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Guarantee the technological autonomy of Europe in space will be key in the rearma of the European Union. He ESE Strategic Plan For the next 15 years it has just made it clear. The document, entitled “Strategy 2040: raising the future of Europe”, establishes as one of the priorities of the space agency to strengthen autonomous access to orbit and independent from NASA.
At what point is that. With an annual budget of 7.7 billion euros, the European Space Agency has a powerful scientific exploration program: it has just presented The first Euclid space telescope data set, He is on his way to Jupiter’s icy moons with Juice and Has Hera traveling to the Dimorfo asteroid as a spatial defense mission.
ESA also develops the Galileo navigation system of the European Commission, which is more precise than the American GPSis behind one of the most advanced land observation programs that exist: the constellation of Sentinel satellites, which is part of the European Copernicus program.
Also together with the European Commission, ESA just closed An agreement of 10,000 million euros (between public and private funds) to build the constellation of Iris2 satellites. The objective: reduce the strategic disadvantage of Europe in front of the Starlink constellation and the incipient Chinese constellations.
Europe also has a wide network of observatories and the ability to communicate with deep space with antennas in Madrid, Argentina and Australia. In fact, one of the NASA deep space network stations (DSN) has A station operated by INTA in Robledo de ChavelaMadrid, from where he communicates with his Martian rovers and other probes.
What depends on NASA. ESA does not have its own spacecraft to transport astronauts. From the veto to Russia and its Soyuz capsules, it depends exclusively on the Crew Dragon ships of Spacex to access the International Space Station, either in NASA long -term missions or in commercial missions of short duration of the AXIOM company.
The same thing happens with the Artemis missions to the moon. ESA is one of NASA’s most important partners in its lunar program. Plans to carry up to 1,500 kg of load With each flight of the Argonaut lunar moduleand has contributed a key component of the manned ship Orion: the service module. However, NASA has prioritized the presence of a Canadian astronaut in the Artemis II mission and A Japanese astronaut In the future of the launning.
The giant’s rear. While that collaborates closely with NASA in many important missions, such as the detection of objects close to Earth, James Webb space telescope or the mission of recovery of land samples mars mars sample return (Now in pause), Much of its infrastructure follows the rear of the American space agency. Especially in launching capacity.
In addition to the best funded space agency (25.4 billion dollars of annual budget), the United States has the most buoyant and advanced private space industry in the world. Spacex puts 80% of the mass that is launched globally a year, and is the only company, along with Rocket Lab, which usually reuses its pitchers. In recent years, Europe has had to launch some of its most important missions (including Galileo strategic satellites) in Falcon 9 rockets of Spacex for an internal crisis of pitchers.
The European plan. For all the above, added to the political context, one of the central objectives of the EES in its Strategy 2040 is to reduce the dependence of the United States in spatial matters. A good part of their future public contracts will be oriented to boost the growth and competitiveness of the European private space industry. The goal is to generate more than 250,000 jobs related to space in Europe.
At the same time, ESA will take advantage of its research facet to collaborate more closely with European universities in the development of new generation technologies. For this they need to attract talent to the careers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, so it starts from the work will be inspired by young people with space missions and the communication work of their astronauts, Among them Pablo Álvarez and Sara García.
Reusable rockets. European releases have been stagnant in an inefficient duopoly: heavy satellites are thrown with French Ariane rockets and light satellites do it aboard Italian rockets Vega. Ariane 6 and Vega C are barely beginning to operate normally after erratic years, but its disposable nature puts Europe in a vulnerable situation against Spacex and the US New Space.
Things are going to start changing. The German company Isar Aerospace could become this March 24 In the first European company that launches a commercial rocket, the Spectrum, to the land orbit. The Spanish PLD Space hopes to do it at the end of the year with the Miura 5ura rocket. There are only two examples of the effervescent panorama of European microlanzores, but all have in common the support of the ESA and ambitious plans to turn their rockets into reusable. Pld ha announced even a manned ship called lynx.
At the forefront. Recovering the lost terrain with its own reusable rocket ecosystem and manned ships is only part of the plan. ESA also plans to expand its satellite constellations, lead the world in the elimination of space garbage, participate in future orbital stations and lunar bases, and develop high thrust engines such as Spacex or Blue Origin, for which you have granted A contract to the Spanish company PANGEA AEROSPACE.
He does not expect to have everything ready suddenly, but the strategic plan projects an increase in launches from 2030 and an increasing capacity to launch heavier loads at more distant orbits, without depending on foreign pitchers and without neglecting the development of other technologies, such as advanced communications systems and autonomous capabilities for asteroid surveillance. In short, give the 23 member states that finance ES an autonomous access to space.
A matter of money. In return, the European Space Agency asks Europe for something very concrete: more money. Its budget is less than a third of NASA, and its participation in space from the global point of view is being reduced.
“European spatial budgets, as part of the world total, have decreased slightly in the last two years,” Josef Aschbacher, general director of ESA saidin a press conference. “The Ministerial Conference of the end of the year is a decisive time to ensure that Europe increases its investment so that its member states have a resilient, solid and independent autonomy.”
Image | Edoardo Follegatti (ESA)
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