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What sending 1st black Astronaut to the space means to Nigeria – Minister

By Stanley Iwuoha

Nigeria is set to send her first Astronaut to the moon.This was announced yesterday at the official signing of Memorandum of Understanding, MoU between Nigeria and a Brazilian Space company, Space Exploration and Research Agency, SERA in Abuja.

The MoU provides Nigeria the opportunity of choosing her best aspiring astronaut and send him as the first Africa Astronaut going to the space.

The Sponsor company, SERA said it aims to democratize the process of people from across the globe to access the space by throwing the entry open to all Nigerians, irrespective of their professional back grounds and would allow Nigerians to choose by themselves the best contestant to represent them in the next global competitive space exploration sojourn.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji said the plan aligns with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Present administration which aims to attain the goal of the 25-year roadmap approved in 2005 for the implementation of the National Space Policy Program, which projected to send Nigeria’s first human space flight in 2018, which is now six years behind schedule.

Nnaji said the occasion could not have come at a better time because Human Space flight had been a key objective for Nigeria, hence the approval of the National Space Policy and Program, NSPP by the Federal Executive Council, FEC in 2001.

On what benefits is there for Nigeria, the Minister said Nigeria stands to send first African Astronaut to space at no cost and create a lot of opportunities for aspiring inventors as well as unraveling novel solutions to human problems as demonstrated by Elon Musk.

‘‘The benefits are many, first and foremost, today, as we launch and sign an MOU on this space travel, we have become the first African country to do it. It’s a milestone achievement. We are now the first African country to visit space in no distance of time, before December. And it goes with a lot of benefits. It goes with the fact that the spill-off effects, like, when you are talking of space, it is through space that people like Elon Musk was able to achieve a lot. It is through space that the lithium batteries, as they are basically used in space and vehicles was discovered. And today, he is using it and has become the best and the first guy that has made electric vehicles. And that vehicle is using lithium batteries. Before, people like Mercedes, BMW, that have been on it for a long time, would wake up.

‘’There are many other benefits like the food. When you are going to space, there is some kind of food you take. So that kind of food is part of what we are doing experimentation here. Because at times, when you eat the food here and get into space, you can start vomiting, and by the time you know it, you have emptied your whole stomach. So what we are doing is that if it becomes successful in the experiment we are doing here in NARSDA on the kind of food to eat there, it means that if you can eat and live with it in the space, and it means if you come down here, you can last longer. So if you eat the food and stay like 6 hours in the space, if you come here, you can spend a whole day with the food in your stomach. So that way, if there is a warfare anywhere, and we are able to feed our military with that kind of food, you can see we cannot worry in a hurry, we cannot worry about supplying them food as regular as we normally do.’’

On whether we should be scared about funding for this project right now, the Minister said, We are not because our partners, we have signed an MOU today with, the SERA are covering us 100% financially. ‘’So Nigeria is not spending a dime.

So you can see we are blessed. Because at this time we are looking for money. SERA is coming to say, let us take the bills.’’

In his remarks, the leader of the SERA team, Joshua Skurla said the MoU signaled a milestone moment for Nigeria, which is aimed at democratizing access to space for everyone in Nigeria.

He explained that the project would run on a PPP arrangement and would be thrown open to all Nigerians of all walks of life, irrespective of their profession to apply for the entry and then be voted for by Nigerians in tune with their vision of democratizing access to space

‘‘Nigeria has already indicated interest to send their own to the space and we want to use this collaboration to raise awareness in Nigeria for everyone to access the opportunity we provide them.’’

According to him, there is huge investment in the space sector which SERA felt Nigeria should be part of it, noting that anybody selected in the selection process will be first Nigerian astronaut in space.

Also Speaking, the SERA Astronaut, Victor Hesperia said the collaboration between Nigeria and Brazil in space exploration will inspire young Nigerians and encourage them to take careers in mathematics and engineering.

‘‘I am a real example of what space could do to Nigeria, it was life changing experience for me.’’

On her part, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Esuabana Nko-Asanye described the MoU as a history making event to that has brought Nigerian dream of going into space since 1963 to reality.

‘‘I am very elated to be part of this history making for Nigeria today.

“But we are here today making history to sign this memorandum of understanding with this company, a private company. And this has come to pass with our sister Anne, who lectures Space science is in University of Calabar. She has made this a reality for Nigeria today.”

She also thanked Ann Agi, the facilitator for making the Nigerian dream become a reality.

Earlier the Director General of NARSDA, Mathew Adepoju said that SERA’s aspiration of democratizing space exploration and exportation for all nations of the world is no doubt in line with NARSDA’s aspiration as an agency of Federal Government of Nigeria.

‘‘We pride ourselves as the premier space agency in Africa at NARSDA. This is not just a mere statement, but a position of truth and reality. When the Space Agency was established on the 8th of May 1999, no other agency in Africa dreamt of having a space program. We are also today the only space agency in Africa whose activities cover all the full breadth of the space ecosystem. We have a strong footprint in outer space exploration and exploitation and also leading in remote sensing satellite operations.

‘‘Our activities in launching vehicles development can also not be matched by any other countries in Africa. The agency has successfully launched six satellite missions since inception. All of these missions were done with our collaborators outside the country but the contribution of our engineers and scientists cannot be overemphasized.

“Our major pride is on our missions in the Nigerian SAT-X which was fully developed by Nigerian engineers and scientists.

“Today’s event marks the commencement of our efforts to achieve our dream of human space flight. The Human Space Flight Program is one of the cardinal objectives of the National Space Research and Development Agency and National Space Policy and Program.

“It was with this in mind that we established the Department of Physical and Life Sciences about three years ago. It gladdens my heart that I was very instrumental to the establishment of this department and by profidence I am today the Director General to see to it that this dream is becoming a reality.”

“I want to reiterate to you that I will give maximum support to deliver more. Failure is not an option. We are the premier space agency in Africa. Our brothers and sisters are looking on to us to continue to provide leadership in space exploration. I want to make a solemn promise to you, and the leadership of the Ministry of Innovation that we will nor fail.”

In terms of the achievements recorded by NARSDA in the last 25 years of it’s creation, the DG said, in human capacity development the Agency had trained almost 200 Ph.D. and about 1,000 master’s degree holders in various aspects of space science and technology.

“We have also launched six satellites too and that is why we are the premier space agency in Africa.”

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