Utility Week

Community lished in December last year aer he allocated funds from the £1.05 trillion national defence budget. Space Force is the first new mili- tary service the US has created since the Air Force, in 1947. It'll report to US Space Command – a separate organi- sation – as the overseer of the military's space operations. It may not have any space- ships yet, but as of last week they do at least have uniforms. The uniforms were standard camouflage and some wags on social media questioned the utility of camouflage in a space environment. Of course, the other expla- nation is that the Space Force, aware that Trump's eventual departure from office may lead to a reckoning, have simply salted their £34 million away in a bank, to be returned later. In the meantime, someone's just bought some badges from the market and sewn them on to a standard marine uniform. Dry January There's not much point having a Space Force unless you've got someone to fight, and there has been bad news on that front. According to France's Centre National de la Recherche Sci- entifique, Mars is losing water faster than previously thought, and there is even less chance than ever of there being any little green men to duff up – and Disconnector Publishing director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellenbennett@fav-house.com; Content director: Jane Gray, janegray@fav-house.com, t: 01342 333004; Editor: Suzanne Heneghan, t: 01342 332106, e: suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com Digital editor: James Wallin, 01342 332015, jameswallin@fav-house.com; Intelligence editor: Denise Chevin, 01342 332087, denisechevin@fav-house.com Energy correspondent: Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tomgrimwood@fav-house.com; Policy correspondent: David Blackman, e: davidblackman@ fav-house.com; Reporter: Adam John, t: 01342 332069, e: adamjohn@fav-house.com; Water correspondent: Ruth Williams, e: ruthwilliams@fav-house.com, t: 01342 332069 Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085, e: paulnewton@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ben Hammond, e: benhammond@fav-house.com. t: 01342 332116; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, e: sarahwood@fav-house.com. t: 01342 332117 Conference sponsorship manager: Sophie Abbott, t: 01342 332062, e: sophieabbott@fav-house.com; General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332057, e: peterbissell@fav-house.com. 2,500 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2018 Membership subscriptions: UK £950+VAT per year. Contact Jo Nikiforov on: 01342 332077 Utility Week is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the regulator of the UK's magazine and newspaper industry. We abide by the Editors' Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint, please contact the Editor. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you want more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk. movie. What with Australia literally being on fire and all, might it be the beginning of the actual apocalypse? It would be ironic in this era of 24-hour news coverage that most of the world was so enthralled by Meghan and Harry's departure from frontline royal duties being the end of the world that they missed the beginning of the actual end of the world. To infirmity and beyond! As far as the US is concerned, now is a particularly bad time for a plague because they're busy with other things like an impeachment process that every- one agrees won't result in the president's impeachment. As for their president, one suspects that he'd have trouble grasping the seriousness of a flu-like pandemic, assuming he believes in the existence of microbes in the first place. No, Trump has his eyes on something altogether more dramatic – like aliens. His Space Force was estab- The end is nigh‑ish We're not yet fully a month into the new year and already the portents aren't good. A couple of weeks ago news filtered through that someone in China had died of a mysteri- ous SARS-like virus, which of course was sad for the family of the person involved but a curiosity to the rest of us. At the time of going to press, nearly 300 people in Thailand, China and Japan have come down with the same. The number of fatalities stands at four. It couldn't have come at a worse time, with the Chinese new year imminent and 400 million people expected to be moving around domestically and internationally. The Chinese authorities have given assurances that eve- rything is under control, but nobody is particularly assured. The Chinese authorities have a pathological aversion to "embarrassment", and that means the death toll would have to hit several thousand before anyone thought there were questions to answer. What with the incumbents of the White House and Down- ing Street being comically incapable of coping with any existential crisis such as a pan- demic, it has all the hallmarks of a made-for-TV disaster UTILITY WEEK | 24TH - 30TH JANUARY 2020 | 31 let's face it, the chances were not good in the first place. On the plus side, hey, there's water on Mars! Who knew? Waste of space Here in Blighty we've got a more ambivalent position when it comes to space explo- ration. We're being kicked out of the European communica- tions satellite programme Galileo but we've made public commitments to keep our role in the European Space Agency – and to pitch in £374 million a year for the next five years. This will let us collaborate on projects like the Interna- tional Space Station (ISS) and the ExoMars programme to send a UK-built rover to search for signs of life on Mars. Our ability to make big, bold demonstrations of our space prowess is a little limited at the moment, so hats off to Andrea Leadsom who was out last week flying the flag by planting some trees at the home of Isaac Newton grown from seeds that had been taken up to the ISS and back. British astronaut Tim Peake was in attendance to lend some gravitas. It was all very symbolic, although exactly what it was supposed to symbolise is a tad vague. At least Mark Francois wasn't on hand to claim that aer Brexit we could take back control of gravity.

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