‘Near Earth and Deep Space Travel and Communication’ is one of five areas of innovation outlined in The European Space Agency’s (ESA) ‘Technology 2040 Vision’ document.
This area of innovation opens up opportunities for organisations working outside of the space sector to transition their knowledge and expertise into the industry.
The innovation area is broken down into three ‘visions,’ which we outline below:
- Solar System Internet, Navigation and Communication Systems
This first vision imagines a space-based internet with communications and navigation systems stretching across the Solar System, delivering secure and interoperable services to the European Space Agency and other missions. The integrated ‘system of systems’ unites networks, services and assets to enable communication and navigation, enabling autonomous, low cost space missions that can manage and operate themselves.
Switching from more traditional pre-planned, point-to-point communication towards an automated, networked system modelled on the terrestrial internet, will help create a sustainable space infrastructure as space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems enable autonomous navigation across the Solar System, reducing reliance on Earth-based infrastructure. This is already starting with the ESA’s Moonlight initiative that is working to provide common communications and navigation services for lunar missions, with plans to extend to Mars.
However, it is vital to ensure interoperability between different communication and PNT systems, while disruption tolerant networking concepts bridge diverse communication technologies and scalable deep-space PNT systems enable precise navigation and time synchronisation across the Solar System.
- Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO)
This vision has high-speed broadband being available from anywhere on Earth, as telecommunications satellites in very low Earth orbit (altitudes of 100-400km) provide speeds comparable to terrestrial cellular networks. Meanwhile, optical and radar Earth observation satellites provide high resolution imagery of the Earth.
VLEO significantly improves the performance of antenna and optical instruments. As the radiation environment in VLEO is relatively benign, it allows the reuse of ground technologies rather than more expensive space-qualified parts. In addition, VLEO is self-cleaning, as atmospheric drag will pull assets back to Earth at the end of a mission.
However, to achieve this vision, there is a necessity to select materials and coatings that can resist the orbital-velocity interaction with atomic gases and especially atomic oxygen. Plus, in order to deliver practical Earth coverage from low orbits, there will be a need to scale-up production to provide large-scale satellite constellations containing hundreds, if not thousands, of units.
- Hypervelocity Endeavours: From Earth to Deep Space and Back
Here we see fast-moving space exploration with high-speed vehicles travelling quickly and safely from Earth to destinations across space and back again. This enables efficient ground-to-orbit transportation and logistics from low to geostationary orbit and beyond as well as low-cost human spaceflight. The use of hypervelocity regimes would help resolve issues such as duration and costs, while increasing human and robotic access to distant regions of the Solar System, accelerating scientific discovery and allowing greater payloads to be delivered to other planets and back to Earth. In addition, this vision supports the growth of in-orbit industrial ecosystems and commercial initiatives, including reusable spaceplanes.
To achieve this, technologies such as air-breathing or detonation engines need to be used to exit the atmosphere before nuclear or high-performance electrical propulsion systems take over for interplanetary travel. Making this a reality will involve technological advances in aerothermodynamics and guidance, navigation and control. Of course, acceleration is only half of the equation, as these advanced vehicles will also need to brake, which requires advances in control surfaces, shape modulation, hypersonic retro-propulsion and high-precision entry, descent and landing. Plus, the vehicle, payload and crew all need to be delivered safely, requiring reusable, lightweight, high-temperature materials, structures and mechanisms, radiation and debris shielding, and robust life support systems.
Each of these visions will require input to achieve them, drawing on expertise from a diverse range of sectors. Could you hold the key to helping achieve this set of ESA goals?
You can find out more about ESA’s ‘Technology 2040 Vision’ here:
https://www.esa-technology-broker.co.uk/news/2025/esas-technology-2040-vision
You can see the ESA Technology Vision 2040, in full here:
https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/technology/Technology_2040.pdf