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20 May 1999 |
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Australia and Korea have announced a joint satellite mission to gather environmental information and improve rural communications in the Asia-Pacific region.
Executive Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems (CRCSS) in Australia, Dr Brian Embleton, says that the Korean microsatellite KAISTSAT-4 is scheduled to be launched in 2002. It will carry a sophisticated communications package developed in Australia.
Dr Embleton says that the package, originally developed for the FedSat Centenary microsatellite, to be launched in 2000, can receive, store and transmit messages in three frequency bands.
"The lowest (UHF) band can be used by low-power and low-cost terminals. One application is to acquire data from ocean buoys that measure and store temperature and salinity," says Dr Embleton. "The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) also plans to use modified ground terminals in various applications such as fleet management, traffic monitoring, and animal tracking.
"The medium frequency or S-band channel is used for spacecraft commands and to transmit science data. The highest, or Ka-band channel is used for information-dense applications, such as rural Internet traffic."
KAIST has built three scientific microsatellites since 1992. FedSat will be the first satellite from CRCSS.
KAIST and CRCSS announced the plan at a regional meeting of space engineers and scientists held in Kuala Lumpur. The meeting examined ways in which countries in the Asia-Pacific region can benefit from space science and technology applications. The proposed mission will be the first in which satellite costs are reduced by countries sharing 'common payloads'.
"The 'Common Payload' concept has a range of potential applications, and will be a catalyst for collaboration in space science and technology throughout the region." said Professor Soon Dal Choi, Coordinator of the meeting and Director General of KAIST's Satellite Technology Research Center.
"Cooperation between countries in the region is a key part of our Centre's development strategy", said Dr Brian Embleton, Executive Director of the CRCSS. "Through working together, agencies can reduce technology development times, contain costs, and get our products to the community more quickly. This is a contemporary approach to making space services faster, better and cheaper"
Contacts:
Professor Soon Dal Choi
Director General
Satellite Technology Research Center
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Tel: +82 42 869 8611
Fax: +82 42 861 0523
Email: sdchoi@krsc.kaist.ac.kr
Dr Brian Embleton
Executive Director
Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems
Tel (work): +61 2 6216 7280
Mob 0418 62 4548
Fax: +61 2 6216 7272
Email: brian.embleton@crcss.csiro.au
About the CRC for Satellite Systems
See also http://www.crcss.csiro.au/
The Centre commenced 1 January 1998. Core participants are:
University of South Australia
CSIRO
Queensland University of Technology
University of Technology, Sydney
Auspace Limited, of Canberra
Vipac Engineers & Scientists Limited, of Adelaide
University of Newcastle.
Supporting participants are DSpace Pty Ltd, Adelaide; La Trobe University; Codan Qld Ltd of Brisbane, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation; and Curtin University of Technology.
(Australia's largest scientific research organisation)
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