NANOSATELLITE: Opportunity for Africa

iaerotech.com

Issouf OUATTARAJunior Aerospace Engineer

Outline

• Introduction• Contexts• Barriers/limitations• Solution

Why should we invest in space technology when there are starving people all over the world who could use that money?

Introduction

Introduction

Three Challenging areas in Africa where Space Technology can have important impacts:

• Education• Urban Planning• Agriculture/ food security

Context (1): Education

Case of Higher Education

• Low professor to student ratio• Not enough teaching infrastructure• Few public universities with poor distribution over the country• Poor access to resources (Books, journal papers, educational video

content)• Lack of experimental resources (laboratory resources)

Context (1): Education

Satellite based education• Centralized based education• Same quality of education for all• Same quality of content for all• Availability of resources• Students can follow courses from famous universities

Context (2): Urban planningPlanners need accurate and timely information to:

• Estimate Population Distribution and Growth

• Determine the need in infrastructure facilities

water or sewage systems

Hospital…

• Evaluate Environmental Problems

• Design alternative housing to replace informal settlements

• Plan land distribution for agriculture

Context (2): Urban planning

Exemple of the NUSP programme south Africa (use SPOT 5 sat data)(find more data

Context (2): Urban planningExample of the NUSP program south Africa (use SPOT 5 sat data)(find more data Increased need of

• Water resources• Sanitation infrastructure• Education infrastructure• Other Services

Context (2): Agriculture/Food Security

Some objectives of agricultural sector:

• Mechanization and modernization

• Diversification of Production

• Improve food security

• Improve natural resources management (water, and soil)

Context (2): Agriculture/Food Security

Improve natural resources management & Food Security by:

• Locating and monitoring fertile land

• Locating and monitoring water resources

• Evaluating and understanding crops health

• Detecting the risk or presence of pests and diseases

• Optimizing production

Context (2): Agriculture/Food Security

• Increase in the size of the city to the northeast, south, and southeast of the lake.• Deforestation around the lake

=> flooding• Poor farming methods• Depth of lake is reducing

Lake Naivasha (, Kenya

January 28, 1986 January 27, 2000

Source image: NASA

Context (2): Agriculture/Food Security

• One of the largest lake in Africa• Deforestation around the lake• Deforestation around the river

feeding the lake

Context (2): Agriculture/Food Security

• Acquire data about the crop field: measure

• Data processing: get useful information

• Information analysis for decision making

• Implementation: the right dosage of agricultural

inputs, at the right time, and the right place.

Optimizing production by responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops

Why African countries are not taking advantage of Space Technology?

Barriers

Why African’s Countries do not have their own satellites ?

ExpensiveTo develop

To launch

To Operate

To Buy

Big Satellite

Barriers

Why African’s Countries do not have their own satellites ?Space Technology needs

Expertise

Infrastructure/equipment

Education

Adequate financial resources

Space science/tech

is hard

How can we make it ?

Nanosatellite is a good starting point

Nanosatellite

Reducing Size while improving performance

Nanosatellite

Satellite Class Mass Range

Small Satellite

Microsatellite

Nanosatellite

Picosatellite

Femtosatellite

Cubesat is the most used standard of Nanosat

10 cm

10 cm 10 cm

The market of nanosatellite is increasing More applications are being developed

Motivation: Low Cost

5,240,000 –7,570,000 $ (2009) 52 ,000$ (2009)

100 to 140 CubeSat

Development + Launch

Institut Géographique du Burkina (IGB)”For aerial photography and mapping

Motivation: Design Aspects

• Need relatively Small Design Team

• Short Development Time

• Modular Systems

• Standard Components (avionics and interfaces)

• Small development environment/facilities

University of Khartoum cubesat design team

Source: Facebook page: KN-Sat1

Source image: http://www.clyde-space.com

Motivation: advantages

Nanosatellites can be used to:

• Train expert locally and gain national expertise (Begin as a university research program and upgrade little by little to a National Space program)

• Prepare big projects in the future.• Reduce brain drain (human capital flight) • Create Jobs • Provide our countries with all the advantages of Space Technology

in agriculture in Urban Planning Telecommunication (education, health care,…)

We don’t go to space because it is easy or funny. We go to space because it matters.