A total of 40 teams from state and private universities throughout Indonesia will participate in Indonesia Rocket load Competition (KOMURINDO) 2011 from 25-27 June, 2011 in Bantul district. The forty teams that will participate in the competition are the result of selection of 73 teams that submitted design proposals to the committee. The selection closed on January 15, 2011.
KOMURINDO 2011 Committee Chairman, Dr.Agfianto Eko Putra, M. Si, said that the 40 teams will compete in 3 competition stages. First day of competition, Saturday, June 25 will hold functional testing and integration of the load. Sunday, June 26 will hold load flight test as well as opening of KOMURINDO 2011 at Pandansimo beach that will be attended by National Education Minister, M. Nuh. Meanwhile, Monday, June 27 will hold a presentation of the results of flight test data in the Parasamya building, Bantul.
"Previously, on 23 April at UGM, all participants of the competition had also participated in the Indonesia Rocket Competition workshops," Agfianto explained in a news conference in Parangtritis restaurant in Bantul, Friday (23/6).
Agfianto added that the KOMURINDO 2011 had already been held four times in Bantul. This competition aims to prepare the potential students who are interested in aerospace technology, especially rocketry, through the means of space education, as well as to increase the community’s love for the aerospace, in order to reach Indonesia’s independence in the field of rocketry technology.
"Every nation that independently has mastered the rocket technology will be respected by other nations in the world," the professor of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Faculty of UGM added.
Meanwhile, Gunawan S. Prabowo of the National Agency of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) added that rocket technology in Indonesia has been attracting countries such as India and Singapore. In addition, the video about KOMURINDO (formerly called KORINDO-Indonesian Rocket Competition) has also been presented in world space education forum.
"This activity is expected to become a means to exchange information so that students will understand deeper and become more familiar with rocket technology," Gunawan said.
At the same place, Assessment Director of Air Force Academy (AAU) Yogyakarta, Colonel Supomo said that Indonesian Air Force as user of aerospace technology assesses that developments in Indonesia rocket technology are pretty good. Since the early development of rocket around 1962, the Indonesian Air Force has been applying the rocket technology on some training aircraft.
"We were also working with IPTN (now called PTDI) to continue to encourage the development of rocket technology. As user we even already apply the technology to some types of training aircraft as well," Supomo said.
Rocket technology, said Supomo, has many benefits in addition to science and technology such as to enhance national security primarily used as an oversight tool in the border areas, weather monitoring and missile launcher.
KOMURINDO 2011 is supposed to be able to attract tourists to visit Bantul. Especially this time coincides with the student holiday season. Head of R & D of Bappeda Bantul, Sulistyanto said that Bantul regional government is ready to facilitate the KOMURINDO activity.
"One form of facilitation is that students throughout Indonesia who will compete in this activity will be accommodated in the houses around the beach, so they could mingle and find out the real problem in the community. That way they will be ready when they work in the community," said Sulistyanto.
Several teams participating in KOMURINDO 2011 include Gama-Sat 2 of UGM, EEPISky G-02 of PENS Surabaya, Badjoel Idjo Rock’eat of ITS Surabaya, Air Force-1 of the IPB, and Electron Legacy of ITB. KOMURINDO 2011 is organized by the DP2M Directorate General of Higher Education as well as collaboration between UGM and National Agency of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Bantul regional government and the AAU.