space program is one really tough
gig.
There is no billion dollar budget. The labs and
equipment are far from cutting edge. The
agency's museum sits empty.
New challenges lurk around every corner. Yet S.
O. Mohammed, director general of the Nigerian
National Space Research and Development
Agency (NASRDA), is determined to wring
scientific achievements out of his shoestring
budget.
"We have always said ... the Nigerian space
program is not going to be an ego trip,"
Mohammed told CNNMoney.
"We are not part of the race for the moon, we're
not part the race for Mars," he continued. "What
we need to look at is using the space program to
look at how we can create typical Nigerian
solutions to most of our problems."
Mohammed's goals include the ability to locally
design and build a satellite by 2018. By 2030, he
hopes to launch a satellite from Nigerian territory.
After that? He wants to put a man to the moon.
Full coverage: Nigeria: An Economy Divided
Yet Mohammed faces intense scrutiny. Critics
want to know why Nigeria is spending money on
a space program when 70% of its citizens live
below the poverty line. When the country's
economy is facing an imminent recession?
Moreover, what's the point of a moon mission
that would launch more than 60 years after Apollo
11?
Mohammed points to the country's three existing
satellites as evidence of what can be gained from
a national space program. Already, they've helped
document regional climate change patterns and
update the country's outdated maps.
They've also been useful in tracking the
movements of terrorist group Boko Haram in
remote areas of the country.
Mohammed's next priority is launching a
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite capable
of penetrating cloud coverage. The images it
produces should help monitor activity in the Gulf
of Guinea, which has recently seen a rise in pirate
activity.
Mohammed says these projects are about
"capacity building" -- advancements that will
eventually turn Nigeria into a regional space
innovation hub.
Look no further, he says, than NASRDA's 2,000-
member staff. Mohammed recalls that when he
started at the agency eight years ago, it boasted
just six scientists with PhDs. Now, the number of
PhDs on staff has increased to 70, and another 50
employees are studying in pursuit of advanced
degrees.
NASRDA has been granted $20 million this
financial year to keep operations going, but it
needs $65 million more to get its next satellite
project off the ground.
Mohammed says the money will be put to good
use -- after all, Nigeria is building on the efforts
of others.
"We're not reinventing the wheel," he said. "The
Nigerian model is a good model for the developing
world. We're not starting all over like the U.S. or
Russia."
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