Space Weather Centre to be expanded

Space Weather Centre to be expanded

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, visited the SANSA Space Weather Centre in Hermanus on Tuesday, 9 March as work begins to expand the centre into a multimillion rand 24-hour state-of-the-art facility.

For the past 10 years, the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), has been operating the centre with limited research focus and capacity, and the expansion is a significant development in South Africa's space weather research.

SANSA has appointed a Research Chair to ensure advanced space weather research capabilities, growth in human capacity, maximum exploitation of data outputs for enhanced research outputs, and the development of new knowledge.

The DSI has to date invested R40 million in the project and will transfer a further R30 million in the next financial year. Over the three-year establishment period, approximately R15 million has been committed for the creation of jobs and development of the necessary scarce skills to ensure service and product excellence. It is expected that the Space Weather Centre will be fully operational as a 24/7 full-service centre from 1 October 2022.

Tuesday's sod-turning event also coincided with SANSA's 10-year anniversary, including 80 years of magnetic operations by this particular facility of SANSA.

Click on the newspaper below to read more (see page 4).