Zimbabwe reaches for the stars

ZIMBABWE is primed for super-fast internet, a robust climate information and early warning system, better telecommunications coverage in every part of the country, including cost savings amounting to more than US$1,2 million per year if Government’s plan to launch a satellite materialises.

Significant progress has already been made.In March last year, Cabinet approved the establishment of the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA), before it was officially launched four months later.

It was subsequently gazetted into the country’s statutes in March this year.

In the 2020 National Budget, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube set aside resources for “the launch of a space satellite”, which represents Government’s unrelenting pursuit to translate the stated intention into reality. And the pursuit is gaining traction. “We will be revealing details (about the space programme) in due course, but just know that we are working on a satellite project,” Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira told The Sunday Mail.

The country, he added, is already paying a lot to other nations for satellite technology.

But the money that will be used for the planned programme “is a tiny fraction of what we are spending annually”, he said.

Government recently entered into an agreement with the ministry responsible for higher and tertiary education in Russia, which runs a Russian space agency called Roscosmos.

High-level discussions with the space agency have been held.

Visits to space agencies like Thales Alenia Space from Europe have also been undertaken.

Further, there are active discussions with a yet unnamed Japanese institution to manufacture a wholly ZINGSA-owned satellite. An agreement has not been finalised yet. Government will this week call for applications for full scholarships for students willing to take up satellite engineering.

Growing trend

If it successfully pursues the envisaged project, Zimbabwe will join nearly a dozen other African countries that are launching satellites for research, security and economic reasons.

Nigeria currently uses satellite technology for tracking Boko Haram terrorists, while South Africa monitors its weather through the same technology.

Other African countries already in space include Rwanda, Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Angola and Egypt.

Interestingly, Ghana’s satellite — GhanaSat-1 — was developed by students at a university in Koforidua in Ghana with support from the Japanese Space Agency at a cost of US$500 000. In all these countries, space technology has brought faster and affordable internet services, modern weather forecasting and improved disaster management, including millions of dollars in savings, too.

These are the same capabilities the country is angling for.

Cost savings

Critics accuse Government of investing in a vanity project that it can ill-afford, especially considering the current economic challenges.

Experts, however, say satellite technology can materially improve livelihoods of ordinary Zimbabweans.

Broadcasting signals, they argue, could reach some areas not covered by current broadcast transmission signals, helping bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas.

It is believed that the millions in foreign currency being spent on leasing satellite transmission capabilities from foreign agencies could also be saved.

The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) pays US$1,2 million to lease satellite signal transmission, without which Zimbabwe could plunge into a broadcast black hole.

BAZ chief executive officer Mr Obert Muganyura said putting a satellite into orbit could be a boon for local broadcasting, as US$1,2 million is being spent a year in leasing costs.

“When you are broadcasting from the studio facilities, you need to get the signal to the transmission network, and those transmitters are distributed across the country. So there are two ways of distributing the signal from the studio to the transmission network,” said Mr Muganyura.

“You can either have optical fibre connectivity on each of those transmitter sites, which has been a challenge for us because the majority of our transmitter sites do not have optical fibre connectivity.

“The second option is to distribute the signal via satellite. In other words, the signal is beamed to satellite and then distributed to the transmitter site,” he said.

Similarly, local telecommunication companies pay millions to transmit signals.

The companies and their customers stand to benefit through lower and reasonable tariffs.

Added advantages include forecasting weather patterns, monitoring border areas, exploring minerals and wildlife tracking, among others.

But not all these capabilities can be derived from a single satellite without the cost running into billions of US dollars.

Pitfalls

For National University of Science and Technology (NUST) geophysicist and space scientist Mr Constant Chuma the space programme can unlock a lot of benefits.

He, however, noted there was need to make use of data currently available from satellites already in orbit.

“Satellites come with a lot of benefits in areas as diverse as agriculture, security, research, communications and wildlife conservation,” he said.

“We have a lot of satellites in space with information that is relevant to Zimbabwe which we can use . . .

“The thing with satellites is that they are very expensive and they may malfunction soon after launch, which means we can no longer use it.”

Angola’s US$300 million communications satellite, AngoSat-1 — developed with the assistance of Russia — malfunctioned less than four months after being sent into orbit.

The Russian developer, RSC Energia, committed to build a replacement at no additional cost.