African countries have been increasingly creating their own space agencies and launching satellites in recent years. The continent is one of the leaders in the development of satellite communications. In addition, monitoring of agriculture will play an important role in the future.
Satellites of African countries
Recently, the small West African country of Ivory Coast hosted the NewSpace Africa conference organized by the African Union and announced that it was creating its own space agency. Also, the country’s leadership plans to send its own satellite into orbit before the end of 2024.
And this is not the only African country that has recently announced its space ambitions. In April, a SpaceX rocket launched Kenya’s first satellite into space. And these are not the first African countries to launch their own spacecraft into orbit.Previously, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt have done this. Moreover, in the case of the last one, this happened back in 1998, i.e. more than a quarter of a century ago.
In fact, the number of satellites launched by African countries is even greater. According to international organizations, they have launched 41 spacecraft into space since 2016 alone. However, only 9 of them were built in the countries themselves, and the rest were created by foreign companies. In total, about 15 States of the continent have their own space agencies.
Africa’s space prospects
Africa is the last place that everyone is used to remembering when it comes to space exploration. However, everything is changing at a breakneck pace. Currently, the development of a small satellite costs from 50 to 100 thousand dollars. It is quite accessible to large universities, and there are some on the continent.
“A top priority for African countries is Earth observation—satellites that monitor cloud cover, rainfall, flooding, drought and so on,” said Mamadou Sarr, head of the Pan-African group of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM).
According to the UN, more than half of the continent’s population still lives at the cost of agriculture. And the number of people in Africa has already reached a billion. In addition, it is here that 2/3 of all the arable lands of the planet are located, which are still not used. Therefore, it is agromonitoring that is most interested in the locals in space.
In addition, observation satellites are used by African countries to solve other tasks. For example, they allow people to fight illegal fishing. And the military uses them to track the movement of jihadist rebels threatening territories south of the Sahara.
Africa is building satellite Internet
Satellite Internet is another important area of development of the space industry in Africa. The continent is one of the world leaders in its implementation. In fact, this part of the world has simply “jumped over” the stage of wired networks and is now building ground and space networks that are in no way inferior to those at the disposal of developed countries.
The population of Africa is demanding more and more satellite services. And it’s not just about calls and the Internet, but also such specific things as telemedicine and Internet banking. The total volume of the continent’s space market next year will be estimated at USD 20 billion.
According to phys.org
Follow us on Twitter to get the most interesting space news in time
https://twitter.com/ust_magazine
