Vietnam: ready to self-produce a satellite in five years

Do you think that Vietnam is capable of manufacturing its own satellites?

Manufacturing is a high technology area. Only countries that are more advanced in science and technology are capable of manufacturing satellites. In 2005, Vietnam had a plan to launch a telecommunication satellite called VinaSat. This showed that the country is determined to have its own satellite for telecommunications development as well as for the nation’s defense.

Besides the project of launching VinaSat, in 2001 the National Centre for Natural Sciences and Technology submitted to the government a proposal to accept the transfer of designing and manufacturing technology for small satellites from British Surrey Space Technology Centre with the view of being able to design and manufacture our own small satellites for observing the earth.

We are capable of manufacturing small satellites. Why I am saying that? There are two reasons. The first reason is, since 1979 we have been studying space technology. After many years of developing and applying, we have gained significant knowledge and experience in the field and have good human resources for it.

The second reason I think is that we have learned from other countries’ experience like China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Algeria, and Nigeria and so on. These countries have been successful in transferring the necessary technology to manufacture their own small satellites.

In 1993, Korea launched its first self-manufactured small satellite KITSAT – 2. The satellite was launched after one year of studying the technology from England.

In 1999, Korea again was successful in launching KITSAT – 3, which was technically developed from the KITSAT – 2.

Small satellites can be made for a fraction of the cost of big ones.

According to the British Space Technology Centre, Vietnam could have had a small satellite in orbit already if we had wanted to.

It is true that in 2001, Surrey Space Technology Centre invited us to join the project of establishing the world’s first group of small satellites for sensing natural resources as well as disaster observation (DMC). They would make the first satellite and we would send our people there to learn about the technology. We could have been able to manufacture the second one. DMC was planned to consist of around five to seven small satellites.

The first one of the group was launched in 2002 by Algeria. In 2003, three others made by Turkey, Nigeria and Britain were successfully launched from Plesetsk in Russia.

If we had decided to join, the first Vietnamese satellite would have been launched in October 2005 together with another small satellite from China, which will now be used for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Taking part in a project with several satellites in a group would have enabled us to receive sensor data every day instead of every five days for a single satellite.

Through coordination among project member countries, not only would technology have been transferred, but also the number of photos we would have got would have been greater, and launch fees would have been less.

Unfortunately, we did not join it. The DMC project is a great success, and all the small countries taking part in it are now ready to do it again.

Why didn’t we take part in the project?

In 2001, the government asked Vietnam Science and Technology Institute to work on the proposal on “small satellite for environment and natural resources observation”. The proposal then was passed to the Ministry of Planning and Investment for assessment. The assessment took too long and at that time, Vietnam did not have any plan to develop space technology.

Now the new strategy on “studying and applying space technology to 2020,” approved by the government on June 14 will enable the institute to take further steps towards implementing the project.

We are going to have our big satellite launched, so do we need to make our own small satellite?

The two things are different. We have chosen a contractor to make the big satellite. If things go according to plan, in February 2008 Vietnam will have its telecommunications satellite, VINASat. The satellite will be used only for radio, television and telecommunications development.

The small satellites will be used for earth observation and taking photos of the earth’s changes.

With a 32 pixel small satellite, we can observe environmental changes to forecast disasters.

Small satellites can also be used for telecommunications and television for countries that have lower demands in these fields. The quality of small satellites cannot, however, be compared with that of large satellites costing orders of magnitude more.

After learning the technology, will we be capable of manufacturing satellites for military use?

In the military, satellites are used for sensing, communications and accurately controlling rockets.

If we learn the technology of making small satellites, in principle we know how to make different kinds of satellites. However, if we go further with particular kinds a lot of things will need to be done.

Among military satellites, there are many kinds for different purposes, like satellite to take photos, satellites to collect information and so on. Besides using these kinds in the Iraq war, the US also used many other satellites, which are normally used for civilian purposes.

So when do you think Vietnam will be able to make its own satellites?

First, we have to work with foreign partners. Usually, it would take 18 months to manufacture a satellite and the launching process would add in some more months to make it two years.

A second small satellite would be manufactured by Vietnam with the support of foreign experts.

From the third one we will be able to make it by ourselves. This means that Vietnam will not be able to make one for five or ten years.

Making it ourselves does not mean that we will be able to make every part of it in Vietnam. Britain and Korea now still have to rely on many different international manufacturers to develop their space technology.

What have you been preparing for the project?

Since 2003, we have selected people with good skills in electronics and telecommunications to send abroad for training in small satellite manufacturing. We have participated in some processes of making a satellite in Korea.

What we need to do now is form the project and get the latest information on satellite technology development.

According to the approved strategy, there will be a committee on the study and application of space technology. Forming the committee is necessary, as space technology will involve many different fields. If each industry tried to have its own satellites, it would be wasteful.

Space technology development needs good human resources with good skills. From what I have seen at recent robot competitions, I am very optimistic about youngsters nowadays. They have good knowledge in this high tech field.

(Source: Tuoi Tre)

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/interviews/2006/07/587724/

I think we should stop putting vina on every companies, and why the hell they always try to make ALL their products sound western (but end up sounds more retarded than western products). I wish more (but not all) of them would stick with the original Vietnamese names.

A new brand name? How about "Vietnam own n00bs"?

i.e Sacombank ... WTF is this? sounds retarded.

normally i dont agree with you, but this i agree.

all those names sound really boring, we want something powerful, like "Thanh' Giong'" or something from history names. like the US uses names like Saturn, Jaguar, or ya know? powerful names.

but i think anything that starts with VINA is a state owned company.

How about "sucker of the world" ^_^

CHINA 's Sat is way more Original !
VINA Sat sounds quite ' dead duck ' !

Any reason why you think that the VINA sat is going to be a screwup?

http://www.thanhgiong.com.vn/

VietSat _for example_ sounds more impressive . Dai Nam , Dai Viet ' Kingdom of the Great Viets '

And you can kiss my arse.

"Original" ? Yeah right. China gets (i.e. steals) all of its key technological advances from America either directly or indirectly. I guarantee you that China's nukes comes from the US by way of the Soviet Union, who in turn stole theirs from the US. Also, I'd bet my arse that China stole it from the USSR to boot.

The Manhattan Project that produced the A-bomb was a mega-giga herculean feat involving so many great physicists: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bether, Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, Robert Wilson, John von Neumann... Just to name a few. There's no way in Hell that even now Chinese scientists could compare to those guys who invented Quantum Mechanics, General Relativity, etc., to even talk about Chinese scientist back in the 1960's and 70's.

This has been true for decades and will be true for decades too come. Traditional Chinese techonology which was great in times of antiquity never involved mathematics nor the natural sciences to any significant degree. That is native Chinese technology, which was undoubtedly vitally important historically speaking, is quite PRIMITIVE compared to modern Western technology.

For the coming decades we are going to see--periodically, Chinese Americans get arrested for spying/treason and passing on military secrets to China. We've seen quite a few cases in the last couple of years. It's a hell of a lot cheaper and not to mention easier to steal sh!t, then it is to invent, reinvent, reverse engineer, or reengineer advances in technology.

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As for Vietnam's own satelite... Of course we can do it. It's just a matter of time--and if it is a priority of the government. One things for sure though, we need to open up more universities to crank out more scientists, engineers, businessmen, computer geeks, etc. FYI, S. Korea actually turns out more college grads per capita than Japan, which is a key reason why they are an economic juggernaut in the making, just as Japan is one right now.