Indonesia to launch micro-satellite in 2005
Indonesia to launch micro-satellite in 2005
Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia is set to launch its first imagery viewer micro-
satellite in early 2005 to carry out remote sensing of the
territory and its natural resources.
With its remote sensing capability, the micro-satellite will
operate in a polar-orbiting system, measure climactic temperature
and humidity, record topography, including forests, and monitor
cloud cover and water boundaries.
It will also have the capability to receive, measure, process
and transmit data from around the world.
"The satellite will prevent the Bawean incident from
recurring," Air Force Chief Marshall Chappy Hakim said on Friday,
referring to the five American F-18 Hornet jets that trespassed
into Indonesian airspace in July and performed maneuvers for more
than two hours over Bawean Island in the Java Sea.
The United States claimed that it had secured permission to
enter Indonesian airspace while escorting a U.S. aircraft
carrier, two frigates and a tanker. The government, however,
negated the claim, saying the request had arrived too late at air
defense command.
The case could be just one of many undetected breaches of
Indonesia's territorial integrity, due to the vastness of the
archipelagic country.
Head of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN)
Mahdi Kartasasmita said the micro-satellite project was made
possible through cooperation between Indonesia and Germany's
Technischen Universitat Berlin.
"The project will take 18 months to complete. Indonesia will
send six aeronautics engineers and experts, of which two will be
rotated every three months, to Germany," said Mahdi.
The project will cost US$2 million.
The 40-centimeter micro-satellite weighs 40 kilograms and will
orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers.
Thus far, Indonesia has been paying $250,000 a year? for the
use of imagery viewer satellites of other countries.
Indonesia's only satellite is the Palapa communication
satellite, which was launched in the 1970s.
Satellite technology is on the agenda for the National
Aeronautics Congress on Dec. 22, to be opened by President
Megawati Soekarnoputri.