Welcome to SpaceTech Ireland — a fast, Ireland-focused read on the space economy.

This week: Ireland has poured money into its space companies but starved the research and teaching that feed them, says Professor Lorraine Hanlon of UCD, who led the country's first satellite mission. In an interview this week, she makes the case for a national space research centre, a reformed PRODEX fund, and a body to hold the long view that no single department can. Plus: Galway's Mbryonics links up with Japanese IT giant NTT DATA, ESA's Phi-Lab Ireland Call Two nears, and the latest Irish space jobs.

Ireland has put serious money into its space industry in recent years but has neglected the research and teaching that feed it, according to Professor Lorraine Hanlon of University College Dublin, who led the country's first satellite mission and chairs a national advisory forum on space research.

Hanlon spoke to SpaceTech Ireland this week following the launch in May of UCD's Space Strategy to 2030, a plan the university says is intended to position Ireland as a leader in space research, innovation and higher education.

Among its main goals are securing €30 million for a national Space Research, Development and Innovation centre and setting up two internationally recognised space education and skills programmes within four years - the centre being the same kind of large, State-funded research hub Hanlon argues Ireland's space sector still lacks.

“I think we’re in a really exciting place, when you look at what’s going on with PhiLabs and industry across the country. You can see the capability is growing and the opportunities are growing and there’s no question we can do a lot more as a country to benefit from space and to be a player in space and that’s where we were coming from” with the strategy launch.

Hanlon, Professor of Astronomy at UCD and director of the university's Centre for Space Research, said the investment that followed Ireland's increased membership of the European Space Agency had gone largely to companies, while the universities and the talent pipeline behind them had been left under-resourced.

"The industry side has seen a lot of investment through our recent membership, quite rightly. What we're saying is that we need investment on the low-TRL R&D and on the educational aspects, to build up that talent pipeline."

She pointed to the MSc in Space Science and Technology she runs at UCD, the only programme of its kind in Ireland and one that is heavily over-subscribed each year. The constraint on growing it, she said, is not student demand but a shortage of academic and support staff with the space expertise to teach more.

"We could probably double the number if we had more support in terms of academic positions and expertise. That's the biggest need."

A National Space Agency

On the recurring question of whether Ireland should set up a national space agency, Hanlon said an agency need not duplicate the work of Enterprise Ireland or the ESA delegation, but would instead take on functions that currently have no clear home.

She cited the registration of EIRSAT-1, Ireland's first satellite, which required a process that did not previously exist.

"It had to be authorised by the Irish government and registered on the UN register of space objects. We didn't have a process for that, so the civil servants created one. If you were to do it again, you'd want an agency charged with doing that - in the same way the Irish Aviation Authority regulates airspace."

Responsibility for space is currently spread across several Government departments, she noted, with communications under ComReg, transport under the Department of Transport, and the Artemis Accords handled through Foreign Affairs. The case for an agency, the astronomer said, was that it could hold the long view that no single department is structured to take.

"I would see the remit as being broader. We're involved in these ESA space missions, including science, which is the area closest to my heart. There are missions in planning on a 15- or 20-year timeline - and the reason for that in science missions is that often the technology isn't there yet to realise them; they're extraordinarily challenging.

“So you'd want an organisation charged with saying: this is where we're going with ESA, what's our national capability, how can we resource it and support it for the long term. A lot of the innovation will come from that payload and instrumentation capability you build.

“I think having an agency that took ownership of the larger remit - across education, research, enterprise and policy - would be the way forward, potentially within a multi-departmental agency that brought in expertise on the government and civil-service side as well."

The PRODEX Fund

The change Hanlon said she would most like to see was a reform of a small ESA funding programme called PRODEX, which pays for the scientific instruments that Irish university and institute research groups build for space missions. The advantage of the programme, she said, was that ESA provided the technical management that Ireland would otherwise have to supply itself.

The difficulty, she said, was that PRODEX funds several university and institute groups but is administered by Enterprise Ireland, whose remit is industry. That left it exposed whenever Ireland reviewed its ESA spending.

"Enterprise Ireland doesn't need to know anything about high-energy astrophysics. ESA will make sure that, if I have funding through PRODEX, I'm doing a good job and passing all the reviews."

"This pot of PRODEX is a tiny proportion of our overall ESA membership, and I fear it's always at risk. Every Ministerial, it's: ‘why are we funding universities to do this work on payloads, or astrophysics, or planetary science?’"

She said the fund should be moved, or its ownership shared, so that it belonged with the Department of Further and Higher Education (under Research Ireland) where research funding is part of the core remit.

"That would be, for me, the biggest possible win. I know that may seem a very minute and specific thing, but it would actually be crucial."

Education and Astronomy

Hanlon, a former Research Fellow at ESA’s space mission establishment ESTEC, identified two further gaps. The ESERO office, jointly funded by Research Ireland and ESA, works to interest schoolchildren in space but has no remit at third level, meaning Irish students miss ESA Academy courses in fields such as space law, space medicine and commercialisation.

And Ireland's 2018 membership of the European Southern Observatory, the ground-based counterpart to ESA, is being underused, the astronomer said, because no funding is in place for the post-doctoral researchers and students who would make use of facilities the State already pays for.

Asked what she would most want to see over the next five years, Hanlon set out four outcomes. She listed "a broader remit of space across" the Department of Further and Higher Education and the Department of Enterprise, "with shared ownership of PRODEX; a national space R&I strategy that dovetails with the enterprise one; a nationally funded space RD&I centre and a next Irish satellite in development."

"These would be the key outcomes I'd like to see."

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Call Two - expected this month. When I sat down with Phi-Lab Ireland manager Rob Conway-Kenny, he put the opening at "not beyond June." That window is now closing, so it's worth being ready.

A recap from that interview, if you're considering a bid:

ESA Phi-Lab Ireland

🚀 Mbryonics has signed a memorandum of understanding with NTT DATA to develop high-speed optical links between satellites and terrestrial fibre networks. Under the partnership, the Galway company says it will be the first to use NTT's coherent digital signal processing chip in its optical transceivers, aimed at connecting LEO, MEO and GEO constellations. An MOU is a statement of intent rather than a binding contract.

🚀 SpaceX confirmed it will seek to raise at least $75 billion in its initial public offering, in what would be by far the largest IPO in history. The figure dwarfs the previous record, the $29.4 billion raised by Saudi Aramco in 2019. The offering is expected within weeks.

🚀 Nordic countries came together on June 1 to launch Space Nordic to enhance collaboration, competitiveness and global visibility

🚀 Blue Origin says New Glenn could return to flight by year's end after concluding that last week's launch pad explosion did less damage than first feared. The timeline matters because Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar lander is designed to launch on New Glenn, and delays could affect NASA's Artemis 3 mission planned for mid-2027.

🚀 NASA has formally ended its MAVEN mission to Mars, six months after the orbiter fell silent. The agency announced on 3 June that the spacecraft was unrecoverable, following some kind of anomaly after it passed behind Mars in December and was not heard from again.

OHB Sweden lands €248m for EUMETSAT polar satellites. OHB Sweden won a €248 million contract to develop and build 20 small satellites for the EUMETSAT Polar System-Sterna programme, the largest satellite contract in Swedish space history. A New Space–style build on the Arctic Weather Satellite demonstrator — and a marker of where European Earth-observation money is heading.

ESA opens Arctic Region resilience sub-call (4 June) - The Environmental and Economic Resilience branch, opening today, focuses on protecting ecosystems and supporting climate-resilient industries such as fisheries, aquaculture and food security. It's one of three Arctic sub-calls, alongside safety and navigation, and security and critical-infrastructure protection. The fisheries and maritime angle is the one for Irish marine-data players to watch. NatureZone Ltd

Closing soon: ESA's Sustainable Wetlands call shuts 9 June - space-based wetland applications, 75% ESA funding up to €75,000 per activity.

PICTURE: SpaceX’s Starship lifts off from Texas. The company has announced the biggest Initial Public Offering of all time as it seeks to ramp up its Moon and Mars programme.

Next week: more funding, contracts, and careers in Ireland's space economy - delivered weekly.

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