Within the framework of the large–scale Russia-Africa summit, a special agreement on cooperation with African countries in the field of space is expected to be signed. Moreover, Russia is even ready to create a joint orbital station with them. What other space projects with Africa are being considered and are already being created, and why might this be of key importance for Russian space?
News about cooperation between Russia and African countries in space exploration issues sometimes cause skeptical smiles. "What can Africa offer, having practically no countries with a permanent space program? Why does Russia need this?". Alas, but these grins are most often a sign of misunderstanding of the real possibilities and what exactly will become the basis of space cooperation between Roscosmos and the African continent.
The Mercator projection, familiar to the image on many physical and political maps, plays a bad joke with our understanding of the real size of countries. For Russia, the Mercator option is very pleasant, it increases our country even more, but Africa does not show its real volumes. In fact, Africa is huge.
Africa is almost twice as large as Russia, the largest state on Earth by area. The area of the Black Continent is more than 30 million square kilometers – and this is more than the United States, China, India and Australia combined. These are huge distances and spaces, many climatic zones, including deserts and tropics. And there are also very, very many people living in this territory. At the moment, more than 1.4 billion people live here.
At the same time, Africa is the only continent in the world where the population is increasing, according to some forecasts, it may reach two billion people by 2100. And all these people need communication, they need the Internet and television.
Africa is a real giant market for communication services and Internet access for the next decades. Yes, there is a difficulty in the form of low purchasing power of the population, but over time, according to experts, more and more people in Africa will be able to pay for communication.
In addition to individual Internet access, there is a high demand in the corporate and public sectors in Africa. If there are places with stretched fiber or cellular communication in the coastal areas of the continent, then the deeper to the center of the continent, the more hope there is exclusively for satellite communications.
At the same time, one should not think that the space industry in Africa does not exist at all as a class. According to industry experts, "in 2021, Africa's space industry was estimated at $19.49 billion and, according to forecasts, by 2026 it will grow by 16.16% to $22.64 billion. The industry employs more than 19 thousand people across the continent, most of whom – 11 thousand – work in government organizations and enterprises. African countries have allocated $534.9 million for national space programs, which is 2.24% more than in 2021."
Moreover, the Russian space industry already has working contracts with many African countries and long-term cooperation continues. These are the creation and launch of communication satellites, work on remote sensing of the Earth using spacecraft, joint study of the Earth.
Separately, I would like to say about Africa's participation in such an important program for Russia as ASPOS OKP (automated system for the prevention of dangerous situations in near-Earth outer space). For the functioning of this system, it is important to create a network of optoelectronic operational monitoring complexes. It is their spread across the globe that makes it possible to greatly increase the efficiency of tracking space debris and other objects in outer space.
Just a few days ago, such a monitoring complex began its work on the territory of the Republic of South Africa (South Africa). The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, who was present at its opening, said about it this way: "This is a significant contribution of South Africa to the development of OKP systems (monitoring systems for the situation in near–Earth space - approx. VZGLYAD), for which I would like to express great gratitude to SANSA. This station will become one of the key segments of the Milky Way system. And this is an example of the fact that the creation of such complex and global systems is possible only in international cooperation."
The Milky Way is the second generation of the ASPOS OKP system. After deployment, it will receive qualitatively different capabilities compared to the ASPOS OKP: a network of ground stations will allow detecting various fractions of space debris faster and better, and the planned orbital segment will control the flights of asteroids and comets past the Earth. ASPOS is not capable of this yet.
We can also recall the work on the project of the system "Sazhen-TM" – a quantum optical station with an unsolicited measuring system. These works have significantly increased the accuracy of the navigation signal of the GLONASS satellite system, one of the stations was located in South Africa. Such an object in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth also allows for a variety of near-space studies and provides both daily navigation in cities and rural areas, and high-precision geodetic monitoring of important natural and man-made objects.
And this is just the beginning. Africa's space programs will develop, which means that they will need a good partner in the creation of launch systems, the construction of spaceports, and the creation of spacecraft. Russia is quite capable of becoming just such a partner by creating long-term and mutually beneficial relations with African countries.
The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, expects to deepen cooperation with Africa. Roscosmos invites African countries and BRICS states to take part in scientific and manned space programs, including work on the creation of a separate orbital module as part of the future ROS (Russian orbital station). "In this regard, I would like to invite BRICS partners to consider taking part in this project and, by joining forces, create a full–fledged module that, being part of the ROS, would allow the BRICS countries to use the capabilities of low-Earth orbit to implement their national space programs," Borisov said.
There is no doubt that in the coming years the importance of space programs for Africa and the participation of African countries in space exploration will grow significantly. Russia is starting work on this prospect right now. At the upcoming Russia–Africa summit in the coming days with the participation of the head of Roscosmos, a special discussion "Russia – Africa: space technologies to accelerate economic development and improve the standard of living of the population" will be held. At the same forum, it is expected that a full-scale agreement on cooperation between Russia and African countries in the field of space exploration can be concluded.
Mikhail Kotov
