Category: Training Programmes

The SKA project brings a wave of hope, enthusiasm and scholarship to Africa. With South Africa spearheading the development of astronomy in Africa with the AVN in eight partner countries (Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius), the progress can best be described as worthwhile and successful.

Through South Africa and UK, a redundant 32- metre telecommunications dish has been converted to a functional radio telescope in Ghana, named the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory (GRAO). The radio telescope undertakes research in masers, pulsars, AGN sources among other research activities. Engineers from SARAO are working round the clock to complete the last upgrades to the telescope by the mid of 2022.

UK aid through the Royal Society and Newton fund’s Development of Africa through Radio Astronomy (DARA) programme has since 2015, educated many Africans in astronomy. The DARA project has spent about 4 million GBP to train the first generation of radio astronomers in the AVN countries. The project executed through a consortium of Universities and partners in the UK, EU, South Africa and other African countries.

The DARA project recruits  about ten Bachelors students in Physics and relevant sciences from the AVN countries for training in astronomy over a period of a year them through a period of a year.

Astronomy development in Ghana is progressing steadily despite the covid-19 pandemic. GRAO has become a training centre for the DARA practical training. Prior to covid-19, Instructors around the globe come to deliver the practical session of the course at GRAO and Hartebeestheok, South Africa for the countries in the southern part of Africa.

In achieving one of the milestone of the DARA project, astronomers from Ghana has taken up the challenge to deliver the practical session with the help of the virtual tutors. Most of the  content were developed by the virtual tutors while the local team who were beneficiaries of the DARA training deliver the course on-site. Students from six (6) African countries namely; Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique participated in the DARA practical training took place at GRAO at Kutunse, Accra Ghana in 2021. While at GRAO, the students had hands-on-training in telescope observations, data reduction, radio frequency interference (rfi) measurements, receiver  and sun temperature measurements. Table top radio telescope (ttrt) operation and optical telescope viewing were also part of the practical sessions.

GRAO also continue to host students and the general public for astronomy outreach and education.

Proven-Adzri Emmanuel
(Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory, Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute)

Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute holds a public lecture on ‘The Effects of Space Weather on Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as GPS and Remote Sensing Applications’.

Guest Speaker:

Prof. Wayne Scales,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA.

Location:

The lecture will take place at GAECGH School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences Conference Room.

Date & Time:

Tuesday 12th July 2022 at 10:00 AM

Join via Zoom:

Meeting ID: 898 3389 7766
Passcode: 013536

Joy News Live:

GAEC to host public lecture on sun’s effect on technology and human life

Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) and Viasat Inc. are announcing the launch of the first Real-Time Earth (RTE) facility in Africa. The partnership hopes to bring new space opportunities and jobs to the region. And expand Viasat’s ability to deliver critical earth observation and remote sensing data on-demand around the world.

Viasat’s RTE satellite ground station facility is co-located at the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory, Kuntunse. It includes a Viasat full-motion 7.3M S/X/Ka-band antenna and associated infrastructure. The antenna is currently ready to provide global satellite operators with the ability to perform Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) capabilities as well as rapidly download, stream and/or disseminate valuable satellite-based data in a timely and secure manner.

Viasat worked in partnership with the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), a government-based institution under Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), focused on coordinating all space, science, technology and related activities in Ghana. The new facility hopes to contribute to Africa’s Technology and Space Growth Initiatives. By promoting new space opportunities and local job creation through ongoing site management and maintenance. With this new station, Viasat’s RTE global network is now active in five continents.

Eric Aggrey, research scientist and project manager of Ghana Radio Astronomy Project, GSSTI said, “The development of Viasat’s new antenna site has been an extremely positive opportunity for the people and economy of Ghana. We have positively grown our presence in the global space and technology sector and look forward to expanding our relationship with Viasat to bring additional new space opportunities, technologies and skillsets to Africa.”

“We knew we wanted to grow the network to cover Western Africa, and it was clear right away GSSTI was the best partner for us. It is a very professional organization that brings years of experience and expertise in antenna systems.
We were evaluating several different locations in Ghana because it was an area that our customers identified as a gap in coverage — not just for RTE but for almost every ground-service provider.
The Ghana site provides equatorial coverage and fills that gap in coverage for satellite operators looking to downlink imagery in a timely manner in this critical region of the world.”

Aaron Hawkins, Viasat RTE business manager

Viasat RTE provides Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) capabilities in support of environmental, insurance, shipping, energy and government operations. It is a fully-managed, affordable ground network that supports next-generation and legacy geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites using the S-, X-, and Ka-bands, enabling operators to meet current and future data requirements.

“The new RTE ground station, located in Ghana, is part of Viasat’s strategic growth plan for a global RTE ground service network, with prior operations already located in North America, South America, Australia and Europe,” said John Williams, vice president, Real-Time Earth at Viasat. “By working in partnership with GSSTI, we have opened a state-of-the-art RTE facility, bringing jobs and economic growth to the region, while further differentiating Viasat’s service through our ability to provide satellite operators access to world-class antenna systems for high-speed RTE connectivity of payload data across a secure network.”

Ghana has continued in its quest to leapfrog the nation’s economy through emerging technologies and space science. Started on Monday, Ghana is hosting a week-long workshop on dish conversion for radio astronomy. The workshop is aimed at engaging stakeholders and the academia on mobilizing radio astronomy technology for sustainable development.

The Ghana Space Science Technology Institute (GSSTI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) kicked-off the workshop in Accra on Monday.

The workshop which is funded by the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF), a UK agency, is the first of the workshop series to be hosted in Ghana, Mexico, Thailand and the United Kingdom, with a focus on radio astronomy.

The workshop series would engage public and private sector stakeholders and experts to deepen awareness and share knowledge in radio antennae conversion, telescope controls and receiver systems among others, for sustainable development.

According to this report,”the workshop in Ghana would create the platform for participants who are from Africa, Latin America, and Asia, to share engineering expertise on the topic, learn more from Ghana’s Dish Conversion experience, and further build networks to facilitate the onward sharing of knowledge and information after the programme.”

The workshop featured keynote sessions from Prof Adomako, the Director of GSSTI, Prof Melvin Hoare, Chairman of the Science Organising Committee (SOC), Madam Patricia Appiagyei, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Benjamin J. Nyarko, the Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and other stakeholders from the ministries and international radio astronomy agencies.