National Research Foundation Annual Report 2008 / 2009 [Part 2]

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14 NRFimpact report 2008/09Two years from now, a tiny satellite – not much bigger than a wine bottle– will carry a high-frequency beacon into the skies above Antarctica tocalibrate a radar system at the research base. This cluster of CubeSats isalso the toast of a French/South African collaboration to keep academicson campus.bright sparks flyAt the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), postgraduate researchers are liberating handicappedpeople. On the campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) they are building a satellite.Across our country, the Franco-South African Technology Institute in Electronics (F’SATIE) is making itspresence felt.F’SATIE was founded in the late 1990s by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the FrenchGovernment, the NRF and TUT. CPUT officially joined the programme in February 2008. F’SATIE aims toadvance research in electrical engineering and information and communication technology – both areas inwhich South Africa needs a skills boost.Research at CPUTDuring 2007, the DST identified five critical areas for South Africa, the so-called “Grand Challenges”.Space science and technology is one of these, deemed to have the potential to develop a knowledgebasedlocal economy.In line with the Grand Challenges, the government recently approved the Space Policy, paving the wayfor the establishment of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). This created a burningneed for a programme to develop the human capital required for a successful and sustainable localspace industry. F’SATIE at CPUT stepped into the breach with a Satellite Systems Engineering (SSE)programme under the F’SATIE banner.The CPUT programme covers the broad fields of satellite communications and power systems.Although focused on space applications, the programme integrates engineering skills and technologiesused in many other disciplines. In reaching for the stars, satellite engineering makes a real impact inpromoting engineering in general. Says Dr Robert van Zyl, Deputy Director of F’SATIE and ProgrammeManager of the Programme at CPUT: “We have been inundated with enquiries since introducing ourprogramme and announcing that we are looking for researchers to build a satellite.”The satellite in question is a so-called CubeSat. This technology, packaged in a 10cm 3 nano-satellite,was developed in the USA to make the building of satellites affordable and accessible to academicinstitutions. The CPUT version will be a 3 x 1 cube cluster of CubeSats fitted with a camera, or opticpayload, as well as a scientific payload of the HMO. The scientific payload will be a high-frequencybeacon – a device that emits high-frequency electromagnetic pulses – that will be used to calibrate theradar system at the HMO research base in Antarctica.
15Associate Professor Robert van Zyl, Deputy Director: F’SATIE (above) says theprogramme has been inundated with enquiries since announcing that it waslooking for researchers to build a satellite. The paper model (centre) shows the3-cube CubeSat that will be the first satellite to be built by F’SATIE.It will measure 300mm x 100mm x 100mm.
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Page 43 and 44: 41A total of 50 postgraduate and po
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National Research Foundation Annual Report 2008 / 2009 [Part 2]

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