Monday February 10, 8:17 PM
Singapore to launch first locally designed and built satellite in
2006
Singapore is on its way to developing its own satellite technology,
and by the end of 2006, the first locally-designed and built
satellite will be orbiting the earth.
The Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) first satellite
project was launched from Kazakhstan in 1999.
This was a collaboration with the UK's Surrey University and Surrey
Satellite Technology.
And while NTU had worked with the two other partners to build that
satellite, its main contribution was putting a camera
onboard.
This time, the team is building its own satellite from
scratch.
Called "X-Sat", this will be launched into space from India.
In another significant move, NTU is also partnering the DSO Labs
this time, making it a wholly Singaporean effort.
They have spent the past two years on the design board and it is a
work in progress.
By the end of 2004, the team would have built a 6-metre wide dish
that will be placed at the top of the Technoplaza, which is one of
the highest points in the campus.
They will be using it to monitor the health of the satellite when
it is in orbit and to send commands to it.
The satellite will capture visuals of earth, especially Southeast
Asia, while it is orbiting.
"Our application there is to focus on environmental issue,
observation of forest fires and then phenomena like pollution of
the oceans, which can be captured onboard by the camera," said Prof
Tan Soon Hie, Director, Centre for Research in Satellite
Tech.
But the importance of such a mission is to test out the
technology.
While it costs about S$2 million to S$3 million to launch such a
satellite, NTU has set aside S$10 million for this entire
project.
NTU says it is a worthy investment towards building Singapore's
self-reliance in satellite technology.
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What do you people make of this? Wonder how they'll launch it
though, probably just contract launching out to China. . .
