Space Technology, Innovation
for Human Progress II
Where is the place of Africa in the
cutthroat competition in space technology? This was the question I posed as the
last sentence in the first part of this article. The follow up questions are; can
Africa overcome its developmental challenges to partake in this technological
advancement? Africa is facing serious problems of basic infrastructure such as
roads, electricity and above all leadership, how can we overcome these issues
and focus on this high level technology such as space, satellite, spacecraft,
etc? What is the motivating factor driving both public and private sectors to
engage in space technology? The cutthroat competition for economic gains among
the private sectors is the driving force to innovate and bring more content of
higher quality of Internet services to more people. This is only possible
through use of more innovative and efficient satellite technology. More is yet to be seen, as the 7.6 billion
people in the world, only 3.58 billion have Internet access. This means that it
is slightly less than half of the people who have access to Internet services. Europe
is 80% connected while only less than 22% of African population is connected.
In Africa, many people have no access to the Internet services or may not be
affordable while several others have no literacy on how to use the Internet
services. Cost of the service is
certainly an obstacle; but the biggest obstacle is the fact that more than
three quarters of online contents are available in just about ten languages,
thus, effectively disenfranchising more than half of the world’s population. Assuming
these obstacles are removed, one can imagine the hypermarket potential of
Internet services globally – space technology.
The three pillars of space technology are
satellite, spacecraft and space station, which have united the nations for
common purposes of research, security, communication and sundry of other
services. Satellite and spacecraft were previously discussed in this column.
Space station is an orbital station with facilities to support human crew and
spacecraft in orbit for an extended period of time. The station has supplies,
energy and environmental systems that can support human habitation. Scientists
and astronauts who inhabit space stations engage in activities such as
scientific experiments, maintenance, spacewalks, social media updates, as well
as exercise and personal care. The space stations are important to planetary
sciences as they are used for performing an in-depth study of space including
the observation of the sun and other space objects. There are also longterm studies
on environment and human health as scientists explore possibilities of Mars or
Moon supporting human existence. NASA also uses the space station to test
technology that could supplement or replace astronaut spacewalks such as
ongoing testing of robonaut technology. Space stations are also used for
military reconnaissance. This huge technological infrastructure in space
attracted billions of US Dollars from different nations to make it a huge
success. To arrive where we are today in development of space stations, it took
us over a period of six decades of several concerted and tireless efforts with few
losses of lives and unquantifiable properties, which culminated having two prominently
successful space stations orbiting the earth. On losses of lives, according to
Wikipedia, there were fourteen astronauts and four cosmonauts’ fatalities
during four separate spaceflights as at 2018. This represents 3.2 percent
fatality over the last six decades. In addition, there were reported deaths of some
astronauts during training such as the Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed the
entire crew of three. There were other cases of fatalities and multiple injuries
during spaceflight related activities. How
many space stations are currently in space?
Presently, there are only two space
stations in space; namely, Tiangong 2 and the International Space Station
(ISS). However, before the successful placement these two space stations, there
were several attempts with successes and failures, some of the space stations
hitherto launched were the skylab, Mir, Salyut 1-7, Tiangong 1 and 2, Cosmos
557, Destiny, Quest among others. Tiangong
2 was launched in space on September 15, 2016 as a way of performing tests for
the planned launch of a larger space shift known as Chinese Space Station in
2020. The space station is 10.4 meters long and 3.35 meters wide. Until June
2018, its orbital altitude was 383 kilometers. Afterward, it went down to 295
kilometers with no explanations and the space shift began experiencing a test
flight delay.
The ISS was first launched in space by
Russia on November 20, 1998, with the first set of humans successfully working
in the station from the year 2000. Since then, there have been astronauts
working continuously on the ISS. A maximum of six astronauts can survive in the
space station for six months. It is currently operating and permanently
inhabited. This space station was a result of the partnership between Roscosmos
of Russia, NASA of the United States, the Canadian Space Agency, Japanese
Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the European Space Agency with the two main
mission control centers being in Moscow and Houston. As of January 2018, 230
people were sent to the ISS from 18 countries. Majority of these space
astronauts and scientists were from the US (145) and Russia (46). Peggy Whitson
set a record of working in the space station for 665 days. ISS is a space
project jointly being implemented by five
participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA
(Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). Intergovernmental treaties and
agreements established the ownership and use of this multinational giant
project. Since inception, ISS has always hosted people usually staffed by three
to six astronauts and cosmonauts. However, as at September 25th 2019,
when the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft arrived with three new crewmembers, there were
nine crewmembers on board the space laboratory. Although, it was a designed
setup to have crowded humans in the station but they all have different and
overlapping crew assignments. Nine is certainly not the highest number of
people ever stationed on the space lab. The record for the largest population
on the ISS was set in 2009, when there were 13 people on board. The last time
there were nine people on board was in 2015, during NASA astronaut Scott
Kelly's "Year in Space" mission.
The ISS weighs 391,000 kilograms. It flies
at an average altitude of 400 kilometers above the earth and circles the globe
every one hour at an average speed of 28,000 km/h. ISS is easily seen from the
earth without using a telescope. It resembles planet Venus in brightness during
the day and appears as a bright light moving across the sky in the night.
Back to the question on Africa and her likely
involvement in space technology, there is prospect. Nigeria has to lead this
mission; the giant of Africa must wake up from slumber to deliberately get
involve in space technology. Over one and half decades ago, Nigeria invested in
the launching of four satellites; Nigeriasat-1, Nigeriasat-2, NigComSat-1 and NigComSat-1R
between September 27th 2003 and December 19th 2011. The efforts and launching ought to have been a
starting point for Nigeria to be self sufficient in satellite services
especially in communication sector. Our GSM service providers are ready market
for the satellite services that will galvanize economic advancement in the
country. There are too many economic opportunities for the continent in the
space technology otherwise we will continue to be customers of these countries.
Let us invest more in science and technology; the ball is in the court of our
policy makers and hope that the current minister of communication Dr. Pantami
is hearing. Being an ICT guru, we expect to witness quick positive changes in
communication industry.
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