United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

23 February 2011 - The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), under the framework of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, is launching the Human Space Technology Initiative (HSTI) with the objective to promote international cooperation in human spaceflight and space exploration-related activities.

On 8 February 2011, at the margins of the forty-eighth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), the Office, in cooperation with the International Space Station (ISS) partners, held an outreach seminar concerning the International Space Station.

The seminar presented the status of education and research activities on the ISS and provided information on utilization and cooperation opportunities. Please check the outreach seminar web page for more information.

The main achievement of the seminar was for the first time under the auspices of the UN, to bring together ISS partners and other countries, especially developing countries, giving them a unique opportunity to start discussions on possible cooperation and on how HSTI could play a role as an interlocutor between the ISS partners and non-ISS partners.

The seminar confirmed that HSTI could be a meaningful mechanism for promoting ISS and other exploration-related initiatives to countries, regions, and potential users that have to date not been involved with such activities, thereby contributing to capacity building in space science and technology education and research.

25 January 2011 - Within the framework of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) organized in Dubai, from 16 to 20 January 2011, a five-day Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).

The workshop was hosted by the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) on behalf of the Government of the United Arab Emirates and was co-sponsored by the United States of America through the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG).

The aim of the workshop was to augment the exchange of information, collaboration and advances in the use of GNSS in a wide range of applications (e.g. aviation, marine, roads and highways, rail, space, agriculture, forestry, and natural resource exploration, surveying and mapping, scientific applications) with a view to establish a regional cooperative mechanism.

The workshop programme included plenary sessions and discussion panels that allowed participants to identify priority areas where pilot projects could be launched and possible partnerships could be established. Throughout the Workshop, national and regional success stories were demonstrated and potential applications were explained. The sessions stimulated discussion on how to establish a link between the global reference frame (International Terrestrial Reference Frame - ITRF) and the existing IGS (International GNSS Service) stations in the region in order to be incorporated in the continues operating GNSS network.

17 January 2011 - Since 1991, the UN Programme on Space Applications and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) have been working jointly on organizing a series of annual international workshops on space science and technology applications for benefit of developing countries. The theme of the 21st workshop in the series is "Space for Human and Environmental Security", and it will take place from 30 September to 2 October, 2011, in Cape Town, South Africa, in conjunction with the 62nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC), that also will be held in Cape Town from 3 to 7 October 2011.

Each year co-organizers of the workshop provide a number of qualified applicants from developing countries with financial support needed to attend the workshop and the Congress. In addition to this assistance, in 2009 IAF started a Youth Grants Programme that supports participation of students and young professionals in IAC, the UN/IAF workshop and other events associated with the Congress. The 2011 IAF Youth Grant Programme is open to individuals between the age of 21 and 35, who are interested in pursuing careers involving the development, application and use of space systems, space science research, the policy, legal, social and cultural aspects of space activities, international cooperation on space programs and other similar subjects, and who would not otherwise be able to attend the Congress due to financial reasons.

The announcement of grant opportunities for 2011 and detailed information on application requirements are available on IAF website: http://www.iafastro.com/index.html?title=Youth_Grants

21 December 2010 - The Programme on Space Applications is now accepting applications for the three-year Doctorate in Nano-Satellite Technologies (DNST) Programme, a Long-term Fellowship Programme established by the United Nations and Japan with the cooperation of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT).

Tuition, living and travel cost for up to two candidates per year will be covered by KIT and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The programme starts on 1 October 2011 and will last for three years for each participant. The fellowsip programme will provide extensive research opportunities in nano-satellite systems through the use of the nano-satellite development and testing facilities available at KIT.

The deadline for application is 30 April 2011.

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8 November 2010 - The Fifth Meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) took place in Turin, Italy, from 18 to 22 October 2010. The event was jointly hosted by Italy and by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union.

This year the meeting addressed GNSS technology in the era of multi-systems receivers and the impact of GNSS interoperability on timing and other users' applications. The representatives of the major Italian industries involved in GNSS activities were invited to hold a round table on the "European GNSS in the frame of the international cooperation". The ICG Working Groups met on 19 and 20 of October and focused on the following issues: compatibility and interoperability, enhancement of the performance of GNSS services, information dissemination and capacity building, and reference frames, timing and applications.

The ICG had been established by the United Nations General Assembly as a forum to promote cooperation on matters of mutual interest to its members related to civil satellite-based positioning, navigation, timing and value-added services, as well as cooperation on the compatibility and interoperability of global navigation satellite systems, and to promote their use to support sustainable development, particularly in developing countries. The Office for Outer Space Affairs acts as the Executive Secretariat for the ICG and the Providers' Forum.

Further information and the presentations made at the meeting are available at the ICG Information Portal: www.icgsecretariat.org

2 November 2010 - The twentieth UN/IAF Workshop on "GNSS Applications for Human Benefit and Development" was held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 24 to 25 September 2010, as an associated event of the 61st International Astronautical Congress. The Workshop discussed GNSS technologies, applications and services that contribute into sustainable economic and social development programmes, primarily in developing countries.

The Workshop was jointly organized by the UN Programme on Space Applications and International Astronautical Federation (IAF), and it was co-sponsored by European Space Agency (ESA) and the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG). The event was hosted, on behalf of the IAC Local Organizing Committee, by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The co-sponsors provided financial support required for the participation of 31 individuals from 28 developing countries. Overall, more than 80 participants from 43 countries that had registered for this event have attended the workshop; representatives of a number of international organisations, institutions and NGO, such as ESA, IAF, IAA, SGAC and the United Nations were also present.

The Programme of the workshop included 3 technical sessions. Two sessions held on the first day of the workshop considered applications of GNSS technologies and services, and they also included presentations on practical experiences and case studies by participants. The third session held on the second day of the meeting dealt with international and regional initiatives and cooperation, and with capacity building in the area of GNSS technology and services application. Overall, 24 oral technical presentations were delivered during two days course of the technical sessions, and 13 papers were submitted for poster sessions. Technical sessions were followed by the concluding Round Table discussion, which took place on the second day of the Workshop.

The Round Table discussion was moderated by Dr. Dorin Prunariu, Chairman of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), and it included the following six panelists: Dr. Jan Kolář (Head of Czech Space Office and Chairman of the IAC LOC), Mr. Ken Hodgkins (Director, Office of Space and Advanced Technology, Department of State, USA), Prof. Alexey Romanov (Deputy Director General, JSC "Russian Space Systems", Russia), Prof. Bernhard Hofmann-Wellenhof (Institute of Navigation and Satellite Geodesy, Graz University of Technology, Austria), Dr. Giorgio Solari (Directorate of Galileo and Satellite Navigation Related Activities, ESA), Prof. Mustapha Amghar (Director of Galileo Morocco Group, Morocco). Prior to the Round Table, two Working Groups were established in order to summarize critical issues/focal themes identified in the presentations delivered at the technical sessions of the Workshop for addressing those to the panelists. The first Working Group focused on issues related to capacity building, institutional strengthening and international cooperation, and the second one discussed practical aspects of GNSS applications for sustainable development.

All presentations made at the Workshop have been posted at the IAF website.

The annual international workshop on Small Satellites in the Service of Developing Countries was organized by the Programme in cooperation with International Academy of Astronautics as a part of IAC, and it was held on 28 September 2010. One of the main objectives of this workshop was to review the benefits of small satellite programmes, with particular emphasis on the contribution that small satellites could make to supporting scientific, Earth observation and telecommunication missions. Emphasis was placed on international cooperation, education and training and the benefits of such programmes for developing countries. Among those attending the Workshop were several participants of previous workshops, who provided valuable continuity and were able to assess the progress that had been made in the course of the workshop series.

This half-day event was attended by about 100 registered participants of the IAC, and it featured 13 technical presentations dealing with the use of space technology for the benefit of developing countries.

The United Nations Programme on Space Applications also presented its Basic Space Technology Initiative (BSTI) at the 2nd International Cluster Forum - Nanosatellite Event held on 29 September 2010 as part of the Congress.

24 September 2010 - In the framework of the Basic Space Technology Initiative (BSTI), the United Nations Programme on Space Applications successfully conducted the second Symposium on "Small Satellite Programmes for Sustainable Development - Payloads for Small Satellite Programmes", held in Graz, Austria, from 21 to 24 September 2010.

This year Symposium focused on the development and applications of payloads for small satellites in the 1-100 kg class. More than 115 small satellite experts from more than 35 countries and international organizations took part in the Symposium with lectures and working groups focusing on the status of world-wide small satellite activities, international and regional cooperation, the potential of using small satellites for education, research and operational applications, the technical and programmatic issues of developing payloads for small satellites and the relevant regulatory issues, such as frequency allocations, space debris mitigation and registration of satellites.

15 September 2010 - Article entitled "The United Nations Programme on Space Applications: Status and direction for 2010" had been written by PSA staff and then published in August 2010 in the volume 26, issue 3 of the Space Policy journal (ISSN 0265-9646). The paper briefly reviews history and mandate of the Programme as well as describes the status and direction of Programme's activities in 2010 as approved by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The article can be accessed through this link.

Space Policy is an international, interdisciplinary journal which draws on the fields of international relations, economics, history, aerospace studies, security studies, development studies, political science and ethics to provide discussion and analysis of space activities in their political, economic, industrial, legal, cultural and social contexts.

8 September 2010 - As part of its Basic Space Technology Initiative, the United Nations Programme on Space Applications has published a new directory on Educational Opportunities in Aerospace Engineering and Small Satellite Development (UN document ST/SPACE/53).

The publication lists information about relevant programmes offered by 43 academic institutions in 18 countries.

29 June 2010 - UN Programme on Space Applications was invited to present its Basic Space Technology Initiative (BSTI) at a conference organized by the Universida de Vigo, Fundacion Caixagalicia and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of the Government of Spain.

Following the conference, representatives of Calpoly, CRECTEALC-Campus Mexico, European Space Agency (ESA), International Astronautical Federation (IAF), UNOOSA and Universida de Vigo met to discuss progress on the planned HUMSAT Nano-satellite constellation.

The HUMSAT constellation will provide messaging services through small user terminals and is open for international collaboration with organizations developing nano-satellites. The project has been presented at the UN/Austria/ESA Symposium on Small Satellite Programmes for Sustainable Development, held in 2009, and is endorsed by the Basic Space Technology Initiative, implemented by the Office for Outer Space Affairs in the framework of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications.

At the UN/Austria/ESA Symposium on Small Satellite Programmes for Sustainable Development: Payloads for Small Satellite Programmes, to be held 21-24 September 2010, a special session will be dedicated to the HUMSAT project.

3 June 2010 - The United Nations Programme on Space Applications is conducting a comprehensive survey of world-wide academic programmes in aerospace engineering and small satellite development. The purpose of this survey is to compile a directory which will allow Member States to assess the availability of relevant education opportunities and to help prospective students - including those from developing countries and emerging space nations - to select suitable programmes they may wish to apply for. Relevant academic institutions are invited to complete the survey.

Please visit BST page for more details.

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19 May 2010 - The 3rd Governing Board meeting of the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in English Language (ARCSSTE-E) was held in Abuja, Nigeria on 23 March 2010. Representatives from 10 African countries participated in the meeting. Various issues related to the work of ARCSSTE-E were discussed.

Dr. Takao Doi, UN Expert on Space Applications, visited the ARCSSTE-E located on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria on 24-25 March and had opportunities to talk to students and staff members. This year 27 students from 7 countries are taking university courses in remote sensing and geographic information system, satellite communication, and basic space and atmospheric science. The students at the ARSSTE-E performed their studies with great enthusiasm and dedication. They also considered the further development of manned space flights as very important for the future of their nations.

Please click here to get more information on activities of the Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education, affiliated to the United Nations.

8 April 2010 - A new brochure on the United Nations Programme on Space Applications has been published in February 2010 as the UN document ST/SPACE/52.

The colorful publication describes history and mandate of the Programme and provides a comprehensive overview of its current activities.

16 March 2010 - The Office for Outer Space Affairs, as the Executive Secretariat for the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) and the Providers' Forum, organized the ICG Working Group on "Enhancement of performance of GNSS services" special meeting on "GNSS User Positioning Integrity" on 8 March 2010 immediately preceding the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2010, 9 - 11 March 2010, Munich, Germany. The meeting was devoted to a discussion on the technical solutions being considered to address the problem of user positioning integrity and in particular the benefits that multi-constellation interoperability would bring to these solutions. Presentations made at the meeting are available at the ICG Information Portal at www.icgsecretariat.org

http://www.astronomy2009.org

7 January 2010 - The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) has been successfully concluded.

The UN Programme on Space Applications, through its Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI), supported IYA2009 as an Organizational Node and disseminated information on that activity world-wide and specifically to state Members of UNCOPUOS. A final review of the Programme's contributions to IYA2009 was undertaken as part of the UN/ESA/NASA/JAXA Workshop on Basic Space Science and the International Heliophysical Year 2007, hosted by the Korea Institute for Astronomy and Space Science (KASI) in September 2009 ( http://bssihy.kasi.re.kr/unbssw1.aspx).

4 January 2010 - The first, inaugural, issue of the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI) Newsletter is out!

The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the UN-COPUOS, beginning at its session in 2010, will consider a new agenda item entitled "International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI)" under a three-year work plan with specific focus on the effects of space weather on the Earth. Major elements of ISWI will be dissemination of information on the ground-based world-wide instrument arrays through an ISWI Newsletter and through the ISWI Website http://www.iswi-secretariat.org/. The ISWI Newsletter is published by Kyushu University, Japan.

Subscription to the Newsletter is available by sending a blank email to ISWInewsletter-on@mail-list.com. On an exceptional basis, the inaugural issue of the ISWI Newsletter has also been distributed as hard copy.

31 December 2009 - Since 1988, the Office, through the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, supports the establishment and operation of UN-affiliated Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education. Such Regional Centres exist for Asia and the Pacific in India, for Africa in Morocco and Nigeria, and for Latin America and the Caribbean in Brazil/Mexico. Regional Centres are organizing, on an annual basis, nine-month post-graduate courses in remote sensing and GIS, satellite communications, satellite meteorology and global climate, and space and atmospheric science.

At the 14th Governing Board Meeting of the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP), New Delhi, India, 7-10 September 2009, the first ever comprehensive report on Performance Assessment and Outlook for the Future for a UN-affiliated Regional Centre was published.

CSSTEAP was inaugurated in 1995 and the report contains full information on all achievements and issues that have been encountered by CSSTEAP in the past 15 years. Hard copies of this report are available on request to oosa@unoosa.org.

16 December 2009 - UN-OOSA took part in the work of the UN Climate Change Conference which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 7 to 18 December 2009. Following decisions of 2007 Conference in Bali, the Copenhagen Conference was expected to conclude a strong international climate change deal, which was to cover the key issues of mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions), adaptation (coping with the inevitable consequences of climate change) and finance and technology (needed to help developing countries to step up actions to limit the growth of their emissions and adapt to climate change impacts).

The Conference attracted a huge number of participants, including 8,000 delegates from parties, 750 participants from the UN Secretariat and specialized agencies, 700 participants from intergovernmental organization, and more than 20,000 registered participants from NGOs. In addition to plenary events of COP, CMP, SBI and SBSTA, the Conference featured more than 300 side events (seminar-like meetings, each event attracted around 100 participants in average), as well as a large exhibition.

During the first week of the Conference, the Office and PSA were presented at plenary meetings of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), as well as PSA representative participated, as panelist, in the UNCCD-organized side event on the role of land under the new climate change policy framework.

World-map showing ISWI instrument distribution, most of them GPS supported http://www.iswi-secretariat.org/

25 November 2009 - The Programme co-organized the Workshop to Establish Scientific and Instrument Collaborations for Observing the Consequences of Space Weather from Morocco. The meeting took place from 18 to 24 November 2009, and it was hosted, on behalf of the Government of Morocco, by the University Mohammed V in Rabat, Morocco. Formal presentations from IHY/ISWI instrument providers (CALLISTO, GPS-Africa, MAGDAS, RENOIR, SCINDA, SID/AWESOME) were made to prospective instrument hosts at Moroccan Universities. Tentatively two magnetometers (MAGDAS), two GPS receivers (GPS-Africa and SCINDA), and one radio spectrometer (CALLISTO) will be transferred to Moroccan observational sites. The UN-affiliated African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in French language, located in Rabat, will participate in the operation of the two GPS receivers. The Moroccan Academy of Science and Technology Hassan II and the ISWI Secretariat entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to the development of distributed ionospheric observatories in a number of universities of Morocco.

UNCOPUOS, at its fifty-second session in 2009, noted the importance of continuing to build upon the success of the International Heliophysical Year 2007 and noted with satisfaction that the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee will consider a new agenda item entitled International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI) under a three-year work plan with specific focus on the effects of space weather on the Earth and its impact, inter alia, on satellite communications and satellite positioning, navigation, and timing.

8 November 2009 - Since 1990, the UN Programme on Space Applications leads the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) by contributing to the international and regional development of astronomy and space science through annual UN/ESA/NASA/JAXA workshops on basic space science, International Heliophysical Year 2007 (IHY 2007), and the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI). The programme also coordinates the development of IHY/ISWI low-cost, ground-based, world-wide instrument arrays.

One of such instruments - Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Monitor (SID) - has been recently installed at UNOOSA exhibit to demonstrate how data on solar activity are received and processed in real tome.

When energy from a solar flare reaches the Earth, the ionosphere suddenly changes its physical characteristics, most notably in the way it reflects radio waves from terrestrial sources. Travelling with speed of light, the radiation reaches Earth in eight minutes and can disrupt radio communication and navigation system. The SID monitor measures the effect of these sudden disturbances on very low frequency radio wave transmissions and stores the data on an attached PC for uploading to the Solar Center at Stanford University where analysis and comparison to other sites in the SID worldwide network takes place. The graph at the left shows data collected during a twenty four hour period with marked changes in the signal strength as flares occur during day time.