Friday, 26 September 2008
09:00 – 13:00: Project group work
13:00 – 14:00: Lunch presentations
Fatoumata Kebe; Atmospheric Entry on Titan; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
14:00 – 14:45: James Zimmerman; President of the International Astronautical Federation
16:00 – 18:00: Project group work
19:00 – LATE: Culture and Fun Night
After another hearty Scottish breakfast at purplehotel, the delegates arrived at the Pearce Institute and were treated to a fabulous video introducing the International Astronautical Congress 2009 and its host city Daejeon, Korea. Through event manager Kevin Stube’s familiarization work with the local organizing committee, delegates were delighted to hear Space Generation Congress 2009 mentioned in the video.
As this was the heavy work day, delegates were then released into their project groups and given a few hours of intense work time before lunch. They ran with their projects, and were reluctant to stop for another warm meal made in house at the institute. After their bellies were full, the delegates reconvened in the main room for an informal talk by Jim Zimmerman, president of the International Astronautical Federation.
JAMES ZIMMERMAN, PRESIDENT OF IAF:
“YOUNG PEOPLE ARE OUR FUTURE”
“Coming here is one of the highlights of my week,” said James Zimmerman, president of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), at the beginning of his talk on the second day of the Space Generation Congress 2008, held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
The audience, composed of over 40 young professionals and students from more than 20 countries, listened attentively to his speech. Zimmerman said that IAF was founded in 1951 in London, England, UK, and now gathers different associations, companies, and non profit organizations from around the world. It has a small secretariat in Paris, and has ten vice presidents.
One of the IAF’s goals is to promote international cooperation in different types of space exploration projects. For example, it promotes initiatives related to global Earth observation systems, and it is also working on activities to celebrate the International Astrophysical Year. “We use the web; it is an incredibly powerful tool to share information,” said Zimmerman.
Another area that is being developed by IAF is related to knowledge sharing. As an example of how this area is growing, he said that that around 1400 technical papers were going to be presented during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) to be held in Glasgow the week after SGC. He pointed out that some years ago, the only way to distribute technical articles during the IAC was to print paper copies. Now organizers can accumulate the electronic versions and create a DVD. Recently the IAF decided to put together all the past papers from 2003 to the present on the web. In the next years, papers from 1951 to 2003 will be also published online. “Our goal is to have our entire database online as a library available to the members of the IAF,” he said.
Youth is another area that IAF considers crucial. During IAC, young professionals can participate in a program that helps them to improve their professional skills. Also, they can meet experienced professionals, network, and get and give inspiration from talking to them.
Other initiatives that Zimmerman mentioned in his presentation was that IAF is working to create a fund to help young people who would like to attend IAC but can not afford the trip costs. The proposal is to give around ten scholarships to young people from around the world, with priority on developing countries, to attend the next IAC in Korea.
The IAF is also specially working to strengthen two more areas: recognition and public awareness of space exploration activities.
“You, young people, are the future of IAF,” said Zimmerman. He also encouraged the public to get involved and to communicate good ideas to implement at next IAC.
After a round of excellent questions and answers, Kevin Stube thanked Zimmerman, and praised his work on behalf of young professionals, and for striving to include Space Generation Congress and its delegates in IAF activities during his term. After the session broke, the delegates swarmed around Zimmerman to ask him more questions and engage him in informal conversation. He graciously stayed, missing two taxis called for him, before having to run to catch a following IAF meeting.
After the departure, Fatoumata Kebe, a delegate from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, spoke on her work researching Atmospheric Entry on Titan.
The delegates happily separated into the breakout areas and rooms for one of their last project work sessions. After a few hours, it was time to head back to the hotel for a last bit of work, a large group Ikea run for materials for the SGAC booth at IAC, and some dedicated partying from some.