Watch this space

The investment will increase the UK's contribution to the European Space Agency (Esa) whip-round by around 30% at a time when some other countries are actually reducing the amount they contribute.

Although the investment might seem like a pretty hefty wedge of money at a time when the UK is so strapped for cash, it pales into insignificance when compared with, for example, the arts budget.

Quite apart from the fact that the space sector carries so much kudos and appeals to the wider public that generally have no opinion about most high tech industries, the industry represents a real economic success story in the UK when such examples are few and far between. While other sectors have been shrinking, in 2010/11 the UK space industry recorded a turnover of over £9.1bn, representing an average annual growth rate of 7.5% since 2008/09. And the recently announced further investment looks set to help the industry continue in the this trend.

It's quite simple really: as well as being a science organisation ESa is also a vast industrial programme, placing contracts worth billions of Euros across Europe. And the more money a country is prepared to contribute to the men in space suits, the more money comes back to to said country (in this case the UK) in the form of nice juicy contracts for businesses in said country. For example, the UK's past investment in the Esa Artes (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) programme is estimated to have generated an economic return of more than six to one.

It's not rocket science – with returns like that, I for one, would be queueing up to invest.