London hosting European Space Expo
Above:
The European Space Expo on Horse Guards Parade, London.
Courtesy: UK Space Agency
Companies and organisations from across Europe are gathering in London this week to find out how space can be brought down to Earth to benefit a wide range of businesses.
Hosted by the UK Space Agency, European Space Solutions is the biggest EU space event this year, bringing together business and the public-sector with users and developers of space-based solutions to explore how space can make a real difference to the lives, and livelihoods, of people across Europe.
The conference runs from the 3-5 December and the Expo – a travelling exhibition highlighting the critical role of the European Union in space and space-based technologies – runs from the 3-9 December.
The event is being attended by a number of high profile speakers including the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts; Vice-President of the European Commission, Antonio Tajani and Paralympics wheelchair tennis gold medallist Peter Norfolk OBE.
From health authorities to food producers, emergency response organisations to energy providers, the European space industry provides solutions and services to a wide range of individuals, businesses and organisations.
Much of the space solutions on offer to business are through satellite telecommunication - the most mature of space applications, satellite navigation and Earth observation. Today these satellites are part of everyone’s life and can support a wide range of requirements.
Space applications on show or being discussed at the conference include a project to improve navigation for blind people, technology for tracing dangerous goods whilst in transportation, satellite technology for emergency response in crisis, driverless taxis, technology to find missing persons and satellite forecasts for seafarers. Many of these services and applications use the EU flagship programmes GMES (Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security) and Galileo (Europe’s own global satellite navigation system)
Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director of Growth, Applications and EU Programmes at the UK Space Agency, said, “People don’t realise how much space impacts on our everyday lives; it has many terrestrial applications, having a wide range of benefits for both society and industry. Even events like this one will use space technology as a matter of course.
“In the UK we have ambitions for significant growth in the space sector and the European Space Solutions event will seek to stimulate and promote our growing industry with a particular focus on users of space technology.”
The Expo will showcase the many ways that the European Space Programme’s flagship projects for satellite navigation (Galileo and EGNOS), along with Earth monitoring (GMES), are improving life on Earth.
London is the latest stop for this interactive, travelling exhibition. Come and try out the interactive kiosks and find out more about how much space benefits life on Earth.
Public talks about the European Space Programme as well astronomy and the exploration of Mars will be held throughout the week.
Tuesday 4th December
12.00-12.15 – ‘Space Science for Education’ - Dr Chris Castelli, UK Space Agency
14.30-15.30 - Two talks on ‘Space Solutions to your Smart Phone’ -
Andreas Zachariah & Peter Lindgren, Carbon Diem and Mark Habgood, Instantview
Wednesday 5th December
13.30-14.30 'Space - so what? Living in the Space Age' - Anu Ojha, National Space Academy
Thursday 6th December
13.30-14.30 ‘Astronomy from your sofa’ - Chris Lintott, University of Oxford
Friday 7th December
13.30-14.30 ‘Roving on Mars: Curiosity's first 3 months at Gale Crater’ - Sanjeev Gupta, Imperial College London
Saturday and Sunday
10.30 - 10.45, 12.30 - 12.45 16.45 - 17.00 ‘How GMES impacts your life’ - Astrid-Christina Koch - European Commission
11.30 - 11.45 ‘Galileo in your everyday life’ - Hans de With - GNSS Expert.com
15.30 - 15.45 ‘Using European SatNav in Aviation’ - Hans de With - GNSS expert.com
