Will Taiwan Launch a Satellite?

To examine in depth the possibility of the ROC developing a manmade satellite, the National Science Council last October invited pertinent experts and scholars from the Ministry of Communications, the Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, and National Cheng Kung University to form a study group and carry out a preliminary evaluation. The group has already drawn up a proposal and submitted it to the council for review.

One of the group's members is Chi-chang Chao, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Cheng Kung University. He explains that developing a satellite has both advantages and disadvantages and that if the decision is made to go ahead the project has to be carried out step by step. That is why the preliminary proposal is to allocate NT$7 to NT$10 billion over the next three to five years to develop a small, 200-1b satellite that will orbit at an altitude of 200 to 300 kilometers.

For the National Science Council, with its annual budget of NT$8 billion, that sum is certainly not a small one. Averaged out over the taxpaying public, it comes to around NT$500 a person.

Just because of the time and expense involved, and because a small satellite is limited in its applications, the proposal has become the subject of some controversy.

Those who oppose the idea say that Taiwan, with its small area, has a low frequency of satellite utilization, and since its needs for channels can be adequately handled by international satellite organizations, why should it spend so much money on developing a satellite of its own?

Taiwan's chief uses of satellites at present are for meteorology and telecommunications, such as long-distance telephone calls, facsimile transmissions, and television feed-ins for the three national networks. Private companies, such as the United newspaper chain, have also used satellites to set up their own telecommunication networks, and Evergreen Marine Corporation has applied for a frequency to monitor its worldwide network of ships and provide them with emergency assistance. These operations are all relayed through the International Telecommunications Administration in the Ministry of Communications.

Wang Chi, dean of the graduate school of journalism at National Chengchi University, points out that considered purely from the standpoint of its telecommunications requirements, Taiwan indeed does not need to spend such a large sum on developing its own satellite.

Around ten countries in the world now have their own satellites, four of them in Asia. Of those four, Communist China and India are large in land area, while Japan and Indonesia are widespread archipelagoes, so all in fact have a real need for their own satellites.

National Science Council member Teng Ch'i-fu believes that the value of commercial applications is certainly one factor to consider but that technological development is a goal of its own. Both factors are naturally related, but it's not right to mix them together.

On the application side, the main consideration is weighing market potential. "In the future, many private companies, especially multinational corporations, are going to use satellites to set up their own telecommunications networks," Teng says. "It's a market with a lot of potential."

As for technology, "the ultimate goal of developing a satellite is to drive related industries and spur technological upgrading," says Tseng Fan-t'eng, vice-director of the Telecommunications Training Institute in the Ministry of Communications, who first advocated developing a satellite as early as ten years ago.

The most important thing in policy making is to grasp the right moment. You've got to be farsighted, and you've got to be on the mark.

Furthermore, considering the realities of the international situation, we cannot harbor any illusions about waiting until the demand for a satellite gets large enough and then buying one of our own and contracting for someone to launch it for us.

Orbits in space, like land on earth, may not seem valuable or be something you even think about when you don't need it. It's not until you try to buy some to build a house on it that you find out how precious it really is.

As for our "orbit shortage," after with-drawing from the United Nations in 1971, the ROC lost its membership in the International Telecommunication Union the next year and in the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium the fifth year after that, thereby also losing its right to share synchronic orbits.

Chi-chang Chao points out that the International Telecommunication Union has designated four synchronic orbits for the mainland so that if Taiwan wants to launch a satellite it had better pull a "first come first served."

"Other countries know about this and won't want to run the risk of offending the mainland by launching a satellite for us," Dr. Chao says, so this is another reason for us to look out for ourselves.

The sky can't be reached in a single bound though, as the Chinese expression goes. For Taiwan to develop a satellite will be like a child learning to cook, watching and observing first and then starting out slowly with some simple dishes. The dishes may not look like much, but they can lay the foundation for more elaborate ones later.

[Picture Caption]

Satellite dish transmissions have become part of the daily entertainment fare of many homes.

A rocket used to carry satellites aloft. (photo by Arthur Cheng)

With the increasing popularity of satellite television in recent years, satellite dishes have come out in all shapes and sizes.

Transmission signals are processed by the Central Weather Bureau into a sharp map of cloud cover.

The Satellite Telecommunications Center receives satellite images from o verseas 24 hours a day without regard to weather.