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SANSA intern to present to global space community

Talented software developer intern Nteboheng Molefe has developed first-of-its-kind software for the South African National Space Agency (SANSA).

Molefe’s Mission Assistance Software (MAS) has automated an important process that has long been done manually.

“The MAS captures the time at which a SANSA antenna picks up a signal from a satellite and records the time at which the signal is lost. It then records the information in a file. It also assists to prepare a specific antenna for the next scheduled satellite pass and enables the streams three minutes before,” says Molefe.

“Before the development of the MAS, SANSA’s Space Operations team had to manually configure the antenna so that it could read the satellite’s signal. Once it had read the signal, staff members had to manually write down the times when the signal was captured and lost. As the entire process had to be monitored and then manually captured, this resulted in too many errors,” she adds.

Based at SANSA Space Operations in Hartebeesthoek, Gauteng, Molefe came up with the idea of creating the MAS when she became aware of how human error affected the data captured and wanted to simplify the process. “I asked my manager if I could tackle the problem, under the guidance of our software developer, Jamie Moses,” she says.

The MAS can be used in automatic or manual mode, depending on the user’s choice.

A challenge becomes an opportunity

“One of the challenges faced when creating the MAS was that staff were resistant to using new technology. I started

doing research to determine how best to resolve this challenge,” she says.

Little did she know that by doing this research, she would be selected to present a paper to the global space community at the 17th International Conference on Space Operations, which will be held in Dubai in March 2023.

The conference is hosted by the International Committee on Technical Interchange for Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems (SpaceOps), which was formed to create a technical and managerial forum for space agencies, academia and the space industry.

SpaceOps provides industry members with an opportunity to submit papers for consideration to be presented at its biannual conference. And even though Molefe is only an intern, her paper was one of the chosen ones.

“My paper is about human factors and behaviour that can hamper the use of new software applications, just as I experienced when developing the MAS,” says Molefe.

She explains that as a software developer, creating technological solutions that automate or simplify an operation’s processes is crucial.

“But what if your system is met with resistance? In this case, the software developer would have to consider whether the resistance is because the user doesn’t know how to use the software properly, or if the new system has design flaws.”

A well-designed system such as the MAS must include automation, which reduces human error; and standardised practices, which create familiarity and consistency. “Even though the system may have both of these elements, its business practicality is dependent on the user,” she says.

Software solutions

In addition to developing the MAS, Molefe works on SANSA’s Network Time Protocol (NTP) script software, which compares time.

“Everything at Space Operations deals with time. If our NTP server loses time, even one second, it can cause problems. This is why the NTP script software was created. It compares two NTP server times – a SANSA server and a pool/network server. If the times are out of sync or if the SANSA NTP is down, the software alerts the user. All of these activities are recorded for research purposes,” says Molefe.

Another project she is working on is the F-QR SCANNER, an android application that will be used by SANSA’s finance department to scan all the assets in the Space Operations building and provide feedback on which are in the database and which are not.

Conceptualised by Moses, the application will automate the manual stock-taking process. “I am responsible for the back-end coding and designing the graphical user interface. My manager, Simon Chaba, and Moses are my mentors and the entire information communication technology team plays a big role in my projects,” she says.

Molefe, who was born in the Free State and grew up in QwaQwa, was selected for the Department of Science and Innovation and Human Sciences Research Council internship in October 2021.

She graduated from the University of the Free State in 2019, with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, majoring in computer science and chemistry. “After I graduated, I spent two years searching for a job. I was very lucky to be accepted to the programme and placed as a software developer intern at SANSA.”

When she started her job, she thought she would be taught how things are done and would do that for the rest of her internship.

“I came here with C# as my only programming language, but all the systems I have created are in Labview, Python and Java, and I have played around with C++. SANSA has given me an opportunity to show my ability and achieve goals that I thought I wouldn’t get the opportunity to do,” says Molefe, who enjoys spending time with her children and making TikTok videos after a busy day.