Busan City to Launch Artificial Satellite

Local Government Initiates First Nano-Satellite Development... Basic and Detailed Design Service Report Meeting on the 15th
Plan to Spend 3.8 Billion KRW by 2021 to Produce Two 12U-Class Ocean Nano-Satellites

12U-class nanosatellite.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Busan City has become the first local government to begin developing nano-class artificial satellites for marine information collection.

Busan City will hold a project briefing session for the basic and detailed design services for the core functions and engineering design of the 'Marine Nano Satellite' at 4:30 PM on the 15th on the 12th floor of City Hall.

Until now, the development and utilization of artificial satellites required massive investment and were promoted under national leadership. However, low-cost commercial private satellite technology is advancing mainly in the US and Europe, and private space technologies have reached a considerable level, with attempts such as private space travel underway. A US satellite image sales company records annual sales of over 70 billion KRW through global satellite image sales, creating various added values in practice.

In particular, the ocean has a so-called 'dark zone' where the internet does not work beyond about 80 km from the coast. In this area, it is difficult to identify ship locations or communicate between land and ships, and monitoring illegal fishing, marine environmental pollution, and ship accidents in the open sea is also challenging.

Busan City expects this project to bring significant changes to marine spatial management, fisheries, marine environment, illegal fishing control, and border water management based on small satellites.

This development project is technically challenging, and the maturity of domestic technology as well as regional industries is low, so collaboration through linkage among related organizations appears necessary.

Busan City is utilizing the 'Busan Marine New Industry Open Platform' of the Dongsam Innovation District, which opened last month, as a base for this project, while establishing a cooperative system with local institutions such as Busan Technopark, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Pusan National University, and Busan Port Authority, as well as external specialized institutions including Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Korea Institute of Patent Strategy Development, and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, aiming for the successful development of the nano satellite.

This project, promoted as part of the National Balanced Development Committee's pilot project for regional development investment agreements, "Creating an Innovative Growth Ecosystem for New Industries in the Future Marine City Busan (2019?2021, national and city funds 18.2 billion KRW)," will invest a total of 3.79 billion KRW, including 1.2 billion KRW for the design service of the Busan regional information collection system, to produce two 12U (1U=10cm×10cm×10cm) class marine nano satellites by the end of 2021. Through this, Busan plans to promote the utilization of marine nano satellites and marine-ICT services as specialized technologies of Busan's marine new industry.

Busan Technopark, which is carrying out this project, selected local companies in the marine nano satellite field, Nara Space Technology Co., Ltd. and Telepix Co., Ltd., through a public bidding and proposal evaluation last month for the design service of the Busan regional information collection system, and plans to complete the design service by the end of September.

Kim Hyun-jae, Director of the Marine Fisheries and Logistics Bureau of Busan City, said, "This briefing session is the first step for Busan to establish marine nano satellite utilization technology and leap forward as a future marine city," adding, "It will become a representative technology of the marine new industry for the future of the marine city Busan."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.