In the week the whole world celebrates the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings in 1969, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has begun a consultation which aims to thrust the UK space sector forward for the next 40 years and beyond.

Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, kicked off the consultation at the London launch of a new European Space Agency (ESA) facility at Harwell yesterday. The consultation will seek views on whether the current organisation which oversees space in the UK, the British National Space Centre (BNSC), is the best funding structure to meet the challenges of the future and deliver the greatest benefit to the country.

The UK has a hugely successful sector which is second only to the USA in space science, contributing £6.5bn a year to the UK economy and supporting 68,000 jobs.

However, as the world becomes increasingly dependent on advances in space science and in order to safeguard the UK’s “critical mass” of skills and expertise, today’s consultation is seeking views on the appetite for a single agency to better co-ordinate the UK’s civil space strategy.

Currently, British space policy is devised by a "partnership" of government departments and research councils operating devolved budgets. Speaking to the BBC, Lord Drayson said Britain would benefit from a more strategic approach.

Both in terms of raising the profile of space, which is a fantastic asset in the UK, and in terms of organising ourselves more efficiently, I think that an agency is the way to go.

The House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology looked at the issue in 2007 and narrowly concluded that an agency was only worth setting up if the UK increased its civil spend on space substantially. At the moment, the government invests some £250m a year, mostly channelled through the European Space Agency (ESA).

In the same article, Phil Willis MP, the Liberal Democrat chair of the HoC Science and Technology Committee welcomed the consiultation but questioned it's significance. He commented,

My personal view is that it is still worth having [even without a budgetary increase], but quite frankly without very significant additional funds, what you have is an organisation in name with very little clout.

Lord Drayson has cited the UK's involvement in the ESA GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme as a success. Indeed, many politicians agreed it was the perfect project for the UK because of the country's vocal position on climate change.

However, Britain was indecisive and joined in the multi-billion-euro venture too late after some last-minute funding was organised by the Treasury. Industry has complained that the confusion over GMES cost UK companies the chance to bid for satellite contracts.

Continue reading "Would a Space Agency boost UK Space?"

Take a look at Rob Coppinger's excellent Hyperbola blog and find out more about what UK minister for science Lord Drayson said about robotic exploration, the UK space strategy and the possibility of a UK space agency and participation in the ESA astronaut corps during his visit to SSTL on Friday 6 February.

To find out more, tune in to Hyperbola's podcast.

Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation visited SSTL on Friday 6th February. He met Sir Martin Sweeting (SSTL founder and board chairman), Matt Perkins (CEO), Paul Brooks (Business Development Director) and Phil Davies (ESA business development manager).

Lord Drayson is responsible for developing and delivering policy that will contribute to world-class research in the UK and the conversion of science into wealth through innovation.

The UK space industry is thriving, with innovative companies like SSTL and the businesses that it cooperates with making a valuable contribution to the national economy and developing expertise and knowledge within the UK technology sector. This year promises to be a busy year in space, as developing nations step up their plans, the market of commercially operated small satellites increases develops and Europe expects a busy year in space. As a pioneer and market leader in small satellites, SSTL has seen the Smallsat market begin to mature as the benefits and capabilities become apparent, stimulating increased competition from both national and internationally active manufacturers throughout the world.

The SSTL team briefed Lord Drayson on several topics including SSTL's business plans, its involvement with Europe's Galileo and GMES programmes and the UK's national space activities including the MoonLITE lunar exploration mission.

Following the briefings, Lord Drayson was given a tour of the facilities which included a visit to the constellation control centre, the DMCii disaster monitoring imaging processing centre and the satellite integration facilities. At the latter of these LD was shown 2 satellites which a ready for launch - the next 2 DMC satellites - UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 (for Spain).

The MoonLite development programme, which is part of a proposed UK-led mission to the moon planned for launch as early as 2013, has completed its first three tests at the MoD Pendine test facility managed by Qinetiq with Flying colours. The session comprised the firing of small missile-like probes (named penetrators).

Breaking new ground
The penetrators travelled at 700mph along 300m of the 1,500m test track before hitting a sand target. The speed of impact and the material used were selected to replicate the surface of the moon and simulate the calculate g-force of 10,000g that the penetrators will be required to withstand whilst protecting their valuable analytical payload. See our earlier Space Blog (Shooting for the Moon) for details on the studies leading to this week’s developments for some background on MoonLite and its complement MoonRaker.

More than a missile
Equipment on board MoonLite (which stands for Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecoms Experiment) will carry sophisticated analytical instruments that can be used to explore the Moon’s subsurface. These include a seismometer which will measure “Moonquakes”.

The three penetrators tested at Pendine contained accelerometers, a data acquisition system, a power system and a variety of sensors including a drill mechanism, seismometer and mass spectrometer. The accelerometers recorded data throughout the trial and initial examinations showed that all other sensors survived the impact.

During the proposed mission, the penetrators will be deployed at high-speed by an orbiting spacecraft (MoonRaker) and will embed instruments into the lunar surface on impact. Once deployed, the scientific instruments will send measurements back to Earth, revealing the internal structure of the moon.

Catch the action
A BBC team witnessed the final day of the tests, which included some great video and animated iPlayer footage which can be played online (Missile Practice for Moon mission).

For more information on the background behind the MoonLITE mission, why not tune in to Sir Martin Sweeting’s discussion on the BBC or the BNSC.