South Africa needs to have a long-term approach to space if the country wants to succeed in this high-technology sector. “Space does not have a year-to-year financing horizon at the moment,” highlights South African National Space Agency (Sansa) Space Operations and Earth Observation MD Raoul Hodges. “Typically, a satellite takes four or five years from conception to launch, and then it’s in space for ten years. So planning has to be long-term. Your funding has to be long-term and, importantly, fixed according to a plan and a schedule.”
Further, the country will need to ensure that its space activities are adequately funded. “We have to be realistic,” he affirms. “A competitive space agency requires some government funding. With a small budget, we will continue to lag for a long time. We need a serious increase to bridge the current gap. Thereafter, funding can be pretty flat, in real terms. Even so, we won’t be able to satisfy the entire space industry. To try to do so would be to spread the money too thinly. We need well considered plans, focused on social development, human capital development and international relations.”
The process of determining these plans and priorities is now under way, with the development of the National Space Programme (or Plan – NSP – see Engineering News February 17, 2012). “The NSP will ensure the future for Sansa for the next 20 years,” asserts Hodges. “It will give government a fixed plan that maps a road forward. Sansa’s needs are identified in the NSP. “The NSP will [also] give a good indication of what the cost will be.”
Meanwhile, Hodges is seeking to preserve expertise gained with the Sumbandila satellite programme. Sansa’s Space Operations division (while still the Satellite Applications Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) set up a mission control centre to operate the locally designed and built earth observation microsatellite.
“I’ve taken those skilled staff and moved them to other units which do similar work, so we don’t lose or diminish our mission control expertise. We’re upgrading the mission control software, as we’re convinced that there will be future [South African] satellites. We still ‘see’ Sumbandila, monitor the solar panels, check the battery levels and now and again receive its signal, so mission control is not inactive. Radio hams are still using Sumbandila to relay messages. The satellite is not completely inactive but we can’t switch on the imager and it can’t be used for earth observation or the downloading of data. But it is still useful as a training tool.”
Sumbandila still has about 30% of its fuel left, which, in theory, could be used to boost the spacecraft to a higher altitude and extend its orbital life. In practice, it is uncertain if the satellite would actually respond to commands to fire its thruster. Sumbandila was planned to survive for only three years.
Space Operations is, of course, heavily involved in supporting many satellites and other spacecraft from other countries. “Some interesting birds are coming over the horizon,” enthuses Hodges, referring to new satellites that will be launched this year. “As a space agency, we have to be on top of the next earth observation satellites, their sensors, what they can do, what we could and should buy into.”
The creation of Sansa has greatly increased South Africa’s profile in the global space sector, helped by the fact that last year’s International Astronautical Congress was held in Cape Town. This exposed the country’s space capabilities to countries that have hitherto paid little attention to South Africa, such as China, Japan and South Korea.
“It really raised our profile,” he reports. “We’re getting our brand out there. A well-positioned brand has immeasurable value. We need to work hard now, providing quality service to existing stakeholders and clients and build from that.”
- Engineering News
No comments:
Post a Comment