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1. Getting on the road toward satellite development: experts, educators and students from around the world discuss CanSat activities, Japan - Feb 23-24, 2007

2. Symposium on the Use of the Equatorial Orbit for Space Science and Space Applications: Challenges and Opportunities, Austria - Feb 12-13, 2007

3. Current status of RazakSat, Malaysian satellite

4. SAR-Workshop 2007, Japan - Mar 6-7, 2007

5. ITC's GIS software ILWIS migrates to open source

6. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Update - March - April 2007]]

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1. Getting on the road toward satellite development: experts, educators and students from around the world discuss CanSat activities, Japan - Feb 23-24, 2007
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During the two-day International CanSat Workshop held at the University of Tokyo, from February 23 - 24, 2007, more than 150 space engineering experts, educators in aerospace fields and students from 15 countries reviewed the latest CanSat technologies and experiments and discussed future plans and international collaborations.

The speakers of the Workshop included R. Twiggs of Stanford University, the originator of CanSat, CanSat teams from six Japanese universities and high-school student teams of Waseda Prep School in Japan, as well as space experts, university teachers and students from seven other countries. Besides the United States and Japan, an increasing number of countries in Europe as well as Malaysia plan to organize CanSat events and experiments in 2007. To encourage international participation in each event as much as possible, it would be desirable to adopt common standards that should be applied to the size of CanSat and that of the payload section of CanSat launchers. The participants agreed that the standards used by the annual event in Nevada, the United States, known as ARLISS (A Rocket Launch for International Student Satellite) could serve as such common standards.

The presentations by the high school students of Waseda Prep School highlighted the positive impacts on young people that CanSat activities could have by allowing them to experience the first step training for satellite development, management and operation. Their presentations served as proof that high school students can learn a lot from CanSat development and experiment.

In view of the growing interest among Asian and Pacific countries in starting CanSat activities for their young people, the participants of the Workshop noted their increasing need to receive technical supports from more advanced countries with experience. In this regard, the Workshop invited the Space Education and Awareness Working Group of APRSAF to consider, at its next meeting, the holding of a regional seminar in the near future to train instructors to be able to provide university and high school students in the region with training in CanSat development and experiment.

International CanSat Workshop:
http://unisec.jp/cansatwswiki/index.php/%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8

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2. Symposium on the Use of the Equatorial Orbit for Space Science and Space Applications: Challenges and Opportunities, Austria - Feb 12-13, 2007
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Symposium on the Use of the Equatorial Orbit for Space Science and Space Applications was held at Vienna International Centre, Austria, from February 12-13, 2007. The symposium was co-sponsored and jointly organized by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). Approximately 150 participants attended the symposium.

The aim was to explore the status of the use of the equatorial orbit for space science and space applications mainly focusing on the use of the Low Equatorial Orbit (LEO), and activities of countries already using this orbit for their space applications.

At the symposium, 3 of 8 presentations were delivered from Malaysia, Indonesia and India and Thailand presented the exhibition with the theme of "Thailand’s Contribution to Earth Environment from Its Space-related Activities."

"We were particularly pleased that during the informal exchanges with delegates during our symposium, several opportunities for new
international collaboration were discussed", Dr. James V. Zimmerman, a chairman and IAF Presidents said.

Symposium on the Use of the Equatorial Orbit for Space Science and Space Applications:
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/COPUOS/stsc/2007/symposium.html

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3. Current status of RazakSat, Malaysian satellite
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RazakSAT (the Medium Aperture Camera Satellite) will be a Malaysia's own small satellite and will be able to provide specific and timely data for its users in Malaysia.

According to the presentation made by Dr. Ahmad Sabirin Arshad, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn Bhd, Malaysia, at the Symposium on the "Use of the Equatorial Orbit for Space Science and Space Applications: Challenges and Opportunities, Austria- February 12-13, 2007, the current statuses of RazakSAT are:
"RazakSAT is expected to be launched from Kwajalein by FALCON 1 Launch Vehicle in 2007 and will be the first near equatorial earth orbiting satellite for remote sensing application in the world. Its data will be utilized for mapping and GIS, urban characteristics identification, agricultural growth monitoring, updating geographical maps, and disaster monitoring.

And RazakSAT, weighing 180kg, is designed for a 3 year mission lifetime. The system is designed to carry a pushbroom imaging system that produces high resolution images with 2.5m and 5.0m ground sample distance in one panchromatic and four multi-spectral bands at an intended orbit of 685km altitude and 9 degrees inclination. The camera will provide a swath width of 20km.

The Flight Model development of the satellite has already been completed. At present, RazakSAT is placed at ATSB facility under strictly controlled environmental conditions. At scheduled intervals, RazakSAT is checked and tested for its electrical and electronic functionality. This activity will continue until it is shipped out for launch."

Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn.Bhd. Website
http://www.atsb-malaysia.com.my

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4. SAR-Workshop 2007, Japan - Mar 6-7, 2007
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SAR-Workshop 2007 (Synthetic Aperture Radar: conducting cloud-free and day-and-night observation) will be held in conjunction with ALOS/PALSAR CVST6 (Cal/Val & Science Team 6) at Tsukuba space center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) from March 6-7, 2007. The workshop will be sponsored by IEEE-GRSS (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society) Japan Chapter and co-sponsored by JAXA, NiCT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology), URSI-F (UNION RADIO-SCIENTIFIQUE INTERNATIONALE) and SANE (IEICE) (Space, Aeronautical
and Navigational Electronics). 22 presentations in total will be given at the workshop.

Dr. Masanobu Shimada, ALOS science project manager of JAXA/EORC says:
"The topics of the presentations include all kinds of SAR technologies and applications mainly using the ALOS/PALSAR. These workshops have been held once a year frequency from early 2000 as the IEEE Tokyo chapter's activity. Since the ALOS/PALSAR has been calibrated and the data has been distributed from 24 October, 2006, the PALSAR workshop resumed. This workshop is fully international and participants from Korea, China, Italy, Germany, USA, Australia, Thailand and so on have registered for the workshop."

SAR-workshop 2007:
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/conf/workshop/jsarws_2007.htm

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5. ITC's GIS software ILWIS migrates to open source
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- Article from ITC representative Thailand & Vietnam-

The Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) is a center for international education. ITC aims at capacity building and institutional development of professional and academic organizations and individuals.

The Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS) is a PC-based GIS & Remote Sensing software, developed by International institute for ITC. ILWIS comprises a complete package of image processing, spatial analysis and digital mapping.

Even after its last release of ILWIS software in 2005, its user community remained vivid, both inside and outside of ITC. However there was not a common base for further system development.

In order to create better opportunities for the reuse and deployment of GIS functionality in a wider community, the ITC directorate has recently decided to make current ILWIS software free of charge and to migrate it as such to open source software under the 52 degrees North initiative, an open initiative that advances the development of cutting edge open source geospatial software. ILWIS software will be made freely available ('as-is' and free of charge) as open source software (binaries and source code) under the 52 degrees North initiative (GPL license) on July 1, 2007.

For further questions on the ILWIS migration:
ITC's 52 degrees North team
Dr. Rob Lemmens: lemmens@itc.nl
Dr. Martin Schouwenburg: schouwenburg@itc.nl

ITC:
http://www.itc.nl/

IWLIS:
http://www.itc.nl/ilwis

ILWIS software downloads:
http://www.itc.nl/ilwis/downloads/default.asp

52 degrees North initiative:
http://www.52north.org/

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6. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Update - March - April 2007]]
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* APRSAF-14 organization
APRSAF-14 preparatory meeting at ISRO Headquarters Bangalore, India -February 13, 2007
---APRSAF-14 co-organizers held a preparatory meeting on February 13 at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Headquarters. The conference dates of APRSAF-14 will be announced soon. ---
http://www.aprsaf.org/text/ap14_info.html

* March 5-9, 2007
CARIS 2007 - 11th International User Group Conference and Educational Sessions
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
http://www.caris.com/conferences/caris2007/

* March 6-7, 2007
SAR Workshop 2007
Tsukuba, Japan
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/conf/workshop/jsarws_2007.htm

* March 12-14, 2007
International Conference on Water and Flood Management (ICWFM)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
http://teacher.buet.ac.bd/icwfm/index.htm

* March 13-15, 2007
The 3rd Sentinel Asia Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM)
Singapore
http://www.aprsaf.org/text/wg_meeting_singapore.html

* March 21-22, 2007
CRCSI Workshop: Geophysical Image Processing
Sydney, Australia
http://www.crcsi.com.au/pages/CalendarDetails.aspx?tabid=1&AVCalendarPage=1&Mid=1&ItemID=106&viewdate=21%20March%202007

* March 21-23, 2007
3rd Asian Space Conference
Singapore
http://pdcc.ntu.edu.sg/ASC2007/

* March 27-30, 2007
Asia Modeling Symposium (ASM 2007)
Phuket, Thailand

* April 1, 2007
Mapping & 3D Information Extraction from High Resolution Sat. Imagery
Sydney, Australia
Contact: training@crcsi.com.au

* April 2-3, 2007
Australian Water Summit Sydney 2007
Sydney, Australia
http://www.acevents.com.au/water2007/

* April 4-6, 2007
Location Asia 2007
Hong Kong, China
http://www.location.net.in/

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Copyright 2006 The APRSAF Secretariat

APRSAF Secretariat

c/o. Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan
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Telephone: +(81 3)5572-6708
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