Waste and space

Mark Boyle (Letters, 9 August) draws a striking comparison with the ability of the citizens of ­Hiroshima to restore tram services weeks after an atom bomb and the failure of Edinburgh’s councillors to do similar in peacetime. I would pose another 
comparison.

Last Monday, the US space agency Nasa succeeded in landing its robotic rover Curiosity on Mars. Curiosity, which will be controlled from Los Angeles, will now embark on a two-year mission seeking evidence of life on the red planet.

Nasa described the feat as perhaps the most complex ever in robotic spaceflight. Initial images on Monday showed Curiosity descending by parachute on its landing target.

The landing, a major victory for the cash-strapped US space agency, which recently lost its space shuttle programme, was greeted with raucous applause and tears of joy by jubilant engineers and scientists at mission control.

The cost of the eight-year project came in at $2.5 billion, or £1.6bn, a sum which might just about cover the cost of the constructing and equipping a tram route for Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh trams project is estimated to have a six-year contract duration, and when completed trams will travel the eight-mile route at average speeds of about 20mph. By contrast, Curiosity left Earth on 26 November 2011, travelled 352 million miles to Mars and entered the Martian atmosphere at 13,200mph.

One wonders what Nasa could do with Transport Scotland’s budget?

Tom Minogue

Victoria Terrace

Dunfermline

Fife