National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
On May 31, 1962, Indonesia commenced aeronautics exploration when the Aeronautics Committee was established by the Indonesian Prime Minister, Juanda, who was also the head of Indonesian Aeronautics. The secretary of Indonesian Aeronautics, RJ Salatun, was also involved in the establishment.
On September 22, 1962, the Initial Scientific and Military Rocket Project was formed as an affiliation of AURI (Indonesian Air Force) and ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology). The outcome of the project was the launching of two "Kartika"("star") series rockets and their telemetric ordnances.
After two informal projects, which had no national contribution, the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space was established in 1963 by Presidential Decree 236.
For more than 20 years, LAPAN doing in research on Rocket, Remote Sensing, Satellites and Space Sciences.
The 1st program was the Palapa A1 and A2 (launched October 3, 1977). The satellites were almost identical to Canada's Anik and Western Union's Westars although the Indonesian variants had larger parabolic reflectors suited to the large area of the archipelago. Although the satellites belonged to the government-owned company Perumtel, the spacecraft were made in the United States.
The development of microsatellites has become an opportunity for LAPAN in developing its space program. The development of such satellites requires only limited budget and facilities, compared to the development of big satellites. Meanwhile, the capability to develop micro-satellite will brings LAPAN to the readiness state to implement a future space program that will have measureable economic impact, and therefore contribute to the country’s sustainable development effort.
In 2008 Indonesia signed an agreement with the Ukrainian National Space Agency that will allow access to rocket and satellite technologies.
In 2011, LAPAN plans to build a satellite launchpad at Enggano Island, Bengkulu province. It is located at the westernmost part of Indonesia at the Indian Ocean coast. There are three possible locations, two in Kioyo Natural Park and one in Gunung Nanua Bird Park. The most strategic site for this launchpad is inside Nanua Bird Park, a place called Tanjung Laboko which is 20 meters above sea level and far from residential areas. The satellite launch pad requires area only one hectare, but the safety zone requires 200 hectares. The cost to be disbursed is Rp.40 trillion. The location is also available for assembly of the rockets and launch preparations for satellites of up to 3.8 tonnes. The plan has concerned from the Bengkulu Natural Resources Conservation Agency because both parks are habitat for a number of bird species native to Enggano Island, which ended by rejetion by Bengkulu Province government.
The Stasiun Bumi Satelit Penginderaan Jauh is located at Parepare, South Sulawesi. Its main functions include receiving and recording data from earth observation satellites such as Landsat, SPOT, ERS-1, JERS-1 and Terra/Aqua MODIS, operation since 1993.
These ground stations, located at Pekayon, Jakarta and Biak, receive, record, and process data from NOAA weather satellite 24 times a day since 1982.
The LAPAN Rocket Launching Station is located at Pameungpeuk Beach Garut West Java and built from 1963 through cooperation between Indonesia and Japan, where the station is designed by Prof. Dr. Hideo Itokawa with the aim to support high atmospheric research using rocket Kappa - 8. Currently, this installation is equipped with facilities Motor Assembly Building, Launch Control Center Building, Meteorological Sounding System Building, Rocket Motor Storage Building and Dormitory.
The Radar Atmosfer Khatulistiwa Koto Tabang is a radar facility located at Koto Tabang, West Sumatra. It commenced operations in 2001. This facility is used for atmospheric dynamics research, especially areas concerning global climate change, such as El Nixo and La Nixa climate anomalies.
The Remote Sensing Technology and Data Laboratory is located at Pekayon in Jakarta. Its functions include: data acquisition systems development, satellite payload imager systems development, satellite ground station system development, preliminary satellite imagery image processing, such as geometric correction, radiometric correction and National Remote sensing Data Bank.
The Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory at Pekayon, Jakarta, has main function works with remote sensing satellite data applications for Land Resource, Coastal-Marine Resources, Environment Monitoring and Disaster Mitigation.
The Laboratorium Motor Roket is located at Tarogong, West Java. It designs and produces rocket propulsion systems.
The 'Laboratorium Bahan Baku Propelan researches propellant, such as oxidizer Ammonium perchlorate and Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene.
The Satellite Technology Laboratory is located at Bogor, West Java. Its functions include: research, development and engineering of the satellite payload, the satellite bus and facilities of the gound segment.
The Aviation Technology Laboratory is located at Rumpin, West Java. Its functions include: research, development and engineering of aerodynamics, flight mechanics technology, propulsion technology, avionics technology and aerostructure.
The Equatorial Atmosphere Observatory of LAPAN are located at Koto Tabang, West Sumatera, has a function for research on, (1) High-resolution observations of wind vectors will make it possible to study the detailed structure of the equatorial atmosphere that is related to the growth and decay of cumulus convection; (2) From long-term continuous observations, relationships between atmospheric waves and global atmospheric circulation will be clarified; (3) By conducting observations from near the surface to the ionosphere, it will be possible to reveal dynamical couplings between the equatorial atmosphere and ionosphere. (4) Based on these results, transports of atmospheric constituents such as ozone and greenhouse gases, and the variations of the Earth's atmosphere that lead to climatic change such as El-Nino and La-Nina, will be revealed.
The 'Stasiun Pengamat Radiasi Matahari observe ultraviolet radiation of the sun. Operations began in 1992. These facilities were developed by Eko Instrument from Japan, and are located at Bandung and Pontianak.
The Aerospace Observatory of LAPAN are located at Pontianak-West Kalimantan, Pontianak-North Sulawesi, Kupang-East Nusa Tenggara and Watukosek-East Java, has a function for the observations in the field of Climatology, Atmosphere, Sun and Geomagnet.
At November 11, 2010, LAPAN spokesman said the RX-550 rocket would undergo a static test in December this year and a flight test in 2012. The rocket will consist of four stages, will be part of an RPS-01 rocket to put a satellite in orbit. Before, the Polar LAPAN-TUBSAT satellite created in cooperation with Germany was successfully placed in orbit and until now still functioning well. The aim is to have home-made rockets and satellites.
LAPAN has re-established and rejuvenated Indonesian expertise in rocket and missile based weapons systems in cooperation with the TNI AL [Armed Forces of Indonesia] began in 2005. In April 2008, Indonesian TNI began a new missile research program alongside LAPAN. Prior to this, eight projects were sponsored by the TNI in Malacca monitoring with satellite remote LAPAN-TUBSat, most especially the theft of timber and alleged encroachment on Indonesian territorial waters in the 2009 escalation over Malaysia's claims to the huge gas fields off Ambalat-island.
Related Sites for National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
- Tinnitus read National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
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- Home : The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics read National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
- Aerospace (GALCIT) - The California Institute of Technology read National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
