By Marc Sabadi
"The UN-COPUOS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee took place, yet again, in the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. This was the forty-fifth session held here; the twenty something for a considerable number of delegates and the first one for me.
Distinguished delegates from non less distinguished countries were making statements, discussing issues, listening to presentations, delivering speeches and, of course, attending receptions throughout the two weeks.
When attending sessions, the first impression could be that nothing relevant was happening there. Delegates were reading statements in a mechanic way. Speeches in various languages and different accents were being continuously delivered while a dull atmosphere surrounded the Conference Room. One could even wonder if they were reading statements from the former years but changing a few details. Only delegates from Venezuela, Chile, Cuba and Greece broke this droning rhythm with occasional comments and interventions. Besides that, in appearance, nothing was really happening.
Nevertheless, behind this monotonous face of the S&T plenty of activities were taking place. Beyond the over formalism of sessions meetings were happening going on and working groups were being held in the adjacent rooms. Delegates, UN staff and observers (like SGAC) were gathering to discuss important matters. Main actors in the space arena were being brought together. Space professionals, politicians and activists from all over the world were exchanging opinions, discussing issues and sometimes arguing (always in an extremely formal, polite and diplomatic manner). Despite appearance, a tremendous work was being done.
However, there were some interesting occurrences that took place in the Conference Room. For instance, statement made by the Austrian students Alexandra Ruths and Paul Schmitzberger, who took advantage of the SGAC Permanent Observer Status with the UN COPUOS, was memorable. Under the title “Bridging the gap or why students of the 21st century no longer reach for the stars” they presented the SEDSAT II project. The dynamism, energy and enthusiasm of the presentation contrasted with the previous statements. Also presentations delivered by the International Space University as well as one given by the SGAC Co-chairman Alex Karl (about youth views on NEO’s) caught the eye of the delegates as well. All of that made me think about how important is to master communicational skills. I realised how our generation (Space Generation) uses audiovisual techniques in order to explain things in a shorter, clearer and in a more dynamic way. A presentation entitled “How to make a presentation” could be really useful for some of delegates in order to bridge the generation gap.
The mentioned presentation of the SGAC Co-chair was also successful. Results from a survey about young space enthusiasts’ opinions in regards to the NEO’s were detailed. After the speech, distinguished Bolivian delegate asked a question to the SGAC delegation. He subscribed a hypothetical situation: an asteroid is falling down on Earth. It is estimated to crash in Europe. However, ESA manages to swerve asteroid far away from Europe, to another continent. The asteroid falls on South America. In understandable worry, Bolivian delegate asked Alex about who would be liable for that. The respond from him was that SGAC unfortunately don’t have an answer for that, and most likely no one has it yet. Definitely, the issue is necessary to investigate.
In summary, during the two weeks, all topics related to the Scientific and Technical issues of Space were discussed with diverse degree of consensus within the subcommittee. These were: remote sensing of the Earth, space-system-based disaster management support, use of nuclear power sources in the outer space, utilisation of geostationary orbit, Near-Earth objects, space debris, global navigation satellite systems, International Heliophisical Year and so on.
In parallel, meetings kept going and working groups continued doing their job. Delegates, UN staff, institutes and NGO’s (like SGAC) continued to gather. The main actors in the space field continued to mingle and do business. Space professionals, politicians and activists from all over the world maintained exchanging opinions, discussing issues and sometimes arguing - always (we must not forget, we are in the UN) in a perfectly formal, polite and diplomatic way."
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