The chief of the Mexican space agency has sought the support of India in building and launching a remote sensing satellite. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will work on this proposal with the support of India’s External Affairs Ministry.
This request from Mexico is part of the ongoing cooperation activities between India and Mexico in Earth observation. Remote sensing satellite is used to observe or gather data about a place or a phenomenon, without making physical contact with it. It is the exact opposite of on-site observation. Remote sensing has diverse applications including geology, oceanography, meteorology, military, intelligence-gathering etc.
The discussions were held during a virtual meeting between Dr S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, and D. Salvador Landeros Ayala, Director General of Mexican Space Agency (AEM). Dr Pankaj Sharma, Indian Ambassador to Mexico and Gustavo A. Cabrera Rodriguez, Ambassador of Mexico for the Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency (ALCE) also participated in the meeting.
The Mexican official thanked the ISRO for developing a mobile application for forest fire monitoring and sharing it with Mexican Forest Department.
The Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM), Mexico’s national space agency, was established in 2010 and aims to promote and coordinate education, R&D of space-related activities that are performed in the country. The agency does not yet possess the capability to design and build spacefaring rockets and satellites.
The Department of Space, under the Government of India, has been providing training and capacity building in space science related technology, including satellite services to neighbouring small countries and other space-aspiring countries of the world.
Most recently, on November 26, 2022, India launched a jointly developed India-Bhutan SAT, on board a PSLV rocket. The satellite is capable of performing imaging, mapping of resources and helps is text-message based communications needs of Bhutan. A communication satellite ‘South Asia Satellite’ was dedicated by India to South Asian countries in 2017.