Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The £2 billion company, which is grabbing the headlines with its catchy design for a tourist space jet, has also been contracted to undertake the next stage of development for the ExoMars rover – a tool helping to pave the way for human exploration of the red planet.

Astrium’s landmark plans for a new space jet capable of take-off from regular European airports such as London Luton and Stansted allows for four passengers to travel 60 miles up into space giving more than three minutes of ‘zero G’ or weightlessness.

The company is now looking for the billion Euros (£670 million) its initial estimates suggest the project will need. If enough private capital – the main source of funding – is raised quickly enough, the inaugural commercial flight could be made by 2012.

No official decision has yet been made as to where the space jet will first launch from, though a Mediterranean airport is thought to be the initial favourite as it would offer the best option in terms of an overall view of Europe as well as favourable weather conditions.

Astrium spokesman, Jeremy Close, said that Luton or Stansted could enter the running eventually if demand for the service proves to be strong enough and because of its operating altitude, between aircraft and satellites, it could lead to point-to-point travel.

“You could take-off from Cambridge Airport and come down in Sydney in maybe four hours, perhaps less,“ said Close.

Between now and the end of the year, Astrium and the Marc Newson team – the group behind the eye-catching cabin – will be finalising the design and consolidating industrial and financial partnerships in readiness to launch the project by 2008.

Astrium says that finance for the space jet could be completed by refundable loans and regional development funding. Return on investment would come from operations of vehicles for the emerging and promising market of suborbital space tourism – for example Virgin – and passenger prices would initially be between £100,000 and £140,000.

Astrium is proposing a one stage system as it is considered the safest and most economical to operate.

The hour and a half journey begins with a regular runway take-off. Once the craft is airborne at an altitude of about seven miles, the rocket engines will be ignited to give sufficient acceleration to reach the 60 miles distance. In only 80 seconds the craft will have climbed to around 40 miles altitude.

The rocket propulsion system is then shut down as the ship’s inertia carries it on to over 60 miles where passengers will become among the very few to experience zero gravity in space.

The pilot will control the craft using small rocket thrusters enabling passengers to hover weightlessly for three minutes and to witness spectacular views of Earth rarely seen by the naked human eye. After slowing down during descent, the jet engines are restarted for a normal and safe landing at a standard airfield.

As single industrial prime contractor for Ariane 5, main European contributor to the International Space Station and as a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, Astrium believes it has the necessary expertise and know-how for manned space flight.

Confirming the 2013 launch target, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) has awarded a contract for the next development stage of the rover, worth £2.56 million, to Astrium in the UK.

The deal was announced at an event showcasing the ExoMars rover prototype, Bridget, and coincided with further news of a £2m award from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for instrumentation and technology R & D relating to the entire ExoMars mission.

Dr Mike Healy, director of Earth observation, navigation and science at Astrium said: “The latest decision now enables a clear focus for the development of the project up to its planned launch in 2013.”

Stevenage has been working on ExoMars since 2004 when EADS Space was awarded a €900k study by ESA to carry out the first definition of a Rover to explore the Martian surface and search for life. This was led by EADS Astrium in Stevenage as part of ESA’s Aurora programme that aims to one day put a European astronaut on Mars.

The thinking is that a robotic mission is the best way to build a complete picture of Mars, to understand in detail the atmosphere, surface and sub-surface before humans step foot on the planet. This is exactly the goal of ESA’s first Aurora flagship mission, ExoMars and its rover.

Presuming a safe landing once released from the orbiting mothership, the Rover will use solar arrays to generate electricity to travel several miles over the rocky surface, using optical sensors and onboard software to take samples with a lightweight drilling system, searching for signs of past or present life.

ExoMars is also the first Aurora flagship mission to be assessed. Its aim is to further characterise the biological environment on Mars in preparation for robotic missions and then human exploration. Data from the mission will also provide invaluable input for broader studies of exobiology – the search for life on other planets.

Astrium is wholly owned by EADS, providing civil and defence space systems and services. In 2006, Astrium had a turnover of €3.2 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the UK (2,500), Spain and the Netherlands.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services, which generates revenues of €39.4bn and employs a workforce of more than 116,000.