United Nations Committee calls for strengthened co-operation in exploration and peaceful uses of outer space; key concerns: safe use of nuclear power sources, remote sensing.

United Nations Committee calls for strengthened co-operation in exploration and peaceful use of outer space

THE Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has called for strengthened multilateral, regional and bilateral co-operative activities in the realm of exploration and peaceful uses of outer space, as well as specific projects to assist all countries, in particular developing countries, in that area. The body recognized the need to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes, and agreed it could make important contributions to that end.

The 53-member Committee at its 1987 session (1-11 June, New York) reviewed and endorsed the findings of its Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee, which met in February, and its Legal Committee, which met in March and April (see UN Chronicle, May 1987, No.2).

In doing so, it made recommendations regarding the safe use of nuclear power sources in outer space, and considered a variety of proposals on such other topics as remote sensing, the character and use of the geostationary orbit, definition and delimitation of outer space, and ways to better implement the recommendations of the 1982 United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE 82).

Uninterrupted progress

Committee Chairman Peter Jankowitsch of Austria, in opening the session, said space science and technology in the last 30 years had made uninterrupted progress in the peaceful conquest of outer space.

The Committee should undertake "new and innovative forms of international co-operation for the benefit of all nations wishing to make good use of outer space technology', he said. New departures in space co-operation between East and West, North and South, could build on new and solid accomplishments of space science and technology during 1986.

Mr. Jankowitsch also reported that plans for an International Space Year in 1992 were being developed by the the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Council of Scientific Unions, a programme which could boost Committee efforts to further improve international co-operation in the field.

During the session, a group of Eastern European countries called for a study on the needs of States in space technology and emphasized the necessity of broad international co-operation as part of efforts to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.

Some Western States--Australia, Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States--felt that efforts to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes should be centered on revitalizing the work of the Outer Space Committee and its Sub-Committees, and called for establishing a working group to examine the organization and methods of the Committee's work.

UNISPACE 82

In connection with UNISPACE 82 recommendations, the Committee endorsed calls for establishment of a programme of higher education on space-related activities, adoption of short-term emergency measures to implement the United Nations Space Applications Programme by requesting States to contribute in kind to increase the training programmes and fellowships they offered, and greater interaction among experimental and theoretical scientists for the promotion of wider application of the results of scientific research--all made in connection with implementation of UNISPACE 82 recommendations.

Some delegations reiterated the proposals for the establishment of a world space organization and an international centre for joint research and technology, and the convening of an international conference to consider outer space problems. Others expressed the view that no new international mechanisms were needed.

It was also recommended that Member States report annually on techniques resulting from medical studies carried out in outer space, and that the Outer Space Affairs Division survey existing space information services with a view to establishing an international information system. The Division would also be asked to update its report on existing training centres at the regional level, as well as to prepare a report on measures necessary for improving educational systems in developing countries regarding the use of space technology.

The Division was also to examine measures which should be taken by the Outer Space Committee to enhance the use of remote sensing and space communications and meteorology for development.

The Outer Space Committee was asked to invite the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and COSPAR to study various approaches that the United Nations might take in providing assistance to developing countries in realizing the benefits of space technology. The IAF and COSPAR would also be invited to undertake a follow-up study on the environmental effects of space activities, with particular emphasis on space debris.

Nuclear power sources

The Committee underlined the need to elaborate criteria for the safe use of nuclear power sources in outer space. It also endorsed the view that reactors should not be activated until the space objects carrying them had reached their planned operating orbit. It recommended that the question of whether nuclear reactors in space should use only highly enriched uranium as the fissionable material should be considered further, so as to avoid the significant problems arising from breeding or utilizing plutonium.

The Committee felt that nuclear safety should be ensured in all phases of a mission of a space object with nuclear power sources on board, and identified the need to consider possible additional safety criteria that might be necessary to prevent or cope with events other than unplanned re-entry into the atmosphere alone.

The Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee should further examine the modalities for assistance to developing countries to improve their ability to cope with problems of radiation caused by any emergency relating to the unplanned re-entry of a space object with a nuclear power source on board.

Also, the Committee reconfirmed the need for guidance to States regarding pre-planning of area monitoring and countermeasures for protection of the population and the environment in case of radioactive contamination of their territory from a nuclear power source carried by a space object.

Some Western and other Governments expressed the view that the working group on the nuclear power sources should be reconvened next year within the Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee, since that was the most appropriate forum to achieve progress on outstanding questions. Others, including the Soviet Union, were of the view that there was no need to reconvene that working group.

The Soviet Union, among others, called for a comparative analysis of the provisions of the IAEA's Conventions on Early Notification of Nuclear Accident and on Assistance in Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency with proposed legal texts relating to the use of nuclear power sources in outer space to ensure that the work of the Legal Sub-Committee should be in line with those instruments. Other nations said such an analysis was not needed, as the Conventions had duly taken into account in their drafting the need to align the texts.

Other action

The Committee reported that some Governments indicated that it was necessary to have a conventionally defined boundary between air and outer space. A Soviet proposal that any launched object be considered as being in outer space when its altitude was 110 kilometres or more above sea level was discussed. The United States said the need for such a definition or delimitation of outer space had not yet been established and that attempts at premature delimitation might complicate and impede progress in the peaceful exploration of outer space.

Some Governments, including Chile and Colombia, proposed that the Legal Sub-Committee elaborate principles governing the activities of States in the utilization of the geostationary orbit in order to ensure that all countries would have equitable access to the orbit. Colombia also called for preferential rights for the equatorial countries. Others considered that the elaboration of such draft principles was not necessary and that the Committee did not have the mandate to undertake such a task.

The orbit, located 22,300 miles above the equator, is the only orbit positioned to provide continuous contact with ground stations via a single satellite. Concern was expressed that the large number of satellites using the geostationary orbit was leading to congestion of the orbit, limiting access to other countries. The view has been expressed that congestion in the orbit can be alleviated with advances in technology.

The Committee recognized the importance of continuing international efforts to ensure the continuity, compatibility and complementarity of systems of remote sensing of the earth. It further recognized the example of international co-operation given by the free distribution of meteorological information, and urged all countries that supplied such information to continue that practice.

The Committee agreed that its Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee should consider as a priority next year the subject of remote sensing of the earth by satellites under a reformulated agenda item entitled "Matters relating to remote sensing of the Earth by satellites, including, inter alia, applications for developing countries'.

The body also discussed but did not agree on a possible new agenda item for its Legal Sub-Committee. Governments of the "Group of 77' developing countries wanted an item on "legal aspects related to the access of States to the benefits derived from the exploration and utilization of outer space'. Others, including the United Kingdom, favoured an item on enhanced co-operation between States in the event of accident or emergency on board a manned-space object endangering the lives or health of the crew. Another group, including Czechoslovakia and the USSR, suggested a topic dealing with the legal status of spacecraft crews. Canada, France, the Netherlands and Sweden proposed inclusion of the question of improving the procedure for the registration of space objects.

Committee members are: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, German Democratic Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, USSR, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Yugoslavia.