The workshop, which ended Monday, is the second in a series of international workshops jointly organized by ESA and ASI, the Italian Space Agency, meant to help establish an international cooperation framework to support the space exploration plans of various space-faring nations, such as NASA's Vision for Space Exploration and Europe's Aurora Program.

Simona Di Pippo, ASI's director of the observation of the universe, convened the conference, with Daniel Sacotte, ESA's director of human spaceflight and exploration.

"Since we held the first Spineto Workshop last year," Sacotte said, "the plans of all major players have evolved and have become firmer and clearer. The time is therefore right to advance on the issue of global cooperation."

The workshop followed a similar event organized by NASA in Washington, D.C., at the end of April. It focused on lunar exploration and precedes a series of upcoming international events that will examine the potential for international cooperation in space exploration.

"An international community with a shared vision and common objectives is coming together through these events," Di Pippo said. "This community will be instrumental both in supporting domestic space exploration plans and to work jointly to establish a globally accepted space exploration strategy."

The space agency representatives shared their updated plans and strategies for the human and robotic exploration of the solar system, in particular the Moon and Mars. Senior non-governmental experts also presented some international cooperation examples and contributed to a lively roundtable discussion on the same subject.

For example, Scott Horowitz, NASA's assistant administrator for exploration systems, emphasized the international dimension of space activities in his keynote address. Horowitz is a former space shuttle crewmember.

Participants also explored, in separate groups, space transportation, in-orbit infrastructure, surface infrastructure and automatic precursor missions. Other discussions converged on the need to foster international cooperation among interested nations in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of space exploration plans.

"Activities linked to space exploration will return economic benefits and will provide answers about the origin and distribution of life in our universe," Sacotte said.

The next workshop in the series will take place in May 2007.

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