Student Satellite Programme Launched
Lahore :October 08: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid, stressing the importance of space technologies, has underscored the need for exploiting the same by developing applications for socio-economic development of the country and national defense.
He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Pakistan’s first “National Student Satellite Programme (PNSSP)” at the Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) here on Monday. Zahid Hamid said space technologies were already having a tremendous impact on our lives and influencing the way we approached and managed our routine work. He said that while we are late in harnessing the benefits of space technology applications, SUPARCO had in the last decade or so, made concerted efforts to develop space technologies and was making efforts to introduce these at the national level, including public and private sectors, as well as schools, colleges and universities. Talking about the PNSSP, he said SUPARCO through this initiative had envisioned a long-term program to involve, train and prepare university students for the high-tech space industry.
The federal minister while explaining incumbent government’s emphasis on space technology said that, immediately after the government was formed, the project for Pakistan’s Remote Sensing Satellite was approved, which would be deployed by early 2017. Speaking on the occasion, SUPARCO chairman Maj General (r) Ahmed Bilal said the PNSSP was being launched with an idea to uplift the overall level of universities/institutes in the domain of space technology through series of student satellites. “In a nutshell, PNSS program will benefit the education sector as well as space industry of Pakistan. It is a project that drives all of us to work together to boost socio economic development of Pakistan”, he added
He said student satellite was the emerging dimension of space research at the moment which served many purposes including low-cost design, technology and component validation, and most importantly human resource development at national level. About the PNSSP, Maj General (r) Ahmed Bilal said the PNSSP would be implemented through collaboration between SUPARCO and selected universities nationwide, adding that initially 25 universities/institutes having already established programs in Engineering, Information Technology and Basic Sciences were selected, based on the ranking released by the HEC.The news.
