The Space Generation Congress 2007 is the seventh in a series of groundbreaking international youth space meetings. Last year the highly successful SGC 2006 was held in Valencia, Spain with the Moon-Mars workshop and in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress. 2002's Space Generation Summit at the World Space Congress was a major follow-on conference to the Space Generation Forum (SGF) held at UNISPACE III in 1999. Delegates built on previous SGC recommendations and created the “Global Youth Space Declaration” outlining the views and directions youth from around the world want to see applied to space. The topics discussed included the most relevant and challenging questions facing the international space community: future human exploration of the Moon and Mars, the weaponisation of space, using space to improve life on Earth, and bringing space to the public through entertainment and tourism. The results of these discussions will be presented to the public.
SGAC has submitted recommendations to the Space Policy Summit, and was given observer status at that Summit. The recommendations were well-received, and as a result, SGAC has been approached to participate at and co-sponsor follow-on Space Policy Summit meetings.
Overall, SGC has been a tremendous success: delegates produced a blueprint of young people's values and ideas for space, and helped pave the way towards a more international, inspirational, and publicly oriented space program.
This year's Space Generation Congress at Hyderabad India builds on the success of the previous SGCs: delegates will develop strategies to implement the ideas and recommendations generated at previous conferences.
SGC delegates are the next generation of space innovators and leaders. They will be drawn from countries around the world, and represent the best of space-related academia, business, government, and art. Building on networks established at SGS, SGC and UNISPACE III, SGC organizers will seek out delegates from a diverse range of countries, backgrounds, and industries.
As with the previous SGCs, delegates will be selected from a pool of highly competitive international delegates. An on-line application form will be posted in January and applicants will be actively recruited from around the world. The application consists of questions about the applicant's academic and professional experience, potential contributions to the meeting, and an essay.
Organizers will then judge the applicants using pre-determined selection criteria. The delegates will be selected based on academic, professional and demographic criteria, to achieve the best possible mix of excellent talents with a balance of ethnic and cultural diversity among the selected delegates.
Last year's event attracted over 200 competitive applications from over 50 countries. In the end, 136 delegates were selected from 35 different countries. We are expecting an overwhelming response to this year's call for delegates.
Participants of the 2006 Space Generation Congress in Valencia
Past Events:
SGS 2002 Houston, USA
SGC 2003 Bremen, Germany
SGC 2004 Vancouver, Canada
SGC 2005 Fukuoka, Japan
SGC 2006 Valencia, Spain