News Mails - 2017

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ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL SPACE AGENCY FORUM (APRSAF)
News Mail No. 147 March 3, 2017
http://www.aprsaf.org/
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- * CONTENTS

• 1. APRSAF-24 Updates
  - Next APRSAF to be held in Bengaluru, India in November 2017
• 2. News on APRSAF Activities
  - Sentinel Asia Second Steering Committee held in Bangkok
  - Third Space Environment and Kibo Utilization Workshop held in Bangkok successfully
• 3. News on APRSAF Community
  - Successful launch of Japanese Epsilon-2 with ERG aboard
  - UAE hosted "Global Space Congress"
  - India's PSLV rocket launches Cartosat-2 Series Satellite and 103 small satellites
  - UNOOSA and JAXA welcome applications for the second "KiboCUBE" by the end of March
• 4. Event Calendar

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* 1. APRSAF-24 Updates
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- Next APRSAF to be held in Bengaluru, India in November 2017
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), along with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will host APRSAF-24 in Bengaluru, India in November 2017. Information about APRSAF-24 will be posted on the APRSAF website (http://www.aprsaf.org/) in due course.

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* 2. News on APRSAF Activities
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- Sentinel Asia Second Steering Committee held in Bangkok

The second Steering Committee (SC) meeting of Sentinel Asia (SA) was held on January 19 and 20 in Bangkok, Thailand. The objectives of this meeting were to review the issues of SA Step 3, to discuss a long-term strategy for the evolution of SA, and to draft a short-term implementation plan. The draft long-term strategy of SA and the draft short-term implementation plan of SA shall be reported for confirmation and acceptance at the next Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM) of SA, planned to be held between March 7 and 9 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

- Third Space Environment and Kibo Utilization Workshop held in Bangkok successfully

The third Space Environment and Kibo Utilization Workshop (SEKUW) was held in Bangkok, Thailand, on February 9 and 10. This was the first workshop to be held in Thailand on the utilization of the "Kibo" Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station. This workshop was jointly organized by the Geo-Informatics and the Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) of Thailand, and JAXA under the Space Environment Utilization Working Group (SEUWG), APRSAF. A total of 88 participants from 38 organizations/institutions in Thailand, Singapore, and Japan attended this workshop. The participants exchanged the latest plans of Thailand National Space Exploration, CubeSat missions, and microgravity experiments and expressed their intention to expand the utilization of the Kibo module. During the workshop, students who had participated in past programs of the Kibo-ABC initiative held a panel discussion.

Presentation materials and photos are posted on the website of NSTDA: http://www.nstda.or.th/jaxa-thailand/sekuw/nggallery/page/1

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* 3. News on APRSAF Community
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- Successful launch of Japanese Epsilon-2 with ERG aboard

At 8:00 p.m. (JST) on December 20, 2016, JAXA successfully launched the second Epsilon Launch Vehicle with ARASE (ERG: Exploration of Energization and Radiation in Geospace) aboard from the Uchinoura Space Center. The objective of "ARASE" is to elucidate how highly charged electrons are born while they generate and vanish repeatedly along with space storms caused by the disturbances of solar wind, and how space storms develop.

Reference:
JAXA Press Release:
http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2016/12/20161220_epsilon2.html
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/en/missions/spacecraft/current/erg.html

- UAE hosted "Global Space Congress"

The UAE Space Agency organized "Global Space Congress" on January 31 and February 1 in Abu Dhabi. Representatives from space agencies and the industry participated in the congress for a discussion of space policies and to present the latest space technologies. At "Space Agency Leaders Panel," leaders of space agencies from Asia and Europe discussed the current situation of space exploration and methods to continue the effort for exploration of Mars, given the loss of momentum of Moon exploration after the Apollo program of NASA.

Reference:
Global Space Congress website: http://globalspacecongress.com/

- India's PSLV rocket launches Cartosat-2 Series Satellite and 103 small satellites

India launched a Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 103 co-passenger satellites onboard the thirty-ninth flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C37) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota on February 15, 2017.

The co-passenger satellites comprised of 101 nanosatellites: one each from Kazakhstan, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE); 96 from the United States of America (USA); as well as 2 Indian Nanosatellites.

Reference:
ISRO Press Release: http://isro.gov.in/launcher/pslv-c37-cartosat-2-series-satellite

- UNOOSA and JAXA welcome applications for the second "KiboCUBE" by the end of March

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) and JAXA announced the second round of "KiboCUBE" program, a United Nations/Japan Cooperation Programme on CubeSat Deployment from the international Space Station (ISS) Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo).

The deadline for applications for the second round of KiboCUBE, under which free launch opportunities are provided for 1U-CubeSats from emerging space nations, is * March 31, 2017*.
For details, please see: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/psa/hsti/kibocube.html

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* 4. Event Calendar
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- Global Space & Technology Convention 2017
(February 22-24, 2017, Singapore)
http://space.org.sg/index.php/gstc

- CABSAT & SATEXPO
(March 21-23, 2017, Dubai, UAE)
http://www.cabsat.com/

- Legal Subcommittee of COPUOS
(March 27 - April 7, 2017, Vienna, Austria)
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/current.html

- COPUOS 59th session
(June 7-16, 2017, Vienna, Austria)
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/current.html

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Copyright 2017 The APRSAF Secretariat

APRSAF News Mails are distributed to update the readers on
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APRSAF Secretariat
c/o Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
ochanomizu sola city, 4-6 Kandasurugadai, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 101-8008 Japan
Tel: +81-50-3362-5880 / Fax: +81-3-5209-3208
E-mail: secretariataprsaf.org
Web: http://www.aprsaf.org
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