Une ambition spatiale pour l'Europe (European Ambitions in Space)

Citation

Richardson, J. (2012), "Une ambition spatiale pour l'Europe (European Ambitions in Space)", Foresight, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 184-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636681211222465

Although this detailed forecast is not a book, it merits review. In space exploration, the human race has now 70 years (counting Germany's wartime efforts) of uninterrupted experience. The adventure has yielded industrial, societal, strategic, political and some cultural benefits and may one day prove more commercially viable. The Soviet/Russian, the US, European, Chinese, Japanese and soon Brazilian efforts add continually (and enormously) to our knowledge of the earth's surface, communication phenomena, climate and weather, inner space, asteroids and meteors, the planets and more.

Just as the Cold war energized the American and Soviet efforts in space, now Europe, operating within the full vigor of the Lisbon Treaty, is moving ahead fast. France has made a major contribution with its Kourou launching facilities in South American Guyana, directly supporting the European Space Agency. It is only fitting that, at a moment of grave financial crisis reverberating throughout the Old World, the French government decided to re‐examine the whys and wherefores of a continuing effort in space. This is what its present future survey seeks to accomplish, in a main text of about 100 pages and a half‐dozen technical annexes.

The French urge their European partners to concentrate on four main goals of a concerted space policy:

1. 1.

   Contribute to European defense and security, thanks largely to careful space watch.

2. 2.

   Advance scientific knowledge and participate fully in the search for life elsewhere in the universe (including robotic exploration of Mars within the coming 20‐30 years).

3. 3.

   Define an industrial policy oriented towards both competition and the development of European products in the critical technologies.

4. 4.

   Respond to the needs of all of Europe's citizens, notably in terms of transport, communication and meteorology.

That is the wish list, and one not necessarily Utopian. In order to stimulate to the utmost the materialization of these four objectives, the forecast stresses that Europe will have to:

1. 1.

   Promote a new governance of space activity by relying on the European Union and the member‐nations of the European Space Agency to ensure a progressive integration of ESA within the EU.

2. 2.

   Guarantee the independence of access to space not only in terms of booster rockets but also in the critical technologies as well as in spatial services.

3. 3.

   Provide sufficient financial resources and improved budgetary means in terms of the EU's innovating capabilities, and then ensure rigorous management of the space programs implemented.

4. 4.

   Resort to additional international cooperation, especially for the exploration of Mars, in further response to strategic objectives pertinent to the EU.

To be sure, the report prepared in behalf of the Centre d'analyse stratégique (CAS, officially part of the Prime Minister's office) concedes that such an ambitious scheme cannot rely on national‐only perspectives of the 27 separate countries forming the EU. “United, Europe offers an appropriate framework for large‐scale projects. Notwithstanding difficulties of governance and financing, boosters for the past 30 years and [navigational positioning] Galileo today are fine examples” of such coherence. CAS Director‐General Vincent Chriqui notes further, in the report's preface, “to meet all such goals, the European Union needs to develop a scheme of space‐program governance [that is] simple, robust and of high performance”. And the money therefore will have to be found.

Who knows? Space programs coordinated at the regional level for security and defense, as well as for exploration beyond Earth, may one day downgrade today's individual national‐defense missions and budgets.

About the reviewer

Jacques Richardson is a member of foresight's Editorial Board. Jacques Richardson can be contacted at: jaq.richard@noos.fr