Viewing page 128 of 218

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

THE CONFERENCE REPORT

Preparation

A preliminary draft of the ISY Mission to Planet Earth Conference report was completed during the conference, under the overall supervision of Dr. Shelfy G. Tilford and Dr. Thomas B. McCord. They were assisted by Miss Zeny Cocson; faculty members of the University of New Hampshire assigned to the working groups as rapporteurs (Nancy Defeo, David Skole, Judith Spiller, James Vogelmann, Charles Varosmarty); and the working group co-chairmen. The preliminary draft was expanded and revised by the working group co-chairmen and the report editor. At the US-ISY Association office in Washington, Linda Billings copy edited the manuscript and Stephanie Neyhart corrected its numerous drafts. The report was rushed to completion in time for the first independent meeting of the Space Agency Forum for the ISY (SAFISY), on July 22, 1988, in Espoo, Finland. It is hoped that the report will assist SAFISY, and other interested bodies, in their ISY deliberations. 

Executive Summary 

The ISY Mission to Planet Earth Conference was highlighted by a declaration of endorsement for the Internation Space Year by senior officials of 17 national space agencies or equivalent bodies; their agreement to promote the ISY and participate in it; their establishment of a Space Agency Forum on International Space Year (SAFISY) as their coordinating agent; their commitment to make Mission to Planet Earth a major theme of the ISY; and the development of MIssion to Planet Earth proposals for consideration by SAFISY.

SAFISY Senior officials of 17 national space agencies or equivalent bodies were founding members of SAFISY. They met in a working group under the chairmanship of Dr. Hubert Curien, who was also the conference chairman. They adopted terms of reference. (See p. 35 for text.) They agreed to meet henceforth at least once a year on a rotating basis among member agencies. Those meetings will complement regular interagency ISY communications. SAFISY members will discuss interagency ISY activities, exchange information on agency programs for the ISY in order to encourage complementarity and compatibility, and review space agency relationships with other bodies involved in ISY activities. In order to consolidate organization and begin defining specific programs, a rapid followup meeting for SAFISY was scheduled for July 22, 1988, in Espoo, Finland, in parallel with the biannual COSPAR meeting. 

On the final day of the ISY Missio to Planet Earth Conference, chairmen of the Earth science working groups presented several preliminary proposals to the senior officials working group. The proposals demonstrated clearly the great potential of Mission to Planet Earth activities for the ISY, in particular their global application and social and economic significance, and led to the endorsement of Mission to Planet Earth as a major (but not exclusive) SAFISY focus. As an initial step, in order to facilitate planning, SAFISY members agreed to send a communication to all space agencies requesting detailed information on the capabilities of all Earth observing systems currently in operation or scheduled during the next decade. (See p. 7 for text of message.) SAFISY members also agreed to establish two advisory panels of Earth science experts to assist in evaluating Mission to Planet Earth proposals - Science and Technology, Education and Applications - and to consider advisory panels for other areas of space activity.

SAFISY members also accepted the following principals, as outlined by the conference chairman in concluding remarks: 

• The ISY should be constructed on a solid scientific basis, but it should also engage the widest possible range of beneficiaries of space and science technology.

• The ISY should pay special attention to the needs of developing countries, including the need for technical training; easy and rapid access to data from ISY programs should therefore be an important guideline.

• Educational activities should be a major ISY component. They should draw on the grandeur and inspiration of international cooperation in space and also increase public understanding of space as a new element of cultural development that will have ramifications on all aspects of life.

• SAFISY will not compete with other existing international bodies but will seek fruitful interaction with them, including private sector and other non-governmental organizations.

Mission to Planet Earth A major theme running through all the Earth science working group discussions, and the speeches, was the great opportunity offered by the ISY to initiate a long-term program of Earth observation mission coordination and worldwide data standardization. The increasing number, diversity, and sophistication of space agency Earth observation missions will accelerate during the next few years, highlighted by the recent and planned launching of ERS-1 (ESA), JERS-1 and ADEOS (Japan), TOPEX/Poseidon (U.S.-France), UARS (U.S.), IRS-1 (India), the U.S.S.R. RESOURCE system, Brazil's MECB system, complemented by improvements in existing weather satellite and SPOT and LANDSAT systems, and other activities. Those missions will be followed in the middle and late 1990's by a series of space agency polar platforms of even greater capability and complexity, and subsequently by a number of geostationary platforms. "This augmented capability,"

5