Air Force Commander Major General Eliezer Shakdi at the Ilan Ramon Space Conference held by the Fisher Institute encouraged contact with the industry:

"The dual use of space is a key factor in the army's ability to maintain a high level without going into all the investments in space"

Dual use - civilian and military of assets in space is essential to allow the military to provide security without incurring impossible expenses. This is how the words of the Commander of the Air Force and Space Force, Major General Eliezer Shakdi, can be summed up at the second annual conference in memory of Ilan Ramon of the Fisher Institute held yesterday at the Air Force House in Herzliya.

According to General Shakadi, the use of space is derived from the operational need both in the intelligence aspect, both in the field of battlefield control and in the field of fire. Without the ability to control near, medium and far ranges the battle would look completely different. "Our capabilities have proven themselves - we hit precise targets on which we had relevant intelligence.

Later, General Shakdi referred to the threat arising from an experiment conducted by China about two weeks ago during which it destroyed a weather satellite that they no longer needed. According to Shakadi, the issue must be taken into account and its significance understood for a country that has assets in space and that should invest in additional assets in space.

Space warfare expert Tal Inbar from the Fisher Institute presented the dual uses - military and civilian - of communication satellites, remote sensing, GPS, and even radar satellites. One of these uses - of photography satellites is for GOOGLE EARTH.

Space for the benefit of the citizen and society

The Chairman of the Israel Space Agency, Major General Yitzhak Ben Israel said that the idea is to take the infrastructure that has already been developed in the State of Israel for military needs, which is also quite unique, and use it not only for the national security needs for which it was originally developed, but also for the development of industry, the economy, and technology. In short, for the benefit of the citizen and society.

In all respects, both economic self-interest and just to satisfy the urge for curiosity and scientific research without which we would not have been in space and perhaps we would not have even discovered America.

Later, Ben Yisrael detailed a long list of needs that space can meet - security, medicine, communication, monitoring the Earth's environment to improve the quality of the environment, discovering energy sources, weather forecasting - something we have become accustomed to. There is a growing recognition in the world that we must turn space into a tool that will help protect life on Earth, warming, ozone, radiation. There is no better way to look at the Earth than from space. And on the contrary, a group of Israeli scientists, all immigrants from the Commonwealth of Nations who are experts in radiation from space, examined the cosmic radiation from a facility on Hermon, their research published in Science showed that there is a connection between the level of radiation from space and the prices of grain on Earth.

According to him, "The Israel Space Agency was established by Yuval Na'im to coordinate space activities, with the aim of promoting Israel's scientific, social, economic and security interests. Ben Israel said that he hopes that the financing problems of the Honus satellite will be resolved, and that the satellite will not fall victim to the budget cuts resulting from the Lebanon war."

The Cisco company presented on the sidelines of the conference an immediate integrated communication system called iCOMM that connects from the battlefield or the disaster area to satellite communication and provides VOIP communication and an immediate Internet connection instead of the other communication systems that collapsed.

This system, unique of its kind in the world and which was also used in Iraq - was brought especially for demonstration at the conference. Dr. Klaus-Peter Durfalkus, Director of Space Initiatives in the Global Security, Space and Security Group of Cisco, was a guest lecturer at the conference (review of his presentation soon) Eyal Babli, Director of Security at Cisco Israel, says that iCOMM is a mobile communication solution that can be deployed quickly in time emergency, network outage or other events, to provide secure data, voice and radio services. Cisco iCOMM builds on Cisco Systems commercial off-the-shelf technologies and products, combined with terminal, antenna, and satellite service from third-party providers, to provide a pre-configured communications package. The solution is based on a strategic collaboration of the Cisco company with satellite communication solutions of the Israeli company Gilat.

Alon Chaimovich, a system engineer at Cisco who demonstrated the system, showed an Internet connection and a telephone connection to cellular subscribers made through a connection to a busy satellite. "The coverage can be expanded with the help of WiMESH technology to an entire city in a wireless network, thus preventing the retirement of wired infrastructure, while providing data, voice, and video communication."

The system operates using a portable generator or an integrated uninterruptible power supply system, and does not depend on the availability of local power lines. Eyal Babli adds that the Cisco iCOMM solution was successfully implemented in field conditions in Iraq, and is applied in a variety of emergency situations and field conditions where it is not possible to use other communication solutions, and a combined transmission of secure data, voice and radio is necessary.

Benjamin Newman, an engineer with a senior position in NASA's Discovery Administration, which is responsible for planning the return to the moon, said that the first goal is to return enthusiasm to the public. "About 38 years ago when Apollo 8 took off. I was a child and saw the launch on TV in black and white, I was excited because I listened to the explanations of how they were going to go around the moon and then return at a precise angle because otherwise they would not be able to return. Then the astronauts started talking about the moon and the spaceships. In order to succeed you also have to dare and sometimes even sacrifice. 40 years ago, three astronauts were killed during a training mission on the Apollo 1 launch pad.

When I started working at NASA I was an expert in the field of aviation, we worked on planning to make the planes faster, more efficient and less emitting. NASA is also involved in the field of communications, there is of course the engineering part of spacecraft planning, but the most fascinating part of NASA is the division that deals with space science. Without science we would have to ask why we go to all this effort. The president gave us a mandate to develop spacecraft and reach the moon and Mars.

Later, Newman gave examples of unexpected results for space exploration, one of them - an artificial heart that is currently implanted in the hearts of about 400 patients and recently received approval for implantation in children. The same doctor, from a hospital in Houston happened to talk to a member of NASA and it turned out that the technology used for the turbo pumps of the shuttle engines fit his requirements. Another spin-off is biopsy needles derived from the hub. Instead of using X-rays, they can use the sensitive CCD devices like Hubble's."

"One of the goals is to get humanity off the planet in order to survive. We are a curious species. We cannot live without knowing what is happening on the other side. Discovery of America, North Pole, South Pole. Today around the corner - Mars, the Moon. There is a lot of scientific knowledge to be gained when we get to the moon. The moon is the library of the history of the solar system. The same objects that bombarded the moon also bombarded the earth but the signs were eroded. On the moon they still remained. The moon is also bombarded by meteors. Another reason to explore is how to live there, what it takes to survive on Mars. A journey to Mars must take 3 years, how are the medical matters going?

The other lecturers today talk about international cooperation, economic benefits and more, but in my opinion the reason for research is to cause excitement. We are also excited if someone else goes into space. We need people with a technological background. We will solve the Earth's problems if there are engineers and scientists who like to explore.

Later, Newman detailed how NASA plans to send humans to the moon; the plan from about two months ago to establish a manned outpost near the south pole of the moon; And on the LRO mission - a spacecraft that will circle the moon at an altitude of 50 km and photograph it in detail, which will also be accompanied by an LCROSS sub-mission in which the rocket's carrier stage and a small spacecraft will hit the lunar surface one after the other.

Reports on the lectures of two astronauts who participated in flight STS-115 will be brought in the coming days after the recordings are decoded.