Forty-ninth Session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
Vienna, 7 – 16 June, 2006

Agenda Item 11, Space and Society

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates,

My delegation highly appreciates that in accordance with paragraph 49 of General Assembly resolution 60/99, this Committee continues to consider the agenda item entitled “Space and society”. My delegation takes note that, in accordance with the workplan adopted by the Committee and approved by the Assembly, the special theme for the focus of discussions for the period 2004-2006 is “Space and education”. I would like to inform the Committee on the recent developments of this issue in Hungary.

As a consequence of our closer and closer co-operation with the European Space Agency, Hungarian students are allowed to participate in ESA’s different educational programmes. Since we consider space-related education as a high priority item, we highly appreciate this opportunity, offered by ESA. In the framework of these educational programmes they could and will be able to participate at the International Astronautical Congresses. This year is the first time that a Hungarian team succeeded to be among the 31 selected participants of the students’ parabolic flight campaign, so they will carry out a material sciences experiment in the limited duration microgravity. We also took note with satisfaction that three Hungarian teams in the framework of the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) can take part in the European students’ microsatellite programme, the European Student Earth Orbiter, to be launched in 2008.

Let me inform this Committee about an important initiative by the staff of the Space Research Group of the Eötvös University. After the upgrade of the satellite receiving station of the University, the recorded MODIS images were widely published in four Hungarian language internet portals. These images cover the whole receiving range of the station from Norway to the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula. Short explanations are also given to the published materials describing the relevant points of the remotely sensed data. The average number of the readers is around 20 000 per week, but in case of some events, as natural disasters, e.g. floods, this number may go up to 30 000 per week. Since the end of 2004, almost 200 images and articles have been published in Hungary. The articles are also available at the largest Hungarian language internet portal in Romania on monthly basis, having several thousands visitors there. We are convinced that the initiative of regularly publishing the so called “Satellite image of the week” successfully contributes to the increase of space awareness and the public knowledge of the importance of remote sensing applications.

Another Hungarian initiative related to the increase of public awareness of space technologies is the following. HUNAGI, the Hungarian Spatial Data Interest community containing 112 institutions and organisations in the field of geo-information made a proposal for the EUROGI, the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information, to set up an inventory on the largest trees of Europe. The aim is a photo-documented inventory of these oldest living species of Europe, using enhanced methodology including georeferencing by GNSS, GI / EO and Google. The concept is actually based on the methodology already published in Hungary. The proposal was introduced at the Annual General Assembly of the EUROGI in Brussels on 31 March, 2006 and received great attention. As follow-on action the concept has to be drafted for EUROGI, highlighting the enhanced methodology and a proposed plan for implementation.

Finally, let me report a recent, successful Austrian–Hungarian project, also contributing the increase of awareness of space related matter. Very recently as a result of the co-operation of an Austrian and a Hungarian company the Hungarian Version of the European Space Agency’s Space Atlas for Schools has been published. The atlas is a geography atlas, as all delegates could see it in the Austrian edition, based completely on satellite images, so properly answering the educational challenges of the 21^st century. We are proud that firstly only the German and Hungarian versions appeared. We hope that the English and French versions will appear soon and will be introduced to this Committee by the Austrian Publisher company. The project was supported by the Ministry of Informatics and Communications, as well as by the Hungarian Space Office, since both institutions considered space-related education a high priority issue. The experimental version of the Atlas is being distributed among geography teachers, whose opinion could be valuable in order to firmly establish a remote sensing based education project. We sincerely hope that on the basis of the experiences in different countries this satellite image based, state-of-the-art education tool can be incorporated into the European educational system.

Hungary welcomes the idea that according to the workplan the Committee is invited to develop specific, concrete action plans and a brief summarising document on the role of space education. Let me remind the Committee that the Spaceweek International Association and the EURISY Association, both of which have observer status in the Committee, have valuable experiences in space education and awareness of increase of outer space related matters. Their experience is worth to be used in this activity.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.