How local engineers designed and developed Kenya’s first earth observation satellite

Nine Kenyan engineers designed and developed Kenya's first earth observation satellite that is set to be launched on Easter Monday.

The satellite whose cost was Ksh.50 million was developed in two years and will join 50 satellites so far launched by African countries.

At the Kenya Space Agency laboratory in Nairobi, three of the nine engineers who designed the prototype namely; Rose Wanjiku, Paterne Odhiambo and Captain Aloyce Were show Citizen TV's Mashirima Kapombe a prototype of Taifa-1,  a 3U earth observation satellite that they developed in the past 2 years.

Rose Wanjiku, an aerospace engineer, says she was always fascinated by machines in the air.

"At first I wanted to create the safest aircraft and that's why I went into aviation," she said.

But, her vision grew when she was recruited, among 9 engineers, to develop Kenya's first 3U Nano satellite. As the project lead, the challenge was more compelling than her childhood dreams.

"The first thing the team had to go through was to understand the space environment...what temperatures we will experience for the satellite, what occurrences can happen, even the time of where the sun is positioned," she said.

Peterne Odhiambo, an electrical and electronics engineer, graduated from the Jomo Kenyatta University in 2019. He joined the team a year later when the project began.

"My dad was a Chemistry and Physics teacher and he used to operate a lot on our radios so I fell in love early with capacitors and resistors," said Odhiambo.

His job on the project was to make sure the satellite communicates effectively.

"My task is to basically design the radio link, there is something we call the link budget, how much power does the satellite have to transmit for it to be able to reach the ground station? So as the satellite takes images, it shouts to the ground station saying this is what I have seen and then the ground station picks it up and we take it up as human operators and we can act on the same information," he said.

Captain Aloyce Were is a mechanical and structural engineer. He studied at the Technical University of Kenya and later Matters of Space in Nigeria.

"When we talk of 3U we’re talking about 3 units of cubes. In satellite technology, one cube measures 10cm by 10 cm by 10 cm.  So for TAIFA-1 it is a 3 stat unit which is a 10 by 10 by 30," said Were.

Were says the structure of the satellite serves as the house of all its components and is made of aluminium.

"The satellite will fly in a horizontal position with deployable solar panels, so that they get maximum illumination of the solar energy from the sun. Aluminium has better thermal characteristics and equally it has good characteristics to withstand the harsh space environment," said the mechanical engineer.

The testing and manufacture of the parts was done in collaboration with a Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer. The satellite will only operate for five years.

"For the satellite to stay in orbit, it has to move at a certain speed. Over time the batteries are not as powerful because of use and re-use and the satellite starts to slow down and loses its altitude, which is what we call orbit decay," said Wanjiku.

“As it decays it enters the atmosphere of earth where there is a lot of friction with the air particles that now causes it to burn up."

Wanjiku is among a government delegation that will witness the launch from the U.S. She says the current Kenyan investment in the space economy is limited, necessitating partnerships for satellite launches for African states.

Taifa-1 will be launched by Space X aboard a FALCON-9 Rocket at Vandernberg base in California on April 10.

It will orbit the earth vertically, parallel to the sun.

Taifa-1 is a first in the investment of a constellation of earth observation satellites to be launched over time as Kenya spurs its growth of satellite development capabilities and probably grow more engineers like Wanjiku, Were and Odhiambo, in Kenya's space economy.