After Sat1, heroic trio aim at GhanaSat 2 to protect oil resources
On July 7, when Ernest Teye Martey woke from bed, he had goose bumps; a feeling he cannot remember ever having but can now describe vividly. At one point, it was anxiety. At another, it was excitement.
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After using four years to conceive, try and fail but finally succeed in realising a long-held dream – developing a launchable satellite – Ernest and his team of two others were now about to watch their handy work move from a country of 238,535 kilometre squares (km²) landmass into space where its territory will be limitless.
He told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that at exactly 8.50 GMT, when his school, the All Nations University was wide awake to monitor the live deployment of their satellite, he and his two colleague engineers had cold feet and began to sweat all over. He was very anxious because the adventure could mark an epoch in the nation’s history.
It was a moment he felt ‘Ghanaian’ as he and others watched the successful deployment of a satellite developed by him and Benjamin Bonsu, the team manager and Joseph Quansah.
As thoughts of Ghana’s 60th anniversary lingered on his mind, he reminisced taking a heavy breath with a wide smile playing at the corners of his mouth and saying “finally, after 60 years, the country amidst other achievements, can now boast of venturing into space technology.”
But even before the country’s maiden satellite settles in orbit, Ernest said the team was looking at developing GhanaSat Two soon that can tackle water pollution, illegal mining and protection of the environment.
He, however, added that the development of the GhanaSat Two would require collaboration from the government or external investor to achieve.
“The introduction of the oil rig in Ghana has drawn our attention to monitor oil spillage and even though that has not happened yet we know there is a possibility,” he said.
The successful development and launch of the satellite will be timely for Ghana, given that it will pick information on the environment and the country’s coast and relay it to the appropriate institutions for processing.
Birth of GhanaSat One
Ernest told the paper that the GhanaSat One is the result of two other projects that started in 2013.
Doing that he said was tedious, as the trio had to balance it with thir education in the same university.
He said they spent most of their time in the school’s laboratory, reading and practically broadening their knowledge on how to develop satellite.
The three core members, Benjamin, Joseph and the two ground station members, Mr Aaron Yankey and Ms Sharon Sarpong teamed up to create the satellite.
Inspiration
He said upon completion of their first degree in Electronics and Communications in 2013, the founder of the university, Dr Samuel H. Donkor, expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Ghana had not ventured into space science.
Giving that such a feat came with immerse benefits, the founder said Ghana was being left behind while countries such as Japan, US and Russia continued to derive maximum benefits in the technology.
This driving force made him introduce a new course in Space Science in the school’s curricula and as was to be expected, out of the more than 100 students who started the course, only the trio completed the course with the project.
Dr Donkor normally told them that he believed the country could be literally independent and enjoy high technology in space science like the first class countries.
Benefits of satellites
Ernest said as a country, Ghana was already relying on satellite benefits although not many knew about that.
“Right from receiving calls and getting television channel signals to predicting weather forecasts, the country depends on satellites but never really appreciated the essence,” he said.
He added that advanced countries had gone beyond mere communication as the benefit of satellite but could also detect bush fires and monitor deforestation and water pollution.
Also, satellite images could help in town planning and street naming.
To help share their experiences, Ernest said the team now intended to teach students and fellow engineers how to send and receive information from a satellite. The mode of teaching will be through songs programmed on the satellite.
They will do this by converting songs into satellite-compactible information and also introduce the digital singer as a complete cycle of telecommunication to teach students.
“Another aim is to partner the Ghana Education Service (GSE) on how best the country can introduce satellite courses in senior high schools,” he said. — GB