Christian Cabal

The Policy Challenges of Space Exploration

    I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to open this conference: the Honorable Harry Harding, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, and his Excellency Jean-David Levitte, Ambassador of France to the United States of America.  Inviting a politician, especially a member of the French Parliament, in front of such a prestigious audience is both a great honor and privilege.  It is as well a very positive challenge for me.  It shows that space is more than just about science and technology.   It embraces a large range of issues of domestic and international public interest, which does not appear evident at first sight.  But before I start, I would like to deliver a message of deep sympathy from the French Parliament to Mrs. Reagan and her family in the memory of former President Ronald Reagan, a great friend of my country and an outstanding President.

To introduce the political dimension of this conference, I would like to emphasize two major aspects of the political approach of space:

•First aspect: the fundamental question is how to justify a space policy.  Simply speaking, why do we go into space?  What drives a national policy maker like me in the space field?  Is space exploration a real policy challenge?

•Second aspect: the global perspective. What can international cooperation bring to space exploration in this uncertain world?  And what can space exploration bring to humankind?

Like the old Janus mythology, space has two faces, perfectly shaped for a statesman of the Renaissance like Nicolo Machiavelli.  One is a dream dimension that brings out the positive aspects of people, for the simple reason that space exploration pushes forward our imagination, our concepts of life, and our beliefs.  It is the only place where human ambition has no limit.  We have to respond to the need of humankind:  conquer and expand.

Space exploration could answer some basic questions:  Is there any life out there?  Are we alone?  Do we have to expand into the universe during the next centuries in order to survive?  Could we live on Mars, or on other planets?  When humankind first saw a man in space—Yuri Gagarin—and a man walking on the Moon—Neil Armstrong—our vision of Earth and our feeling of our place in the universe changed forever.  Sending a man into space is still a great symbol for any country; the Chinese understood that perfectly well last year.  A strong message certainly.  However, today it is not enough.

The other face of space exploration is more cynical; it is the strategic dimension.  For the military it is similar to seapower between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the tool for full spectrum dominance and global reach.  The use of space allows one to strike an enemy wherever he stands, and to have a global view of the world.  We must admit that there would have been no space conquest without the Second World War, no Apollo program without the Cold War.

 Now, after growing up so quickly and comfortably as part of the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, space exploration has to find a new impetus.

    But space exploration does not seem to trigger in France the dreams of the next generation.  Younger people are more interested in the Internet, quick money, and quick answers easily delivered by present technology.   They are less and less interested by the difficulty of fundamental sciences and the mystery of the vast universe.  The movie “The Matrix” inspires more than “Star Trek.”  My generation, which was been educated alongside Sputnik and the Moon program, now has to give a new breath to space exploration.  If not, we could enter the dark age of space conquest.  The causes are simple: a lack of long term policy vision, a lack of will, and the lack of courage.  Thus, the policy maker has to deal with reality.  It means that today in this uncertain world, voters and citizens are quite skeptical when politicians call for public money to spend billions of dollars or euros on space programs.  They are more concerned by the fear of terrorism or their retirement and health insurance.

So what can an elected politician like me do for space exploration?  What is the role of the parliamentary body in space policy?  Let me explain the role that has to be played behind the scenes.  As a national member of the parliament, I am first a representative of the French people. I have to guarantee the citizens’ rights and needs.  My role as special speaker for the Appropriation Commission for the research budget and President of the Space Parliamentary Group is to propose budget options for our national space program, and for the French financial contribution to the European Space Agency.  That role cannot be fulfilled without true willingness within the executive bodies (French Presidency, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Research, and the rest of the cabinet), our space agency (CNES), our industries (well represented here today), and of course the Parliament.  At the European level, I am the Head of the French delegation to the European Interparliamentary Space Conference (EISC).  In this role I have to trigger a political dialogue between the European national parliament representatives and European institutions such as the European Space Agency and the European Commission, and of course national parliamentary space groups inside the European Conference.  This Europeanization is growing up quickly now.  With the White Paper on space presented both by ESA and the European Commission, despite our divisions or institutional competition, we have a clear roadmap and an action plan for implementing the European space strategy.  As the representative of the leading European space country, my duty, in accordance with my close partners, like Germany and Italy, is to ensure the capacity and the independence of European capabilities in space.  Parliamentarians do not build space programs; that is the role of space agencies.  Parliamentarians are not a substitute for the executive bodies.  Parliamentarians are free and independent.  Our role is to provide enough political strength, in order to ensure the best conditions for action by all the actors of the space sector.

In this context, what kind of vision will we deliver to the people if we want to continue to explore space?  What real justifications do we have to pursue a space policy?

The policy maker who I am would like to tell you his deep belief as written on the wall of the room of the Committee for Science on Capitol Hill:  “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

In the new global world, I do believe that space exploration in the perspective of international cooperation could be a strong policy vision and a positive objective for all the people on Earth.  Because space exploration has no equivalent for improving life on Earth, because space exploration has no equivalent for expanding life out there, and finally because space exploration has no equivalent for finding life beyond, as NASA would put it.  This dimension of space exploration may be the most important.  And is certainly a major political issue for this century.

To make this new vision come true, I propose to now address the second part of my statement: the global perspective of international cooperation.  And to address the audience with three main items that shall be debated over the next days:

Europe has great experience with the multilateral approach.  Its space policy is the result of a very complex scheme of decisions that has to deal with national, intergovernmental, and supra-national bodies.  ESA has to deal with seventeen countries in an intergovernmental scope in relation with the European Commission who ensures different field policies (agriculture, research, transport) for 25 member states.  We also have to honor our space cooperation with our great international partners: our Russian friends, and of course our American friends.  I would like here to address special congratulations to the representative of ESA and to the representatives of the European Commission who participate in this conference for the remarkable job they do day-after-day.  We hope that introducing space in the future European constitution will help to better coordinate all the space actors in Europe, for the benefit of our international partners.

The International Space Station, the Cassini-Huygens probe around Saturn, the James Webb telescope project, all those ambitious programs are remarkable examples of multilateral cooperation in space.

But they are not visible enough and clearly insufficient to support a new vision of space exploration.  If we are to succeed, we need to give a new impetus to space conquest.  We must build strong political bridges with a high public visibility and support.

I propose three initiatives that could be put into force as major international cooperation axes in space exploration:

1. Far exploration, to ensure the first step of human presence in the universe with the objective of putting a human on Mars no later than 2025.  This could only be an international enterprise, for many reasons.  It is a human challenge rather than purely a national undertaking.

2. Preserving our planet: with the reinforcement of the Global Earth Observation System.  It is really time for us now to preserve our spaceship, Earth.  Pollution, climate change effects, deforestation, epidemic effects, destruction of our own environment will have dramatic impacts on our civilization.  We need concrete actions.

3. Educating young people about space and fundamental sciences.  The need to renew the technical and scientific workforce is today a critical issue.  Organizing a worldwide educational system through the space agencies and the educational authorities based on exchange programs and partnerships with universities is a very challenging issue.

To ensure a continuing follow-up and maximum political support, maybe we could set up a special international ad hoc committee to maintain political support and to report progress to the different interested entities.

Large-scale space initiatives in an international cooperative framework will accelerate progress in many critical technologies, including power generation and storage, computing, nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, communications, networking, robotics, and materials.  Also it will have a positive impact on free entrepreneurship, and on the relations between people around the world.  We must consider space exploration programs in a multilateral approach context as an opportunity to build a new generation of international infrastructures.  I am sure all our international partners in the audience could contribute and benefit for all.  We all need to consolidate our space technologies and know-how.

We must thank the United States of America for giving a new momentum with the new vision for space exploration.  Going back to the Moon and sending humans to Mars is a very positive and reachable objective.  Despite some initial reluctance and misunderstanding, other space countries must be positive and share the same vision.  We now have the opportunity to go further together and to share our political determination for a new space vision: accept the expansion of humanity into the universe.  What an opportunity to do something positive together!  We are at a time when citizens of the world need to participate in a positive enterprise.  Something that could transcend our differences, our oppositions - Something else than images of war, terror, fear, and disease. 

If we accept that international cooperation as the cornerstone to pursue space exploration for the benefit of all, then cooperation between Europe and the United States is necessary and remains to be worked out
 

2.  Cooperation between Europe and the United States of America

    On January 16th, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter flew almost directly over the NASA Spirit rover at Gusev Crater at an altitude of about 300 kilometers.  Mars Express used four instruments to look down, while Spirit looked up.

Spirit’s science team took advantage of the special possibilities presented by this overflight of the European orbiter.  The aim was to get observations from above and below at the same time to determine the dynamics of the atmosphere as accurately as possible.

Agustin Chicarro, ESA’s Project Scientist for Mars Express, said: “This is the first time that two space agencies are cooperating on another planet with two spacecraft.  It is remarkable to know that one is in orbit and one is on the surface, both taking measurements to complement each other.”

At the same time, Europe and the United States were able to conclude a joint agreement for the coexistence between Galileo and the GPS.  After years of marathon discussions and disputes around the specifications of the Galileo navigation and positioning system, Europe and the United States found a way for mutual benefits from each system.

Those examples show the fantastic cooperative potential between the United States and Europe.  After being the main subcontractor to the United States for some time, Europe has become an autonomous space power, a very reliable partner, despite limited public budget allocated to space programs.

However, we have to clarify the terms of our cooperation in the future.  To confess, transatlantic space relations are not a beautiful heaven.  For example, many voices complain in Europe against our participation in the International Space Station.  A costly project and difficult to justify in front of the voters, the interest in ISS is difficult for many to understand.  In the minds of many Europeans, the transatlantic cooperation on the ISS program seems to favor the United States, and to dry up our modest space budgets.  That opinion, which is not mine, reflects the feeling that we do not want to be considered as a hostile challenger to the United States, but as a real and reliable partner.

Today Europe is becoming a mature space power. To confirm this, many positive evolutions have been seen:  the introduction of “space” as a shared competence in the future European constitution; the ESA/European Commission Framework Agreement; and industrial reorganization.

Last spring 2003, during the Paris Airshow, I took the NASA Administrator, the Honorable Sean O’Keefe, to the French Parliament for a special meeting with the Heads of the space sector: Mr.  Koptev, Directorate General of Rosaviakosmos, Mr. Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency, Mrs. Haigneré, French Ministry of Research and former astronaut, Mr. d’Escatha, President of CNES, Mr. Camus, President of EADS, and other big guns of the space sector.  It was a good occasion to have a frank discussion about transatlantic space relations.

We finally concluded with Mr. O’Keefe that Europe and the United States would promote a strong and well balanced cooperation on the major space programs in a multilateral or bilateral scheme.  That cooperation shall be completed by a fair emulation between agencies when we have to compete at a national level.  Competition is always good. This is true for space programs; this is good for increasing our respective public space budgets.

If the main space actors like the United States, Russia, Europe, and also Japan, Canada, China, India, and Brazil could agree on the project of a worldwide space infrastructure based on the three issues I proposed: far explorations, preserving our planet, and educating young people, then space cooperation between Europe and the United States of America will be more dynamic, and very positive for our mutual benefit, and also for our friendship.

3.  The bilateral cooperation between France and the United States is an example of how the big and the small could benefit from each other.

    In 1962 NASA and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) established a strong partnership that is still a very important element of the relationship between France and the United States.  Even if CNES has a budget ten times smaller than NASA, the two agencies are very similar: both are program agencies and technical centers, driven by a strong national political will.

This mutual capacity opened the door to many very high quality space programs.  I cannot forget that many French astronauts flew on board the Space Shuttle, and in the sixties many French space engineers were trained by NASA.

My very good friend, the dynamic President of CNES, Yannick d’Escatha, represented here by Stéphane Janichewski, did a marvelous job last year in restoring CNES’s full capabilities.  He is fully supportive of a strong cooperation between our two countries.

In any case, I think there will always be room for bilateral cooperation in space between France and the United States.  Bilateral partnership could be very positive for a global multilateral cooperation with Europe.

To conclude,  the D-Day anniversary in Normandy, where so many young Americans gave their lives for our freedom, reminds us that World War II marked the end of continuous war on our continent.  Space exploration may be born from this era, but space exploration is opening a new age of hope and unbelievable opportunities for international cooperation.  It is the responsibility of the policy makers to make it happen.

I would like to cite a friend of General de Gaulle, President John F. Kennedy, another giant of the twentieth century, who said “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

For myself, I think we should choose to go to space all together for the benefit of humankind.
 

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