Securing Galileo's and GMES's place in European policy

The successful realisation of the flagship programmes, Galileo/EGNOS and GMES has been in doubt as a result of the current financial constraints. In providing an overview of the role of these two programmes in relation to implementing European policies – with sector-by-sector information on the ways they can help fulfil specific EU objectives – this paper attempts to demonstrate why and how they must be successfully operationalised. It therefore continues by analysing their political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal strengths and weaknesses and makes policy recommendations on this basis. Utilising these flagship programmes to carry through major European policies will be crucial for realising their great potential and achieving the Europe 2020 goals of the European Union.     

A market for GMES? Results of the Graz conference

A new step in defining Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) was undertaken in April 2006 by the Austrian Presidency of the EU Council. Together with the European Commission, it organised a conference on ‘A Market for GMES in Europe and its Regions- the Graz Dialogue’. Prepared by the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), the conference assembled experts and users of GMES, who had agreed upon specific issues for discussion. The outcomes of the workshops were then brought to the Graz conference for wider reflection and discussion and summed up in the Graz Declaration (reprinted in the documentation section of this issue), which is a strategic, economic and regional action plan for GMES for the next 10 years, later endorsed by the Competitiveness Council at the end of May. This report presents the goals and outcomes of the conference and underlines the positive impulses it gave to GMES.     

Towards an EU industrial policy for the space sector – Lessons from Galileo

The rise of the EU as an actor in the European and world space theatres, in its various roles as initiator, owner and operator of large-scale programmes such as Galileo and GMES, has raised a number of questions with regard to industrial policy. Based on the experiences from the Galileo programme's procurement round in the Full Operational Capability (FOC) phase and on the present discussions on space industrial policy within the EU, this paper argues that, whereas the EU's political ambitions in space have been discussed and become reasonably well defined, the specific policy tools and legal instruments to put them into practice are far from complete. First, an unequivocal industrial policy for the space sector needs to be defined that reconciles the Union's political ambitions with the economic specificities of the space sector. At present, this is a work in progress, with opinions diverging between member states. Second, both logically and temporally, these policy decisions need to be translated into legal instruments that allow their implementation. This implies the development of made-to-measure funding instruments and procurement rules. We conclude by emphasising the need for a sector-specific industrial policy as an integral part of the EU's space policy.     

From GMES to NOE: a European network for the management of the environment

Space techniques are highly appropriate for collecting the information needed to address the problems of environment and security and Europe has been considering establishing its own autonomous system for this purpose. Two years since the first meeting in Baveno, the consensus has grown that, beyond the numerous positive aspects of the committed approach, the GMES initiative has been hampered, on one hand, by a scientific knowledge deficit of the issues at stake and, on the other hand, by the difficulties for potential stakeholders and consumers of reaping all the benefits of space systems of Earth observation. In order to solve these problems a networking approach involving space and in situ observatories, research centres and stakeholders is proposed.     

From initial ideas to a European plan: GMES as an exemplar of European space strategy

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is an idea which originated during a meeting in Baveno, Italy, in May 1998, which generated a call for Europe to get its act together in the field of environmental monitoring from space, to define a well articulated strategy in this area and to build upon its excellent scientific research community, its proven technical prowess in Earth observation from space and its nascent political will to express its objectives in international fora related to climate change and other global environment topics. While Europe was already active in the most advanced areas of global monitoring, its rather uncoordinated efforts (even within the European Commission) lacked visibility and did not appear to fit into a clearly established strategy. The ‘Baveno initiative’ was an attempt to remedy this situation and find a place within a developing ‘European Strategy for Space’, which requires ESA and the European Union to work more closely together. GMES was extended to include the ‘security’ (in its wider sense) aspects of global monitoring, a move that produced a number of questions and misunderstandings, but which allowed many in Europe to realize that monitoring the activities of the Earth’ land masses, oceans and atmosphere do include a security dimension. GMES will eventually incorporate an implementation plan which will call upon various monitoring techniques, ambitious modelling projects and connections with society's more urgent requirements with respect to environmental protection and prevention or reduction of risks related to natural hazards. This will entail significant efforts to inform the user communities and to convince them of the relevance and usefulness of this initiative. It will also provide a sound basis for the European contribution to the new initiative for improved coordination of strategies and systems for Earth observations called for by the July 2003 Earth Observation Summit.     

GEOS and its US and European components: Challenges and impact

The Centre Français sur les Etats Unis (CFE) held a day-long workshop on GEOSS, GMES and IEOS on 17 January 2006. Sponsored by Arianespace, the invitation-only roundtable drew some 50 participants from European and US administration, industry and academia. The programme and the presentations are on the CFE web site: www.cfe-ifri.net. This report summarizes the proceedings.     

Gathering news from space

Developments in remote-sensing technology have prompted suggestions that the news media could soon make routine use of newsgathering from space. A satellite system dedicated to this purpose (a ‘Mediasat’) could supply critical information. Government policy makers, however, fear that the media's use of such technology could affect national security, foreign relations and personal privacy. This article assesses US government policy on current and future newsgathering from space, and the technical potential for a Mediasat system. The authors raise doubts about the commercial viability of Mediasat, and point out that existing media sources already provide information on news stories. They conclude that concerns over the use of data from space will have to be met on a case-by-case basis as the media gain experience, using the same criteria now applied to balance the right of freedom of information with the need for national security.     

Data on and methodology for calculating space shuttle programme costs

This report presents data on the annual and total costs of NASA's Space Shuttle programme through fiscal year (FY) 1993. The total cost of the programme through FY 1993 is found to be $83.7 billion in 1992 dollars. This information has significance for pending policy decisions on the future of the Shuttle programme, its possible successors, and interrelated programmes, such as the Space Station.     

Earth observation data pricing policy

Pricing policy for Earth observation data continues to be a problem for both supplier organizations and user organizations: there are incompatible or conflicting pricing policies used by different organizations in the Earth observation sector. This paper analyses the issues in Earth observation data pricing in two ways. First, it analyses the policy foundations which underlie Earth observation data pricing, such as return on investment, the basis of pricing policy and access conditions. Second, it presents five policy options for the pricing of Earth observation data, namely free data, marginal cost price, market driven price, two tier pricing and rebalancing of government funding. The paper concludes with an analysis of the forces acting on Earth observation data pricing policy.     

跨传感器异步迁移学习的室内单目无人机避障

针对强化学习策略由仿真环境向实际迁移困难的问题，以提高无人机采用无深度信息单目视觉时的行人规避能力为目标，提出一种基于异步深度神经网络结构的跨传感器迁移学习方法。首先，在仿真环境中仅使用虚拟单线激光雷达作为传感器，通过基于确定性策略梯度(DDPG)的深度强化学习方法，训练得到一个稳定的初级避障策略。其次，用单目摄像头和激光雷达同步采集现实环境中的视觉和深度数据集并逐帧绑定，使用上述初级避障策略对现实数据集进行自动标注，进而训练得到无需激光雷达数据的单目视觉避障策略，实现从虚拟激光雷达到现实单目视觉的跨传感器迁移学习。最后，引入YOLO v3-tiny网络与Resnet18网络组成异步深度神经网络结构，有效提高了存在行人场景下的避障性能。     

Keeping up with remote sensing and GI advances—Policy and legal perspectives

Technological advances in remote sensing capabilities, wider participation of commercial firms and the possibilities of ‘processing’ spatial data to create value-added information have given rise to a range of policy and legal issues in the geographic information (GI) field. How far satellite images can still be considered a ‘public good’, conflicts between commercial and national interests is becoming a major issue, especially where security is concerned, sovereignty and the rights of sensed states, shutter control vs transparency is debated, data access, IPR and infringement of privacy becoming more relevant are all discussed. At the same time, the societal and public good of GI is well accepted with innumerable national and international examples. It is clear that societies would greatly benefit from the proper use of GI. A multilateral debate to formulate a GI policy that will take account of these while ensuring that the full benefits of remote sensing are available to society is called for.     

刍议上市公司会计政策选择与会计信息披露

随着会计政策选择的空间不断增大，会计政策选择出现的问题越来越多。如何规范上市公司会计政策的选择，提高上市公司的信息披露质量成为人们探讨的一个重要内容。本文从我国上市公司会计政策选择的现状人手，进一步分析会计政策选择对信息披露的影响，对于促进上市公司合理选择会计政策、维护资本市场的健康运转有一定的借鉴意义。     

Pricing policy and legal issues: 6th and 7th EOPOLE workshops

The following report presents the main conclusions of the sixth and seventh EOPOLE workshops, held in Hydra, Greece, 3–4 May and Leiden, the Netherlands, 3–5 July 2000, respectively. The objectives of the first workshop were to evaluate different approaches to pricing policy and to assess how new developments in Earth observation and information technology are having an impact on Earth observation data pricing policy. Those of the second were to assess the constraints that legal frameworks impose on Earth observation and to explore ways in which they can be used to its advantage.     

European perspectives on trends in public sector Earth observation data policies

The growing number of Earth observation satellites are producing ever increasing amounts of data. These data sets require adequate management to be widely exploited and to ensure preservation of what is a valuable information resource. Many Earth observation organisations have formulated or are developing policies related to how data are managed and distributed which encompass issues such as property rights, access and price of the data, exclusive data use and data archiving. European Earth observation is gaining more prominence in these developing policy issues. This paper is a review, from a largely European perspective, of current Earth observation data policies in operation by various public sector international, regional and national organisations in both the data providing and data user sectors. It will be demonstrated that certain trends exist between the various data policies but that differences in position are present in some key areas which may need to be reconciled in order for the Earth observation sector to reach maturity.     

Satellite remote sensing in aid of development: the Tunis Declaration

A policy statement of the Centre Régional de Télédétection des Etats de l’Afrique du Nord (CRTEAN) (North African Centre for Remote Sensing) was prepared in the wake of a conference, held in Tunis, on the use of remote sensing to aid development. This report briefly describes the areas covered by the seminar, provides information on the structure and activities of the CRTEAN and reproduces the policy document, known as the Tunis Declaration.     

Reply policy and signal type: assumptions drawn from minimal source information

A scenario is developed under which a discovery of extraterrestrial technology is made by one of the World’s search for exterrestial intelligence (SETI) programs. The nature of the signal received gives an absolute minimum of information as to the nature of the senders. Current SETI detection and reply policy is examined under these assumptions. Current policy calls for prompt and public release of signal information and stellar coordinates upon announcement of a discovery. The SETI protocol calls for no reply until authorized by international consultations. It is argued that changes are needed in these policies to guard against the possibility of unauthorized replies that could severely complicate long-term interstellar communication.     

Thoughts on European GNSS options

Europe has begun to face up to the challenges of global satellite navigation. A partial European air navigation service will be implemented, and a strategy for broader involvement in general space-based navigation is being developed. The author examines the nature of positioning systems as providers of a new kind of information commodity, and reflects on possible consequences for the EU's future policy making.     

Archives for Earth observation data

The fifth workshop of the EOPOLE project¹ was held in Seville, Spain, 17–19 January 2000, with the purpose of forming an opinion on European Earth observation data archiving policy. This report discusses the growing size and importance of EO data archives and presents the main conclusions of the workshop. The case is made for the establishment of a European centre for data archiving and users are urged to become more involved in archiving policy.     

全生命周期管理对企业信息化发展的思考

在国家“以信息化促进工业化、以工业化带动信息化”的基本国策的指导下,国内一些制造业企业正进行着以信息化为主体的技术改造。文章全面、系统地介绍了“产品全生命周期管理（PLM）”的概念, 并在调研国内一些先进企业应用的基础上,分析企业信息化困境、PLM出现的历史背景、实施中的关键问题、实际应用效果等,为我国航天业的信息化建设提供借鉴。     

菲利普斯曲线之中国验证——基于1985-2004年的数据分析

本文在介绍分析菲利普斯曲线三种形态及其政策含义的基础上,使用中国的相关数据对其进行验证。本文对我国菲利普斯曲线的三种形态分别进行绘制和分析。在简要回顾对曲线走势有重要影响的宏观经济政策之后,提出当前应当逐渐由扩张性财政政策向中性的财政政策转变。