Cosmos and Constitution” “

The cosmos has entered the European Constitution on tiptoe, bringing with it space research with all its applications in everyday life, from weather forecasts to telecommunications, and various branches of medicine. And so the European Space Agency (Esa) also finds its place in the construction of the Europe Community. SPACE RESEARCH IN THE EU CONSTITUTION. “To favour technological and scientific progress, industrial competitiveness and the implementation of its policies, the Union shall formulate a European space policy”. To this end the Eu shall support technological research and development “for the exploration and utilization of space” and “establish all useful links with the Esa”. Article 254 of the new Constitution Treaty thus takes on board thirty years of studies, projects, and industrial applications that have turned the old continent into an international powerhouse in this field, alongside the USA, Russia and those countries – such as China, Japan and India – that have more recently lifted their gaze to the stars and planets. Again according to the Constitution, the EU shall as soon as possible take the necessary steps to provide itself with a space programme and to this end the Space Council, composed of the ministers of the 25 in charge of the sector at the national level, was established in Brussels at the end of November 2004. FIFTEEN MEMBER STATES AND TWO THOUSAND BOFFINS. The Esa, though established independently of the European Community, is destined to become the operational arm of the Eu in the space sector. Created in 1973, it now has a membership of 15 states: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Greece and Luxembourg are due to join in the course of 2005. Canada and Hungary, though not members, participate in some projects. The Agency has a full-time staff of some 2000 researchers (physicists, astrophysicists, engineers, chemists and biologists), plus a similar number of scientists on short-term contracts. The budget of the Esa is around 3 billion euros per year, a relatively modest figure if compared with the investments pumped by the Usa into Nasa. The funds come from the member states: “The statutory activities (programmes of astronomy and general budgetary activities) are funded with the economic contribution of all the members – explains a spokesman at the Parisian headquarters of the Esa -, calculated on the basis of gross domestic product”. CENTRES IN FRANCE. GERMANY, HOLLAND, ITALY AND BELGIUM. The headquarters of the Esa are in the French capital, but research centres and offices are also located at Noordwijk, in Holland, Cologne and Darmstadt in Germany, Frascati in Italy, and Brussels in Belgium. The launch base, on the other hand, is situated in French Guyana. It is from here that the Ariane rockets, and various space probes including Huygens, Rosetta and Mars Express blasted off into outer space. Meteosat and Envisat, on the other hand, are the two best-known satellites that bear the name of the European Space Agency. The Frenchman JEAN-JACQUES DORDAIN is the current Director General of the Esa. To explain the relevance of the work it performs, and the strong link that exists between what happens on earth and what happens above our heads, he provocatively launches the idea of a “satellite strike”. “Let’s turn off all the satellite communications for just one day, and we would then appreciate their importance for our everyday life”. That would involve the renunciation of a large part of our television programmes, use of the internet and e-mails, and the satellite navigation systems by now installed in many cars. Not to mention air safety or weather forecasts for those travelling or working in agriculture. Space research, based on knowledge of physical laws and the phenomena correlated with them, also has applications in medical treatment, earthquake prevention, the realization of instruments and clothing for safety on the workplace, and so on. WEBSITE FOR CHILDREN AND FAIR IN BRUSSELS. It is possible to follow step by step the progress of the ESA also on the website www.esa.int, with a space dedicated to children ( www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/), translated into six languages and continuously updated, which helps to discover the cosmos through games, curiosities, educational courses, images and sounds, and virtual space travel. The European Space Agency, in collaboration with the European Commission, is holding a week’s celebration at the Autoworld in Brussels from 12 to 20 February. Called “Earth and Space”, the fair is billed as “nine days of ideas, exhibitions and events”, with the intention of “celebrating the Earth”. Meanwhile the Esa continues its research on other planets, stars and galaxies light years away.