Remote sensing satellites, superpower relations and public diplomacy

This article examines the consequences for US-Soviet relations of the wide availability of commercial remote sensing images. Both SPOT and Landsat images have recently been used, by the Western media as well as the superpowers themselves, to comment publicly on arms control controversies and environmental disasters, notably Chernobyl. Looking to the future, several scenarios involving third-party intervention in treaty compliance disputes, supported by commercial imagery, are discussed: unpleasant consequences could conceivably follow, but experience to date indicates that outcomes are most likely to foster openness and stability between the superpowers.     

The UK parliamentary space committee: The emergence of a space lobby?

In the past few years the UK has become increasingly active as the financial conscience of the European Space Agency. This is not because the UK government has a wish to spend more on its national space effort; it is because it remains unconvinced of the benefits of certain European space activities, notably manned endeavours. In the absence of an effective UK space lobby, the government's policies have remained largely unchallenged. This article traces the growth of the Parliamentary Space Committee in the context of developments in recent European space policy and highlights the need for an active UK space lobby.     

The cost of space flight

Estimates of the cost of human space flight continue to generate controversy in the effort to set US space policy. Estimates vary widely, depending upon the position of the observer. This article identifies the real cost of major space flight programs and traces the heterofore unsuccessful efforts to cut the expense of space operations.     

The space elevator in the context of current space exploration policy

The space elevator is an advanced space transportation system that someday could replace chemical rockets as humanity's primary means of reaching Earth's orbit. However, before this can occur, a number of enabling technologies will need to be developed, and a variety of economic and policy questions must be addressed. The goal of this paper is to examine the feasibility of the space elevator in the context of current space exploration policy. The paper reviews the space elevator's critical enabling technologies and presents their wide variety of applications. The challenges of funding the space elevator and of building support for the program are discussed. The potential for international cooperation is considered, and the role of the space elevator in the Vision for Space Exploration is examined. The paper argues that each of the space elevator's component technologies ought to be developed independently to meet separate nearer-term objectives. The space elevator should be just one of many applications considered in making decisions to pursue research and development related to each component technology. The enabling technologies, once mature, might eventually be integrated in the construction of a full-scale space elevator from the Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit and beyond.     

The space exploration initiative Perspective from the US space science community

As NASA struggles to fund and execute its ambitious Space Station Freedom and Mission to Planet Earth programmes, President Bush has pledge the nation to a programme to return humans to the Moon to stay and to explore Mars. While not predicted on scientific grounds, this Space Exploration Initiative welcomes the support and participation of the scientific community. Success in establishing this relationship will depend on how the initiative is structured, sold and managed within the context of scientists' past experience with large, manned flight programmes.     

The importance of space policy teaching in communicating space activities to society

The governments’ priority and budgets for space activities are steadily decreasing and the importance of space activities is not any longer reaching the front pages of the newspaper, as in the 1960s. On the other hand in Europe the people, at large, have shown an important interest and support for space activities. A contribution to bridge the gap between decreasing funding and important support of citizen can come from teaching space policy in universities as well as in special workshops for government, industrial and military circles. The paper will outline a course that fulfils this goal.     

The history of international space programmes

In reviewing the past 50 years of international space cooperation, much of it stunningly successful, some bedevilled by difficulties, the author notes that ‘space’ can now only be understood as a complex area of widely varied sectors, further complicated by different funding sources and dual-use activities. While scientists were the initial drivers of cooperation, their flourishing programmes risk losing government funding to the grandiose manned missions being envisaged. Such funding is strongly reliant on political will rather than on the merits of any particular programme, something that, until recently with the GEO, has been particularly evident in earth observations. A major problem has been countries’ efforts to secure some minor national advantage at the expense of the bigger picture. But for international space cooperation truly to benefit humanity, a greater acceptance of working for the common good and more efficient programme management (no duplication) will be required.     

European space governance: The outlook

For the third year in a row, the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), and the Secure World Foundation (SWF) joined together to organise their annual space conference. The event took place in Brussels on 13 September 2011, under the banner “European space governance: the outlook”. This report summarises the main outputs of this event.     

The case for small space missions

Three orders of arguments are outlined to illustrate the importance of small missions. First, the classical reasons (one has to begin small, educational aspects, introduction to the space field) are summarized; then some thoughts are introduced on the efficacy and the efficiency of the effort invested (how expensive is a national project, and how advantageous the inevitable multinational cooperation); finally, a synopsis of the considerations about the need for cultural changes in the space program (the challenge of the coming era, the resulting needs, the philosophy of “small missions” and its contributions) is given.     

The ethical dimensions of space settlement

While proposals for settling in the space frontier have appeared in the technical literature for over 20 years, it is in the case of Mars that the ethical dimensions of space settlement have been most studied. Mars raises the questions of the rights and wrongs of the enterprise more forcefully because: (a) Mars may possess a primitive biota; and (b) it may be possible to terraform Mars and transform the entire planet into a living world. The moral questions implicit in space settlement are examined below from the standpoints of four theories of environmental ethics: anthropocentrism, zoocentrism, ecocentrism and preservationism. In the absence of extraterrestrial life, only preservationism concludes that space settlement would be immoral if it was seen to be to the benefit of terrestrial life. Even if Mars is not sterile, protection for Martian life can be argued for either on intrinsic or instrumental grounds from the standpoints of all of these theories. It is argued further that a strict preservationist ethic is untenable as it assumes that human consciousness, creativity, culture and technology stand outside nature, rather than having been a product of natural selection. If Homo sapiens is the first spacefaring species to have evolved on Earth, space settlement would not involve acting ‘outside nature', but legitimately ‘within our nature'.     

The changing geopolitics of space activities

Traditional space relations among civilian space actors are undergoing in the post-cold war era a rapid evolution with a growing number of new institutional entities. The cold war era and its resulting political environment, which limited space cooperation to ‘intra-bloc’ cooperation, has disappeared, allowing the development of new axes and mechanisms of cooperation. The internationalization and regionalization of space activities witnessed in recent years is foreseen to gain momentum, leading therefore to a new geography of civilian space activities.     

The future of space medicine.

In November 2000, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its partners in the International Space Station (ISS) ushered in a new era of space flight: permanent human presence in low-Earth orbit. As the culmination of the last four decades of human space flight activities. the ISS focuses our attention on what we have learned to date. and what still must be learned before we can embark on future exploration endeavors. Space medicine has been a primary part of our past success in human space flight, and will continue to play a critical role in future ventures. To prepare for the day when crews may leave low-Earth orbit for long-duration exploratory missions, space medicine practitioners must develop a thorough understanding of the effects of microgravity on the human body, as well as ways to limit or prevent them. In order to gain a complete understanding and create the tools and technologies needed to enable successful exploration. space medicine will become even more of a highly collaborative discipline. Future missions will require the partnership of physicians, biomedical scientists, engineers, and mission planners. This paper will examine the future of space medicine as it relates to human space exploration: what is necessary to keep a crew alive in space, how we do it today, how we will accomplish this in the future, and how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to achieve future goals.     

Will space run out of space? The orbital debris problem and its mitigation

An appraisal of current and future risks from space debris is presented with the aid of calculations carried out by the MASTER model. The efficacy of various technical options -- such as fuel venting, de-orbiting and use of a graveyard orbit -- for counteracting the problem is discussed. The article then focuses on governmental and international cooperative measures and looks at the recent work done by subcommittees of the UN COPUOS.     

The USA and the 1985 space WARC

This article considers the US policy objectives at the forthcoming WARC-ORB 85 Conference, and argues that with US willingness to modify its position the Conference seems for the first time to provide a good basis for a dialogue between the USA and those countries that feel the existing system is not equitable. Two main problems still need to be considered: the role of common user organizations such as INTELSAT, and the relationship between the Federal Communications Commission and other actors involved in the US international telecommunication decision-making process. Failure to reach agreement at the conference could lead to the USA being the country which suffers most.     

The meaning of Japan's space commercialization efforts

The gradual commercial utilization and application of the results of government-led space development programmes is a natural development. In Japan private sector involvement goes further than this because the government budget for space development is very limited. To remain competitive in an increasingly international market Japan now needs to develop a partnership between government and private enterprise to construct a system and structure that will directly benefit the public, otherwise the necessary support for space development will not be attained.     

日本宇航元器件保证工作简介

从宇航元器件的分类、质量等级、选用、采购和应用等元器件保证的主要方面,介绍日本宇航元器件的保证现状和质量管理的情况,并结合国情提出做好我国宇航元器件保证工作的建议。     

The environmental dimension of space arms control

Current debates on the prevention of an arms race in outer space are dominated by the traditional perspective of international strategic balance. This article addresses the issue through the often-neglected lens of environmental protection, reviewing a number of environmental instruments as they relate to outer space. It argues that environmental protection, as a non-traditional element, is an instrumental impetus for arms control. The current regime leaves the door open for states to develop conventional orbital weapons and ground-based anti-satellite weapons (ASATs), which would have a significant adverse impact on the space environment. Thus the law of environmental protection is deficient in effectively protecting the space environment from pollution resulting from military activities. It is further argued that the space arms control regime should be strengthened for humanity's common interest in a sustainable space environment. Preferably an international treaty should be concluded to prohibit testing, deployment and use of space-based weapons and ASATs. These substantive obligations also conform to the requirements of safeguarding international peace and security, and the security interests of spacefaring countries.     

The EVA space suit development in Europe

The progress of the European EVA space suit predevelopment activities has resulted in an improved technical reference concept, which will form the basis for a start of the Phase C/D development work in 1992. Technology development work over the last 2 years has resulted in a considerable amount of test data and a better understanding of the characteristics and behaviour of individual parts of the space suit system, in particular in the areas of suits' mobility and life support functions. This information has enabled a consolidation of certain design features on the one hand, but also led to the challenging of some of the design solutions on the other hand. While working towards an improved situation with respect to the main design drivers mass and cost, the technical concept has been improved with respect to functional safety and ease of handling, taking the evolving Hermes spaceplane requirements into consideration. Necessary hardware and functional redundancies have been implemented taking the operational scenario with Hermes and Columbus servicing into consideration. This paper presents the latest design status of the European EVA space suit concept, with particular emphasis on crew safety, comfort and productivity, in the frame of the predevelopment work for the European Space Agency.