It is reported that in 2009 the European Space Agency (ESA) will send into orbit two new space telescopes and three satellites to study the Earth’s soils (for better crop management) and gravity (for more accurate measurements of geographical heights). ESA leader Jean-Jacques Dordain said that 2008 was "exceptional" with the attaching of the Columbus Science Lab to the International Space Station (ISS), and he said that this year will be just as busy.
Along with ESA activities this year will be Russian “Soyuz” rocket launches from the European launch pads at Kourou in French Guiana (on the north coast of South America). These Russian rockets are the biggest rockets that have ever been launched and so a lot of work has been done on the launch pads in Kourou. "This will be a significant milestone in many ways," said Mr Dordain. "We really do need Soyuz because at least half of ESA missions are due for launch on Soyuz, whether that be scientific missions or Galileo satellites (navigation guides for cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes)."
Last year, Soyuz rockets not only delivered the Columbus lab to the space station but flew its space freighter, the ATV, to the platform for the first time. The ATV is a space cargo ship and it will become the main way of resupplying the ISS when the US shuttle fleet is too old to keep going on missions, which will be soon.
The 18 countries that are members of ESA have agreed to pump 10 billion euros (16 billion dollars) into space exploration over the next three-to-five years. Government officials have said that increased spending on space science and industries will help Europeans get through the growing global economic slowdown.
I think this is a very good idea. The ESA is going into space for both scientific exploration and practical reasons, making life better now and in the future. At the same time, the European space program is providing high-tech jobs that will encourage people to go into careers in the sciences and that will lead to even more advances that will be good for everyone.
What bothers me is that the United States seems to be falling behind. We need more up-to-date replacements for the space shuttles. We need bigger rockets that can carry new technologies and maybe even small factories into space. We need to go back to the Moon and establish a base there. And we need to explore other planets, starting with Mars. In this last case, we should do this with robots. Sending people is too expensive and pointless. If we can build robots that can explore space, the technology we will learn from this will help us to make robots that can do the hardest and most dangerous jobs on Earth.
The economic problems we are facing right now don’t need money to fix them, they need new jobs and new technology. If we just print a lot of money, no one will want to invest in anything but gold and oil and other things that protect their savings but don’t make jobs and don’t the world a better place. Like the space shuttles, let’s create new worlds rather than keep running the old one until it falls apart.
Category: News & Events
Posted: 01/14/2009 @ 10:11 pm
Europe's Natural Gas Crisis
Russia cut off the supply of natural gas to Ukraine on January 1st because Russia says Ukraine isn’t paying enough for it. This has had a bad effect on most of Europe because the natural gas pipeline between Russia and Europe goes through Ukraine, and Ukraine won’t let the gas flow unless it gets Russian gas at the price it wants to pay.
Experts say that the real reason Russia has cut the supply of natural gas to Ukraine is because Russia is mad at Ukraine for criticizing Russia’s invading Georgia and trying to join the European alliance (NATO) that Russia sees as a military alliance against Russia. Europe gets 1/4th of its natural gas from Russia, and this winter has been especially cold in Europe, so whatever the reason, many of Europe’s people are suffering because of the gas shortage this fight is causing.
Now Russia and some European countries are going to build new pipelines that won’t go through Ukraine. But what will happen if Russia gets mad at other European countries? Russia used to have a lot of control over Eastern Europe and could threaten all of Europe with its power. Many Russians miss having a lot of power, and now it seems like they can get it back by turning off the gas. So, can Europe be sure of its supply of natural gas if it depends on Russia?
In my opinion, every country should have a plan to take care of its most basic energy needs without outside supplies. All people should see to it that their governments are responsible for protecting them from threats to their safety. Having safe supplies of food and fuel should be the first job of every government.
Many countries’ governments are trying to do this. France gets most of its power from nuclear reactors, the United Kingdom has drilled oil and gas wells in the oceans around it, and President-elect Obama has promised that the United States will find ways of cleanly using its huge coal supplies. However, to have a good standard of living, a country must do more than just survive. So, like most countries, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States must depend on supplies of fuel from other countries if they want to have the best opportunities for jobs and good standards of living for their people.
Russia ought to want to keep the supply of natural gas to Europe open more than it wants to have political power. The Russian people can’t eat political power and it won’t keep them warm, so if cutting off Europe’s supply of natural gas hurts the Russian people as much as it hurts the people of Europe, the Russian people will eventually change the Russian government’s mind.
The best way to make sure that Russia and any other country that wants to sell its fuel doesn’t try to use it for political power is to make sure that the people of those countries will suffer as much as their victims if they do. The best way to do this is to demand that countries trade jobs for fuel as well as money and goods. That is, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venzuela, and other furl-producing countries should be forced to accept factories that employ their people in exchange for their fuel. Then, if they try to cut off fuel supplies to other countries, the rest of the world can stop buying the goods made in those factories. When the people in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela who work in those factories lose their jobs, they will make their governments stop playing politics.
This will also be more fair to the people of fuel-producing countries who usually get very little good from the sale of their countries’ natural resources. It may be hard to get the people in power in fuel-producing countries to go along with this, but it is the right thing to do. Doing the right thing is never easy, but it always pays off in the long run.
