Outreach

Space Generation Advisory Council Mexico

Santa María Tonantzintla, Puebla, July 5, 2024. Space robotics, rocketry, entrepreneurship, astrophysics and planetary sciences, as well as ethics and conflict resolution are the topics that will be addressed at the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) Mexico, an event that began today at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), a Public Center coordinated by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt).

In an interview, Cristina Pérez Ramos, a doctoral student at INAOE, national contact for SGAC and main organizer of the event, explained that the SGAC is a youth advisory council made up of young people from 18 to 35 years old and attached to the United Nations Organization.

It was created 20 years ago with the aim of making the voice of youth heard in the space issue, because “usually the decision makers were experienced people or were already part of the industry, but fresh minds wanted to express their needs and ideas,” she added.

Currently, the SGAC is present in 160 countries, has more than 30 thousand members around the world and focuses on all areas, not only engineering and science, but also on issues of space law, space medicine, ethics, conflict resolution; “that is, everything that has to do with space.”

The current PhD candidate stressed that experts from all areas are needed, not just in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), precisely because we are entering a space age and the new Artemis Accords, a multilateral commitment signed in October 2020 to promote the “Principles for cooperation in civil exploration and the use of the Moon, Mars, comets and asteroids for peaceful purposes”.

Pérez Ramos explained that there are different formats for SGAC events: a global event, which this year will be held in Milan, Italy; regional events, such as the one last year that was held in Costa Rica and this year will be in Canada; as well as local events, such as the one currently taking place in Mexico.

The SGAC Mexico program is essentially made up of panels in which experts meet to work on particular topics, conferences and workshops.

“Here we have experts in space robotics, entrepreneurship, ethics and conflict resolution, rocketry and astrophysics. We divide the participants into groups and they meet with the moderator to discuss the different problems that Mexico has, in particular,” said Cristina Pérez.

In the last sessions, the conclusions of each group will be reported and they “will be sent to those who will represent us in Vienna at the sessions of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOSSA).”

SGAC Mexico is organized by students of INAOE, the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Michoacana University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH) and the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), as well as people from the industry.

The SGAC Mexico will conclude tomorrow. For more information, visit https://spacegeneration.org/event/sgmexico-2024