{"id":200656,"date":"2019-04-18T23:05:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T17:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=200656"},"modified":"2019-04-22T23:28:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T17:58:17","slug":"why-does-debt-ridden-sri-lanka-need-a-satellite-called-ravana-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-does-debt-ridden-sri-lanka-need-a-satellite-called-ravana-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Does Debt Ridden Sri Lanka Need A Satellite Called R\u0101vana-1?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By K. Ganesh &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka&#8217;s first satellite, curiously named &#8216;R\u0101vana-1&#8217;, a name that meshes religion, myth and modern science, was launched into space recently apparently marking Sri Lanka&#8217;s entry into the \u201cglobal space age\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>But what does this apparently \u201cSri Lankan\u201d launch into space from another continent really signify?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The so-called research satellite, named RAAVANA-1 was launched from the United States\u2019 Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA&#8217;s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia&#8217;s East Shore. It was carried by a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket and its unmanned Cygnus spacecraft.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-200660 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"894\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/R\u0101vana-1-satellite.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 894px) 100vw, 894px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The satellite apparently designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan by Tharindu Dayaratne and Dulani Chamika, two young and unknown Sri Lankan engineers from the Arthur C Clarke Institute, Moratuwa.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>BIRDS-3 satellites from Japan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka were taken to the International Space Station (ISS) as cargo, and boarded onto Antares rocket, which carries the Cygnus cargo spacecraft for a two-day voyage to the space station.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The R\u0101vana-1 measuring 11.3 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, and weighing around 1.05 kg is expected to orbit 400 km away from earth. It will have a minimum lifespan of one and half years, but what is the information it will provide and to whom and for what as it orbits off Sri Lanka?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ravanan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-200657\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ravanan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ravanan.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ravanan-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a>In information economy, with cyber wars on the horizon, information, research and Big Data is key; Data and information analytics is highly sought after and controlled as the struggle to silence WikiLeaks and the arrest of Julian Assange also indicates. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The R\u0101vana-1 launch, advertised as Sri Lanka\u2019s entry into the \u201cglobal space age\u201d raises more questions than its data gathering mission may provide answers: What research and data would it generate and who is paying for debt-trapped Sri Lanka\u2019s space enterprise and \u2018launch into the global space age\u201d? Conversely, what may be the value of such data and how may a country be paid for data so generated?<\/p>\n<p>Are we seeing a soft power project or subtle weaponization of myth and religion in the context of a concerted extension of a R\u0101vana Trail and narrative in post-war Sri Lanka where R\u0101vana and large Hanuman (Anjanaiyar) statues, which are often out of sync with the softer, gentler and smaller local aesthetics and religious sensibilities are popping up in the post-war northeast of Sri Lanka, as India extends her soft power globally and locally, while grandiose Buddhist statues are also popping up?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Or, perhaps R\u0101vana-1 with the promise of R\u0101vana-2 is another Indian Ocean quad (US, Japan, India and Australia) quadrilateral security research and development initiative for Sri Lanka in the context of the emerging Cold War in the Indian Ocean as China\u2019s Belt and Road (BRI) initiative winds its way along the land and sea Silk Routes that traversed both Nepal and Sri Lanka?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":200794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Does Debt Ridden Sri Lanka Need A Satellite Called R\u0101vana-1? - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-does-debt-ridden-sri-lanka-need-a-satellite-called-ravana-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Does Debt Ridden Sri Lanka Need A Satellite Called R\u0101vana-1? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-does-debt-ridden-sri-lanka-need-a-satellite-called-ravana-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-18T17:35:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-22T17:58:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Dulani-Chamika.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"294\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"308\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"K. 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