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There’s discussion regarding creation of a Mexican Space Agency - or AEXA, for short. The Mexican Senate must first deliberate on the matter, before such an organization obtains legal status.
The bill for the creation of AEXA would incorporate Mexico within the international space community. Mexican Space Agency goals are several, but would include selecting technological alternatives for solving specific issues in that country. Also, information and technology obtained in all space science fields and other related arenas would be better coordinated.
Furthermore, AEXA would raise awareness regarding space matters that boost national economy, education, culture and community life in general.
The Mexican Space Agency would also work with Mexican firms to bolster the country’s competence in a host of areas, from meteorology, telecommunications, disaster prevention, and remote sensing to space robotics and exobiology.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
South Park did an episode on this… they used a Mexican space agency (because it was cheaper than other countries) to launch a whale to the moon… called it M.A.S.A.
In all seriousness, personally I think it’s for the common good of North American countries for Mexico to expand it’s global reach and technology base. Also, being involved in space projects gives countries a sense of national pride and international prestige.
November 11th, 2007 at 8:53 am
You got it…and let’s see if the concept moves forward. Mexico scientists and engineers have much to offer in moving the global space agenda forward. Thanks for your comment…
Leonard
November 11th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
I’ve often wondered how organizations like Armadillo Aerospace can have a space program while countries like Mexico do not…
November 12th, 2007 at 1:19 am
I say why not…Think about it, although Mexico has no space techonoly, ancient Mexico were considered the best in the world when the Mayans and the Aztecs were around. Thanks to these civilizations, we use their tools ideas, but now their just more sophisticated then before. Just look at the mayan pyramids and the aztec calendar, all space related.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Leonard, do you forsee this agency developing any programs of their own given the VERY limited resources the Mexican Government has available to invest in Space Technology? I think “AEXA” main focus will be to promote international aerospace investment in Mexico (i.e. become a international space manufacturing country given the potential “cheap & reliable space labor”)and thus escalating their very new aerospace industry. The LONG TERM result might be indeed a Mexican Space Program, but, do you see other scenario rather than that happening in the next 10-15 years?
November 13th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I would be very, very surprised if this happens to be more than just a propaganda trick, you know to make it seem like the goverment is doing something.
Since conservatives took power in 2000, the gov investment in science and technology has been and all time low, there is virtually no such thing as mexican science.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
I think that would be a wonderful idea, and an economical benefit for both countries, mexico has the technology but not the investors, and the american government needs cheaper options to invest in the area, so i think it would only work if the AEXA is managed by mexicans but supported by americans.
really interesting topic Leo!
November 21st, 2007 at 3:23 am
Mexico designed and assembled a couple of satelites of its own in the 80s. Ground control was done from Mexico. And there is also a Mexican astronaut, Rodolfo Neri, who flew in 1985 in the space shuttle. There are telescopes in Sonora and Baja California states. A gigantic radio telescope was built recently in Puebla state. Astronomy, astrophysics, electronics and robotics are taught in several universities. An aeronautical corridor is currently being developed in Queretaro… A Mexican space program? Yes, it can be done. Debate is on spending priorities. Well, even the USA had poor people while flying to the Moon. I just hope there are no new taxes here in Mexico to fund it.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Mexico, a space program, REALLY? This is a country that can’t feed, house, clothe,provide jobs or educate it’s population; the Mexican government is corrupt to the point that it would embarass most other third world countries and they can not now manage and develop their own natural resources ie PEMEX. The idea that they would or could develop an efficient space program is so ludicrous that only the most deranged of the PC crowd would buy it.
Perhaps they could in fact develop a space program to launch their citizens into the USA or other first world countries to find employment and send back their paychecks to support the corrupt Mexican government, anything else is folly.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
The idea is great and an exciting one. For lots of scientists and engineers like myself, this would be a dream come true. We have lots of competitive people, BUT in complete objectivity this is nearly impossible in a near future. We have so much misery and poverty in the country, that a project like this would not be beneficial for the gross of the population. Senators and politicians instead of thinking about making of Mexico an ‘economic and technological power’ they need to start feeding its people. How can we think about space technology, when we have people eating nohing but corn and alcohol b/c they have nothing else to eat? Besides, this would benefit only the richest of the country, i.e. Carlos Slim, which happens to be the richest man on earth. This would be more an offense to 80% of the population who lives below the poverty level.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:08 pm
For the developing economies, the urgent priorities concern education, health, housing, poverty reduction between others and have underestimated the importance of using more resources to sponsor the Research and Development. In the opposite, developed countries have found that the investment in this areas is indispensable to the continue growth of the common wealth between their population. It is a great challenge for the developing countries like Mexico to find new and creative mechanisms to generate the technological Research and Development and at the same time focus in the urgent priorities of the nation.
That is what the engineer Fernando de la Peña Llacas realized, the starter and promoter of the project, who owns an international patent “Motor based on antimatter energy and its controller system” and who also worked as a NASA researcher, ironically Fernando de la Peña realized he could help more his country by leaving the research laboratories by taking the lead of the space efforts which have been very well received by the scientific, industrial and public in general, “we keep getting positive answers and support from the general opinion” says Fernando.
The project has been promoted in internet communities like Facebook (Pro Agencia Espacial Mexicana), posting videos in Youtube and also counts with its official website http://aexa.divaac.org/index_eng.php to do space outreach and to promote the initiative, sometimes people from here and there writes an article from the local to the international level, one of the main TV companies in the country has made a space research series with the title: Mas allá del Cielo (Beyond the Sky and are available on internet in Youtube and Facebook).
For the last 50 years Mexico has been striving to enter the world space scene starting with the Mexican Commission of Outer Space in 1969. Due to lack of political and financial support, the Commission was disbanded in 1977. Currently, Mexico is attempting to instate the “Agencia Espacial Mexicana” (AEXA).
Brazil that began parallel with Mexico, their space programs and at the present time they followed it while Mexico closed its national Commission of Outer Space. In the opposite Brazil elaborated a well structured program of three phases to buy the space technologies that needed, simultaneously that created a native capacity for, in the long term, to replace the necessity to have to count on support of the outside.
There has been several factors that contributed the raise of interest in the country in Space, the main one the reduction of technological dependence is a strong reason why the promoters of the Mexican Space Agency are struggling with the political and the public opinion that still believes that “Space” is a luxurious word that does not create social benefit, the second reason is the foster of foreign investment in the Aerospace sector in Mexico since 2002 by the National Bank of Foreign Commerce (BANCOMEXT) and the Economic Development Secretary that has generated exports for US$400 Million allowing to rapidly rank the country as the 9th Foreign Supplier of aerospace goods to the U.S. Market* and the third one is the “NASA’s New Vision” promoted by the U.S. president Mr. G. Bush.
The aerospace industry is conformed by 84 manufacturers, 13 in maintenance and 12 to design and engineering. [Jesus O. Sanchez, 2006] Several Aerospace and Car clusters have been created in different states across the nation with the beneficial conditions like having repair facilities operating and approved by the FAA, metal-mechanics and plastics supply base, quality industrial and educational infrastructures, a skilled population and dynamic economic development policies, for example the Canadian company BOMBARDIER which is developing a US$200 Million first-class aerospace industry in Mexico by establishing its own fully integrated, world-class manufacturing facility in Querétaro. Also the private sector includes presence in telecommunications companies like Satmex (Satelites Mexicanos) and Quetzat a partner of the company based in Luxembourg SES Astra.
In the country there is space applications like satellite Remote Sensing which uses SPOT imagery, this is received in the ground station ERMEXS managed by the Navy Secretariat but in cooperation with the National Institute of Statistic, Geography and Informatics (INEGI), another public organism that uses Remote Sensing imagery is the SAGARPA (Agriculture, Rural development, Fishing and Food Secretary) across its decentralized organism Support and Services for the agriculture commercialization (ASERCA). [Raul A. Gomez, 2006], [Navy Secretariat, 2007].
Even when there is not a National Space Program or a Space Agency in Mexico there has been some advances in the area of developing micro satellites with scientific payload (which purpose was to measure the velocity of meteorites when reach the atmosphere) as shown by the UNAMSAT and UNAMSAT-B projects from the National University Autonomous of Mexico with its University Program of Space Research and Development. [UNAM, 1996]
In the astronomic area Mexico now posses the world’s Largest Millimeter Telescope which was developed in cooperation with University of Massachusetts in United States and the INAOE (National Institute of Astrophysics, Optic and Electronic) of Mexico with a cost of US$120 Million located at the Sierra Negra at the South of Mexico. The project represents the intent of Mexico and the United States to explore at the frontiers of human Knowledge and most importantly that collaboration in this field can be achieved by promoting win-win circumstances between both countries.
Mexico has achieved having its own communication satellites and putting the first Mexican astronaut in orbit since two decades ago** something that currently “medium” states like: South Korea, Iran and South Africa have just started only until the present decade, [Williamson, R, 2006] *** having had a Space Agency and a well defined Space Program would have allowed the continued growth of both the scientific, academic, industrial efforts resulting in more and better jobs, more education, technological development and the society would have been directly benefited, but did not happened.
Now there are several (mostly all) Federal and Governmental organizations that support the creation of the Mexican Space Agency currently: the National University Autonomous of Mexico (UNAM), the Navy Secretariat and Air Force (Secretaria de Marina y Fuerza aerea), the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), the Mexican Society of Astrobiology AC, the Science Museum (UNIVERSUM), the Atmosphere Sciences Center, the Communications and Transports Secretariat (SCT), the National System of Researchers, the Research Center and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), the Mechanic and Electric Engineers College, the private institutions like Mexican Satellites (SATMEX), , between others, also governments from several states have been in favor of the creation of the Space Agency including universities all over the country not to mention international support which has been shown by NASA Assistant Administrator for External Relations, Michael F. O’Brien who sent a support letter to the president of the Science and Technology Commission at the Mexican Senate Francisco J. Castellon Fonseca, currently has been sent letters to the representatives of the space agencies from: Czech Republic, Poland, France, Canada , Japan, Russia and China and the team is looking for more international support.
Currently Mexico has negotiated strategic international agreements; one of the main agreements in this area is the Agreement on the Establishment of a Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Latin America and the Caribbean between Brazil and Mexico, of March 1997. [CRECTEALC, 2005].
In 2002, it is signed the Technical and Scientific Cooperation Program between Mexico and Russia based on that Bilateral agreement it has been developed a nanosatellites project.
Further Agreements include Bilateral between Mexico and Canada (the Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United Mexican States concerning the Provision of Satellite Services), China (Memorandum of Understanding on Telecommunications Cooperation of 1995) and with USA (USA – Mexican Telecommunications Agreements of 2004).
The Bilateral Agreement for the Aviation Security (BASA) between Mexico and USA governments to ease the transference and sell of aeronautic products in North America is now still in negotiations [Jose P. Hermosillo, 2006].
One of the direct benefits coming from the investment in the aerospace sector is the increasing levels of better qualified human resources. An article posted in the magazine Business Week: ["But as maquila-style assembly work migrated to cheaper locales, and India and China grabbed more sophisticated design and engineering assignments, Mexican officials knew they had to do something to stay in the global race. Quietly and steadily, they have. Over the past 10 years, the country's policymakers have been building up enrollment in four-year degree programs in engineering, developing a network of technical institutes that confer two-year degrees, and expanding advanced training programs with multinationals from the U.S. and elsewhere.
The result is a bumper crop of engineers. Currently, 451,000 Mexican students are enrolled in full-time undergraduate programs, vs. just over 370,000 in the U.S. The Mexican students benefit from high-tech equipment and materials donated to their schools by foreign companies, which help develop course content to fit their needs. Many of these engineers graduate knowing how to use the latest computer-assisted design (CAD) software and speaking fluent English.
This expanding workforce is changing the way multinationals view the country. They can now shift more complex production to Mexico, along with higher-skilled jobs. But it goes beyond manufacturing: Companies such as General Electric (GE ), General Motors (GM ), Honeywell (HON ), and Delphi (DPHIQ ) have created large research and development centers employing hundreds of Mexican engineers to carry out sophisticated design modifications and handle the testing of everything from new car models to military and commercial jet engines. "In the past five years, Mexican engineers have become increasingly qualified and gained valuable experience," says Alfredo Juárez, a director at the country's top engineering school, the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City. "We constantly have major multinationals here trying to recruit dozens of engineers at a time..." ]****
With the creation of the International Academy of Aerospace Software and the Center of Design and Aeronautical Innovation (Cedia) which has adopted the model of work of the Center of Design and Aerospace Innovation of the University of Concord, in Montreal, Canada. Even, recently, it established bonds of collaboration with the Aerospace Association of Quebec will help to boost the new generations in order to have an adequate education that enables them to perform in optimal levels another factor is that there are several universities all over the country that are including aerospace engineering courses, including the creation of the Aerospace University in Queretaro, opening the next year.
With the aerospace and car industry growth has given as a result an increasing need for better and higher qualified people therefore companies are providing ways to prepare the engineers with enough tools to compete in the global scale, even some say due the technical experience in the country there could be the possibility to work with international teams to develop a Lunar rover.
Those who says Space does not provide any social benefit it shows is more an opinion than a fact, more than 11, 000 people work and benefit from it, US $400 Million in annual exports, increase in the academic and the Research and Development level and the technological achievements, taxes that are paid by the companies to the Federal government, between others is today a reality even without having a Space Agency, this allows a question to arise: What could be then the possibilities of Mexico if it had a well structured National Space Program that promotes the Research and Development in commercial and scientific activities for the wellness of the Social benefit?
The mandate of AEXA will be to emphasize the development and expansion of studies on the research and exploration of outer space, as well as its application into the technological, economic and industrial fields for the improvement of the country.
Even when several factors seem optimistic for the creation of the Mexican Space Agency, the Senate will have to vow in December this year 2007, if it gets passed the initiative or Mexico will have to wait to make its space dreams come true.
Israel Ojeda Coronado
Masters Sc. in Space Management
International Space University
*The annual export numbers started with US$400 Million in 2002 but with a decrease in 2003 with US$ 225 M, followed by a raise to US$330 M in 2005 but this tendency matches with the behavior of the world space market as described by W. Peeters [2007].
** Through NASA with the mission STS 61-B on the Atlantis Space Shuttle, successfully launching the satellites Morelos B. The mission also included the first Mexican citizen having reached outer space, the astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela, which concluded his mission on December 3rd 1985.
***Medium state term is defined as countries with a GDP size larger than $200 US Billion.
**** Data obtained from the article: Mexico: Pumping out Engineers http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_21/b3985070.htm
***** For further information regarding AEXA, please visit the link where you can find information in English and Spanish http://aexa.divaac.org/index_eng.php
The data contained in this article was obtained from: Ojeda, I., 2007. Recommendations to Develop Mexico’s Space Program. M. Sc. International Space University.