Sunday, December 28, 2003
The Beagle is Henman in space
Thanks to William Langley of the Telegraph (28th Dec) for this wonderful headline, and the neat capture of the British public's perception of the issue. But what about the scientists (like me) who have seen their funding diminish, and projects like this soak up a lot of money that would have gone to other useful causes?
We should be thankful, that's what. Primarily, this project addresses some of the key questions science has to face - are we alone, is there life on Mars, was there ever life on Mars, can we see evidence of non-carbon based lifeforms, and so on. For £50m, it's a question we can't afford not to ask. If man's aspirations can't stretch that far, then we are pretty doomed.
Secondly, they have done a great job on a limited budget and with what seem to be ridiculous and politically motivated constraints.
Thirdly, there is a little bit of a lack of vision in the rest of the UK science community. For example, if you were to ask a lot of computer scientists what they'd spend £50m on, you'd not get inspiring answers (Big Questions for the Future of HCI yields Little Outcome) - except maybe for part of the AI/neural network community that really want to understand human emotions, though process and so on. Sure, a lot are jumping on the bandwagon of 'Grand Challenges', which actually demeans science and makes it more like a television makeover programme than a structured, interesting, beneficial and worhtwhile endeavour, but there are very few who actually have any decent visions.
We shouldn't be too fulsome in our praise. Most schoolkids know how to design parachutes so that Action Man still works after being thrown out of a three story building and plumments into the ground. The cost of a few continously transmitting beacons that lasted for the descent and first few hours on the planet should not have made much dent in £50m...
Quote of the event has to be Ian Praine, of Astrium, who said "Isn't gravity wonderful - at least we know it's on the surface now!" (from the Beagle weblog). I suspect he didn't quite mean it to be such a strong statement. Too much gravity, I fear.
Thanks to William Langley of the Telegraph (28th Dec) for this wonderful headline, and the neat capture of the British public's perception of the issue. But what about the scientists (like me) who have seen their funding diminish, and projects like this soak up a lot of money that would have gone to other useful causes?
We should be thankful, that's what. Primarily, this project addresses some of the key questions science has to face - are we alone, is there life on Mars, was there ever life on Mars, can we see evidence of non-carbon based lifeforms, and so on. For £50m, it's a question we can't afford not to ask. If man's aspirations can't stretch that far, then we are pretty doomed.
Secondly, they have done a great job on a limited budget and with what seem to be ridiculous and politically motivated constraints.
Thirdly, there is a little bit of a lack of vision in the rest of the UK science community. For example, if you were to ask a lot of computer scientists what they'd spend £50m on, you'd not get inspiring answers (Big Questions for the Future of HCI yields Little Outcome) - except maybe for part of the AI/neural network community that really want to understand human emotions, though process and so on. Sure, a lot are jumping on the bandwagon of 'Grand Challenges', which actually demeans science and makes it more like a television makeover programme than a structured, interesting, beneficial and worhtwhile endeavour, but there are very few who actually have any decent visions.
We shouldn't be too fulsome in our praise. Most schoolkids know how to design parachutes so that Action Man still works after being thrown out of a three story building and plumments into the ground. The cost of a few continously transmitting beacons that lasted for the descent and first few hours on the planet should not have made much dent in £50m...
Quote of the event has to be Ian Praine, of Astrium, who said "Isn't gravity wonderful - at least we know it's on the surface now!" (from the Beagle weblog). I suspect he didn't quite mean it to be such a strong statement. Too much gravity, I fear.
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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