Reach for the stars

The title of this article is not related to our celebration of The Philippine STAR’s 33rd anniversary, although I would of course encourage everyone to reach for a copy of our newspaper, or access it on cell phones or computers.

What the title refers to are real stars – the ones that twinkle, twinkled when I was a kid – and how I wondered what they were.

Manila at the time was so much less congested and polluted, and the night sky in the city of my birth bursted with stars. There were still fireflies even in the tough neighborhoods of Tondo where I grew up, and a wonderful assortment of dragonflies especially in the water spinach or kangkong patches.

I loved my grade school science lessons.  We had glossy hardbound Macmillan textbooks with a lot of colored photos and at home a set of Book of Knowledge children’s encyclopedia whose contents I devoured, from cover to cover. I learned to make out the Big and Small Dippers in the night sky. I watched out for shooting or falling stars.

My Catholic school, where I must be considered a disgraceful alumna for my views on issues such as contraception and divorce, was a success in at least one aspect of my education: looking up at the stars, with all the unanswered questions from my science classes, made me believe there had to be a Supreme Being responsible for creations of such incredible and mysterious beauty.

When did I stop looking at the stars? I guess when pollution in Manila obscured them. And when did I lose interest in the sciences? Probably when I couldn’t understand much about Physics, Chemistry and Geometry, although I always loved Biology and aced all my tests in this subject.

Did I simply have lousy teachers in the other science subjects? In hindsight, I would have liked to understand those subjects that eluded me. Would better teachers make school children understand – and be interested – in the sciences?

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These questions come to mind as the government prepares to launch a Philippine Space Agency. PhilSA, as it will be known, is a long way from NASA, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which has sent people to the moon and probes to Mars.

But our nascent National Space Development Program could take off in about three weeks, or earlier, if President Duterte signs the bill creating PhilSA soon, before it lapses into law next month.

Yes, we have a National Space Development Program. Its program leader, Rogel Mari Sese, is one of just three astrophysicists in our country. Sese, who has a doctorate in applied physics, says a space program does not necessarily mean sending someone to the moon.

What our space program is focusing on are the practical applications of space technology. Internet speed, for one, can be boosted. Using satellites, scientists can determine how many cavans of rice can be harvested in a particular area. Geohazard mapping can become more accurate, with timely warnings issued to those at high risk of landslides. By monitoring sea surface temperature, scientists can even advise fisherfolk of areas where there are better chances of catching fish.

And of course if you can detect areas with higher concentrations of fish, satellites can also detect where ships might be swarming around a particular spot.

Can Philippine satellites detect which flags the ships are flying? While the skies over the country are often too cloudy for this and image resolution provided by existing satellites is not high enough, ships emit an automatic identification system that can be picked up by satellites. This is according to engineer Alvin Retamar of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), who together with Sese faced “The Chiefs” recently on Cignal TV / One News.  

Retamar is the chief science research specialist at the DOST’s Advanced Science and Technology Institute or ASTI, and project leader of PEDRO, the Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation Center.

The DOST-ASTI has launched the Diwata 1 and 2 micro satellites from Florida and Japan, respectively, and the wholly Philippine-designed nanosatellite Maya 1, launched from Cape Canaveral also in Florida.

Retamar said ASTI’s Stamina for Space Program has trained a potential pool of persons who can teach Filipinos how to develop cube or nanosatellites like Maya 1 – gadgets weighing only about a kilo and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

A space program is not all satellites, rockets and spaceships, Retamar and Sese stressed. There are other career paths for those interested, such as space law and space medicine. And there’s growing interest in space technology among Filipinos, particularly the youth, Retamar said.

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If the law is passed, the space program would get P10 billion over the next five years, on top of the P1 billion a year under the regular national budget. Sese said the amount, modest compared to funding in Asian countries that started their space programs early, is satisfactory at this point.

The two scientists said the Philippines has enough competent people engaged in aerospace engineering and related fields, and it’s a matter of getting them together for the space program.

Sese said the long-term goal of the space program is to assemble, integrate and manufacture satellites in the Philippines, and perhaps produce the rockets, too.

He and Retamar said that the Philippines is ideally situated for rocket launches, being close to the equator and with the eastern section facing the Pacific Ocean. Because of the Earth’s rotation, the closer you are to the equator, the greater the rocket boost, which allows for a heavier payload. Rockets are launched toward the east, and when they disengage and fall back to Earth, it’s better for them to hit the sea.

“We want the Philippines to become the space industrial hub in Southeast Asia,” Sese said.

I guess when you’re constantly reaching for the stars, the sky’s the limit of your goals. Sese’s best estimate for the Philippines to develop its own rocket is five years.

And how long might it take for the costly project, which must be sustained, of sending a Filipino into space?

“Hopefully, within a decade,” replied Sese, who could have been the country’s first astronaut, but he said (seriously) that he didn’t like the toilet arrangements.

Ten years is not too far; Pinoy kids today can hope to join a manned space program. Asking, “where does the universe come from?” can put them on the path of lifelong space exploration.

“Who knows, one of them might be a future astronaut,” Sese said. “You can start dreaming big.”