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50% of you think that the South African Government has the potential to make the biggest impact on reducing carbon emissions in South Africa; |
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8% opted for the technology sector; and |
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42% opted for private industry. |
Shuttle Discovery landed for the last time at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre on 9 March 2011. Discovery has completed 39 space voyages (its first being on 30 August 1984), has spent a total of 365 days in space and travelled more than 238 million kilometres during it’s lifetime.
A new space awareness programme is being developed to inspire South Africans about space science and technology, and get us all involved in the exciting adventures that await us.
SAASTA, together with the assistance of seven partners, recently took the North-West Province by storm creating awareness about space science and technology. From mid-February activities such as educator workshops, school visits and role-modeling campaigns have taken place at various centres in the province, building up to a space science open day on 5 March at the North-West University in Mmabatho, Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), and Potchefstroom.
A total of over 5 000 learners, from Potchefstroom, Mafikeng, Makapanstad, Rustenburg, Brits, Vryburg, and HartRAO, have been reached with this intensive Department of Science and Technology-funded programme. SAASTA’s Communications Unit managed this project with Anacletta Koloko, the newly appointed coordinator for space science and science platforms, at the helm.
The 2011 project in the North-West Province is part of SAASTA’s efforts to test the water for a Space Science and Technology Public Engagement Programme (SSTEP), which will take science to all South Africans. SAASTA will develop the programme in collaboration with all the stakeholders, including the newly launched South African National Space Agency, using experience gained through World Space Week activities in previous years to inform strategy.
The programme will focus on South Africa’s growing space industry, inspiring research and development in areas such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, as well as stimulating teaching and learning in these disciplines.
Did you know?
- Space science has applications in disaster management like flood and fire warnings, relief measures, and oil spills.
- Satellite imagery is indispensable for city infrastructure planning especially where rapid urban sprawl is occurring.
- Satellite imagery helps monitor agricultural areas and provides useful data for agricultural management, which can lead to improved food security for Africa.
- Satellite imagery helps manage problems with refugees by monitoring numbers, supplying data for relief operations and providing information on their environmental impact.
- Satellites imagery provides data on regions where mosquitoes hatch and pose a malaria risk.
- Satellite imagery helps explore for minerals, oil and natural gas.
- Satellites can identify foreign fishing trawlers in South Africa’s coastal waters, which is a valuable instrument to help preserve this natural resource.
- Satellite imagery is used to create a database of all the vertebrate fossil sites within the Beaufort group in South Africa for research purposes.
- Satellite imagery helped discover the Australopithecus sediba fossil.
- Satellite imagery is placed in school atlases to allow learners to view the Earth from a distant vantage point.
- Radio telescopes measure the movement of the Earth. Gauteng is moving north-east at 2,5cm per year – about the rate at which your fingernails grow.
- Global Positioning Systems (GPS) operations use satellites to show a scientist the exact position of something, at any instant.