Graham Turnock heads the U.K. Space Agency. | U.K Space Agency space How the U.K is using space as a foreign policy tool

From Mexico to Mongolia, the United Kingdom Space Agency is using space to solve problems in developing nations.

More than 30 countries are involved in the International Partnership Programme, through which the United Kingdom uses space technology to monitor crops, improve telehealth availability and tracking illegal fishing. Graham Turnock, the head of the U.K. Space Agency, recently saw the program to use space as a foreign policy tool in action on a trip to South Africa, where the U.K. is putting GPS beacons on small fishing boats that sail without any communications so they could be found in case of emergency.


"It might sound quite low tech and in a sense it is low tech and needs to be so that it can be cheap. Some of the challenges are really around just trying to ... ensure the fishermen have trust in the system and don't think that to have the ability to track them might be in some sense misused to police their activities," said Turnock, who took over the space agency in March 2017.

The leader of the United Kingdom Space Agency is also grappling with what role his country will play in two large European space programs should the U.K. depart the European Union, as the new British political leadership is seeking. The U.K. is seeking its own, domestic satellite navigation system if it has to exit Galileo, a European Space Agency program akin to GPS. But Turnock said he hopes the U.K. can remain a part of the international group working on Copernicus, an earth obeservation mission focused on climate change.

"We've got to work out what our future engagement with those programs should be and how we continue to develop U.K. capability in those areas if we're not able to be part of those programs," he explained.

Turnock also spoke about the U.K.'s exploration plans for the moon and Mars and more immediate steps to establish its own National Space Council to spur its space endeavors.

“There is a very clear recognition that, for the U.K. to remain a high income, high welfare country, we need to have skilled jobs in a technologically advanced sectors,” he said. “My sense is that, though there is change, each time a new person sit down around the table they seem to be even more excited about space.”

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

What are your top priorities for the U.K. space program?

For several years we've been working with a focus on growing the U.K. share of the world space sector. The aim is to get to 10 percent by 2030. We're at about 6.5 percent currently with the U.K. having grown really quite significantly over the past decade and a half. ... So that remains a fundamental driver and really underlies a lot of the investments we make in technology [and] in business development in the U.K. ... We have a strong focus on science as a member of [the European Space Agency.] We have a mandatory share of the European Space Agency science mission program. ... The U.K., as an academic sector, really punches above its weight in terms of publications based on space activity. That's an important continuing focus for us as well. We're very excited about the Mars Rover leaving Stevenage last Tuesday to do the testing and launch we hope next year.

Also in the last year or so, we've got a growing focus on national capability with our need to exit the Galileo program. We're looking at a U.K. global navigation satellite system. We're also developing the capability for launch in the U.K., both because we think it's a great new market for the U.K. to be in small launch, but also it has the potential for a national capability you need in particular on the military side. ... As we announced fairly recently, we see the creation of a National Space Council as very important work to join up activity across government and in particular across civil and military sides of space.

Has the National Space Council already been created?

It's still to come. It was announced fairly shortly before the end of the Mrs. [Theresa] May's Tenure as prime minister. We've been discussing it with the incoming new team and have every indication that the commitment is as strong there as it was with Mrs. May's team and ministers, but it just needs some mechanics to get it in place.

How is Brexit impacting the U.K. space program?

Galileo and Copernicus are the two giants. ... We've got to work out what our future engagement with those programs should be and how we continue to develop U.K. capability in those areas if we're not able to be part of those programs. To be very clear, on Copernicus, we do want to be part of that program. It's quite a unique international collaboration. Is really very effective, partly because it pools technologies that different countries have unique access to. That makes it a very attractive program.

Then clearly we are conscious that there are both threats and opportunities from the potential shift in the balance of trade arising from Brexit and we are working very hard to establish U.K interest in emerging markets such as China and India. The United States remains very important, but [we’re also growing relationships] around the world more generally while at the same time really seeking to ensure that our businesses can continue to participate in European markets effectively.

Is the upheaval in the U.K. government impacting the priority placed on space and science?

My sense is that each incoming government seems to be keener and keener on science and space, which I take as very sort of positive sign really that there is a very clear recognition that for the UK to remain a high income, high welfare country, we need to have skilled jobs in a technologically advanced sectors. ... So my sense is that, though there is change, each time a new person sit down around the table they seem to be even more excited about space.

What are your exploration goals in space?

Mars Rover is part of the ExoMars mission , which is a collaboration between ESA and [Russian space agency] Roscosmos, but we've also got some really good U.S. support. ... [It's expected to] launch at the end of July or early August next year. That's looking for signs of life. If we're really lucky, it might be current life, but more likely if we find anything it would be signs that life has existed on Mars in the past. It will drill down into the subsurface of Mars up to about two meters.

We're also very interested in the focus on the moon. We signed an agreement with NASA on the day of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 to work together on the moon capabilities. ... And then more generally within ESA we're engaged with some really great programs and projects … such as the BepiColombo mission to Mercury where we created some of the sort of the key imaging instruments ... which look for X-rays and also very much involved in the Earth observing program.

What is the U.K. Space Agency is doing to promote growth in the British space industry?

There's the wider environment which is a low-tax economy with stable systems of government, corporate governance, a good legal system, and the ability to take money in and out of the country, which I think makes it very attractive for investment. It's good to see people like [satellite constellation company] OneWeb in the U.K.

Secondly we are using money that the government has given us to make technology grants to companies to help them keep a leading edge on technology development. If you take for example, the communication satellite sector, where the U.K. really has a very strong international presence in particular with Airbus. ... We put a lot of money through the European Space Agency ... program to help keep communication satellite technology at the leading edge. But then if you take, for example, launch, we're providing targeted grants that are more around development of of capability and infrastructure.

Where are areas where you can collaborate more closely with the U.S. in space?

We've got a great relationship with NASA and NOAA on a number of missions where the U.K. has got really great technology that is essential to the mission. NASA's InSight Mars lander, which has been sending back a really great information about Marsquakes has at the core of it a seismometer ... which actually detects those movements. ... That was developed by Imperial College and Oxford University. We're also providing equipment for James Webb Space Telescope. We [also] want to work together on a space weather forecasting. ... We've made some announcements on that recently about how we can work with NOAA on future missions. We've got some really clever detectors that are great at picking up plasma activity from the sun which we're looking to feed into those projects.

What were you doing on your recent trip to South Africa?

We have an international partnership program, which is pretty much unique, although others are looking to follow around the world. ... It's using space technology to help solve challenging problems in countries with developing economies that we currently provide an aid budget to [in more than 30 countries around the world.]

I went to see in particular a project that is focused on helping local fishermen who are currently going out in boats without any substantial communications equipment and who were at great personal risk if any kind of mishap happened, such as them breaking down. What we're doing now is trying to work with them to provide them with a relatively simple low cost beacon that can detect that position using GPS and then using satellite communications send that back to their land so that they can be helped in any case of emergency.

It might sound quite low tech and in a sense it is low tech and needs to be so that it can be cheap. Some of the challenges are really around just trying to ... ensure the fishermen have trust in the system and don't think that to have the ability to track them might be in some sense misused to police their activities. ... I'm also looking at see how we can actually make that technology cheaper to produce it by working with local suppliers. ... It really was a joy to be there and just see the impact that that project is having on people's lives.

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