2007 will be a key year for Europe, with major programs such as the Galileo satellite navigation system and Global Monitoring

for Environment and Security initiative scheduled to take crucial steps forward and the European Space Agency preparing to shape the continent’s space policy throughout the next few years.

Which programs are likely to have the strongest impact in Europe throughout the next couple of years? Antoine Bouvier, the CEO of EADS Astrium says there are three areas where European space policy could have a great impact on Europe’s citizens.

“The first one is sustainable development. This includes the environment, climate monitoring and GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security),” he says. “We see clearly strong society needs, which will be given a high level of political focus and significant priority in terms of budget. Space is extremely well-positioned to do this. Space will be a key contributor for sustainable development. The GMES program is very clearly reflecting this long-term objective.

“The second society need, which will be addressed by space solutions is security and defense. We have developed a number of new space solutions, [research and development] programs in the field of early warning, laser link, navigation, etc., which will generate large operational programs in Europe in the medium to long term.

“The third one, which is more difficult to quantify, and where we need a vision to develop a long-term policy, is revolving around science and exploration. This addresses long-term answers for mankind. Clearly, in these fields, space is also a very critical contributor to this long-term vision,” he says.

Environmental programs could be an exciting area given concerns over climate change and increasing public awareness of these issues, says Ian Reid, president of space operations at QinetiQ, a defense and security technology company, “Clearly, weather and environmental monitoring are programs which, particularly in the context of climate change and the impact that will have on the environment, are going to be programs that have a high profile in Europe,” he says. “There are also the inspirational elements of some exploration programs. We know, for example, that in the U.K., space is one of the reasons often cited by students who go on to do science. I think programs of exploration have that inspirational quality about them and hopefully will influence the next generation of potential scientists.”

Galileo

The flagship space project undoubtedly is Galileo, Europe’s effort to develop its own global navigation satellite system to provide a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control. Bouvier believes it is a vital program for Europe. “We have seen in 2006 the confirmation of the strategic importance of navigation,” he says. “China, Russia and potentially India will develop their own navigation system with different technical solutions. A navigation system is a critical and significant component of any global space policy.

The first Galileo satellite, the Galileo In Orbit Validation Elements-A (GIOVE-A) test satellite, began transmitting signals in January 2006, and the European Space Agency (ESA) has released the technical details of the signals transmitted by the first Galileo test satellite, allowing receiver manufacturers and research institutions to use a real signal for research and development. The GIOVE-A Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document will allow any user to build a receiver able to track the signals, interpret the navigation message and compute the distance between the satellite and the receiver.

In March, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), which built GIOVE-A, received a contract from ESA to manufacture a second test satellite. GIOVE-A2 will be based on GIOVE-A and will maintain the frequency filing for 27 more months and facilitate further development of ground equipment. The satellite also will carry upgrades that will allow for testing of the common L1 open service signals recommended by the European Union and the United States. These signals will provide free position and timing information to users.

“Navigation will be more and more critical in terms of commercial and institutional applications,” Bouvier says. “This should not be seen as competition between the U.S. and Europe. We think navigation is just a critical component of any long-term space policy. It makes a lot of sense for Europe. The two systems, GPS and Galileo, will be interoperable and create added value for users all over the world.”

Beyond Galileo, GMES

“Europe continues to be very strong in space science, and it has some pretty ambitious plans going forward in the exploration area,” says Reid. “On the space science side, one of the big headline items that is coming up very shortly is the BepiColombo mission to Mercury. That represents considerable technical challenges, not least of which is in the area of high-power electric propulsion solution that will be required for such a mission and obviously that is of key interest to QinetiQ. On the exploration side, ESA has a vision to send probes and ultimately manned missions to Mars. I think that these will represent huge technical challenges and organizational challenges.”

In terms of innovative companies to watch in the European satellite arena, Piotr Kocel, a space analyst at Frost and Sullivan, highlights RapidEye. “RapidEye are to my knowledge the first geospatial intelligence company which is launching its own satellite constellation,” he says. “They have procured five microsatellites from SSTL — for really peanuts when you speak of launching five satellites and operating them and developing the ground station network. They plan to offer that commercially by the end of 2007. It is the first implementation and the first Earth observation company to take advantage of micro satellite platforms.”

ESA also has a living planet program designed to discover more about the dynamics of Earth. One of the main missions is CryoSat, a radar altimetry mission with a nominal life of three years intended to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth’s continental ice sheets and marine ice cover. CryoSat’s primary objective is to test the prediction of thinning arctic ice due to global warming. There also is the GOCE mission, which aims to provide the unique data set required to formulate global and regional models of the Earth’s gravity field to a high spatial resolution and accuracy. It will also advance research in the fields of steady-state ocean circulation and physics of the Earth’s interior.

QinetiQ has been working on the GOCE mission, and Reid admits it has been “a tremendously challenging mission” for the parties involved. “The work that we do on GOCE is to provide the electric propulsion system, which without going into technical detail, there is a need to be able to control the thrust for the platform to a very high degree of accuracy,” he says. “Electric propulsion is the only solution to do that. It is still a huge challenge for electric propulsion. It has been a major technical challenge, but what it does do is provide a key stepping stone in demonstrating the utility of electric propulsion for future missions.

“GOCE is a very interesting scientific program,” Reid says. “It has presented challenges for the builders of that mission and it is a stepping stone for further opportunities, which I think QinetiQ is well positioned to exploit. The whole theme of what we are trying to do with electric propulsion is to provide electric propulsions for exploration missions, deep solar system exploration missions and scientific missions.”

Space Science

ESA is involved in number of exciting missions in the area of space science, says David Southwood, director of science at ESA. “From the point of view of space science, I think Europe has arrived in the last few years in terms of planetary science, with at least proving the capacity to do planetary exploration if the people of Europe want it done.”

Southwood pinpoints Gaia as a particularly interesting mission. The spacecraft, one of the few missions being done without any non-European involvement, will track a billion stars. “It is using European capacities measuring multiple stars at one time. We are going to track for about five years stars in the Milky Way, that is the galaxy that the Earth lives,” he says. “By doing that tracking, not only do we find out exactly where the stars are, we map the sky. But more importantly, we map how the stars are moving. Therefore, we track the distribution of mass and the structure of our galaxy. That is a major project. We are just kicking off the spacecraft building phase.”

ESA is collaborating with NASA on the Lisa-Pathfinder mission, a technology demonstrator that will test Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. “We are doing this test so that we can build with the Americans a decade from now a gravitational wave telescope that will fly in deep space and actually follow the Earth around the Sun and look for gravitational waves,” says Southwood. “These are predicted by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. They have never actually been directly observed, although they have been indirectly observed. We are leading the frontline development of Lisa-Pathfinder.”

Southwood believes that perceptions of the importance of space science are beginning to change. “We are beginning to get to the notion that if you want to manage this planet successfully in the coming century, you better get on top of it in terms of monitoring it from space,” he says. “It is the only way you get a global view. Earth is a global system. It is still very unexplored in terms of understanding how that global system works. Space is really a fundamental element in putting the system together. That is a change that has taken place in public perceptions over the last 20 years. But, I think at the policy level, it has taken Europe a long time to understand this. We now have to follow that through with Earth monitoring using the scientific capacities we have developed.”

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.”