UN COPUOS hears Space Traffic Management report recommendations

It was an exciting day as Brian, Asangire, and Ben briefed the delegates at UN COPUOS technical subcommittee. The briefing recommending further research and action was well received as several delegates asked questions and agreed with the problem at hand.



If you are interested in reading the ISU report on Space Traffic Management, it can be found online through ISU's website
here.

Vienna update

Hi everyone - Charity here. I took the day to wander the streets of Vienna. Despite being able to visit many beautiful places, this one really took my breath away. I hopped outside of the Volksmuseum metro and right in front of me was Parliament - gorgeous!



It was a bone-chilly day though. I walked around the Rathaus area where they had open air skating in a large park in front, weaved through the Museum district (didnt go into any - saving that for Saturday) and decided to metro it into Stephansdom for a chocolate croissant and my 1st cappuccino in a very long time (and might I say it was the best Ive ever had :) Best laid plans didnt really pan out due to the cold - I had a map pinpointing interesting landmarks and saw about half of them. I waddled back to the metro and to the hotel. Now - searching for the perfect Valentine's Day dinner...hmm I wonder if all the restaurants are booked up.

Check out the new webpage for Vienna's pictures and some from DC through our homepage (www.brianandcharity.net/travel). We'll keep it updated as much as possible.

- Charity

Greetings from Vienna!

Charity and I safely arrived in lovely Vienna Sunday morning and spent a few hours wandering around downtown before catching a pre-dinner nap. Hopefully we will get a chance to do some serious sightseeing at some point in the next week. We found a nice little Viennese cafe for our first meal in Austria, which for me was German potato salad and a nice schnitzel as you can see on the right. Very nice. Of course we were also tempted by the numerous shops selling fresh baked goods and various cakes and sweets. Another morning :)



Dinner Sunday night was at the Salm Breau brewery and restaurant. I shared an incredible pan of cheese spetzle and a haunch of ham with my friend Ben, along with a couple pints of authentic Pilsner. We talked with several members of the Space Generation who were in town to attend COPUOS and make a briefing of their own. The really interesting part is that our group included Americans, Canadian, a Brit, 2 French, 4 Autrians, a Pole, and a German. Of course there were conversations in multiple languages going on which made the evening all the more fun.

Monday morning we started the serious part of this trip (of course food is always serious to me). We were in town to attend the 45th Sessions of the Science and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (whew - what a mouthful) or UNCOPUOS to its friends. There are currently 68 nations that are part of UNCOPUOS and at least another dozen permenant observers.

Our attendance is twofold. First, my colleague Ben and I will be presenting a summary of the Space Traffic Management Report we worked on over the summer in Beijing. This will be on the 14th. Secondly, our employer, Secure World Foundation, will have its status as permanent observer voted on in June by the full UNCOPUOS committee and we needed to show them that everyone should vote yet.


The session was interesting. The first day consisted mainly of all the different nations making 5 minutes opening statements on all the great things their nation is doing for space or what areas they were concerned on. Of course like any event, the real work takes place in the hallway and after the formal sessions are over. This was also my first time being in a meeting with simultaneous translation in 7 languages and I must say those UN translators are amazing.

Update from Washington, DC

Hi everybody! Just a quick update. I have been here in DC for the last week on business. Last Thursday I spoke at the Space Security Workshop held at George Washington University. This was the 4th in a series of such events sponsored by the Space Policy Institute at GW. My talk focused on the physics of space and why traffic solutions for other regimes (like air and sea) didn't necessarily apply. My slides can be found here.

Tonight we are meeting up with a few of our Beijing classmates who are in the DC area for dinner. Tomorrow and Friday Charity and I will be attending the National Space Forum. This is an annual event held to discuss and debate policy issues in space. This year's event will focus on the space policy challenges that the new Administration will face in 2009. About 200 of the best and brightest from government, industry, and NGOs will be attending.

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know we have made some updates to our website. It will now require a login so all you need to do is register and I will send you the info.

We have new pages for travel and one for the baby so sign up!

Charity