With the recent influx of new public and private players into the operational space arena, including Europe’s own Galileo, young space professionals review the economic, policy and technology innovation possibilities that space is enabling for the future.  

“Embrace collaboration within the growing space community”.GSA Executive Director Carlos des Dorides presents prize to Andreas Winther Rousing, the winner of the newly founded GSA scholarship “Young GSA – New Navigation Horizons at the 2017 Space Generation Fusion Forum. That was the underlying theme at the 7th Space Generation Fusion Forum (SGFF), a two-day event held April 1-2, just prior to the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, U.S.A. (April 3-6).

Each year SGFF selects an international group of approximately 50 top university students and young professionals to give them the opportunity to engage and learn from today's global space leaders.  The event is held by the Space Generation Advisory Council in support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications.

Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the GSA, was among the key note speakers and moderated the ‘Space for Earth’ focus session. In his remarks, des Dorides provided an overview of Europe’s GNSS programmes and explained how the new accuracy and availability society is gaining from a multi-GNSS world will power a whole new generation of innovative applications and services.

“Entering space is quite recent history for the EU, less than 15 years, but it is already enabling unprecedented business opportunities for Europe because GNSS plays an increasing role in our daily life,” said des Dorides. “By 2020 there will be one GNSS device for every person on the planet and the expanded positioning, navigation and timing capabilities have untold business applications, especially within four major macro trends: the internet of things, smart cities, multimodal logistics and big data.”

Citing a few application examples of connected cars, smart suitcases and real estate sites that offer virtual reality tour capabilities, des Dorides concluded by encouraging the young professionals to perceive space not as its own system, but rather a contributor to a larger system of systems. “Space is a fascinating journey that touches Earth everywhere you look. By 2020, there will be 50 billion objects connected through the internet of things. Of these objects, 90% will use positioning information, and 50% of those objects will get it from GNSS.”

Collaboration – the Only Solution for the Future

The SGFF agenda also touched on the policy gaps that have emerged with new commercial and government space players. Guest speakers, organisers and participants alike questioned how best to balance the public good and minimize security risks, while protecting the commercial and economic incentives to create more innovation. All had a similar solution: International collaboration is the only solution for the future.

In his conference remarks, U.S. Congressman Jim Bridenstine echoed that sentiment as he noted the welcome addition of Galileo’s capabilities to the global satellite infrastructure.

“Timing and positioning information from GNSS make it as important to our way of life as the electrical power grid,” said Bridenstine. “There are strategic risks to our satellite systems and we need to make sure that GPS, Galileo and Glonass signals provide back up to one another. It is important in this new paradigm that we engage with the world and institutionalise global cooperation.”

  

Stronger Together

Among the SGFF attendees was Andreas Winther Rousing, the winner of the first “Young GSA – New Navigations Horizons Scholarship.” Rousing, who is studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was recognised by des Dorides at the conference. Rousing, emphasized the importance of making the public more aware of the benefits gained from Europe’s space programmes.

“More than ever, Europe needs something to remind us that we are stronger together,” said Rousing.  “We can make sure that the space programmes strengthen the bonds between the member states of the European Union (EU) by enabling every country to have the easiest possible access and control over the data provided by Copernicus, EGNOS, and Galileo. I believe that promoting their benefits to the public is a task as important as the space programmes themselves, since without the support of EU citizens, these valuable programmes would not exist.”

   

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).