Category: News

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

The winners have been announced in the Royal Observatory’s astronomy photography competition. More than 1200 photographs of stars, planets, galaxies and other celestial highlights were submitted through Sky at Night Magazine and Flickr.

The Winners

The overall winner, and the winner of the Earth and Space category, was Mark Gee of Australia, with “Guiding Light to the Stars”.

The Deep Space category winner was Adam Block of the USA, with “Celestial Impasto: sh2-239”.

The winner of the category Our Solar System with “Corona Composite of 2012” is Man-To Hui of China.

Three special prizes are also awarded. Mark Gee was the winner of the People and Space category, with “Moon Silhouettes”. László Francsics of Hungary won the Robotic Scope category, with “The Trapezium Cluster and surrounding Nabulae”. The ‘Best Newcomer’ prize, renamed this year “The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer’ in honour of this well-known broadcaster, lunar observer and former judge of the competition, is Sam Cornwell of the UK, with “Venus Transit, Foxhunter’s Grave, Welsh Highlands”.

The photographs can be seen on the Royal Observatory website.

Exhibition, Book and App

An exhibition of the photographs runs until 23 February 2014, and a hardback book is available, with the shortlisted and winning entries. There is also an app for iPhone and iPad, with 90 images and technical information about them.

Image information:

Cloud Towers above is not one of the exhibition images. It is a NASA image.

In a view from high altitude, height can be a difficult thing to gauge. The highest of clouds can appear to sit on a flat plane, as if they were at the same elevation as the ocean or land surface. In this image, however, texture, shape and shadows lend definition to mushrooming thunderheads over the Indonesian island of Flores. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image on the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2013.

The towering clouds are so well defined that it is easy to visualize the rapidly rising air that is fueling them. “This looks like a classic example of island convection that is enhanced by topography,” says NASA scientist Joseph Munchak.

During the day, sunlight heats the land more quickly than it heats the ocean. The warm air over land rises, creating an area of low pressure that pulls in cool air from the ocean. The result is a sea breeze. On this Indonesia island, the sea breeze from the Flores Sea on the north blows inland and clashes with the sea breeze blowing inland from the Savu Sea in the south. When the two breezes meet in the center of Flores, they push the air up. The rising air cools and condenses into a line of clouds.

Sea breeze convection is not the only force at work here. On Flores, cloud formation has help from the shape of the land. A line of tall volcanoes runs down the spine of the island, and their steep slopes also force air to rise. So, moist ocean air blows inland, hits the mountains and volcanoes and rises with the slope. Above the mountains, the rising air meets the rising sea breeze from the other side, and the upward motion is reinforced.

The combination of the two forces pushes air high into the atmosphere, resulting in large towering clouds of the sort that usually produce thunderstorms. In fact, a weather station on Flores reported rain and thunderstorms on December 2. This type of convection is strongest in the early afternoon, says Munchak, just about the time when Aqua MODIS acquired the image. The clouds were just beginning to form when Terra MODIS passed over earlier in the day.

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Image Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC Caption: Holli Riebeek

Space Situational Awareness Presentations

ISPL Advisor Professor Richard Crowther spoke at a recent conference on space situational awareness, along with Professor Sa’id Mosteshar, ISPL’s Director. The conference took place on 13 and 14 November 2013.

The conference, Space Situational Awareness 2013, addressed political and technical issues, with speakers including experts from across Europe and the USA. The program aimed to facilitate discussion and debate about the business, political and technical challenges of SSA. It also aimed to inform about SSA in advance of the scheduled meeting of European heads of state in December to review their common security and defence position.

Sa’id addressed Legal Issues Critical to SSA. His presentation and the written version may be viewed in our Research & Publications archive.

Richard addressed the conference on Outlining The Best Practice Initiatives Being Delivered With Space Situational Awareness. He will also participate in a panel: Given Recent Developments In The World Of Space Situational Awareness – Where Are We Now? Exploring Current And Global SSA Capabilities And Programmes, as well as a session of round-table discussions. Richard is Chief Engineer, UK Space Agency.

For some background on SSA, ESA’s SSA program, and the EU proposals for a new space policy, see our earlier news item.

Emerging Topics in Space Law

ISPL Faculty members Professor Dempsey and Dr Jakhu report that the the Institute of Air and Space Law of McGill University will present a seminar on emerging space issues in May, 2014 in Melbourne. Professor Paul Dempsey is Director of the Institute of Air and Space Law, and Dr Ram Jakhu is Associate Professor.

The Seminar will take place on Wednesday May 7, 2014 at the Annual Air Law Conference of the Aviation Law Association of Australia and New Zealand (ALAANZ). The conference will run from May 7 to 9, 2014.

ALAANZ was established in 1980, with the aim of developing the practice of the law affecting the aviation industry and the exchange of information about aviation law. ALAANZ has some 350 members in Australia, New Zealand and other countries. There are branches in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. For more information about ALAANZ see their website.

For more information about the McGill Seminar and their other events, contact Ram at ram.jakhu@mcgill.ca.

Space Commerce Presentations

ISPL Faculty member Tanja Masson-Zwaan and Professor Sa’id Mosteshar, ISPL Director, addressed the International Space Commerce 2013 Summit in London on 29 October 2013.

Tanja is President of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and Deputy Director of the International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden Law School. She spoke about Regulation of small satellite under international and national space law. Her presentation covered the following areas.

Benefits and concerns of small satellites
International space law applicable to small satellites
Tendencies in national regulation of small satellites, with a focus on Europe
Considerations in the UN and ITU
Prospects for adequate regulation of small satellites

Sa’id’s talk was entitled Managing conflict: The laws and regulations of commercial participation in space. He addressed regulation and compliance, policy formulation and implementation, security and access, and considered some topical issues including debris mitigation and remediation, earth observation, ownership change and on-orbit service, and exploitation of resources. He considered the future legal framework and briefly discussed international solutions, guidelines and best practice.

For more information about the conference, including sponsors and other speakers, download the agenda here.

Space Situational Awareness Conference

ISPL speakers will participate in a conference on SSA next week. Professor Richard Crowther, and Professor Sa’id Mosteshar will address the conference on 13 and 14 November 2013.

The conference, Space Situational Awareness 2013, includes presentations on political and technical issues by experts from across Europe and the USA. Topics will include space debris mitigation and removal, current launch capabilities, security policy, financial and political considerations in establishing a global SSA system, space weather, and collaboration between satellite operators through the Space Data Association. The program will provide a forum for discussion and debate about the business, political and technical challenges of SSA. The event aims to inform about SSA in advance of the scheduled meeting in December of European heads of state, when they will review their common security and defence position.

Richard is Chief Engineer, UK Space Agency and an ISPL Advisor. He will address the conference on Outlining The Best Practice Initiatives Being Delivered with Space Situational Awareness. He will also participate in a panel: Given Recent Developments in the World of Space Situational Awareness – Where Are We Now? Exploring Current and Global SSA Capabilities and Programmes. He will also participate in a session of round-table discussions.

Sa’id is ISPL’s Director. He will speak about Legal Issues Critical to SSA.

“The overall objective of space situational awareness (SSA) is to identify the location of every object orbiting the Earth, why it is there, what it is doing, and to predict what it will be doing in the future. Its aim is to track and understand what exactly is in orbit from either space or from the ground. This knowledge enables the management of space assets and the exercise of a level of control over the space environment.”

Also attending the conference will be Valentino Quaggiato, MPhil candidate at ISPL and Astrium engineer, along with Dr Andrew Brearley, ISPL researcher and frequent rapporteur.

For more information, see the conference website.

For the complete video, visit the NASA JSC Gallery

Some background on SSA and the EU Proposals:

ESA’s SSA program

The European Union’s announcement for a proposed new space policy, which addresses investment in R&D, financing, skills, access to space, and SSA:

“Space is at the service of the European citizens. Many of the systems and services that are today essential for our well-being and security depend directly or indirectly on space. Without being aware, European citizens rely on space technologies when they use their mobile phones, make financial transactions, take an airplane, watch the weather forecast or look for the nearest restaurant using their cars’ navigation system. Space has become part of our daily lives. The Commission therefore proposes a new space policy to meet the challenges of today’s world.”

“The Commission proposes to provide an organisational framework to support the setting up and operation of a space surveillance and tracking (SST) service at European level… The SST would be built on existing national assets and expertise. It would define a data policy which takes into account national security interests and which allows the monitoring and hence the protection of space infrastructures, in order to ensure the sustainability of space activities in Europe.”

Further information about the proposed SST service.

“Avoiding collisions in space

The growing number of satellites and amounts of space debris makes the risk of collision a serious threat to the sustainable operation of space infrastructure. Around 16,000 objects which orbit the Earth are larger than 10 cm, and between 300,000 and 600,000 are larger than 1 cm. An object larger than 1 cm hitting a satellite will at least damage or destroy sub-systems or instruments on board, and a collision with an object larger than 10 cm will destroy the satellite. There is also a risk to ground-based infrastructures and citizens security from the re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere of in-active satellites and discarded sections of rockets.

The most conservative estimates put the potential economic loss for European satellite operators due to collisions – or costly and risky manoeuvres to move their satellites out of the way – at € 210 million per year. The economic loss on the ground due to the disruption of applications and services that rely on the data of lost or damaged satellites cannot be quantified, but implies a significantly higher figure.

In order to mitigate the risks of collision and uncontrolled re-entries it is necessary to monitor satellites and space debris so that satellite operators and public authorities can be alerted in good time. The Commission proposes a programme to support EU Member States that own radars and telescopes capable of monitoring satellites and space debris or relevant data centres, to bring together their capacities and offer for the first time a European space surveillance and tracking (SST) service.”

More information on SSA:

US Strategic Command Space Control and Space Surveillance Fact Sheet

Space Sustainability: A Practical Guide, Secure World Foundation 2013.

Space Weather and SSA

US – Australia Agreement promoting Space Situational Awareness

NASA Engineering and Safety Center Academy Webcast on SSA

NASA space debris and human spacecraft page

NASA orbital debris reference documents

Space Commerce Conference

Professor Sa’id Mosteshar, ISPL Director, and ISPL Faculty member Tanja Masson-Zwaan will address the International Space Commerce 2013 Summit in London on 29 October 2013.

Tanja is President of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and Deputy Director of the International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden Law School. She will speak about regulation of small satellite under international and national space law. Her presentation will cover the following areas.

Benefits and concerns of small satellites
International space law applicable to small satellites
Tendencies in national regulation of small satellites, with a focus on Europe
Considerations in the UN and ITU

Prospects for adequate regulation of small satellites

Sa’id will present Managing conflict – The laws and regulations of commercial participation in space. He will discuss the following topics.

Understanding the existing regulations and how to comply
Translating policy into regulations and legal instruments
Exploring issues surrounding security and access in the commercial use of space
Looking at future legal frameworks

For more information about the conference including sponsors and other speakers, download the agenda here.

ISPL Congratulates The Winner of the 2013 Lachs Moot

The 2013 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition was won by the team from Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA. The International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden University, the Netherlands was runner-up. Semi-finalists were the University of Pretoria, South Africa and National Law University (Delhi), India.

ISPL congratulates the members of these teams, their supporters and sponsors, as well as the other teams that competed. “The Lachs Moot is a tremendous challenge for students of space law, and the quality of the entrants is always extremely high. The competing teams deserve considerable praise for their dedication and hard work.”

The World Finals were held at the Beijing Institute of Technology Law School, Beijing, China on 26 September 2013. Total participating universities numbered 60 from four regions. The 2013 problem was the Case Concerning the Operation of a Lunar Station (Lydios v Endymion), written by Professor Setsuko Aoki, Japan.

For more information about the awards, past and present, including the names of this year’s top teams and judges, see the IISL website.

For those considering entering the competition, the problem has been set for the 2014 Moot.

ISPL Faculty Member to Judge Google Lunar XPrize

Derek Webber will be one of the eight judges of the Google Lunar XPrize. With a long and distinguished career in the space sector, Derek is an expert in space tourism, and an ISPL faculty member. Derek is the author of ‘The Wright Stuff – The Century of Effort Behind your Ticket to Space.’

The prize will be awarded for the safe landing of a man on the moon for the first time since 1973. A private company must safely land, travel 500 meters above, below or on the lunar surface, and send back two broadcasts to Earth.

In addition, there will be Bonus Prizes for achievements such as surviving the lunar night or exploring lunar artefacts. These Prizes may win prize money in advance by completing terrestrial or space milestones. The deadline for the competition is 31 December 2015.

The Google XPrize follows the Ansari XPrize of 2004 for the achievement of regular sub-orbital flight, and the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander XChallenge, whose prize money was claimed in 2009.

David Swanson will Chair the judging panel, which includes Professor Alan Wells, Professor John Zarnecki, Dr Charles Reynerson, Dr Derek Lang, John Jay Kurtz. Elisabeth Morse is Vice Chairwoman. The panel will review technical achievement, launches and prize awarding for the competition.

For more information about the judges and the competition, including who will compete and how they intend to achieve their goals, see the Google XPrize website.

ISPL Space Security Seminar in the news

Our Seminar is the subject of an excellent article by Owen Bowcott, Legal Correspondent of The Guardian.

The latest in ISPL’s series of Practitioner and Industry Seminars, the event on Tuesday 10 September 2013 was lively and instructive, featuring presentations from a number of experts and a lively debate between them and the audience. Participants in the Seminar included civilian and military specialists in space law and policy, academics and students from a variety of fields, and representatives of government and the space sector.

Space security is concerned with maintaining and protecting space assets, their terrestrial elements and infrastructure, and their services and capabilities. Space-based infrastructures are essential to established and emerging economies, and are critical to government, business and virtually every other part of our lives, and their security and sustainable use are crucial. These include navigational systems, guiding drones or helping rescuers reach a stranded climber, providing time signals for banking transactions and managing telecommunication data packages.

The Seminar covered risks that would affect virtually all societies, as most are in some degree dependent on space assets. These risks include the use of weapons in space and the creation of debris, a lasting menace and a significant factor in planning commercial space projects. Disablement or loss of space assets would cause disruption and great inconvenience, particularly in the more technologically advanced societies. Even in the developing world, many communication systems rely heavily on satellites and on space-based time signals.

The Report shortly to be posted here will provide a detailed summary of the presentations and discussions, and will be followed by another in the journal Space Policy. Both will be of interest to those unable to attend, and to those involved in space activities or engaged in the design and operation of space systems, their advisers, insurers and military and civilian security specialists. The Reports will also be of interest to policy makers and lawyers who advise them, as well as scholars in related fields.

Owen Bowcott’s article about the Seminar is available here.

Here is the brochure containing information about the Seminar.

Space Security: Civilian and Military Policy and Practice

On Tuesday 10 September ISPL will offer a seminar on space security, covering aspects of military and civilian policy and practice. The presentations and discussions will inform those involved in space activities, policy makers and lawyers who advise them, as well as scholars.

Space security is concerned with maintaining and protecting space assets, including their terrestrial elements and infrastructure. They provide services and capabilities such as navigational systems, drone guidance and rescue services, as well as time signals for banking transactions and managing telecommunication data. Particularly in the more technologically advanced societies and even in the developing world, maintenance of many communication systems rely heavily on satellites and on space-based time signals.

Debris and weapons use are two areas that raise security issues for government, business, and virtually every other part of our lives. This Seminar will consider both civilian and military aspects of space security. The presentations will cover arms control in space; recent developments in technical and regulatory measure to combat debris and other security vulnerabilities; the importance of cyber security in relation to space; and the considerations relevant to formulating a space security policy, including the interaction between civilian and military priorities.

The morning will include presentations by 4 speakers. The abstract of each presentation and biographical details of the speakers are set out below, along with registration details.

Seminar Program

Please note that this event is not being held at our usual venue in Russell Square. We will meet at Senate House for this Seminar.