{"id":7409,"date":"2012-09-04T07:29:08","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T07:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/?page_id=7409"},"modified":"2015-05-12T07:30:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T07:30:59","slug":"development-of-space-sciences-need-for-collaboration-among-research-universities-and-the-private-sector","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/archive\/year-2012\/september-2012\/development-of-space-sciences-need-for-collaboration-among-research-universities-and-the-private-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Development Of Space Sciences: Need For Collaboration Among Research Universities And The Private Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">0<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ukm.my%2Fnews%2Farchive%2Fyear-2012%2Fseptember-2012%2Fdevelopment-of-space-sciences-need-for-collaboration-among-research-universities-and-the-private-sector%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/?p=7409&amp;via=https:\/\/twitter.com\/ukmtwit\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-toggle-container\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"midblock\">\n<div class=\"insidem\">\n<div class=\"news_item_a\">\n<div class=\"newsitem_tools\">\n<div class=\"newsitem_info\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"createdate\">TUESDAY, 04 SEPTEMBER 2012 17:09<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"newsitem_text\">\n<div class=\"news_item_article\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"border\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus2012\/SeminarAngkasa1.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin<br \/>\nPix Shahiddan Saidi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">BANGI, 3 Sept 2012 \u2013\u00a0Research universities in the country including The National University of Malaysia (UKM) should pool their resources together rather than competing with one another to develop Space Sciences. and avoid competing with one another for scarce investments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The CEO of the country\u2019s leading aerospace company, Astronautic Technology (AT), Dato\u2019 Dr Haji Ahmad Sabirin Dato\u2019 Arshad who made the suggestion said that would avoid them from competing with one another for scarce investment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He suggested that they should also collaborate with the private sector.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking at the third ANGKASA Seminar Series organised by UKM\u2019s Institute of Space Sciences (ANGKASA), he said individual institutions should also not be allowed to attempt such major projects without coordination.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It has to be a national strategic effort which the government should helm. The country also needs a Research &amp; Development roadmap as there is none as yet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dato\u2019 Dr Ahmad Sabirin said the present situation of the research universities playing one-upmanship and jealously guarding their work from each other is counter-productive and is setting back Malaysia\u2019s Space Sciences development.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said even with smaller projects like Nano Satellites, there are risks despite the cheaper cost. The smaller the satellite, the more vulnerable it is to radiation and being damaged by space debris. The best bet is to send several nano satellites and accumulate data from them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Citing satellite and astronaut launches, he explained that the government has had to consistently intervene or participate in projects which ran into financial obstacles, the latest being the RazakSat project.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The RazakSat was manufactured by AT with American input and was launched successfully in 2009 but is now having problems with sending back signals. The project cost US$17 million (RM 60 million) at that time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He lamented that in the 2012 Auditor General\u2019s report, AT was taken to task for the shortcomings. But he added that if Malaysia wants to be serious about space exploration, it must be willing to accept such mishaps.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other countries too have had their satellites malfunctioned predicting that there will be other failures in Malaysia\u2019s space programme, something that the country have to accept.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"border\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus2012\/SeminarAngkasa2.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"border\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus2012\/SeminarAngkasa3.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nHe said Malaysia cannot afford to see several universities vying for limited\u00a0government grants that would have to be divided between them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dato\u2019\u00a0Dr Ahmad Sabirin said even the MeaSat 1 telecommunications satellite that was supposed to be a private venture by Binariang in 1996 needed a lot of generous government grants for it to become a reality becoming Malaysia\u2019s first pay satellite television service.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Without the grants, not even the owner of Binariang who had very deep pockets would be willing to\u00a0take the risk, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He recalled that local scientists contributed to the technology for MeaSat but most of the manufacturing for such a complex system came from the United States. The total cost including launch has not been disclosed by either MeaSat or the government, but the investment in the satellite alone was US$70 million (RM245 million at the exchange rate then).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That did not include the US$19 million (RM67 million) that had to be paid to underwriters and legal guarantees to the suppliers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now, after 16 years none of the research universities would be able to afford the skills for such a venture without government assistance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even the private sector in the USA depended on US federal funds, such as SpaceX, which now can go ahead with its first cargo-shuttling service to space after receiving a US$1.6 billion (RM5 billion) contract from NASA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As for sending astronauts in space, he said such a high-profile venture has to do more with national pride rather than actual scientific research for a developing country. The value from experiments is rather limited because the first Malaysian astronaut had a relatively short time in the International Space Station in 2007.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to ANGKASA it cost RM27 million to send Dr Sheikh Muzaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha to space on a Russian rocket but that was mostly offset by a bilateral trade deal with Russia on payments for palm oil from Malaysia.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Icon\/ukmnewsportal.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"leftblock\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TUESDAY, 04 SEPTEMBER 2012 17:09 By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin Pix Shahiddan Saidi BANGI, 3 Sept 2012 \u2013\u00a0Research universities in the<a class=\"tukm-readmore\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/archive\/year-2012\/september-2012\/development-of-space-sciences-need-for-collaboration-among-research-universities-and-the-private-sector\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7412,"parent":1290,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7409","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7413,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7409\/revisions\/7413"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}