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Interview with Vicente Gómez, Head of ESAC
7 February 2006
Head of ESAC Vicente Gómez has the look of a happy man - having achieved his goal of making ESAC into the scientific heart of the European Space Agency.
ESAC is rapidly becoming an international hot-spot for science operations, and is becoming home to a growing number of top European engineers and scientists. Formally inaugurated by Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Asturias on 7 February, ESAC is the scientific base for two space telescopes and three planetary missions in already space. Many other ESA Science missions in preparation are also based at ESAC.
ESAC has been greatly refurbished during the past year, but not all the changes have been in the buildings.
Yes, of course. In a way, the new infrastructures are the effect. The cause is a more substantial change: this centre in Villanueva de la Cañada was born as a tracking station, and has now evolved into a first-class centre for space astronomy and Solar System exploration. It means of course a higher level of responsibility and work load, but also a jump into scientific excellence, with many new engineers and scientists coming to ESAC and bringing in fresh ideas and energy.
How many people work now at ESAC?
We are almost 250 people, including the scientists at LAEFF (Laboratory for Space Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics). We have people from 14 European countries, and they are top-level engineers and scientists working together in different areas of astronomy and space science. We want to create the conditions for them to work in the most efficient and comfortable way. Actually we want to make a centre in which every member of the space science community would like to work, or at least come to visit.
What are the Astronomy and Planetary teams currently established at ESAC?
ESAC hosts the scientific centres of two space telescopes that are currently in operations, XMM-Newton and Integral, which are providing some of the best results in astronomy today. We have also the Science Operations Centre (SOC) of Mars Express and Venus Express, both missions now comprehensively exploring our neighbouring planets, and Rosetta, which will reach its comet target in 2014.
As for the missions still in preparations, the SOCs of two more telescopes to be launched this year, Herschel and Planck, will also be at ESAC, as well as Gaia’s, an astrometry mission whose launch is planned for 2011. Soon we will have also the SOC of BepiColombo, ESA's mission to Mercury to be launched in 2013, and that of LISA Pathfinder, a technology demonstrator mission planned for 2010.
ESAC also stores scientific data from many space missions. Does the international scientific community use this service?
More than 3000 astronomers and planetary scientists worldwide use our state-of-the-art archival system, making more than 150 000 requests. We archive scientific data from as many as three astronomy missions (ISO, XMM-Newton and Integral) and six planetary missions (Mars Express, Venus Express, Rosetta, Huygens, SMART-1 and Giotto).
With the launches planned for the next years the Archive will grow considerably. Moreover, ESAC will become the European node of the Virtual Observatory, which will be a key tool for the international astronomical community. The challenge is to develop a user-friendly system that makes data from all telescopes easy to find and study - one that is easily accessible to scientists worldwide.
What other activities are carried out at ESAC, or will be in the future?
ESAC also plays a role in other ESA missions, such as Cluster, and in missions in collaboration with other space agencies, such as SOHO and Ulysses or the Japanese-led Akari and Hinode. Moreover, in the near future we will be hosting a data centre for ESA satellite SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), an Earth Observation mission in which Spain is deeply involved, to measure soil moisture over land masses and salinity over the oceans.
But there are more fields with a great growing potential for ESAC. One of them is the Space Awareness project, where surveillance of the Low Earth Orbit region up to the 'geostationary ring' has to be carried out by facilities in southern Europe. Still another very interesting area has to do with 'space weather' forecasts, predicting solar storms that could disrupt key technologies here on Earth. In all these areas, and working in close cooperation with the other ESA centres, ESAC can offer useful services to the community.
Is ESAC involved with the Spanish research system or the Spanish space sector?
The Archives are already, in themselves, a tool for collaboration. And we have at ESAC the LAEFF, part of the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), which aims at attracting young Spanish researchers to Space Science. In any case it is a priority for us to strengthen our collaboration with the CDTI (Centro de Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial) – where the Spanish delegation to ESA is based - and in general with the Spanish space sector.
In 2007, you became also the Head of the Operations Department. How do you manage to run both positions simultaneously?
There is an easy answer to that: with the help of my team. The level of commitment, efficiency and quality of the people working at ESAC, and ESA in general, is very high.
About Vicente Gómez
Vicente Gómez was born in Leon in 1951. He developed his career working in companies and organisations involved in space and technological innovation. After studying as an industrial engineer, he worked for some of the top companies in the space sector.
In 1996, he became Director General of the Spanish Centre for Technological and Industrial Development (CDTI), until his appointment as Head of ESAC in 2004. In 2007, he was named also Head of the Operations Department.
Vicente Gómez was already very familiar with the work of ESA, having been the Head of the Spanish delegation to ESA since 1990.
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