Australia just announced the creation of its own Space Agency. Like many middle powers it won't have the budget for any grand ventures and is limited to initially sending up satellites the size of a toaster. [LINK] This is obviously restricts what sort of hardware you can cram in so, I realized that the answer is simply to create much larger toasters. As they don't need to actually toast more bread at a time it allows designers increased creative freedom: Digital Readouts, Cuckoo clock type announcements that your toast is ready, 1959 Buick Bel-Air type fins....

Come to think of it, how large is our own beloved [flyingtoaster]? I bet they could fit a few more vacuum tubes in a body that size.
-- AusCan531, Sep 25 2017

Australian Space Agency Announced http://www.news.com...64c62cee9711bb61c8d
[AusCan531, Sep 25 2017]

Now we need bigger Shoe Boxes http://www.bbc.com/...e-size-of-a-shoebox
[AusCan531, Sep 26 2017]

Australia is actually an ideal place for a spaceport, because most inhabited areas are round the coast and in the centre there's bugger all. Also, it's dry, and fairly flat.

It's not like there's any real environment to ruin ... building a 100km long railgun, or a super-long runway, wouldn't bother anyone*.

*At least, not anyone that matters.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 26 2017


No, but it's probably time there was.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 26 2017


This is madness. Developing and then launching a bigger toaster will bankrupt Australia. The smart money is on smaller bread.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 26 2017


Might it not be worth investigating the practicality of putting Australia into geostationary orbit?
-- 8th of 7, Sep 26 2017


Technically speaking, it already is.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 26 2017


//building a 100km railgun

Actually, there's talk of crowdfunding such a device in Oz to deliver large ingots of our number 1 export (iron ore) to various customers around the world. We're starting with those living in the area around 51.5074'N 0.1278°W plus those otherwise-hard-to-reach customers residing in orbital Cubes.
-- AusCan531, Sep 26 2017


//they don't need to actually toast more bread at a time// Some people seem to be wilfully perverse
-- pocmloc, Oct 01 2017


//our number 1 export (iron ore)//

Is selling and exporting land from an almost-sea level country in a time of rising seas a sensible idea? Some parts of Australia are below sea level, technically a hole, and you're digging?
-- bs0u0155, Oct 02 2017


For the gods sake, man, shut up ! They might hear you, and stop ...
-- 8th of 7, Oct 02 2017


//Is selling and exporting land from an almost-sea level country in a time of rising seas a sensible idea?//

Of course it is. They'll be the leaders in ocean-adaptation once we hit the Waterworld stage.
-- RayfordSteele, Oct 02 2017


Is that why they all already sound like they're wearing a noseclip and talking through a schnorkel ... ?
-- 8th of 7, Oct 02 2017



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