The 2005 United Nations/ESA Workshop on Basic Space Science willbe held from 20 to 23 November 2005 at the United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates. This workshop will focus on developing space science in developing nations, with a special emphasis on the opportunities for IHY. We will be refining the instrumentation initiatives, discussing upcoming IHY events, and plans to enhance participation of developing nations for the IHY 2007 and beyond. For more information, please go to the IHY/UNBSSI November 2005 meeting website. Applications to participate are already being accepted.

October 19-21, 2004 Greenbelt MD, USA
Contacts: Barbara Thompson (barbara.j.thompson@nasa.gov) and Hans Haubold (Hans.Haubold@unvienna.org)

The purpose of our UN/BSS Planning Meeting in October was to initiate the planning of coordinated IHY/UNBSS activities for the next few years, including determining the agenda for the 2005 United Nations/ESA "Basic Space Science Workshop" on IHY.

The meeting was held at Goddard Space Flight Center in Building 21, Room 191 (October 19 and 21) and 183 (October 20). The meeting began at 9:00 am on 19 October 2004 and concluded at noon on 21 October.

List of Participants

Eric Christian (NASA HQ) Jack Connerny (GSFC) Joe Davila (GSFC) Emilie Drobnes (GSFC) Dean Pesnell (GSFC) Nicola Fox (APL) Nat Gopalswamy (GSFC) Hans Haubold (U.N.) Justin Kasper (MIT) Ken Lang (Tufts U.) Barbara Thompson (GSFC) Dave Webb (USAFRL)

Detailed Agenda

List of Goals/Objectives for the meeting:

1. Familiarize team members with the components of our activity
2. Discuss instrumentation initiatives which are viewed as good candidates for a joint I*Y/UNBSS activity
3. Establish a "standard format" for the instrumentation proposals
4. Determine a plan of action to identify proposers and resources for more potential instrumention initiatives
5. Discuss other prospective initiatives (such as science/data coordination between UNBSS participants and the I*Y community)
6. Investigate and plan to resolve global communication issues
7. Identify and recommend additional objectives and participants for this program
8. Write a brief charter describing this program and our activities, and come up with a name for ourselves
9. Begin discussion of the goals and objectives of the November 2005 UN/BSS meeting, identify International Science Organizing Committee (ISOC)

Presentations from the Workshop

UN Presentations:

• UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, UN Office for Outer Space Affairs: A Brief Overview by Hans Haubold
  
• UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, UN Programme on Space Applications: A Brief Overview by Hans Haubold
  
• UN Programme on Space Applications: UN Basic Space Science Initiative by Hans Haubold
  

Organizational Presentations:

• Putting the 'I' in I*Y: Distributed Instrumentation Initiative Overviewby Barbara Thompson
  
• Plans for the International Heliophysical Year by Joe Davila, Barbara Thompson, and Nat Gopalswamy
  
• International Heliophysical Year Science Activity Overview by Nat Gopalswamy, Joe Davila, and Barbara Thompson
  

Low-cost instrumentation examples:

• An IHY/UNBSS "Sample" Instrumentation Proposal by Justin Kasper
  
• The NSF's Solar-Terrestrial Research Program and SHINE by Paul Bellaire
  
• SDO, SID Monitors, and IHY by Dean Pesnell
  

Links/Resources:

• UN/BSS Workshop Series description, also a description of their "Tripod" approach to establishing instrumentation in developing countries: www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/bss/index.html
• UN/BSS Decadal Report: www.seas.columbia.edu/~ah297/un-esa/
• UN/BSS Paper on Key Topics in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide," from the 2004 UN/BSS workshop in Beijing, China.
• IHY Overview of the "internalization" efforts: Putting the "I" in I*Y
• UN documents of past workshops (1991-2002) are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish at: www.oosa.unvienna.org/docsidx.html
  
• People interested in purchasing the Kluwer volume on "Developing Basic Space Science Worldwide" (Hans Haubold was one of the editors and it summarizes many of the activities of the program for the past 13 years) can purchase the book at http://www.wkap.nl/prod/b/1-4020-1681-6
• International Living With a Star (ILWS): the "Presentations" section has a great deal of information on international programs and activities in space physics: ilws.gsfc.nasa.gov
• Fall 2004 AGU Special Session details: Click on events in the above links
• IHY Science Coordination Database: Please encourage people to register! That way we can be sure that they will be folded into our upcoming efforts. We don't want to lose track of anyone, or forget their potential contribution to our activities.

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  Travel and Hotel Information

  List of hotels in the Greenbelt area

  Map and Directions to GSFC

  For additional Travel and Hotel Information, please contact Barbara Thompson