Magazine BEAST #15 2019

56
#Science | Space
LUXEMBOURG AT THE FOREFRONT
BY MICHAËL
OF THE NEWSPACE DYNAMIC RENOTTE
© Photo - Dominique Gaul
Space industry specialists made the trip from all over
Europe and beyond to attend the third edition of the Space
Forum, a two-day event held in Luxembourg on May 21 st and
22 nd , aimed at promoting exchanges and triggering debates
between all the active forces of the sector.
GovSatCom for Defence and Security applications
After having offered his welcome words to the
participants, Paul Wells, Vice President & Chief
Commercial Officer of GovSat, presented the activities
of his organization, a public-private venture owned
by SES and the Luxembourg State. «In a harsh threat
environment, our EU and NATO partners are exposed to
increasing signal jamming, cyber-attacks and physical
attacks», he said. «Our mission is to support our
users in need of secure long range communications.»
To achieve this objective, GovSat provides their partners
with X-band mission beam capacity, terminal supply,
integration and installation, and local maintenance and
support. And all this is orchestrated from Luxembourg,
«a senior provider in terms of satellite operations».
Open access to space: a view from Europe and China
Acting as Master of Ceremony for the second chapter
of Space Forum 2019, Jean-Jacques Dordain, former
Director-General of ESA and member of the advisory
board of SpaceResources.lu, underlined that «if defense
is still the main driver for space activities, changes are
being brought on by new players who are introducing
a new culture and new standards of cost and time.»
He added that «space is nevertheless the only place
where it is still possible to collect and spread data
everywhere.»
BEAST MAGAZINE #15
He then passed the floor to Professor Ji Wu, former Director
of the Chinese National Space Science Center.
Pr. Ji Wu told the audience that China had to develop its
presence in space with its own capabilities, without any
support from the US or Russia. «We have some capabilities
in the space field, funded by the government, but this is
not enough», he added. However, China has started in 2015
to issue some regulations to open the space market to private
actors. The country has 8 million internet users who may
be potential customers for the space industry. «NewSpace
is an area that venture capitalists are targeting now», said
Pr. Ji Wu. «This gives space start-ups opportunities to take
off and develop.»
The next presentation was given by Dr. Shufan Wu, Chair
Professor and Executive Dean of School of Aeronautics and
Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He recalled
that, with the construction and launch of with micro
and nano satellites, the NewSpace wave had been started
and was now booming. «In China, more and more players are
joining the micro and nano satellite club, both universities
and commercial companies», said Dr. Shufan Wu. Since 2015,
the commercial Chinese space sector has in fact become
more and more active. «Globally speaking», Dr. Shufan Wu
added, «China is still in its start-up phase with regard to
the micro and nano satellites industry and the development
of space-related commercial products and services. But a
very rapid and vigorous expansion in these fields is foreseen
in the next decade.»
Having heard the Chines points of view, Jean-Jacques
Dordain handed the floor to Jean-Yves Le Gall, President
of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French
space agency.