IN FOCUS SPACE INDUSTRY
Y
ou wouldn’t readily associate the space industry with Poland. Automotive, heavy machinery, electronics, even aviation – sure, but space technologies have long been thought to be out of Poland’s reach. That may no longer be the case, though. The Polish Space Agency was established as a national body closely cooperating with the European Space Agency. As a member of the ESA, Poland pays a contribution fee, and in return receives a lot of support, both financial and as knowledge transfer from the European agency.
Space 4.0
The ESA is not an EU agency, as some may think, but it does work together with the European Commission in many ways. It was the ESA that coined the term Space 4.0, a stage in the global space industry development that we are presumably living in right now. What the term signifies is, unsurprisingly, that there have already been three previous stages in space exploration history and now another phase is starting. Space 1.0 refers to the studying of astronomical objects, going back as far as the first civilizations and the ancient study of astronomy, later aided by the construction of telescopes. Space 2.0 signifies the 1950s-1980s space race between the US and the USSR that resulted
24
MAY 2018 W B J
in the first man landing on the Moon. The space race played a big role in ending the Cold War, both through public perception and sentiment as well as through purely economic factors: it was an enormous financial cash drain and the US was clearly better equipped to handle that burden than a socialist economy. Once the Cold War ended, the space race slowed down significantly. Instead, a new initiative of joint international space missions was born which led to the construction of the International Space Station, whose first module was launched into orbit in 1998. This stage has been dubbed Space 3.0 and precedes the era of space exploration that we are living in now. Space 4.0 stands for global involvement in space exploration, with access to space becoming cheaper, easier and increasingly egalitarian. It is no longer the domain of a few privileged countries, but a level playing field, where even those new to the game, like Poland, can find a place at the table.
A group effort
And there are very good reasons why they should get in on the game. “In 2014, when Elżbieta Bieńkowska was appointed as a European commissioner, it was said that every €1 invested in space would bring €8 in return. Now we are talking about €15 for every €1 put in,” said Tomasz Husak, Head
of Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, during the 2017 EFNI conference in Sopot. The European Union prepared its own space strategy that involves all EU countries willing to participate and is more ambitious than any national program could be individually. “No European country could have a proper space policy. Yes, Germany and France have their individual undertakings, but a proper space policy can only be achieved for the EU as a whole,” stated Husak and added that out of all EU policies, the space program enjoys the most support from individual EU countries. One could ask, how the EU, or any European country for that matter, could become a real player in an industry that took the US and Russia decades to develop and which took China billions of dollars to acquire the know-how and improve it – as the Asian giant tends to do with all technologies it comes across. It appears that the EU has its own strategy on how to catch up in the space race. “We are in no way lagging behind. In fact, in some areas we are even more innovative and forwardlooking (e.g. in the next 20-year timeframe) than the US, Russia or China,” Husak said.
Galileo, Copernicus and other endeavors
The EU’s space strategy involves