The fifty-third session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will be held from 9-18 June 2010 at the United Nation Office at Vienna, Vienna International Center, Vienna, Austria (agenda). There may be some NEO related activity here.
The Draft report of the Working Group on Near-Earth Objects includes discussion of some plans for 2010-2011 work. From that report in February 2010 here are some highlights:
Draft report of the Working Group on Near-Earth Objects (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Forty-seventh session, Vienna, 8-19 February 2010)
1. Pursuant to paragraph 9 of General Assembly resolution 64/86, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, at its forty-seventh session, reconvened its Working Group on Near-Earth Objects.
2. Sergio Camacho (Mexico) was elected Chair of the Working Group on Near- Earth Objects at the 729th meeting of the Subcommittee, on 15 February 2010. The Working Group expressed its appreciation to the outgoing Chair, Richard Crowther (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), for the excellent manner in which he had led its work and the work of the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects.
3. In accordance with the multi-year workplan under the item on near-Earth objects (A/AC.105/911, annex III, para. 11), the Working Group did the following:
(a) Considered the reports submitted in response to the annual request for information on near-Earth object (NEO) activities and continued intersessional work;
(b) Continued the work begun during the intersessional period on drafting international procedures for handling the NEO threat and sought agreement on those procedures;
(c) Reviewed progress made on international cooperation and collaboration on NEO observations;
(d) Facilitated, for the purpose of NEO threat detection, a more robust international capability for exchanging, processing, archiving and disseminating data;
(e) Prepared an updated interim report of the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects (2009-2010) (A/AC.105/C.1/L.301).
4. The Working Group noted with satisfaction the work of the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects, as reflected in the draft recommendations for an international response to the threat of NEO impact (A/AC.105/C.1/L.301, annex).
5. The Working Group heard a statement from the representative of Australia on the report entitled “Legal aspects of NEO threat response and related institutional issues”, prepared by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (United States), in which key legal and institutional issues linked to potential future threats posed by NEOs were examined. The Working Group also heard a statement by the observer for the Secure World Foundation (SWF) on a workshop organized jointly by the Association of Space Explorers and SWF, with support from the Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, on the establishment of a NEO information, analysis and warning network. The workshop was held in Mexico City from 18 to 20 January 2010, under the auspices of the Government of Mexico. The Working Group agreed that the report of the workshop and the report prepared by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln could be considered by the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects between sessions during 2010 and 2011.
6. The Working Group noted that, in 2011 it should do the following, among other things:
(a) Consider the reports submitted in response to the annual request for information on NEO activities and continue intersessional work;
(b) Finalize the agreement on international procedures for handling the NEO threat and engage international stakeholders;
(c) Review progress on international cooperation and collaboration on NEO observations and on capability for exchanging, processing, archiving and disseminating data for the purpose of detecting NEO threats;
(d) Consider the final report of the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects.
7. The Working Group further noted that its intersessional work for the period 2010-2011 could include workshops involving experts in various subjects related to the draft recommendations made by the Action Team (A/AC.105/C.1/L.301, annex). The Working Group agreed that the reports of those workshops could further assist the Action Team in finalizing recommendations for the international response to the threat posed by NEOs.
8. The Working Group agreed that the Action Team should continue its intersessional work, in accordance with the multi-year workplan, to further review draft recommendations for an international response to the threat of NEO impact, for consideration by the Working Group at the forty-eighth session of the Subcommittee, in 2011. The Working Group agreed that the Action Team would meet on the margins of the fifty-third session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, to be held in June 2010, to finalize draft recommendations for the international response to the threat of NEO impact. In that context, the Working Group encouraged Member States to participate in the intersessional work on NEOs and submit their contributions to the Chair of the Action Team.
9. At its […] meeting, on […] February 2010, the Working Group adopted the present report.
Link: Draft report of the Working Group on Near-Earth Objects (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Forty-seventh session, Vienna, 8-19 February 2010)
Link: Provisional agenda and indicative schedule of work for the fifty-third session of the UN COPUOS
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