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Global Space Agencies Gather For Collaboration

Posted by Zonk on from the united-federation-of-planet-earth dept.

UltimaGuy handed us a link to a story on the Register site, covering NASA's plan to create a collaborative space effort across the globe. Agencies from 'Italy, Japan, China, Britain, France, America, India, Korea, Ukraine, Russia, Canada, Germany, Australia and the ESA' got together for the first time since the formation of the Global Explorations Strategy team last year. "This year, they met in Kyoto to discuss a draft Framework for Collaboration, which will set out how the various agencies will work together. The team has agreed that its main focus should be robotic exploration of the solar system, particularly of the moon, Mars and the near-Earth asteroids. It has also proposed a non-binding collaboration mechanism which would allow all agencies to share their plans, and look for opportunities to work together. This would also provide a route for agencies to share the data from their own missions with scientists from other agencies."

1 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Not going to happen! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This reads more like self-preservation on NASA's part, more than anything. Here is why...

    1) A launch to ISS costs NASA $300+ million, while a Russian effort is about $20 million.
    2) Part of NASA's (and other countries) launches will have a military ambition. Nobody will likely to come clean.
    3) Recall how suddenly NASA's Mar pictures became less red, once ESA got up there? For better or worse, NASA was apparently doctoring previous Mars pictures. This may be an attempt to "enforce" common guidelines, as to what the masses can be told.
    4) Since a whole bunch of countries led by EU is planning on launching new GPS satellites, is this a last ditch effort to prevent it?
    Moving on to highly speculative things aka conspiracy theories.
    5) So far, the only game in town was NASA. Whatever they said was gospel. Irrespective of whether UFOs are buzzing around or not, there was no way to indpenedently verify what NASA said. When new countries start launching more sophisticated satellites, their reports may not gell with that of NASA's stories (like NASA's color of Mars). If there is a joint coloboration, at least there will be an oppurtunity to supress many stories.