Students embark on virtual field trip
Hundreds of school students from throughout the country visited the Awarua satellite station in Southland without leaving their classrooms.
The Land, Sky and Space virtual field trip was a webcast to schools giving students an insight into how the station worked and some of the projects it was being used for.
Venture Southland engineering projects and ground segment station manager Robin McNeill said the webcast would focus on Venture Southland’s involvement in an SBAS technology research project.
Venture Southland is leading the project with Southwood Export Ltd, with support from Otago University and True South Ltd, to measure the position of trees, new forestry roads and boundaries in three Southland forests.
The project was a real-life example of how precision satellite positioning worked, and how it could be used around New Zealand, McNeill said.
‘‘The ability of SBAS technology to provide high accuracy, real-time measurements has the potential to introduce significant efficiencies in forestry, planting and harvesting contract management, and road design.’’
The webcast falls under the wider satellite-based Earth observation work carried out by Venture Southland as part of the NZ Functional Space’s research and development programme.