contribution to maintain UK access to the Gemini telescopes for the 2008A semester (February - 31st July 2008). In any event, the UK will still retain access to other 8-10m class telescopes in the northern hemisphere, in particular the Japanese Subaru telescope in Hawaii and the GranTeCan telescope on La Palma. The UK remains a full member of the European Southern Observatory and through that continues to have access to top class telescopes in the Southern hemisphere.

There has recently been press discussion about the future of Jodrell Bank, which is owned and run by Manchester University. STFC is supporting a project called e-Merlin, which is a UK network of radio telescopes being developed by researchers at Jodrell Bank. You may have heard that e_Merlin received a relatively low ranking in STFC's Programmatic Review. One of the factors in the ranking of e-Merlin is that the project is running behind schedule by at least two years. While the project is expected to be completed within the capital budget provided by the University of Manchester and NWDA, this is costing STFC £2.5m for every year of delay. STFC has consulted about this and a number of other projects. It will take no decision about e-Merlin until this consultation process is complete, but it has however made it clear that the e-Merlin project is part of its strategy for radio astronomy, and that it wants the UK to play a leading role in the next large radio astronomy project, the Square Kilometre Array, which for reasons of radio interference could not be built in a densely populated area such as the UK. Jodrell Bank hosts the European Headquarters for the project, and therefore has a major role to play in it.

The Government continues to attach considerable importance to STFC's activities and to physics and scientific research more generally. Research Council expenditure on physics is already in excess of £500m, and is expected to increase over the CSR period.

It is a tribute to UK science that it will always be the case that there will be more proposals for scientific research than the funding is able to cover. Funding bodies such as STFC will always have to make difficult decisions and it is both justified and understandable for there to be a debate over how these decisions are made.

We will continue to work with the STFC and the wider research community to ensure their concerns are addressed in a constructive manner.

If you would like further information on the progress of STFC's programmatic review, the next steps, and STFC's community consultation, please consult the STFC's website.

Hi Angela.
This is Biniyam which is equivalent to mean Benjamin in english.I recently joined SGAC and I am the new NPoC for Ethiopia and I have been actively participating on space and related issues in my country since 2002.I have a firm belief in contribution of space education towads the betterment of our environment,peace,productivity and develpment.
I would like to congratulate you on your new forum topic.you seem tireless.Isaw your article on space and environment it's simply great.I joined the space and environment and nano technology forums just yesterday and I was amaized by the quality of the content of some of the posted essays(including yours).
I agree with you on the fact that british has given the world some of the finest and rarest physicsts and mathematicians(Newton,Hawking,Penrose,Dirac etc) and contributed emmensly to the development of the astrophysics and other related fields.but the name british is not heard often enough together with space activities.
Out of the respect I have for british physicsts and their work I like to help in spreading the awareness.