South Africa’s new low earth orbiting satellite — to be launched into space from a submarine in Russia this December — has been named SumbandilaSAT.Sumbandila means ‘show the way” in Tshivenda.
Following a national competition, the name came from Beki Boneni, a grade 12 learner from Isilimela High School in Langa, Cape Town; Siyanda Ngidi, a grade nine learner from Brettonwood High in Durban; and Ofentse Khutwane, a grade seven learner from Laerskool Rachel de Beer in Pretoria.
The winning name came from among the more than 3 000 entries received in the national competition, which was launched by the department of science and technology and managed by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (Saasta).
The competition called on all learners from grade seven to 12 to become part of South Africa’s space programme by giving the micro satellite a truly African name.
The purpose of the competition was to create awareness of the microsatellite and give learners an opportunity to contribute to the space science and technology programme.
The winners each received a personal computer from Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena. As part of the prize, Ngidi and Khutwane visited the satellite construction site at Houwteq near Grabouw in the Western Cape and Boneni attended a space camp organised by the South African Astronomical Observatory during the September holidays.
What is SumbandilaSAT?
The satellite, which is still being built, is part of a multimillion-rand integrated national space programme.
Developed by the department of science and technology, the programme will provide South Africa with affordable access to space technology as well as useful data.
It will demonstrate that high-resolution remote sensing can be done with a satellite as small as this: its mass is approximately 80kg, it is about 1,8m long and it is rotating about 500km above the Earth.
The satellite will serve as a research tool to support, for example, the monitoring and managing of disasters (the extent of floods, oil spills, fires, et cetera). Satellites such as the French SPOT satellite were, for instance, used to capture the image of the fires that swept through the Cape peninsula earlier this year.
Satellite data via the internet already plays a vital role in agriculture and water resource management, particularly in South Africa’s arid conditions. They are also monitoring almost all aspects of the world’s climate system. This includes measuring the temperature of the sea and land, clouds and rainfall, winds, sea level, ice cover, vegetation cover and gases.
With major urbanisation taking place rapidly, cities seem to be growing fast in an uncontrolled way. By using satellite images, town planners can help prevent problems such as traffic congestion, illegal building and too few recreational sites.
Satellites are extremely important for various applications, including telecommunications and broadcasting. They also assist people in understanding the Earth to improve human health, safety and welfare; to protect the environment; to reduce disaster losses; and to achieve sustainable development.
DST, the University of Stellenbosch, SunSpace and Information Systems and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Satellite Application Centre have joined forces in this venture.
Information provided by Saasta