News Mails - 2007
[[APRSAF-14, November 21-23, 2007, Bangalore, India]]
The Final Announcement including the final program, provisional agenda of each working group and logistic information, etc. are posted on the APRSAF website:
http://www.aprsaf.org/annual_meetings/aprsaf14/meeting_details.php
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1. Welcome Message from the Host Organization, Mr. G. Madhavan Nair (ISRO), India
2. China successfully launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, October 24
3. Regional Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Flood Risk Reduction in the Mekong Basin, Thailand, October 17 - 19
4. Malaysia's first astronaut went into space, October 10
5. Activities in the Space Education Center of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
6. Probabilistic Forecast of Killer Electron Alert in Geosynchronous Orbit, Japan
7. Other Articles on Space Activities
8. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Updates - November - December 2007]]
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1. Welcome Message from the Host Organization, Mr. G. Madhavan Nair (ISRO), India
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As you are aware, the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-14) will be held from November 21 to 23, 2007 in Bangalore, India.
While APRSAF is expected to be an active forum to promote concrete cooperative activities such as Sentinel Asia, APRSAF-14 will be held with the main theme of "Space for Human Empowerment" with the aim of bringing together participating agencies from the Asia-Pacific region to join hands and cooperate in building capabilities to use space activities to enrich people's lives.
On behalf of ISRO, the Department of Space, and the Government of India, I take great pleasure in inviting you to participate in APRSAF-14, to exchange views and experiences toward future cooperation in space activities. I hope that APRSAF-14 will contribute to further cooperation in space activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Full text of the Welcome Messages form the Hosted Organization - Mr. G.Madhavan Nair (ISRO) and Dr. Hiroki Matsuo (MEXT):
http://www.aprsaf.org/annual_meetings/aprsaf14/meeting_details.php
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2. China successfully launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, October 24
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China successfully launched its first lunar probe, the circumlunar satellite Chang'e-1, on a Long March 3A carrier rocket at 6:05 p.m. (Beijing time) on October 24 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the south-west of China, and the control center confirmed that Chang'e-1 had successfully deployed its solar panel.
The lunar probe entered into an Earth-Moon transfer orbit on October 31 and the Moon's orbit on November 5.
The satellite will relay the first picture of the Moon in late November and will then continue scientific explorations of the Moon for a year.
China view - October 24, 2007, by Ms. Lin Li - website:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/24/content_6937825.htm
Chang'e-1CLEP website:
http://210.82.31.82/
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3. Regional Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Flood Risk Reduction in the Mekong Basin, Thailand, October 17 - 19
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his workshop was organized by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), and The German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ), held from October 17 to 19 at Khon Kaen city (Northeast of Thailand) with 120 participants from 16 countries.
The objectives of the workshop were to provide an opportunity for the disaster risk reduction practitioners in the countries around the Mekong basin and the wider region to share experiences and lessons learned, identify emerging trends, issues and strategies and develop partnerships to promote flood risk reduction.
Mr. Kritphet Sipan, Vice Governor of Khon Kaen city, said at the closing remarks, "I consider this workshop to have been extremely useful, valuable, given the large group of government agencies, international organizations, and local civil society organizations that participated".
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4. Malaysia's first astronaut went into space, October 10
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Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia's first angkasawan or astronaut, lifted off on board a Russian Soyuz 15-S rocket with American astronaut Peggy Whitson, the International Space Station (ISS) 7S new commander, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 10.
He spent eight days on the ISS and performed several science experiments. Also, he performed the joint research projects carried out with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA).
On October 21, he landed safely back in Kazakhstan.
Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2007/feature_28.php
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5. Activities in the Space Education Center of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
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In May 2005, JAXA established a space education center in Japan to assist young people in their development as human beings. To reach out to a large number of children, the center works closely with school teachers by providing some of them with direct, customized support and others with indirect support. The center is gradually expanding its partnership with entities outside Japan, making the maximum use of the existing cooperation frameworks for space activities. The recent efforts of the center to promote water rockets and CanSat activities offer good examples of creating such synergies and supporting the objectives set by multiple mechanisms for cooperation in space education.
Water rocket competition website:
http://edu.jaxa.jp/education/international/APRSAF/en/
CanSat workshop website:
http://unisec.jp/cansatwswiki/index.php/%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8
Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/feature/f_029.pdf
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6. Probabilistic Forecast of Killer Electron Alert in Geosynchronous Orbit, Japan
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Killer electrons are high-energy electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts and they can damage satellites in a geostationary orbit or cause them to malfunction. Forecasting fluctuations in the volume of killer electrons is therefore scientifically very important.
Dr. Yoshizumi Miyoshi, assistant professor at Nagoya University, Japan, and Dr. Ryuho Kataoka, a special postdoctoral researcher at a Japanese research foundation, the RIKEN, have developed the world's first space weather forecast which forecasts the fluctuation in the volume of killer electrons using a probability method.
The forecast uses real-time data received from the solar wind observation satellite (Advanced Composition Explorer satellite) of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA).
Space weather forecast website:
http://hbksw1.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/
Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2007/feature_30.php
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7. Other Articles on Space Activities
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Workshop on Application of Satellite Rainfall Estimation in the Himalayan Region of the Hindu Kush, Nepal, October 1- 5
http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2007/feature_31.php
58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), India, September 24 - 28
http://www.aprsaf.org/interviews_features/features_2007/feature_32.php
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8. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Updates - November - December 2007]]
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*November 12-16, 2007
28th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS 2007)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
http://www.macres.gov.my/acrs2007/main.html
*November 19 - 23, 2007
1st Joint International ALOS Data Nodes Pl Symposium
Kyoto, Japan
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/conf/symp/symp_1stpiadn_announce.htm
*November, 20 - 23, 2007
WG I/6 Workshop on Earth Observation Small Satellites for Remote Sensing Applications
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
http://www.commission1.isprs.org/wg6/
*November 28 - 30, 2007
8th United Nations Geospatial Information Working Group (UNGIWG) Plenary
Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.ungiwg.org/
*November 29 - 30, 2007
ESRI South Asia User Conference
Singapore
http://gis2.esri.com/intldist/events/index.cfm
*December 3 - 14, 2007
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties
Bali, Indonesia
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/Events/CIFOR/climate_change_bali.htm
*December 10 - 13, 2007
10th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2007)
Hanoi, Vietnam
http://icadl2007.vista.gov.vn/
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Copyright 2007 The APRSAF Secretariat
APRSAF Secretariat