Pakistan said on Thursday it aims to send its first astronaut into space by 2022 and will begin selecting candidates next year.

Neighbour and long-time rival India put its first astronaut into space in 1984 as part of a Soviet-led mission. It launched a rocket, Chandrayaan 2, into space on Monday in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, its most ambitious mission yet.

Pakistan’s program announced 50 years after the U.S. Apollo 11 mission put the first man on the moon, marks a new departure after focusing on developing communication satellites.

“This will be the biggest space event of our history,” Science and Technology Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said in a tweet.

It is an elite club of just three nations: the US, Russia and China -- the only countries to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. Now, the United Arab Emirates is trying to join them, announcing an unmanned moon mission planned for 2024.

The UAE's mission is designed as a stepping stone towards the exploration of Mars, which the Gulf nation is targeting with its Mars 2117 project. Earlier this year, the project took off with the launch of a probe -- named Al Amal, or "Hope" -- due to reach the red planet's orbit in February 2021.

The new lunar mission involves a small rover, to be built entirely at Dubai's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC). Inaugurated in 2006, the center has already designed and built Earth-orbit satellites under an all-Emirati team, but the rover is its most ambitious technological undertaking to date.

As already disclosed back in 2012, North Korea's Lunar Exploration Program (NKLEP) will start with an Orbiter. Landers are expected to follow. While permanent bases have been depicted in New Year's show.

Moreover, like Italy, Japan, Germany, India, Israel, South Korea, Spain, etc, it is common practice to test dual-use civilian-military space technologies under the guise of space explorations.

Please note that under the guise of "civilian research and demonstration platform", Japan has tested live and perfected with the tacit connivence of the U.S. its warhead reentry technologies.

With last year's Hayabusa-2 Asteroid Sampling Return mission successful recovery of a Reentry Vehicle at the speed of the second cosmic velocity, Japan concludes a second demonstration of dual-use civilian-military technology. Under the nose and applause of the international community.

Morteza Barari, the head of Iran's Space Agency and the Deputy Minister of Communications, in an interview with Mehr, announced the moon exploration program.

A Lunar orbiter project is to be done by the private sector and we have made initial agreements.

This project is about space exploration.

In this way, a satellite will orbit the moon.

An 18-member team from one of the country's universities has now begun the designing.

The lunar orbiter will be an important event.

The UAE has already started this project and has benefit of a lot of knowledge in this area.

As part of the national space promotion plan and presidential national agen-das, South Korea’s institutes and agencies under the auspices of the Ministry of Science, Information and Communication Technology and Future Planning (MSIP) are currently working on a phase-A study for a Korean Lunar Exploration Program (KLEP) [1]. A Korean pathfinder lunar orbiter (KPLO) is to be fol-lowed by a Korean Lunar Explorer (KLE) which con-stitutes an orbiter and a lander unit equipped with a small rover with a mass of approximately 20 kg

KPLO’s main scientific return is considered to be composed of visual and spectral image data, space environmental measurements and data related to lunar resources. For the exploration of lunar resources two major exploration areas need to be considered: (1) resources in polar regions for the potential establish-ment of lunar bases or (2) future energy resources such as Helium-3 and precious rare earth elements along with radioactive resources like Uranium. KPLO is planned to operate in a circular polar orbit at an orbit altitude of 100 km. Its size will be 1.9 x 1.7 x 2.3 (m) with a dry mass of 550 kg. The total science payload mass will amount to approximately 40 kg with instru-ments contributed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and other Korean research institutes and centers, as well as NASA. The development peri-ods for KPLO and KLE are considered to be 2016–2018 and 2017–2020, respectively .

Indonesia has donated Rp36.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to Palestine.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that aid was given by the Republic of Indonesia following the situation and conditions of Palestinian refugees exacerbated by the corona virus pandemic (Covid-19) and the planned West Bank annexation by Israel.

Retno said the funds were channeled in a number of ways, namely through the government of President Mahmoud Abbas and through the United Nations organization for Palestinian refugee affairs (UNRWA) each of US $ 1 million (Rp14.6 billion), and the International Red Cross (ICRC) valued at US $ 500 thousand (Rp7.3 billion).

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INDONESIA: NEXT SUPERPOWER -- Waktu era "cold war," ada dua "superpower" di dunia, yaitu Amerika Serikat dan Uni Soviet. Negara beruang merah kemudian pecah pada tahun 1991, dan semenjak itu sampai sekarang hanya "paman sam" satu satunya "superpower" dunia.

Apakah Amerika Serikat akan tetap sebagai "superpower" dunia pada tahun 2050 mendatang? Jawabnya sangat mengejutkan, ternyata TIDAK ! (baca selanjutnya)

ilustrasi

INDONESIA: NEXT SUPERPOWER -- Indonesia disebut-sebut sebagai negara yang super power (berkekuatan besar) oleh UNESCO. Badan pendidikan, keilmuwan dan kebudayaan dunia tersebut memberikan sebutan pada Indonesia bukan tanpa alasan sebab menurut badan yang merupakan bagian dari Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa itu menyebut Indonesia sebagai negara super power dalam bidang budaya. Ungkapan itu disampaikan oleh UNESCO saat Sidang Umum UNESCO ke-39 di Paris, Prancis yang berlangsung pada akhir Oktober hingga 14 November yang lalu. Dalam sidang ini pula Indonesia terpilih menjadi Dewan Eksekutif UNESCO periode 2017-2021.

Sebagaimana diberitakan ANTARA (6/11) penyebutan Indonesia sebagai negara super power dalam bidang budaya tersebut disampaikan oleh Asisten Direktur Jendral UNESCO Bidang Budaya Fransesco Bandarin kepada Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (Mendikbud) RI, Muhadjir Effendy. "Tidak ada rasanya negara di dunia mana pun yang punya warisan budaya sekaya Indonesia maupun sebanyak warisan budaya tidak benda seperti Indonesia," ujar Mendikbud.

Menurutnya, pengakuan UNESCO itu menyebutkan bahwa Indonesia memang memiliki keberagaman budaya dan peninggalan yang sangat besar dan banyak. Sehingga hal ini mendorong Indonesia sendiri untuk melakukan inventarisasi dan langkah-langkah penyelamatan maupun perawatan terhadap warisan budaya tak benda di Indonesia. (baca selanjutnya)

Indonesia: New Superpower

INDONESIA: NEXT SUPERPOWER -- While we talk about the leading power in Asia, in the mind of international relations expert should be China and India. China and India are projected to become dominant the world economy and politics. However, the other third giant of Asia that also can be dominant in the Asia Pacific region is Indonesia. The prominent US journal foreign Policy uses the heading of “The Indonesian Tiger” written by Joshua Keating (2010).

He argues with their economic achievement, Indonesia in the future will become the world’s first Muslim and democratic super power. As a Muslim country with the democracy system and the open economic miracle, Indonesia future will be dominant in Islam and West dialogue, and indeed in the relationship between Asia and Western countries. (more)