Pakistani Space Program news & updates

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Punjab govt questions veracity of satellite images taken by SUPARCO

LAHORE: The Punjab government has questioned the veracity of satellite images of temperature anomaly-based spots taken by Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), said reliable sources.
The issue was raised in a meeting related to the issue of smog in the city chaired by Chief Secretary Punjab the other day.
It was informed to the meeting that the cross-border images of Indian Punjab have suggested that the intensity of smog was three to four times higher than the city of Lahore because of the continuous stubble burning there.
Accordingly, the satellite images of the spots with temperature anomaly in the Indian Punjab were obtained through SUPARCO. However, the images were showing either standing crops or barren lands against such spots. Therefore, some of the participants of the meeting had expressed their doubts over the credibility of the images taken by SUPARCO, said the sources.
Interestingly, in a similar earlier meeting chaired by Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR), it was found that faulty air quality measuring systems of Environment Protection Agency were recording incorrect reporting of the air quality index in the city. Now, the Chief Secretary Punjab-led meeting has questioned the accuracy of the satellite images taken by SUPARCO.
According to the sources, the meeting was in agreement on the point that the government should invest on accurate reporting systems, both at the EPA and SUPARCO before issuing data on the air quality.
However, the meeting had expressed its satisfaction over the analysis of EPA that the air quality index of the city of Lahore was better than the Indian side due to the measures taken by the department over the last one year.
It was only the wind direction from India towards Pakistan that had intensified the smog factor in the city of Lahore. However, the wind has changed its direction from Wednesday onwards that has resulted into clarity of the atmosphere in the city.
Meanwhile, the EPA officials apprised the participants of the meeting about 20 to 25 percent drop in the intensity of fog this October comparing with the corresponding period. They said this drop was due to the precautionary measures taken by the department over the last one year.
A reduction in the intensity of fog was also due to overstretched monsoon spell in the country that kept the moisture intact in the atmosphere and the soil wet on the land.
It was informed to the meeting that there was huge variation in the smog intensity during the last year, which was not the case for the month of October this year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022


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China and Pakistan have been strategic partners in the space sector for three decades. Photo: AP

Science
Pakistan looks to sign cooperation agreement on China-led moon research base
Ling Xin
Ling Xin

Published: 8:00pm, 10 Jun, 2023
Pakistan hopes to identify specific roles it could play in the China-led International Lunar Research Station and to sign a cooperation agreement on the ILRS soon, according to the head of its space agency.
Amer Nadeem, chairman of SUPARCO, made the remarks during a visit to the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory in southeast China last month.
The ILRS is expected to be a full-fledged, long-term base on the moon for scientific exploration by 2050.
Wu Weiren (left), chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme, and Amer Nadeem, chairman of SUPARCO, at the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory last month. Photo: Weibo
Wu Weiren (left), chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme, and Amer Nadeem, chairman of SUPARCO, at the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory last month. Photo: Weibo
Nadeem was briefed on the project’s progress during his visit to the lab in Hefei, Anhui province, and “conducted in-depth exchanges” with Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme and laboratory director, according to its website.
“We welcome Pakistan to fully participate in the ILRS, foster close partnership with the laboratory, and set an example for working together to build a shared future for mankind in outer space,” Wu was quoted as saying.
Pakistan is one of half a dozen nations and international bodies to sign letters of intent or cooperation agreements since the China National Space Administration released its first road map for the ILRS in 2021.
China is also negotiating with more than 10 other countries to potentially take part, Wu told the international deep space exploration conference organised by the lab in April.
Pakistan and China have been strategic partners in the space sector for three decades. Since 1992, China has helped Pakistan develop and launch communications satellites and remote sensing satellites, among others.
The two nations signed a series of space exploration agreements in 2019 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. They include China helping to train Pakistani astronauts and send them into space, and to the newly completed Tiangong space station in low-Earth orbit.
Wu also said work was going smoothly with ICUBE-Q, a Pakistani CubeSat that will be part of China’s Chang’e 6 mission to the moon and look for traces of water ice from a lunar orbit in 2026.
“China and Pakistan are good brothers and good partners, with a great tradition in aerospace cooperation,” Wu said during the meeting with Nadeem.
Wu invited Nadeem to visit the lab again next year to attend the international space exploration conference.
Senior officials from other national space agencies – including Venezuela and Brazil – have also visited the lab in Hefei in recent months and expressed their intention to join the ILRS.
Meanwhile, Spain recently became the 25th signatory to the Artemis Accords – a separate, US-led multinational effort to send humans to the moon, eventually Mars and beyond.
China and the United States are racing towards a new era of space exploration, and both powers aim to land astronauts on the moon before 2030.
 

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How Pakistan not only beat India to space, but helped put man on the moon
Farhan Afsar
The story is over sixty years old, and one you might not have heard
Welcome

More than 60 years ago, Pakistan achieved something that put it ahead of not only India but also most of the Muslim and the developing world.
In June 1962, Pakistan became the third country in Asia and tenth country overall to launch a rocket into space. And the story is quite unbelieveable.
On an official visit to the United States, President John F Kennedy told Pakistan President Ayub Khan that NASA hoped to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. But help would be needed from certain countries including Pakistan.
Dr Abdus Salam who was then head of the Atomic Energy Commission was called for a meeting at NASA. He also roped in 27-year old Tariq Mustafa, who was then working for the US Atomic Energy Commission, according to Suparco history documents and Mustafa.
NASA told the two about the ambition to put man on the moon and that the rockets would have to be placed in the Earth’s orbit before being thrusted towards the moon.
This meant that they needed data about every point of the planet’s atmosphere and an area above the Indian ocean was a ‘black hole’ in terms of data. Knowledge was needed about the conditions 30,000ft above this area before NASA undertook its exploration.
Pakistan, with its southern end sitting meeting the Indian ocean was in luck. The US offered support in exchange for raw data collected.
27-year-old Tariq Mustafa was put in charge of the operation. President Ayub himself found a military range in Sonmiani, Balochistan that could become a launch pad.
Mustafa assembled a team of five people including himself. Also included was Mr Saleem Mahmood, an electronics specialist, M Rehmatullah, a director at the Meteorological department, Flight Lieutenant A Z Farooqi, a retired Air Force officer and communications specialist, and Sikandar Zaman, a mechanical engineer.
The team underwent a training at NASA before returning home. They had a total of nine months to get the job done. The sodium vapour experiment had to be done before the monsoon clouds arrived in June.
The team set tow work in the Balochistan heat. The heat would get so intense that they could not often work during the day time. So the party would work early morning to noon and then begin again at 4pm to 9 or 10 pm.
Not just that, the launch had to be made in a small window during the day - not before sunset nad not long after it either.
In an interview, Mustafa later revealed that a circuit error almost delayed the launch on the fateful day. But the five brilliant men dashed to the launcher and figured it out.
Pakistan’s first rocket Rehbar-I was launched just after sunset on June 7, 1962. The mission was successful and helped record the required data.
India was also onbaord with the same project for NASA and started their project in the Thumba range soon after Pakistan. But it took them another year to launch their rocket.
Sources:
 

Chinmoy

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China and Pakistan have been strategic partners in the space sector for three decades. Photo: AP

Science
Pakistan looks to sign cooperation agreement on China-led moon research base
Ling Xin
Ling Xin

Published: 8:00pm, 10 Jun, 2023

Wu Weiren (left), chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme, and Amer Nadeem, chairman of SUPARCO, at the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory last month. Photo: Weibo
Wu Weiren (left), chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme, and Amer Nadeem, chairman of SUPARCO, at the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory last month. Photo: Weibo
Pakistan hopes to identify specific roles it could play in the China-led International Lunar Research Station and to sign a cooperation agreement on the ILRS soon, according to the head of its space agency.
Chinese have already decided on the Pakistan SOW. Image received from authentic source in China. 👇













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