The Centre for Satellite Technology Development (CSTD) yesterday urged the Federal Government to consider investing into a dual purpose satellite that could concurrently address developmental challenges.
Director of CSTD, Prof. Spencer Onuh, made the recommendation in an interview with The Tide source in Abuja, while suggesting possible means of addressing insecurity.
CSTD, an activity centre of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), has the mandate to design, manufacture indigenous satellites for the country for socio-economic development of the nation.
According to Onuh, the dual purpose satellite will collect data both as Earth Observation and Communication satellites on real time happenings.
An Earth Observation Satellite is a satellite designed for earth observation from orbit, while a Communication satellite is an artificial satellite that creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth.
Onuh explained that issues of insecurity were every sectors’ problem and NASRDA in the past had provided valuable data and trained security agencies on using the data to enhance their operations.
He said although discussions on the dual purpose satellite were already on but the government needed to seriously put it into consideration.
“We can use our satellites to monitor issues of insecurity, observe location where something is happening.
“For this to be easily done there needs to be a link between your earth observation satellite with communication satellite to be able to get real life situation data from the satellites.
“Most advanced countries’ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles used in monitoring environment are all armed with real life situations to disclose what is happening at a location in real time and it helps to rescue people or attack enemies.
“In having a real time situation data on our satellites, there has to be a link or we need a dual purpose satellite.
“We have actually proposed a dual stage satellite which has the civilian and military aspect while the control is different,’’ he said.
According to the director, the military will control their own while the civilians do same and get their data for different purposes, while both can be linked.
“We hope this will appeal to the government,’’ he said.
He said that there were discussions around the dual purpose satellite toward the end of 2020 but the resolutions of the meeting had yet to be passed to the various ministries involved.
The director mentioned that the negotiation laid in Ministries of Science and Technology, Defense, Commerce and Industry, and Environment before presentation to the Federal Executive Council.
Onuh said, “ once approval is given, we are ready for a dual stage satellite.’’
The director, however, decried that the present satellites the country owned could not perform such dual purposes because that functionality was not factored in from the design stage of the satellite.
“The linkage has to be from the design stage which we never did, we are growing and we are learning more,’’ he said.