WHY DO WE NEED A SPACE AGENCY?

Aside from the United States and the Russian Federation, two other countries, namely China and India have reached the surface of the moon by way of lunar vehicles. Now, Japan is also planning to send up their own, possibly making them the fifth country to reach the moon. That said, why does the Philippines have its own space agency? Is it also ambitioning to put a man or a vehicle in the moon? Thanks to the resourcefulness of the DOST, we were already able to put a micro-satellite up in space, not by sending up our own rocket, but by piggy backing on the rocket of another country. Given our limited resources, that is already an outstanding accomplishment, for a third world country at that. The bottom line of that accomplishment is that we will be able to gather data from space that we could use here on earth, in our own country. I do not think that the Philippines is planning to send a man or a vehicle to the moon. What is possible however, is for us to send our own astronaut in space, possibly as part of an international mission, or possibly by piggybacking again, if you know what I mean. I am not against the idea of funding our space agency so that it could do more projects or missions, but I am against the idea of spending money to acquire data that is already available, some of which may be free due to international cooperation. One such commercial source is www.planet.com, and they have an office here. IKE SENERES/01-31/2024