Three African space agencies win opportunity to place imager on International Space Station

26th October 2021

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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A combined project of three African space agencies has been selected by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and Airbus Defence and Space as the winner of their joint opportunity for a free 12-month science mission based on the International Space Station (ISS). The project is designated ClimCam and was jointly developed by the Egyptian Space Agency, the Kenyan Space Agency and the Uganda National Space Programme (which falls under that country’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation).

ClimCam will be flown on the ISS on Airbus’ Bartolomeo external payload hosting platform, and will serve to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It will be a remote sensing camera system, which will monitor the impact of climate change, including floods, and weather on especially East Africa. Bartolomeo is an unpressurised platform attached to the outside of the ISS’ European Columbus Module, and which hosts various scientific, engineering and technological payloads of quite widely varying sizes.

A joint team of interdisciplinary researchers from the three space agencies will develop the camera and analyse the imagery it will provide. In so doing, they will also showcase African space technological developments and inspire fellow African scientists and engineers. The ClimCam project will apply an ‘open data’ policy, sharing imagery and data to help direct measures to mitigate the effects of climate change across the whole region.

“[C]limate change is having a growing impact on Africa, especially in the most vulnerable hardest [sic], and contributing to food insecurity, and stress on water resources in East Africa as well,” affirmed Egyptian Space Agency team leader and ClimCam project coordinator Ayman Ahmed. “Having an imaging system at [the] ISS allows us to monitor and see that effect in our home countries. We do realise the challenge of developing such a device to operate on board the ISS with very critical and challenging design constraints. The competition was very hard, but being awarded this opportunity is just the beginning for our team to learn more and acquire great experience in the field of space technology and its application.”

“Together with Airbus, and thanks to the ingenuity of the brilliant selected researchers, we are making it possible for this module made in Africa to fly onboard the ISS,” highlighted UNOOSA director Simonetta Di Pippo. “This project will acquire precious insights for the East African region to address pressing challenges such as droughts and floods and increase the resilience of its agricultural sector, potentially saving many lives and helping to build a better future. It will also be an important inspiration for talent in Africa to join the space sector. We are extremely proud to have played a role in making this happen, and we look forward to seeing the project take flight.”

“Of course, we are offering them our Bartolomeo All-in-One Space Mission Service, meaning that our own experienced space experts will take care of all aspects of this space mission – preparatory formalities, payload launch and installation, operations and data transfer,” explained Airbus Defence and Space space exploration head Andreas Hammer. “This way, the team can fully concentrate on the development and exploitation of their environmental monitoring payload, without having to worry about anything else. This is one of the fundamental benefits of the Bartolomeo service – we make access to space easier than ever before.”

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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