In a position paper that was revealed this evening at a conference organized by the Tel Aviv Workshop for Science, Technology and Security, Paikovsky writes that the Israeli space program is, indeed, intended for military needs, but its social contribution is no less than the military one * and another disclosure: a Pico satellite is being developed at the School of Engineering
Avi Blizovsky
Pictured: The Amos 2 satellite: a civilian derivative of military technology
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/israspace0405.html
In the days when the Israeli space program is struggling for its existence, when political parties who are not even aware of Israel's successes in the field are trying to prevent the construction of the Ofek 7 satellite and a radar satellite, an important conference was held this evening (14/4) at Tel Aviv University. The title of the conference was: "Israel in Space , the contribution of the space program to the national security of the State of Israel." The conference was organized by the Tel Aviv Workshop for Science, Technology and Security, at the School of Government and Policy By Harold Hartoch in the Faculty of Social Sciences.
At the conference, for the first time, a position paper was presented by Daganit Paikovsky, a researcher at the School of Government and Policy who dealt with the potential contribution of the space program if naturalized (in addition to its military role) to the economy and society in Israel. The conference was also attended by some of the major experts in the field, Major General (res.) Yitzhak Ben Israel, currently head of the security studies program at Tel Aviv University, and Lt. Col. Prof. Haim Ashad, head of the military space program, as well as Dr. Reuven Fedhzor, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and commentator Security in Haaretz newspaper.
Prof. Yossi Shein, Head of the School of Government and Policy, Tel Aviv University, who opened the evening, said that Paikovsky's research is part of a more comprehensive study directed by the head of the Defense Studies Program, Yitzhak Ben Israel.
Prof. Ben Israel, who acted on the issue in his military positions, said that "the story of space in Israel is not self-evident. It is a small country with few resources and the army opposed it, including Barak who was the Chief of Staff. He had to go to the security ministers and prime ministers, bend his hand to the army. When the satellite was launched, and we came to report the launch to the Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, and he raises a toast in honor of the satellite, he must congratulate the team that developed it, who overcame unbelievable difficulties, and winked at me (meaning himself)."
Paikovsky provides a small anecdote at the beginning of her lecture: "Six years ago I worked as an editor and producer on the IDF radio and among other things I edited the program "Listeners on the morning" - one Friday a listener called and asked to share with us the solution he found to the problems of the State of Israel from its neighbors. He proposed to put the territory of the State of Israel up for sale - in the field of real estate, the Holy Land is worth quite a bit. With the money from the proceeds of the sale, he said we could move the entire State of Israel to the moon and establish the first Jewish colony there in space. There we would not have hostile neighbors and the existence problems of a state Israel will be resolved."
"The Israeli space program in its current form does not pretend to establish a Jewish colony on the moon, but it certainly contributes to the national security of the State of Israel"
And above all, the definitions of what the civil and military applications in space are, and what national security is. Paikovsky: "In recent decades we have been in the midst of the information revolution. Information technology is the main resource of the economy and industry today. Space technology is primarily information technology. That is why it is important and central in the discussion about national security and the strengthening of countries at this time. Technological support from space through satellites is relevant today For different and diverse areas of our lives - both civil and military: meteorology, communication, media, guidance and navigation, warning, land measurement, surveillance and patrol intelligence, agriculture, water and more."
"What is national security? - This term has many interpretations, but the goal in all of them is the same - existence or survival. It is common to think of national security in terms of military power, although it is appropriate to also look at the survival power of a country in terms of civil and social power. That is, all the components of Society affects its national security, for better or worse. According to this approach, national security includes the country's economy, the social fabric, the quality of the education system, and human capital And more. The premise is that the totality of these issues determines the ability of the company to withstand difficulties and problems.
The Israeli space program gives expression and balance to both concepts. The program was originally intended for military needs, but its civil contribution (economic and social) does not fall short of its military contribution. In an era where advanced technological capability is the main resource driving society and the economy - an independent space program is a big and clear advantage. Such a program improves and preserves the quality of human capital, encourages scientific research, strengthens the economy and increases the civilian and military industries," says Paikovsky.
Just like Sputnik
"Space became a part of our lives in October 1957 when the USSR launched Sputnik 1. Throughout the Cold War, the space race was a central element in the conflict between the superpowers. The trends in the American activity in space can be clearly seen through the analysis of the investments allocated to the military activity and the civilian activity (NASA)." Pejkowski presented a graph showing the fluctuations in NASA's budget and the DOD's budget.
One can clearly see three periods in which the emphasis on the nature of American activity in space changed. In the sixties the emphasis was on a civilian program with the aim of achieving achievements in the field of science and technology - when the center was the Apollo space program with the aim of landing a man on the moon. Kennedy stated this in 61 and indeed in July 69 Apollo 11 landed on the moon. During this period, the scientific space race was the main expression of the direct struggle between the superpowers. "
"In the 83s, there was a reversal of this trend, when the emphasis was actually given to military activity in space. At the end of the XNUMXs, the Americans declared for the first time their right to self-defense in space, thus opening the door to large investments in military activity. In XNUMX, President Reagan announced the strategic defense initiative known in our language as "war The stars" within this framework, huge sums were invested in military activity with the aim of collapsing the USSR and indeed in the end The decade collapsed in the USSR and the Cold War ended."
"And recently again there is a trend of significant investment in military activity in space and this stems from the American successes in the first Gulf War - known by American strategists as the first space war and from the success in the war in Iraq where the Americans demonstrated for the first time the military concepts they developed following the technological capabilities in space."
The great importance attached to this technology can be seen in the huge increase in the use of satellites. In recent years, over 400 successful launches have been carried out that put about 600 satellites into space, over 20% of which are military satellites. 60% of all satellites launched in these years are communication satellites, 11% observation and remote sensing satellites). The two main areas are communication and intelligence."
"Israel's specialization is in intelligence and communication, if we chose a field - we chose correctly." Says Paikovsky.
The importance attributed to space technology can also be seen in the huge investments directed to this field throughout the world and especially in the USA: the USA alone currently invests about 35 billion dollars a year in space, for civilian and military purposes
(20 billion for the military sector, 450 billion for total security = 4.5% of the security budget); Europe invests about 6 billion dollars a year; China is over two billion dollars and so is Japan;
India has invested about half a billion dollars in recent years and recently announced an increase in the budget which today stands at 722 million dollars; Austria invests about 80 million dollars a year.
In this context, it should be noted that according to foreign sources, Israel only invests between 50 and 60 million dollars a year. Conclusion - even with the modest budgets of small countries, significant achievements can be made in this field. "
In addition, if from a technological point of view Israel is one of the few countries that has the ability to independently develop satellites and launchers, today there are satellites owned by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the Arab League, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt - in some cases these are communication satellites commercial, and in some cases primitive research satellites (many of them, by the way, produced by the British Surrey University. A.B.). In any case, these data show that different countries, even if they do not have the ability to develop satellites, want a presence in space.
This leads us to the Israeli space program. The Israeli space program was established in the early 1981s. The main motives for its establishment were military and mainly intelligence. As part of the peace agreements with Egypt. The State of Israel lost intelligence assets in the Sinai as well as the ability to conduct photo flights over its territory. Even though a peace agreement was signed, there was still a clear need for intelligence on what was happening in Egypt. Prime Minister at the time Menachem Begin approved the establishment of the program in July 1988 and in 1 the first satellite - Ofek XNUMX - was already launched.
Along the way, the program had many opponents and, to a large extent, thanks to the crazy people, two of whom are sitting on the stage, it exists and has even reached significant achievements. This month we mark 10 years since the successful launch of the first operational satellite "Ofek 3" which was launched on April 5, 1995. This is also the year in which the IDF first defined an operational need for a photography satellite.
"Due to its size and limited resources, Israel focuses on two key areas in space technology - intelligence and communication - the two key areas in the global space industry."
This means, Paikovsky said, that the program operated for 15 years without an operational need for two reasons - first, they did not believe in the program, and second, they were afraid that it would eat into the budget. After Ofek 3 started broadcasting, the fear disappeared and the demand arrived. Although the army did not want the satellites, various defense ministers found it appropriate to direct budgets to it.
Today, 5 Israeli satellites are sailing in space - Ofek 5 launched in May 2002 - a military photography satellite, Eros 1 - produced by the Aerospace Industry - a civilian photography satellite, the two communication satellites Amos 1 and Amos 2 as well as a student satellite of the Technion. Half a year ago, as mentioned, the launch of the "Ofek 6" satellite, which plunged into the sea, failed. "
military, social and economic benefit
The advantages inherent in the space program can be divided into three areas: military advantages, economic advantages and social advantages
military advantages
1. Intelligence: including the expansion of the intelligence collection area; Improving intelligence gathering capacity and reducing the feeling of uncertainty - without violating the sovereignty of other countries and risking human life; Intelligence independence - protection of knowledge centers, information available independently;
2. Increasing the deterrence capacity through the demonstration of technological capability - launch capability, plans of Arab countries
3. Improving the attack capacity and the defense capacity.
4. Compliance with modern military standards - Since its establishment, Israel has been based on the principle of "quality over quantity" - space is today seen as one of the four fundamental elements of modern warfare in the information age.
5. Increasing strategic depth.
economic benefits
1. Cooperation with other countries - Israel's proven ability in the field of space is a source of cooperation between countries that are also developing space technologies, and it is also a source of attraction for countries interested in acquiring space technologies. The result is strengthening relations with various countries that invest in Israel and purchase technologies - India, Turkey, Singapore, France, Germany...
2. Creating jobs for engineers - in the defense industries and civilian industries that are developing at the same time.
3. Domestic and foreign investments - an independent space program strengthens the economy, it encourages investments and opens trade relations based on technology. Today Israel also operates in the civilian market of space technology and some of the development and knowledge is created and traded in the civilian market. For example, one of the derivatives of the development of the military "Ofek" satellites is the civilian "Eros" satellites produced by the Aerospace Industry whose photographs are sold in the civilian market and are part of Israeli exports.
4. Increasing Israeli exports - Israeli defense exports have increased in recent years and amount to 4 billion dollars a year. Intelligence and communication are the strongest areas of the commercial civilian market today. Therefore, there is potential here for Israeli integration into the market. In 2003, the exports of IAI stood at one billion dollars and Rafael's at half a billion dollars.
5. A lever for additional information technologies.
social benefits
1. A sophisticated information society - increasing human capital and preserving human capital - a result of creating jobs and demand - the key to success in the information age.
2. Development of knowledge centers and infrastructures - scientific, technological and academic - thanks to the space program, academic, industrial and humanitarian infrastructures have been successfully established in Israel that serve as an excellent starting point for the future of the State of Israel and are also a lever for other high-tech technologies, which benefit from the fruits of the general investment and manpower that moves from the military systems to the civilian systems .
3. International prestige - part of a prestigious club.
This is reflected in the employment of workers at the highest levels. Around 2002 people were employed in the space industry in 250. The industry's revenues reached 105 billion dollars or 420 thousand dollars per direct employee. If you also include the second circle of workers, we are actually talking about half a million households making a living in the field. In Israel, too, there are several thousand households that make a living from this industry."
The military and economic power joins social power, when workers in this field are employed, society develops, becomes a sophisticated information society, this ability also leads to the establishment of a technological and scientific infrastructure, an academic infrastructure, brings prestige, not only develops the human capital but also preserves this population here. Because as soon as the space program is invested and encouraged, people are told, 'You have something to stay here for.'"
The Israeli space program had to fight for its very existence every step of the way. Even today, after the latest failure in the launch of "Ofek 6", the program is struggling for its existence in the face of many cuts in the state budget and the defense budget.
Technological force multiplier
Space is a key element in the national security of countries in the information age and is a technological force multiplier; The development of space technology contributes to a country's national security and resilience, in the classic military-strategic aspect and in the civilian economic aspects. The program challenges the sense of national security of its neighbors and provides it with international prestige.
Therefore, even though Israel is a small country with limited resources, it has no choice and must operate in the field of space, which is a national strategic asset for Israel's national security.
The achievements of the Israeli space program are the result of vision, awareness and willingness. But the plan in its current form is limited and does not allow Israel to realize its full potential and maintain its relative advantage over other countries. This feature is the result of a lack of an orderly and coherent policy on space.
The space sector requires constant renewal. It is not possible to be satisfied with the achievements achieved so far and there is a necessity to preserve them and preserve the qualitative gap that separates Israel from its neighbors. Without the understanding and recognition of the decision makers regarding the importance of intensive Israeli activity in space, Israel will be left behind and lose the advantages it has achieved so far.
Therefore, the State of Israel must turn the space program into a national project and form a national political concept on the issue of space, within which an order of priorities for activities in space will be formulated. Because as a small country with limited resources, Israel cannot afford to develop completely independent capabilities in space, but it must do so in critical areas such as the ability to launch and develop intelligence and communication satellites. In other areas, ie, navigation satellites and warning satellites, Israel must continue to rely on existing systems. "
***
• As a national program, other government ministries such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communications should also participate in it.
Israel needs to invest in human capital - invest in scientific and technological education,
It must increase the centers of knowledge in academia and industry,
Invest in research and development and increase the number of satellites.
It should also give thought to the issue of protecting Israeli satellites and disrupting the activity of hostile satellites, areas that Israel may be required to handle in the future.
In order to realize this, the priorities must be changed and the appropriate resources allocated. "
"As you can see from the data presented earlier on the subject of global investments in space, achievements can be made in this area not only with powerful investment, but also with very modest investments by small countries. But for this there is a necessity to set a policy and change the order of national priorities, since the benefits inherent in it for the State of Israel In the various spheres of life they are many and clear and this becomes even more acute when we witness cuts in the universities' budgets and they are forced to fight for their existence of academic research." Pajkowski summarizes.
"Zionism will do no harm"
The next lecturer was Prof. Haim Ashad who, together with Ben Yisrael, stood at the cradle of the Israeli military space program and they lead it even today, and now they also want to promote a parallel civilian space program: "The basis of going into space was security, the need for intelligence and the need to monitor distant borders, The target countries are far away and the growing capacity is quite impressive I see a parallel between the growth of high-tech in Israel and the military and defense infrastructure from which the high-tech industry grew. Without the Ministry of Defense and the IDF investing all the investments they made in high-tech, there would be no high-tech in the country. We need to find a way to turn this infrastructure into a locomotive that will attract education, science, technology and the economy. I appear in Knesset and government committees and people are surprised, some of them do not know that there is an Israeli presence in space. Apparently there are a lot of astronauts there…." jokes Ashad.
"It's that launches are not always successful - just like you don't stop traveling when there are car accidents and you don't stop flying because of plane crashes. The satellites to date have all been 100 percent successful. What failed were the launchers, and this is also a known phenomenon in the old space agencies."
Ashad reviews Israel's activity in space, starting with the electro-optical satellites (or in Hebrew the photography satellites). Ofek 3 was the first satellite to break out and surprised everyone. We didn't know it would be an incredible operational success in terms of ability and especially resolution. After this success, the ISI company rushed to release a civilian version of the first generation of the military satellites: Eros A. After that, Ofek 5 was released, which is a second generation satellite, and again the ISI company is developing the Eros B following it. Ofek 6, which was supposed to be a backup satellite, produced Ofek 7 and the demos The technology of the radar satellite.
"We are now at the technological forefront when we already have an infrastructure of radar satellites. Several other companies in the world started together with us. Except for the Americans (a satellite of the National Science Foundation, NSA) no one has a working radar satellite."
It turns out that the people of Elta put the systems that will be used for this satellite on the plane and took pictures from it of landscapes in difficult weather conditions as well as the space station, and the result, as seen in the photographs brought by Ashad, was amazing, even without processing the general lines of the photographed object can be distinguished with a good level of accuracy, considering that This is a photo taken at night. All this, in a TechSAR satellite that will weigh 320 kg and whose performance will be even better than the satellites that will weigh 1-1.5 tons."
"In the field of communication satellites, Amos 1 is a success, it has lived for 10 years at full capacity, no system has broken down and it is all fully utilized, and it will probably live for another two years. Amos 2 was launched in 2003 and has a branch to the USA and Europe. Amos 3 The opening kick was in March this year. And of course there is the Technion-Texat satellite, we built it on the assumption that it would work for a year, it is already working for the seventh year and according to Prof. Gelman, it will probably live for at least another hundred years. At an altitude of 800 km, the friction is very small and it is still alive and kicking.
"How did we do it?" Ashad asks and answers: "We focused on small satellites with high resolution and communication satellites. When we started, the NASA members said that satellites of this size were toy satellites and would not be able to achieve high resolution. This was also said about the drones and today they are thinking about building such satellites themselves. Of course we don't build space stations, colonies on the moon and Mars. space shuttles, nor do scientific research from space.
"We lead the world in terms of performance to cost. We are cheaper by two thirds or more. The ratio of performance to weight - to this day, people from NASA come to us to examine how it is possible to achieve performance at such a weight. The secret is simple - our people deal with cutting-edge technology, look for things that have just hit the market, plan them, and test them. We achieved technological independence because they did not want to give us the technologies nor the photographs."
Civil derivatives
Prof. Ashad outlines civilian uses for space that are within Israel's capability: the first derivative is the EROS A photography satellite, the first generation of civilian satellites. The ISI company came up with the project and launched it in December 2001, about 12 months after the Iconos project - the American satellite that is considered the best. ISI was the other company.
The satellite cost 50 million dollars and now the company is issuing 500 million. The third generation is Ofek 7. In the future, we want to see a satellite that becomes Dual Use - both for a security system, for defense ministries of all kinds, and for the civilian market. In the military field, we are limited in sales, as we see from deals with China that the Americans did not like, so we must turn to the civilian market, in order to expand the marketing capacity of Israeli technologies. also
Investment companies recommend investing in space. There are investors in Israel with hundreds of millions who are ready to invest in space because it is a profitable market.
Ashad reviews several other important areas, including 3D photography: "You can put two cameras on one satellite and update, among other things, simulators like Microsoft's flight simulator in real time. We suggested it to Bill Gates and he sent people to Israel to check it, they were excited about it but it didn't work Cont. They probably get a lot of proposals and take time to process them. This technology helps with urban planning and monitoring, information systems mapping, and more.
Important areas are multi-color photography - vegetation monitoring, forests; Satellite constellations - if we know how to make $5 million satellites, we will launch ten satellites that will do the job while communicating with each other; We can develop and launch environmental survey satellites like the one developed by Surrey University in England, which started a project at the same time as the Technion and has launched 32 satellites for developing countries to date, and if we mentioned the Technion satellite, it is the only one in the world that indicates a country stabilized by means of three stabilizers; As for the communication satellites. The space company issued at a value of 72 million dollars, is going to issue at 160 million dollars; This week, an announcement was made of cooperation between Rafael and the aerospace industry in the push of Salah to develop the Venus satellite. This is a breakthrough and international recognition for Israel in the field of space. Venus is actually a satellite that we previously developed at Salah in a project called David and now we are reaping the fruits; There is of course TAUVEX, a project of Tel Aviv University that 12 years ago me and Yuval Naman obtained 13 million dollars to build it, the Russians were supposed to launch it but the company went bankrupt and next year the Indians will launch it."
Prof. Ashad also reveals a first exposure: a Pico satellite, which weighs up to a kilogram, a project of a Hadassaim school under the direction of Dr. Anna Heller. The role of the satellite will be to monitor a larger satellite, for example to check if the panels have been deployed properly. If there was such a satellite at the service of The astronauts on the Columbia shuttle, he could have gone around it and he would have found that there was a problem with the left wing."
Another proposal that Ashad received from students was to develop a GPS network using a constellation of satellites that each weigh 4 kg, where the system identifies its position according to the signal it receives from several satellites, and in addition, since these satellites tend to deviate from their course, it will be updated from the Internet with their exact position to correct the the calculations.
In conclusion, says Ashad, space is a technological locomotive, for universities, for projects in education (youth seeking science)
For the industry: a direct contribution to a work culture at high standards, there is also the technological contribution involved in the development of unique components. Why didn't it happen - the ministries don't make an effort. Therefore, Izik ben Israel and I will help push the civilian locomotive as we pushed the military locomotive."
The one who poured cold water on his predecessors was the journalist Reuven Feda-Zur: "The main problem I see, what Chaim Ashad said, is that the members of the Knesset do not know that there is Israeli activity. This is due to the fact that there is no supervision and control over the security system and all activity in this area is done by the security system. Due to the absence The supervision, there is a danger that at this stage has not materialized but only in some areas that, as in any security system, want the best, the biggest and the most, and sometimes modesty runs out And going to things that are beyond the ability and beyond the need. This did not happen in the satellite affairs, but it may happen."
On the other hand, there is a considerable contribution to the Israeli space project, but not in the direction that everyone thinks of it. The launch of the satellite in 1988 increased Israeli deterrence not because of the satellite but because of the launch itself. Until 1988, the question of whether we have ballistic missiles was completely ignored in Israel. Actually launching the satellite into space was a statement: 'Here we have ballistic missiles.' How can you get a satellite into space if we don't have ballistic missiles. Behind the launch of the Horizon was a statement that no one said or addressed, and of course on the other side they understood this meaning, just as the Americans realized in 1957 that if someone launched Sputnik into space, they could launch missiles at the USA.
"The second contribution is reflected in the issues of the development of weapons systems. If we do not develop a certain type of weapons systems, the Americans do not give us technologies in this field. The development of satellites led the Americans to give us access to technology. We need to think about the required investment. If we are talking about low satellites Orbit - one or two satellites cannot give us continuous intelligence. We need a large group of satellites and the question is how much money it will cost us. What will the security budget be like? No cut. You can check it on the Ministry of Finance website, regardless of whether the budget is cut or not, it is impossible for the state to invest 50 million dollars in the space project A quarter of what is invested in tanks (or like two meetings). But then the investment should be under supervision and the objectives are clear. The army is not always wrong but it must not be left to the army Only. The last issue - anti-missile defense which the space project helps: here I think there is a complete waste."
The TechSAR satellite is presented by Alta at the 2005 Space Conference
Comments from the audience
At the conclusion of the conference, the moderator opened it to questions from the audience. One of them was that of Avi Har-Avan, until recently the director of the Israel Space Agency, who commented to Fadzur: "When Ofek 1 was launched, articles appeared in the foreign press in which exactly what you said was written. In the world, those who needed to know, and in Israel, not all the people who needed to understand it and did not allocate the budgets.
Regarding the civilian projects, there was a turning point, and the joint satellite with the French received a budget of millions of dollars in a fairly orderly process of government decisions. I have always said that proportions are necessary because the Israeli Space Agency's budget is a few minutes of NASA's budget." Har-evan summarizes.
Later, the three (Ben Yisrael Ashad and Fedhzur) agreed that the independent launch capability of low-orbit satellites should be preserved, although Fedhzur urged not to be tempted to build a capability to launch geosynchronous satellites.
Ben Yisrael disputed Fedhzur's words as if the defense budget had remained constant over the past decade: "The budget is constantly decreasing in terms of activity. If you did a certain activity last year in terms of man-years, flight hours, engine hours, we haven't had a year in the last decade where next year We could repeat the same activity. As a result, Ehud Barak, when he was Chief of Defense, Deputy Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff, Prime Minister and Minister of Security, did not agree to budget for the satellite. Because he thought there was a chance for the project to be recognized as a national project and if he said no, it would be funded from other sources. In all these cases, various defense ministers took money from the army budget and allocated it to the satellite. Here Reuven said that there can be conflicts between a military view of the issue and a political view. The one who should decide is the political, civil side. And precisely on space, you can look at the half-empty glass and say how the army did not understand that it needed the observation satellites and the recognition that the government behaved properly and allocated money for this, although still within the framework of the defense budget."
In response to the question of why they invest, for example, in helicopters and not in satellites, Ashad said that satellites cannot be purchased with American aid. There is no doubt that if it could be done, the Air Force would prefer satellites over helicopters.
And Ben Israel told a personal story to conclude: "7-8 years ago I sat in front of the general in charge of the procurement body of the French Ministry of Defense. They then launched a satellite called Helios 1 weighing a ton, we launched Ofek 3, he asked us what the resolution of your satellite was. No I got confused and said what about yours? He replied that it's a secret. I said I can't say either but it's 1.8 times yours."
They know space warfare
Yidan Israel in space
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