Committee on Space Research

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The international Committee on Space Research ( COSPAR ; German Committee for Space Research ) is the global umbrella organization for scientific activities in the field of space research , based in Paris .

Foundation and congresses

It was founded in 1958 at an international congress of the International Council for Science (ICSU). At the beginning of the "Space Age" (start of the first artificial earth satellite Sputnik 1 , 1957) it was to become a worldwide forum for scientists who are active in the fields of the earth's atmosphere , space science and near-earth astronomy .

The organization specifically promotes space- related basic research and its application with space probes , rockets and balloon probes. It is subject to the principles of the ICSU, i. In other words, it deals with all questions - as free from political considerations as possible - from a scientific point of view. Created in the early stages of the Cold War through an agreement between the US and the Soviet academies , COSPAR became an early and important bridge between East and West. The decisive role of these two academies is enshrined in the structure of COSPAR. In the first decade there were fierce East / West disputes, especially about the neutral occupation of the presidential post, for which the two academies have the sole right to propose.

The first international COSPAR congress took place in January 1960 in Nice . The extensive conference volumes of the first annual congresses were one of its most important sources of information at the beginning of space travel. Because of the sharp increase in specialized meetings, the 1980s switched to a two-year series of COSPAR General Assemblies. The 41st General Assembly in Istanbul was canceled after the attempted coup in Turkey .

General
Assembly 		year city country
42. 2018 Pasadena, California United StatesUnited States United States
41. 2016 Istanbul (canceled) TurkeyTurkey Turkey
40. 2014 Moscow RussiaRussia Russia
39. 2012 Mysore IndiaIndia India
38. 2010 Bremen GermanyGermany Germany
37. 2008 Montreal CanadaCanada Canada
36. 2006 Beijing China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China
35. 2004 Paris FranceFrance France
34. 2002 Houston United StatesUnited States United States
33. 2000 Warsaw PolandPoland Poland

aims

The Committee on Space Research is a global forum for space science. It supports the exchange of results and research in all areas of space travel on an international level and is an interdisciplinary platform for discussion for all interested parties .

COSPAR places particular emphasis on the exchange of data and results, on their internationally accessible publication and on international research projects. The means to achieve these goals are above all the organization of scientific conferences, the publication of special reports and relevant journals, but also the establishment of continuously working project groups. The following should be mentioned in particular: for the earthly neutral atmosphere COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA), for the earthly ionosphere International Reference Ionosphere (IRI, together with URSI ) and more recently also for planetary atmospheres.

President Roger-Maurice Bonnet of the French CNES (Center for Space Studies), who was elected in 2002, emphasized that the entire scientific community has a right of access (" Open Access ") to the results of national space activities and the international space station .

Publications

COSPAR currently publishes several series of periodicals:

  • The journal "Advances in Space Research" (ASR) including the COSPAR Information Bulletin.
    • The proceedings of the symposia and other meetings organized by COSPAR. They contain only “reviewed papers” from the following areas: remote sensing of the earth, meteorology and climatic science, earth-moon system , planets , small bodies and plasma in the solar system , magnetospheres and the upper atmosphere of earth and planets, space-based astrophysics and material physics, astrobiology .
    • Individual ASR volumes are dedicated to special research topics and are also available individually.
    • The COSPAR Information Bulletin has been published since 1960. In addition to its members, it is also accessible to other scientists and publishes current activities in space research with satellites and space probes. Guest authors , "Invited Papers" or photo reports regularly supplement the Bulletin, as does the "International Geophysical Calendar".
  • COSPAR colloquia : The proceedings have been published by Elsevier Science-Verlag since 1989:
    • Vol. 16 (2003) - Frontiers of Magnetospheric Plasma Physics - Plasma Processes in the Near-Earth Space: INTERBALL and Beyond
    • Vol.15 - Dust in the Solar System and Other Planetary Systems
    • Vol.14 - Solar-Terrestrial Magnetic Activity and Space Environment
    • Vol.13 - Multi-Wavelength Observations of Coronal Structure and Dynamics
    • Vol.12 - Space Weather Study Using Multipoint Techniques
    • Vol.11 - The Outer Heliosphere: The Next Frontiers
    • Vol.10 - Microsatellites as Research Tools
    • Vol.9 - Magnetospheric Research with Advanced Techniques
    • Vol.8 - Remote Sensing of Subtropical Oceans
    • Vol.7 - Low-Latitude Ionospheric Physics
    • Vol.5 - Solar-Terrestrial Energy Program: The Initial Results from STEP Facilities and Theory Campaigns
    • Vol.4 - Plasma Environments of Non-Magnetic Planets
    • Vol.3 - Solar Wind Seven
    • Vol.2 - The Environmental Model of Mars
    • Vol.1 - Physics of the Outer Heliosphere.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 5th European Conference on Space Debris at ESOC , European Space Agency , March 25, 2009.