South Africa has the instruments, the facilities and the capital and will soon be adding the final component – human resources – to its space-science programme. Eight universities and four national facilities have formed a consortium, the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP), to skill the next generation of astrophysicists and space scientists.

Members of NASSP are the universities of Cape Town, Natal, Free State, Zululand and the North West, Potchefstroom University, Rhodes and the University of South Africa as well as the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, Hermanus Magnetic Observatory and iThembaLABS.

They have joined forces to present honours and masters programmes in astrophysics and space science that will enable students from Africa and the rest of the world to gain internationally-recognised postgraduate degrees under the tuition and mentorship of South Africa’s leading scientists.

Following a bidding process, the University of Cape Town was chosen to host the NASSP under programme coordinator Prof Peter Dunsby.

At the launch last month, Department of Science and Technology (DST) director-general Dr Rob Adam said space-science has been identified as a strategic niche for South Africa. “Our southern skies, our astronomy community and our experienced engineers are a resource which has made South Africa a high-profile astronomy destination,” he said.

There is a significant amount of money being invested in astronomy and South Africa is attracting a healthy portion of this investment.

One example is the Southern African Large Telescope (Salt), the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, which is being constructed with funds from its partners from around the globe.

The DST is also tendering to site a huge international radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in South Africa.

Through the NASSP South Africa will have the opportunity to contribute scientists to realise the objectives of Salt and other space science projects.

Dunsby said South Africa needs to produce 75 to 100 PhDs in the next decade to sustain and maintain South Africa’s community of space scientists.

This year 16 students have enrolled for the honours course and seven for the masters course, including Janus Brink, a member of the Salt engineering team, who has set his sights on becoming an astronomer.

Entrance to the programmes is a BSc or a BSc Honours degree in physics, applied mathematics, mathematics, astronomy or engineering.

“The honours programme will cover most areas of astrophysics and cosmology and we are also hoping to introduce satellite technology,” said Dunsby.

In addition to lecture courses, honours students will take a practical component involving field trips to some of Southern Africa’s space-science research facilities. These include the South African Astronomical Observatory site at Sutherland, where Salt is being built, the radio telescope facility at Hartebeesthoek and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (Hess) in Namibia.

The important thing about the masters programme is that it is not attached to the University of Cape Town,” said Dunsby.

Students will spend the first semester at UCT completing coursework that will consist of modules taught by distinguished South African researchers, flown in from research institutions participating in NASSP.

After six months, students will work on a research topic under the supervision of scientists from one of the institutions participating in NASSP and will be registered for an MSc at that institution.

The Boyden Observatory, for example, is part of the University of the Free State; Potchefstroom University is a partner in Hess; Rhodes University and Potchefstroom University specialise in radio astronomy, while UCT’s strengths lie in optical astronomy.

Students could also be cosupervised by scientists from national facilities, such as the SAAO and the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astromony Observatory.

Students graduating from these programmes will be equipped to conduct research at the cutting edge of astrophysics and space-science and have the broad science skills needed in any modern technological society.

Graduates are expected to be sought-after in fields of aerospace, financial services and telecommunications, while others will use Salt to explore the universe.

“Although some of the NASSP graduates might go abroad, we hope that they will retain the strong links that they will forge with the facilities in South Africa,” said Dunsby.

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