News Mails - 2009
Newsletter -No.052, 31/March/ 2009
1. The 1st Space Applications For Environment (SAFE) Workshop, May 25 to 26, 2009, Pattaya, Thailand
2. The WINDS "KIZUNA" Symposium and Workshop 2009
3. ICIMOD celebrates its 25 years for 'Mountains and People'
4. Report on current operational status of small satellite "SOHLA-1"
5. Spring 2009 STAR program starts in earnest
6. [[Event Information - April - May 2009]]
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The 1st Space Applications For Environment (SAFE) Workshop, May 25 to 26, 2009, Pattaya, Thailand
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAFE (Space Applications For Environment) is a voluntary-based initiative in the Asia-Pacific region. It aims to encourage environmental monitoring on a long-term scale to grasp environmental changes and to mitigate global warming hazards by using space applications especially for remote sensing technology. SAFE was officially endorsed at the 15th Session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-15), held in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.
The 1st SAFE workshop will be held from May 25 to 26 at Pattaya, Thailand, co-organized by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) and the Japan Areospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The 1st SAFE Workshop Website: http://safe.gistda.or.th/
SAFE Website: http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/SAFE/index.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. The WINDS "KIZUNA" Symposium and Workshop 2009
------------------------------------------------------------------------
On February 24, 2009, the WINDS (Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite) "KIZUNA" (WINDS' nickname which means ties between people in Japanese), Symposium and Workshop 2009 was organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology of Japan (NICT) with the support of the Japanese government to discuss the topic of "Toward new and closer bonds in the Asia-Pacific region by using WINDS".
A total of 277 participants from 13 countries (Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Lao PDR, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Federated States of Micronesia, and the USA (Hawaii)) attended the symposium.
Comments from Participants:
http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2009/feature_85.php
Presentation materials from the symposium can be accessed at the following Web site:
http://www.prime-intl.co.jp/kizuna2009/e_index.html
JAXA and NICT have established Web sites for those who are considering using Kizuna. If you are interested, please refer to these sites.
JAXA Kizuna (WINDS) experiment promotion site:
http://winds-ets8.jaxa.jp/winds/en/index.html
NICT ultra-high speed Internet satellite site:
http://spacecom.nict.go.jp/winds/english/e-index.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. ICIMOD celebrates its 25 years for 'Mountains and People'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 2008, the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) celebrated 25 years of working for mountains and people in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. A series of activities and events were held starting in April 2008 on the themes of resilience and the Hindu Kush-Himalayan people's adapting to climate change, and promotion of sustainable mountain development. The celebrations culminated with a week-long series of events from December 1 to 6, built around the actual anniversary day of ICIMOD's foundation on December 5.
Full text of the article: http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2009/feature_84.php
ICIMOD Website: http://www.icimod.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Report on current operational status of small satellite "SOHLA-1"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOHLA (Space Oriented Higashiosaka Leading Association of Japan) is a small demonstration mission by a group of small- to medium-sized businesses in Osaka Prefecture. Its purpose is to invigorate regional
industries by developing useful satellites, to serve as a trial experiment for future small multi-purpose satellites and to observe thunderstorms.
Their first satellite, SOHLA-1, was launched as a piggyback satellite with the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) "IBUKI" by H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 15 at 12:54 p.m. on January 23, 2009 (Japan Standard Time) from the Tanegashima Space Center.
Ms. Haruko Noda, secretariat of SOHLA, talked about the current operation status of SOHLA-1
"We are, as a rule, communicating with SOHLA-1 once in the daytime and once at night via one of the three Tracking and Communication Centers of JAXA, which are located in Okinawa, Masuda and Katsuura, And we have carried out spin rate control three times and spin axis control (for attitude change) five times in order to confirm the performance of the attitude control system and to improve the generated power."
Full text of the article: http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2009/feature_83.php
------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Spring 2009 STAR program starts in earnest
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Masanobu Tsuji, Senior Engineer JAXA talked about Satellite Technology for the Asia-Pacific Region (STAR) Program.
"We will open the program office in JAXA's Sagamihara Campus in April this year and start the STAR program to develop small satellites with researchers and engineers of space organizations in Asia-Pacific
countries. This program has two purposes. One is to provide persons in space organizations in the Asia-Pacific region with an opportunity to cultivate talented human resources. And the other is to increase the
number of Earth observation satellites available in the Asia-Pacific region and ensure that the Earth observation needs in this region can be met in the future."
Full text of the article: http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/interviews_2009/34.php ------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. [[Event Information - April - May 2009]]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*April 21-22
Map Malaysia 2009
http://www.mapmalaysia.org/
Penamg, Malaysia
*May 11-12
GIS for Disaster Risk Management
Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.adpc.net/v2007/images/pdf-icon.jpg
*May 13-14
7th Annual Mekong Flood Forum
Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.mrcmekong.org/MRC_news/7th-annual-mekong-flood-forum.htm
*May 20-22
Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event
Shanghai, China
http://www.urban-remote-sensing-2009.org.cn/
*May 21-22
GEOSS Sensor Web Workshop
Ibaraki, Japan
http://www.earthobservations.org/meetings/20090521_22_geoss_sensor_web_workshop_invitation.pdf
*May 25-29
EOGC2009 (the Second International Conference on Earth Observation for
Global Changes)
Chengdu, China
http://www.eogc2009.com.cn/
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+
Copyright 2009 The APRSAF Secretariat
[APRSAF Newsletters are distributed to update the readers on the recentdevelopments in the space related activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
To subscribe/unsubscribe, or to update your contact information, pleasee-mail to:
secretariat
aprsaf.orgWe welcome your updates in space-related activities and also yourcomments and suggestions to the APRSAF secretariat.]
APRSAF Secretariat