The Art Neuro Weblog

Mea Culpa To Mr./Ms. Revnova
A person by the moniker Revnova dropped by and blasted me for writing about Olympic Baseball instead of space policy or Australian Space Policy. Fair cop, somebody had to say something. It was getting out of hand. :)

Dear Mr./Ms. Revnova
First of all, my humble apologies, for I have been greatly distracted by the smokescreen of entertainment known as the Olympic Games. The damned Olympics, it has a funny way of sucking you in. However, I would also like to point out that there really hasn't been much in the news lately to do with space, let alone space policy. Our theory is that even the science researchers are leaving their work desks to follow the Olympic Games.

We've also covered the salient terrain as to what is feasible, and what is not. I strongly recommend you look through our March through April 2004 archives where quite a lively discussion took place. Here's a quick summary of what has been covered so far (the upshot for which you can draw your own conclusions): neither of the major parties in Australian politics possess what can be described as a coherent space exploration policy. Both major parties feel that the allocation of satellite broadcasting rights covers the extent of having a space policy.
- It should also be noted that frequent visitor and commentator Mr. Conservative Weasel thinks it is all the ALP's fault that Australia has no coherent space policy; and that they are to blame... For most anything and everything.

Our position is that this absence of policy is not acceptable for a nation of our technological capability. That the long term future survival of humanity depends on our leaving this planet and founding colonies in space. We strongly support the Mars Direct platform and to that end argue until we are blue in the face as to the necessity of sending manned missions to Mars. We also believe that Australia is geographically suited to opening a space port to exploit future launches, and that there are good, sound, economic reasons to invest in space industries; not to mention cultural advantages in doing so.

We had a quick look at what European Governments are doing and found that ESA member Denmark for one has a rudimentary but effective set of guidelines that enable the creation of a fledgling space industry; and we call upon the Australian Government to adopt similar policy lines. Not that they're reading this blog.

That's the extent of it to date. In the mean time we have covered the Ansari X Prize and discussed the front runner, Scalar Industries and their craft, 'SpaceShipOne'. And when there's been no news, it's been baseball, music and movies. We do recommend you look at the links to the right.
Otherwise, please do not rip off my tits as that would hurt and I like them where they are.

Kindest regards,
- Art Neuro