SANSA
SANSA
SA’s Satellite Expertise
Among World’s Best PRODUCTION: Karl Pietersen
Dr Valanathan Munsami, CEO of South Africa’s National Space Agency, tells Enterprise Africa more about the development of a new SA satellite set for launch in 2019. He also details more about the organisations collaborative approach to business on the continent, and the way SANSA is developing human capital to drive further innovation, in service of humanity.
INDUSTRY FOCUS: SPACE
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The role of South Africa’s National Space Agency (SANSA) is growing all the time. Its influence across the continent is also expanding. Key in its focus is the use of satellites for a range of activities from imaging, research and communications to internet provision, weather monitoring and education. Currently, South Africa tracks a number of satellites in orbit and is set to launch another in 2019. EO-Sat 1 will be a specialist Earth Observation satellite and will form part of the important and eagerly awaited African Resource Management Constellation (ARMC), a joint effort between South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Algeria. “We are looking to have the satellite ready for early-2019 and we hope to have it launched and operational later in 2019,” SANSA CEO, Dr Val Munsami tells Enterprise Africa. “It’s proceeding well at the moment. It’s a 450-kg satellite with a 2.5 m resolution. The development of the satellite costs around R700 million but there are many other associated costs which are excluded from that figure – the cost of launching, the cost of data retrieval, the telemetry cost of interfacing with the satellite, for example.” He is proud of the lengthy process, and the large amount of work that
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has gone into the satellite thus far, particularly the development and localisation of satellite systems and subsystems. “It’s a completely South African design and there is a lot of innovation happening and intellectual property being developed with the design that has never been done before in terms of how we are approaching the satellite build,” he says. “Other satellites are built from the inside out but we are taking a completely different approach. We are assembling the satellite on a flat panel and then building it up and folding it shut, and this allows us to work on different subsystems of the satellite at the same time. “Construction is underway in the Western Cape where we have a full satellite assembly, integration and testing facility. We had a space programme during the previous apartheid regime and all of those facilities still remain. There is some revamping being done on these facilities to get them to a useable state for satellite development, and much of that work is underway. Currently, we are putting in new optical testing facilities so that we can test all of the functionality and specifications of the optics for the satellite and for use in future satellite missions.” EO-Sat 1’s main application will
come in the form of imaging for research and decision making purposes. “Effectively, what the satellite is collecting is a reflection of the sun’s rays off the earth’s surface. The reflection that the satellite receives is way beyond what a human can see. It can detect signals well into the infrared and ultraviolet visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. There is information in the infrared part of the spectrum that we cannot visibly see. For example, if we are studying vegetation cover, we are able to detect how much water is in the plant and if a plant is infected with a disease in the infrared part of the spectrum. You can even characterise the type of plant you’re looking at based on the signal properties received,” explains Munsami. “It also allows us to see if there is change in the land cover. For example, if you’re monitoring a specific water body over a period of time and you suddenly detect a change in the signal characteristics then that means that there is a change in the water, perhaps a waterborne disease. Even urban uses are now being recognised, such as the monitoring of housing development, or the positioning of voting stations based on population density – all of this information comes from satellite imagery. We’re using satellite data to
EMPOWERING OUR FUTURE SPACE INNOVATORS The French South African Institute of Technology offers postgraduate programmes in Satellite Systems Engineering at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Its engineers and students produced TshepisoSAT – Africa’s first nanosatellite – launched in 2013, and are currently developing its next generation satellite, ZACUBE-2. In response to the Government’s Operation Phakisa, we envisage using a constellation of nanosatellites for Maritime Domain Awareness. As such, the Africa Space Innovation Centre at F’SATI is the African leader in the development of nanosatellite technologies, services and skills for applications such as space weather, ship tracking and disaster monitoring and response. We offer these bespoke communications systems for CubeSats: • VHF/UHF Telemetry Transceiver • UHF/UHF Telemetry Transceiver • S-Band Transmitter and Antenna • X-Band Transmitter and Antenna • Software Defined Radio For more information about our academic, research, commercial and community engagement programmes, log on to our website or simply scan the QR code with your smartphone. Contact: Ian van Zyl +27 21 959 6925 vanzyli@cput.ac.za
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: SPACE
impact on socio economic issues such as how we manage our natural resources and protect our environment.” Munsami also highlights the impact that SANSA has on government programmes, such as Operation Phakisa. “The big focus right now in South Africa is the ocean economy as we have realised we are not maximising the potential that the oceans have for our economic development and benefit,” he says. “With Oceans Phakisa, we are developing a CubeSat satellite to automatically identify ships on the ocean in our economic zones based on their transponder signals and we will complement that with synthetic aperture radar data. This will allow us to detect fishing patterns and any oil spills from shipping vessels. We can also sense the water temperature, salinity, wind speed, etc. To improve this service, we will require new satellite technology
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and the prototype we are developing will be launched early next year. If the technology proves successful, we will develop and launch a constellation of satellites in the near future that will serve the needs of the African continent.” As various satellite projects gather pace, we are reminded of just how far SANSA has come in six short years. Founded in 2011, SANSA has been the government’s vehicle for space-related activity with the goal of ‘converging and optimising resources and maximising the benefits of space services and applications to society’. With centres in Pretoria, Hartebeesthoek and Hermanus, SANSA’s national presence helps it achieve a new vision of ‘being the leading innovator of space science and technology solutions for the African continent and beyond’. But Munsami is keen to point out that SANSA’s influence extends far
beyond South Africa’s borders and his focus on driving collaboration in Africa and around the world will undoubtedly help accelerate the role of the agency in the future. A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH Currently, Africa is enjoying a boom in space activities; new agencies have been established, new ideas are being discussed and technology being developed given the growing reliance on satellite applications and services. Earlier this year, Ethiopia announced plans to launch a satellite in three to five years to help better predict weather conditions. In 2013‚ the Kenyan government reported it had found two aquifers that could supply the country with water for 70 years through a satellite. Nigeria aims to put an astronaut in space by 2030 and has used satellites to assist in locating
SANSA
Boko Haram insurgents. Ghana recently launched their first CubeSat developed in partnerships with Japan. SANSA is very much an African operation and it looks set to strike up some important partnerships in the near future. “We have made it known that our work is for the entire African continent and we will make our data available to our African partners,” reiterates Munsami. “We have been working to develop an African Space Programme and currently we are part of the ARMC and the idea is to have several satellites to increase the temporal resolution over Africa. The more satellites we have, the more data we can collect. There is overwhelming support for satellite missions in Africa. “We are looking at signing off on a BRICS space cooperation framework so that we can initiate a BRICS constellation. Firstly, we will use existing
satellites in a virtual constellation and see how that works before we start to design and build a set of new satellites for a physical constellation. From an international perspective, we’re seeing a lot more support and collaboration coming through. “When looking at the African space programme, we had a meeting in Nairobi last year where each of the different national agencies committed an expert to a technical task force. I Chair the group that drafted the African Space Policy and African Space Strategy, which was approved last year by the African Union Heads of State, so there is considerable momentum being developed. We’re looking at linking partnerships with the Egyptian, Nigerian and Gabon space agencies, and a satellite co-development plan with Algeria and we believe Africa is a big playing field with lots happening,” he says.
He also reports that the discussions surrounding an African space programme have been largely positive, including an international meeting earlier in the year where more than 550 people turned up for a Plenary Session focused on the African space program to express interest and to voice their support. Also, at this meeting, a number of the African countries came together and created the idea of developing a Committee of African space Agencies on the continent. We have seen this model succeed in other regions, for example the Asia Pacific Space Co-operation Organisation, where national agencies come together to pool their efforts.” LEADING IN AFRICA Munsami is clear that Africa needs to find its own direction when it comes to space initiatives, and he is not keen on foreign entities converging into the
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: SPACE
African market and unilaterally dictating the sector. South Africa is very much the continental leader when it comes to the direction of the continents space movement and it utilises its long history (dating back to the 1950s) of space industry involvement to cement its leadership position at the cutting edge of this sector. “From an African perspective, we do provide leadership and we are constantly seeking ways to see how we can make our information available to other African countries,” he says. “On the African continent, we are definitely the strongest from a national space agency perspective. We are the only African country that designs, builds and operates satellites; every other African country that owns a satellite has procured it from abroad with some attempt at building local capacity. Some components for the international satellite markets are now built here. With EO Sat 1, there is new technology that we have designed and we are realising more than 50% savings in certain instances by designing and manufacturing these ourselves. “We are the only country in Africa that has a presence in Antarctica. Any disturbances happening in outer space get mapped along the magnetic field lines and the signals are received at the polar caps and so it’s a natural laboratory for space physics research. “We also have expertise that we have not yet fully leveraged, like radar technology which we have 60 years’ experience with in the country, but haven’t exploited this for space-borne platforms and no other African country can offer this. In fact, we are currently conceptualising a synthetic aperture radar prototype mission, which will bring unique innovations to this segment of the space sector.” Importantly, SANSA is among the world leaders in space weather monitoring, particularly relating to solar flares. Solar flares are giant explosions on the surface of the sun that occur when twisted magnetic
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field lines suddenly snap and release massive amounts of electromagnetic energy and plasma. Monitoring these events is critical to life on earth as they can impact on communication systems, power grids, navigation systems, mobile phones and internet connectivity. SANSA is host to the only Space Weather Regional Warning Centre for Africa, which operates as part of the International Space Environment Service. Utilising data from space weather satellites and SANSA’s ground based instruments located across Southern Africa, the Space Science unit within SANSA conducts real-time monitoring and forecasting of space weather phenomena and provides a range of services to a host of clients in differing industry sectors. “We are the only African country that has an internationally recognised space weather centre and it recently detected the biggest solar storm in the last decade,” details Munsami. “Solar storms like this bring excessive radiation from the sun and it has the potential to knock out power grids and satellites.” As a result of this storm, there were some high frequency (HF) radio blackouts, but humans were unaffected thanks to the protection provided by the earth’s magnetic field and the advanced warning provided by the satellites. HUMAN CAPITAL Of course, as a state-owned business and one heavily involved in the science and technology sphere, SANSA is a driver of employment creation. However, the work of SANSA requires a unique skillset hence the agency is committed to investing in training and development to ensure crucial roles are filled with the appropriate experts. Again, SANSA’s work in this regard goes beyond South Africa’s borders and includes the whole continent where at least 40% of the students we train are from the continent. “We have a bursary and scholarship programme at SANSA that is proving very successful,” explains
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: SCIENCE + TECH
Munsami. “We issue bursaries and scholarships to Honours, Masters and PhD students in science and engineering and right now we have around 80 scholarships in action. A lot of our staff teach and we like to bring together our students and staff at various points throughout the year so that they can share their ideas and research agendas. “We also have a programme on the satellite engineering side with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where they are putting post-graduate students through special CubeSat courses as a joint initiative between South Africa and France. They will spend time working and studying in both countries and will graduate with either a dual-Masters or dual-Doctorate degree from South Africa and France. “We are currently in discussion with the African Union to establish a pan-African University Space Science Institute. It will be hosted in South Africa and the idea is to bring students from across Africa and to train them in various areas of space science and technology and when they return home they can contribute to their own
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national space programmes,” he adds. The vision is for SANSA to create a long-term, sustainable supply of human capital and assets that can contribute to the immediate and future focuses of the agency and the African continent. “We are investing in human capital and we hope that in the next three or four years we will see a strong critical mass of students coming through with a deep scientific and technological knowledge that we can draw from.” SA FUTURE IN SPACE The coming years will be of vital importance in South Africa’s journey towards becoming a bigger player in the global space sector. Technology is now more advanced than ever before and utilising it to gain a foothold in an industry that offers so much opportunity is vital. The South African Council for Space Affairs (SACSA), a space regulatory body, is working on a new legal framework for South Africa to advance the local space industry as much as possible. “At a very senior level, there has been a lot of emphasis placed on
space activity,” highlights Munsami. “The Minister of Science and Technology is highly supportive of the space sector and she is certainly our project champion on the satellite development programme. We are in discussions with the Department of Trade and Industry, together with the Department of Science and Technology, and we have agreed that we need to put together a space industry development framework to support our local industry. Just recently, we took part in a workshop with other government entities and have supported the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services who are drafting a national telecommunications strategy, which is looking at South Africa’s telecoms need. We are seeing increased interest in the space sector and that is a result of the successes we’ve had over the years.” Development of satellite technology on the ground, and putting many more satellites in orbit, is a serious endeavour for SANSA and something which will receive a lot of attention in the future. “We currently
SANSA
track over 4000 satellite passes per year, provide launch support and in orbit satellite testing for the global space market. Given our leadership in this segment of the global space value chain, we have been earmarked as the hosts for SpaceOps 2020, a premier international conference for satellite operators.” Global navigation satellite services could benefit the local industry dramatically, as we explore this as a new area of interest in South Africa. “We are looking at using global navigation satellites and augmenting their signals for accurate positioning and timing applications. There was a prototyping exercise done in the SADC region which proved very successful, so what SANSA is now looking at is how can we make such a system operational with our SADC partners,”
Meet the CEO DR VALANATHAN MUNSAMI
says Munsami. “We’re looking at a satellite augmentation system that can further improve the accuracy of navigation systems. For example, you can’t use navigation services, such as GPS, for landing an aircraft because the signal error is too large so you need to augment the signal to make it as accurate as possible.” The CEO is also keen to ensure the agency is working as efficiently as possible and living its mission with a growing focus on working with local and other African partners. “I wanted to look at whether we’re meeting our mandate or not and we’ve come up with a new five-year strategic framework which has been approved by our board and is being reviewed by the Department of Science and Technology. The new five-year strategic framework looks at
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“I started my career in teaching physics at university, and my first research job came coincidently within one of the institutions in SANSA - back then it was the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory and I was involved in space physics research. “I then joined the Department of Trade and Industry and I was responsible for looking at the space sector under the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Space secretariat. Specifically, I was looking at the import/export control of missile delivery systems and nuclear technology, and the development of the space sector. “After the DTI, I moved to the National Research Foundation and I was responsible for implementing bilateral and multilateral agreements in science and technology with other countries. The DST would essentially sign off these bilateral and multilateral agreements but the implementation would happen at agency level
areas that might have been neglected in the first six years of our existence, such as telecommunication and navigation applications.” This means SANSA’s influence and reach is certain to grow. Its collaborative approach to business will benefit the continent in a big way, and its ideas and expertise is now essential in an ever-changing world. Next for Munsami is to “get the agency ready to embrace the new strategic focus which involves a continental outlook.”
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through the National Research Foundation. “Then, I joined the DST with a focus on space technology and moved up the ladder in that department before coming to SANSA.” Dr Munsami currently Chairs the African Union Space Working Group, which developed the African Space Policy and Strategy that was approved by the African Heads of State in January 2016. As the Chief Specialist for Astronomy, during his employment at the DST, Dr Munsami was involved in the development of a National Multi-Wavelength Astronomy Strategy and the SKA Readiness Strategy. Dr Munsami’s academic background includes a BSc in Physics & Mathematics, BSc Honours in Physics, and a PhD in Physics from the University of KwaZulu Natal. Dr Munsami has completed a Program in Business Leadership (PBL) and subsequently obtained his Masters in Business Leadership (MBL) through the University of South Africa.
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Issue No.63
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TRANSNET PORT TERMINALS
Making SA Ports
World Class Exclusive Interview with
Nozipho Sithole
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ENTERPRISE AFRICA
OCTOBER 2017