Alma de Agua: A Space Awareness Initiative IAF International Astronautical Federation Rio de Janeiro Brasil 2000 Dinis Afonso Ribeiro Richard Clar Environment GMES ESA European Union Art Music Antropolgy Sounding Rocket Launch Portugal AEPOR Língua Portuguesa CPLP Instituto Camões Português

1. IAA-00-IAA.8.2.02
ALMA da AGUA: A Space Awareness Initiative
Dinis S A Ribeiro
Companhia Espacial Portuguesa, Lda.
Queluz, PORTUGAL
port.space@netcabo.pt
Richard Clar
Art Technologies,
Paris, FRANCE
rclar@arttechnologies.com
ABSTRACT
The launch of a commemorative sounding rocket
carrying a space art payload will herald the
creation of the Portuguese Space Agency. While
addressing the technical aspects we will articulate
the “ALMA da AGUA” payload with ongoing
projects from Companhia Espacial Portuguesa
Lda, namely its instrumentation department and
the AEPOR project. Water management issues in
their variety illustrate well the complexity of
effectively using space technology as a tool for
development. The diplomatic coordination efforts
needed in order to have eight countries in very
different stages of development, to link together
and have a simultaneous international event, will
provide opportunities to train the staff of the
Portuguese Space Agency.
Introduction
This space awareness initiative is not limited to the
launch of the payload on a sounding rocket. Water
resources management is an issue of great
importance to the various Portuguese-speaking1
Countries. These are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde,
Guiné-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e
Príncipe, and East Timor. There are many different
organizations that are important for water
management, such as the International Water
Resources Association (IWRA), and international
projects such as the World Meteorological
Organization Hydrological Cycle Observing
System (WMO-HYCOS). This field implies a
broad interdisciplinary approach to a particularly
wide variety of issues. These problems are key to
the economic development and well-being of large
populations, and must be addressed through a
collaborative effort using various tools including
space technology. ALMA da AGUA or “Soul of
the Water” in English, is an interdisciplinary space
art project that seeks to involve various institutions
within the PSC (Portuguese-Speaking Countries).
The project addresses metaphorically the
possibility of greater technical unification and
deeper collaboration of Portuguese speaking
countries and celebrates their common bond of
language, thus helping to create a greater
awareness to facilitate the launch of future
collaborative efforts.
ALMA da AGUA begins with the
gathering of natural source water samples from all
of the eight Portuguese-speaking countries. The
individual water samples are to be carried into
space aboard a Brazilian sounding rocket (Sonda
III) where the samples will be exposed to low-
gravity in order to mix the waters in a “new way”
and in a “different environment”. During space
flight, in a highly symbolic gesture, the waters will
be combined by the action of several apparatuses.
A video camera and downlink antenna integrated
into the payload will provide live coverage of the
waters floating in zero-g and mixing in space.
After an ocean splashdown, the mixed-waters
payload of ALMA da AGUA will be recovered by
helicopter to be divided in eight equal samples and
returned to each departure point at cultural
ceremonies in each of the participating countries.
These ceremonies will contribute to a greater
Copyright © 2000 Companhia Espacial Portuguesa Limitada.
Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Inc. with permission. Released to
IAF/IAA/AIAA to publish in all forms.
1
Dinis Afonso
Ribeiro
Assinado de forma
digital por Dinis Afonso
Ribeiro
DN: cn=Dinis Afonso
Ribeiro, o=Companhia
Espacial Portuguesa,
Lda., ou=Consulting
Department, c=PT
Dados: 2003.03.18
06:27:50 Z
Assinatura
não verificada

2. Portugal has lagged behind many other
countries in developing space activities, and there
are still some disperse and un-coordinated efforts.
Activities have tended to be very “centrifugal”
with highly specialized individuals excelling here
and there, but without a clear national goal. The
oceans3
have slowly emerged as a common
ground, and as a possible unifying theme for all
Portuguese space projects. Yet, all the oceans, in
their vastness, are also part of something bigger:
the hydrological cycle.
awareness in all Portuguese-speaking countries of
the role that space technology can have in water
management, from flood control (using early
warning systems) to environmental control of
water resources (using a network of low cost
sensors). The creation of a permanent group of
water technicians using a dedicated computer
network connecting the eight countries is a key
outcome of this initiative.
The ALMA da AGUA sounding rocket
payload was being planned for launch in October
2000 during the 51st IAF Congress in Rio de
Janeiro. It was hoped that the live coverage of the
flight could be presented during the Congress in
addition to a world-wide Internet web cast. This
event is now currently scheduled for 2002. This
space awareness initiative is the fruit of a
collaboration initiated by Richard Clar of Art
Technologies (AT) and Dinis Ribeiro of
Companhia Espacial Portuguesa, Lda. (CEP).
There is some interest in developing small
payloads of interdisciplinary nature that would
promote the idea of the possibility of fusion, or at
least of a greater unification of efforts.
The Birth of the Concept
In 1999, during the IAF conference in Amsterdam
the authors of this paper met when CEP was
displaying pictures from the ALMA prototype
apparatus developed by Instrumentation
Technology Associates Inc. On this system, the
A.L.M.A. device (Acceleration-induced Liquid
Mixing Apparatus) uses external forces, the launch
g-load, to be able to mix two liquids inside a vial.
Goals of the Project
There is a dual purpose for the payload, first: the
commemoration of Portugal joining the European
Space Agency and second: the launch of
systematic technical cooperation among all
Portuguese speaking countries so that before the
end of 2005, a space cooperation agreement
focused on using space technology tools for
humanitarian purposes, can be in effect.
Portuguese Space Activities
As the most recent member of ESA, Portugal has
the possibility to benefit from all the accumulated
experiences of the other 14 member states. But it
also has the responsibility to include in its
activities some of the potential conceptual
advances2
on “how to run a space program” that
decades of pioneering efforts from many countries
have yielded.
Fig. 1 A.L.M.A. device, showing two liquids
Since the year 2000 marked the passing of 500
years since the discovery of Brazil by Portugal
took place, initially the idea was simply to mix
Portuguese and Brazilian water samples from
natural sources or main rivers. However, upon
reflection, it was considered that several other
countries also speak the Portuguese language and
these other countries actually have quite serious
difficulties related to many different water
management issues.
Initially, ALMA da AGUA began as a
space art project. However, due to the international
scope of its activities, and the potential
humanitarian implications, it became gradually
interwoven with the ongoing creation of the
Portuguese Space Agency (AEPOR). Now, this
awareness initiative aims strongly at creating
specific follow-ups: The A.L.M.A. organization
and its associated computer network.
2

3. The EARTHSTAR project4
was then
presented whereby ceramic artifacts would be
created using soil samples gathered from specific
countries engaged, or recently engaged, in armed
conflict. These soil samples combined are to be
incorporated into the thermal protection system of
a recoverable spacecraft and fused together in
space by the heat generated during re-entry. On
Earth, a pentagonal star is described with a radius
of 3, 207 km from the center-point in Crete. On
each of the five vertices, a marker is placed located
by using GPS. The rays emanating from the center-
point in Crete to the vertices extend through
regions of armed conflict. The ceramic artifact
created in space will be installed in Crete during a
ceremony celebrating the culture of the countries
engaged in armed conflict.
In the midst of discussion, a hybrid idea
gradually emerged. There was an analogy between
the concept of having the molten ceramics mixing
together under the reentry heat, and the idea of
water samples mixing in reduced gravity. Both are
new materials in a new environment. There were
humanitarian concerns with both ideas as well.
EARTHSTAR sought support from UNESCO
through the “Culture of Peace Programme”
where the objective is to ensure that the conflicts
inherent in human relationships be resolved non-
violently, based on the traditional values of peace.
In some ways the Alma da Agua initiative is like
an EARTHSTAR II project, with a different way
of implementing the basic idea being envisaged.
Instead of “unifying” countries in a
beautiful, yet purely mathematical and neutral way
along the geometric lines of EARTHSTAR, why
not select countries that have some old historical
links and common problems? .
Paula Costa from CEP reflected upon the
possible point of view of all the other countries
involved, and suggested that the exact nature of the
cultural events ought to be left to the initiative of
each of the other seven participating countries as
long as they comply with the general theme of
fostering cooperation. Later, she coined the name
Agrupamento Lusófono Multidisciplinar da Água
in order to help the creation of a bridge between
the artistic ALMA and the technical ALMA.
Why the idea of “soul” of the water? Space
technology is still felt as a soulless endeavor. Its
innermost nature is perceived all too often as being
at the antipodes of artistic thought. However, this
is quite untrue, since many engineers express their
strong esthetic sensibility through mathematics or
geometry or even CAD layouts, and while using
many other computer-generated images.
ARTISTIC ASPECTS
The Portuguese Ministry of Science and
Technology has launched a special program named
“Ciência Viva” or “Living Science”, aimed at
raising the awareness of the population about the
fact that scientific culture is as necessary and
important as the classical culture5
. It encourages
people to try and use the experimental method,
instead of relying solely on established authorities
as sources of knowledge.
The legitimacy of Space Art
The importance of space art has not yet been fully
realized by some of the people involved in space
activities. It is usually seen as a secondary issue to
be handled by the Public Relations departments of
space agencies in such a way that the technical
relevance of the payload is not jeopardized by
overexposure of its “debatable” artistic value.
The desire to have space art as a
recognized basic component of space programs is a
natural consequence of greater social involvement
in these activities. Our effort seeks to excel on both
the technical aspects as well as the artistic ones.
One possible indicator of the degree of innovation
present on space efforts might be the role that is
reserved to space artists. The more classical
approach had given them a very limited role, in
charge of propaganda, logos, and press releases not
venturing outside the public relations department
of large governmental organizations. A more
modern approach would tend to treat them as key
intermediaries that help bridge the gap between
highly specialized and brilliant technicians and the
“general public”. The entertainment industry
already allows much of this to take place, however
space artists are seldom at the center of space
projects, and they still remain seen almost as a
secondary “strap-on booster”, that can be discarded
with little impact on “real” space projects. The
trend towards a greater role of the private sector
may induce a gradual “change of paradigm” and by
the end of the century that is about to begin, space
artists may have a very different role.
Artistic components of Alma da Agua
3

4. To allow free expression of the particular points of
view from each of the eight countries, they are
invited to propose to CEP, the specific artistic
events with which they may want to participate in
this awareness initiative. In each country a local
committee of three individuals will be established,
to run the local selection process and assist the
preparation of the events. Each country will select
two songs and two live performances that must
include at least one dance event to accompany the
two international artistic events to be presented.
Simultaneous artistic events
Launch day Returning of Samples
Song A Song B
Live Performance A Live Performance B
Table 1 All the eight countries will contribute
The first series of eight simultaneous events will
occur during the launch, and the second series
during the ceremonies that will mark the return of
the water sample resulting from mixing of the
eight individual samples that flew together on the
rocket. Since we want to help all the writers that
write in the Portuguese language to become aware
of the possibilities opened by entering the “space
age”, a parallel competition is suggested, so that
essays and other publications can be enabled. New
support media for the written materials should be
encouraged, not just multimedia, but also e-books,
or any other new experimental way of conveying
the written word.
Elements of the various live performances:
Music Video Dance Poetry
Table 2 Suggested structure for the events
Art Technologies will play a critical role, since it
will be in charge of the webcast, that in turn will
act as a synchronizing element designed to
enhance the impact on the public.
As an example for these events, there
already is one song selected by Portugal: It is
called “O Paraíso” (the paradise) and it seeks to
illustrate the need to face the difficulties to do new
things so that one can reach some kind of better
condition.
To take space art seriously may be difficult
for some people, yet it may be part of the way to
the “paradise” of real public support. The
Portuguese composer Pedro Ayres Magalhães from
the group Madredeus composed this sad and
nostalgic song. Partial excerpt from the words of
the song in Portuguese and in English:
Subi a escada de papelão
...
Não leva a nada
Não leva não
É só uma escada de papelão
...
Há outra entrada no Paraíso
Mais apertada
Mais, sim senhor
...
Eu só conheço
Esse caminho
Do Paraíso
I climbed the cardboard ladder
…
It leads nowhere
Nowhere at all
It is just a cardboard ladder
…
Yet, there is another path into Paradise
More difficult and narrow
Yes sir, quite narrower
...
As it happens, I only know
That path
To Paradise
To enable the preparation and later support for the
transmission of this international event we hope to
be able to use an initial version of the computer
network that will later become part of the follow-
up to the awareness initiative.
The Portuguese “critical mass” paradigm
We were delighted to accept the layout of eight
cylindrical components (water bladders) on this
payload, proposed by Fokker Space, in order to
evoke a “stylized fusion experiment” where you
have several lasers firing simultaneously onto a
central sample so that the needed temperature and
pressure conditions are reached. The new entity
that will be created on the day of the launch, seeks
to bring together simultaneously several entities,
somehow reaching a “symbolic critical mass”. The
“critical mass paradigm” is used oftentimes in
public relations when dealing with high technology
4

5. matters. In Portugal there was an endless debate
about when it would be the right time to start a
space program, because we did not yet have
enough human resources (critical mass) to start a
“chain reaction”. This analogy is frequently used
in a incomplete way, since it is not enough to
throw together all the necessary human resources.
A way of clearly focusing different efforts is
necessary. Public opinion must be motivated by a
“special event” so that what is created is somehow
greater than the simple sum of all the components.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS Fig. 2 Initial computer model
We conceived this particular project and payload
so that it can become a precursor of a future family
of payloads, used in education, research and
development, and commercial activities. All of the
systems discussed in this section have esthetic
value and therefore will be available for various
artistic events.
Fig. 3 Elements of sounding rocket payload
In the future, on new sounding rocket payloads
using this same basic configuration, by replacing
the eight water reservoirs with totally different
instruments, this basic configuration can be used to
focus electromagnetic6
or acoustic energy in
samples on the central chamber. Several fluid
physics experiments can be designed. Studying
sloshing is a possibility. Companhia Espacial
Portuguesa, has its fledgling Instrumentation
Department in charge of assisting Portuguese
partners in the development of the payload.
The ALMA da AGUA payload
Under the current initial design it will weigh
approximately 10 Kg and is expected to have a
diameter of 30 cm, in order to be compatible with
the Sonda III sounding rocket. It will have a lower
section with eight water bladders all pointing to
the water mixing chamber located in the center of
this lower section. Each one of the bladders will
have its water sample from each of the eight
participating countries. Valves will inject the water
into the mixing chamber where they will coalesce
producing images similar to the ones obtained in
It is hoped that some components will be built in
Portugal and Brazil. Additional components from
other companies could be added to this basic
configuration. There are several technical issues
that can provide the training opportunities needed
to create a Portuguese team that will work with
sounding rocket payloads in the future.
drop tower experiments with liquid bridges. A
mirror placed on top at 45 degrees from the
support plate where the batteries and camera are
mounted will allow a live video recording of the
water images that will be down linked in real time.
• Launch preparation: (filling of the water
bladders will take place in Portugal.)
An illumination box installed in the bottom of the
payload will provide the light.
• Mechanical aspects: (exact diameter, type of
joints, etc.)
• Center of gravity requirements
• Static-g and vibration load
• Antennas available, choice of matching
ground station
• Recovery module tests (Parachute, float, buoy
with transponder, etc.)
• Tracking and telemetry / video reception
(frequency; link budgets)
5

6. • Payload recovery procedures (helicopter from
the Brazilian navy)
• Recovery procedures (Sagres school ship
from the Portuguese navy to observe the
reentry)
Parabolic flights of the payload are being
considered, in order to fine-tune the creation of a
nice looking floating sphere of mixed water
resulting from the coalescence of the eight
samples.
Fig. 5 Companhia Espacial Portuguesa (CEP)
offices are located at the Cascais airfield in
Portugal to provide a wide scope of logistic
support for payload checkout. We have a wide area
available for development and rehearsals of
complex new theatrical and musical events.
Smaller space art payloads can be added as piggy
backs on this flight. An example would be a low
power consumption microphone to record and
downlink live all the sounds, from the launch to
the sloshing sounds of the water mixing, until the
“thump” of landing in the ocean. A payload
camera installed outside facing down would
provide images of the launch site being left behind.
The AEPOR Project
Fig. 4 Possible layout for parabolic flight testing
In order to open up an equitable access to space
projects for all interested parties in Portugal, a
project to develop four basic infrastructures is
currently underway. A new entity – AEPOR, S.A.,
is being created. Its structure is somewhat atypical
and quite similar to a Public Private Partnership
(PPP) promoting a modern business approach. In
AEPOR, the “AE” stands for Agência Espacial /
Space Agency. The “POR” stands for Portugal.
In order to maximize the technological returns
from the flight, a customized set of accelerometers
could be installed. An improved GPS on board
would allow this sub-orbital flight to yield data
that can be useful for future improvements on
recovery procedures from the Atlantic ocean.
Miniaturized cosmic ray detectors could be tested.
Infrastructures already available
AEPOR Ground-based Infrastructures
Having enabled the first 100% private payload,7
from Portugal, the “Portuguese Microgravity
Emulsion Experiment” on STS-95 in October
1998, CEP has identified several simple upgrades
that can be developed with Portuguese partners.
After joining ESA in 1999, there is an emerging
need8
for various general-purpose support services
in Portugal that can be made available to any
interested party with great flexibility and low cost.
AEPOR Computer Network
AEPOR Mission Control Bus
AEPOR Airborne Laboratory
6

7. Table 3 Main components of AEPOR project
This new entity will provide support services and
incentives to any Portuguese institution or
individual wishing to interact with all the national
space agencies and space-related international
organizations, such as IAF, COSPAR, UNESCO,
UNCOPUOS, ITU, WMO, EURISY, and other
similar organizations.
The ALMA da AGUA payload will belong to
Companhia Espacial Portuguesa up until the
launch day. During the apogee of the sub-orbital
trajectory of the sounding rocket it will then
become property of the AEPOR organization.
A new kind of “Technical Space Museum”
The value and nature of space artifacts tends to
evolve in time. Depending on the owner, first they
are “state of the art” technological jewels, and then
become operational items. Later they tend to be
considered obsolete, while some reach
considerable historical value.
These relatively “old payloads” that are no longer
flying but that can be operated as part of ground
based experiments could provide a “humble” low
cost approach for many countries to have access to
technologies that are no longer on the “leading
edge” but that can still get part of the job done
enabling training programs as well.
The International Space Museum was initially
suggested by CEP as a way to use old microgravity
payloads as a teaching tool associated to the
creation of an permanent archive where old
software would be made available to software
engineers9
as was suggested during the DASIA -
Data Systems in Aerospace conference held in
Lisbon in May of 1999.
The International Space Museum is to be designed
and managed by AEPOR, under its infrastructures
program, together with ESA and as many
international partners as possible.
One part of the Museum will be open to normal
visitors; the rest will include various research
facilities, including a refurbishing lab, where old
payloads will get upgraded if possible. All of the
available components and systems will be used for
various space art events, and then returned to the
refurbishing lab. The International Space Museum
is expected to be ready before the end of 2005, at
the latest.
Creating Space Business Opportunities
Brazilian and Portuguese companies and institutes
could join the ALMA da AGUA initiative, by
providing additional instrumentation such as the
low power consumption microphone to record the
sloshing sounds of the mixing water, the GPS
payload, customized accelerometers, miniaturized
cosmic ray detectors, and needle-like nozzles or
tubes to reduce the distance the water jets would
need to travel before mixing.
While developing this new instrumentation, small
mock-ups or demonstration models will be built.
When not in use by the scientists and engineers
they shall be used in regular multimedia artistic
displays, with live music, providing a way to
involve the various publics with the development
process, in an esthetic and technical way
simultaneously.
In terms of merchandizing space art, there is a
small series of eight jewels already under
development to be made available on the day of
the launch. On the commercial Portuguese space
shop that will be opening in November at
www.astroporto.com it will be possible to become
a sponsor of the ALMA da Agua project, ensuring
an opportunity for any interested private or public
entity to support our goals choosing from a wide
scope of sponsorships.
THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
This project is launched by the space awareness
initiative and will last over a five-year period in
order to be able to reach its goals.
1st
Step
November 2000
Gathering of eight natural source water
samples is initiated
2nd
Step
7

8. Fall 2001
Preparation of artistic competition
3rd
Step September 2002? Launch of sounding rocket
and full activation of AEPOR
4th
Step
Until the end of 2002
Creation of the ALMA organization.
Returning the Samples – End of artistic events
5th
Step
Spring 2003
Presentation of enabled follow-ups
6th
Step Fall 2003
Start of monthly web casts on water resources
7th
Step Spring 2004
Network linking all the Portuguese speaking
countries fully established and staffed
8th
Step 2005 : Space cooperation agreement or treaty
among all the Portuguese speaking countries
Table 4 Major milestones of the project
We hope to have a simultaneous TV coverage, and
“webcast”. It should be available to all the
communities of Portuguese speaking people all
over the world. The live sound of the launch is to
be picked up and transmitted. The TV coverage we
seek will be open to any experimental innovation
in multimedia that possible sponsors may want to
test.
Press Coverage Strategy
In order to assist the members of the press from all
the participating countries, special workshops will
be held regularly in Portugal in the laboratory
where the samples will be loaded into the payload.
International TV coverage of the launch is being
prepared so that this event can have the appropriate
impact needed to launch the collaboration among
all Portuguese-speaking countries.
There will be a web cast of the sounding
rocket launch. The official site of the Companhia
Espacial Portuguesa Lda (www.cep.pt) and the
official site of the initiative (www.almadaagua.org)
will keep regular updates of the initiative. These
sites will be available in late November 2002.
Displaying the water samples
There will be a cylindrical central room with the
flown samples and eight additional rooms, one for
each participating country. These will display
satellite pictures of water resources and cultural
artifacts from the countries. They will also have
the water samples that were initially collected with
information about their chemical composition and
environmental characterization of the natural
source. Portuguese specialists on stand design and
construction for museums and fairs (EUROSTAND)
are already developing a detailed layout.
Portuguese Speaking Countries
The “Comunidade dos Países de Lingua
Portuguesa” (CPLP) and the “Países Africanos de
Lingua Oficial Portuguesa” (PALOP) are natural
partners for this initiative. However it is still a
relatively young organization, and the markedly
technical nature of the Alma da Agua initiative is
perhaps better suited to be handled in its initial
stages by the public relations departments of
existing space agencies.
The Foreign Affairs Ministries of all the eight
countries will have an important role in these
efforts. At a later stage, several additional groups
and organizations may get involved.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The short term results that are sought have to do
with having enough common people in all the
countries that use the Portuguese language to
become aware of the various capabilities that
Brazil has developed, and of the fact that by
joining ESA Portugal might now be enabled to
assist better the European space industry in
becoming relatively more involved with
humanitarian issues, in a global perspective.
A contribution to the European Space Strategy
One could use an oversimplified “formula” such as
ESA + European Union = ESS (European Space
Strategy) to provide a cognitive framework
clarifying the rationale of this effort. The European
space efforts in the past have not been particularly
8

9. directed to global issues and markets. There are
ongoing efforts to harmonize10
space technology.
One possible role for the most recent member of
ESA, would be to take advantage of a particular
global network of different regions that have
cultural ties with Portugal, and thus assist once
again Europe in its global endeavors. The AEPOR
Airborne Lab is being designed11
with this goal in
mind. Its payloads and cargo will be of scientific,
technical, commercial and artistic nature.
Broadening Existing Programs
So that several existing international programs can
be broadened to all of the Portuguese speaking
countries, this initiative will promote specific
artistic events related to, and somehow involving a
wide number of organizations and programs. These
will potentially come to include a wide variety of
projects. One was selected as an indicative
example: As part of the WMO, the World
Meteorological Organization, there is the World
Hydrological Cycle Observing System
(WHYCOS) that is composed of several regional
systems (HYCOSs) implemented by cooperating
nations, that complement national efforts to
provide the information required for water
resource management.
Fig. 6 Current global distribution of Hydrological
Cycle Observing System (HYCOS) from WMO
ANGOLA (A)
Congo HYCOS or
SADC HYCOS ?
BRASIL (B) Not in HYCOS?
CAPE VERDE (C) AOC HYCOS
GUINÉ-BISSAU (G)
AOC HYCOS
MOÇAMBIQUE (M) SADC HYCOS
PORTUGAL (P) MED HYCOS
SÃO TOMÉ E PRINCÍPE
(S) Congo HYCOS
TIMOR (T) Not in HYCOS?
Table 5 Global distribution of HYCOS coverage
Setting up the A.L.M.A. computer network
Currently, less than 1% of the total population of
the African continent has good access to the
Internet. The computer network from the AEPOR
will have a special layer customized to provide
interfaces with all the Portuguese-speaking
countries. In order to start weaving this network, a
pilot project is the specific A.L.M.A. initial
network. These initials stand for “Agrupamento
Lusofono Multidisciplinar da Agua”, which can be
translated to English as “Portuguese Language
Multidisciplinary Water Group”. Nevertheless,
water resources data cannot be fully used
separately from other data. There is also a lack of
comprehensive data on the physical environment,
terrestrial ecosystem processes, and socio-
economic forces that are changing them. We think
that this effort cannot be conceived without taking
in account the need for a future broader network,
since water resources affect deeply food resources,
health issues, environmental issues, availability of
jobs, and so on.
To work properly, this whole effort should not
only rely on a top-down approach, but also depend
on a bottom-up continuous feedback. Artists can
provide an initial way to deal with new issues that
can later be integrated into the computer network.
Therefore, the network will have to be used to
promote a sustained public relations campaign,
thus needing to be able to send through the internet
various digital music and video presentations in
order to maintain an interesting and open cultural
program going on, in a regular basis.
9

10. Fig. 7 Top view of a room with the minimum
number of computers needed to make up each
initial node of A.L.M.A. computer network
Training Staff for AEPOR
One of the main goals of the space policy of the
Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology is
to focus on training Portuguese scientists and
technicians. This “Space Awareness Initiative”
although relatively simple from the technological
point of view is somewhat more complex if we
consider all the diplomatic coordination efforts
needed in order to have eight countries in very
different stages of development linked together.
The AEPOR organization is being set up in order
to provide logistical support to very diverse and
far-reaching future international partnerships. This
initiative provides a good training opportunity. To
promote student awareness and participation in
Portugal, CEP has established a protocol with the
magazine “Via Universitária” and a special
website will be available before the end of 2002.
Cooperation between Portugal and Brazil
Various Portuguese entities need regular access to
outer space and reduced gravity conditions in order
to develop instrumentation and train technical
support staff. Working with the “Centro de
Investigação das Ferrugens do Cafeeiro”, which is
part of the “Instituto de Investigação Cientifica
Tropical”, CEP selected some samples of fungi
that grow on coffee plants, and through
collaboration with ITA Inc. had them launched on
a sub-orbital flight on the 15th
of March 1999,
during the Operação São Marcos VS-30 sounding
rocket flight. They were the first Portuguese
samples onboard a Brazilian sounding rocket.
Reflights of the basic ALMA da AGUA payload
with a number of upgrades and modifications (for
Microgravity12
or Astrophysics) can provide a
simple way to establish an initial collaboration that
can lead to the establishment of more complex
future joint efforts. These efforts may be
conducted under the framework of the European
Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS),
and the “Rede Brasileira de Informações para
Normalização de Atividades Espaciais (RBNAE)”.
Desirable long term outcomes
The motivation behind this awareness initiative is
the desire to create the necessary conditions so that
a future cooperation agreement or treaty among all
the Portuguese-speaking countries can be
envisaged. The Portuguese Air and Space Law
Association (Associação Portuguesa de Direito
Aéreo e Espacial - APDAE) during a workshop in
May 2000 began exploring which steps would be
necessary to accomplish and what would be the
correct sequence to allow the creation of the basis
for such a future cooperation effort.
There is a strong need to have information
about the environment available in the local
language, so that the utilization of space
technology tools is not limited to a tiny elite of
individuals, and enough people have real access to
the basic data. Simplified interfaces can help many
reach the desired improvement of the quality of
life. The development of enough materials written
in Portuguese may be one of the possible keys to
allow entire populations a more equitable access to
the benefits of the space age.
Future Portuguese national space-related
legislation13
, currently under development14
, will
try to promote a modern attitude towards space art,
keeping it closely interwoven15
with technical
issues, from the very beginning. In Portugal, small
space art payloads could help provide a bridge
between the private and public sector, allowing a
more balanced partnership.
CONCLUSION
10

11. 11
The Alma da Agua Space Awareness Initiative is a
hybrid effort, with 60% of the scheduled activities
being of technical nature, and 40% of the actions
and events associated having to be labeled as being
of artistic or sociological nature, aimed at
providing a flexible information feedback channel
to enable a continuous fine tuning of the effort.
The initial artistic interaction with all the space age
technology will be followed by a more technical
utilization of space tools such as remote sensing,
positioning, and water quality data acquisition and
dissemination. A viability study on technology
transfer initiatives including Alma da Agua is
being developed under a consulting contract16
from
ESA.
REFERENCES
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Century, NASA / AIAA
Houston TX 1988
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Project” by Companhia Espacial Portuguesa, Lda., edited
by ESA SP-312 Space & Sea December 1990
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48th
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