Ariane
European public-sector support for the setting up of space systems has been provided for compelling political reasons - not least because of Europe's need to master those technologies that will undoubtedly lead to vigorous economic development in the future. Today, the achievements of space programmes have become so much part of the economic, social and scientific scene that there is a tendency to undervalue their importance and the benefits associated with them.
This commitment carries with it an equally compelling obligation to promote the spread of space technology throughout the European economy, with the dual objective of allowing the industrial fabric as a whole to benefit from space R&D, and of integrating space systems into a market economy by adapting them to demand, thereby easing the burden on public resources.
At present, there are two obstacles to spreading space technology easily. On the one hand, space systems may represent just one - and often a very minor - part of an overall service offered by an operator or service provider to a diverse and abundant clientele whose rapidly changing demands frequently are not recognized by the space-sector firm. On the other hand, the products of space technology, the image of which in the public mind has been formed by the space exploits celebrated in the media, are still insufficiently understood by industry outside the space sector and the market in general.
To gear space products more closely to the market, it is essential to adopt a resolutely innovative approach, taking into account the actual needs of potential customers, as they are capable of expressing them. This approach, applied to the ESA Technology Transfer and RADIUS Programmes, has proved extremely profitable. Drawing on a dynamic private sector, it is a type of 'bottom-up' approach which involves establishing close technical and commercial coordination between customers and space specialists, with the aim of meeting clearly identified requirements.
The Agency's role is not in itself a commercial one, but rather one of promoting the development of a customer base, by recognising its characteristics and requirements, and by helping the space industry to adapt accordingly. This means taking account of the cost effectiveness of ESA programmes and of their adaptability to an emerging well-defined clientele in the decision-making process. It also means that space industry has to be involved technically and commercially in the creation of services adapted to a public and private clientele that is itself generally fairly well organised.
The advantage of this approach is that it fosters the most dynamic alliances between industrial and scientific, national, European and international interests, drawing on the results of over twenty years of space experimentation and R&D.
Ariane
The primary objective of ESA's Space Commercialisation effort is to stimulate and facilitate the participation and investment of private-sector industry in exploiting the Agency's technology and applications programmes.
The Office of Space Commercialisation was created in 1986 to identify ways of preparing for the commercialisation of ESA programmes and services. Several cases were studied, such as the commercialisation of ESA's Data Relay Satellite, a large telecommunications project, planned to interlink several space infrastructures in orbit including the International Space Station. Another example was the study of the privatisation of the Eureca platform, a completely automated multi-purpose scientific research platform, put into orbit in 1992 and retrieved ten months later by the US Space Shuttle. The study looked at ways of transferring several of the platform's ground and in-orbit operations functions to a private operator and reducing the turnaround cycle in such a way that the platform would be economically viable.
Eureca
Based on this experience, the Office has initiated several pilot projects aimed at the non-space industrial sector, developing partnerships between space companies or institutions and non-space firms in order to identify the potential needs of industry for a space technology or a space resource in orbit. ESA provides the initial 'seed' money that enables the partners to define and to carry out the feasibility studies or the initial ground research necessary before the in-orbit experimentation.
Preparation for commercialisation must start with success stories which demonstrate the viability of the commercialisation effort and establish the private investors confidence, as well as public awareness of the space programmes potential benefits to society and the economy. To achieve this goal, ESA and its Member States must act as catalysts and encourage the development of innovation and competitiveness, create opportunities for the development of a growing commercial user community, and help reduce the initial risks involved, which are largely due to the high transportation costs to orbit.
is the establishment of business partnerships based on private investment and risk capital. It offers products and services related to a space technology or use of the space environment for industrial processes and products.
refers to the establishment of a business venture based on the transfer of the operation and owner-ship of an Agency product or service to the private sector, for it to perform the same or very similar functions.
is the process of taking innovations from one domain and applying them to another. During the last twenty years, industrial companies have realised that they can - and must - improve the efficiency with which they introduce new technologies into their products. By actively managing technology transfer, companies reduce the time scale and cost of introducing that new technology, leading to more competitive products. Technology transfer takes the form of a commercial agreement between two companies - the donor and the recipient.
refers to the process in which industry is progressively involved with research associations, in partnerships with academia or with space organisations, with the objective of identifying, carrying out and preparing research projects related to a space technology or to the use of a space environment attribute like microgravity.
There is a group of materials, both metals and plastics, known as Shape Memory Alloys (SMA), capable of 'remembering' a shape they acquired through special processing. Shape Memory Alloy design techniques have been used to develop actuators for microgravity experiments, such as a clutch mechanism which enabled a mature plant to be cut in space into 20 mm long pieces for detailed analysis. Another device allowed a small mirror to be moved in front of a camera lens while a photograph was taken, and then moved away again. SMA knowledge gained during these experiments has proved useful for such developments as human bone-repair staples, which underwent clinical trials in 1993. These staples are positioned around the bone fracture site in two predrilled holes. Body temperature is the shape memory trigger that pulls the two legs of the staple together to join the ends of the broken bones, not only reducing the time needed for the bone to heal, but also helping with both the axial and angular alignment.
Developing software, particularly for large multi-faceted projects, is a complex business. Commonality of specification, design, validation, test and documentation, together with rigorous attention to configuration control is essential if serious and potentially expensive failures are to be avoided. ESA was one of the first organisations to recognise the benefit of producing comprehensive and all-embracing software standards. The ESA Software Engineering Standards published in 1984 quickly became the norm for all ESA programmes and have been regularly updated. Over the years, other non-space organisations have learnt about the Standards effectiveness and requested copies on an ad hoc basis. To meet this rapidly growing outside demand in a more efficient way, ESA published and distributed widely a generalised version of the Standards, known as the 'ESA Software Engineering Guides'. More than 500 copies were purchased by a single UK customer
ESA is committed to seeking the widest possible applications for the technological advances achieved within the European space programmes. Participating nations are equally committed to obtaining the maximum value for the money they contribute. ESA is therefore sponsoring a programme to assist the transfer of innovative technology from space to non-space applications.
The trend in modern industry is towards higher quality, lightweight, reliable equipment. Space companies are developing materials, components or methods that are at the very forefront of technology in this respect. Technology transfer from space can involve hardware from high-technology programmes, software, materials, test methods, and sometimes just pure knowledge or 'know-how'.
From a European perspective, technology transfer reduces duplicated research. This cuts the long-term cost of research by re-applying results elsewhere. Technology transfer also exposes ESA's technology to outside commercial markets, thereby allowing non-space companies to inject their own expertise back into the system. A major reason for Europe to support the space industry is the expected 'spin-off' into terrestrial applications. For a relatively small incremental investment, ESA can enhance this spin-off, which is what the industries in its Member States expect.
For industrialists whose main interests are connected with specialised activities such as aeronautics and space, technology transfer opens the door to other industrial sectors. It creates trade contacts in a favourable professional context of technical and commercial exchanges, between firms that were not aware of each other's existence despite the fact that they were using the same technologies for different purposes. The resulting mutual gain is the very essence of the industrial culture that has led to Japan's striking industrial development.
Transfer of technology from space to non-space industrial activities takes place when space industry - the owner of space technology developed partly or totally under ESA contracts - promotes the development of new non-space industrial products, services or processes through licences or joint ventures with non-space industry.
Since 1991, ESA's Technology Transfer Programme has been supported by Spacelink Europe, an Economic Interest Group specialising in the technology transfer process. Sometimes the technology involved is owned by the ESA contractor, while at other times the intellectual property rights belong to ESA. This often depends on the history, the contractual arrangements, and the nature of the innovation.
The Spacelink Europe core companies (UK, Germany, France and Italy) are organised on a national basis but have a partner in every ESA Member State including Canada. These partners, known as correspondents, support Spacelink in their countries in the technology transfer activities to be performed. In cases where good local knowledge of industrial structures and their technology demands is required, the involvement of the correspondents is of considerable importance, for instance when trying to interest non-space companies in the exploitation of space technologies.
For a similar reason, Spacelink makes use of multipliers such as chambers of commerce and trade associations, to achieve a broadly-based but targeted approach to non-space companies.
To provide more focused support in the assessement of a project's feasibility, ESA has involved the European Association of Contract Research Organisations (EACRO) to assist with determining the technology adaptation requirements in certain cases, and the very preliminary market potential of the product or service.
The main tasks of Spacelink Europe include:
The Technology Transfer Programme has undergone a 'pilot phase' and a three-year operational phase aimed at demonstrating the concept and qualifying it. The technology transfer activities, primarily carried out by the Spacelink consortium, can be summarised as follows:
The decision to start a programme for the promotion of technology transfer from space was taken on the basis of a scientific study on benefits from space programmes including the most recent theories on technology development and fertilisation. Since then, it has been shown very clearly that such a programme can work and benefit European industry as a whole.
The Technology Transfer Programme is now entering a new phase which will enable the network to grow by reinforcing the roles and responsibilities of the national correspondents, within the ESA Member States as well as in other Western and Eastern European countries. By pooling its efforts with other European organisations and programmes such as the European Union and EUREKA, ESA is exploiting one of the most effective ways of drawing in European industry and contributing to the increase of its competitiveness.
To enable ESA's Technology Transfer Programme to grow and to evolve towards a self-supported activity, all of the partners will contribute to strengthening the network by harmonising the marketing and promotion strategies, by developing and using common communication tools and by establishing a commercial policy that fosters the commercialisation of the activity.
In early 1990, a task force set up by ESA's Office of Space Commercialisation and consisting of representatives of non-space industries, recommended that ESA adopt a new approach to expanding the involvement of industrial users of space applications. Based on this and on the experience gained from similar initiatives in the United States by NASA and in Japan by MITI, ESA initiated a plan to promote the industrial utilisation of microgravity, known as RADIUS (Research Associations for the Development of Industrial Use of Space).
The objective was to identify leading scientific organisations, experienced in well-defined areas of microgravity research and able to define, with non-space industries, several projects that could lead to space experimentation, which in turn could offer solutions or improvements in their ground-based industrial research.
Four RADIUSes were started in 1994 (and one proposed) in the fields of physical and life sciences in microgravity, with proposals for research projects in the following areas:
Proposed:
Healthy bone(left)/Osteoporotic bone structure(right)
Demonstration during a three-year pilot phase
The RADIUS Programme is aimed at progressively building up a new user community which should be ready to use future space infrastructures on a commercial basis. The role of the RADIUS scientific director during the initial three-year pilot phase is to attract industrialists and to encourage them to define research projects and invest with in-kind and in-cash contributions. This phase should demonstrate the relevance of microgravity to industrial research projects and should consolidate the industry university partnerships and the commitment of the private companies to the RADIUS projects through flight opportunities. During this phase, flight costs are borne by ESA or the national space programme.
Ensuring future access to space for industry
ESA's main commitment to the RADIUS Programme is to encourage the creation of new RADIUSes in new domains of application (e.g. combustion, nanotechnologies, colloids, etc.), by providing funding for RADIUS feasibility studies and seed money during the pilot phase, and then arranging quick and inexpensive access to flight opportunities.
The goal is to offer industrial users of RADIUSes the right means of access to space at the right time. In principle, little or no hardware development is involved since RADIUSes are encouraged to use existing facilities or instruments in order to reduce flight costs to a minimum. The objective is to fulfil industrial user requirements by making the space experimentation 'industry-driven'.
Given the present level of space transportation costs, it is very difficult to convince firms to contribute to both hardware development costs and flight costs. Generally, the fact that the industrial partner contributes its own R&D staff clearly indicates the level of interest in and commitment to the project. During the 'promotional' pilot phase, therefore, the flight is free of charge for RADIUS users, with a charging policy being developed later as projects move from a pre-competitive to a more market-oriented or commercial stage.
In addition, international cooperative missions will be organised by the various space agencies, giving each industrial user community access to flight opportunities to prepare for future Space Station utilisation.
The RADIUSes of the first pilot-phase activities in 1994 have already attracted significant interest from their industrial partners. All have met the condition of having at least one industrial partner at the beginning of a project. The scientific and industrial quality of the projects is reflected in several papers published recently in refereed journals (e.g. Journal of Electrophoresis, Journal of Chromatography, etc.)
ESA's 'seed money' invested in the RADIUS Programme has been multiplied by a factor of 3 so far, through contributions from industry, research institutes and national agencies. Each association has succeeded in creating a multinational dimension, involving several European universities and firms with complementary expertise and centres of interest.
As for the Technology Transfer Programme, a system has been set up to periodically assess performance by measuring the level of financial commitment by industry, the progress of the research projects and the efficiency of the RADIUS organisation as a network of expertise.
The EUREKA initiative was launched in July 1985 by 17 Western European countries and the European Union. Since then, several other countries have joined to support more than 1000 projects, involving more than 5000 participants from industry and universities.
The EUREKA programme's objective is very close to the main driver of the RADIUS Programme: the promotion of cooperation between universities and industry on application-oriented research that could prepare the development of new markets and products. Some of the main priorities of the EUREKA programme, such as productivity and competitiveness of European industries and economies, are clearly important targets for the RADIUS Programme. Both EUREKA and RADIUS are seeking a bottom-up approach in which industry, by providing part of the funding, manpower and materials, plays the leading role in the definition of requirements and the execution of experimentation. EUREKA has no dedicated funding, but calls upon national public funding organisations to support the projects which they endorse. Once the projects are internationally supported, EUREKA's international network system helps to disseminate information and helps the teams to find new partners.
The synergy between ESA's Technology Transfer and RADIUS Programmes and the EUREKA Programme is particularly strong in the following industrial sectors:
ESA and EUREKA are therefore proposing a new cooperative effort with the objective of identifying new projects that will involve European industry more actively in the utilisation of space technology and the space environment.
The ESA Programmes (BR-114).