Taiwan's space program, which is aimed at the development of scientific-research satellites, has made the nation an exporter of scientific data, according to the National Science Council.
In response to China's space launch yesterday, officials of the National Space Program Office (NSPO), which is under the National Applied Research Laboratories, stressed that Taiwan's space program is aimed in a different direction than that of China.
According to NSPO director Lee Lou-chuang (
Lee said that China's development of launch vehicles would help it in launching intercontinental ballistic missiles but its development of top scientific satellites is weak.
"China's development of a scientific payload system is behind Taiwan's," Lee said.
In 1970, China launched its first domestic communications satellite, the Dong Fang-hong, Lee said.
He said China has not successfully launched any state-of-the-art scientific satellite since then.
Lee said there was a wide gap in the resources invested in the two countries' space programs. China has more than 200,000 people working on its space program while the NSPO has less than 200 people.
On average, Lee said, the government allocates NT$2 billion for the development of the space program.
Established in 1991, the NSPO launched the nation's first satellite, ROCSAT-1, from Florida in January 1999.
ROCSAT-2 is scheduled to be launched by the end of this year from a location in California. In 2005, a third satellite, ROCSAT-3 will be launched on a mission to gather meteorological information in a bid to improve weather forecasting and long-term climate prediction.
Lee said Taiwan has developed its own scientific instruments and analyzes data collected by satellites while relying on other countries for the launch tasks.
"We have gained global respect due to our efforts to make scientific data available to the international scientific community," Lee said.
Taking ROCSAT-1 as an example, Lee said that it was jointly developed by scientists from the US and Taiwan.
The satellite is collecting data for three research projects -- ocean color imaging, experiments on ionospheric plasma and electrodynamics, and experiments using Ka-band communication payloads.
Lee said there has already been important information gained in research related to ROCSAT-2, noting that in June, scientists involved in ROCSAT-2 project had a letter published in the science journal Nature.
The letter detailed the first conclusive observation data indicating that a direct optical path was established from the thunderclouds about 15km above the Earth's surface to the ionosphere at the height of about 90km.
In the letter, physicists at National Cheng Kung University stressed that the conventional picture of the global electric circuit needs to be modified to include the contributions of these gigantic jets.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS