Portugal wants to take an important place in the European aerospace industry, and this statement will become even more relevant when the Portuguese astronaut is in the European Space Station (ESA, Anglo-Saxon abbreviation). For Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) professor Fernando Lau, it’s just a matter of time.
“Watching the Portuguese in space will only be a matter of time,” says Jornal Económico (JE) professor at the IST Center for Aviation and Space Science and Technology.
Fernando Lau argues that the Portuguese have no barriers to accessing this type of career as the training of astronauts is “mostly technical” and therefore “often” astronauts have different and “different degrees”. The IST professor emphasizes “the continued presence of the Portuguese, many of whom were former IST students, in the ESA astronaut competitions.”
“Portugal’s aerospace industry is booming,” he adds. This growth has been driven by the “experience” of students and engineers in this field in university mobility programs (such as IST), international research projects, and in international companies. According to Professor Técnico, the knowledge gained by the Portuguese “has led to the emergence of several small companies and start-ups, highly specialized and directly competing with the European and international market.”
Fernando Lau is convinced that there is a “highly specialized” industry on Portuguese soil. An example of this, according to scientists, is the participation of Portugal and IST in the development and concept of Earth observation microsatellites.
Behind this specialization is the Portuguese training in aerospace engineering. “In the 1990s, aerospace engineering courses were established at ISTe in Aeronautical Engineering at the Beira University of the Interior. In the case of the Master in Aerospace Engineering at IST, interest from students and the industry itself has led to a steady increase in market value of course, from 35 places a year of creation to the current 110 places. At present, the demand for students is such that the average enrollment rate is the highest in the country. [19,13 valores em 2020] over the past five years “, – emphasizes the specialist in this field.
“We can say that Portugal currently has the engineering potential to participate and create aeronautical and space projects, both in terms of the knowledge of its engineers and the number of engineers trained annually,” he guarantees.
Of course, the question arises: what problems then for Portugal should be stated even more in this industry? “Most aviation and space projects require significant investment, in many cases involving multiple countries. “Given the modest size of the national industry, one of the main tasks is to attract foreign investment for the creation of a space port and space launch companies,” replies Fernando Lau.
