South African National Space Agency - Beyond Borders

Working to Better Society with Space Exploration

By Jessie Taylor

Space exploration and the resulting technology can have a significant impact on the continent. Space-based products and services can offer solutions to challenges facing Africa, such as space related applications already widely in use in the agricultural sector.

The good news is that the three fuel lIn addition, space-based information systems play a significant role in risk reduction and disaster management on the African continent, which is heavily affected by natural and man-made disasters. Not only does space exploration offer an area of innovation for countries, but it also offers the opportunity for partnership between nations.

Into Space

The agency that is mandated to promote space exploration in South Africa is the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), located in Hermanus, Western Cape. SANSA is an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation and works to promote the use of space in South Africa, foster space research, and to strengthen cooperation in space related activities.

SANSA was created in 2010 to promote the use of space and strengthen cooperation in space related activities. The agency aims to foster research in space science, advance scientific engineering through developing human capital, and support industrial development in space technologies. Although the agency was only established in 2010, South Africa has been involved in space research and activities for many decades. The country helped early international space efforts in the second half of the 20th century and has been instrumental in observing the Earth’s magnetic field at stations around Southern Africa.

South Africa is also home to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an international effort to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope. The second SKA receiver is located in Australia. The programme aims to help better understand the history of the universe. The research and work carried out at SANSA focuses on space science, engineering and technology, which can promote development, build human capital and provide important national services.

Much of SANSA's work involves monitoring Earth and our surrounding environment and using the collected data to ensure that navigation, communication technology and weather forecasting services function as intended.

Building Partnerships

There have been a number of recent space-related developments in South Africa. Among these was the announcement that it would partner with China to build a base on the moon. SANSA has signed a memorandum of understanding with the China National Space Administration, which will see the two agencies collaborating to construct a research base on the moon.

South Africa will be one of a number of countries, including Russia, to contribute to the International Lunar Research Station project. South Africa will contribute to the demonstration, implementation, operation, application, education and training for the project. The project aims to establish a permanent lunar base in the 2030s. South Africa is also aiding lunar exploration through the Lunar Exploration Ground Site (LEGS), to be constructed in Majiesfontein in the Western Cape, which will assist with communications for the Artemis project.

The Artemis is a NASA project which will see the USA return to the moon for the first time since 1972. The goal of the project is to put the first woman and person of colour on the moon in 2025. The LEGS facility is one of three in the world that will help with communications and ensure astronauts have an uninterrupted link to a ground station. South Africa has a history of assisting NASA and hosting communications infrastructure during the Apollo programme. Apollo helped land the first humans on the surface of the moon.

The infrastructure can be used for future manned space flights. SANSA has also assisted the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, which attempted to land the Rashid Rover on the surface of the moon, with the Hartebeeshoek ground station responsible for establishing communications between the rover and a station in Dubai.

Unfortunately, the rover crash-landed in the final stages of the mission, but another attempt is scheduled for this year. SANSA has also expressed hopes of training astronauts, although there are currently no firm plans for such a mission. Working with partners such as the Russian space agency, SANSA said it has aspirations to have South African astronauts contribute to global space exploration.

Meanwhile, SANSA continues to work on developing technology and partnerships to advance both space exploration and the local economy.

Sources: News24, My Broadband, South African National Space Agency, AU, Chatham House