I believe that space activities are revolutionising our society, and that their full impact is rarely appreciated.
Their capacity to offer universal access to communication, information, positioning, weather forecasting, etc. provides us with a global vision of the earth as a planet within a universe whose contours are becoming ever clearer thanks to the various scientific satellites.
“Universal access” means that billions of people all over the world are linked in to a global network, whether they are at home, in the street, in a car, a ship or a plane.
The world has thus entered a new era in which access to information is paramount; innovative terrestrial techniques do of course exist, but space is the only technology permitting global cover, avoiding for example the digital divide for developing countries.
With geostationary satellites for communication and meteorology, constellations for navigation and communication and earth observation satellites, space contributes to world-wide safety, search and rescue, air traffic management, terrestrial and maritime transport, natural risk management, telemedicine etc., and plays a major strategic role in world-wide peacekeeping.
Using satellites to gain a better knowledge of our planet and how it is evolving will help to encourage sustainable development and facilitate the move towards a more humanistic management of the earth.
Finally, human flight has proved our ability to leave the earth and live in space; this aspect may well be crucial to the future of mankind…
Mr.
Jean-Claude
Husson
President
National Air and Space Academy
Professional Category:
Business
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