What's Nigeria Doing in Space?
The announcement on the notice board just before the door that leads to the Director-General's office was simple. All those who wanted a successful launch of Nigeria's first space satellite, NigeriaSat 1, should pray and fast. The notice was even more specific than that. Wednesday September 17 was set aside and all those who would participate in the ritual of self-denial could choose to break the fast by 12.00noon.
Anyone who visited the office of the Nigeria Space Research Development Agency, NASRDA, this Wednesday would know that the mood was up-beat. At exactly 12 in the afternoon, the Director-General of the agency, Professor Robert Ajayi Boroffice, led other members of staff who were available to the conference room and there Providence was called upon to lead the launch of the Nigeria's first satellite. The praise service was short. Twenty minutes after it started, it was over. But when it lasted, the angel in charge of success was called to intercede on behalf of NASRDA and of course, Nigeria. And there was enough reason to seek intersection.
Brazil has launched its own satellite twice and twice it has failed. Right now, the Brazilians are warming up to launch the third one. And scientists say even if Brazil had failed twice, the fact that the country is located on equator will make her satellite quite effective and powerful. Just early in the year, world number one super power, the United States of America, USA, was thrown into mourning when scientists who were inside a space ship were declared dead after it went down off the coast of Florida.
That Nigeria will be launching her own satellite, NASRDA chief executive, Boroffice, says it is not yet a satellite but a spacecraft. It becomes satellite after it might be launched into space. It is an indication that the project has gone beyond rhetorics. Built in Surrey, United Kingdom, the spacecraft would be launched in Russia. And Russia, because the former Communist enclave has the best and the cheapest launching instrument in the whole world. Apart from them, only United States, China, India and the joint one owned by European countries have the capacity to launch a spacecraft.
As for the Russians, the launching instrument to be used by Nigeria was being used by the military before it was converted for civil use. Apart from that, experts say the rocket launcher of the Vladmir Putin country costs about one tenth of what it costs in other countries that have it. According to Boroffice, many countries prefer to launch their satellite in Russia.
Road to Space Technology: It was not that Smooth...

If the NigeriaSat 1 (that is the name of the satellite to be launched by Nigeria) is finally released to space in Siberia, Russia, Friday next week, it will be a culmination of a journey that did not just start last year. And if it is successfully done, then it will be a victory against the odds. This is because, the nation first mooted the idea of venturing into space in 1976. It was at an inter-governmental meeting of the then Organisation of African Unity, OAU, member-countries in Addis-Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Earlier, the federal government had earmarked a sum of N10 million from the 1975-1980 development plan for the establishment of National Remote Sensing Centre. But like everything Nigeria, it would take another 12 years before a concrete step would be taken to make the project go beyond concept.

In April 1987, an inter-ministerial meeting was called to draw up idea for the establishment of the centre. Later, on the request of the Nigerian government, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, set up a two-man committee which advised the nation to set up modalities for the development of space technology.

The same year, the federal ministry of science and technology constituted the National Committee on Space Applications and membership of this committee was drawn from tertiary institutions; research agencies, the armed forces and other relevant organisations. Again, it was not to be six years later that another concrete step was taken again.

In 1993, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, constituted a nine-man committee which came up with the draft of the National Space Science Policy. The draft, as expected, went through some panel-beating and it was this policy that, on May 5, 1999, gave birth to the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA. Part of the mandate of the agency includes development of space technologies of direct relevance to national objective.

The NigeriaSat1 Project: In the Beginning...

Unknown to many, what is being launched is not a telecommunication satellite, but a earth observation device capable of assisting the nation in dealing with many problems facing it. The information the comes from data like this is called Real-Time Acquisition and Integrated Data System, RAPIDS. Nigeria used to rely on existing satellites like SPOT, LANDSAT, NOAA, J-RES and so on. It is not that data don't come from these existing earth stations, but when they do, the reason for which they were ordered would have been overtaken by events. Ordinarily, getting this information should not have taken more than 48 hours, but because the request is not being made from countries that own the earth stations and also because there are so many other demands from different parts of the world.

As the project began, also the need to develop the manpower for the operation of the satellite. Out of 5000 engineer/applicants three years ago, a test was conducted by NASRDA in Lagos, Enugu and Kaduna. The age was pegged at between 25 and 35 and 50 came out of each centre and this was later narrowed down to 120. It were after this that experts were brought from Europe and Nigerian universities to interview them and a final 15 was selected to travel to the United Kingdom. They participated in the building of the satellite and they have also been trained on the handling of the equipment. Right now, two of the fifteen engineers are in Moscow, Russia, for the launch of the spacecraft.

However, most of the high-tech that went into the development of the NigeriaSat 1 came from the foreign experts that NASRDA had to rely on for collaboration. Boroffice, the NASRDA boss, says it is impossible for a single country to go it alone.

And then, It is with the latest technology...

By the time the NigeriaSat1 is airborne and it stays in space, it is going to be there with the support of the latest technologies in science. In the first instance, most of the components of the satellite have been compressed into miniaturised units which has made it possible for the project to cost (up till date) $13million whereas some other countries spend as much as $300million on the same type of satellite.

However, the only drawback of NigeriaSat1 is that it has a 32-metre resolution whereas it would have been less than five. If it is less than five, it means if a satellite picture of a city is to be taken, then a car moving on the road could be picked by the satellite lens.

Controlling a satellite is not the same as monitoring it. Even experts say that the orbit and the trajectory of a satellite ought to be controlled from the country where it is owned. As for NigeriaSat1, the control is going to be in Asokoro. The reason, according to inside sources, might not be unconnected with security; both for the device itself and for the country. Therefore, the control centre of NigeriaSat1 will be in Asokoro, in Abuja, the nation's capital. Here, the device can be kept within orbit and the position of the satellite at any given time.

The satellite, apart from this, is programmed to last five years. This is the lifespan of the fuel it will take upon launching. But according to experts, if the orbit of the device is well-controlled, then it might last much more than that. And in any case, the five years is the minimum time it can spend on space before disintegrating.

And then the benefits: They are just many...

As corrected earlier, what Nigeria will be launching into space will not be a communication satellite but a earth station satellite meant for collecting data that can be used to correct many anomalies, both political and economic. Here are some.

Census

It is no doubt one of the most controversial socio-political activities in this country. After election, perhaps census is another thorny issue. According to scientists, satellite data can be used to have an idea of how many people live in a particular location. All that is needed to be done is just to take the satellite picture of houses in the area and then go down and look at the number of people in that area. This can even be ascertained by looking at prior population density of the area. Borrofice, the NASRDA, boss throws more light on this.

"We can use satellite to conduct census in two ways. One: you get your satellite in a fix which you throw the whole of Nigeria and then you can decide that well I am going to divide Nigeria into may be 1million enumeration areas. We are going to do this on the map and do you know in a map of Nigeria, using map to draw may not help you because when you are going through on a top hill which is not even habitable and you may not even know whether human beings are there. So this will tell you where the population is, it will also inform you on how to demarcate the enumeration areas that are accessible and feasible in terms of counting."

And then it will give you an idea of the number of people in an area because if you have enumeration area with 50 houses, and you have another enumeration area with 1000 houses, let say an average of 5 people live in a house. You can be sure of the idea of the number of people you are going to find in each of these enumerated areas. Of course, you do what is called ground fusing after looking at your satellite map, you can then go down to the areas and try to corroborate what they have done. With this it will help us. If anybody wants to go to court to dispute the segment or the result of any particular place, we can rely on satellite data to rely on. Meanwhile, there could be some errors, but the errors should not be too wide for it not to be acceptable. You can see these are the benefits to individuals and the national planning."

And then Separating Politics from Social Service Provision...

In the past, provision of social amenities has been clothed in the toga of political consideration. For instance, siting a factory, atimes, is not determined by the availability of raw materials but by the political strength of an indigene in government. A case study is the issue of water resources. Through satellite data, it could be detected where it is possible to get water from. There are even satellite sensors that have the capability of locating water sheds underneath the earth surface.

Therefore, a village without a watershed can not just be a beneficiary of bore-holes that will just be there without water coming out of them. Experts say instead of just sinking bore-holes for political reasons, all that is needed to do is get satellite information of where there is water, sink the bore-holes there and then pipe the water to the other place where the water level is too low to support sinking of bore-holes.

Putting more food on the table...

Specifically, rice planting has not always been easy, especially, in the Northern part of the country. And mainly, this is due to the fact that farmers lack information about soil and climatic conditions. The fadama rice is from the North. It is usually planted on flood plains. The NASRDA says it is going to provide what is called Fadama Land Information System. Through images that have been taken, past weather patters will be used to determine the future. Data will be made available to the federal and state ministries of agriculture that will now convert this to information for farmers.

Experts are even saying that had there been satellite information, the last Kaduna river floods that swept over 5000 people off their homes after it burst its banks, would have been prevented. What this means in other worlds is that satellite data will also help in curbing natural disasters.

And also for security...

As it is not possible for a satellite to be in one spot, the NigeriaSat1 will not be stable. In essence, the nation has entered into what is called time-share deal with six other countries. These countries will provide a constellation of satellites that will be moving around the earth. What thus time-share deals means is that Nigeria can download satellite pictures from another satellite when its own is not over the country. This means that throughout 24 hours, there is no time Nigeria would not have access to satellite information.

By security implication, any security breach can not be lost simply because the nation's satellite is not taking earth pictures of the country at any point in time.

If all these work well, then the fasting and praying at the offices of NASRDA might not have been in vain. But let the spacecraft become a satellite first. And that is after its successful launch.