Everyone has heard of Nasa, a name synonymous with every aspect of space exploration. Yet talk about Esa, the European Space Agency , is more likely to result in a blank stare.
Author
- Martin Barstow
Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science, University of Leicester
Esa is not such a highly recognised brand, yet it has been central to the development of space exploration and to space science in Europe, delivering world class science at the frontiers of knowledge and allowing the continent to compete commercially with the wider world.
Europe compares favourably with the US on the level of space science it delivers, and Esa has sometimes "gone boldly" where even Nasa has not. Now that Esa has turned 50 years old, it's a good time to look at the organisation's history, celebrate its achievements and look towards the future of European space in its hands.
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As an agency, Esa is completely unique. While all other space agencies are federal in nature, funded directly by the government to which they belong, Esa is more like a club. European countries form the club's membership and each pays a contribution, based on gross domestic product (GDP), to cover the cost of activities.
Esa has its origins in two separate agencies , one to develop a launch system, the European Launch Development Organisation (Eldo) and a second to develop spacecraft, the European Space Research Organisation (Esro). These came into existence in 1964, when the conventions governing them were signed.
Esro was hugely successful, establishing itself as a leader in space exploration, but Eldo had many political, cost and technological challenges.
As a result, Eldo was downsized and merged with Esro to form Esa in 1975, with ten founding members: Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Ireland joined later that year. The membership has continued to expand alongside the enlargement of the European Union, although not all Esa members are part of the EU and vice versa. Fortunately for the UK, withdrawal from the EU did not mean leaving Esa.
At present, Esa has 23 member states , three associate members and cooperation agreements with five others, including Canada. The enormous diversity of membership of Esa makes it a complex organisation.
It is led by a council and a director general. The council represents the member states (with Canada also having seat on council). The director general is appointed by the council to represent the agency in the delivery of the programme. They oversee the agency's various functions in space such as human spaceflight, Earth observation and space science.
About every three years, the council meets at ministerial level to consider funding, agree budgets for the following three-year period and set the direction of travel for the agency. The focus on representation and input from member states allows for wide engagement between Esa and the space community at-large. However, the price of this "democracy" can sometimes be seen in bureaucratic processes.
Measuring the contribution of Esa is not straightforward across the complexities of the organisation, but some benefits and successes are very clear. A relatively small country, like the UK, could never deliver science on the scale and scope of an organisation like Nasa. Membership of Esa allows us to join with other countries to compete at this level.
Europe has an independent ability to launch satellites into space in the form of the Arianespace company , which was created by Esa and the French space agency (Cnes). Esa also has an astronaut programme and access to the International Space Station, with the agency having provided part of the space station's structure. The agency has leading space, planetary and Earth observation science programmes.
Scientists, companies and the public in member states benefit from all the investment in Esa. Esa has also had some unique successes. It was the first space agency to land a probe on an icy moon, Titan , the largest moon of Saturn, and on a comet.
Esa's Copernicus Earth observation programme uses satellites to monitor the health of our planet, helping understand climate change and supporting the lives of individuals through improvements to agriculture and air pollution. In space science, the Gaia mission has provided a high precision map of our galaxy, revolutionising our knowledge in every area of astronomy.
Esa's success has been built on thoughtful and regular planning. In the next few years, we will see Esa land a rover on Mars, to search of evidence of life. Large new space observatories are under development to study gravitational waves and X-rays from the Universe.
We are about to embark on the next phase of space science, called "Voyage 2050". This will look towards landing on an icy moon in the outer solar system in search of a sub surface ocean and possible life within it.
Esa is not a perfect organisation. Its wide membership can make it challenging to organise projects and take decisions about the direction of the agency. However, it is not subject to the whim of any single government, and it offers a stable backdrop to space activities across Europe.
Without it, our economies, social capital and science programmes would be poorer. Therefore, I would like to toast Esa on its 50th birthday, say thanks for all it has given me as a space scientist throughout my career and wish it an amazing future.
Martin Barstow receives funding from STFC & UKSA. He is affiliated with the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics. Martin has previously been a member of the Esa Astronomy Working Group. He has also been involved in Esa's Gaia astrometry mission and with the Hubble Space Telescope, a collaboration between Nasa and Esa.
