The European Space Agency (ESA) is seeking €1 billion to develop a new satellite network that will provide the European Union with military intelligence.
According to the Financial Times, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said that the agency wants to create a satellite network with computing capabilities and AI that will be able to collect "very high-resolution optical radar data."
"This will be something quite important," said Josef Aschbacher. According to him, if EU member states sign up to it, the cost of implementing the project, including infrastructure on Earth and launch, would be around €1 billion.
The European Space Agency's new network is expected to initially consist of 15-30 high-tech Earth observation satellites, but could be scaled up over time. The project could be ESA's first major program designed for both defense and security and civilian purposes.
Maxim Puto, head of the consulting company Novaspace, noted that the estimate of this program at €1 billion is only the initial costs. "A full-scale geo-reconnaissance group with multi-orbit Earth observation capabilities could easily cost €4-6 billion over 10-15 years," the expert noted.
In his opinion, based on the ambitions expressed by the European Commission, "this could well turn into one of Europe's most strategically significant space investments of the next decade." Aschbacher's statements, as the publication notes, came after a two-day meeting of ESA's 23 member states, at which the agency's director general confirmed that his agency seeks to increase its funding by 36% - to almost €23 billion in the next three years.
The European Space Agency recently launched a unique satellite called Biomass, capable of measuring the amount of carbon stored in Earth's forests. The new satellite will be able to "see" through clouds and dense treetops, providing access to information that was previously impossible to obtain from orbit.