25 April 2009
by Craig Clark, Clyde Space CEO
Being a Scot and a technologist working in the space industry, I have been shocked by the lack of space industry activity in Scotland. I see this as a problem for a variety of reasons, one of them being that Scotland is missing out this vital piece of inspirational activity. A large proportion of Scotland's population do not have the belief that Scotland can be a World beater; this goes for sports through to business. In addition, we almost frown upon success and many successful entrepreneurs in Scotland feel 'embarrassed' by their success when amongst their own people. This isn't helped by the media which is more interested in digging for dirt and reporting failure, instead of celebrating success. Compare this against the attitudes in the likes of the USA ,where success is embraced and applauded.
One of the reasons that the USA continues its pursuit of space exploration through NASA is ideology. NASA inspires the people of the USA. In turn the people of the USA believe that they can achieve anything. I believe that this stimulated self-belief has resulted in generations of US entrepreneurs and high achievers, which has in turn produced world leading businesses such as Google, Microsoft, Dell, etc. In Europe we have the European Space Agency (ESA), but despite their best efforts, the average European citizen has never heard of ESA. The media is as much to blame for this as anyone, but fundamentally, the media and people within the various European states do not associate themselves with Space activities happening in other parts of Europe. The activity must be local in order to have the same kind of impact as NASA has in the USA.
So what has this got to do with having a space industry in Scotland? Scotland has virtually no space industry activity. The vast majority of space activity in the UK is in the South East of England. In fact, I have found that the idea of Scotland having an active space industry, producing spacecraft, is in many cases met with a dismissive attitude and scepticism, even from our politicians. This is a demonstration of how we in Scotland have self-imposed limits on what we can achieve. The fact is that Scotland is more than capable of having a thriving space industry. Also, what better time to act when the space industry is one of the few markets that is still growing despite the problems being faced in the world economy. We have an abundance of the key skills; we just lack the belief.
I am hopeful that this about to change: Along with the University or Strathclyde, and a number of other organisations, Clyde Space has been working on a plan to kick-start Scotland's space adventure. If we are successful in our plans, in less than 3 years we will have significant student and commercial spacecraft activities and at least one satellite in space. After that, we will have lifted the lid on limited belief towards what we can achieve in Scotland. I think this could be a first and crucial step towards changing attitudes and expectations. A combination of Scotland's historically innovative nature and a belief that anything can be achieved is an exciting prospect for this small country.
Conference calls on the Scottish Parliament to offer a prize of 20 million pounds to the first Scottish group to soft land a vehicle on an asteroid beyond the orbit of Mars by 2050"
This is the wording of yet a motion I had tried to put to LibDem conference, in 2002. The fact that it was rejected for debate with considerable amusement did not particularly surprise of distress me.
However it is perhaps something the more progressive members of the SNP would now support since they have already gone for the £20 million Saltire Prize which is pretty much an X-Prize for a commercial undersea turbine.