Technology roadmaps covering ten major technology areas were presented and discussed. It was highlighted by ESA specialists and industrialists that:

• Advanced propulsion technologies will be required to meet the new requirements for space exploration cargo and human long-distance travel and planetary landing and return.

• Robotic missions will need advanced autonomy, because signals from Earth will take long periods to reach them.

• The Automation and Robotics plan includes a new generation of surface rovers. The workshop discussed whether development should extend beyond wheeled rovers to other modes of locomotion, such as walkers or aerostats.

• Missions will venture farther from the Sun, and beneath planetary atmospheres. Solar energy may no longer be available at useable levels. So the Novel Energy Production and Storage plan includes the development of European nuclear power sources, as well as fuel cells.

• Human crews will have to be kept alive and comfortable for years at a time. A self-sufficient closed-loop life-support system will be required – the long-term aim of ESA’s Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) programme – and effective radiation protection will be essential.

• Inflatable habitats will be key to roomy space living, both for orbital missions and planetary exploration, ideally with portholes.

• Planetary explorers will face a new class of threat that has so far only been encountered very briefly: surface dust.

• The single most difficult class of missions, short of human expeditions, is sample return. An international Mars sample return mission remains a long-term plan, with other missions being considered.

• Landing safely and precisely and then taking off will be extremely difficult, along with docking to a waiting ‘mothership’ for return to Earth.

• The long distances that sample-return missions will travel means they will return to Earth very rapidly, requiring sophisticated thermal control.

Presenting draft roadmaps

The technology plans have been prepared by the Directorate of Technical and Quality Management, in coordination with mission designers in the Directorates of Science and Robotic Exploration and Human Spaceflight and Operations.

Based on the comments provided by industry, the plans will be consolidated for ESA’s upcoming Ministerial Council and will form the basis for the preparation of an ESA coordinated procurement plan.