Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
defence
4
technology sharing programmes with India, despite some international
concerns, while China is working with key allies such as Pakistan, Nigeria and
Venezuela.
With regard to international collaboration, perhaps the best known project is the
International Space Station (ISS).
5
This is a joint project by fi ve participating space
agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada to develop a
habitable artifi cial satellite in low Earth orbit. The fi rst component was launched in
1998 and the station has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and has
19 research facilities. It is serviced by a variety of spacecraft from the United States,
Russia and Japan and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 differ-
ent nations. The ownership and use of the space station is established by
intergovernmental agreements and, at an estimated cost of $160 billion and rising,
it is generally understood to be the most expensive object ever built.
Other international collaborations include:
• The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) - a partnership between Algeria,
Nigeria, China, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Spain. Each of the six countries
owns and operates a low-cost satellite
6
and together they provide daily imaging
capability to the partner nations. Images are also sold commercially but distrib-
uted freely in times of natural disasters.
•
The Asia-Pacifi c Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) was created in 1993
by 27 states (Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Canada, Cambodia, China,
France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, the Russian Federation,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States and Viet Nam) to enhance
space activities in the Asia-Pacifi c region. In addition, the Asia-Pacifi c Space
Cooperation Organization (APSCO), created in 2005, focuses on education and
training. It involves Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan,
Peru, Thailand and Turkey and builds on the Asia-Pacifi c Multilateral Cooperation
in Space Technology and Applications (AP-MCSTA) convention signed by
China, Pakistan and Thailand in 1992.
•
The Space Conference of the Americas (Conferencia Espacial de las Americas -
CEA) started in 1989 as a forum to discuss progress in space matters and to
strengthen educational programmes and training in space science and technology
among countries that encourage the use of space applications for the benefi t of
the developing countries in Latin America.
4
Despite concerns in India about becoming too close to the United States and in the United States
about the possible implications for nuclear weapons proliferation and Indo-Pak nuclear stability,
the United States and India are developing a growing cooperation with projects such as missile
defence - for example, see
http://cogitasia.com/toward-u-s-india-missile-defense-cooperation/
5
For more information see, for example,
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.
6
The satellites are built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd - for more details, see
http://www.sstl.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search