Like other African nations involved in the race to send satellites into space with a view to changing and improving lives, Ghana is still imbued with a burning desire not to be left behind despite a minor setback.
By Daniel Allan Paintsil
What might explain this unexpected setback?
The reason can be deduced from events happening outside of Ghana and therefore beyond its control.
The Ghanaian government last year submitted its bid to host the proposed African Space Agency Centre.
Proposals from countries were invited in 2019 for consideration at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa where Ghana’s bid was rejected by the organisation because it did not meet the deadline for submission.
Ghana’s Science and Technology Minister, Professor Frimpong Boateng came under severe criticism following his ministry’s inability to meet the deadline for submission of the proposal.
Was it incompetence or sheer lack of serious interest by the government of Ghana?
Perhaps Ghanaians will never know the real story but what is known as of now is that perennial rivals Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia were the three countries shortlisted for the African Space Agency Centre.
However, Ghana’s space ambition has always earned a positive reputation for itself.
Through its GhanaSat-1, an artificial satellite developed through the private All Nations University College it became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to launch an educational satellite, into orbit on Friday 7 July 2017.
It was designed by three of its own young space engineers who managed to put Ghana on the international map of space activities.
They are Mr. Benjamin Bonsu (Project Manager) a PhD student in Applied Science for System Engineering, Mr. Joseph Quansah Neenyi Kojo-Krobo and Mr. Ernest Teye Matey of the All Nations University College (ANUC) in the capital of the Eastern Region, Koforidua.
The engineers employed a low and a high-resolution camera on board the satellite to take pictures from the coastal borders of Ghana while the satellite orbits 400km (248 miles) above the earth.
The data captured would be useful for coastal mapping to serve security purposes.
To this day they are made available to agencies and departments in Ghana who are dependent on it.
Since it was launched into space, GhanaSat-1 has become a tangible tool to set a pace for space technology by guiding young people in building human capacity.
Since then it has been the target to achieve the incorporation of this technology into the Ghana Senior High School curriculum.
This can be achieved through the joint work of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education as government is currently pursuing science and technology education.
The All Nations University that blazed the trail has already began taking steps to achieve GhanaSat-2.
The GhanaSat-2 is meant to achieve more practical missions to solve environmental issues in Ghana and her neighbours.
DAP/as/APA