Singapore to launch first locally designed and built satelli
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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. . . -
power sia....
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i am a nobody. -
Guess it's about time to do something significant and beneficial to our nation. I think all of Singaporean will be proud of it, who knows maybe one day we will be in the space project exploring the star.
In a project like this, I wonder what kind of people they will chose to do it in Singapore.
Maybe I can help.
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It may be the first locally built. But it aint the first satellite we have up there.
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singtel was the first?
maybe we r waiting for Singapore's first astronaut.. -
This topic is already posted in the military nuts forum.Pls refer to there from now on.I apologise for all inconvinience.