Grand Duchy courts space industry with 'NewSpace Europe'

In Luxembourg, approximately 80 companies and agencies are involved in space-related activities, employing around 1,400 individuals. During this Wednesday's conference organised by the Luxembourg Space Agency, professionals from the industry and various companies in the field had the opportunity to connect. An estimated 300 participants were expected to attend.

Lex Delles, the new Minister of Economy, emphasised during the opening speech the importance of anticipating future needs and proactively attracting new industries in the country.

To this end, on Wednesday morning, Mac Serres, the Director of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), was invited to speak in an RTL interview.

Mr. Serres, could you elaborate on the activities of the industries involved in the space sector?

This is quite a broad topic. Approximately half of these entities leverage information or infrastructure to provide services. For instance, in the maritime sector, there are companies focused on detecting and tracking ships. Other businesses are focused on airborne technology. We have a company here in Luxembourg that builds satellites and another that develops ground-based equipment that enable us to communicate with these satellites.

This technology could also be useful in the fight against climate change. Can you elaborate on this?   

The images captured by satellites are rich with valuable information, making them ideal for evaluation purposes. Monitoring ongoing events becomes effortlessly efficient. Consider meteorology, for example; without the aid of satellite images, forecasting the weather as accurately as we do today would be a challenge.

What precisely is space mining, meaning the extraction of resources from celestial bodies, and what is Luxembourg's specific position in this domain?

This is an element of our long-term strategy. We do not anticipate an immediate impact on our approach to economic diversity through this endeavor. However, we envision that, perhaps in 15, 20, or 25 years, this sector, once fully developed, will introduce new economic activities in the country.

In reality, mining constitutes only a fraction of our overarching approach. Our objective is to demonstrate that these resources can be leveraged for various space-related activities. An evolving aspect of this strategy involves using resources from the moon to generate propellants. These propellants can play a pivotal role in facilitating space-related activities, including the construction of rockets or satellites flying between the Earth and the moon among other things.

Currently, in which areas are the most significant investments being made?

I would say that the primary focus is on durability. Everything that we develop should support this aspect. This means that we want autonomous businesses and companies that aren't solely reliant on official investments.

We also aspire to apply space-related elements to Earth, with a particular emphasis on optimising the agriculture sector to minimise environmental impact.

Another “hot topic” is sustainability in space. The increasing number of satellites in orbit has led to a rise in space debris that is evident in the growing number of collision alerts over the past 5 years. This is a domain in which much work needs to be done. And this means that companies need to invest in innovation, and countries in potential regulatory measures.