SGAC Publishes Vision for the Next Decade

The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), a non-governmental organization that represents students and young space professionals to the United Nations, member countries, and space agencies, has released a report that outlines a youth vision of the "spacescape" in the next decade. The Youth Space Vision for the Next Decade: Looking Back to Look Forward includes a description of the roles that young people would like to play in the increasingly complex global space community.

The fundamental ideas for the paper were developed at SGAC's Ten Year Anniversary Conference, held at the organization's Vienna, Austria, headquarters in June 2009. During that meeting, participants reviewed the past ten years and assessed the coming decade.

The Vision outlines young people's views on global challenges, space trends, and space goals of the next decade.

The challenges cited include:

• Climate change
• Resource management
• Pandemics
• Population growth
• Wars/conflicts
• Access to technology, education, and healthcare

The primary space tends and goals discussed in the paper include:

• Sustainability of space for the benefit of all humankind
• Developing regional space agencies/programs to create a bottom-up approach to international space policy
• Regulating the orbital environment for the fair and responsible use of space, including special consideration for private space policy
• Improving coordination by the United Nations and its stakeholders against threats of manned and natural origin

The report says that young people would like to play an active role in meeting these goals. To do so, they believe that they will need:

• Improved communication and awareness about the challenges
• An interdisciplinary approach with partner sectors
• Well-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education

And, the Vision spells out how young people would like to be involved:

• Helping to bridge the gap between developed and developing nations
• Reaching out to the new sectors joining space
• Advocating for improved science, technology, engineering, and math education

SGAC is a non-governmental organization that brings the views of students and young space professionals to the United Nations, space agencies, and other organizations. Its primary work is advancing space policy making, representing the world's youth on space policy to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and other international organizations. The SGAC continues to present youth input to the UN through its Observer Status with the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).