APRSAF-14

Recommendation

Recommendations of the fourteenth session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-14) "SPACE FOR HUMAN EMPOWERMENT"
21-23 November 2007 Bangalore, India

Recognizing the use of space technology and its applications to substantively contribute to human empowerment in improving the quality of life and bringing other benefits to humanity in the Asia-Pacific region,

Recognizing also the importance of regional cooperation through space-based technology applications that would address disaster management and environmental issues for more secure and prosperous society, tele-education and tele-medicine through enhanced connectivity, as well as the importance of fostering the hopes and dreams of young generations for the future,

Hereby affirm that we, the participants of APRSAF-14,

[Sentinel Asia]

1. Declare the completion of the Sentinel Asia pilot project successfully with the efforts of the current Joint Project Team. This pilot project has successfully shared disaster-related information obtained by several Earth Observation satellites, especially those of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) along with training and technical support;

2. Declare the launch of the next phase of Sentinel Asia starting from 2008 to 2012 with the goal to expand utilization of disaster-related information including environmental changes together with its member countries and international organizations, increasing the number of Earth observation satellites from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) of Thailand, and some other entities, as well as satellite communication;

3. Agreed to establish the new Joint Project Team for implementation of the second phase of Sentinel Asia early next year, where JAXA will serve as a secretariat;

[APRSAF Satellite]

4. Welcome the APRSAF satellite cooperation proposed by JAXA, which consists of two parts, i.e. a joint study on the small satellite concept which shall meet the needs of the Asia-Pacific region such as disaster management, and a pilot project to develop the technology for the APRSAF satellite, to provide opportunities for capacity building, and encourage to hold technical workshops for a joint study on the APRSAF satellite. JAXA, ISRO and other interested agencies will jointly evolve a detailed proposal for the realization of the APRSAF satellite at the earliest;

[Earth Observation]

5. Promote satellite data applications, through the Earth Observation Working Group (EO WG), in socially beneficial areas such as disaster management and environmental monitoring;

[Communication satellite applications]

6. Share the experiences for realizing cooperation among countries in the Asia-Pacific region through the Communication Satellite Applications Working Group (CSA WG), regarding applications of satellite communication for tele-education, tele-medicine and disaster management, taking into account the needs to resolve the digital-divide in the region;

[Space education and awareness]

7. Promote educational activities through the Space Education and Awareness Working Group (SEA WG) to further stimulate interest of primary and secondary school children as well as university and graduate students in, and increase their awareness of, space science and technology and their applications;

8. Encourage the exchange of education materials and teaching experiences in enhancing education using the outputs yielded by space activities and addressing space-related subjects, taking into account the need to make more materials available in the languages spoken in Asia and the Pacific to better meet the needs of the countries in the region;

9. Recognizing the need for capacity building in the region, the Forum noted the significant role played by the UN Affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Asia and the Pacific (UN-CSSTEAP) located at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun, India, and recommend the APRSAF participating countries and organizations to fully utilize the center;

[Space Environment Utilization]

10. Share and update information in the field of space environment utilization among Asia-Pacific countries, through the Space Environment Utilization Working Group (SEU WG), and encourage to realize the cooperation on space experiments following the current feasibility studies of the ISS/Japan Experiment Module (JEM) utilization;

11. Encourage to realize cooperation on a micro-gravity platform on board the Space Recovery Experiment capsule (SRE) of ISRO among Asia-Pacific countries;

[UN COPUOS]

12. Appreciate the examples provided by ISRO on the use of space technology for human empowerment to provide services to village areas in the Asia-Pacific countries.