News | F’SATI success

Friday, 19 October 2012

Spirits are high at the French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI) after students from this institute scooped the coveted Mission Idea Contest (MIC) for Micro and Nano Satellites Utilisation in Nagoya, Japan.

The MIC is an international competition that encourages the innovative exploitation of satellites to provide useful capabilities, services or data. It is organised by the University Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC) in Japan, and sponsored by the University of Tokyo.

The winners are part of F’SATI’s Satellite Systems Engineering Programme. They entered Category 2 (Mission Idea and Business Model) of the MIC with a project titled ‘Underground and surface water detection and monitoring using a micro-satellite’. The proposed mission was designed to address the dire need for managing fresh water resources in Africa.

Morné Roman, a recent CPUT MTech graduate in the program, presented the project at the competition during the UN/Japan Nano-Satellite Symposium on 10 October 2012.

More than 70 entries were received in the competition. The other members of the team are Messrs Ayokunle Ayeleso, Matthew Sibanda, Paul Bayendang, Kelvin Gomo, Khaya Dwaza, Craig Olivier and Fenni Shidhika.

 “This is truly a remarkable achievement, not only for me, but also for F'SATI, CPUT and the entire African continent. I hope that our mission idea will not remain an idea only, but that it will be implemented as access to water is a very pressing problem in Africa”, said Roman.

F’SATI Deputy Director Prof Robert Van Zyl represented South African Space Scientists at the Symposium after being nominated by the Department of Science and Technology.

By Thami Nkwanyane