Now that you are familiar with the ESA, its history, and its missions, discuss the long-term prospects for the ESA in space. Should their focus change? Why or why not? Who should they partner with? Anyone they shouldn’t partner with?
For the partner aspect I would use the ISS as an example. With NASA set to decommission the ISS and (hopefully) turn it over for commercial use where will the ESA end up in terms of a space station? China has a station that is still being assembled but being a partner with China comes with its own set of pros and cons. Orbital reef might be an option, but it is still in development. Could the ESA actually partner with a commercial entity or set of commercial entities like those construction orbital reef.
The future needs to be Lunar operations and Martian operations after that, in my opinion. LEO can only provide so much benefit to humanity.
This is a discussion so formality is not a huge factor.
