Space Transport Systems for the 21st Century

F. Engström

I was recently asked to talk about “Space Transport Systems for the 21st Century” and my problem was to link this with the theme of the forum, namely “Mobility on Earth”. I began by suggesting that “space transport” is an extension of “Mobility on Earth”. Indeed, even when in space, we remain captives of the Earth’s gravitational field, if we exclude the very few space flights that go beyond our planet’s sphere of influence.

In addition, ESA’s space activities are largely oriented towards our planet: we observe the Earth from space, we communicate on Earth via space, and we return the results of our scientific probing of the Universe to Earth. Moreover, all of our space activities are prepared on Earth, and any funds we spend on space are spent on Earth. We also evolve in and learn about using and exploiting our near-Earth space environment from here on Earth.