European ministers approved a 1.4-billion-euro ($1.5-billion) lifeline Friday for plans to place a life-seeking rover on Mars and maintain a presence on the International Space Station. Funding for the prestige projects represented a big chunk of investments totalling 10.3 billion euros approved at a two-day meeting of the European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial council, its boss announced.
Cash concerns have long cast a shadow over Europe's plans to finally send a rover to Mars and to remain involved in the ISS with partners America, Canada, Japan and Russia. ESA had warned ahead of the meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, that the talks could be "challenging" given "the current economic and political situation in Europe". Matters were not helped by a 230-million-euro test lander, designed to lay the groundwork for the planned rover, smashed into the Red Planet in October. But ESA director general Jan Woerner announced Friday that ministers from ESA's 22 member states plus Slovenia and Canada, which constitute the council, had agreed on "a big amount of money for the future."
"It allows us to really go forward," he said at a press conference webcast from Lucerne. The government portfolios of the "space ministers" present ranged from trade, economy and technology to higher education. They agreed to invest 1.45 billion euros up to 2021 in space exploration - including about 960 million for the ISS and an extra 436 million for the ExoMars project. Some 3.8 billion was earmarked for ESA science, research and development up to 2021, 1.3 for telecommunications projects until 2024, and 1.6 billion for satellite launchers until 2023.
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