Who will build the first Filipino satellite?

(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

CURRENTLY STREAKING THROUGH SPACE at thousands of kilometers per hour is one of the smallest satellites placed into orbit.

This small wonder is a "cube satellite" (CubeSat) with a size of only 10cm x 10cm x 10cm (a family size box of Safeguard soap is exactly 10cm long), and weighing just 995 grams. It completes a revolution of the Earth every 90 minutes and is sending signals to its controllers saying it's alive and well in the brutal environment of space.

What's amazing about this satellite is not its puny size. There are other CubeSats with the same dimensions orbiting the Earth.

What's amazing is that this satellite was made in Colombia. What's more amazing is that it was built by students from a Colombian university.

The "pico-satellite" Libertad-1 (Freedom-1) is Colombia's first satellite. It was launched into orbit along with 15 other satellites by a Russian Dnepr rocket last April 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the world's oldest and largest launch facility. A pico-satellite is defined as a miniaturized satellite weighing less than one kilogram.

Libertad-1

Science and satellites aren't exactly the first things that pop into one's mind when one hears the word, Colombia. Libertad-1, apart from making history for Colombia, is also helping other people think about Colombia in another, more positive way.

The students from the Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Bogota, capital of Colombia, who built Libertad-1 are understandably overjoyed at their success.

If Colombia can build its first satellite, can the second be far behind? And who will be Colombia's first astronaut?

Placed into orbit along with Libertad-1 were seven other miniaturized satellites built by students from U.S. universities. The U.S. CubeSats were made by California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly), Stanford University and the University of Louisiana.

The U.S. has a CubeSat Project that creates launch opportunities for universities previously unable to access space. More than 60 universities and high schools are participating in the CubeSat Project.

The CubeSat Project is free and is open to all universities and institutions. Any educational institution can join the project by following three steps on the CubeSat Program website.

Norway's first in-orbit satellite, NCUBE-2, was a CubeSat built by Norwegian students and orbited in 2005. NCUBE-2 monitored the movement of ships along the Norwegian coast and the movement of reindeer in southern Norway.

NCUBE-2 was supported by Europe's own CubeSat program. In 2000, the European Space Agency (ESA) wanted to get more European students involved in space travel technology and space science.

It launched the "Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative" that soon involved more than 400 students from 23 different European universities in 14 countries in making satellites. One of these satellites was NCUBE-2.

NCUBE-2.

Because of the many educational institutions involved in making them, CubeSats are also known as Student Satellites or StudentSats.

Now, that Pinoys have conquered Mt. Everest, why don't we now try to conquer the highest place in this planet--Space--by building the first homegrown Pinoy satellite?

If Colombian students can build their country's first satellite, surely Filipino students can also build this country's first homegrown satellite.

Agila-1 (now an orbiting derelict) and Agila-2 don't count as Pinoy homegrown satellites since they were built by foreign countries.

Miniaturized satellites such as CubeSats are giving countries that can't spend millions of dollars on traditional satellites the chance to use space to advance their national interests. It cost the Norwegians $30,000 to launch NCUBE-2 on board a Russian rocket.

We can enlist the help of the Americans, the Europeans or the Russians in making and launching the first Pinoy satellite. We have the brainpower. Students from our universities and colleges win awards writing gaming software and building dancing robots.

Our students can pool their brainpower to build the first Filipino satellite.

Our first homegrown CubeSat doesn't need to accomplish anything fancy such as taking high-resolution photographs. Colombia's Libertad-1 was built to send signals and monitor space temperature,

The purpose of the Pinoy CubeSat building exercise is to build and orbit a CubeSat. The team experience of building a satellite is the main reward. Giving the Philippines links to the world's satellite industry will also be a valuable advantage.

Our first homegrown satellite can simply play "Lupang Hinirang" as it passes over the Philippines. That alone would make it successful--and make us proud to be Pinoys.

Or it can do something more useful such as testing sensors and equipment for the second, but more sophisticated, Pinoy homegrown CubeSat.

But we've got to start now. And if this government doesn't want to do it, then Pinoy students must lead the way.

Warrior/World Peacekeeper: the Philippine Army of the Future

The end to the insurgencies plaguing the Philippines—hopefully by early the next decade—should herald a new era for the Philippine military.

Now more of a constabulary because of its counter-insurgency role, the Armed Forces of the Philippines will have to evolve into a totally new fighting animal, one poised to do combat on foreign shores. This impending revolution in Philippine military affairs will place dominant emphasis on conventional warfighting.

Intrinsic to this revolution will be the addition of new tools of the trade such as "big ticket" weapons systems; new combat doctrines and learning the "ABCs" of the new conventional war.

Conventional war, however, is evolving into something akin to the guerilla war in which the Philippine Army is most experienced. The "new" conventional war (or the 360 degree battlefield) will be one fought by “lighter” conventional forces backed by massive firepower; pervaded by computer technology and buttressed by civic action.

This new Philippine fighting force must have a reason for being. Peacekeeping will be that reason.

The Philippines has been a leading provider of troops and police for United Nations' peacekeeping missions since the end of World War 2.

The Philippines' armed commitment to world peace began and reached a peak in the Korean War (1950-53) to which the Philippines sent some 7,500 combat soldiers as part of the 21-country United Nations Command (UNC). The Philippines suffered some 500 casualties in the Korean "police action" against the communist North Koreans and Chinese.

The 55 years since fighting ended in the Korean War have seen non-stop Philippine participation in UN peacekeeping. In 2007, the Philippines pledged more troops and police for UN peacekeeping efforts worldwide.

The Philippines is one of Asia’s top troop-contributing countries. Over 600 Filipino soldiers and police officers are deployed in Afghanistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Georgia, Haiti, recently independent Kosovo, Liberia, Timor-Leste and Sudan.

In 2007, the Philippines became the world’s largest contributor of police officers to UN peacekeeping operations. In 2006, the Philippines was the 27th largest contributor of troops and police to UN peacekeeping.

But for the future Philippine armed force to fight effectively as part of an armed UN coalition means it has to read from the same page as its allies, and here lies the greatest challenge.

Future conflict in whatever form will demand huge technological resources not possessed by the Philippines. The country, therefore, will have to rely on foreign technology for C4I (command, communications, control, computers and intelligence) capabilities.

The Philippine experience in the Korean War--the last conventional war fought by this country--is revealing in this aspect. All the five Battalion Combat Teams (BCTs) sent to fight in the Korean War were veterans of the bloody campaign against the communist Huks.

Many of the men in these BCTs had fought alongside the Americans against the Japanese. The BCTs belonging to the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK) were armed with U.S. weapons. Its men were trained in conventional U.S. tactics; its officers further trained in Fort Benning, Fort Knox and other specialist military schools in the USA.

Despite these advantages, the Philippines had its share of difficulties integrating into the United Nations Command that was dominated by the United States. The tendency of the U.S. to rely on its own soldiers, despite most of these men being greenhorns, also led to a misappreciation of the combat capabilities of the Philippine BCTs. It was an understandable but regrettable attitude.

Any future coalition conflict under the aegis of the United Nations will almost certainly be dominated by the United States. But integrating with the U.S. and its "wired" armed forces will be a mammoth problem for the Philippines.

The British have sought to mitigate this problem by adopting a new warfighting doctrine similar to the U.S.' Objective Force concept. The British are also developing the lighter and air portable warfighting vehicles demanded by their new concept of war.

The simplest solution for the Philippines would be a repeat of the Korean War model. The Filipino soldier can serve as a reliable ally; one that can be counted on to fulfill his mission as far as is humanly possible.

In time and with increasing experience, the Filipino soldier will become a "World Warrior/Peacekeeper," a fitting extension of the Filipino's current role as a "World Worker."

As the foot marching Roman legionnaires gave way to the Byzantine "cataphracts"--the magnificent armored cavalry that enabled the Eastern Roman Empire to defeat its eastern and western foes--so, too, must the Filipino World Warrior/Peacekeeper evolve into a force highly capable in both light infantry and mobile combat.

The challenge for the next Philippine government is to decide on an evolutionary path for the Philippine military. The Philippines' rise to the status of a great Asian economic power is inevitable.

History is on its side. And history has shown that credible military power can only flow from significant economic power.

Both are within the country's grasp--at last.

The first Filipino Christmas in space

In the 46 year history of human spaceflight, no Asian astronaut has ever spent Christmas in space.

Six Asian astronauts have traveled to space in the era of human spaceflight that began with Yuri Gagarin’s historic voyage on April 12, 1961.

As of October 10, 2007, a total of 467 persons from 38 countries have traveled into space either as professional astronauts, spaceflight participants or commercial astronauts.

The first Japanese in space, Toyohiro Akiyama, got the closest to being in space during Christmas. His space voyage, however, took place from Dec. 2-9, 1990. He flew to the Russian space station, Mir, on board a Soyuz TM spacecraft.

Akiyama was a TV reporter. His employer, the Tokyo Broadcasting System, sponsored his training as a cosmonaut and his trip to space.

The first Asian (excluding Russia) in space was Pham Tuan from Vietnam.

He rocketed into space as a cosmonaut on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 23, 1980 to man the Salyut 6 space station. Tuan stayed aboard Salyut 6 for seven days.

He was followed into space by fellow Asians from Mongolia (1981), India (1984), Japan (1990), China (2003) and Malaysia (2007). Five Middle East countries (Saudi Arabia, Syria, Afghanistan, Israel and Iran) have also sent their citizens into space.

“Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” from space
Not that Christmas would have mattered to these non-Christian countries as much as it does in the Philippines. Only Japan celebrates Christmas with as much pomp as the Philippines, and that’s only because Japanese retailers see Christmas as a season to be jolly because it makes them a lot of money.

Call it very wishful thinking but a Filipino might yet become the first Asian to celebrate Christmas in space.

Yes, we don’t have a Filipino astronaut as yet. And yes, we will have one. Very soon, I hope.

And when we do have our first Filipino astronaut, here’s hoping he or she takes to space during Christmas week so he or she can achieve a double first: the first Filipino astronaut and the first Asian to celebrate Christmas in space.

Ah, to hear the strains of “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” beamed to the Philippines and to the diaspora of Filipinos in the rest of the world from on board the International Space Station (ISS), or any other spacecraft venturing beyond the Karman Line.

It’s enough to make one weep for joy.

The first Christmas in space
The honor of being the first humans to celebrate Christmas in space, however, belongs to the three American astronauts of Apollo 8.

In 1968, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to spend Christmas in space. They were also the first humans to orbit the Moon.

Apollo 8 left the Earth on Dec. 21, entered lunar orbit on Dec. 24, and returned to Earth on Dec. 27.

During Christmas day, the trio sent Christmas greetings and live images that some one billion people either saw on TV or heard on the radio. The trio read passages from the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1:1-10)

Borman closed their Christmas broadcast with the message, “Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth."

The crew of Apollo 8 was subsequently voted Time Magazine’s “Men of the Year” for 1968.

The first Christmas tree in space
The next humans to spend Christmas in space were also Americans. That distinction went to the three man crew of the space station, Skylab 4, in 1973.

Commander Gerald Carr, Pilot William Pogue and Scientist Edward Gibson also set up the first Christmas tree in space. The tree was fashioned from tin cans: its trunk was a tin rod and its “leaves” consisted of twirled tin strips.

The first crew to man the ISS, Expedition One, was also the first ISS crew to spend Christmas in space.

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko and U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd were on board the ISS during Christmas 2000. They spent Christmas day talking to their families through special radio links.

They also opened presents delivered earlier by a Russian cargo ship and the space shuttle Endeavour, and enjoyed a Christmas dinner made with rehydrated turkey. Shepherd said much of the day was spent gazing out of the ISS windows at the Earth below.

Six other expeditions to the ISS, including the current Expedition 16, have spent or will spend Christmas on the space station.

It is a grand dream to imagine a Filipino in space by the next decade. The first Filipino astronaut will be a great Christmas gift to all Filipinos around the world. Greater than the Filipino conquest of Mt. Everest.

Asia’s satellite industry: slow but big wins the race

(Published in June 2006)

AESOP'S FAMOUS FABLE about the tortoise and the hare does hold a lesson or two for Asia’s long-suffering regional satellite operators.

Falling revenues and profits; Ku-band overcapacity; bewildering regulatory environments; overabundant fiber and political interference hobble Asia in its race to reap the rewards of a world satellite services industry profiting from conflict and consolidation.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan demand massive satellite bandwidth to support coalition military operations. Northern Sky Research says the U.S. presence in these countries will sustain satellite industry revenue growth. It believes that military use will generate 46% of all satellite service revenues from 2002 to 2007.

On the other hand, regional Asian satellite companies continue to rely heavily on TV and DTH as its revenue movers. Both 2004 and 2005 were marked by weak demand for satellite capacity from Asian broadcasters.

As for consolidation, this phenomenon has been the province of the Big Boys that dominate the world satellite services market. It hasn’t, as yet, helped Asia run faster in its race for revenues.

Asia, however, will win the race by doggedly plodding on bereft of the immediate push from conflict and consolidation. After all, it’s not a race to cross the finish line first.

It’s about who can stay in the race the longest—and profit the “mostest.” And Asia/Pacific, with more than half the world’s population and a horde of developed and soon to be developed economies, will win the race by sheer force of its numbers. Slow but big will win this race, as it did in Aesop’s fable.

Nowhere is Asia’s dominant potential as a satellite services market more marked than in direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting. Excluding China and India, Asia had some 8.5 million DTH subscribers in 2005. Including both populous nations, that number jumps to astronomical heights.

China promises to become the world’s largest DTH market in less than a decade. Some 260 million households are the potential market for DTH, said the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), China’s broadcasting regulator.

Analysts expect China’s DTH subscribers to hit 30 million by 2008 if the government launches DTH this year in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Chinese DTH satellites, however, are poised for launch in preparation for the official coming of DTH. SinoSat-2 is to be lofted into orbit later this year and ChinaSat-9 by late 2007. They will join the in-orbit Apstar-6, another DTH satellite. SinoSat-2 is China's first direct broadcast satellite and its largest to date.

China has about 360 million households, of which 100 million receive cable TV programs. Analysts expect satellite growth to outpace cable by 2009 due mainly to China’s satellite-broadcast industry.

For the present, however, China’s satellite industry is preoccupied with non-commercial pursuits such as sending a satellite into Moon orbit in 2006; conducting the first Chinese spacewalk in 2007; beginning construction of a space station in 2009 and landing a probe on the Moon in 2010.

India began commercial DTH operations only in October 2003 and by December 2004 reported over three million subscribers. Hong Kong-based research firm Media Partners Asia (MPA) said India is poised to become Asia's leading cable market by 2010, the largest satellite market by 2008 and the most lucrative pay TV market by 2015.

Indian DTH finally materialized in October 2003 with the launch of “Dish TV” from Subhash Chandra’s ASC Enterprises. That was followed in 2004 by the launch of “DD Direct Plus” from state-owned broadcaster, Doordarshan.

Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV is expected to roll out its DTH service in mid-2006 under the banner of “Tata Sky Ltd,” an 80:20 joint venture between Tata Group and Star TV.

Also set to go is India’s fourth DTH provider, Noida Software Technology Park Ltd (NSTPL), which is to begin its service in 2006. Two more players are scheduled to enter the DTH arena: Sun Network and the Reliance Group.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) said satellite services were leading the industry’s recovery from the telecom crash of 2000, accounting for 63% of industry revenues of $97 billion in 2004. It said DTH contributed 81% of satellite service revenues.

SIA noted that while the satellite industry is emerging from the telecom downturn, companies from every major region including Asia and across each sector (operators, manufacturers, value-added resellers and carriers) are reporting improved business.

Consolidation?
Last year’s big wave of consolidation among global satellite operators—like the five-year old war on terror—hasn’t been a crock of gold for Asia’s regional satellite operators. But it’s been great for newly merged Intelsat/PanAmSat and SES Global/Astra/Americom/New Skies Satellites, which have moved into new markets, but mostly outside Asia.

Both consortia have 20 satellites serving the Asia Pacific, including China. Intelsat operates 16 of these satellites.

Peter Jackson, chief executive officer of regional Asian satellite company Asia Satellite Telecommunications (AsiaSat), said the recent spasm of mergers and acquisitions created larger global players focused mainly on generating business in the USA.

“I don't think it will have significant impact on us as we are focusing on the regional Asian business,” he told media.

Jackson expects consolidation to continue and some analysts forecast that Asian regional carriers will be involved in the coming wave.

AsiaSat, which claims to be Asia’s leading regional satellite operator, has three in-orbit satellites with one more due to launch in 2008. It is minority-owned by SES Global of Luxembourg.

About the closest any regional carrier got to consolidation last year was the strategic cooperation agreement in December between Intelsat and Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holdings Ltd.

The agreement between both operators was to market each other’s satellite capacity and ground resources, and to provide broadcast and telecommunications services to China and the Asia Pacific. APT has four in-orbit Apstar satellites including the new Apstar-6.

The partnership gives Intelsat access the Asia Pacific market through APT’s Apstar-5 and Apstar-6 satellites. APT will access Intelsat’s capacity in other regions of the world via Intelsat’s fleet of 28 satellites, expanding APT’s reach.

Analysts say the agreement also puts paid to persistent rumors of consolidation between AsiaSat and APT. But it does leave APT as a prime candidate for future consolidation moves with other regional or global carriers.

Growing stronger
One reason for the tepid interest in Asia is that Asia’s commercial satellite industry continues to recover from the telecom crash of 2000. Many in the industry see 2005 as the last of the slow growth years in which transponder overcapacity stood at a high 60% to 70%, and 2006 as the start of a real recovery.

Jackson noted that the transponder leasing market is “recovering slowly,” an opinion shared by Paul Brown-Kenyon, chief operating officer of Malaysian satellite operator, Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd.

AsiaSat sees demand picking up in 2006 with continued growth in Asia Pacific economies, especially China. This growth, however, is not immediately expected to translate into a recovery in transponder prices, which historically lags behind economic growth.

AsiaSat saw both revenue and profitability fall in 2005. Sales dropped two percent in 2005 compared to 2004. The company’s satellite-utilization rate, however, increased to 54% in 2005 from 46% in 2004.

Jackson forecasts that major growth areas will be TV distribution and multiple location private networks. He expects satellites to move into new applications such as video content for 3G mobile phones delivered to terrestrial networks.

He is enthusiastic about HDTV and forecasts that all television will eventually be recorded and broadcast in high definition. HDTV will require satellites for the dual illumination that makes HDTV possible, hence the buoyant mood of the industry about HDTV.

New commercial satellite services such as DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) via satellite and broadband via satellite hold the brightest promise for Asia’s satellite companies, say analysts.

Northern Sky Research sees bright prospects for satellite broadband and estimates that revenues of $2.7 billion in 2004 should grow to $4 billion in 2009. Driving this 7.8% CAGR will be broadband Internet access via satellite. Northern Sky believes that satellite Internet access might well become the satellite industry’s first truly mass market service capable of competing against DSL on price.

Still hungry
The recent acquisition of Thailand’s Shin Corp by Temasek Holdings Pte, investment arm of the Singapore government, positions Singapore as Asia’s top satellite operator.

Shin Corp is parent company of Shin Satellite plc (ShinSat), Asia's third largest satellite operator. The deal, which will give Temasek control of Shin and its subsidiaries (including ShinSat), will dramatically boost Singapore's presence as a regional telecoms player.

It will also give Singapore and SingTel control over ShinSat’s fleet of four satellites, including the iPSTAR-1 Broadband Internet Satellite or Thaicom-4. Thaicom-5, to be orbited in 2006, is a dedicated DTH satellite.

SingTel already controls Australia’s SingTel Optus Pty Ltd, the second largest telecommunications company in Australia, and its fleet of satellites (four in-orbit; two to launch) while owning capacity on four other Asian satellites (three from Apstar).

Its ownership of both Optus and ShinSat plus ownership of the ST-1 satellite launched in 1998 makes SingTel Asia’s largest satellite fleet operator with 12 satellites.

Temasek followed-up the Shin Corp acquisition by buying a 9.9% stake in Tata Teleservices for an undisclosed sum, giving Singapore a foothold in India’s rapidly growing mobile phone market.

Despite these huge investments, Temasek said it retains a big appetite for more acquisitions in Asia. Managing director for investment S. Iswaran said that underlying the company’s investment binge is its “positive view of Asia and its growth prospects.”

He made no mention of further investments in Asian satellite operators such as APT, however. Temasek has US$103 billion available for investments.

Space: the Philippines' next Everest

China's spectacular feat of sending its first man into space in 2003, two years ahead of expectation, confirms the immense prestige space flight confers on countries that dare reach for the stars.

China's triumph is a triumph for Asia. In becoming only the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to orbit a human being via its own space program, China also became the first Asian country and the only developing nation to have achieved this wonderful exploit.

We tend to forget that China remains a developing nation like the Philippines, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. China's spectacular accomplishments in business and trade and its huge market potential tend to becloud its status as a developing nation, albeit the largest in the world.

Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) 5 carrying fighter pilot Lt. Col. Yang Liwei was lifted into orbit on October 15, 2003 by a Chinese-made Long March II F carrier rocket. It completed 14 earth orbits before the re-entry module carrying Yang landed in Inner Mongolia. The first Shenzhou spacecraft flew into space in 1999.

Communists claim China's triumph is a victory for the communist way of government. Only a command economy like Communism, they say, can marshal the national resources and provide the iron will needed to push forward with a costly and dangerous project such as a space program.

The erstwhile Soviet Union, which sent the first man (Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin) into space on April 12, 1961, was communist after all.

China's success in space did have much to do with competing ideologies and economic systems. The success of Shenzhou 5 can, after all, be traced to the technological one upmanship between communism and democracy that fueled the Cold War.

The late chairman Mao Zedong set China firmly on the road to space in 1956 when China opened its first missile and rocket research institute. In 1970, China became the fifth country to send a satellite into orbit.

I doubt whether China without communism could have sent a man into space as soon as it did. China was expected to carry out this feat by 2005, or by 2004 at the earliest, according to Western observers.

That China did so two years earlier than anticipated demonstrates China's unflagging commitment to a space program whose aim is to make it a world leader in space science and the exploration of outer space by 2020.

But I also do not doubt that a democratic China would have invariably sent a man into space. It probably would have taken several more decades to accomplish this, but this deed would have been done.

Why? Because great nations invariably turn to space to seal their greatness. Witness the United States and the Soviet Union. And Europe as a community of nations.

China's space program is now preoccupied prestige pursuits such as conducting the first Chinese spacewalk in 2007; beginning construction of a space station in 2009 and landing a probe on the Moon in 2010.

Its great Asian competitor is India. As it stands now, India is the likeliest candidate to become the fourth nation to send a man into space on its own.

India is also a great nation whose stated aim is to become only the second country to send humans to the Moon.

India hopes to achieve this feat by the second decade of this century, after it orbits its own space station. But India will first have to take the necessary step of first sending its astronauts into earth orbit before it can plan more grandiose designs.

India's space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), however, has not announced a timetable for India's first manned space flight. ISRO's present efforts focus on ensuring the reliability of its launch vehicle, the massive Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) that is expected to carry India's first astronaut into space.

China's announced ambition after more manned space flights is to also build its own space station and a fleet of space shuttles. Should this come to pass, the world will soon witness a New Space Race pitting two Asian countries that once fought a bloody border war in 1962, and have remained uneasy neighbors since.

Nations without manned space programs have also basked in the glory of space travel. The first Indian, Rakesh Sharma, rocketed into space as a cosmonaut on board the Russian Salyut 7 spacecraft in April 1984. The first Japanese in space, Mamoru Mohri, flew into orbit as a passenger on the U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavor in September 1992.

On the reverse side of the coin is the danger facing space travelers. Two Asians, the Israeli astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, and the Indian-American woman astronaut, Dr. Kalpana Chawla, died in the re-entry disaster that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia in February 2003.

All astronauts, cosmonauts or yuhangyuans (Chinese for astronaut) are heroes to be exalted and emulated. These men and women are, after all, a special breed of hero-intelligent, tough and highly skilled-the pride of their countries.

The Philippines has the human material needed to produce astronauts that will bring glory to the Philippines. The task ahead for this government is to make sending the first Filipino into space by the next decade the single-minded aim of a united national effort.

I am not proposing that we embark on a trillion-peso space program. What I do suggest is that we launch a search to identify, train and finance a core group of astronauts, one of whom will be selected to become the first Filipino in space. This search can be a joint project of the government, business and interested institutions.

Our partner in this Great Endeavor can either be the Americans, the Russians, the Europeans, the Chinese or even the Indians. Our astronaut will ride into orbit aboard the space vehicle of one of these countries.

He or she will also have to be trained in space flight by one of these countries. A joint mission involving Asian countries and astronauts would be ideal.

This Great Endeavor might even unite this nation as never before. Who would not want to see and hear a countryman in space greeting us in Filipino? This will be a day of great pride.

Our hope for greatness through national unity lies in space. Space is our Next Everest--and we will conquer it.

Who will be the first Filipino astronaut? This was a question I first asked the Philippines in 2002. What is her answer?

The race to control the Earth from the Moon

The perfect energy source does indeed exist.

It’s an energy source so safe that fusion plants using it can be built inside cities to provide electricity. It emits hardly any deadly radiation.

It’s so efficient as a power source that just one million metric tons of this material will produce more than 10 times the energy available from mining all the fossil fuels on Earth—less the pollution.

This perfect energy source is a gas called Helium-3 (He3). There’s enough of this material available to meet the Earth’s entire energy needs for a millennium.

There’s only one problem. It’s found only on the Moon.

And it’s fueling the Second Moon Race that pits the United States against a slew of competitors, the most notable of which is China. Other countries in the running are India, Russia and, surprisingly, Nigeria.

China vs the US
China is the US’ main competitor in this Second Moon Race that appears to be fueled by those old geopolitical objectives called money and power.

China is keen on mining He3 and other strategic moon resources such as water ice and titanium over the next 50 years.

Its Moon program, the “Chang’e Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP),” is essentially a grab for the economic and military power only a lock on the Moon’s resources can provide.

China aims to become the Moon’s first superpower. The United States’ moribund space program, however, seemed content to cling to the “Star Trek” mantra of boldly going where no man has gone before.

That is, until President George Bush in 2004 announced a “New Course” for space exploration that urges the United States to gain a new foothold on the Moon, and to prepare for new journeys to other worlds, specifically Mars.

The goal of the United States’ reenergized space program is to land Americans on the Moon before 2020.

But with Bush and his Republicans on the way out in 2008, it remains a question whether the Democrats share the Republican’s view of space as terrain to be conquered.

In China’s crosshairs
China, however, has the Moon firmly in its sights and appears intent on pulling out all the stops to secure this high ground in the coming struggle for the Moon’s mineral wealth.

A telling indicator of China’s focus on the Moon as a strategic resource is the man placed in charge of CLEP. That man is Ouyang Ziyuan, a cosmochemist and geochemist and a prominent expert in geological research and extraterrestrial materials.

Unsurprisingly, he’s a leading advocate of exploiting the Moon’s resources such as He3, and the leading proponent of Chinese-manned missions to the Moon and Mars.

China aims to build permanent, manned bases on the Moon, a vital first step in exploiting lunar resources. China expects to land on the moon by about 2024.

“The moon has become the focal point wherein future aerospace powers contend for strategic resources,” said Luan Enjie, then vice minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, in 2003.

Controlling levers of power
He3 is among those strategic resources. Some scientists see He3 as “the perfect energy source.”

Practically no natural deposits of He3 exist on Earth, however, but more than one million tons of He3 are believed to be found on the Moon. That’s enough energy to power the world for thousands of years, estimate some scientists.

The few hundred pounds of He3 that do exist on Earth are mostly by-products of nuclear weapons maintenance. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin found He3 on the Moon in 1969.

He3 is easily found in the lunar “regolith” or lunar soil, and is extracted by heating the soil to 600 degrees Centigrade. About half the Moon’s supplies of He3 are in the lunar “marias” or seas.

He3 fusion energy is extremely potent, nonpolluting and produces almost no radioactive by-products, as does the conventional nuclear technology used to produce electricity. It is, therefore, an ideal power source for spacecraft on long, interstellar trips.

In praise of the glorious Pinay

(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

IF HOLLYWOOD wants the vilest of villains,
Right away they'd cast a Brit.
Viewers love English cads who inflict murder and pain
While skewering victims with their sharp British wit.

In the Philippines, however, pure villainy seems reserved
For the females of this nation.
So, Satan's a Woman (gasp!) whose persona must accord
With lucrative "Kapuso" and "Kapamilya" notions.

Her name must sound Latin, replete with the vowels "a," "i" and "e"
Such as, Lavinia, Valentina or Angelica.
She must be evil in the extreme, a super Cruella De Ville,
Who can bellow, "Mwa, ha, ha, ha ha!" with hateful glee.

She must speak perfect English. Yes, yes, she must.
The insults are more condescending this way.
"A second rate, trying hard copy cat!" turns to rust if it's just:
"Isa kang laos at puto mayang pusa!"

Well, I've lost my rhyme but not my reason
So, here’s the point I want to make:

Pinays are passionate goddesses many men worship with zeal
Loving, forgiving and fashionably smart
It's heinous to cast her as this hideously unreal
"Mega kontrabida" with all the charms of a putrid wart.

Have a heart, 2 and 7, don't give us more evil ladies.
I'd rather romance Katrina and Angelika, instead.
But if you truly, direly need a really vicious baddie . . .
Hire an Alien.
It'll make money for you--until you're dead.