Space science and academia: how much of an impact will Brexit have?
While the UK government already has an abundance of terrestrial Brexit complications to deal with, the referendum’s effects are now playing out beyond the earth’s atmosphere. British companies are missing out on the European Space Agency’s lucrative contracts, due to a requirement that companies in receipt of funding are part of an EU country; while the ESA is not an EU organisation, many of its contracts are funded by Brussels. Having already lost two EU agencies, the UK is now being stripped of its role hosting vital infrastructure for the Galileo satellite navigation system. Part of an EU project designed to allow independence from America’s GPS network, its backup monitoring centre near Southampton was due to become fully operational later this year. As a result of Brexit, the contract was re-tendered amongst EU27 countries and won by Spain, which will benefit from the operation’s prestige and the sector specialists it will attract.
Britain will still participate in Galileo, but outside of the EU it is not permitted to play a part in the programme’s security, costing it the hosting rights for infrastructure that would have been a valuable centre of expertise for UK academia and industry to partner with. For British academics and universities involved with space science, these are worrying signs of what Brexit means for their discipline.
Space science at UK universities
In the European sphere of influence, national space agencies like that of the UK are dwarfed in ambition and reach by the ESA, which coordinates the European space programme for its 22 member states. Where the UK does punch above its weight is in academic space science, thanks to the country’s excellent university sector. Through world-leading institutions like UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, British universities contribute outstanding research to astrophysics, cosmology, aerospace engineering and other branches of space science. Recent success stories include the SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) space mission developed by UCL in collaboration with the ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Across UK institutions, the teaching of space science is supported by the Space Universities Network, hosted by the University of Bristol and supported by the UK Space Agency. For an academic discipline with such profoundly real-world applications, space science thrives when it can collaborate with industry to provide students and academics with practical outlets for academic theory. While a member of the EU, those UK space science departments have had easy access to both the British space industry and the wider European sector too; that may all be about to change with Brexit.
What Brexit Britain stands to lose
Due to a combination of resources, expertise and ambition, some countries are capable of running effective space programmes by themselves. The USA and Russia have experience dating back to the original space race; China and India both have a rising power’s appetite for the political symbolism of extending one’s reach into space. The sheer expense and complexity of space exploration encourages cooperation even between those states with well-established space programmes, with the International Space Station not just being an American and Russian partnership but also benefitting from European, Canadian and Japanese support.
With all that in mind, Britain has been well served up until now by cooperating with its European neighbours through the ESA, benefiting from the pooling of resources. As the loss of the Galileo site makes clear, Brexit has the potential to damage the UK’s relationship with the European space programme. At the time of writing, there are no public plans for the removal of the other ESA institution based in Britain — the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) — but the decision about Galileo does not necessarily inspire full confidence in its future.
The presence of key space exploration infrastructure in the UK is vitally important to universities involved with space science. Partnerships between European agencies, industry and academia allow for the knowledge sharing which will drive ambitious research and new discoveries in science departments. While it was much maligned by the Leave campaign during the referendum, the free movement of people within the EU is essential to UK involvement in space science, bearing in mind its collaborative and multi-national nature in the European context. Not only are the ESA’s main sites spread over seven European countries (not forgetting its launch base in French Guiana), the globally respected International Space University is based in France. UK based students and academics wanting to visit the ISU post-Brexit can expect additional visa red tape to deal with. Leading space science scholars deciding between European universities may neglect Britain to ensure ease of access to their sector’s resources and opportunities across the continent.
Cut adrift or a bold new frontier?
No one can be completely certain yet if Brexit will bring about Remainers’ fears of isolation and decline or Leavers’ hopes for a brighter future. In terms of space science though, it is more reasonable to venture predictions. Unlike in free trade or manufacturing, Britain has never been a pioneer or world power when it comes to outer space. It has been able to contribute to and benefit from the sector most effectively when in partnership with other countries. Leaving the EU will weaken the UK’s ability to build such partnerships, both with public bodies like the ESA and private enterprises like Planetary Resources that value relationships with countries that are fully enmeshed in the European space programme.
Theresa May’s aspiration for the country to emerge from the Brexit process as a rejuvenated ‘Global Britain’ has been decried as economically and politically fanciful, with the UK’s significance more likely to diminish than increase. In line with that interpretation, the removal of Galileo does not augur well for the Britain — it risks losing influence not just on the earth, but above it too. For all their excellence, the UK’s space science academics will be hard pressed to reverse that trend.
*****
