→ GSTP ANNUAL REPORT 2011 - ESA

4 | GSTP Annual Report 2011
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From invention to innovation
Often used interchangeably, invention and innovation are not the same. While an invention
is a new and promising idea, innovation is a mature idea whose early promise has been
fulfilled – found valuable and put to work.
ESA’s challenge is to turn inventions into innovations, and do it in a systematic way. To
successfully accomplish this, ESA relies on its tools, the Technology Programmes, which serve
both to help define ESA´s future technology needs and eventually fulfil them.
The ESA’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) relies on technological innovation
to accomplish ESA´s main goals: enabling novel space missions and applications of the
future, boosting Europe’s industrial competitiveness, fostering innovation, and increasing
and preserving our non-dependence in space technology.
The GSTP converts promising engineering concepts into a broad spectrum of mature
products – everything from individual components, to subsystems, up to complete satellites
– right up to the brink of spaceflight or beyond.
Its objective is to bridge the gap between having a technology proven in fundamental terms
and making it ready for ESA and National Programmes, the open market and, eventually,
space itself. The GSTP allows such transitions by developing technology concepts into
engineering models or ‘breadboards’, which involves testing their performances in all
conceivable scenarios.
The GSTP Programme, as its name suggests, supports general technology, covering all ESA
Themes 1 except for Telecommunications, which has its own ARTES Programme.
The GSTP is an optional programme, open for ESA Member States (including Canada as an
Associate Member State) which choose whether to participate or not, and up to which level.
1
Earth Observation, Space Science, Robotic Exploration, Human Spaceflight, Space
Transportation, Navigation, Security and Generic Technologies and Techniques