During the last UN-COPUOS meeting in Vienna (June, 16th – 17th, 2008), more than five SGAC delegates participated in a number of interesting agenda items in Space activities. Some of the topics that were presented covered the areas of “Spin-off benefits of Space Technology”, “Space and Society” and “Space and water” amongst others. Two SGAC delegates (Ms. Bijal Thakore and Ms. Johanna Catena) provided excellent speeches in the areas of “Capacity building for community-based disaster management” and “New Framework for Space Traffic Management”.
Other presentations were given by the representative of Japan on “Disaster Management” and Germany on “Rapid mapping services and applications for emergency response”. These presentations in line with the UN Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER¹) program, provided an interesting forum for delegates’ contributions. Delegates of USA and Japan requested clarification on some of the reference terms of the SPIDER Regional Support Offices (RSO’s), currently being nominated. I participated in an informal open meeting, which brought together more than 40 delegates from different countries; France, Spain, China, Austria, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Chile, amongst others. This event provided me with an overview of SPIDER activities, with examples given by the delegates of China, on the international support they had received and the “lessons learned” from Sichuan Earthquake. The meeting also led to an overview of the “capacity building role”, “knowledge management” and “regional initiatives” of the SPIDER offices currently being staffed in Austria, Bonn, Beijing and Geneva. The meeting concluded with an overview of present and future activities in support of local capacity building, regional workshops/seminars and other activities in support of SPIDER.
On another topic, I would like to highlight some other interventions that I found very interesting and of which was I unaware of. These are briefly described as follows:
One of the presentations, which I enjoyed very much, was the one carried out by Mr. F. R. Chang Diaz, the first Hispanic-American astronaut in 1980’s, with the Association of Space Explorers. His presentation entitled “Asteroid Threat: Time for an International Decision” provided an overview of asteroids sizes and the likelihood of impact over time. Mr. Chang Diaz also described the potential effects of asteroid Aphophis. Aphophis will go by the Earth on 13th April 2029, which could enter the Earth’s “keyhole” window and lead to collision on 2036. The risk corridor of Aphophis covers Russia, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as well as the Caribbean, amongst others. He proposed working towards an international decision framework to effectively address the actions required towards a joint undertaking against the risks to Earth and its inhabitants.
An intervention by the representative of Russia (Mr. D. Gonchar) entitled “The draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in outer space (PPWT)”, a joint effort by Russia and China for consideration by other countries. The presentation addressed its rationale, i.e.: the fact that inevitably the international situation would seriously destabilize due to the possibility of unexpected, suddent use of space weapons.
I very much enjoyed my participation as SGAC delegate in COPUOS. This event provided me with the opportunity to meet the delegates of Chile, Mexico, Austria, Saudi-Arabia and interact once again with representatives of Secure World Foundation, the International Space University (ISU) or the Spanish delegation.
The opportunitites of participation in some of these innitiatives, in particular, SPIDER is something that I would strongly recommend to any SGAC member, in support of disaster management and emergency response activities from a regional to an international perspective.
Prepared by Dr. Maite Trujillo
(¹) If members would be supportive of this suggestion, I could lead the creation of an international SPIDER-support youth activity. Any of those interested could contact me by email at trujillo_m@hotmail.com.
Receive the lastest announcements, discuss space-related topics with other members.