The ground has been officially broken to mark the formal start of the construction of the South African National Space Agency’s (Sansa’s) new R70.89-million Regional Space Weather Centre at Hermanus, in the Western Cape. The new centre falls under the Sansa Space Science programme, which is also based at Hermanus.

Space weather can have important earthly effects. Space weather refers to conditions on the Sun, the solar wind (a constant outflow of particles and plasma from the Sun), magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-based and ground-based technology systems. The main space weather phenomena are solar flares (large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation that can last from minutes to hours), solar energetic particles (protons, electrons and helium ions) and coronal mass ejections (CMEs – large expulsions of both plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona).

Solar flares can disrupt high-frequency (HF) radio communications and satellite communications. They take eight minutes to reach Earth. Solar energetic particles can reach Earth in 15 minutes to a few hours, depending on their severity. With these, ionising radiation penetrates the atmosphere, satellites can be damaged and HF communications are disrupted. They are dangerous for astronauts. CMEs take one to four days to reach Earth. Most do not come towards Earth. Those that do are called geo-effective and affect HF communications and satellite navigation systems, increase the drag on satellites (causing orbital decay) and generate auroras. CMEs also create geomagnetically induced currents, which affect electrical power systems, oil pipelines and even undersea cables. Such effects can have direct, as well as indirect, impacts on people’s lives. Consequently, space weather needs to be monitored, and that need is growing.

Sansa is a member of the International Space Environment Service, and its space science facility in Hermanus acts as the Regional Warning Centre for Space Weather in Africa. However, this centre, set up in 2010 and upgraded in 2018, is really a limited focus research and development centre. It has been focused on space weather impacts on HF communications and is not able to operate on a 24/7 basis. The new space weather centre will provide a full and 24/7 service.

The building of the new centre is set to start next month and construction, equipping and commissioning will take three years. The Department of Science and Innovation has already allocated R40-million to the project and will provide the other R30-million during the next financial year. Of the total, R15-million will be dedicated to human capital development, including skills development and job creation. The centre is scheduled to be fully operational on a 24/7 basis from October 1, 2022.

Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande assured that the new centre would “further grow the science, engineering, technology and innovation sector, offering opportunities to develop scarce skills and increase national research output, while ensuring that usable products and services are generated for the safety of the nation and Africa at large”. “This is the first of many steps towards our aspirational plans to expand the South African space programme for the benefit of humanity,” stressed Sansa CEO Dr Val Munsamy.

“The new Space Weather Centre will be a state-of-the-art building that we can all be proud of and the Sansa Hermanus campus will become something akin to a ‘space park’ – the importance will not only be in what the building symbolises, it will be in the value proposition for the nation and the continent that we have created by developing a national capability in critical skills, a service that accrues domain-specific and public-good benefits, positioning South Africa amongst global experts offering solutions to this global challenge of space weather, and a motivational driver for young South Africans that are our future space scientists,” affirmed Sansa Space Science MD Dr Lee-Anne McKinnell.

Sansa Space Science is one of four divisions that fall under Sansa’s head office. Each of these divisions executes its own specialist programme. The other three divisions are, in alphabetical order, Sansa Earth Observation, Sansa Space Engineering, and Sansa Space Operations. Head office, Sansa Earth Observation and Sansa Space Engineering are based in Pretoria, in Gauteng, while Sansa Space Operations is at Hartebeesthoek, west of Pretoria, and also in Gauteng.