Battle for the planets

David Southwood is set to shape the future of the European Space Agency. Alison Goddard talks to the man with a challenging mission.

I never intended to become a space scientist," muses David Southwood, professor of space physics at Imperial College, London. Despite this, Southwood has just been appointed to one of the most influential positions in space science. In May, he will take up his post as director of science at the European Space Agency.

The job is a challenging one. Southwood will have to negotiate his way through the organisation's political minefields. The rewards for success, however, are great. As director of science he will bring to fruition the programme of space missions laid out by his highly respected predecessor, Roger Bonnet. Beyond that, he will be shaping the long-term future of international space science.

The charismatic 55-year-old Southwood combines his scientific and technical abilities with management skills and political nous.

His most recent project saw him steering an international team of scientists who were designing and building a magnetometer for a merged European and American mission to Saturn and its moon Titan. For the past three years, Southwood has overseen the Paris-based space agency's Earth observation strategy.

His colleague Andre Balogh, professor of space physics at Imperial College, says: "David Southwood has the motivation for the job and the experience of working in Esa headquarters. His year in the Earth observation office has enabled him to watch how Esa works at the top."

Southwood agrees that his past work has prepared him for what lies ahead. "I go in aware of the nature of the political fight," he says.

"The big difference between this (being head of Earth observation) and the next job is that when I went to Paris, there was no programme and I had to invent it. This time, I go in and the programme has been laid out to 2012 by the community.

"The challenge is to build these things and deliver them on time and working."

Southwood risks under-emphasising the role he will play in shaping the future of space science.

The outline for the coming 12 years may have been defined, but space missions take decades to plan and Southwood is poised to play a leading role in moulding the long-term future.

"If gravitational waves are detected, there are ideas for a whole new astronomy as happened with the discovery of radio waves.

"Whatever happens, you have to have something in the programme to look at it," he says.

"Mercury observatories would be another possible future mission. Mercury is not like Mars, the Earth or Venus and we want to establish why it is so different.

"When you have a family member who looks different, they may hold some family secret. It is all part of the job of finding how the family of the solar system came together."

Meanwhile, Southwood believes the peaceful cooperation of science will pave the way for closer political union within Europe.

Esa's growing membership of 15 countries - Hungary is rumoured to be next on the waiting list to join - includes all of the major European powers, as well as Canada, which is a "cooperating state".

Most, but not all, of Esa's members belong to the European Union, and most, but not all, of the members of the European Union belong to Esa.

"I strongly believe that Europe can achieve more together than its countries can on their own.

"I do not think you can stop the tendency towards European integration, it is part of the response to globalisation and Europe had better work out how to survive as an economic unit," he says.

"In science, our competitors are Japan and the United States but, at the same time, we collaborate with Nasa.

"It would be foolish to feel we have to compete in all areas and equally foolish to collaborate in all areas."

However, his competitive instinct lies just below the surface.

"Why the hell should the Americans always be first? The Americans do not have a monopoly on intellectual capital.

"For the past 50 years, there has been a tendency to see the Americans as first and I do not like to see Europeans looking over their shoulders and asking why the Americans have not already done what they are doing," he says.