News Ugandan Vision for Space Exploration

I'm still waiting for the Somalian Space Program.

"Uh, Houston, this is the ISS... Is there a capsule full of pirates pulling alongside us?"
 
Africa (a lot of parts of it, but it can be called Africa) is in a critical condition really. I'm not sure if there is another continent in the world where so many people die each day because of diseases and violence and simply because of poverty and starve, and the world almost does not care. That continent is going to face a century that likely might be worse than the 20th century was for Europe.

Beside playing the big world police and pompously call themself human rights and peacemaker, Europe and the USA could do to something really useful for Africa as well.

I think I missed something... ah, yes... the need of an African flight to the Moon...
 
Didn't von Braun get involved in a venture in Africa to build a modular launch vehicle briefly after he left NASA in the 70s?

About the "world not caring", do we really want to go there with this thread? 'Cause I will if you want...
 
Didn't von Braun get involved in a venture in Africa to build a modular launch vehicle briefly after he left NASA in the 70s?

No, the OTRAG project was done by another German engineer, with Africa showing it's real interests quickly (hardware got stolen by Libya at the end, and tested as ballistic missile project).

Von Braun did not live that long after leaving NASA anyway.

---------- Post added at 08:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:55 AM ----------

Beside playing the big world police and pompously call themself human rights and peacemaker, Europe and the USA could do to something really useful for Africa as well.

Yes, but we can't do a hostile take-over on every country in the world.
 
To be honest Europe and the USA's attempts to help Africa are laughable. Throwing aid money at the continent does nothing apart from ease our concience. The Africans would do better if we didn't give them the money in the first place, it never gets to where it's needed.
 
To be honest Europe and the USA's attempts to help Africa are laughable. Throwing aid money at the continent does nothing apart from ease our concience. The Africans would do better if we didn't give them the money in the first place, it never gets to where it's needed.


Indeed... a much better use of the money would be to invest in education and infrastructure.

All the food drops just cause more and more people to sit and wait for the next food drop. As long as the food keeps coming, they don't care...
 
No, the people don't wait for food drops.

The dictators wait for food drops. And aid money. And lots of other goodies they can use to enrich themselves and impoverish their people some more, so that they can lay another guilt trip on Americans and Europeans to send them some more money.

But, hey, if you really want to get involved and help out, just ask the US how that Iraq thing is working out.

@Urwumpe: That's the one I was thinking of. Here's why I associated von Braun with it:

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/otrag.htm said:
Wernher von Braun and Kurt Debus, the leading managers of American rocketry, were so enthusiastic about the project that they joined the team after their retirement from NASA. Their contribution was important and helped to introduce lessons learned from earlier programs. Von Braun introduced the concept of parallel clustering of tanks and engines with his Saturn I design. This had shown the way towards the low-cost breakthrough 20 years earlier. However, both rocket pioneers were in doubt whether this technology should be flight tested in developing countries because of the possibility that it would be misused for weapons. Kayser optimistically hoped he would be able to limit the technology to commercial satellite launchings. He was to be proven wrong and suffered heavy financial losses as a result.
 
The dictators wait for food drops. And aid money. And lots of other goodies they can use to enrich themselves and impoverish their people some more, so that they can lay another guilt trip on Americans and Europeans to send them some more money.

Exactly. The same problem you have with the so-called "inevitable" corruption there. If you pay corruption money as welfare organization, you make sure the money finally ends in the hands of the biggest thief of them all - the ruler.

If you really want to help people, try it with micro loans. The system seems to be far more effective than all other forms of foreign aid tested in the last centuries - followed by conquering it and installing a foreign political system on it.
 
Exactly. The same problem you have with the so-called "inevitable" corruption there. If you pay corruption money as welfare organization, you make sure the money finally ends in the hands of the biggest thief of them all - the ruler.

If you really want to help people, try it with micro loans. The system seems to be far more effective than all other forms of foreign aid tested in the last centuries - followed by conquering it and installing a foreign political system on it.

^ And that has nothing to do with the thread topic

Let's please keep this thread on-topic!
 
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