Scientists and engineers in the United Kingdom are lobbying the government to bring Britain into the manned space program business, by joining the International Space Station (ISS) project.
Technically, the UK is a core member of the European Space Agency, which participates in the ISS, and even has a core experimental module waiting to go up as soon as the next shuttle flight is ready. But British government policy bars any funding from going to human spaceflight programs, and so the country is not technically part of the ESA's effort.
The UK scientists argue, in an article in the British Interplanetary Society's *Spaceflight *magazine, that bringing the country into the project would help fire citizens' imaginations, and help turn around a decline in interest in science and technology.
Perhaps more immediately attractive, it would also allow British aerospace firms to be more deeply involved in some of the world's most expensive and technically demanding projects, they argue.
"It does now seem to have dawned on decision makers that the earlier exclusion of the UK from manned spaceflight in general and the ISS in particular was not in the national interest - at least from the science and motivational aspects," said Mark Hempsell, the article's author, in a statement.
The group proposes that Britain should build a pair of modules that extend the living quarters in the current space station, allowing astronauts to stay up for longer, and for more comfortable periods of time. The modules could be built for a little over $1 billion, spread over five or six years, and launched on Russian Soyuz rockets, they say.
I'm certainly no expert on the British political scene, but given the recent news about severe funding cutbacks in important British science projects
(similar to what's happened in the States), I can't say this idea sounds likely to be approved any time soon. But it's good that the debate is happening.
British Proposal for Space Station Modules[British Interplanetary Society]
UK push for space station modules [BBC]
(Image: Artist's vision of the British Habitation Extension Modules
(HEM), as they would look attached to the International Space Station.
Credit: SimComm/Ducros)
