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Ghana joins space industry – launches Space Science and Technology center
Ghana officially opened its Space Science and Technology Center (SSTC) Wednesday in a bid to harness the potentials of science and technology for accelerated socio- economic development.
President John Atta Mills, in his keynote message, said the bold initiative was not only to take Ghana into the elite club of countries taking advantage of the benefits of space science and technology but also to focus on exploiting them for the benefit of humans.
“The expectation is that new jobs will be created as new materials and minerals are researched into products, goods and services that would lead to the creation of whole new industries such as those related to the field of semiconductors and electronic engineering,” Mr Mills said.
Ghana in 1963 established the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) to implement the Ghana Nuclear Reactor Project (GNRP) dreamed up in 1961 as the foundation for the introduction of nuclear science and technology.
The establishment of GAEC, which now hosts the SSTC, was aimed at exploiting the peaceful applications of nuclear energy for national development.
This decision to join the space industry was consummated when Ghana joined the consortium of 11 African countries, with South Africa as a leader, for a US$ 2 billion space square kilometre arrays (SKA) radio telescope, considered to be the largest in the world.
Mr Mills said, as an oil country, “Ghana should be equipped to monitor activities in the management and security of the oil industry, with space providing quick and guaranteed communication links for that purpose.”
He said new areas such as nanotechnology and harnessing solar and wind energy for development would also be pursued.
Ghana will also like to use space science and technology in adopting more scientific approaches to the management of natural resources such as forests, land and mineral resources more efficiently.
It will also serve in risk assessment, mitigation and preparedness for disaster management in all natural phenomena.
The technology is expected to help the country in environmental management through observation with some home-grown satellites and technologies for climate change mitigation, health and safety, navigation, communications, meteorological monitoring and early warning, defense and national security.
A renowned Ghanaian physicist and mathematician, Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey, who formulated the technique used to determine matter in outer space, said the long-term goal was for Ghana to develop its own space science and technology facilities to be able to access and exploit them.
He believed that the initiative would go a long way to revolutionize several aspects of the nation’s development, including education, security, communication, science and technology, road construction and maintenance, transport, industry, agriculture and health.
Source: The Africa Review