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.