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July 2004 |
Stretching boundaries
Symposia and Sessions
In all there were eleven different symposia and technical
sessions attracting over 100 papers in all. The sessions covered:
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Earth Observation | EO Commerce |
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Space Science | SATNAV |
| Natural Hazards | SATCOM |
| Space Education and Training | Space Commerce |
Valedictory
The valedictory session had short speeches from every key plenary session chairs of the conference. This was followed by brief addresses by the valedictory panelists - Meera Shankar, Additional Secretary, MEA India; Lee Morin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, USA; Don Anderson, NASA; A M Powell, Jr., Deputy Director Office of Research and Applications, NOAA/NESDIS USA; Mukund Rao, Deputy Director, EOS and P S Goel, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre. The vision statement was endorsed and adopted by all present. The document had a background statement of the mission of the meet culminating into 6 key vision statements for action. The gist of each point are given below.
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Cooperation in technical and commercial aspects
- 6 areas of cooperation in civil space research identified
- Aerospace enterprises from both countries to work for
creating opportunities of business development
- Supportive policy and business environment to be
facilitated
- Continuation of efforts to be charted and monitored
Closing Address by The President of India
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Addressing an overpacked hall from New Delhi via video
conference, the President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on the last day of the conference talked at length on a topic close to his heart. He traced the progress of space science in India. He gave clear indications of the possible areas of space science research and reminded everyone that one needs to think till 2050 on a subject like space sciences that is based on high tech sciences and creativity. In brief, the main suggestions that he had for the conference were:
- Bring down the cost per kg launch of payload
- Spacecraft weight to be reduced with advanced engineering and contruction material reconsideration
- Forge partnerships for power generation from solar source, mineral resource studies from space bodies
- Work on a goal of predicting earthquakes a week before occurrence and making this possible in 10 years hence
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