National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
Encyclopedia
National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (/LAPAN) is the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n government space agency. It was established on November 27, 1964 by former Indonesian president Suharto after one year's existence of an informal space agency organization. LAPAN is responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research. For over two decades, it has managed satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

s, mainly telecommunication satellites, including the Palapa
Palapa
Palapa is a series of communication satellites owned by Indosat, an Indonesian telecommunication company.The name Palapa also alludes to "Sumpah Palapa" the oath taken by Gajah Mada, a 14th century Prime Minister of the Javanese Majapahit Empire described in the Pararaton...

 project satellites, which were built by Hughes (now Boeing Satellite Systems) and launched from the US on Delta rockets or from French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

 using Ariane 4
Ariane 4
Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it...

 and Ariane 5
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...

 rockets.

History

On May 31, 1962, Indonesia commenced aeronautics exploration when the Aeronautics Committee was established by the Indonesian Prime Minister, Juanda, who was also the head of Indonesian Aeronautics. The secretary of Indonesian Aeronautics, RJ Salatun, was also involved in the establishment.

On September 22, 1962, the Initial Scientific and Military Rocket Project (known in Indonesia as Proyek Roket Ilmiah dan Militer Awal or "PRIMA") was formed as an affiliation of AURI (Indonesian Air Force) and ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology). The outcome of the project was the launching of two "Kartika"("star") series rockets and their telemetric ordnances.

After two informal projects, which had no national contribution, the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) was established in 1963 by Presidential Decree 236.

Programmes

For more than 20 years, LAPAN doing in research on Rocket, Remote Sensing and also satellites, mainly micro and nanosatellites, including Inasat-1 and Lapan-Tubsat. Inasat-1 is the first program on satellite development, and Lapan-Tubsat is the first satellite is owned by LAPAN, this satellite is build at Germany ( TU Berlin )

Palapa A1 and A2

The first program was the Palapa A1 (launched August 7, 1976) and A2 (launched October 3, 1977). The satellites were almost identical to Canada's Anik
Anik (satellite)
The Anik satellites are geostationary communications satellites launched by Telesat Canada for television in Canada. In Inuktitut, Anik means "little brother".-The Satellites:-Anik A:...

 and Western Union's Westars although the Indonesian variants had larger parabolic reflectors suited to the large area of the archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

. Although the satellites belonged to the government-owned company Perumtel, the spacecraft were made in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

International cooperation

In 2008 Indonesia signed an agreement with the Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 National Space Agency (NSAU)
National Space Agency of Ukraine
The State Space Agency of Ukraine is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy and programs....

 that will allow access to rocket and satellite technologies.

Biak Spaceport

Since 2008 Indonesia has been involved in a joint venture with the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA)
Russian Federal Space Agency
The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos and abbreviated as FKA and RKA , is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency .Headquarters of Roscosmos are located...

 and some private companies to offer commercial satellite launch services, starting in 2011, by means of the air-launch system Air Start. Specifically, a Russian Antonov An-124
Antonov An-124
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan is a strategic airlift jet aircraft. It was designed by the Ukrainian SSR's Antonov design bureau, then part of the Soviet Union. It is the world's largest ever serially-manufactured cargo airplane and world's second largest operating cargo aircraft...

 aircraft will deliver a space launch vehicle to the new Indonesian spaceport
Spaceport
A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...

 on Biak
Biak
Biak features a tropical rainforest climate with nearly identical temperatures throughout the course of the year. The average annual temperature in the city is 27 degrees celsius, which is also generally the average temperature of each day in Biak...

 island (West Papua province). This spaceport is well suited to commercial launches as it sits almost exactly on the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

 - any space vehicle launched at the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

 has a greater initial velocity imparted to it, making higher velocity or heavier payloads possible.

Indonesian LAPAN has enjoyed extensive co-operation and skills enhancement with Technical University Berlin.

Enggano satellite launchpad

February 2011: National Institute of Aeronautics and Space plans to build a satellite launchpad at Enggano Island
Enggano Island
Enggano Island is about 100 km south west of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is about 35 km long from east to west and about 16 km wide from north to south. Its area is 402.6 km², the average elevation is about 100 m and the highest point is 281 m. Politically it is a...

, Bengkulu
Bengkulu
Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. It is on the southwest coast of the island of Sumatra, and borders the provinces of West Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra and Lampung. The capital and largest city is Bengkulu city. It was formerly the site of a British garrison, which they called Bencoolen...

 province. It is located at the westernmost part of Indonesia at the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

 coast. There are three possible locations, two in Kioyo Natural Park and one in Gunung Nanua Bird Park. The most strategic site for this launchpad is inside Nanua Bird Park, a place called Tanjung Laboko which is 20 meters above sea level and far from residential areas. The plan has concerned from the Bengkulu Natural Resources Conservation Agency because both parks are habitat for a number of bird species native to Enggano Island.
The satellite launch pad requires area only one hectare, but the safety zone requires 200 hectares. The cost to be disbursed is Rp.40 trillion (around $4.5 billion). The location is also available for assembly of the rockets and launch preparations for satellites of up to 3.8 tonnes.

Koto Tabang Equator Atmospheric Radar

The Radar Atmosfer Khatulistiwa Koto Tabang is a radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 facility located at Koto Tabang, West Sumatra
West Sumatra
West Sumatra is a province of Indonesia. It lies on the west coast of the island Sumatra. It borders the provinces of North Sumatra to the north, Riau and Jambi to the east, and Bengkulu to the southeast. It includes the Mentawai Islands off the coast...

. It commenced operations in 2001. This facility is used for atmospheric dynamics research, especially areas concerning global climate change, such as El Niño and La Niña
La Niña
La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño as part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern. During a period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C...

 climate anomalies.

Remote Sensing Satellites Ground Station

The Stasiun Bumi Satelit Penginderaan Jauh ("Deep Sensory Earth Satellite Station") is located at Pare-pare
Pare-Pare
Parepare is a city in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, located on the southwest coast of Sulawesi, about north of the provincial capital of Makassar. A port town, it is one of the major population centers of the Bugis people. The city has a population of 113,615 people, according to a 2004...

, South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia, located on the western southern peninsula of Sulawesi Island. The province is bordered by Central Sulawesi province to the north, South East Sulawesi province to the east and West Sulawesi province to the west...

. Its main functions include receiving and recording data from earth observation satellite
Earth observation satellite
Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc....

s such as Landsat, Spot
Spot
The common noun or verb spot has many meanings in English.Otherwise, Spot or SPOT may refer to:-Fiction:* Spot the Dog, a series of children's books adapted for animation* Spot , a character in 101 Dalmatians: The Series...

, ERS-1, and JERS-1
JERS-1
Japanese Earth Resources Satellite 1 was a satellite launched in 1992 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency...

.

Weather Satellites Ground Station

These ground stations, located at Pekayon, Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

 and Biak
Biak
Biak features a tropical rainforest climate with nearly identical temperatures throughout the course of the year. The average annual temperature in the city is 27 degrees celsius, which is also generally the average temperature of each day in Biak...

, receive, record, and process data from NOAA weather satellite
Weather satellite
The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...

 24 times a day.

LAPAN-TUBSAT was the first Indonesian surveillance micro-satellite, launched on 10 January 2007 by ISRO PSLV-C7 with Cartosat-2 developed with Technical University (TU) Berlin, where the satellite was manufactured. It circles the earth 14.5 times a day at an altitude of 630 km, in a polar orbit with an inclination of 97.60° and a period of 99.039 minutes. The longitude shift per orbit is about 24.828° with a ground track velocity of 6.744 km/s with an angular velocity of 3.635 deg/s, and a circular velocity of 7.542 km/s.

Main Computer Laboratory

The Laboratorium Komputer Induk ("Master-Planning Computer Laboratory) is located at Pekayon in Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

. Its functions include: preliminary satellite imagery
Satellite imagery
Satellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made by means of artificial satellites.- History :The first images from space were taken on sub-orbital flights. The U.S-launched V-2 flight on October 24, 1946 took one image every 1.5 seconds...

 image processing
Image processing
In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame; the output of image processing may be either an image or, a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image...

, such as geometric correction and radiometric correction.

Quality Test and Photography Laboratory

The Laboratorium Fotografi dan Uji Mutu "Photography and Experiment Standards Control Laboratory") at Pekayon, Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, has main function works with satellite imagery
Satellite imagery
Satellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made by means of artificial satellites.- History :The first images from space were taken on sub-orbital flights. The U.S-launched V-2 flight on October 24, 1946 took one image every 1.5 seconds...

 digital image processing
Digital image processing
Digital image processing is the use of computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing...

 and satellite imagery
Satellite imagery
Satellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made by means of artificial satellites.- History :The first images from space were taken on sub-orbital flights. The U.S-launched V-2 flight on October 24, 1946 took one image every 1.5 seconds...

 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 photographic film
Photographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...

 image processing
Image processing
In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame; the output of image processing may be either an image or, a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image...

.

Rocket Motor Laboratory

The Laboratorium Motor Roket is located at Tarogong, West Java
West Java
West Java , with a population of over 43 million, is the most populous and most densely populated province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but with nearly double the population...

. It designs and produces rocket propulsion systems.

Propellant Laboratory

The 'Laboratorium Bahan Baku Propelan ("Combustion Propellant Laboratory") researches propellant
Propellant
A propellant is a material that produces pressurized gas that:* can be directed through a nozzle, thereby producing thrust ;...

, such as oxidizer Ammonium perchlorate
Ammonium perchlorate
Ammonium perchlorate is an inorganic compound with the formula NH4ClO4. It is the salt of perchloric acid and ammonia. It is a powerful oxidizer, which is why its main use is in solid propellants...

 and Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene
Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene
Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene is a polymer of butadiene terminated at each end with a hydroxyl functional group. It reacts with diisocyanate to form polyurethane, a stable and easily stored synthetic material....

.

Solar Radiation Observatory

The 'Stasiun Pengamat Radiasi Matahari
(Monitoring Stations [for] Solar Radiation) observe ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...

 radiation of the sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

. Operations began in 1992. These facilities were developed by Eko Instrument from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and are located at Bandung
Bandung
Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's third largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, with a population of 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 km southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler...

 and Pontianak
Pontianak, Indonesia
Pontianak is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan. It is a medium-size industrial city on the island of Borneo. Pontianak occupies an area of 107.82 km² in the delta of the Kapuas River...

.

Rockets

LAPAN rockets are classified "RX" (Roket Eksperimental) followed by the diameter in millimeters. For example, the RX-100 has a diameter of 100 mm.
LAPAN's current workhouse rocket propulsion system consists of four stages, namely the three-stage RX 420 and the RX-320 level. It is planned to use the RX-420 as a booster (rocket booster) RPS for the planned Roket Pengorbit Satelit ("Orbital Satellite Rocket") planned to fly in 2014.
In 2008 optimistic hopes were that this rocket,. known as SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) would first be launched in Indonesia to 2012, and if there were extra funds pursuant to the good economic situation of 2007-8, possibly the year 2010.
In fact, the LAPAN budget for 2008 and 2007 was Rp 200 billion (approximately USD $20million). Budgetary issues surrounding the international credit crises of 2008-2009 placed many Indonesian technical projects in jeopardy most especially the complete development of RX-420 and associated micro-satellite program to world-class standards ahead of project finalization schedule and the opportunity to work together with the world institutions. LAPAN hopes to be an educating partner with Indian Aerospace in sciences related to satellite.

At November 11, 2010, LAPAN spokesman said the RX-550 rocket would undergo a static test in December this year and a flight test in 2012. The rocket will consist of four stages, will be part of an RPS-01 rocket to put a satellite in orbit. Before, the Polar LAPAN-TUBSAT (LAPAN-A1) satellite created in cooperation with Germany was successfully placed in orbit and until now still functioning well. The aim is to have home-made rockets and satellites.

LAPAN has re-established and rejuvenated Indonesian expertise in rocket and missile based weapons systems in cooperation with the TNI AL [Armed Forces of Indonesia] began in 2005. In April 2008, Indonesian TNI began a new missile research program alongside LAPAN. Prior to this, eight projects were sponsored by the TNI in Malacca monitoring with satellite remote LAPAN-TUBSat, most especially the theft of timber and alleged encroachment on Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n territorial waters in the 2009 escalation over Malaysia's claims to the huge gas fields off Ambalat
Ambalat
Ambalat is a sea block in the Celebes sea which is currently in part of Indonesia sovereignty. Ambalat sea block is located off the coast of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan and south-east of the Malaysian state of Sabah. Malaysia refers to part of the Ambalat block as Block ND6 and part...

-island.

RX-100

RX-100 has:
diameter of 110 mm
length of 1900 mm
mass of 30 kg and length of 1900 mm.
Functions: to test rocket payload subsystems.
Propellant type: solid-composite
Fuel time: 2.5 seconds,
Flight time: 70 seconds
Maximum speed: Mach 1.
Range: 11 km, 7000m altitude,
Payload: Diagnostic,: GPS, altitude meter, gyro, 3-axis accelerometer, CPU processor and battery.

RX-150-120

Two-stage rocket launching RX-150-120 supported by TNI-AD (Indonesian Army) and PT Pindad.
Rocket with cruise distance 24 km was successfully launched from moving vehicle (Pindad Panser) on March 31, 2009.

R-Han 122

R-Han 122 rocket has capability of a land-to-land weapon with a shooting range up to 14 kilometers. The rocket are the result of the six years LAPAN's work. By 2014, at least 500 R-Han 122 rockets will be part of army arsenal.

RX-250

The main rocket, the Lapan RX-250 were launched regularly between 1987 to 2005.

RX-320

In 2008 Lapan successfully flew two RX-320. These 320 mm diameter rockets were launched on 2 July and 30 May 2008 at Pameungpeuk, West Java.

RX-420

Category: micro-satellites orbital launch vehicle, similar to Lambda from Japan, but with lighter modern materials and modern avionics. Launch unguided at a 70-degree angle of inclination with a four-stage solid rocket motor launcher.

Diameter: 420 mm
Length: 6200 mm
Lift-off mass: 1000 kg.
Propellant: solid composite, firing time 13 seconds
Thrust: 9.6 tons
Flight duration: 205 seconds
Maximum velocity: mach 4.5
Range: 101 km, 53000 m altitude
Payload: diagnostic, GPS, altimeter, gyro, 3-axis accelerometer, processor and battery.
The RX-420 was entirely built using local materials.

LAPAN carried out a stationary test on RX-420 on 23 December 2008 in Tarogong, West Java. The RX-420 missile was tested at the launching station Cilauteureun, Pameungpeuk District, Garut regency, West Java.
The LAPAN RX-420 is the test bed for the entirely indigenously developed satellite launch vehicle. RX-420 is suitable for launch of micro-satellites (50 kg or less) and nano-satellites (5 kg or less) currently in co-development with Technical University of Berlin

The rocket launching plan will be extended in 2010 by launching combined RX-420-420 and in 2011 for combined RX-420-420 – 320 and SOB 420.

RX-420 Plus and RX-520

At planning stage are the RX-420 with multiple customizable configuration boosters and the planned 520mm RX-520. The RX-520 is predicted to be able to launch 100 kg+ payload into orbit. This large rocket is intended to be fueled by high-pressure liquid. Hydrogen Peroxide and various hydrocarbons are under evaluation. Addition of RX-420 boosters to the RX-520 is calculated to increase lifting capacity to 500 kg+ payload, although if too expensive, the proven Russian Soyuz
Soyuz (rocket)
The Soyuz was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Samara, Russia. It was used to launch Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Soyuz programme, initially on unmanned test flights, followed by the first 19 manned launches of the...

 and Energiya will likely be employed.

RX-520 consists of one RX-420 and two boosters of RX-420 in stage-1, one RX-420 in stage-2, one RX-420 in stage-3 and as a payload launcher one RX-320 in stage-4.

LAPAN Library

In June 2009, LAPAN launched its extensive online library of over 8000 titles on aeronautics and astronautics. This is the largest dedicated aerospace library in ASEAN and it is hoped to bring Indonesian and ASEAN talent into the LAPAN program, especially for those disadvantaged by location. It is unclear how much content will be available freely to the public, and what specific form of library will operate.

Komurindo

Komurindo or Kompetisi Muatan Roket Indonesia means Indonesia Payload Rocket Competition. The competition is established by Lapan, Education Ministry and some Universities, etc. for enhance rocket research in the Universities. The third competition has been done in late June 2011 in the Pandansimo Beach of Bantul, Yogyakarta.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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