Revolution Space: astronaut and Europe

Illustration made during one of the four “High Level Advisory Group” (HLAG) meetings by artist and group member François Schuiten. The group presented its independent report on the state of European space exploration to the 315th session of the ESA Council at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 23 March 2023.

In “Revolution Space: Europe’s Mission for Space Exploration”, the group argues that human space exploration is undergoing a revolution, which Europe cannot afford to miss.

“Countries and regions that will not secure their independent access to space and its autonomous use, will become strategically dependent and economically deprived of a major part of this value chain. Europe’s goal should be to capture one third of this future market,” the report states.

The HLAG, which includes leaders across industry, government, academia and civil society, was established in the summer of 2022 at the request of ESA’s Council.

It was mandated to provide an independent and objective assessment on the geopolitical, economic and societal relevance of human and robotic space exploration for Europe, and recommended to ESA to ‘act visionary’, ‘act differently’ and ‘act now’ on space exploration.

In its report, available here, the HLAG notes that Europe has no independent human launch capacity and therefore relies on non-European partners to send humans to space, which is threatening its future as a credible actor on the global economic and geopolitical scene.

The 12 members of the HLAG group are:

-          Stefania Giannini, former Minister of Education, University and Research of Italy;

-          Erling Kagge, explorer and the first person to reach on foot all three “poles” (the North Pole, the South Pole and Mount Everest);

-          Mariana Mazzucato, Professor at University College London, Director of the Inst. for Innovation and Public Purpose, and Author of Mission Economy;

-          Maria Theresia Niss, Member of the National Council of Austria and Chair of the European Inter-Parliamentary Space Conference;

-          Cédric O, Former Secretary of State for the Digital Sector of France;

-          Chris Rapley, Professor of Climate Science at University College London and Chair of the European Science Foundation’s European Space Sciences Committee;

-          Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO Secretary General and former Prime Minister of Denmark;

-          Anna Rathsman, Chair of ESA Council and Director General of the Swedish National Space Agency;

-          Tomasz Rożek, science communicator;

-          François Schuiten, best-selling comic book artist;

-          Christoph Schweizer, Chief Executive Officer of Boston Consulting Group;

-          Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum.