In accordance with the Programme of the social and economic development of Turkmenistan for 2018-2024, adopted during the Elders’ Council in October this year, over 1.300 billion manats will be invested into the development of the national space sphere.
It is planned to launch a land remote sensing satellite into the space orbit, as well as to significantly widen the ground infrastructure of the space industry, train specialists and organize the scientific work on space.
The beginning of the era of space technology in Turkmenistan is related to the establishment of the National Space Agency under the President of Turkmenistan and launching the national communication satellite into the near-earth space in 2015.
The National Space Agency that was established was entrusted with the establishment of the satellite communication, research, as well as the organization of the artificial satellite management from the territory of Turkmenistan.
At present, the first Turkmen satellite - TürkmenÄlem 520E is at the settled geosynchronous orbit, providing the stable broadcasting of the national TV channels.The specialists of the agency ensure the control over the motion of the satellite along its trajectory and maintenance of the ground-based equipment.
The high capacity of the satellite communication channels allows TürkmenÄlem 520E to broadcast dozens of TV channels of both standard and high resolution.Its useful load includes modern equipment designed to provide a package of multiservice communication services.
At present, the BSS satellite channel retransmits the TV programmes of the national TV and Radio channels of Turkmenistan, the contracts for the use of the TV signal transmitting channel were signed with companies of different countries.
Various ministries and departments of the country successfully use the national satellite services.JSC "Turkmen Hemrasy" provides satellite communication services to a number of foreign companies operating in the oil and gas sector.
TürkmenÄlem 520 E communication satellite provides mobile and landline telephone to remote settlements located in the Karakum Desert. The citisens in the Kirpili village in Baharly etrap, Ahal Velayat and the Oylyhgushlyk village in Balkan Velayat were given the opportunity to use the communication services and the Internet 24 hours a day through the national satellite.
The TurkmenTelecom state telecommunication company and JSC "Turkmen Hemrasy", which is entrusted with commercializing the satellite capacity and providing communication services both in Turkmenistan and abroad, connected remote settlements to the satellite repeater.
It is expected that the new land remote sensing satellite will be also used to solve the important tasks on the development of the country.The satellite provides the opportunity to obtain the data on dangerous, hard-to-reach and fast-moving objects, and also allows to observe the large areas.
Remote sensing will replace the expensive and relatively slow methods of collecting information, while guaranteeing noninterference in natural processes in the observed territories or objects.
For example, in the power industry it is possible to create the digital maps of transmission lines, supports, and transformer substations, as well as to collect, process and store these data, and monitor the technical condition of the facilities.
The remote sensing satellite will carry out environmental and legal control of oil fields, pipeline corridors and oil refineries.
Remote sensing is of applicational significance in the field of geoscience (for example, nature management), agriculture (the use and conservation of natural resources), national security (monitoring of border areas).
With the help of the satellite, it will be possible, with a certain periodicity, to obtain the images of regions and individual sites, the information on the state of the land, as well as to determine the areas of land used and unused.
The spacecraft is able to monitor the progress of agricultural works, determine the need for fertilizers, the degree of maturation, and forecast the yield.These data can be used to optimize agricultural production and spatially-oriented management of technical operations.
From the space, it will be possible to conduct research for the needs of the oil and gas complex, monitor urban development, carry out ecological observations of land and sea shelf, etc.