The Director-General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, has said that he wants to make a request at the next ESA Ministerial Council in 2019 for an increase in funding in order to be able to continue the ongoing activities and introduce new ones, particularly in the space safety and space security fields. Wörner expressed these views during a discussion with EUROPE at the 10th conference on European Space Policy on Tuesday 23 January.
The Director-General therefore indicated that in 2019 it would be important to guarantee the continuity of the space observation and navigation and communication related space programmes and to introduce, as part of this continuity, “disruptive solutions", such as "quantum entanglement" and artificial intelligence. He explained that it was also necessary to rethink developments relating to evolution in the Copernicus and Galileo programmes.
Wörner particularly highlighted the importance of space security and safety and in this context mentioned the possibility of space debris damaging satellites. During his presentation in Paris on 17 January last, the Director-General provided a lengthy explanation relating to the question of risk management and mentioned both space debris and near earth objects (NEOs) (see EUROPE 11943) in this connection. In this discussion, Mr Wörner again highlighted the risk of NEOs crashing on earth in the future and pointed out that there had been around 170 confirmed crater impacts on the globe and that it was necessary to improve surveillance and develop a system for diverting NEOs by way of a system somewhat resembling “space billiards”.
He was quite clear when he answered the question of whether this could have consequences, “Yes, I will ask for some additional funding especially for the field for space safety and space security”. He did not, however, provide any precise figure in regard to what this budget increase could resemble.
Impact of ‘New Space’. The Director-General recognised that the expansion of the private actors and new space nations (obviously a reference to China and India) had an impact on the role of the ESA, which was increasingly undertaking work on projects carried out by the industry and on the decision making and internal processes, with the intervention of external actors working at the agency.
A “United Space Agency” but only in the very long-term. In reply to the question of whether the ESA could become an agency in its own right, M. Wörner explained that a “united space agency” in Europe could see the light of day “in the long term" with only on the condition of seeing a "United States of Europe”. He reaffirmed, however, that “we are not there today” and that “I am not talking about merging the ESA and the European Union – this is not on the table”.
Reusable versus recyclable launchers. Wörner explained that the question of developing European reusable launchers had not yet been decided even though this option was on the table, particularly due to its environmental advantages compared to single use launchers. In his view, they should not lose sight of the fact that they are not in a mass-market situation (the market accounts for around 20 launches a year in Europe) and that they should not exclude the possibility of recycling launchers after they had been used or even re-using single use launchers. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)