Three major industry players were speakers at this year's Science Update presented by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) on Tuesday 17 March and hosted by UNESCO in Paris.
Since 1996 the IAF has been organising focused symposia on specific topics of current interest to complement the more all-inclusive annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC).
Alongside these events, IAF committees have traditionally met in Paris during the Federation's "Spring Meetings" week. The IAF's International Programme Committee meets during this week and sets the agenda for the upcoming IAC.
During the Spring Meetings, we offer IAF members and other invited participants, an update on current space activities. This year, three guest speakers talked about important recent events.
CoRoT (COnvection, Rotation and planetary Transits) is an astronomy mission whose primary function is to search for extrasolar planets, led by the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in association with French laboratories (CNRS) and with several international partners including Brazil and the European Space Agency.
In February, CoRoT found the smallest exoplanet yet. This followed a detection of oscillations in distant Sun-like stars, perhaps indicating Earth-like planets, and also the discovery of an object in orbit around a star so exotic that astronomers aren't sure whether to call it a planet. Additionally this year, the first CoRoT data have been made fully accessible to the entire scientific community.
The Science Update featured a detailed review by Thien Lam-Trong, CoRoT Project Manager at CNES of the very latest mission discoveries.
Chandrayaan-1 is India's first mission to the Moon launched by the national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The spacecraft was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008. A week later, the Moon Impact Probe separated from the Moon-orbiting Chandrayaan and landed, making India the fourth country to place its flag on the Moon.
The remote sensing lunar satellite carries high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, and soft and hard X-ray frequencies. It will survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The lunar mission carries five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other international space agencies including NASA, ESA, and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency.
M.Y.S. Prasad was the Range Operations Director for Chandrayaan-1 and made a presentation on the launch, orbital manoeuvres, payloads and the latest status of the mission.
Alongside the IAF, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) is a supporter of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 and organised a talk by Spitzer Research Scientist Varoujan Gorjian of JPL, giving the latest results from the mission.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is one of the most important astronomical observation missions of recent years. It was launched by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 25 August 2003. During its mission, Spitzer is obtaining images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of 3 and 180 microns.
At the International Astronautical Congress to be held in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, the IAF will host a special event, organised jointly with COSPAR, on exciting topics in astronomy.
Welcome addresses for the event were provided by Dr Berndt Feuerbacher, IAF President and Dr Marcio Barbosa, Deputy Director General of UNESCO.
Dr Roger Bonnet, President of COSPAR both moderated and closed the Science Update.
Programme for the Science Update (PDF format)
