The Lunar Society and the City

There is a close and longstanding working relationship between the Lunar Society and the City of Birmingham both in the sense of the City Council and its wider meaning of our industry, commerce, heritage and culture and all that Birmingham stands for in the world.

Since its welcome re-incarnation in the 1980s, the Lunar Society has played a key role as an independent and productive forum for debate, bringing together people from a wide range of industrial, professional and scientific backgrounds to address important issues of today and tomorrow that are relevant to the present and future of our City, our Region and the world.

The global aspect is there because, true to its origins, the Lunar Society has made a major input and raised the profile here on matters concerning the wider world as, for example, the memorable focus on climate change and sustainable living amply demonstrated.

The Lunarmen - and the 'Lunar mindset' - matter every bit as much today as they did over two centuries ago when the society was originally formed.

That we have such a Society in Birmingham is very important to the country's premier city outside of the capital. It acts as a dynamic forum for its membership to asses the current complex situation with which the economy and our society are faced, and to influence both change and those things of lasting importance.

The seminar with Professor David Bailey on the state of industry and the economy, which I had the pleasure of attending, was a very good example of this. The Society's debates succeed in linking scientific, economic, social and cultural thinking and can help to catalyse actions to the benefit of the common good.

I believe that it is very important to sustain the close relationship between the Lunar Society and the City Council particularly in the current economic situation. There is considerable scope for working together to find ways to address some of the critical issues and to improve the economic prospects of the city and its people and sustain our civic future both for Birmingham and for the region.

Compliments of the Season

A light unto all the worlds...

Here's another stunningly beautiful picture from Mars - this time, of the planet's morning.

I suppose I risk giving the impression that there could be a bit of escapism going on here!
But this image makes an inspiring change from some of the things going on back on 'Planet Austerity'.
There are times when art and astronomy can match poetry for magnificent consolation!
Seasonally, perhaps it signifies 'a light unto all the worlds'.

Austerity Isn't Working

In more senses than one - as an economic 'policy' in terms of the size of Gross Domestic Product and, even more importantly, in terms of the growing legions of the unemployed - young people and younger adults included. This is a really tragic waste. The mystery to me is that anyone could ever have thought that swinging the axe in a recession could possibly work - or that they could continue to think that it still will.

But this, I'm afraid, is what the Government appears to think - and the official opposition, such as it is, is not distancing itself sufficiently from the policies of draconian cuts which may, in part, account for its indifferent showing in the opinion polls to date.

Technical note: time travel is not possible either, but the government is doing its best to send us all back to the 1930s anyway.

But I guess we're all getting tired of the unsurprising slew of bad news on the economic front - so what's good recently? Well, the good news is that (a) the solar system has not been sucked into a super-massive black hole and (b) the Higgs boson might or might not have been found and (c) Tracey Emin is now a professor of drawing.

Er, on reflection maybe there should be just two items on this list...

Space Sunset?

In fact, sunset on Mars! The beautiful photo in the previous posting was taken by one of the Mars Rovers. Sunset colours on Mars appear the opposite of those typically seen on Earth. The central blue glow appears when the Martian atmosphere scatters the sunlight, the same phenomenon that makes the Earth’s sky blue. Powdery dust suspended in the atmosphere gives the rest of the sky a copper colour. The Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it does on the Earth. The New York Times has more great photos in a recent feature.

Alas, the sunset could signify the space programme itself, principally the United States but more widely around the world too. The US programme is in decline notwithstanding the successful launch of the highly complex Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Over the years NASA has done a truly great job - as have all the planetary astronomers and scientists and engineers associated with it. Not always the cheapest way but always the very highest quality which has given inspiration to millions across the world.

We recently saw the last of the space shuttle, leaving the US without the ability to put a man into earth orbit let alone on the Moon or Mars. The astronauts of the Apollo era would never have believed that this position could have been reached - they were talking about a manned mission to Mars by the 1980s! Let us hope that the projected heavy lift launcher actually does make it off the ground at some point and is not also cancelled like its predecessor. Incidentally, contrary to press impressions, in its original incarnation it will not be as powerful as the Saturn 5 (the plans for which, incredibly, were destroyed).

The Mars programme has been dropped (as was the plan for a return to the Moon) and there is now no coherent or consistent vision for manned spaceflight. The suggested visit to an 'asteroid' does not mean a trip to the asteroid belt but trying to get on to a near-earth object passing by. While manned spaceflight is expensive it is a mere fraction of the colossal sums spent on weaponry year in and year out - much of which is useless.

It is very disappointing that the most intelligent US President we've ever seen has not managed to re-ignite the vision - although he does have the dire, cuts-obsessed Tea Party fundamentalists to contend with. It does not have to be this way but I see little hope of re-inspiration and a consistent programme that is adhered to.

In terms of robotic exploration there will also be at least a long and significant gap. There's nothing big on the blocks for launching after MSL although we await the images from the New Horizons probe (NASA's mission to Pluto and beyond with closest Pluto approach in July 2015) and the Dawn mission's approach to Ceres in February 2015. These really will be something special. Thank you NASA.

There's a danger of the engineering and scientific skills and can-do capacity being lost and along with it the chance of much closer study and possible landing on the Jovian satellite Europa - the best prospect for life in the Solar System in my view including Mars. The SETI (search for extra terrestrial intelligence) programme was only recently saved from cutbacks by a vigorous voluntary campaign of fundraising (which included actress Jodie Foster the star of 'Contact').

The European Space Agency's Programme offers some mild encouragement including the Mars sample return mission pencilled in for 2020/2022 although missions here too must be vulnerable to the chronic financial crisis faced by many European economies. But I would say it's an ideal time to invest and stimulate not 'carry on cutting'. It's a bit worrying because if you check the ESA website you'll find that much of the 'news' is out of date.

Russia has retained a good, reliable capacity to put humans into earth orbit but the recent loss of its Mars / Phobos probe in Earth orbit suggests that their testing is still not rigorous enough - a problem dating back to the long lamented Saturn-class N1 rocket. The website of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, has a lot of official prose but is low on inspiring projects.

In the long run the best hope for a revitalised manned space programme is China. They see the significance of this and they think long. having been allowed to acquire our industry and technology they have the industrial and growing scientific base. They will definitely go to the Moon in the 2020s (as long as their country remains stable) and they will not stop there. In terms of space and, as with industry, of our own doing, the sun sets in the West - but it rises again in the East.

Sunset

A beautiful and unusual sunset photograph - but where was the picture taken and what could it be taken to signify?
The answer and more in the next posting.

Please Mind the Gaps!

You may have noticed the not so subtle differences between the claims made by the Chancellor about who got hit in the Autumn Statement (not to mention the other austerity measures) and the truth of the matter.

There's a lot of this about! If you travel into the city by train you'll be familiar with the ever-repeated health and safety / insurance recording played as stations are neared: "We are now approaching (name of station). Please mind the gap between the platform and the train."

While hearing this again for the umpteenth time it occurred to me that there is in fact potential for much wider application in other walks of life - for instance politics and economics as well as budget statements: "We are now approaching a budget. Please mind the gap between the rich and the rest."

Perhaps there should be a similar warning at election times when we appear to enter one of the late Steve Jobs' 'Reality Distortion Fields': "We are now approaching an election. Please mind the gap between promises and delivery." And how about this one: "We are now approaching a recession. Please mind the gap between forecasts and reality."

Plenty of scope here I think!