Vietnam to develop space technology for climate change

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The Project is funded by Japanese Yen Loan, with Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) as the line agency and Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC) as implementing agency.

Under this Project, radar sensor observation satellites with proven concept are manufactured and launched into the orbit. This proven technology can be applied to other types of satellites such as communications, navigation and scientific research missions in the future. 

Photo for illustration.

The satellite employs the actual achievements of Japanese space industry with the most up-to-date technology for the radar sensor and cost efficiency. This concept best matches the plans and prospects of Vietnam, and also would contribute to industry 4.0.

Upon the above satellite launching into orbit, Vietnam will be able to much shorten the duration to get satellite images from 16 hours as it is now to 6 hours. Also, it would help Vietnam flexibly and properly get satellite images in much wider areas including oceans. The ownership of those satellites enables Vietnam to take satellite images, upon request by end- users with much higher resolution of 1m, as compared with the average resolution of 5m.

Vietnam is a narrow and long country lying along a north/south axis with multitudinous climatic and geological conditions. Besides, environmental damage due to oil leakage from oil tanker accidents along the coast occurs frequently, resulting in heavy impacts to fisheries. Losses from these natural disasters and man-made disasters took up nearly 1.5% of Vietnam’s GDP every year. 

It is an urgent issue for Vietnam to establish and operate infrastructure to continuously obtain satellite remote sensing data to monitor natural disasters, which would improve and formulate an early warning system to minimize climate change impacts and natural disaster aftermaths and to manage the country’s natural resources and environment.

The Project is in accordance with the science and technology cooperation, which recognizes the space technology industry as a prioritized area and is mentioned in the joint statement of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (at the time of the statement) and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (at the time of the statement) in October 2006. After that preparatory survey was conducted by JICA and the loan agreement was signed in 2011 by the government of Vietnam and JICA.