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British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely
London (AFP) Jan 10, 2007 A senior British space official played down media reports on Wednesday that Britain is considering plans for its own mission to the moon. David Parker, the director of space science at the British National Space Centre (BNSC) told a news conference that such a plan was the "most unlikely outcome" of Britain's space plans. He was speaking after officials from the European and British space agencies presented the fruits of two days of work ending Tuesday by 170 scientists, industrialists and representatives of civil society in Edinburgh, Scotland. "It was not meant to be a conclusive workshop, but the beginning of a process that will develop in the next 18 months," Manuel Valls, a senior official for space exploration at the European Space Agency said. Earlier, the BBC had cited proposals for two missions which had been submitted to the body that funds British space exploration, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), saying the first, if approved, could be launched by 2010. "The UK could soon have its first mission to the moon -- an orbiting spacecraft that would fire instruments into the lunar surface," the BBC said on its website. "The penetrators would yield new information about the rocky interior," it said. If the "Moonlight" mission were successful, a second mission named "Moonraker" could be launched, the BBC said, sending a spacecraft to the surface of the moon in search of suitable sites for potential manned bases. According to Professor Martin Sweeting, founder and chief executive of Surrey Satellite Technology, which prepared the study for the funding body, the cost of space exploration had fallen enough for Britain to "go it alone". At the two-day meeting in Edinburgh, the European Space Agency said it had launched a series of consultations to develop its exploration of the Solar system in the long term. Professor John Zarnecki, who led the scientific discussions at the Edinburgh meeting said that the Moon, Mars and asteroids would be the main focus of European exploration efforts. "We could go to a primitive asteroid, collect some organic material and return it to the Earth... (which)... could serve to develop and probe the technology necessary for the Moon and Mars exploration," he said.
Source: Agence France-Presse Email This Article
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London (AFP) Jan 10, 2007Britain is considering plans for its own moon shot, the BBC said on Tuesday, citing plans submitted to the body that funds British space exploration. Proposals for two missions have been submitted to the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, and the first, if approved, could be launched by 2010. |
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