Page 3 - Issue 2 2023

FROM THE
EDITOR'S
DESK

Beaming energy from space moves
Claim to fame! beyond science fiction
The plan is to harvest solar energy from space and beam
it down to Earth using microwaves. According to Martin
Soltau, the co-chairman at Space Energy Initiative (SEI) -
friend and I had an interesting discussion. When a collaboration of industry and academics, it could
a satellite is built in South Africa by a company happen as soon as 2035.
o
A wned by a Ukrainian business man, and it is SEI is working on a project called Cassiopeia, which
launched by a US space launch company, who can make plans to place a constellation of very large satellites in a high Earth orbit. Once
the claim to fame? deployed, the satellites would harvest solar energy and beam it back down to Earth
Recently SpaceX (USA) successfully launched using microwaves.
EOS SAT-1, the first imaging satellite built by South The concept of power transfer via radio waves is not new. As early as 1891, a
African company Dragonfly Aerospace, the leading Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer and futurist,
provider of Earth-observation optical payloads and Nikola Tesla, demonstrated the concept by transmitting electrical power using a
satellite platforms. It was founded in 2019 by a group radio frequency resonant transformer, the Tesla coil, which produces high voltage,
of experienced aerospace engineers led by CEO Bryan high frequency alternating currents. With that he was able to transfer power over
Dean and is based in Stellenbosch. In 2021, Dragonfly short distances without connecting wires.
was acquired by Dr Max Polyakov, who started his first
company in 2001, one of the first outsourcing firms New prefixes added to the SIO system
in Ukraine with clients in the US and Europe. (See The addition was necessitated by the increasing amount of data that requires
November 2022 edition of EngineerIT) measurement.
The Department of Science and Innovation said in a In November 2022, the International Committee for Weight and Measures
media release on the WhatsApp channel that EOS SAT-1 (CIPM) presented a draft resolution to the conference on the extension of the range
is the world’s first agricultural focus satellite constellation of SI prefixes. The meeting unanimously adopted the resolution and decided to add
providing the agriculture and forestry industry with the following prefixes to the list of SI prefixes to be used for multiples and sub-
high quality data to support efficient and sustainable multiples of units:
practices. The satellite is the first of a seven-satellite
constellation in low Earth orbit for customer EOSDA Multiplying factor Name Symbol
(EOS Data Analytics). The remaining six satellites of the 10 27 ronna R
constellation will be deployed over the next three years. 10 −27 ronto r
In the international media, the story has a different 10 quetta Q
30
focus with headlines such as “The Ukrainian EOS SAT-1 10 −30 quecto q
satellite made contact and transmitted telemetry.” The
article is very Ukraine-focussed. Read more
We could not quite agree if the satellite was
Ukrainian or South African, but ultimately agreed that it NASA international mission to survey earth’s water
was South African born, so since Elon Musk is constantly A satellite built for NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études
being referred to (in the South African media) as the Spatiales (CNES) will observe nearly all the water on our planet’s surface. The
South African-born entrepreneur, we can refer to EOS satellite will measure the height of water in freshwater bodies and the ocean on
SAT-1 as being South African-constructed. more than 90% of Earth’s surface. This information will provide insights into how
It is however a silly argument, so hats off to Brian the ocean influences climate change; how a warming world affects lakes, rivers and
Dean and his team for showing that we are a technology- reservoirs; and how communities can better prepare for disasters such as floods.
focused country, and not just focussed on agriculture SWOT will cover the entire Earth’s surface between 78 degrees south and 78
and mining. It is a great achievement to build a satellite, degrees north latitude at least once every 21 days, sending back about one terabyte
have it launched and receive its signals. Congratulations of unprocessed data per day. The scientific heart of the space craft is an innovative
to the Stellenbosch DragonFly Aerospace team! instrument called the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn), which bounces radar
pulses off the water’s surface and receives the return
Greetings signal using two antennas on either side of the space
craft. This arrangement – one signal, two antennas
Hans van de Groenendaal – will enable engineers to precisely determine the
Editor 082 781 4631 height of the water’s surface across two swaths at a
hansv@nowmedia.co.za time, each of them 50 kilometres wide.

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