Greece will soon become one of the few countries in the world to have sent their own robotic vehicles to the Moon, after the Hellenic Space Organisation signed an agreement of cooperation with NASA.
According to the agreement, Greek scientists will develop their own vehicle by 2022 and send it to the moon to collect valuable material and information, which will be used for research by Greek scientists, researchers and universities.
President of Hellenic Space Organisation (ELDO), Christodoulos Protopapas, tells SBS Greek about this agreement and this new era for the country's space industry.
“This agreement provides for the preparation by the Greek Space Industry of a lunar vehicle that will be launched in 2022 by NASA-accredited space companies. This lunar vehicle will be built entirely in Greece by the Universities and the Space Industry”, Mr Protopapas says.
A small step for man, one giant leap for Greece
Protopapas stresses the importance of such projects for the technological know-how of Greece, as well as the large number of scientists working in the space industry sector for the country.
"The Greek space industry has 2,000 scientists working at the moment and participates in space programs of both the European Space Agency and NASA, even before the Hellenic Space Organisation was established. There are so many Greek expatriates abroad who will come to assist with their know-how, helping Greece move forward. We have all the capabilities to succeed,” Mr Protopapas says.
The next step for the Greek Space Organisation is to send a Greek astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), the habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit.
“Already with the establishment of the Space Organisation and the activities in Greece, we have inspired young people. Already a student from Greece has been admitted to the American Astronauts University. With the establishment of the Hellenic Space Organisation, we can claim the participation of Greek astronauts through the European Space Agency to missions at the International Space Station. These are demands that we will make at the ministry of the European Space Agency in the near future,” Protopapas says.
Financial crisis still evokes pain
The agreement of cooperation that Hellenic Space Agency signed with NASA, was treated with some suspicion in Greece, as individuals questioned the value of taking part in space projects while the country is still in recovery from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
Some took to Twitter to attack the ruling Syriza government in Greece.
Responding to criticism, Protopapas defends the agreement saying that Greece needs less “nagging” and to look forward.
“The cost will not be too high [for this mission]. It is in the order of a few hundreds of thousands of euros and does not seem so high for Greece, when there are millions of euros currently available from the European Union for research. The nagging must stop in Greece from politicians and journalists. Especially some journalists in Greece need to expel the bucolic cape and start thinking like the other civil societies in the world. We must leave behind us this misery that ruined the country in recent decades," Protopapas says.
As part of the agreement, Greece will take part in the Lunar Orbital Platform—Gateway (LOP-G) and exchange information and data for academic and scientific research.
