[CMC] RE: CNSA'S RESPONSE TO CCSDS MEMBERSHIP.

Tue Nov 13 17:44:20 EST 2007

Dear Michael (Cheng):

Thank you very much for your message and your indication that CNSA is interested in becoming a full Member of CCSDS. Let me try to give you some information that may be useful to you.

CCSDS was established in 1982 as a forum for developing space data standards that will facilitate international interoperability of space mission support systems. You can find out much about the organization at http://www.ccsds.org.  CCSDS is not a "treaty" organization and membership is open to any interested space Agency. There are no membership fees or financial charges of any kind to join or belong to CCSDS. Instead, participating Agencies are expected to provide engineering support to those technical working groups who develop standards that are of interest to that Agency. The working groups normally meet together every six months. In addition to supporting technical work, NASA (as a special activity) also provides the Secretariat to CCSDS.

Full "Member Agencies" are expected to appoint a "Principal Delegate" who will be the voting representative to the CCSDS Management Council (CMC). You can find the list of the current ten CMC Members at http://public.ccsds.org/participation/member_agencies.aspx. The CMC meets twice per year and the location of the meeting rotates around the Agencies. The next CMC meeting will probably be in June 2008, in Tokyo, Japan. While all Agencies cannot attend all technical meetings, it is expected that  a full Member Agency will send its Principal Delegate to most CMC meetings. That is an important requirement, which you probably should consider carefully.

If you click on "Observer agencies" on the left side of that screen you will see the list of 24 (non-voting" "Observer "agencies, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST).  CAST has participated in the past and  CAS has just attended their first technical meeting last month.  Observers may participate in technical work but they are not members of the CMC and thus they do not have a direct voice in conducting the affairs of CCSDS.

CCSDS develops "Recommended Standards" that become the basis for international interoperability. Also, CCSDS has been delegated by ISO as an ISO standards committee, specifically Technical Committee 20 Subcommittee 13 (TC20/SC13), "Space Data and Information Transfer Systems". Because ISO committee representation comes from nations rather than space Agencies, the Chinese representation to TC20/SC13 is officially the SAC (Standardization Administration of China) -- but SAC has delegated that role to the CASI (Chinese Astronautics Standards Institute).   So,  the history of China and CCSDS is that there are several organizations that support CNSA who are involved as only CCSDS Observer agencies, or as ISO representatives, but there is currently no full Member organization from China.

Many of the current Members of CCSDS now believe that it would be appropriate for CNSA to consider becoming the full Member Agency from China. Therefore, what CCSDS would now like to do is to begin the process of inviting CNSA to become the eleventh Member of CCSDS. Please note that this invitation must be confirmed by the current Member Agencies via a vote of the CCSDS Management Council -- that vote is now being conducted.  If the vote concludes successfully, you should expect to be contacted by the CCSDS Secretariat with a formal invitation to join.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to help CNSA gather whatever information is necessary for you to consider becoming a Member of CCSDS. I have also copied your contact information to the Secretariats of the IOAG (Mr. Warren Martin) and the SFCG (Mr. Edoardo Marelli). Feel free to contact me at any time if you need more information about any of these organizations.

Best regards
Adrian
Adrian J. Hooke
Chairman, CCSDS Engineering Steering Group (CESG)
NASA Headquarters
Space Communications and Navigation Office, 7L70
Space Operations Mission Directorate
Washington, DC 20546-0001
Office:	(+1) 202.358.0097
Mobile:	(+1) 818.653.9553
Adrian.J.Hooke at nasa.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Wang [mailto:mchwang at cnsa.gov.cn]
Sent: Mon 11/12/2007 1:37 AM
To: Hooke, Adrian J. (HQ-CG000)
Subject: CNSA'S RESPONSE TO CCSDS MEMBERSHIP.

Dear Adrian,
   It's really a pleasure to meet you in Geneva.And I really enjoy to work with you and all other agencies colleagues as well.
   Now I want you know that I have reported the issues related to our Geneva Conference to the head of CNSA after my return to China. We are very interested in joinning  the organization such as IOAG, SFCG or CCSDS which will be benefit to each agency's space programme. But before CNSA become the formal member of above organizations like CCSDS, would you please let me know the program of how to join it, and I apreciate very much if you can give me further advices on this kind of issue.
  Regards!
??
Cheng Wang
mchwang at cnsa.gov.cn
86-10-88581232(OFFICE)
86-13501091712(CELL)
DEPARTMENT OF SYSTEM ENGINEERING
CHINA NATIONAL SPACE ADMINISTRATION
FUCHENG ROAD #8A,HAIDIAN DISTRICT,BEIJING,CHINA,100037

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ccsds.org/pipermail/cmc/attachments/20071113/fe8db470/attachment.htm