Pakistan Space and Satellite Developments
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As we all know that the internal problems is too much in the PAKISTAN.In this criticle movements PAKISTAN does miss the time to do a research and development in the space and nuclear department. PAKISTAN doing horrible thing with the collaboration with the CHINA and do all the army camp near the loc of INDIA.
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Pakistan in space? That's a funny thought.
Welcome back troll...Next time pretend to be a Britisher, I mean after a ban.
Don't be ashamed of your ethnicity, your country-fellows are not bad with the respect the get with their ethnicity..
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McCain criticized China's "aggressive" in the National Sea Dong.Trung despite international law as well as the claims of their own. South China Sea dispute: Emphasize multilateral solution.
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Lagging behind: 2040 - Pakistan’s space od[d]yssey
The communication satellite Paksat-1R was launched on August 11,2011 from China. PHOTO: SUPARCO WEBSITE
KARACHI:
Fifty years ago, Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam conceived the idea of the country’s first space research programme and national space agency in 1961.
But today, the only achievement that Pakistan can boast of is the successful launch of its first fully functional communication satellite, the Paksat-1R, whose first anniversary comes this August.
This satellite, however, was not indigenously built. China was behind Paksat-1R’s design, built, launch and even funding; only a few components were built by our engineers.
India, on the other hand, has been able to launch around 60 satellites to date in spite of launching its space programme eight years after Pakistan. It has even managed to launch its own unmanned lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, into orbit in 2008.
So where did we go so wrong in our space programme?
One of the main differences between India and Pakistan’s space agencies is that while one is headed by scientists, the other is currently headed by retired army generals, and has been for the last 11 years.
The space agency of Pakistan too initially was headed by scientists and many prominent names had a significant role. The last civilian scientist to have headed the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) was Dr Abdul Majid, who planned the Paksat communication satellite system and satellite launch vehicle projects.
On his retirement in April 2001, Majid handed over charge to Major General (retd) Raza Hussain, whose tenure lasted till August, 2010.
Since then the Suparco fort is being held by Major General (retd) Ahmed Bilal.
On the other hand, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has throughout its history been manned by scientists. Between 2001 and now, India has managed to launch more than 30 satellites. Pakistan for the same period managed only two satellites, including the Paksat-1, which was an acquired dysfunctional satellite and the current full fledged communication satellite Paksat-1R launched by China in 2011.
Early years
It was on Dr Salam’s advice that a Space Sciences Research Wing of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was established. Later, this wing became known as the Suparco in 1964.
To understand the significance of Salam’s forward thinking, who was then the scientific advisor to President Ayub, one has to take into account the fact that the world’s first satellite Sputnik-1 was launched just recently in 1957 by Russia and the US was yet to plant its first man on the moon.
Salam held a meeting with two PAEC scientists Dr Salim Mehmud and Tariq Mustafa, who were studying abroad in 1960 in Washington, and revealed that the Pakistan government had approved a classified mission to begin its own space research programme. He advised the two young scientists to join NASA to study rocket science.
NASA, during those years, was in a race to put an American on the moon. In this connection, they invited Pakistan along with other countries to participate in their project. NASA provided the two scientists with rocket components to take back home along with training and support on the condition that their findings would be shared.
It was in this connection that the Rahber series of rockets were launched from Sonmiani Rocket Range in June, 1962 that conducted experiments on the Earth’s atmosphere at a height of 130 kilometers. Later, the Shahper series was also launched that conducted experiments at a height of 150kms above the surface of earth.
Also, in the 60s, a Doppler radar tracking station was established in the country as part of a global network.
New facilities and labs were set up that received Spanish beacon satellites, and feeds from an application satellite that had been relocated in 1975 by Nasa over the Indian ocean for one year.
In 1973, American Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene A Cernan (Commander), Ronald E Evans (Command Module Pilot) and Harrison H Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot) visited Karachi amid great fanfare. It was also during the 1970s that the Islamabad Ionospheric Station within Quaid-e-Azam University was set up and the NASA Landsat ground station was established near Rawat.
Everything, it seemed, was moving in the right direction.
Suparco under Zia
After General Ziaul Haq usurped power, he promulgated the Suparco Ordinance No. XX of 1981, which granted the body autonomous status.
During the same period, a communication satellite project called Paksat was initiated.
Also, a 10-meter diameter satellite ground station for interception of satellite transmissions was set up in 1983 that was mainly designed against India.
A leading scientist told The Express Tribune that back then, the idea was to launch a satellite that could stage a ‘cultural counter attack’ on India with the influx of new Pakistani TV channels.
But when Gen Zia visited the Suparco headquarters in 1984, he announced an abrupt end to the Paksat project citing a lack of funds. It was during this period that many scientists associated with Suparco left the organisation. Funds were frozen, and there was a complete lack of innovation.
Satellite mystery
Some scientists, however, refused to quit and carried on. It was during this period that two ground stations in Karachi and Lahore were set up in 1986 in preparation for the launch of Badr-1, which was an experimental low earth orbiting satellite.
It was eventually launched on 16 July 1990 from China using the Long March 2E launcher and completed its designed life for around 35 days.
The country’s second satellite Badr-B was then launched after much delay on 10 Dec 2001 from the Baikonour Cosmodrome, Kazakistan.
An insider within Suparco says that to this day no one knows what exactly happened to the satellite when contact was lost with it. The cause was never fully investigated.
Expired orbital slots
When Pakistan failed to launch its Paksat satellites, the two orbital slots 38 E longitude and 41 E longitude acquired for it in the Geo Synchronous Orbit expired in 1994.
A new application for the allocation of five GSo slots (38E, 41E, 30E, 88E and 101E) was filed. Although granted, Pakistan faced the risk of losing its priority 38 E slot, if it didn’t launch its own satellite by April 2003.
Paksat-I
In December 2002, Pakistan acquired a satellite from the American satellite-building firm Hughes Global Systems (HGS) at a cost of around five million dollars.
HGS had designed a satellite for Indonesia, but after a battery problem occurred making it useless during certain hours of the day, it was sold to Pakistan as Paksat-1.
Later, General Pervez Musharraf would claim that “Pakistan’s space programme is now ahead of India after the formal launching of Paksat-I and this is due to the hard work of our scientists.”
2040 vision
Suparco chairman Maj Gen (retd) Ahmed Bilal, in an interview with The Express Tribune, said that Pakistani scientists were ‘on a learning curve’ which was why they chose to ‘fast forward’ their expertise with the help of the Chinese for Paksat-1R.
He clarified that China had given a soft loan for Paksat-1R, whereas all the cost of the ground control facilities within Pakistan were borne by the government of Pakistan.
Bilal remained vague on Suparco’s history, saying, “Yes, mistakes were made in the past, but we have to move ahead.”
When asked about the Vision 2040 programme that was approved by the ousted prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in January 2012, he said: “we should be able to make, produce and launch our own satellite [in the future]. That is our hallmark [sic].”
He said the Paksat-1R has a life span of 15 years and his suggestion was to have another communication satellite in space by 2021.
“National demands will dictate the number of satellites the country needs,” he said.
He said that Pakistan should have at least three remote sensing satellites that should be launched every three years.
“We will be focusing on different types of remote sensing satellites and their applications in the next seven-eight years.”
But if Suparco’s vision for 2040 is limited to building and launching our own satellite, one wonders how far ahead the rest of the world will be in the space race by then.
President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto meets the Apollo mission during their visit to Pakistan in 1973. PHOTO: US CONSULATE LAHORE WEBSITE
The motorcade of the US Apollo mission en route to the University of Karachi in 1973, where they gave a speech. PHOTO: US CONSULATE LAHORE WEBSITE
The country’s space research programme, Suparco, started off with great promise – but has little to show for it.
The communication satellite Paksat-1R was launched on August 11,2011 from China. PHOTO: SUPARCO WEBSITE
KARACHI:
Fifty years ago, Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam conceived the idea of the country’s first space research programme and national space agency in 1961.
But today, the only achievement that Pakistan can boast of is the successful launch of its first fully functional communication satellite, the Paksat-1R, whose first anniversary comes this August.
This satellite, however, was not indigenously built. China was behind Paksat-1R’s design, built, launch and even funding; only a few components were built by our engineers.
India, on the other hand, has been able to launch around 60 satellites to date in spite of launching its space programme eight years after Pakistan. It has even managed to launch its own unmanned lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, into orbit in 2008.
So where did we go so wrong in our space programme?
One of the main differences between India and Pakistan’s space agencies is that while one is headed by scientists, the other is currently headed by retired army generals, and has been for the last 11 years.
The space agency of Pakistan too initially was headed by scientists and many prominent names had a significant role. The last civilian scientist to have headed the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) was Dr Abdul Majid, who planned the Paksat communication satellite system and satellite launch vehicle projects.
On his retirement in April 2001, Majid handed over charge to Major General (retd) Raza Hussain, whose tenure lasted till August, 2010.
Since then the Suparco fort is being held by Major General (retd) Ahmed Bilal.
On the other hand, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has throughout its history been manned by scientists. Between 2001 and now, India has managed to launch more than 30 satellites. Pakistan for the same period managed only two satellites, including the Paksat-1, which was an acquired dysfunctional satellite and the current full fledged communication satellite Paksat-1R launched by China in 2011.
Early years
It was on Dr Salam’s advice that a Space Sciences Research Wing of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was established. Later, this wing became known as the Suparco in 1964.
To understand the significance of Salam’s forward thinking, who was then the scientific advisor to President Ayub, one has to take into account the fact that the world’s first satellite Sputnik-1 was launched just recently in 1957 by Russia and the US was yet to plant its first man on the moon.
Salam held a meeting with two PAEC scientists Dr Salim Mehmud and Tariq Mustafa, who were studying abroad in 1960 in Washington, and revealed that the Pakistan government had approved a classified mission to begin its own space research programme. He advised the two young scientists to join NASA to study rocket science.
NASA, during those years, was in a race to put an American on the moon. In this connection, they invited Pakistan along with other countries to participate in their project. NASA provided the two scientists with rocket components to take back home along with training and support on the condition that their findings would be shared.
It was in this connection that the Rahber series of rockets were launched from Sonmiani Rocket Range in June, 1962 that conducted experiments on the Earth’s atmosphere at a height of 130 kilometers. Later, the Shahper series was also launched that conducted experiments at a height of 150kms above the surface of earth.
Also, in the 60s, a Doppler radar tracking station was established in the country as part of a global network.
New facilities and labs were set up that received Spanish beacon satellites, and feeds from an application satellite that had been relocated in 1975 by Nasa over the Indian ocean for one year.
In 1973, American Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene A Cernan (Commander), Ronald E Evans (Command Module Pilot) and Harrison H Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot) visited Karachi amid great fanfare. It was also during the 1970s that the Islamabad Ionospheric Station within Quaid-e-Azam University was set up and the NASA Landsat ground station was established near Rawat.
Everything, it seemed, was moving in the right direction.
Suparco under Zia
After General Ziaul Haq usurped power, he promulgated the Suparco Ordinance No. XX of 1981, which granted the body autonomous status.
During the same period, a communication satellite project called Paksat was initiated.
Also, a 10-meter diameter satellite ground station for interception of satellite transmissions was set up in 1983 that was mainly designed against India.
A leading scientist told The Express Tribune that back then, the idea was to launch a satellite that could stage a ‘cultural counter attack’ on India with the influx of new Pakistani TV channels.
But when Gen Zia visited the Suparco headquarters in 1984, he announced an abrupt end to the Paksat project citing a lack of funds. It was during this period that many scientists associated with Suparco left the organisation. Funds were frozen, and there was a complete lack of innovation.
Satellite mystery
Some scientists, however, refused to quit and carried on. It was during this period that two ground stations in Karachi and Lahore were set up in 1986 in preparation for the launch of Badr-1, which was an experimental low earth orbiting satellite.
It was eventually launched on 16 July 1990 from China using the Long March 2E launcher and completed its designed life for around 35 days.
The country’s second satellite Badr-B was then launched after much delay on 10 Dec 2001 from the Baikonour Cosmodrome, Kazakistan.
An insider within Suparco says that to this day no one knows what exactly happened to the satellite when contact was lost with it. The cause was never fully investigated.
Expired orbital slots
When Pakistan failed to launch its Paksat satellites, the two orbital slots 38 E longitude and 41 E longitude acquired for it in the Geo Synchronous Orbit expired in 1994.
A new application for the allocation of five GSo slots (38E, 41E, 30E, 88E and 101E) was filed. Although granted, Pakistan faced the risk of losing its priority 38 E slot, if it didn’t launch its own satellite by April 2003.
Paksat-I
In December 2002, Pakistan acquired a satellite from the American satellite-building firm Hughes Global Systems (HGS) at a cost of around five million dollars.
HGS had designed a satellite for Indonesia, but after a battery problem occurred making it useless during certain hours of the day, it was sold to Pakistan as Paksat-1.
Later, General Pervez Musharraf would claim that “Pakistan’s space programme is now ahead of India after the formal launching of Paksat-I and this is due to the hard work of our scientists.”
2040 vision
Suparco chairman Maj Gen (retd) Ahmed Bilal, in an interview with The Express Tribune, said that Pakistani scientists were ‘on a learning curve’ which was why they chose to ‘fast forward’ their expertise with the help of the Chinese for Paksat-1R.
He clarified that China had given a soft loan for Paksat-1R, whereas all the cost of the ground control facilities within Pakistan were borne by the government of Pakistan.
Bilal remained vague on Suparco’s history, saying, “Yes, mistakes were made in the past, but we have to move ahead.”
When asked about the Vision 2040 programme that was approved by the ousted prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in January 2012, he said: “we should be able to make, produce and launch our own satellite [in the future]. That is our hallmark [sic].”
He said the Paksat-1R has a life span of 15 years and his suggestion was to have another communication satellite in space by 2021.
“National demands will dictate the number of satellites the country needs,” he said.
He said that Pakistan should have at least three remote sensing satellites that should be launched every three years.
“We will be focusing on different types of remote sensing satellites and their applications in the next seven-eight years.”
But if Suparco’s vision for 2040 is limited to building and launching our own satellite, one wonders how far ahead the rest of the world will be in the space race by then.
President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto meets the Apollo mission during their visit to Pakistan in 1973. PHOTO: US CONSULATE LAHORE WEBSITE
The motorcade of the US Apollo mission en route to the University of Karachi in 1973, where they gave a speech. PHOTO: US CONSULATE LAHORE WEBSITE
The country’s space research programme, Suparco, started off with great promise – but has little to show for it.
A.Rafay
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First Pakistani to head into space
ISLAMABAD — Once you've been to both poles, skydived over Mount Everest and set up your country's first consulate in Monaco, the question is: what next?
For 37-year-old explorer Namira Salim the answer is easy -- become the first Pakistani to go into space.
Her flight with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism project is planned for next year. Although no date has been fixed for the venture's first commercial flight, she is looking forward to fulfilling a lifelong obsession.
"As a child I always believed I would go to space. It's not that I read about it one fine day and thought of signing up. I've always said this was in my DNA," she told AFP by Skype from Dubai.
"I must have been less than five years old and I was crying very hard. My father was trying to pacify me and I was like 'I don't want anything, I just want to go to space. I don't want any toys, nothing, just send me to space.'"
But coming from a country with no major space programme of its own, where millions live in poverty, the journey to the stars was never likely to be straightforward.
Pressured by her father to study, she kept up her passion for space in her spare time, joining astronomy clubs and spending nights gazing at the desert skies after her family moved to the United Arab Emirates in the 1980s.
"I always had this feeling that there was something very spiritual and divine associated with this whole thing," she said of her ambition. "As if something was really pulling me there and calling out to me, and I had to be there and I belonged there."
Chasing your dreams doesn't always come cheap -- Salim paid $200,000 to sign up with Virgin Galactic in 2007, funded with support from her family, who run a heavy construction equipment firm in the UAE. The weightless component of the flight will last for only a few minutes.
The cost is high by any standard -- but a fraction of the $35 million US software pioneer Charles Simonyi paid for his 2007 trip to the International Space Station -- and Salim insists it's about more than just fulfilling the whims of the rich.
Salim said the money she has paid is an investment in a commercial industry that will one day replace government space agencies and enable researchers, satellites -- and tourists -- to go up at a fraction of the current cost.
And she believes space travel can eventually play a role in world peace.
"We hope one day politicians could be taken up in space, and a space shuttle like this one we've built with Virgin is perfect for that. We could actually have peace summits and have conflict resolution in space."
Her mission was big news in Pakistan at the time of her signing up for the trip, and when it finally does take place, the country's freewheeling and patriotic media is likely to go into overdrive.
She has already made headlines. In 2007 she became the first Pakistani to go to the North Pole, in 2008 the first Pakistani to go to the South pole and later the same year the first South Asian -- not just Pakistani -- to skydive over Mount Everest.
Currently Pakistan's honorary consul in Monaco, Salim has taken her symbolic "Peace Flag" on all her trips and now plans to carry it into space.
In doing so she hopes to help tell a more positive story about her troubled homeland, which is wracked by Islamist and separatist insurgencies, poverty, disease, power shortages and economic stagnation.
"I think that raising a peace flag on behalf of the country, is what we need badly, more than anything," she said.
Training for the flight was done at the National Aerospace Training and Research Centre in the United States, and included a simulation on a centrifuge recreating the pressures and stresses of the journey to and from sub-orbital space.
"I felt the G-forces, which made me feel as if there was a big elephant crushing me down all the way -- I couldn't even move and I was suffocated," she said.
"Then all of a sudden we broke the orbit and I was in space, the simulation profiles completely changed and I felt light as a feather, floating in space. It was a really liberating feeling."
More than 500 people have put down a deposit to clinch a seat on the 60-mile, two-hour ride into space. Branson has said he hopes the service will make its first journey by the end of 2013.
The Federal Aviation Administration has given Virgin permission to start testing its SpaceShipTwo craft in space, but it is still unclear exactly when the first flights with tourists on board will take off.
But when they do, Salim will be there to make history for her country.
"I love my title 'first Pakistani astronaut', it's like being a very special princess of the country. Maybe nicer than being a princess," she said.
Salim, born in Karachi but now living in Monaco, said her family have always been supportive but would rather she was more conventional in her home life.
"I do have a very radical life, not having followed the typical path of being married with children, that is a worry for them, that is a wish. They do hope I'll settle down," she said.
"But I don't have any plans and I don't believe in any plans, I do believe in destiny and that gut feeling that I've always believed in and followed."
Space exploration and Pakistan: The significance of space technology
Nations rise and fall; and at any stage in the life of a nation, an inspired and committed youth plays a significant role in tipping the balance between the forces determining its fate.
What inspires the youth to put up a devoted effort for the wellbeing of society poses a complex question. These could be external factors like social fame, rivalry with other nations etcetera. But nothing inspires young inquisitive minds more than a paradigm-shifting breakthrough in the understanding of the Universe.
Nothing inspires like the achievement of a dream that has fuelled the imaginations of our predecessors.
Escaping the bounds of the Earth and reaching the distances of space is one such dream, which was made true by completing a manned mission to the moon.
President John F. Kennedy’s end-of-the-decade goal for a manned moon landing was the singular quest for NASA; and by achieving it, Neil Armstrong became known as the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Armstrong: a reluctant hero
Neil Armstrong was a professional engineer who loved flying. He had acquired his student pilot’s license by the age of 16. In September 1962, Armstrong was selected by NASA to be an astronaut.
On the Gemini 8 mission, Armstrong and fellow astronaut David Scott performed the first successful docking of a manned spacecraft with another space vehicle.
As a result of his remarkable credentials, he was selected as commander of the Apollo 11 mission.
As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”. An apt description of a marvellous victory and yet so humble, these words have become one of the best known quotations in English language.
Armstrong put his piloting skills to good use on the moon landing which was fraught with danger. The lander had only about 30 seconds of fuel left when Armstrong put it down in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility and calmly radioed back to Mission Control on Earth, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”.
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, a fellow crew member of Apollo 11, told BBC radio that he regarded Armstrong as “a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognised until man sets foot on the planet Mars”.
Initially it was decided that while Armstrong would be in command of the mission, Aldrin would be the first to step on the moon; Armstrong would follow the naval tradition of being the last to leave the ship.
However, later on, top NASA officials realised that the first man on the moon would become immortal in the public’s eyes. In their opinion, the calm and recluse Armstrong was much more suitable for this role than Aldrin, a brilliant and outspoken mathematician, who loved to challenge authority.
After the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong worked at a desk job in NASA for several years. Later on he turned to the tranquillity of academic life and taught Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and in 1992, he was the chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc.
He retained his interest in space exploration policy, and in 2010 he publicly expressed his disappointment at the cancellation of plans to send astronauts back to the moon. Armstrong was of the opinion that sending humans to the moon was not only desirable, but necessary for future exploration; even though NASA says it is no longer a priority.
When he was asked to describe what it was like to stand on the moon, he told CBS, “It’s an interesting place to be. I recommend it”.
– AFP (File Photo)
To explore or not to explore
Is it really necessary to explore space when there is so much that needs to be done on earth?
This is a public policy question, but one should remember that it is always tempting to sacrifice long-term goals for short term needs.
H. G. Wells said many years ago that “human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe”.
One could present many arguments, from jobs and education to technology development and national security, for undertaking a robust space program. We should undertake it for the most basic of reasons, our self-preservation as a creative, not stagnant, society.
Space exploration has helped discover how the dinosaurs went extinct, how the moon formed, and how nuclear reactions work. From space exploration technology, the development of thousands of products have progressed, such as digital cameras, cordless power-tools, memory foam, satellite and cable TV, UV-proof sunglasses, and even Google Earth.
Top five reasons to keep exploring space
1- The Apollo missions promoted science education by inspiring a whole generation of kids to become astronauts, rocket scientists, and engineers.
2- Space science also helps in environmental research by studying air quality, climate change, alternative energy, and near-earth objects.
3- We are consuming earth’s natural resources pretty quickly. Space has virtually unlimited resources. It is all just a matter of collecting and bringing them back.
4- The more we explore the cosmos, the more it humbles us. Earth is just a tiny speck orbiting a mediocre yellow-dwarf star nowhere near the centre of our galaxy, let alone the universe.
5- The population on earth is growing exponentially while the resources required to support life are fast eroding. Space colonisation can be the ultimate solution.
At a stage in history, when Pakistan is struggling to keep its mainland intact and easily traversable for its general population, talk of space exploration might seem a bit farfetched.
The law and order problem created by terrorist insurgencies has severely damaged tourist activity in remote areas of the country. One might argue that prudence demands to first look into these ‘immediate’ problems at home and aspire for higher aims like space exploration later.
However, in this era of hyper globalisation with increasing technological capture of almost all aspects of life, one cannot simply afford to look the other way when the world is slowly preparing to break the shackles of gravity and move out of this planet.
I often wonder if people threw out the same criticisms at those explorers who dared to sail on wooden ships to discover ‘the new world’.
Will there be a Pakistani space age?
The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) is Pakistan’s national space agency.
Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam, conceived the idea of the country’s first space research program and the national space agency was set up in 1961. It was granted the status of a Commission in 1981.
Its main task is to conduct research in space science, space technology, and develop its peaceful application for the country. It aims to promote space applications for the socio-economic uplift of the country.
On 16 July 1990, Pakistan launched its first experimental satellite BADR-1. It was Pakistan’s first indigenously developed satellite and was launched from the Xichang Launch Centre, China. The satellite successfully completed its designed life.
SUPARCO launched the second experimental satellite BADR-B on December 10, 2001. It was an Earth Observation Satellite and was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The satellite was designed by Space Innovations Limited from the UK.
Originally manufactured by Boeing and launched on February 1, 1996, Paksat 1 was Pakistan’s first geostationary satellite. Paksat-1R replaced Paksat-1on August 11, 2011.
This satellite has a designated life of 15 years, with initial targets to provide broadband internet, digital television, remote and rural telephony, emergency communications, tele-education and tele-medicine services across South and Central Asia, Eastern Europe, East Africa and the Far East.
SUPARCO, in collaboration with JPMC, has established a satellite communication-based telemedicine network as a pilot project.
Two sites have been connected through Paksat-1R satellite transponder, one at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), with Karachi as the hub and another at Shikarpur civil hospital (interior Sindh) as a remote site. Specialists at JPMC can do live video conferencing with patients in Shikarpur, thus providing specialist health care services in rural areas.
Conclusion
Space science is not just about satellites and rockets; it pledges to satisfy human curiosity by answering questions about the deep mysteries of the Universe. It also helps in shaping modern lifestyle by producing helpful applications for all walks of life.
While policy makers in Pakistan focus on the development of natural sciences and engineering education in the country, they should not ignore space sciences, which can prove quite beneficial in a country’s socio-economic uplift.
ISLAMABAD — Once you've been to both poles, skydived over Mount Everest and set up your country's first consulate in Monaco, the question is: what next?
For 37-year-old explorer Namira Salim the answer is easy -- become the first Pakistani to go into space.
Her flight with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism project is planned for next year. Although no date has been fixed for the venture's first commercial flight, she is looking forward to fulfilling a lifelong obsession.
"As a child I always believed I would go to space. It's not that I read about it one fine day and thought of signing up. I've always said this was in my DNA," she told AFP by Skype from Dubai.
"I must have been less than five years old and I was crying very hard. My father was trying to pacify me and I was like 'I don't want anything, I just want to go to space. I don't want any toys, nothing, just send me to space.'"
But coming from a country with no major space programme of its own, where millions live in poverty, the journey to the stars was never likely to be straightforward.
Pressured by her father to study, she kept up her passion for space in her spare time, joining astronomy clubs and spending nights gazing at the desert skies after her family moved to the United Arab Emirates in the 1980s.
"I always had this feeling that there was something very spiritual and divine associated with this whole thing," she said of her ambition. "As if something was really pulling me there and calling out to me, and I had to be there and I belonged there."
Chasing your dreams doesn't always come cheap -- Salim paid $200,000 to sign up with Virgin Galactic in 2007, funded with support from her family, who run a heavy construction equipment firm in the UAE. The weightless component of the flight will last for only a few minutes.
The cost is high by any standard -- but a fraction of the $35 million US software pioneer Charles Simonyi paid for his 2007 trip to the International Space Station -- and Salim insists it's about more than just fulfilling the whims of the rich.
Salim said the money she has paid is an investment in a commercial industry that will one day replace government space agencies and enable researchers, satellites -- and tourists -- to go up at a fraction of the current cost.
And she believes space travel can eventually play a role in world peace.
"We hope one day politicians could be taken up in space, and a space shuttle like this one we've built with Virgin is perfect for that. We could actually have peace summits and have conflict resolution in space."
Her mission was big news in Pakistan at the time of her signing up for the trip, and when it finally does take place, the country's freewheeling and patriotic media is likely to go into overdrive.
She has already made headlines. In 2007 she became the first Pakistani to go to the North Pole, in 2008 the first Pakistani to go to the South pole and later the same year the first South Asian -- not just Pakistani -- to skydive over Mount Everest.
Currently Pakistan's honorary consul in Monaco, Salim has taken her symbolic "Peace Flag" on all her trips and now plans to carry it into space.
In doing so she hopes to help tell a more positive story about her troubled homeland, which is wracked by Islamist and separatist insurgencies, poverty, disease, power shortages and economic stagnation.
"I think that raising a peace flag on behalf of the country, is what we need badly, more than anything," she said.
Training for the flight was done at the National Aerospace Training and Research Centre in the United States, and included a simulation on a centrifuge recreating the pressures and stresses of the journey to and from sub-orbital space.
"I felt the G-forces, which made me feel as if there was a big elephant crushing me down all the way -- I couldn't even move and I was suffocated," she said.
"Then all of a sudden we broke the orbit and I was in space, the simulation profiles completely changed and I felt light as a feather, floating in space. It was a really liberating feeling."
More than 500 people have put down a deposit to clinch a seat on the 60-mile, two-hour ride into space. Branson has said he hopes the service will make its first journey by the end of 2013.
The Federal Aviation Administration has given Virgin permission to start testing its SpaceShipTwo craft in space, but it is still unclear exactly when the first flights with tourists on board will take off.
But when they do, Salim will be there to make history for her country.
"I love my title 'first Pakistani astronaut', it's like being a very special princess of the country. Maybe nicer than being a princess," she said.
Salim, born in Karachi but now living in Monaco, said her family have always been supportive but would rather she was more conventional in her home life.
"I do have a very radical life, not having followed the typical path of being married with children, that is a worry for them, that is a wish. They do hope I'll settle down," she said.
"But I don't have any plans and I don't believe in any plans, I do believe in destiny and that gut feeling that I've always believed in and followed."
Space exploration and Pakistan: The significance of space technology
Nations rise and fall; and at any stage in the life of a nation, an inspired and committed youth plays a significant role in tipping the balance between the forces determining its fate.
What inspires the youth to put up a devoted effort for the wellbeing of society poses a complex question. These could be external factors like social fame, rivalry with other nations etcetera. But nothing inspires young inquisitive minds more than a paradigm-shifting breakthrough in the understanding of the Universe.
Nothing inspires like the achievement of a dream that has fuelled the imaginations of our predecessors.
Escaping the bounds of the Earth and reaching the distances of space is one such dream, which was made true by completing a manned mission to the moon.
President John F. Kennedy’s end-of-the-decade goal for a manned moon landing was the singular quest for NASA; and by achieving it, Neil Armstrong became known as the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Armstrong: a reluctant hero
Neil Armstrong was a professional engineer who loved flying. He had acquired his student pilot’s license by the age of 16. In September 1962, Armstrong was selected by NASA to be an astronaut.
On the Gemini 8 mission, Armstrong and fellow astronaut David Scott performed the first successful docking of a manned spacecraft with another space vehicle.
As a result of his remarkable credentials, he was selected as commander of the Apollo 11 mission.
As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”. An apt description of a marvellous victory and yet so humble, these words have become one of the best known quotations in English language.
Armstrong put his piloting skills to good use on the moon landing which was fraught with danger. The lander had only about 30 seconds of fuel left when Armstrong put it down in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility and calmly radioed back to Mission Control on Earth, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”.
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, a fellow crew member of Apollo 11, told BBC radio that he regarded Armstrong as “a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognised until man sets foot on the planet Mars”.
Initially it was decided that while Armstrong would be in command of the mission, Aldrin would be the first to step on the moon; Armstrong would follow the naval tradition of being the last to leave the ship.
However, later on, top NASA officials realised that the first man on the moon would become immortal in the public’s eyes. In their opinion, the calm and recluse Armstrong was much more suitable for this role than Aldrin, a brilliant and outspoken mathematician, who loved to challenge authority.
After the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong worked at a desk job in NASA for several years. Later on he turned to the tranquillity of academic life and taught Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and in 1992, he was the chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc.
He retained his interest in space exploration policy, and in 2010 he publicly expressed his disappointment at the cancellation of plans to send astronauts back to the moon. Armstrong was of the opinion that sending humans to the moon was not only desirable, but necessary for future exploration; even though NASA says it is no longer a priority.
When he was asked to describe what it was like to stand on the moon, he told CBS, “It’s an interesting place to be. I recommend it”.
– AFP (File Photo)
To explore or not to explore
Is it really necessary to explore space when there is so much that needs to be done on earth?
This is a public policy question, but one should remember that it is always tempting to sacrifice long-term goals for short term needs.
H. G. Wells said many years ago that “human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe”.
One could present many arguments, from jobs and education to technology development and national security, for undertaking a robust space program. We should undertake it for the most basic of reasons, our self-preservation as a creative, not stagnant, society.
Space exploration has helped discover how the dinosaurs went extinct, how the moon formed, and how nuclear reactions work. From space exploration technology, the development of thousands of products have progressed, such as digital cameras, cordless power-tools, memory foam, satellite and cable TV, UV-proof sunglasses, and even Google Earth.
Top five reasons to keep exploring space
1- The Apollo missions promoted science education by inspiring a whole generation of kids to become astronauts, rocket scientists, and engineers.
2- Space science also helps in environmental research by studying air quality, climate change, alternative energy, and near-earth objects.
3- We are consuming earth’s natural resources pretty quickly. Space has virtually unlimited resources. It is all just a matter of collecting and bringing them back.
4- The more we explore the cosmos, the more it humbles us. Earth is just a tiny speck orbiting a mediocre yellow-dwarf star nowhere near the centre of our galaxy, let alone the universe.
5- The population on earth is growing exponentially while the resources required to support life are fast eroding. Space colonisation can be the ultimate solution.
At a stage in history, when Pakistan is struggling to keep its mainland intact and easily traversable for its general population, talk of space exploration might seem a bit farfetched.
The law and order problem created by terrorist insurgencies has severely damaged tourist activity in remote areas of the country. One might argue that prudence demands to first look into these ‘immediate’ problems at home and aspire for higher aims like space exploration later.
However, in this era of hyper globalisation with increasing technological capture of almost all aspects of life, one cannot simply afford to look the other way when the world is slowly preparing to break the shackles of gravity and move out of this planet.
I often wonder if people threw out the same criticisms at those explorers who dared to sail on wooden ships to discover ‘the new world’.
Will there be a Pakistani space age?
The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) is Pakistan’s national space agency.
Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam, conceived the idea of the country’s first space research program and the national space agency was set up in 1961. It was granted the status of a Commission in 1981.
Its main task is to conduct research in space science, space technology, and develop its peaceful application for the country. It aims to promote space applications for the socio-economic uplift of the country.
On 16 July 1990, Pakistan launched its first experimental satellite BADR-1. It was Pakistan’s first indigenously developed satellite and was launched from the Xichang Launch Centre, China. The satellite successfully completed its designed life.
SUPARCO launched the second experimental satellite BADR-B on December 10, 2001. It was an Earth Observation Satellite and was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The satellite was designed by Space Innovations Limited from the UK.
Originally manufactured by Boeing and launched on February 1, 1996, Paksat 1 was Pakistan’s first geostationary satellite. Paksat-1R replaced Paksat-1on August 11, 2011.
This satellite has a designated life of 15 years, with initial targets to provide broadband internet, digital television, remote and rural telephony, emergency communications, tele-education and tele-medicine services across South and Central Asia, Eastern Europe, East Africa and the Far East.
SUPARCO, in collaboration with JPMC, has established a satellite communication-based telemedicine network as a pilot project.
Two sites have been connected through Paksat-1R satellite transponder, one at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), with Karachi as the hub and another at Shikarpur civil hospital (interior Sindh) as a remote site. Specialists at JPMC can do live video conferencing with patients in Shikarpur, thus providing specialist health care services in rural areas.
Conclusion
Space science is not just about satellites and rockets; it pledges to satisfy human curiosity by answering questions about the deep mysteries of the Universe. It also helps in shaping modern lifestyle by producing helpful applications for all walks of life.
While policy makers in Pakistan focus on the development of natural sciences and engineering education in the country, they should not ignore space sciences, which can prove quite beneficial in a country’s socio-economic uplift.
Arsalan
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