Could Signal End To Britain's Refusal To Fund Manned Missions

The United Kingdom's new Science Minister, Malcolm Wicks, says his country should reconsider its long-standing refusal to fund manned space missions.

The UK will be an active participant in NASA's plans to return astronauts to the Moon and beyond to Mars, but the country has no plans to field astronauts -- Wicks says some of those going the Moon and Mars should be British.

Calling it "this millennium's great adventure," Wicks is urging his government to be more open-minded about getting involved in manned exploration projects.

In an interview with UK's Times Online, Wicks said the country has no immediate plans to send Britons into space, but the UK's presumption that such missions are always a waste of money should no longer apply.

Wicks said, "I think we need to think that through. I think sometimes our understandable reluctance to fund British men and women going into space has come across wrongly as us being a bit cool about space. I think we should be hot and enthusiastic."

He added, "It’s going to be this millennium’s great adventure. I’m not changing our position on this now, but I think it would be foolish to be dogmatic about these things."

In the past, the UK government's official position ruled human spaceflight unworthy of the costs or risks to life. The country's budget for its space program in 2005-2006 was a little over $400 million, but the majority of that went to robotic missions such as Mars Express and Huygens (below), the lander sent to Saturn's largest moon Titan from the Cassini spacecraft.

Three British-born astronauts -- Michael Foale, Piers Sellers and Nicholas Patrick -- have flown on the US space shuttle, but only after first achieving US citizenship. The one and only UK citizen to fly into space was Helen Sharman who went to the Mir space station in 1991.

Pressure from the country's scientific community is growing to lift the ban on manned spaceflight. A report last year from the Royal Astronomical Society found, "There is science of profound interest to humankind that can only be pursued on the Moon and Mars by the direct involvement of humans in situ."

Wicks said that Britain could not afford to "build our own rocket and fire it to the Moon," but asked, "Should we be close to the space explorations around the world? Of course we should."

According to the Times Online, talks between Wicks and NASA's Michael Griffin for UK collaboration on the US agency's upcoming manned missions to the Moon and Mars are already under way, with Wicks refusing to rule out British astronauts.

Wicks enthused about a recent visit to the UK by Discovery crewmembers, including Piers Sellers. Wicks said, "It was really great that those . . . astronauts were over here. It is a great way of exciting British children with science."

FMI: www.bnsc.gov.uk