Innovación Espacial, Seguridad en la tierra, conquista de la luna

The best way to guarantee a stable, instantaneous and universal connectivity is through multi-orbit satellite systems”

Satellite technology, whether for communications or for Earth observation, ensures our wellbeing from hundreds, or even thousands of kilometres away. However, innovative developments are now being aimed not only at a continuous improvement in terms of safety, security and emergency response, but also at a more distant horizon—future Moon settlements.

Better safety and security from space

Few are the tasks that are as important to a government as that of offering a fast and effective response when faced with an emergency situation. Safeguarding the life of its citizens after a natural catastrophe or a deliberate attack must be the highest priority. In order to carry out this important duty, it must not only count with the latest technology available at any given time, but there must also be a constant collaboration between the public administration and the private sector for these developments to be undertaken in a coordinated and efficient manner.

A key element in these situations is counting with stable, reliable and secure communications that allow access to precise and updated information in real-time for all the teams working in emergency situations. At those times, when land-based communications are usually the most vulnerable – since damage to their infrastructure could render them completely inoperative –, satellite communications must guarantee an effective channel to design the response strategy and monitor rescue efforts.

Guaranteeing secure, sovereign communications: IRIS2 and GOVSATCOM

The best way to guarantee a stable, instantaneous and universal connectivity is through multi-orbit satellite systems. This type of solution, in addition to facilitating access to Internet in areas devoid of communication infrastructure, is fundamental when establishing communications – especially video communications. By combining LEO, MEO and GEO technologies, the multi-orbit approach offers the many benefits of each of them, such as low latency and broadcasting across large regions.

This great flexibility would be highly useful both in the civil and the military sector, which is why it is necessary to continue moving towards its implementation until it succeeds in seeing dual use in Europe. Indeed, the European Union’s IRIS2 system is proposed as a multi-orbit project aimed at military and commercial applications, with the main goal of guaranteeing sovereignty through secure communications among EU member countries.

Resilient and robust communications help with the coordination of different supporting teams, especially during the first few steps of a mission, when collecting and conveying the real status of a given situation can lead to changes in the initial plans. As teams take position in the field, communications must be constant and fluid, all the more if different organisations are part of the response efforts.

The interdependence between the various security organisations and forces of a state (or even of several, if the emergency situation affects more than one country) requires that these communications be not just robust – they must also be secure and remain uncompromised either by occasional interferences or by deliberate attacks. In this context, the GOVSATCOM program – one of the five components of the European Union’s space programme – has the objective of providing governments of Member States with resilient communications at these particularly critical moments.

This protected communication channel guarantees access and availability to the different government bodies, both civil and military. But its scope exceeds country borders. If the affected areas are beyond the boundaries of the EU, this coordination will be able to be maintained without depending on geographic barriers, offering the ability to take humanitarian aid to the most remote corners of the planet.

The Spainsat NG I and II satellites will allow our Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies to count with encrypted and secure communications across the world”

PRS service: robustness and security in satellite-based positioning

Once communications are guaranteed both in terms of availability and security, it is necessary to count with positioning capabilities that enable actions to be undertaken with as much precision as possible.

Public Regulated Service (PRS) is a satellite navigation service within the framework of the Galileo System, which is highly secure and resistant to interference. Its development is currently in its late stages, being already operational in a few government organisations. While its full deployment phase begun this year, it is still expected to take some time to be completely online.

Spainsat NG I and II. Spain at the forefront of defence communications

European Union governments are also working hand-in-hand in the development of its own aerospace programs to consolidate the entire region’s strategic autonomy. In the case of Spain, the Spainsat NG I and II satellites are of particular note, which will allow our Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies to count with encrypted and secure communications across the world.

These satellites, with a service life of 15 years, will replace today’s SpainSat and XTAR-EUR and will be put in orbit in the upcoming months. This ambitious project saw the essential participation of our country’s aerospace sector companies, which allowed deadlines to be met as established with full reliability, developing state-of-the-art solutions such as the active antennas that will bestow Spainsat NG with unprecedented operational capabilities.

Conclusions

As we have seen, satellite communications play a crucial role in guaranteeing a fast and effective response to emergency situations. The reliability and security that these systems must offer are essential where land infrastructure may be damaged or inoperative. Multi-orbit constellations such as IRIS2 guarantee a stable, low-latency connectivity, facilitating the coordination between rescue teams and security organisations, both in the civil and the military realm. For its part, the GOVSATCOM European programme offers the security that these resilient communications require.

When efficiently assigning and directing our resources, satellite-based positioning and Earth observation capabilities (PRS) are as important as the communications that need to be established between the different teams. Additionally, the responsibility of the different states in developing their own aerospace programmes in a manner that is coordinated with the rest of the EU countries and in close collaboration with the private sector, will allow citizens to be adequately protected and have the technological capabilities that our developed societies demand.

Sentinel-1A was launched in 2014, followed by Sentinel-1B in 2016, allowing for the globe to be mapped every 12 days”

Copernicus: the European mission to improve the life of its citizens

How did the lava flow from the La Palma volcano advance? What areas of Greece were devastated by the 2023 summer wildfires? What wheat and corn fields require more fertilisers to avoid poor harvests? All of these questions have an answer in common: the Copernicus programme, an ambitious Earth observation initiative led by the European Union. By providing free access to geospatial data, Copernicus has the objective of improving the life of European citizens.

Through the Sentinel satellite constellation, Copernicus collects over 12 terabytes of data per day, making it the largest geospatial information provider in the world. Its applications include key services such as land surveillance, emergency management, atmospheric monitoring, maritime surveillance, climate change and security. Below we explore a few of the most important missions that are part of this programme.

Sentinel 1

24/7 Earth radar mapping

Sentinel-1 is the first Copernicus mission designed to map the Earth both during day and night time, in any weather. This satellite uses a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to obtain high-resolution images. The first spacecraft, Sentinel-1A, was launched in 2014, followed by Sentinel-1B in 2016, allowing for the globe to be mapped every 12 days.

Buques entre Gibraltar y Algeciras en septiembre de 2017.

The Sentinel-1 radar has the ability to observe complex phenomena such as oil spills in the sea, which are visible as dark spots. It is also used to monitor vessel traffic, providing vital information to the coastguard and law enforcement agencies in real-time.

Moreover, this satellite is essential to map the ice in polar regions – a vital tool for maritime safety in Arctic routes – as well as to determine the direction, wavelength and height of the waves, contributing to weather forecasting.

The use of Sentinel-1 is not limited to the maritime environment. Its data is fundamental in emergency situations such as earthquakes and floods, since it allows for a quick assessment of damages.

Medición de radar de Sentinel-1 tras el terremoto de Marruecos en septiembre de 2023, usada para analizar cómo se ha desplazado el suelo.

Sentinel 2

multispectral images for Earth monitoring

Sentinel-2 is another key mission within Copernicus, tasked with monitoring Earth through the use of high-resolution multispectral images. Each Sentinel-2 satellite (A, B and C) is outfitted with a camera that detects 13 spectral bands, enabling the visualisation and analysis of a few aspects of the Earth’s surface that are hidden to the human eye. Sentinel-2 is crucial for precision agriculture, since it provides data about crop health and assists farmers in optimising the use of fertilisers and water.

Imagen captada por Sentinel-2 en el que se muestra es cómo la región de Stung Treng, en Camboya, ha sufrido una fuerte deforestación entre 2018 y 2024 - © European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery - August 2024.

From floods to urban planning

With a five-day repeat cycle, the Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-2B and Sentinel-2C satellites offer a constant view of the Earth surface. Their most noteworthy uses include the monitoring of natural disasters such as wildfires and floods, and urban planning. Moreover, thanks to their multispectral capabilities, they can detect changes in the vegetation, such as the deforested areas of the Cambodian Stung Treng province, providing vital data in the fight against deforestation.

One of the most fascinating applications of Sentinel-2 has been the discovery of penguin colonies in Antarctica thanks to the detection of guano stains on the ice. While the penguins are too small to be visible in the images, their excrement allows scientists to track their distribution and population changes.

In October of 2021, Sentinel-2 detected a new lava flow from the erupting volcano in the Spanish island of La Palma. This image was processed in true colour, using the shortwave infrared channel to highlight the lava flow.

Imágenes de guano y de la nueva colonia creada por los pingüinos gracias a Sentinel-2 Cape Gates Antarctica, Sentinel-2 © ESA

In October of 2021, Sentinel-2 detected a new lava flow from the erupting volcano in the Spanish island of La Palma”

Sentinel 3

Ocean forecasting and environment and climate monitoring

Sentinel-3 expands the Copernicus mission into the observation of the topography and temperature of the Earth’s oceans and the surface. Equipped with an altimeter and a radiometer, Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B measure the height of the ocean surface, as well as the temperature of the oceans and the land, with a precision of up to one kilometre.

Sentinel-3 has been crucial in the monitoring of extreme weather phenomena, such as Storm Filomena in 2021, which blanketed most of Spain with snow. Copernicus’ images captured the magnitude of the storm and facilitated the planning of emergency responses. Additionally, during the 2023 summer heatwave, the satellite allowed for the measurement of the Earth’s surface in Europe, revealing extreme values that exceeded 46°C in cities such as Rome and Seville.

Imagen de la Península Ibérica y el impacto de la tormenta Filomena en la zona central y nororiental.

Sentinel 5P

Sentinel-5P: air quality and
atmospheric monitoring

Sentinel-5P is a precursor mission of the upcoming Sentinel-5 mission, designed to monitor the gases and aerosols that affect air quality and the climate. This satellite, launched in 2017, fills the data void left behind by the Envisat satellite and provides critical information regarding the concentration of gases such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone.

One of the most important contributions of Sentinel-5P has been the monitoring of atmospheric pollution in major European cities, enabling governments to implement more effective measures aimed at improving air quality. Furthermore, its data is essential to assess the impact of wildfires and industry emissions in the global climate.

Altas concentraciones de dióxido de azufre sobre el Golfo Pérsico e India entre 2017 y 2018 captadas 11por Sentinel 5-P.

Sentinel 6

Sea surface height

Sentinel-6 carries a radar altimeter to measure the global sea surface height, mainly for climate and oceanic studies. The first satellite was put in orbit in November, 2020.

Copernicus Sentinel-6 is composed of two identical satellites that are providing almost real-time information about the sea surface height, the height of the waves and the wind speed to support operational oceanography and climate monitoring.

Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5, the near future

The next few years will see the launch of Sentinel-4, enfocado a focused on atmospheric monitoring and integrated into a Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S) in geostationary orbit, and Sentinel-5, which will monitor the atmosphere from a polar orbit aboard a MetOp second generation satellite. These missions, along with the continuous development of observation technologies, will guarantee that Copernicus will continue offering vital data for emergency management, agricultural planning and environmental protection.

A connected Moon

As you read these lines, Christina Hammcock Korch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen are continuing their training to travel 1.1 million kilometres during 10 days aboard Artemis II. Provided that there are no new delays, the launch aboard the Orion capsule atop NASA’s Space Launch System will take place in September of 2025. It will be a fundamental milestone in the new space race, in which other nations such as Russia and India are already embarked.

During the next 10 years, over 250 missions to the moon are expected to take place. In the following Artemis missions which, unlike Artemis 2, already include crewed Moon landings, work will be performed towards the assembly of the Lunar Gateway, which would serve as a communications centre, science laboratory, short-term habitation module and staging area for rovers and other robots.

Meanwhile, on the lunar surface, resources await that are not only of interest for the permanent bases that may be established there.

Far from being a barren landscape, as our satellite was dismissed until not long ago, water and other minerals await at the lunar poles, which will be fundamental for astronauts to land for long periods, as well as helium-3 and several highly-valuable metals. And the Moon is considered merely a target for exploitation: it is seen as a starting point for new projects, whether in the form of telescopes installed on its far side or as a base for future missions to Mars.

For this colonisation, it will be fundamental to count with precise and reliable telecommunications and navigation network infrastructure. A network of lunar satellites would enable future missions to be constantly in contact with Earth and vice-versa – even in the far side of the Moon – as well as allow for lunar navigation in areas without direct line of sight and to remotely operate rovers from Earth with high efficiency.

As part of Moonlight, efforts are actively being made to establish a true economic ecosystem on the Moon”

The response to that need for communications is Moonlight – a European Space Agency (ESA) initiative for the creation of lunar communications and navigation services (LCNS) and their related infrastructure. Moonlight’s objective is to provide communication and navigation service to future institutional missions of the European Space Agency and other space agencies, as well as to commercial users, thereby contributing to the creation of a solid lunar economy.

As part of Moonlight, efforts are actively being made to establish a true economic ecosystem on the Moon. During the study phase, the consortium in charge of the project will define the architecture, implementation costs and service model for the development of a full system that guarantees the communications between the various platforms orbiting the Moon or on its surface – such as rovers, landing modules or Moon bases. The consortium has just signed the contract for the first phase of the programme.

The initial configuration of the project includes one communications satellite and four others for navigation, with sights on guaranteeing a wide coverage of the Moon’s south pole, which is a crucial region for future exploration missions. Within this infrastructure, the ground segment will play the essential role of connecting and coordinating all involved stakeholders.

Just like on Earth, in Moonlight’s design, communications, navigation and positioning services on the Moon will facilitate innovative applications and developments – the drivers of a sustainable exploration of the Earth’s satellite and of the birth of a lunar economy.

Satellite networks around the Moon will enable more efficient and cost-effective communications for the several missions that will take place in the next few years, especially those targeting regions that are not visible from Earth. Communication services that are capable of grouping the different lunar users through their respective proximity relay into a sole aggregative trunk relay will limit the need for specific ground stations and ground segments for each mission and, therefore, will enable a cost reduction through an economy of scale.

With Moonlight, it will be possible to reduce the complexity of missions by providing navigation signals for a high-precision high-availability positioning service used to guide orbiters, landing modules and exploration vehicles during crewed and robotic exploration missions, which will help reduce the costs of the satellite navigation system.

Moreover, Moonlight is being designed in a way that plans for an interoperability with LunaNet – a standard shared by the major international Space agencies – which will guarantee the cooperation between the different service providers.

Green Moon, towards lunar agriculture

Humanity will become a multiplanetary species in the future. Therefore, we need to bestow it with a solution that provides it with nutrients, while also supplying it with resources such as oxygen for breathing and for use in propellants. For a sustainable space exploration, it is fundamental to use in-situ resources rather than those supplied from Earth, which will result in launch savings.

Green Moon Project (GMP) is the answer to this demand for the future – an innovative project that combines geology, biology and engineering with the goal of developing a modular and autonomous greenhouse for a sustainable food and oxygen production in space, which will be essential for future long-duration human missions aboard commercial space stations, on the Moon and on other celestial bodies.

Considering that humanity is headed towards an era of interplanetary exploration, in-situ resource use (ISRU) will be crucial in reducing supply cargo loads aimed at keeping astronauts fed.

GMP will include oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, radiation, light level and humidity sensors, along with cameras and a LED lighting system to facilitate plant photosynthesis. At first, GMP will evaluate how space conditions, such as gravity and radiation, affect seed germination and plant growth.

Additionally, the interaction between the LZS-1 lunar regolith simulant and plants will be studied. The growth of several preselected seeds will be analysed from germination to reproduction, monitoring the production of oxygen (a critical resource for astronaut survival in space and for use in propellants) and the elimination of carbon dioxide.

GMP not only addresses the scientific and technical challenges of space agriculture, but also has the objective of creating new services in the future space ecosystem, guaranteeing the economic sustainability and self-sufficiency of long-duration space missions. This project is undertaken by an international team of planetary geologists and atmospheric scientists with experience in space missions.