Program Competition was open to all secondary students in Malaysia. Schools are only allowed
to send in 1 team, which comprises a maximum of 20 students supervised by 4 teachers.
In Thailand, 17 schools received the chili seeds from the hands of the Minister of the Ministry of
Science and Technology at the Siam City Hotel in Bangkok. The event was held by NSTDA and
there were many dignitaries including JAXA representative in Thailand and newspersons
attended. Both the Minister and the NSTDA director wore the astronaut jumpsuits specially
designed for this event. About 100 people were in attendance, and the event generated
interest from more than 20 news publications.
STI/VAST participates in this program as a condition and sees it as good luck for such a young
institute to pioneer the field of space technology in Vietnam. The seed program was launched
in Vietnam in June 2010 organized by STI and TNIoB. Vietnam has sent 3 different kinds of
flower seeds: garden balsam, snapdragon, tropical sage.
SSAF is a serial program which continues to evolve. Successor missions with growing number of
participating institutions and increasing sophistication are under development.
PUBLICATION(S)
Takaoki M, Yano S, Mathers N, et al. Space seeds for Asian future. Transactions of JSASS
Aerospace Technology. 2014; 12 (29):Tp_1-Tp_5.
This investigation is complete and all results are published.
Students in Indonesia (left), Malaysia (center), and Thailand (right) that participated in SSAF. JAXA image.