Global space congress looks to the future
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
HYDERABAD, Sept 24 (AFP): Fifty years after the launch of the first satellite, key players in the global space industry were to meet here from Monday to seek new ways to benefit humanity through space exploration.
Missions to the moon and Mars, the completion of an international space station by 2010 and efforts to ward off earth-threatening asteroids and natural disasters through space technology top the week-long agenda.
Multi-billion-dollar business opportunities in satellite launches and broadcasting will also be discussed by the 2,000 delegates meeting in the southern Indian high-tech hub of Hyderabad.
"The congress will bring together all the stakeholders in the global space industry," said K.R. Sridhara Murthi, head of Antrix Corp., the marketing arm of India's space agency.
"There are several commercial efforts under way in satellite launches and communications, propulsion and navigation systems, and earth observation which the congress will explore," Murthi said.
Hundreds of police have been deployed around the Hyderabad International Conference Centre to provide extra security at the already well-protected venue, in the wake of twin blasts in August that left 43 people dead here.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cancelled a scheduled appearance at the event Monday after recently undergoing prostate surgery, said K. Satish, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The international astronautics congress is taking place in the 50th year of the space age, symbolically ushered in by the beep-beep-beep transmitted by the Sputnik-1 satellite, launched on October 4, 1957 by the then Soviet Union.
Moscow's lead spurred the United States to establish the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, the following year and set off a Cold War space race.
Space scientists will use the Hyderabad meeting to commemorate that pioneering launch, take stock of how far their industry has come since and map future endeavours including inter- planetary missions and deep space probes. India plans a lunar probe next year.
Experts will discuss how space technology can help farmers through the establishment of rural resource centres connected by satellite to provide advice, weather data, disaster alerts and market trends.
In India, thousands of farmers kill themselves every year over repeated crop failures and many of the country's 650,000 villages have been left out of the communications revolution.
India, whose space programme dates back to 1963, has already launched satellites to map natural resources, predict the weather and boost telecommunications in rural areas.
Conference-goers will also debate how to profit from the expected strong growth in the space industry over the next decade.
Paris-based market research firm Euroconsult estimates the sector will grow to 145 billion dollars over the next 10 years, from 116 billion dollars in 1997-2006.
Missions to the moon and Mars, the completion of an international space station by 2010 and efforts to ward off earth-threatening asteroids and natural disasters through space technology top the week-long agenda.
Multi-billion-dollar business opportunities in satellite launches and broadcasting will also be discussed by the 2,000 delegates meeting in the southern Indian high-tech hub of Hyderabad.
"The congress will bring together all the stakeholders in the global space industry," said K.R. Sridhara Murthi, head of Antrix Corp., the marketing arm of India's space agency.
"There are several commercial efforts under way in satellite launches and communications, propulsion and navigation systems, and earth observation which the congress will explore," Murthi said.
Hundreds of police have been deployed around the Hyderabad International Conference Centre to provide extra security at the already well-protected venue, in the wake of twin blasts in August that left 43 people dead here.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cancelled a scheduled appearance at the event Monday after recently undergoing prostate surgery, said K. Satish, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The international astronautics congress is taking place in the 50th year of the space age, symbolically ushered in by the beep-beep-beep transmitted by the Sputnik-1 satellite, launched on October 4, 1957 by the then Soviet Union.
Moscow's lead spurred the United States to establish the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, the following year and set off a Cold War space race.
Space scientists will use the Hyderabad meeting to commemorate that pioneering launch, take stock of how far their industry has come since and map future endeavours including inter- planetary missions and deep space probes. India plans a lunar probe next year.
Experts will discuss how space technology can help farmers through the establishment of rural resource centres connected by satellite to provide advice, weather data, disaster alerts and market trends.
In India, thousands of farmers kill themselves every year over repeated crop failures and many of the country's 650,000 villages have been left out of the communications revolution.
India, whose space programme dates back to 1963, has already launched satellites to map natural resources, predict the weather and boost telecommunications in rural areas.
Conference-goers will also debate how to profit from the expected strong growth in the space industry over the next decade.
Paris-based market research firm Euroconsult estimates the sector will grow to 145 billion dollars over the next 10 years, from 116 billion dollars in 1997-2006.