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Between sustainability and lunar tourism - Roman Hiby for the GI at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC)

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Roman Hiby at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC)
Roman Hiby at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC)

The 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) took place in Milan from October 14-18, 2024. With a total of 7,200 abstracts submitted, this is the world's largest conference in the field of space science. Every year, the world's largest government space agencies, private aerospace companies and universities come together to discuss new missions and the latest research and development.

The IAC 2024 covered a wide range of space topics, which were addressed in numerous different sessions as well as in the three large exhibition halls. A central concern of the conference was the exploration of the South Pole and the far side of the moon, focusing on the search for water and other resources for the establishment of permanent lunar bases. Sustainability plays a crucial role here and space agencies are developing strategies to minimize space debris and ensure that no additional debris is created in space after missions. With ESA, NASA, JAXA, CNSA and ISRO, all the major space agencies were once again represented at the event. The exchange on certain political rules in space and lunar exploration, as well as interoperability, was also driven forward. The old rivalry of the “Moon Race” from the 1960s is a thing of the past and there is a sense that everyone in the space industry is now pulling in the same direction. Bill Nelson, Administrator of NASA, summed it up aptly on site: “In space looking down on earth, there is no division in religion, race or politics - We are all citizens of planet earth.”.

The topic of inclusion also played a major role at the IAC this year. All major events at the conference were translated into sign language. In addition, under the leadership of blind astronomer Wanda Diaz-Merced, an appeal was made to make access to spatial and astronomical data more inclusive, for example through the use of sound.
The Institute of Geography was represented on site by Roman Hiby from the Interdisciplinary Geoinformation Sciences. He gave an interactive presentation at the congress on “The Earth-Moon System with Remote Sensing in Education - Implementing Lunar and Cis-Lunar Topics into the School Curriculum”.
His presentation was rated as one of the best 55 out of over 1,800 presentations presented.

It can be viewed at the following link: https://iac2024-iaf.ipostersessions.com/Default.aspx?s=79-0B-C5-74-FE-33-17-EF-39-D0-37-D9-B0-15-B2-08



24. Oktober 2024
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Autor:in:
Roman Hiby

Schlagworte:
Interdisciplinary geographic information sciences, GI-News