GhanSat-1 to be deployed into orbit in July in Japan
After a successful launch of Ghana’s first satellite, GhanSat -1, on June 1, 2017, in Florida in the United States of America, the country’s first space technology is set to be deployed into orbit tentatively on July 6 or 7, this year.
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GhanaSat 1 will be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) into orbit at an estimated altitude of 400 kilometres above the earth atmosphere via the Japan/Kibo Deployment System.
On the deployment day, the management of All Nations University College (ANUC), led by Dr Samuel Donkor, which has it hands deep in the milestone, will join Ghana’s Ambassador to Japan, Mr Parker Allotey, at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Centre to participate in the event.
The duo will join others in monitoring the countdown to the deployment of the satellites from the ISS, interviews and a press conference.
As part of the event, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to send a congratulatory message via video conference to the Ghana team who built the satellite.
GhanaSat—1 operation
The satellite will be controlled from the ground using the All Nations ‘s amateur ground station located on the university’s main campus in Koforidua.
The ground station will establish communication with GhanaSat-1 using UHF/VHF amateur frequency bands. It will also be supported by Birds Ground Station Network, which is managed by Infostellar Company, and all Ham radio operators across the world.
Amateur Radio (Ham radio) is a popular hobby and service that brings people, electronics and communication together. People use ham radio to talk across town, around the world, or even into space, all without the Internet or cell phones.
The ANUC ground station will be used to track the satellite passing over Ghana, receive health telemetry data status of the satellite and send command to satellite during its passing over.
While traversing the country’s space, the satellite will accomplish missions, including taking pictures of the country to monitor the coastal regions and demonstrate space to ground communication by broadcasting songs from space to stimulate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in Ghana.
It will also measure the effects of radiation on satellite components, especially its microprocessors, to contribute to space science research (popularly known as Single Event Latch (SEL) up mission).
The GhanaSat-1 mission data will be made available to the government and non-governmental institutions to build capacity in space science and technology applications.
Background
The satellite was handed over to JAXA.
This was after the satellite had gone through a rigorous safety review and flight fit test in February this year.
JAXA took delivery of the Cubesat, dubbed Ghanasat-1, on February 9, 2017 and handed it over to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Florida, USA on February 13.
The deployment of GhanaSat1 will be watched live at JAXA Tsukuba Space Centre in Japan by top government officials and ministers.
The successful launch of the Cubesat, which weighs 1,000 grams, is expected to make the dream of Ghana becoming a space-faring nation a reality and also boost the country’s capacity to take advantage of space science and technology in the future.
Images of the event will be beamed live at the ANUC campus in Koforidua.
GhanaSat-1 mission
The Cubesat, described as the first university satellite in sub-Saharan Africa, has low and high resolution cameras on board to take pictures of our homeland and provide data that can be used to monitor the coastal areas of Ghana.
It also has Digi-Singer SNG mission from which the national anthem and other independence songs can be broadcast from space, as well as collect requested songs from the ground and send to the satellite to broadcast in space.
It is an initiative aimed at stimulating interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in high schools and tertiary institutions.
It will also embark on a scientific mission to investigate the radiation effects on commercial-off-the-shelf microprocessors. This means it will measure the single event latch-up occurrence that degrades electronic system on board satellites due to the harsh space environment and analyse this data to contribute to scientific research.
Brains behind project
The two-year project, made possible through a collaboration between the ANUC and the Kyutech Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan, began in October 2015, was completed in December 2016.
It was carried out entirely by three young engineering graduates of the ANUC who designed, assembled and tested the satellite when they joined the Birds project implemented by Kyutech for other four nations aspiring to be space-faring.
The trio, led by Benjamin Bonsu, a PhD student in Applied Science for System Engineering, Joseph Quansah and Ernest Teye Matey, executed the project under the supervision of Professor Mengu Cho, the Director of Laboratory of Spacecraft Environment Interaction Engineering (LaSEINE), and other faculty members of Kyutech.
Previous accomplishments
The young engineers and their team in Ghana were the founder members of ANUC’s Space Science and Technology Laboratory (SSTL) which designed, developed and launched successfully the university’s miniaturised Cansat on May 15, 2013, an initiative that attracted the attention of both local and international media.
The trio completed their Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering at ANUC in 2013 and constructed the university’s amateur Ground Station that currently allows the station to receive information from passing satellites.
It is an achievement that has made ANUC the first university in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa to accomplish such a feat in space science technology applications.
The effort contributed to make the university the only local institution to be given the licence as amateur licence operators by the National Communication Authority (NCA) in 2014.