Posted for Geoff Brumfiel
A panel of government experts, industry chiefs and scientists have delivered a 20-year-vision for the UK space industry, with some numbers so high they could probably reach low-earth orbit.
By 2030, 100,000 new jobs could be created by a £40 billion-a-year UK space industry, the report reports. All that’s needed from government is a doubling of the current funding over the next decade to £550 million. If the numbers hold up, then Britain would catapult from 21st in space investment to 10th place in terms of Gross Domestic Product.
“If we get this right, the UK space sector could provide the basis to help energise an economy emerging from recession,” says study leader Andy Green, an IT executive and head of the Innovation Growth Team for Space, the joint government and industry group behind the report (PA).
That is a pretty big “if”. At the moment, British space policy is fragmented across a number of government agencies, and coordinated by a relatively powerless “space council”. As a result, the government doesn’t hold much sway in the European Space Agency (ESA), where all of Europe vies for valuable contracts.
Adding insult to injury, the UK’s leading private space company, Surrey Satellite Technologies Limited, was sold in 2008 to the Paris-based European aerospace giant EADS-Astrium.
In December, Paul Drayson, the UK’s science minister, promised to form an independent space agency to replace the current council. That would definitely help to strengthen the UK’s space industry and its bargaining clout within ESA.
But the people I’ve been speaking to seem to have little idea when such an agency will actually form. A government spokesperson I contacted earlier this week said that Drayson’s proposal was still in the works, though he hoped there would be an announcement soon. Others officials and space scientists I’ve talked to believe privately that it is unlikely an agency can be cobbled together before a general election in May.
Image: photo by mamamusings via Flickr under Creative Commons