1. HOME
  2. News Mails & Newsletters
  3. News Mails - 2014
  4. No. 119 July/30/2014

News Mails - 2014

Subscribe: APRSAF News Mail and Newsletter

---***------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL SPACE AGENCY FORUM (APRSAF)
News Mail No. 119 July/30/2014
http://www.aprsaf.org/
------------------------------------------------------------***---

- * CONTENTS

  • 1. News on APRSAF: New Framework of APRSAF WG released
  • 2. News on APRSAF: APRSAF Newsletter No. 18 available
  • 3. News from APRSAF community: SGAC will organize Asia-Pacific Regional Space Generation Workshop
  • 4. News on APRSAF: Student parabolic flight campaign
  • 5. Event Calendar
  • 6. India's PSLV launches French SPOT-7, Singaporean VELOX-I, and other satellites
  • 7. VNREDSat-1 assessment seminar held at VAST
  • 8. Australian government launches "National Map"
  • 9. 6th AMCDRR issued a declaration on disaster risk reduction

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 1. News on APRSAF: New Framework of APRSAF WG released
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

After 20 years of APRSAF activities, the participants of APRSAF-20, held from December 3 to 6, 2013, in Hanoi, Vietnam, endorsed the discussion by the APRSAF Executive Committee (ExCom) to renovate the framework of working groups to adopt a socio-economic outcome-oriented structure as stated in Recommendations #41.
http://www.aprsaf.org/annual_meetings/aprsaf20/recommend.php

In responding to this recommendation, the ExCom proposed the new framework of the working groups, which can be seen at the following URL:
http://www.aprsaf.org/annual_meetings/aprsaf21/new_wg_framework.php

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 2. APRSAF Newsletter No. 18 available
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

The new issue of the APRSAF Newsletter is now available at the following URL:
http://www.aprsaf.org/newsmails_newsletters/pdf/Newsletter18.pdf

This issue includes the following:
- APRSAF-21 (Meeting Details, Message from the General Co-chair)
- Report from the APRSAF ExCom (New Structure of the APRSAF WG Framework)
- Article on the launch of DAICHI-2 and UNIFORM-1
- News on APRSAF activities (SAFE WS, SpaceEd, Try Zero-G)
- Message to the APRSAF Community (Asian Development Bank)
- APRSAF Calendar

Your feedback on the Newsletter as well as any updates on space-related activities in your organization/country is welcome. You may contact the APRSAF Secretariat at secretariataprsaf.org.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 3. News from APRSAF community: SGAC will organize Asia-Pacific Regional Space Generation Workshop
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) will organize the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Generation Workshop (AP-SGW) at Keio University, Yokohama, Japan, on November 29 (Saturday) and 30 (Sunday), 2014 as a side event of APSRAF-21, in partnership with the Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM) of Keio University, and supported by JAXA.

Students and young professionals below the age of 35 years mainly from the Asia-Pacific region will discuss "approaches for promoting Asia-Pacific regional collaboration in the space sector: The next-generation perspective." SGAC will appreciate the cooperation of participating organizations through sending local students and young professionals to this important event, in line with the goal of establishing regional cooperation by the next generation.

References:
-SGAC News
http://www.spacegeneration.org/index.php/en/home-news/news/1081-sgac-announces-the-first-edition-of-asia-pacific-regional-space-generation-workshop

http://spacegeneration.org/index.php/en/home-news/news/1083-call-for-ap-sgw

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 4. News on APRSAF: Student parabolic flight campaign
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

On December 25 and 26, 2013, the student parabolic flight experiment was conducted in Japan; students from Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam participated in this activity. Reports written by the students are now available at the following URL:
http://iss.jaxa.jp/en/kuoa/news/140625_kuoa_news_2.html

In Vietnam, a meeting was held in April 2014 at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), where results from the 2013 parabolic flight were reported. VAST personnel participated in the meeting. Students presented their experiment, and the program, as a whole, was highly appreciated as a rare opportunity for them to be involved in professional scientific research and to exchange knowledge with international participants.
http://www.vast.ac.vn/en/news/activities/1649-results-of-fieldtrip-parabolic-flight-2013-test-by-vietnamese-students-at-jaxa

Many students who participated in past parabolic flight experiment programs are currently active in their study fields and are taking advantage of their experience:
http://iss.jaxa.jp/en/kuoa/news/140625_kuoa_news_1.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 5. Event Calendar
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

- International Conference on Space 2014: Space for Development
(8-10 Sep 2014, Islamabad, Pakistan)
http://suparco.gov.pk/pages/ICS-2014.asp

- 9th SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing Symposium
(13-17 Oct 2014, Beijing, China)
http://spie.org/asia-pacific-remote-sensing.xml

- The 35th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing 2014
(27-31 Oct 2014, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar)
http://www.acrs2014.com/

- GIS/RS User Conference 2014
(24-28 Nov 2014, Suva, Fiji)
http://picgisrs.appspot.com/

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 6. India's PSLV launches French SPOT-7, Singaporean VELOX-I, and other satellites
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

On June 30, 2014, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C23, was successfully launched, carrying the French Earth Observation Satellite SPOT-7 and four other sub-payloads, including VELOX-I, a nano-satellite developed at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. VELOX-I is designed, built, and operated by students at NTU, and its mission objectives include the acquisition of earth images and their transmission to the ground station as well as inter-satellite communication after the satellite is separated into two units (N-Sat and P-Sat).

References:
- ISRO PLSV-C23 Mission Latest Update:
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c23/status.aspx
- VELOX-I Nano-satellite, NTU website
http://www.sarc.eee.ntu.edu.sg/Research/Projects/Pages/VELOX-I.aspx

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 7. VNREDSat-1 assessment seminar held at VAST
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

VNREDSat-1 is Vietnam's first Natural Resources, Environment and Disaster monitoring satellite, which was launched on May 7, 2013. As almost a year has passed since its launch, a seminar to assess VNREDSat-1 activities was held in Vietnam in May 2014, in the presence of Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) Nguyen Thai Lai and the President of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

At the seminar, MNRE and VAST reviewed their cooperation in operational management and their use of the satellite. They likewise had an opportunity to hear from the users of the satellite images. At the end of the seminar, the Deputy Minister of MNRE appreciated the achievements so far and showed his expectation to continue the cooperation in the operation and exploitation of VNREDSat-1 to meet rapid requirements for satellite image capturing.

Reference:
- VAST News
http://www.vast.ac.vn/en/news/activities/1647-seminar-assessing-operation-of-vietnam-s-remote-sensing-system

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 8. Australian government launches "National Map"
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

The Australian government has released the National Map, an online map system that users can utilize to overlay geospatial datasets made available by the government under the open data policy. The datasets include those on terrain, vegetation, utilities, infrastructure, water, habitation, boundaries, and data broadband quality and availability.
The National Map was released prior to the annual GovHack, a hackathon event held in July that encourages developers to find ways to use government data.

Reference:
- UN-SPIDER News
http://www.un-spider.org/news-and-events/news/australia-government-launches-national-map-geospatial-data

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* 9. 6th AMCDRR issued a declaration on disaster risk reduction
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

The 6th Asian Ministerial Conference of Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) was held from June 22 to 26, 2014, in Bangkok, Thailand. Recognizing the achievements of the 2005-2015 Hyogo Framework for Action and development of the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, the ministers and heads of delegation of the countries of the 6th AMCDRR released a declaration to governments and stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region. The declaration calls on all governments and stakeholders in the region to take measures for disaster risk reduction, such as enhancing resilience at the local levels and improving public investments for disaster and climate risk management.

Reference:
- UN-SPIDER News
http://www.un-spider.org/news-and-events/news/amcdrr-bangkok-declaration-disaster-risk-reduction

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Copyright 2014 The APRSAF Secretariat

APRSAF News Mails are distributed to update the readers on recent developments in space-related activities in the Asia-Pacific region.

------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe/unsubscribe, or update your contact information, click here: https://www.aprsaf.org/newsmails_newsletters/form/
(or please e-mail: secretariataprsaf.org)
------------------------------------------------------------------

We welcome your updates on space-related activities and also your comments and suggestions to the APRSAF secretariat.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
APRSAF Secretariat
c/o Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
ochanomizu sola city, 4-6 Kandasurugadai, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 101-8008 Japan
Tel: +81-50-3362-5880 / Fax: +81-3-5209-3208
E-mail: secretariataprsaf.org
Web: http://www.aprsaf.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++