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COMMITTEE ON SPACE RESEARCH (COSPAR)

D.J. Williams and J.G. Roederer

Introduction

In 1958, ICSU was encouraged by Sir Harrie Massey and others to become involved in the scientific aspects of space research in order to ensure that, in the tense international situation existing at the time, all negotiations concerning space should not become completely politicized. The sudden leap into the cosmos marked by the launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957, created a situation in which it was deemed necessary to make a deliberate move to encourage cooperation and the free exchange of views on all scientific aspects of space research along the lines established so successfully during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. ICSU accordingly created the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) on 15 November 1958, with its primary purpose being to "provide the world scientific community with the means whereby it may exploit the possibilities of satellites and space probes of all kinds for scientific purposes, and exchange the resulting data on a cooperative basis".

The COSPAR Council meeting of 1992 (D.J. Williams)

Dr. D.J. Williams, IUGG representative, attended the two COSPAR Plenary Sessions (28 Aug. and 5 Sept. 1992) as IUGG representative.

Items to note:

1. The meeting was attended by over 4 100 registrants representing 65 countries. It seemed a huge success but was very large. The IAF presence gave an industrial/commercial flavor to the meeting and provided a large and excellent exhibition of space activities.
2. The new COSPAR charter and By-Laws were passed by a vote of 34 yes and 1 abstention. All of the IUGG/IAGA suggestions were incorporated into the final version. The main purpose of the changes was to provide for an open election of all COSPAR Bureau members, including the President and the Vice-Presidents.
3. The 1996 COSPAR Meeting will be held in Birmingham England, not in the former Soviet Union as originally proposed.
4. A nominating committee was approved for determining the slate of COSPAR officers to be placed before the Plenary at the 1994 meeting in Hamburg.
   Tentative nominating committee members were Drs. Ness (USA), Oda (Japan), Southwood (UK), Oro (USA), and Galeev (Russia).
5. Last but not least, Mr. Z. Niemirowicz retired as Executive Director of COSPAR in May 1993. He was presented with a special COSPAR Distinguished Service Medal in honor of his impending retirement.

The COSPAR Council meeting
of 1994 (J.G. Roederer)

Prof. J.G. Roederer attended the COSPAR Council meetings on July 11 and 21, as the IUGG Representative on behalf of Dr. D. J. Williams, who was unable to travel to Hamburg.

The following summary is limited to items that are of interest to IUGG.

1. New Officers of COSPAR

This was the first election held under the new Charter of COSPAR. Results of the election: President: G. Haerendel (Germany); Vice Presidents: L. Lanzerotti (USA) and A. Nishida (Japan); Bureau Members: G. Atkinson (Canada), A. Boyarchuk (Russia), W. Hermesen (Netherlands), K. Kasturirangan (India), K. Szegö (Hungary) and A. Willmore (UK); Finance Committee Chair: F. Mariani (Italy).

2. Meetings

Prof. Mariani presented a detailed report with statistics on the budget, meeting atttendance, papers submitted, events held, etc.. Of particular interest, and a subject of considerable discussion, was the following information on the number of COSPAR meeting participants:

Year:	No.
1984	1169
1986	1666
1988	1346
1990	1711
1992	2260
1994	1700

There were expressions of concern about the attendance drop at the Hamburg meeting. Prof. Roederer remarked that most likely it was not a drop, but that, rather, the numbers for 1986 and 1990 were peaks because of the additional participants from SCOSTEP (which until 1990 held its quadriennal Solar Terrestrial Physics Symposia in conjunction with COSPAR) and that for 1992 there were many more participants because of the associated IAF Congress and STEP Symposium.

The 1996 COSPAR Meeting will be held at the University of Birmingham, England. Registration fee will be 270 pounds. It was described as a "high density" meeting that will last only six days, with many more parallel sessions than usual. The starting date will be Sunday, July 16. There was considerable discussion about the fact that this will overlap exactly with the AGU Pacific Conference in Australia. A proposal to shift the COSPAR meeting one week ahead was not accepted. A somewhat unwieldy list of 89 sessions (symposia, panels, etc.) was proposed by the COSPAR Scientific Commissions for the 6-day Birmingham meeting (37 of the suggested titles seemed perfectly appropriate for IAGA, IAMAS, IAG, and IAPSO assemblies). This list will be discussed and whittled down by the COSPAR program committee, which will then request co-sponsorship of sessions that are of interest to other ICSU bodies.

There was a discussion about the support of scientists from eastern countries. The substantial financial assistance received from the International Science Foundation and the government of Germany for their attendance at the Hamburg meeting may not be available in 1996. Concerning the amount available to COSPAR from registration fees collected by the local organizing committee, the representative from the University of Birmingham estimated it at about 94 pounds per participant for the first 1000 participants.

The 1998 COSPAR Meeting will be held at the Nagoya Conference Center in Japan.

3. Budget

The financial report was presented and budget trends were discussed. COSPAR's expected income for 1995 from national contributions was quoted as 1,705 KFF (kilo French Francs); the current reserve is about 3,000 KFF (approx. $600K).

4. ICSU Review of COSPAR

There was a considerable discussion of the 1993 review of COSPAR by ICSU. While generally favorable, the review states that "Whilst it was noted that cooperation with IAU had improved, it was felt that cooperation with the relevant Unions had at times lacked coordination." In response to this statement, the COSPAR Scientific Commission structure would be examined by a preparatory review group set up by the COSPAR Bureau (recommendations were expected to be reported at the Bureau's last meeting at the end of the Hamburg assembly). It was also pointed out that COSPAR Colloquia should be a key element to improve cooperation with the Unions. On the other hand, it is interesting to read under Item 11/A/4 of the draft minutes of the March 1994 COSPAR Bureau meeting, distributed to the Council in Hamburg, that "Professor Axford [then the COSPAR President] observed that IAGA is moving into COSPAR's field and this should be brought to ICSU's attention".

There was a discussion of the goals of COSPAR. President-elect Haerendel strongly promoted the idea of including engineering (this, however, may provoke some reaction from the IAF) as well as education and public promotion of space science.

5. Resolutions

A number of resolutions were submitted by the Commissions, but only two were forwarded to and approved by the Council. One deals with Mars planetary protection policy, decreasing the biological burden requirements on the basis of current knowledge of the Martian environment. The other resolution came from the panel on developing countries (in which Prof. Roederer participated as an invited speaker and discussant), recommending "that [COSPAR] national members, ICSU Unions and associated members encourage and support programs and activities involving ground based and space techniques, particularly related to global and regional change studies, and facilitate increased participation of scientists from developing countries".

Some Personal Remarks from Prof. Roederer

During his ten years as the IUGG Representative in the COSPAR Council (1976-1986) Prof. Roederer has been concerned about the gradually increasing overlap of interests of some of the COSPAR Commissions and the IUGG Associations, particularly IAGA and IAMAS. On the other hand, COSPAR itself frequently expressed concern that some IUGG Associations were increasingly intruding into what it perceived its specific domain (e.g., see Prof. Axford's remark mentioned in 4. above).

To understand these inevitable trends, a bit of history is in order. COSPAR was created at the beginning of the "Space Era" with the purpose "to further on an international scale, the progress of all kinds of scientific investigations which are carried out with space vehicles, rockets and balloons." As time went on, space techniques and space observations became routine elements of geophysical and astronomical research, being naturally incorporated into the realms of IUGG and IAU. IAGA, for instance, underwent drastic restructuring in 1973 to accommodate to the modern modes of aeronomic and geomagnetic research. It became necessary to distinguish clearly between the concepts of "science from space" (logically pertaining to the scientific discipline specifically involved, e.g., geodesy, geology, meteorology, aeronomy, astrophysics), "science of space" (e.g., space physics, planetary environments), and "science in space" (e.g., zero-g biology and condensed matter physics, relativity tests). The overlap of "intra-ICSU-family" interests is highest in the first category, and will continue to increase.

In view of all this, it may be time for ICSU itself to undertake a drastic change of its Union and Scientific Committee structure to appropriately and cost-effectively adjust to the new developments in the areas of space, environment and interdisciplinarification of science.

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