BENGALURU, Nov 17:
The 24th meeting of the Asia Pacific Region Space Agency Forum which concluded here today called for regional countries to collaborate in development of small/cube satellites to resolve common issues.
Briefing newsmen on the outcome of the meeting, ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar, the joint Co-chair of the meeting and Ms Mami Oyama, Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology of Japan said data from these small satellites could provide inout to solve various issues which the Asia Pacific region face commonly.
The meeting also decided to further promote educational activities, using space as a method that will be beneficial for the human resource development of the next generation.
Dr Kiran Kumar said that the meeting also decided to encourage and accelerate Kibo (in International Space Station) utilisation through feasibility studies in each country.
The Forum would promote space space application including rice crop monitoring, global rainfall monitoring, fire hotspot, haze monitoring and disaster management.
It would encourage and enable Asia Pacific region with country specific data cube initiative, data portal and analysis ready data through capacity building and if possible through data sharing mechanisms.
Dr Kiran Kumar said the current meeting, second to be host by ISRO after a gap of 10 years, saw the participation of 35 of the 40 member countries, a record attendance.
It also held special sessions on sustainable development goals, space policy and space exploration for the first time.
Another first was sessions on use of space technology for enhanced governance through inputs for planning, monitoring and decision. During these sessions user ministries shared their experience on the utility of space technology inputs.
He said more than 600 registrations were received and over 50 per cent of the participants were from foreign nationals.
Heads of Space Agencies from Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Thailand and France besides India participated in the important conclave. It also had participation from the UN Office of outer space affair besides two Japanese astronauts Ms Chiaki Mukai and Koichi Wakata. (UNI)
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