?Greek Digital Policy and Media Minister Nikos Pappas presents the newly-founded Hellenic Space Organization in Athens, Greece, on March 19, 2018. Greece launched its first space agency on Monday as an effort to rebuild the ailing economy as it exits a severe eight-year debt crisis. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
by Maria Spiliopoulou
ATHENS, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Greece launched its first space agency on Monday as an effort to rebuild the ailing economy as it exits a severe eight-year debt crisis.
Entering into the space sector can make Greece stronger and more productive, increasing the country's standing in many ways, Greek digital policy and media minister Nikos Pappas said during the presentation of the newly-founded Hellenic Space Organization which officially started operation on Monday.
Greece does not intend to start its own space exploration program, but to fill in a gap and try to make the most of its participation in the European Space Agency (ESA), Greek officials and scientists explained.
Greece has been a member of ESA since 2005 and has invested millions of euros in ESA's research programs, but was one of the few member states lacking a national institution.
Pappas outlined the multiple benefits the government expects the new agency will bring to the country, among them, telecommunications infrastructure, defense, medical applications, agriculture, environmental monitoring, fire prevention and control.
Following the launch into orbit last June of the Greek and Cypriot telecommunications satellite Hellas Sat 3 from French Guiana, Greece now has six transponders, three ground-based satellite hubs, 200 terminals, covering key areas such as defense, security and civil protection, according to the minister.
Pappas noted that the space sector has generated a seven-fold return on investment worldwide in recent years.
The Greek official expressed confidence that such steps towards a modern, digital economy would help end the brain drain Greece has suffered from during its economic crisis.
The president of the Hellenic Space Organization, Stamatis Krimizis was appointed at Monday's event. Krimizis is a member of the Athens Academy and Head Emeritus of the space department of applied physics laboratory at Johns Hopkins university who has contributed to many of the United State's unmanned space exploration programs.
"Our vision is the strengthening of Greece's competitiveness in both the public and private sector," Krimizis said.
Panagiotis Lazos, a teacher of a group of 10 pupils who won the first national space competition for students, the preliminary phase for a competition organized by ESA called CanSats, has no doubt that such bright young minds can contribute to creating a stronger Greece in the future.
The student team designed and successfully realized a real satellite mission out of a can satellite, which was launched to an altitude of 1 km and returned to the surface with a parachute.
"There was a small camera which recorded infrared radiation instead of visible light. The idea was that as it returned to the surface it would perform two tasks. The first was to monitor the front of a wildfire...The second was that the camera would record vegetation as a white object, therefore we would have a clear image of the presence of vegetation in an area," Lazos explained to Xinhua.
This year the student team is working on the same basic idea, but taking it a step further.
The aim of the competition is to familiarize students with modern space technologies while making use of their knowledge in physics, mathematics and programming.
Former student Anahit Ezekelian could not remain on board with the project this year because she has to concentrate on her university entrance exams.
After taking part in the project and attending Monday's event she believes she can stay and build her life in Greece after graduation.
"I thought that in Greece I would not be able to find a job as an engineer and I would have to leave. Now I realize that gradually we are taking steps to do something better for the younger generations," she said.
