http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BLq2yxlaeo
Below are details on How an Irish Teaching From Space Program would actually work
The European Astronaut Corps 2008 Recruitment and an Irish Teacher in Space Program
With regards to getting Irish funding for the European Astronaut Corps I do want to point out that Ireland does need to be spending €1.244 million (0.22 % of the European Astronaut Corps budget) this year in order for any Irish applicants to the Astronaut recruitment scheduled for this year to be considered. And that the next astronaut recruitment by the EAC will probably not be until the mid 2020s. Now while that is certainly not ‘now or never’ if Ireland doesn’t get an astronaut in to the EAC this year that would mean that Ireland would be missing out on more then a decade and a half of social and scientific benefits in terms of the popularity and attractiveness of Science lessons and careers to schoolchildren and young adults. With an Irish teacher astronaut Ireland will be going straight for the social benefits unlike other European nations with astronauts in the EAC and everyone knows that astronauts and space are very popular in the Republic. The organization ‘Astronomy Ireland’ is the most popular national society of its kind in the world per-capita. An Irish astronaut for the next 15-20 years will be the ultimate science celebrity and when Ireland does put one of its citizens in to space the national feeling that day would be as positive as if Ireland had won the World Cup. This kind of popularity might be even bigger then Yuri Gagarin was in Russia when he was the first man in space in 1961 or when Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969 because while everyone in Ireland thinks it’s a good idea no one in Ireland thinks were strong enough or good enough ever to do it at all.
Cost Benefit Analysis of Irish Public Spending on Human Spaceflight
Ireland’s participation in the European Astronaut Corps from funding onwards for maximum social, scientific, economic and political benefit would be as follows:
- As soon as the government money is paid to the European Astronaut Corps optional ESA program, work will be started to set up a national pre-selection program called the Irish Space Cooperation Council (Chomhairle um Chomhar Spás na hÉireann [CCSÉ]) Indirectly supervised by either Enterprise Ireland’s Val Hayes perhaps or someone else in the Department of Enterprise Trade and employment or the Department of Education and Science. The program will be made up of College Science Professors and Science Teachers who can screen perhaps about 700 applicants down to four in interviews probably located at UCD or Trinity for forwarding on to the final selection at European Astronaut Corps in Cologne Germany.
- First step in cultivating public interest would be to have one of the people in the CCSÉ on RTÉ explain in detail exactly what the program is and what kind of people CCSÉ are looking for.
- Once the final four candidates have been selected for EAC consideration and before going to the final testing in Cologne Germany, they should be given considerable press attention again and specified some form of public tribute on The Late Late Show (A note about the Late Late Show, it is the only television show of its kind in the world that I have ever studied as a social psychologist with final judgment on its nation’s social issues. It has the greatest power of any television talk show in the world, of making ultimate decisions on national public opinion on topics single-handedly. It was several shows back in the 1990’s that decided it was not good to be racist in any way and studies have shown that those programs made Ireland the least racist nation in the Western World. If it is decided on the Late Late Show that Science is fashionable and being a scientist is as stylish as being a popular music singer then Ireland could have the largest percentage of Scientists per-capita of any nation in the world in around 15-25 years because kids would study science harder in their classes and more of them would decide to get science degrees in college and university Ireland would need an incredibly popular scientist-celebrity to do this and that would be the Irish Teacher Teaching Science From Space. The Astronaut Teacher could be as popular as Bono or Roy Keane and appear on the Late Late Show five to seven times in her or his career to pull of this feat of promotion.).
- With as much national effort relative to GDP as Sweden and a good national selection program there is no way that Ireland can not get one of their candidates selected. Ireland can then allow the candidate to get paid as an EAC astronaut as well as for her or him to keep a very good teachers salary for all the extra effort that will be started as soon as selection and preliminary training is done at the Astronaut Centre at Cologne, Germany. The Irish Astronaut will probably have to wait about four years to go in to space but that will be time to do all the training at Cologne and to visit every single school in the Republic of Ireland to give a science class or two or three. This will also be time to appear in promotions for Irish science and technology at home and abroad in public media and at conventions and to have another couple of appearances on the Late Late Show in addition to all the necessary training for giving science classes from space (The CCSÉ might need some government funding for travel expenses by now though.).
- With the first possible mission in to space possibly in three years she or he will probably be a backup astronaut for another European astronaut and therefore if she gets on this flight there might be difficulty to do teaching from space but that would still make an Irish Astronaut twice as massive a celebrity then before, the training can be promoted on the media along with some science lessons given on the ground, this is another very good chance also for a celebrity astronaut visit to the Late Late Show.
- During the first certain mission in to space probably in four years a lot of good science will be carried out for Europe and Ireland and the Astronaut Teacher could be filming with the help of RTÉ direction up to three science lessons a day from space for editing on the ground and making in to educational television programs for RTÉ children’s television and also for marketing abroad ether in DVD form or on other television channels in the English speaking world these lessons would be almost all science classes for school children of all ages but some could also be mathematics, and perhaps some geography and biology lessons, this mission might be as short as 12 days but that is enough time to film 36 educational programs and the mission could also be as long as half a year, the latter is much more probable because Europe is working to have an annual visit to the International Space Station instead of one every two years now that the European Columbus Module is attached to the International Space Station and this means that Ireland might be also able to get two visits in to space where as Sweden was only able to get one visit for their national effort. Definitely soon before the trip in to space there can be another Late Late Show science celebrity appearance.
- Upon return from space the CCSÉ can squeeze the maximum social benefit from an Irish Astronaut and arrange second visits to every single school in the Republic of Ireland as well as a very important third or fourth appearance on the Late Late Show. This might be the last trip in to space but the Irish Astronaut will always be trained and ready and it would be quite easy actually for Ireland to get diplomatic gift flights with the American NASA human spaceflight program working with or independent of the EAC for the Irish astronaut if the government put some effort in to correctly asking the American administration at the time this would be in the couple of years after the flight.
- As early as 2017 the United States might be sending their astronauts back to the Moon, they will certainly doing this with international effort to help them and that would include Europe, Canada and perhaps Russia. Ireland can be involved in this program with their existing astronaut and a trip to the Moon could actually be given to Ireland as the one NASA gift mission we can get for free, Or ESA might be able to send up every single one of its Astronauts on Lunar explorations over the several years that the program will probably last.
- There will probably not be another astronaut selection until the mid 2020s but Ireland will have perhaps the best reputation in the world for a nation of its size in human space exploration and development and a new Irish Candidate would be achieved in the 2020s with the same relative national effort as was the first one (Relative to Sweden and to inflation over the years). This Irish candidate selected in the 2020s would have a chance to explore Mars with the precedents set by the first Irish astronaut going in to space.
- • By 2030 Ireland will have more scientists and engineers per capita then perhaps any other nation in the world if this scheme is played exactly right and every ounce of social spin-off from the program can be achieved and many more kids turned on to science then would have without the program. This is especially possible in Ireland with the small size of the nation, the present feeling of inferiority in Ireland about Irish science and the extreme pride of the Irish people in their country. Science and Engineering are two huge factors in a nation’s economic growth and development. And the better a nation’s economy is the better the lives of the nations people. Ireland is already the best nation in the world, we can get even better.
The science research done will also be paying for itself considering it will cost Ireland €1.244 million annually. In the perhaps 16 year career of the Irish astronaut this comes to almost €19.9 million. But the price of one two week tourist ticket in to space with the Russian Roskosmos at the moment costs over €17 million ($25 million USD up from $20 million). Ireland should be making itself a much more interesting location for Space Development businesses on top of advertising itself to the world as an international leader in most kinds of science
What we need at the moment are people who are keen on this idea to contact me and with enough effort, an Irish public servant in space is guaranteed
Kieran Griffith
