Published on January 31, 2005

In two and a half years’ time, Thailand will have fully embraced space technology by becoming the first Asia-Pacific nation to launch a small Earth-observation satellite, named Theos.

Theos – which stands for Thailand Earth Observation Satellite – weighs in at around 750kg, and comes with a price tag of Bt6.4 billion. It will be operated by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gisda).

The satellite – built by the EADS Astrium company, based in France – will provide geo-referenced images for application in cartography, land use, agricultural monitoring, forest resource assessment, forest-fire monitoring, flood risk management, disaster monitoring, coastal zone monitoring and national security.

Science and Technology Minister Korn Dabbaransi said Gisda signed a contract to deliver Theos last July. The satellite is scheduled to be launched in mid-2007, orbiting at an altitude of 820km.

“This is a crucial step forward into space technology for Thailand. Twenty Thais participated in the project in France and up to 30 government agencies will eventually be able to utilise the Earth-observation applications free of charge, allowing them to improve the quality of their services to the public,” said Korn.

Thailand is also cooperating with Japan to use Earth observation satellite applications of the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (Alos), developed by the Japan Aero Space Exploration Agency.

Alos is a new-generation Earth-observation satellite, scheduled for launch this year.

Under the agreement, Gisda will act as an Asian sub-node for Alos, which will provide data for a variety of geographical surveying applications, including cartography, disaster monitoring and the surveying of national resources in the region.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation

jirapan@nationgroup.com

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