CSO on Heads of Space Agencies Summit

CSO participated in the January Summit of Heads of Space Agencies and Space Exploration Conference in Washington, USA. The director of CSO, Jan Kolář gave a lecture on the multicultural foundations of manned spaceflight at the Conference and the at the Summit he participated in the discussion panel on the Benefits of space exploration for humankind.

Both events on the space exploration were organized on 9^th and 10^th January 2014 by International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

IAA Space Exploration Conference

Main themes:

• Human Aspects in Spaceflight
• Scientific Goals in Robotics Missions
• Technical Factors: Enabling Technologies/Common Requirements
• Private Industry’s Role in Space Exploration and Exploitation: Technical, Policy and Legal Considerations
• Space Exploration: The Imperative of Global Cooperation
• Space Stations Utilization for Robotics and Human Spaceflight Exploration

Jan Kolář gave a lecture in the fifth section on the multicultural nature of human space exploration, gained experience and perspectives for the future. Presentation by eighteen other participants brought ideas of joint flights to the Moon, asteroids and Mars. Topics were discussed in terms of scientific needs to get more knowledge and in terms of technical, political and cultural.

The presented information showed that there is quite a consensus on how to address future intentions among the states, but the obstacle is in political and financial area. The issue of smaller countries involvement in space exploration is still in the background, although the interest in participating in research of solar system was clearly declared by several speakers from Central and East Asia, Latin America and Central Europe. The issue is also related to the question of mutual understanding and effective communication between members of the international crews that come from different cultural and social conditions.

The conference provided a number of suggestions for further priorities by the space agencies and by the academic community proposals. Czech Space Office was given the opportunity to contribute to the further development of recommendations submitted under the IAA.

Heads of Space Agencies Summit

Czech Space Office was invited to the summit to contribute to the debate on the key issues of space research - organizational, technical and social. There were present thirty representatives of space agencies and other similar organizations.

Discussion was conducted in four panels on the following themes:

• The Importance of International Cooperation
• Space Stations
• Space Exploration: LEO & Beyond
• Benefits of Space Exploration

CSO director was invited to participate in interviews in the fourth panel. Along with seven other participants he was given the opportunity to comment on the usefulness of astronautics in the wider scope. This is important especially for a small country like the Czech Republic, which is seeking engagement in large ambitious projects usually handled by large countries.

A common obstacle in the implementation of space projects is to point out the financial requirements. That is, without further justification transmitted by the media, creating an unfavorable atmosphere for the granting of the necessary financial support from public funds. CSO therefore expressed direct opposition to the idea that space activities is costly to society. If we accept the fact that aerospace technologies are part of our lives irrevocably in many areas, it can´t be truth that it is too expensive activity. For the same reason, we can´t consider the expenditures for Solar system exploration as useless. Space community should fight against the widespread opinion on the costs of space activities.