Representatives from the UK and other European political, industrial and scientific sectors, together with members of the general public are helping to shape the future direction of space exploration. At the first in a series of stakeholder consultation workshops held in Edinburgh on the 8/9th January 2007, hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the British National Space Centre (BNSC), the future strategy for ESA's long-term exploration of the solar system and beyond was debated by the various stakeholder groups from Europe in consultation with colleagues from across the world.