Aspiring Space Nations

Henk Smid has studied space systems and technologies since the early 1970's. He writes for national and international magazines and was Editor-in-Chief of the Dutch space magazine "Ruimtevaart" ("Space") for eight years. He lectures on space systems and technologies, space risks analyses and management. He is the founder, owner, and senior space consultant of "ribs" Space Consultancy and Insurance / Data Banking and Control (ribs SC&I/DB&C). Henk has been published in the "Earth Space Review," "Intermediar," "Nature and Technology," "Spaceflight Magazine," and has written numerous articles for The Netherlands Space Society. For NATO, Henk wrote the original "Space Systems Handbook" and was custodian for this book for seven years. He is also co-author of the title "Emerging Space Powers" with Brian Harvey, and Theo Pirard (Springer, 2010). Theo Pirard graduated with a degree in History and Education from the Catholic University of Louvain. From 1972 to 2002, he worked as professor of history and space exploration, then moved on to Vice Director of Institut Notre-Dame de Jupile, a secondary school near Liege. He heavily participated in the establishment and management of the European Space Center Belgium, a unique educational facility in Europe. He is a consultant to the Belgian science policy office at the Space Center and for the Belgian Forum "Space and Education." Theo was a co-author to the title "Emerging Space Powers" along with Brian Harvey and Henk Smid (Springer, 2010). Philippe Cosyn has been active as a freelance writer on international affairs, defense, and space since the early 1980s, writing for a number of Belgian dailies and periodicals. He wrote three reports for the European Parliament on behalf of the Centrist Democrat International related to the international issues, including nuclear proliferation.