TOKYO (Reuters) – Myanmar’s first satellite is being held aboard the International Space Station after the Myanmar coup, while Japan’s space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two officials at a Japanese university said.
The $ 15 million satellite was built by Japan’s Hokkaido University in a joint project with the Myanmar University of Aerospace Engineering (MAEU), funded by the government of Myanmar. It is the first of a set of two 50 kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries.
Human rights activists and some Japanese officials fear that these cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that took power in Myanmar on February 1.
This put the deployment on hold, as the University of Hokkaido has discussions with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said the two officials at the University of Hokkaido.
“We are not going to get involved in anything that has to do with the military. The satellite was not designed for this, ”one of the authorities, the project manager, told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
“We are discussing what to do, but we do not know when it will be implemented. If it is interrupted, our hope is that the project can be restarted at some point. “
The manager did not say when the satellite should be deployed, or when a decision would have to be made by JAXA if it went ahead or delayed it.
The second official at the University of Hokkaido said the MAEU contract does not specify that the satellite cannot be used for military purposes. However, the spacecraft’s data would be collected by the Japanese university and cannot be accessed independently by the Myanmar authorities, the second official said.
Since the coup, university officials have been unable to contact MAEU’s rector, Prof Kyi Thwin, added the second official.
JAXA officials could not be reached for comment. The MAEU did not respond to calls for comment, nor did a spokesman for the Myanmar military junta.
The satellite was launched by NASA on February 20 as a small part of a large and varied supply payload for the International Space Station 400 km (250 miles) above Earth. Since then, it has been maintained by JAXA within Japan’s Kibo experimental module. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi is one of seven crew members now on board the space station.
Japan has close ties to Myanmar and is one of its largest donors of aid. While condemning the violence, it has not taken as hard a stance against the coup as the United States and some other Western countries that have applied sanctions.
Although the spacecraft was not built to military specifications, Teppei Kasai, Human Rights Watch Asia program official, said it would be easy for Myanmar’s army rulers to appropriate the technology for military use.
“Therefore, the Japanese universities involved should suspend the project and urgently review it for potential risks to human rights,” said Kasai.
Reporting by Tim Kelly; Peter Graff’s Edition