Final Announcement

FROM THE CHAIRMEN

It is a pleasure for the three General Chairmen to invite the international community to the 9^th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation. The success of the preceding IAA Symposia reflected the high interest in the use of small satellites for dedicated missions applied to Earth observation, from scientific Earth observation missions to technology demonstration missions. In all of these IAA symposia, the authors from about 30 countries confirmed in their oral and poster contributions that these types of missions can be conducted relatively quickly and inexpensively and provide increased opportunity for access to space. The spacecraft bus and the instruments can be based either on optimized off-the-shelf systems, with little or no requirements for new technology, or on new high-technology systems. Thus a new class of advanced small satellites, including autonomously-operating „intelligent“ satellites can be created, opening new fields of application for science and the public.

This symposium again offers many opportunities for exchanging information, exploring new concepts, encouraging international cooperation in mission planning, and developing new collaborative relationships among individuals and institutions. This 9^th symposium also provides a panel discussion. Furthermore, in our 9^th symposium we included again the Student Prize Paper Competition. The student papers have been evaluated by distinguished judges selected from academia, industry and government, coming from different continents. The prizes are funded by different organizations (industry and institutions). The IAA is pleased to serve as the principal sponsor of this symposium because its objectives complement and reinforce the purpose of the Academy.

It is a pleasure for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin-Adlershof to be the host of this symposium. DLR's site Berlin-Adlershof has been successfully involved in space research for many years. Together with other relevant institutes of the DLR, it is now involved in many international and national projects for Earth observations, planetary sciences, technology development and in-orbit verification.

Last but not least, Berlin provides a good environment because this city continuously pursues new architectural approaches in urban development after the reunification of Germany. We believe that Berlin is really a bridge between the West and East as well as the North and South. As in the previous symposia, Berlin may serve symbolically as a meeting place for information exchange and collaborative development between the two hemispheres, as well as a bridge between the classical, more general mission design approaches and the smaller and smaller satellite approaches for dedicated objectives.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Berlin in April 2013.

Hans-Peter Röser     Arnoldo Valenzuela           Rainer Sandau