EPSC 2013: Planetary Science Meets the NewSpace Entrepreneurs
A new type of industry is emerging with space exploration undertaken as a private, entrepreneurial venture. As well as commercial rewards, this alternative from programmes overseen by national and international government bodies could open up a new frontier, making space beyond Earth-orbit more accessible to all – including planetary scientists.
Sessions at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2013 today encouraged dialogue between the entrepreneurs who are exploring alternative ways to reach the Moon, Mars and beyond and the scientists that may become their future potential customers for the commercial flight of science instrumentation, as well as providing key data to enable the missions.
Doug Currie, Professor Emeritus in Physics at the University of Maryland and a key member of the original Apollo-era Lunar Laser Ranging Team is one of those hoping to hitch a ride with an updated version of an experiment carried to the Moon more than 40 years ago.
“Forty years ago, we sent retro-reflectors to the Moon; they are still working and we are still getting science. But science moves on. To address theories of the formation of the moon and Dark Matter and Dark Energy, we need greater accuracy, multiple stations and more observations. I am leading a project to put the next-generation retro-reflectors on the Moon. With no lander missions planned in the short-term by NASA or ESA, my rescue has come through opportunities with new commercial ventures stimulated through the Google Lunar XPRIZE,” said Currie.
The Google Lunar XPRIZE is a $30million competition that will reward the first privately funded enterprises to place a robotic explorer on the surface of the Moon. Teams must launch their Moonshot before the prize expires on 31 December 2015.
Alex Hall, Senior Director of the Google Lunar XPRIZE said, “For planetary scientists, the path to getting an experiment into space, on the Moon or Mars can take more than a decade. And with government-funded programs, there is always the possibility of cancellation. It is not surprising then, that even though these entrepreneurial missions are in the planning and testing stages, there are scientists willing to consider opportunities that could end up less expensive and faster than pursuing a more traditional route.”
Greg Sadlier, an Associate Director at London Economics has just completed a study the value of commercial market opportunities that could be served by teams competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE.
“The Google Lunar XPRIZE presents a very significant monetary incentive for privately-funded teams from around the world to embark on the challenge of achieving a commercial lunar mission,” said Sadlier. “With an estimated overall addressable market value of US$1.9 billion in the 10 years directly following the competition (and $6.4 billion over the 25 year longer term), the real payoff will come from the commercial opportunities that follow in the short, medium and long-term after the GLXP mission has been completed, in a newly created commercial lunar mission market.”
A panel of NewSpace Entrepreneurs, including representatives from Mars One and three Google Lunar XPRIZE teams presented their wide-ranging commercial ventures and updates on current status.
Arno Wielders, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Office of Mars One, presented the non-profit foundation’s ambitious plans to establish permanent human settlement on Mars by 2023. “We plan achieve our settlement on Mars in a step-wise approach by making a launch every couple of years, starting in 2016 with a demonstration mission where we need a rover and outpost components. We are completely privately funded, currently by sponsors but also by a huge amount of people that are applying to become an astronaut. The whole process more or less will be televised and financed through the media,” he said.
Working on another scale, the Euroluna Team is looking to exploit the budget microsatellite market. Tor Mortensen said, “We think that it’s definitely possible to get to the Moon and we think that it’s also a good idea to do it on as small a scale as possible. That’s why we are basing our technology on CubeSats, ion thrusters and a tether. We are planning our first launch in December 2013.”
The Barcelona Moon Team plan to launch their lunar mission on a Chinese Long March rocket in mid-2015. Rafael Harillo said, “We want to prove that it is possible to enter this NewSpace economy with a fixed price payload to put some kilograms on the Moon and generate new opportunities in business.”
Team STELLAR is one of the most internationally diverse of the teams entered for the Google Lunar XPRIZE.
“We are coming at building a space mission from a different angle – because we want to create a business. We have partners with experience from Apollo, Viking, MSL Curiosity and Red Bull Stratos and we have organised the team as a conglomerate of partnering companies from all over the world,” said team leader, Stjepan Bedić.
IMAGES Mars analogue astronaut and Google Lunar XPRIZE rover during Mars2013 field campaign in Morrocco. (c) OeWF (Katja Zanella-Kux) http://www.europlanet-eu.org/images/stories/epsc2013/mars2013.jpg
Earthrise over the Lunar surface from Apollo 8. Credit: NASA. http://www.europlanet-eu.org/images/stories/epsc2013/nasa-apollo8-dec24-earthrise.jpg
MEDIA CONTACTS Anita Heward EPSC 2013 Press Officer anitaheward@btinternet.com +44 7756034243
NOTES FOR EDITORS For more information about Mars One, see: http://www.mars-one.com/en/ For more information about the Google Lunar XPRIZE, see: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/
About the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC)
EPSC is the major European meeting on planetary science. EPSC 2013 is taking place at University College London (UCL) from Sunday 8 September to Friday 13 September 2013. It is the first time that the Congress has been held in the UK. The 2013 programme includes around 75 sessions and workshops. Details of the Congress and a full schedule of EPSC 2013 scientific sessions and events can be found at the official website: http://www.epsc2013.eu/
EPSC 2013 is organised by Europlanet, UCL and Copernicus Meetings and the event is sponsored by the UK Space Agency, UCL, Astrium and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
To celebrate EPSC coming to London, a ‘Festival of the Planets’ has been organised across the Capital in collaboration with partners including the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers, the Bloomsbury Theatre, the British Astronomical Association, the British Interplanetary Society, the Natural History Museum, the Open University, Queen Mary University of London, the Royal Astronomical Society, Royal Museums Greenwich and University College London. More information about the events can be found at: http://www.europlanet-eu.org/epsc2013/outreach-activities
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About Europlanet Europlanet is a network of planetary scientists, whose aim is to bring together the disparate European community so that Europe can play a leading role in space exploration. Europlanet’s activities complement the mission activities of the European Space Agency through field work at planetary-analogue terrains on Earth, laboratory measurements, computer modelling and observations from ground-based telescopes. Founded in 2002 and funded by the European Commission from 2005-2012, Europlanet has evolved into a community-based organisation that will carry on this work and plan for future missions and mission support.
About UCL (University College London)
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine.
UCL is among the world’s top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world.
UCL has nearly 27,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two international campuses – UCL Australia and UCL Qatar. Its annual income is more than £800 million. www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow us on Twitter @uclnews | Watch our YouTube channel YouTube.com/UCLTV
