Washington – The ESA scientific program manager said that she was trying to obtain a “very modest” increase in her budget at the next ministerial meeting of the agency in order to finance work on future missions.
During an online public meeting on January 23, Carole Mundell, scientific director of ESA, underlined the need for additional funding to allow future missions, such as a flagship mission on the icy moon of Saturn, Enceladé, While noting that the agency tried to be effective in its expenses.
“The increase we ask for is actually very modest,” she said about the proposed increase, which she then described as representing 1 % of the overall ESA budget. “Because we have created these efficiency gains, you will have for your money when you invest. »»
ESA member states approved a 13 % increase in science financing during the previous ministerial meeting in November 2022, a few months before Mundell took over the management of science. “Unfortunately, we entered an unprecedented historical period,” she said, citing the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the high levels of inflation. “It really meant that our program remained in constant purchasing power.”
This prompted ESA to be more effective in managing its scientific programs. It cited a case where the agency has released funds held in reserve for the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission (Juice) launched in 2023, allowing ESA to extend 10 other scientific missions.
However, efficiency gains are not enough to support ESA projects alone for future scientific missions presented in its “Vision 2050” strategy adopted in 2021. “I ask for funds to help us start this strategy “She said. said.
An example is a mission to land in the southern polar regions of Enceladus, where plumes could allow a spacecraft to sample materials from an ocean of potentially habitable underground water. This mission would not be launched before almost two decades, but Mundell argued that ESA needed support now to start the development of key technologies.
“We have to land on Encelade in 2052 because it is at this point that the South Pole is lit by the sun, which means that we will launch in 2043, which means that we will adopt the mission in 2034”, a- she said. “We need investments to flock in 2025 because we have a lot of technological development so that this mission is ready to succeed.”
The funding intended to support the ENVIRS Mission and others which are part of Vision 2050 is part of the ESA scientific budget proposal for the ministerial conference, she said, including an “important corner of international collaboration To allow ESA to participate in the missions of NASA and Japanese space. Agency Jaxa. Another party is to continue working on the missions already in development.
The scientific budget is one of the wider preparations for ESA, led by its managing director, Josef Aschbacher, to develop a proposal for the agency’s ministerial conference in late November, where members will set the financing priorities for the next three years. “We have addressed a lot of details in this internal proposal to give Josef the assurance that he can present this proposal in detail to the ministers,” she said.
Unlike most other ESA programs, the financing of ESA science is considered to be “compulsory” by the agency insofar as all the Member States contribute according to their gross national product, rather than to subscribe to specific initiatives at their favorite levels. In 2025, ESA will devote 654 million euros to science, or 8.5 % of the agency’s overall budget for the year.
An increase therefore requires that all 23 ESA member states agree to spend more on science. “We need unanimous support, but that is why we work with each of our member states to understand what they need to help us achieve it,” she said, stressing that she ‘was returned in 22 member states to discuss the science of ESA. Programs with scientists and ministers and will visit the new ESA member, Slovenia, in the coming months.
During the public meeting, she encouraged scientists to defend the scientific program themselves. “If you are in contact with an interlocutor, be your neighbor, whether you are in an elevator with a minister, defend the program, because we are all building it together,” she said.