Teenage girls to launch Africa's first private space satellite

Giant leap for Africa's young scientists – In May 2017, South Africa will launch the continent's first private satellite into space. It's been designed by school girls, within a STEM program. Pictured: Ayesha Salie, Sesam Mngqengqiswa, and Bhanekazi Tandwa on a learning boot camp with fellow teammates in Worcester, Western Cape Province, South Africa.

 

 

They may be teenagers, but 17-year-old Brittany Bull and 16-year-old Sesam Mngqengqiswa have grand ambitions -- to launch Africa's first private satellite into space.

They are part of a team of high school girls from Cape Town, South Africa, who have designed and built payloads for a satellite that will orbit over the earth's poles scanning Africa's surface.

Once in space, the satellite will collect information on agriculture, and food security within the continent.

Using the data transmitted, "we can try to determine and predict the problems Africa will be facing in the future", explains Bull, a student at Pelican Park High School. 

Africa has been slow to embark on space travel. But new projects on the continent look promising. South Africa's ambitious Square Kilometer Array project aims to build the world's biggest radio telescope that will help scientists paint a detailed picture of some of the deepest reaches of outer space.

Pictured here: a composite image of the MeerKAT and Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) satellites.