Nigerian Scientists, Others Develop 5 Nano-satellites.
If you live in the USA, NoireTV now showing nationwide on
Verizon Fios on channel 269. Press 269 on your remote control. NoireTV also
showing on Optimum Cablevision channel 1100. Press 1100 on your remote control.Follow
us on Instagram @noiretvafrica and on Facebook-www.facebook.com/caspennoiretv.
Fifteen engineers selected from six nations – Nigeria,
Japan, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Thailand – have developed and built
five Nano-satellites that have various applications, the National Space
Research and Development Agency, has said.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, Head, Media and
Corporate Communications, at NASRDA, Dr. Felix Ale, said the joint project made
up of five units of CubeSats with Nigerian satellite out of the five codenamed
as NigeriaEduSat- 1 is scheduled for launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida,
United States of America, in May.
He said, “The multinational satellite project known as “BIRD
PROJECT” was introduced in 2015 by Japanese government and implemented through
the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan for developing countries with the
goal of enhancing space related capacity building and human resource
development.
“A total number of fifteen engineers and scientists from
Nigeria, Japan, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Thailand were selected through
a keenly competitive global process and procedure.
“The National Space Research and Development Agency in
collaboration with the Federal University of Technology, Akure participated
fully in the design and manufacture of the five Nano satellites which is billed
to operate through seven ground stations across the world.”
Ale added, “The Nano-satellites will be launched into orbit
aboard SpaceX rocket and will be released from the International Space Station
with an orbital parameter of altitude 460kilometres and inclination of 15.6.
“The satellites are expected to attain six missions after
its successful launch, out of which three of the missions will be planned on
board while the other three missions will be accomplished in the ground
stations of the participating countries.
“The three onboard missions include taking photographs of
homeland of participating countries using two onboard cameras of 0.3mp and 5mp,
Digi-singer mission which is exchange of song from the Nano-satellites to Ham
radio receivers (UHF band) as well as measurement of single-event-latch up in
orbit by taking log of microcontroller reset events over period.”
The Ground-based missions among other things are to
guarantee determination of precise satellite location using analysis of time of
arrival of signals from time lag among multiple ground stations, measurement of
atmospheric density using orbital analysis from precise satellite tracking
information and demonstration of ground station network for CubeSat
constellation using Amateur radio frequency, Ale added.
The NASRDA spokesman said the project was expected to
benefit Nigeria in several areas among which are, the successful and regular
download of images from the five satellites, while the project is also a model
for achieving satellites projects with extremely low cost and size.
Ale said of the three Nigerians who benefited from the Human
Capacity Development through the project, two candidates from NASRDA would bag
Ph.D. in strategic and core areas of space science and technology while the
third candidate from the Federal University of Technology Akure would bag a
master’s degree in engineering.
Nigeria’s foray into orbit started on September 27, 2003,
with the launch of an earth observation satellite known as Nigeria-Sat-1. The
satellite which has been deorbited has been replaced with subsequent satellites
– Nigeria-Sat-2 and Nigeria-Sat-X.
-Everest Amaefule
Comments
Post a Comment