In space, Europe gets ahead of U.S.

[Bill McBlueState]

WASHINGTON -- The world's astronomers are about to get a trio of powerful new eyes on the sky that can see better and farther than existing space telescopes.

As a result, Europe will hold a scientific and technological lead over the United States in some key areas of cosmology, at least for a while.

On Monday, NASA will send a crew of astronauts to install greatly improved instruments on the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. Just three days later, the European Space Agency will launch two even more advanced telescopes, named Planck and Herschel.

The American and European launchings will be ''right on top of each other,'' said Jon Morse, the director of NASA's Astrophysics Division.

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The idea of Europe getting ahead of the US is important, I think. This is the result of decades of emphasizing magical thinking at the expense of solid science education. The worst offenders are right-wing Christians, since they actually have the power and money to enforce their ideology, but we've got our share on the left, too.

[Bill McBlueState]

1. kick n/t

[NeedleCast]

2. What does "ahead of the US" mean?

There's so much cooperation between Euro, Asian and US space agencies now that it hardly matters what flag they're flying. Science (maybe predictably) is one of the few areas where people are judged on merits and not the flag the live under. I say Hooray Science! More cooperation is good.

[Johonny]

3. actually due to ITAR there isn't as much as u think.

[NeedleCast]

5. Probably not as much as there could be

but there's still quite a bit of cooperation. Some projects might not be international in nature but often have an international team working on the project.

[Bill McBlueState]

6. agreed

I'm an American astronomer who will be using an ESA telescope with critical support from NASA, and I love the international cooperation.

But the people who are screwing up American science education also tend to be nationalistic, and they may not like what's happening as a result of their anti-science attitudes.

[NeedleCast]

7. I'm Envious!

I'm fascinated by astronomy and subscribe to all sorts of newsletters and blogs but never had the math/physics background to have a truly deep understanding. Kudos to you for unraveling the mysteries and having the talent to do what you do.

[tocqueville]

8. pinpointed

space is glamour too and a matter of national pride. Look at the Chinese redoing with somewhat improved Gagarin technology what has been done before. Only to show that they are one of the "major players".

I pointed out on several threads that after the soon coming retirement of the shuttle fleet (2010), that the only way for US astronauts (specially in the light of the current ecobomical crisis) to get "up there" will be to go through Russian and European transportation, since the Orion project won't be probably able to fly before 2020. That's 10 years. So of course the "nationalistic" elements heads will explode when US astronauts will line up at Kourou in French Guiana (oh the absolute horror) or at Baikonour, using either Soyouz or ESA's ATV (crew version).

And if something bad happens with one of the coming shuttle flights (pray God it doesn't) the US will go back in the kind of "space limbo" that happened when the Apollo program was terminated. This time with far worse premisses.

[DireStrike]

4. Don't forget NASA haters, they contribute also

Space exploration has produced nothing of value to our society, and the MILLIONS (with an M for MEGA BIG) of dollars wasted on it could solve all the problems in our country. :sarcasm: