Space science, a weapon against climate change

Space science is an important tool in the fight against climate change, as well as engine of growth through international cooperation. These are the key ideas promoted by the 60th International Astronautical Congress, which got underway today in South Korea involving 3,000 experts.

Berndt Feuerbacher, president of the International Astronautical Federation, said at the opening that despite economic difficulties, has been shown that the space industry has proven to have great potential and contribute to sustainable growth.

It also stressed the importance of space science to combat climate change, which called for cooperation among the agencies present, Yonhap news agency reported.

Feuerbacher recalled the increasingly important role of satellites to monitor CO2 levels in Earth's atmosphere and other greenhouse gases as well as the need to cooperate and share information in this regard.

The South Korean city of Daejon gather for five days leading scientists, entrepreneurs and representatives of governments of the first space powers and emerging countries.

Among those attending are the heads of the major space agencies in the world, as the European Space Agency (ESA), the U.S. NASA, the Russian Roscosmos, Japan's JAXA, CNSA Chinese or Indian ISRO.
The importance of cooperation

This meeting is the most important of those are held in the field of aerospace science and this year will aim to offer ideas on combating global warming, to promote civilian uses of space and promote cooperation.

In the opening ceremony, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, today called upon the international community to cooperate in space development after the country got its first rocket launch last month with Russian help.

South Korea and its space research agency, KARI, proposed today the creation of a major Asia-Pacific regional group to enhance cooperation in space and intends to expand its ties to Latin America and Africa.

South Korea last month gave the first steps of its space program by launching the rocket Naro-1, which was described as "partially successful" because it failed to orbit the satellite was carrying.

South Korea's cooperation with Russia, which contributed to the construction of the Naro-1 in its space program, but he hopes to build its own rockets by 2018 and send a probe to the moon in 2025.
Return to the Moon

Indeed, the satellite will land one of the themes present in the meeting after last Friday got NASA to perform a controlled impact into a lunar south pole crater to prove the existence of water vapor.

This mission is similar to Chandrayaan-1, India conducted during the past year and that proved the existence of water on the moon thanks to U.S. cooperation last month.

With a long-term, large emerging economies of Asia, China and India, will now join in the conquest of earth satellite with the goal of establishing permanent bases in the future and carry out the exploitation of resources such as helium -3, a compound that could be critical for nuclear fusion.

The increasing prominence of Asia in space research has demonstrated the growing importance of China, which sent its first man into space for 6 years and in 2008 made his first spacewalk.

Thus, the president of the International Astronautical Federation called for increased international cooperation and indicated that countries that still have a space program in its early stages can assert the areas in which they are pioneers.

Feuerbacher gave the example of South Korea and its importance in the field of information technology, while recalling that the funding problems as the ones in times of crisis encourage international collaboration.