The Nigerian Institute of Space Engineers (NISE) has reiterated the need for additional satellites with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to enable the country to address insecurity and other national challenges.
The National President of NISE, Dr. George Okpanachi, made the request Thursday on the sidelines of the security agent training program on artificial intelligence/machine learning and cybersecurity, which began on Sept. 6.
Okpanachi said the training was part of the institute’s activities, while the current one focuses on how security agencies can use artificial intelligence and machine learning to fight insurgency in the country.
“The goal is how space technology can be used to fight insurgency and we also advocate for the launch of more satellites into space.
“We especially advocate for those who have the opportunity, as the safety factor has not been taken into account in the design of the existing satellites we currently have in orbit.
“We’re looking at having synthetic aperture radar satellites that won’t have weather coverage challenges.
“The SAR satellite can pick up objects on Earth, distinguish objects from people,” Okpanachi said.
The chairman indicated that SAR satellites have an advantage over the regular Earth observation satellite owned by the country.
According to him, it has a high resolution, can deliver on-demand images, with reliable monitoring of global changes in 3D, among other advantages.
Okpanachi went on to say that addressing insecurity required the need to step up the country’s border management and control unattended areas, as most of the insurgents live there.
He said the institute had trained 10 security personnel.
SAR satellites orbit the Earth in a sun-synchronous LEO polar orbit and data acquisitions can be made at any time of the day or night, independent of cloud cover, collecting both amplitude and phase data.
