Proposal for the Taiwan Space Union program office( I )

After the continuous efforts since its first establishment in 1991, the National Space Center (NSPO) is marching ahead with its Third Phase Program and at the verge of making Taiwan a rising power in Earth observation with its F8/F9 remote sensing satellite clusters and advanced instrumentation under planning. The formation of the Taiwan Space Union (TSU) is meant to take advantage of this unique opportunity on the one hand, and to respond to the challenges posed by rapid progress in space technology on the other hand. It will serve as a bridge between the academia and NSPO as well as a conduit between the academia and the fledging space industry in Taiwan. One important goal is to establish a community-wide framework from which the procedure for a long-term planning/funding of space science and missions can be generated and sustained, thus maximizing scientific returns and trengthening spin-offs in industrial and environmental applications of the remote-sensing data. The integral approach is to advance Taiwan's academic leadership in the international arena and to build up its national infrastructure and technical capabilities in the B5G/IoT era. As a platform/hub for information exchange and a think tank to synthesize different disciplines, the program office of TSU will have four task groups initially. They are: (1) the data analysis and software development group, (2) the instrument development and mission engineering group, (3) the advanced planning group, and (4) the international's cooperation group. The core interests are education, scientific research, industrial and social applications, and sustainable development. A preliminary survey of Taiwan's long-term development in space will be carried out.