A new document signed by ministers from the twenty-two member states of the European Space Agency (ESA) outlines five "urgent" initiatives to be developed. Among them is the need to develop a European astronaut launch system and a mission to Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.
This new document paves the way for the next budget setting meeting in November 2022. necklace" in its space program by proposing initiatives.
“At a time of unprecedented challenges facing Europe and the world as a whole, now is the time to contribute with bold and shared ambitions to the solutions made possible by space “, write the ministers who gathered in Matosinhos, Portugal.
In detail, the Manifesto offers three initiatives to "accelerate the use of space to solve today's greatest challenges “.
The first focuses on improving the capability of Earth observation satellites in order to tackle the climate crisis. As part of this initiative, the document also proposes the creation of a "digital twin of our planet". More specifically, it would be a question of developing a simulated replica of the Earth allowing modeling to be carried out.
Using this tool, researchers would then be better able to predict potentially catastrophic natural events such as floods or droughts years in advance. This "digital twin" would also be used to guide our efforts to eliminate global CO2 emissions by 2050.
The second initiative is somewhat similar to the first, calling for more intensive use of data collected from space to deal with natural disasters. Finally, the third initiative focuses on the need to protect manned and unmanned spacecraft from orbital debris and space weather.
In addition to these three proposals, the report also presents two mission proposals. The first asks Europe to set up its own launch system thanks to the European Space Agency (ESA) to send its astronauts into space. It should be remembered that currently, and have always been, European astronauts depend on Americans and Russians to leave Earth. In this sense, Europe would like to be more autonomous in its access to space.
Finally, the second mission proposal envisages sending a probe to Enceladus for the purpose of bringing back samples on earth. The main objective of such a project would be to search for signs of extraterrestrial life. In this sense, this moon of Saturn actually seems appropriate.
Recall that for the time being, this document remains only a simple series of proposals. However, some may get the green light at the next budget setting meeting next year.
