Over the weekend leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC) had gathered in Mexico City and the focus was on COVID-19, setting up a Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency (ALCE), and creation of a disaster fund for the area.
With a new space agency in the area, Latin America is the new kid on the block, attempting to bring collectively 12 agencies in a continent in the 21st Century. The creation of ALCE was announced in October 2020 by the governments of Argentina and Mexico.
According to the US based Georgetown University Space Initiative report, an observation platform to remap the Earth’s surface with deep information is becoming carried out by Satellogic, based in Uruguay and Argentina. Also, a further Latin American organization which is based in Puerto Rico is working on generating space habitats which can be utilized for human colonies in the solar method, states the report of Georgetown University Space Initiative, which was founded in 2019.
“Latin America and Caribbean Space Agency `ALCE’ and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) could act as partners and complementary organizations with mutual help on access to orbit, space telecommunications, experiments, training and more,” says Dr Adolfo Chaves Jiménez, Researcher Coordinator, Space Systems Engineering Laboratory (SETEC Lab) School of Electronics Costa Rica Institute of Technology.
Dr Adolfo Chaves Jiménez, of Costa Rica shares his views on the ALCE & ISRO with Huma Siddiqui.
Following are excerpts:
How can ALCE and ISRO work collectively?
A Latin American Space Agency has been a matter of discussion for decades, even formally in forums as the Space Conference of the Americas. Nevertheless, it has generally been focused on the political and higher-level formation of an entity. I think the explanation why this agency has to be formed need to go very first, that its constitution, in what ever type feasible, need to be supported by a couple of but appropriately defined projects.
For instance, the proposition of generating a constellation of satellites for earth observation proposed by Mexico in CELAC appears to me the way to go. But this organization need to rely more on technical experience.
It appears to me like the men and women proposing ALCE may possibly be committing the identical errors as the previous, leaving the proposal on a higher-level political situation and not utilizing the assistance of the currently current technical organizations.
Any advancement will be terrific for the area, if they do not come to be just a further organization for political discussion, but with a focus on projects. I am nonetheless hopeful the agency will exist and will be positive for the area.
Regarding the cooperation with India, ALCE will study a lot from searching at ISRO, and their impressive achievements. ISRO, from the point of view of socio financial matters, functions in an atmosphere more closely connected to the circumstances of the nations of Latin America, and extremely unique from other organizations like NASA or ESA.
What part can or need to Costa Rica play in this?
Costa Rica is a tiny nation, but from the point of view of international relations, it has a moral authority coming from the lack of armed forces, its efforts connected to nature conservation and stability. Not becoming one of the substantial nations constituting ALCE (like Argentina or Mexico), and due to its stability, advancements in space technologies and constitution of a space agency in 2021, I think Costa Rica may possibly be a prime candidate for the setup of one of the substantial places of ALCE, comparable to ESTEC in the Netherlands, the biggest ESA facility, that is not positioned in any of the biggest contributors to ESA, like Germany, France, Italy or the United Kingdom.
Separate from that, Costa Rica, and more particularly the Guanacaste area, is a prime place for ground operations, as the building of radar by LeoLabs to monitor space debris shows.
Costa Rica is also one of the most biodiverse nations in the world. Of course, lots of Latin American nations share this situation, but at the identical time, Costa Rica has currently a world-class set up of specialists and laboratories devoted to biodiversity research. I think our nation could come to be a world study center for the use of biodiversity for the survival of humankind in space, and ALCE, jointly with the Costa Rica Space Agency could be the key promoter of this.
What are the possibilities for the private sector firms in the space sector not only in the area but globally also?
We are in the era of space 2., exactly where the private firms are taking benefit of space for profit motives. I think the biggest projects connected to technical advancements in space will be completed largely by private firms. Public space agencies need to come to be a tool for governments to assure that the advancements in space technologies advantage the men and women of their nations, and the world.
New mechanisms will want to come to be reality for the relation in between public and private institutions to come to be a win-win predicament. I think the part of organizations like UNCOPOUS will come to be more crucial than ever.
I am extremely positive. I think human inventiveness will lead us forward, and the way we see ourselves as a species will adjust with this conquest of space.