The European Space Agency High Level Forum 2023 brought together key players in the space industry to discuss challenges and opportunities in the business of space, on 6 June 2023. Dr Marco Esposito, managing director of cosine Remote Sensing, participated as a panelist in the round table focused on the future of space exploration.
The European Space Agency (ESA) High Level Forum 2023 with industry took place on 6 June at ESA’s ESTEC technology centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This annual event serves as a platform for representatives from ESA, European institutions, and executives of major space companies to engage in fruitful discussions about the evolving landscape of the space industry. Among the attendees was astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who worked with cosine when she operated the NightPod system, which was designed and built by cosine to perform high resolution night imaging from the Cupola observatory module on the International Space Station.
During the forum, four round tables were conducted, covering vital themes in the space field: Europe as a Space Power, ESA Transformation, the Future of Space Exploration, and Commercialising and Accelerating the Use of Space.
Dr Marco Esposito, managing director of cosine Remote Sensing, was a panelist of the round table regarding “The Future of Space Exploration” with Massimo Claudio Comparini, Deputy CEO and ESVP Observation Exploration Navigation of Thales Alenia Space, and Artur Koop COO of The Exploration Company, as well as with David Parker, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA who acted as moderator.
Valuable perspectives and insights were shared on the future direction of space exploration. Among other topics the panel touched upon the role of robots vs humans in space exploration, the contribution of artificial intelligence, the role for governments and of the private sector as well as opportunities and challenges in the development of the lunar economy.
Dr Esposito commented: “it was very interesting to exchange ideas with the high level management of the main European space groups as well as ESA. This included ESA General Director Josef Aschbacher who initiated the state-of-the-art flight experiment PhiSat, which we greatly enjoyed working on together. The round table about “The Future of Space Exploration” was quite insightful, especially following the inspirational keynote speech of astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. I am very glad to have shared cosine’s experiences and our ambitions for the future of space exploration”.
About cosine
cosine is a leading worldwide company in the development of space instrumentation, such as Silicon Pore Optics and remote sensing solutions with onboard processing. We combine physics and technology to bring out-of-the-box solutions to our clients. We have been developing and delivering innovative measurement systems for space and industrial applications since 1998. Our company operates 1,000 m2 of cleanrooms and high-tech assembly facilities to build and test the systems we produce for customers at our headquarters in Sassenheim, The Netherlands.
