Taiwan’s first locally made GPS receiver for satellite missions functioned normally and passed key environmental tests during nearly two months in space, raising hopes for the nation’s satellite development program.
The National Space Organization (NSPO) on Thursday said in a statement that the receiver, which it developed, was launched into space on a Taiwan-developed IRIS-A CubeSat on Jan. 14 and has since orbited 500km above the Earth’s surface.
The receiver has since operated normally and passed rigorous environmental tests, in the process gaining “flight heritage,” a term used to describe the situation when a technology works in a commercially representative environment, the NPSO said.
Photo: National Space Organization
The more flight heritage a space device accumulates, the more credibility and trust it builds, and the more commercially viable it becomes, but it can be hard for product developers to get their products into orbit.
The NPSO did that by hitching a ride on a cubesat — a miniature satellite used primarily for research. It teamed up with National Cheng Kung University, which developed the IRIS-A CubeSat, to get the GPS device into space.
The GPS receiver’s initial success represents a key step in the agency’s drive to develop and produce satellites with 70 percent of their components made in Taiwan, NSPO Director Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) said.
Taiwan has previously relied on foreign GPS receivers for its home-grown satellites, but that is changing, Wu said.
The GPS receiver is to be used in an NSPO-manufactured “wind-hunter” satellite, called the Triton, which is to be launched by the end of this year, as well as in Formosat-8 satellites and synthetic aperture radar satellites, he said.
The NPSO said that the GPS receiver would improve satellites’ ability to navigate and reduce the cost of satellite missions.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS