Government in Action
The NigeriaSat-1 Project
Jan 5, 2004, 20:27
| | Nigeria successfully launched her first satellite into orbit at 0712 hours on 27 September 2003. The satellite, called NigeriaSat–1, was launched from Plesetsk Launching Pad in Northern Russia.
Though launched from Russia, the Satellite’s ground monitoring and vision control station is situated in Abuja and is manned by 15 Nigerian scientists and engineers trained abroad for the purpose. The National Space Research and Development Agency supervises the ground control station.
In constellation with other satellites, NigeriaSat–1 is designed to take photos and images of the country, which are beamed back for use in various areas of socio–economic development.
Conception
The project was conceived in April 1999 with the establishment of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA).
The agency is mandated to coordinate and consolidate all space and technology activities that would lead to development of a Nigerian satellite.
By June 2001, government approved the policy and programmes of its Space Technology agenda, thus creating the enabling environment for the actualization of the NigeriaSat-1 project.
NASRDA began by embarking on a technical initiative aimed at building technical know-how among indigenous Nigerian engineers and scientists. Fifteen Nigerians, each selected from different states in the federation, were recruited and sent to the United Kingdom to train on satellite technology. They acquired skills needed to design, fabricate and build the satellite.
The Satellite
NigeriaSat-1 is a low earth orbital micro-satellite weighing 100kg. It has ground sampling distance (GSD) or spatial resolution of 32m.
The device is designed to take images in a ground area of 600 x 570 km. It is built with a camera base system fitted with normalised differential vegetative index (NDVI) technology capable of giving early warning signals of natural and environmental disasters.
NigeriaSat-1 can acquire a wide range of data useful for geospatial purposes and produces these data in various formats.
Uses of the Satellite
At conception, Nigerian intended to use the satellite for a range of vital humanitarian activities, including disaster management and early warning signals for floods.
Information obtained would assist government to document, plan, evacuate victims, and manage disasters.
The satellite is also to be used to determine human activities on the environment, identify natural occurrences and their potential areas of spread and damages. This would enable government install appropriate plans to avoid or manage occurrence of disasters such as oil pollution, desertification, erosion, forest fire, and deforestation.
In agriculture, the NigeriaSat-1 is to be used for mapping, land use planning and management of sustainable grazing, forest logging and planning afforestation programmes. It would also provide data needed for crop inventory and yield forecast.
Other uses of the Satellite include:
·Water resources development and management, including assessment of the quantity and quality of surface and underground water, rainfall prediction, as well as integrated water resources management on drought and other disaster forecast
·Solid mineral exploration and exploitation, including general geological mapping and map update or revision, as well as differentiating host mineral areas in oil, gas and solid mineral exploration
·Ecosystem: Evaluation and monitoring of vegetation and land use as well as the aquatic system
·Local and regional planning for tourism and its potentials.
Scientists from the National Airspace Development Agency say that the satellite is capable of delivering data that would serve demographic uses such as mapping and planning of population surveys, census enumeration areas, as well as mapping, planning and monitoring of rural and urban growth.
The NigeriaSat-1 satellite project would also be used to map state and international boundaries, plan and map terrain traffic for defence and security purposes, as well as serve as a potent weapon to identify and neutralise international criminals.
Finally, the NigeriaSat-1 project provides important services in the areas of health and education. It would be used in public health delivery to establish the relationship between malaria vectors and the environment that breeds malaria, while its remote sensing technology can be used to give early warning signals on future outbreaks of meningitis.
The satellite is also to provide the technology needed to bring education to all parts of the country via distant learning.
Commercial and Spin Off benefits
Space activities incorporate some of the most important areas of high technology such as computer software and hardware development, sophisticated electronics, telecommunications, satellite manufacturing, life sciences, advanced materials and launch technology.
Space activities also involve some of the most significant issues of international trade and policy, gaining access to global markets and remote areas.
Government hopes in future to employ people in space industry as an important economic engine of development.
It is also expected that the Nigerian space industry would serve neighboring African countries with data needs and thereby generate foreign exchange for the country.
© Copyright 2006 nigeriafirst.org
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