BARELY 48 hours after the launch of Nigeria’s two satellites, there are fears that the ground station in Abuja does not have the facilities to receive images from NigeriaSat-X.The station is reportedly equipped only to receive images from NigeriaSat-2 for which it was built. Officials of the National Space Research and Development Council (NARSDA) have however denied this, insisting that the ground station had as at press time witnessed six passes of the two satellites. Two other passes were expected to have been recorded by the end of the day.
A ministry source told The Guardian that only the ground station at Surrey Space Technology Limited, United Kingdom (UK) has the facilities to receive images from NigeriaSat-X and monitor its operations, a situation that is seen as dangerous for Nigeria.
The source said: “NARSDA and Surrey are not telling Nigerians the truth. No facility was provided for the monitoring of the satellite built by Nigerian engineers. The ground receiving station installed at NARSDA can only receive signals from NigeriaSat-2. No provision was made for Sat-X. The ground station was not built for it. Surrey (the company with which Nigeria signed an agreement) deliberately built the satellite so that only it can receive signals from UK. Technically, this means that Nigeria is not in control of that particular satellite.
“The UK own was used as back up yesterday. Nigeria cannot control and monitor the satellite.”
On what could be done to correct the situation, the source said: “Nothing can be done. Nigeria can only take charge of it if a ground station is built in Abuja specifically for NigeriaSat-X, which might require re-launching the satellite. This is nearly impossibility. Nigeria may have to contend with allowing Surrey to continue to control the satellite from their base in London and be ready to receive secondary information from there.”
But Head of Media and Corporate Affairs at NARSDA, Felix Alle, denied that the facilities at NASRDA were not built to also receive images from NigeriaSat-X.
His words: “Our facilities can receive images and monitor the operations of NigeriaSat-X. The engineers are currently doing telemetry, a process that involves sharing software with the satellites. The satellites are currently receiving all the software that we are sending to them.”
British satellite specialists, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), signed a contract with NARSDA in 2006 for the supply of the NigeriaSat-2 Earth observation satellite, related ground infrastructure and a training programme to further develop an indigenous space capability in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
SOURCE: Nigerian Guardian Newspaper 19 August 2011. http://ngrguardiannews.com
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