Subject: Re: DATE-OBS='31/12/99'

From: thompson at orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov (William Thompson)
Date: 2 Jul 1996 17:36:27 GMT

seaman at noao.edu (Rob Seaman) writes:

>Peter Bunclark wrote:

>> What is happening about the millenium?  Is there any proposed way of
>> dealing with the 2-digit original spec. of the year of observation.

>Previous discussion has centered on related issues within the WCS
>proposal.  Looking back through the half dozen or so messages that
>mention DATE-OBS, I see these keywords mentioned:

>	MJD-OBS MJD-REF MJD-BEG MJD-AVG MJD-END MJD-WCS
>	DATE-OBS TIME-OBS DATE-END TIME-END TIMEUNIT
>	TIMESYS TIMEREF
>	OBT_TIME
>	DATE_OBS = 1995-11-16T21:21:15.721Z

>(The DATE_OBS format is stated to agree with ISO 8601 as endorsed by
>some group called the "Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems".)

Looking up the membership of the Consultative Committe mentioned above, I find
the following member Agencies:

	British National Space Centre (BNSC) / United Kingdom
	Canadian Space Agency (CSA) / Canada
	Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) / France
	Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) / FRG
	European Space Agency (ESA) / Europe
	Instituo de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) / Brazil
	National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ? USA
	National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) / Japan

and the following "observer" Agencies

	Centro Technico Aeroespacial (CTA) / Brazil
	Department of Communication/Communications Research Centre (DOC/CRC) /
		Canada
	Institute for Space Astronautics and Science (ISAS) / Japan.

Fairly impressive group.  Their address is 

	CCSDS Secretariat
	Communications and Data Systems Division (Code-OS)
	National Aeronautics and Space Administration
	Washington, DC 20546, USA

Bill Thompson