The Development of Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (PHL-Microsat) Program is succeeded by the Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement (STAMINA4Space) Program. The program focuses on further development of local expertise in Space Technology and Applications (STA) to spur the development of high-value industries in the country, and to address our manifold needs in scientific earth observation for disaster risk reduction and management, resource assessment, environmental monitoring and other applications.

Leveraging onadvancements in computing and sensing technologies, and the increasing opportunities for access to space, STAMINA4Space uses small satellite technology as a platform for:

  1. Generating valuable DATA from scientific earth observation that lead to moreactionable information and responsive programs, policies and interventions across various societal applications.
  2. Building an INDUSTRIAL BASE for high value-add activities and innovations in aerospace technology and affiliated sectors
  3. Creating an enabling and conducive ENVIRONMENT for interdisciplinary R&D, leading to a stronger local ecosystem for scientific innovation.
  4. Developing highly trained, specialized researchers, scientists,engineers and S&T workers, and transforming them into T-shaped PEOPLE that work together across different technical disciplines to tackle high-impact, societal-scale challenges for the country.
OPTIKAL
Optical Payload Technology, In-depth Knowledge Acquisition, and Localization (OPTIKAL)
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PHL-50
Building PHL-50: Localizing the Diwata-1,2 Bus System as the Country’s Space Heritage 50kg Microsatellite Bus (PHL-50)
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STeP-UP
Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP)
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GRASPED
Ground Receiving, Archiving, Science Product Development, and Distribution (GRASPED)
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ASP
Advanced Satellite Development and Know-How Transfer for the Philippines
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Program Leaders
Maricor N. Soriano, PhD
Program Leader, STAMINA4Space (March 2021 – Present)
Dr. Maricor Soriano is a professor of physics at the UP Diliman who specializes in developing hardware and software tools for video and image processing. Her work spans multidisciplinary domains such as coral reef imaging (for which she won the DOST PCIEERD R&D prize in 2018), cultural heritage conservation, video analysis of sports, and medical imaging. She was named NRCP Outstanding Young Scientist in 2006, Third World Academy of Science Physics Prize recipient in 2009, and The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) awardee in Applied Physics in 2013.

Research interests: Color, Video, and Image Processing applied to Marine Science, Art Conservation, Biometrics, and Spectral Medical Imaging; Physics Education

Dr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano, Jr.
Program Leader, STAMINA4Space (June – December 2019)
Program Leader, PHL-Microsat (2014 – September 2018)
Dr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano, Jr. was the leader of the PHL-Microsat and STAMINA4Space Programs and Acting Director of the Department of Science and Technology Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the (DOST-ASTI) before he was appointed as Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) Director-General in January 2020. Dr. Marciano obtained his BS Electrical Engineering from UPD and his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He was a JSPS Fellow at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2003, the UP-Dado Banatao Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC) in the University of California Berkeley and at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In 2007 and 2009, he was a Visiting Associate Research Scientist in UCSD. From 2013-2016, he served as the Interim Director of the Institute for Information Infrastructure Development (IIID) of the Philippines-California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) under the Philippines’ Commission on Higher Education (CHED). He is concurrently a Professor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD).

Research interests: Wireless communications; Radio frequency spectrum management and policy; Rural connectivity and emergency response communications; Development of small satellites for scientific Earth observation, and geospatial AI.

Dr. Marc Caesar R. Talampas
Program Leader, PHL-Microsat (September 2018 – June 2019)
Dr. Talampas is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute. He was also the Project Leader of PHL-Microsat’s Bus Development Project. He obtained his doctoral degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 

Research interests: Instrumentation Embedded Systems, Environmental Monitoring, Wireless Sensor Networks

Timeline of Events
Check out the program's highlights below.