Colorado Springs, United States, April 19 (AFP\/APP): European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher promised a “transformation” of the continent’s space sector in the coming years during an interview with AFP, including more collaboration between government and private industry.<\/p>\n
Private firms will be “encouraged to be a partner and not only a contractor,” Aschbacher said, answering questions on the sidelines of an aerospace industry conference taking place this week in Colorado Springs, in the United States.<\/p>\n
US space agency NASA has long incorporated private firms into its space exploration, planning to send its astronauts to commercial orbiting outposts once the International Space Station is retired.<\/p>\n
But any major reorientation of the European space program will need to be discussed at the second European space summit, to be held in Seville, Spain, in November.<\/p>\n
Here are Aschbacher’s answers to questions posed Tuesday by AFP.<\/p>\n
– When will we know more about Europe’s vision for space? –<\/p>\n
Towards the space summit at the end of the year, I think we’ll have a clearer picture of what is Europe’s ambition in the next decade, which decisions we need to prepare today in order to get there. So there’s a lot of work that’s happening right now in Europe.<\/p>\n
I’m preparing the scenarios, and I’m preparing the facts, so that politicians can make a decision. It’s up to them.<\/p>\n
– What are the different scenarios? –<\/p>\n
It will be a phased approach. Certainly one step is cargo transport to low-Earth orbit (LEO), for commercial space stations — because the space station by the end of the decade will be deorbited. We need a future LEO presence for Europe to continue our research.<\/p>\n
Second point is to get astronauts to LEO.<\/p>\n
Then the next block is to the Moon. That means first cargo not only to the Moon but also back from the Moon, and eventually astronauts to the Moon.<\/p>\n
And then of course there’s a long-term perspective of going beyond the Moon towards Mars, but this is really further ahead.<\/p>\n
So for these various scenarios, we will develop architectures. What does it mean, what hardware, what are the cost estimates…. But it’s also clear that this will be quite a different approach compared to how we procure today.<\/p>\n
So this will be a transformation of the space sector in Europe, which we also see here in the United States.<\/p>\n
– How will the sector be transformed? –<\/p>\n
Industry certainly will be not only invited, but encouraged to be a partner and not only a contractor. And we, ESA, we’re not only a customer but a partner.<\/p>\n
That means we build up technology with them and for them. They have to engage, they have to commit. We provide the long-term framework and guarantee, we are a long-term anchor customer, but they need to provide the solution.<\/p>\n
We really would like to make them much more a driver in this new architectural buildup. Also them coming with money, which may be coming from their own sources. So that is really a new way of building up a space program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colorado Springs, United States, April 19 (AFP\/APP): European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher promised a “transformation” of the continent’s space sector in the coming years during an interview with AFP, including more collaboration between government and private industry. Private firms will be “encouraged to be […]<\/p>\n
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