was the host of the Conference. The total cost of the conference not counting the cost incurred by each country and the nongovernmental organizations was approximately 3 million dollars. The final outcome of the conference has been submitted in the form of a report to the General Assembly in November 1982 with specific recommendations of pursuing space activities more vigorously for powerful developments through increased U.N. involvement through private initiatives and through extensive nongovernmental projects. There were no concrete accomplishments from the conference. The one issue about which most of humanity is concerned, including a large number of nongovernmental organizations and some of the great thinkers like Arthur C. Clarke and Dr. Oleg Gazenko, was that of the deweaponization of space while most of the NGOs wanted an agreement and even a treaty to ban the militarization of space by the Soviet Union and the U.S., the U.N. conference only expressed concern without such an agreement. That was probably the tragedy and failure of the conference. As the Chancellor of Austria and many delegates expressed, almost 75% of the space budget of the two superpowers — the U.S. and the Soviet Union — is for the militarization of space. Only the future will tell us where this will lead. We hope that space will not be death’s kiss to humanity. For those who participated in the conference it was a unique event for education and awareness concerning a field which seems remote to most of the citizens of the world but which infringes on the life and the future of every human being. Carl Sagan, in a special lecture at the conference, said that our Earth is a particle of dust in the universe, but it is on this dust that human beings with their unique intelligence are enacting a drama with far reaching consequences. It was pointed out through another lecture by Arthur C. Clarke that space reality will meet with dreams and there will be no frontiers into space. All the frontiers are a product of the limitations of man’s mind. In the last special lecture by Dr. Oleg Gazenko of the Soviet Union, he emphasized many biological changes due to man’s venture into space, but he also felt that to control many diseases and to feed many of the hungry people in the world we may find answers in space. Most of the countries of the world are involved in space developments, directly or indirectly. As the Secretary General of the Conference, Dr. Yash Pal, put it, “space activities are global in nature — applications of space seem to be most appreciated for the least developed parts of the world.” The least developed part of the world today is far away from all that space can offer and that there are unlimited potentials of space for man — communication, education, resource mapping, disaster warning, pest control, environmental planning, navigation, protection of forests and even security. The Third World countries cannot escape being in the mainstream of space developments. Their survival and their future depends upon acquiring and applying space technologies for planning and development. Today, only a few developing countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria are seriously involved in space developments. Many of the developing countries are fortunate to be below the geosynchronous orbit. They can explore their advantageous position if they form regional space programs. No European country individually could have become a space power equal to the two superpowers, but today the European Space Agency is a major force in positive space developments. Similarly, as proposed by us at the conference, there is a need for a Third World Space Agency which can become not only an instrument of development in more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, but which can also deter the superpowers from militarizing space and dividing up the planet among themselves for eons to come. If there is any
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