Tim Furniss
Science is still "the pillar" of the European Space Agency (ESA), director general Antonio Rodota said at a press breakfast yesterday.
In the "shaping and sharing of the future of European space," science hasn't always received such bullish support but Rodota emphasised its importance when he confirmed the go-ahead for the Mars Express mission to be launched by a Soyuz booster in June 2003.
The spacecraft will orbit Mars and carry a small, UK-built spacecraft, the Beagle 2, which will land on the surface. One of the key features of the mission will be the relatively rapid preparation of the flight and its low cost, an aspect that has been close to Rodota's heart since he joined ESA from Alenia.
His industrial experience has started a revolution in ESA that has swept further than science but into all aspects of its organisation, particularly its relationship with the space industry.
Rather than deciding what project to fly and contracting industry to build the craft, ESA's new approach - illustrated well by the Galileo navigation satellite programme - is to "ask industry what is the best proposal" - the best way to accomplish the objective, Rodota says.
"The agency has to continue to change; we are very committed to change the agency efficiently to stay within the budget envelope, and to have better management and better relationships with other agencies, to save cost and duplication of efforts."
Rodota also says that the European space industry and its 10,000 employees is one of its greatest assets. He also believes that more people should understand how we benefit from space.
"We need to get this message across to the politicians," he says, adding that ESA was perhaps previously operating rather in a political vacuum. Its working relationship and communications with ministers of member states are much better and this has "given us direction".
ESA will focus on space applications "to build a broad, commercially focused sector". Indeed, Rodota remarks that his aim is to "bring space down to Earth".
Source: Flight Daily News
