A young African space scientist making waves worldwide has a grand vision for Africa’s space industry
by Patrick Nelle, bird
Manuel Ntumba may only be 21 but he is already making waves in the refined world of space and geospatial industries – and he is determined to do a lot more.
“In January 2022, the Mandela Satellite Initiative will bring together entrepreneurs, experts, and researchers from around the world, especially from the global geospatial and space industries to collaborate on small satellites missions for developing countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, South America and the Caribean,” he announced recently.
Ntumba’s vision is to contribute to Africa’s pursuit of its developmental goals through a digital transformation. For that, the continent needs a robust telecommunication infrastructure, he believes – and satellites are a critical part of that.
The Mandela Satellite Initiative (MandeSat Initiative) is an ambitious project which aims to organise space missions for developing countries and help them fill the digital divide, together with other countries.
The initiative’s first programme is named ODRIsat, a system that consists of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, made up of nine satellites. The ODRIsat system is scheduled to be launched by 2023.
“ODRIsat will bring together at least 9 countries from the global south. Three from Africa, three from South America, three from the Caribbean. Negotiations with governments are still in process, and the name of these countries will be unveiled at the conference next January,” he explained.
Ntumba largely owes his recognition as a “space inventor” to his contribution to the design of the ODRiSat, or, Optical Data Relay inter-Satellite system.
To understand Ntumba’s scientific contribution, one needs to understand the difference between various satellites systems and the challenges attached to them.
Low earth orbit (LEO) means a distance ranging from 160 to 2,000 kilometres above Earth’s surface. Traditional satellites systems, called geosynchronous (GEO) satellites, operate at a much higher distance from the earth than the LEO satellites – often “cube” satellites or nano-satellites. GEO satellites can operate as high as 36,000 kilometres above our heads.
LEOs present some good advantages compared to GEOs. As they operate at a close distance from our planet, they are easier and cheaper to put into orbit. As a result, they are emerging as a more affordable and financially viable solution for developing countries.
LEOs are being increasingly adopted and are considered by some observers as representing the future of the space and satellite industry as they are a particularly good solution for the data connections required for IOT (Internet of Things).
Like other LEO satellites systems, ODRiSat will take only 90 minutes to circle Earth. Such a high speed across the sky makes it very challenging for ground stations to capture the signals emitted by LEOs. To cope with this, LEOs must work in groups of satellites called “satellite constellations”. But constellations pose a data transmission challenge.
Ntumba contributed to the design of ODRiSat transmission systems by inventing a configuration that enhances almost real-time data processing and transmission. The designed configuration “can limit the number of satellites that are necessary to make the system efficient, thus making the entire system less costly” he explained.
Ntumba is currently an ambassador of Space Mission and System Design for Open Cosmos. As an ambassador, he helps to coordinate workshops and training on space mission operations on behalf of Open Cosmos and the United Nations Space Generation Advisory Council.
To enhance his vision for the role of space sciences, Manuel Ntumba has also co-founded Tod’Aers, which stands for Transparent Organisation for Aeronautics and Space Research.
“Tod’Aers is a non-profit organisation which brings together researchers, university professors, experts and professionals, as well as company executives, government officials and entrepreneurs, to collaborate on sustainable research projects,” he said.
Ntumba’s rise to space science prominence has come extraordinarily quickly. Born in June 2000, in Togo, he entered the EcoleSupérieure des Affaires in Lomé after high school and in 2018 was awarded the Togolese Government Excellence Fellowship in Space Studies.
He then travelled to Chandigarh University in India as a visiting researcher in space studies for the Togolese government. There, he contributed a number of inventions under the supervision of the dean of research, Professor Sanjeet Singh.
“He worked on many inventions. A laser quantum communication system, an optical satellite deployment system. This year, he worked on ODRIsat with Dr Pulkit Jain from the Texas Instruments Innovation Lab,” explained Singh.
“Most of his research was to improve satellite telecommunications, remote sensing, and satellite internet access” he said.
The emergence of young African space scientists like Ntumba – and the support he has received from the Togo government – signals renewed determination among African countries to build their own space capacities.
“Africa is changing from being a consumer of space to being a producer of space”, explained Rania Toukebri, a space engineer from Tunisia who works on space projects with the European Union and is regional coordinator for the Space Generation Advisory Council.
In 2018, the African Union created a new body, the African Space Agency, to encourage the building of indigenous capacities.
“It’s important we work on making and developing local capacities, either for human capacities or for the technical capacities. So we do need to educate the maximum of Africans so we can have a very good base of human resources that we can rely on,” Toukebris said.
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