But there are also risks: different peoples, languages, different systems, there is a risk of a biblical babel of many different communication systems, and this is the worst that could happen for a harmonious development of the lunar initiative.
An infrastructure of satellites around the Moon, with low latency time and visibility 24 hours a day, will allow the development of the many initiatives and a strong economy of scale on the telecommunications part, which will also favor the less strong countries from an economic and technological point of view. .
Feasibility study
This is the gist of the message given by Eloide Viau, ESA’s new director in charge of telecommunications. And in this Esa will be able to play the very important experience developed for the development of the Galileo system which at the moment, it should be remembered, is the most important and precise for the geolocation system, managed by two European centers, one of which is in Fucino, at own Telespazio.
So at the moment Esa has commissioned a feasibility study, certainly not easy, which could lead to the sizing of the definitive system that will probably follow, finally also in Europe, a model of public private partnership.
The consortium led by Telespazio is attended by satellite operators Inmarsat and Hispasat, manufacturing companies such as Thales Alenia Space, OHB and MDA, ALTEC, and with the involvement of SMEs such as Nanoracks Europe and Argotec, universities and research centers such as SEE Lab SDA Bocconi and Politecnico The second consortium is led by UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and also includes a number of companies, including satellite manufacturer Airbus, satellite network providers SES and Kongsberg Satellite Services and Goonhilly Earth Station in the UK.