Critical Year For European Space Programs

 

Setting The Stage

So how vibrant is the European space landscape currently? Bouvier believes 2006 was a particularly strong year. “A number of key programs and scientific milestones were achieved in 2006 with the successful in-orbit capture of Venus by Venus Express. You had the successful launch of MetOp, which is the first Polar orbit meteorological satellite in Europe,” he says. “This was done in conjunction with the U.S., and this cooperation is paving the way for long-term strategic cooperation between the U.S. and Europe in meteorology, with allocation of missions and programs across both sides of the Atlantic. I think this is a very promising scheme which has been started with MetOp.”

Building on this success and defining a long-term space vision will be a major challenge for all involved, particularly in the run-up to the ESA Ministers conference in 2008. “Among the challenges that ESA faces are its relationship with the EU (European Union), its role as [a research and development] organization and its relationship with the European Commission,” says Reid. “There are subtle differences. Making ESA an organization that is even better aligned to the demands of the European citizens is going to be one of the challenges. The enlargement of the EU also represents a challenge for ESA. There will be clearly pressures on its budget. It has a very ambitious set of objectives in science and exploration and if ESA remains true to its path, it will find innovative technical and organizational solutions to deal with the budget crunch in some of those areas.”

Bouvier says, “We have in Europe, a political setup which is more complex and not as straightforward as the political organization in the U.S. We have to secure the political decision making process, which involves more countries in an enlarged EU, ESA, etc. It is more difficult here than in the U.S. due to this specific political situation in Europe. To define a long-term space vision in Europe takes more time.”

While political issues will continue to dominate, Kocel believes one of the challenges is to foster innovation. “We need to innovate, to have initiatives such as the X-Prize or X-Prize Cup. These initiatives create a pendulum and vibrancy in the market,” he says. “ Before we have that we will not have the amount of innovation we have seen in the U.S. However, the advances we have made in Europe in terms of microsatellites are really interesting. If you look at the small microsatellite programs in universities in Europe, it is very impressive. There are signs of major breakthroughs coming about. This is the sort of innovation that is coming from the roots.”

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