Romanian Space Agency

Not to be confused with RSA (disambiguation).

Romanian Space Agency
Agenţia Spaţialǎ Românǎ

Established	1991
Headquarters	Bucharest, Romania
Administrator	Marius-Ioan Piso
Budget	US$ 8 million extrabudgetary financing
Website	rosa.ro

The Romanian Space Agency (ROSA, in Romanian: Agenţia Spaţială Română - or ASR) is the Romanian national coordinator for space-related technology, activities and programs since 1991.

ROSA is developing its own research and development projects and is the cooperative partner to international organizations, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and Committee on Space Research (COSPAR).

History

Romania has a long tradition in the aeronautical industry and can look back at several historical personalities such as:

• Conrad Haas, constructed multistage rockets with delta stabilizers in 1529 in Sibiu
• Aurel Vlaicu, first Romanian aerospace engineer
• Traian Vuia, designer and constructor of the first autonomous take-off aeroplane in 1906
• Henri Coanda designer and constructor of the first jet aeroplane in 1910
• Hermann Oberth designer of space rockets and "father of space navigation"
• Elie Carafoli, contributor in aerodynamics and space sciences, former president of the IAF

Romania can look upon a heritage of companies like Aerostar, Avioane Craiova, Industria Aeronautică Română, Romaero and Societatea Pentru Exploatări Tehnice – today more than twenty types of aircraft are being manufactured in Romania, some based on domestic designs.

Owing to this heritage, the country has some experience in the field of space applications, such as satellite communications, remote sensing, geographic information systems and global information, positioning and navigation systems. Since 1977 it operates an Intelsat ground station in Cheia with two 32 m antennas. Romania contributed to more than thirty scientific and technological space missions in the Interkosmos program, including the 1981 flight of Dumitru Prunariu on the Soyuz 40.

Results of the research activity

Products, technologies, prototypes

Romanian Space Agency has no object of industrialization and marketing. The research results were used for the development of systems and services dedicated to a particular beneficiary (information systems, consulting, education)

• Consulting services in satellite and inertial navigation applications (aerospace and GIS)
• Quality control services for the implementation of LPIS (system control plot) for agricultural subventions (paying agency of the Ministry of Agriculture)
• Information systems consulting for units / research (SMEs)
• Educational Software for remote sensing satellite and specialized disaster monitoring (European Space Agency)
• Pilot control system for Prahova SIPA plot
• Geographic information services through satellite remote sensing (Ministry of Waters, Forests and Environment)
• Satellite communication systems and data communication services (SMEs)
• Consulting services industries (European Space Agency)
• Pilot control system for Prahova SIPA plot
• Geographic information services through satellite remote sensing (Ministry of Waters, Forests and Environment)
• Satellite communication systems and data communication services (SMEs)
• Consulting services industries (European Space Agency)
• Experimental model of nanosatellite GOLIAT (prototype)
• Training services, research and military and civil geospatial missions (Military Technical Academy)
• Spatial data infrastructure for environmental applications (WEATHER)
• National Infrastructure in the satellite navigation (SMEs)
• Demonstration model for a formation of UAVs
• Demonstration model for a formation of nanosatellites
• Professional software with educational components for numerical simulation of flows in aerodynamics (Universities, SMEs)

Activities developed on national and international programs

National Programs

• Leadership of national program of CD-I AEROSPACE
• Leadership of national program of CD-I SECURITY
• CEEX (11 projects coordinated and 7 as a partner)
• CORINT (3 projects coordinated)
• INFOSOC (2 projects coordinated and 1 as a partner)
• AMTRANS (1 project coordinated and 1 as a partner)
• AGRAL (1 project coordinated)
• RELANSIN (1 project coordinated)
• PNCDI-I (10 projects coordinated and 8 as a partner)
• PNCDI-II (10 projects coordinated and 10 as a partner)

International Programs

• The European Space Agency(ESA) (3)
• 6th Framework Program of the European Commission CD-I (5)
• United Nations (UN) Programs (2)
• Food and Agricultural organizational programs (2)
• PHARE Program (1)
• Bilateral and multilateral collaborations (10)
• Participation in consortia, networks, technology platforms

National and international affiliations

• Space Agencies Forum (1997)
• COSPAR (Committee for Space Research International Council of Science) (1994) - Romanian secretariat
• European Space Agency (ESA) - representative of Romania (1993 -)
• EURISY - member (2000)
• United Nations Regional Network for Space Sciences and Technology (1997)

Major international agreements

• ESA: ESA European Cooperating State - 2006 and PECS 2007-2011
• France: Agreement with CNES (2000) - ADAM project; Agreement with CNES (2004) - COROT space mission
• Italy: Agreement of scientific co-operation signed with the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) in 2003
• NASA: Understanding signed in May 2000. Projects in telemedicine, agriculture, microgravity experiments on the International Space Station
• NASA: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Entertainment for the (AMS) on the ISS
• Azerbaijan: Co-operation agreement signed in 2003 with the Azerbaijan National Aerospace Agency
• Bulgaria: Agreement of co-operation in the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space in 1997 signed with the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency
• Eastern countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic, Turkey) Contribution to the Regional Network for Research and Education in Space Science and Technology (under the auspices of the United Nations)
• Hungary: Agreement of space co-operation signed in 1998 with the Hungarian Space Office
• Italy: Agreement of co-operation signed in 1998 with the Italian Space Agency

Romanian experiment on STS-133

The final flight of NASA's space shuttle Discovery - NASA mission STS-133 - will transport a Romanian experiment created by the Romanian Institute for Space Science to the International Space Station.

Growth and Survival of Colored Fungi in Space (CFS-A) is an experiment designed to determine the effect of microgravity and cosmic radiation on the growth and survival of colored fungi species. Principal investigators: Dumitru Hasegan, Romanian Institute for Space Science, Bucharest. (ESA).

The launch of STS-133 took place on February 24, 2011. For more details visit the mission webpage.

Events

Prospects and Challenges for European Space Policy

Conference PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR EUROPEAN SPACE POLICY, Brussels, 26 September 2011

Space plays a vital role in contemporary social, economic and strategic arenas, benefiting a wide constituency of public and private interests.

Consequently, there is a growing interest in measures designed to enhance European Space Policy. Furthering the debate surrounding European Space Policy is a key objective of the C-SPACE project (Conditions for Space Policy And related action plan Consolidation in Europe), funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Program. The Project is coordinated by the Foundation for Strategic Research (based in Paris), and conducted by a consortium of European research organizations.

In order to disseminate the results of the C-SPACE project, the consortium is organizing a conference in Brussels, the 26th of September 2011, on 'PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR EUROPEAN SPACE POLICY'. The conference is intended to bring together representatives of a range of European organizations / institutions with an interest in space or space related activities.

The primary objective of the conference is to present the results of the project, which consists of analysis and recommendations on central aspects of European Space Policy. This will provide the basis for a public dissemination of findings in order to create a wider understanding of the value of Space to the European Union, thus promoting measures to develop and sustain European Space Policy. The event is scheduled to take place at the Conseil Centrale de l’Economie, 17-21, avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée (Brussels).

2011 GEOSS Summer School

GEOSS Summer School: Advancing Earth Observation Data Understanding for Crisis Management and Emergency Response, August 29 – September 4, 2011 Constanta, Romania The main goal of this summer school is to acquire knowledge on current use of EO data and image information mining techniques contributing to prevent, monitor and assess the impact of natural and man-made disasters and crisis situations.

The following theoretical and practical aspects will be approached (one day dedicated to each topic, presentations in the morning, Q&A and practical work sessions in the afternoon, one day dedicated to in-situ experience):

• Emergency response in the framework of GMES and GEOSS; overview of user needs and information requirements, good practices and lessons learned.
• SAR based rapid mapping for emergency response - theory and practice, operational experience.
• Infrastructure and land slides monitoring using SAR data - methods and techniques.
• Marine environment monitoring (SAR and optical data) - workflows and information products.

This second edition of the summer school is mainly addressing young researchers, PhD students or people involved in operational activities in which Earth observation data is used. The intended audience would ideally be formed of about 20 students from Romania and 20 from abroad.

Planetary Defense Conference

The International Academy of Astronautics IAA will hold its second conference on protecting our planet from impacts by asteroids and comets from 9–12 May 2011 in Bucharest, Romania. The 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids, co-sponsored by the European Space Agency and The Aerospace Corporation, is the follow-on to three previous planetary defense conferences held in 2004 in Los Angeles and 2007 in Washington, D.C., and in 2009 in Granada, Spain.

Romania joined the European Space Agency Convention on 20 January 2011, agreement was signed by Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General and Marius-Ioan Piso, Director General of the Romanian Space Agency. Membership with full rights of communities in Romania ESA allows access to all programs, and this is an important technology transfer. Romania's membership of ESA leads to important safeguards for both the research and development, and national high-tech industry. Direct access to ESA space systems will allow development of space applications for agriculture, environment, transport, measurement disaster telemedicine.

ESA is involved in planetary defense Space Situational Awareness program, approved in November 2008 ESA Ministerial Council and launched in 2009. Operations will be implemented in 2012-2019 and the program aims to support independent access to space use and by providing accurate information, data and services related to extra-atmospheric space, in particular disasters that may occur on the ground or infrastructure of orbit.

See also

• Science and technology in Romania

External links

• Homepage of ROSA
• ROSA Facebook
• Homepage of NASA
• Homepage of ESA
• Russian Federal Space Agency
• Indian Space Research Organisation
• Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy
• ANCS
• Politehnica University of Bucharest
• Aerospace engineering
• Planetary Defence Conference 9-12 May 2011 Bucharest
• Romania accedes to ESA Convention