October
2006
To grow, Industries need
to adapt technology thick and fast
Pontsho Maruping
Chief Director, Frontier Programmes -DST South Africa
Q. Space Science and related Technologies have a
tremendous role in a State’s development. What areas
of space research is South Africa working with and what are
the areas that you will endeavor in the coming days?
A. South Africa has already proved its capabilities
in space with the launch of our first micro-satellite in1999,
which was designed indegeniously and built.
This created the foundation to continue research in satellite
engineering which has been further strengthened to allow
us to design and build our next generation satellite.
The research and development in areas including material
science, control systems, sensor development, reaction wheels,
telecommunications units, imaging systems and broader areas
such as systems engineering is going at a good pace. In future
we would need to expand our programmes to cover the full
value chain of satellite development and applications.
The Southern clear skies have also enabled South Africa to
participate in exciting astronomy projects and building critical
skills in areas such as mechanical and electronics engineering
as well as a critical mass in space science research.
The key areas of research include astronomy, space physics
and cosmology. In the space science area, South Africa intends
to play a significant role in the international projects
such as the development of the Karoo Array Telescope which
is a demonstrator for the much larger Square Kilometer Array
Telescope, the SALT and HESS programmes which are entering
their next development phases also present opportunities.
Q.Would you tell us about the status of SUMBANDILAsat
which is scheduled to be launched by the end of the year?
What are the unique features of SUMBANDILAsat in particular?
A. The satellite development has met all
its milestones and a Flight Acceptance Review will take place
later this month. This means that at that stage it would
be certified as ready for launching.
Coming to the specifics, the satellite imager has six spectral
bands (in the visible range) and a ground sampling distance
of 6.25m at an orbit altitude of 500km. The data storage
capacity is 24Gbyte.
The value of the six spectral bands is that they provide
the ability to distinguish various things. The table below
illustrates and provides examples of areas of application
of the various spectral bands.
Q.As other countries that have already established
in space science are providing services thorough out the
world, do you feel there is a necessity in having an indigenously
built and operated satellite system?
A. Most certainly, space is considered to
be the most technology intense industry. If South Africa
is looking to grow, the prerequisite would increase the technology
adaptibility of our industry, training human capital, generating
knowledge through research and producing high technology
products. This is what the investment in space and other
technology areas will allow us to achieve. The development
of indigenous systems is one element of the whole chain.
Other developing countries such as China and India are using
space initiatives to inspire their youth, who we all know
are integral to the future of the country's economy. In most
of these countries new industries and employment opportunities
are being created as a result of their ambitious space programmes.
In our country, areas such as communications, infrastructure,
inspiring the youth, and stimulating innovation are the best
potential areas for Space technology.
Q.Building Human Resource capacity is a challenge
for the most of the countries in Africa. Where does South
Africa stands, especially in space research and related areas?
A. It is a challenge in South Africa too,
however, I believe we are tackling the issue head on. Our
human capital programmes have been growing each year and
there is a commitment of continued emphasis on them. New
instruments such as the Centres of Excellence and the Research
Chairs are meant to give us more options to develop our human
capital.
Q.South Africa has been a key player in the space
related research. Is there any National Space Policy that
governs these activities?
A. The Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI) and the Space Council are in the process of developing
the space policy to support our activities in Space. At the
same time the Department of Science and Technology (DST)
is preparing a framework for the establishment of the Space
Agency and a space programme that will be implemented by
the Agency.
Q.As you are going to establish a National Space
Agency, what are the international collaborations that you
are looking for ? What would be its vital areas that the
agency will look into when becomes functional?
A. At this stage we are discussing with
various nations to collaborate in space. An exciting prospect
exists for an African collaboration in developing a constellation
of satellites to be developed and owned by Nigeria, Kenya,
Algeria and South Africa. The constellation will provide
daily coverage of Africa to assist with resource and environmental
management.
At the same time South Africa recently signed a bilateral
agreement with the Russia Federation for collaboration in
space.
The thematic programmes of the Agency will include space
science, satellite communications, earth observation and
navigation. The cross cutting areas are research and development,
human capital development and other facilities and infrastructure.
| Spectrum |
Applications |
440-510 nm
Blue |
Water bodies, soil/vegetation,
deciduous/coniferous |
520-540 nm
Light-blue-green |
Silt in water and
deforest-land/urban-areas |
520-590 nm
Green |
Green-reflectance-peak
for plant vigour |
630-685 nm
Red |
Chlorophyll-absorption,
roads/bare-soil |
690-730 nm
Red-edge |
Plant stress |
45-890 nm
NIR |
Plant-biomass-estimates, water-bodies/vegetation |
Q.What are the facilities available with South Africa
has to monitor, forecast natural disasters and droughts in
the continent?
A. We have a unique archive of 1km NOAA
AVHRR Local Area Coverage (LAC) data at 1km resolution stretching
back to the early 1960s for the entire Southern Africa south
of the equator. Plans are currently underway to allow for
online access to this data and more importantly products
derived from it such as long term average vegetation production
which will allow accurate analyses and predictions of drought
for example.
We have also implemented a world’s first Advanced Fire
Information System which makes use of real time MSG, NOAA
and MODIS satellite imagery to automatically detect fires
anywhere in Africa, Particularly south of the equator which
is freely published on the web.
|