United Nations COPUOS/T.509

Committee on the Peaceful Unedited transcriptUses of Outer Space

509th MeetingMonday, 16 June 2003, 10 a.m.Vienna

Chairman: Mr. González Aninat (Chile)

The meeting was called to order at 10.21 a.m.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Distinguished delegates, please forgive the delay in the start of this meeting but we are waiting for the arrival of the Director of the Space Division who is coming to Vienna and making a great effort to be with us this morning.

I would like first to give a very warm welcome to our Vice-Chairman who is back with us, who has always been a very important help for the Bureaux and I would like expressly to say that, for me and for all of you, it has been an enormous satisfaction to work with him and I would like to thank him for this.

I would like also to take advantage of the opportunity to welcome a new delegate from the delegation of France who is beginning these days and we hope that his debut here will continue for a long time yet.

We will now begin the 509th meeting of the Committee.

We will continue consideration of agenda item 7, item 8 and item 9. I will not read out the names because we know them off by heart.

At around 11 a.m., I would like to, if all goes well, because the Director-General is arriving this morning, we will make a pause to give the floor to Antonio Costa, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, who will make a statement to the Committee.

At the end of the plenary session, there will be a technical presentation by Mr. Claudio Portelli of the Italian Space Agency on “Space Debris: The Beppo-SAX Experience”.

At 12.00 p.m., there will be a special tele-medicine demonstration, given by Mr. O. Koudelka of Austria. The presentation will involve a live interactive satellite link-up.

As you will remember, last Wednesday, 11 June ... I have just been informed that the distinguished representative of Indonesia will not be able to participate because of reasons of force majeur and I have also been informed that the Group of Asia has appointed Mr. Mulyodrono of Indonesia, I do not know how to pronounce the surname, I am afraid, Djojodihardjo, the representative of this session. And the annex to the …

(interpreter) The Chairman is speaking very fast. I am afraid that the interpreter cannot keep up.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): For now I would like to ask the Committee if it wishes to elect the Second Vice-President of the Committee, Mr. Mulyodrono, at the forty-sixth session.

It is so decided.

Implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) (agenda item 7)

________________________________________________________________________________________________

In its resolution 50/27 of 6 December 1995, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space that, beginning with its thirty-ninth session, the Committee would be provided with unedited transcripts in lieu of verbatim records. This record contains the texts of speeches delivered in English and interpretations of speeches delivered in the other languages as transcribed from taped recordings. The transcripts have not been edited or revised.

Corrections should be submitted to original speeches only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned, within one week of the date of publication, to the Chief, Translation and Editorial Service, Room D0708, United Nations Office at Vienna, P.O. Box 500, A-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum.

V.03-85872

COPUOS/T.509Page 2

The Group responsible for the UNISPACE report, Niklas Hedman of Sweden. We will go now to item 7 of the agenda and the first speaker on my list is the distinguished representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who has the floor.

Mr. P. TARIKHI (Islamic Republic of Iran): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Action Team Number 1 “Develop a Comprehensive Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Strategy” of the implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, UNISPACE III, with the objectives to address the needs and requirements for use and protection of environmental through improvement and control methods approved by different countries, and develop a comprehensive worldwide environmental monitoring strategy for long-term global observations by building on existing space and ground capabilities, held its fourth meeting on Friday morning, 13 June 2003.

The representatives from Iran, Syria, Japan, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Mexico, Nigeria, United States of America, Space Generation Advisory Council, the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, attended the meeting.

A presentation by Mr. Abdul Rahim Loulou, the Syrian co-Chair of the Action Team on the application of remote sensing to study the desertification, was presented.

The second presentation entitled “Global Environmental Monitoring: Current Status and Problems” was presented by Mr. Alexey Movlyav, the Russian co-Chair of the Action Team.

The representative of ISPRS noted the monitoring of the indicators important and asked the team to include in the issues for investigation by the team.

Open discussions conducted by the meeting on the preparation of the draft report of the Action Team based on the agreements that have been made in the third meeting of the Team.

In addition to co-chairs of the Action Team, Mexico, the ISPRS and Japan announced their interest to contribute in compiling the draft report of the Action Team for submission to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee by next December.

ISPRS announced its readiness to schedule for the meeting of the Action Team in the next Congress of ISPRS that will be held in July 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I am very grateful for the information given to us by the distinguished representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This has to do with the core of our work, the mandate that we received from UNISPACE and the Action Teams.

Now I have the pleasure in giving the floor to the distinguished representative of Greece.

Mr. V. CASSAPOGLOU (Greece): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Good morning ladies and gentlemen and colleagues. I take the floor on the agenda item 7 in order to present the introductory paper concerning the Action Team 9 which is co-Chaired by Malaysia and Greece and other Member States in this Action Team until now are Belarus, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Iran, the Russian Federation, Thailand and Turkey. And I take this opportunity to ask, through you, Mr. Chairman, all other countries represented here to join us because as everybody knows is very important the task of this Action Team. And I remember your personal individual intervention many years ago for many times asking for this specific subject matter to be a kind of cultivated here because we are not only restricted in technical aspects of space activities.

Mr. Chairman, Action Team 9 has been mandated to address the promotion of using space-based communication services to improve knowledge-sharing. This is a very important task and we would like to highlight the objectives which are seven in number and also the Plan of Action in order to fulfil these tasks which is structured in three phases.

The objectives of the Action Team 9 are as follows.

First, identify existing and planned space-based communication infrastructure that are committed to universal access.

Identify the implementation barriers of a space-based communication system.

Three, promote the usage of space-based communication systems to assist in improving knowledge-sharing and this specific objective is linked also to Action Team 18, increasing awareness.

COPUOS/T.509Page 3

Four, identify priority areas for knowledge-sharing and this objective also is linked to Action Team 6, public health, Action Team 7, disaster management, Action Team 10, global navigation satellite systems, and Action Team 11, sustainable development.

Five, identify target groups for pilot programmes. This is also linked to Action Teams 6, 7, 10 and 11.

Six, strategize implementation of knowledge-sharing through space-based communication systems. This objective is also linked to Action Team 17, capacity-building.

And, seven, and the last one, is promote sustainability of the above initiatives. This is also linked to Action Team 32, financing.

I can also add that these activities and objectives are also very closely linked with the pertinent activities of ITU, as it concerns the technical aspects, and UNESCO, as it concerns the sociological aspects.

And now, Mr. Chairman, let me present the Plan of Action which is, as I told you, structured in three phases which are in line with the three-year Action Plan of our working methods here.

Phase one will involve objectives one, two and three. The timeframe is from this June until February 2004 and the participating members will carry out studies on existing or planned space-based infrastructures, irrespective of countries or regions, and the possibility of utilizing these systems to manage and improve knowledge-sharing. The expected output is a report to be submitted to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee session of next year, 2004, containing an analysis of the survey on space-based communication services and efforts towards bridging the digital divide.

The second phase deals with objectives four and five and its timeframe is March 2004 until February 2005. There we examine priority areas for improving knowledge-sharing and the target groups identified. This exercise will take into account the outcomes of the work of Action Teams 6, 7, 10 and 11, to seek approval of text to be presented at the World Summit on the Information Society, the second session of the World Summit, which will be held in Tunis in September 2005.

And the third phase concerns objectives six and seven of the Action Plan and the timeframe is between March 2005 and February 2006 which is the last year and a pilot programme is implemented. Also strategies on efforts required to ensure sustainability of the above efforts will be devised together with Action Teams 17 and 32. And the expected output is a report containing the progress of implementation of the pilot programmes and plans for promoting sustainability will be submitted at the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee meeting of 2006.

And in finishing this report, I would like to tell you that, because we have not the time to pass through the General Assembly, a kind of address that we suggest that the Committee or the Office should make during the first session of the World Summit in Geneva next December, I would like to propose through you and to the colleagues here to draft an address to be annexed to our report and delegate either you, as our Chairman, or the Director of the Office, to present it in Geneva during the first session. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I would like to especially thank the distinguished delegate of Greece because I think this Action Team has done excellent work as the other Action Teams. I would like to congratulate the team. And I think it is very important also the proposal for a presentation at the coming meeting and I am, of course, subject to the decision to be taken by the Committee but the view of the Chair is that this is a very good idea and I think that you have done very good work. Thank you very much for your presentation.

I am sorry, before continuing with this meeting, I would like to inform you that in seven minutes, I will suspend the meeting because it would not be very kind of us when Mr. Costa arrives for us to be in the middle of a statement and I think we must obviously give priority to Mr. Costa to make his statement.

We will pass now to the observers on this subject and the only person on the list is the representative of the National Space Society and I give her the floor.

Ms. A. L. MOORE (National Space Society): Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates and representatives, it is with great pleasure that I make this statement on behalf of the National Space Society to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

COPUOS/T.509Page 4

The National Space Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting space exploration. With members and chapters around the world, NSS is widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent grassroots voice on space issues. NSS members include space professionals, astronauts, scientists, business leaders, elected officials and most importantly, everyday citizens without ties to the space community who support the exploration, development and eventual settlement of space.

Public support for space is a major goal of the Society. One goal is to raise the awareness of the public to the space-related activities of government, industry and academia through various NSS programmes, products and the media.

Specifically, the NSS actively works to increase public awareness of the United Nations role in promoting the peaceful uses of outer space. It has donated to the United Nations fund to facilitate the implementation of the Vienna Declaration from UNISPACE III.

NSS commemorates the annual World Space Week 4 to 10 October celebration. For example, a special conference entitled “Space Technology for Developing Nations” was held on Friday, 4 October 2002 at New York University in New York City. This one-day conference was co-sponsored by the New York City Chapter of the NSS, SpaceEquity.com, the New York University Graduate Science and Environmental Reporting Programme and the Space Transportation Association. The conference consisted of discussion panels debating a wide range of topics concerning the current state of worldwide space technology, including global positioning satellites; agriculture and space solar power; space law and remote sensing; distance learning; planetary exploration by developing nations; telecommunications and the digital divide; and space technology and the future of humanity as a whole.

For the 2003 World Space Week, several activities are planned in cooperation with local chapters of NSS for children, families and professionals. In the New York City area alone, there will be daily activities for families at the American Museum of Natural History, a panel hosted by Dr. Neil Tyson at the Hayden Planetarium, an exhibit of space photographs, and a one-day programme on space technologies and applications with special attention to developing and regional economies. Later in October, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York will host an International Law Weekend with a panel

chaired by Ambassador Edward Finch on the future of outer space.

In the past year, the Society has sponsored he NASA-Mars Project that simulates human habitation on Mars in the Arctic; conducted briefings on the space elevator concept which has moved from the realm of science fiction to possible development and use as a means of reaching Earth orbit; and promoted new priorities for space transportation systems. It also continues to seek cooperation opportunities with other space advocacy organizations, including the Mars Society, the Planetary Society, the Space Foundation and the Space Frontier Foundation.

The Society continues its public outreach and promotes its goal with the magazine, Ad Astra, and its three-day annual meetings, the International Space Development Conference, or ISDC. At the ISDC, members convene to hear presentations from distinguished speakers and space industry leaders and to network with other space activists and leaders while planning strategies for developing space.

The 2003 ISDC played host to some of the world’s leading scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers, astronauts and experts on space development over the Memorial Day weekend. Visiting conference experts and attendees showcased innovative space-based solutions to pressing energy, environment, economic, transportation and technology concerns facing humanity everywhere. The 2003 conference highlights, among others, included: Dr. Pascal Lee discussed the NASA Haughton Mars Project; Dr. Jill Tarter provided an update on the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence; Dr. David Criswell explored the potential of Lunar Solar Power to meet terrestrial energy needs; Dr. Peter Diamandis briefed attendees on contenders for the “X Prize” contest for launching private citizens into space; Dr. Robert Zubrin summarized learning experiences on how to explore Mars on Earth in Arctic and desert conditions; Loretta Hidalgo encouraged audience members with new ways of getting people interested in space; Marianne Dyson discussed “Why Space Exploration is Important for Our Kids” and signed her latest book “Home on the Moon”, published by the National Geographic Society; awards were presented to individual chapters, including “Chapter of the Year”, for outstanding public outreach and educational efforts with the general public and “Publicity and Media” for a nine-part cable access programme.

On a more sombre note, in tribute for their achievements and sacrifice in building a road map to the stars for all of mankind, the crew of the Space

COPUOS/T.509Page 5

Shuttle Columbia was honoured as recipients of the Society’s Space Pioneer Award. Accepting the six-inch diameter pewter globe of the Moon on behalf of the crew from the NSS President, Kirby Ikin, was Barry McCool, father of Columbia shuttle pilot, William “Willy” McCool. A former Navy Commander and instructor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Commander McCool, along with his wife Audrey, are long-time members of the National Space Society.

For further details, I invite the distinguished Committee members to visit the National Space Society website at www.nss.org. Thank you for your attention.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I thank the representative of NSS and we will now suspend the meeting while we wait for Mr. Costa to arrive, which will be at any moment, and I would ask anyone with an urgent need for coffee to take it a little later. I do not know whether that will be possible but I think the best thing would be for us to stay in the room now in order to receive and shortly to hear Mr. Costa and let him make his statement and then go on to the other items. So I suspend the meeting.

The meeting was suspended at 10.48 a.m.

The meeting resumed at 10.58 a.m.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Distinguished delegates, I would ask you to be good enough to take your seats. I am told that Mr. Costa is now on his way. I hope that we will have him here in a few minutes. I think we should wait for him in our seats. That is all I wanted to announce. Thank you.

I am sorry. I would like to announce that after this interval, we will continue to consider item 8 and for the moment, I have the following speakers, Nigeria, India, France and Germany.

I am just giving you this information in case there is any other delegation that would like to be added to the list on this item, which was already presented by the Chairman of the Committee. So we now have basic elements for discussion.

Distinguished delegates, I think it is indeed a privilege. I am sure that it is a privilege and an honour

to have among us Dr. Antonio Maria Costa, who has been responsible for this very important Office for a short time and has done very productive work and has focused on the items that are specific to his agenda which are very important and of great magnitude, but also has given the due importance to other subjects, such as the subject of outer space. I would like to say to him personally that I am very grateful for his presence. I know that he has an extremely busy timetable but I am aware that he is concerned with all the meetings and I have great pleasure in giving him the floor.

Mr. A. M. COSTA (Director-General, United Nations Office at Vienna): Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your very kind words of introduction. I am not sure I fully deserve it. You almost embarrassed me with your compliments.

It is a privilege, of course, to address this Committee. Unfortunately, I will have to read my statement. I am not as knowledgeable as yet in matters of outer space as I have progressively become much more knowledgeable in the other areas, the drugs and the crime and all the sinister questions we deal with in the sister institution, the Office on Drugs and Crime. So if you would like to bear with me that I will read rather than just telling you my feelings and impart my feelings about this Committee meeting, as well as about the many issues which are on the agenda.

So Mr. Chairman and distinguished delegates, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak at this session of the Committee, in and among what looks like a very busy schedule for you all. In addition to the Committee’s policy-making work, I notice a wealth of information about national space programmes, as well as a rich schedule of technical presentations. I am sorry I am missing, I will be missing these presentations. Some of them have already taken place but Sergio has been very busy in keeping me abreast, and through him, I do follow rather carefully what you do. I understand that at the end of this morning’s meeting, the schedule even includes a live tele-medicine satellite link-up as well as a sharing of experience gain by the Italian Government and its space agency during the re-entry of the Beppo-SAX scientific satellite. These are two important events, technically so. I heard, in a sense, what other institutions are doing but I do mind missing them but I hope I will be able to at one point be exposed to this experience.

I will raise three points. The first one is about the importance of sharing information at the Committee. This is obviously sort of a staple issue I

COPUOS/T.509Page 6

would like to stress and emphasize the sharing of information, generally speaking, whatever the institution, but in this context with the technological divide among countries, North and South, and so forth, it acquires a specific importance.

Second about the countries that should consider becoming party of the United Nations treaties on outer space. This is an advocacy point we call it significant.

Point number three are the Action Team format and NGO participation at the Committee, to allow the Committee to cover a broad range of issues.

So they are the three points I would like to raise.

Let us begin with the importance of sharing information. The high degree of cooperation and the high quality of information that participants bring from capital to this meeting should have many beneficial effects. One is to make this body an important place to be, especially for the developing countries looking to expand their national space programmes.

Another, perhaps still more important, is to make the Committee an important forum promoting trust and friendship among nations. This is, of course, the task of the United Nations.

Many of the Committee’s agenda items reflect the degree to which space is now a regular part of human life, including both our cultural life and our economic life, not only our communication, like even the entertainment life, which is so much based on space communications. I am talking here about what should be the fascinating discussions on issues like “Space and Society” and above all “Spin-Offs of Space Technology”.

Space is also part of the work that we conduct within our own Office, the other Office, I wear more than one casquette as they say in French, more than one hat, and indeed within the Office on Drugs and Crime, we do use space technology very heavily and I will let you know in a minute about this. For some time now this Office, my Office, has been operationally using satellite images as part of our illicit crop monitoring programmes. Information obtained from these images has truly enhanced our ability to conduct crop surveys, cocaine or coca leaves cultivation or opium cultivation for that matter, and soon a third containing a third segment, cannabis cultivation.

I am pleased to inform that this Crop Monitoring Programme and our Office for Outer Space Affairs have discussed at length ways through which OOSA could provide technical support regarding the possibility of using images from the new satellite sensors being developed primarily by the space agencies.

Indeed, I would like to underline the importance we attribute to this space monitoring of illicit crops and the fact that we actually use the satellite images in conjunction with human supervision and human verification, actually we call it “truthing”. Space technology is important but the times nature plays games, or the times that farmers play games, and plant their opium or their coca, a different season, and it is quite difficult to detect the illicit cultivation by just looking at satellites so it is important, and I stress, because I think it is part of logic of the Office to integrate the highest level of technology, space technology with the “truthing” of individuals, should not forget, it is human dimension, whatever we do with technology.

Point number two, invitations to countries to consider becoming part of the United Nations treaties on outer space. As for any other part of human life, economic and scientific activities in outer space, they rely to a large extent on a stable legal framework. For this reason, the development of five treaties on outer space, through this Committee and its Legal Subcommittee, must be counted as a major achievement.

The fact that space activities are increasing by the day makes adherence to these treaties just as relevant as on the day they were adopted, perhaps even more so. I would, therefore, echo the annual resolutions of the General Assembly on this subject in urging countries that are not party to these treaties to consider ratifying or acceding to them. This is an invitation which I extend frequently also in other contexts, with other conventions, perhaps dealt with promoting the other parts of this is very hard. But the message is the same. Once there is an international consensus, the invitation is to all countries to be part of.

The United Nations principles on outer space, including General Assembly resolution 51/122, the so-called “Space Benefits Declaration”, also continue to be of great importance in fostering the climate of international cooperation that we enjoy today.

By the way, it was a pleasure and very rewarding for me two months ago to attend the Legal

COPUOS/T.509Page 7

Subcommittee session back in April and experience some of the active work being done in that body. It was truly a learning lesson for me and I thank Sergio for inviting me on that occasion and the Chairperson at that time.

My third and final point. The Action Team format and NGO participation to allow the Committee to cover an ever more impressive range of subject matter.

Distinguished delegates, it is now four years since the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the so-called UNISPACE III. Next year, the General Assembly will review progress made in the five years since the Conference. I understand that the progress is already quite impressive and that the Committee will dedicate a large amount of its efforts during this session to the preparation of the General Assembly next year, 2004.

With theme “Space Benefits for Humanity in the Twenty-First Century”, the range of subject matter covered by UNISPACE III was huge. Such a comprehensive plan on how to improve lives using space technology requires this body to keep track of the full range of space technologies and the full range of ways in which they can be used. The Action Team format developed by this Committee is a creative and effective way to make progress on a wide range of topics, and this is important, while maintaining the primary intergovernmental character of the body. You should not forget the structure and the logic of the United Nations negotiation forum. I have noticed that eight of the Action Teams will hold meetings on the margins of the session of the Committee. I congratulate the Teams, particularly the Chairs, for this truly strong demonstration of commitment to reach their objectives.

Also important is the broad range of institutions participating in this Committee, including space agencies and other government institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations and professional societies. This not only enriches the decision-making by governments, but should also lead to effective partnerships between governments and civil society outside of the Committee itself.

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you all. I think you are all familiar with the excellent programme of activities organized by the Office, Mr. Camacho’s Office for Outer Space Affairs, in particular those organized under the United Nations Programme on Space Applications. These activities

aim at building capacity for the effective use of space technology in fields like disaster management, satellite communication, and in general, for sustainable development, especially in the developing countries. The Office has a unique programme on basic space science to promote national and regional research capacity in this area.

I would like to encourage your continued support for the Programme and thank governments, space agencies and NGO partners that have contributed to it in the past, whether by hosting activities or by providing financial support, materials, expertise, to continue to do so with a greater emphasis.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space truly adds a significant dimension to our work at the United Nations Office at Vienna. It is a great pleasure and privilege for our Office to be involved in this field and I will be following your progress in the next few days with great interest and thank you for your attention. Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I should like very warmly to thank Mr. Costa for his presentation and if you permit me, I would like to make two comments. That I was really impressed firstly by the conceptual approach of Mr. Costa to this subject which shows again his capacity to cover, in a comprehensive way, all the aspects of the subject, all the subjects that are inter-related in this Office and also that he laid stress on the relationship between science and technology and the human dimension. If we are not clear, that it is necessary to use appropriate technology, to take into account the human dimension, we are making a mistake, I think.

And lastly, I would like to make it expressly clear that Mr. Costa has given a lesson to those of us who still think that the theme of outer space is an esoteric matter which I believe shows some certain irresponsibility and inexcusable ignorance. I thank Mr. Costa for his presence and I ask him to believe that we are going to try to live up to his expectations in our deliberations on this subject. Thank you.

Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its fortieth session (agenda item 8)

We will now begin consideration of item 8 of the agenda. The first speaker is the distinguished representative of Nigeria and I give him the floor.

Mr. J. A. AKINYEDE (Nigeria): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Nigerian delegation

COPUOS/T.509Page 8

recognizes the importance of the roles of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee in the efforts of COPUOS to ensure the peaceful uses of outer space for scientific research and sustainable socio-economic development. My delegation also wishes to commend the leadership of the Subcommittee, Dr. Karl Doetsch, for piloting the fortieth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to a successful end. The Subcommittee has continued to provide the relevant scientific and technical information to boost the United Nations programmes of space research and development and space application in general. The inclusion of technical presentations and symposia in the Subcommittee’s session has greatly enhanced the quality of the work of the Subcommittee.

The agenda item on the implementation of an integrated space-based global natural disaster management has drawn the attention of Nigeria for further action on the COSPAS-SARSAT programme, particularly in view of its implication for disaster management. Both the administration and infrastructure need for quick and emergency response to distress have been put in place for the purpose of disaster management. A COSPAS-SARSAT Local User Terminal and a Mission Control Centre have been established in Abuja, Nigeria. Nigeria now has the facilities to receive and be the hub for distributing alert distress data in the West Africa sub-region.

Mr. Chairman, Nigeria also commends the efforts put into the COSPAR/IAF Workshop on the Application of Global Navigation Satellite Systems, GNSS, and Their Benefits to Developing Countries. The significance and importance of the application of the GNSS tools in disaster management, transportation, land, air and maritime, management of marine resources, environment, precision agriculture and so on, are known. Equally acknowledged and commendable are the United Nations efforts and follow-up plan to organize a conference on space-based disaster management in Nigeria. The conference is to be coordinated by the National Emergency Management Agency in collaboration with the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, and the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education. The awareness generated from the COSPAR/IAF symposium, as documented in the report, has also provided the enabling environment for the plan by NASRDA to organize a training workshop in Abuja on the use and application of GNSS in many areas of socio-economic development. The conference and workshop are scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of this year.

Mr. Chairman, Nigeria commends the efforts of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, IADC, in preparing guidelines for mitigating the dangers which both the space debris and near-Earth objects pose to life and properties. Apart from the fact that both the IADC and the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee reports provide appropriate control guidelines and information about the spacecraft launched into space, my delegation believes that the international community would work hard to respect the Liability Convention and also closely monitor the potential crash-landing of objects, particularly before their re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Nigeria has confidence in the work of the IADC and also believes that this Committee can work with the launching States and relevant United Nations observer bodies to provide adequate information from time to time about space debris in general.

Mr. Chairman, our concern, as documented above and stated during our intervention on agenda item 5, originates from our recent experience with the Italian satellite, Beppo-SAX, which crash-landed near Galapagos Island in the Pacific region on 29 April 2003 and on the need to further sensitize the international community about the danger of space debris. Specifically, on 29 April 2003, the Nigerian media carried a front page article entitled “Italian Spacecraft May Fall in Nigeria, National Aerospace Management Agency, NAMA”. The article focused on the possible crash-landing of an Italian satellite, Beppo-SAX over Nigeria’s territory on that same day or the next day, 30 April 2003. This development has brought to a sharper focus the realization that our own territory of Nigeria is also vulnerable to space-related dangers. Accordingly, Mr. Chairman, my delegation wishes to further encourage, as well as support, the efforts of COPUOS and the international community in finding a lasting solution to the problems of space debris and near-Earth objects. Nigeria looks forward to supporting such initiatives.

Mr. Chairman, my delegation notes with satisfaction the importance of agenda item 12 on the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee report, “The Use of Space Technology for Medical Sciences and Public Health”, which was introduced by India as a single issue or item. We would like the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to continue discussion on this agenda item in view of the usefulness and application of tele-medicine for accelerated rural health delivery in the developing countries. My delegation believes that Member States would benefit significantly from the experiences of successful applications of space technology for health delivery.

COPUOS/T.509Page 9

In this connection, Mr. Chairman, malaria fever has become the most deadly disease in most countries of the equatorial region, including Nigeria, with a high mortality rate. To address this problem in Nigeria, the Government launched a “Roll-Back Malaria Programme” to reduce malarial attack. The National Space Research and Development Agency has completed a proposal for a remote sensing investigation of mosquito habitats in Nigeria for joint implementation with the nation’s Ministry of Health. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I thank the representative of Nigeria for his statement.

And again, I would like to thank Mr. Costa for being here. I understand that he has important matters to attend to. He only has to leave to New York in an hour, nothing important! Thank you.

I now have to take care of some matters of a bilateral nature so you are going to be left in the very good hands of my colleague from Morocco, to whom I thank very much for his services during this meeting. Thank you.

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): We continue with statements on item 8. India has the floor.

Mr. G. M. NAIR (India): Thank you Mr. Chairman. The Indian delegation is pleased to note the progress achieved during the fortieth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and would like to commend the leadership and guidance provided by Dr. Karl Doetsch as Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.

Mr. Chairman, the Indian delegation strongly supports the United Nations Programme on Space Applications and appreciates the work done by the United Nations Expert on Space Applications in implementing the Programme. We note that the Programme is aimed at promoting the use of space science and technology and space-related data for sustainable, economic and social development in developing countries. We also note the list of the priority projects being pursued by the Programme. The operational activities of Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education, pilot projects to use space technologies in disaster management, pilot projects to use Earth observation for protecting the environment, training modules on the use of satellite communication for distance education and tele-medicine applications, and outreach activities for

young people were re-emphasized as the priority projects for the United Nations Programme on Space Applications and for utilization of the Trust Fund. We fully endorse these priority teams and encourage OOSA to develop various elements of the Programme to assist developing countries.

In the area of satellite-based search and rescue, the Indian delegation is happy to inform the Committee that a search and rescue transponder is provided in the payload of a recently launched multi-purpose satellite of ISRO, INSAT-3A, operating from 93.5 degrees east longitude orbital slot. This payload will help ISRO to continue providing a space segment for search and rescue operations in its INSAT series of satellites.

Mr. Chairman, the deliberations of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on the implementation of an integrated, space-based global natural disaster management system is complementing the activity undertaken by the Action Team on the recommendations of UNISPACE III. We are happy to note the decision of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to continue the multi-year work plan on disaster management for one more year as a single issue discussion item to enable completion of the work on the analysis of the gaps in the existing satellite systems to address the problems related to disaster management. We endorse the observation of the Subcommittee that achieving a global management infrastructure for natural disasters would require the use of a Systems Engineering approach. We also note with satisfaction that the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters had been activated 27 times since its entry into force in November 2000 in a number of countries where natural disasters have occurred.

We observe that all the discussions on the space systems-based disaster management are concentrated only on the use of products and services from the remote sensing satellites. However, the communications through the satellites is an important and highly valuable service during disasters. Hence we once again reiterate that the Office for Outer Space Affairs should convene a one-day industry workshop during the next year’s COPUOS session inviting all major communication satellite operators to participate, present the capabilities of their systems and to air their views on the satellite-based communications during the times of natural disasters.

Mr. Chairman, the Indian delegation attaches high importance to the deliberations on the subject of space debris in the Scientific and Technical

COPUOS/T.509Page 10

Subcommittee. We highly appreciate the efforts of the IADC in preparing the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines and presenting them in the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. We agree with the conclusion of the Subcommittee to request all member States to study the IADC proposal and provide their comments for consideration during the next session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.

The Indian delegation is happy to inform the Committee that ISRO hosted the twenty-first IADC Meeting in Bangalore during 10 to 13 March 2003. The Steering Group and the Working Groups of IADC held their sessions during this meeting and deliberated on various topics of space debris.

Mr. Chairman, remote sensing of the Earth by satellites is an important area for developing countries in view of its potential to realize sustainable development. We support the emphasis by the Subcommittee on providing non-discriminatory access to the state-of-the-art remote sensing data and to the derived information at a reasonable cost to meet the needs of developing countries. We also support the importance attached by the Subcommittee to the remote sensing activities and the requirements of developing countries for sustainable development.

Mr. Chairman, the statements and the debate in the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on the subject of the use of space technology for medical science and public health were quite interesting. We fully endorse the observations by the Subcommittee that space systems-based tele-medicine could be of great importance in providing medical expertise to remote locations not connected to the terrestrial network. We are happy that the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee decided to include the space systems-based tele-medicine as a new three-year work plan for its future agenda, starting from the session in 2004.

The Indian delegation is fully convinced that tele-medicine is one of the potential space applications to benefit the societies, as well as to provide market opportunities for communication satellite services.

Mr. Chairman, science and technology aspects of outer space activity ensure access to space and applications of space. In this context, the work of our Scientific and Technical Subcommittee has special importance. We endorse the report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its work of the fortieth session. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): Thank you distinguished representative of India. France has the floor.

Ms. S. CALLARI (France) (interpretation from French): Thank you Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Costa for having come here and speaking to us at this Committee session.

Mr. Chairman, my delegation would also like to thank Dr. Karl Doetsch whose term of office is about to expire for an excellent job that he has done for making himself available to member States throughout his term of office as Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS.

The French delegation is very sensitive to the vast array of points of view presented at the thirty-ninth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and is particularly interested in the technical presentations made at that time. This session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee has once again given us the occasion to state to what extent space applications are developing in the area of remote sensing and observation of the Earth, specifically for the management of soil and ocean resources, precision agriculture, fisheries, cartography, or for the better management of the impact of natural disasters. We recalled that for the year 2002, the mechanism of the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” has been invoked 15 times for earthquakes, floods, mudslides, oil spills and related pollution, volcanic eruptions and for a hurricane. Since the start of this year, this mechanism has been used to respond to seven requests for assistance, the latest had to do with the tragic earthquake in Algeria on 21 May.

Mr. Chairman, we welcome the initiative undertaken by the United States of America to organize a Summit on the remote sensing and observation of the Earth. France plans to participate in that event and the French Minister of Research and New Technologies has indicated that to the United States Secretaries of Commerce and Energy. The French delegation would like to recall on this occasion that Europe has already contributed towards the objectives of the Summit through the GMS initiative.

The management of natural disasters through providing information services in support of action to protect population and property is one of the objectives of the European initiative, GMS, for global monitoring and security. I would like to recall that this initiative of the European Union is going to be put in place by 2010 and that will involve operational services for providing information on the environment with a view to

COPUOS/T.509Page 11

implementing major international conventions, realizing European policies in this regard, specifically with regard to the security of people and property and eventually it will support European operations in humanitarian and peace maintaining areas.

To meet these objectives, the themes considered to be on the priority list for the first phase are outside the management of natural disasters, management of oceans and coastal zones, concern themselves with the occupation of soil and the management of vegetable and plant resources. Many projects and themes have been put on the list of the European Space Agency and the European Commission. Others will follow.

The European approach to the GMS initiative is based on putting in place by 2010 an integrated system of thematic observation of oceans, vegetation, mitigation of natural disasters, management of water resources, the carbon cycle and the chemistry of the atmosphere. These systems will be based on instruments making it possible to analyze various scales of outer space, global and local. GMS is focused on measures provided by remote sensing satellites, measures undertaken by the in situ network and simulation of natural processes.

In extension of the GMS initiative, the French Ministry of Research has launched various projects within the framework of the Space Earth Interface Network. The idea of this network has to develop, together with representatives of industry and science, new services that would use, among others, space-based data and space-based means of telecommunication and positioning in such areas as the management of natural hazards and industrial risks, precise agriculture, management of natural resources, specifically water and forests, and also in such emerging areas as space-based epidemiology. Fifteen projects have been defined to date and are being developed at the moment.

Mr. Chairman, as we have already had occasion to state previously, France attaches particular importance to the matter of managing space debris and measures that will allow to reduce their production. We have established an organization specifically to monitor space debris at various levels, including all principle actors, technical experts, industrialists, operators and insurers. This theme was considered to be a priority item for the Interface Network created by the United Kingdom Space Agency, CNES in France, the German Space Agency and the European Space Agency. They work together and share resources on this subject.

The four areas of cooperation on which this working group for the monitoring of outer space is focusing at the moment are: optical observation of the Earth; in situ detection and analysis of materials; the impact of hyper-speed and protection; and the preparation of European standard.

Mr. Chairman, the French delegation approves the United Kingdom proposal to set up a working group that would further develop comments for member States in view of preparing principles for limiting the production of space debris submitted to the Committee in 2004.

It is in order to identify preventive measures that would make it possible to work out a code of conduct that could then be reprised in the legislations of the various countries that my delegation is participating in the work of the Inter-Agency Coordination Committee on Space Debris, IADC, which is working out principles for limiting the production of space debris and was presented for the first time in February at the session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. Further elaboration of these data will be prepared by IADC in 2004.

The work of IADC could be complemented by preparing international standards within the framework of the ISO and that Organization has recently established a working group for that purpose.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you.

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): Thank you for your statement. We are a little behind in time and I give the floor now to the distinguished representative of Germany.

Mr. K.-U. MUELLER (Germany): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the German delegation wishes to express its appreciation with the results of the last meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. I would like to use this opportunity and thank the distinguished Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Dr. Karl Doetsch, and the delegations to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee for the work accomplished.

The German delegation is very satisfied with the progress of the activities and contributions to UNISPACE III which have been made by Member States and organizations to support the programme in 2002.

COPUOS/T.509Page 12

I would further like to express Germany’s deep appreciation for the work of IADC which had presented its proposals on the pre-mitigation of each by consensus among IADC members.

Germany has begun to review these proposals and is looking for ways to implement them. I would like to emphasize that Germany is, and continues to be, committed to this task. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Presentation on Beppo-SAX

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): I thank the representative of Germany for the statement and we will now take up the debate on items 8 and 9 this afternoon, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the report of the Legal Subcommittee. We will take that up this afternoon. And for the moment, we have on the programme, two technical presentations. The first technical presentation on the Beppo-SAX experience and will be given by Mr. Claudio Portelli of the Italian Space Agency and he will give the experience of this matter.

And then there will be a demonstration given by Mr. O. Koudelka of Austria on tele-medicine.

I invite Mr. Claudio Portelli of the Italian Space Agency to come and make his presentation.

Mr. C. PORTELLI (Italian Space Agency): I hope the presentation will be given on the screen for everybody.

Thank you for the opportunity to take the floor. I represent the Italian Space Agency and I work on the space debris matter and I represent also the coming Chairman of the Inter-Agency Debris Committee.

May I have the screen? The first slide. Can we go on the first one?

So what I am going to tell you is of the experience we made. First of all, describing the purposes of such a presentation and then the recall of our case. And then the technical work we performed and how we managed the entire matter, the experiences and the additional conclusions and recommendations for everybody in the United Nations COPUOS.

This is slide number four but I have slide number one. So going to number three. The aim of this presentation is to propose all of you member States a procedural example of how we managed the re-entry

phase of the Italian satellite at the end of its fruitful scientific mission.

We offer such a contribution as an input that could be applied in the future on a voluntary basis first, and then it could be a standard.

Let me tell you something about the satellite. The satellite re-entered the Earth. It had been switched off on 30 April 2002 after six years of operation and then one year after that switch off, we splashed down the satellite, we found that the satellite splashed down on the Earth on 29 April 2003, fortunately in the Pacific Ocean. This is a picture of the satellite. This is a medium-sized satellite of 1,400 kilograms.

Based on the assessment of the United States Surveillance made from Roi-Namur Island where our radar station and this station is there, we found out that the re-entry nominal point was in this position and this track means there is a certain error in determining the exact place where the satellite splashed down. And this corresponds to five, seven minutes, plus or minus, with respect to the nominal point at 22.01 UTC, the satellite splashed down on the Earth.

Why we put such particular attention to the case? Because we found out that a certain risk was posed on the equatorial countries and we also presented it in February this year to the COPUOS and I will just recall to you that the satellite is a low-Earth orbit, was a low-Earth orbit, at four degrees only of inclination, and we expected to find out 650 kilograms of fragments.

So the technical work we did will be presented in three phrases: the destructive analysis we performed; the risk; and the prediction.

The destructive analysis has been obtained by a computer model and a very complicated software. It has a cost. And we found out that a European contractor in Germany, and we found out all those pieces, 42, to reach the ground at the end of the re-entry phase. All those pieces count for 30 square metres over the casualty area which was the overall cross-section plus the human body dimension.

The risk analysis, therefore, has been put on this small area where the satellite ran in orbit with a frequency of one and a half hours each orbit. So we divided the entire area into 2,880 cells of 1 x 1 degrees and we found out that the probability of injury risk which is a ratio between the so-called casualty area of 30 square metres and the population density in square kilometres. It turns out that this probability is doubled

COPUOS/T.509Page 13

with respect to what the international guidelines accepted which is one over 10,000. So we alerted all the population and the histogram of all the cells which belonged to each country is reported here for the main country only. You can see that Indonesia is the most exposed one and we found out that more or less 800 cells were populated and only 650 cells were at a risk higher than the accepted one.

So about the prediction, it was important to find out the final days of re-entry and so we assigned another contractor to find out such a funny shape of a dinosaur with the final point here which is the re-entry date and the nominal part gone up and down with a certain error in predicting the day of re-entry. This error depends on solar activity flux, geomagnetic storm and ballistic co-efficient variation.

Twenty-fives minutes before re-entry, we found out the final track where the satellite could splash down and re-entry be heard and hit the ground. You can see that a large area and a number of countries are under risk, even 25 minutes before.

To ensure a good information distribution, we asked NASA and we signed an agreement using also the Inter-Agency Space Debris Committee cooperation.

Another also offered risk evaluation and also ROSAVIAKOSMOS offered support but there was not equatorial stations available for us.

Speaking about the organization and management, I call on my colleague from the Civil Protection Department that will tell you what happened.

Mr. S. AMBROSETTI: (interpretation from French): Good morning, I am Simone Ambrosetti and I will speak to you of the management of the identification of risks and the contact points.

There is a task force created by the Council of Ministers and it is coordinated by the Department of Civil Protection which is taking the chairmanship. Members are the Presidency of the Council Ministers, Foreign Minister of Coordination, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Scientific Research and the Italian Space Agency. The objectives of STM are the acquisition of temporary and periodic technical reporting and divulgation, continuous tracking of diplomatic channel results and weekly meetings to discuss and to take decisions.

The tasks of the operation team management are personnel selection and training, operations

planning and re-entry operation rehearsal with the participation of four countries involved and the preparation in case of catastrophic events.

Regarding the communications management, we have the choice of the appropriate tools of information’s update at the worldwide level, the definition of the level of information for delivery to the mass media by press conference and to prevent unnecessary over-reactions while maintaining maximum transparency and information, the definition of a correct base of information with a set of frequently asked questions, and a systematic effort to transfer relevant data to all countries, through mail, faxes and by telephone.

The notification of risks through diplomatic channels, all the Italian Embassies were asked to contact all local government authorities concerned regarding the possible impact of the satellite with information about the re-entry of Beppo-SAX and a request for the assignment of a focal point for each country. These were the points of contact for all technical aspects and STM through the Government.

Risks were notified to the United Nations, European Space Agency and United Nations Permanent Representatives who were indicated the focal points. Only four of 39 countries, in fact, gave representatives.

And then there is planning and setting up of NOTAMs information for transportation vectors.

Regarding operations, there was the full cast of components operation roles, definition of industrial and scientific consultancies in terms of destructive behaviour and re-entry dynamics and fragmented material. Risk plans were prepared for the various countries which had a possibility of having an impact of fragments, a log book, a procedures and operations log book, updated information on the ASI website. Then the definition of a city database of the cities that might be involved, not only large cities but also sensitive sites, industrial points, airports, waterways, etc. The definition of software tools for simulations, the archiving of all data and continuous contact by STM and the establishment of a communications focal point.

This is the scheme of information by NASA and STM through an institution of the Italian Ministry of Universities.

COPUOS/T.509Page 14

This is another scheme, a more detailed one showing the scheme of the operational room of STM, operational four.

Mr. C. PORTELLI(?) (Italian Space Agency) (Continued in English): So, as you understood, 35 over 39 focal points have been appointed. This is a good result, I guess. However, let me put to you flashes on special cases we had managed.

First of all, some of them never reacted. Some over-reacted, especially on the last day. Some other made some premature alarms on mass-media. We also got good technical and scientific behaviour from other countries. We also got false alerts and request of damage reimburse which turned out to be a damage not due to the Beppo-SAX. In fact, we did not damage anybody.

Also we got a request of support for another re-entry case, just after our re-entry so this is strange but true. And then we also had been requested to financially support some pre-re-entry activities because countries need to put and make a lot of work to prepare themselves.

So what are the lessons learned? The Beppo-SAX casualty area one over more which is higher than one over 10,000 is really an isolated case? I think not because most of the spare-faring nations, we understood, do not feel comfortable in declaring any risk before.

Based on the last track I showed you in the previous chart, we found out that 25 minutes before the re-entry, we put at least more than 60 per cent of the country in a free condition. Only 40 per cent of them were declared on risk.

So what are our recommendations for these United Nations COPUOS members? Let me tell you that this is only an input for standardization of such a problem. Each launching State or owner of the satellite could follow the example we followed and prepare the focal points in order to let them prepare their counteraction on their own countries. The Italian initiative, this one, tends to request a creation of a number of specialized focal points that could learn how to manage this situation in their countries and this could be treated in an international database and the United Nations COPUOS could continuously update it.

We also tell you that each focal point should be prepared and understand the real risk and prepare his own countries with proper measures.

And this concludes my presentation. Thank you everybody. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): Thank you very much Mr. Claudio Portelli for this extremely interesting presentation which, once again, confirms the interest in the matter of space debris. On the one hand, the interest is in resolving the scientific and technical problems that have to be worth managing and minimizing the risks and the uncertainties but also, on the other hand, it is a matter of ensuring the security of space activities and the other interest is the legal framework that needs to be put in place for the management of space debris. And that dimension has also been covered in the presentation and, of course, both the legal community and the scientific and technical community are profoundly interested in the matter of space debris. And this is something that has been illuminated by this presentation in a very convincing way.

I have a little time for brief questions to the presenters, just a few minutes and their comments and brief questions.

I do not see any comments or questions. Then we will go on directly to the next presentation and have a general discussion at the end of the second presentation.

Tele-medicine presentation

I am now calling on Mr. Koudelka of the Austrian delegation and we will have a tele-medicine demonstration.

Mr. O. KOUDELKA (Austria): I should say good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished delegates. It is an honour and a pleasure to have this possibility here to demonstrate tele-medicine via satellite and this is not just a talk presentation, this is a real system demonstration. We have set up a satellite connection here from these premises to Graz, which is about 200 kilometres south of Vienna, and when you are leaving this building, you may see the small transportable ground station which is on the Plaza and we have used a number of technologies. It is not just satellite. We are inter-connecting completely wireless. We had no cables to lay from the Plaza to this building here. We have a fibre and free-space optics connection. We are using light to transmit data from the Plaza to the building to the windows and then by Wireless LAN, we are connecting inside this room.

COPUOS/T.509Page 15

Since we are concerned with tele-medicine, it is also a pleasure to have a real surgeon who will give the presentation from Graz, Dr. Koele, from the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of the Graz Hospital. So we are very grateful that we can do this in cooperation with the ENT Department.

So basically, all these lights you see here, they are coming already via satellite from Graz, and also on this screen, you have the video (inaudible). (background noise).

Our scenario for today is the following. Let us assume we are here on a remote island. We have a little hospital there with some diagnostics facilities but we do not have necessarily the right medical experts who can make a decision on the medical case. We have assumed that we have a patient here. Some computer tomography images have been taken. They have been transferred by satellite to the Expert Centre at the Hospital and now we will start from the remote side, the medical application in a moment. We will see here on the screen then the medical application that we can display the computer tomography images and then the Doctor will discuss with his colleague. I am no medical doctor, I am a communications engineer, but for this demonstration, I will try to be the colleague of Dr. Koele so he will forgive me if I will not ask the proper questions, but he will do all the proper explanations.

We have transferred the images and then we will start in a second the medical application which you will see here. Now I will hand over to Graz and to Dr. Koele and he will now explain what happened to the patient.

Dr. W. KOELE (Ear, Nose and Throat Department, Graz): Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. A short explanation for all the people in the auditory who are not so familiar with the CT scans. What you will see now is a CT scan of the head and of the peri-nasal sinuses of a patient and I will start up some work just to explain. Grey means soft tissue, or in this case, brain. Black means ear and white means bone or bony structures.

So in this case, a patient came to a peripheral hospital with massive pain in the left forehead and nobody could explain so they performed CT scans and what you see here now are the CT scans of the patient performed in the peripheral hospital. The doctors there recognized some structures which they could not explain. So what they did then is they took contact to the University Hospitals, just for a second expertise. And via satellite connection, I can easily see now the

pictures from the patient which is not right now in our unit, in our hospital. So I can explain the scan, together with the other colleagues. So what you see here are so-called Corona Scans from anterior to posterior. So this is the tip of the nose. This is the beginning of the forehead, soft tissue and the nose bone and air inside the nostrils. So we are going now backwards and see the first structure, which is not normal in a patient. These are metallic objects, which means that the patient had an operation previously. So the patient is alert and we can ask him when this operation was performed and this operation was performed six months ago after a severe trauma of the anterior skull base.

And we are going now further backwards, looking for the cause of the pain of his left forehead. See here, the bone of the skull and of the nose, again soft tissue of the head, and you see here the septum in the nose, which looks quite normal.

Here the first pathological findings. You see the right frontal sinus is filled with air which is quite normal and everybody of you should have such a frontal. Contrarily, on the left side, you see greyish, which means there must be something inside the frontal sinus. And because of the pain, probably this is pus and there is a structure inside which nobody could explain of the colleagues from outside. So that is why I am looking at these scans to explain that this structure is a remnant of the previous operation. It is a drain, a plastic drain which should drain fluid from the frontal sinus into the nose. This was performed in January, the operation, because everything was destroyed and we could not expect a normal drainage from the frontal sinus to the inner of the nose. So you can follow this drain. You see here the eyeballs, the brain, maxillary sinus, everything looks perfect there except the frontal sinus and this is the reason why the patient has such a massive headache.

To better explain the situation, I can now close these scans from the peripheral hospital, I hope this will work out, and we can go back. You see here the date of the examination. This is quite recent. It was done on 7 June and the post-operative scan was done on 29 January. So I am lowering these pictures for the colleagues for a better explanation of the findings from now. So these pictures are not that good because it is a reconstruction so these pictures were not performed coronally, they were performed actually like a normal brain scan. But you can see the difference. Everything looks inflamed, there is much air in the soft tissue because of the trauma. This was done on the first day post-operatively. So you see the multiple fractures of the forehead, nose bone fractures and you

COPUOS/T.509Page 16

can recognize just a little bit of greyish in the …. (link interrupted) … from the operation and you see the drain, the drain filled with air, like it should be. Compared to the pictures you saw before, you saw the drain filled with, let us say it is pus. Anyway, this drain is stocked and the conclusion of this whole procedure is that the patient should be immediately operated and this drain should be immediately removed, under general anaesthesia. And we did this at the beginning of June and I performed this operation and, as expected, massive pus came out of the frontal sinus and a few hours later, the patient was well off and the next day he could leave the hospital.

This is the case, just to show you an application for tele-medicine. Thank you.

Mr. O. KOUDELKA (Austria): And we have just seen another application of satellite services because this was a very nice lecture so it could be utilized for tele-education or for training the local doctors on the remote island. So if I were now the medical doctor on the remote place, I would have got the immediate advice from my colleague in Graz that we should urgently perform surgery on the patient.

I should mention that this satellite connection is done over a Ku-Band satellite which is provided by EUTELSAT and, thanks to the European Space Agency, we have access to the satellite capacity there.

After having seen this medical application, for those who are interested in the technicalities, we would finish up with a very short presentation from my colleague, Mrs. Birnbacher, who will now give a talk and presentation on remote from Graz, how we have set up the whole system here. Mrs. Birnbacher, the floor is yours.

Mrs. U. BIRNBACHER (Austria): Thank you Professor Koudelka, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I want to give you a very short description of our set-up of this tele-medicine demonstration.

The connection we have set up from Graz into the Conference Room is split into several sections. The main part is done via the satellite link but additionally we have set up a free-space optics link from the Earth station outside the building up to the seventh floor of the Conference Building. And the final section is via Wireless LAN from this office room into the Conference Room. And at the end I want to say some words about possible applications.

The set-up for this scenario comprises a lot of communication equipment. On the left-hand side, you

can see the equipment needed at our site in Graz. We have an Earth Station located in Graz at the Observatory Lustbühel. Dr. Koele and I are now sitting here and doing the presentations. From there we go via the SESAT satellite of EUTELSAT to our Mobile Earth Station in Vienna. The Earth Station is connected with this free-space optics link with equipment on the seventh floor of the building where you are at the moment watching this demonstration. And from this office room on the seventh floor, having a window to look down to the Earth Station, there is finally a Wireless LAN connection into the Conference Room connecting the videoconferencing equipment and the computer showing this presentation.

For the satellite link, we used the 2 megabit per second transmission connection. It is a totally transparent data connection. We are using the standard Internet Protocol to transmit all video, audio and data to Vienna.

The free-space optics link has been developed at our department. It establishes a 10 megabit per second Internet connection, offering a maximum distance of 700 metres. The main advantages of free-space optics is a very fast set-up of the connection and no licences are required.

Additionally, we also offer different equipment for different data rates and ranges.

And the final part of the connection is established by Wireless LAN. We use a standard 802.11b equipment which offers 2 or 11 megabits per second Ethernet.

Additionally, we had to use direction antennas which can be used for extended ranges but today we needed them to overcome the massive obstruction of the walls into the Conference Room.

For the video conference you have just seen before with Dr. Koele and now with me, we used commercial equipment from Polycom View Station which offers video encoding rates up to 768 kilobits per second. At the moment we are running the video conference with 500 kilobits per second and I hope that you enjoy the high quality of this video conference. The View Station is equipped with the standard Ethernet Interface, hence you can plug it into any Ethernet LAN and it is compatible with the H.323 standards which means you can use any standard videoconference equipment compatible with this standard, together with the View Station.

COPUOS/T.509Page 17

And finally, some more words about possible applications. Satellite communication in general can be used for two different types of application. On the one hand, broadcast applications, by which you can distribute any type or any kind of information, for example, for a tele-teaching scenario, this would mean you can distribute teaching material to any number of users. And the second type of applications are interactive applications for which you need it by directional connections. Indicates for tele-medicine, we have just shown you a consultation between two doctors. For tele-teaching, examples could be fully interactive, lectures or discussions, teachers and students.

To finish this presentation, I want to thank Dr. Koele for his participation in this demonstration and all my colleagues who have been engaged in the preparation and set up this demonstration. Thank you very much.

Mr. O. KOUDELKA (Austria): Thank you very much Mrs. Birnbacher. And perhaps one last word I have to add here. Today we have just a point-to-point link between Vienna and Graz but the satellite system that we developed offers the possibility to interconnect up to 500 stations together where everybody can communicate with anybody else in the network so we could make practically a very large hospital network there. And also remote fast Internet access, which we do not show today here, could be an application and, furthermore, the access to remote databases. In this way, the satellite services can help to improve the health services in developing countries or in cases where the infrastructure is not there, or in cases of some disaster or crisis.

This concludes the presentation and thank you very much for your attention.

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): Thank you very much for this fascinating demonstration. The floor is open for comments and questions regarding the presentation.

The representative of the United Kingdom.

Mr. G. CLOUGH (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland): Thank you very much. I found the presentation very interesting. You will have to excuse my complete ignorance on these matters but could you give some indication of the cost of setting up a link and the cost of running a link? Thank you.

Mr. O. KOUDELKA (Austria): Thank you very much. The satellite you are using but for a 2 megabit per second link, as we are using today, so this is shared capacity, you pay about 100 Euros per hour. There are some other satellites where capacity is cheaper and particularly today we would have had on demand for booking. So this is like buy last minute a business class ticket on an airline so if I would make a reservation far ahead or if I would book it up for, say, six months, then say every two hours per day, then the prices would go up to some 50 to 70 Euros per hour for the 2 megabit link. This is quite a reasonable price when you consider you have 2 megabits per second on your cellphone. If you are in some other country, not in your home country, you are paying more than a Euro per minute. And here you have, say, a hundred times or two hundred times the capacity that is available on the cellphone.

Mr. G. CLOUGH (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland): Sorry, and the cost of the equipment that you would need?

Mr. O. KOUDELKA (Austria): OK. This depends very much what you need and what the equipment should do. Basically, a VSAT Station that can support some 2 megabits per second fully interconnected with anybody else, here we are in the price range between 10,000 to 20,000 Euros. However, if you have a star-shaped network, so you have a central hospital and then many remote hospitals, you can go to some system which is now available, the DVDRCS system which is nowadays offered but I want European manufacturers and there are two operators which offer this service commercially. It was also in development by the European Space Agency and the specification was done by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute and here the terminal costs are in the region of 1,500 to 2,500 Euros, so this is rather cheap equipment. This is very difficult really to give the immediate figures because it is changing rapidly so if you are interested, I would be very happy to discuss afterwards the possibilities, but the prices for the service to access the network is something like 300 to 600 Euros a month.

Mr. D. EL HADANI (Chairman) (interpretation from French): Are there any further questions on this presentation and, of course, the preceding presentation as well?

Once again, I would like to thank both presenters for very interesting information on themes that are very relevant to the work of this Committee. As you know, we are a little bit behind schedule. Therefore, there will be no opportunity to have a

COPUOS/T.509Page 18

session of the Working Group. We will have one this afternoon.

Before adjourning this session this morning, I would like to inform you that we will continue discussion on item 7, Recommendations of UNISPACE III, item 8, the Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, and item 9, the Report of the Legal Subcommittee, starting at 3.00 p.m.

We will also have a technical presentation in the afternoon by the representative of the Russian Federation on a global system. And following that, there will be a meeting of the Working Group on the Implementation of Recommendations of UNISPACE III, under the chairmanship of Mr. Niklas Hedman of Sweden.

Any further comments at this point regarding the afternoon agenda?

If there are none, I am adjourning this meeting and we will resume at 3.00 p.m.

The meeting closed at 12.30 p.m.