COMPANY PROFILE
2013
SANSA
In service of humanity
company report
SANSA: In service of humanity Editorial: Lauren Grey Production: Hal Hutchison
Following a period of rapid growth and transition, The South African National Space Agency has made significant steps towards deriving greater value from space science and technology for the benefit of South African society; IndustrySA speaks to Corporate Communications Manager for the agency, Vaneshree Maharaj to find out more.
South Africa’s rich tradition in space, dating back to the 1950s, has positioned it as an active participant in the global space arena, contributing to worldwide research and development and enhancing the country’s space-related partnerships worldwide. One organisation at the forefront of this movement is The South African National Space Agency (SANSA), whose mission is to be a leader in space science and technology whilst benefiting South African society, environment, economy and the global community. “SANSA bring the benefits of space science research and technology back to South Africa”, explains Corporate Communications Manager, Vaneshree Maharaj, “through space science research and technology we seek to create societal capital, intellectual capital, human capital, economic capital and global capital.” “We have to ensure that whatever benefits we bring back create a positive impact on society,” Vaneshree
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explains, “we’ve got to ensure that we are building human capital by developing the necessary skills of which we currently have a shortage of in this industry. We’ve also got to ensure that we are stimulating the economy, so creating business opportunities with local companies and offering products and services to local and regional stakeholders. “We also encourage new innovations and technology within this industry to drive us towards a knowledge economy, and we’ve also got to ensure that we position South Africa as a global space player.”
IN SERVICE OF HUMANITY SANSA’s motto, ‘In service of humanity’, is derived from its mission to achieve greater value from space science and technology for the benefit of South African society, and to reach this goal, it has five strategic programmes in place; Corporate Support, Earth Observation, Space Operations, Space Science and Space Engineering.
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The first of the strategic programmes, the SANSA Corporate Support Programme, oversees the entire organisation, ensuring that SANSA functions optimally with good corporate governance and operational efficiency. The other four, are the directorates, the areas focused on executing space research and observation. They comprisethe Earth Observation Programme, which focuses on the utilisation of space to address day-to-day societal needs including resource and environmental management, disaster management, food security, global change monitoring, health, safety and security, planning, development and service delivery monitoring. The Space Science Programme drives scientific enquiry, knowledge creation, technology development and innovation, whilst The Space Engineering Programme drives the maintenance of the agency’s satellite manufacturing capability to ensure a level of self-reliance and develop local technologies and skills.
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COMPANY REPORT The Space Operations Programme is the vehicle through which SANSA interfaces with space assets and supports the international space industry and, by so doing, elevates the country in the community of space faring nations. Incorporated in all these directorates is the goal of developing human capital as well as stimulating the youth and our public to take up an interest in science and technology. “SANSA Space Operations provides launch support to many international clients” explains Vaneshree, “when they launch their launch vehicles and satellites in the Northern Hemisphere, they may not be able to see it in the Southern Hemisphere so if separation happens over Africa and South Africa, we are able to relay real-time data back to the client. “If satellites in orbit around the Southern Hemisphere encounter technical difficulty, we can provide telemetry, tracking and command for these satellites and our team are also able to provide in orbit testing of satellites.”
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS SANSA recently made a significant step towards building international space-related partnerships by teaming up with the Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS), to work together on the RadioAstron international VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) project. The Spektr-R spacecraft satellite, was launched by ROSCOSMOS on 18th July 2011, and carries a radio telescope that obtains images and coordinates of various radio-emitting objects. The idea is to complement the capability of ground-based VLBI instruments with a space-based VLBI instrument. “We signed that contract last month,” explains Vaneshree, “what that means is we are going to engage with the Russian space agency to host an antenna that’s going to allow us to download scientific data that will be accessible to our scientific community.” However, for the collaboration to take place, two further agreements need to be signed, “one will be with SANSA again, to formalise the infrastructure that will be in place, such as what ROSCOSMOS will provide in terms of software, data access and technical aspects, so that agreement will be signed first”. The second agreement will involve the scientific community within South Africa, in order to understand what sort of data they want, how far back they want the data to go, and how they want it accessed. The RadioAstron mission hopes to enhance investment in radio astronomy infrastructure in Africa,
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contributing to capacity building and socio-economic development on the continent. RadioAstron will complement other radio astronomy facilities in Africa, (like the Square Kilometre Array), enhancing the continent’s reputation as a premier destination for radio astronomy. Although the RadioAstron antenna is only ten metres across, and is dwarfed by many ground-based radio telescopes, by combining signals with telescopes on the ground (through interferometry) RadioAstron is able to make observations with an unparalleled level of precision. If it were to be considered as a single, virtual telescope, RadioAstron would be the world’s largest radio telescope, with a “dish” measuring about 390,000 km, almost 30 times the Earth’s diameter or about the same size as the distance between the Earth and the moon. “At the moment, the dish and software is being donated by a telecommunications company” explains Vaneshree, “they are just finalising all the technical stuff, before it is hosted by our Space Operations Directorate.” Once the collaboration has been fully agreed and each step has been processed efficiently, Dr Sandile Malinga, CEO of SANSA, believes that it will ‘pave the way’ for the two countries to work together on the development of science and space technologies.
SOLAR FLARES Another important aspect of the organisation is monitoring the activity of the sun, which is currently in its highest state of activity in 11 years.
Systems Engineering
Analysis, Simulation, Testing & Evaluation
Development, Configuration & Quality Management
Structural & Thermal Design
Infrared detectors, thin film & hybrid manufacturing
Aerodynamics, Flight Control & Guidance
Mechanical Engineering
Power regulation, distribution & EMC / EMI
Antennas, RF / Microwave, Digital & Electro-optical Engineering
Firmware & Software Engineering
Navigation Systems
DSP, Intelligence & Control Algorithm Engineering
Servos & Stabilized Platform sub-systems
Radar Sensor Systems
Electro-optic Sensor Systems
Communication & Telemetry sub-systems
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Photo: NASA
“Last week we had the biggest solar flare come off the sun and it created really beautiful auroras in the Northern Hemisphere” “Monitoring the surface activity of the Sun is important as any severe solar flares directed toward Earth could impact on the Earth’s technology, electricity grids, communication and navigation satellites and emergency rescue services” explains Vaneshree. “We’re currently in solar maximum, which is a period of elevated activity from the Sun” she explains, “last week we had the biggest solar flare emitted by the sun and it created beautiful auroras in the Northern Hemisphere.” Solar maximum occurs when sunspots are most numerous, bringing more frequent solar activity and a greater likelihood of solar flares, whereas solar minimum refers to a period when the number of sunspots is lowest, bringing less solar activity. Solar maximum happens in an 11 year cycle, and Vaneshree predicts recent activity to peak later in the year. “We’re predicting the solar activity to gain momentum during this period. We host a regional warning centre in Hermanus, our Space Science Directorate, tracking this sort of activity 24/7. They communicate daily bulletins and can provide warnings to the continent if it appears we are likely to experience an impact on any of our technologies, and that is an ongoing service and a very exciting environment to be in” she says. The recently recorded solar flares cannot harm humans and other life forms because we are protected by Earth’s magnetic field; however disturbances to satellite communications are common and backup systems exist to enable continuation of critical functions and activities.
The real problem however, emerges when the loss extends past a day or two, when backup systems are relied upon to perform all the functions currently provided by space assets. The long-term impacts of losing space capabilities could have a paralysing effect on our daily lives on Earth.
CONTINUING RESEARCH Over the coming years, SANSA will continue to play a vital role in the understanding of our planet through Earth observation, contributing to how we better plan our infrastructure and housing developments, manage our natural resources, mitigate against natural disasters, manage agricultural concerns and even monitor spread of diseases or people across borders. SANSA works extensively with government and other stakeholders to provide services and products that benefit government delivery. The research in the near Earth-space environment is also critical to our understanding of space and SANSA hosts research bases in Antarctica, Marion and Gogh islands studying such phenomena as the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly. SANSA works extensively with universities and research institutes in all our programme specific areas to contribute toward developing our human capital. The most important aspect of the organisation however, will continue to be its commitment to South African society and to transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy.
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Your eye on our changing earth SAEON MD, Johan Pauw, tells IndustrySA more about the pioneering work carried out daily by the expert environmental and ecological organisation.
Q: Explain the background of SAEON. Where, when, why and by who was the network established? SAEON was originally envisaged by the former Foundation for Research Development (FRD) and the research community to be a South African LongTerm Ecological Research (LTER). Government was approached to sponsor the network and it was then agreed that the network would be called the South African Environmental Observation Network. The emphasis on environmental refers to human-driven environmental change rather than pure ecological research. The then Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology accepted the responsibility to fund SAEON as of 1 April 2002 and appointed the National Research Foundation (NRF) that evolved from the FRD and the Centre for Science Development (CSD) to be the lead agency for SAEON. The timing was important because SAEON was established in the year when South Africa hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development and SAEON was intended to be a tangible contribution to the WSSD 2002.
Q: Who is responsible for establishing the vision and goals of SAEON? The vision of SAEON was derived through a stakeholder consultation and approved by SAEON’s Advisory Board, a high-level stakeholder committee representing government, business and higher education. The goals of SAEON are determined by SAEON management within the strategic frameworks of the NRF and the Department of Science and Technology (the government funder) and by consulting stakeholders. Q: What sort of tasks is SAEON involved with on a daily basis? We have three pillars of work which is environmental observation, data and information management and education-outreach. SAEON’s scientists work from mountain tops to the ocean floor. This means that on a daily basis our scientists are working outdoors to collect data either by direct measurements of environmental features or by reading data off instruments.
Q: How much of a challenge is it to manage the flow of information between the network? SAEON has six geographically distributed nodes at Phalaborwa, Pietermaritzburg, Grahamstown, Cape Town and Kimberley. These are coordinated by a National Office in Pretoria. Normal ICT infrastructure and applications allow for an acceptable level of communication among SAEON members and stakeholders. Stakeholder communication is promoted by a bi-monthly electronic newsletter. SAEON has established the required hardware capacity and developed advanced data management systems to allow for data storage, retrieval, manipulation and visualisation, from anywhere where the Internet can be accessed. Q: Which major research projects has SAEON been involved with in the last 12 months? Our research projects are aimed to run over decades in order to ensure that we can distinguish between natural variability and environmental change forced by human activity such as climate change, natural resource exploitation and the transformation of the landscape. Our major projects are in Algoa Bay around Port Elizabeth, Jonkershoek outside Stellenbosch, the Olifants River in the Lowveld of Limpopo Province, the Cathedral Peak Catchment in the Drakensberg, the St Lucia Wetland in isi-Mangaliso, the long-term grazing trials at Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute, several Marine Protected Areas, the Orange River, Table Mountain, offshore from Eland’s Bay on the West Coast, Welverdiend communal area in the Lowveld, Lajuma in the Soutpansberg, Argo floats in the Southern Ocean and Baviaanskloof in the Eastern Cape. Q: What types of technology are used by SAEON? Apart from ICT some of the instruments that we use are weather stations, instruments measuring the atmospheric gases, camera traps, underwater cameras (reef and deep sea), underwater remotely operated vehicles, conductivity loggers, underwater current meters, diving equipment, Argo floats, satellite imagery, near-shore boats, off-road vehicles, distance meters, GPS and soil moisture sensors. Though we do not own helicopters and micro-lights, we are assisted by the volunteer group Bateleurs in our aviation needs. Q: Is the organisation looking to grow further in Africa? Although the scope for growing into Africa is overwhelming, we do not have a funded mandate to establish our own research projects so we can only network with the rest of Africa, as with the rest of the world. This is predominantly done via the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
Q: How is SAEON connected to SANSA? SAEON and SANSA complement each other perfectly in terms of Earth observations. SANSA is the proverbial “eye in the sky” and has the competency to produce large-scale satellite imagery that provides measurable data about a range of large-scale environmental and human manifestations. SAEON is the “eye on the ground” that has the competency to measure environmental phenomena in detail and in all its complexity of interactions and feedback systems. SAEON’s measurements on the ground assist SANSA to improve the quality and accuracy of their space-based observations. SAEON has developed the South African Earth Observation System of Systems (SAEOSS) which is a data portal through which various data sources may be accessed and searched including the Earth Observation Data Centre of SANSA where satellite imagery is archived. The SAEOSS is able to generate maps and graphs based on data from different sources. Q: Who uses the data and information collected by SAEON? Apart from SAEON’s own scientists, the data is available on the Internet for use by academics, students, environmental managers, environmental policy makers, business and civil society. Q: What does the future hold for SAEON? Globally, the environmental and economic futures of humanity are becoming more insecure by the day. As was emphasized by the WSSD 2002, there is a growing need across sectors for environmental observations to provide reliable data that will improve our understanding of environmental changes and inform appropriate policies and management responses. Government cannot provide a comprehensive environmental monitoring system. SAEON is therefore considering the establishment of a low-cost National Environmental Monitoring Service that would offer monitoring services in response to the growing needs of the private, public or civil society sectors. In the process, new jobs will be created, industry will receive quality data at a low cost and SAEON will increase its data holdings, economic relevance and income streams.
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Contact number:
012 349 7700 Physical address:
The Woods,41 De Havilland Crescent Building C, Ground Floor Persequor Technopark Pretoria
www.saeon.ac.za
www.sansa.org.za
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