News Mails - 2007
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-Announcement-
[[APRSAF-14, November 21-23, 2007, Bangalore, India ]]
The conference dates of the 14th Session of the Asia-Pacific Regional
Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-14) have been formally confirmed among the co-organizers: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), for November 21-23, 2007. The First Announcement of APRSAF-14 will be sent to participating entities in due course and also be posted on the APRSAF Website.
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-Topics-
1. Activities of the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Indonesia in 2007
-Dr. Adi Sadewo Salatun, Chairman of LAPAN-
2. The third Sentinel Asia Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM3), Singapore - Mar 13-15, 2007
3. Snow Leopard project involving, fitted GPS collars using the Argos satellite system, Pakistan
4. SAR-Workshop 2007, Japan - Mar 6-7, 2007
5. The Reddiff Design a Mooncraft Contest in India
6. Kyoto Workshop for Global Space Exploration Strategy, Japan- Mar 7-9, 2007
7. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Updates - March - April - May 2007]
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1. Activities of the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Indonesia in 2007
-Dr. Adi Sadewo Salatun, Chairman of LAPAN-
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New Year Message from LAPAN, Indonesia
-Dr. Adi Sadewo Salatun, Chairman of LAPAN-
The National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) has been given a mandate by the Government of Indonesia to perform activities related to research and development in space vehicle technology systems, satellite technology systems, the application of Earth observation satellites, wind energy systems, atmospheric modeling, and other fields related to space technology and application development. In this regard, the implementation of LAPAN's strategic programs is aimed at self-sufficiency in scientific rockets, micro satellites, remote sensing data and their applications, renewable energy resources, climate prediction models, and other significant space applications for Indonesian development.
LAPAN, in cooperation with the Ministry of Research and Technology of Indonesia, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology of Japan (MEXT), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully organized the 13th Session of the APRSAF (APRSAF-13) in Jakarta from 5 to 7 December 2006. More than 150 participants representing 55 space agencies from 18 Asian and Pacific countries and 8 international organizations participated in the forum. In addition, UNESCO/APRSAF/LAPAN Space Education Seminar for high school teachers was successfully organized in Jakarta from 11 to 12 December 2007.
Satellite development at LAPAN is aimed at mastering micro satellite technology and its application in Indonesia. On 10 January 2007, the LAPAN-TUBSAT micro satellite jointly developed by LAPAN and the Technical University of Berlin, Germany was successfully launched into orbit at an altitude of approximately 630 km using a PSLV-C7 launch vehicle at Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. The successful launching of the LAPAN-TUBSAT satellite is an important milestone for LAPAN?s space program.
LAPAN programs on remote sensing are primarily focused on the utilization and applications of Earth observation and meteorological satellite data to support disaster management, monitoring of natural resources and the environment. In conjunction with the recommendation of the APRSAF-13 meeting, LAPAN shall continue to participate in the implementation of Sentinel Asia Disaster Management Support System in the Asia-Pacific region.
LAPAN Website
http://www.lapan.go.id/
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2. The third Sentinel Asia Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM3), Singapore
- Mar 13-15, 2007
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The 3rd Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM3) for establishing the Disaster Management Support System in the Asia-Pacific region was held at Le Meridien Singapore Hotel, Singapore from 13 to 15, 2007 co-hosted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), National University of Singapore (NUS) in cooperation with the UN-Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) together with 84 people representing 31 organizations from 14 countries and 6 international organizations.
Based on the series of discussions made at the previous Joint Project Team Meetings and the recommendations raised at APRSAF-13 in Indonesia, December 2006, the present situation including the Sentinel-Asia System construction and the disaster operation/activation as well as examples of practical data use for disaster prevention in each country were reported, and the participants discussed a new utilization vision, how to strengthening the node activities and capacity building issues.
Prof. Bernard Tan, Chairman of CRISP, commented in his opening addresses that there are many prominent policy makers, administrators, professionals and scientists from the Asia-Pacific region gathered here with the same goal, and that is, to exchange experiences and to discuss results for the promotion and use of Sentinel Asia. The JPTM is an excellent platform for representatives to put forward and discuss plans for the successful implementation of Sentinel Asia in our representative countries. Looking ahead, he hopes this meeting will bring about an increased application of Sentinel Asia, especially in the monitoring and mitigation of natural disasters.
The results of JPTM3 will be uploaded to the APRSAF website soon.
JPTM3: http://www.aprsaf.org/
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3. Snow Leopard project involving, fitted GPS collars using the Argos satellite system, Pakistan
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Dr. Tom McCarthy (Conservation Director of the Snow Leopard Trust), and the Wildlife Department of Pakistan initiated a project in Chitral Gol National Park (CGNP), located in northern Pakistan near Chitral high in the Hindu-Kush, in November 2006 and the project will continue for three years. Their goal was to trap up to five snow leopards without injuring them and fit them with GPS (Global Positioning System) collars. So far they have trapped one snow leopard and fitted her with a GPS collar to her.
The collar takes GPS readings three times a day and once every two weeks the data is sent via the Argos satellite system (Collecte Localisation Satellites) which is the worldwide tracking and environmental monitoring by Satellite (https://www.argos-system.org/) to the researchers. The positional data is ideally suited for the study and will allow detailed home range analysis, identification of precise movement corridors, and micro-habitat analysis when used in combination with GIS (Geographic Information System).
This will allow implementation of appropriate conservation strategies based on improved understanding of snow leopard habitat requirements and ecology. Conservation within Pakistan and across snow leopard territory will be benefited by recommendations for new or expanded protected areas. A team has been keeping BBC News website readers up-to-date with their efforts to attach Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) collars to the cats in a bid to shed light on the animals' movements.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6331445.stm
The Snow Leopard Trust: www.snowleopard.org
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4. SAR-Workshop 2007, Japan - Mar 6-7, 2007
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The first SAR-Workshop 2007 (Synthetic Aperture Radar: conducting cloud-free and day-and-night observation) was held at Tsukuba Space Center in Japan on March 6 and 7, 2007 sponsored by IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.)GRS (Geoscience and Remote Sensing) Japan Chapter,and co-sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NiCT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology), URSI-F (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale) and SANE (IEICE) (Space, Aeronautical and Navigational Electronics), gathering 37 participants from all over the world.
Dr. Masanobu Shimada, ALOS Science Project Manager of JAXA/Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) says,
"This workshop was held 13 months after the ALOS launch and 4 months after the data distribution. Thus, the PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band. SAR) data have not been yet distributed to all the ALOS PIs or users fully, but the presentation confirmed that the PALSAR products have been extremely well calibrated and its SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) is very small. The potential of the PALSAR can be well demonstrated for deformation detection and height measurements. The workshop was very successful in demonstrating the PALSAR potential and its performance."
Dr. Ake Rosenqvist, Joint Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability Global Environment Monitoring Unit of European Commission, who took part in the workshop, provided the following comments to the secretariat.
?My impressions from the IEEE workshop are positive. It was a good initiative to organize it in connection with the cal/val (Calibration/Validation) meeting of JAXA, to take advantage of the presence of the international scientists who attended. The observation scenario for ALOS is unique in the world (no other fine resolution satellite acquires data in a wall-to-wall manner over entire continents) and I am certain?that it will make ALOS one of the most popular and well used, satellites in the world. Another very exciting point is also the excellent quality of the wide-beam ScanSAR (Scanning Synthetic Aperture Radar) mode. I am very much looking forward to working with ALOS for many years to come"
SAR-Workshop 2007:
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/conf/workshop/jsarws_2007.htm
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5. The Reddiff Design a Mooncraft Contest in India
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The Chandrayan-1: the first spacecraft in India that is destined for the moon is expected to take off on March 30, 2008.
Previous to the launch of the mooncraft "the Reddiff Design a Mooncraft contest" organized by Rediff.com- Indian media- and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was launched in August 2006.
There were over a hundred entries from enthusiastic budding space scientists. Out of those entries, seven winners were chosen by Senior ISRO scientists, and the top four winners were invited to receive their prizes and certificates from Dr. Nair, the Chairman, at the ISRO headquarters in Bangalore on February 23, 2007.
The winners are young, extremely talented, and very unique individuals. They are Mr. Uday Kumar, 34, an architect (first prize); Mr. Animesh Bhhera, 23, an engineer who has worked for Texas Instruments (second prize); Ms. Amarah Ahmed, 15, a student at the BP Indian Public school (third prize); Mr. Shy Kaushik Parmar, 23, an aeronautics student at IIT-Bombay (fourth prize).
Dr. G. Madhava Nair, Chairman, ISRO, commented on the Rediff contest:
" Chandrayaan-1, which is planned to be undertaken during 2008, will be an important step in the new vision for the Indian space program that will provide immense opportunities to the younger generation to undertake challenging pursuits in space science and exploration. The competition conducted by Rediff has enthused the students to use their talents and imagination in devising spacecraft for space exploration."
For more information about this article:
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/27slide1.htm
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6. Kyoto Workshop for Global Space Exploration Strategy, Japan- Mar 7-9, 2007
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About fifty representatives of the 14 organizations met for an intensive series of rewarding discussions and made significant progress, during March 7-9, 2007 in Kyoto, Japan.
Organized by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the main focus was on reviewing the draft version of a key document entitled "Global Exploration Strategy: A Framework for Coordination" drawn by an informal 'Global Exploration Strategy' team (The GES Team) created by the fourteen organizations since April 2006. This will elaborate a shared view of space exploration which reflects each organization's interests and priorities. The GES Team looks forward to completing its work on the 'Framework for Coordination' in the near term and in establishing the Coordination Mechanism as a valuable contribution to the global space exploration effort.
In closing the meeting, JAXA proposed that it would host a further exploration meeting in one year's time.
The organizations that were represented in this workshop were ASI (Italy), BNSC (UK), CNES (France), CNSA (People's Republic of China), CSA (Canada), CSIRO (Australia), DLR (Germany), ESA (European Space Agency), ISRO (India), JAXA (Japan), KARI (Republic of Korea), NASA (United States), NSAU (Ukraine) and Roscosmos (Russia).
JAXA press release:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/03/20070309_kyoto_j.html#at01
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7. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Updates - March - April - May 2007]]
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* March 21-22, 2007
CRCSI Workshop: Geophysical Image Processing
Sydney, Australia
http://www.crcsi.com.au/pages/CalendarDetails.aspx?tabid=1&AVCalendarPage=1&Mid=1&ItemID=106&viewdate=21%20March%202007
* March 21-23, 2007
3rd Asian Space Conference
Singapore
http://pdcc.ntu.edu.sg/ASC2007/
* March 27-30, 2007
Asia Modeling Symposium (ASM 2007)
Phuket, Thailand
* April 1, 2007
Mapping & 3D Information Extraction from High Resolution Sat. Imagery
Sydney, Australia
Contact: training@crcsi.com.au
* April 2-3, 2007
Australian Water Summit Sydney 2007
Sydney, Australia
http://www.acevents.com.au/water2007/
* April 4-6, 2007
Location Asia 2007
Hong Kong, China
http://www.location.net.in/
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Copyright 2006 The APRSAF Secretariat
APRSAF Secretariat