@esa Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine has written to Esa DG Jan Wörner to ask for more service modules to stick on the back of the future Artemis Orion capsules that have been ordered from Lockheed. The letter talks about a European astronaut walking on the Moon at some point.
The intention is that Europe will also participate in the Lunar Gateway's international habitat module and the communications module known as Esprit. The latter is the bit the UK is interested in. All assumes Gateway continues. My American friends will know more about this.
My interest will be in seeing what the UK contributes to the €1.4bn requested for Copernicus and its expansion programme. To be in with a shout of developing the six future candidate missions, Britain will have to slap the cash on the table in Seville.
But that just gets you to first base. If you're not in the EU part of Copernicus, you can't built the follow-on satellites. Tender documents have made that clear. So what does the UK do in Seville? Will it still be EU Copernicus come the end of November?
It's a conundrum for Esa and the EU as well. Without Britain's money it's unlikely all six candidates can be developed in a timely way. So much hangs on Brexit.
