Why Kenyans should invest in space exploration

BRIGADIER HILLARY KIPKOSGEY, the Director General and CEO of Kenya Space Agency tells SILAS NYAMWEYA how the Taifa-1 satellite was developed, the value of space explorations, and what one needs to be a space engineer.

Briefly tell us about KSA and its major achievements so far.The Kenya Space Agency is a state corporation under the Ministry of Defence. It was established in March 2017 with the mandate to promote, coordinate and regulate space-related activities in Kenya. Whereas it is under the Ministry of Defence, the Agency is mostly concerned with peaceful uses of outer space and therefore the bulk of its functions and activities are civilian in nature and for national socioeconomic development.

Outer Space is still a relatively new field in Kenya; it is a rather complex and possibly abstract concept to many Kenyans, especially the common mwananchi. There is low awareness, low acknowledgment of its importance, low utilization, and also low investment. The main role of the Kenya Space Agency is therefore to promote and nurture the growth of the space sector in the country.

The achievements can be categorized into these two broad lines of effort as well as the mandate to enhance the utilization of space services; work with the Food Authority to develop capacity on the use of earth observation imagery and online scripting tools to characterize fields under different crops for crop condition monitoring and crop yield estimation. We did pilot projects on Sugar cane growing in South Nyanza and Kwale; and work with the Kenya Forestry Service to develop capacity on the use of earth observation imagery and online scripting tools to carry out monitoring and characterization of tree type and forest cover in the Ngong, Aberdare, and Kibiko forests.It has also established a geoportal for sharing decision-support and other mapping products for use by our stakeholders in land and physical planning, natural resources management, agriculture, and environment as well as county governments.

In addition, it works closely with over 12 public universities through the provision of research grants in the promotion of research and development activities in space systems engineering and the development of applications for harnessing processing, and analytics of space-derived data for decision support and to provide solutions, monitoring mechanism and early warning.

Further, it supports startups in the space sector through research grants in the development of applications. it also partners with Kenya Innovation Agency (KeNIA) in supporting startups in the space sector through sponsorship of space challenge activities aimed at fostering innovation and incubation.The agency is working with regional and international partners on a number of projects, including the AfDevSat Project, aimed at building a 6U earth observation satellite for climate change and environmental monitoring in the region under the mantra "built for Africa by Africans". The satellite is expected to go into orbit in the last quarter of 2024. Participating nations include Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and Sudan, and the ClimCam Project, aimed at developing a Climate Camera to be docked on the International Space Station (ISS) through the Airbus Defence and Space Bartolomeo Module in the ISS.

How does space exploration help Kenya generally and what value do we derive from it?For a developing country such as Kenya, space science and technology provide many practical benefits which include enhanced monitoring and management of natural resources and the environment e.g. forestry, water resources, wildlife habitats, marine ecosystems, oil, natural gas, and mineral exploration, and mining; improved detection and response to natural hazards and disasters by enhanced monitoring, early warning and directing response measures; and providing improved weather forecasting, climate change mitigation, and adaptation services.

Others are enhanced security surveillance, monitoring and responding to internal security operations; supporting agriculture, food security, and access to clean water; promoting access to healthcare services through telemedicine by leveraging the use of space technology to take health services to remote parts of the country.KSA also supports access to information via education that utilizes space technology for distance learning, especially in remote parts of the country; supports land use, surveying, mapping, and urban planning; utility mapping; provides improved communications, navigation, positioning, and timing used in the aviation and maritime sectors, as well as locating objects on the surface of the earth; enhances digital footprint across the country for access to internet and facilitation of education and health services in remote locations; and creates job opportunities and providing revenue in support of the socio-economic development

Tell us about the Taifa-1 Satellite and the experience of the launch."Taifa-1 Sat" was fully conceptualized and designed by a team of Kenyan engineers. The manufacturing of parts, testing, and qualification was done in collaboration with EnduroSat AD, a Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer.

"Taifa-1 Sat" is Kenya's first operational Earth observation satellite designed to acquire and deliver panchromatic and multispectral images of Kenya's territory. It is the first of what is intended to be a constellation of small Earth observation satellites, with subsequent systems expected to be of higher capability. This project is aimed at realizing the following objectives capacity building on space systems engineering, space operations, data processing, and analytics, as well as ground receiver station services and operations; technology demonstrator on what capabilities or flexibilities we can realize with our own/sovereign earth observation asset; and spurring interest in investing in the development and deploying of more capable systems by Government and private sector.