The wide-ranging paper, setting out the UN's action plan for space over at least the next decade, focuses on using space technology to address the issues of the developing world. Toward that end, the document contains many proposals concerning remote sensing applications, space-based communication infrastructure, and the advancement of space science.
"By any reckoning, Unispace III was a great success," said Dr. U.R. Rao, president of the conference. "The Vienna Declaration was adopted by consensus, and if its recommendations are implemented, the document will certainly be considered a great landmark in space history."
NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS
Some of the most exciting ideas came from an unexpected source. For the first time, a conference within Unispace brought together young space professionals from around the world to deliver their vision for space in their generation. This gathering, entitled the Space Generation Forum, was recognized as an important partner in the deliberations and produced five recommendations incorporated into the Vienna Declaration.
Under one of these, UN nations pledged to take common steps against the threat of near-Earth objects. Though couched in the language of diplomats - "to improve the international coordination of activities related to near-Earth objects... while at the same time giving consideration to developing a common strategy" - the proposal represents a significant step forward for the UN in this area.
"Near-Earth objects are clearly a global danger - so the control and operation of any protection system should also clearly be international," said Myles Walton, one of the idea's proponents and a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The young professionals were repeatedly hailed throughout the conference for injecting new life into the normally-staid proceedings of the international body.
"This forum was the most productive," noted Dr. Rao in an address to the group. "If some [recommendations] are impractical it is not because they are not practically written, but because the world is not yet ready."
ORBITAL DEBRIS
A related area that received far less support was a push for more stringent regulations on orbital debris. On Tuesday, the Workshop on Space Law stated that, "there is a need to have at least a code of conduct concerning space debris," and proposed that a legal group within the UN space organization address the subject immediately.
Once this language reached the floor of the superior committee, ambassadors there quickly ensured it was watered down. Efforts designed to examine the "legal aspects" of the issue were reduced to "various aspects," leaving President Rao to conclude, "we have not yet come to the point where there is a consensus to address the problem."
"But it is coming," he noted.
THE FUTURE
Whether Rao's hope that the Declaration will be hailed as a landmark remains to be seen, as several observers questioned the ability of the UN to follow through on its recommendations. The funding mechanism for the recommendations set out in the declaration , for example, is primarily voluntary.
In the end, however, the greatest achievement of the conference could be found in how it brought together people from all around the world, especially those from the developing and developed worlds.
"Ultimately, it's about empowerment," said Mei Ling Doery, an Australian delegate to the Space Generation Forum. "Broad involvement from established and emerging space-faring nations will lead to active links and benefits for all."
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