Expert Panel

Future of Space Expert Panel Meets in Paris

Expert panel members Reimar Lüst and Kerstin Fredga

PARIS, April 1-2--As part of its project, "The Future of Space: The Next Strategic Frontier," The Eisenhower Institute hosted the second annual meeting of its Expert Advisory Panel in Paris on April 1-2 to report on the past year's accomplishments as well as to formulate strategies for the upcoming year. Institute Senior Associate and Director of the East-West Space Science Center at the University of Maryland Dr. Roald Sagdeev chaired the meeting and initiated a discussion among the panel on the current state of space security. Eisenhower Institute President and Project Director Susan Eisenhower also led a discussion on plans for advancing a space security regime that seeks to strike a balance between the full range of diplomatic, legal, defensive, and deterrence options a nation or group of nations has at its disposal for implementing security policy.

Over the course of the two-day conference, different members of the Expert Panel chaired discussions on issues ranging from the role of the military in space, international access to space and related nonproliferation issues, the goals of emerging space-faring nations, civilian space applications such as commercial remote sensing and telecommunications, and legal and diplomatic tools for enhancing the space security regime. In addition, the project's subcommittee chairs presented the panelists with briefings on the progress made by the subcommittees since the inaugural Paris conference in July 2002 (Click here for full press release and summary report of July 2002 meeting).

"We are very fortunate that so many leading international space minds have continued to play such an active role in our work," said Ms. Eisenhower afterwards. "This latest meeting produced a range of high-quality discussions on how we intend to broaden and deepen our work with the range of space stakeholders in both the US and the rest of the international community."

Expert Panel members who attended the April 1-2 meetings in Paris included:

• Dr. V.S.Arunachalam, Former Defense Science Advisor for the Government of India, former advisor to Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi;
  
  
• Dr. Roger Bonnet, former Scientific Director of the European Space Agency, Director of the International Institute of Space Research, Bern, Switzerland;
  
  
• Dr. Jacques Blamont, Scientific Advisor to the Chairman of CNES (the French national space agency);
  
  
• Dr. Hubert Curien, President of the French Academy of Sciences, former President of CNES and former French Minister of Science and Technology;
  
  
• Ms. Susan Eisenhower, President of The Eisenhower Institute, member of the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force (the Young Commission), former member of the NASA Advisory Council;
  
  
• Dr. Kerstin Fredga, Chair, Alfvén Laboratory, The Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH); former director of the Swedish Space Agency; Executive Secretary of the Swedish Space Board; Chairman, Space Science Council of the European Space Agency; and President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences;
  
  
• Dr. André Lebeau, President of the French Meteorological Society;
  
  
• Dr. Reimar Lüst, former President of Max Plank Gesellschaft, and former Director General of the European Space Agency;
  
  
• Dr. Vittorio Manno, Program Manager of the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland; former Senior Scientist at the European Space Agency's Science Directorate;
  
  
• Dr. Dennis Papadopoulos, Professor in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maryland;
  
  
• Dr. Roald Sagdeev, Distinguished University Professor and Director of the East-West Space Science Center at the University of Maryland, former Director of the Space Research Institute in Moscow, former Director of the International Mission to Halley's Comet and former advisor to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on the Strategic Defense Initiative;
  
  
• Dr. Michael Yarymovych, President of the International Academy of Astronautics and former Vice President of International Technology and Advanced Systems of the Boeing Company.