COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.–Cooperation across borders was one of the main themes of the space agency leaders panel April 4 at the 33rd Space Symposium.
The speakers, representing agencies from countries across the globe, outlined some of their plans and concerns for the short-term future — but each stressed that progress can only be made with assistance from international allies. Jean Yves Le Gall, president of the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), noted France’s long-standing tradition of cooperation with foreign allies and emphasized that it is particularly important for more developed nations to support those only now emerging into the space industry.
“We consider that the more players we have in the space arena, the better it will be,” Le Gall said.
Mexico is a prime example of one of those emerging nations. Francisco Javier Mendieta Jimenez, general director of the Mexican space agency Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM), highlighted that the country has already begun to sign agreements with other space agencies to spur development of its own technological capabilities. Fortunately, Mexico is starting from a strong foundation with an aeronautical industry that is already “quite well developed” due to its proximity to the U.S.
“We are trying to make this transition from aeronautical to space, from planes to satellites, from turbines to rockets,” Jimenez said.
Mexico hopes to address some of mankind’s greatest challenges related to space, including connectivity, climate change and security, in partnership with the more than 20 agencies with which it has already signed agreements.
“The idea is to capitalize our established aeronautical field with our established IT field, because these two pillars will constitute the space ecosystem of the future,” Jimenez said.
Meanwhile, countries such as the South Korea have already begun to invest in international education to help bring emerging nations into the fold.
“Korea has been providing annual space training programs to developing countries since 2010,” said Insun Kim, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
As for the future, the speakers all seemed very excited to lay out their agency’s current mission pipeline, particularly those involving the Moon and Mars. Kim said that South Korea is focusing on finalizing development of its three-stage launch vehicle along with perfecting its liquid engines. Once that proves successful, KARI will use the vehicle to carry out its lunar exploration project, with a test launch scheduled for 2019.
Johann-Dietrich Worner, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), said ESA also has its sights set on the Moon as it offers special opportunities to develop new technologies, such as resource mining and astronomy from the far side. The ESA’s ultimate vision is what it calls the “Moon Village,” a collaborative community open to any and all interested nations that could be used as a testing ground for human activity further out in the solar system.
“The Moon still has a lot of secrets,” he said.
In 2018, China plans to land on the far side of the Moon for the first time in human history, but Yulong Tian, secretary general of the China National Space Administration pointed out that the mission wouldn’t be possible without “extensive international cooperation.” Tian said China also plans launch a lunar sample return mission later in 2017, as well as additional missions to the lunar poles in the coming five to 10 years.
While Germany is developing a communications satellite to be placed in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit, much of the DLR’s manpower has been dedicated toward Exomars 2020.
“Germany together with France and the U.S. is delivering the core instrument, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer. It will be for the first time able to measure biomarkers under the Martian surface,” Ehrenfreund said.
Germany is also assisting Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa 2 mission, which launched back in 2014 to collect material from the Ryugu asteroid and is scheduled to return to Earth by 2020.
For CNES’ LeGall, the biggest challenge overall for the space industry is to “change a lot without changing too much.” In other words, he elaborated, while it is important to keep the space industry’s heritage alive by continuing projects that have marked its success thus far, leading agencies must also adapt to accommodate the arrival of both emerging countries with new needs and “new space” companies innovating fresh approaches.
This story originally ran at Via Satellite, a Defense Daily sister publication.