The UK will get a new European Space Agency research centre as a result of an agreement made this week at the ESA Ministerial Council in The Hague.
The agreement in principle to establish an ESA research centre at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire was signed by ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain and the Science and Innovation Minister, Lord Drayson.
“UK science and industry have played a strong part in the success of ESA missions and this move will allow for a stronger role in future ESA activities,” said ESA.
Likely areas of research will include climate change modelling using space data, integrated applications and the development of new technologies for the next era of
planetary exploration, including robotics and innovative power sources.
UK companies and universities will be involved in the development of ExoMars, the ESA project to develop a robotic probe that will search for life on Mars.
The UK already boasts considerable involvement in space science and engineering research. For example, UK universities are to design and build a seismic monitoring network which will be dropped onto the moon in 2013 as part part of a re-energised UK space programme.
The Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey is coordinating the project, which is one element in a plan to send a UK space probe to the Moon.
The proposed unmanned UK moon mission, which is called Moonlite, will put a satellite into orbit around the Moon and will support Nasa's own return to the Moon.