The Director-General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) Dr. Halilu Shaba on Friday, said that building satellites in constellations could address national problems and liberalise space technology in Nigeria.
Shaba, in an interview in Abuja, said they were putting every effort in place to educate citizens of space technology.
He said that lots of activities embarked on by people involved space science technology and they were ignorant of it.
The director-general said aside from launching major satellites like the Earth Observation and Communication satellites, there were Nano and Cube satellites that could address the nation’s problems.
He also said there were space spin-off areas that the country could leverage on to liberalise space technology.
“In 2022, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Proforce that specialises in armoured vehicles to drive the first private sector-driven satellite for the country.
“As we have a security situation, you can develop Cube and Nano-satellites, they are not big satellites that require so much money.
“You can put them in constellations, these constellations will solve the problems of Nigeria, they will be there until the problems of Nigeria are solved.
“Instead of saying we are building a Nigeria satellite, we are engaging with people who are having this programme, telling them that we can develop programmes that are just fit to purpose, we call it projects,” he said.
According to him, “the agency will develop projects where we will develop like five to six satellites in constellations and they come round where the problem is until you are able to solve that problem.”
He further said that all plans were made for a Space Economy Expo scheduled to hold later in the month to explore more ways to liberalise the sector.
Shaba also said the agency had initiated developing high impact cement with graphene, which was expected to go back to the public for enhanced development.
“We also have other spin-offs like Armour-Vest, we also have some security gadgets, Global Positioning System boots.
“All these are things that the public can have interest in and decide to take it further.
“Again in the area of broadcasting, we are thinking of re-launching our communication satellite so that people who are into broadcasting can take part,” he said.
