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Small rockets to launch satellites and cargo can generate more than 1,000 jobs and 500 million euros of space business in the country. Thinking about the future of Space, and in a market that can generate income and value-added jobs, Ponte de Sor welcomes 120 engineering students this Wednesday, who will build rockets to launch and test in the Alentejo skies.
EuRoc, a European university competition for rocket launching, is part of Portugal Air Summit, the largest aeronautical summit on the Iberian Peninsula, which will take place in the city of Alentejo until Friday to discuss the future of the aviation sectors, space, defense and aeronautics. , at a time of deep crisis in air transport.
The students “will create and launch their own rockets, putting scientific research into practice, thinking about the development of the space sector in Portugal and the potential that Space offers, in terms of employment and the generation of wealth,” says Ricardo Conde. President of Portugal Space, which together with the European Space Agency and the Ponte de Sor City Council organize the first European university rocket launch competition.
The launch of these small rockets is also “an opportunity to draw attention to the promotion of a scientific and innovative culture among young university students, broadening the base of hiring future professionals, to reinforce the sustainability of the aerospace sector in Portugal”, he adds . the president of PT Space, the Portuguese Space Agency. Conde highlights “the innumerable potential of these rockets, capable of putting small satellites into orbit with applications in communications, data and in various other domains.”
At stake is the Portuguese ambition to put into operation in the Azores “a space port capable of helping to project a constellation of Earth observation microsatellites, Atlantic Constellation, in an international cooperation project” that brings together several Portuguese companies like Tekever, Efacec or Edisoft.
The president of PT Space envisions one more possibility for these rockets, with “the launch of a reusable suborbital vehicle”, an idea that is already being developed in Portugal and that will need a launch rocket, like the rockets that European students see. try in Ponte de Sor.
To achieve these objectives, physics and engineering specialists are needed and Ricardo Conde aims to create, by 2030, “a thousand qualified jobs in Portugal, in a sector that could reach 500 million euros in business.”
The Portugal Air Summit begins with a conference that brings together the Minister of Science Manuel Heitor and the President of the Portuguese Space Agency with researchers and industry representatives from the areas of Space, Oceans, Forests, Territory and Aeronautics. In the analysis of “Digital Planet: New Opportunities, Jobs and Businesses Associated with Earth Observation for Climate Action”.
