The satellites can be used for demography, including the planning and mapping of population surveys, the mapping of census enumeration areas, the planning and monitoring of rural and urban growth, and the provision of early warnings for natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and storms.
At an inter-governmental summit in Addis Ababa in 1976, the then Head of State of Nigeria, Murtala Mohammed, informed member nations of the Economic Council of Africa/Organisation of Africa Union (ECA/OAU) about the history of satellites.
The Federal Government created a development plan to invest N10 million in satellites between 1976 and 1980.
After carefully weighing various policy options, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, which had previously been a council in 1970, was elevated to the status of a full-fledged ministry in 1980. The National Space Research and Development Agency was later separated from the Ministry in 1988.
On September 26, 2003, at Plesetek, Russia, the Federal Government launched the first satellite, NigSat-1, into orbit after certain specialists had received training at Surrey Satellite Technology in London.
NigSat-1 is one of the five disaster monitoring satellites that make up the Disaster Monitoring Constellation network. When disaster monitoring is required, the satellites will communicate with one another and share information.
However, the second communication satellite (Nigcomsat), which was launched in May…
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