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19 November 2024 | Story Pat Lamusse | Photo Supplied
Space and satellites 2024
During the visit to the Naval Hill Planetarium, were from the left, Dr Mart-Mari Duvenhage and Prof Matie Hoffman from the UFS Department of Physics, Consul General Stephanie Bunce and Vanessa Toscano from the US Consulate, and Dinah Mangope from the Department of Physics.

A delegation from the United States (US) Consulate General in Johannesburg, including Consul General Stephanie Bunce and Public Affairs Officer, Vanessa Toscano, visited the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). Consul General Bunce met with the acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UFS, Prof Anthea Rhoda, and the Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Paul Oberholster. The US delegation also visited the Naval Hill Planetarium.

The UFS recently received a grant from the US Embassy to fund a project to promote science education by highlighting the role of satellites in our lives. Colleagues from the Department of Physics had the opportunity to demonstrate first-hand how the planetarium technology will be used to implement the project, which poses the question – what if something happens in space that interferes with the thousands of satellites we use for communication, weather prediction, navigation, banking … surveillance?

Thanks to this grant, the UFS will explore these questions and contribute to space situational awareness (SSA) and space domain awareness (SDA). SSA involves knowledge about the orbits of spacecraft and space debris. SDA refers to the knowledge and understanding of all activities occurring within the space domain.

There are currently at least 10 000 active satellites in Earth orbit, most of which are in low Earth orbit (LEO). However, in addition to satellites, there are well over 45 000 objects larger than 10 cm in orbit, including more than 35 000 pieces of space debris, such as dead satellites, rocket bodies, and pieces from breakups and collisions. Since 1991, there have been at least six unintentional collisions between active satellites and space debris.

Space turned out to be not as big as once thought, especially not in low Earth orbit (LEO – altitude less than 2 000 km). To make things worse, there are plans to launch up to 100 000 new satellites into LEO over the next decade.

Prof Matie Hoffman from the UFS Department of Physics notes, “We live in an era when the space economy is growing fast and the number of objects in Earth orbit, including satellites and space debris, is increasing rapidly. This poses risks to operational satellites. Recent publicity around Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites has generated additional interest around this topic. It is important to raise awareness of the challenges, which will allow scientists to mitigate them.”

The project will involve expertise in optical satellite observations from the University of Michigan through Prof Patrick Seitzer, international patron of the Friends of Boyden Observatory, and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The grant will fund planetarium upgrades that will enable education on space and satellites, as well as optical satellite observations from Boyden Observatory. Beneficiaries will include learners, higher education institutions (both locally and in the US), and the public. South African project partners will be the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), the Future African Space Explorers’ STEM Academy (FASESA), and satellite-related companies in South Africa.

The Boyden Observatory is ideally situated to provide valuable optical satellite observations in an area of the sky that is not accessible from existing satellite observing facilities, especially for objects in LEO. In fact, the first observation of space debris in geosynchronous orbit was from Boyden Observatory in 1967.

The project will be rolled out from the end of 2024, harnessing facilities at both Boyden Observatory and the Naval Hill Planetarium.

News Archive

Statement from Prof Jonathan Jansen regarding a misquote about Madiba
2013-04-10

08 April 2013

Comments made by learners who attended the Leadership Summit (pdf)

Prof Jonathan Jansen: Presentation about Great Leaders (pdf)

The news article that first appeared in Volksblad of Monday 8 April 2013 claiming that I wanted Madiba to die, refers.

This is a complete misrepresentation of what I said. My argument was that Madiba had done so much for South Africa, that he had served South Africa well, and that sometimes you just wish that people would leave him alone so that he can pass his final days quietly.

Like all South Africans, I want Madiba to live as long as possible, but without the constant glare and speculation of the media and others. He needs to be left alone to rest and die in peace. That was the content and context of what I said.

To misrepresent a lengthy statement on a talk which was entirely devoted to extolling Madiba’s leadership — alongside that of Luthuli, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr (this was the main photograph on the screen) — is mischievous. The seven characteristics of leadership of Mandela, and the other three, were what the one hour and ten minute talk was about — something completely ignored in the misrepresentation.

It is true that I depicted the crises from Marikana to the Catholic Church as crises of leadership and not primarily military or religious blunders.

It is also true that I argued that the official representation of the hospital visits as ‘routine checkups’ was inaccurate for aged people, since at the age of 94 no hospital visit is ‘routine.’ That is what I said.

- Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, University of the Free State

Media Release
08 April 2013
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: +27(0)51 401 2584
Cell: +27(0)83 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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