Even as moderator and former chairman, ISRO, Prof U R Rao emphasised upon the need for collaboration, Dr Michael Griffin, administrator, NASA, chose to reiterate the importance of returns on the huge investments, and voiced a preference to work with seasoned players.
“Whether looking at solar-powered satellites or space manufacturing units, we are looking at big investments. It is on the economics of space flights that we need to turn attention rather than international cooperation,” he said. 
To a question on how nations planned to share the scarce space resources, Griffin plainly said “I do not know” and then went back to the importance of value on returns.  The moon came for special mention as most of the agency chiefs touched upon their nation’s aspirations to explore the lunar surface and possibly send man missions. Dr Griffin of NASA went a few steps ahead as he spoke of sending man to Mars by 2037.
China’s mission to the moon is slated for late this year while the Japanese one is already under way. Japanese chief Tachikawa said “the moon is no more a place to visit but to inhabit and exploit”.
Yannick d’Escatha, president, CNES, France who was a special invitee, reiterated that space technology had delivered the goods and it was now upto the world to use these tools. “Whether it is connectivity between humans, or sharing information, or improving human security, space science has helped give us the tools. It can be improvised but as of now there is much that can be done by making use of what we have for sustainable development,” he said  speaking on the sidelines of the talk. 
Technology push
It is time to shift from technology push to the use of these, he said. “Space exploration is for humanity to have a liveable Earth, not to live on Mars. That is what I believe.”  He was categorical that international cooperation was playing a big role in advancement of space science.
Other speakers like Prof Sun Laiyan, of China National Space administration, and Keiji Tachikawa, president, Japan Aerospace Agency, and Laurier Boisvert, Canadian Space Agency, and Jean-Jacques Dordain,  spoke of the need for sharing knowledge on the common resource that space is. However Dr Sun Layain noted, it is still a long way to go to peaceful utilisation of outer space. 
G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, touched upon some of the ways in which India planned to cut costs further on launches. The next generation of the GSLV with fewer stages as also a greater load would be able to bring down the costs to 50-60 percent of the present costs, he said.
As to any Indian participation in the International Space Station (ISS), Nair said that there had been no such interest shown by the Indian scientific community and that if that happened, India would pursue the chances.