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4.2 Strengthen European excellence in space science

Safeguarding excellence

Space research is science conducted in, on and from space. It not only provides far-reaching insights into the structure of the universe, improved understanding of Planet Earth, and a new approach to life and physical sciences, it is also a strong driving force for new technology developments with many subsequent applications of benefit to society and the environment.

Space research has demonstrated an ability to attract young people into professions that strengthen Europes technological capabilities across the board. It leads, by excellence, in the field of international space co-operation and is essential to Europes identity and leadership as a knowledge-based society.

ESA is the lead agency in Europe for space research programme definition, technology and system development, and in-orbit operations. Together with national agencies, scientific institutes and industry, it has striven for efficiency and competitiveness within the limits of a global budget for space research sciences that is only one sixth of the US equivalent.

Major successful space research missions under European leadership have placed the European science community and industry at the forefront and created a strong position from which to negotiate co-operative projects with international partners. But confronted with the challenge of responding to an increasing demand for applications, more efforts are needed to enhance scientific knowledge and to develop innovative technologies.

4.2.1.Boost efforts in sciences of the Universe

Europes stature on the world scene in sciences of the Universe has been established through strict reliance on scientific merit for project selection, ESAs careful planning and associated GNP-related funding by its Member States. However, this funding has been continuously eroded over the last decade. In addition, Member States have found it increasingly difficult to fund on a national basis more and more complex scientific payloads.

This budgetary pressure has now reached the point where it is beginning to disrupt the careful balance between disciplines and missions of different size. A progressive increase in funding would yield a high return on investment by optimising the industrial development costs of future large-scale satellites, while providing the required short-term flexibility for new small missions and satellites. A corrective action in this direction is urgently needed.

4.2.2.Stimulate Earth sciences

Observation of the Earth from space is a striking example of the continuous link and strong synergy existing between upstream research missions and operational applications. As clearly illustrated by EUMETSAT in the case of space meteorology, new instrument concepts must be experimented in orbit before their integration into a future operational application. At the same time, the Earth sciences research community consistently relies on operational systems for continuous and homogeneous access to data.

ESAs Envelope Programme, dedicated to the basic understanding of Earths processes through a family of explorers, constitutes an appropriate effort to structure the research in this field. It remains, however, poorly funded and can only support the early scientific use of Earth observation data. This endangers the existence of future European operational capabilities without which the basis for environmental policy decisions would be weak unless dependence on US capabilities was increased.

Europe needs a sustained European programme to study the Earth from space, with an adequate level of funding and long-term stability, enabling the proper exploitation of space data by the science community.

4.2.3.Support life and physical sciences in space

Predominantly carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), the European space research programme in life and physical sciences addresses fundamental questions and has the potential to produce useful applications on Earth, while laying the foundation for future human planetary exploration.

However it faces two limitations: adequate support is lacking for the ground-based activities which complement the space experiments, from preparatory research to downstream applications; and the implementation of the programme on the ISS is severely limited by a small share of ISS resources (5%) and limitations on ISS operations under the current NASA plans.

4.2.4.Facilitate the exploitation of scientific data

Space science data represent a significant long-term investment. They have to remain affordable and accessible over a period extending well beyond the nominal lifetime of the missions. There is a need to develop and sustain new infrastructures  thematic centres and networks  for long term archiving and distribution of European space data. This infrastructure development should allow for integration of space and non-space data archives, a key issue for multidisciplinary work.

Recommended Actions

Progressively increase ESA and national funding for space research: EU and ESA and Member States should jointly review the strategic plan and resources for European space sciences in particular with the objectives of:

• strengthening upstream R&D;
• developing the supporting infrastructure for data acquisition, long-term archiving and dissemination;
• supporting the operational exploitation of Earth observation data;
• supporting ISS utilisation and fostering technology transfer to non-space applications.