Yes Minister...

[Peter Ward]

I had to laugh when I read this piece by Steven Freeland (a space lawyer no less) in today's SMH.

It rabbits on about Australia's need to become a space faring nation, as
" ...Despite being the fourth nation to build and launch a satellite from its own territory and the sixth to enact comprehensive domestic space legislation, our early promise as a space-faring nation has not been borne out......"

The fix? Rooms full of bureaucrats! As Mr Freeland goes on to say...

"The creation of the Space Policy Unit by the government and the tentative moves towards the establishment of an Australian space agency suggest things may at last be changing"

So how about employing some scientists, engineers etc. to actually develop a launch vehicle....no I suppose they'd only get in the way of policy development!

[Kal (Andrew)]

I used to think that the Vogan race in Hitchhihers guide to the galaxy was satirical.... Now I am not so sure!

[renormalised (Carl)]

Yep...we'll be the first ones on Mars. Krudd and his mates will all pile up onboard and say their farewells, krudd will make one of his usual "stirring" speeches and then they'll say Bon Voyage

About halfway into the boosts stage, someone will come into Ground Control, walk over to a console and say, "Hey, what's that there??" and go to press it. Then everyone in the room will yell out, "don't touch that red.........". Oops

[JD2439975 (Justin)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

The fix? Rooms full of bureaucrats! As Mr Freeland goes on to say...

"The creation of the Space Policy Unit by the government and the tentative moves towards the establishment of an Australian space agency suggest things may at last be changing"

Airtight rooms I hope as political statements can create the hardest vacuum known to man.....well it's cheaper than Ratsak.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

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[Peter Ward]

For those who were not aware, the documentary series "Yes Minister" (surely it wasn't a comedy ) covered this sort of madness many years ago (I've made a couple of changes to put it in context)

1. Jim Hacker: "The Space Policy Unit, Humphrey, is an advanced case of galloping bureaucracy."
   Sir Humphrey: "Ooooh, certainly not galloping. A gentle canter at the most."
2. Sir Humphrey: "Minister, you said you wanted the administration figures reduced, didn't you?"
   Jim Hacker: "Yes."
   Sir Humphrey: "So we reduced the figures."
   Jim Hacker: "But only the figures, not the number of administrators."
   Sir Humphrey: "Well of course not."
   Jim Hacker: "Well that is not what I meant."
   Sir Humphrey: "Well really Minister, one is not a mind-reader, is one? You said reduce the figures, so we reduced the figures."

[Peter Ward]

Oh! Oh! It gets better ! I found this on the Space policy Unit website.

"The Unit has been allocated funding of $8.6 million and the Australian Space Research Program has been allocated $40 million over four years"

Number official Australian space related activities in the last decade or so:

eight.

These guys are clearly over-worked.

[Lee]

$40m over 4 years, after salaries and stationery, I'd say there'd be lucky to be enough left over to design a nice department logo!

[renormalised (Carl)]

I think I could lend them a few of my model rockets, however that huge budget of theirs ($40 million over 4 years) won't cover the cost of the leasing

[DavidTrap (David)]

Ahhhh - Yes Minister - the first reality TV show!

DT

[michaellxv (Michael)]

I think they're out by a factor of a million if they are serious about launching anything.

We spend their current budget on NYE fireworks.

[Octane (Humayun)]

And, what a great show that is! : P

The funding does sound like a joke.

H

Originally Posted by michaellxv

We spend their current budget on NYE fireworks.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Octane

And, what a great show that is! : P

The funding does sound like a joke.

H

All it is, is just a smidgen of cash to placate the boffins and make them feel important, whilst the powers that be try to figure out what the hell all this talk about space is...and what is space to begin with, anyway. About the only spaceship that $40 million will get them is having one of those Tassie built catamarans converted into a superyacht...a "space" ship.

[TrevorW]

I know the Govt is spending $100's of millions of things like literacy and curriculum development programs which keep a lot of academics in employment but nothing tangible in the long run