Search

Abstract: In 1957–1958, the International Geophysical Year (IGY) was the most important scientific cooperation programme in the World, after the Second World War. Thousands of scientists from 67 countries were involved in this large operation, among them a lot of French scientists. IGY was previously called the IPY (International Polar Year) and France, as many other countries, has been involved in the Arctic and Antarctic regions researches. Everybody knows that the IGY is at the origin of Sputnik and the first launch of Russian and American satellites. But, we know less about the IGY rockets programme itself in which France had intended to participate. This paper will discuss this programme with a special highlight on some aspects of the French participation and their relationship with the IGY programme. This approach arises several questions, such as: Which French scientists have been involved? What was the attitude of the French Government about this program, etc. We focus our analysis on the interrogation: did the IGY have any real influence on the origin of the French space research activities? [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although the threat caused by an impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) has been increasingly recognized by the international community both at a scientific and political level, no study is addressing this issue in an interdisciplinary manner. A project has been carried out at the International Space University (ISU), located in Strasbourg, France, addressing the problem of the response to a NEO threat, including space-based missions, Earth-based mitigation, political, organizational and space-law issues. This paper summarizes the main results of this study. In order to determine an appropriate response, a new system of classification of the different NEO threat scenarios was created. A specific case study was examined in the project. The threat scenario involved the NEO named 1997 XF11, with response options ranging from deflection, to destruction using the concept known as the “billiards shot”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]