When American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in 1969 and called it “one giant leap for mankind”, who knew we would talk about inhabiting Mars half a century later?  South African Adriana Marais, a theoretical physicist and member of the Quantum Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is one of 100 short-listed as part of the Mars One project, to set foot on Mars in 2025. She hopes to be a part of a permanent human settlement on the planet; man’s first step to becoming a multi-planetary species.
<ol>
<li>
<h4>What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘outer space’?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
I think of my ancestors, French Huguenots, who traveled for months by ship under perilous conditions to arrive as peasant farmers at the new Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. I think of the first Europeans who settled in northern America. I think of the first African explorers who ventured north on foot and discovered Europe. This is what we have always done as humans, we observe, we dream, and we realize those dreams through our innate urge to explore and our ability to shape our environment to our purpose. Settling on Mars and extending our transportation systems to outer space will be unique only in that the distance is further than ever before. Quite a bit further.
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h4>If you were reborn, what would you choose to be?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
As a child, I read a lot and dreamed of being an Egyptian queen, a Greek philosopher or a Viking warrior. However, I am now utterly convinced that we are witnessing a most unique era in the four billion years that life has been evolving on Earth. Unprecedented developments in science and technology have brought the expansion of our imaginations and our world further than ever before within reach… And I would not choose to be reborn as anyone or anything other than myself!
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h4>What is the most beautiful thing you have seen?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
I feel grateful that my volunteering to establish the first human settlement on Mars has made me appreciate the beauty in everything I see around me, even more than before. The ‘busy-ness’ of Earth is unique and beautiful, the only planet we know of teeming with life, full of all the people we love who mean so much to us, all the animals we share our habitat with, all the plants with which we have been living side-by-side with for so many eras… the smell of the air through the changing seasons, the feeling of the wind, sea and sun on skin, the feeling of the ground beneath bare feet.
<ol start="4">
<li>
<h4>If women were allowed to run half the companies and countries in the world, what change would there be?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
A range of studies show that team diversity is often correlated with better performance. The gravity and extent of the global challenges we face today will only be solved through the collaborative efforts of all human inhabitants of this planet.
<ol start="5">
<li>
<h4>What is your most valuable possession?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
I place extreme value in a good night’s sleep! There will be strict weight limitations for early settlers on Mars. I am prepared to leave all of my material possessions behind. All I will take is information: the electronically-stored pixels, musical notes and words that constitute all of my books, music, photos, movies, writing, emails and letters; my bits of memories of Earth.
<ol start="6">
<li>
<h4>If you had 10 minutes to change the world, what would you do?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
I think the days of our current economic model are numbered, but I don’t think hacking into and destroying all financial systems, even if it could be done in 10 minutes, would be the solution. I don’t believe any meaningful and productive change can be made in 10 minutes. You would be lucky to see some meaningful change in your lifetime.
<ol start="7">
<li>
<h4>Success is…?</h4>
</li>
</ol>
I want the ideas I had to outlive the memory of me. If I can encourage people to be proudly human, to question and to dream, then my job here on Earth or beyond will be done.

Adriana-page

To Mars On A One-Way Ticket

Mandla Maseko struts with the cool of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. It is appropriate as the DJ is the first black African heading into space. He describes himself as a township boy reaching for the stars. Soon he will be walking in the footsteps of Mark Shuttleworth, the South African millionaire who became the first African in space in 2002. For years, Maseko dreamed of the skies but thought it was merely that.
The former civil engineering student dropped out of university because he was broke.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3707" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_1531-683x1024-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
“We grew up in the township, we were not taught to dream big. We just wanted to be the norm.You never wanted to be a president or an astronaut, it was a far-fetched dream,” he says.
In 2013, the Global Axe Apollo Space Academy competition created a new trajectory for Maseko’s dreams. No one in Maseko’s family has set foot outside of South Africa but the 25-year-old is preparing to rocket into space.
Maseko is one of 23 civilians to win a seat on the space mission for an hour-long sub-orbital trip of 100 kilometers on the Lynx Mark II spaceship.
“We might orbit the Earth or we might just go to the International Space Station, you never know,” he says.
Whether its space or the skies, Maseko is taking wing. Maseko acquired his private pilot license last year and began training with the South African Air Force this year.
“I want to acquire my commercial pilot’s license and fly all over the world,” he says.
“The initial plan is to show ordinary people that they can go into space. That’s my mission. I’m a typical township boy from Soshanguve and Mabopane who is going to space,” he says.
Maseko has found the balance between space, the skies and his passion for music.
“Music is my passion and it’s a family business. My dad and I do it together. It would be nice to bring something new to the industry and DJ in a spacesuit.”
Training for the space journey was challenging but Maseko floated through it. A zero gravity flight was his favorite.
“Seeing your body pick up off the ground and just float like it has no weight stood out the most,” he says.
Maseko spends his free time imagining what space is like.
“You see pictures but actually getting to that point where I look outside my window and see this big white and blue marble called Earth,” he says.
His life has taken a complete turn. For the DJ on his way to space, Maseko’s most memorable moment may surprise you.
“I think what stood out the most was making it on to Beyoncé’s website. It was Black History Month and I was part of the people making black history,” he says.
Maseko hopes his humble beginnings and lofty ambition will inspire.
“The kids in the township have lost sight of what life has to offer. It’s killing their dreams,” he says. He started a CSI company called ‘Skies Aren’t the Limit’ so he could tell his story to schools.
“I think one of the key things around South Africa is to inspire and motivate kids and tell them that they can reach their dreams,” he says. He is living proof.
Probably next year, the date has yet to be fixed, Maseko’s dreams will come true. The flight is an hour long. Six minutes to get to space. 20 minutes to get to zero gravity. Maseko will go through a gruelling training programme of six to eight weeks. From Mabopane to the Milky Way, you couldn’t have made it up.

from africa To The Stars

It’s a story that has stuck on Bradley Porter like a tattoo. When you are in the business of renting office space, not being able to pay rent as the leaser can be quite ironic.
Born in the Free State province in South Africa, and growing up in the coastal city of Durban, Porter’s future in entrepreneurship was inevitable having had a father who had a tiling business.
“It’s almost an affliction you are born with and I can’t really help it. I had a burning desire to have control of my own fate and destiny. And whatever it takes, you have to fulfil that desire and passion,” says Porter.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3356" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Boardroom1-3-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />
He grew up at the height of apartheid, attending the University of Durban-Westville which at the time was one of the political institutions in the country. When he didn’t succeed in university, he joined the army and from there decided to go live in Britain for nearly 10 years.
It was during this time as an employee that he realized he couldn’t work for someone else for the rest of his life. He packed his bags, returned to Durban, and with the little money he had saved he started two businesses. Along the way, one of his friends, who had purchased space in a building, suggested Porter hire 200 square meters for his ‘Experience This’ business on Florida Road in Durban, a hub of activity for tourists and locals.
“I said ‘I don’t need all that space. I don’t’ need 200 square meters’… but I said ‘if you are prepared to try start this business with me, I’ll take the 200 square meters and we will experiment with this business’ which became known as Flexible Workspaces,” remembers Porter.
In October 2005, Porter founded Flexible Workspaces after spending eight years in the serviced office industry of Britain. The company provides fully serviced offices in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province and Johannesburg. It was founded as a solution to the ever-changing business environment and to offer alternative options to the business community.
The business caters for small businesses that are starting out. Finding the right office space can be daunting especially when your budget is limited and you working with a small team.
Porter and his friend set up offices. They started with just furniture, the phone system that was already supplied and around $10,500 to get the business going.
“We were so undercapitalized it was unbelievable and we didn’t have any spare cash. To start off your business these days, realistically for 1,000 square meters, you would need at least R4 million ($350,000). For 200 square meters, you would need around R1 million to R2 million ($87,000 to $175,000),” he says.
Two years later, Porter says they decided to open up their next offices in Umhlanga, around 17 kilometers from Durban, even though the first offices on Florida Road were not flourishing.
“The reason we opened in Umhlanga was because of the trend at the time. This was around 2007, the trend was very much up north, outside Durban. We needed to be able to provide a presence in Umhlanga, which is becoming the commercial hub for KwaZulu Natal or Durban anyway,” says Porter.
But this move ushered in his worst day.
“I think every entrepreneur will have one and for me personally it’s so real it’s like a tattoo on the back of my brain. I can relate to it now. I get goosebumps when I think about it because it’s just so real still,” says the 44-year-old.
He calls it Black Friday. It was September 7, 2007 and they had just expanded Flexible Workspaces and the rent was due. Porter was abroad on holiday but had to come back to South Africa to solve numerous problems, the main one being that they hadn’t paid R73,000 ($6,360) in rent for the 500-square-meter Umhlanga offices.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-3358 aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/reception1-3-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />
Unfortunately for them, with a business renting out space to other small business, Flexible Workspaces didn’t have any bringing in money so that they could pay rent. Porter sat in one of the offices looking at the Gateway shopping Centre with one hand on his head and the other holding the telephone to his ear. He was calling the landlord, apologizing for the late rent and begging for some leniency.
“The business model worked in such a way that we take a risk, we’re a bit like a hotel but for businesses. So we’ll go into a space, we do a deal with the landlord, we take a risk on all the capital expenditure. We fit it out, we staff it, we supply the internet, tea and coffee. Everything gets supplied. These services all have to be supplied on day one. And on day one you usually don’t’ have any clients. Unless you’ve been clever about it and been more strategic,” he says.
“But usually, particularly for us, the day one meant no clients. So by the time we got to day 30, we might have had one or two clients but it wasn’t enough to cover our rent and the overheads we had.”
After spending 15 minutes, which felt like years, on the phone with the landlord, she agreed to give them an extension for a few days to come up with the rent money.
Fortunately, they made it happen. It wasn’t more than a week when the business signed a deal with a data storage company, who remain his clients today. But they had to hobble through paying rent for the following months.
“We went through a three-year recovery period and then in about 2011 we started looking at space in Sandton. And that went really well. We took a small portion of 600 square meters and we filled it very fast. And about a year later, we recovered sufficiently to double the space to 1,200 square meters in Sandton. And we are looking for more now,” he says.
“With the benefit of hindsight I should have started this business in Johannesburg. I think it would have been much more successful by now.”
Flexible Workspaces caters to those who want an office space instead of working from home. Porter says serviced offices reduce the costs and hassles of renting space and combines the best features of a low-cost office in a prime location.
“Our objective was to build a network of business centers, so we were never going to stop at Durban or Umhlanga,” he says.
Since then, the business has 15 employees and turns over around $1.3 million a year.
In October 2013, Flexible Workspaces opened its third serviced offices next to the swanky Montecasino precinct, outside Johannesburg. Porter says that he hopes to open more offices along the continent’s only fast train, the Gautrain, from Johannesburg’s city center all the way through to the country’s capital, Pretoria.
“We want to expand the business nationally and cross borders. I’d like to have a national footprint in five years, international I can’t tell you. We are growing this business organically, so we are using our own money, it’s all self-invested. The pace at which we can grow is limited to the amount of money we make.”

My Worst Day: Bradley Porter

Hester Maria Mende has just arrived in Scotland after a marathon three-month holiday crossing continents, cultures and time zones. She is yet to discard the boarding passes she has collected – from Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Auckland – on this recent trip. Yet, call this retired 67-year-old former South African IT developer and opera singer a globetrotter, and she is not satisfied.
For Mende, the world is just not enough.
Late December, Mende was basking on a sunny beach in Thailand when she received news of her clearing the first round of interviews for a one-way trip to Mars in 2025. Now one of 1,058 chosen candidates (from a total of 200,000 applicants from around the world), she will be in the final two rounds that will determine man’s foray on Mars soil.
She harbors no doubts she will make it.
“I believe myself to be the perfect candidate because the people in my age group and my circumstances are the ideal cannon fodder,” says Mende.
“I absolutely want to go. To be a part of that first step will be the ideal way of ending my life. We die anyway, so dying in the midst of this exhilarating endeavor will be fantastic for me.”
Early last year, Mende had spent R300 ($27) in all to apply for the mission after succumbing to an online recruitment notice. She had read that Mars One, a not-for-profit foundation, was seeking to establish human life on the red planet. Probe her further and the real reason emerges. Retirement. And the death of a loved one.
“I lost my husband [in an armed robbery attack in Johannesburg] seven years ago, I have no children and although I have five siblings, I realized that post-retirement, you really need to find a support system of your own. I have led a full life. Nobody depends on me, nobody’s life will stop when I am gone.”
Mende confesses she withdrew from the world for several years after her husband’s demise. Signing up to be a part of the Mars mission added a new purpose to her life – and death.
Mende brushes off any negative speculation about the possibility of humans on Mars with the conviction in her voice. “There is a lot not known. Things can also wrong along the way, but I am sure there will at least be one settlement there for scientific purposes,” she says.
At the moment, Mende is preparing for the next round of interviews. While the first tested her mental strength, the next two will determine her physical agility to withstand the rigorous eight-year training that will ensue. If selected, she will be one of only 24 to 40 candidates training in teams of four. The team with the greatest chance of survival will be the first to undertake the seven-month journey – without a return ticket – to Mars.
If Mende is one of them, she will be 78 at the time.
Mende, who ended her career implementing IT projects for Eskom in Johannesburg, says she has always tread off the beaten track. A classical singer, she has also sung on national radio, TV, and performed at operas across South Africa.
Singing is something she will miss on the red planet, as the atmosphere is not conducive for sound. And what if she does not qualify?
“I hope with every fiber in my body that I will. I am trying not to be fixated, but I believe my sense of humor will get me up there.”
&nbsp;
A total of 1,058 global candidates have cleared the first round of Mars One’s mission to the red planet of which 586 are male and 472 are female. In this group, 54 are from Africa, with more men (42) from the continent than women. On the Mars One website, the project’s co-founder Bas Lansdorp describes the 1,058 candidates as the first tangible glimpse into what the new human settlement will look like. “We anticipate our candidates to become celebrities in their towns, cities, and in many cases, countries. It’s about to get very interesting,” he says. FORBES WOMAN AFRICA connected with some of the future female astronauts who are from or have origins in Africa.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6153" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-054-055-Mars-RM-007-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
Alexandra Doyle, 28
Law student, South Africa
Specializing in international law and criminology, Doyle worked full-time as a dental nurse in order to support herself through college, also at times dabbling in acting and modeling. “I know in my heart I am right for the Mars mission and have this funny feeling that everything I have done in life until now has been in preparation for it,” she says. Least expecting to be chosen, Doyle says she was overcome with shock when she first heard of her selection. “I am looking forward to proving myself in the next rounds. The ultimate dream of sustaining human life on another planet is my dream too. And I think that a life spent in the pursuit of a dream is better than any other, whatever the outcome.” And what would she take with her if she were chosen? “My sense of adventure, and a hot water bottle!”
Adriana Marais, 30
Research student, South Africa
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6148" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-054-055-Mars-RM-008-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" />
Completing her PhD in the University of KwaZulu-Natal, her abiding interest is astrophysics. “Research in the field of quantum biology contributes to the development of renewable energy technologies essential for our continued existence on this planet, and perhaps others,” she says. Having decided as a child that she wanted to be an astronaut, she became fascinated with quantum mechanics, and the eternal question about life. “In my opinion, if life can exist on earth, it must also exist or have existed elsewhere. I will be prepared to sacrifice my joys, sorrows and day-to-day life for this idea, this adventure, this achievement, that would not be my own, but of all humanity.” She is keen to know more about her fellow Martians, and thinks they will be some of the most interesting people on earth. “The first Martians will need to be multi-talented and quick-learning. What sets me apart is my dream of being part of the discovery of evidence of extra-terrestrial life: a goal which becomes a more realistic when Mars is my backyard,” she says.
&nbsp;
Kristy Flower, 20
Nursing student, Zimbabwe
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-6151" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-054-055-OFFTRACK-Mars-RM-001-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
A first year nursing degree student, Flower has adventure in her genes. Her family has moved to New Zealand, and the rest have ventured from Zimbabwe to Australia and England. “My parents and grandparents are incredibly strong-willed. Both my grandparents served in the Rhodesian war and in World War II when my grandmother worked as a registered nurse.” Flower’s keenness on the Mars mission is to be at the forefront of knowledge and exploration. “I want to be able to contribute not only to my community but also to mankind and leave a mark on future discoveries that will benefit us all. This is an amazing opportunity to make a difference and I will do anything to ensure I am the best candidate and most capable person for the job,” she says.
Maggie Wernich, 51
Personal assistant, South Africa
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-6149" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-054-055-Mars-RM-009-271x300.jpg" alt="" width="271" height="300" />
A divorcee with two children, ages 20 and 25, Wernich says her family structure is one of support and respect for another’s dreams, and that she has always harbored the wish to travel to space. When she first saw the Mars One website 10 months ago it was a dream come true. “We need to realize orthodox structures and outdated belief systems have no place in the future of our children and the continuation of a healthy environment on earth,” she says. “It is every individual’s right to decide how and where they choose to live their lives.” The reason she chose to be a part of the Mars experiment was to explore different ways to live. “This opportunity will be a breakthrough for women, especially in Africa. It is my belief that older people needn’t retire to await death in a facility or system that is socially acceptable. It will be an honor to spend the remainder of my life as a colonist on Mars, to plant the seeds of life for my children’s children.”
Esther Kabuchi Kanyiri, 42 Dentist/pharmacist, Kenya
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6152" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-054-055-Mars-RM-004-243x300.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="300" />
Kanyiri is a mother to two teenaged children, and yet, has chosen to go to Mars. Her reason? “To explore the outside world and better the human race. I like being a pioneer and believe I have skills and the knowledge necessary for this process. The selection process requires individuals with different talents who are able to live away from family and in seclusion and maintain sanity. The individual will also need to be able to make decisions individually and trust the decisions made by others for them. I believe I have demonstrated this in my life as I have lived away from family and friends and still focused on my goals. I like spontaneity and embarking on missions most people think are impossible. I have an open mind and am ready to learn, even for survival,” she says.

‘Mars Will Be  The Ideal Way Of  Ending My Life’

Overnight, Mandla Maseko went from an unknown DJ from a township to a media sensation making history as the first black African to go to space. Even he’s surprised.
“I remember years back, I think a year or two, I Googled myself and only found one picture on the third page of results. Now, when I Google myself, I’m on the first page,” says Maseko.
Maseko grew up in Mabopane, in the Soshanguve township, north of Pretoria. As a young boy, he enjoyed space films like Armageddon and Apollo 13. But the idea of one day becoming an astronaut was unimaginable. He dreamt of being a lawyer or a policeman.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-2656" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/DSC73245-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“We were not brought up to think that we could be bigger than big. But I always knew that I was destined for greater things.”
After high school, Maseko studied civil engineering at university but dropped out because of financial difficulties. He then had a line of temporary jobs including a dead-end sales job where he earned R10 ($1) an hour.
“I said to them, ‘Guys this is how much I spend a day and this is how much I’m getting a day. So if you look at it, I’m not really earning anything’… Then I quit.”
While at home, lounging on the couch and listening to the radio, the unemployed Maseko heard about the opportunity of a lifetime. Axe Apollo Space Academy was giving 23 people a free trip to space. Step one in the process was to send a picture of yourself jumping off from anywhere. Maseko sent an image of himself jumping off a wall at his house. He originally wanted to jump off the roof, but his mother did not like that idea.
The picture secured a call from the judges, who asked why the 25 year old wanted to go to space.
“I want to defy the laws of gravity. And possibly go down in history as the first black South African in space.”
Maseko, along with 29 other contestants, made it to the next round of the competition which was held in Parys, a town in the Free State province of South Africa. The contestants were faced with a number of challenges, including the infamous vomit comet.
“You stand up against the wall, the walls start spinning and then the floor disappears. So you’re standing on the edge, being pushed by the G-force up against the wall. The challenge was to push yourself up against the G-force and pick up five flags beneath your feet and put them above your head, one by one.”
The second challenge involved skydiving 10,000 feet above the ground then dropping sandbags on targets while plummeting. The final six contestants were put into an air combat jet that spun and flipped around.
“They wanted to see if you were going to vomit or pass out. Immediately after getting off, we had to write a test… I was fine. I’m a typical township boy. We don’t vomit in such challenges,” says Maseko with a chuckle.
The last leg of the competition was held at the Global Space Camp in Orlando, Florida in the Unites States. Maseko was one of three South Africans representing his country. He felt like a tiny star in the galaxy when he found out that there were 109 contestants representing 75 countries, all fighting for the same dream.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2654" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IXX5206-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
The week’s tasks included G-force, an obstacle course, target shooting, a zipline, air combat flight and zero gravity flight.
“We were divided into groups and we had to construct a rocket. My group wasn’t successful but we had team spirit… Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, was looking for three qualities: bravery, enthusiasm and teamwork.”
That night they had a graduation ceremony where all 109 contestants received a certificate of completion. Then, the big announcement that changed 23 lives forever.
“They called the first guy and I was at the back taking pictures, thinking to myself that they will call a South Africa way later, like the 10th or the 11th person. To my surprise, after calling the first guy they call my name. I was holding an iPad taking pictures, thinking, ‘Wow, really! God is now showing off.’”
The victory was bittersweet. Three hours prior to the announcement, the news of Nelson Mandela’s passing had made world headlines. He was one of Maseko’s childhood heroes.
“It felt like Mandela was like ‘I’ve run the race and I’ve completed the course, now here’s the torch Mandla. Go as a young South African and fire up the youth. Run this course and take it to new heights.’ And in my case take it to space.”
Across the world, media was abuzz as countries celebrated their new space champions. Maseko and the organizers decided to keep the good news a secret for two weeks while the nation mourned their hero.
“He broke new ground as the first black president of South Africa and I wanted my name to resonate in the same light as his. In years to come, they’ll ask who the first black president was and they will say Mandela and they will ask who the first black South African in space was and my name will come. Even if I become a quarter of what he was, it’ll be fine.”
Weeks later, South Africans would hear the news of Maseko and everyone wanted a piece of him. He was noticed on the streets, his picture was splashed across the front pages of newspapers and he became a regular on radio. For Maseko, his big moment came when he was invited to President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address and was even mentioned in the speech.
Although the mission into space is in late 2015, Maseko often dreams of his first moments in space.
“I see myself at the moment where we are sub-orbiting and I see the huge blue and white round ball that is called Earth. If I get to make a call, I will call the president. I’ll sing his song ‘Umshini wami’ (a Zulu struggle song). It won’t be a dull moment,” he says.
After space, Maseko wants to study towards becoming an astronaut. He wants to give back to South Africa and continue to inspire youth to reach for their dreams. But ultimately he wants to fly back to the United States and go on another mission into space where he dreams of placing the South African flag on the moon.
A dream too far? I don’t think so, after all he’s already going to space.

One Small Step For A DJ  One Giant Leap For Africa

Despite the overcast skies, Surrey Research Park closely resembles a small-scale version of the landscaped Californian campuses it emulates; undone only by its proximity to the looped roundabouts and grey concrete blocks of Guildford, a south London town ringed by industrial parks and close-packed, low-rise houses.
It seems an unlikely home for Nigeria’s space program but it is here, at Surrey Satellite Technologies Limited (SSTL), that the West African nation’s three Earth Observation (EO) satellites were designed and built.
NigeriaSat-1, Nigeria’s first EO spacecraft, was launched in September 2003 from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome, but like its two successors, NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X, it was built in Surrey.
The Nigerian space agency, based in Abuja, operates the three satellites principally for environmental and agricultural monitoring, but the data also has a role in security, monitoring the country’s empty spaces, through which vital infrastructure, such as pipelines, are at risk from thieves and insurgents.
Other African countries are set to follow suit. Simon Crouch, who heads SSTL’s Africa team, said the company is talking to around half of the continent’s governments with the hopes to provide them with its innovative low cost satellites.
“I think a lot of African governments have recognized that the Earth Observation satellite is a very useful tool for them to expand their mapping knowledge of their countries. It enables them to measure their forestation, or more accurately their deforestation. They can very quickly gauge when the forests are decreasing. Another application may be for crop monitoring and to optimize the use of fertilizers,” says Crouch.
A tender document for another Sub-Saharan country outlines the intended use of a desired satellite. It includes the monitoring of vegetation and soil conditions; control of desertification; the detection of illegal livestock routes and crop disease; taking headcounts of cattle; giving early warnings of drought and flood conditions; monitoring border areas and assisting in the response to natural and man-made disasters.
The usefulness of the satellites is undoubted, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where large geographical distances and a lack of institutional capacity hinder the monitoring of forests and rural areas. Similarly, the ability to judge the effectiveness of agricultural extension or irrigation initiatives and direct resources accordingly is of huge value to countries with scarce reserves of cash or fertilizer. The issue historically has been cost, which, due to the changes to the economics of the space industry, is rapidly decreasing.
In a 10 meter high clean room in SSTL’s Kepler Building, engineers assemble orders for the Kazakhstani government and the European Space Agency. Spun out of the nearby University of Surrey, the company has been building satellites for 25 years, and is a pioneer in lowering the price of the technology by using off-the-shelf components. Its expertise in adapting existing systems has allowed it to offer developing countries an opportunity to build their own space programs.
“When I spoke to one African country, they said ‘Is that all? That’s about the same cost as a military helicopter’. I can put forward a very powerful case that an EO satellite is more useful than a military helicopter,” says Crouch.
While Crouch won’t state how much SSTL charges for its basic satellite, the number is considerably lower than the industry standard. The cost of launching the devices has reduced significantly too. Africa has, for decades, suffered from the proliferation of military hardware from the former Soviet Union, but the end of the Cold War and the nuclear disarmament treaties have created a surplus of vehicles capable of achieving orbit: the Dnepr, once an intercontinental ballistic missile, is now a cost-effective way of getting satellites into space.
“Over the last five to ten years the cost of the launch has come down significantly for the sort of satellites we’re talking about,” says Crouch.
Typically, the launch makes up around half of the cost of a program, but the company has driven down the price by using commercially available technology.
“We will use processors on our spacecraft that are used in laptops. That sort of technology has proven itself in rugged environments. We test that technology again and then decide if it’s good enough to be used in space. In using a microprocessor that might have been used in a laptop in the last few years, and has been proven, we can cut down the development cost of that processor from millions right down to hundreds of pounds,” says Crouch.
One experimental satellite being developed uses the chip from a Google Nexus mobile phone—a sign of how mass-produced technology can be converted for use in space. These innovations have brought the cost of a satellite from hundreds of millions of dollars to tens and within reach of developing countries’ governments.
Earth Observation satellites are the simplest of the commonly deployed technology. Flying at an altitude of 700 km and relatively low in weight, they are an ideal entry point for early steps in space. SSTL aims to move into the more complex, and potentially more lucrative, navigation and communications markets, which require larger vehicles and greater orbits, at 24,000 km and 37,000 km, respectively.
The private sector has been buying and launching communications satellites targeting African markets. The massive growth of cellphone networks in Africa has meant not only a scramble to build fiber optic cables along the coastlines, but also to create satellite communications capacity to support the inevitable move to broadband internet.
David Williams—who began financing satellite technology for emerging markets in the banking sector in the 1990s—launched his second satellite as CEO of Avanti Communications in August. HYLAS-2 will cover parts of the Middle East as well as Eastern and Southern Africa, covering clients including mass market internet service providers, financial services companies amongst others. The economics of satellite communications in Africa are relatively simple, according to Williams, as the huge distances and infrastructure gaps mean that building cable into the continent’s hinterlands is unviable.
“The fiber in Kenya hits Mombasa, but how do you get the services from Mombasa to every home and business in Kenya? To put it in perspective, the UK—which is a highly densely populated island and I financed some of the early iterations of cable in the UK in the 1990s—the financing and building of cable infrastructure to the home began in the UK in the late ’80s. So some 25 years later, still less than 50 percent of UK homes have cable, and in the process, the cable companies went bankrupt twice,” says Williams.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, satellite might be the more economic option—not that it is cheap.
“It’s a bit like a mining operation. You spend a few years prospecting and getting a license to operate, and then you spend a few hundred million pounds building it, and then when it’s turned on it starts producing cash,” says Williams.
To make that money back is not too hard a prospect, he added.
“If I had about half a million broadband customers I would fill all of my capacity in Africa. So the question is, can I find half a million broadband customers in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana? I think the answer is a pretty simple: yes&#8230; So we’ve got capacity that’s big enough to generate well in excess of a couple of hundred million dollars of revenue per annum, and yet the capacity available is a small drop in the ocean by comparison with the demand that Africa is producing.”
So confident is Williams of the value of African markets that the company has bought another satellite, HYLAS-3, which will service West Africa.
When it comes to government-funded programs, however, it is not always easy to convince the world that the cost is worth it. George Ayittey, the Ghanaian economist, tweeted recently: “Nigeria can’t feed itself and spends some $120 billion on food imports but built the $89 million Obasanjo Space Center. What happened to it?”—a common viewpoint amongst external observers.
The assumption that any African space program must be a costly white elephant owes much to the legacy of Mobutu Sese Seko, whose wasteful initiatives in the then Zaire saw hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars thrown into a futile and ego-driven attempt to build an indigenous agency. That spectre will haunt Africa for some time yet, and it was hardly dispelled when the most recent call for a coordinated pan-African space agency came from the Sudanese president, Omar Al-Bashir, in September.
However, what Bashir was referencing was a real proposal circulating within the African Union (AU) for the creation of AfriSpace, a framework of cooperation for peaceful space programs.
“Since many decades, space technologies are not only real tools of policy development for many countries but also provide commercial opportunity and strategic advantages for a tiny minority of countries controlling them,” the AU proposal document said.
“Indeed, outside of military applications where they derive part of their continuing evolution, space technologies are supporting the development of many sectors of human activity. The area[s] of communications and information technology, broadcasting, are among the known beneficiaries of space applications.”
The proposal acknowledges the investment required for space research, and suggests that a combined African approach would overcome the cost barriers and create large enough markets to make projects commercially viable.
The response to individual projects seems likely to remain cynical, although there is some support from development experts. Calestous Juma, a Kenyan professor in development at Harvard’s Belfer Center, co-authored a paper with Peter Waswa, an aeronautical engineer, outlining the developmental benefits of a space program for Kenya. They outlined how the country could use space technology not only to meet the domestic challenges through monitoring, as Nigeria has done, but to prompt a resurgence in scientific education and capacity building and ultimately become a manufacturer of its own space technology.
“India had this debate. The cost argument is a myth. Space science, not to be confused with space exploration and travel, is a critical aspect of modern development and pursued in incremental steps. It is less expensive than not having it,” says Juma.
India and Brazil both used domestic space programs to support their own development objectives and ultimately developed high technology industries on the back of their investments.
“My view on this is to take an incremental approach which starts with creating a legal and policy environment for space science,” says Juma.
“The next step would be to partner with countries that already have the capacity. Even if you can afford it, there is a learning curve that will involve working with other countries. What I think won’t work is where countries or regions see this as prestige projects and want to focus on launching their own satellites. In fact, if the AU goes this route the best it can do is create another layer of bureaucracy over existing programs.”
Space programs have always been an expression of nations’ self-confidence, at times to the detriment of practicality, but today’s programs are not easily dismissed as white elephants, according to Crouch.
“I’m absolutely sure we’ve jumped that hurdle, because you see so many African satellites being funded, and the data from so many African satellites being used,” he says.
That data has been used internationally.
“When Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans, the Americans wanted an image of New Orleans 24 hours after the hurricane struck. The only satellite in the area that provided that sort of data was NigeriaSat-1. So you had an example of a high tech nation asking Nigeria if they could provide some imagery. That is an example of how useful satellite data can be. If it’s useful to the Americans, it’s useful to the Nigerians,” says Crouch.
Of the three, NigeriaSat-X is perhaps the greatest testament to the country’s potential. Originally built as a training model for Nigerian engineers being trained on SSTL’s facilities, it ended up being launched.
“It quickly became obvious that the engineers working on the project were quite capable of producing a flight model. ays. “So it jumped the hurdle of being just a training model to becoming a flight model. They did a fantastic job of adding extra systems like the propulsion and the solar panels, and it’s flying now.”

Tag: Space

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

To Mars On A One-Way Ticket

from africa To The Stars

My Worst Day: Bradley Porter

‘Mars Will Be The Ideal Way Of Ending My Life’

One Small Step For A DJ One Giant Leap For Africa

3…2…1… Another African Satellite