Almost all Indian media outlets
– from electronic and print media to social media – aregiving wide coverage to
anapparently “unusual development in the region” under which Pakistan is all set
to upgrade and advance its indigenous space programme which previously had
“limited quality advancements” as compared to that of India who has of late been
engaged in active cooperation with the United States in order to enhance and
upgrade its (Indian) satellite programme. In the recently announced annual
budget, the Pakistan government has allocated a reasonable funding for the
current fiscal. After successful completion of the programme, Pakistan is likely
to come at par in space technology as well.
Obviously the news of Pakistan’s more vibrant and advance space programmeplan
has sent shockwaves especially across India as the report published in
newspapers specifically mentions that thisprogramme is primarily aimed at
keeping an eye on the Indian side, besides other purposes.However, on the other
hand, people of Pakistan, civil society, intelligentsia and political-cum-defence
observers have expressed great satisfaction as for Pakistan advance space
programmes were the need of the hournot only for the defence point of view but
alsodue to the growing demand from the civil communications, including the GPS,
mobile telephony and the internet as well as due to changing scenario in the
region, under which India has advanced itself to create security imbalance in
the region.
Pakistan is entering a new era of advancement after its most successful, advance
and vibrant nuclear deterrent and missile system programmes. This will help
reduce Pakistan’s dependence on foreign satellites it needs to use for civil and
military purposes. Earlier Pakistan had been getting help from the US and
France. Under the new indigenous space programme Pakistan plans to initiate
several projects to develop its own self-reliance capacity while reducing the
dependence on foreign satellites.
The budget forSUPARCO (Pakistan’s“Space and Upper Atmosphere Research
Organisation”) for the upcoming fiscal year 2018-2019 has been setas Rs 4.70
billion, which includes Rs 2.55 billion for three new projects. SUPARCO has
regularly been conducting activities each year to increase awareness of space
technology and to promote its peaceful usage amongst the students and the masses
in Pakistan since 2005. The budget allocation includes funding of Rs 1.35
billion for Pakistan Multi-Mission Satellite (PakSat-MM1). Likewise, Pakistan is
planning to establish various Space Centres for example in cities likeKarachi,
Lahore and Islamabad with the allocation of Rs 1 billion.Another project, third
in the row, which is on cards, is establishment of Space Application Research
Centre in Karachi with the budget of Rs 200 million in 2018-2019.The total cost
of PakSat-MM1 is said to be Rs 27.57 billion and the cost of the space centres
is Rs 26.91 billion.
For Pakistan space exploration is amongst the most fascinating ventures of
modern times. It contributes to investigation of physical conditions in space,
on stars, planets, and other celestial bodies through the use of artificial
satellites and space probes carried onboard spacecraft beyond the Earth’s
atmosphere. Space-based communication systems offer fast and affordable means of
providing services like tele-education, telemedicine, mobile telephony and
television to remote areas. The diversity and cultural exchanges of our
populations can be better served by television broadcasting via satellites.
Besides, communication satellites provide an important and essential
communication medium Pakistan’s armed forces. Remote sensing satellites have
great potential in contributing to better land management, food security,
disaster management, urban planning, mineral exploration, crop yield
forecasting, water management, etc. Weather has a profound effect on life.
Weather satellites provide forecasts on temperature, precipitation, cloudiness
and winds have both civilian and military applications.
For a water-stressed country like Pakistan, the economy of which is largely
agrarian, climate and weather and their effect on availability of water are
crucial factors. Weather forecasts and warnings are also important because they
protect life and property. Forecasts about temperature and precipitation are
needed for agricultural applications. Several Global Navigation Satellite
Systems (GNSS) are either in operation or under development. These provide free
and reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services on a continuous
worldwide basis. Some of the applications include land surveying, map-making,
tracking and surveillance scientific study of earthquakes, disaster relief and
emergency services in life-saving missions. Farmers, surveyors, geologists and
many others perform their work more efficiently, safely, economically, and
accurately using GPS signals.
SUPARCO was launched to strive to achieve self-reliance in space technology and
applications for national security, economy and society. Space Sciences and
Research Wing of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was established in
1961. Later it was renamed and placed under the leadership of Prof Abdus Salam
as Chairman and Dr I H Usmani as Vice Chairman. In 1984, the government approved
the long-term Space Science of and Technology Development Programme which
comprised four components: establishment of ground stations and ancillary
facilities for reception and use of scientific data including imagery of the
earth for natural resources survey, and reception and study of Very Low and High
Frequency communications signals; establishment of satellite tracking facilities
such as optical radar and laser tracking stations; launching of multi-purpose
satellites for point-to-point telecommunications, TV broadcasting and scientific
observations; and development of satellites and complete satellite launch
vehicles.
SUPARCO launched its first sounding rocket Rehbar-1 for upper atmosphere
research in 1961 becoming the third nation in Asia and the tenth in the world to
launch such a rocket. It later developed sounding rockets indigenously. It also
developed two experimental satellites Badr-1 and Badr-B which were launched in
1990 and 2001 respectively. Afterwards, work was undertaken on development of
prototype communication and remote-sensing satellites. The knowledge gained and
the skills developed through these projects played an important role in
SUPARCO’s contribution to the development of Paksat-1R communication satellite
in collaboration with China. The satellite was successfully launched on Aug 12,
2011 from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China. Pakistan now plans to
develop a remote sensing satellite as part of its vision 2040, which has
recently been approved by the government.
Space-based assets for Pakistan too have become indispensable to modern life
whether it is live telecast of events across the world or beyond, the ubiquitous
Internet, the telecommunications revolution, satellite weather forecasting,
mapping, mineral exploration, water resource management, disaster mitigation,
national security or hundreds of other applications, life without these would
now be quite difficult, to say the least. One hopes that under the new programme
and reasonable allocation of budget, Pakistan will be able to take lead in
advancement of space technology, like its missiles programme as well as nuclear
technology.
(The author is freelance columnist based in Islamabad)