Small country and space program

[Pawelk198604]

I wonder does small country like Poland my country could afford for starting small scale space program.

My government want to build Nuclear power plant, we already tried to build nuclear plant but the plan was canceled in late 80's after people protest after Chernobyl incident, the protest was so loud that forced commie to back down. Now our democratic government want to build nuclear plant in exact same place when commies plan to. I'm not against nuclear energy, in fact i support it, but i think starting small space program would be more cool:)

[ZedNova]

I think Poland should do the Nuclear plant first. But for a country like Poland a small space program should be no problem at all if you get a few tips from the Russians.

[Sof]

Small countries like Poland should just get adsorbed into bigger countries. Tiny little places don't really contribute much on their own and would be put to better use as part of a larger country.

[Moderator Comment - The tiny counties of the world would like a word with you]

Edited May 18, 2013 by sal_vager

[Kryten]

Israel manages to do a space program on half Poland's GDP, admittedly one that involves putting up a spy satellite on a barely-modified IRBM design every few years.

[Fractal_UK]

I don't think there would be much point in Poland or indeed any European country starting their own space agency. We have the ESA for joint European Space exploration, of which Poland is already a member and contributor. Since space is very much an area where centralising expenditure to cover the enormous costs is extremely efficient, we (as Europeans) would probably be better served trying to lobby for an increase in ESA spending. The EU combined represents the largest economy in the world and we are spending less than 0.03% of EU GDP on space, which is a bit useless really - we ought to easily be able to fund our space agency in excess of NASA.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Fractal_UK

[Thaniel]

A constant budget around 1% of EU GDP should be the goal. That's small enough to be justified for our collective future, and large enough to actualy do some larger projects.

as for Poland, yes, they can probably develope their own rocket launch capability and such. But just doing it for the coolness factor of being able to launch manned capsules or parts for a spacestation of their own and such,,,, the administrative overhead would be costly. Although, I do believe a lot of the administrative costs can be cut to the bone, if the idea is actual space, and not so much politics.

[ZedNova]

Small countries like Poland should just get adsorbed into bigger countries. Tiny little places don't really contribute much on their own and would be put to better use as part of a larger country.

I have to disagree with you there. tiny countries DO contribute. In large ways and small. Just look at Switzerland and Denmark for example.

[Nibb31]

Small countries like Poland should just get adsorbed into bigger countries. Tiny little places don't really contribute much on their own and would be put to better use as part of a larger country.

What an ignorant viewpoint. There are huge regional, cultural and political differences between many "small" countries. Anyway, Poland isn't a small country. It's the 9th largest country in Europe and a major member of the EU.

Poland already does have a space program and is a member of ESA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Research_Centre

It wouldn't make much sense for Poland, or any of the other small countries, to quite ESA and go alone.

[Pawelk198604]

I think Poland should do the Nuclear plant first. But for a country like Poland a small space program should be no problem at all if you get a few tips from the Russians.

You are right for nuclear energy many my fellow countrymen afraid it after Chernobyl accident, as for tips from Russians, they the "soviet union" forced Poland to cancel your Meter sounding rocket program in the 70's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_(rocket) , they probably was afraid of their rocket monopoly, only them have monopoly for space research in former Eastern Block

Edited May 17, 2013 by Pawelk198604

[satcharna]

Sweden is quite a bit smaller than Poland, and have been able to put several satellites in orbit (admittedly using rented rockets). North Korea has a tiny fraction of the GDP of Poland and have also been able to put a satellite in orbit (though it's currently spinning around to the point where it's unusable as anything other than a danger to other satellites).

[Holo]

Poland could rent a rocket and send up a little CubeSat, since that's what all of the cool countries seem to be doing nowadays.

[NovaSilisko]

Small countries like Poland should just get adsorbed into bigger countries. Tiny little places don't really contribute much on their own and would be put to better use as part of a larger country.

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had the same idea, and they turned out great...

[Specialist290]

Seconding Nova. There might also be this notion called "imperialism" that y'all may have heard about before.

[LeonG17]

North Korea has a tiny fraction of the GDP of Poland and have also been able to put a satellite in orbit.

True but they also have mass hunger and frequent electricity blackouts.

I think that Poland, and all countries, should invest in space as the returns are immense but shouldn't do it at the expense of the citizens in the county

[Xeldrak]

I think if poland want to do something is space, they should work together with ESA. They allready have the infrastructure, rockets ect. that Poland would have to develop and build in the first place.

[Nibb31]

Which happens to be exactly what they are actually doing...

[satcharna]

True but they also have mass hunger and frequent electricity blackouts.

I think that Poland, and all countries, should invest in space as the returns are immense but shouldn't do it at the expense of the citizens in the county

Oh, I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was, if the Poles really wanted to, they could do it. The difference between North Korea's "economy" and Poland's is vast. My point was that the Poles could do it, and quite easily manage without starving the population or turning the power off.

[Rune]

Oh, I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was, if the Poles really wanted to, they could do it. The difference between North Korea's "economy" and Poland's is vast. My point was that the Poles could do it, and quite easily manage without starving the population or turning the power off.

+1. Even North Korea could do it, if they didn't spend such a large amount of their GDP in such a huge freaking army. If even half the defense pending was put to some space related activity, the KSP player community would be put to shame by real life space programs.

Rune. Ok, it's not going to happen, but it could in theory.

[LeonG17]

Edit: Cant get the hang of quotes and posting still

[LeonG17]

+1. Even North Korea could do it, if they didn't spend such a large amount of their GDP in such a huge freaking army. If even half the defense pending was put to some space related activity, the KSP player community would be put to shame by real life space programs.

Rune. Ok, it's not going to happen, but it could in theory.

If any nation did this then we would be living on Mars right now.

[tavert]

As another example, Romania has ARCA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARCASPACE