Pop!Tech Notes: Robert Boroffice of the Nigeria Space Agency

Robert Boroffice, head of the NASRDA, the Nigerian space agency. (Yup.)

Several jokes are made about the unlikelihood of Nigeria having a space agency. He then makes a 419 scam joke. There are lots of environmental problems in Nigeria. They hope to use space technology to help stimulate the economy to address lots of other issues.

Gully erosion, desertification, deforestation, land pollution, forest fires, fire, water pollution, degradation.

In 2003 they launched NigeriaSat-1 [pictured], a low-earth orbit satellite. In 2007, NigComSat-1. NigeraSat-2 to be launched in 2009. NigeriaSat-1 medium-resolution satellite cost them $13 million. He estimates it would have cost $300 million. (More details on NigeraSat-1's capabilities. It was launched by Russia, not Nigeria. It is part of an international disaster warning constellation.)

Nigeria intends to use their satellites for a variety of purposes, including communications and infrastructure planning, disaster response, drought forecasting, etc. NigComSat-1 will be used for tele-medicine and tele-education. They have a bus-based mobile clinic with satellite communications from hospitals that they will be moving from village to village. There is also a boathouse hospital with the same dishes for use on the rivers.

(Much of the things that Nigeria is doing with these satellites could be done with others countries' satellites, but that's not the point. These are Nigeria's for Nigeria. In the Q&A, he mentioned that renting time from LandSat might take 3 months to get their response; they can do their own sensing in real-time.)

(Many of the people in the room I'm in that are more familiar with satellites seriously questioned the need for these satellites, intimating they are more political statement than anything else.)

Image: Gunter's Space Page

[#1 posted by jmmcdermott , October 19, 2007 2:40 PM]

Oh, it's a political statement? (which would make it like Sputnik from the USSR, the continued presence of the International Space Station, and Neil Armstrong's flag-planting on the moon, and... etc. etc.)

Space progress is always a political statement, isn't it?

[#2 posted by MB , October 20, 2007 2:30 PM]

You know, if it actually provided jobs and training for Nigerians, I can think of a lot worse boondoggles . . .

[#3 posted by Anonymous , October 20, 2007 7:21 PM]

"He estimates it would have cost $300 million."

If?

[#4 posted by schmod , October 21, 2007 7:00 AM]

$13 million USD seems pretty cheap, considering what it's giving them.

I'd say that it's money well spent.

[#5 posted by Simon Greenwood , October 22, 2007 2:53 AM]

My favourite ever 419 scam was for the Nigerian astronaut who went to the ISS a few years ago. You were invited to send the traditional $5,000 and your bank information to help him access his enormous salary. Obviously the scammers didn't know *that* much about astronaut pay.

[#6 posted by Ash , October 22, 2007 12:37 PM]

"He estimates it would have cost $300 million."

If?
More than?