Ambitious EU plans to colonise space were outlined last week (Image: GETTY)
Speaking at a space industry conference in Brussels last Tuesday (January 22) Ms Bienkowska said the the EU should follow US President Donald Trump's lead by developing its own space force, as well as drawing up colonisation plans. However, Dr Stuart Eves, Lead Mission Concepts Engineer for Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, was unconvinced. With respect to the space force idea, he told Express.co.uk: "In this instance EU stands for 'Extremely Unlikely'.
"Discussions of a “Space Force” in the US are most definitely focused on the military control of space.
"In Europe, military matters are, in theory, handled by the European Defence Agency, (EDA), but this entity has made little progress towards the cohesion of the conventional forces in Europe, and there seems little prospect of effective collaboration on military space anytime soon."
Mr Eves also stressed there were further complications because the European Space Agency (ESA) with whom the EU would need to work in order to develop such a strategy, was not supposed to get involved in military matters.
He explained: "The European Space Agency is a separate entity outside the EU at present, although the EU has tried to gain control of ESA in the past.
Elzbieta Bienkowska shared her vision at a space conference in Brussels (Image: GETTY)
The ESA charter, to which the UK is a signatory, emphasises the use of space for peaceful purposes, echoing the language of the Outer Spac Treaty from 1967.
"If ESA were to get involved in the
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