The History of Finnish Space Activities - From the outset to 1995, when Finland became a full member of the European Space Agency. Volume 6

Ilkka Tapio Seppinen was born in 1944 in Finland. He began his university career in 1971 with a paper on how Finnish foreign policy was reflected in the country's press in the years 1928.1932. After spending a year in the Federal Republic of Germany, he wrote a study in autumr ; 1972 on the direction of Finnish foreign policy between 1918 and 1939. In 1976, he started as a research fellow in the Finnish Academy project 'Finland in the Second World War'.
This study of Finnish foreign trade policy in the Second World War formel the basis for his thesis. In 1980, he obtained a research fellowship to complete his thesis from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. He obtained his doctorate in November 1983. A series of historical works followed : Finnish Meteorological Institute 1985-87, Ministry of Communications 1988-92, Board for Economic Defence 1993-96, Suomi-Seura (Finland-Society) 1999-2001.
In 1986, Dr Seppinen was appointed lecturer in political history at the University of Helsinki. In recent years he has written the History of Finnish Space Research, a biography of a Finnish physics professor, and the history of the post of "Chancellor of Justice, the guardian of formai legality in the Finnish Government. Besides, he has studied the effect of the Napoleonic wars on Finland and, among other things, has published "The Baltic Mission" and " Sweden's war with Russia, 1808 ".
Risto Pellinen was born in Helsinki in 1944. His PhD thesis in 1979 was on the phenomenon of the Northern Lights. In 1972-2007 he worked at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, where, in 1985, he started the first space project in Finland. Since then he has been director or scientist responsible for 30 international space projects. He was advisor to the Finnish and Swedish Space Boards for 15 years and to various ESA bodies and directorates for about 20 years.
In 2002-2005 he acted as (hairman of the ESA Science Programme Committee. He was the key scientist in coordinating cooperation in the fields of geophysics and space physics with the Soviet Union,`Russia for more than 30 years. He has co-authored more than 140 space-related scientific publications, over 30 popular articles, 5 TV documentaries on space and has co-edited three textbooks about Mars directed at the general public.
He is an honorary member of the European Geophysical Union and was awarded the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal in 2006 and the Russian Yuri Gagarin (2005) and G. N. Babakin (2007) Medals.