“20 years ago, nobody would have ever imagined the dimension of what the internet brings today for daily life and I think space is in a similar situation,” Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, told The Big Question.
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00:00Space will be everywhere. You cannot live without space in 20 years from today.
00:04One euro invested in space programs brings about five euro back to the economy.
00:14Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews where we explore every corner of the
00:18world of business. Today I'm joined by the Director General of the European Space Agency,
00:22Josef Aschbacher. Thank you very much for joining me today. So in recent years the image of space
00:27travel has gained a reputation as a bit of a billionaire's boys club. Do you think the private
00:31space industry plays an important role in the space industry globally? Private industry will
00:35play a major role but it is also clear that private industry will not succeed without public
00:42investments. Take the example of SpaceX. SpaceX being the largest space company today in the world
00:48but they have been built up thanks to a very strong support of NASA both in terms of funding.
00:55NASA has provided huge amounts of funding to build up and develop projects but also expertise.
01:00So yes, we need private investment, we need to attract venture capital funding, we need to attract
01:05funding from outside the public domain, absolutely, and I'm working very hard on this also in Europe
01:11but it has to go hand in hand with European programs that give the objective that what we
01:16want to do, we want to go to the space station, we want to go to the moon, we want to go to Mars,
01:20and then we engage private industry and buy a service from them. But we have to really make
01:24sure that we have the long-term vision, the long-term programs, and the funding to enable it.
01:28Yeah, absolutely. Why is ESA's work important work that needs to be publicly funded?
01:33Oh, it's extremely important. Sometimes I make a comparison, I say, look, if I would have asked you
01:3920 years ago, do you need the internet? You would have said yes, sounds very exciting,
01:45sounds very fancy, it may be good for something, but 20 years ago nobody would have ever imagined
01:51the dimension of what the internet brings today for daily life, for everything. And I think space
01:55is a bit in a similar situation. Today, of course, space is already utilized in many disciplines,
02:01but in 20 years from today I can assure you that space will be everywhere. It will connect people,
02:06it will observe our planet, and many other things will be assisted with space technology. In other
02:11words, you cannot live without space in 20 years from today. Already today you cannot live without
02:16space, but in 20 years even more. And this has economic aspects, societal aspects, geopolitical
02:21aspects, also security aspects, last but not least also inspiration of people, because if you have
02:27cool space programs, young people tend to work there and not leave the country or leave the
02:32continent. I saw at the age of seven years the moon landing, and this changed my mindset. It
02:40convinced me that this is something I want to work when I'm growing up, and I'm still fascinated
02:44every single day. So yes, space is very important for the European Space Agency, but
02:49actually for every citizen in Europe and worldwide.
02:58All these brilliant programs and research and stuff that you do here at ESA,
03:02it's not cheap. But how much does it actually cost?
03:04It is very cheap. The ESA budget is about 8 billion per year. So if you compare this figure
03:10and put it in context with what is spent in the U.S., NASA has a budget of about 25 billion per
03:14year. We have in ESA one third of the NASA budget. But having said that, we do have a huge output for
03:20what we do. Last year we had a record number of 13 satellites that we have launched. We had the
03:26inaugural flight of Ariane 6. We had the return to flight of Vega-C, and all of this has been
03:31successful. We have two flagship programs today that are Copernicus and Galileo. They are the
03:36best programs in the world. Galileo delivers the most accurate signal for navigation worldwide.
03:42It's more accurate than GPS, despite the fact that Galileo was developed 20 years after
03:47GPS was already on the market. The very same happens in Copernicus. We have the most comprehensive
03:53observation of our planet, and we deliver 350 terabytes of data to the globe of what happens
03:59on our planet. Again, it's the best Earth observation program in the world. So I think
04:02this is something that shows that we do with a relatively modest amount of money a lot of
04:07deliverables in terms of space infrastructure. And I think this is something that Europe can be very
04:11proud of, because this is money very well invested. Yeah, and for that investment from the member
04:16states in Europe, how does ESA contribute to the European economy? We've asked some consultancy
04:22companies to assess how much one euro invested in space is bringing back to the economy.
04:27Depends a little bit on the domain. In Earth observation or in weather forecasting,
04:31the economic impact is higher as compared to technology development. But across the board,
04:37one euro invested in space infrastructure or space programs brings about five euro back to the
04:42economy. More recently, I've seen one example of the Arctic Weather Satellite, which we've just
04:47launched last year. One euro invested in this Arctic Weather Satellite constellation, it's at
04:53the moment with one satellite, but there's a future constellation that can be built up,
04:56can bring economic values 50 times higher than the investment. Brilliant. All the work that
05:01actually happens in space, so the programs and the missions and the satellites and things,
05:05how do they benefit us in our economy? WCHILL is a very interesting mission because it's
05:09monitoring space weather. In this particular case, the solar flares that come from the sun.
05:14So if there's a strong solar storm or solar flare, it can impact our infrastructure on planet Earth.
05:21That means electric systems, even in space, the electronics can be damaged. So we need to know
05:27when such a solar flare is about to erupt and there's a certain intensity that it could harm
05:32our infrastructure. So WCHILL is actually one of two satellites. One is built by ESA, the WCHILL,
05:38another one by NASA. And with these two satellites, you can really determine much earlier
05:43when a strong solar eruption would come and therefore have an impact on infrastructure,
05:49either in space of satellites or the space station or on Earth for the electrical grid,
05:54which is one of the elements that is at risk. How expensive is something like this? And then
05:58what would be the projective savings from us gaining that forewarning? The cost of such a
06:03satellite is in the order of a few hundred million, which is certainly an investment to be
06:07made. But if you can imagine of how much you can save by protecting infrastructure on the ground
06:13and therefore minimizing damage that can happen through a solar eruption, then there's a multiple
06:18factor in between. Let me just take one example. Because we do not yet have WCHILL in orbit and
06:23therefore we do not yet have this information. Recently, there was a solar storm that was
06:28unexpected, which resulted in the damage of tens of satellites that have just been launched. And
06:34the solar wind literally pushed it from orbit into the atmosphere and therefore they deorbited
06:40because they could not be rescued. This was unexpected and unprepared. And of course,
06:45you can imagine several tens of satellites cost much more money than one satellite necessary in
06:51order to monitor such a solar storm and therefore be well prepared. And finally, on a personal level,
06:58what are you most excited about in ESA's future? ESA is an incredibly powerful organization in
07:05terms of delivering. ESA is very efficient in terms of use of taxpayers' money and the impact
07:11it creates for the economy and for people's daily life. That is connecting people, that is driving
07:16people in the sense of giving them the navigation signals. So there I really see ESA and space in
07:22Europe to become an essential part of the future economy and the future society. And maybe in many
07:28cases not visible because satellites are up there and you do not know that your navigation
07:35signal needs satellites, but you use them and you rely on them. But it really will enable the
07:40functioning of our society and make Europe powerful, richer and certainly more successful.
07:46Okay, brilliant. Well, thank you so much for sharing this exciting work with me today
07:50and for joining me on The Big Question. Thank you.