This Monday, November 18, The Exploration Company (TEC), a Franco-German space company, announced the amount of funding granted to the development of the European cargo transport service to the International Space Station (ISS). The fundraising of 150 million euros is above all strategic for Europe, which does not have a module allowing it to access the ISS in complete autonomy, unlike its American, Russian and Chinese counterparts, which have the Dragon, Soyuz and Shenzhou capsules respectively. The funded spacecraft, named Nyx Earth, is expected to be operational in 2028.
Space competition moderately impacted
With this project, the Europeans aim to free themselves from their dependence on the Americans, which implies a certain increase in space competition, particularly in the spaceship market. However, this threat to space actors is limited, since as Upasana Dasgupta, professor specializing in space law and member of the McGill Institute of Air and Space Law, asserts, Europe is less effective in this regard. regarding decision-making: “There is a certain push and pull (push-pull) that takes place between European countries, and some say that the European market is very fragmented. Unless this fragmentation disappears, they cannot compete on the same level as the Americans, (yesterday). »
In addition, the objectives pursued by the space powers are different: “The European space market focuses on very niche activities, notably space sustainability,” emphasizes Prof. Dasgupta. The actors of the Nyx Earth project aim to design a fully reusable spacecraft, a mission in line with their activities focused on space environmental protection. The machine would have an articulated arm whose purpose would be to clean the space of the debris that currently clutters it.
For these reasons, the European “threat” to the space market is low: “Europeans cannot grow exponentially like the United States,” says Prof. Dasgupta. “They have the capabilities and the talent, but they don’t have the money or the efficiency. »
A criticized and risky exploration
Encouraging space competition remains a subject of debate, particularly with regard to the issue of space debris: “Since Sputnik went into space, countries have carelessly left rocket parts in the space “litter,” explains Prof. .Dasgupta. “If such debris is left, it will collide and create more debris that is more likely to hit operational space objects and render them unusable. »
The lack of details in international treaties, which are the main regulators of space activities, adds to the problem. The Space Treaty, which brings together more than 112 signatories, defines most of the laws regarding space governance on celestial bodies, such as the Moon, but remains vague when it comes to the rest of space. Prof. Dasgupta particularly highlights the ambiguity of Article 4: “It explains that we cannot place weapons of mass destruction on the Moon and all other celestial bodies. But the article says nothing about the rest of space, and so some countries have tested their weapons to destroy failed satellites, which creates debris. »
There are wars in 2024, we are still fighting for territories, so how can we be ready to bring humanity together in this unifying adventure?
Regarding exploration on Mars, Dr. Richard Léveillé, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill, explains that the exploration of a potential habitable zone by a terrestrial vehicle would entail risks of contamination: “Some regions are considered special because they are places that could contain ice or groundwater, so could perhaps support life today. We know that it is almost impossible to sterilize a rocket, so the regulations say that for the moment, we are not going to these regions, until we can be more certain that we are not going to contaminate the potential traces of life. »
Furthermore, Prof. Dasgupta affirms that there is a certain duty of humanity to learn from its past errors, notably the colonization of territories, whether there is the presence of life or not: “colonization in this sense is different from that perpetrated by Europeans on Earth, since there is a chance that we will not find any living being in space. But does this mean that we have the right to change this environment and to believe that everything is at our disposal to colonize it? »
Cooperate in an uncertain and unstable context
On a scientific level, recent explorations on Mars give inconclusive results as to the probability that life was already present: “We must differentiate between the possibility of existing life or ancient life, these are two quite different questions” , explains Dr. Léveillé. “We know that Mars today is very unsuitable for life; In terms of the conditions that exist at the moment, there is not really any liquid water on the surface, it is very cold and dry, but we know that in the past there were lakes. “It was a different planet that could have supported life, but finding traces of water doesn’t necessarily mean there could have been life.” As for missions intended to explore celestial bodies probably capable of hosting existing life, they remain confronted with technological limits: “As for current life, perhaps there are other places like Europe or Enceladus, moons with oceans under the ice, which could perhaps be more conducive to life,” says Dr. Léveillé. “Except that we know even less about these places because they are further away. »
In addition, the current geopolitical situation creates doubts regarding the future possibility of achieving international collaboration: “We are living in a very conflictual period with a lot of polarization,” laments Dr. Léveillé. “There are wars in 2024, we are still fighting for territories, so how can we be ready to bring humanity together in this unifying adventure? I remain hopeful, but we may not be ready. »
However, the existence of the international space station is a reminder, according to Prof. Dasgupta, that scientific cooperation and diplomatic tensions are not incompatible: “There are obviously ideological differences between countries, but even with that, the ISS exists. It exists as we speak, while there is war in Ukraine, and yet Russia and the United States are collaborating together on the station. »
Although the ISS represents hope for space cooperation, its final shutdown is planned by NASA by 2031, in particular because of its obsolescence and the high costs linked to its maintenance. It therefore remains to be determined whether a regime of international governance can really be defined and accepted by all, since collaboration seems inevitable, if Humanity wants to once again accomplish a project of such magnitude.
