David Baratoux, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD); Aziz Diaby Kassamba, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Cocody, Côte-d'Ivoire; Marc Harris Yao Fortune, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Cocody, Côte-d'Ivoire; Marie Korsaga, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, and Pancrace Aka, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Cocody, Côte-d'Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire’s nanosatellite is the first step towards applications that monitor environmental harm and illegal activities and assist in planning for development.
Nyameko Royi, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
The nanosatellite constellation will detect, monitor and identify foreign vessels within the country’s maritime borders.
The electromagnetic spectrum we can access with current technologies is completely occupied. This means experts have to think of creative ways to meet our rocketing demands for data.
NASA Johnson/Flickr
Free space optical communication will allow the same connectivity in space we already have on Earth. And this will provide benefits across a number of sectors.
Artist’s impression of the NanoSail D satellite in orbit with solar sail.
NASA
How do you train space engineers? You enable college students to build mini satellites, called CubeSats, launch them into space and help them collect the data.
One of the Vanguard satellites being checked out at Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1958.
NASA
When Vanguard 1 – the “grapefruit satellite” – was launched in 1958, its only companions were Explorer 1 and Sputnik 2. Soon it may have thousands of descendants swarming around it.
Impression of one UNSW’s three miniature satellites launched into space this year.
AAP Image/University of NSW
As technology advances, tiny satellites no bigger than a loaf of bread have advanced from just proving they work to being big contributors in answering science questions.
CubeSats upon release from the International Space Station.
NASA Johnson
Just about anyone can get a tiny, cheap satellite into orbit these days. As we consider how to deploy them responsibly, inspiration comes from an amateur community of enthusiasts.
TshepisoSAT, Africa’s first nano-satellite developed by students and staff at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
CPUT
Earlier this year, the Russian Federal Space Agency received a hand-luggage-sized delivery from the UK. It came with a request to launch the contents aboard a rocket, along with the Russian three-tonne…