re clementine science team selected nickh cs cmu edu nick haines writes in article stephens ngis stephens geod emr ca dave stephenson writes remember the first government scientist in the british empire was the astronomer royal who was paid from the department of ordinance budget i e the military flamsteed house the original rgo was built out of army surplus scrap a gate house at the tower of london and paid for by the sale of time expired gunpowder at the time astronomy was vital to the military in that navigation and cartography were of primary impoortance to the military and good cartography was impossible without good astronomy the relevance these daysis somewhat less obvious nick it still applies except the astronomy these days is very long baseline radio astronomy coupled to gps and satellite laser ranging the data from nasa s and the naval observatory s among others is a vital source of data for studies into crustal dynamics earth rotation and purturbations every time there is a leap second added to the new year remember the military and science are still co habiting nicely the same vlbi was used to track gallileo as it passed the earth and used so little fuel that it can afford to observe ida dave stephenson geodetic survey of canada ottawa ontario canada internet stephens geod emr ca
