The European Space Agency (ESA) is in the middle of a critical period as it aims to put together programs that will benefit people all over Europe. The role of satellites in reducing the digital divide, providing data and research which will help in terms of dealing with natural disasters and improving the transport system are just some of the areas where ESA aims to make a positive contribution.

Giuseppe Viriglio, director of European Union and Industrial programs at ESA admitted to Satellite News that there were three main challenges facing ESA throughout the next 12 months.

Viriglio believes increasing investment in research and development is vital if Europe is to keep pace with international competition, particularly from the United States. "The most important technological aspect is to make satellites more powerful and at the same time more flexible," he said. "The reason for flexibility is due to the rapid change in the technology on the ground. Indeed, things are evolving very fast, but it goes faster on the ground than in space, and since the satellites are launched in orbit for at least 15 years, we need to make them flexible, able to adapt themselves in orbit to user needs coming from the ground, which are rapidly changing."

More powerful satellites also are needed to keep pace with developments in a multimedia society. "Satellites need to be more flexible they need to be more powerful so as to be able to offer more and more capacity, to carry the growing amount of transactions," he said. "This is due to the Internet and the existence of more and more operators. We must make sure that the capacity of the satellites is following the trend."

New applications are also changing the European space landscape, and Viriglio said they need to adapt to a new range of applications. "With the help of satellite technology, there are several applications we can improve such as tele-education, telemedicine, security [and] remote control. What we do is support the initial steps in the applications, then, once demonstrated, they can be open to commercial exploitation. This is why we are preparing satellites for technology demonstrations in-orbit, responding to the new demands for services."

In terms of how the satellite services landscape is changing in Europe, Viriglio said, "I believe we will witness a rapid integration of services into the communications network. The operator will not only have to sell capacity but also integrated services. For me, the major challenge will be to go from the pure offer/selling of capacity to the distribution of services. We need that our organization which is organizing efforts in [research and development] in line with the users needs, helps the European industry to stay at the forefront of satellite technology, promoting the availability of new services corresponding to the users needs," he added.

Digital Divide

One of the main goals for ESA will be to reduce the digital divide across Europe. With more and more countries joining the European Union (EU), creating a level playing field and making digital services available to everyone has become a key challenge. While the EU has not introduced a "universal services" mandate, ESA will likely play a lead role when such a mandate comes into being.

"For such a goal, satellites can play a role," Viriglio said. "By definition, services can be universally distributed by satellites while terrestrial communications cannot always be locally distributed. Since satellite delivers uniform coverage over vast areas and can be deployed without pre-existing terrestrial infrastructures, they are well suited to deliver equal quality of service everywhere for everyone. This helps bridge the digital divide. This means that a satellite can cover any remote point but, to achieve this more investment is sometimes needed on the ground. Therefore political will and public support are needed."

The mobile aspect of the way people live also impacts the work ESA is doing. "Today for example, people travelling on planes have no possibility to access their e-mails," Viriglio said. "What we are developing are tools that will allow communications by mobile aboard planes so that people will be able to fully access the Internet. We’ve already demonstrated the feasibility of broadband onboard high speed trains with wireless. I would say that it is easier to solve the problems in this second area because there is a commercial potential whilst, for the connection with remote areas, solutions are expensive and need public support. This support from the governments is not granted everywhere. Again it is a matter of political will."

Galileo

The Galileo satellite navigation project also remains one of the key programs in Europe’s future. ESA is responsible for development of the system, intended to provide a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control, as well as validation of the space and ground infrastructure and the launch of the initial four satellites for demonstrating the technical feasibility of the project.

"We are in charge of the foundation of Galileo, which is called In-Orbit Validation (IOV)," Viriglio said. "This is the verification that the system as it was designed is truly working in reality. We will launch six satellites: four IOV and, before, two demonstrators. The first Galileo satellite, called GIOVE A, was launched in December last year. It is a success and it has already achieved one of its main missions: securing the frequencies allocated to Galileo."

GIOVE B, scheduled to be launched before the end of 2006, will be used to test critical technologies being developed for Galileo.

While ESA is not directly involved in the negotiations between the Galileo Joint Undertaking and the parties involved in the Concessionaire contract, the agency’s role will become increasingly prominent.

"We will launch the mini constellation of four satellites at the end of 2008," Viriglio said. "The major challenge for us is to achieve this validation in orbit on time so that Galileo can be operational as soon as possible and make sure that the design of the satellites and its associated ground segment are well fitted for the implementation of this first civil global positioning system."

Cooperation between ESA and the the European Commission (EC) will be "essential" if Galileo is to be successful, Viriglio said. "ESA is a [research and development] ‘technology push’ organization, and the EC is more a ‘demand pull’ organization," he said. "So we have to combine these two factors. They are taking care of people’s needs, and we are taking care of solutions that the technology can bring to answer to these needs. To have a marriage working perfectly between organiszations as different as the EC and ESA is not easy."

–Mark Holmes

Contact, Anna-Marie Remondin, ESA, e-mail, [email protected]