"The market is there, " said Robert Laine, chief technical officer of EADS Astrium.

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The issue is now being studied at the ATV control room in Toulouse, France, and at prime contractor EADS Astrium's Functional Simulation Facility at Les Mureaux north west of Paris.

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Dr Ralph Cordey, who is EADS Astrium's head of exploration and business, told BBC News that the concept of a gravity tug was actually first mooted by two Nasa astronauts, Edward Lu and Stanley Love, a few years ago.

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EADS-Astrium is currently working on a portable van, which has a satellite link, GSM, and wi-fi capabilities to be deployed during emergencies, such as in the aftermath of natural disasters.

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EADS-Astrium is about to launch its first SDR product, a piece of kit to be used by the military that can convert different kinds of signals, but Mr Kinsella said it was still an emerging technology.

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And last year, European aerospace giant EADS announced plans for its Astrium space division to develop a line of suborbital jets to satisfy a space tourism market that it predicts could grow to as many as 15, 000 passengers a year by 2020.

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Dr Sweeney's team, working in collaboration with Astrium, a satellite-and-space company that is part of EADS, a European aerospace group, will test the system in a large aircraft hangar in Germany.

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