- The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) says Nigeria can now help other countries track their missing planes
- NASRDA reveals that this would be done using locally designed nano satellites which have been launched
- It reveals how the nano satellite works
Using locally designed nano satellites, Nigeria may have shot itself into the space community of the world as the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) says the country could help other nations locate missing planes.
According to a report by Vanguard, the agency claims that the newly launched nano satellite, being the first in Sub-Saharan Africa, has the capacity to locate and track every aircraft within and outside Nigerian airspace.
It was reportedly designed and built by Nigerian engineers and scientists and launched from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, USA to the International space station and released from the Jasack Module into the appropriate orbit.
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The head of the agency, Prof Mohammed Seidu, said: “I am happy to be part of a country that launched a nano satellite with modern tracking technologies of the airspace. Since launch, we have been orbiting and are in touch with our ground receiving station.
“The beauty of it is that the ground receiving station was also locally designed and built by our engineers, which means, the coding is known by us and through that, we are able to do a number of things with it.”
He revealed that the ground station of the satellite was built locally in Nigeria and was established in Florida through the base.
“With the Nano satellite, every aircraft within a particular location above us is located, through a special antenna which serves as base station.
“From the aircraft position, we navigate all the airspace via this antenna, while the ground station also gives accurate data of every air traffic to the control systems.
“That is why it helps us to keep a surveillance of every aircraft that flies above the airspace. Seidu said if the satellite was around when the Malaysian plane was reported missing, it wouldn’t have taken time before Nigeria located it for them.
“Like the Malaysian aircraft that got missing, with this system now, we can keep tabs on every aircraft that flies to every location around the world. If it flew within Nigeria, we know the time, the date it flew and it is very cost effective. It can also give you the speed, distance, height, the type of aircraft and then the route it is heading to.
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“From the cockpit of the aircraft, we were able to make a triangular quadrant of how planes navigate. With the satellite, all the aircraft within our airspace can be seen real time.
"Through this system, we have records of all the aircraft that previously flew over Nigeria, including the day, time and date they did,” Seidu said adding that the agency was already working with the federal aviation administration to get mandate to change the conventional radar system at the airports.
NAIJ.com earlier reported that Nigeria was set to launch Africa’s first nano-satellite into orbit according to Prof Seidu Mohammed.
A nano-satellite is an artificial satellite with a wet mass between one and 10 kg 2.2–22 lb which is used for measuring weather changes.
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Source: Naija.ng