Dr. Johann Dietrich “Jan” Wörner gave a beautiful lecture a few days ago – in the frame of the Space Renaissance Academy Webinar Series, coordinated by Sabine Heinz –, illustrating his favorite concept “Not going back, but going forward to the Moon”. Btw, that was also the subject of a brief speech he gave, as one of the keynote speakers, at the SRI 3rd World Congress, end of June 2021.Dr. Wörner was the Director General of the European Space Agency since 2015 to 2021.His mandate was somehow revolutionary: while the ESA’s strategy was still focused on Telecommunication, Science and Earth Observation, he dared to put on the table the concept of a Moon Village, a permanent human outpost on the Moon, dedicated to experiment life, to explore and conduct scientific research on the Moon.
The Moon Village is one of the main topics illustrated during the lecture: the Moon is the next interesting part of the Solar System. The Moon Village is proposed as a multi-partner open project, to develop many operations on the Moon surface, human and robotic, public and private, exploration, outreach, cosmology/astronomy, transportation, communication, logistics, resources management.
As a trip to Mars requires 2 years while 1 week is sufficient to reach the Moon, our natural satellite also represents a stepping stone to Mars and other missions in the Solar System. A concept – said Dr. Wörner – that is now shared by all the main actors of space activities, both private and governmental, new and traditional space.The lecture also touched the need, suggested to UN, to widen their Agenda for 2030, adding at least one more SDG: Migration. We applaud this suggestion! Should UN consider some possible additional goals, we’d like also discuss about the SRI proposal, the 18° SDG, to kick-off the civilian space development within 2030, a wider concept of migration, encompassing the geo-lunar space, just to start.
“Space is a bridge over troubled water”, said Dr. Wörner, capable of bringing to work together in peace people of different countries. Even in these days, characterized by the absurd war in Ukraine, Russian, American and European astronauts are working together: the friendship and the will to cooperate for the benefit of humankind do not fail. Global challenges require global cooperation, and good willing people are available: Earth seen from space is borderless.
The lecture touched many topics, related to the evolution of space programs, from the old paradigm of space as the sole realm of governments, to the new-space paradigm, in which all of the meaningful assets are migrating from public to private. Communication, civil Earth observation, space transportation, navigation, are already in the private domain, since many years, while space exploration and space science are migrating from public to private sector.
The presentation replied in details to a few questions which were anticipated to Jan – btw an honorary member of Space Renaissance:
- will 100% reusable launch vehicles be available soon?
- What will be the 2nd key milestone on the road of space industrialization? Producing fuel in space, from lunar and asteroid resources?
- Will the recover and repurpose of space debris be the first profitable manned business activity in orbit?
- How will Europe be leader in such virtuous competition?
In-Orbit Servicing had a dedicated slide, listing several activities, which could start as soon as the cost to orbit will be downsized enough: debris removal, refueling, recycling, assembling, fuel depots, proximity operations, maintenance, life extension.
A personal note: some of these activities may be automated, yet the most interesting phase, to us, will be when manned industrial activities will begin.
Some controversial points were also touched, and discussed, at the end of the lecture: orbital debris removal, just an ecological (sacrosanct) duty or a possible business too?
Reusable launch systems, a useful development? Could it happen in Europe too? Would the European aerospace industry be flexible enough and become competitive, or will it survive only thanks to the captive market of ESA?
Yet, we won’t spoil completely this beautiful lecture!
Watch it, on the YouTube Space Renaissance channel, and see yourself 😊 https://youtu.be/oBxQnkX9FSI
aa, 06 May 2022
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