In a meeting in Holland this week, members from the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed on a new €10 billion investment in their space budget for the next five years. The ESA will invest the money in building new Earth observation satellites and funding new probes out to the planets. In announcing the new budget, the ESA said: “Today's decisions are a further step towards giving Europe the means to respond to global challenges. The measures will further strengthen Europe's role in the development and exploitation of space applications serving public policy objectives and the needs of European citizens and enterprises." The agency also stated that it’s very important for the security and standing of Europe to invest in this sector.

In the agreement, we can also find that the ESA and Innovation minister Lord Drayson have signed an agreement to build a research centre at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. The centre will focus on space robots and innovative power sources, including a robotic probe which will search for life on Mars. Furthermore, it will also model climate change using data from space. In the budget planning, Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana remains secured, while Galileo, the European GPS service, will also keep its funding.

However, the budget is slightly more than the ESA asked for. Of course, everyone wanted to achieve another purpose with this gigantic amount of money. Many people wonder why this is so important, while Peter Hinze, head of the German delegation, proposed an interesting solution: use the money in order to leave the economic crisis and gain new economic strength. Anyway, it remains to be seen if the ESA will actually develop what they plan to with this money.