Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Chris Rapley
Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Chris Rapley UCL academics Professor Chris Rapley and Professor Mariana Mazzucato have joined a 12-strong star-studded advisory group to guide ESA's human and robotic space exploration as the agency aims to increase European ambitions in space. The high-level advisory group will provide ESA's decision-makers with an independent and objective high-level assessment regarding the geopolitical, economic and societal relevance of human and robotic space exploration for Europe, and recommended options for a way forward. The group - comprising eight men and five women - contains political figures including a former prime minister, as well as economists, academics and an explorer. ESA recently published its exploration roadmap called Terrae Novae 2030+ that sets out its ambitious exploration vision for Europe. Its objectives are threefold: to create new opportunities in low Earth orbit for a sustained European presence after the International Space Station; to enable the first European to explore the Moon's surface by 2030 as a step towards sustainable lunar exploration in the 2030s; and to prepare the horizon goal of Europe being part of the first human mission to Mars. The vision builds on the message to embolden Europe's space exploration that comes from the Matosinhos Manifesto agreed between ESA and its Member States in November 2021. This message was further emphasised at the Space Summit held in February 2022, when ESA's Director General, Josef Aschbacher, was asked to prepare a political debate on exploration.
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