Of their yearly balance of about €3 million, nearly the entirely is spent on the main congress and other events and conferences. Over the last few years, addressing geography, generation, and gender equities (3G), the International Astronautical Federation established itself as the youngest and most diverse space organization in the world. Over the same period, the IAF President Pascale Ehrenfreund, has pushed her excellent Global Innovation Agenda which “has brought emerging countries to our space family through conferences, expanded work with partner organizations, and created innovative systems for sharing information among members” [1].In his first newsletter [2] the incumbent President, Clay Mowry, communicated the IAF agenda for next 3 years: “Sustainability, Investment and Security”. According to Mowry, “the IAF should seek to influence conversations around the sustainability of the space environment. Securing orbits, spacecraft, frequencies, and physical resources is critical to the future viability of space exploration.” And: “The coming three years will see a shift towards the commercial development of low Earth orbit and major push to field systems in lunar orbits and on the surface of the Moon. We must be prepared to tackle the challenges of growing investment in the space sector head-on. Security refers to the freedom to operate safely in the space domain. Without it, investors and nation states can hardly be expected to pour the continued resources and attention required to secure humanity’s future beyond Earth.”
An agenda oriented to civilian space development? We may say yes, moderately. We want to encourage and further develop this orientation, and we’ll do our best to move IAF more on the side of human expansion into the Geo-Lunar space and the Solar System.
As we said in all of our presentations at IAC 73, “Space for All” is an excellent motto, yet today it is still not yet a reality. We have to work for the realization of that goal, that all Earthers wishing to emigrate into outer space can do it safely, as soon as possible. Such a goal is in perfect continuity with the fully inclusive spirit of IAF! Prominent among the concepts we presented in various symposia and discussions in Paris is that of a modern Eutopia [3] for our time: a fully sustainable inclusive society, one which allows for the healthy and continued growth of 8 billion people. Such an idea cannot be realized within the boundaries of our closed world; but it could be realized through expansion into our celestial frontier.
