GhanaSat-1
English | Bahasa Indonesia
Official Name : GhanaSat-1(Official)
Additional Name(s) : Bird GG(Bird-1 Mission from JAXA) / ANUSAT-1
Shape / Type : Cube / 1U CubeSat
Dimension: 10 cm x 10 cm X 10 cm
CosparID : 42821
Mass : 1 kg
Orbit Height / Period : 400 km above sea level / 92 min
Launching
Launched at JAXA Bird-1 mission, GhanaSat-1 was deployed in space in June 3rd, 2017; 07:28 UTC. It was deployed into orbit by Falcon 9 FT and CRS-11 by SpaceX from pad 39A in Kennedy Space Center and was launched into orbit in July 7th, 2017 from International Space Station, NASA.
The satellite was under construction by All Nations University in Ghana since late 2015. The people behind the project was a team of engineers which included Benjamin Bonsu, Ernest Teye Matey, and Joseph Quansah, and was supervised by Proffessor Mangu Cho, from Kyutech. The project was a joint collaboration from ANUC, Ghana and KIT(Kyoto Institute of Technology), Japan, together with three other countries such as Mongolia, Nigera, and Bangladesh.
Mission
Main mission of this satellite is to monitor Ghana’s coastline, yet it is available for another usages too, such as monitoring weather, broadcasting Ghana’s national anthem, research about radiation effect to the commercial microprocessors, build better space system technology for their country, and become the stimulus for the country to know and develop better space programs in the future.
Operators
As you can see in the picture besides, there is no additional part(like propeller or controller) mounted in the satellite. So, we can not control the satellite as we want. It just orbits around the earth in it’s orbit.
Although we cannot control the satellite, the data from the satellite will automatically sent to the ground-base control room that is located in All Nations University’s Space System and Technology Laboratory, in Ghana.
Recommendations
As one of the best institute in this country, it is not a bad thing to build a better understanding about space for Indonesian citizens. If Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh can make, develop, and launch their university satellite into orbit, why can’t Indonesia make it too? Let’s try to do it, and me personally, I don’t think that it is a bad thing since it will stimulate the country to know about space sciences and develop a better understanding about it in the future.
References
Africa has entered the space race, with Ghana’s first satellite now orbiting earth. (2017, August). Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/06/africa-enters-the-space-race/
Ghana launches its first satellite into space. (2017, July). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40538471
Ghanaian Engineers Launch Ghanasat-1, Join Space Race. (2017, July). Retrieved from https://face2faceafrica.com/article/ghanasat-1
