By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net
NINETY space scientists and satellite technology engineers from 17 Asian and Oceania countries are currently meeting in the Philippines to exchange views and discuss possible regional cooperation on space technology development.
The 4th Sentinel-Asia Joint Project Team Meeting is being held at the Hotel Dusit Nikko in Makati City and is organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Technology (JAXA). It was also attended by the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Science and Technology.
The three-day event also brings together experts in the development of “small satellites” or purpose-built space satellites that weigh from 10 kilograms to 500 kilograms and can be used for low-earth orbit imaging for geographical mapping, climate change monitoring and disaster mitigation.
It will also be a pre-event conference for the much larger 14th Session of the Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum to be held in Bangalore, India from November 21 to 23.
In an interview with INQUIRER.net, JAXA associate executive director Hideshi Kozawa said the ongoing meeting was set to prepare the items that will be discussed in the upcoming Bangalore conference and will mostly cover space satellite information sharing among different scientific and disaster risk management groups, as well as to disseminate the value of low-orbit earth observation technologies for environmental, geophysical and even economic purposes.
Kozawa said one of the highlights for both the Sentinel-Asia Joint Project Team Meetting and the Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum is the WINDS (Wideband Internetworking Engineering Test Demonstration Satellite) being developed by JAXA.
WINDS will be a next-generation communications antenna to demonstrate the feasibility of space-based ultra high-speed Internet connectivity, as well as information distribution and disaster mitigation and prevention. It has a transfer speed of up to 155 megabits per second.
Kozawa said WINDS is expected to be launched from Japan sometime between November and February 2008.
“We intend to strengthen collaboration among Asian countries regarding climate change and disaster mitigation and to reduce cost from large scale environmental concerns. Governments should work together to improve their capabilities in disaster mitigation,” Kozawa said.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:44 am
This may be a good thing for technology transfer but then again, we as Filipinos must develop home-grown technologies here in the Philippines, not abroad; nor should we be fully dependent on imported items, units and equipment.