Taiwan’s space agency the National Space Organization (NSPO) has sought collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the outer space areas and tracking extreme weather events.
The system lead of FORMOSAT-7 programme of NSPO, Chen-Joe-Fong said that they are seeking a collaboration in tracking extreme weather events like cyclones.
On the sidelines of Bengaluru Space Expo 2018, a meeting was also held between the officials of the NSPO and the ISRO in which the Taiwanese pitched for greater cooperation.
“Taiwan is prone to typhoons while India faces cyclones. We have Formosat-5 earth observation satellite. We are looking to collaborate with Antrix (the space arm of the ISRO) on this,” Chen said.
Formosat-5, a 450-kg Earth observation satellite was launched earlier in August last year. Plans are on to launch Formosat-7, an advanced version, Chen added.
Chen also said that Taiwan is also looking to collaborate with India in the area of outer space, alluding to India’s first inter-planetary mission – Mars Orbiter Mission – and Chandrayaan-1. While India has plans to further explore Mars and undertake exploration programme for Venus.
Taiwan was a part of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 mission, a particle physics detector on the International Space Station, with a purpose to search outer space for antimatter and dark matter as part of an investigation into the origin of the universe.
“The meeting was very good and we are looking forward to collaboration with the ISRO,” Prof Henry H Chen, Counsellor and Director, Science and Technology, at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in New Delhi said.
Taiwan has had active cooperation with the US in the area of space and is now looking at diversifying its ties with other space agencies.