by Chris Becker
Curiosity. Discovery. Opportunity. You’ve got to have a reason to get up in the morning and do something or figure something out or make someone else’s life better. Something more than just selling houses to each other?
So, in other news, Ghana just launched its first satellite. From Techcrunch:
The GhanaSat-1―Ghana’s first satellite―began its orbit recently, with a little help from some friends.
The cubesat, built by a Ghanaian engineering team at All Nations University, was delivered to NASA’s International Space Station in June on a SpaceX rocket that took off from pad 39a at Kennedy Space Center, a NASA spokesperson confirmed.
The GhanaSat-1 deployed into orbit from the Center in July, and is now operational, according to project manager Richard Damoah, a Ghanaian professor and assistant research scientist at NASA.
“This particular satellite has two missions,” Damoah told TechCrunch. “It has cameras on board for detailed monitoring of the coastlines of Ghana. Then there’s an educational piece―we want to use it to integrate satellite technology into high school curriculum,” he said.
A similar launch earlier this year also had three Australian-built cubesats as part of its payload. But is that news? There are currently only seven total operational Australian satellites in orbit, all but one part of Singapore-owned OPTUS network and built overseas.
The last Australian-built satellite launched was 15 years ago! Aussie, aussie, aussie, nah never mind.
From The Conversation:
Three types of cubesats are the Australian contribution to the international QB50 mission, in which 36 satellites from different institutions around the world will carry instruments provided by the Von Karman Institute (VKI) to examine the lower thermosphere. This is a very interesting part of the atmosphere for several reasons, such as the way it disturbs GPS measurements.
The three teams that developed the Australian cubesats are: one from UNSW, one collaboration between the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and UNSW, and one collaboration between the universities of Adelaide and South Australia.
There are three main areas of innovation and technology that are huge multipliers particularly for small industrialised economies like Australia:
- AI/robotics
- genetics and
- space.
The last is not just the purview of superpowers, as even private companies and small nations like Ghana can have an impact. But as all industries require help when developing, governments need to provide as a minimum a framework and structure for it to flourish.
Every single major industrialised nation has a dedicated space agency. Except one.
Guess who?
This is important because one day, the iron ore and gas will run out. And the space industry is ramping up – fast – with predictions of at least $1.3AUD trillion per year by 2030 from $440billionAUD currently.
It’s a space that Australia has an enormous amount of expertise, depth and capability, but is not being fostered or coordinated at a national level, or with any long term goal in mind. Sound familiar?
As such, the nation is falling behind as others, including New Zealand, which recently had its first space launch and has its own dedicated space agency to help its own domestic industry grow.
Come on Australia, set your eyes upward, not down into the pits or browsing realestate.com.au
The future is passing by….at rocket speed!