Stamp Profile

Europe in Space

Malta

Issue Date: 16/03/1991

Issued on the 16th March 1991 Malta produced two Space stamps. The 10c stamp shows EUROSTAR, the latest generation of spacecraft built by British Aerospace of UK and Matra Espace of France. Planned for 60 years of orbit life, Eurostar meets a wide range of communications missions with minimal launch mass, eventually resulting in higher fuel for the satellite and longer life. No less than 13 models are on order by customers which include Britain, France, Spain and a special pan-European radio service. The stamp depicts Eurostar in space, and its planned use on Earth, that is forms of telecommunication.

The 35c stamp shows the two principal forms of space vehicles of European design and construction. On the left is Ariane 4, the highly successful French space launcher of most European satellites. The rocket and booster in fact include various contributions from other European countries. In the Center is HOTOL (Horizontal Take-off and Landing), which is Britain's latest contribution to space research. The innovative concept consists of an aerospaceplane which can take off in the same manner as a conventional aircraft. It is a single stage orbit vehicle, it is unmanned and is totally reusable. HOTOL is expected to become a multi-national co-operation programme of true European proportions. 

(We are grateful to the Malta Philatelic Bureau for this Information).

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2001 Stamp Odyssey Stamp

New Zealand

Issue Date: 16/01/2001

The miniature sheet incorporates stamps from the Scenic Definitive range, in values of 90c, $1.00, $1.10 and $1.30. The Exhibition was held in Invercargill 16 - 18 March 2001. Staged by the Southland Philatelic Society, the exhibition featured some world-class thematic exhibits displaying space and space travel.

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Solar System

Indonesia

Issue Date: 16/03/2001

Old Greek civilization is the first that had got understanding about the skies objects and their mevements. At the beginning people believed Ptolemaeus System, which told that earth. This believed has been continued for centiries. Until in the 15th century, Nicolaus Copernicus, the Poland's star scientist gave the idea that the center of the universe was the Sun, not Earth.

This idea is considered is the birth of the modern astronomy. In the development, the modern astronomy has been growing with the works of great astronomists like Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton. Beside that, there were another important discoveries : the Telescope and Watch, which enabled to solve the secrets of the skies and measure time accurately.

These are much influenced the development of modern astronomy. The "Solar System" stamp series is issued on 1 Januari 2001 to celebrate the 21st century and 3rd Millennium,. The stamp series depict the Sun and nine planets : Mercury, venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,Saturn, Uranus, Neputne, and Pluto.

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Europa 1991

Denmark

Weather Satellites

Issue Date: 02/05/1991

A number of countries within the Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) every year issue one or more Europe stamps with common themes. Each year has its own theme, and in 1991 the theme is "European Space Flight".

The Danish stamps show two weather maps taken down from weather satellites via the receiving station of Denmark's Meteorological Institute north of Copenhagen.

Through the last 25 years a number of countries in Europe have cooperated on the exploitation of weather satellites. In the beginning it was especially American satellites which were used, but later - in the course of the 1970's - the European Space Agency (ESA) was formed, and it sent up its first weather satellite in 1977.

Two different types of operational meteorological satellites must be distinguished:

1. The geo-stationary ones, such as e.g. the European Meteosat satellites, which are found over the Equator at an altitude of about 36,000 kilometres. At this height, satellites move just as quickly as the earth rotates, and seen from the earth it therefore looks as if they remain in the same position all the time.

2. The polar-orbiting satellites, which at altitudes of 750 to 1,000 kilometres orbit the earth at a speed of 28,000 kilometres an hour (7.8 km/second).

The pictures, which the two Europe stamps are based on, were taken down from the polar-orbiting satellites (the American weather satellites NOAA 6 and 7).

A satellite picture from a polar-orbiting satellite covers an area of 4,500 x 3,000 kilometres. It takes the satellite 15 minutes to photograph this large picture. Then it can produce details as in the case of the photos for the present stamps, which show an area of 400 x 400 (2 kilometres.

By means of pictures from both the polar-orbiting satellites (such as NOAA) and the geo-stationary ones (such as Meteosat), meteorologists all over the world can virtually from hour to hour obtain the information, which together with other meteorological data is important for the production of their forecasts.

Denmark is one of 16 European countries, which have come together for a joint European meteorological satellite project the so-called Eumetsat cooperation. Today the countries of Europe depend on information from the American polar-orbiting weather satellites, but work is in progress on the European satellite programmes, which at the end of the 1990's will be able to supplement the role of the American satellites.

What Can We Use the Weather Satellites For?

It is not just for fun that a great number of different types of satellites are sent in orbit around the earth.

As far as the weather satellites are concerned, the purpose is naturally to ensure better and more exact surveys of the weather situation both here and now and several days ahead.

Weather Forecasts on TV

The index maps which in Danish television form the basis for the discussion for the weather over the last 21 hours and the subsequent weather forecasts have been taken down from the weather satellites via the satellite receiving station of Denmark's Meteorological Institute (DMI) north of Copenhagen.

Of course the weather satellites are not the only tools of the meteorologists. Weather radar; radio sonde stations (weather balloons) and observations from the ground (several hundred all over the country) yield important data. The sum of this data is processed by means of a computer on the DMI which then calculates the well-known five-day prognoses, which are brought in television, radio, newspapers etc.

The Warning System Is Important to Society.

To the ordinary Dane it is indeed nice to be informed that for the weekend the weather promises to become warm and sunny or that one can look forward to taking out one's skis and skates.

To a number of industries and social groups, however, it may be of crucial importance to be able to forecast the weather four or five days ahead - or perhaps just for the next few hours.

Air traffic needs information hour by hour about the forecasts for various stretches and landing sites. Shipping lines - particularly the long distance ones - need exact forecasts to he able to find safe and economic routes.

As to conditions at home, it is natural to mention, snow and gale warnings. The prognoses of the meteorologists may be a matter of life and death to the inhabitants of Western Denmark, where the frequently recurring autumn gales may cause floods, which endanger their lives and cause considerable material damage.

A good weather forecast and the warnings that accompany it can prevent many accidents in connection with a flood.

The Future

The weather satellites may indeed be said to have been a central factor in the preparatory meteorological prognosis work of recent years - particularly for the four, to six-day prognoses, which only five to ten years ago would have been unthinkable.

The use of weather satellites is improved as technology progresses. Surveillance by a satellite of the environment and of climate and resources is by no means only example of what the future may have in store.

 

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