Norwegian Space opportunities within the ARTES Applications programme

The Seminar started with a welcome presentation from the hosts MARINTEK about the activities and organizations in MARINTEK, with the planning of the setting up of a new Ocean Space Centre in Norway, at MARINTEK.

Following the opening, the representatives from ESA (Tony Sephton and Jan Dettmann) gave an introduction about ESA, especially the ARTES applications programme. This presentation is particularly relevant to the audiences who already have or plan to have some ideas that could potentially connect with the ARTES applications programme. They also described in detail how ARTES works and its related activities as well as the programme structure. The importance of the network of Ambassador Platforms (APs) , particularly the one in Norway, was also highlighted.

Odd Gangaas from the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) also provided a presentation where many times the role of APNorway as the gateway between ESA and Norwegian Space development programmes was emphasized. He also strongly highlighted the role and activities of APNorway and hoped to create more collaborations and joint projects with ESA in the near future as the essential enabler for society to safely move towards operations in the Arctic.

The presentation of Kay Fjørtoft, the ambassador of APNorway, repeated again the huge opening opportunities for all the participants to have ideas developed with ESA and APNorway’s support. Kay also reflected on the possibilities for the ARTES applications programme to investigate the opportunities and challenges of moving to the high North areas where space technologies are key enablers.

The seminar continued with the five presentations representative for the selected on-going projects and topics particularly related to the Space opportunities within the IAP programme: "Autonomous operation and communication demands" presented by the Research Director of Maritime Transport System Department, MARINTEK; "MARENOR – Communication challenges and measurements" presented by Hans Christian Juul of EMGS; "SARINOR – Search and Rescue in the High North" presented by Erik Dyrkoren, the Maritim21 program leader; "ArcticSAT – Optimizing situational awareness in the Arctic through integrated space technologies" presented by Fritz Bekkadal of MARINTEK; and a presentation from CiRiS – the centre for interdisciplinary research in space, of NTNU. These presentations provided a very fruitful and updated contents and activities in regards to space based research and applications in defining the gaps and identifying solutions for communications in the Arctic.

After lunch, a Panel discussion ensued which included representatives from MARINTEK, ESA, NSC, Kongsberg Seatex, and Astrium/MARLINK.

In front of the Panel, there were three short presentations all closely related to Maritime communications, gaps and challenges. They are listed as: Maritime communication aspects (Kongsberg Seatex), Maritime navigation aspects (E-Nav) (NCA-Norwegian Coastal Administration), and Maritime observation aspects (by Kongsberg KSAT).

Following each brief presentation, many questions were raised to the Panel It is still always open and welcome for participants to contact ESA and APNorway in order to raise any further requests or remarks. Almost all of the questions addressed how to enhance and strengthen the Maritime communications by using space based technologies, and many interesting discussions were stimulated with strong remarks and opinions from the Panel.

Before ending this one-day seminar, an opportunity was provided for individual talks with ESA and NSC.

All the discussions and ideas will be further considered. The purpose is to build up potential proposals within the scope of work of ESA, especially the ARTES applications programme through APNorway. Some participants who did not have the chance to directly discuss with us are welcome to contact ESA and APNorway. We are always ready to discuss your ideas in order to create a potential proposal.