By Dickson Bandera
Zimbabwe joined Africa’s race into the space after launching its first Satellite today, a development that is set to help the country in its efforts to intergrate new technologies towards national development.
Named Zim-Sta1, the satellite was launched into space from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Nasa’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia in the USA, after years of preparations by a team of scientists.
With the satellite, Zimbabwe hopes to deploy geospatial technology to manage its boundaries, calculate full mineral quantities and help telecommunications companies improve services, among other services.
The project is supported by the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project, a multinational programme which helps countries build their first satellites. Locally it is a culmination of the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency programme launched by President Mnangagwa in 2018 to push the country’s space science projects.
A team of Space Engineers from the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency, currently residing in Japan, saw through the development and integration of Zimsta1.
Zimbabwe and Uganda are the current beneficiaries of the Birds Project under the fifth edition (BIRDS 5) whose mission was to design, build, test, launch and operate Uganda and Zimbabwe’s first satellite.
BIRDS 5 project was officially launched in 2020 in Japan and consisted of 13 students from Japan, Morocco, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
BIRDS 5 project was officially launched in 2020 in Japan and consisted of 13 students from Japan, Morocco, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
With Zimbabwe and Uganda joining the league of space-faring countries, a total of 15 African countries have now launched their satellites into space as Africa escalates it’s space science agenda.
According to the 2021 edition of the Africa Space Industry Annual Report, 125 new satellites have been lined up for development in 23 African countries by 2025.
Zimbabwe’s satellite is part of a larger payload consisting of some supplies going to the International Space Station (ISS) and other CubeSats. Two 1U CubeSats (Zimbabwe & Uganda) and one 2U CubeSat belonging to Japan.
On the Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket Zimbabwe’s part is a 1U CubeSat portable satellite that was co-developed with Japan. This satellite is modular with the smallest module or smallest functional system being a cube that is 1U (1 unit) in size hence the name. The sensor equipped on the satellite is a camera whose purpose is to gather visual and spectral data on the surface conditions of the area being observed.
Processing of this data from the camera sensor as well as other features of the satellite like communication and management of the satellite in orbit will be handled by 3Raspberry.
The Satellite will collect critical data that will be useful in Zimbabwe’s key sectors- agriculture, mining, health, water and climate.
The satellite images taken by multispectral camera with a spatial resolution of 100m shall be used to investigate land use and cover such as crop health, soil adjusted vegetation index, cultivated area and leaf chlorophyll index using NDVI Images.
This is a shot in the arm for a developing country like Zimbabwe which is well on course on a development agenda under Vision 2030.
Moreover, the camera will capture images of the member countries. The images shall facilitate analysis of the nitrogen/fertility level of soil using GIS software.
Satellite images of dams and lakes captured by a BIRDS 5 made multispectral camera shall be used as a demonstration of water quality assessment using 1U satellite with spatial resolution of 100m.
The satellite itself, Birds supports a free app (BIRDS-NEST) with which satellite images from ZIMSAT-1 can be downloaded on to smartphones.
There has been joy as many Zimbabweans hailed the project and are optimistic it will have positive impact.
One of the engineers who developed the satellite, Space Systems Engineer Timothy Kuhamba, who shared his dream to build a satellite 8 years ago, took to social media to celebrate his dream come true.
Dreams do come true. 8 years ago I shared my dream on Facebook.” says Kuhamba in a LinkedIn post. “that I have a dream for Zimbabwe. Special thanks to the Government of Zimbabwe and the Kyushu Institute of Technology BIRDS 5 team members.”
Surprisingly, instead of generating praise, the historic development has been met with mixed feelings in Zimbabwe, with some dismissing the development as fake news while others are talking of misplaced priorities.
