South African space agency mulls future course in rapidly changing sector

Space science and technology are developing ever more rapidly. And this has consequences for South Africa and especially the South African National Space Agency (Sansa). “We’re living in exciting times, in terms of space,” highlighted the founder-CEO of Sansa, Dr Sandile Malinga. “There are many opportunities; the technology is advancing very rapidly in all aspects – launch systems, satellites and satellite constellations, and space probes. So much is moving so fast that it requires us, as a country, to step back and ask: What are we doing? What should we be doing? Is our strategy still current? Is there a chance for us to rethink what we’re doing?”

“We need to understand the reason why the agency was created – [which was] to coordinate and consolidate the country’s space activities,” he points out. “Our country has a rich heritage in space, both on the astronomy side and space ground station work, originally for Nasa (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration), as well as a very rich history in space science – the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory is older than 75 years. Sansa was established to consolidate this. We have done very well. We have incorporated the [Council for Scientific and Industrial Research] Satellite Applications Centre and the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory and created a new structure, brought different ethos together and we have managed to deliver on our mandate.”

Malinga was appointed caretaker CEO on January 1, 2010, before Sansa was officially launched in December 2010 – he came from the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (which he had joined in October 2007), which became Sansa’s Space Science directorate. He was confirmed as CEO with effect from April 1, 2011, and stood down from the post at the end of last month. His tenure thus lasted six years and eight months. “My focus has really been to establish an agency and lay the foundations,” he explained. “We’ve had clean audits over the last three financial years. The agency is established. The foundational stage is over. A new stage is needed – a stage of growth to really develop our mandate. Our board agrees that it is time to change gear.” (Sansa is now headed by acting CEO Potlaki Maine.)

SANSA TODAY
Sansa today is composed of a corporate office, in Pretoria, and four operational programmes. These are Space Operations, at Hartebeesthoek, west of Pretoria, Earth Observation (originally at Hartebeesthoek but now in Pretoria), Space Science (at Hermanus) and Space Engineering. The total staff complement is about 180, with some 40 at the corporate office, another 40 or so at Earth Observation, and about 50 each at Space Operations and Space Science. The agency’s total annual income is about R300-million (it fluctuates), of which R60-million to R90-million comes from selling space services and R125-million from the funding grant from Parliament, excluding ringfenced funding for the development of the country’s next satellite.

Sansa Space Operations is one of two directorates to emerge from the former Satellite Applications Centre (the other being Sansa Earth Observation). It provides support for satellite launches and space missions beyond earth’s orbit. The services it provides are launch support, in-orbit testing, tracking, telemetry and command, space navigation and mission control. Originally set up by Nasa, its has supported some of the most important space missions ever undertaken, including a number of the manned Apollo moon-landing missions. “During my tenure it has supported many very prominent missions, such as the Curiosity rover mission to Mars, Nasa’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which measures carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere from orbit, the Chandrayaan lunar mission by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and others, plus many launches of communication and navigation satellites,” noted Malinga.

“The Earth Observation directorate, which didn’t exist before as a separate unit is now fully established and very successful,” he reported. “It collects, processes and analyses satellite data used for societal benefits.” Satellite imagery and other data are the most up-to-date source of accurate information about what is happening in the earth’s atmosphere (most obviously, weather) and on its surface. It has become essential for urban planning, agricultural planning and management, infrastructure design and construction, ecosystem management and disaster analysis and management.

The Space Science directorate is mainly focused on the phenomena of space weather and space physics. Space weather refers to conditions on the sun, or in its atmosphere, or the intensity of the solar wind (the constant stream of subatomic particles emitted by the sun) or solar flares (incredibly powerful bursts of solar radiation) or coronal mass ejections (also incredibly powerful, these are explosions which hurl solar matter into space), which affect human technology in space and on the earth and could affect human health. Such phenomena can, for example, disrupt communications, satellite navigation systems, electricity transmission grids and ground-based electronic systems.

“In terms of Space Science, we’ve continued with very illustrious work in Antarctica, at the Sanae (South African National Antarctic Expedition) base, using the new Agulhas II ship, which has done very well for us,” he said. “We have deployed a new high-frequency (HF) radar in Antarctica, as part of the SuperDARN mission.” The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, to give its full title, is an international project comprising more than 30 low-power HF radars around the world, which provide information on the space environment around the earth by observing the motion of charged particles in the ionosphere; this provides important data on space weather. “We have established a very successful space weather centre at Hermanus and we have also published a lot of high-impact research papers and lots of PhDs have been produced.”

Then there is the Space Engineering directorate. This is focused on the design and development of systems and subsystems to be launched into space and operated there. It is currently focused on the development of South Africa’s next earth observation satellite, including the refurbishment of the country’s ground-based satellite assembly, integration and test infrastructure.

SATELLITE & SPACE INDUSTRY
“We are working with Denel Dynamics SpaceTeq on developing the new satellite for our country,” stated Malinga. “The work has not gone as fast as we desired, but we are making progress. We have acquired some long-lead items for it including the optics. The design has progressed and we hope to have the critical design review next year. The launch date has slipped, but we are working hard to develop the satellite to inspire the nation, restore the country’s satellite building capability and develop our industry.”
The satellite is currently designated EOSat-1, for Earth Observation Satellite-1. When launched it would become South Africa’s third satellite, after the SunSat microsatellite and the larger Sumbandila, both of which carried imagers for earth observation. But EOSat-1 is the first satellite being developed under the aegis of Sansa. The satellite is being designed to meet the needs of South African users, including government departments, science councils and universities. Key missions that have been identified include disaster management, environmental monitoring and food security (crop management).

The project has ensured that the 50 or so former employees of the now-liquidated Stellenbosch company, SunSpace, whose assets and staff were taken over by Denel to form SpaceTeq, have been kept employed and active. Sansa and SpaceTeq are working to rebuild skills and rehabilitate mothballed satellite test facilities at Houwteq, near the town of Grabouw, in the Western Cape province. This has proven to be more difficult than expected, increasing costs and creating delays in the programme.

Sansa also wants to involve other South African companies, including those in the private sector, in the satellite project. “We’ve been trying to ensure subcontracting of some of the work to local industry,” he assured. “There are a number of space companies in South Africa, including Space Commercial Services, NewSpace Systems, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s African Space Innovation Centre, G6 Technology and CubeSpace. There are also a number of other companies with skills relevant to the build programme in the fields of electronics and mechanics. We hope to stimulate the ecosystem of our space industry.”

Once the satellite is built, launched and in operation, Sansa plans to also work with companies in the wide area of satellite services – or, in other words, the application of the data (including images) collected by the satellite. “We hope to have such relationships in place before the satellite is launched. We want to develop both the space industry and the satellite applications industry in South Africa as Sansa goes forward.”

SANSA TOMORROW
Around the world, the space sector is witnessing impressive, even dramatic, developments, technologically and commercially. “We see nonspace companies getting involved in space – for example, Google,” highlighted Malinga. “These are private companies planning large satellite constellations to support their terrestrial operations. Google wants to image any point on the earth twice a day. As an agency, using the Airbus Defence & Space SPOT satellite family, we are producing an image mosaic of South Africa twice a year! While this is a huge improvement on what we could achieve when Sansa was established, the rapid advancement in space calls for a more innovative approach.

Google’s data distribution capability is enormous. To perform competitively at that level, we need to change our game as Sansa and as a country”.

Google is not alone in its space ambitions. A key consequence is that the manufacture of satellites is moving away from effectively manual assembly to something approaching a production line system. South Africa is currently very far from being able to do that.

Launch systems, the traditional cost constraint on accessing space – because launch rockets are expensive and can only be used once – are also on the verge of major breakthroughs. In the US, the focus is on developing reusable rockets. The now-retired Space Shuttle was a reusable manned spacecraft whose launch also required the use of expendable booster rockets. The US Air Force’s X-37B is a reusable unmanned spacecraft, launched by expendable rockets. The development of reusable rockets in America is being spearheaded by two private-sector companies, Blue Origin and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX).

Blue Origin (set up by amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos) had, by June 19, successfully flown and landed its New Shepard suborbital technology demonstrator rocket four times. It is powered by the BE-3 liquid rocket engine, developed in-house by the company. SpaceX (better known to South Africans because it was established by Elon Musk, who lived for some years in South Africa) is focused on a reusable version of its successful Falcon 9 first stage orbital launch rocket, designated the F9R. So far, the company has achieved six successful landings of the F9R – two on land and four on a barge moored at sea.

But, in the UK, an even more radical project is under way. A company called Reaction Engines (since last November, 20%-owned by BAE Systems) is developing what it calls the synergetic air-breathing rocket engine – or Sabre, for short. Conventional liquid-fuel rockets use a fuel, mixed with liquid oxygen. At lower altitudes, the Sabre will get its oxygen by sucking in air and only switching to liquid oxygen at high altitudes, bringing very considerable weight and cost savings. It will make space planes – winged spacecraft taking off from runways, flying into space, delivering their payload and returning to earth to land back on the runway like conventional aircraft – entirely practical. And, unlike the New Shepard and F9R, it would not need refurbishment after every flight.

In a world of production line satellites, how does South Africa compete in the global market? With reusable rockets and the even more advanced Sabre engine already here or at an advanced stage of development, is there any sense in the country trying to (as some, outside Sansa, desire) re-establish a local launch capability that would, by the time it came to fruition, be using obsolete and commercially uncompetitive technology? “Where will South Africa’s niche be?” queried Malinga. “Where should we be playing? As producers of systems or subsystems?”

And what should Sansa’s future role be? This is currently under consideration. “Our board is working on a development plan for Sansa,” he highlighted. “What do we want it to achieve in the next five years . . . the next ten years? That is the kind of thinking taking place within the board. They are looking at the business model of Sansa: how should it be structured? We’ve been looking at various agencies around the world. At one extreme, you have regulatory and coordinating bodies – the UK Space Agency is a good example – and, at the other extreme, you have full capability space agencies, like Nasa. What should Sansa be? How should it be positioned? Deciding this will take Sansa a notch upward and allow it to achieve more.”