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Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Online Course – The New Space Age

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A new online introductory (yes – for beginners) course from the Workers’ Educational Association supported by the Royal Astronomical Society. Enrolment requirements include:

  • You have been resident in the UK, EU or EEA for the last 3 years
  • You are aged 19 years or older on 1st September 2019
  • Starts at 19:00 on Tuesday 10th March 2020. Cost is £20 or free if eligible
International Space Station
Credit ESA

Over six weekly ninety-minute sessions online, the course will look at space programmes and missions being conducted by many countries and companies right now.  Starting 10th March 2020. The six sessions will cover

  1. From the Space Race to the New Space Age. How has human space exploration evolved since the launch of Sputnik in 1957?
  2. Services from space. All those satellites in space, what impact do they have on the quality of lives of people on Earth?
  3. The Private Space Sector. It has been emerging for many years. Has it finally arrived?
  4. Environmental control in space.  Can the international community apply the lessons of climate change on Earth to the space environment around Earth and beyond?
  5. Militarisation of space. Humans on Earth have always fought on the land, sea and the air. Is war in space inevitable?
  6. Humans in Space.  In this decade, will humans walk on the Moon again? Will this decade deliver, finally the promise of space tourism?
More info and Signup Here
























Episode 76: Space law


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Bayar Goswami


One of the earliest characteristics of human civilisation (large populations living together in organised cities) was the creation of rules or laws that everyone who lived there agreed to abide by.


The 50th anniversary of first humans to visit the Moon is celebrated later this year. In 1968 it was pretty much just two countries and a few space missions per year. Today, over 70 countries have something in the way of a space programme and along with a blossoming private space sector, space is likely to become very busy in the next decade or so. This surge of space activity will determine how the laws in space will apply and begin to set the scene for human civilisation beyond Earth.   On earth, most nations follow international laws most of the time.


International rules for operating in space were defined by the UN in five treaties established between 1967 – 1984.


    

  • 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
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  • 1968 – Rescue Agreement. Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
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  • 1972 – The Liability agreement. Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects.
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  • 1976 – The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
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  • 1984 – The Moon Treaty. Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
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How will these laws fair in space? For example, will all governments


    

  • “authorise and supervise” their  “non-governmental entities” in space?
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  • comply with international liabilities for physical damages caused by their space objects?
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  • agree on who can build what and where on the Moon?
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  • establish mining and ownership rights to materials on the Moon and other celestial bodies?
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  • maintain the principles of human rights in space.
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These are some of the questions I discuss with  Bayar Goswami, a Doctoral student at the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University (IASL) in Canada. A TedX speaker, Bayar has an interest in space as well as law and I started by asking him what came first.


The distinction between terms, such as signed, ratified and accessioned, is described here. A status of which nations have signed which treaty is maintained by the UN here. A summary of the five treaties is available here.


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Episode 73: Using Commercial Of the Shelf (COTs) Components to build spacecraft


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If you follow this podcast, you will notice a very long pause since the previous episode. I have been busy writing my second book, the Indian Space Programme which is now finally complete. So I am now back to my familiar but irregular podcasting mode.


The growth in the space sector now widely estimated to be worth annually over 300 billion USD globally. It is primarily being driven by the commercial sector.  The bulk of the expenditure is in satellite television, communication services, Earth observation and businesses enabled by global navigation. In the past, it was technological development driven by the national space programmes that triggered the development of low-cost consumer products. Today it’s the other way round. Sophisticated manufacturing methods and high public demand for digital products have produced low-cost consumer devices which without too much modification can be qualified for use in space. This is particularly true in the sudden growth of the small satellite market.


In this episode, I speak with Dr Rajan Bedi the founder and CEO of Spacechips, a UK based company offering CEO of Spacechips Ltd, which provides industrial R&D and space electronics design consultancy and training services to manufacturers of satellites and spacecraft around the world. I was intrigued by Rajan’s 2017 blog post entitled  “Using and selecting COTS components for space application”. In this episode, I want to understand to what extent spacecraft manufacturers can buy components for spacecraft from the high street.


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Episode 72: Satish Dhawan Space Centre


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From left to right. V. Seshagiri Rao Associate director, Dr M.Y.S. Prasad SDSC director, Dr S.V. Subba Rao Deputy Director


Located about 80km from Chennai on India’s east coast, Satish Dhawan Space centre is used by ISRO to launch all of its satellites including those to the Moon and Mars. Also known as Sriharikota, it was established during the late 1960s but today it has a vehicle assembly building, two launch pads and a state of the art mission control centre.


In this episode, Dr MYS Prasad, the director at Satish Dhawan Space Centre describes the key services and activities that take place at India’s 21st century rocket launch complex. This interview was recorded in January 2014 and Dr Prasad stood down as director on 31st May 2015.


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