THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY

Daily they can be found using computers, mobile phones and needing to travel to many places for business or pleasure. They watch satellite TV (DSTV) and often check the weather to identify what outfit to wear to the office or if the soccer match will be rained out. All this is done without much thought to how these gadgets and gizmos operate or if they will stop being there. The reality is that their technologies stem from the investment of Governments and organisations on space science, tech... nology and engineering. Should these contributions not exist, they would not have mobile phones, internet, GPS, DSTV, ATMs, meteorological forecasting and safe land, air or sea travel, to name a few services they utilise daily. All these rely on satellites positioned around the Earth. Their understanding of their planet through Earth observation is also significant to ensure they may better plan their infrastructure and housing developments, manage their natural resources, mitigate against natural disasters, manage agricultural concerns and even monitor spread of diseases or people across borders. Monitoring of the activity on the Sun is also critical as any severe solar flares directed toward Earth could result in us losing satellites, grounded naval and aircraft as well as poses a risk to their power grids and emergency rescue services. The loss of space-based capabilities would have an immediate impact on their daily lives; however backup systems do exist to enable continuation of critical functions and activities. The real problem emerges when the loss extends past a day or two, when backup systems are relied upon to perform all the functions currently provided by space assets. The long-term impacts of losing space capabilities could have a paralyzing effect on their daily lives. The South African National Space Agency was created to promote the use of space and cooperation in space-related activities while fostering research in space science, advancing scientific engineering through developing of their human capital and provide support to industrial development in space technologies.More